Happy Fiftieth!

I am actually posting this on Sunday night, but thru the magic of backdating this post like an Apple Stock Scandal it will appear on Thursday. And before The Count to boot!

Anyway, I am travelling across the country right now, learning more facts about more obscure historical personages that might find themselves in an episode of FtG one day.

I'm in Rapid City, South Dakota at the moment (after a day of viewing Mt. Rushmore and the town of Deadwood) where they have these life-size bronze statues of all the Presidents of the US standing around on the street corners.

Somehow they don't have a Lincoln yet, but I've gotten my picture taken with Calvin Coolidge, Action Jackson, and William Henry Harrison.

In comic related news, I apologize for the title of this episode. It stuck in my brain and refused to go away until I ceded to its dark demands.

--Geoff

Episode Fifty, here you are, all shiny and new. I wish we could offer you with multiple foil covers, sealed in some sort of bag to make you absolutely worthless if somebody opens you to actually read your contents. In lieu of that, I am going to make the immense sacrifice of foregoing a small lecture on the life of Jean Baptiste de la Mettrie and instead package you with some Frederick trivia to keep the world amused for entire fives of seconds:

DID YOU KNOW....

- The first strip of Frederick debuted on January 16, 2007, but the birth of the comic can be traced back to March 12, 2006 when I sent the following e-mail to Geoff and Holland:

"Gentlemen,
It occurred to me last night, while Geoff and I were skimming through The State sketches and various webcomics that we have, between us, produced a comedy magazine, a television show, a cd, several books, hundreds of stories, and a kick-ass guild. It also occurs to me that we have a web space, gentleman-scholars.com, sort of sitting around right now gathering dust. THEREFORE AND HENCEFORTH, I propose that we marshal our talents and bile in the service of producing A WEB-COMIC of our own...
I've been kicking around the idea for a strip called something like The Bitchin' Adventures of Frederick the Great, Time-Traveller...."

Fortunately, we ended up with a significantly better title in the end...

- Isaac Newton's robe was originally meant to terminate in several pseudopod like extensions that were to mimic Newton's internal state, but these proved both silly and ungainly, and were ultimately dropped for the "dress" we now know and love.

- Frederick the Great stood at about five-foot-two in real life, while Peter stood at nearly seven feet. For a brief moment, we had considered realistically representing them in each panel, meaning that Peter's head would pretty much never be in the shot. This was also re-considered.

- The final list of title candidates:

1. Frederick: A Most Lamentable Comedy Breaching Time and Space
2. Superpowered History Funnies
3. Frederick and his Time-Defying Chapeau
4. FtG Travels Through Time and Whoops People
5. Frederick the Greatest of All Time (The Greatest Frederick of All Time)
6. No I in Tyme Travel

We also briefly considered having the site at www.fophat.com, but cooler heads prevailed...

Well, there you are, some self-indulgent reflection in commemoration of fifty episodes. Geoff is driving across the country right now, but wherever he is, I'm sending a mighty Tip of the Tophat in his direction. He is the best of men, and I utterly love working with him. Also to Holland, who busted his ass during those early months and shaped the character of Isaac Newton. Even when things don't quite roll out right, they are my brothers, and I love them both. To my wife and daughter for putting up with this daft notion and in general making Home the only place I ever want to be. To Thinking Ape Blues and Subnormality and The Unstuffed and all of the others who were so supportive of us during our tentative early steps. Funny comics produced by people with golden hearts. And, most of all,

TO YOU!!!

You've hung with us through Anabaptist and Flapper jokes, through tophat-wearing alligators and moments of sadistic surrealism, through poetry and prose. Next time you're in town, Reader, drop on by. We'll have a glass of wine and chortle a while!

- Count Dolby von Luckner