Something I enjoy writing for the comic is the dynamic between Tom and Cami. As a married couple, they can do and say a lot more - I think - than characters who simply orbit each other. There's none of that "will-they-or-won't-they" drama. No lingering threat to the relationship. I realize that limits the potential for drama in the strip. But drama has never really been what Theater Hopper is about.

My hats off to people who can write that kind of stuff. It's a tightrope walk, to be sure. I've just never had the patience for it. To have two characters who are married takes a lot of the pressure off. You can just write them as people.

I had a hard time coming up with the joke for today's comic. There aren't a lot of movies out right now that are impressing me. I could have done a comic about The Ruins, but it looks like standard horror boilerplate. Nothing inspired me. Then there's Martin Scorses's documentary of The Rolling Stones called Shine A Light, but what route can you go there except the tired "they're really old!" joke.

I was trying to put something together for Nim's Island, which is a movie I couldn't care less about since it looks like a by-the-numbers kids adventure movie. That is, until I saw Gerard Butler was in it.

Of course, being both a nerd and a slave to popular internet meme's, my mind immediately went to 300 and how I could incorporate it's style or catchphrases into the strip.

I went around and around trying to think of something satisfying, but became annoyed with myself for jumping on a bandwagon about 14 months too late. Then I remembered that there are lot more unfunny parodies of 300 than funny ones. And then I became sad...

So I went another direction with it! It feels good to stick it to people who don't know when to let a trend die.

Like myself.

Real quick - has anyone noticed that they're pronouncing Garard Butler's name weird in the commercials for Nim's Island. They make it sound like "Jared." It's weird.

Or maybe that's the way we're SUPPOSED to be saying it and we've been ignorantly insulting him the whole time?

Oh, well. Not much else from my end of the universe. Thanks for swinging by the site! See you here Monday!