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.

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? :-)

The Walters Files: CatGirl

I suppose it wouldn't be a proper group of superheroes without an animal hybrid.  Usually it ends up being some scantily-clad chick that happens to be covered in fur, and has a tail and pointy ears.  I thought it would be funny for CatGirl to actually have the face of a cat.  

She's a pretty minor character, at least for now.  I've exhausted my "main characters" as far as the Walters Files are concerned.  Still, maybe she'll become a little more prominent as Richie / Speed Demon pursues a highly-comical romantic interest with her.

Super U. Strip #65: Felinophilia

Felinophilia

Gonna keep this short, because immediately after posting it I'm going to watch Penny Arcade's new Strip Search.  I'd link to it, but they don't need the publicity.  I am not a fan of television, especially reality television, but then again, there's never been a reality TV show featuring artists trying to get into webcomics before.  But if you are a fan of such things, I highly, highly recommend this show.

I had considered trying to get into this show.  I may still if they do another.

Big news!  There is so much Saturday Super Story content, I've given it its own site and put it in the capable hands of J. Klemm.  What's more, I think Jason has been limiting himself to squeeze his ideas into my universe, and so this is an opportunity for him to explore some paths that might not necessarily see exploration in the comic.

For those of you following both, note that you can expect there will be times when the strips and stories differ.  I'm putting the content of his site solely in his hands, just as everything here is solely in mine.

And so, more big news!  In an effort to get closer to my goal of posting thrice a week, on this site on Saturdays I will periodically be posting new Walters Files!  In fact, I have already posted the one that was previously featured in a comic to get us started, and there is a new Walters Files section just over there on the left of your screen!

The Walters Files are Mr. Walters' (formerly the Dark Avenger) personal, top-secret files he keeps on the students and staff.  This is a thing I've been wanting to do for a while, and I think it's a pretty cool way to to get to learn all the characters.

I purchased Manga Studio 5, a digital art program that I plan on using to draw the strip starting with Chapter 3.  I haven't had much time yet to fiddle with it, but in the short time that I have, I have been extremely impressed.  It seems you can do a lot with this thing, and, oh yeah, it's hella cheaper than Adobe products.  If such things interest you, I can already safely recommend you buy this product.

This Thursday I'm flying out to see family, and since I have to leave the house relatively early in the AM, I'm not entirely sure I'll get the strip posted.  But never fear!  Even if I do not, there are plans in the works...  The same goes for the following Tuesday.

Oh, yeah.  I saw the new Evil Dead the other night.  I don't want to talk about it.  Go see it if you like having nightmares.

Hrmph.  So much for keeping this short.

All Up In It

Busy as hell over here with the move, a few sicknesses, and all sorts of other situations that keep me from doing really important things like sharing my feelings and profound insights with you on a blog.  So instead, I'll just give you the funny, and you like /share / join, and together we'll agree that, today, it is good enough.

Click It or Stick It

Happenstance

Just a fair warning... I'll be picking up a lot of actual work in the next couple weeks.  I'll also be relocating to a new apartment, and there is much packing and sorting and throwing away of things to be done.  I'll do my best not to let the strip suffer, but I thought I had better state this now in the event that a strip or two ends up late, or looks a bit rushed.  I did manage to pencil next week's strip already in anticipation of how hectic things will be around here in the near future.


Next week will be the 25th strip, and to mark the event, the following Saturday we will be starting Super Saturday Stories, which Jason has dubbed the SATURDAY SUPER STORIES.  I like that name better.
These stories will focus on the blogs of Black Sapphire, a secret protege of Mr. Walters, the former Dark Avenger, outside of Super U.  Through these stories we will learn along with Black Sapphire about the past of the Super U-niverse, when the washed-up faculty of today were the Earth's protectors, and maybe some behind-the-scenes and side events as well.  Jason will be writing these stories, and I will be editing them and adding commas and shit (because I have a thing for commas) and we'll be putting one up every Saturday. 


I've gone back on the South Beach diet again, so I can lose 40 lbs. that I can immediately gain back when I go off the South Beach diet.  It's day two, and I could already murder someone over a potato.


Commentary on the current set of strips:  I'm having too much fun raiding Google images for jungle backgrounds during this Dangerous Room segment.  I like the realism of the hologram environments juxtaposed with the sad, simple backgrounds that I draw when they're in the "real world."  The fact that the holograms looks so much better amuses me. 
You may have seen on previous strips that I occasionally just insert a real image like a poster on a wall or a lunch tray.  I actually do this because I'm still experimenting to find ways to make Super U. unique among the veritable plethora of webcomics available on the web.  I can't tell if it's working yet, but I've had fun with it, and in the end that's what it's all about, right?


Share / like / join, and thanks!
-Matt

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