COMIC MAKING AND THE HOLIDAYS DO NOT MIX

Oh, man! I finished the strip you see above yesterday.  Yesterday.  I never do that. I’m admant about having Tuesday’s strip done by at least Thursday the week prior.  Guess what happened last Thursday?

I ended up having to stay up late on Saturday in order to do the inking on this strip. (I don’t do any work on SF on Sundays–or any other work-related activity for that matter. Day of Rest and all.) That made for slightly rushed inks, but hopefully you don’t notice it too much.  The important thing is that it got done, right?

So, now I’ve got two days to get Thursday’s strip done and I have little more than an outline on it.  My understanding is that this is par for the course for most webcomic artists, but it’s new territory for me.

Now You Know Why…

I’m doing a guest strip week.  If it was this bad during Thanksgiving, I can only imagine what it would be like for Christmas if I tried to keep my schedule.  Only 20 days left to submit your version of the SuperFogeys for consideration for that very special week.  Send it along to: heasley (at) th3rdworld.com

Love Flashbacks??

If you love flashbacks, you’re gonna love the next several weeks of SF.  I’ve been crafting this origin story for a while now.  I’m pretty excited about finally getting to share it and I hope you guys dig this little (extended) side trip.  I think it’s going to cast Captain Spectacular and Dr. Rocket’s relationship in a whole new light and readers of “Cellmates,” the bonus story in the third SuperFogeys collection, should especially get a kick out of it as I think this story will deepen your understanding of that one.

Layers

I’m sure it’s no secret by now that I do my best to layer the storytelling of the SuperFogeys.  Doing a simple humor strip (not that the best ones–like aPeanuts or a Calvin and Hobbes–could ever be justifiably called “simple”) has never been on my agenda.  I like a layer of emotion and intrigue in my stories.  I like subplots whose significance reveal themselves over time.  I like going back and spotting something that takes on new meaning thanks to some later revelation or hint.  I like characters that can seem petty, grumpy or even inconsistent at first…until you keep reading and you start to understand them more and their behavior only makes sense in retrospect.

What do you guys makes of this stuff?  My sense is that many of you like this kind of thing as much as I do.  Is there anyone who doesn’t and wishes SF would go back to the simplicity and insanity of Chapter 1?

Just curious.