Commentary

I am nothing if not patient.  I created Tangerine quite a while ago.  In fact, his actual first appearance is on the cover of the first SuperFogeys book and in the bonus story of that same book as drawn by Mike Hartigan. Each of the SuperFogeys are pretty much analogues for characters in either the DC or the Marvel Universes, but up until now it’s been a bit DC-heavy.  Tangerine is clearly an analogue for Wolverine (and all he represents–more on that in a later commentary), and is probably the one Fogey that is most like his precedent.

This instance of the drinking alcohol in a SuperFogeys strip is a rare one.  Personally, I’m not a drinker.  And I’m that way for both practical and moral reasons.  I don’t want to ever be caught glamorizing alcohol consumption and, as this chapter later proves, I really haven’t.  A lot of people liked Tangerine a whole lot when he first appeared here, but by the end of the chapter they just absolutely hated him.  That was not by accident.

The moder day Society of Heroes shows up in a slightly different configuration here than they did in the original bonus story.  I don’t remember why I did that exactly.  The Society exist mainly as background characters in the story of the SuperFogeys and are meant to illustrate just what kind of a world the Fogeys have left us with. This is their legacy…and it’s not a particularly great one.

The Third Man showing up here is key. Of course, all Third Man appearances are key, but as the story goes along you can trace a lot of stuff back to this moment. In fact, the result of his machinations here take us all the way to the end of the next chapter.

That’s my version of Fresno’s insane looking City Hall building in the first panel.

This episode was also memorably done in audio form on Comics Coast-to-Coast.

Tangerine

Today finally sees the debut of Tangerine, the final member of the SuperFogeys cast. I’ve made no secret of Tangerine, even featuring him prominently on the cover of the first SuperFogeys book.

His debut here is not his actual debut, however. He’s popped up twice before in backup tales in the SF books. They’re certainly worth tracking down. Hmmm…hey, what’s that link in the paragraph above?

Look for big things from Tangerine in the coming months. Wait’ll you see his power!

New Site Update

Things are really happening now. RSS feed is now set and we should be finalizing the new navigation tonight and then it’s on to making sure our bells and whistles are in the proper order. We’re so close…so close…

Talk Shoe Wrap-up

The Tall Tale Features Talk Shoe Extravaganza was so much fun! It was great to be able to talk to my TTF compatriots, finally! Thanks to all of you that were able to pop in, either on the air or in the chat. There were some technical issues for me, so I didn’t turn up until the last 10 minutes of the broadcast, but what a great time it was despite that. My voice has been deemed “heroic” by the masses. Never heard that one before.

If you missed out, you can still listen to the whole thing at this link: Click here!