I don't normally do these "the story arc is complete!" posts anymore unless it's a Guest Week... but since the Haters are on a short hiatus, I figure this is nice filler :)
Here's what
Fast Cast is about:
Mind's Eye is broke and Destruct-O-Tron wants to get her some $$$. When his agent books him an audition for a fast food TV commercial, Destruct-O-Tron decides to get in character by putting on clown makeup, filling up a rental van with hamburgers, and driving to a local playground.
You've got two wonderful choices when it comes to reading it:
Oh, and while you're there, make sure you've
LIKE'd the Haters on FB and you
put the Haters G+ page in your circles!
And, of course, you can always read Fast Cash here on the blog. Get started now with
Super Haters #335.
Destruct-O-Tron was released from jail, but not before prison life took
its toll on him.
Special thx to
Virginia Shields, who helped me polish the punchline to today's comic strip!
Today's
Destruct-O-Cast is a micro-cast... a quick 8 minute listen, recorded solo by me last night when I was
really sleepy. I discuss the inspiration for the
Fast Cash story arc and the series of odd coincidences that surrounded its production:
As for next week, I know I said
yesterday that I have something special planned... and I do. But I need an extra week to get things ready. Instead of launching next week, I'm gonna take a week off from posting daily comics and launch #350 on Monday, February 27th. In the meantime, I'll keep you updated on my progress, so stick around for some background info and mysterious teases!
Mind's Eye did her best to
convince Officer Hernandez to let Destruct-O-Tron go free.
For today's "under the comic" material, I'd like to backtrack to yesterday. Super Haters guest writer
Ross Campbell (you may remember him as the author
that killed Destruct-O-Tron) had a new comic book hit the stands:
Glory #23, a relaunch of Rob Liefeld's warrior woman. It was a great issue, so I recommend that you snag a copy ASAP. But I'm not here to talk about the story -- I'd like to point out an odd inclusion in Ross's interview that graced the back of the book:
There he is
again.
* The elusive Mr. MacDonald. And do you wanna know the weirdest thing about it? That's not even Ross's real answer to the question. If you click on the image above, it'll take you to a larger version of the entire interview... and you can see Ross's real answer a couple of paragraphs later, in the bottom of the left column.
WHO IS ROSS MACDONALD??? The mystery continues...
Anyway, speaking of Ross and Glory, I've got a special surprise (as opposed to an un-special surprise) for you next week. But before then, we need to conclude this
Fast Cash story arc... Will Destruct-O-Tron finally land the role of Ross MacDonald, hamburger clown? Or were all of his legally questionable shenanigans for naught? FIND OUT TOMORROW!
*And if you don't know what I mean by again, you should check out this bizarre blog comment that launched the entire Ross MacDonald mystery... and, by proxy, inspired the Fast Cash story arc.
Mind's Eye has decided to have a chit-chat with the police officer who
arrested Destruct-O-Tron.
Will Nilufa be able to reason with Officer Hernandez? Or will she have to bust out some third eye magic to get the charges dropped against D-Tron? FIND OUT TOMORROW!
To tide you over until then, here's
A Podcast with Ross and Nick #122, featuring the the hosting talents of Kelly Thompson, Ross Campbell, and yours truly. On today's episode, we discuss Garfield, TMNT, Turtlecest, Mega Man's butt, hardcover collection prices, the marketing for Fear Itself: The Fearless, Daredevil, Wolverine and the X-Men, and my shitty internet connection.
Destruct-O-Tron
left a voicemail begging Mind's Eye to come bail him out of jail.
D-Tron behind bars!!!! Mind's Eye cared enough to show up... so will she pay his way out of the slammer? Find out tomorrow!
As for today... HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, JUSTIQUE!!!! If you're curious, today I've posted a Nik Furious song I recorded for Justique for Xmas 2007 -- it's an upbeat electro synth jam I call In Vert Head.
Give it a listen!!!
Decked out in full clown makeup, Destruct-O-Tron
was talking to a little kid at the local playground when a cop showed up.
Ooooo! BUSTED!!! How's D-Tron gonna get himself outta this one? Will Mind's Eye let him rot in jail or will she swoop in and save the day? FIND OUT TOMORROW!
In the meantime, I've got a new HyperComboCast out today and we're
talking about arcade cabinets. If you're not already familiar with the HCC, it's a fighting games podcast from the fan side. Instead of talking about the competitive scene, we share our love for the game, riffing on a new topic every week. And this week, we're covering cabinets... from the design to the layout to the art to the arcade experience and everything in between.
Check it out!
Destruct-O-Tron is
at the playground with a van packed full of french fries and hamburgers.
It's Friday, and that means it's time for a new
Destruct-O-Cast! I'm joined by
Brian John Mitchell. He's the writer of
Super Haters #230-239, a story that introduced Tony a.k.a. "the original Destruct-O-Tron." Learn more about Brian and find out how his own unique experience as a father informed his Super Haters guest arc:
Okay, I'll see you next week when the consequences of dressing up like a creepy clown and driving a van full of fast food down to the local playground finally catch up with Destruct-O-Tron!
Destruct-O-Tron has revealed
his master plan to get in character -- drive a van full of fast food down to the local playground.
Tomorrow: big top or big house???
Mind's Eye just revealed Destruct-O-Tron's penchant for
digging discarded porno mags out of the trash.
Yesterday on
Twitter and
Facebook, I asked,
"What's the weirdest Super Haters merch you would buy?" Here are your answers:
- Charlie said "Super Haters branded dildo?"
- Eric said "Lube."
- Byron said "Destruct-O-Tron signatured speculum."
- Eddie said "A frat paddle... and/or condoms."
- Dan said "A protractor."
- Andrew said "A trade paperback?"
So... many... good... answers... I can't pick a favorite!!! You're all winners in my book. And while a trade paperback is the most likely Super Haters product you'll see in the next year, I'll get started on the other ones right away.
BTW, does anyone know a good recipe for lube?
Destruct-O-Tron has decided to
get "in character" for his upcoming audition.
I'll tell ya what... it took me a buncha tries to craft the name of a fake porno mag that made me chortle. I'm so desensitized.
LINKAGE! On
today's AudioShocker Podcast, we discuss the crappy Super Bowl halftime show and Pam Grier in Sheba, Baby.
Okay, that's it for today. Tomorrow, Destruct-O-Tron reveals his method acting master plan!
Bernie answered Destruct-O-Tron's call for help and
found him an audition for a TV commercial.
Betcha didn't see that one comin', didja?!?!?!?!
LINKAGE TIME! Just in case you missed 'em: yesterday's
art teaser by Scott Hedlund and last Friday's
Destruct-O-Cast podcast. And speaking of podcasts, check out
today's HyperComboCast, where Kenny Riot and I discuss art direction in fighting games.
I'll see you tomorrow when the Fast Cash plot thickens until it's a goopy, syrupy mess!
Looking for work, Destruct-O-Tron rang up his agent, Bernie... but he may have bitten off
more than he can chew!
Mega-super-special-huge THX to Justique for helping out with today's punchline. Things wouldn't have been nearly as spicy without her input! Also, before I get to the podcast, I want to remind you one more time to
vote in the Eagle Awards nomination round. This is your last chance to pick Super Haters for Q19: Favourite Web-Based Comic. Voting closes after this weekend!!
Now onto the podcast! For today's
Destruct-O-Cast, I decided to go solo and outline my creative process. From plotting to scripting to building panels to lettering to posting and sharing. Plus, tons of never-before-revealed tidbits of Super Haters creation information:
I hope you enjoy the show! I had a lot of fun recording this one... probably the most fun I've ever had making a solo podcast. Oh, and one other tiny thing... another webcomic of mine --
Time Log, produced with Haters collaborators Justique, Shawn, and Pete -- is a
finalist for the 2011 SPACE Prize. So if you were a SPACE exhibitor last year,
please consider voting for Time Log!
Destruct-O-Tron called up his agent, Bernie, to
try and find some work. Now they're having a little face-to-face meeting.
Today is a very special day for both myself AND for the Super Haters. Personally, today is my favorite holiday --
Groundhog Day... a day when thousands of people gather on a muddy hill to watch a fat woodchuck issue a pointless prediction about the changing of the seasons. That makes it not only a fantastic satire of all other holidays, but also a great holiday in its own right. Plus, it puts my home state of Pennsylvania on the world's radar for at least a few hours out of every year.
As for this webcomic, today is special because
on this date one year ago, I began posting brand new daily Super Haters comics. Some of you may remember back when Super Haters was a weekly comic on the
AudioShocker. It ran that way for a little over a year until I put it on hiatus in July 2010. Then, in December 2010, I launched
SuperHaters.com and started rerunning the old Super Haters webcomics one-a-day until February 2nd, 2011. That's when Justique joined me to launch a new era for Mind's Eye and Destruct-O-Tron. Though we've since switched to a Mon-Fri schedule, the Haters are still going strong over 280 comic strips later!
I hope all of you have a terrific Groundhog Day. Thanks so much to all of you who've stuck with the Haters since we launched our new content one year ago, and thanks to all of you who've joined in on the fun since that time. I've got a lot of awesome and bizarre stuff planned for 2012, so hang onto yer butts 'cause it's gonna be a nasty ride!
Destruct-O-Tron wants to help Mind's Eye with
her money problems.
Oh Bernie!!! You're such a... hmmmmmmm... what's the word I'm looking for? OH, I KNOW -- bastard. That's it. (BTW, today's punchline is partially inspired but the skeevy-yet-uplifting lyrics of Rod Stewart's
Lost Paraguayos.)
Anyway, as you can see, I'm experimenting with a new lettering style for phone conversations. In the past, I've used a regular line for the on-panel voice and a lightning bolt line for the off-panel voice (see
Super Haters #59 for an example). However, that was back when I used word balloons, so the whole dynamic was different.
When I eliminated the balloons and I started using only tails for the dialogue, the lightning bolt became a way of showing when somebody on-panel was talking on the phone. That new style gave me the opportunity to have Destruct-O-Tron interact with people both over the phone AND in the panel at the same time (see
Super Haters #281 for an example).
But today's strip is the first time I've needed to show both sides of a phone conversation since I ditched the word balloons. I had no idea what to do!!! I originally wanted to go with something similar to the
telepathy balloons often used by Professor X. So I tried surrounding Bernie's dialogue with flared corners (still sans balloons). And it looked like shit.
But I liked the corners idea nonetheless and continued to play with the idea for a disproportionately healthy amount of time. Finally, I arrived at the solution you see here -- bendy corners. So whaddaya think? Does it work for
you?
Last but not least, I tease the direction of this current Fast Cash story arc on
the latest episode of A Podcast with Ross and Nick (within the last half hour of the show). If you're curious and don't mind listening to 30+ minutes of Prince conversation, check it out!
Mind's Eye has a
ton of credit card debt and a baby on the way.
The punchline in this comic strip actually had two different versions, and I was waffling back and forth between them until
Shawn Atkins stepped in and helped me decide.
The final one you see here is based on a typo I made while I was attempting to type up the original joke. I hit F instead of D because the two letters are right next to each other on the keyboard. It was late at night and I was kinda loopy, so the line "this time it's gonna turn to golf" was especially hilarious to me. But I figured no one else would think it was funny, so I proceeded to finish typing up my original punchline that was focused around Mind's Eye saying "golden shit."
But when it came time to finalize the comic, the "golden shit" line just didn't seem as deliciously funny as "turn to golf." Shawn agreed with me, which may be a bad thing considering he was one of only three people who said they enjoyed
Maternity Test (ya know, the most hated Haters arc of all time). Anyway, that's how I ended up with today's joke. Hope you dig it too.
All you need to know is that
Mind's Eye is pregnant. (And it doesn't hurt to remember the
vacation she took last year!)
Brand new story arc! I promise it'll be better than the last one,
Maternity Test... which most of you seemed to passively dislike (and a select few of you actively disliked).
I'm going solo for
Fast Cash to give Justique a bit of a break
and because I already plotted this arc by myself in anticipation of working with a guest artist who BAILED ON ME!!! Just kiddin' ;) Guest artist -- you know who you are, and you definitely didn't bail on me. We just never settled on a story to tell. And, frankly, I'm really looking forward to arting this one myself. Yes, I said
arting.
See you tomorrow when Destruct-O-Tron and Mind's Eye will actually show up!
