Archive
THE SUPERCHUM ARCHIVE
Superchum Updates
The fifth installment of the Superchum archive, collecting the old strips from 1995.
The fourth installment of the Superchum archive, collecting the old strips from 1995.
The third installment of the Superchum archive, collecting the old strips from 1995.
The second installment of the Superchum archive, collecting the old strips from 1995.
The Adventures of Superchum Archive debuts. This collects all of the original newspaper strips of The Adventures of Superchum and the Mighty Befrienders from when it began in 1995.
THE ORIGIN OF SUPERCHUM COMICS
HOW SUPERCHUM BEGAN
Superchum began as a side character in a different strip creator Steve Myers was goofing around with back in 1991. At the time he was just Shmitty Atkinson, a recurring character, and his whole gimmick was he was the overly friendly neighbor of the two main characters. That evolved into something quite different that summer when Myers worked on a comic he called Aquaninja - a crude and shlocky piece merging ninja movies and Aquaman inspired motifs. He took Atkinson and transformed his over-friendliness into "super" friendliness, making Superchum the "backup" feature in his comic strip endeavor.
Myers stuck with the idea of the underwater ninja and while working part-time at the University of Delaware library in 1995 he was "discovered" by features editor Dennis O'Brien. Seeing his art he asked Myers if he'd like to do a comic for the school paper, the University of Delaware Review.
And this is where Superchum really took shape. Realizing that the ninja bit was a flat, one note story, he turned his attention to the backup feature. Superchum was funnier, deeper, and had so much more potential. Drawing up a few pages worth of panels, Myers pitched that to O'Brien and Superchum was accepted and published a few short weeks later, making its debut in September of 1995.
The strip was very different back then. At its core, Superchum was inspired by The Tick, and the old Superfriends cartoon, and pretty much everything else Myers was interested in at the time. So references to Pulp Fiction and the Wu-Tang clan crop up throughout the work. It's drawn cruder, and its content is a bit stranger.
But all of the relevant themes are there and have been there since the beginning. Superchum is super-friendly. His goals are to make friends with people, not fight crime. He has two super sidekicks, who share his goal to make friends, but aren't powered. And so the conflict always hinges on villains refuting their friendly intentions and the Befrienders having to find a path toward friendship. Set in the backdrop of what should be an iconic small town suburb, but is a cynical, cold town with too many subversive characteristics to match its sunny demeanor, the Befrienders typically end up at odds with a world not ready to let the friendliness into their collective hearts.
Fast forward to 2018, and what began as Myers' sarcastic take on suburban America peppered with a healthy dose of Superhero comic satire, Superchum is now as straight and serious as can be. The message is real. Society, especially online society, has been gripped by unfriendliness. Superchum's no longer a goofy joke. The Paths of Chumliness are true. And the comic isn't being played for yuks anymore.
THE VARIOUS FORMS OF 'CHUM
NEWSPAPER STRIPS
SYNOPSIS:
The original run of Superchum in the University of Delaware Review, from 1995 to 1996. And the Ice Cream Caper from the Lansdale Reporter, circa 1999.
FIRST COMIC
SYNOPSIS:
The first published Superchum Comic Book, which also ran as a digital strip on the First State Comics website, circa 1997 to 1998.
ONLINE STRIPS
SYNOPSIS:
A redesigned look, adhering to a strict 4-panel layout, that ran as a weekly online comic strip published on a Geocities site, circa 2000.
WHAT 'CHUM FANS ARE SAYING
"Oooh, Superchum sounds like it could be a really good comic! You've definitely done a great job at it so far! I plan on coming back and continually reading this story. "