At this point I’m trying to build Jimmy back up into the selfless person we all know him to be, so I figured his reasons for working at the theater where he was so brutally dumped needed a dash of sympathetic irony.
I really wanted to go more in depth with Jimmy’s realization of what he lost and his expression of how much Charlie meant to him. But at the same time, emotional hand-wringing is like standing still from a pacing standpoint.
So the idea is that Jimmy is paying for his sins at the scene of his greatest failure. It’s also the scene of his “rebirth” into the nice guy we’ve come to know him as.
I don’t know if there’s much more I can say about it than that.
Be sure to listen to The Triple Feature this evening. We record live at 9:00 PM CST over at Talkshoe.com. With any luck, our good friend Joe Dunn will be back in the saddle this week after missing out on our Oscar recap last week.
Odds are good we’ll be talking about Watchmen, since that’s about the only thing going on in movies this week. So if you’re looking forward to seeing it, spend an hour with us as we pontificate its importance.
One other thing – and I know it doesn’t have much to do with movies – but does anyone plan on watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon when he takes over for Conan O’Brien tonight?
I’m not a big fan of Fallon’s, but I’m interested to see if he can emerge from this as his own man. So much of his shtick to me seemed stolen from Adam Sandler — what with his bits on Weekend Update with his guitar during his early days at Saturday Night Live. He seemed to mature a little when he was promoted to reading “the fake news” on Weekend Update a few years later, but he was pretty much Tina Fey’s puppet.
He did the movie thing. No one bought into it and he’s become almost a curious footnote in comedy known more for cracking up during sketches on SNL than actually being funny himself.
But I’ve been reading a lot of the press surrounding the show and it seems like he’s very enthusiastic about the show. Some of the stuff they say they plan on doing sounds a little unconventional in the late night format, but they really seem to have their sights set on the next generation of fans.
Conan O’Brien will always be *my* late night guy. I remember staying up to watch his first show and even though I was only 15 years-old, I could tell how awkward and nervous he was. A bunch of his jokes bombed in that first week. But the shows got funnier and he honed his own self-deprecating brand of wackiness and now he’s moving on to The Tonight Show. He graduated.
I guess the point I’m making is that if someone like Conan O’Brien can make it – a performer NO ONE thought would be around after a year – is it possible Jimmy Fallon can do something positive for himself in late night?
So what do you think? Will you be watching tonight? Do you have any bias against Fallon? Do you feel like you should watch – like it’s a tiny historic moment? Leave your thoughts below!
I am nervous because later this morning I am seeing a doctor for my first physical in almost 15 years.
It was something I meant to do last year after I turned 30. Plus, now that we have Henry, monitoring my health more closely is the responsible thing to do.
I didn’t make the appointment, though partially because I didn’t have a doctor and didn’t know how to go about looking for one. But I didn’t exactly make it a priority to find one because I am deathly afraid of needles.
I’ve been worrying about it since yesterday. I know they’re going to have to take blood. I wish there was a way they could gas me and knock me out to do it, though.
My fear of needles has only gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. Last year I went to a health screening provided by my employer and got all tense when I found out they were going to use the little finger prick thing to take a small blood sample.
It’s not just blood removal, either. I don’t like injections. Getting a flu shot fills me with anxiety.
Incidentally, I should mention I never had a flu shot until Henry was born.
The things I do for this kid. Seriously.
What the?!… Did I manage to sneak in a punchline into today’s emotional reunion between Charlie and Jimmy? I think I must have!
For me, the pleasure of drawing today’s strip was drawing Tom’s reaction panel-to-panel. I pictured him reacting to Jimmy and Charlie’s relationship drama as if it were happening on a movie screen in front of him. “This is so much better than a movie,” would be the subtext running through his brain.
Not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I kind of like the turn of the phrase “Kiss each other on the mouth.” It’s kind of like when Liz Lemon says “I want to go to there” on 30 Rock. Eh, maybe not.
All things the same, if I could come up with a design for that slogan, would you be interested in that as a t-shirt? I’m asking because pre-orders for Theater Hopper – Year Three have pretty much stalled and I’m lacking the money I need to send the finished book to the printer.
I could wait for advertising revenue to make up the difference, but the economy has severely limited advertising budgets, so I’m not seeing much return there. I figured I could whip up a few new t-shirts and try to make money that way. Y’know, spend money to make money.
Truthfully, I’m overdue on trying to produce a new shirt. I don’t know if it was complacency, fear or maybe a little bit of both. But it seems that I can’t come up with an idea that sells as well as the Spoiler shirts. Other shirts sell okay, but not so great that I can reorder them and keep selling them. Usually, I do one run of a new design, sell out and then you never see it again.
I had someone write me earlier in the month asking about the Johnny Number 5 t-shirt I was selling on the site a few years ago. Y’know “Don’t trust robots?” It was never a big seller, but the people who bought it seemed to love it.
I’ll admit that I’m probably not setting the world on fire with some of my designs. I mean, the Spoiler shirts are just a block of text. But for some strange reason, they work. Design is always something I’ve felt I could improve on.
The other problem is coming up with a good concept. You can’t do something too “inside” or specific to the comic (although that appeals to the the hard core supporters) and you also can’t do something so general that you could buy it from some other site.
I think I have a concept that might work: You know those movie quotes randomly rotating at the bottom of the page? I had the idea of graphically representing them on t-shirts so that they look cool to people who aren’t in on the joke, but make the person wearing it feel a little more special because they know the reference.
The first one I was going to attempt was from Reservoir Dogs when Mr. Blonde asks Mr. White “Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite?”
It would probably take too much to explain the different elements I want to incorporate into the shirt, but there would be some photo-realism to it so you’re not walking around with a huge cartoon across your chest.
I mean look at the shirts from comics like Octopus Pie or White Ninja (really any of the TopatoCo line of shirts). They’re not firmly aligned with the “branding” of the comic they’re associated with. I want to try and do something similar here.
What do you think? Do you think this is a good idea? What famous movie lines would you like to see represented in a graphic format? What about Jimmy and Charlie? Do you think they’re going to get back together? Do you think they’ll take Tom’s advice to “kiss each other on the mouth?” Leave your thoughts below!
I have a design question for you guys.
Where do you think would be the most prominent place for me to put a StumbleUpon button? I’m thinking of removing the one I have now and putting it even closer to the comic navigation.
Bonus question: If the StumbleUpon button goes closer to the comic navigation, where should the site bookmarking tool go? You know, the one that keeps your place if you’re combing through the archives.
Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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Well, that’s the end of it. Now you know the story of Jimmy’s and Charlie’s past. Will they get together in the future? Time will tell. But for now, consider this chapter closed.
Sincere thanks to everyone for indulging me these last few weeks. It was important for me to do this. I know longer story lines aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they help me from going stir crazy. It helps me shake the cobwebs off, creatively-speaking. It’s easy for me to fall into a “talking heads” kind of situation and these longer story line with their specific demands help me break free of that.
I suppose if I wasn’t completely afraid of alienating people this storyline could have gone on a little longer. There were a few contrivances that I used to get the characters where I needed them to be. But, compared to when I first introduced Charlie and wandered, lost in the desert for two months, I think this was a nice piece of economical story telling.
Agghh. You know what? I feel like I’ve been defending this story line since day one. I need to stop that. The majority of you – and I’m talking, like 95% of you – have been great. So encouraging and helpful. I really appreciate it. I need to stop apologizing for doing a longer story line.
I have a bad habit of defending myself before I’m even attacked and I can see that being very annoying to people who are already on my side. So you know what? This story line was AWESOME and I had a blast doing it.
What else is there to say? Well, I’m working on a t-shirt design for “KISS EACH OTHER WITH YOUR MOUTHS” and I’m going to see Watchmen this weekend. Other than that, Cami is having a girls night out and I’m going to do more comic stuff this evening.
It’s been a stressful week for me. I had my first performance review at my new job, my first physical in 15 years, a midterm and worked hard to try and end this storyline in a way I could be proud of. I had a lot on my plate. So I think now I’m just looking forward to relaxing a little bit.
We’re back to regular comics on Monday. It’s a safe bet I’ll be talking about Watchmen.
THANKS AGAIN AND HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
People really seemed to take a shine to yesterday’s comic. Specifically, the punch line. So I decided to strike while the iron was hot and whip up a t-shirt design…
What do you guys think? Leave me your comments. If there is enough good will to pursue it, I’ll see about printing them up in the next few weeks!
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So I just got a new web cam after going a few years without. For the most part, it’ll be handing when I want to take a quick snapshot to update my Facebook profile with.
But I also got the cam with the idea to start streaming video of me working on the comic three nights a week through Ustream. Not just because all the popular web comic artists are doing it, but because I think it’ll be a good way to keep me honest, focused and working on the comic instead of staying up until 2 in the morning screwing around on Facebook (see the vicious cycle?)
Anyway, I just found out that in order to stream what’s on my desktop, I need to buy a program called WebCamMax and I kind of bristle at the idea of having to shell out more money without totally knowing what I’m getting into.
Who among you follow the streams of other web comic artists? What do you like about it? If Theater Hopper were to have it’s own stream where you can watch me work on the comic and maybe fire off a question or two in chat field, would you check it out?
Just trying to measure interest a little bit.
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You might as well face facts. Pretty much everyone is going to be making jokes at the expense of Dr. Manhattan’s full-frontal nudity in Watchmen for at least the next week. Maybe two. If you can last that long, it’s probably the last you’ll hear about it.
Chalk it up to immaturity, I suppose. But I think there is something inherently comical about the nude male form. It’s so… inelegant. It deserves to be made fun of. Just… not when I’m around. I’m very self-conscious.
Sidebar: Fart jokes? Still funny.
So, let’s not waste anymore time, shall we? Watchmen. I saw it this weekend. What did I think about it?
I will admit to going into this movie with my expectations set very low. I can say I walked away having my expectations met. That’s a left-handed compliment. But, in the end, just another way to say that the movie was what I expected it to be. They didn’t completely ruin Watchmen, but they didn’t really do much better than the graphic novel. So, ultimately, I’m left looking back on it and asking “What’s the point?”
There are several things that Watchmen does well. Director Zack Snyder (stylist though he may be) does a good job of capturing the details and he knows which details are important.
I was particularly impressed by his interpretation of Dr. Manhattan. Much more than a big naked blue guy – in close-up, Snyder’s Manhattan looks like a an opaque, idealized construct of a man containing vast energies. You can see traces of it swirling and darting about beneath his skin. The eyes, instead of a hollow white, looked like a gentling expanding starburst.
And, of course, Rorschach’s shifting inkblot mask came off without a hitch.
David Hayter’s screenplay is economical while retaining the key elements that move the plot forward. I was surprised how satisfied I was with his simple solution to “the squid problem” in the climax of the movie.
I thought the performances and casting, for the most part, were excellent. Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach is a snarling, sinewy standout (even though I had been bothered by his gravely, apparent graduation from The Christian Bale School of Superhero Voices in the trailer).
Billy Cruddup does a good job as Dr. Manhattan. Emoting as through a digital character is no easy task, but he delivered a palpable sense of Dr. Manhattan’s detachment from humanity while hinting at the greater being he had evolved into. He didn’t sound like I imagined Dr. Manhattan to sound like at first (he came off a little too calm, a little too Zen), but now I can’t imagine him sounding any other way.
I was even impressed by Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II. Given the unenviable task of playing a middle-aged sad sack, Wilson keeps the insanity around him tethered to the ground and plays the role with conviction.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan was also well-cast as The Comedian.
So if the movie looks right, sounds right and is performed correctly, what’s the problem?
It’s tough to put my finger on, but I think Snyder is so slavish to the source material, he can’t make it his own. I think that’s why I found myself aligned with Tom Charity’s review over at CNN.
To quote Charity, “‘Visionary’ director Zack Snyder, as the marketing would have it, has filmed Alan Moore’s ‘unfilmable’ graphic novel by treating the comic book panels as his storyboard and his Bible.
Doesn’t it bother anyone that this is about as far from the definition of ‘visionary’ as it’s possible to get?
The visionary sees what others do not see. Snyder — whose previous films were a remake (Dawn of the Dead) and another scrupulously faithful comic book adaptation (300) — is more in the line of a fancy photocopier, duplicating other artists’ imagery with a forger’s intensity.
A visionary transforms the world. Snyder slavishly transcribes what’s set down 5 inches in front of his face.”
Snyder’s “vision” is so faithful to the graphic novel, I spent most of the movie going “Okay, that looked a lot like the graphic novel. What’s the next scene they’re going to do? Will it also look as much like the graphic novel? I’m gonna look really closely at the details.”
What happens is that you’re not focused on the movie. Snyder’s attention to detail is his gift and his curse. What he puts on screen is intrinsically distracting because he undermines the story with his visuals in a “lookit what I can do!” kind of way. The images and the story never work in concert. To me, his is now officially the Michael Bay of comic book movies.
I also take issue with the music selection in the film. It seems every transition into any new scene was punctuated by some iconic “song of the era” to let you know exactly when and where you were. Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence,” KC & The Sunshine Band, “I’m Your Boogie Man,” Nena’s “99 Luftballons.” Each song selection was more clumsy and stupid than the last. None more so than the amped up cover of Dylan’s “Desolation Row” by My Chemical Romance.
Supercharged with punk vitriol as it stampedes over the closing credits, it is the exact WRONG mood to strike after the grim conclusion. I left the theater repulsed by the crass commercialism of it. I usually don’t pay attention to the music in movies all that closely, but if there was any film that could have benefited from a brooding, ominous orchestral score, Watchmen would be it.
Beyond that, my complaints are middling. I wasn’t impressed by either Carla Gugino or Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre and Silk Spectre II, respectively. I hate to single them out since I applauded the performances of the men so much. But Gugino was way over the top and arch while Akerman simply doesn’t have the chops.
Okay, in all fairness, Matthew Goode as Ozymandias was a foppish, lazy-eyed bore.
I was annoyed at how the fight scenes were staged. The prison riot was well done, but the climatic showdown in Antarctica was stupid (Fight! Talk! Fight! Talk!)
Also, when Dr. Manhattan is the only hero in the movie with superpowers, it makes no sense when other characters are able to run vertically up towers, punch through walls and kick people across a room. Each punch landing with a booming “THUD!” and bone-cracking revelry.
That’s another thing. Snyder is a little too in love with his vision of violence. A woman is shot through the shin, a thug’s elbow is bent backwards, bones jutting from his forearm, Dr. Manhattan causes a couple of gangsters to explode, their sticky entrails dangling from the ceiling. It’s brutish and unnecessary.
And before I forget… Sndyer’s signature move — the slow motion. Call my a cynic, but Watchmen probably would have been 30 minutes shorter if it had run in real time. To go back to Tom Charity’s point about visionary directing, The Wachowski’s “bullet time,” this is not.
I will freely admit to the possibility that I walked into Watchmen expecting to hate it, but I claim self-preservation. Watchmen is simply too important to be taken lightly and, frankly, I don’t think Snyder was the right man for the job.
Part of me feels like I need to see the movie a second time to judge it more fairly. Maybe the second time around I won’t be distracted by the expectation of what’s next or how faithfully it’s translated to the screen and I can just sit back and enjoy it. Maybe I can remove my fanboy filter and look at it as the movie it wants to be.
But at the same time I don’t feel compelled to run out and buy a ticket. Watchmen is kind of an ugly movie in spirit and it seems to embrace that ugliness for all the wrong reasons. Because of that, the movie isn’t easy to like. And again, you’re left asking yourself “What’s the point?”
Yesterday afternoon it was cold and crummy outside and everyone in the house was asleep taking an afternoon nap.
I, on the other hand, am incapable of sleep. So I decided to whip up a quick t-shirt design and wanted to get your thoughts on it. You probably recognize the logo.
It’s the logo that appears on Eve’s chest when she acquires the plant in Wall-E.
I made it for a couple of reasons. One, because I just like the design. It’s simple and effective. Two, because I looked everywhere online for a similar shirt and couldn’t find one. So I thought, “I should make one for myself. If there’s enough interest, I’ll sell them on the site.”
So what do you think? Do I have any kindred spirits out there? Do you like the larger design that puts the logo in the center of the chest or the smaller design that is off-center and placed on the chest similar to where it was on Eve? What about shirt color?
White like Eve or black (because I know that black is the best-selling t-shirt color on the planet)?
Leave your me your feedback! I’m curious to find out what you think!
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Can you guys help me out?
I’m in a Research class for my Master’s program and our professor put us on the spot to come up with some survey questions she wanted us to ask around campus.
We were supposed to do it tonight, but she’s sick with the flu. Only downside is she still wants survey results for next week to keep us on track! So I came up with the idea to do a Survey Monkey poll.
Can you take 2 minutes to fill out this 4 question survey about Twitter? We’re pretty much looking for a level of awareness. Nothing complicated. No essay questions.
It would really blow her mind if we got a lot of respondents on this. Plus, it’ll make me look good. It won’t take much time, I promise.
And I appreciate your help!
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