Holy stinking snot bunnies. We just hit 600 strips. 600 STRIPS! How did this happen? How is it even possible that SuperFogeys is still going strong almost 7 years after it first debuted?
I’ll tell you how: Marc Lapierre. Today marks the publication of Marc’s 300th SuperFogeys strip. Those of you with long memories will recall that I was the artist for the 300 strips. Marc took over with strip 301. That means Marc has now done just as many SF strips as I did and with his very next one he will surpass my count. Wow. SuperFogeys would literally not exist right now if it weren’t for Marc, and it sure wouldn’t be as good if it had somehow managed to continue.
During his time on the strip, Marc has grown by leaps and bounds artistically, and his popularity has risen right along with that growth. He gets regular commission work, but still manages to find the time to crank out two SF strips a week. That’s amazing. It’s a true labor of love for him, this much I know. He’s paid by your donations (as SF continues to be not a moneymaking venture) and I know he’s grateful for each and every cent you guys are able to give, but it’s the love of the medium that sustains him. I think. I mean, I’m well into the realm of conjecture here, but if you guys could see the back and forths we have you’d know that Marc cares deeply about comics as a medium, this story, and these characters. I think it shows. In spades.
I mean, look at that beautiful piece up there. Holy crud.
Thank you, Marc. I know I’ve already said it to you privately, but thank you for taking this journey with me. Here’s to finishing it together.
Special Announcement: All that work means Marc needs his rest, so for the next two weeks we’re taking some time off to gear up for Chapter 19, tentatively titled “The Man Who Sold the World.” We’ll see if that sticks. As you can tell by this strip, we’re about to go to a place that’s every bit as big as the One Year Later jump. We wanna do it right.Ā
In the meantime, I hope to get a few posts out there with some unseen sketch art and maybe some reflections on SF history. This is also a great time for fan art tributes, if you’ve got ’em. Even guest strips. It’s been a long, strange trip so far. Who are you dying to draw?
I know someone that’s going to be very happy with this update.
Damn straight!
Do tell, John!
Oh, it’s nothing huge. I’ve just been a big Thrice Evil fan for quite a while and always felt that he’d been treated very unfairly by the narrative – his sole appearances before his diminution were as a background figure (SFO: Society of Heroes) or an emasculated villain (Cellmates). This version of Thrice might actually be able to deliver on the name, which is certainly something I’m looking forward to!
What’s most interesting in this strip to me is that it shows that pretty much every element of the other Thrice’s decay seems to be the result of Jerry’s abuse – the other Earth-Avalon characters all seem to be aged similarly to their regular counterparts (Tangerine is the best point of reference, but you can also see that Starbrighter is looking pretty far past it), while this Thrice is as physically imposing as he ever was. I’ll be keen to see where the story ends up from here!
Maybe there’s more to Thrice Evil than simply this being an “Earth-Avalon version”. Not going to speculate more, but just think of who Thrice is (from his origins) and how Jerry kept him under wraps.
Alt-CoW is interesting too. I didn’t think SF would be touching on that again.
What do you mean “Alt-CoW”? This is going to become the new mainstream. Or, that’s what I’m hoping, anyways. When I cheer for the bad guys, I mean it.
Well Hello there Neil! Pleased to make your acquaintance! Any chance you could point us in the direction of the fellow that’s behind all of this?
I refer you to the last panel. Let there be no bones made about this.
(What does that even mean?? Who makes bones?)
Why those nice folks over on Kamino, of course.
Mirror Universe FTW!
Yes… and no.
Remember your comment. It’s relevant.
http://superfogeys.com/2010/12/07/sf-origins-the-thrice-evil-pg-1-getting-his-wife-ba/
I’d forgotten about this!
Thrice Evil’s mom had 5 fingers all along!
Everybody in this comic has five fingers. Might be that the artitst just liked it that way or it wasn’t the origin our Thrice, although my guess is the former option.
Very perceptive. Great memory.
So that’s Mommy in the background? Oooo…
http://superfogeys.com/2011/09/26/fan-art-the-thrice-evil-by-margaret-racine/
Did the fan-artist know something?
You’ll have to ask her.
Margaret, are you out there?
Went back and checked. The Money Man whose come back has (dun-dun-duuuun) five fingers!
You are correct, sir! Excellent sleuthing.
What the ?!?
Also,congrats on 600 strips. š
Still, Swifty is in Big trouble this time, if he’s on the home world of T-Magus and Gina, but now I wonder HOW they got into our world in the first place and even WHy they’re here in the first place ? š
The answer is an easy one–In the origins of the Thrice Evil, Bruce was sent through the portal to another dimension…Where his mother had been turned into a monster:
http://superfogeys.com/2011/01/11/sf-origins-the-thrice-evil-pg-4-mommy/
Was killed by Mr. Crook shortly after returning:
http://superfogeys.com/2011/01/18/sf-origins-the-thrice-evil-pg-5-hungry/
and then Thrice Evil declared his hatred for Dr. Rocket:
http://superfogeys.com/2011/01/25/sf-origins-the-thrice-evil-pg-9-we-can-work-with-that/
*Everyone* has five fingers on each hand, in that origins story. I’d guess that story took place in the Earth-Avalon dimension. Later in the life of Earth-Avalon’s Thrice Evil, he would conquer all of space…or somesuch thing as that; Starbrighter’s still alive somehow, at least….Eh I danno what I’m talking about anymore. With his ability to transcend dimensions, it’s entirely possible (however unlikely) that this thrice evil collected every other member of his crew, from a different dimension.
Also, this is terrific work. Thank you Marc and Brock, for getting along well enough to make it this far; I hope the two of you will continue to go much farther together with the SuperFogeys.
Got to disagree with you since that appears to be Thrice’s mother in the background, it looks to me as though the splitting off point may be that she wasn’t killed by Mr. Crook when she came through the portal.
Marcus, you’re asking the right questions. The answers unlock pretty much everything else you would want to know. Hopefully, it won’t take long to get to them.
King G, it’s never been stated that Thrice can travel between dimensions. He did get his powers in that way, but he’s never been shown to have that ability. Hopping dimensions is tricky business, but as we’ve seen with the past couple updates there is a person who can do it. Oh, and thanks for the kudos. I hope you’re right!
Unless Earth-Avalon’s timeline is a few years later than the timeline of Swifty-Three-Fingers (where Doc. Rocket is still alive, though admittedly dying from cancer)…Oh, Thrice himself doesn’t need to travel between dimensions. After what happened to himself and his mother, he wouldn’t want to risk a portal again unless he’s certain it will lead where he intends for it to.
But Thrice Evil doesn’t strike me as the sort who’d readily forget, or forgive, past grievances. I’m thinking Dr. Rocket and Mr. Crook are either hiding/running/resisting, somewhere…Or more likely, they’re both dead. Thrice controls (or at some point in the past, has tried to control) the portal that gave him his power.
Oh my effin’….. is that?… and is that?! Holy diver, this is too cool for me even to process!
Luckily, you’ve got two weeks to do it!
Face-off between parallel universe Swifties – go!
Ooh… I want to see that.
It’ll be the greatest number of swear words to ever come out of a pair of old folks who are neither sailors nor football entusiasts.
Whoa.
Thrice Evil? Gods and little fishes, that’s not good…
Congrats on 600 strips!
No, it is NOT good.
Thanks, Gwen!
KNEEL BEFORE THRICE!
Lesse….Master Mandible, Johnny-go-dead (or whatever his name is), Monica, Thrice, Starbrighter, Suck-Face, Thrice’s mom, a two-cybernetic-handed version of Tangerine, and whatever that rabbit thing is. Dead people, and alternate people….and we’ve got time-travelers involved.
Wait, Johnny Go Dead has a rabbit too?
The rabbit is probably Dr. Rocket’s Harvey. My guess is that zombies in this universe don’t hate each other and Johnny and Harvey bondet. Maybe even sided against Rocket but that is purely a theory.
Good roll call. It’s Master MASTICATE and JIMMY-Go-Dead, but why quibble?
I like Cyrian’s theory about the rabbit. Also, the tags are helpful.
I find it REALLY interesting that in that world, Tangerine is missing both arms AND allied withthe witch doctor that cut them off (Unless it was something else in that world.).
And yes, that “zombies don’t hate each other here” theory would be a good explanation, unless Harvey is not a zombie in that new Earth.
This comic is constantly putting it into my head now–Old age is optional.
Comment of the week (I don’t care that it’s early). There’s nothing anyone can say that’s better than this.
Yay for family reunions! “Mom, about this whole ‘eating-me’-thing… I forgive you!” *Start the emotional music*
I jest, this page is very good, might be my favorite in this chapter. Love the details. I am wondering why Thrice is not old in this universe. Might be timetravell or someone was right and his team recruits from multiple dimensions, which is not too likely but makes a lot of sense, assuming Avalon-Thrice can jump dimensions without larger limitations.
Not sure if Suckface is just shaven or old and bald. More variables…
Anyway, you guys did an awesome job and here is to a couple of hundreds strips more!
(Or thousands, however long you want the comic to go on.)
Thanks, Cyrian! Thrice’s recruitment practices are not as complex as all that. The nature of Earth-Avalon will be made clear soon and we’ll be seeing a lot more of it. That should answer a lot of your questions.
So are the olympics here called EA Games?
Bad pun sorry. ill go hiding now
TERRIBLE pun. But, yes.
Thrice Evil!!!! What a delightful note to return on. Such a wonderful collection of alternate dimension versions of familiar faces! I was in the process of moving and was deeply disappointed to miss my chance for crazy speculation on the last strip. š
Andrew! Hey man, good to see you again. I have certainly missed your crazy theories. Should be lots of fodder for more in the next chapter.
[…] 600 – “Earth-Avalon” from Chapter 18, One Year Later […]
Semi-called it. I was right that Money Man’s use of the definite article was important, even if my “guess” was wrong:
http://superfogeys.com/2013/10/23/superfogeys-q-and-a-4-of-4/#comment-58759
I remember that guess and knew you’d called it then. Happy to give you credit now!
[…] of them excellent. See Thrice’s origin for the first appearance of “Mommy” and SF 600 for the […]
Hey, Brock! Marc! Just caught up on the comic after a couple months of MIA. You’re right, I LOVE Swifty’s return, especially seeing him unchanged. I dunno, feels like one of those old Marvel things with Spiderman or etc or something when they deal with time travel or dimension travel and the hero is all like, “Whoa?! What tha!?” Anyway, I really just love Swifty, is all.
And you’re right about something else. Keeping the status quo eventually gets boring.
Hey Will! Good to hear from you again. Had been wondering where you’d gotten off to. Glad you’re excited about the new happenings. We’re pressing forward and big things are in the offing!
[…] those of you who missed it or forgot (it WAS two weeks ago), the previous chapter ended with a HUGE cliffhanger. We’re in an alternate reality now, known as Earth-Avalon. We’re gonna be exploring […]