War Games - Part 17

This Thursday: the conclusion of the War Games story arc!  I hope you've enjoyed this change of pace these last several weeks.  I have to admit that I'm pretty happy with the the way this chapter has turned out, and I can't wait to see Chapters 3 and 4 in the next book.

Only two more strips until the end of Chapter 4!

War Games - Part 9

Hey, sorry about the tardiness of this one.  I mean, it's still Tuesday, but I like to get these posted in the mornings.  With yesterday being a holiday, I had some family over, and needless to say I didn't get much drawing done.  

This one was a blast to work on.  I don't think I've done a "splash page" quite like this yet.  Drawing combat is fun!  I hope you like the change of pace, because there's a lot more face-smashing to come!

War Games - Part 8

Kris Straub, who does a few webcomics, tweeted earlier:

"Do you know why I like webcomics?  Because anyone can say, 'I couldn't find the story we all wanted to read. So I wrote it.' "

This especially rings true for me.  Growing up as a huge fan of the X-Men, I never, ever got tired of seeing them just doing regular stuff in the school environment they lived in, like playing sports together, or even just shooting the shit.  I could read entire books just about the stuff they got up to in the Danger Room.  I wanted to live in the X-Mansion.

Moreover, I wanted to see something like the Venture Brothers, but strictly for superheroes.  There are a few superhero satires out there, for sure, but nothing that I've found has been quite what I was after.  All that, combined with having these characters in my head for years that have been absolutely screaming at me to tell their stories, Super U. came to be.

War Games - Part 4

This shit took me forever.  Sorry I'm posting later in the day than usual.  Man... I never thought I'd need a break from drawing comics!  

Looking forward to this weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's out there!

Starting next week: action, and lots of it!

War Games - Part 1

War Games, part one of... a lot!  I've been chomping at the bit to start this scene.  

Team Justice is arguably the strongest, and has an extra team member due to, um, unforeseen adjustments.  As a result, the other Combat Education teams are eager to take them down a peg.

Team Dick-Punch, well... they are not the strongest, especially since they lost Raine.

Mr. Walters' loathing for SuperDude is well-known... is he taking it out on SuperDude's daughter?

Walters undoubtedly got the memo that Aiden was to be given "special attention"... is this some twisted act of defiance in the face of his employers?

Yeah, it probably is.

Either way, Team Ex and Team Frost are about to show what they're truly capable of...

Exasperation

I have returned from my Pilgrimage.  Thanks for your patience while I took the week off!  I hope today's strip finds you well.  I haven't featured Amazona, the women's P.E. teacher, too heavily, so I thought it was due time to give her a moment to shine.

We had an amazing time in the Smokys (which is apparently how it's spelled).  If you want to see some pics, I put some up on my Tweeter.  I loved everything about the area we stayed in, but it was just slightly not awesome enough to justify my running off into the mountains, never to be seen or heard from again.  Mainly, I think my knees would eventually get destroyed from all those inclines and declines.  But that was it, though; literally the only thing about the region that didn't put me in "immediate relocation mode" was the fear of knee-pain. I'm becoming a formidable hiker, but I prefer my hikes to be a little more horizontal.  That, and I'd like to grow the majority of my own food one day, and doing so in that part of the Smokys would be next to impossible.

Everything else, though?  Was amazing.  It was wonderful getting to spend so much time with my wife and kid and my parents, and the area was even more beautiful than I allowed myself to imagine.  Those mountains were alive in every conceivable way.  Those forests and creeks and rivers are exactly what I need in my life.  The trip back "home" was not an easy one.

Aftermath - Part 2

It's fun, sometimes, when dialogue isn't necessary.

Back when I used to party (and when I had friends), usually I was the one who woke up around dawn on the bathroom floor.  It's just so nice and cold there, you know?

There's a trend in comics (and sometimes even webcomics) to have superheroes that are outside of the social "norm" (and I use that term as loosely as possible), and by that I mean Muslim superheroes, gay superheroes and so on.  The part that amuses me is, generally, when a gay superhero shows up in comics, she's a lesbian.  Right, because we're supposed to believe that you're featuring a lesbian superhero because you're standing up for the rights of lesbians, and not at all because you're catering to your male-dominated audience who wants to see pictures of girls kissing.  Compare the ratio of gay female characters to gay male characters.

What's more, generally when a male superhero comes out, it tends to be a character most readers could care less about.  Northstar, anybody?

I'm not claiming to be breaking any new ground here, of course.  Just an observation.  There are a few exceptions, of course.  And, to be fair, especially in the past year or two, comic writers finally seem to be getting wise to the lopsided representation of homosexual supers, and we're starting to see a lot more male couples.  I just read that, in X-Factor, Shatterstar and Rictor have gotten together.  Coincidentally, I also heard the title was cancelled this year.

I have / had a homophobic friend who's favorite character was Shatterstar.  I wonder if I should tell him? :-)

To Revel

I had to fight my way through this one, and I think it shows.  I came down with a bad cold the night before last, and all I wanted to do all day yesterday was curl up in a ball and sleep like the dead for a day or two.  I made a lot of stupid mistakes, most especially I had almost fully drawn Hydro standing behind Mr. Smith in the middle panel lighting up a bong, but I somehow managed to delete it and not realize this until I was well beyond the point where I could get him back.

Also, I just realized the irony of a character named Hydro smoking a bong. That wasn't even intentional.

Anyway, this comic is the first of... I don't know, ten strips?  Let's call it ten.  There'll be action.  There'll be drama.  There'll be inappropriate use of gardening equipment.

Re-Reallocation

This Thursday, on Halloween, Super U. is hitting its 100th strip.  I think that's pretty cool.  To celebrate the event, I'm offering up a strip that's a brief interlude; maybe a portent of things to come. 

As of last Friday, I deactivated my Facebook page.  I assume this means that the Super U. fan page on Facebook is also gone (I don't know, but if it's still there, somebody let me know, okay?  I told Jason the page was all his now, if it still exists).  I left the "like button" here on the site, and, of course, if you're interested in promoting the comic on Facebook yourself, you merely need to share the link; there's even a button to do that right below every post.

I've been actively promoting the comic on Facebook for almost two years, and it has really gotten me absolutely nowhere.  I've had more success half-ass promoting it with Google+ and Twitter than I ever have from Facebook.  The reason for this is pretty clear: my stuff was never able to branch out beyond people I personally know and reach a wider audience.

That's not the real reason I'm ditching Facebook, though.  The real reason is much more personal.  Without even considering the negative effects I think social media can have on the way we interact as a society, I just grew sick and tired of Facebook etiquette, especially, especially the fishing.

Person I know:  Oh, doom and gloom.  Agony.  I'm never going to recover from this awful tragedy that just happened.

Me:  What's wrong?  What happened?

Person I know:  ...

My imagination is far too active to be able to handle this sort of thing, especially when it's coming from someone I care about.  I fill in the blanks.  The worst part is, I think people who do this are well-aware that they're baiting others, and purposefully don't indulge them with the rest of the information simply because they enjoy others worrying about them helplessly.  They're not interested in anything but your unquestioning sympathy.  They just want your sad face emoji comment.  That's not social interaction, that's sociopathic.

One time, because of the vagueness of somebody's unthoughtful statement, I was even convinced a relative had died, and had to call all over the place at like 1:00 in the morning to get the answer, setting off a chain of events that... well, you can probably imagine.  It was not pretty.  In the end the person who had died was someone I never even met, and certainly not related.

Then of course, there's the thing every week where I get my numbers back from Facebook, and they'd be like, "This week your stuff reached 142 people!  2 of them liked it."

It goes even further beyond that, but I'm leaving it there.  I'm done talking about Facebook.  If you're interested in following the comic in some other fashion, remember I'm still posting updates on Google+ and Twitter.  I highly recommend either of those over Facebook, by the way.

The Walters Files: Ecstasy

The first character I created that I latched onto was Raine.  The second one I eventually ditched (Scumbag took his place), but the third one was Ecstasy.  Ecstasy's creation marked the change in my original comic from a story about Raine to a super-team story, no doubt due to my obsession with X-Men.  I created Ecstasy based off of a Jim Lee White Queen trading card (hence the skimpy outfit).  She was the leader of the team that eventually drafted Raine.  I never got very far with that incarnation of the comic, but I'd always intended for Ecstasy to eventually become the Hank McCoy of the team; At one point she was even going to construct a robotic teammate.

I had to re-imagine her look slightly for Super U., because I needed to make her younger to fit into the college setting.

It's easy to write her off as the eye candy of Super U., and it's even more difficult to flesh her out beyond that in a parody / comedy setting, but if I get to the point in Super U. where I can really show you all the sides of these characters, I hope you'll discover Maria's actually very complex.

Super U. Strip #69: Art of Distraction

Super U. Strip #50: Revelation

Super U. Strip #49: You Must Learn

Super U. Strip #42: The Quest

Super U. Strip #43: A Well-Rounded Party

Art of Distraction

I had some good numbers from Facebook last week, and I want to thank everyone for helping me get the word out.  I'm also getting a fair amount of Project Wonderful redirects, so welcome all you new potential Super U. fans, thanks for coming, and I hope you like what you see.

Being that this is the 69th strip, I decided to continue the "naughtiness" from last week.  Naturally, that means this strip had to feature Ecstasy.  

I think I mentioned this before, but I created Ecstasy in 7th grade solely based off of a White Queen trading card.  In the incarnation of my comic at the time (I think that one made it to about 11 pages), the central characters formed a super-group, and Ecstasy was their leader.  She hasn't changed much since then, with the exception that now she's in a parody universe, so she has to be funny.

There was going to a be an android member of the team back then, and I was going to have Ecstasy be the one who built it.  I also used to draw her with mechanical bladed gauntlets on her forearms that she focused her electricity powers through, and she had made those, too.  I like the dichotomy of a very intelligent female character who hides it behind overt sexuality.  She's more complicated than she seems, but I'll get into some of that a bit more when it's her turn to have a Walters File.

Also, this is the first time I've really featured Spectacular, the instructor, aside from a few cameos.  I like to draw him like a huge creep, and anyone who's kept up with Jason's stories knows that he certainly is one.

Are you guys watching Strip Search at Penny Arcade yet?  I wasn't expecting that shit when Amy got eliminated.  I kind of had her pegged as the one who was going to win.  I hope they kick Abby's butt off the show this Friday.  She seems like a fun person, and her stuff certainly isn't garbage, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't have been the first one to go.  I know they likely won't do the same thing twice, but I'm kind of hoping they bring Nick back.  I also kind of think Tavis might win it all.  He seems to be the fan favorite.  I've checked out his strips, and I'm not impressed, despite that fact the most of his stuff I've seen outside the strips has been pretty damn good... with the exception of the hands and arms he draws.  They drive me insane.  Yeah, I'm just a little bit hooked on this show.

Revelation

Maybe there should be some sort of celebration.  This week is strip #50.  I figure, being a landmark of sorts, it was time to finally reveal Aiden's "superpower."

I still don't have much support for the comic (and even less exposure after I sabotaged myself on Facebook), but I want to take the time again to thank the loyal few of you who have been supporting me since the beginning.

Super U., or something very like it, is my passion.  It's what I want to do until I'm too senile not to, and maybe not even then.  And I want to do more than what I have been doing, but I can't make this a reality without you.  
I believe that it's most important to do what you love, regardless of how much money it makes you.  Money's nice, but happiness is nicer.  It sounds cliche', I know, but life is short.  Even shorter than it seems to people who say things like "life is short."  Why spend it being miserable, doing something you hate just because it brings home a paycheck?  I say better to do what you love, and most importantly master it, and maybe, just maybe, you'll find yourself making a profit.

I've been taking steps with the artwork of the strip to make it more closely resemble my hand-drawn artwork.  You'll probably notice it the most strongly in the first panel.  Again, I do draw every strip out on paper first, then I scan it, then "ink" it and color it in Illustrator. But I hadn't been able to determine what I was doing during that process that was making the final result look more like... something else.  Granted, I had been trying to find ways to keep things loose and more cartoon-y than what might be considered my "style," but that was mostly to make it a reality for me that I could pump one or more of these out every week.  I've gotten feedback, though, from a couple of you that you don't like this.  So, let me know how you feel about the way the art is evolving.

I got Playstation Network card form my parents for Christmas, and so I now am finally playing the Mass Effect Trilogy.  I'd been avoiding it because part one wasn't available on the PS3.  Now the whole trilogy is available for digital download for the price of one new game.  
I'm already on part two, and while I'm thoroughly enjoying the change of atmosphere from the first game and the difficult moral choices it presents, I am beginning to have the sneaking suspicion that I'm fucking up somehow.  For one, Mass Effect 2 likes to throw these split-second decisions at you when you're comfortably watching a cut-scene.  You have to hit the L2 or R2 to perform a conversation-altering "good" or "bad" action, which is neat, but I keep fucking missing them, and I'm beginning to feel like missing these is deterring me from crafting the storyline I'm trying to create.
And the other thing; amid all the space-chaos, I understand there's supposed to be the chance for romance in these games.  Unfortunately, I'm beginning to understand my Commander Shepard is just incapable of loving and being loved.  It's very sad.  Her sense of duty is too strong, her standards too high.
The entirety of the game so far has been spent in the employ of a shady group that, in the previous game, my character was handily dealing out hard justice to.  I'm hoping, really hoping , this time around they turn out to be just as evil as they were in Mass Effect the first, so I can do justice on them again, taking a few of their employees and their best toys with me.

Yes, I realize this game is almost three years old.  It's new to me, dammit.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the "strip" this week (haha), and please, for the love of all that is good left in the world, share and like my comic.  Do you see a Facebook "like" or "share" button anywhere associated with my comic?  Have you clicked on those buttons?  I would like you to if you haven't.

Yes, Jason, you were right.

The Quest

Heh, I almost totally forgot to post this today!

FYI, there's a chance there won't be a strip next week, or it will be late.  My mom's going to be in town and she's staying with us on the night I normally devote to finishing up my strip.  I'll keep you posted.

I really like the way this one turned out.  The hand-drawn stuff doesn't look as good as I hoped it would, partly due to my ancient scanner, but whatever.  It's still fun.  Hope you enjoy!

Lairs and Lizards

This week's strip looks a little weird.  Aside from the hand-drawn part, that is.  That's because I was working on it during my short trip to Anna Maria Island, and condensation from my beer bottle plopped down on it.  Some of the coloring was done with watercolor paint, so... yeah.  I had to do some clean-up in Photoshop, and had to black out considerably more than I had intended.  I'm sure there was a way to fix it without having to do that, but my skillz are beyond rusty.
But I kind of like the way it turned out, and I figure it can only get better from here.

Speaking of trips, I just got back from Bryce Canyon, Utah, and also Las Vegas.  I'd like to go into detail about them here, particularly about Bryce Canyon, but I just can't do it any justice by describing it to you.  It boils down to my going on and on about rocks, and doesn't sound nearly as exciting or wonderful as it truly was.
Vegas was cool, too.  It was my first time there.  Two things about it, though;  one is: you know that saying that goes "the food and drinks are cheap in Vegas because they want you to spend your money gambling?" Not true in the slightest.  The truth is they want you to spend your money gambling, and they also want you to pay fifteen dollars for a margarita and twenty-two dollars for spaghetti.  The second is:  Vegas is the last place on Earth you want to go to if you're already broke. 
Nevertheless, my dad and I had an awesome time, and I'm sad that we already had to say our goodbyes and go back to our corners of the country.

Halloween looks to be a bust again this year.  Our plans to party fell through, which ought to be great fun explaining to my four-year-old who has been anticipating it for most of the year.  There's a chance that I might be able to get out of work and join some others at Disney's Not-So-Scary event (because when I think Halloween, I think the Magic Kingdom, and nothing says fun like shoulder-to-shoulder crowds brimming with sugared-up toddlers), but dammit, I had better get to do something... we've already blown a small fortune on our outfits.
Holidays in general tend to be a bust down here in Florida.  This could have something to do with the fact that when you work for The Rat, you tend to work all holidays, and may also pertain to the fact most of my family and all of my friends are a thousand miles away.

I had better stop now, before this turns into a real blog.

Just one more thing.  If you could find it in your hearts to keep my Papa in your thoughts, I and my family would much appreciate it.  Thanks.

 

Escalation

So, yay!  I saw the Avengers.  It was pretty bad-ass, of course.  I won't spoil anything by telling you that there's one scene during the big combat sequence toward the end where they pan from one Avenger to the next, all fighting in their own fashion, some of them even doing team-up techniques, that is utter Geek Nirvana.  Nothing has come closer to emulating a comic book in a movie than that scene.  
There's probably nothing else I can tell you about it that you haven't already heard...


Although, here's something neat.  You know how all these flicks have that stuff after the credits?  This does, too, and there's a villain cameo.
I won't say who it is, but I'll tell you who the actor is.  Remember the final (un-aired) episode of Firefly?  That awesome bounty hunter?  Him.  Cool, right?


Getting settled in nicely in the new place.  The neighbors already hate us, but that's nothing new.  


I have to say that I'm extremely lucky and thankful to have the wife that I do.  Not only did she decide it would be cool to do the living room up in a comic book theme, and this was her idea, not mine, but she wants to find a way to make part of the wall look like a page out of a comic, panels and all.
I have to think that most geeks aren't as lucky as that.  I imagine most married geeks are lucky to even be able to hang an X-Men poster or two in their garage.


So, this week's strip isn't as funny as it should be, but it was needed as a lead-in to a great couple of strips I have coming up for you.  Some of them are going to be a lot of work, but I'm quite excited about them.


Slowly but surely, Super U. is growing, and I just want to say thanks.


Please continue to share / like / and join, and send me some feedback, too.  Lemme know what you'd like to see in upcoming strips (I know, Miah... side-boob).  I have lots of ideas, but I could always use more.


-Matt

More words than Draw Something.