I had a hard time with today’s comic basically because it relies so heavily on the caricatures of Ron Howard and Tom Hanks to help sell the joke. I’ve convinced myself that caricature is not my strong suit. All you need to do is look through my archives to see how long it took me to get comfortable drawing my own characters, let alone internationally recognizable celebrities.

I’ve bought a few books about caricature and it has helped me to understand some of the fundamentals. Basically, you take the most obvious feature on someone’s face and exaggerate it while minimizing their less noticeable features. Ultimately, what I end up doing is looking at what OTHER caricature artists have done and use that for a source image.

I don’t think I’m beyond help when it comes to learning how to caricature, but I do think some people have an innate talent for it. Thursday’s strip parodying Lost over at PvP was excellent. It not only clearly communicates which characters are being parodied, but Scott retains his signature style throughout. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t inspire me a little bit to try my hand at caricature again for today’s strip.

Joe over at Joe Loves Crappy Movies does a great job with caricature as well. Check out his Jason Statham or his comic for Slumdog Millionaire. Joe makes it look so easy.

I tried to stretch a little further by doing another caricature of Tom Hanks for today’s incentive sketch. I think it turned out pretty well. To see it, vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics. I would be curious to know what you think!

Turning the Lens of Introspection away from myself for a minute, let’s talk about Angels & Demons coming out today. Considering how big The DaVinci Code was when that came out, it’s weird that no one I know is talking about this movie.

Do you remember the sequel to The Silence of The Lambs? Hannibal? I think we’ve got another one of those on our hands here. Angels & Demons looks like the kind of movie that was green-lit based on the financial success of the first movie without anyone stopping to consider if it was a product anyone wanted to see.

The comic addresses the controversy surrounding The DaVinci Code which, at the time, was palpable. But very few are even raising an eyebrow over Angels & Demons. In fact, the Vatican’s official position on the film seems to be “So?”

Director Ron Howard insists that there is still a controversy and believes the Vatican is holding a grudge. That very well might be true, but it seems they learned their lesson from the first time around and aren’t lending the new film any credibility by addressing it directly.

I’m not a church-goer, nor am I a fan of the Catholic church and their policies. But, in this case, I say “Good for them.” Frankly, the Catholic church shouldn’t be commenting on works of fiction. (I could make a real easy joke about The Bible right here, but won’t)

My point is that the Catholic church is a global organization with incredible influence whose leaders support the faith and give comfort to millions of people around the globe. If you can find me one person who read The DaVinci Code or saw the movie adaptation and said, “You know what? Catholicism? Not for me. I’m out,” then maybe you’d have an argument.

But as it is, there is enough REAL LIFE problems in the Catholic church that is causing followers to question their faith that I think the institution should be addressing if they want to continue tending to their flock. Addressing Ron Howard or the novel’s author Dan Brown doesn’t help anything at all.

Henry is staying with his grandparents tonight, so Cami and I are going to see Angels & Demons. I’m practicing a little bit of willful ignorance and ignoring some of the negative review headlines I’ve been scoping out in my travels around the web. I’m not worried about it. If it’s dumb, it’s dumb. Between Howard, Hanks and Ewan McGreggor, there’s enough talent in the pool to hold my interest. And besides, it’ll be nice to go to a movie with Cami for once. I see a lot of crap movies she doesn’t have an interest in seeing anyway, so it’s a treat the two of us can go out together. I’m really looking forward to it.

What about you? What do you think? Not about my date night with Cami, but about Angels & Demons? Are you planning on seeing it this weekend? Do you think it looks good? Do you think there is any controversy or is it all part of the film’s marketing plan? Can movies about religion avoid controversy, or is it built in? Leave your comments below and let’s get a discussion started!