I worked on this 52-page comic off and on in my spare time, from 2003 to 2009.
Like with Flying Solo, I struggled to come up with an original story, but I had a concept: a playful take on DC’s Captain Marvel/Shazam featuring a pig named Abe.
I came up with individual scenes and characters I wanted to draw. The Ion was a Superman-like lion. Jelly Bear is like the Blob from the 1988 movie, not Marvel comics. Gorkilla was inspired by the Hulk and Gearaffe by Iron man. Professor Russell was transformed into a Kraken-like monster.
I shuffled the encounters that Abe has as Super Duper Ham around until the narrative progressed like levels in a video game and resulting in a superhero satire follows Abe through his first day on the job as a superhero in the city of Mammapolis.
Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn were used as locations in the comic. Sam Kieth’s comics and stop motion puppets and sets inspired my character design and panel art for this project. Panel elements were draw separately, scanned and layered together in Photoshop, as if I were doing cell animation.
The cover logo was designed by Brian Hennings.
Super Duper Ham: Day One was first self-published in 2009 and reprinted in my comics anthology Sketches and Streams in 2012, 2014 and 2021.
