Postlude

And that's it!  The end of Chapter 4.  Come back on Thursday and I'll have Hrölf's Walter's File up.  In it you'll find out just how he's still alive and kicking, and get a glimpse into his ultimate transformation into a washed-up superhero.

Now, if you'll indulge me for a few minutes, I haven't had a good rant in a while.  And this could be the last one, so I'm going to make it count.

My friends, I have reached a crossroad.  The road on the left leads to Chapter 5 of Super U., onto Chapter 6 and so on.  The other road dead ends my ambition to create comics.

I've been struggling with this for a long time.  I love drawing comics.  But my life is in a strange place; a place where things have the potential to look very, very different in the near future, and I need to ask myself if it's worth it to pursue my aspirations of having a successful comic.  I never expected, or even wanted, to get rich or famous from this.  In fact, I'm positive that I would continue indefinitely if Super U. had even a small,  loyal audience who never gave me a dime.  I have managed to retain a few readers, and even pick up some new ones, and for that I am extremely grateful.  But let's face it, despite my efforts this comic hasn't even gotten off the ground.  It's lost in a sea of comics, many of them superior, and I don't appear to have what it takes to enable it to float to the surface.

I've grown up believing that being mildly intelligent and reasonably talented would take me places.  Instead, I now find myself getting older, in financial straits and unqualified for absolutely everything.  What's more, I find myself surrounded by a world I don't understand, where money alone makes it turn.  Where art and storytelling come second to marketing.  Where you will never make it as an artist unless you've mastered digital art, social networking and are adept at coding.

But most of all, I have a family that depends on me, and I can't continue to ask them to support this dream of mine.  I know they would without question, and that means more to me than anything, but that doesn't make it fair.  I need to take a hard look at myself and discover what it is I am capable of, so that I can give to them as equally as they do for me.  I have been a burden on them for far too long.

In other words, it may be time to put away the pencils.

I have a strange opportunity arising.  I'll reserve all the details, but it will likely involve farming.  It will involve being as separated from the modern world as realistically as I can manage, and you know what?  I think I want that.

I don't know if that life will have room for comics.  Maybe there'll be an opportunity to keep pursuing this, not for the sake of success, but just for the love of it.  Maybe the comic will take on a new form.  Maybe it'll be drawn with a muddy stick on sheep skin; I don't really know.  I can't pretend to have an answer to that yet.  All I ask is that you check back, from time to time, and see if I posted anything new.  Sign up to get e-mail updates.  Maybe I'll surprise you.  It's equally as plausible I'll only be able to deny my desire to make comics for so long.

In the meantime, I'll see this bit through to the end.  I'll be compiling the next book (Chapters 3 and 4), if only so I can have a copy of it myself, and maybe I'll put together some new merch for good measure.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading, and if after Thursday I don't communicate with you again, I wish you all the best that life has to bring.  If I do communicate with you after Thursday, I still wish that.

-Matt

War Games - Finale

Never underestimate insane cartoons.  Or moderately sociopathic immortal time-traversing klepto siblings.

And that's it!  One more strip to go to wrap things up, then the (probably) last Walters File!  

I'm going to be out of town for a couple days, and I'm anticipating that the final strip will be a little late getting posted.  I'll do my best to have it ready for your viewing pleasure at some point on Tuesday.

Plans this weekend involve a further progression toward my quiet exodus from society.  Here's hoping things pan out.

War Games - Part 16

Due to time constraints, you won't be seeing what happens between this strip and the next, but

it involves a musical montage where Aiden Mickey Mouse-walks back down the hall, flag tucked under his arm, smiling broadly as he passes the still-stuck and infuriated Raine, while the song croons "everything's going my way."

There's only three more strips until the end of Chapter 4!  So that's two next week, and one on Tuesday the week after that.  Then, the following Thursday, I'll post the (probably) last Walters File!  Of whom, you ask?  Actually, that's a surprise!

Remember I'm going on hiatus after Chapter 4 to focus on creating the next book and some new merch (and so I can stop totally neglecting my kid for two days a week while she's on summer break).

So if you need to stay updated as to when the comic resumes and other stuff, you can subscribe by e-mail with the tab below, or follow me on Google+ or Twitter @Super_Uwebcomic.

One last thing, during the hiatus, it'll be a really good time for you guys to send commissions my way.  If anyone's interested, I can set up a payment box right here on the site.

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!

Catching Up

If you like Super U., then please share it on your favorite social site by way of one of those many handy-dandy share buttons.  I don't know if any of you Pinterest... I don't really even get Pinterest... but that's also a thing you can do now.  I haven't advertised at all this year (to save money), and my viewership is way down, so I could really use the help!

But you needn't stop there!  Oh, no.  Leave some comments and tell me what you think.  What would you like to see more of?  Who are you favorite characters?

Have you checked out the Super U. Zazzle store?  Is there a sticker or a coffee mug or a shirt or something you'd like to see?  Let me know... I can most likely create it for you.

Want updates? You can subscribe via e-mail, RSS, or follow me on Twitter and Google+.

This is desperation, people.  I need eyeballs on this comic!

The Gift

It's been fun visualizing these characters in various regions and periods throughout history.  This is probably the last one, for a little while at least, as this little sidetrack into Aiden's past comes to a close.  I hope that I've divulged just enough information to fill in some blanks while still leaving some things open for interpretation.  There are a lot of stories I'd like to tell concerning the past of the Ravenswood family, but this is supposed to be a humorous superhero comic, so it's high time I get back to that.

Voyagers

I haven't managed to make all these funny, but I think I've at least been able to keep them interesting.  The story of the Ravenswood siblings is one that I've pieced together over a long time, and it's one that is best told in tiny increments over a long period.  Because it's long.  More than once I've tried to sit down and actually work out a timeline for the whole thing.  I have this sort of "Forrest Gump" approach to their background; I like to think that the siblings have been there / done that, and that they've been involved in one way or another in several major historical events.

I've since thrown the timeline out the window, though, and taken the easy way out, and made one of the siblings able to manipulate time.  There, now I don't have to have a reason why they'd be in ancient Greece.

I noticed yesterday that I sold a couple of Alien Ghost stickers!  To people I don't even know!  Thank you!

Which reminds me, Zazzle's having some kind of St. Patrick's sale where shirts and buttons are 30% off, and everything else is 15% off.  That applies to my stuff as well!  The sale ENDS TOMORROW, so if you've been on the fence about buying some merch (and supporting my comic) now is the time to buy stuff!  After you make a purchase, use this discount code: STPATS30DEAL

Combined with the fact that I recently slashed all the prices... I mean, c'mon.

Reminisce

I shit you not, I've had the image of that third panel stuck in my head for, like, a decade.  Probably more.  Damn it felt good to get that out of there.

Granted, when I first conceived of the Ravenswood children, all of those years ago, Aiden and Time Lass were very different.  Different characters, in fact.  Aiden was called Kaine, and he was all of the cool and none of the goofy; he was more or less just a rip-off of Kwai Chang Caine.  Time Lass wasn't a time-jumping kleptomaniac at all; she was a witch called East with blonde and green hair, and personality-wise, she was pretty flat.  I'm happy with the way things have evolved.

As a random aside, if I had known how immensely popular the name "Aiden" would become, I would have picked something else.

I've been following @Sketch_Dailies on the Twooter for a couple of days now.  If you like drawrings I highly recommend it.  I really want to get involved; I know I should be drawing more, not just a few times a week.  I don't even have a real job, and I still can't conceive of how I'd have time for that, though.  Plus, there's so many talented artists contributing on a daily basis, it's intimidating; a daily reminder of how far I still have to go.

As always, thanks for reading, and please show your support by leaving comments, browsing the merch and checking out my book.  Any merch you'd like to see, but don't?  Let me know... I can probably cook it up for you.

Reminder

What's the best way to spice up boring expository in a comic?  Have a character precariously and unwarrantedly dangle another in the air with weird superpowers, and follow it all up with a vulgar punchline!  Bam!  Webcomic magic.

So next week it seems I get to divulge a bit of information on the Ravenswood family back-story.  I hope this is a thing you've been looking forward to.

The Blame Game

Back... to the future!  Which is the present.  As cool as the last few strips turned out, it felt good to keep things a little looser.  And not have to draw all that armor.

As you might guess, a word that can be used to describe the next several strips might be "expository."  I'm once again confronted with the dilemma of divulging lots of information while at the same time trying to keep things light and entertaining.  I hope you like the story that's being told so far, because there's going to be a lot of blanks being filled in over the next couple weeks!

Regicide

This one looked like crap from my sketches.  But now that I've completed it, I kind of dig it.  And there you have it!  I hope you've enjoyed my little viking flashback sequence.  I'm kind of entertaining the idea that I'll start off each chapter a past sequence.  Assuming there are more chapters to follow.

Next Tuesday we return to the present.

Please comment, share, and if you got some extra dillas, check out the book and the merchandise.  Support broke artists!

King Hrölf

I forgot to mention that my pen for my drawing tablet died before I started the last strip.  Not usually a problem; I primarily use the pen tool, and it's easy to do with a mouse.  But hair, and even moreso, fur?  Way easier to draw in Illustrator with a pen than with the damn mouse.  There's a lot of fur clothing in these strips.

Also, welcome back!  For the time being, Super U. is going to be updating twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I had been posting the Walters Files on Saturdays, but I'm pretty much done with those.  If you're looking for something to do on a Saturday, why not brush up on your Saturday Super Stories?  Jason's new one just happens to feature the bearded guy right up there.  We didn't even plan that!

Anywho, I've been sitting at this computer for a day and a half.  I'm going to stop now.

Gray Wolves

Hey, welcome back!  I'm pretty pleased with the way this one turned out.  When the strips feature flashbacks or other "other-than-normal" settings, I like to do something a little different.  This time around, another glimpse into the past of the siblings, I just drew my ass off.  Of course, there's some Photoshopping involved as well, but I try to set my own personal bar a little higher with each chapter.  When the story returns to the present, I'll have to force myself to ensure that the art stands up to the strips previous.  Not that I'm promising every strip is going to look this good.  Hell no.

Also, this is one of the first times I've been happy with the strip as a whole; I mean that all three panels, I think, look good alongside one another.

So yeah, Chapter 4!

If you're just returning, or if you're new to the comic, I'd like to take a moment to mention the merchandise.  There's an actual, physical book of Chapters 1 & 2 and also shirts and stickers and stuff you can purchase from the links to the left there.  I've just recently permanently slashed all of the prices.  Seriously, most of the stuff is dirt-cheap now.  Please consider buying some merch and supporting a very broke artist with a dream.  Have some sort of merchandise in mind that you don't see?  Let me know what you'd like and I can probably make it for you!

Sorry, I hate having to do that all the time.  It's going to be especially tough getting some exposure for Super U. at the moment.  I haven't reactivated my ad campaign.  Can't afford it.  That means that my potential readership has been reduced to the double digits, instead of in the hundreds.  In other words, I need your help!  Like what you see?  Tell people on the Netface and your Twooter!  Please?

And for fuck's sake, leave some comments, yeah?  

Seriously though, thanks for being here, and thanks again to those who've supported me and this comic from the beginning. 

Together Again

And there you have it!  The (dramatic?) conclusion of Chapter 3!  I'm happy with how it turned out.  I'm pleased with where the art went this chapter.  It feels a bit more natural, closer to my "style."  Plus, I was able to inch closer toward the meat and potatoes of the story that I want to tell, and I think I still managed to insert a lot of humor, so bonus.

So, after this, I'm back on hiatus.  Aside from the things I mentioned before I want to work on concerning the comic / site / merchandise, I'm also taking some time to look into online college degrees.  In what, you may ask?  Well, I'm trying to locate a degree in Forestry, actually, but I'm finding it impossible to find that specific degree to be offered online, which makes sense, because it's hard to learn about forests when you're sitting at a computer.  Barring that, a degree in Conservation would make sense, but I'm running into the same problems there.  Right now the best I can find is an online degree in Environmental Science, which sounds good, but they seem to have a heavy focus on green technology, and while I'm all for going green, it's not what I'm going for.  If anyone reading has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Why a degree in Forestry, you ask?  Well, so I can spend as much time as possible in forests, and in contact with as few humans and as little technology as possible, silly.

I anticipate this hiatus to be short, but once again I have to do some soul-searching and ask myself if it's worth continuing the comic.  I love to draw comics, and I love these characters, but I have to measure the time and money I put into this endeavor against the regular audience I attract from it, and that regular audience remains primarily in the single digits three years later.  It's tough, man.  The internet is tough.  Breaking into webcomics is especially so.

As always, though, to my readers who have remained faithful, I'm doing this as much for you as I am for me, and thank you many times over for continuing to be interested in my stuff.  I'll be back soon.

-Matt

P.S. And on a completely unrelated note, go play The Last of Us.  It gets your nerves the way Resident Evil did the first time you played it, and it tells a compelling story to boot, albeit a sad one that I just do not see ending well.  Still, it's gorgeous, plays well, and is easily one of the best games every made.

P.S.S. Thanks for the Amazon gift card for Christmas, mom.

Summons

Come back on Thursday for the conclusion of Chapter 3!

The Straw

I sketched this one out a couple days ago, but I never came up with an idea for the third panel.  Even after I'd completed the final versions of the first two panels, I still didn't know what to do for the third.  The best I could come up with was a Mr. Walters rage-face.

Yeah, well, they can't all be winners.  Shut up!  Get off my back.

Anyway, the point of this strip is to lead into the next two, which are the last two of Chapter 3.  We rarely see the siblings together, as Time Lass is usually off doing something by herself, and by "doing something" I mean pathologically stealing things throughout all of human history.

But now it seems SuperDude has gathered the three together... but for what?  Come back on Tuesday and see!

Nullification

Happy Holidays, and New Year and stuff!  My Christmas was pretty good.  Being broke and unemployed, I couldn't really afford to get anyone anything, so I don't really deserve the stuff that I got.  

Incidentally, did you know Super U. has merchandise for sale?

We kept it low-key again this year.  I was invited once again by my brother-in-law's sister's family, and while I appreciate the offer immensely, there's just something not right about spending Christmas with your sister's husband's sister's husband's family.  I mean, I'm not even the fifth wheel there, I'm the flat doughnut in the trunk.

I also don't go overboard with presents for my kid and keep things as simple as possible (so her expectations remain low).  Two years ago we attended the aforementioned Christmas party, and my kid was showered with gifts.  You know, that point where the kids stop appreciating what they're being given and just toss things over their shoulder to tear into the next gift?  I almost avoided that this year.  Almost.  We got together with my sister after Christmas to have a mini-celebration and exchange gifts, and she had waiting for my kid there all the stuff those people had bought her.  Part of me thought, man, how nice of them to get her presents... they hardly know her, and we didn't even show up!  But the other part of me thought, great.  She's going to start expecting this every year, and sure enough she managed to hit that point when she stopped even paying attention to the gifts she was opening.

Anyway, I'll stop before I go on a tangent about how much the holidays bum me out.  I'm sure most of you feel the same this time of year.

So!  Only three strips to go before the end of this chapter!  After that, I'll take a bit of time to write up some ideas for the next Chapter, and I'll be re-visiting the Super U. merchandise.  Expect some after-Christmas price drops!  There's also a few minor changes I want to see to concerning the site.  The Walters Files have gotten so extensive now, I want to separate the students from the faculty, and give them their own sections.  And, like I said before, this may be a good time to look into getting a new site entirely.

Last but not least, be sure to catch up on the Saturday Super Stories, written by my friend Jason, for they offer insight into the origins of the Super U-niverse.

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.

Spiritorum Awayos

It occurred to me I have characters I haven't used since Chapter 1, Conjuressa, the magic teacher, being one of them.  Even then, at the time, she was just a sight gag.  I'll have to do a Walters File for her pretty soon.  Of course, if you're interested in her background, or any teacher's for that matter, you can always head over to the SSS and look up their name in the tag cloud.  And if there's ever a character you'd like to see all the strips he or she is present in here at Super U., just click on their label below any post they're in (or go to their Walters File and find their label there).

I doubt I need to prove how much of a geek I am, but here's another example: not only have I created fictional elective classes for my fictional students, but I put some thought into which students would take Comprehension of the Arcane Arts, which students would take Archery and Marksmanship and which students didn't give a crap about either one of those classes and elected to take nothing at all during their 7th period.

At least once per chapter, I like to take you through a typical day at Super U., class by class.  The last several strips have reflected the students' classes, in order.  That said, the next class should be World History with The Commander, but I'm gonna have to skip that one this time around because I've been chomping at the bit to get to 9th period, which is Combat Education with Mr. Walters.  

Now that Birdo and E.P.I.C. are dead, and Bobby Rocket's in jail, Mr. Walters is going to have to make further adjustments to the Combat Education teams.  SPOILER: It still won't go well for Aiden.

There's another reason I need to skip it, too.  See, this strip here is #98, which means I've almost hit my 100th strip.  And there's something special I want to do.

Twisted Sister

Gotta keep it short today.  Sorry about the tardiness... it's been one of those days.  Let's just sum it up and say I'm $200 dollars poorer, but I can drive my car again.

Normally I have my strip done the day before I post it, but we all got in late yesterday.  We had a great and well-needed weekend away from home that zoomed by all too quickly.

I should have called this strip "Twisted Sister - Part 1," because I got my idea for the next strip while I was working on it, and the strip coming up this Thursday is going to be sort of a continuation.

Anyhoo, thanks for reading, and thanks for sharing!