Archive for June, 2004
20 items.
Jun02
I’m continuing with the Harry Potter goodness this week, so if you vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix, you’ll be treated to an incentive sketch of Jared as a Hippogriff! We’re really blurring the lines of zoology with this one!
Not much to talk about comic wise. Just plugging along, doing a full week of comics devoted to Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. I guess I always did wonder what Hermione saw in Ron. You’d think that Harry would be getting all the girls – what with his celebrity status and all.
But then you realize that when there are all these mystical forces conspiring to kill you year after year, you probably don’t have the emotional capacity to remember your 5 week anniversary with some chick you meet in the Commons Room…
We’re still getting lots of e-mail concerning Truman and his recent bout at the vet’s office. Lots of people still sending their warm wishes. Others sending follow-up notes asking how he’s doing.
As always, you concern is overwhelming! I had no idea so many people would take an interest in our little beagle. But we’ve got a lot of people out there with big hearts, so I shouldn’t be too surprised!
Truman is doing much better and is eating, sleeping and running around like usual. We still have him on his painkillers and antibiotics until our vet tells us otherwise. Frankly, I think he should take every last one of those pills – we paid for them! But we’ll wait and see what the doctor says.
Incidentally, I’m taking Truman to the vet after work to have his staples removed. We’re ready to take those things out. We’re tired of looking at them. The skin has kind of risen up between the staples. He looks and feels like the spine of a football!
I’ll try to remember to take some pictures later so you can all see Truman in action. That might be a treat for those of you nice enough to send your letters.
Watch this space for updates!
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Jun04
Well, it’s the end of Harry Potter week here at Theater Hopper. So to get you really amped up for the last themed incentive sketch, I saved the big guns for last. If you want to see Tom as The Chosen One himself, you’ll have to click here first!
What else can I say about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that I haven’t already said this week? I guess it’s breaking all sorts of records in the UK. No surprise there. I think it’s pretty safe to say they’re proud of the franchise. Cami and I think we’ll see the matinee sometime Saturday afternoon, which I don’t know how smart that is. The theater will probably be packed with kids.
No other movie news to report, so I’ll get along with other business.
I promised you guys pictures of Truman when he had his staples taken out. Well, I followed through on my promise. You can check them out in the THorum. They’re some pretty nice pictures. You can see the incision and how he’s now up and around, back to normal! Thanks again to everyone for their support!
For those of you that ordered t-shirts way back in April, they came in last week and I shipped them out Thursday afternoon! With any luck, you should be getting them on Saturday.
We’re still taking pre-orders on this shirt, so if you want one for yourself, it’s not too late to put your money down before we restock our supply!
Lastly, I want to say thanks to our current advertiser O’Deer Comics. They’ve advertised with us once before and decided to do so again. Reward their loyalty with some much-deserved traffic. They have a really great comic on their hands.
That’s about it for me. I don’t know about you, but the holiday weekend really screwed me up. I’m all off on my days. I still think it’s Thursday! Somehow, it made the work week longer!
All I want to do this week is stay home and read, believe it or not. I want to brush up on my CSS and XHTML skills so I can tweak the site and make it faster somewhere along the line. Cami and I are also gearing up to start our own eBay business. So you never know! Someday you might be able to buy some of our used crap! Git’cher self a piece of Brazelton memorabilia!
Take care everyone! I’m out!
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I’m doing something a little out of the ordinary for an incentive sketch today. You won’t see one of the Theater Hopper cast members in any kind of costume. Instead, I took a stab at drawing a Dementor. This is my interpretation, inspired by the version in the movie, of course. I hope you like it. Click here to check it out!
As for today’s comic? I can’t tell you what inspired it. I suppose part of me really, REALLY wanted to draw a strip with a Dementor in it. Watching Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban on Friday, I was very taken with their design and wanted to re-create it.
Then, at some point in the creative process, the phrase “Frosty Chocolate Milkshakes” crept in and it was “Good night, Gracie!” I’m sorry. It just sounded funny in my head!
Maybe I’m tapping into some kind of old-school sense of humor here, because there seems to be a kind of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein thing going on here…
Maybe it’s best not to dwell on it. They’re just silly pictures. I hope you enjoy them.
As for the movie on everyone’s minds, I really don’t have anything more to contribute that hasn’t been said in a hundred reviews. The tone is darker, more grown-up. The actors are really stepping into their roles. There’s some great black humor in it and it’s definitely the best of the three Potter movies so far.
I can say that Azkaban has stuck with me longer than the other two movies have. Four days later, I’m still thinking about it. After walking out of the theater the first two times, I couldn’t remember what I saw. Azkaban has several striking moments. Go see it. Even if you don’t like Harry Potter, it stands on its own two legs. It’s an enjoyable film.
Wanted to give a quick shout out to two recent advertisers. Be sure to investigate both Nihilism and Stickman Ltd. They’re worth a look.
That’s about it for now. Take care!
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Since we’re giving a nod to Garfield today, I thought it would be fun to illustrate what it might look like if a bipedal, walking cat existed in the real word for today’s incentive sketch. Click away to uncover the result.
I’m taking the piss out of Bill Murray a little for collecting a fat paycheck for his voice over work on the forthcoming Garfield movie that comes out Friday. I guess I just find it interesting when critically hailed performers take their momentum and throw the emergency break by following up with a commercial picture.
Halle Berry did it with Die Another Day and the “so-much-negative-buzz-it’s-radioactive” Catwoman after being the first black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar. Bill is doing it with Garfield post Lost in Translation. I can only assume these decision are made while in some kind of drunken stupor.
Ironically, Murray will probably be the only performer to emerge from the bloodbath that will be Garfield at the box office because he is the only “name” actor that doesn’t appear on screen.
To put it another way, say a little prayer for Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
To make a Garfield movie this late in the game is ludicrous to me. They should have made this flick 10 years ago when everyone was lugging around those suction cup Garfield dolls in the back of their Toyota Camary’s.
Why the delay? And I swear if anyone tells me it was so they could wait for the technology to catch up with their vision I will murder Jim Davis with mind-bullets.
You can tell no thought went into this movie. Why on Earth would you choose to animate Garfield with computer generate effects, but cast his canine foil Odie with a live action dog? This movie has already broken the rules established for its universe and already I’m angry about it.
Nevertheless, Cami insists we’ll be seeing the film this Friday when it opens. Every time one of those awkwardly paced commercials comes on TV, she blurts out “We’re TOTALLY seeing that!”
I think she’s just saying that to poke fun at me a little. She’s already been on the receiving end of this rant a couple of times…
Quick bit of site news: If you could be so kind to check out our newest sponsor Please Rewind, I would be forever grateful. This is a splendidly written and drawn web comic about a couple of guys who own a video store, so you know already it’s going to be up your alley. Man, if I had a dollar for every time I ran into a character like Hank Burns I’d be a rich man…
That’s it for now. Sign up for the THorum if you haven’t already. We’ve been seeing a lot of activity in there lately. Get in on the ground floor!
Have a great Wednesday!
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Over the last two days, I’ve received enough e-mails and comments about this comic that I felt it important enough to share a fun fact.
Taken from IMDB.com…
“Bill Murray is succeeding the late Lorenzo Music as the voice of Garfield… who succeeded Bill Murray as the voice of Peter Venkman in the cartoon version of The Real Ghostbusters.“
As a frequent reader of the IMDB, I was already familiar with this fact, but the idea of this cycle in casting seems to have captivated enough of you that I felt it was important for all to be made aware.
Learn something new every day!
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Having some fun with The Stepford Wives today, but what if the shoe was on the other foot? Vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix to uncover our more recent incentive sketch – The Stepford HUSBANDS!
So, as you know, Frank Oz’s (ne: Missy Piggy’s) remake of The Stepford Wives hits theaters today. There’s a lot of bad buzz surrounding this picture. Reports of on-set ego flare ups from Nicole Kidman, Better Midler and even Oz himself! Poor audience testing and late-in-the-game reshoots all spell trouble.
Kind of a shame considering the first rate cast they’ve assembled for this pic. Glenn Close and Christopher Walken in the same movie? That’s impressive.
I think Matthew Broderick is miscast, however. Every time I see him in the advertisements, he just looks like he shouldn’t be there. He’s too sweet-natured to play the sinister husband who replaces his wife with a robot.
The original choice was John Cusack, who would have been much better. He pulls off conflicted like no one in the business. And he has a dark streak in him, so I could see that working. Cusack and his sister Joan Cusack (originally cast in the Bette Midler role) had to abandon production to tend to their dying father.
This version of the film is supposed to be dark comedy, which I guess explains why Jon Lovitz is in it as well? Making The Stepford Wives a comedy is a mistake. To me, it will always be a horror piece and a damning piece of social commentary about women’s liberation. I suppose that wasn’t “timely” enough for the producers this go around.
Morbid curiosity might draw me to the theater for this one, but I have a sinking suspicion I would be better off watching my copy of the 1975 version.
No matter. Super-Size Me, the anti-McDonald’s documentary is coming to town today. I think Cami and I are going to catch that after work. A little brain food, as it were!
One bit of site info I wanted to share: We recently did some reorganization in the THorum, so now topics should be easier to find in the categories. It was overdue. Things have been growing in there at such a rate, in needed to be done. Check it out!
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Groovi from O’Deer Comics sent me a link to a page on his web site containing a ton of up-close photos of the new Batmobile from the forthcoming Batman Begins starring Christian Bale.
There have been photos floating around the internet for a couple of months now, but here you get to look at it from every angle. Apparently it was part of some convention? I don’t know the whole story, but the pictures are sweet.
Visit O’Deer Comics. The link to the Batmobile pics are at the top of the blogs.
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Years from now, when the internet becomes at least 40% web comics and 60% porn, some artist will do an interview and be asked “What made you get into web comics?”
Undoubtedly they will point to R.K Milholland’s recent success with Something Positive. In a bid to make his comic and his web site even better, he posed a hypothetical challenge to his readers for them to pay his $22,000 annual salary so he could quit his day job and focus on comics for a year.
Imagine his surprise when they met that goal.
Congrats to R.K. He’s a really cool guy and a bigger reward couldn’t have gone to a more imaginative guy.
Now get to work, Milholland! And no coffee breaks! 😉
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Jun14
Vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix and be rewarded with a figure from your youth – Tom as The Hamburgler! “Robble! Robble!”
By the way, we’ve been flirting with the Top 3 over at buzzComix for most of the month. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could climb a little higher toward the top? I know *I* would find it interesting!
As the comic depicts, Cami and I did get to see Super Size Me this weekend. How we managed to avoid the minefield of crap carpet bombing theaters last week is still beyond my comprehension. Aw… We missed Garfield? NUTS!
Super Size Me was a very interesting documentary. Well written and “acted” by its creator Morgan Spurlock. By now you’re probably already familiar with the gimmick. In an attempt to recreate the amount of fast food consumption by the average American, Spurlock restricts his diet to items sold only at McDonald’s for 30 days. Cameras follow him around as he tries to find the root of our country’s poor nutrition habits while McNuggets ravage his liver.
I would say there’s nothing the movie tells you that you don’t already know. Yes, fast food is bad for you. Yes, some people don’t exercise personal responsibility when consuming it. But I think what Spurlock achieves is packaging this information in a way that is (if you’ll excuse the pun) more digestible. The facts and figures don’t overwhelm and the physical effects on Spurlock’s body speak for themselves.
Starting at above average health, Spurlock gained over 20 pounds in less than 30 days. His glucose levels were so high, it was like he ate ONE POUND of sugar every day (on average). His high fat diet had let to his liver going toxic – similar to someone on an alcohol binge. Around day 22, he was staring at liver failure and some irreversible effects from his experiment.
It’s hard to gauge what long-lasting effects Spurlock’s expose will generate. Obviously McDonald’s has already taken steps to counter-act the bad publicity by removing the “Super Size” option from their menus and introducing more salads and yogurt. (They swear up and down this change is not related to the movie).
But where Super Size Me fails is in providing any suggested solutions for combating this problem. The information is served up to shock us, but our tongues are left wagging. What do we do when we return to our everyday lives?
Spurlock has a girlfriend who is a vegan chef. She prepares for him a specially designed menu to bring his body back to normal. Not everyone is so fortunate! And does Spurlock expect all of us to go vegan? He never suggests anything!
Spurlock’s vision is nearly myopic in his relentless attack on The Golden Arches, meanwhile overlooking societal pressures that result in some of the poor nutritional choices families make. As a whole, we’re working longer hours, taking less vacation and running our kids from soccer practice to piano recitals. There isn’t often enough time to do what’s best. This facet is ignored.
I’m not making excuses and maybe there were too many sides to the issue for Spurlock to cram into a two hour running time. But they were some of the issues that crept into my head after watching the film.
Regardless of how you dissect the issue, Super Size Me will force you to re-examine your life and what you put into your body. If anything, it spurs debate – and that’s never a bad thing.
If you want to spur a little debate of your own, the THorum is always open, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Join up and let us know what you think of Super Size Me!
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I don’t know what was dumped into the water supply yesterday, but I just checked the site’s statistics and we received 6,367 unique hits on Monday! Although site traffic has been increasing steadily over time, this was quite a spike!
I’m not pointing this out to be a braggart, but wanted to call your attention to it in case you were considering advertising with Theater Hopper. Our rates are some of the cheapest you’ll find and we’re only one of a handful of comics that make their rates known to potential customers UP FRONT!
If you have a web site you’d like to promote – and it doesn’t have to be another webcomic! It can be anything! – now would be a good time to hitch your wagon to Theater Hopper! Check our advertising page for more information!
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