Synopsis from Back Cover: No longer only in the pages of galactic history books and half-remembered folk tales, the story of the giant space lizard known as Vagrond is finally being told by his son the Earth President. Follow Vagrond’s story from first waking up in a drunken stupor on a Space Tram to his conflict with the being known as the Supreme Moon Overlord…


Evil of the SMO! is the first book (instead of comic)  in The Classic Space Adventures of my Father by Earth President Vagrond the Second. It features 44 pages of adventure, including 10 pages illustrated as comics. It is distributed for free through a Creative Commons license.

© 2010 Garth Thompson and Chad Wagner - www.GiantSpaceLizard.com

Evil of the SMO! can be downloaded and/or read completely for free from the following sources:

• Download and read in PDF format
• More reading options (including Google Books) will be added later this month

The next eBook from Giant Space Lizard! is planned for March 15th, 2011. It may or may not be another of Vagrond’s space adventures. Subscribe to this website to be notified when major updates are posted.

Well, it’s not a comic but it’s a picture of Vagrond and Bryan Orion riding four wheelers.  Really more of a logo like the one on this page.  This website isn’t dead, but the basic problem is that because I wrote Evil of the SMO! nine years ago (anniversary this March!) it doesn’t really capture my interest enough to draw a comic from it every week.  It’s much more interesting if I draw something that Chaerb wrote, or something being written as I go along.  Chaerb, however, has ceased to write anything at all except the occasional H.P. Lovecraft movie pitch, and if I write something as I go, fun as it may be, it gets wrong fast.

I would like to continue The Classical Space Adventures of my Father by Earth President Vagrond the Second, and actually put effort into the writing as well as the drawings.  However this requires a little thing called editing, I don’t have time to write, edit AND draw new comics on a week to week basis given that other thing I do.  Being creative SOMETIMES does help me be more productive the rest of the time, though, so I don’t want to give this up.

The current plan is, unless Chaerb writes more Wagner, to turn Evil of the SMO! into an illustrated short story in PDF form.  ETA is pretty hard to say, but to give myself a limit I’ll say before September 1st this year.  I’ll leave comments open on this thread for the constant spam lulz.

[[The man assaulting Vorpgrind looks shocked.]]

Assailant: An earthquake?

[[The assailant loses his balance and falls to his knees.]]

Sound effect: WHAM!

[[Vorpgrind's large, ominous eyes appear behind the now terrified assailant. Vorpgrind points a gun at his former attacker's head.]]

Vorpgrind: Sorry good man.

Sound effect: CLICK!

[[The next panel goes black.]]

Sound effect: BANG!

There you go, my second finished comic series on this website (after the 5 page When Will The Questions Stop?!), finished after 34 poorly drawn, completely confusing panels. If I get my act together, then in 2 days we’ll return to Evil of the SMO! which hopefully, hopefully makes at least a little more sense. This also means no more Thursday updates…at least until Jaerb gets HIS act together. Come on Jaerb! You can do it!

[[Now that the lights are on, it can be seen that a man is standing behind Vorpgrind pointing a gun at Vorpgrind's head. Vorpgrind remains calm and talks to him, while the assailant looks angry.]]

Vorpgrind: I thought someone was there, so then. Have at it?

Assailant: You know damn well what you did, last year? Wolf system?

[[Suddenly the assailant's hands, both clenched tightly on the gun, start shaking.]]

Assailant (Thoughts): The gun…it’s burning…why is it so hot?

[[The assailant drops the glowing hot gun in pain and screams.]]

Assailant: YEOW!!

Man this is weird. Is this how it’s going to end? And did I ever explicitly state in the comic that the other lizard is Vorpgrind? Man…

[[Bryan Orion and Vagrond are standing in Vorpgrind's office, talking to Vorpgrind who is sitting in the dark.]]

Bryan Orion: So you think that they were wrong?

Vorpgrind: Well, in the most correct way The levels of radiation are so small, maybe had the farm continued for a thousand years…for now it is a false issue. Can you toggle the lights when you leave?

Bryan Orion: Got it.

[[Bryan Orion flicks the light switch.]]

Merry Christmas Eve! Just like Thanksgiving, the comic on Christmas Eve has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas! Unless you consider Vorpgrind a messianic figure or something.

[[The space farmer, Rob Kestler and Cassie Farmerer are inside the space farm. The space farmer is scolding the the other two.]]

Farmer: Well, well, look who comes crawling back once the hippie-dippie commune breaks up.

Cassie Farmerer: Sorry, dad. Now that that big brick is gone…

Farmer: No mattah. Just so long as ah don’t catch you two holding hands again, you can stay here

[[Rob Kestler and Cassie Farmerer look ecstatic.]]

Extremely late again but here it is!

[[Vagrond's space jalopy flies away with the headlights on, towing the large stone with mysterious writing on it behind it. Inside the spaceship, Vagrond and Bryan Orion are sitting in the front seat, talking. Bryan is driving.]]

Vagrond: What’s going on?

Bryan Orion: Mr. Vorpgrind said the girl isn’t lying, she is the farmer’s daughter. Her conflict with her father was over the rock. If we remove it, the problem is solved.

Wait, what’s going on in this comic? It seems to be coming to an ending but due to the stream of consciousness nature (not to be confused with Streamo) I can’t really figure out how this all will wrap up.

[[Vagrond checks that the cords or ropes coming from the hook are securely fastened to the large stone, and that the chain is securely fastened to the spaceship. He then climbs up the chain and climbs back into the spaceship into the passenger seat. Bryan Orion is in the driver's seat looking frustrated. Vagrond looks frustrated as well.]]

Vagrond: What did Vorpgrind say to do next?

Bryan Orion: He said we are done here.

The fourth panel is the first one in quite awhile without the color inverted. Inverting the color wasn’t so bad until Bryan Orion got into outer space and he had to be entirely filled with marker every time, reducing the “hastiness”. Vagrond’s is a mix of darks and lights so he’s about the same to draw whether or not the colors are reversed.

[[As the protester floats away, Bryan Orion gets back inside the spaceship. Vagrond takes hold of the hook and jumps down from the space jalopy to the large stone with mysterious writing on it. Vagrond then presses a button on the back of the hook and ropes shoot out from it, ensnaring the large stone.]]

Silly space bungee cords and their being inside of space hooks.

[[Holding onto the bottom of the space jalopy, Vagrond pulls the chain with his right hand, reeling Bryan Orion, who is still holding the hook, back towards the spaceship. The protester who knocked Bryan back uses a jetpack to fly closer. Bryan Orion grabs onto the spaceship and hands Vagrond the hook. The protester who kicked Bryan flies down with his jetpack, but Vagrond punches him in the head as he lands.]]

It’s still on Saturday, but this is definitely the latest I’ve ever posted a comic so far…

[[Despite missing with his punch, the protester manages to get his foot on Bryan Orion and kick him backwards. Still holding onto the hook in his left hand, Bryan Orion floats away from the space jalopy. Vagrond grabs the other end of the chain and uses it to pull himself closer to the space jalopy. Eventually Vagrond is able to grab a hold of the spaceship's thruster with his hind feet.]]

Vagrond isn’t eating the chain in the last panel, I just messed up while drawing. Silly squamates and their different proportions than humanoids!

[[Bryan Orion puts on a space suit and gets out out of the space jalopy. Bryan retrieves a hook from the back of the spaceship. One of the protesters punches at Bryan, but he ducks down out of the way.]]

The letters after the comics filename…so boring…maybe I should add lowercase letters too…

[[Vagrond points at the stone and shrugs his shoulders. From inside the space jalopy Bryan Orion gives hand signals.]]

Bryan Orion (Hand signals): (WAIT)-(I)-(READY)-(TOW)-(HOOK)

[[The space jalopy undocks from the space farm and flies above the giant stone with strange writing on it. Vagrond looks up at the space jalopy.]]

I’ll be back visiting the folks this week, I can’t write too long comments…

[[Vagrond gets his claws under the tarp and, holding onto the space farm with his feet, pulls the tarp up. Underneath the tarp is revealed a habitable dome where the protesters were living, and leaning on it is a large stone with strange markings. Vagrond's space jalopy is parked next to the habitable dome. The tarp floats away as do two of the protesters.]]

One thing the Thurberesque style is helping me identify is what poses I have trouble with. Since I only draw these comics with one shot, in marker (no sketching or changing of mistakes in most cases) if a certain pose goes very, very wrong I know to watch out for it in the future. Maybe this will improve future sketch work, or something. In the non-space comics, it also seems to be improving Vagrond’s expressiveness.

[[Vagrond moves down to where there is what appears to be a tarp covered in peace signs covering the outpost of the protesters. A protester in a space suit pulls himself across the outpost and punches at Vagrond. Vagrond pulls himself out of the way and, holding on to the space farm's rail for support, uppercuts the protester. The protester floats away as Vagrond tries to get his claws under the tarp.]]

This has finally settled into a rhythm, a four panel one. Three panels seems good for jokes, but for this at least four panels seem necessary to convey action.

[[Outside the space jalopy, Vagrond holds one of the protesters by their throat. Bryan Orion tries to get his attention from inside the spaceship. Vagrond sticks his head inside the spaceship to see what Bryan was asking about.]]

Vagrond: Yeah?

Bryan Orion: I Just heard from Mr. Vorpgrind. He wants you to tear the outer shell off where these squatters are living.

Vagrond: Won’t that kill all of them?

Bryan Orion: Vorpgrind doesn’t seem to think it will de-pressurize them. Go for it.

[[Vagrond starts to go back outside.]]

Vagrond: All right, but no whining if you have to fit ten asphyx-ing humans in here.

Bryan Orion: Rest assured there will be whining.

There are now as many of these as there are Kestler comics. I wonder where the hold up is for them, is Chaerb not writing or is Jaerb not drawing? And why not? This series has certainly set the bar at a nice, low comfortable level.

[[The protester whom Vagrond threw off the spaceship in the last page flies through space and hits one of the supports of the space farm.]]

This is undoubtedly the worst “comic” I have ever had the misfortune to post here. Time from beginning drawing to posting: 8 minutes. Consider it sponsored by the ISMRM and NSF. At least there’s nowhere to go but up.

[[Disoriented, the protester whom Vagrond hit against the spaceship floats off. A second protester pulls himself up onto the roof of the ship. Vagrond grabs into the roof with his hind claws and grabs the second protester with his fore claws. Using the spaceship for leverage, Vagrond throws the second protester off into space.]]

Thompkins has not yet remarked on this comic.

[[The protester punches at Vagrond, but Vagrond falls back by pushing backwards off his opponent. Vagrond takes opportunity of the missed punch and grabs the protester's arm. Vagrond rolls onto his back and spins the protester with him, hitting the protester's head on the top of the spaceship.]]

Thompkins has not yet remarked on this comic.

Vagrond: You try to get Vorpgrind to ask him what to do. I’ll deal with the protesters. I’ll try not to cause any casualties.

Sound effect: BANG! BANG!

Bryan Orion: Don’t knock yourself out.

[[Vagrond slowly exists the spaceship through the side, pulling himself on top of the spaceship. One of the protesters notices him and tries to punch him, but Vagrond ducks down and avoids the punch.]]

Today, a limerick:



There once was a man named Chaerb,

With whom the work on a comic was shared.

But as the weeks come and go,

The updates do show,

That dear old Chaerb is greatly impaired!