Archive for ‘Blog’
644 items.
I’m having too much trouble with Microsoft Outlook to continue messing around with it anymore. From now on, instead of sending e-mails to tom@theaterhopper.com, please forward all correspondence to theaterhopper@hotmail.com. All of the other mailto: links on the site should reflect this change.
I know trading in one Microsoft product for another really isn’t an improvement, but I’ve been using hotmail since, like 1996. It’s what I’m used to and it’s too late to change.
Also, for those of your having trouble with the forums, I tweaked the permissions and hopefully it will clear up and roadblocks you were running into.
Last thing I’ll mention, I’m looking for a good FREE news service that I can post to the front page. I was thinking something like Moreover, but apparently, they don’t give out their scripting for free anymore. If you have any suggestions, e-mail me.
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There seems to be a lot of controversy floating around the web comics universe lately and I’m wondering where it’s all coming from.
This morning I was greeted with a message in my in box from Mambo the Breakdancing Clown. If you don’t know him, he’s the guy who draws Super Stick Figure Crime Fighters. Apparently he got his knickers in a twist for being banned from Top Web Comics for violating the terms of use.
The body of the e-mail was basically a call to arms and to rebel against TWC and its fascist ways. While I agree with Mambo that we can do without TWC, he was going at it entirely the wrong way. TWC has a right to disassociate itself with content it finds offensive.
The whole episode got me thinking about the TWC in general and I found it indicative of the problem I have with vote sites in general. If you’ve been visiting the site at all in the last 3 weeks, you would know that I had links up for TWC and was fishing for votes. I later took them down after coming to the realization that these votes don’t mean a damn thing.
Web comics like all art are entirely subjective. What I may find funny, others may not. To try and put a label on it saying “this is good, this isn’t” seems silly and a waste of time. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: If Theater Hopper fails to catch on, it’s my fault for not putting out material of quality or doing the marketing legwork to spread the word. Putting that burden on the audience by whoring for votes just seems really low class to me. I can only hope Mambo comes to the same conclusion. For the record, he later retracted his e-mail saying it was something he put together in the heat of the moment.
In other ridiculous feuds, Zach over at No Pants Tuesday picked a fight with a certain Euro-centric gaming comic. I don’t know how much of my personal feeling I should inject into this commentary. Zach is a friend of the site, so it’s kind of hard not to side with him.
What’s lame, I think is the defense Little Gamers puts up. Basically, they’re saying, “You can’t take a joke” which is fine when you put it in context to the subjectivity I was talking about earlier.
But they latched onto the bit that Zach was complaining about their bashing Americans. That’s not what I took from it. It looked to me like he was complaining more in the overall disappointment the strip had become for him – stale jokes, and what not – and that’s his prerogative. But LG took the criticism, flipped it on its head and politicized it. In my opinion, they got defensive over the wrong thing.
I guess it makes me think twice when they say Americans deserve to be made fun of because we’re violent, gun-toting freaks and then they turn around like a rabid dog lunging at a Slim Jim at the slightest provocation. That’s like me saying it’s okay to make fun of the Sweeds because they’re not worth anything more than cheese, clocks, chocolate and neutrality. It paints them with a pretty wide brush.
I’m probably only adding fuel to the fire, but for chrissakes, people! They’re only comics – you know? Funny pictures with words and all? Lighten up!
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I thought it was worth it to mention that today marks the one-month anniversary of Theater Hopper. It may not seem like much of a milestone, but I’m partial to such occasions.
With only 12 strips under my belt, I consider it a freakin’ phenomenon that the site has accumulated over 1,700 unique hits and nearly 4,400 page views. This may seem like small potatoes to some people, but it means a lot to me.
I wouldn’t have gotten this far without the help of other cartoonists in the community. There are too many names to mention, but if you head over to the links page, those are the strips you should be visiting on a daily basis.
Thanks also to the readers who visit the site and keep coming back. Hopefully I will be able to provide the kind of content you like and look forward to reading.
That’s probably enough gushing for now, but I had to let it be known. I’m having too much fun doing this not to say thanks every once in a while.
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I thought I would take the opportunity to stumble in here this morning to wish a happy-belated-digital birthday to my wife Cami. Her birthday was Sunday and I wanted to declare my love and well wishes in front of the world! Happy Birthday, honey!
I won’t divulge her age because a gentleman never speaks for a lady. I also won’t give out her work e-mail address so everyone can send her birthday wishes because that’s just common sense.
HOWEVER, if you’d like to swing over to the forums, she has an account there and you can wish her well through her personal message box. I don’t know how often she goes into the forums to check those things, but maybe now that I’ve put out the call for response front and center, she’ll drop by and pick up her messages. Maybe if you’re REALLY nice, she might put together her first post for this area!
Shout-outs to a couple of new link-buddies.
Be sure to check out The Misc. I think the writing is really sharp. The art has attitude and you can tell these guys are having fun.
Also stop and visit Tribbel. Their site design is rock-solid and I was immediately attracted to it. The strip is also very cute and nicely put together. Props to the Tribbel crew for the introductory Flash movie that starts things off right. Makes me wish I came up with it first… or knew Flash.
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Looks like we’ve got another war of words brewing in the magical land of the Web Comic Kingdom.
Mitch over at Nothing Nice to Say took a swipe at Movie Comics concerning a dispute over votes at Top Web Comics.
Do you see what I’m talking about with this voting crap, people?! It breeds nothing but dissent among the ranks! It’s not like anyone gets free cookies when they’re voted number one. Loosen up!
I can’t say he was justified, but if I were to pick sides, I’d step in line with Mitch. He’s a friend of the site and give me good linkage.
In the interest of diplomacy within strips of similar genre, I’ll keep my personal feelings regarding Movie Comics to myself. But isn’t it suspicious that there are no banners on their links page for either this site or Movie Punks? Just thinking out loud…
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For those of you interested in reading the Tool review I slapped together for the Des Moines Register, they’ve already archived the story on their web site. You can find it here.
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I’ve been slacking off lately when it comes to giving shout-outs to all the new friends I’m making in the online comic community. Though it is a tad impersonal, the following is a list of sites you should be visiting daily if you aren’t already:
Movie Comics, Force Monkeys, Dead Beef, VG Cats, The Misc, Tribble, Modern Physics, Think Tank, Screw High
If you have your own comic web site and are interested in taking part in our Link Exchange Program, contact me and we’ll set it up.
And while we’re on the subject of links, it would benefit everyone who visits to check out our Free For All Links section. The concept is simple. You have a link, you add it. The scripting takes care of the rest!
It’s a cool feature and will put some of the content control in the hands of the users. Check it out!
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I don’t know how many of you read Troy’s Bucket, but if you don’t, you should. They’ve got a great joke about Monsters, Inc. I wish I would have thought of.
Regardless, Beaner has made the suggestion of a locals-only get together of fans of his strip and our humble operation. By local, he means West Des Moines, Iowa.
Beaner says he’s gotten a few e-mails from other locals commenting on the strip. What I want to know is, WHY AM I NOT GETTING SUPPORT FROM THE HOMETOWN CROWD? Seriously, I haven’t gotten any e-mail from anyone in West Des Moines or even Iowa for that matter.
So for the two of you out there that read this strip, get on it.
On a more serious note, for those of you who read Theater Hopper and are from West Des Moines, how interested are you in having a little get-together like Beaner suggests? I just don’t want to go down to Limey’s and be the only one there you know.
And while we’re on the subject of West Des Moines boy-done-good, when is a certain successful cartoonist going to give me a shout-out in one of his news posts? Beaner got a plug. Where’s the love for Tommy?
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Sometime when it comes to adding new blog material, I will find myself at a loss. Then I remembered I have something to celebrate!
Over the weekend, I finally joined the 21st century and got myself a broadband internet connection. I was tired of slogging through the 56k trenches and proclaimed an upgrade was LONG overdue.
Of course, like everything else in my life, there were obstacles preventing me from getting broadband in my house. The dilemma were two-fold:
1.) I live in Iowa – the most technologically backwards state North of the Mason-Dixon line
2.) I live in the boonies – effectively crippling what small window I had of obtaining service.
Ultimately I went through a satellite internet service called Prairie I Net. It’s pretty cool. They attach this antenna to your house which pulls in the internet like a vortex from the upper atmosphere frequencies abandoned by UHF stations. It makes for good dinner conversation.
I love my new connection. It’s fast as hell. The only draw back is that they had to drill a hole in my house and snake a wire down from the pitch of my roof. Not exactly conspicuous. Cami said it looked very “white trash”. Ironic, sine this is actually quite a leap in technology.
Anyway, I just thought I would share the happy news.
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At some point last night, Theater Hopper crossed the threshold of 5,000 unique hits to the site. This blows my friggin’ mind.
Right now, we’re averaging about 100 unique hits a day. This number is well beyond the realm of friends and relatives looking at the site. To be aware that so many people have made the site a regular stop is really cool.
It some circles, this might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but I find it very note-worthy. Let’s put it in perspective: Theater Hopper has only be operating for a little less than 2 months and has racked up over 5,000 unique hits. My other site has been around for a year this October and is still hovering around 4,500. Wow.
Sometimes it’s hard to guess just how many people are out there looking at what you do. I worry about people getting the jokes or thinking what I’m doing is lame. But to have a readership that is not only stable, but growing – well, I just wanted to say “thank you” for validating what I do.
I know I’ve talked about it in the past, but reaching this landmark has really inspired me to get working on the Bonus Materials section. If you’d like to give me some feedback on what materials to make available to the fans, please head into the forums where we can discuss it.
Once again, thanks. I’m having a blast doing this and I can’t tell you how much it pleases me to know others are along for the ride!
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