Thursday, December 5, 2013

SUPERDOG Cover Gallery


Superdog ran in Pilipino Funny Komiks for 7 years, from issue no. 265 (July 15, 1983) to 637 (August 31, 1990).  Written by Christian del Cruz and originally illustrated by Roni G. Escauriaga, later stories would be drawn by Louie G. Escauriaga and Louie Magbanua.


























18 years later, Superdog made a brief comeback, under the pen of original artist Roni Escauriaga, when Pilipino Funny Komiks was revived for a very short-lived run in 2008.


Proving you can't keep a good dog down, Superdog would fly anew in the second issue of CORE Studio's Boink! Comics in 2011.



Wednesday, December 4, 2013

BAD TO THE BONE: The Many Foes of SUPERDOG

Art by Louie Escauriaga

Sorry for the delay, got busy with a lot of stuff.  Anyway, let's take a look at Superdog's rogues gallery.


ULDOG
Art by Ronnie Escauriaga
Superdog's very first enemy, the leader of the motorcycle gang that attacked his hometown of Azucena.  He would usually work in tandem with mad scientist Dr. Wolf (see below), testing the evil genius' dangerous devices against the Dog of Steel.









Sometime later, Uldog was experimented on by aliens from the planet Plutox, turning him into the hulking Inkredibuldog!  Much like a certain green goliath, he would transform into a large rampaging brute whenever he got angry, but would revert back to normal whenever he got wet.




DR. WOLF & PROPESOR HYENA
The local mad scientist, Dr. Wolf was originally hired by Uldog to help him defeat Superdog.  Along with his array of evil inventions, Dr. Wolf was also armed with his Micro-Wave Hypnotizer, a ring which enabled him to hypnotize people.


After a number of failed attempts against Superdog, Dr. Wolf went to the European country of Dalmatia to seek the help of his cousin, Propesor Hyena.


The introduction of Propesor Hyena (whose most defining trait is his ear-splitting laughter) would spark a bit of a change in the character of Dr. Wolf.  Whereas he came off as really evil and devious (even drawn as creepier-looking) in earlier appearances, Wolf eventually developed into a more bumbling comical type of villain, almost a sidekick to his much flashier cousin.


Wolf and Hyena went on to become Superdog's most persistent adversaries.  In fact, they even managed to discover his secret identity.  And while they would often make use of that knowledge to lure him into all sorts of traps, interestingly enough, it never crossed their minds to reveal the hero's secret to the public.  Not very bright for a couple of geniuses.


Here are a few of Wolf and Hyena's twisted creations:

FLYING WARRIOR
A suit of armor worn by Dr. Wolf in battle against Superdog.  You can read about that encounter here.









SUPERDOG FIGHTER
 Literally inspired by The Transformers (Propesor Hyena gets the idea after seeing the cartoon), the Superdog Fighter is a missile-like submersible vehicle that transforms into a flying robot.

ROBOT SUPERDOG
Because every hero should have an evil twin.

GHOST-FIGHTERS
Wolf and Hyena build a machine that creates destructive holographic ghosts.

















SUPER-PULGAS (SUPER-FLEAS)
Microscopic mutant fleas possessing all of Superdog's powers.


The Super-Fleas' appearance was based on a design by 13-year old Enrico Gomez, the winning entry in their Superdog's Kalaban (Enemy) drawing contest.  Prior to this, the microscopic creatures were depicted as invisible to the naked eye.


Later on, three of the Super-Fleas would grow to gigantic size.



DR. JACKASS
A diminutive genius with an over-sized head and the ability to read minds.  Despite the name, he looks more like a small dog than a jackass.  In fact, because of this character, I used to think that a jackass actually WAS a type of dog.  I figure the artist didn't know at the time what a jackass was, so he drew him as just another dog instead.

Teaming up with Uldog, Dr. Jackass was responsible for the--

SUPERTANK
A jet-propelled tank armed with a magnetic beam weapon.


DR. JACKAL
An electronics expert who helps Dr. Wolf and Propesor Hyena in the construction of the--













SUPER ROBOT

Inspired by Voltes V, but looking more like Mekanda Robot, the Super Robot has the ability to detach its body parts.


Below are Dr. Jackal's worker robots.  I think they look kinda cool, so I thought I'd include them here anyway.



DEVIL KAT
An alien cat who possesses the same powers as Superdog.  Aside from this, he also has the ability to turn invisible.

KING KAT
The evil ruler of Devil Kat's home planet.


DRACO THE BLACK MAGICIAN
An evil space sorcerer who wants to conquer the world.  He is assisted by his court jester Lucayo.


DOX & UNOX
Alien scientists from the planet Plutox, they are responsible for transforming Uldog into Inkredibuldog.

Here are a few of their other test subjects.



THE EVIL GENIE
A powerful genie-like being with shape-shifting abilities and a rubber-like body.
Art by Louie Magbanua

It later turns out that this Genie is really one of a race of underground creatures.

King of the Genies



MASTER

A criminal mastermind with a laser-powered ring for whom Wolf and Hyena build the Superdog Fighter.



KILLER BUTTERFLIES

These creatures started out as killer catterpillars which emerged from the pieces of a crashed meteorite.


Eventually, the caterpillars spun cocoons and reemerged as gigantic carnivorous butterflies.

Butterfly eating eagle


THE TARTAR

A humanoid giant appears in Azucena, causing panic among the townsfolk.  It turns out that the giant was merely a young boy.


The giant child's mother then asks Superdog's help in rescuing her husband, who had been taken captive by the Tartar, a ruthless tribe of giant warriors.



THE FROG PEOPLE
King of the Frog People
An underwater race of carnivorous robot frogs (yeah, at this point the strip was starting to run out of ideas).


THE SNAKE PEOPLE

Hailing from the planet Veno, a group of tree-eating alien snake people arrive on Earth, posing a danger to the ecology.  Led by Korba, these snake people weren't actually evil, but were exiled by the true villain of the story, Viper, who sought the throne of their homeworld.

Deja vu.


MADAM BULDAG
Posing as a business partner of Tuting's long lost supposedly-wealthy grandfather, Madam Buldag conspired with Wolf and Hyena in a plot to rule the town of Azucena.














HENERAL OZO
Dictator of the bear country of Ozia (also known as Ozoland), Heneral Ozo declares war on Azucena (which all of a sudden is no longer a town, but an entire country) using a robot army built by Wolf and Hyena.







INVADERS FROM PLUTON
King of Pluton
Initially posing as friendly aliens, the Plutons' true purpose is to eliminate Superdog, who they deem as a threat to their conquest of the universe.
Lyrgu and Xyrgu

Next: The Superdog Cover Gallery!