Chapter 17 | Page 3b: Hot Stuff

Posted on December 19, 2025 by Brad Guigar

Today’s page takes us back to Ralph’s Diner, where Captain Heroic proves—once again—that nothing rattles him… not even a surprise soup bath.

Hailey is mortified, Captain Heroic is dripping, and somewhere across the diner, Yazmine Velour is livestreaming the whole thing as heart emojis rain from the internet. It’s a small moment, but one that says a lot about who Cap really is—and why people can’t help falling for him.

Transcript

Panel 1
Hailey (distraught that she has dumped hot soup on Captain Heroic): Omigod Omigod Omigod…

Captain Heroic (turning to another person eating at the diner): Excuse me. Would you hand me a napkin, please? (The person hands him a napkin)

Panel 2

Hailey: I’m so sorry Captain Heroic, sir. I didn’t mean to — {sob}

Panel 3

Captain Heroic (handing her the napkin): Here. Please don’t cry.

Panel 4

Captain Heroic (continues): Most of my first impressions involve disintegration rays. And actual impressions. In concrete.

Panel 5

Captain Heroic: This was far more pleasant — not counting the bay leaf in my shirt.Yazmine Velour (as she livestreams the interaction from the other side of the diner, a torrent of heart emojis flow from her phone as the audience reacts): Omigod Omigod Omigod

After Dark

This week's commissioned MicroFic delivers exactly what you’d want from a pairing between Dynasty and Father Christmas.

  • Yes, he lives up to his name.

  • Yes, Dynasty knew exactly what she was doing.

  • No, the North Pole will never be the same.

I also posted the Goblin Girl MicroFic from the Monster Girl poll — and the response was so good, I might need to make these poll-powered MicroFics a recurring thing!

Baltimore Comic Con Report

Posted on September 12, 2006 by Brad Guigar

Baltimore Comic Con Report

My appearance at the Baltimore Comic Con this past weekend was a tremendous success! A big thanks to all of you who came out to say hi! I did a whole truckload of convention sketches and sold lots of books. The Evil Inc Annual Report vol 1 was so popular that I’ve gotten renewed determination to get that next volume out!

I had the VILF shirts out there, too, and they got a lot of attention. 🙂

Saturday was fun. Early in the show, the fire alarm went off and they evacuated the convention center. That put the comics fans and the telecom convention on the other side of the hall out on the street. It was quite a culture clash. But that was cleared up relatively quickly. Before long we were back in and doing well.

I didn’t have great table placement. If you remember, I was originally placed at Table 69 and then moved to Table 3. Table 3 was waaay over in the corner facing the rear of a toy store. There was little foot traffic. Table 69, however, was right in a main pathway. However, I’m not complaining because I still had a good weekend. I’ve already re-upped for next year, so maybe I’ll get a little better placement as a returning exhibitor.

A highlight of the weekend was when this couple (photo to the right) approached and told me they met me at Wizard World Philadelphia earlier this year and had bought a copy of the book having never read the strip online. They have become fans and were very complimentary about the strip. I live for that.

Likewise, I sold a book to a couple on Saturday and they came back the next day — having read it overnight — with rave reviews. Too cool. 🙂

Sunday was a great day, too. I talked to Scott and heard that the Harvey Awards were pretty poorly attended. You can probably still see his post about it on his site. I was awfully sorry to hear that. I can’t imagine an awards presentation in which no one had shown up to accept their awards.

Finally, here’s a little recap of the news and reviews from the con:

Marvel’s announcements include the return of “Thor.”

The Baltimore Sun’s review.

The Cup O’ Joe (Quesada) panel.

The DC Nation panel.