The SuperFogeys

Author notes

Episode 4.123 - The Box is Opened

th3rdworld

on April 16, 2008

With apologies to Alan Moore. More on that in a bit…

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First, I have a big announcement to make! As most of you know, The SuperFogeys is published by Th3rd World Studios, home of great comics such as Space Doubles, Omega Chase, Eskimo Dave. Well, now there's a new member of the family…

Mike Witmer's Pinkerton

Hopefully you're already aware of this great, consistently funny and weekdaily comic. There's at least two quotable lines in every strip. Mike amazes me. If you haven't faved it already, do yourself a favor and head on over.

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The New York Comic Con is this weekend and you better believe Th3rd World will be there. We'll be in the Shocker Toys booth, right next to the booth where Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr. will be causing some major traffic jams.

Sadly, I won't be able to attend (Sorry, I'm a West Coaster!), but both SuperFogeys books will be on sale at the booth, and you can count on a little something extra if you pick one up. I do believe Mike Witmer will be there as well. Should be fun! Stop by and then let me know what I'm missing!

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No one is asking for this, but I think on this strip I'd like to pull back the curtain a bit and reveal a bit of my process. We'll stick to writing this time since I've moaned enough about art this week already.

The plot of this particular strip was pretty simple: Jerry and Dictator Tot play Wii Bowling. DT loses. DT pulls out a gun. Here's the script, as originally written:

123 –
1: DT assuming the bowling stance.
DT: Bowling is very simple. The remote is like the ball.
You pull it back with the button…

2: DT throwing ball
DT: …then let go! See?

3: Jerry looking at Remote
J: Well, that seems simple enough.

4: 2 minutes later

5: DT cackling.
DT: Haha! You suck!

6: 10 minutes later

7: DT looks crestfallen.
DT: Wha…?

8: DT and Jerry. DT is pulling a gun out of the box. Jerry is delighted.
J: I won! Yippee!
DT: That’s what you think.


As you can see, I'm not much for detail. I am drawing it myself after all, no need to go into things that can comfortably reside in my head.

This script stayed like this for a long time before I identified two big problems:

1. There was no reason for DT to switch the game to bowling. The bowling idea was left over from a joke I originally wrote in which DT would twirl and spin her way to a strike (DT is based on my daughter and that's how she virtual bowls–like a drunk ballerina), but I had decided not to do it because it just wasn't funny enough. I just forgot to get rid of the bowling along with the joke!

2. There was no joke in this script. That would have been fine if I hadn't just done a strip with no joke or if something more dramatic was going down, but such was not the case. The only reason there was no joke was because I couldn't think of one.

So, I got rid of the bowling and then remembered "Oh yeah, I have Star Maiden now. She's always good for a funny!" And then I thought of Alan Moore.

One of my most favorite comic stories, period, appeared in (I believe) issue 2 of Alan Moore's Tomorrow Stories. It was a Jack B. Quick (boy genius in rural America) story drawn by Kevin Nowlan.

In it, Jack figured out that if you strapped a piece of buttered toast to the back of a cat, then the cat would be able to fly by using his tail like a propeller. His reasoning was based on two widely known facts:

1. Cats always land on their feet.

2. Buttered toast always lands buttered side down.

You following this? It was impossible for the cat with the buttered toast to land. The universe just wouldn't allow it. Much hilarity ensues over the course of the 8 pages, particularly when the cats figure out they have food on their backs and start licking the butter. It's kind of tragic, actually.

The problem I had was this: I had long since sold this comic (curse me!) and so my recollections of it were vague. I was convinced that toast landed buttered side up:



That's right, I both pencilled and lettered my new "toast" version before realizing I had made a mistake. Toast lands buttered side DOWN. Now, I had an entire strip that had no logic to it whatsoever.

So, long story short (too late!), I went back to the drawing board again and thought hard about the other side of the equation–the cat. And thus you got the strip you just read today.

In the end, I still think it's funny, but I like Jerry's line "I hope your bread is buttered…" more than what I ended up having him say. There's just something about someone actually HOPING your bread is buttered that I find hilarious. Plus, that double "B" sound makes me giggle. Too bad it didn't make a lick of sense.

Sorry for the long post today, but I'm guessing at least a couple of you are like me and are fascinated by this stuff.

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Next week: Nah, not gonna spoil it here. Let's just say the story takes…a bit of a turn. When my publisher saw this coming Tuesday's strip, he freaked. Make of that what you will.