THE IMPORTANCE OF OPERATION: VALHALLA

With today’s strip you can finally now see how this story begins to tie into SuperFogeys Chapter One. This is the real reason I wrote the story in the first place–to show that the Third Man knew what he was doing and what he wanted from the very beginning. There was no way for those who read it in the first SF Collection to understand the full importance, but as a document of my thinking and planning at the time, it was important for me to have it out there.

You can find this and several other exclusive-to-print stories in the giant-sized SuperFogeys Vol. 1, which also includes Chapters 1-5, commentaries, a foreword by Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston and much, much more.

THE ORIGINAL SUPERFOGEYS STORY DOCUMENT

Yesterday I was asked by SuperFan Javier just how much of SF was planned and how much room I left for myself for surprises and character development along the way. Answering that question would require no less than a Chapter by Chapter breakdown of the ideas and I think we can all agree that would be incredibly boring and so, so long.

Instead, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the original notes I made for myself after I completed the first 12 strips or so. This comprises about 10 minutes of work on my part as I just jotted down story ideas as they came to me. You’ll notice that they’re not in any particular order because at this point I didn’t have any idea how it all fit together. I was just brainstorming. You’ll also notice some real differences between these initial ideas and what you eventually saw!

(Please excuse all the censoring of item 6. Believe it or not, I’m STILL mining these ideas. Item 6 is all about what will be Chapter 10, which debuts next week.)

 

 

SuperFogeys Story Ideas

1. Everyone gets on MySpace as part of a technology seminar  and finds Star Woman working a webcam.

2. Dr. Klein brings in a Wii and Star Woman sees everyone battling demons and the like.

3. Dr. Klein has one-on-one interviews with everyone in a effort to get Spy Gal away from CS.  (Jerry revealed as Dr. Klein at the end?)

4. Tangerine comes to Valhalla and wants to kill Dr. Rocket.  The other SuperFogeys have to step up to save him.  Then, Tangerine does kill Dr. Rocket and he’s revealed as a robot double.  Dr. Klein then moves to get the real Dr. Rocket into Valhalla by enlisting the help of the Society of Heroes.

5. Visits from their family members send  the SuperFogeys into a depression.  Tangerine’s son is The Healer.  “Father, homicidal as ever I see.”  The Healer accuses Tangerine of killing his mother and Tangerine responds: “Our romance was epic.  I’m an antihero, she was a ninja.  It could only end one way.”

6. The ************ of the SuperFogeys ******* to the ****** to meet **** **********.  Except a ******** accident occurs and ********* Swifty, an ******* Swifty comes *********.

7. A sidekick youth group comes to visit the SuperFogeys and do some caroling.  They’re brats.

8. Swifty hooks up with Star Woman.  Why?  Because she’s the only one who thinks he’s funny.

9. Something with Swifty–but what?

10. Bingo night and CS wins!  Gets time with a healer and can walk again but decides to stay in a wheelchair anyway because it’s easier.

 

Now, the next day I took these notes and broke them into chapter stories and set them in order. That was also when I really took off with the idea of Jerry as Dr. Klein and one of the trickest things I had to do was figure out how each of my ideas was part of his big plan. (I haven’t made it explicit yet, but has anyone figured out how each chapter fits into Jerry’s plan?) It was a little later than that (but not much) that I created the Third Man when I realized that Dr. Klein really needed a third identity in order to do all the things I needed him to do.

That caroling idea with the sidekick group pretty much got tossed, but I may go back to it one day.

See you tomorrow with Operation: Valhalla No.4!