Old Man Suddard: The Comic

Old Man Suddard: The Comic

First published in 1993 and running until 2006, the Old Man Suddard comic was a long running Suddard series based on the Old Man Suddard universe. Unlike the various graphic novels and limited Suddard series, this comic came out monthly from 1993 to 1996 and weekly from 1996 to 2006 due to a rise in sales and popularity. The series gave rise to many Suddard characters and powerful story arcs and won various awards for it's many portayals of the true origin of Old Man Suddard. The series sadly came to an end when the writers, feeling underpaid, decided to strike for better wages. The company behind the comic, Sudco, refused the raise and so the team all left to persue more financially beneficial occupations with the then popular rival comic, "Three Jews and a baby," which was cancelled after two issues due to serious complaints. Most of the writing staff killed themselves after this incident.

Notable characters and storylines

Issue 3 is notable for introducing Suddard's autistic sidekick, Pluggy, the alter ego of Warren Pluggington. Pluggy and Suddard would go on to become best friends and fight crime together for many years until a public vote on whether to kill Pluggy or not, took place. Readers had to choose between killing Pluggy or not. The vote went in favour of letting him live but the writers killed him anyway at the hands of the Revolver as a massive fuck you to the general public. Pluggy would be thought dead until a much later issue when he returned for the storyline Suddard: Civil War in 2006. Pluggy was succeeded by two other sidekicks, Pluggy II, Brent Addams, a middle aged alcoholic man who went on to become the protector of Chesham City as the vigilante Nitehoop and Pluggy III, Francis Dugurr, who remained as Suddard's sidekick until the series' end.

Issue 45 saw the introduction of Suddard's homeless army and Issue 58 saw the storyline where a symbiote bonds to Suddard and then escapes, going solo as the anti-hero, Black Man Suddard. The series featured regular appearances by Benji Handslam as he fought against his own villains as well as teaming up with Suddard and various heroes such as MoltenGold and Vajley Cruz. The series also featured the Sudmobile and Suddard Towers, where Suddard used to relax and plan his attacks.

One popular story, "Expressway", featured the debut of timid Orvell White who would later become the superhero and ally to Suddard, Hyperwave.

Another, entitled, "Old Man Moscow", told the what if story of Suddard being Russian. Many think that this is the true origin of Suddard.

Trivia

The storyline, Suddard: Civil War would later be adapted into a 2012 film of the  same name.

Many story arcs from this series would also be adapted into the 2007 animated series, The Old Man which acted as a partial sequel to the 90s animated series, Old Man Suddard: The Animated Series.