Archive for April, 2009
30 items.
If you’re curious what a car with a Vin Diesel navigation system might be like, I drew a sketch that you can view if you vote for Theater Hopper over at Top Web Comics. (I’ll be talking about my affiliation with Top Web Comics in another post. So stay tuned for that).
As it pertains to this weekend’s Fast & Furious (note the conspicuous absence of the word “The”), we spent a little time discussing the tag line on Monday night’s episode of The Triple Feature.
All three of us are excited for this movie and no one is more surprised by that than I am. I’m not really a car guy and I was also kind of annoyed by the super-modding trend that seemed to take hold after the original movie came out. Don’t even get me started on Tokyo Drift. What a pile of garbage that film was!
But the original movie was an engaging twist on the action genre and I have to admit my heart fluttered a little bit when I learned that they were able to bring back everyone in the original cast.
Then again, when you’ve been stuck in movies like The Pacifier, Into The Blue, D.E.B.S. and BloodRayne for the better part of a decade, it makes sense to show up in a film like this. I guess you CAN go home again.
I’ll be at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this weekend, so I don’t know if I’ll have an opportunity to see Fast & Furious. My time off the show floor will probably be spent doing something else. I mean, I love movies. But I’ve also never been to Seattle. So it would be kind of lame if I spent two hours watching Vin Diesel flex instead of… I dunno… drinking a Starbucks coffee.
If you’re planning on attending Emerald City Comicon, don’t forget to visit me on Artist Alley. I’m in the back, near the gaming area at table H-05. Here’s a link to a map of the show floor. I’m on the opposite side of the entrance, so just skip past all those other exhibitors and retailers and see me first! I’ll be selling copies of Theater Hopper Year One and Year Two, plus my Spoiler I and II t-shirts and also original sketches. I have limited inventory since I’m only bringing what I can cram into a suitcase. So if you have your eye on something, be sure to get there early!
Or, just come by and chat me up for a while! I’m very interested to talk to my West Coast fans and I’ll sign anything you like.
Don’t forget that I will also be sitting on the Business of Webcomics panel at 1:00 PM, Sunday, April 5 in panel room 3AB with Robert Khoo from Penny Arcade, Danielle Corsetto from Girls With Slingshots and Jeph Jacques from Questionable Content. I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be a good time.
That’s pretty much all I have for the moment. Be sure to check back later in the day for an brief post about my re-affiliation with TopWebComics.com.
Talk to you soon!
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In my earlier post, I talked about my re-affiliation with TopWebComics.com and I wanted to take a minute to explain to everyone what it is and what my goals are.
People who have been visiting the site for a while remember that I was once affiliated with Top Web Comics. For the uninitiated, the site is a web comic promotion tool that gather votes submitted by readers and ranks the most “popular” comics on their homepage.
Top Web Comics was helpful resource when I was getting my start. It put the comic in front of a lot of readers as I ascended into the Top 10. I walked away from the ranking sites once I felt Theater Hopper could stand on it’s own two legs.
It’s been a few years since Theater Hopper and Top Web Comics parted ways. In that time, some readers have moved past web comics as part of their daily routine. Other people are being introduced to web comics for the first time. Now is a perfect opportunity to familiarize Theater Hopper with the next wave of readers and Top Web Comics is part of that strategy.
Here’s how it works: I post a new comic every Monday, Wednesday and Friday just like I always do. But in the blog post, there will be a link to Top Web Comics where you can “vote” for Theater Hopper and contribute to it’s higher ranking.
For you’re trouble, you’ll be treated to a bonus sketch that may or may not be related to that day’s comic. It might be an addition to the punchline or a little extra scene. People who own a copy of Theater Hopper – Year Two will know what to expect. I collected several similar sketches from my previous tenure with Top Web Comics in that edition.
If you don’t want to vote, that’s fine. If you do want to vote, that’s great! It’s totally voluntary. But voting for Theater Hopper helps the site by raising its ranking on Top Web Comics and potentially bringing in new readers. Basically, it’s a very high profile opportunity for some free advertising that I’m not going to pass up.
I should also mention that I’m thinking about selling these bonus sketches in the store sometime in the near future. So if you vote for the comic and see a sketch you like, there will be an opportunity for you to own it at a very affordable price. Look for updates on that in the future.
So there you have it. Pretty cut and dried. Now you know why I’m affiliated with Top Web Comics again and you also know what additional value you get out of the arrangement.
I want to say thanks to the people who have already voted. So far, we’re up to #18 on the list. That’s really good! Now let’s see if we can crack the Top 10 in the next few days.
In the meantime, if you have questions or concerns, please feel free to leave them in the comments area below. I’d be happy to continue the conversation there.
Thanks!
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Not everyone looks terrible with a 1970’s porn mustache. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics and you can see the bonus sketch that proves it!
The dialogue in today’s comic is a little dicey and I’m not quite sure how it got away from me. What started out as having a little fun at the expense of Bill Hader’s character in Adventureland and his unfortunate facial hair turned into a dissertation on 70’s porn, cocaine and pedophilia. Yikes! Cover grandma’s ears!
Oddly, Adventureland takes place in 1987. So I’m not exactly sure where Hader got the idea to accessories his character with a soup strainer that would make John Holmes jealous.
And if you don’t know who John Holmes is, don’t Google him while you’re at work. I’m warning you now.
I’d really like to see Adventureland, but I don’t think I’ll have time this weekend while I’m at the Emerald City Comicon. I’m really excited to be going, but it’s been a roller coaster for me. At one point I thought about not going. It’s REALLY far out of my comfort zone for a couple of different reasons. But I suppose that’s kind of the point. It’s good to push yourself a little bit.
I’ve been encouraged by the comments I’ve been getting from readers telling me that they’re looking forward to meeting me. A few people have promised to stop by. Some of them are excited to get sketches. That gives me hope. At least I won’t be standing around with a confused look on my face. I’m really exited to meet you guys.
I was particularly excited to see a note from Porkfry on my Twitter account last night. I guess he’ll be in attendance and said he wants to meet me.
Web comics fans might recognize Porkyfry as an reoccurring ancillary characters in Penny Arcade (here’s one of his early appearances). He’s a real person, a game tester and a friend of Mike and Jerry’s.
But I’ve known Porkfry since about 2003 when the two of us used to knock around inside a forum community called Hot Buttered Funk. Porkfry is good people. So it’s really cool that, half a decade later, we’d get a chance to meet. I should have gone to the Emerald City Comicon much sooner!
But I’m excited to meet EVERYONE that stops by my table on Artist Alley this weekend. Remember: You can find me in the back of the hall at table H-05 where you can buy books, shirts, sketches or just shoot the breeze. Here’s a map.
Also don’t forget that I’ll be sitting on the Business of Webcomics panel at 1:00 PM, Sunday, April 5 in panel room 3AB with Robert Khoo from Penny Arcade, Danielle Corsetto from Girls With Slingshots and Jeph Jacques from Questionable Content. I’m REALLY looking forward to that.
I probably won’t have access to the site or to e-mail while I’m at the show (I’m leaving the laptop at home), but I’ll likely be Twittering from the show floor. So if you’re attending and you catch one of my Tweets, come by and say Hi!
Until then, I’ll be spending the morning with Cami (who is taking the day off) and Henry before they drop me off at the airport this afternoon. It’ll be nice to have some time with them instead of seeing her off to work and Henry off to daycare before I seal myself up in a metal tube and fly West.
That’s all for now! Talk to you soon!
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Major shout-out to Michael May from Eros, Inc. for providing me with this excellent guest strip today. Michael was one of the architects of the excellent musical version of Instant Classic last week and offer this guest strip without me asking as a form of thanks. He’s been a real life-safer. So thanks, Mike!
At the moment, I’m in transit – coming home from Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. Since it’s only a two-day con, I wanted to stay the whole time to take advantage of it. Flying out Sunday night didn’t appeal to me, so I stuck it out another day. Expect a full recap soon.
Since I’m out of town, we won’t be recording The Triple Feature tonight. Instead, we’re looking to record it on Wednesday. So stay tuned for more information soon.
Thanks again to everyone who came out to see me at Emerald City Comicon. I had a blast and I can’t wait to tell you more about it!
Talk to you soon!
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Hey, guys. I just wanted to post a quick note to let you know that I am back home from exhibiting at Emerald City Comicon and a new comic will be posted on Wednesday. I met a lot of really cool people and had a GREAT time. Seattle is a wonderful city. I felt comfortable there immediately!
Expect a full recap (perhaps with some pictures linked to my Flickr account) tomorrow.
In the meantime, if you posted comments to Friday’s or Monday’s comics, they’ve been approved and are currently live on the site. Sorry for the restrictions, but I didn’t have internet access over the weekend!
Talk to you soon!
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There is only one appropriate response to Vin Diesel. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to find out what it is.
While exhibiting at Emerald City Comicon and subsequently feeling like I have been off-planet for the last four days, I admit to a certain amount of surprise to have learned that Fast & Furious earned nearly $73 million in a record-shattering debut.
It is the largest box office for an April opening ever, besting 2003’s Anger Management ($42.2 million) and it is also the biggest opening of the year. Bigger than than “the more-buzzed-about Monsters vs. Aliens ($59.3 million) and Watchmen ($55.2 million).”
Most significantly, it’s the “best opening ever for stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster, as well as for director Justin Lin.” Good for them. They all could have used a hit and it looks like their movie delivered. We should all be so lucky.
Moving on to more me-centric topics, of course I wanted to provide you with a recap of Emerald City Comicon!
First, everything you’ve read about the show is true. It is impeccably run by Jim Demonakos and his team of volunteers. Never before have I been treated so well at a con of this size. The staff was friendly and would bend over backwards to help ANYONE. And being on Artist Alley where you are typically ignored, that is significant.
The guy at the table next to me was complaining of a mild headache. One of the show staff overheard him and brought him Excedrin in no time flat. Any other show and he would have been on his own.
Secondly, the fans were WONDERFUL. I’m lucky in that my readers are pretty much awesome where ever I go. But a gold star for Seattle whose patrons seemed more than willing to explore Artist Alley and try new things. I sold more books in Seattle than probably any other convention I’ve been to. Seattle loves to read!
Thirdly, sincere thanks to Indigo Kelleigh who creates The Adventures of Ellie Connelly. Indigo and I split a room at the Hyatt and he did me A WORLD of favors when he both picked me up from and dropped me off at the Seattle-Tacoma airport. Not only that, but the guy is super nice and ridiculously talented. We had great conversations about the nature of our comics and our artistic pursuits. Indigo was also my unofficial tour guide – having grown up in Seattle as a kid. Be sure to check out the rest of his work at his art blog, Lunar Bistro.
One thing I wanted to mention was my participation on the Business of Webcomics panel on Sunday. As you recall, I was on-stage with Robert Khoo from Penny Arcade, Danielle Corsetto from Girls With Slingshots and Jeph Jacques from Questionable Content.
Was I nervous about it? You bet. Was I intimidated? As much as one can be when Khoo showed up wearing a suit! Was I visibly shaking in my chair? A little. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.
I had a great time talking on the panel. And while the questions were maybe a little business-light, it felt good to answer questions from people just getting started with their comics, exposing a little bit of our methods and outlining what they can expect if they want to profit from their comics.
I think web comics are a little different now than they were when I started Theater Hopper almost 7 years ago. While there was certainly a lot of competition back then, there is A LOT of competition right now. So it’s very difficult for a new comic to rise up and make a name for itself.
Conversely, I think people look at the success of larger comics and see more and more creators being able to make a living off their comics and ask themselves “Why isn’t it happening for me?” There was a little bit of impatience in tone of the questions we were receiving. A few people point out “there’s a reason you’re ‘up there’ and we’re ‘down here’.”
I fully admitted to dumb luck having a lot to do with my placement on the panel, but I knew where they were coming from.
It sounds simplistic to suggest (and counter-intuitive to the purpose of the panel), but we were forced to suggest that anyone getting into webcomics exclusively to make money was probably doing it for the wrong reasons. Fans see right through it! You have to love what you do, work to improve you craft and be a little bit shameless when it comes to networking. Once those things line up, the audience will come. Maintain your trust and the audience will grow. Word-of-mouth works to some extent, but you have to produce quality work consistently and strive to put it in front of new audiences. Opportunities will spring up from those efforts.
If you’d like to see some photos from the panel, be sure to check out Jonah Gregory’s Flickr page (starting with this classic shot of Jonah, Jeph Jacques and myself). Jonah was also the moderator of the panel and the creator of his own webcomic, Here There Be Robots. I thought he did an excellent job of running the show.
I want to reiterate what a wonderful time I had at Emerald City Comicon and I also want to tip my hat to the webcomic creators I had a chance to meet over the weekend. Kris Straub, Danielle Corsetto, Holly from TopatoCo, Jeph Jacques, Dave Kellett, Chris Yates, Malki!, Sam Logan, Meredith Gran and Alina Pete – it was a pleasure to meet you all.
If I left your name off that list, no disrespect. There was just a lot going on and I was meeting a lot of people at once! 🙂
I think it goes without saying that I would love to attend Emerald City Comicon again in the future. With any luck, I’ll be able to get a cheap flight back to Seattle next year so I can go. Seattle is a wonderful city. I felt comfortable there immediately. I can’t wait to go back.
Thanks again to the show organizers and all of the fans that made this experience so wonderful!
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Since I was traveling home from Emerald City Comicon on Monday evening, we had to postpone recording our weekly installment of The Triple Feature. We pushed back the show to tonight and you can listen in LIVE at 9:00 PM CST.
Tonight, Joe, Gordon and I will be talking about Adventureland and Fast & Furious. I’m sure I’ll be telling more stories about my experience at Emerald City Comicon as well.
In fact, it might benefit you to listen to the live show tonight if you can, because there is a story I want to tell about an experience I had in Artist Alley too sensitive to commit to a recording. I think I might take a few minutes to share it after we’ve concluded the show and people are still connected to TalkShoe and can listen in.
Consider yourself teased. See you then!
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Drawing Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver for today’s comic kind of gave me a queasy feeling. The character has become synonymous with a deranged world view. Its like drawing Charles Manson.
That said, I think you guys will be impressed by the incentive image I cooked up for Top Web Comics. It’s my rendition of a classic Bickle pose. You’ll recognize it when you see it.
I tried something different with this sketch and made a conscious effort to loosen up my inking style. I think it fits really well with Bickle’s unhinged nature. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to see it.
I’ll take this opportunity to mention that Theater Hopper has been hovering around the number 15 spot on the list since we reinstated our relationship with Top Web Comics at the beginning of the month. Thanks so much for voting. Let’s see if we can crack the Top 10!
Back to the topic at hand, Observe and Report comes out this weekend and it sounds like people are on guard for this one. Paul Blart 2 this is not.
While star Seth Rogen was making the promotional rounds on all of the talk shows last week, he kept mentioning over and over how he couldn’t believe how a major studio let them get away with making a comedy this dark and disturbing. It was Rogen himself who I heard spit the comedic Taxi Driver reference (although didn’t DeNiro already cover that territory with The King of Comedy back in 1982?)
But I digress.
Some people might accuse Rogen and the producers of trying to distance themselves from the surprising success of Paul Blart: Mall Cop and it’s family-friendly tones by focusing on the subversiveness of Observe and Report and I think that’s a smart strategy.
I think it was an unfortunate coincidence that two comedies that focus on mall security guards happened to come out within months of each other and certainly no one wants their picture to be viewed as sloppy seconds.
But what’s possibly most unsettling is that Observe and Report was going for the jugular from the get-go. Writer/director Jody Hill knew he wanted to film something disturbing and – from the sound of it – Rogen’s character was a fully-formed sociopath from the word “go.”
Does the film go to far? Some people are already complaining that it does. Read this article from New York Magazine that asks the question Does Seth Rogen Rape Anna Faris in Observe and Report?
Yeah, duck and cover, kids.
With this kind of buzz swirling around the movie, it’ll be interesting to see how it stacks up against the competition. I don’t think anyone has a chance standing up to the juggernaut that was Fast & Furious last weekend. Even if it loses half of its audience in the second week, it’ll still land with $36 million in box office.
But because of it’s reputation, I wonder how strong of a showing Observe and Report can make.
Cami has told me she has no interest in seeing the film and steeled her resolve when I told her how dark the film was supposed to be. Dark comedies have a hard time finding audiences. Look at The Cable Guy or even Donnie Darko (to a degree). I think the people who love those films love them.
While most people who are on the fence about those films can appreciate what makes them entertaining, I think most of the audience would not prefer to see them ever again. Will Observe and Report suffer a similar fate once the curious onlooker quotient moves on? Once the shock has worn off, will the movie become a simple cult film? Time will tell.
Personally, I think the climate might be right for a subversive comedy like this. After a string of non-offensive comedies capped by the much-loved (be pretty much toothless) I Love You, Man, Observe and Report might find a niche.
What’s your take? Will you see Observe and Report this weekend. How do you feel about a film that plays date rape for laughs? Are there some subjects that just aren’t funny? Where do you draw the line?
Leave your comments below!
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So I had something interesting happen this week. Theater Hopper was dropped from Google’s index.
Don’t believe me? Go to Google, type in “Theater Hopper” and see what comes up. Notice my URL isn’t displayed anywhere? Yeah. Good times.
So, what happened? Basically, someone hacked the site and placed a bunch of links to web sites selling cheap Viagra inside a hidden <div> tag. The links didn’t manifest in production on the site, but they were being pulled from the code by Google’s spiders and classified as spam.
Since Google has a very firm anti-spam policy (yet, oddly, continues to index literally MILLIONS of sites with malicious intent), my site was pulled from their site for no less than 30 days while I “clean up my code.”
Well, the code has been scrubbed and security has been tightened, but Google yanked me anyway.
I’ve submitted an appeal to be reinstated sooner than 30 days, but Google pretty much says they won’t make any promises.
This is really bad timing for me because I was hoping to attract some new readers after attending the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle last week. Now people can’t find the site.
At this point, I’m trying to raise a big stink to see if I can get Google’s attention. But, in the meantime, my traffic is suffering.
If it’s not too much to ask, can you guys go through the archive and bookmark some of your favorite strips using the ShareThis application under the comic? Index individual pages in Stumble Upon, Reddit, Digg… where ever you have accounts. Post comics to your Facebook page. ANYTHING. It’s the only thing I can think of to have you do to help stop the bleeding from this Google fiasco.
And if you’re reading this post through RSS, I implore you to please come back to the site and read the comic for the next few weeks. Keep your subscription to the feed, but if you could help me out for a short period of time, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for your help and I’ll keep everyone updated with any change in status.
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Why is Tom carrying around pictures of Billy Ray Cyrus? Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to find out!
Incidentally, it seems like Tom carries around a lot of pictures. Weird, ain’t it?
I was spending so much time worrying about Seth Rogen and Observe and Report last week, that I literally gave no thought to the juggernaut that is Hannah Montana: The Movie. Why would I? I’m not a 15 year-old girl.
That said, I don’t think you’re likely to see such a clear case of counter-programming in theaters all year. Morally ambiguous raunch-fest versus squeaky clean inoffensive pop trash. I guess pop trash won out.
It’s kind of pointless to criticize the film. The audience is built-in from years of Disney brainwashing and I’m not the target demo. In other words, it’s not for me.
Although I do remember seeing the trailer for the film a while back and thinking it was pretty clearly designed to be a transition piece for Miley Cyrus away from the Hannah Montana character and toward her own development as a performer. Y’know, because tweens get confused.
Am I seriously wasting time analyzing this?
I guess we have this weekend to look forward to with Crank: High Voltage. It looks to be as offensive and stupid as they come. But darn it if that trailer isn’t a bit of propulsive good fun.
A few quick things I’ll mention…
Last week I posted about being dropped from the Google index after some hackers hid some links in the footer section of my site. I submitted an appeal, but there was no guarantee that Google would take a second look at me within the next 30 days.
Well, on Saturday it looks like they reinstated me.
I didn’t receive any communication from them about reinstated, though. Which I thought was weird. I guess they must have things automated to a certain degree. Their spiders pick up these junk links and a script sends out an e-mail.
Still, it’s frustrating when there are a million purposefully malicious sites out there that Google punishes victims like myself who get hacked. I appreciated the head’s up because I didn’t know the code was there. But they were pretty swift to pull the plug. I suppose maybe some webmasters are less motivated when Google is trying to nip this problem in the bud.
I want to thank everyone who lent their support and helped spread the word about Google pulling me from the index. Specifically, thanks to Comix Talk and Comic Mix. I appreciate the coverage.
Changing gears a little bit, I forgot to mention last week that I was interviewed by the podcast Seattle Geekly while I was in Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon. Visit their site and download Episode #9. I’m somewhere around the 1:08 mark, but the whole show is good. You should download the rest of their shows as well. It’s not specifically comics-related, video games-related or movie-related. They cover the entire spectrum of all things geeky. It’s a very well written and well produced show. Check it out!
Speaking of podcasts, I’m not exactly sure if we’re recording The Triple Feature tonight at 9PM CST or not. Gordon is moving to a new home and is unavailable and the show suffers a little bit when only one of us has seen the movie. I, unfortunately, haven’t be able to get out in the last few weeks to see anything.
If anything changes, I’ll be sure to let you know here or you can follow my Twitter account for the latest. But for the time being, just assume we’re on a short hiatus while Gordon gets settled in his new digs.
That’s everything on my end. Hey – just for conversation, what did those of you who saw Observe and Report this weekend think of it? Was it as disturbing and upsetting as reported? It didn’t do very well at the box office. It came in 4th place. That seems to be the trend for dark comedies. Do you think the movie will find a wider audience on DVD? Cult status? Leave your comments below!
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