Big thanks to Marc for this strip. We had a technical glitch with all the lettering I did and at the last minute Marc purchased the font himself and did it up real special like for us. I’ll be updating later today with the real lettering (just for the sake of consistency), but Marc did a fine job here. (UPDATE: The lettering has now been updated to the official version.)Ā Appreciate his hard work? Don’t forget the donation button to the left there (it had Money Man on it). All money donated goes directly to Marc–I don’t see a dime. If you enjoy SF, I think he deserves whatever you can spare.
This is a big deal strip, and one more than a few of you predicted based on last week’s strip. Nice work. You guys make this fun.
See you on Wednesday with the return of a character we haven’t seen since I was drawing the strip! Guesses?
Percy’s jaw has gotten a lot squarer in eight months. Must be from all his new responsibilities.
So THAT’S why I’m getting compared to Bruce Campbell more these days!
*Insert unmanly squeal of delight*
I wonder if Percy is going to become the man that his father never truly was able to be: a true hero. Cap WAS and perhaps will become a hero again, but somewhere along the way he lost it. He was never really quite as dedicated as he should have been, though all of the crap he’s been through probably does excuse quite a bit of that. It seems to me though that he seems to have recaptured his spirit at some point in the time skip.
Cap definitely has a new fire and we’ll get to see more of it soon. He was stuck in a specific emotional place for a long, long time and, just as a storyteller, I’m not interested in going back there. Cap has to move forward. It’s time.
But how does Percy fit into that? It’s a great question.
His hair is part dog. It’s position reflects his emotions.
That is a sweet costume.
That might be from his dad, his tuft does this quite a lot.
You both are correct, Percy’s hair is a lot like his dad’s hair, which was only one of my very favorite things to draw back when I was still doing that sort of thing.
D’awwwww
Man, I wish we had a like button.
I wish you had an “upvote” button for the comments too, because “D’awwwwww” was what immediately came to mind as well. Percy must be made out of some special “Good Guy” sauce because he shined through despite what would have obviously been at least a dark upbringing.
Occasionally, once in a blue moon really, I stop to wonder just what it is a person really wants when they say they want to “Rule The World”. Most of the time alien invasions with a such a goal are ultimately portrayed poorly in the sense that if the goal was to eliminate the prior inhabitants, they could do that by lobbing rocks at fractions of the speed of light at the surface without risking a single soldier.
The Universe is hardly lacking in real estate after all. If you’ve got the tech to get you from one place to another in a timely manner, you can reshape any reasonably sized planetoid into something habitable and beautiful. More than anything I suppose it comes down to the individual who’s leading such a force, or star nation.
In Zurida’s case, the one time in her life she was ever defied was by a man hailing from this silly little blue rock. And I don’t suppose simply destroying it is enough for her. She wants to dominate it, to make it do whatever she wishes, whenever she wishes.
For Percy, the longest time I think it was just doing what he was used to doing. So few people ever truly -think- about their lives after all. Then one day, you wake up, look around, and ask yourself what it is you really want. And just how a price you’re willing to pay to get it.
Great breakdown of Zurida’s potential state of mind.
And Percy’s as well. In a lot of ways, he’s an innocent.
Well, I’ll be. It’s about time the traditionks passed down from father to son. I’m sure the real Captain would approve of this. š
We’ll find out whether he does or not, probably in the next chapter.
Why, just WHY do I have this habbit of looking at the last panel first and then read the intere thing?
Anyway, the strip is really good. I especially like how Percy looks so absolutely pleased with himself in the last panel.
The colour change from Cap I’s blue to this black is nice too. Destinctively different from his predecessors, fits the darker story and goes better with his complexion. Nicely done. Where the two letters on the breast always connected or am I imagening things?
To be fair, the last panel is pretty big in this case. Hard to miss it, but that’s comics. Very easy to look ahead. Marc is largely responsible for the look of Percy’s new outfit, including the color. I have the other versions he worked up and I’ll share them in a blog soon.
The two letters on the breast have not always been joined in this way, though they were joined in the Captain Spectacular II version of this outfit. The “CS” in this case is a combination of the two previous versions.
Can’t wait to see Zurida’s reaction to this.
Me too.
So this Fresno thing has been mentioned a lot in both sides, so it must be something big to set up all this oneyear ahead universe. Are we going to see a flashback of what happened with more detail? Also, I love Percy’s new CS outfit. He looks so happy, he reflects his childish demeanour with all the might of a hero. Wonder if we’ll see in the future a father-son tag of CS…. or however Wilbur will name himself afterwards š
I’m still debating whether to show The Battle of Fresno in flashbacks or not. You’re correct in that a lot of the world as we find it in One Year Later was set up because of the events during that battle. There are certainly things that need to be revealed about that time, but I don’t know that I need to show it. It would make a great, extended flashback, that’s for sure.
He’s a far more fitting and a better sentient being than the human hair pile now called “Gorgeous Guy”. Captain Spectacular 2 was more like Captain Specular 1/2 — a fractional reflection of the original. Percy actually deserves the name.
“human pile” –that made me chuckle. Everything about this post made me chuckle.
Awwwwwww š
Fantastic! I love where this story is going.
Thanks, Chris!
Aww, this made me tear up a little. And I love how expressive Percy’s curl is, just like his dad!
So, I went through the archives to figure out who hasn’t been drawn in a while. While I like where the strip is going, it reminded me of how much I really enjoy the older strips as well. My guess though is for dictator tot, unless it’s the punisher or storm look a likes at bingo.
Dictator Tot has been seen in this very chapter (towards the beginning), so it’s not her.
I hope I’m not wrong about this character not being seen since the pre-SF 301 days. I’m pretty sure I’m not wrong.
No you’re not, I remember now that Dictator Tot was shown with her sister later on. I remember you specifically mentioned in that drawing you’d now successfully depicted all of your girls in the comic. I was guessing since I was going though the archives and torn between the need to get work done (I was at work) and reading through all the archives. So, sloppy work on my part.
One who is going to be seen next? WHy thats easy.. Little Miss Missile! We will be wanting to see how she took Toms Death 1 year later.. I bet she is on the superfogies side.
That outfit is amazing! All in all I think this is my favourite Fogeys strip to date, artisticly. Percy’s expressions are sublime š
On the comic up until now i havent felt the need to comment yet, but this page just makes me not want to keep reading – Because Percy’s expression in the third panel is so heart-meltingly sweet. He looks so incredibly happy and proud, it nearly brings a tear to my eye. Simply magical job with this drawing. I keep a favourite of each page on the website that has more of an impact on me than usual (such as the final panel in “Beer dont judge” and the story about your daughter in “The Race” that had me fighting a pair of water fountains in my face.) The drawing is pure magic, and i litterally cant press the “next” button because i dont want to move away from this happy moment. Marc has just been impressing more and more with every strip recently, and i hope it keeps improving like this until i reach the newest strips closer to today!