BUBBLES OF LIGHT BEGINS NOW!

Welcome to Chapter 10 of the SuperFogeys, Bubbles of Light. If chapters 1-5 are Volume One (available for sale in print here), and chapters 6-9 are Volume 2 (available in print pending demand!), then today officially kicks off Volume 3!

I don't want to say too much about what this chapter is all about (because anything I would tell you would ruin some of the cool surprises coming up), but from the title alone you can reasonably conclude that time travel will be a factor. 

Now, some of you may be saying "I hate time travel" or "Time travel makes my head hurt" or "Time travel owes me money and I need to buy a sandwich." So, maybe you're down on time travel? All I ask is that you give me a chance. I'm probably not going to be approaching it in the way you're thinking or (hopefully) used to seeing. 

But. Besides all that. Each new volume is an opportunity to do something new--new tone, new characters, new plot lines--even better art, if I can manage it. Let's see what this volume brings. I know I'm excited--I'm actually ahead for the first time in years! The first three strips of Chapter 10 are already in the can.

NEXT WEEK: 

Tuesday sees the release of the second page of Spy Gal's origin--a GORGEOUS page, if I may so (and I can since the art is by the fantastic Lee Cherolis).

Then, on Thursday, be back here as Bubbles of Light continues and Jerry does his best to offer up an explanation for his improved condition. Who thinks he's gonna tell the truth? Anyone? Anyone?

WELCOME TO SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS, LEE CHEROLIS!

For you new readers (and there have been a lot of you lately), Back in May of this year I ran a contest to see choose who would draw the next, great origin--Spy Gal's. Over the course of several weeks, many wonderful artists submitted their own version of Spy Gal and Legend of Bill's David Reddick had the pleasure of picking from among them the eventual winner--Lee Cherolis!

See the announcement and Lee's winning entry here.

Working with Lee and David over the past several months (David did some character designs and art direction on the story) has been a pure pleasure. Lee, as you can from page one above, is a fantastic and dynamic artist and I could not be more pleased with how the Spy Gal origin is turning out. 

I hope you all dig it as much as I do. This is one of the big ones--11 pages total! There's A LOT you don't know about Spy Gal...but you're about to find out.

IN DEVELOPMENT: JERRY'S ORIGIN!

With the shocking revelation of two weeks ago behind us, interest in Captain Spectacular's former and present sidekick, Jerry, is at all-time high. Today I'd like to announce that Jerry's origin is in development and I think I've found the perfect artist for it.

In fact, you probably remember him from the Spy Gal Art Contest...John Jett! We've been working hard for about a month now, crafting our tale and getting it just right so that it not only answers a bunch of questions, but also is entertaining and a good story in its own right.

Here's John's first sketch of a young Jerry. Consider this a "first pass" and not representative of John's final approach to Jerry.

See much more of John's amazing artwork at his site!

MONSTERPLEX IS BACK AND THERE ARE NEW PAGES! HAVE YOU SEEN THEM?

From last week: as a thank you to all of you who voted and support the Zuda-winning/Zuda-booted webcomic, Monsterplex, the MP Team (Myself, artist David Schlotterback and colorist Michael DeVito) is posting all the pages we'd been working on that you never got a chance to see. Go to the Monsterplex Blog right now! Today is page 11!

See you on Thursday with the beginning of Chapter 10, Bubbles of Light!

OPERATION: VALHALLA ENDS HERE!

And now you see how it all began. This strip was tricky. It's the only one that I can remember that has both Jerry and Dr. Klein in it at the same time. The artist, Mike Hartigan, had no clue about the link between them and, for some reason, removed the panel of Spy Gal sitting alone in her room with the clock ticking by that I had scripted. My feeling was that it was important to show time passing so that, years later when it was finally revealed that Jerry and Dr. Klein are the same person, you all wouldn't come barking at me about how there's no way Dr. Klein could have changed into Jerry that fast (even though how much time passes between panels in a comic book is always up for debate--but ANYWAY). This has been the challenge of the SuperFogeys for four years now--writing it such that it would enjoyable and intelligible to all of you taking the journey in the present, while at the same time making sure that your future selves would be satisfied! (Is it any wonder I introduced time travel as a story element?)

I could have asked the artist to do a redraw, but the only way to make it not sound like nitpicking was to tell him the secret and I was not going to do that. The SuperFogeys weren't even a year old back then! It was way too early to start trusting people with something that big. Instead, I opted for the very, very tired device you see in the last panel, the "Later..." caption. It makes me cringe, but at least it gets the job done, right?

And you know more than you need to know about that.

Don't forget that Operation: Valhalla and many other unseen stories can be purchased as a part of SuperFogeys Vol. 1, along with Chapters 1-5.

NEW SUPERFOGEYS ORIGINS ON TUESDAY!

Be sure and come back on Tuesday as we resume our regular schedule and the first page of Spy Gal's origin drops, with art by the phenomenally talented Lee Cherolis, winner of the Spy Gal Art Contest! 

Also, for those of you that haven't heard the Tall Tale Radio interview I did recently, I'll be announcing the latest artist to sign up for an Origin story and the story we'll be working on together--with preview art!

BUBBLES OF LIGHT STARTS ON THURSDAY!

And then, on Thursday, Chapter 10, Bubbles of Light begins! You don't want to miss this one. Many of your questions will be answered, that I can guarantee!

WELCOME TO A SPECIAL SATURDAY UPDATE! 

This is the penultimate strip of Operation: Valhalla - The DIRECT SuperFogeys Prequel. Hope you all have been digging it so far.

This is the first appearance of Spy Gal's family, but most of you will remember them from Chapter 7, Visiting Day.

Last strip of this story is tomorrow, see you then!

MONSTERPLEX IS BACK!

I've been promising for a while now that my Zuda-winning/Zuda-booted comic, Monsterplex, would be coming back--at least enough so I can show you all the work we did that you never got to see. 

If you head on over to the Monsterplex blog right now you'll see that I've begun posting those extra pages and will be posting them once a weekday until they're all gone. This is just my and David Schlotterback's and Michael DeVito's little way of saying thanks to everyone who supported us. 

THE THEORIES KEEP ON COMING!

I had a lot of fun following along with all of your theories and comments in yesterday's strip. It's a week later and the theories keep on coming and that's just so very cool. SF has some real dedicated fans. I've heard some theories that are just so, so right on and others that are way off base--but no less plausible. Kudos to all of you.

FAN ART FRIDAY?

Very soon now and the SF site will be updated and you'll be able to look forward to daily blog content. Been thinking about instituting a Fan Art Friday, which is something I've seen other webcomics do (most notably, Legend of Bill). What do you guys say? The launch is approaching. If you'd like to participate by drawing one or more of your favorite SF characters, please send them along to me at bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com.

DON'T FORGET THAT THERE WILL BE NEW OPERATION:VALHALLA EPISODES BOTH TOMORROW AND SUNDAY! SEE YOU THEN!

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!

THE ANNOTATED OPERATION: VALHALLA NO.2

If you're just joining us, this is part two of the DIRECT SuperFogeys prequel, Operation: Valhalla. This is actually the first true appearance of the Third Man as this story came out in print before his online appearance in Chapter 3, "The Techno Shuffle."

We've also seen that this was not the last time the Third Man contacted the Society of Heroes in this way, as seen here.

Of course, the Third Man has two other identities as we found out last week. You can see the reveal of the first one here and the BIG reveal of the second one here!

FAKE SUPERFOGEYS SPOILERS

One of the things I tried to do in the big lead-up to the reveal last week was to hype it up as much as possible. I was all over Twitter, Facebook, other webcomic sites--everywhere. I wanted to let people know that this was gonna be a real game changer. Some SuperFans really got into it and created the hastag #fakesuperfogeysspoilers on Twitter and started making up their own versions of what might be coming. It looked like so much fun that I even joined in. 

Presented here, for your reading enjoyment, are some of my favorites:

@scottking: Space Pig reveals himself to not be a pig at all, but instead a SPACE HOG!

@brockheasley: Valhalla is really VALHALLA! They're all dead!

@scottking: It's revealed that Dr. Rocket really has an Associates Degree! dun dun dunnnnnn!

@scottking: Captain Spectacular wakes up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette and realizes everything has just been a bad dream.

@brockheasley: Jerry discovers that Captain Spectacular was really his more suave alter ego the whole time.

@brockheasley: Dr. Rocket did it thirty-five minutes ago.

@Frumph: Swifty is his own father.

@talltaleradio: "SuperFogeys Crying Game." Spy Gal undresses to reveal she's really Spy Guy.

@brockheasley: Everyone hugs and sits down for a nice roasted ham dinner, courtesy of Space Pig.

@tmcelmurry: The Bubbles of Light are a bi-product of Space Pig that is revealed after he eats a Super Burrito.

@Vertigo_X: Spy Gal can't get in touch with her inner feelings because her thoughts phase with her.

@supertemps: Due to several failed attempts to return to his own timeline, they're all Mega Matt. Except for Mega Matt.

@ucbmoose: The Bubbles of Light are just tiny glitches in the matrix.

@brockheasley: The door closes as Swifty holds court with the assembled villains and Star Maiden looks on, sadly.

@krheasley: Space pig got a dose of his own medicine; everything we've seen is part of his elaborate dream.

See you tomorrow with Operation: Valhalla #3!

WHAT IS THIS?

Well, this is SuperFogeys Origins. In content if not format. For the vast majority of you, this is the first time you're seeing Operation: Valhalla. Originally, this story was written for and appeared in the now-out-of-print first SuperFogeys collection and this is the first time it has ever appeared in its complete form online! That's super cool.

I like to think of this story as the direct prequel to the SuperFogeys saga. It's a small, six episode tale that shows just how exactly Spy Gal was duped into coming to Valhalla and who was behind it. Ideally, you'd read this story and then go straight into Chapter 1, Insane Romance From Hell. 

If I remember correctly, I wrote this during the creation of Chapter 2, Bingo Night. That might account for the slightly different feel these strips are likely to have. The penciller is Mike Hartigan, creator of the now-defunct webcomic Eskimo Dave. The art was finished off by myself on inks and MAD Conk on colors, who has colored a number of SF stories for me, including The Six Wives of Captain Spectacular. 

Those of you that already own this story in print will notice some subtle color and art changes that I've made recently. It's all purely cosmetic. All to bring it in line a little more with what we know of the SuperFogeys from online.

You can find the complete story along with many other stories that are exclusive to print in still-in-print SuperFogeys Vol. 1 which also collects Chapters 1-5. Available for purchase at an excellent price right now!

My hope is that we can all enjoy this story together. You all had some great theories and questions about he BIG Reveal last week. If you haven't already, I'd encourage you to listen to the interview I did with Tom Racine at Tall Tale Radio. A lot of your questions will be answered there. 

If not, I'm back in the saddle. I'll answer what I can!

THE SUPERFOGEYS ON WIKIPEDIA

Maybe the biggest compliment a creator can have in the 21st Century is when his fans feel inspired enough to make an entry about your work on Wikipedia. At least, for me, that's pretty darn cool! Michael Johnston, a SuperFan from way back has done just that--but he needs your help.

If you feel so inclined, drop on by the SuperFogeys Wikipedia Page and chime in!

THE NEW SUPERFOGEYS SITE UPDATE

We're sooooo close to having this thing wrapped up. Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but there's going to be a special Fan Art section on the new site. I'm hoping to post a new piece every week. I have a large backlog of fan art, but new still will always take top priority. If think you've got it in you, I'd love to see it and share it. Send your SF fan art to me at bwhheasley (at) gmail (dot) com.

See you tomorrow with Operation: Valhalla #2!

SILENCE IS BROKEN

Welcome back, everyone! Man, last week. Last week was what I have been waiting for and working towards ever since I decided to make this little comic called SuperFogeys into an ongoing thing. I sweated and fretted over whether or not I could keep the secret and worried that, after all that work, you'd all look at it and think "eh."

Originally, I wasn't even going to say anything. No ads, no promotion, nothing. I was just gonna let it land. Then I realized, "Hey dude, you're not Penny Arcade. You gotta get the word out or it's just gonna be something people hear about and the moment will have passed."

"But what if I hype it and--"

"Hype is good."

"Hype can be bad."

"Explain."

"I just mean, what if I build it up to be this big thing, pull in some new readers, recapture some old ones and then, when they see it, they go 'eh.'"

"So?"

"'So?' So they'll be disappointed! I'll forever be that guy that promises a lot and then doesn't deliver. This is my big trick. My masterstroke. If this doesn't work, then not only does everything that's come before become suddenly, retroactively lame, but no one will care about what comes next."

"You should have thought this through more."

"I know, right?"

"This is the risk you take. You wanna be creative? You wanna tell stories and get people excited?"

"Yeah."

"Or do you just wanna sit back and imagine a bunch of cool stuff and never risk having to actually prove you can do the things you think and say you can do? I've heard you knock other webcomics for slipshod storytelling, dude."

"Yeah, I've done that"

"Yeah, you have. So step up and get behind what you've done. Shout it from the rooftops and then let people react how they're going to react. Let me ask you this, do you think you did a good job?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Okay, and how do you think you would react to a twist in the story like this?"

"I'd freakin' freak out."

"Then have a little faith in that. Be satisfied with that."

So, I did. I went full bore and I took the chance and I risked disappointment and I hyped it up as much as I could. The response, so far, has been beyond what I could have imagined. It seems the reveal (and if you haven't read it and have no idea what I'm talking about--go here already!) was met with universal acclaim. I honestly have no heard one bad reaction, other than from the people for whom Jerry was their favorite character!

You all seriously made last week the best moment of my short webcomicking career. Thank you so much for your reactions and theories and support and kudos. It was been so, so difficult to keep this secret from getting out the past four years and you made all that effort worth it. If there was any doubt before, it should be pretty clear now--I have the best readers in the entire webcomicking world.

And now, with this new week, I promise to rejoin the discussion. I'll answer what I can.

BUT WAIT! I'VE ALREADY ANSWERED A BUNCH OF QUESTIONS!

Last week I talked with Tom Racine of Tall Tale Radio on the day of the big reveal as the reactions were still pouring in. Tom and I talked candidly about the creation of the big twist and about how some of the pieces fit together. (Has anybody found the earliest clue? I believe it's in the beginning part of Chapter 2.)

Here's the link! Listen now!

SO...NOW WHAT?

Would you believe that some people thought that last week was the end of the SuperFogeys? That is so, so far from the case. As you can see with today's SuperFogeys Origins update, there's a lot more story to tell.

August 31st (Tuesday of next week) will see the beginning of the Spy Gal origin. Hopefully you've all figured out by now just how important a figure Spy Gal is in the overall story I'm telling here. What makes her such a bada$$? Where did she come from? What is the dark secret of her past? Starting next week, I'm gonna tell you. With art by Lee Cherolis, winner of the Spy Gal Art Contest back in May!

Then, on September 2nd, Chapter 10, Bubbles of Light will begin and I can promise a Jerry appearance in the very first panel. There's some exciting things happening in the next chapter--and quite a few answers! I think Bubbles of Light stands a good chance of being everyone's new favorite SuperFogeys chapter.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS WEEK!!!??

Starting tomorrow I have a real treat for you. There's a story in SuperFogeys Vol. 1 (collecting chapters 1-5 and several bonus stories--available for purchase here!) that, thus far, has only been available in print. Well, now I'm going to share it with everyone.

It's called Operation: Valhalla and it serves as a direct prequel to Chapter 1 of the SuperFogeys. It details how the Third Man manipulated events to bring Spy Gal to Valhalla, kicking off the entire SuperFogeys saga. It's a great way to go back to the start and reconsider everything you've seen in a new light. It will be rolling out daily all this week, Tuesday-Sunday.

For those of you that own SuperFogeys Vol. 1, I hope you'll still enjoy the inevitable theory-making and fun discussions we'll be having this week. It'll be back to business as usual soon enough.

A SHOUT-OUT TO MARJ AND SCOTT KINOSHITA

Of the thousands of SuperFogeys readers that descended on the site last week, two in particular were just a little bit quicker to figure things out than I had hoped.

First, a shout-out to Marj who made the bold claim that she (he?) figured it out back in February, but chose to remain silent out of respect for the story. Now, normally, that's the kind of claim you might doubt, but based on the clues that Marj cited and the timing of when she put things together, I'm very much inclined to believe her. So, congrats, Marj! You saw through my tricks (and believe me--I was pulling LOTS of tricks) to the truth.

As for Scott Kinoshita, he figured things out about 24 hours before the big reveal and then posted his suspicions as a comment on the site! Because we were so close and I didn't want to ruin anyone's experience, I deleted his comment and then emailed him personally to let know know why. He was cool with it, thankfully. 

Scott is one of the SuperFogeys' biggest--and most critical--fans. He really loves the characters--but his hate for Tangerine is strong! Scott is also the author of the SuperFogeys Tropes page, which you should all read and help Scott out with it if you're so inclined. It's a big job for just one man!

Here is Scott's deleted comment from Wednesday, in full:

Whoah... I think something just went wrong in Klein's plan. Obviously the whole "losing everything" scheme has just hit a major snag.

Speaking of Klein, Tangerine knew his actual identity. Which means:

1. Klein can't ever have been a villain.

2. It's someone they know.

Son of a gun. I think Klein is Jerry, or someone very close to him. This isn't based on evidence as much as it is based on the character designs. Look at Klein closely -- check the jaw line. Now, ditch the hair and moustache. Similar nose, similar jawline, similar build. Similar forehead wrinkle and head shape. (Granted, these are toons)

Now add to this that we never see much of Jerry's face. 

Add to THAT, the sudden outburst about how SpyGal is going to stand with CS no matter what. Inability to kill. Sympathy for Jerry.

Jerry is the only Fogey with no known powers and no origin story. The Third Man attempted to become CS's sidekick, but was rejected... for Jerry, with no known powers. 

I don't know how Jerry would have regained the use of his legs (and some degree of youth) but anyone who can open "Secret Doors" could probably travel back in time (if Swifty can do it)

Doesn't quite explain why he'd bring Star Maiden back, unless he just wanted to reassemble all of the old team.

Nice sleuthing, Scott! Not all of your guesses were exactly right, but enough were that I got worried! 

See you tomorrow with Part 1 of Operation: Valhalla - The SuperFogeys Prequel!

Have fun with this one.

See you again on Monday for "Baby Swifty's First Words" pg. 2!