Superzeitgeistosity

These past few months have been exciting for a Superosity reader. Every month is of course exciting for a Superosity reader on account of all the Superosity installments contained within each month, but these past few months have been made particularly exciting by the extra momentous nature of this period's Superosity installments.

There is much that could be said about this Board Dimension. More than enough to fill a Russian novel, although it must be admitted that most of the pages of a Russian novel are already filled with words so there isn't much space to fill in any case. If the pages of that Russian novel were blank, however? I believe those pages could readily be filled to the brim with interesting commentary on the Board Dimension. A writer-blocked Russian would probably be very relieved to have people like us around.

This is, after all, an adventure regarding one of Chris' most important relationships. We already had a massive adventure for his wife. That was his wedding, and it too was a momentous period. Now it is time to be momentous about other people. It is time to be momentous about his childhood friend, that companion and caregiver who has been there for him since before Arcadia ever taught him to see floating hearts. It is time for Boardy.

So much has happened. There is so much to say that there's no way it can all be said by one person. Let's see what other people have been saying:

Spoon says, "TOO MANY BOARDS. What is the world coming to"

What, indeed?

Milton says, "This is the best storyline."

This may be a controversial position to hold. There is no doubt that the best storyline in the world would necessarily be a Superosity storyline, but what is the best Superosity storyline? It's a tricky question. Milton thinks it's this one.

Perhaps it's not so controversial as all that: beyond the boundaries of this humble blog, people are saying such things as,

"I do very sincerely remark that this is the funniest, best written storyline yet," by Milton Bradley. It is hard to understand when people are being serious on the Superosity message board, it is possible that nobody is ever being serious on the Superosity message board, it is a difficult message board to get one's head around even if you are a Superosity fan yourself, but let us consider the possibility that in this case "sincerely" is meant sincerely. That would mean he meant it! Just like Milton.

Funny how they share the same name.

In the same forum, RevSam is expounding that "it's just sinking in how huge this storyline is! the origin of boardy COME ON." This really gets to the crux of the matter. It is a huge storyline. It has continued for nearly six months now, but its size goes beyond that. The events are so significant, they can safely be described as hugely so.

Ringading considers that "it is only comparable to that historic moment when Bobby beat the shit out of Marlene and ran in one direction for an hour." I think it is comparable to other things, but it is certainly something to think about I guess.

So five out of six extremely intelligent and interesting people (ie. Superosity readers) agree: this is quite a grand storyline to behold. That sixth guy probably agrees too, but he's so bewildered about the number of boards that he has no energy to say so. Is this true, Spoon? Feel free to let us know.

There is so much more to be said. The right thing to do would be to list these new boards and determine which one is everybody's favourite. The other right thing to do would be to make a poll on Facebook that helps people determine which board they are most similar to. These things should be done, but I won't do these things. What I will do is say more things about it. There are so many things to say. I will say some of them.

Eventually.

It will take some time to decide how to synthesise them. See you in another three months or so or less or more.

All A Board

These are strange times. Not only has the venerable Sluggy Freelance scaled back its production schedule to three days a week, making Superosity's prodigious production even more impressive with its continued seven day weeks, but we have been treated to an entire universe filled to the brim with boards. You can't throw a board in this place without hitting a board. It's amazing.

We've gone from three proper named boards and a single sponge-based one to an entire universe-spanning population. It's amazing.

Does this mean the Boardy origin conundrum is now to be solved? One would expect so, but consider this: we have seen many an alternate Boardy. Are we to believe they all originate from the same universe? Maybe so. We will have to wait and find out.

Another question: does this universe contain board versions of the characters we all know and love? We will have to wait and find out.

Even more fascinatingly, is this a dimension called HEAVEN? Has Superosity finally gone too far? We will have to wait and find out.

Stay tuned. To Superosity, not to here, but maybe you could think about keep a little bit tuned into this place too if you happen to have a spare tuner lying around. No pressure or anything.

Steadily Simmering On

Well, folks, it has been over a month since the commencement of Superosity's fourteenth year, and I have a feeling that this year of Superosity is going to be a good one. This is because any year of Superosity which contains Superosity is a good one. Goodness is endemic to Superosity.

Another good sign is the top form Superosity was in during the week of its thirteenth birthday. Check out this one in particular, and this one in particular, and this one also in particular. Hell, check out the whole thing in particular: this is top quality stuff! Most of these punchlines are hinged on hilarious twists of logic that are difficult not to appreciate.

Similarly, all the comics that follow can be summed up with one word: enjoyable. It's an understated choice, but gets the basic message across.

So we come to today's comic, which in its final panel perhaps manages to sum up Superosity's tone quite neatly.

That astonished gasp followed by a total normalisation of the supposedly shocking statement.

The spanning of multiple time periods and universes is of course part of Chris' everyday life, and as the computer implies shouldn't be shocking to him at all, but he needed to gasp because that's what would be expected of him if he were a fictional character. As readers of a fictional character, it also happens to be what we expect to see. So he earnestly goes through the motions in his childlike way, and the predictability of this behaviour is dismantled by the world simply ticking on. Time to see what zany adventure this will lead to.

(How do you get a world to tick? Just mix a couple of metaphors and half bake it. You should know this by now).

Finally, just a note on my own personal tardiness: I'm pretty lazy, really, and considering the invisibility of my pretend audience I only really write this stuff for the joy of writing about Superosity. Blogger is also a hassle to log into now that I have to jump through hoops to evade Google's attempt to consolidate my various internet activities under a single Gmail account. I can't promise regular updates, but I do promise if that if I ever decide to stop doing this I'll actually state that fact instead of just suddenly stopping. So maybe check back every month or so or just when you think of it. I don't know. You and I both know that you're fictional anyway.

What Darkness Lurks

This year is shaping up to be a fascinating one for Superosity. For one thing, it is Superosity, which makes it inherently fascinating. For another, the groundwork is being set for strange shifts in the dynamic. There's Obama's aforementioned war on Reptilianism, the suggestion that all Republican candidates are Reptilians, and the revelation that the world needs to be cloned to preserve its rich heritage before World MK I suffers its impending destruction. It might also be worth mentioning that two of everybody's favourite side characters, Pupkin and Alan's Famous Indian Screaming Lizard, have run away together as though they were dish and spoon.

The result of all this is a new continuity with an underlying sense of urgent danger. Never before has so much been simmering behind the scenes in Superosity. Will the Superosity world survive such a hazardous year? Our human civilisation would do well to hope so.

Back To Barack

Barack Obama has seen little coverage in Superosity. Sure, Boardy returned his wallet, and we've been seeing glimpses of Boardy's little obsession, but the character himself has remained inert. Compare this to Baby Bush, whose obnoxious behaviour was a regular source of plot points throughout the reign of his real-life counterpart. It is quite probable that GW Bush's astonishing capacity for reelection was largely due to the fame he garnered through Superosity. All publicity is good publicity, after all.

It is therefore exciting to see Obama finally take an active role in a Superosity storyline. So exciting that we can easily get over the disappointment of having Chris' trick-or-treating expedition with Moneybags reduced to a single strip. So Obama apparently has something against Reptillians and employs the negotiation tactics of an indulgent mother. It is surprising to find no fictional elements have yet been worked into the Superosity interpretation, but I suppose we must sit back and wait to see what is to come. In the meantime, let us contemplate a hint of things to come... in the future.

Really makes you think, doesn't it? But then, when doesn't Superosity make you think? Only when you happen to be reading it in the middle of receiving a brain transplant, methinks.

All That Is Air Condenses To Solid

Today one of the many holes in my heart has been filled, for I have finally gotten around to acquiring the print issues of Superosity that were released in those heady days when Keenspot was into doing that kind of thing. They are not in the pristine condition that I would have liked, but are nonetheless guaranteed to be 100% blackout proof, allowing for electricity free enjoyment of Superosity at any time of the day that provides enough light to read by. A necessary precaution in this post-peak-oil era.

They also contain creator commentary, a source of invaluable background information that is sure to prove invaluable as information. Did you know that there was once a shirt featuring the last panel of this strip? Maybe you did. I have a feeling that I may have known it at some point myself, but I forgot about it. Or maybe it just feels like something I once knew. Anyway, now we're all certain about being fully aware of the fact-- unless of course you can't read, in which case I'm sorry for marginalising you but am unsure what you're doing staring at these enigmatic scribbles. You should find something better to do with your time, like learning to read or something.

As I flicked through these issues, experiencing Superosity in glorious black for the first time, I also noticed an unfortunate error that I made in my previous post. The first appearance of those aliens isn't in their eponymous storyline, as I had implied. It was two years earlier, in Chris' first journey to the future, during which Chris and Boardy worked to prevent future Bobby from starting a war. This is significant because it clearly depicts representatives of the aliens living on Earth in future history. I apologise; this was a serious oversight. My memory isn't what it used to be. I can't remember what it used to be.

That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned for next issue, in which something brilliant is written </foreshadowing>, but maybe not quite as brilliant as suggested. </ominous foreshadowing>

The Spy Who Came In With The Cold Blood

With the introduction of the Reptillian alien race, one can't help but wonder about the implications for the secret Lizard kingdom. These Reptillian beings, they are like Doctor Who's Silurians. Except they're not from Earth. Or at least if they are from Earth they fly around their home planet in spaceships for some reason. In any case, they clearly hope to be the planet's dominant race and it seems probable that Burt Reynolds would have a hand (or claw?) in any such play for power.

Reptillians are the latest in what has come to be a very complicated intergalactic landscape. It could be argued that the variety of alien species is one of the richest elements of Superosity's mythology. This argument would be made easy by the vague qualification "one of." It would be made difficult by the sheer richness of Superosity's elemental table. Regardless, I maintain that Superosity's extraterrestrial scope is impressive.

There was a time when this range was centred on and pretty much limited to those gray aliens, a parody of your classic Roswell alien with paler skin flying about in saucers to partake of recreational abductions. This parody by itself was rich in detail-- the way they remained unnamed and were referred to only by reputation, the way their lack of emotions played upon ideas about scientific purity, and of course their compulsive abduction habit. Never before had such a simple caricature been so nuanced. At least, this was arguably one of the times after the period in which no simple caricature had previously been so nuanced that there was so much nuance in a simple caricature .

They were great (in the sense of quality), but space is greater (in the sense of size) [note to self: if you have to explain a turn of phrase don't use it] {other note to self: shut up, you're not the boss of me}. It came to seem a bit of a shame to focus the examination of alien life on just the one parody, especially when time travel had been partaken of so adeptly.

This all changed with the massive story arc that began with Space Is Keen, the most thorough exploration of Superosity's contemporary universe to date. In one extraordinarily lengthy fell swoop, Superosity's spacescape was filled with life. Most importantly, this is where we first learnt of the cannibalistic Venusians, the beings currently harbouring Chris' parents in law. But this is not all we gained. It also sowed the seeds for lunatic filth-filled dictatorships, fugitive spaceballs, extraterrestrial omnipotence, and many others. Wacky Martians would also eventually come to be in consequence of this landmark occasion. Today the region of Superosity's outer space is at least as compelling as its future histories and parallel Earths.

So, Reptillians, we welcome your entry into the realm of Superosity's contemporary species. You are part of what has come to be a great (in the sense of both quality and size) legacy. Please don't nibble on me.

Oh, and happy birthday to our dimension's very own Chris Crosby.