Today’s buzzComix incentive sketch kind of flips the script a little bit. It’s not entirely unprecedented as a concept, but it’s still fun. Plus, it gives me a chance to give Puppet Tom a little extra time in the spotlight. Click here to see it.

I did get a chance to see Team America: World Police this weekend and my response has somewhat waned after walking out of the theater. I think there might be a backlash to the hype surrounding this film. Several critics are calling it the funniest of the year. I’ll admit that I laughed and even had fun quoting some of the lines afterwords, but the more I think about it, the less I like it.

The movie’s funny parts don’t stem so much from being clever, but more from the “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe they did that!” category. More shock value than genuine laughs. And there are more juvenile aspects of the film that I initially laughed at, but upon review, really aren’t that funny.

For example, the film takes great pleasure out of deflating well-known Hollywood liberals. Alec Baldwin is a prominent figure and the head of an actor’s organization known as the Film Actor’s Guild. So whenever Alec Baldwin appears on screen, his name is displayed with an unfortunate acronym behind it. It’s pretty third grade.

I don’t think I should spending too much time analyzing the politics of a puppet movie, but it seems like liberals in the movie are treated a little more unfairly than those on the right. Essentially, the movie would try to convince you that you shouldn’t listen to people like Sean Penn or Janeane Garofalo because they don’t know what they’re talking about. But since when do Team America’s writers and directors Trey Parker and Matt Stone have all the answers? It seems more than a little hypocritical to me.

Personally, I think a lot of critics are hopping on the “IT’S OUTRAGEOUS SO IT MUST BE GOOD!” bandwagon. Frankly, the first South Park movie was more irreverent.

That aside, I was very impressed with how the film was shot. The cinematography is excellent and the sets and props have to be seen to be believed. A lot of care and attention to detail went into Team America and it shows. From what I could tell, there was nary a special effects shot in the thing. All the effects were physical. If anything, see it for that. But don’t strain to hard trying to decipher the politics. The undercurrent doesn’t run that deep.

In site news, I know I said on Friday that I was going to have some new shirts for you to check out today. Well, that didn’t happen this morning, but I might be ready to go by tonight. I was out late Sunday night and didn’t get a chance to set up the store. Kind of a lame excuse, I know. But I have to have a social life, too!

I sent the printer the first order for the Spoiler shirts and I’m just waiting to hear back from him on production estimate. Those of you who got your orders in on Friday can probably expect to see you shirts somewhere around the middle of November at the latest, but I don’t know for sure yet.

Those of you who missed last Friday’s deadline. Don’t worry. I’m still taking orders. The next pre-order deadline ends October 30. So you have until then to get your name in for the second batch of shirts!

Thanks to everyone who ordered. Response has been strong. Hopefully I can still come up with designs that will hold your interest. I’m having a lot of fun trying!

Talk to you soon!