His last comment is my absolute least favorite office-life maxim. I’ve heard it forever, and it always feels like a pre-planned cheat or, at least, a cop-out. Whatever the case, it’s weak.

And I can’t imagine The Interventionist going all weak, can you?

That’s the bad news. The good news is we’re finally settled in a new house in a new city with the family fully ensconced in new jobs and school, etc. Of course now I have a commute, so finding time to work on my comic is harder. But I have a new (old) computer that lets me use my old copies of Adobe Creative Suite, so I’m no longer fighting the junky old, weird software that plagued the last 20 strips or so.

Whatever the case, I’m back in the cartooning saddle. Sort of. Huzzah.

This is the kind of scene I’ve had in my head since I was a kid growing up in Minnesota, Kansas and Nebraska. I used to imagine how cool it would be to shoot a web line and swing from place to place — if only they were high enough for it to work. In fact, truth be told, I imagined it when walking from class to class when I was in college. I can’t be the only geek who’s done that … right?

Good thing there aren’t as many people and thus not as much crime out in the middle of nowhere. And, oh yeah, good thing we don’t need Spidey to be real.

Uniformed cop: Why don’t you just set up a hotline to reach him?

Commissioner Gordon: We tried that, but when he learned the city was switching to VoIP, you’d think we had shot his parents or something.

Alternate text II:

Uniformed cop: Doesn’t he make his own high-tech gadgets? What’s with this relic?

Commissioner Gordon: I know … I tried to get him to use something else … .

Uniformed cop: What do mean? I was talking about you.

/ba-dum-bum/

Aaaaaaand that’s why I chose what I chose to put in the comic.

Sorry for the slight interruption of the HeroIsUm story line, sometimes I just have to put things to paper. And since it’s superhero related, I figured “why not?”

Mindover Man: He’s no airline pilot.

Get the man a barf bag.

Ohhhhh, wait. That’s exactly what they’re doing.

It’s nothing as cool or interesting as a conspiracy. It’s just laziness and self-serving antipathy toward the people for whom these institutions are supposed to be working. It’s simple human nature — and good fodder for a cartoonist!

Not that I’m disparaging Marvel or Mark Waid. I could care less about Marvel, to be honest, but I’m quite excited about Mark Waid’s ideas and plans for digital comics. And I can’t agree with him more about the future of comics. I like paper copies almost as much as the next guy (except for storing them). But the future is online for comics. I don’t live all that close to one of the FEW comic shops, and the ones that I can get to don’t, in my opinion, do much to advance the medium from a retail or promotion standpoint.

Waid rightly points out that Apple sells more iPads in a few minutes than there are comic shops in existence. And each can be its own “spinner rack” for the digital age. It’s about time comics started regaining their place in society — and that includes with kids. As long as there’s monopoly distribution to places that resemble dingy basements, comics will continue to fall into irrelevance. But if they’re available — and promoted — the medium can start growing again. So I’m all for Waid’s ideas, digital distribution and a dynamic, varied and interesting marketplace.

Hopefully soon I’ll either figure out this stuff or get going on a better computer.

Thanks for reading!

But I love making comics, even if I’m the only one who gets them. And I love the concept of superheroes, especially mine. They’re probably much more humorous and dynamic in my own head, but I want to try to get that translated to the strip, no matter how long it takes.

And, unfortunately, that’s probably going to be a little longer than usual because my comic-making computer died, taking with it my copies of Adobe CS2. I’m on a newer machine now, but it’s incompatible with those old Adobe programs. I’m trying to make a new, less expensive suite from Serif work for me. This strip was lettered and prepped in the new programs, but it took a while. It felt like a right-handed person trying to write left handed.

Anyway, the train is rolling again, ever so slowly. …

Maybe someday I’ll draw a flashback. With him on a disco tractor.

Let me know what you think of the story so far. Is it piquing your interest? Is it sufficiently funny? Is it neither of these? I’d love some feedback, good or bad.

Either way, thanks for reading.

Thanks for indulging me. …

Cavill commands attention, seems to be able to get into character well enough, and does indeed seem to be 6’1″ after all. His height shouldn’t be a problem (whew). But for all his reported stage training and serious roles, I wouldn’t put the performances I saw on any level far and above anything Tom Welling has done. And Welling was simply a model before taking the Clark Kent role in “Smallville” a decade(!) ago. Sure, I understand the thinking that you can’t take a TV version, with the same actor, to the big screen, but I wouldn’t have complained if Snyder had taken that risk. Alas, that ship has sailed.

I do think Cavill will need to spend the next six months on a strict diet of Max Muscle protein shakes and hours every day in the gym. If he does that, he’s got a frame not unlike Welling’s. He could pull this off.

Yes, I’m putting WAY too much thought into this, but I desperately want to see a Superman movie done right. I want it to hit every note cleanly. Probably not unlike a lot of Gen Xers my age, as a puberty-ravaged 13-year-old in the ’80s, I depended on Superman to fill in as my lead male role model when my parents got divorced. In a weird way, Superman was my adopted “dad” for a while. It means a lot to me to have this character treated well (which is why, J. Michael Straczynski, you are dead to me). And it pains me to say that “Iron Man” is the best superhero movie ever made. Supes should have the top spot. He’s the first and best.

Of the modern screen versions of Supes, Dean Cain did an OK job in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” back in the mid-’90s. Certainly didn’t harm the character overall. I actually prefer his Clark to that of Christopher Reeve’s nerdy bumbler. I’ve never understood why it was necessary to be such a doofus. No, the writing and budget for “Lois & Clark” wasn’t much, but, for what it was, the show provided a nice, light touch.

“Smallville” has certainly had its ups and downs. But as someone who has watched nearly every episode on the night it first aired, I can say the last three seasons (once the show’s originators took their “teen soap” ideas and left) have been the best since Season 1. Tom Welling has certainly grown with that role, and “Smallville” for all its flaws, is forever my all-time favorite TV show because, at its core, it shows the heart of Superman.

The less I say about “Superman Returns,” the better. It definitely had some good points (airplane save, flying effects), and Brandon Routh was OK. He just didn’t really get to explore the character that much. As a remake of the original “Superman” movie, overall, it’s just not good. Excellent cinematography, awful rendition of the character, with the worst-ever Lois Lane. And don’t get me started on the kid or the super-stalking. See? I have to stop. …

So treat him well, Messrs. Snyder and Cavill. Lots of starry-eyed kids — of all ages — are depending on you.

Still, after reading the news this morning that Cavill was cast as the Man of Steel in Zack Snyder’s reboot of the Superman movie franchise, I had to do some digging. My first gut reaction is one of admitted xenocentrism: How can a Brit pull off “Truth, Justice and the American way?” Sure, he can probably do an American accent just fine, but can a guy whose second middle name is Dalgliesh channel what it’s like to grow up on a farm in Kansas? Reports are that he’s actually a fine actor. Plus, comic writers from Great Britain (Grant Morrison, Alan Moore) have written better Superman stories than most American writers in the last 25 years, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.

But next is his physique. IMDB says he’s 6’1″, but looking at pictures in their gallery, as he’s standing next to female co-stars, I’d bet all the money I spent on the seven times I saw “Superman Returns” that he’s not an inch over 5’10″. And he’s going to have to get ahold of Barry Bonds to work his BALCO connections so he can bulk up to superhero size. Dude looks pretty darn scrawny to me. He probably could have given fellow Brit Andrew Garfield a run for his role as Peter Parker in the next Spider-Man movie rather than playing Superman.

Then again, Snyder is supposed to make him appear to fly, change the course of mighty rivers, shoot lasers from his eyes and more. Adding six or eight inches to his height might be doable, as long as he casts someone shrimpy like Natalie Portman as Lois.

I just hope Snyder doesn’t stick him in some dumb rubber suit like he did with another beanpole Englishman Matthew Goode, as Ozymandias, in “Watchmen.”

For what it’s worth, just from appearances alone, I still think “True Blood” actor Joe Manganiello, at 6’5″, would have been more believable as Supes.

But what do I know? I’m just a fanboy.

I really like the idea that my comic now is more “real” as comics go, as I’m not using a free-distribution typeface anymore. Not that this makes a difference to most, but I really like the change.

Having completed grad school (graduating Summa Cum Laude, I must add), then taking a break, I needed to draw. As you can see, though, there’s a big change: No color. I’m going to ease myself back into creating my comic, mostly because I’m still trying to figure out how to do everything the right way, now that I don’t have to study and write papers all the time.

My priority, of course, is spending time with my family, and creating a full-color webcomic is far more time consuming than doing a black-and-white one. I almost typed “hopefully that’s OK with everyone” and then I realized 1) The correct word would be “anyone,” as traffic has totally tanked during my hiatus, and 2) I’m not asking for permission or anyone’s blessing: This is the way things will be until the imaginary day that I get to make this comic my full-time job (Ha!).

The upside is that I’m much faster at drawing than I am at coloring, so hopefully I’ll get to crank out strips much more frequently.

As always, I’d be glad to know your thoughts on anything here.

Thanks for your patience!

Any interest from readers in having this image as a downloadable desktop background? If so, let me know.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Feedback is always appreciated.

I didn’t intend for SJ Man to become a cast member, but I think there are some possibilities for him after all, as long as I handle the character with, uh, rubber gloves.

Yeah, I guess that’s not really going out on a limb, but weirder causes have been taken up, right?

Happy birthday, bro!

At first, I tried thinking of what I could do to start up a whole new comic, but eventually realized this is exactly the kind of wild tangent Marv would go on.

I don’t know about anyone else (other than my wife and me), but Marv is quickly becoming my favorite character here. He practically writes himself.

So I needed to take a stand against soccer, the world’s lamest game, in my own way.

But among those things are the kickers they use to tease said lame story — which is usually weird or involves kids or animals, sometimes all of the above.

Secondly, I’m interested to hear whether anyone actually gets, much less finds humor in, Mondegreen Mondays. Even my wife says she doesn’t really get it. I figure it’s an acquired taste, and you have to have your head in an ’80s music mode. Is that too much to put on a reader? Is it just a dumb idea?

I’d love some feedback. And please don’t be afraid to say it’s idiotic. I’m halfway there myself.

Thanks,

Jason

If we count the comic book story, we’re well past 100 individual comic pages, though. And that brings me to a question that I’d love to have feedback on: Because it’s got to be terribly confusing to new readers, should I take down the comic book pages and keep only the humor strip? Or does the comic book story provide a little bit of insight into the characters?

Please leave me a comment if you feel strongly about this.

And thanks for reading!

Is it inevitable? I hope not.

Yet, if it is, please, God, let them stay away from the goth vampire thing.

If I’m lucky, maybe this whole Twilight thing will have blown over by then. By the way, does anyone else think Robert Pattinson’s look is just a ripoff of Robert Smith’s look? I bet he could stand in as the lead singer of The Cure and no one would notice.

This one also was subject to a last-minute change as I realized I could change the last two panels from being a two-person conversation to an unwanted three-person talk. It made more sense to have Marv butting in rather than having The Interventionist be the guy who says ALL the inappropriate sayings.

Just a tip for anyone who hasn’t yet gotten H1N1: If you go to the doctor within the first 48 hours of symptoms, INSIST on Tamiflu. The doctors will try to tell you you’ll just have to let it run its course and put you on ibuprofen and maybe some cough syrup, as one did with my daughter. Only, she didn’t get over it fast, and it got worse, forcing us to head her regular pediatrician later in the week and then on Sunday to a different Urgent Care doctor, who was irritated that she hadn’t been given Tamiflu by the first guy. And then he said there was no point giving it to her now that she was testing negative for Type A flu. He said if you don’t get that kind of medicine within the first 48 hours, it’s not going to do you much good. So be aware of what you need and when.

It really is a helpless feeling when you can hardly console your child, much less make anything better for her. The best I could do was carefully mind her meds, help her go back to sleep, keep her hydrated, and, when possible, try to make her laugh.

She did laugh when I told her I thought of this strip during our third trip to the doc, and didn’t mind that I was making light of your unbrushed-for three-days teeth and rank breath. Not that hygiene would or should be on a sick person’s agenda, but as soon as she started feeling better, it was time to break out the toothbrush!

You did a good job being a strong kid, T! Thanks for the inspiration!!

But as I kicked around what I wanted to say, what I should say, and just how honest I wanted to be, I thought of saying what The Interventionist says here. It would have been the most honest reaction, if also the most cynical. I remember junior high and high school girls in my school being downright vicious with each other at times, then acting as if they were best buds with these very same people a day or two later. It never made any sense to me, so I asked my wife if this was common or just my odd perception. She said this was the case for her and pretty much any female she’s ever known — they all had stories about their emotionally traumatic early teen years.

And, come to think of it, didn’t the late John Hughes base much of his directing career on that kind of conflict?

Ah, unintentional humor. …

Yet another reason to love football!

And then I had to take it a step further and make a little comment about the current political landscape, with President Barack Obama and conservative talk radio folks such as Rush Limbaugh butting heads. I don’t intend to drag my comic into the slimy mud of politics, which I detest completely, but I figured if I’m being underhandedly cynical in the strip, I might as well go all the way.

So welcome all of you who ended up here thinking you were getting something else entirely. You won’t find poorly written fake news here, just an honest attempt to entertain you — along with some coincidental abbreviations every now and again … . I hope you come back regularly and get your head out of the morass that is SEO marketing or the equally morassic (have I coined a new word, too? What a busy week this is already!) underworld of politics. There’s a whole other world of geeks out here … welcome!

Wait. First, I said you have to think … but, then, you shouldn’t think … See why this is so confusing?!?

Just stick to Twitter, where all you get is spammers for followers.

Again, I didn’t plan for this strip to show up here on the exact release day of Green Lantern: First Flight, but it’s certainly a happy coincidence. I haven’t seen it, but based on DC Comics’ previous animated DVDs, I guarantee superhero fans will love this iteration of Hal Jordan, Sinestro, the Guardians of the Universe, Oa, and the whole Green Lantern Corps. Can you tell I’m a little excited about this?

For anyone who stops by this site every week, I’ll note that I have to take next week off because my family is moving to a new house. Hmmm … and I suppose this strip now obligates me to NOT act like a Spleen Lantern with anyone who offers to help, doesn’t it?

Naw, there’s no such thing when it comes to hicks … .

“Blackest Night,” if it’s even half as good as Geoff Johns’ “Sinestro Corps War” will dwarf any of the recent “summer events” that either DC or Marvel has manufactured over the last several years. And that’s because it’s a natural — and incredible — outgrowth of an ongoing storyline, not just a sales gimmick.

And I think Reynolds is a great choice for Green Lantern. He’s a guy who has name recognition, which, as a friend pointed out today, is more necessary with a character that most of the public is unfamiliar with, as opposed to Superman or Batman. He’s got the geek credential, having been in a Blade movie, as well as playing Deadpool in the unfathomably awful Wolverine movie (he’ll certainly have a better vehicle in his solo Deadpool movie — it’s impossible to get anything worse than Wolverine). He’s got the “leading man” qualities that you want in a superhero movie, the ability to be funny on his own and with script help, and has the physicality to make it work. Finally Warner Bros. does something right!

And as for the guy at the dirt-color end of the spectrum, above? Well, I’ll unwrap that in the strips to come. And, yes, the brown does have a meaning. …

My thought was that if we could get a hotel room high enough and facing the right direction, we could see the fireworks shows from Invesco Field at Mile High and Coors Field. Both stadiums were scheduled to have big blowout displays after it got dark, and, from the right vantage point, I thought we’d be able to see them both. The only problem was that the people who answer the phones for the Crowne Plaza in Denver don’t know jack about what’s visible and what’s not visible from their building (and probably don’t care). The outdoor pool on the sixth floor is too low to see over other buildings — especially the Hyatt, which mocked us all night from two blocks away with its taller structure that just happened to be in what should have been our line of sight toward Coors Field.

When I had this hare-brained idea, the first thing I asked when I called various hotels was “can you see Invesco and Coors Field from your building?” “I think so” was the best I could get. And “I think so” didn’t cut it. Maybe if they’d heeded our request a little better and put us on a higher floor, but I doubt it.

So, a word to the wise, if you want your kids to be able to see a cool fireworks show emanating from a sports venue, be smart enough to think about buying tickets before they’re sold out. And don’t try to make up for your lack of foresight by trying for a hotel with a view among a city’s skyscrapers. That’s just dumb; dumb as a lighthouse in a landlocked state.

This strip was partially inspired by a lighthouse at a small lake (scroll down when visiting the link) near where I grew up in Nebraska. Why it’s there, I’ve never cared to learn; I just always thought it was pretty stupid. But after this weekend, I am humbled by my own stupidity.

I pride myself on being a pretty decent writer, but I am unable to fully, eloquently express just how proud I am of my little girl. She truly is gifted. Beyond that, though, the fact that she looks up to her old man, sees him wasting time working on his comic, thinks it’s cool enough to try for herself, and wants to use comic creation to connect with me is enough to bring a wistful tear to my eye. As I said, I am proud and honored — humbled, in fact, by my amazing, wonderful daughter.

And in fairness and equanimity, I must say I’m sure it won’t be long before I’m debuting her equally-yet-differently amazing sister’s work here, too. She is just as wonderful. Life may be hard in many ways, but a beautifully talented family makes every struggle worth it. I am blessed.

Happy Independence Day, everyone.

A quick update after I recently posted that I nabbed the Facebook URL, facebook.com/webcomic: Not long after that, I decided to close down my Facebook account as a manner of streamlining my life. Facebook is too often nothing more than a time-suck to me, with all of those idiotic quizzes and top 5 lists. I need to focus first on my family, then grad school, then this comic. Facebook contributes nothing to any of those, so it had to go. I haven’t totally abandoned social media, just the annoying aspects. All two or three of you fans can still follow me on Twitter there in the right sidebar. —>

Lastly, I’m trying to be a little smarter about when I post new comics. I often don’t have time to get these done until the weekend and post them ASAP. But few people go fishing for webcomics on the weekends, so I’m going to shoot for a Tuesday (or so) upload for now in hopes of adding a fourth and fifth fan!

As always, thanks for reading!

We’re going to get to know the Just-Us League over the next several strips. One challenge to writing country-bumpkin types is how many articles and prepositions to shorten to “th’” and “an’” rather than “the” and “and.” All those apostrophes can start to make the text hard t’ read.

Oh, and another bonus this morning, after having forgotten to grab my own name on the Facebook ID free-for-all, I can now be found at facebook.com/webcomic. I sort of feel unworthy to have it while so many more talented, successful, funny, prolific and just-plain-deserving webcomickers are out there, but it’s a “name” I fully intend to grow into.

One thing I haven’t decided is where in the midwest these hicks are. Nebraska? Kansas? Oklahoma? Missouri? Should they be farther east, like Kentucky? Being from Nebraska, and glad to be in Colorado, I’m torn between using the strip to make fun of the Cornhusker state (I mean, really, Cornhuskers? What kind of name is that?), or to make fun of Nebraska’s arch-enemy, Oklahoma. But the Sooner state hasn’t really done anything bad to me, and they have no love for the Empire … er, Big Red Nation … . Any suggestions?

And to whom does this sinister, sneaky hand belong? And why and how can s/he affect The Interventionist? All will be revealed … .

For anyone interested in checking out the songs Mindover Man is messing  up, check out the Amazon music sidebar I’ve added. I list each of Mindover Man’s mondegreens and, if one of them turns into an earworm for you, you can use the sidebar to purchase the song and enjoy its oldies goodness over and over again.

You’re welcome, and please don’t curse me!

I’ve often wondered why it always falls to speedsters and/or flyers such as the Flash or Superman when it comes to stopping tornadoes in comics and cartoons. Why can’t somebody else try to handle it, like, oh, a telekinetic doofus? The real question is whether this will work.

I’ve been trying to update at least once a week, but after I sketched this week’s strip I watched Scott Kurtz digitally draw and color a “PVP” strip on Ustream and decided to try to do mine all digitally. While I think I came pretty close to replicating my paper-and-ink work, it took three times as long while using my Wacom tablet. It was difficult trying to get used to moving my hand on a flat surface and seeing the lines I produced on a vertical screen in front of me. I sort of got used to it but think I would need a LOT more time to become a fraction as good as Kurtz. Trying to do that and thinking of how effortlessly smooth his line work is gave me a whole new respect for the modern master of cartooning. 

And just when the tedium has me pretty well convinced that I shouldn’t color my strip (“after all, Kurtz, Straub, Eliopoulis, et al., don’t”), he starts coloring his strip after 10 years! Jerk!

But what should a superhero do in the face of a tornado? The cliche tactic, used by Superman and the Flash through the years, is to circle around it at super-speed, going the opposite direction. Any bets on what these two will try?

It seemed like the perfect current-events story for The Interventionist to jump into action.

Now he’s going to have to get extensions for his dreadlocks!

Come ooooon, you know you’ve done it. …

All those high-minded ideals conflict with his simple need for a job. Hey! What are real-world issues doing crowding their way back into this comic?!? Don’t worry, though, I’m not going all “Watchmen” … yet!

You may be beginning to notice a pattern here: What do superheroes do when they don’t have a secret identity? What kinds of jobs do they go for, and can they keep them? 

Of course not.

Hopefully that’s where the fun begins.