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best Apocalypse ever a The Underfold collection by Brian Russell
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The Underfold is the property and creation of Brian Russell. Best Apocalypse Ever © 2011 by Brian Russell. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. This shouldn’t even be a necessary section for books because it’s kind of common knowledge. Don’t plagiarize. If you want my permission, email me at Brian@TheUnderfold.com. ISBN-13: 978-1456487553 ISBN-10: 1456487558
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foreword from the fold
The Underfold is an amazing comic. It has the purest origin that any creative endeavor could ever have. Started to entertain friends at coffee after church services, it has evolved from a simple hand drawn oddity known to few to the wonderfully drawn web comic read all over the world. I stumbled across The Underfold over 2 years ago and have enjoyed every strip since. Rather than using the tired formula the Sunday comics are stuck on, The Underfold constantly has new material. From the early days of storylines that only made sense to those actually at the church to the great zombie apocalypse of 2010, Brian has evolved the look and flow of the comic several times without losing what makes The Underfold funny. That perfect combination of truth and absurdity, traditional jokes and off the wall wackiness. It makes The Underfold a truly special comic and I truly believe it to be better than nearly anything in the newspaper. This book is a collection of strips selected by Brian that shows the beginnings of the strip and how it has changed into what it is today. Paper bag puppets, talking eyeballs, tentacle arms, you’ll see them all. You might even learn the secret of the bio-electric facebag.
-Ian “xy� Bergren Member of the Fold
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For my smart and beautiful wife, Mary
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a note from the author Greetings book-purchasing Fold! This is a momentous piece of literature that you’re holding in your hands and reading right this very second. How momentous you ask? Very. I have been wanting to compile a book of The Underfold for the longest time. I struggled back and forth about how to go about including my older, crappy stuff to get people caught up to the newer, better stuff; about whether or not to just include my favorites; or to write a completely separate and standalone story. Finally, I decided to do a collection that includes stories and pieces from The Underfold’s humble origins because I think the transition in style, quality and format is important for newer readers to experience, and maybe, just maybe it will give them a greater appreciation for what’s been going on more recently. The real rub of the whole situation is that, well, I didn’t realize this would work. I have always enjoyed drawing comics and writing stories, but when I started this comic, as you will see, I didn’t think it would go anywhere. I didn’t think people would like it. It was just an outlet for my pent-up creative energy. That said, most of my original artwork, until this last year has been lost, thrown away or has had some unknown and mysterious fate. As much as pixelation makes me cringe, some of the storylines are still funny, and the terrible resolution is just a testament to how far this comic has progressed in my mind and in the minds of others. So, I’ve included the best of the best and some of the worst. It’s for a good cause. The Underfold has been a huge and wonderful part of my life these past three years, and I’m going to keep drawing it and writing it until art is banned from society in the future. In which case, you’ll have to burn this book. So, I guess I’m sorry that you’ve wasted your money. Very grateful for you,
Brian Russell
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best Apocalypse ever a The Underfold collection by Brian Russell
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in the beginning...
When I first started, I was in charge of making coffee on Sunday mornings at my church. There were three sets of identical metallic coffee carafes holding three different liquids (Regular, Decaf, Hot Water) and then there was the Lemonade. I began putting out folded index cards labelling them for people. Then I began writing what I thought were humorous sayings on each card. Much to my chagrin, people in church don’t think it’s funny to continually make urine references alongside their lemonade. So, I moved my brand of humor to the underside of the folded index card. This was the first comic to be birthed of The Underfold. Drawn in pencil, this is the original quality. There was much to be said for comic in those days. It was the talk of the Sunday morning crowd at my church. Well, at least for those who knew it existed...
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In those beginning comics, self-depreciation was key. I was making everything up on the fly with whatever writing tool was available at the time. When a pencil was handy, I could erase and correct mistakes, but when it was a pen...well, those mistakes were emblazoned on the comic or scratched out. During this beginning period, I referred to each strip as an “episode” and likewise, after a handful of episodes, I would start a new “season.” Thankfully, after I went online, someone convinced me that it was a bad idea because it was far too unwieldy moving forward.
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Lots of the humor involved the coffee people were getting while reading the comics. Some of these early comics even have some wonderfully authentic stains on them. Keep in mind this was a church, and people were focused on staying awake during the sermon. I had an important job outside of drawing this comic for them. The comic was just an added bonus for their coffee break. Occasionally, people would walk by me, knowing the rebellious nature of my comic, and shout, “Viva la Underfold!� Win.
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Making fun of the people in my church was one of the highlights of this period of my comic making. Especially since through their complaints, they’d started this whole thing. The time for the comic has passed at the church, and I’ve gotten away from this inclusive humor, favoring the more widespread geek-culture. Some people still wish I would go back to making fun of real people in our real church, but it’s just too inclusive.
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In internet forums, there are people lurking in the shadows just waiting to cause a ruckus. We call these people, “trolls.” Well, on my Sunday mornings, there were real-life trolls lurking among the readership of the comics. They would read specifically to gripe about whatever I’d written about. People aren’t so different online. It’s just strange to find people doing this in real-life, and potentially more frustrating.
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This comic was actually the result of an online contest to see what I should write a strip about. The major consensus was that I should continue to make fun of the people who complained about the carafes running out of coffee. I took a very small amount of liberties with this, but it’s effective.
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Turns out, Doonesbury is a pretty popular comic. Who would’ve thought? You may have noticed a character in the past few strips who is always too tall for the frame. This is based off of my real-life friend, Jonathan, lovingly nicknamed in the strip, JB. These first appearances were just this start of JB’s involvement in The Underfold. This was also the beginning of frames within panels. Each panel was on its own index card, so I started to experiment with the format and utilize more of the space I had. It allowed for more dialogue without getting really confusing...Like the last panel above.
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Looking back at these old comics just reminds me of how much Brian’s face has changed. I guess back then, I enjoyed drawing my nose more realistically than I do these days. It’s also funny to see so many comics drawn with a ball point pen and no mistakes! You’d think I’d planned some of these out beforehand...but you’d be wrong. Most of the humor was seeing what I could come up with in the fifteen minutes I had before people started showing up craving caffeine. In that respect, these aren’t too awful.
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markers and paint buckets When I finally started to get my act together and prepare the strips before the day of, I realized that I could be printing them in color onto the index cards. This was before I had Photoshop still, so my “technique” consisted of drawing the comic, inking with fine-point marker, scanning, then paint-bucketing the whole thing in MS Paint. Unfortunately, due to cost, you won’t see the color here. Not that you’re missing out on much. This lead to a great wealth of comics, stories and characters that are still around to this day. Most notably was the introduction of JB as more than just a recurring guest, but as a real character of the strip. This required something...more interesting.
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JB’s bioelectric facebag and word bubble were inspired by V for Vendetta by Alan Moore.
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For the record, I have no clue what book I was referencing. Maybe it was this one. Prophetic.
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My apologies to Bill Watterson and Garry Trudeau who are better artists than I am.
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Then, my pandering to get people to the website continued by having an online only special!
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This came out when a show called Heroes was popular. It quickly became a joke.
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I was always terrible at ending storylines. Or, I’m great at writing bad endings. Glass half-full.
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Of all the crimes I’ve committed against art...using Comic Sans was my worst. I’m sorry.
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Nothing quite like mixing a bit of religious debate with comics. You could say, it was destiny.
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Turns out, Batman has an aversion to killing his bad guys too (except in the movies). Bummer.
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Bryan Singer is the director of a handful of good movies and then Superman Returns.
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This is one of my wife’s very few “appearances” in the comic. I’m terrible at drawing.
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It was weird to go back and draw with a ball-point pen again, but I like how this turned out!
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Again, I’m horrible at ending my plots. That’s probably one thing that just hasn’t improved. Here’s a look at what the original set up looked like, in case you were wondering.
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Then, to keep things moving, I decided to stop coloring my strips for the new year.
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family and archenemies For a long time, The Underfold dealt with nameless, filler characters that I would randomly come up with on the spot to fill a need. But, as the new year began, those previous notions were all off. Characters were about to come out of the woodwork, and they would be characters of all sorts. This began the more complex storylines that have permeated the comic’s current style. Coloring was like the fish emerging from the primordial ooze, and going back to black and white was that fish evolving into one kick-butt monkey in the ways of storytelling and character development.
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Good old, Julius Reynolds. A lovable, senile old man. What comedy is complete without one?
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Calvin and Hobbes is the greatest comic. It just is. I hope to, one day, be a portion of his cool.
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This story developed when I had my identity stolen. Nice to laugh about it instead of brood.
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This ending is actually pretty decent. It still makes me laugh.
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I was very thorough. I crafted a blog by JB and even made real hate-art. No one knew.
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Oh, LOST. How I miss thee.
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That’s one of those ACME tunnels. They don’t make ‘em like the used to.
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Did I mention that I loved LOST? And this Heroes reference is probably lost on everyone.
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Then, I did something drastic due to a surge of visitors. I introduced...JB’s son.
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It’s interesting to note that it looks like JB is operating his son, but I assure you, he is not.
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It’s funny. I didn’t really have a plan of how Brian would get his eye back at this point...
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Snake Plissken. Escape from New York. Watch it. (Ignore there’s a sequel.)
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This was one of those comics that got a huge “what the heck?� from everyone.
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Voldemort is from the Harry Potter series. You should, at least, watch the movies.
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Immediately after I created him, I realized that Eye was one of my favorite characters.
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conformity In July of 2009, I’d left the job where I made coffee and wasn’t printing the comics onto index cards anymore. I was posting solely online to a small crowd who’d never know the humble origins of my comic. My “final straw” moment came while reading through a Calvin and Hobbes collection. Just the way that the story progressed in the linear format made my eyes happier than anything I’d done with The Underfold up to that point. So, I decided to adopt a more traditional comic strip format and go with a four-panel wide strip. This kept the main concept of the four index cards, but allowed a mainstream audience to read more easily. As the previous two changes to the comic had evolved the strip, this was like that monkey learning to make fire. The change in format allowed for more consistent production and a more coherent structure.
You may have questions about Fred...I implore you to not think so hard about it. I didn’t.
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After having so much space for dialogue, this format seemed incredibly restrictive.
With the black and white printing, it’s hard to tell that the “A” is scarlet.
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Nothing quite like exploring awkward parenting relationships.
Fourth wall? What fourth wall?
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In JB’s defense, I’m sure he doesn’t look that bad, but when I realized that I’d have to do more work to draw him if he didn’t have the bag anymore, I changed my mind about the whole thing. I’m still glad I haven’t changed him.
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This is what happens when I miss an update and try to make it up to everyone. Who doesn’t want a random, confusing sequence of events?
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The Langoliers was a novella by Stephen King where these monsters come and gobble up the past. It’s weird, but so is everything by Stephen King. I do not recommend the movie.
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Here’s yet another LOST reference. Man, I was addicted.
Let’s not get caught up in the logistics of how an eyeball can cry without tear ducts.
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the multiverse I watch a lot of movies and television. At the time, I was watching a ton of Fringe. That’s pretty much where the inspiration for this series began, but there was so much to do with the multiverse idea! It was a plethora of possibilities! This storyline carried the comic from October 2009 into 2010, and basically made The Underfold what it is today. Everything prior has lead up to this point, and everything after hinges on it. After this adventure, Brian, JB, Eye and Fred would never be the same. Most of this series was done by hand, not digitally, so please bear with the pixelation for a bit longer. We’re catching up to when I finally realized that I was being stupid by not saving this stuff. Just a bit longer. I’m sorry.
That is one of my favorite punch lines.
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Sliders. Look it up. In fact, look up all of these references. It’s a treasure trove of goodness.
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The exclamation mark is my favorite part of that phone booth.
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Sorry, I like Star Trek as much as the next geek, but Voyager was something else.
This is a great idea!
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Never understood why a watch wouldn’t work in one of those things. It’s just what happens.
That last panel was done in crayons. I did it myself.
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The Amazing Race is a reality show on CBS. And above is a terribly racist cartoon Chinese man.
This makes more sense if you don’t think too hard about it.
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Planet of the Apes. I recommend the Charlton Heston version.
Here comes a good looking turkey.
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This is a reference back to that whole “lemonade joke� from long ago. And just funny.
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Christian films are terrible. If you haven’t seen one, well, don’t start now.
That’s some monster!
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Nothing like realizing that it’s Christmas and making a snap decision to roll with it.
The following is what’s called, a “bad idea.” (Referenced, Scott Kurtz of Player Vs. Player)
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This was supposed to be a reference to the Venom character from Spider-Man.
This is what’s called a “good idea.”
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What a good idea!
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It’s nice to note that he thinks he’s in the past.
I like to stay away from politics in my comics because it’s all dumb.
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A guy can continue to hope, can’t he?
If you don’t know, that was a reference to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
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The creator of LOST and Fringe here to explain away all this multidimensional confusion.
The best part is the change to Fred’s voice! Hooray!
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reasoning and science It would be an outright lie if I told you that I knew in advance that the whole “Goats” thing wasn’t going to work out. That I’d planned the “Reset” of The Underfold for more than a single weekend...But I didn’t. The fact of the matter is that I quickly realized that Brian and JB could not logically (like it matters, right?) make it back to their own dimension. They had been gone for too long and the whole “Goats” deal was really supposed to last longer. I remember having the idea for “Goats” before I actually tried to draw him. He was never supposed to hang around forever, but it was supposed to be another enemy, much like Fred once was. However, when I noticed that “Goats” was just turning sour, I needed a way out. I figured I would just go ahead and defy logic. Reset the universe. It was the perfect idea. I was tired of drawing Brian’s robo-eye and scar, Fred’s voice was hard to draw and read, and I felt that The Underfold needed a fresh start. It was so far gone from the doodles on the back of index cards during a church coffee break that I wasn’t sure if it offered much to people just coming on-board. The only problem was that I really wanted Fred and Eye as child-like characters for the series. So, I just used some make believe science and explained it away using pseudo-logic. By the end of January 2010, I had effectively rebooted all of my characters and was ready to press on into the future!
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life after the reset After the “Reset” and the few explanatory strips, everything went back to “normal” for The Underfold. Movie and television references were back in swing, and everything was going swell. I brought in one of my dogs as a character for a few strips, explored the parent-child relationship between Eye and Brian and Fred and JB a bit more and made some nerdy remarks about Google and such. This was just regular life in The Underfold. Just as weird and random, but all in one universe. Good times were ahead. People could start jumping in without really needing to catch up on all the stuff that had happened before. I just needed a good place to start...
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More LOST. I’m sorry. It was a great show.
I used to love The Simpsons. It’s sad to see it go down the drain.
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Oh, dogs. They’re so crazy.
That was an actual thought that popped into my head. Not just something for a joke...
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This is pretty much just how my dog looks all the time.
When I think about how much I like Law and Order: SVU, it kind of creeps me out.
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Get it? (Referenced, Avatar by James Cameron. The movie created for 3-D viewing.)
SHYAMALAMATHON! The following is how it went down.
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Then things got weird. If you really want to understand, watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
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Your eyes are not mistaken! Pixelation over!
I intended to keep V’ger around. He was going to be my newest character. But...this was it.
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Every story.
Addiction comes in many forms.
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My apologies to the creators of Elmer Fudd. But, I look pretty good in that hat.
The following is a reference to the Borg, a race of beings from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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It’s a bit small, but that was a shout out to XKCD, a far more popular comic.
Then I thought I should have an article about the comic on Wikipedia. They disagreed.
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God totally pwns.
Stupid hands.
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Ewoks are tiny, bear-like creatures featured in Star Wars Episode VI.
I don’t make the rules. I just enforce them.
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It’s not so subtle, but please note the effort I put into creating a better font. I like it.
It’s funny because they’re both in the bathroom on the phone.
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of tentacles and arms
It even looks like there’s more detail just from the suction cups.
The biggest change that’s happened to The Underfold since the layout was the switch to tentacle arms. I had been pondering for a while how to improve the comic’s artistic qualities and began feeling overwhelmed with the possibility of drastic changes. I didn’t want to spend hours just figuring out what the hands should be doing when I was having a hard enough time with the faces! So, what started out as my lazy attempt never to draw human hands again in my comic, turned into one of the best idea’s I’ve had! By giving them tentacles, I actually freed myself up to draw more of the bodies that I’d been hiding for so long. Turned out, hands were my biggest stumbling block. By sheer laziness and a bit of whacky innovation, I pushed my artwork in a strange, but wonderful, direction. I feel that the inclusion of tentacle arms gives The Underfold that small amount of extra weirdness that the already-strange characters needed to move into the future. I have never regretted this decision.
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underfold of the dead One of my long-standing ideas for a The Underfold book was The Underfold vs. Zombies. Zombie movies have always been some of my favorites. I love the greats from George Romero to the newer, action-oriented ones like 28 Days Later. I figured if there was one storyline that I could sustain, it would be dripping with zombies. But, zombies broke through their buried caskets and stumbled their way into the comic instead of a standalone book. This series was meant to go on longer than it actually did. Like I said, I have plenty of ideas for this, but for the sake of people who aren’t into zombies, I made a choice to move on. At least for the time being. Invigorated from giving everyone tentacle arms, I began the zombie apocalypse. It was different than I’d envisioned it, but I still laugh when I read through it. Enjoy!
“They’re coming to get ‘ewe,’ Barbara.” -Paraphrase from Night of the Living Dead.
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Referring to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith (and Jane Austen).
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I stand by that assessment.
Twilight: a book by Stephanie Meyers about an obsessive teen girl and her vampire boyfriend.
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Did I mention I hate politics?
I touted this as a giveaway since Julius wasn’t in this dimension. I make things complicated.
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Movies will rarely lead you astray in these situations.
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To this day, my attempts at making Fred more expressive have been tough.
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What’s a zombie story without a head-shot?
Have I mentioned that I’m bad at endings?
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geeks and pandering I decided after my long story about zombies that I’d spend some time not in the midst of a continuous plot. This way people would be able to catch up or ignore that the zombie thing happened altogether. I do admit that my geekier side got a hold of me during this time. I basically went on a science fiction kick for a little bit here. If you like Star Wars and Star Trek, then you should enjoy this section. For the less geeky, I’ve tried to provide you with references throughout with my notes. Hopefully this will provide some amount of relief for your questioning mind, but it will also likely lead to you having a long movie list. Better go buy some popcorn.
Alderaan was blown up by the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
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The following is an example of how George Lucas messed up the remake of Episode IV.
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was awful. Please stop making movies, George Lucas.
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That is one of my favorites.
Just go online and search for “Joel Schumacher Batman nipples� to know why.
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killer robot from the future I went on a very strange kick where all I wanted to watch was the Terminator franchise. I watched all four of the movies, then watched both ill-fated seasons of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I was a bit obsessed for a time, and it flowed over into my comics. There were so many places to go with a storyline that includes time-travelling, a not-so-distant future where robots have enslaved mankind and plenty of murderous schemes to boot. This is a bit movie reference heavy, so, if you haven’t seen any of the Terminator movies, you should. If you’re running low on time, I’d suggest Terminator 2: Judgment Day as it is arguably the most consistently good one, but I like all of them. But, if you haven’t gotten used to my penchant for referencing movies, well...
Poor Dell. They take a beating in this series, and it is probably undeserved.
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Dell computers lack drivers for everything. Not sure why.
In the beginning, I was using a robotic font for the robot, but well, you’ll see...
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Then my computer broke, and I went to drawing by hand again, and the robot font was gone.
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In the Terminator mythos, the leaders of the resistance lived in submarines.
Eye is forgetting, of course, that one zombie had already come!
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I’m not kidding. The Matrix seems like it would be awesome.
For the following, Harrison Ford starred in Blade Runner as a detective who finds robots.
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Movies referenced, I-Robot, The Matrix and every Terminator movie.
Apparently when my computer broke, I completely forgot what the robot looked like...Wow.
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The titular comic! I love the next two strips. They are my favorite.
They were titled “In the fuuuuuture” and “Ad Infinitum,” respectively.
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Again with the whole, realizing it’s Christmas and making a drastic change.
When I went back to the digital, I tried lettering by hand.
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Selling T-shirts. They’re no longer $11, but we still have them.
Listen, Tron: Legacy was a big deal. I love Tron. But, back to the violence!
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And then things got weird...
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Someone told me this was fairly heretical. I replied, “You really think so?” I had no idea.
I’m getting better at endings. I guess that’s a good thing. Robot from the future story wraps up with Baby Jesus on Christmas. That’s what I call a win. Just so you know, you are awesome. Thank you for being a part of the “Fold.” There is nothing quite as humbling and fun as people sharing your sense of humor, and I appreciate you doing that with me at least three times a week. There’ve been some significant upgrades recently (ones this book doesn’t cover), and I am looking forward to another three years worth of The Underfold! -bman
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Prophetic guest comic When you ask for guest comics, you never quite know what you’re going to get. But, in this case, I liked this comic so much that I’ve considered making it canon for a while. The green guy’s name is MikeP and he’s a character from Mike Podgorski’s own comics, but everything else is almost perfectly in line with The Underfold’s over-arching storyline. This is great! Enjoy! Thanks Mike!
comic notes
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the end.
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special thanks There are a few people that deserve to be named in the back of this book, and they are: My beautiful, caring and loving wife, Mary who has supported me in this silliness for the past three years. You are amazing and I love you. My parents. Thank you for allowing me to be a nerd growing up and to pursue all of my dreams (even when it didn’t work out). Thank you. My friend, Jonathan. Thanks for being funny and inspirational. My friends and best fans: Ian, Russell and Mike. You guys are awesome. Thank you for following The Underfold for so many years and becoming internet friends. You guys rock. Wes Molebash. For selflessly endorsing this silly book. I am humbled.
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read more at theunderfold.com
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