War Games - Part 5

Shit's gettin' real now, son.  And by real, I mean fictional, illustrated characters participating in a holographic simulation.  So, the opposite of real, I guess.

I'm trying out a new site design (again).  I hope you like it.  It was feeling a little "loud."  Still terrible navigation, though... possibly even worse than before.  Any of my friends want to take a peak at my HTML and tell me how to move that "HOME / OLDER POSTS" text from the bottom of the page up to the top?  I can't even find it in the code.  It's entirely possible Blogspot won' t let me.

War Games - Part 3

If you're new to Super U., you may be wondering why suddenly I'm using photos as background instead of drawing it out.  You may be thinking I'm lazy.  In fact, you'd be right, but moreover, I use photos as background during the "Dangerous Room" sequences, when the students are participating in holographic simulations in Combat Education class.

Teams have been chosen.  Roles are being assigned.  On Thursday, you'll get a glimpse of Team Frost and Team Ex doing the same... and then the fur is gonna fly.

War Games - Part 2

Aiden hasn't been an outright lech in a while, so I thought it was about time he got back to that.  Still, it's good to see him back to his old self again.  Or, at least, the self he most recently created for himself.

I was up until the wee hours of the morning the other night mapping out the rest of the chapter, which in turn caused me to get incredibly tired last night and have to finish the strip this morning, so sorry it's a little tardy.  But thankfully I did, because as it turns out I'm going to need every available strip to finish this story arc.   I hope you're in for lots of action and excitement instead of the usual (which I guess could be classified as wannabe superheroes behaving badly).

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? :-)

Pliable

I think I can pretty much declare at this point that I'm around 85% back to my original comic style.  It's taken a long time to undo the damage that caricaturing did to my work, not to say I didn't learn a lot from it.  I was fortunate to work with other caricaturists that strongly-emphasized cartooning over exaggeration, and my cartooning skills improved quite a bit because of it.  For example, I knocked out that Spaz pic there in the third panel in no time at all.  Don't get me wrong: I love cartoons, and I think caricatures are pretty cool, too.  And like I said before, initially when I began Super U. I think I was trying to emulate the style of other webcomics.  I certainly don't knock cartooning and caricaturing.  They both take an incredible amount of practice and skill to do right.  But recently, I found a picture I did of Raine a few years ago, and I got a little upset, because I knew I couldn't draw it that well anymore.  I will get there again, and soon.

The last strip, this one and probably the next few all deal with the wrap-up / fallout after Justice's capture, Rex Ruthless' demise and Aiden's death and subsequent ressurection.  This little action-run has been fun, but it can't be punches to the face all the time.  Don't worry, I will endeavor to continue delivering the funny, even if I'm only using humor to disguise my true intentions of making you find yourself compelled to learn more about these characters.

Hey, that gives me a cool idea!  I'm going to put a poll up on the bottom of the site for you to vote for some of your characters.  Who do you want to see more of?

As always, thanks for your support, and please keep sharing Super U. with your friends!  I've made it easier to follow me on Facebook and Twitter with the new buttons there on the top, and to share things you like on your social media of choice.  Tune in for next week's blog as I think I might discuss how freaking amazing Grand Theft Auto 5 is.

It Comes to a Head

I worked on this on pretty much the entire day.  I thought I was trying to get these done quicker!  Still, I'm really happy with how it turned out.  

You can look at this strip and compare it to pretty much any strip prior, and see how much better it looks.  Why?  Because I Photoshopped it.  Sure, I put considerable effort into shadowing and line-work, and my style has gravitated even further toward my comic roots as I continue to undo the damage caricaturing did to my art-style, but aside from those things, I literally just moved a couple sliders around in Photoshop and got this amazing finished product.  It's really quite sad, but that's how the game is played.  You don't actually have to be very talented to make something look amazing in Photoshop.  Artists these days, or what passes for artists, can perform in a couple clicks what it would take a skilled traditional artist a lot of forethought and technique to accomplish.

So why did I use Photoshop on it?  Because it made the strip look better, and what's more, you can no longer include yourself in the world of professional artists if you don't know how to use Photoshop.  It's really very unfortunate.  But being that I don't enjoy painting (and I'm not particularly good at it), and having to produce artwork so quickly, it's the only logical option.

I'd love to draw this stuff by hand and just go to town with some Prismacolor markers, but that just isn't in the budget.  I mean, we're talking like 4 bucks a marker.  Sucks to that.

Maybe I shouldn't belittle my efforts.  It's probably a bad idea.  I don't want other people to know how easy it is to make things look amazing in Photoshop, because the world needs more artists; the real kind.

When not drawing or house-cleaning (and sometimes during house-cleaning), I've been watching a lot of programs lately involving people travelling to all corners of the Earth, doing astonishing things and seeing amazing places.  And up until recently, I had become once again heavily embroiled in Skyrim.

I realized I was trying to live vicariously through these people (and these characters).

There's still so, so much beauty left in the world, and I want very badly to experience it firsthand, but to do so requires money and freedom from obligations, both of which I have in short supply.

I still haven't given up hope that I'll soon be relocating, where I can live a life that more closely resembles my ideal one.  But I think about Kyoto and British Columbia and the Himalayas and the Alps and New Zealand, and I get very sad, because I know I'll never see them.

God, but I get mopey, don't I?  Sorry.  Occasionally I remember that this is a blog page, and I just start dumping out all the stuff that's been weighing heavily on my brain.

No more of that.  Gotta keep it professional.  Stiff upper lip, and all that.

Please help spread the Super U. love and share stuff with your friends, especially the geeky ones.

Chapter 3 Begins... Now!

Clickify to Enlargicate

It's been a long time... but Chapter 3 is here!  

Thanks to all of you for your patience, especially to those of you who watched and shared the movies and stayed tuned during the hiatus.

After you read the comic, remember to vote for Super U. in the Top Web Comics 100.  That button to the left over there.  It's at number #896 right now, and there's only 12 days left to vote on it!  I don't, like, win anything, but it would be pretty good exposure and nice to have as bragging rights.

While you're at it, you can Like the comic on Facebook, too.  The button right above the last button.

And since we're on the topic of things you should do, you should also browse my wares in the Super U. Store or check out my book.  If there's any merchandise you want to see that I don't offer, tell me what you're interested in seeing and I can probably make it for you.  Also, I believe starting tomorrow, all the prices in the Super U. Store have will drop again.

So, yesterday was my daughter's first day of kindergarten... her first day of school of any kind, really.  I'm already tired of talking about it, but it seemed to go pretty well (on her end, anyway).  It was a strange sensation, yesterday, being home alone with my dog and cat and nobody else.  I've been the one home with her in the daytime for the majority of the last 5 1/2 years, and for the last several months I've been a "stay-at-home dad."  I took the opportunity to finish the comic, so I wouldn't have to be up all night finishing it like I've done in the past.  Today... I don't know.  I suppose I should clean things?  I do have to go grocery shopping.  It will be strange doing so and not misplacing my daughter every five minutes.

I was considering taking this opportunity to get a new job, but I'm not sure.  I would only have something like 5 hours to work, and that's if the job was close (and the only things close are chain restaurants and frickin' WalMart, none of those job being in any way desirable).  But there is a library in town; maybe I'll see if they need some help.

I'll be busy with the comic again, but I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm still open to do any commission work, if you guys are interested.  Contact me, and we can discuss details.  You can even pay via the Donate button here on the site.  Also, if you buy a book, send it to me and I'll sketch on the first page for you and then send it back to you.

Super U. Strip #77: Archrival - Part 5

...And another.

...But wait, there's more!

Super U. Strip #70: Speciesism

Super U. Strip #66: The Slip

Super U. Strip #65: Felinophilia

The Walters Files: Hydro

Hydro is another more "recent" character I cooked up.  He hails from the RPG I ran that spawned the ideas that formed the basis for this comic.  In that game, which took place in a near-future world that was an amalgamation of the DC and Marvel universes, Hydro was the son of Namorita and Nova, so, as  you might imagine, his power set was significantly more diverse.  In the Super U-niverse, he's the child of an evil Namor-like figure and the queen of my Aquaman parody (King Carp), but I'm going to leave the details of those characters primarily to Jason and his Saturday Super Stories.
Jason and I decided at least one of the students should be gay, but I didn't want to have a gay character just for the sake of having one, nor did I want the character to be stereotypically flaming gay, so I liked the idea of Hydro trying desperately (and sometimes failing badly) to be in-the-closet.  In fact, Hydro even tries to convince himself that he's straight.
Beyond that, though, Hydro hasn't changed much from the game.  Only now, his persistent advances on his female classmates are a front; a rouse that, really, only fools himself.
I know I've said this about just about every other character so far, but I really like Hydro, and I expect to use him quite a bit more in the strips to come.  I like the way he puts himself out there as a popular and fun-loving character, and he is those things, but the real Hydro struggles with his own identity and with his troubled upbringing... a struggle that often finds him in the company of the "outcasts" of the school like Aiden, Chance and Richie.

Super U. Strip #46: The Empress of Wintermoor

Archrival: Part 5

Next week: The dramatic conclusion of Chapter 2!  This week: More patagia humor! I can't let a good joke go.  Seriously though, how in the name of rational physics does Namor fly with those things?  How do they even help him swim better? 

I'll save most of my wrap-up banter for next week, but I just wanted to say getting through Chapter 2 has been quite the experience, most of it positive.  Things may not be progressing as quickly as I'd like, but they are progressing, and I have you all to thank for that.  Well, you and all the damn money I've been spending on advertising and crap.  Honestly though, there were a few times I thought about hanging it up, but each of those times somebody new expressed their enjoyment of the comic, and that kept me going.  Please continue to give me feedback!  I need to know I'm not doing this just for myself.

I don't plan on the hiatus between Chapters 2 and 3 being very long.  I have a lot to do in between, but I will endeavor to work just as hard as I work on the comics to get those things done, and I will continue to bombard you with content in the meantime.  That's a promise.

Speciesism

I have to give extra thanks to Jason for this week's strip.  Not only did he name The Commander, but he took a throw-away comment I made about a guy named King Carp and meticulously described him in one of his Saturday Super Stories, particularly this one.  All I had said about him was that he was the Super U-niverse's "worst-dressed hero."  King Carp is one of the only heroes of old in the Super U-niverse that isn't a faculty member in the present, and that's a good thing, because there's no way in hell I'm drawing that outfit again.

I really want to make Super U. my livelihood, but to do that I need your help.  Joining, sharing, "liking" and especially donating can help me make that a possibility.  Thanks in advance for any way you can help me make my dream come true.  

The Slip

Managed to get a strip up before I head out of town for a few days.  I won't be able to post a strip on Tuesday, but it seems likely I will have some rad guest art for you to affix your peepers to instead.  If you haven't seen Mason's work yet, click on his name over in the tag cloud.  It's good stuff.

I gotta hit the sack so I can get on a plane in the morning.  Thanks for stopping by, and please help me spread some Super U. love with one of them there social media share buttons or some such.

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.

The Empress of Wintermoor

Next week is the last one of these.  I hope you've enjoyed them.  After that, it's business as usual.

It dawned on me after having my anti-Facebook hissy fit and deleting everyone on my friends list (I couldn't just outright deactivate my account because I use it for work) that people couldn't see when I was posting links to the new comic anymore.  I had assumed that if someone "Liked" the Super U. Facebook page, they would be getting the links, but for some reason this wasn't happening.  I mean, stuff that I simpy "Liked" shows up on my news feed constantly, so why wouldn't it?  Your guess is as good as mine.

I won't get into all the crap behind my decision (and subsequent flip-flop of that decision) to ditch Facebook, but here's a funny interchange that happened to me recently that may shed some light.  (And by funny, I mean depressing.)

Person: "Hey, what happened to you on Facebook?"
Me: "I deleted everybody, but I think I screwed myself because now they can't see links to the comic."
Person: "Are you still doing the comic?"
Me: "Yeah.  You might not be able to see links to it anymore, but you can always just check the webpage on Wednesdays."
Person: "There's a webpage?"

Anyway, so I "refriended" a bunch of people, a lot of whom I know read and share the comic.  For those of you who've been missing out, please check out the Archive on the left over there to get yourselves caught up.  I imagine for a lot of people just returning to Super U., they're probably a bit confused.  Hand-drawn art, barbarians, hands have four fingers and a thumb instead of three fingers and a thumb...

I've been back and forth on the four fingers thing.  When I first started Super U., I was going with a more cartoony style that was supposed to, in theory, be quicker to draw so I could eventually be fast enough to put these out multiple times a week.  But as I continued to draw the comic, the comic book artist in me, and not the cartoonist, has been fighting for dominance.  This has means I still haven't been putting them out any faster a year later, but overall I'm happier with the quality of the material. 

Yeah, that's right, Super U. celebrated it's year anniversary in November.  Kinda cool.

General feedback suggests you guys like the hand-drawn stuff, and you like the more comic book-y look.  I do still think I will continue to work in Adobe Illustrator (or something along those lines) in the future, mostly because I like how crisp and animated the final product appears, but we shall see. 

There are several downsides to going fully hand-drawn, one of which being the money I need to put into supplies, and another being drawing one panel one night, and then another panel much later on a different sheet of paper but not having your first panel with you at the time, so you wing it and end up with glaring inconsistencies that most people won't notice but will drive you crazy every time you look at it, yet you don't have the time to change it because you're trying to meet your deadline, and it's not like you can really work on it at the house anyway when your kid wants to be all up in your business.

Anyway, as always, please share with your unsuspecting friends, and don't forget to "Like" the webpage by clicking that Facebook "Like Box" over there, or +1 if you do the Google.  You can also join the site as a member if you have a Google, and you can sign up to receive e-mail notifications when the site updates.  These things are not new.

 

Sportsmanship

Happy Fourth of July, everybody.  I'm coming to learn that this isn't a holiday for "people like me," so I elected to do the most patriotic thing I can think of, and go to work.

I've always been a pseudo-anarchist, not to be confused with today's "libertarian," but I realized I'm one of those kinds of people that other people say to: "If you don't like it, go live in some other country."
Believe me, I would if I could.
I don't hate America, by any means. I think we're a bully, and our so-called representative politicians are driven by greed, and I don't like rednecks.  But I learned to appreciate this country just like so many others after 9-11.  I yearn for that feeling of "togetherness" we all had.
But the political divide continues to widen, and it's driving otherwise sane people crazy, and I'm sick of it.  I hardly care who wins the presidential election this year.  To me, it makes little difference.

We used to go to Celebration, FL for festivities, to watch the Chinese inventions explode to the tune of Russian victory marches just like everyone else.  If you don't know what Celebration is, it's like the town from the Truman Show, built by Disney and lived-in by wealthy people.  But aside from the sort of heat and humidity that I traditionally associate with slowly dying while carrion birds circle overhead, last year it was wall-to-wall people.  So screw that.

Seriously, the 1812 Overture is a celebration of the Russians defeating the French.  Think about that when you're watching things blow up.

Emasculation / Masculation

It really sucks drawing with a mouse.

I was going to ask for a couple shirts from the Penny Arcade store for Father's Day, but it looks like we'll be getting a new graphics tablet instead.
Why are graphics tablets so expensive?  I can get a brand new PS3 for $300 that is essentially a fully-functional computer and blu-ray player, but a tablet that you work completely on the surface of?  $1000.  How does that make sense?  Even a new iPad, which IS a fully-functional computer plus a monitor is $500.  Half the price of a thing you draw on.  What a rip.

You know, I know a lot of artists that have these things.  I see a lot of four-year-olds with iPads.  Everyone 9 and up seems to have an iPhone.  I'm not jealous, per se, but I really wonder... how the hell is everyone affording these things?  Isn't this supposed to be a recession?  Did it end and nobody told me?

For the reason behind Hydro's injury, see Strip #9