Harrison, Hayes, and Cleveland all feature in a 4-panel comic that The Count did back when I was having computer trouble. It is one my favorite episodes.
I’ve been talking about bringing the middlin’ Presidents back for awhile. The confluence of the type of story I wanted to tell with this arc, as well as some exposition I wanted to reveal, made bringing them back a good fit.
Since I was already self-indulging by bringing back Harrison, Hayes, and Cleveland, I figured I’d throw another one my favorites in this episode.
In the 1950s, Froot Piez were called Froot Pies. I think Frederick must have gotten the Piez for Nietzsche from the 1980s, which was the flaky golden age of snack cake themed advertising comics.
Seanbaby has the definitive page for discussing snack cakes in comics. This still can make me cry laughing. It just did.
–Geoff
Follow @ftgcomic
This is the LAST DAY to contribute to our Castro Valley High Art Department fundraiser drive! If you’ve been holding out so as to build the dramatic presence of your contribution, the moment is nigh!! You can donate here, or hop on over to the new (and rad) episode Jack and Voytek and donate there for some fantastic Xander Kent art! Deadline is midnight tonight, so let’s make some magic happen!
$10 Gets you a Sketch from either me or Xander Kent!
$20 Gets you a Sketch and a copy of Light Opera and Heavy Consequences
$50 Gets you an appearance in an upcoming Frederick story arc as a genuine character!
I’m going to let Geoff tell the story of the three and a half years he has been planning and laying in wait to bring back this episode, but I can at least talk about the origin thereof. It was early 2008, and we were in the middle of the Civil War arc (extra points if you were with us back when that first came out), when Geoff’s computer gave up the ghost after years of putting up with him never cleaning its poor dust-encrusted innards. So, for that week I wrote up two quick 4-panel black and white filler episodes, because that’s as much layout as I knew (and know) how to do. I had been reading the book Woodrow Wilson wrote about the mid to late nineteenth century in American politics, which meant spending some intimate time with the Low to Middlin party-manufactured presidents of the era (except Grover Cleveland, who was a total G), all of which brewed into those four panels.
As to the origin of Froot Piez, that was an episode that Geoff wrote from The Training of a Fop holiday special waaaay back in 2007, so he can talk more on that.
In other news, I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen, is perhaps the funniest thing I’ve read this year. My family and I have read it, oh, about 10 times in the last half hour, and it keeps getting better. It centers on a bear’s search for his hat, and is a masterpiece of timing. Somebody could use this as a textbook in How Humor Works. I LOVE IT.
– Count Dolby von Luckner
LAST DAY to help us help Castro Valley High’s Art Department! Details in The Count’s Chatter Below!
Respect the First Inaugural.
Since today’s episode is fairly Abe-centric, I should mention that Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is a solid block of awesome. I haven’t read it recently, and I seem to have lent my copy out… However, if you read it now, you can say that you were totally into the book before the movie came out.
I’ve always been a fan of William H. Seward since learning about him in elementary school. (In Alaska, everybody learns about “Seward’s Folly” in detail.) So, it is nice to see him get discussed in depth along with Abe. Hmmm. I should cook up a reason to have Seward show up in the comic at some point.
As for the exciting times are coming, that is totally true.
–Geoff
Follow @ftgcomic
Great news on the Castro Valley High Art Department Fundraiser front – 6th Circle and Jack and Voytek artist Xander Kent heard about our drive, and has volunteered his services for the cause! His art is PHENOMENAL, and he is a fine and upstanding human being besides. So, if you’d rather have an original Kent sketch, just say so when you make your donation and we’ll get it set up!
$10 Gets you a Sketch from either me or Xander Kent!
$20 Gets you a Sketch and a copy of Light Opera and Heavy Consequences
$50 Gets you an appearance in an upcoming Frederick story arc as a genuine character!
ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT!
In other news, I’ve been reading Jennifer Smith’s LaSalle’s Legacy as of late, and adore it. I’m about halfway through the archives, and in that brief space it has stirred my love of foppish yet kick ass sea captains, undead worker legislation, mystical technology, feats of engineering that make cannons Way Awesome, periwigs, and revenge on the high seas. It’s densely sewn with interesting things – the universe is deeply thought, but not oppressively presented. Little notes and hints here and there without the Here Are The Six Pages of Text You Need To Memorize To Understand Anything that you sometimes run into.
As to our own comic, I THINK I know what Geoff has coming up next episode, and if it is what I think it is, oh exciting times are coming.
– Count Dolby von Luckner