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 7

Rejected Alternate Magical Power Activation Words: Shipoopi, Shimmy Shimmy Koko Bop

If you aren't generally familiar with comics, maybe the third panel of this strip is lost on you.  Of course, if you don't follow comics, there's a reasonable chance you don't read Super U., either.

I was chomping at the bit for the day I got to draw Breakdown take his coat off.  And as a bonus, you get to see Kahuna's powers for the first time!

It looks as if Team Justice's air offensive is going to fail.  Guess that leaves Aiden's success dependent upon Team Dick-Punch's ground offensive!

Yeah, he's pretty much screwed.

War Games - Part 6

Alternate Title:  Now Stop, Then Wiggle Wiggle Wit It

You can always expect satire from Super U. that stimulates you intellecutally, such as the gem above.

Super U. can't go on without your support, so please take a moment to check out the book I have for sale, and the merch as well.  The merch is dirt-cheap, guys.  As always, if there's some merch you'd consider purchasing but isn't available, let me know and I can probably whip it up for you.

When Chapter 4 wraps up, I'll be compiling a new book for sale.

To be honest, it's been awful quiet 'round these parts lately.  I have to seriously consider whether or not I should continue the comic after this chapter.  That's not, like, a threat, that's real talk.  I love making comics.  I want to do it all the time.  But there's only so much I can do to promote the comic on my end.  I need your help!  I need you guys to tweet it, share it on Facebook... whatever helps.

Ideas for how I can improve the comic or my online presence?  I'm listening.  I'm not looking to get rich from drawing webcomics, guys.  I just want your eyeballs.

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: Kahuna

Kahuna is an obscure character that came from the RPG that I ran that inspired Super U.  I wish that I could claim to have some grand ideas for him... but I really don't.  Super U. is a school, and therefore it needs students.  They're not all equally important to the story.  Kahuna's just one of those guys who is part of the atmosphere.  He isn't even a parody of anyone.

But who knows?  He's a fun character.  I like to keep my options open.

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.

Super U. Strip #71: Roommates

Roommates

This is how much of a geek I am: I have a list of who is a roommate with whom.  "Whom," right? Or just "who?"  I don't remember.  It's almost 3:00 AM and I just finished this, and I'm definitely not thinking straight.  There was probably going to be some dialogue in this one, but I forgot what it was.  Something to the effect of Bobby Rocket vowing to hunt them all down and kill them one-by-one, I think.

There's a lot characters in this one I haven't used in a while... and some not much at all, really.  Bobby was a last-minute edition to the list of students; I needed somebody to balance out the Combat Education teams.  He's heavily-based off of an old role-playing character of mine who was sort of like a 50's greaser meets a pyromaniac.  

I have too many damn characters.

I had to go with something a little "light-hearted" for this week, because starting next week, shit gets real.  Pretty much.

There's still one strip before the end of Chapter 2 that I have no idea what I'm going to do with.  Maybe that one will be less real.

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.