The Deathbringer

Last day of the week.  And, thankfully, the Last Page Devoted to the Bad Guys.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club Vol. 2 #0 Page 5.

Jack DuPre.  The Deathbringer.  CEO of the Ortex Corporation.  Ruler of Earth.  The Vertionce was pretty rough, and Dr. Dendull is terrifying, but they're nothing compared to the Deathbringer.  There's a reason why Dr. Dendull hides in the shadows, slowly and carefully building his power and consuming all in his path, and that reason is the Deathbringer.  Even now, even after Dendull has consumed the 6th Dimension, the Deathbringer could Incinerate him to Nothingness with a Wave of His Hand.  The Clown knows this.  Death Moth knows this.  Secret Soldier doesn't yet.  Even an Armageddon Titan would shatter before his might.  As mentioned in today's text, the Deathbringer is the son of Cthug, God of Hell.  We saw a lot of Jack DuPre in the early "Xerox Comics", but then I decided to keep him deep in the background for awhile.  He's recently sort of reemerged, most notably in "Pulp Horrorshow" Vol. 3.  I only just now redesigned his Demonic Form, most notably adding the Armor.  Since this is a 4th World Comic, I gave him some Darkseid elements, but made the armor a little more complex and added some reds and oranges to kind of break it up a little.  Other than that, the Ortex Diamond Logo represents Cthug's Third Eye.  It's sorta like, if you bear the Ortex Symbol, then Cthug's Eye is Upon You.

Anyway, let's see what Boolah has to say about today's page of SDF:

SDF vol. 2 #0 Page 5.

Splash Page #2! So helpful at a 24 comic run!

I always like the candid shots of the team as if they were photos. This introduces the full team going ahead on to Volume 2 of the series. I want to keep a close-knit family type bond with the cast here. In this draft I originally wanted just the six. On into the future the roster may or may not expand. Joseph and I had a discussion on Best Number Of Induviduals On A Roster once and my answer was 9 people. That's a great mix of personalities and talents. That's also a deep NBA playoff team.

I pondered a change in name for the team besides Mango Habanero but in the end it fit well. I tried to come up with something that sounded good with "Mixtape" but nothing clicked for me. Maybe I can write for Marvel later and make a mutant book called miXtape. We'll see.

Again, this page also puts names to faces, ala a first issue or what have you.

MANGO HABANERO!!!

Lotsa Bad Guys and the Team Assembles

Ugh.  Bad Guys.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club vol. 2 #0 Page 4.

Panel 1:  I can't stress this enough, there is no Logic ore Reality to the TORCverse.  We're not interested in that nonsense.  So, yeah, Mercury doesn't look like that, it's not that close to the sun, and there is absolutely no way anything could live or exist on its surface.  But this is a comic, so I can do whatever I want.

Panel 2:  Mercurians-  The natives of Mercury are a humanoid, somewhat mammalian species that have no body hair, reddish-purple skin, a large singular nostril cavity, and two pairs of arms.  The males have a pronounced under bite with oversized canines.  Females give live birth and typically give birth to between 4 and 12 children at a time (the average is 8).  Mercurians age very rapidly.  They achieve fully developed adulthood at age 5, and typically enter old age at age 30.  Mercurians typically don't live past the age of 35.  At the beginning of the TORCverse, Mercury was an extremely primitive planet, and the Mercurians were essentially nomadic cavemen.  There were hundreds of warring tribes, each led by a King who was the strongest of his Tribe.  All of that changed around the time of the "Cosmic Love" series, when the Demon Zarathon singlehandedly hunted down and killed every Tribal King of Mercury, and in so doing united the Planet under his rule.  Ironically, Zarathon's rule has proven to be extremely beneficial to the planet, as it has advanced quite quickly, and is now at around Ancient Egyptian levels.

Evolved Mercurian-  In the right hand corner, you'll notice a slightly darker Mercurian with horns.  This is a Mercurian who has been evolved through Zarathon's Cosmi-Demonic Power.  They are stronger, more durable, and more vicious than the average Mercurian.  Evolved Mercurians serve as Zarathon's Special Forces and Honor Guard.

Zakathug-  Zarathon's Half-Demon, Half-Mercurian son.  He is the Prince of Mercury.  Although he is only 3 years old, he is extremely powerful already.  As a half-breed Demon, he is immortal, but his development is still quite rapid due to his Mercurian blood.  The only thing Zakathug believes in is his father.

Zarathon-  Zarathon is a Blood Demon Lord from Hell.  Most of the Demons in the TORCverse are actually Demonic Spirits who have taken possession of human bodies, while their real bodies are in Hell.  As a result, these Demons are weaker and mortal.  Zarathon, on the other hand, entered 3D Space by passing through a Hellgate, and as a result he is a True Demon, which means he has his Full Demonic Power and is Immortal.  Zarathon debuted in Pulp Horrorshow vol. 1 #4-6 (in what I affectionately refer to as the Zarathon Saga).  He was defeated by the Clown in their first encounter, but because the Clown left some body parts lying around, Zarathon eventually completely regenerated.  He returned in "SDF: End of an Era" where he nearly killed the Clown and was responsible for the Clown's house blowing up (well, okay, the Clown blew up his own house, but it was in an attempt to stop Zarathon).  Zarathon had a string of side plots in "Cosmic Love".  Over the course of that series he 1) killed a Space God named Bronze Unicorn and ate his Burning Cosmic Heart, thus gaining Cosmic Powers, 2) Conquered the entire Planet Mercury, and 3) Cosmimystically Evolved a group of Mercurians and sent them to pester the Clown.  Shortly after the Clown's Cosmic Rebirth, the Clown and Zarathon had a fight in deep space, which the Clown won by knocking Zarathon into a Black Hole.  This did not kill Zarathon, though, because the Demon simply Ate the Black Hole, incorporating its power into his own.  Ironically, in "Clown & Penguin" #1-2 it is revealed that Zarathon had left the Ortex Corporation, and as an act of reprisal, Ortex sent an Armageddon Titan to destroy Mercury.  Zarathon and the Clown actually teamed up to fight the Armageddon Titan.  Very recently, Zarathon rejoined the Ortex Corporation and brought Mercury into the Ortex fold.  It is unknown why Zarathon did this, although it is suspected that Ortex threatened either Mercury or Zarathon's beloved son Zakathug.

Panel 3:  This is Ortex Tower, the Central Headquarters for the Ortex Corporation.  The Roof of the Building Continuously Burns with Hellfire.

Panel 4:

Admiral Stone- Ortex Executive: Military Division.  Admiral Stone is a brand new character, and this is his first appearance.  Stone is a human, but through a new technique, his body has been bonded with a Demonic Soul, giving him incredible power.  Stone is a lifelong military man, and an accomplished General.  He is in charge of Ortex's Military Divisions, which includes not only Military Operations, but also Weapon and Vehicle Manufacturing.  He is a no nonsense, tough as nails type of guy.

Akuma Boy-  Ortex Executive:  Planetary Security.  Akuma Boy is a human who bonded with a Japanese Chaos Spirit.  He first appeared in "Gullatta!" vol. 1.  Originally he was a Good Guy (albiet a cocky, conceited one), but at the Battle of Ortex Tower he betrayed the Skull Mob and was personally responsible for the deaths of Riddle Bug XII, Mister Halloween (who has since been resurrected and is now a member of HFSAC), and Cosmico Rex (the older brother of new HFSAC member Phantasmo Rex).  As a reward, Ortex made him an Executive and a Member of the Board of Directors.  Akuma Boy is a cocky jerk.  He has a longstanding grudge against King Dark, and a more recent grudge against Secret Soldier, who defeated him in Pulp Horrorshow v. 3 #4.  Akuma Boy is in charge of Planetary Security.  Not only does that mean protecting Ortex's interests, but it also means hunting down and destroying Rebel/Terrorists Factions (of which there are hundreds currently).

Luther Dirge- Ortex Exective:  Religious Division.  We covered this jerk yesterday.  Moving on.

Admiral Fiskerton- Ortex Executive:  Business and Manufacturing.  Fiskerton is a brand new character.  Much like Stone, Fiskerton is a human who has bonded with a Demon Soul, giving him Power.  Fiskerton is an accomplished and ruthless businessman who runs the bulk of Ortex's business and manufacturing interests.  His title of "Admiral" is largely ceremonial, as he has no actual military experience.  Despite this, he has his own personal military and space fleet at his disposal.

Admiral Ahab- Ortex Executive: Interplanetary Acquisitions.  Ahab is a brand new character who was Created and Designed by Scott "Boolah" Bayler.  Much like Stone and Fiskerton, Ahab is a human who has had his spirit bonded with a Demon Soul, making him more powerful.  An experienced military veteran and tactician, Ahab and his Fleet are responsible for conquering other Planets, Moons, and Planetoids in the Sol System.

Kikki Fortune- Executive Representative for the Assassin's Guild.  Kikki Fortune debuted in Cosmic Love #1.  A Thief, woman of ill-repute, and assassin, she was the Clown's girlfriend for awhile.  Things did not end well between them (you can see how their relationship ended by checking out my "Lost" comic "Clown & Penguin" #0, available for viewing at www.patreon.com/torcpress for a meager Dollar Donation).  She joined Ortex, and is now a major player in the Assassin's Guild, which is exactly what it sounds like.  She's got Fire Powers.

Old One Eye-  Ortex Executive: Research & Development.  Ah, Old One Eye.  One of the Original Demons of Hell, Old One Eye first appeared in "Watchdogs" #1.  He's popped up a bunch since then.  He HATES the Clown and is continuously hatching schemes to kill the Clown, preferably using various minions and traps.  (You can check out one of Old One Eye's assaults on the Clown over on the Patreon for a buck)  Despite his numerous failures to kill the Clown, Old One Eye was a pivotal player in Ortex's Conquest of Heaven.  As a reward, Old One Eye was given a group of Angel Slaves to serve as his personal bodyguard.  Despite the fact that Ortex lost possession of Heaven in the Bad Rapture Event, Old One Eye still has his personal Angelic Guard.  Old One Eye also personally controls Four Armageddon Titans.  He used to have Five, but the Clown and Zarathon destroyed one of them.  Old One Eye is in charge of Research and Development, which is basically Ortex's Monster Making Division.

Voodoo Dolly-  Executive Leader of the Ortex Elite Forces.  Voodoo Dolly is a living Voodoo Doll.  She used to be a friend and ally of the Clown, but she fell in love with Johny Styles and joined the Ortex Corporation, breaking the Clown's heart.  She married Johny Styles, and is now in charge of Ortex's Elite Forces, which are obviously the Best of the Best.  She is a genius fighter and possesses incredible Magicks.

Johny Styles-  Executive Vice President of the Ortex Corporation and Vice President of Earth.  Johny Styles is the #2 Guy at Ortex.  He first appeared in the very first TORC Press Comic, Pulp Horrorshow vol. 1 #1.  Styles is a Half breed Demon (half human), and is also known as the King of Vanity.  He is incredibly deadly, even in his human form (at the Battle of Ortex Tower he killed Mr. Hex and Bad Jack (aka the Death Moth) without accessing his Demon Form).  Perhaps the only Fighter who can go toe to toe with Johny Styles is Secret Soldier, and even then... maybe not.  And again, that's just his Human Form.  Styles is married to Voodoo Dolly.

Well, that went on awhile.  Hey, Boolah, you're up!

SDF vol. 2 #0 Page 4.

Ah, Doom Eagle. The contrast of Secret Soldier. I write Doom Eagle like a bro, but really I love the character. I've been trying to work different gags into the stories using his power. He combines living things with weapons. (You've heard of nanotechnology? I call this Mamm-o-technology. Mammals + Technology = craziness.)

Secret Soldier is hard, brash, and old. He's seen too much. I'm going to write him like a fallen patriot. Hopefully an origin story is to come if you follow SDF vol 2.

Aliceislost is back after rescuing Death Moth from the Sixth Dimension as well (See Skull Mob #6). She's going to be an integral part of things to come.

Plus, I snuck in the 24 hour comic flier Monty Floyd asked us to during our 24 hour comic days. That guy is so cool I once drew a picture of the Spider-Man villain Rhino on the toilet for him.

The Military, Religion, and GOAT!

Welp, I'm watching Parks & Rec wrap up.  Anyway, comix.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club vol. 2 #0 Page 3.

Panel 1:  "The Ortex Military Machine Is a Massive War Machine..."  Welp, I'm not winning any awards for my writing any time soon.  Dear Lord.  Anyway, Boolah if you're reading this on the can at 6am, let's try to remember this page.  It'll come in handy when we're trying to come up with more Ortex Red Shirts.  Plus, I really wanna draw that one Ortex Spaceship sometime in the future.  That is a cool ship.  I also like the Teeth Ships.  I don't think we've seen those things since Clown & Penguin #1 & 2.

Panel 2:  What was it L. Ron Hubbard said?  Religion, that's where the real money is.  I was raised in a Baptist Church, and was a pretty solid Christian for most of my life.  Nowadays, I'm not anything.  Not Christian, not atheist, not agnostic, not nothing.  I don't really believe in Organized Religion anymore.  I've seen the good things it can do, and I've seen all the horrible things it can do, and I'm just not really interested anymore.  Anyway, it makes sense for Ortex to have their own religion.  Nothing inspires loyalty like religion.

Panel 3:  Noteworthy Bad Guys on this page--

Skarr-  Skarr first popped up in HFSAC #5-6, and he reappeared in HFSAC 18.  Originally he was just a high priest of Levitone's Cult (a precursor to the Church of Ortex), but he's been such a loyal servant that he's become a High Priest in the Church of Ortex.

Luther Dirge-  A Lawyer Demon from Hell (that's right, there's an entire category of Demon devoted to Lawyers), Dirge made a few early appearances where he slinked around the background, buying people's souls and then turning them into Demons that attacked the Clown.  His first real appearance was in "SDF: Foul Business".  He sent another Demon after the Clown in "SDF: End of Era".  He tried to get the Clown's friends to sell him out in "Monster King" #4.  And he actually got blown up by a Butterfly Bullet in "The Clown & Tea Cup Show" #2 or 3 or 4(?).  Anyway, he eventually reformed his spirit, took possession of a new body, and became the First Pope of the Church of Ortex, which we first see in "Pulp Horrorshow" v.3 #2.  I hate this guy.

Levitone-  Levitone, much like Luther Dirge, made a handful of cameos early on, but he didn't really show up until HFSAC 5-6.  He also showed up in HFSAC 18-19.  Levitone is a Soul Eater (well, all Demons eat Souls, but Levitone is a specialist).  He gets bigger and nastier the more souls he chows down on.  He's the False God of the Church of Ortex, so, technically, just about every Soul on Earth is powering him.  So, he's bad news.  The Clown blew him up with a Butterfly Bullet in HFSAC 19, but he spent a little time in Hell and reassembled his Soul, so he's back.  Also, despite his giant size, he always speaks in a barely audible whisper.  I don't know what's up with that.

If I had been using my head, I would have drawn Toldos and Rakor on this page, too.  Don't know why I didn't.  They woulda been better than those three generic demons.  Whatever.

Anyway, on to SDF.  I yield the floor to the Boolah.

SDF vol. 2 #0 Page 3.

The re-introduction of the Chupacabra in this page. Joseph originally had him as a Hulk type character to begin with running around. I upped the ante and gave him a teleportation power as well. I snubbed the idea from a bunch of characters Joseph and I designed late in 2013. The original guy was super strong but looked like a wad of chewed bubblegum. He stuck so well in my head I can't even remember his name.

I also like the Dragonball Z thing going on with Death Moth's hood/cape deal. This wasn't a terrible looking page after all was said and done. Just wait until the previews get to next week to start throwing the tomatoes.

The Urban Apocalypse and Standing Up

Let's see what we've got today.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club vol. 2  Issue 0 Page 2.

Let's break this one down Panel by Panel, eh?

Panel One:  If you've been reading TORC Press comix for any length of time now, you know they have no real bearing on Reality, Logic, or Physics.  Still, there's always a core of reality to any creation, if nothing else, there's a viewpoint.  If you know me, you know I'm a fairly Liberal fella, and I'm not a fan of big, nasty Corporations.  To me, Ortex Earth is an extreme example of what the world would look like if Corporations ruled unchecked.  Corporations consume everything around them, with profit being their only concern.  Destroy the environment?  Sure, if it'll make us a few bucks.  We'll just install Oxygen Machines or whatever.  If you look at the Glass Skyscrapers, they're covered in ash and soot so that you can't even see the clear glass anymore.  Everything looks like smoker's teeth.

Panel Two:  The funny thing is, on paper, Ortex Earth might be spun in such a way that it sounds pretty good.  Everyone's got a job.  Everyone's got a home.  No one pays taxes (because a Citizenship Fee is just a cost of living, not a tax, right?).  Sounds pretty good.  But of course, it's really just a prison.  No choice, no freedom, just work or die.  Sound farfetched?  Pft.  This was basically America until post WWII, and it's pretty much every Third World Country today (and the Third World is where Corporate America sends all the jobs anymore, cause you can pay slave wages).  My version is just a little more extreme.

Panel Three:  Of the many, many horrors of Nazi Germany, the one that always sticks in my head and drives me crazy, the one that really represents the true nightmare of man's inhumanity to man, was that the average Nazi people were okay with the Gestapo dragging off the Jews to face the Concentration Camps.  Sure, you could argue that they didn't know or whatever.  And I'm sure they didn't at first.  But after awhile, everyone knew.  And everyone knew that every time some poor fella with a yellow star on his shirt got dragged off, he was being dragged to his doom.  So, that's the Evil we see here.  The Evil of Cowardice.

Panels Four through Six:  Alright, enough serious stuff.  Let's get into the Monster Movie TORC Press Biz.  Ortex turning people into Monsters has been a key aspect of TORC Press since literally the first comic I ever produced.  It's the Clown's Origin after all.

Well, that's enough of my Left Wing Soap Boxing, I now turn the Commentary Track over to Scott "Boolah" Bayler.

SDF:

SDF vol. 2 #0 Page 2.

While the last page was a splash panel, this page represents two of the main characters going forward. I also had to make sure they named each other off when they were speaking to each other due to the fact that this may be the first issue of SDF anyone ever picks up with it being a Zero Issue (and will probably do it again in Volume 2 #1....ugh. Hate it.)

I always wanted to incorporate the relationship between OJ and Death Moth as cousin-like. Death Moth and Doom Eagle are brothers who don't quite see eye-to-eye with each other at all times. These two have a great mutual respect for each other. Also at one time Joseph considered these two some of his major characters so I don't want them sounding like a bunch of fops.

That being said, Death Moth's mouth thing looks like $@%* out of my artistic hand.

The Zero Issues Begin

Aaaaaaand we're back.

I decided to do a couple of Zero Issues to serve as a nice jumping on point for new readers.  

We shall begin with HFSAC this time out.

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club volume 2 Issue 0 Page 1.

So, Earth is Apocalypse now.  Yep.  I'm not even trying to not be blatant about it.  To me, this is Corporate America gone berzerk.  I always thought Kirby's Fire Pits were utterly brilliant.  I mean, if you think about, if you could burrow down deep below the Earth and harvest the Raw Power of the Planet Itself, even if it was horribly shortsighted and destructive to the environment, do you think Corporate America would even hesitate to do it?  Yeah.  Exactly.  The Dome over the Planet was Boolah's idea (Originally you could see the Massive Buildings from space), as a way to make it look just a little less like Apocalypse.  Anyway, the whole point is, Earth ain't Earth anymore.  It is irrevocably lost.

Side Note:  Not only has Ortex built some kind of Tower on the Moon (even I don't know what that's for), but if you look closely, you can still see the Massive Crack in the Moon's surface where Mister Happy shattered during Bad Rapture.

Moving on, back in... October?  November?  I did 24 Hour Comic Day, and I asked Boolah if he wanted to come along and make a comic.  He was, like, Cool.  He wasn't sure what to do, so I told him about the idea I had for the Zero Issues, and invited him to do SDF #0.  He was, like, Cool.  Boolah decided to do a 10 Page Comic, but it's worth mentioning that he did it in 10 Hours.  Anyway, here's SDF #0, Story and Art by Scott Bayler.  Colors by Me.

SDF vol. 2 Issue 0 Page 1.

And, since I had nothing to do with this issue, I invited Boolah to do the Commentary, so without further ado:

It's usually about 6am on the toilet when i'm sitting here reading these commentaries that Joseph does on his book, but since I actually wrote and DREW this comic, I was invited to do the commentary myself. This is my first comic drawn since I thiiiiink about 1998 or so. My drawing skills are marginal (as you will see in the upcoming pages) combined with the fact that this is a 24 hr comic book, which is 24 pages in 24 hours. I managed like ten.

What I tried for in the opening page was the heartfelt emotion of Jonar losing his beloved. If you read the first volume and/or Bad Rapture, you would have watched how Cheryl passed away giving birth to the Dawnchilde. So here we have Jonar at the crude grave, doubled over in emotion. Poor guy. An old Grant Morrison technique was to hook the reader on page one using the splash page so that's where I came up with this. Plus, splash pages are easy to design. Design wasn't the key that day I did all this. Most of my scripts are hashed out and re-hashed out over a couple of days. I farted the crib notes out to this one from 10:05 to 10:06am.

I haven't viewed the final page hopefully colored and cleaned up (doctored up, hopefully). I always like the style Joseph had with the darker lined silhouettes of the characters he drew on SDF and that crazily translates to my style. We did a poster of four SDFers last year (BUY ONE!!!) that I liked a lot set to my pencils and his inks. Who knows, I may do a cover here or there of the upcoming series.

Snow Day Fun

As most of you know, I work in a Sawmill for my day job.  It is an outdoor job, and right now it is in the Negative Digits, temperature-wise.  So, we ain't been working much this week.  Which means I've gotten time at home to work on, well, everything.  Here's what I've been up to...

First off, we've got a new comic in the Online Store:

SDF #10 is now available in the Online Store at http://www.torcpress.com/store/.  It's $4.00 plus $1.50 S&H for 25 Pages of Story in Full Color.  It was Written by Scott Bayler and drawn by Me.  It's the full fledged Epilogue to the Bad Rapture Epic.  The Heroes mourn the Fallen, and prepare to go their separate ways.  It's also the Final Issue of SDF Vol. 1, and the bridge to SDF Vol. 2 (starting soon). 

That's not all I've been up to.  Winter always slows me down, and one of the things I've been slacking on is the Patreon Site.  If for some reason you haven't heard me Rant about the Patreon, here's a refresher course.  Patreon is a site where people can Patronize their favorite creators.  A Patron can use Patreon to donate whatever amount they want to a creator on a monthly basis.  It's a cool thing, and it actually works.  I've only got three Patron on Patreon, but the money from Patreon paid for a table at a Convention next month.  For a small time operator like me, that's a one less thing I've gotta take out of my budget each month.  And that's handy.  So, a big thank you go out to my Patrons for all the support.

Anyway, the folks that dig my work support me in lots of cool ways, and the Patreon site isn't necessarily necessary as a way to support TORC Press.  Having said that, you do get cool stuff if you donate to TORC Press on Patreon.  If you donate a Dollar a Month (a measly $12 a year), you get to read a bunch of comics that are Exclusive to Patreon.  I've been kinda slacking on those lately, but I'm getting my Mojo going again.  Anyway, there's quite a few of my "Lost" Comics I'm trying to solicit online, and the only way you can read them is on the Patreon (well, eventually, they'll be in Print, but y'know).  These include:

SDF: Cyclopean-  This old "Lost" comic from the original One Shot SDF Series features Cactus Joe and Voodoo Dolly (not long before she betrayed him) in a desperate struggle with the demonic Old One Eye and his deadly trap.

Cosmic Love #5-  The Unpublished Conclusion to the Cosmic Love series, I've barely started soliciting this one.  This story is about our heroes continuing their search for OMNICHRONUS, and fills in some o the blanks leading up to the current Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club series.

Clown & Penguin #0-  Probably the most pivotal Lost story of the bunch, this story features the Clown coming face to face for the first time with the Lord of the Ortex Corporation, the dreaded Deathbringer.

Now, if you donate $5 to the Cause, you not only get to view all of those comics online, you also get an 8 Page Comic Every Month.  Thanks to the Snow Day, I just finished the 4th Comic in this little series.  Here's the rundown on the 4 Issues of "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club Adventure Comix" (BEST COMIC TITLE EVER) that I've completed to date:

The Series also serves as a Lead-in to The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #24, and introduces the 6 New Members of HFSAC. 

HFSACAC #1 (Mei thinks it's funny when I call it HFSACAC) features a newly designed Jester Kidd and a completely redesigned Cosmic Fool doing battle with an Ortex Monster.  I know, pretty simple, but, hey, I've only got 8 Pages to work with.

HFSACAC #2 features one of the oldest TORC Press characters, Mr. Halloween (aka Sheriff Halloween or Halloween M@n), newly resurrected from the Dead, fighting side by side with one of the newest TORC Press characters, Shiv the Kharmic Scales of Judgement.  They fight monsters with Boxes for Heads.  Also, there's a Taco Dance Party.

HFSACAC #3 once again features Mister Halloween as he goes in search of an Omnichronian Cocoon which contains a brand new member of the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  Unfortunately, the dreaded Nullaphons arrive to make sure that this new member never emerges from his Cosmic Cocoon.  Also, I really like the Cover.

Lastly, HFSACAC #4 features Jester Kidd, Shiv, and the last new member of HFSAC, Phantasmo Rex doing battle with a giant Ortex genetically-engineered Worm that eats anything in its path.  I really like the cover on this one as well.  It's super cool.

Lastly, as I've mentioned before, it's my Birthday month, and I always try to do something cool during my Birthday Month.  With the extra time on my hands, I've worked up a Cool little piece of Artwork:

This piece features the Entire 12 Person HFSAC Line-up in all of their Colorful New Outfits, flanked by Mighty Lord OMNICHRONUS.  You can buy this piece in Poster Form over on my Etsy Store at https://www.etsy.com/listing/223283282/hot-fudge-sundae-adventure-club-team for $10 plus $1.50 S&H, and you get one of the above comics with it.  But, since it's my Birthday Month, I'm gonna be giving away some of these (in a smaller, easier to ship format) away for free as well.  SO, If you order anything from my Online Store from now until the end of March, you'll get a 7 X 11 (or whatever a standard size sheet of paper is) version of this Group Shot with your order.  In additional addition, if you're a Patreon subscriber who contributes $5 or more a Month, you will receive this Print with your Patreon Package.  And don't worry, if you have recently ordered something from my Online Store (hey Steven!) I'll be sending you a copy of this piece along with a copy of HFSACAC #4 as a show of my gratitude for your support.  And if I've already sent out your Patreon Pack for the Month (hey Tate!), I'll include a copy of the piece with your March Packet.

Support TORC Press.  Get cool art.  Simple as that.

The Transformers vs. GIJoe Rant

So, everybody's reading Tom Scioli's "Transformers vs. GIJoe" right?  No?  That's too bad.  TvsG is the wrongest comic to ever exist in the history of the Universe.  It shouldn't exist.  No company in its right mind would ever publish a comic like this, and yet here it is, every month.  Are the people at IDW not paying attention?  Are the people at Hasbro out taking a leak?  This comic makes everything Grant Morrison has ever done look Sane by comparison (although that new Multiversity Guidebook gave it a pretty good run for its money this week).  I mean, there's a Giant Robot who has a Giant Robot for a head, who has another Robot for a head, and they're fighting a Giant City that's a Robot Tyranasaurus.  How did this beautiful thing happen?  It's a comic about TOYS, but it's not even an ad for current toys, cause the modern Transformers don't look like this anymore, and GIJoe is pretty much forgotten about.

Am I making it clear this is the best comic being published right now?  I don't know if I am.  TvsG defies Traditional Art and any form of Traditional Writing.  Defies?  It throws gasoline on them and then hits em with a Flamethrower.  I gotta stop with the hyperbole.  I'm not getting my point across.

Tom Scioli makes the best comics.  Myth of 8-Opus was a bizarre take on the New Gods where the Universe was a Giant Serpent that Ate Itself and was the Bad Guy.  G0dland was Jack Kirby as Genre where the Entire Universe Rewrote Itself and everyone became gods.  American Barbarian was an end of the world epic that featured a giant mummy with Tanks for feet.  Final Frontier was a bizarre merger of 60s Marvel Comics with the Beatles that reminded us all of why we love comics in the first place.  Satan's Soldier was Evil Superman.  And by that I don't mean all the slow paced brooding Evil Superman nonsense we've been saddled with time and time again.  This is Evil Superman who knocks up a bunch of women who give lethal birth to a brood of psychotic Superbabies that Evil Superman wraps up in a sack and tries to drown in a river.

Which brings us to Transformers vs. GIJoe, Scioli's attempt at being commercial.  But man...

I used to be a really big Paul Pope fan, right?  I mean, don't get me wrong, Paul Pope is freaking awesome, and he is easily one of the most influential artists going today.  A whole generation of artists have adopted Pope's style.  It's just hard to be a devoted fan to a guy that puts out a book every 5 years, y'know?  I can only read my old copies of "THB" so many times, y'know?

Aaaaaaanyway, Pope used to do all of these Diatribes on Comix Art and whatnot, and he used to refer to himself as the Comics Destroyer, in that he would Destroy the Idea of Comics in order to "Save" them (or create new types of comics at the least... even though Pope is popular and influential, he's never been Big Business).

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, that's what Tom Scioli is doing with Transformers vs. GIJoe.  He's destroying comics and rebuilding them from scratch.  The rules don't exist anymore, not in the world of TvsG.

The only real question is:  How long can he keep this up?  How far can he take it?  Where's the Edge when you've already shot clean over it already?  Why did I say there was only one question when I had three?

I dunno.  I hope he can keep it going.  Because to me, Comix need to be Crazy and Wild and Wrong and Beautiful, and right now no one does it better than Scioli.

TORC Press Era 4 Ends

At least I think I'm on Era 4.  Hard to keep track.  Anyway, let's wrap this puppy up.

SDF:

SDF 10-25.

That Concludes SDF Vol. 1.  Sad ending.  Yeesh.

Skull Mob?

Skull Mob 6-25.

And that's the end of Skull Mob.  It's weird, that this book was unable to beat the dreaded 6 Issue Curse.  It was a popular book, by my rather lopsided standards.  It did well at Cons, probably because it was all dark and mysterious and had the word Skull in the title.  I did have a long term plan for the book (originally it was gonna go 100 isuues.  Heh.).  Skull Mob was the down and dirty book with the cast full of expendable characters.  It was the "No One Is Safe" book.  Y'know how I was talking about how in some of the drafts for HFSAC I created a Cast of 40 characters for the book?  Well, I pretty much had a similar plan with Skull Mob, building a massive roster of close to 40 characters for that book as well.  The cast would always be in rotation, because some characters would get killed off and then replaced, and then sometimes come back from the dead, and all that fun stuff.

Eh.  Add it to the Library of Comics I've dreamed up that won't leave my Brain.

Now, the Death Moth is moving on to the Cast of the New SDF, which will be starting soon.  The new gang, at least, initially, will consist of Secret Soldier, Death Moth, Doom Eagle, Octopus Jones, Aliceislost, and the Chupacabra.  From this point on, SDF is all Boolah's, and in fact the Zero Issue was written and drawn by him alone.  It's gonna be cool.

Speaking of the Zero Issues, those start in two weeks on Monday, February 23rd.  We'll be running a Page each of HFSAC and SDF Monday through Thursday until they're all wrapped up.

Later.

Everything Coming Together for the End.

Just about done.

SDF:

SDF 10-24.

First off, this isn't the last page of SDF 10 because I can't count (my Flashback ran a little long.  Stupid.  Still, that Flashback needed three pages, so I'm okay).  Anyway, you might notice a little similarity between the first panels of this page and today's Skull Mob page.  It's nice when Boolah tosses me a slow pitch.  Cut n' Paste, baby!

Anyway, anyway, we check in real quick with Romiel, the only survivor of the Vertionce's War Halo Army, as she screams in crazed defiance when she's pretty much lost completely.  I'd feel sorry for her, but we all know she'll eventually come back and do some terrible stuff, so it's hard to really feel sorry for her.  Other than that, we're just about wrapped up.  Notice how the Forest is rapidly going all brown and orange.  The Magic is gone, so the toxic atmosphere of Earth (again, that Brown thing in Panel 4 is Earth.  Yeah.) is rapidly killing the Forest.  Bummer.

Skull Mob.

Skull Mob 6-24.

Huh.  Deja Vu.  Nothing to really add here.  Oh wait!  Because Boolah has as much trouble with Math as I do, this isn't the last page of Skull Mob either.  We've got one more tomorrow.  What's funny is this page happens during and BETWEEN today's SDF page.  That's pretty cool, really.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club 24-24.

If you'll recall, this is a 24 Hour Comic, so there was no way I was gonna overshoot on this book.  Well, now that I think about it, I was pretty loopy at the time, so maybe I coulda overshot.  Who knows?  Anyway, this is the last page of HFSAC 24.  Kind of a sweet little ending I suppose, which is  nice by comparison to how sad the other two have ended.  Oh, by the by, I got the book done with two hours to spare, because I am a 24 Hour Comic MACHINE.  Even had time for a nap.

Now Let's Go Get Some Tacos!

The Runaway, Dendull Triumphant, and the Phoenix

Here We Go:

SDF:

SDF 10-23.

Boolah had the idea for a kid from the Community to acquire the Puzzelor's Mask and the Vertionce's Sword, Enmarkos, as a possible story thread for later.  I thought we had decided that Coby Cane would be the kid (of course, given my Goldfish-like memory, this is pretty suspect.  I may be remembering things the way I want to), but it looked like in Boolah's thumbnails that he wanted the kid in the ball cap from Bad Rapture Alpha who gives the Mystery Man the Baseball Bat to be the Kid.  So, I made an Executive Decision and went with Coby, partially because he's a geek (humans are lame), and partially because he already has a history and a lineage and all that.  Anyway, maybe we'll get back to him, and maybe we won't.  Time will tell.

Skull Mob:

Skull Mob 6-23.

Speaking of Executive Decisions, I had Boolah write-in the top panel because I wanted to have a few Vermin Angels escape, and because I like leaving my own little Plot Threads for later.  Other than that, creepy Dendull face!  Creepy Dendull Face!!

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club 24-23.

I got a thing for Campy Nonsense in my comics every so often, so even though Null Vizor is a pretty serious Bad Guy, I couldn't help myself from giving him a Cheezy "Curse You" type of line before he left.  Anyway, the big difference between SDF and HFSAC (besides characters, art style, and scope) is that SDF is a down to Earth book, while HFSAC has a more spiritual angle.  When people died in SDF and Skull Mob, they died.  They were gone.  Poor Octopus Jones never got a chance to say goodbye to Cheryl.  She was just gone.  That's the way it goes in real life (not that SDF is a mirror for real life in any possible way, but it's more realistic than HFSAC).  It's sad, and it's hard, and it sucks.  But HFSAC is a Cosmic Comic, and, to me, Cosmic implies a level of Spirituality (otherwise, it's just Sci-Fi).  So, when people die in HFSAC, you can have their Spirits return to provide a level of comfort to those left behind.  We saw it in Issue 23, and here in Issue 24 we have the brief return of Electric Cherry's Mother, the Dawn Phoenix.  I thought it was a nice little way to end the comic.

Good-bye, Run Away, and Make Things Go BOOM!

Woo.  I am wore out.  Let's Roll.

SDF:

SDF 10-22.

This is probably the last time we're gonna see a lot of these characters for awhile.  But at least the survived, so I can always bring em back later.

Skull Mob:

Skull Mob 6-22.

I got not a lot to say about today's Skull Mob Page either.  It's nice to see the return of the Burning Flip Kick.  That's cool.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club 24-22.

I already rambled a bit about the new powers on the newly reformed HFSAC, but on this page we get 4 of them.  Not sure why I picked these four, I just did.  Anyway, let's break this down Panel by Panel.

Panel 1:  As I mentioned before, @byss can break off pieces of his Heavy Gravity Body and create Gravity Clones of himself which he can control with his personal Gravity, like Moons orbiting around a Planet.  Except with Punching in the Face.  Also, again, I really like the new design on @byss.

Panel 2:  I think Sphynx's power is pretty self explanatory.  Disintegrater Ray Beam Eyes.  DEATH.

Panel 3:  Phantasmo Rex's Abstracto Power is, obviously pretty... abstract.  Still, he can do the whole Green Lantern thing where he can create constructs out of Hard Light.  Handy power.

Panel 4:  One of the tricks of Mr. Halloween's Negato Power is that he can use it to Negate Mental Energy, essentially wiping out the victim's mind (in the case of a Nullaphon, there's not a lotta mind to erase... moving on).  Mr. Halloween can then use residual Negato Energy to take control of the victim's mindless body.  Hence, the dreaded Negto Puppetmaster.  Still debating the Green Sleeves on Mr. Halloween's outfit.  Any opinions out there in ComputerLand?

Saying Goodbye, Desperate Rescue, and Behold Our POWER

Alrighty.  The Epilogues will all wrap up this week, and then I'm taking a week off to rest and maybe get a little ahead on my work.  After my break is over we'll be starting the Next Era with The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club v.2 #0 and SDF v.2 #0 (which was Boolah's 24 Hour Comic, even though it's 8 Pages...so, I guess it was an 8 Hour Comic).  Anyway, let's do our thing.

SDF:

SDF 10-21.

I added the lines in the middle panel, because I felt that Doc Brummer was probably feeling just as guilty about Cheryl's death as Jonar was.  Other than that, the color thing is something I've experimented with before, although it's typically a trick I use with Cactus Joe when he's heartbroken or miserable or whatever.  It actually works better with Octopus Jones because he's got full body color.

Skull Mob:

Skull Mob 6-21.

I like that in Panel 2 Boolah had Alice do her old "Talking with Pictures" gimmick.  Very cute.  Other than that, despite Alice's heroic efforts, she's actually put herself into a very dangerous position, because Dr. Dendull wants to absorb her more than anything.  As one of the two Locaii, absorbing Alice is one of Dendull's goals in his quest to rewrite the Universe in his own image.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club #24-21.

I didn't have a lot of comic space left to show off the newly powered members of HFSAC could do, especially with 12 Members.  So in this page (and the next) I did what I could.  The Clown's Energy Blasts are more potent.  Electric Cherry's Lightning Sword is juiced up, and we get to see her new Thunder Shield for the first time.  Pengy no longer has the old "Phoenix Aura", but now has a Butterfly Aura, so that's new.  Tea Cup uses his Machino Power to create a Missile Launcher out of his shoulder.  I almost feel sorry for the Nullaphons.  Almost.

A Look At the New Era

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!  It's Time!  It's Finally Time!  I have been waiting so long for this!  I have had so many ideas moving back and forth in my head, slamming around.  But today is finally the day.  The Future is finally locked into place.  As the old Era comes to a close, the Next Era explodes like a Phoenix from the Ashes!

Anyway, here we go, we'll get to the Future at the End.

SDF:

SDF 10-20.

Boolah and I have been talking about collaborating for quite awhile, long before I brought Boolah in for Bad Rapture.  Originally, Boolah was going to do a series called "American Nightmares", which I set up for him back in Pulp Horrorshow v. 3.  American Nightmares never came to fruition (the team was mostly wiped out in Bad Rapture: Alpha), but I pretty much gave Boolah the character of Secret Soldier a couple of years ago.  It made sense, since I really hadn't done a lot with Secret Soldier.  He had only been in a few comics, and he didn't really say much.  The only real concept behind the character was, "He's Captain America after something really bad has happened to him.  Really, really bad."  Boolah's approach to the character (and I apologize if I'm misinterpreting this), is that Secret Soldier has kind of lost his mind after failing so many times before, and now he's on a sort of suicide mission to combat Ortex and the Forces of Evil.  It's an interesting concept, and quite a bit different from what I would have done, which is the entire point of bringing someone new on board.  I want a different perspective and approach from my own.

Having said that, Man, Secret Soldier is a jerk.

Skull Mob:

Skull Mob 6-20.

I can't remember which of us came up with the idea to have Aliceislost come to Death Moth's rescue.  It's a neat idea, though, and sets us up for some stuff later on.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club 24-20.

And so it begins, the debut of the reborn Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  You have no idea how many different versions of this roster I went through before I came to this version.  I tried different themes and approaches.  Invented new characters, deleted old ones.  Changed, rearranged.  At one point, the HFSAC Roster had 40 characters in it.  Lemme repeat that, FORTY CHARACTERS!  So I'm glad I'm at this page, because now my Roster is Locked into place.  It's time to move forward toward the future!

What brought me to this Roster was the idea of running with the theme of Space Gods.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Jack Kirby's 4th World/New Gods, and if I'm being honest, that's the kind of story I want to tell.  I want to tell the story of an Epic War between a Pantheon of Space Gods Waging War with the Corporation from Hell.  So that's what HFSAC became about, and that's what I was working on when I built this group.  I settled on a Roster of 12 because 12 is a good number for a Pantheon.  Or at least it sounds like a good number for a Pantheon.

Hey, it's better than 40!

Anyway, here's a rundown of our 12 Space Gods.

Name:  Cactus Joe the Clown
God-Type:  God of Creation
Cosmi-Force Power:  Prmordio- Primordio is the cosmic power of primal evolution.  Essentially, by touching another intelligent life-form, the Clown can instantaneously Evolve or Devolve the creature.  As a basic example, if he were to touch a human, he could devolve him into a monkey, or evolve him into a star-child.  The Clown can tailor his evolutionary powers anyway he wants to, essentially turning a person into anything his imagination can conceive.  There are limits to this power of course.  They include:  1) It only works at touch range (the Clown still has his Energy Blasts for Ranged fighting), 2) It doesn't work on Machines, Robots, Plants, or beings who have no Evolutionary Path (Demons or Nullaphons for example), and 3) It doesn't work on Other members of HFSAC.  Note the key word "Other".
The Costume Design:  You might notice the Clown's outfit looks similar to the outfit he wore in the old Black and White SDF days.  This new outfit is modeled after that classic costume design, although I've modified it to look more space-agey and futuristic, whereas the old one had an S&M/Cenobite thing going on.

Name:  Pengy Penguin
God-Type:  God of Enlightenment (Penguin God of Enlightenment?)
Cosmi-Force Power:  Enlighteno-  Enlighteno, as the name would imply, is the power of Cosmic Enlightenment.  It's kind of hard to describe.  Pengy is enlightened.  He possesses Cosmic Awareness, Telepathy, Telekinesis, and the ability to heal others and resurrect the recently dead.  He can also temporarily impart Enlightenment in others.  Pengy is also the only member of HFSAC who can send messages to OMNICHRONUS from light years away.
The Costume Design:  The only change I've made to Pengy's design is that I've gotten rid of the big orb/eyeball in Pengy's chest.  Other than that, with Pengy, simplicity is bliss.

Name:  Tei Harlequin
God-Type:  Earth Goddess
Cosmi-Force Power:  Elemento-  Tei's powers pretty much remain the same, they've just been kicked up to the next level.  She can control the 4 essential elements that make up the universe, namely Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water.
The Costume Design:  I took the previous design and just made some light changes here and there.  I modified the headgear a little, gave her a skirt instead of a jump suit (that was at Mei's request.  It was a good call, I like it), and gave her some hi-tech boots (a lot of the characters got hi-tech boots.  Not sure why).  The Big Note (which you can't really make out in this shot) is that she has the 4 Card Suits on her sleeves:  Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades.  This is not only a reference to the 4 Elements, but it's also a bit of a nod to my Girl, who loves Card Games.

Name:  Tea Cup
God-Type:  Blacksmith of the Gods
Cosmi-Force Power:  Machino-  Machino allows Tea Cup to control and transform machines.  He can shut machines off, destroy them from a distance, or take control of them remotely.  He can also manipulate and transform machines, even combining them in different ways.  And it's worth mentioning that Tea Cup is a machine himself...
 The Outfit:  The big change is that Tea Cup doesn't look "bald" anymore.  Other than that, I simplified the design on the arms a little, and I got rid of the singlet, replacing it with a legging thingie similar to the kind Kirby's Executioner wore.

Name:  Electric Cherry
God-Type:  Storm Goddess
Cosmi-Force Power:  Stormo-  Much like Tei Harlequin, Electric Cherry's powers aren't much different, they just got kicked up a notch.  Cherry is living lightning, and she can create, control, and shape lighting in a variety of ways.  She has three powerful weapons now:  The Lightning Sword, the Thunder Shield, and the Storm Bow.
 The Outfit:  I've noticed lately that for some reason, women in genre work can't wear armor.  Dudes can wear huge, thick armor, but chicks have gotta run around in bikinis.  Why can't ladies wear armor too?  What's up with that?  Anyway, Electric Cherry was always a Samurai warrior lady, so I just gave her full battle armor.  Oh, and her eyes are Electric Blue now instead of Red, because I thought that made more sense.

Name:  @byss
God-Type:  God of Darkness
Cosmi-Force Power:  Gravito-  @byss is a living, sentient black hole.  As a result, his body is composed of densely, densely, densely compacted gravity.  Which is why he's the toughest member of HFSAC.  His Gravito power allows him to control Gravity in the area around him.  @byss can also create Clones of himself which he can control through his gravitational pull.
The Outfit:  I don't know where the idea for @byss's look came from.  It just came to me.  I wanted him to be more complex.  I'm worried I stole the costume design from somewhere without realizing it.  Anyway, I like the new look.

Name:  Mr. Halloween
God-Type:  Trickster God
Cosmi-Force Power:  Negato-  Negato is a unique type of Negative Energy that cancels out other forms of Energy.  At it's most basic, it can counteract fire, lightning, electricity, energy blasts, magic, or whatever, cancelling out the other form of energy.  Negato can also be used to negate Life Force energy, weakening or killing an enemy.  OR it can Negate Mental Energy, turning a person into a Zombie that Mr. Halloween can then control.
 The Outfit:  The previous Mr. Halloween outfit was okay, but it was kinda clunky.  I fixed that hideous belt, and got rid of the Spawn/Dr. Strange/Mr. Miracle Cloak/Hood thingie, which I didn't like to draw that much.  I changed the chest logo a little.  The big change is the addition of a headband/crown thingie.  I included this for three reasons:  1) As a trickster god, the crown makes him look a little like Loki, so that's cool, 2) the horns on the crown are a reference to Mr. Halloween's Demonic Heritage, and 3)  Mr. Halloween's face didn't have a lot of features to it, so the crown adds a little character to his face.

Name:  Shiv
God-Type:  Goddess of Justice/Balance
Cosmi-Force Power:  Libro-  Libro is the power of Kharmic Balance.  Shiv is the most cosmically aware of all the members of HFSAC.  She can see through to the truth of anything or anyone.  Used offensively, Libro makes Shiv stronger when she is fighting an enemy who is Evil.  The more Evil the opponent, the stronger Shiv is.  Against a large group of evil opponents, she can release a burst of Kharmic Destructive Power, although using this power hurts her as well.  Used Defensively, Libro allows Shiv to rewrite the Kharmic Destiny of someone who has suffered unjustly.  She can heal wounds, resurrect the recently dead, and even transform a person's body... presuming the person is Kharmically worthy.
The Outfit:  The big change to Shiv I made was I gave her pants and got rid of that giant belt.  That belt was too big.  Other than that, her basic design was inspired by Hindu gods and goddesses with a little bit of Wonder Woman thrown in for good measure.

Name:  Jester Kidd
God-Type:  God of War/The Hunt
Cosmi-Force Power:  Meteoro-  Meteoro is the power of Cosmic Motion.  The motion of comets and meteors and all that fun stuff.  In other words, Jester Kidd has a buttload of Raw Energy at his disposal.  He blasts stuff.
The Outfit:  Jester is the only actual Soldier in HFSAC, so he's got Armor and a bit of Spartan soldier thing going on.  The Bells on his Shoulder Armor are the only real "Jester" reference in the character's current design.  In the new design I added a Sun Logo to his chest got rid of the giant belt (what was with me and the giant belts?) and modified the plume on his helmet because the old one was hard to draw.

Name:  Phantasmo Rex
God-Type:  Sun God
Cosmi-Force Power:  Abstracto-  Abstracto is the power of the abstract, the things that we don't fully see or understand.  Rex can manipulate reality to a certain degree, and create abstract objects out of thin air using surrounding particles and photons.  He can also control and manipulate light, and can create lasers. 
The Outfit:  Rex's original look was pretty basic, and was primarily based on the design of his brother, Cosmico Rex.  For the redesign, I gave him a yellow coat with a Red Star on the Chest.  That was pretty much it.

Name:  Cosmic Fool
God-Type:  God of Wisdom (Ironic, eh?)
Cosmi-Force Power:  Adapto-  Adapto is the power of Cosmic Adaptation.  Essentially, the Cosmic Fool can adapt to his environment almost instantly.  For example, if the Cosmic Fool is hit by a laser, it will hurt him.  The second time he is hit by that laser, his body will adapt and find a way to repel the laser.  Used offensively, if the Fool is fighting a guy in, say, a heavy set of armor, the first time the Fool punches the armor, he'll do no damage.  The second time, his body will adapt in such a way so that the Fool will break the armor on the second strike.  It's kinda hard to explain, but it should be fun to write.
The Outfit:  It's weird.  The Cosmic Fool started out as a bizarro world rip-off of the Silver Surfer.  Then, somehow, he became a Candy-Colored version of Batman from the Classic, Campy TeeVee show.  So that was where his outfit started.  I wanted the Fool to still look kind of silly, but I also wanted him to look a little bit like a Sage or a Priest.  So I added some elements to kind of merge those concepts.

Name:  Sphynx
God-Type:  Death God
Cosmi-Force Power:  Destroyo-  Destroyo is the power of Cosmic Destruction.  Simple as that.  Sphynx possesses the most Raw Power of any member of HFSAC.
The Outfit:  Sphynx's look is obviously modeled after the classic Sphinx and general Egyptian God/Pharaoh type of stuff.  I only made some slight changes in the redesign.  He's got sleeves and gold booties now, and I changed the color of his face from green to blue, because I didn't like how the green looked.

A Sudden Departure, Thoughts of Regret, and Titanfall

Let's Get on with it, shall we?

SDF:

SDF 10-19.

First off, apologies to Boolah.  I cut some of his dialogue and scenes from this page because I needed to add some stuff, and this was as good a place as any for it.  I wanted to show a connection between Queen Shal-ra and the Old School Heroes (Secret Soldier, King Dark, Doom Eagle, and Death Moth), and that she used to be known as Diva.  I also wanted to give Arrowhead a little moment to mourn the loss of his pupil, Arrowhead II.  Panel 4 and onward is back to Boolah's dialogue, so I didn't horn in for too long.

One of the problems we ran into with the Bad Rapture wrap up was what to do with King Dark.  King Dark wasn't even originally supposed to be in Bad Rapture at all.  He just kinda ended up in the story.  I didn't wanna kill him off, considering he's one of my oldest characters, but neither me nor Boolah had any plans for the guy after Bad Rapture either.  Eventually, we came up with the idea for the Verdant Kingdom Exodus, and Boolah suggested we send King Dark off with the Verdant Kingdom.  I immediately liked the idea, so that's how we ended up with this scene.

Skull Mob:

Skull Mob 6-19.

It was Boolah's idea to have a page full of Flashbacks, but he left the writing up to me, so I basically loaded the page with a mix of relationships and failures.  There's Jack's relationship with his brother.   His bizarre relationship with his original nemesis, Peacock (who, coincidentally, the Moth managed to kill this very issue).  There's the beginning of Jack's war with Dr. Dendull.  There's Bad Jack's short-lived (literally) relationship with Beelzebub Joan.  And his sorta-kinda-not-really relationship with Renee K-9.

Now, what is aliceislost doing here?

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club 24-19.

A few pages ago I posed the question "How do you fight an enemy that's the size of a skyscraper?"  Well, the answer is, you get 12 Cosmic Heroes to dive into a Wellspring of Pure Cosmic Energy so that they temporarily become a Living Sun and then Vaporize the Armageddeon Titan with a Wave of Pure Energy.

Simple, really.

The Gathering, The Swarm, and the Crazy Plan

Here we go:

SDF:

SDF 10-18.

There's a lot of folks on this Page.  I went through all my old issues of SDF to try to find as many members of the Community as I could.  Most of them didn't really have names.  In front you'll see Arrowhead I (who was at the funeral earlier this issue).  Off to his right, you'll see the Orphans of the Community, including Tommy Hawk as well as the kid who gave the Mystery Man the Baseball Bat in Bad Rapture Alpha.  You might notice one kid is missing.  We'll get back to that later.  In the deep background on the right you'll see a couple of the refugees that Razorfish and Sally Mander (RIP) brought to the Community.  On the left hand side are the Geek Couple from SDF 3 & 4.  Perhaps most interesting is that you can see Walt & Sped, Frimpy, and Penny Platypus (who, unfortunately, just missed seeing her cousins).  Walt and the others weren't actually living in the Community.  They lived on a small farm within the forest, a few miles away.  They routinely delivered fresh fruits and vegetables to the Community.  I feel like I hinted at this in an earlier issue, but I may have never gotten around to it.

The two ladies growing out of the large leaves in the mid-ground are Queen Shal-ra and her sister, Rakka the Witchdoctor.  The last time we saw them was in SDF #6, although they actually debuted way back in SDF: Pulp Special.  Rakka was a regular in the later issues of Monster King.  Queen Shal-ra is the ruler of the Verdant Kingdom, which exists in a Pocket Dimension.  She is also one of the two Locaii (the other being aliceislost) who represent the Life Force Energy that flows throughout reality.  Because of this, the two women are highly coveted by Dr. Dendull, who believes that he can rewrite Reality itself if he absorbs them into himself.  I know, I know, that's a lot of backstory for a character that's only appeared in a handful of issues.  Try living in my brain for awhile.  It's a mess in there.

Anyway, Priest Shiki, who is kneeling, was originally only supposed to be the Community's resident Priest/Shaman/Holy Man.  His job was simply to spiritually purify people entering the Community to ensure they weren't demon possessed.  If they were Demon Possessed, Shiki had the potential to exorcise the demon as well, although that didn't really come up much.  That was really all I had on the guy.  He was just another refugee fleeing the Ortex Corporation (seriously, Ortex would kill a guy who could exorcise demons without a second thought.  In fact, if you were a massive corporation that was a really a front for demons from hell conquering the world, Holy Men would be your first targets of elimination).  Anyway, I'm not sure if it was by accident, confusion, or design, but Boolah seemed to think that Priest Shiki was a part of the Verdant Kingdom.  But then I got to thinking about it, and I was like, y'know, that makes sense.  Queen Shal-ra's Magics maintained the Last Forest on Earth, so it would make sense that she would have an emissary hidden in the Community.  So that's how Shiki became a servant of the Verdant Kingdom, which is why he is bowing.

Skull Mob:

Skull Mob 6-18.

Jeez, the Death Moth is having a bad day.  I'll probably use that last panel for the Cover.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club 24-18.

This version of Tea Cup has been around for a few years now, and he's had a fair amount of screen time.  We've seen his strength, his heart, his guts, his compassion, and his power.  But I'm not sure if we've seen how clever Tea Cup is before now.  With the Clown being the flagship of the TORCverse, there's that compulsion to have him figure out the path to victory all the time (ever notice how the more popular Wolverine got, the more likely he was to be clever and figure out the answer to riddles and whatnot?  Wasn't Wolverine just a Slashy-Claw Berzerker Guy?).  Actually, I've never really portrayed the Clown as being overly clever.  He's more the Smashy-Smash Type.  More often than not, it's Pengy Penguin who figures things out.  Still, I like this scene, as it not only shows Tea Cup using his head to come up with the solution, but it also shows how Tea Cup and the Clown tend to operate on the same wavelength, as the Clown immediately knows Tea Cup's solution without the Big Red Robot having to explain it.

Also, I like the Colors on the Bottom Panel.

Love, A Violent End, and the Cosmic Wellspring Unleashed

It's my Birthday Month!  Woo!  Expect some Specials and other nonsense this Month.

SDF:

SDF 10-17.

Is it any wonder he fell in love with her?

Skull Mob:

Skull Mob 6-17.

Ewwwwwww.  And so ends Xipe Topec.  Billions of years old, and ultimately devoured by the Living Reality Cancer that is Dr. Dendull.  Bummer.

HFSAC:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club 24-17.

Although the story was never finished (yeah, I know, I suck), Cactus Joe defeated an Armageddon Titan in "Clown & Penguin" #1-2 by ripping his heart out.  Unfortunately, it was a pretty long and involved process, and the Armageddon Titan was free to roam around during that time.  So, it's not a very solid tactic for our heroes right now.  Other than that, I'm curious how the colors will look on the Great Cosmic Wellspring on the Printed Edition.  Hopefully pretty groovy.

Grooooooovy.