Future Swifty is back! Or is this the first time? It’s so hard to tell with him. As always, you can click on the handy Bubbles of Light tag to see all of Future Swifty’s appearances in the order in which they appeared (which isn’t necessarily the order they occurred in). If you’re a new reader, don’t worry about all this. It’s really not as complicated as it appears. (Or is it?) Stop that!
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Jerry, even if you are in a hurry, you better watch not to run into our world. It’s more twisted than yours.
Also, future punch was nice.
Wow…those things (Bubbles of Light Eps) are confusing!
Also, small pet peeve about the site…why is it that when you are typing a comment and hit Tab that instead of moving focus to the Post button, it goes to the top of the site, refreshing it when you hit Enter as if you clicked on the site banner at the top?
Bryan, I’m completely perplexed by the tab thing. Must be some kind of WordPress issue. No idea how to resolve it or what’s causing it. Anyone out there know?
As for the Bubbles of Light being confusing… imagine being Swifty! Thankfully, you don’t need to understand them to get what’s going on in the story.
No worries. I was just curious.
Wow! What a hit! And it makes me suspect that Swifty has gained some measure of control over his time-fizziness or perhaps he’s figured out a way to predict where and when he’s jumping to.
Because that slobber knocker was just way too well timed and coordinated to have been freak chance. UNLESS of course he was in the process of swinging at a later Jerry (it would have to be further in the future because he hasn’t had a go at Jerry as of yet) which was interrupted by another time bounce that just happened to put him in the perfect position to finish extending into this Jerry’s chiseled old jaw.
Time travel logistical theory is FUN! 😀 And I love how the temporal bubbles themselves are perfectly silent. It is my opinion that not everything science fantastic has to make a noise.
I think that the punching is most likely due Swifty’s fast thinking (I imagine that his mind works still faster than his body). But I could be wrong.
This IS true. His hips and legs are useless. No one said anything about it arms and shoulders.
And we KNOW he thinks faster than the rest of them. 😀
Multiple theories going here, and all of them good. My dream is to one day do a SuperFogeys Origins tale where you see it all from Swifty’s point of view–in the order he experienced it. You’d see stuff that is implied but only happened off-panel and questions like these would all be answered.
I would LOVE that broke! And here’s to still hoping that the entire SF and SFO will be collected in more trade paperbacks in the future – I’m still interested in buying! 🙂
I can’t believe I’m so tired that I misspelled your name “broke,” instead of “Brock.” Oy.
I, too, would love this. Please. Please make this happen.
Please.
That would be totally sweet.
I hope to print more books in the future too, Will. Goodness knows we’ve got enough for multiple volumes of both SF and SFO right now. It’s always a question of demand. Right now, I’m not seeing it. Hopefully, that can change.
As for the Future Swifty SFO story… I don’t think it can happen until after we catch up with the moment when Swifty is first taken, but it is definitely something I want to do.
I’ve seen a few comics doing Kickstarters to raise money for print runs, most notably OotS which went over a million dollars. Have you considered that at all? Get a quote for the cost of the print run, add in whatever the Kickstarter fees are and then set up the groups of x-dollars for so many books with maybe some fun bonus stuff mixed in like the option to donate a bit more for pins/posters, and possibly even original art/guest appearances at the higher bands. As far as I’m aware fees aren’t deducted until the drive is over and successful as well so you don’t need to worry about refunding money if it comes up short.
Lewis, I’ve been watching Kickstarter with great interest, but I’ve ultimately concluded that we’re not ready for it yet. To do well on Kickstarter, you really need a good, strong base to begin with. OotS has 650,000 DEDICATED readers, and 1,000,000 more that check in at least once a month. I don’t think I’m revealing much when I say that SuperFogeys has NOWHERE near that kind of readership. Granted, I don’t need to make over a million bucks to put out a good book, but we need at least the possibility of a good amount of cash to make the effort Kickstarter requires worth it.
There’s too thing I look at when considering this: sales of SF Vol.1 and traffic to the site. Those are my measurements and they show SF isn’t there yet. (And, honestly, that is perplexing to me–I think we make a pretty terrific comic here.)
Your support and comments mean a lot, but bottom line is that the readership needs to go up before more books make sense.
One question, why is Jerry falling forward, wouldn’t he fall backward after a sucker punch like that? And won’t he try and “take care of” Swifty now to avoid this?
See below for the answer.
I think he’s running forward in that panel. Also, it could be that Future Swifty was about to punch Future Jerry, but he sent him backwards in time at that moment. It does make sense since it is implied that when Gina was doing her therapy thing, Future Swifty was sent back to his proper timeline.
I’ve been meaning to ask you, Brock. Is Gina related to Jerry? In the preview of when Jerry sent Swifty into the time stream, Gina wasn’t around and Jerry had some time bubbles around his hand right before Future Swifty took his excellent trip through time.
Agreed. He’s just running away (forward into the frame).
Thanks, guys. Javier, as to your question… no familial link between Jerry and Gina has ever been established. But I will say this: Jerry didn’t “send” Swifty into the time stream. He hired Gina to grab Swifty (and the other Fogeys) out of the time stream. She just grabbed the wrong one.
@Sam — I agree with Javier, he’s not falling forwards, he’s breaking into a run in that last panel. I think this is the first time I’ve really seen Jerry panic like this.
I keep thinking there was another time we saw Jerry like this, but I can’t think of when it was.
Um. Fighting a giant robot, right?
Yes! That was it. But still, he’s a little more freaked out here.
Marc, awesome touch with the spillover in the last panel. SuperFogeys in 3D!! Can’t wait ’til it’s in theaters.
Agreed.
I’m guessing this takes place after this comic:
http://superfogeys.com/2011/03/23/301-hmph/
Brock himself said it is implied Future Swifty returned to his proper timeline after that comic. So this must be the 1st time jump Future Swifty took after Jerry sent him away.
No, he’s not wearing his mask. When did he take the mask off? In 1955, if I am not mistaken.
I believe you’re right. If so, that makes me wonder if Future Swifty showed up at Dr. Rocket (Herman’s) funeral before meeting Present-Day Swifty and Past Star-Maiden (which was after he met his baby self).
I think it’s safe to say Gina had some trouble getting Future Swifty back to his own time. He’s still slippery.
And can I just say that I’m SHOCKED none of you are trying to decipher the bulletin board!
The one about “out of the room, wear the uniform seems almost as a reminder to Jerry/Third Man/Dr. Klein to keep his identities straight, lol
I think he meant the “3rd Annual Unmasked Ball” one.
Maybe it’s a notice in response to CS’s occasional forays without pants?
I LOVE the Green Lantern “Lost Power Ring” poster, Marc and Brock. Great laugh there!
Oh Brock. That’s one of the first things Tyler and I did.
Ahem. One bulletin board (from the top, left to right)-
VALHALLA COMMUNITY BOARD
REMEMBER: OUT OF THE ROOM, IN THE UNIFORM
DUE TO AN UNFORTUNATE INCIDENT WITH BARON VON PUSTULE, ALL NURSE CARVER’S MASSAGE SESSIONS FOR THE NEXT WEEK ARE CANCELLED.
3RD ANNUAL UNMASKED BALL THIS **** **** (text obscured)
LOST. ALIEN POWER RING. SHINY AND GREEN. IF FOUND, PLEASE RETURN TO ROOM F**** (text obscured)
Whoa. How did you do that? I know what they say and I can’t even read them at this resolution. Kudos. Did you sharpen in Photoshop? Because that’s spot on. (Except it’s “Nurse CARTER,” but I assume that’s a typo.)
You and Mister LaPierre have taught me to look at every detail, Sir! It probably also helped that I at one point owned all but two of the Where’s Waldo? books. 🙂
Finally.
Ohhh, and this will definitely give Jerry something to chew on. Hope he winds up chewing his own scheme off in trying to escape.
Swifty is my favorite of all of them.
Swifty has really grown on me over the years as well.
And those are the scariest words to cowards of all kinds. “I’m going to tell everyone who you really ARE.” hehehe. I love it. Jerry’s such a little weasel.
so green lantern lost his ring? HA
The other i can read “due to an unfortunate incident with baron von purple all nurse…message …for the next weekend cancelled.” cant make out some words.
am i close?
I think I’ll post a blog tomorrow that reveals all. But… you’re very, very close!
Here’s my new theory on the order of the BBL strips:
First group (not sure what comes before or after):
http://superfogeys.com/2009/06/25/213-bubbles-of-light-4/
http://superfogeys.com/2009/05/12/sf-origins-the-society-of-heroes-pg-13-what-are-you-doing-here/
http://superfogeys.com/2009/08/06/219-bubbles-of-light-5/
http://superfogeys.com/2010/08/17/sf-origins-baby-swiftys-first-words-pg-1-back-to-start/
http://superfogeys.com/2010/08/23/sf-origins-baby-swiftys-first-words-pg-2-preposterous/
http://superfogeys.com/2010/10/28/282-mucking-with-space-and-time/
I know these are in order, but not sure where they fit:
http://superfogeys.com/2009/06/25/213-bubbles-of-light-4/
http://superfogeys.com/2009/05/12/sf-origins-the-society-of-heroes-pg-13-what-are-you-doing-here/
Not sure where the rest go…
Bryan – add this one to the VERY top of your list:
http://superfogeys.com/2011/10/17/355-bubbles-of-light-6/
It leads into this one:
http://superfogeys.com/2009/06/25/213-bubbles-of-light-4/
Oh yeah…I forgot that one!
Close, gentlemen, but you’re missing Bubbles of Light 1-3.
I haven’t yet figured out where those fall (at least not to my satisfaction). I think I might have figured out where Swifty’s appearance at Dr. Rocket’s funeral falls.
In general, as long as we’re sure that the time-hopping Swifty is actually Future Swifty, it might help. That means that any BoL strip where he’s wearing his mask is prior to his meeting with his past (current) self.
Prior to 1955 more correctly, I think. But, yes, he definitely had no mask by the time he reach Swifty in the “present day” or his past (it’s confusing, I know).
He took it off right before the Money Man was killed:
http://superfogeys.com/2009/05/19/sf-origins-the-society-of-heroes-pg-14-save-him-dirtlicker/
Aside from BoL 1-3, I think I finally have them all in order!
Liking today’s strip. Curious as to what Jerry will do next.
Thanks, Will!
NEW fun thing tho. Now Jerry finally knows about Speedy bouncing around through time. The phenomenon seems to be localized around Valhalla on top of it.
This was a big fat W-T-F in Jerry’s mind. So he’s probably going to be scrambling to get Dr. Galloway on the horn and get her down there ASAP to do something before Speedy (As voiced by Rip Taylor i’ve decided) managed to pop in at the right place and the right time and blow his cover for real. Hilarity will ensue as Jerry searches high and low for Speedy, both trying to catch him and avoid him at the same time!
It’s not really localized to Valhalla. Remember, Future Swifty made an appearance in Las Vegas right before Star Maiden was hit.
Good point, Bryan. But Infamous is right about one thing… the time hopping is localized. But to where… or, better yet, to who? (whom?–I never know which)
Swifty is localized to wherever HE is at during the time period that he is jumping into. Why? He’s trying to warn himself about Jerry. He has appeared in these non-Valhalla locations:
Herman’s Grave Site
New York City
His own parents’ house when he was a baby
Las Vegas
Nicely discovered.
Great strip. Swifty is about to really ruin Jerry’s plans, if he can ever get under control when and where he shows up next.
I missed it yesterday and was really excited to get caught up today. Love the bulletin board. The two I could read clear were good. “Out of the Room, in the Uniform” and it appears someone lost a Green Lantern ring, and Nurse Carter’s (looked like Carter) Massage Sessions have hit another snafu. 🙂 The Unmasked Ball is a great idea. Love the background stuff.
Thanks, Todd. One of the funs with having Marc on board is the chance to do more background stuff. A lot of that starts with him (like the bulletin board) and then I add my two cents. Most of the notices on the board were written by me, but one of them is all Marc. \
Good luck guessing which one!
OOH, new challenge!
Okay, the two that stand out the most as ‘easter eggs’ are the Green Lantern and the Nurse Carter notices. A bald GL showed up in one of your backgrounds, so my money’s on the fate of poor Nurse Carter being Marc’s work.
Not correct, but good reasoning. I’ll try to get that blog up today.
Blast!! Ah well, can’t win ’em all. (And I agree. Good eye, Marc!)
[…] I know many of you were straining to see just what the heck was on the bulletin board in SF 390 – “Bubbles of Light 7.” A couple of you actually pretty much figured it out (kudos to YOU guys!), but for the rest of you I […]