SILENCE IS BROKEN
Welcome back, everyone! Man, last week. Last week was what I have been waiting for and working towards ever since I decided to make this little comic called SuperFogeys into an ongoing thing. I sweated and fretted over whether or not I could keep the secret and worried that, after all that work, you’d all look at it and think “eh.”
Originally, I wasn’t even going to say anything. No ads, no promotion, nothing. I was just gonna let it land. Then I realized, “Hey dude, you’re not Penny Arcade. You gotta get the word out or it’s just gonna be something people hear about and the moment will have passed.”
“But what if I hype it and–”
“Hype is good.”
“Hype can be bad.”
“Explain.”
“I just mean, what if I build it up to be this big thing, pull in some new readers, recapture some old ones and then, when they see it, they go ‘eh.'”
“So?”
“‘So?’ So they’ll be disappointed! I’ll forever be that guy that promises a lot and then doesn’t deliver. This is my big trick. My masterstroke. If this doesn’t work, then not only does everything that’s come before become suddenly, retroactively lame, but no one will care about what comes next.”
“You should have thought this through more.”
“I know, right?”
“This is the risk you take. You wanna be creative? You wanna tell stories and get people excited?”
“Yeah.”
“Or do you just wanna sit back and imagine a bunch of cool stuff and never risk having to actually prove you can do the things you think and say you can do? I’ve heard you knock other webcomics for slipshod storytelling, dude.”
“Yeah, I’ve done that”
“Yeah, you have. So step up and get behind what you’ve done. Shout it from the rooftops and then let people react how they’re going to react. Let me ask you this, do you think you did a good job?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
“Okay, and how do you think you would react to a twist in the story like this?”
“I’d freakin’ freak out.”
“Then have a little faith in that. Be satisfied with that.”
So, I did. I went full bore and I took the chance and I risked disappointment and I hyped it up as much as I could. The response, so far, has been beyond what I could have imagined. It seems the reveal (and if you haven’t read it and have no idea what I’m talking about–go here already!) was met with universal acclaim. I honestly have no heard one bad reaction, other than from the people for whom Jerry was their favorite character!
You all seriously made last week the best moment of my short webcomicking career. Thank you so much for your reactions and theories and support and kudos. It was been so, so difficult to keep this secret from getting out the past four years and you made all that effort worth it. If there was any doubt before, it should be pretty clear now–I have the best readers in the entire webcomicking world.
And now, with this new week, I promise to rejoin the discussion. I’ll answer what I can.
BUT WAIT! I’VE ALREADY ANSWERED A BUNCH OF QUESTIONS!
Last week I talked with Tom Racine of Tall Tale Radio on the day of the big reveal as the reactions were still pouring in. Tom and I talked candidly about the creation of the big twist and about how some of the pieces fit together. (Has anybody found the earliest clue? I believe it’s in the beginning part of Chapter 2.)
SO…NOW WHAT?
Would you believe that some people thought that last week was the end of the SuperFogeys? That is so, so far from the case. As you can see with today’s SuperFogeys Origins update, there’s a lot more story to tell.
August 31st (Tuesday of next week) will see the beginning of the Spy Gal origin. Hopefully you’ve all figured out by now just how important a figure Spy Gal is in the overall story I’m telling here. What makes her such a bada$$? Where did she come from? What is the dark secret of her past? Starting next week, I’m gonna tell you. With art by Lee Cherolis, winner of the Spy Gal Art Contest back in May!
Then, on September 2nd, Chapter 10, Bubbles of Light will begin and I can promise a Jerry appearance in the very first panel. There’s some exciting things happening in the next chapter–and quite a few answers! I think Bubbles of Light stands a good chance of being everyone’s new favorite SuperFogeys chapter.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS WEEK!!!??
Starting tomorrow I have a real treat for you. There’s a story in SuperFogeys Vol. 1 (collecting chapters 1-5 and several bonus stories–available for purchase here!) that, thus far, has only been available in print. Well, now I’m going to share it with everyone.
It’s called Operation: Valhalla and it serves as a direct prequel to Chapter 1 of the SuperFogeys. It details how the Third Man manipulated events to bring Spy Gal to Valhalla, kicking off the entire SuperFogeys saga. It’s a great way to go back to the start and reconsider everything you’ve seen in a new light. It will be rolling out daily all this week, Tuesday-Sunday.
For those of you that own SuperFogeys Vol. 1, I hope you’ll still enjoy the inevitable theory-making and fun discussions we’ll be having this week. It’ll be back to business as usual soon enough.
A SHOUT-OUT TO MARJ AND SCOTT KINOSHITA
Of the thousands of SuperFogeys readers that descended on the site last week, two in particular were just a little bit quicker to figure things out than I had hoped.
First, a shout-out to Marj who made the bold claim that she (he?) figured it out back in February, but chose to remain silent out of respect for the story. Now, normally, that’s the kind of claim you might doubt, but based on the clues that Marj cited and the timing of when she put things together, I’m very much inclined to believe her. So, congrats, Marj! You saw through my tricks (and believe me–I was pulling LOTS of tricks) to the truth.
As for Scott Kinoshita, he figured things out about 24 hours before the big reveal and then posted his suspicions as a comment on the site! Because we were so close and I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s experience, I deleted his comment and then emailed him personally to let know know why. He was cool with it, thankfully.
Scott is one of the SuperFogeys’ biggest–and most critical–fans. He really loves the characters–but his hate for Tangerine is strong! Scott is also the author of the SuperFogeys Tropes page, which you should all read and help Scott out with it if you’re so inclined. It’s a big job for just one man!
Here is Scott’s deleted comment from Wednesday, in full:
Whoah… I think something just went wrong in Klein’s plan. Obviously the whole “losing everything” scheme has just hit a major snag.
Speaking of Klein, Tangerine knew his actual identity. Which means:
1. Klein can’t ever have been a villain.
2. It’s someone they know.
Son of a gun. I think Klein is Jerry, or someone very close to him. This isn’t based on evidence as much as it is based on the character designs. Look at Klein closely — check the jaw line. Now, ditch the hair and moustache. Similar nose, similar jawline, similar build. Similar forehead wrinkle and head shape. (Granted, these are toons)
Now add to this that we never see much of Jerry’s face.
Add to THAT, the sudden outburst about how SpyGal is going to stand with CS no matter what. Inability to kill. Sympathy for Jerry.
Jerry is the only Fogey with no known powers and no origin story. The Third Man attempted to become CS’s sidekick, but was rejected… for Jerry, with no known powers.
I don’t know how Jerry would have regained the use of his legs (and some degree of youth) but anyone who can open “Secret Doors” could probably travel back in time (if Swifty can do it)
Doesn’t quite explain why he’d bring Star Maiden back, unless he just wanted to reassemble all of the old team.
Nice sleuthing, Scott! Not all of your guesses were exactly right, but enough were that I got worried!
See you tomorrow with Part 1 of Operation: Valhalla – The SuperFogeys Prequel!
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