Sether in the Morff #15

We last left our hero buried under a pile of rubble.  What will become of Seth?  Huh?  ANSWER ME DAMN YOU!!

Calm down.  Read on:

Cover Page

Use that red marker, son.

The cover features the pile of rubble with blood leaking out.  It looks more like chunks of meat on some red sauce, or a small pile of squirrel poop on a scrap of red cloth.  PART TWO COMMENCES:

Page 1

Pronounced: D-skull-skull-m's Day.

Doom's Day takes a moment to gloat over my corpse.  That's just mean of him.

Page 2

Spelling error count: 5

There's a lot of dialogue on this page, perhaps more than any previous issue.  This results in a painful number of mistakes and errors.  Apparently the word 'while' was the bane of my existence.  

Doc informs my brothers that I've been killed.  Jess only laments that I can't pay him back $20.  Comedy, even in the face of tragedy.

Apparently Doom's Day can turn his rocket arms into more functional robot hands.  He deposits my broken corpse before Dark One on a shitty-looking table.  Dark One is now at full chub.

Page 3

Right about now: the Funk Soul Brother.

With Seth no longer among the living, the Spirit of Funkitude emerges from his body.  In a surprising gesture of kindness, the spirit teleports Seth's corpse 'home.'  Considering he's been an unwilling prisoner in Seth this whole time, he's pretty chill about the whole thing.  He even takes a moment to blast Doom's Day with a ray of energy (although not actually killing him, for some reason.  Just a chastising energy blast, I guess).

Page 4

Confusion: 100%

Okay... so, I guess Seth wasn't actually dead?  Did the Spirit resurrect him?  Your guess is as good as mine.  Now, the flow of the dialogue bubbles in the first panel is atrocious.  It should read:

"I lost my power!"

"We got to catch it or go to the..."

The Pyramid of Funkatuid (sic) of course!  

If Seth lost his powers, how the hell does he get to the pyramid?  Without his powers, Seth is dressed in relatively normal-looking clothes.  Do we truly not have pants when we are 'empowered?'  I'm quite puzzled.

I also don't know what the hell the Pyramid of Funkatude is.  Have we been there before?  It must have appeared in one of the lost issues.  Guh...

Page 5

*asterisk notes are an important part of any serious comic book.

Again, I fail to maintain proper dialogue bubble flow.  It should read:

"This is where we got our power!"

"And where you got Super Seth."  (spelling errors corrected)

So they HAVE been to the Pyramid before.  Glad we cleared that up.  I guess Zach and Jess stumbled upon the Pyramid somehow, got some orbs, and were thus empowered to a level similar to me.  I sure loves me some orbs!

Page 6

You can't spell 'absorb' without 'orb.'

Grasping the Funk Orb, Seth is empowered once more.  Indeed, the Spirit of Funkitude is pulled unwilling back into Seth's body, disturbingly near his pelvis.  

To celebrate, Seth then EXPLODES WITH NOODLE ZANINESS.  His arms and legs contort into insane shapes, and his mouth detaches from his face.  Our Hero is back, folks.  

Page 7

Great job turning that 'b' into a 'p.'  A+

Powers restored, spirit imprisoned in my body once more, I crack my knuckles menacingly and plot my revenge.  Yes, violence will be answered with even more extreme violence.  Such is the way of the Morff, the way of the Samurai.  

What fate awaits Doom's Day?  Tomorrow: the thrilling conclusion to the Doom's Day saga!  DO YOU LOVE ME YET, FATHER?  AM I STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH?  BLEOORGGH!!

Sether in the Morff #14

BLUUUURGGHHH MORE COMICS:

Cover Page

Phbhbhbththbh

A 3 part mini series?  This promises to be a story epic in scale, worthy of division into three parts!  Don't worry, it's actually not.

As I've gone through these old things, I've discovered that any 'mini series' was basically just one slightly longer than normal issue split up into a bunch of tiny blips, basically just wasting staples.

This cover depicts the Seth Symbol with a poorly rendered skull where the dot usually is.  A wiggly Swedish Fish streaks towards it (this is supposed to be a missile).

Page 1

START ALL STORIES WITH AN EXPLOSION

We begin in medias res, taking no time for build up or a proper introduction.  Seth is just dodging explosions.  Some guy with what appears to be tic-tac-toe boards for arms laughs at his plight.

Page 2

The Mask reference #2

Oh wait, those are missile launcher arms.  I stole those from the Mech Warrior games!  Specifically, the Timber Wolf heavy mech.  So I guess at this point, I had a Playstation.  One of the first Playstation games I owned was Mechwarrior 2.

This provides a clue as to when I likely made this comic!  The first two games I owned for Playstation were Mechwarrior 2 and Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.  I didn't actually get a Playstation until some time after Oddworld came out, which is the more recent game, released in 1997.  So this comic was likely made around 1997, putting me at a robust 10 years of age.  My shameless plagiarism proves helpful in dating these things.

I guess I never take the time to name this particular antagonist.  He is called Doom's Day.  Derp!  He has a skull on his chest, rocket launchers for arms, and some sort of blood vendetta against me.

Apparently Doom's Day is immune to my Sonic-the-Hedgehog-bicycle-kick-plagiarism-attack.  I follow one shameless ripoff with another, quoting Jim Carrey from a scene in The Mask.  Was I incapable of a unique, creative thought?  Is anyone?  (Sorry I just BLEW YOUR MIND!  WAKE UP SHEEPLE!  CHECKMATE ATHEISTS!)

Page 3

Oh sweet gods, why?

Doom's Day explodes a thing above me.  Apparently we were fighting in a cave?  A bunch of rocks resembling empty potato sacks fall upon our hero, burying him in rubble.  You can see Seth's little arm sticking out of the rock pile, complete with BLOOD!  AIIIIGGH!!

Yes, blood.  SITM is now harder-hitting, darker, edgier, for an older crowd.  There's blood in it!  You must understand, in the mid 90's, blood was a Big Deal.  Mortal Kombat opened the floodgates for Blood in popular media, and it rendered my stupid mind spellbound.  MK, anime movies like Akira, anything with Blood in it was instantly cool.  Red liquid comes out of things when violence happens!  Pleasure centers of the boy brain instantly stimulated!  BLOOD THIRST ACTIVATED!  SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!  MAIZE FOR THE MAIZE MAZE!

So yes, 3 pathetic pages and we end with a cliffhanger.  There's almost no reason for this 'mini series.'  At least I have the sense to end with a cliffhanger, I guess.  Look, mini series were a big deal in comic books.  I had to have a mini series if SITM was to be taken seriously by my competitors.  The 'Mecha Madness Mini Series' from the Archie comics Sonic the Hedgehog serial was a huge deal, easily my favorite comic books ever.  I read those stupid things until they disintegrated in my sweaty fist.  

I still have all this energy pent-up in me, and no more comic to post.  I guess I'll go out and karate kick rocks and trees.

SMELL YA LATER NERDS!

Sether in the Morff Issue #13.5

Well drizzle me in Homestyle Gravy, I forgot to update yesterday!  I guess on the Sabbath Day I Rested?  Well, what better way to celebrate inconsistency than with today's issue of SITM, #13.5!(?)

Cover Page

Issue 'brr!'

Ah, yes, this issue.  I don't know where it falls in the greater continuity, because I forgot to number it. Now, I know that it's post issue 13, but I may have made it between issues 14, 15, or even 16.  It's hard to say.  I stick it between 13 and 14 for convenience, and call it issue 13.5 accordingly.

Oddly, it's another cold-themed issue.  This time we have the Seth Symbol in icicle form.  Ooooh.

Page 1

beep!

We begin this episode with the villains.  Dark One is consulting with a... thing.  Some kind of robot guy.  I don't know who or what that thing is.  It's some kind of scientist thing, that invents stuff, such as a machine that makes ice come to life.  Robot scientist never returns, so enjoy him while he's here. 

Intrigued at the potential of this device, Dark One contacts one of his minions, Radical Worm, who we've yet to see.  This is another reason why I think I made this issue at a later point, since I knew who Radical Worm was by then, and apparently assume the reader knows as well.  Oh well!  You'll have to wait to find out who Radical Worm is.  

Page 2

Mittens for days.

We then come to the Brothers Three tromping through the snowy area, kitted out in their snowsuits and mittens.  The page is rife with spelling mistakes, as any good page should be.  Zach leads the way with his radiation-detector.  It appears to be a satellite dish on a hovering rocket base.  Pretty damn impressive.

Zach is the Donatello of the team, the tech guy with nerdy leanings.  I gave him this role since he was my older brother.  Ironically, Zach actually has mild autism and dyslexia.  While he certainly registers on the nerd scale for his love of Dr. Who alone, he is no better suited to using hovering radiation detectors than I am.

I don't know why it's our job to investigate odd radiation readings in the middle of nowhere, but apparently this is what we do.  We're interested enough in radiation to be lured into an obvious trap, at any rate (spoiler alert!).

Note how Jess seems to be particularly displeased with the low temperatures of this area.

Page 3

Blue Marker Overload

To better simulate the blue lighting of the interior of the ice cave, I proceed to draw most of the rest of this issue with just my blue marker.  Now the only way you can tell the protagonists apart is by their ever-present belly-symbols.  Easy, right?

Anyway, the ice starts to move.  Stalactites and stalagmites of ice launch out of the cave, making interesting noises like 'shomp!'

Page 4

Oh the horror.

A splash page!  We haven't had one of these in a while.  Behold, the fury of the ice monsters!  Oh Lordy!

Page 5

Incredulity = comedy

An entire splash page of danger build up is negated by a wry quip.  We then proceed to blast the ice monsters into oblivion.

This page confirms that Zach and Jess do have powers, or at the very least the ability to fire 'sonic blasts' from their hands.

I don't know what is going on with Zach's facial expression.  I think I messed up, then tried to salvage it by making him look... bored?  I think he's drooling.  Let's... let's just get to the next page.  Jesus.

Page 6

What is going on?  Why?

So one of the ice guys summons all of the destroyed ice chunks of its brethren, then becomes a... four legged, gestalt ice beast with... ice laser hands?  How can ice fire lasers?  They're cold lasers, though, that much is for certain.

Page 7

*sickle

The brothers are on the ropes!  Those lasers are bad news!  Look out!

Then, one of us (I don't know who, since the belly symbol is obscured) spots the ice-animating device behind a cone of ice.  The first thing not drawn entirely with blue marker for several pages.  Hot damn!

Page 8

Dat eye-shrink sequence.

Surmising that the hidden doohickey is responsible for giving life to Frosty the Laser Centaur, it is immediately destroyed.  The ice monster falls lifeless to the ground, regular frozen water once more.  The laziness of those panel borders baffles the mind.

Page 9

Down periscope? 

Dark One seems a bit salty.  He's down an ice animating machine, but at least he didn't lose any actual minions.  Calm down, man.

Our heroes enjoy a well-deserved warm foot soak after a hard day's work.  For some reason, Zach is inside a submarine inside his little foot basin.  So wacky!

I've never had a warm foot soak to my knowledge, but it's shorthand for a post-cold-weather adventure reward.  You gnome?

Sether in the Morff Issue #13

It's currently the middle of summer as I post this, so let's cool off with a snow-themed issue of SITM, shall we?

Cover Page

We are all unique snowflakes.

Behold the 'Seth symbol' in snowflake form!  Zounds!

Looks like I made a mistake up in the Official Comic Numbering Rectangle.  I probably wrote '12,' realized there already was an issue 12, then tried to make the 2 into a 3.  Great job.  B-

Page 1

Brought to you in brilliant Crinkle-Vision

Cold Seth! the issue is called.  It's all ice and snow themed, see? Apparently I just forgot to put anything in the second panel.  Maybe the snow is falling so thick, all we can see is a field of white?

I guarantee you this issue was inspired by the ice level from Sonic the Hedgehog 3.  Sonic begins that stage snowboarding down a mountain slope, and it was pretty much the coolest thing I had ever seen (pun intended).

I grew up in Ohio, and during the winter months I would sometimes ski.  It was the most athletic activity I ever did, and I find myself missing it, here in the piss-hole of Southern California.  Note that I'm not wearing skis on this page, but rather I'm apparently snowboarding with those ski... stick... things.  Ski poles?  Is that what they're called?  I refuse to Google it.

I'm being attacked by Ice Soldiers, a cold variant of the Fire Soldiers from the previous issue.  One of them has a ski/snowboard with a gun on it!  Oh Lordy!  The other guy has rocket boots and some sort of ice laser backpack apparatus (that goes Chzt! and Zpaz!).

My response to this attack is irritation, prompting me to break the 4th wall again.

This is the first issue done entirely in marker, aside from the dialogue.  I would stick with this style throughout the rest of the series, which is good, since it shows up better on my scanner.  Also, I finally seem to have abandoned doing the comics double-sided.  I think doing them entirely in marker exacerbated the bleed problem, finally prompting me to keep them one-sided.  Hooray!

Page 2

One liners!  Catch phrases!

Using my ski poles as impromptu pole vaults, I launch into the air, attacking one of the ice soldiers with a HURRICANE KICK ATTACK!  For this attack, I become nine legs attached to my disembodied head.  (I stole this from Sonic the Hedgehog.)

I like that the ice soldier is wearing mittens.  Mittens are superior to gloves, people.  Gloves just make your fingers isolated ice sausages of discomfort and pain.  Mittens make your hands badass Winter Soldiers.

"In your face!"  I can't even handle this much 90's 'tude.  Stop autocorrecting the word 'tude, dammit!  I'm in control here!  Not my tapeworm!  NOT MY TAPEWORM!

Page 3

HAHAHA!  COMEDY!

As I land a punishing kick to the last ice soldier guy, I de-mask him, answering a question I just had.  Their visor helmets didn't look like they would benefit the typical four-eyed Dark One minion, so I was wondering if the fire and ice soldiers were some other, more humanoid race.  That answers that question!  They apparently have a typical pair of eyes.  I'm still not sure if they are human, or some sort of Morff-species.  Who knows?  Who cares?

Striking a leisurely pose as I continue to fly through the air, my smugness in my own victory comes at a cost.  I wind up face first in a thick snowbank, buried up to my legs.  It's refreshing to see me suffer a little at the end of one of these, rather than my typical consequence-free victory.

What, only three pages?  I bet that's what you're wondering.  Well, tough shit!  Sometimes I would slap together a pathetic handful of pages and call it a day. 

Go.  Enjoy your 4th of July.  I'll have more of this nonsense posted soon enough. 

Sether in the Morff Issue #12

Happy 4th of July Eve!  What better way to celebrate than by looking at a stupid comic book I made when I was too young to understand the horrors of adult life?

Cover Page

Cover page, not title page, idiot.

Pretty standard.  Look at that little blue spark on my finger tip, and my smug little stance.  Great call, making my mouth and eyes the same hard-to-see yellow as my noodly limbs.  Am I even wearing pants?

F-

Page 1

Budda?

I think I meant to put a title in that blank space above our introductory passage.  I count at least two spelling/grammatical errors.  Off to a great start.

We finally see one of the 'space cycles' mentioned in Issue 2.  They're clearly a ripoff of the speeder bikes from Return of the Jedi.  However, I recall the coloration and armament of these bikes was closer to the Swoop Bike toy from some Star Wars spinoff story.  Does anybody remember Dash Rendar?  I do, and hate myself for it.

Note my legs and feet are a circular blur as I run; this is yet again another visual stolen from Sonic the Hedgehog.  I read the Sonic comic books from Archie Comics back in the day; indeed, they may have been the primary motivation to make my own comics.

Look at me yawning as I effortlessly dodge laser fire.  What an insufferable ass.

Page 2

That's a lovely stain on the lower left.

The return of the Spaze Cannon!  See, I told you it would come back, and you doubted me.  What did I ever do to you?  Oh yeah?  Well, you can shit right off, buckaroo.

Where was I?  Uh... lasers are happening again.  The dreaded Spaze Cannon once again proves capable of dropping my candy ass like a sack of bricks.  I like the attempt at 'lighting' as the cannon fires.  ZORCH!

Page 3

Sallote!

"Put him in!" says the Dark One Man.  I think I meant 'bring him in,' but whatever.  I'm tossed into a hovercraft and brought to the Dark One himself.  In classic James Bond Villain fashion, rather than just execute me on the spot, he orders me put in... the Death Ray!  DUN DUN DUUUN!!

Apparently it lowers me into a glowing blue beam with a pair of mechanical pincers.  Seems like a rock-solid strategy.

'Sallote' might be my favorite spelling error in the entire series.  Salutes don't even make a sound, but I thought that particular minion's salute deserved a noise.  I couldn't be bothered to look up how to spell 'salute' though.  I was a busy man.  

This page is the first appearance of the 'fire soldier,' a subclass of Dark One's minions.  He's that guy in the orange suit with the red visor-helmet.  Color coordinated for your convenience, they are armed with flame throwers (which I don't think they ever use).  I feel like the visor helmet is ripping off Boba Fett's helmet from the Star Wars.  *belch*

Page 4

GORF

Coming to in the nick of time, I freak out, break free, and... swoosh towards the control center of the Death Ray.  Note that I can still fly without Super Seth power being active.

The skull-popping out of my head scream was stolen from The Mask, perhaps my favorite movie.  I watched it an insane number of times as a child.  Like, a pathologically unhealthy number of times.  There's a scene in the movie when Jim Carrey screams, and his tongue, eyes, and skull pop out of his head with all the glory of crappy 90's computer graphics.  An image that stuck with me?  Steal it, shove it in my comics, done.

Page 5

Death Count: 6

Crashing head-first into the control room causes it to explode.  I then rocket off into the sky, escaping Dark One's base unscathed.

This is the first time we see Dark One's base.  It's on a weird elevated plateau thing.  I'm not sure if it's actually the Death Pod half-submerged in the ground awaiting launch or not.  I think it's just a large dome structure.  Derp.

Page 6

An End.

Three loop-de-loops, and Seth returns home, safe and sound.  "Seth! You made it!" shouts Jess.  "Of course," replies Seth.  What a smug douche.  He's learned nothing, hasn't grown as a character.  No danger can possibly threaten him.  *sigh*

It's nice to see Doc and Prometheus again.  Prometheus seems to be wearing... odd clothing, not his typical dress/robe thing.  He's also missing his tail.  Was Prometheus supposed to be a girl?  What the hell does that say about my brain?

Dark One is pissed that I got away.  That's what you get for not giving me a double-tap when you had me helpless and at your mercy, asshat.  Oh well.  He'll have many more opportunities to kill me in the future.

This is a pretty good 'standard' episode of SITM.  Seth gets into something vaguely dangerous, but wields his preposterous powers and gets away scot-free.  Oh, the joy of adolescent power fantasies. 

Is anyone even using those little navigation links at the bottom of these posts?  Is it just easier to consult the navigaty-doo on the right hand side of the BLOG?  Maybe I'll add some later.  Fffftt...

Sether in the Morff Issue #11

Once again we have a time jump, as SITM #10 is one of the Lost Episodes.  However, from this point on the series remains steady until issue 40, when I finally lost interest (with one minor exception).

This is the beginning of the 'golden age' of SITM.  Even when I was making them, around 9-10 years of age, I viewed the older issues with a certain amount of disdain, perhaps explaining why I never updated or replaced them.  This particular issue marks a transition period in the art style.  I abandon pencil in favor of pen, but I still haven't abandoned crayons.

Once again, it's time to start shamelessly stealing from Sonic the Hedgehog...

Title Page

Another special!  Yay?

Nice save correcting 'Super.'  It was almost 'Seper,' but now nobody will notice.

So I finally abandon that awful lined notebook paper; unfortunately, I'm still making double-sided pages, so get ready for more of that annoying bleed through.  We'll have to wait a few more issues before that annoyance is gone for good.

Page 1

I'll have the soup.

So this issue consists of pen colored in with crayon.  It's actually not the worst look; better than crayon alone, in my opinion.  The characters are starting to get a bit more expressive, perhaps the only positive trait these stick figures will ever possess. 

The story begins with the Brothers Three in some sort of temple.  You can tell it's a temple by the presence of pillars, pedestals, and decorative plants.  Apparently a swirling red vortex allowed us entry.

Upon the pedestal is a glowing blue circle, which Jess guesses is the 'magical super rock.'  I don't know where he heard about any super rocks, but he seems to know what he's talking about.

Fun Fact: I often depict Zach as the tallest, and Jess as the shortest, since at the time this was true.  Now that all three of us are man-children, the opposite is true: Jess is the tallest, and Zach is the shortest.  I remain, as always, in the middle.

Page 2

90's sunglasses.

I appear to be skeptical.  Zach tells me to nut up or shut up.  Upon touching the orb, I become... blue?  Glowing and blue.  

Jess and Zach don sunglasses from nowhere and say 'cool special affects (sic) man!'  This would be something of a running gag throughout the series.  I know I'm stealing it from somewhere, but I can't remember.  Animaniacs, maybe?  Tiny Toons?  Something very 90's and hip and witty.  I thought this was the height of comedy.

Also, check out these actual panels!  It's not just a series of splash pages!  Witness the evolution!  

Page 3

*too

My newfound glowing powers apparently give me the ability to fly.  Tossing the orb nonchalantly in a backpack I apparently had, we then depart through the dimensional vortex back to the Morff.  Notice the 'exit' sign in the vortex.  Zany!  I don't know what that other object is floating in the vortex, but I'm guessing it's a soda can. This is a wacky, kooky dimensional vortex, people.  

I was mildly obsessed with the concept of 'elemental zaniness.'  Characters like Gogo Dodo from Tiny Toons were a big inspiration for these comics.  He possessed inexplicable, reality-warping Comedy Powers.  Alongside a dimension of fire, water, or darkness, I liked to imagine a plane of 'Wackiness' where hammers chased sentient nails to the eternal sound of flatulence.  This energy bled into the Morff, giving it and the characters within a cartoonish elasticity, resilience, and generally negated the consequences for acts of extreme violence. 

Perhaps this is the true power of the Spirit of Funkitude.  I didn't put much thought into the metaphysics of the Morff, but this was where my heart and soul were coming from as I made these things.

Page 4

New powers?  Stop bank robberies.

We then cut to two minor villains: Crock and Eye Guy.  Although they rarely show up throughout the series, these two buffoons were always lurking in my back catalogue of antagonists.  Crock was a humanoid crocodile who wore headphones (wearing headphones was really cool in the 90's).  Eye-guy was a blue punk with a giant eyeball for a head.  These two were supposed to be the 'Bebop and Rocksteady' of the series, pretty much inept but more of a threat than the rank-and-file minions.  

So we find these two idiots running away from a bank robbery.  You can tell because Crock is holding a bag with a dollar sign on it.  To further cement their goon stereotype, Eye Guy says 'What was dat?' as if he has some sort of Brooklyn accent.

It is I, Super Seth!  Here to save the day!  What better way to use my newfound Super super powers than to beat up these two morons for robbing a bank?

Yes, even though Seth has super powers from absorbing the Spirit of Funkitude, sometimes the need arises to go Super Saiyan and become extra-super.  This was less inspired by Dragon Ball Z than it was by, once again, Sonic the Hedgehog.  If you collected all 7 Chaos Emeralds in a Sonic game, you would unlock the power of Super Sonic, a glowing golden version of the Blue Blur who was extra-fast and invincible.  (This was Sega ripping off DBZ, to be sure.  Once again, I'm a 2nd generation plagiarist here.)

Page 5

You think that can wurt me!?

Crock attacks!  If you notice, the wire attached to his headphones goes down to the object (walkman?) in his pocket, and then from there to his... hand.  Red energy streaks down it, to his hand, where a coin is waiting.  He then flings this energy-enhanced coin at Super Seth as a weapon.  Crock, being a gangster, flips coins, because flipping coins is cool.  Like Gambit from the X-Men, he weaponizes his favorite flip-object with red energy.  ISN'T THAT COOL GUYS?  "Eat dis!" indeed.  WATCH OUT SUPER SETH YOU'RE GETTING AN ENERGY COIN TO THE GROIN!!!

Oh, wait, it does nothing.  The threat posed by Crock and Eye Guy is already very small; Super Seth makes the encounter trivial.  Way to add suspense and a sense of stakes, 9-year-old me!  

Crock and Eye Guy wind up in a crappy-looking jail.  The day is saved.  In a pattern that would repeat itself throughout SITM, Zach is supportive, while Jess seems grumpy.  He's jealous of all my powers, guys!  Isn't that great?  Character dynamics!

You can rest easy now, Jess.  There's not a lot to be jealous about with me these days.  (Other than the fact that I made the greatest comic series in human history.)

For some reason, Jess is standing on the side of the Jail.  The question of whether or not Jess and Zach have powers in the Morff is left frustratingly vague.  For 95% of the series or so, Seth does all the cool stuff while Jess and Zach just sort of look on.  The latent zaniness of the Morff alone is enough to allow Jess to ignore the laws of gravity for this panel, at least.  

Next issue is the last appearance of the much-loathed double-sided page bleed through.  Thank Clean Shaven White Jesus!

Back to the previous issue.

Back to the beginning.

Sether in the Morff Issue #9

Strap in...

Get ready, folks.  What follows is the longest issue of SITM, clocking in at a robust 12 pages (granted, about half of them are splash pages).  I really wish they weren't double-sided notebook pages, but the die has been cast.

Title Page

Fffff...

Right out of the gate, I lie to you.  I claim this is an '11 page specile,' (sic) when it is in fact 12 pages.  Even basic counting skills eluded me at the tender age of 8.  

The title depicts what appears to be a purple, sausage-shaped airplane of some kind, in front of (or behind) the 'Seth symbol.'

You may have noticed that all of the title pages feature that crappy smiley-face rectangle in the upper lefthand corner.  It's an attempt at recreating those rectangles on real comic book covers, whatever they're called.  This was very important to me, as that rectangle made it a legitimate Comic Book in my young mind.

Page 1

Bonesaw is ready.

We begin this epic with a splash page, featuring a nameless control panel man.  I don't know who he is, and he never shows up again.  Him and his giant, featureless cube are Mission Control for Team Seth.  He probably should be Prometheus or Doc, but neither of those characters existed yet in these, the earliest of the comics.  

Why is he wearing a helmet, if he is on the ground?  Maybe he's in some sort of mothership?  This page sucks.

Page 2

SPACE SHIPS

I was really awful at making speech balloons.  My crabbed dialogue overflows from the too-small bubbles.  While that 'ya' should probably be a 'yeah,' so far we're not doing too bad in the spelling error department.

Apparently I drew the body of my red spacecraft/plane thing before drawing the wing, so the wing will always appear transparent.  Also, once again the airlock has a doorknob.  While this is one of the earliest versions of it, my red spaceship will pop up again throughout the series, and remains relatively consistent.  

Page 3

Apparently we all have German accents?

My brothers accompany me on this Space Mission.  My older brother, Zach, is the green one.  This would be his earliest appearance in the series; that lighting-bolt icon on his ship is the 'Zach symbol.'  Certainly cooler than Jess's sneering face.

Zach and Jess's ships would undergo some minor redesigns in later issues.  I enjoyed drawing and designing spaceships, largely out of love for the dogfighting sequences in Star Wars.  I had Micromachines models of X-wings, Y-wings, TIE fighters, etc., and something about the concept of multiple different kinds of spaceships fascinated me.  I vaguely recall naming these ships the 'S-Wing,' 'J-Wing,' and 'Z-Wing.'  

The page bleed through foreshadows our target...

Page 4

Please don't sue me!

Ah, yes, the Death Pod.  This is another example of Double Plagiarism.  This is clearly a ripoff of the Death Star.  However, this is ALSO a ripoff of the Death Egg.  Yes, Sonic the Hedgehog ripped off the Death Star before I did; I was just copying Sega.  A giant, spherical battle station reminiscent of the villain's head; the story checks out.

Page 5

Grand Moff Tarkin quote FTW!

I'm not even trying to conceal how derivative this is.  I even imagine Dark One saying 'You may fire when ready' in Tarkin's voice.

The Death Pod then fires LASERS OUT OF ITS EYES OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME!

I like how chubby Dark One looks on this page.

Page 6

I like my lasers THICK.

Our heroes dodge out of the way of one of the giant death-beams.  I'm actually pretty pleased with the underside of the S-Wing on this page.  Such action!  Things are getting good!

Page 7

Splash pages for days!

The Death Pod sends out interceptors: Fighter Pods.  These are the TIE Fighters of this scenario.  Aside from a color change, these enemy ships stay pretty consistent in design throughout the series. Ovals with rocket-fish-tails.  Sweet.

Page 8

Oh no!

One of the fighter pods lands a hit on Zach.  Oh, the horror!  His ship seems to have lost its side engines.  I like the little puff of smoke.  Note also the use of green marker for the lasers, rather than crayon.  Did I just have one green marker?  Why didn't I use red for the earlier lasers?  I'm guessing laziness had something to do with it.

Page 9

Yay, teamwork!

In the nick of time, Seth deploys some grappling hook thingies to save Zach.  His ship grew another side engine, it seems.

Page 10

Scribbles = explosion

Zach's weapon systems still seem to be working.  Together, we shoot down a fighter pod (that has no rear engine).  Jess flies by, giving us his two cents.  Again, I use actual markers for the lasers... I guess I had a purple and blue marker as well?  

Page 11

PERSPECTIVE ARRGH!

I think this is supposed to be the S-Wing shooting at a fighter pod from a head-on perspective.  My drafting skills were not up to the task.  I like that the lasers are not one continuous beam, but a bunch of little lines.  Pew pew!

Page 12

Mission accomplished?

As the fighter pod explodes in lazy red scribbles, the Brothers Three fly off into the sunset.  The End.  Are we retreating?  Did we win?  I don't know.  Perhaps we couldn't continue the mission with Zach's Z-Wing crippled.  Mission Control Guy has the answers, but remains silent on the subject.

Thus ends the first SITM 'special' issue.  This is the last of the lined notebook paper issues, thank God.  It also represents the last of the oldest comics.  The next issue will see a change in the art design (marginally for the better), and I believe a decent amount of time passed in the interim.  I can't be certain, because I kept no records of when they were produced, but this might be the last offerings of my 8 year old mind.  I took a break from SITM for some reason, but I would make a triumphant return.

Onward, to 1996(?)!

Back to the previous issue.

Back to the beginning.