Posts Tagged ‘Carrington Vanston’
4 items.
I know I said I would have the my last contribution to the Theater Hopper/Movie Punks Crossover ready by this afternoon, but it took a little longer to get it right. I’m happy with the results and the extra care it took to get there. Please check it out.
Once again, major props to Carrington for helping me celebrate the big 5-oh. I had a lot of fun trying to get my characters out of the sticky situations he put them in. Drawing Dexter and Seethe was a real treat.
Everyone be sure to check out the conclusion of the crossover Saturday over a Movie Punks. I can’t wait to see what solution Carrington cooks up since we hadn’t really talked about specific plot points during our collaboration.
In the meantime, I’ll see you all back in this spot Monday. Have a great weekend!
[ No Comments ]
On a recommendation from Carrington, I decided to find out what the site Googlism.com thinks of me. This was the one and ONLY result:
“Tom Brazelton is from Iowa and thus at a greater disadvantage than the others.”
Apparently even the Internet has now turned it’s back on me.
[ No Comments ]
In my rush to post a comic today for the one I missed on Monday, I totally neglected to post a blog recapping my experience at the Minnesota FallCon comic book convention this weekend.
I had been geared up for the event all last week. As I was making final preparations, I could hardly contain myself. I started having trouble sleeping Thursday night before we were to make the 4 hour drive to Minneapolis on Friday. By the time the first day of the convention rolled around on Saturday, I couldn’t sit down.
Being as amped up as I was (and also trying to navigation an unfamiliar city), I decided to head out to the convention center early. I was there to greet everyone when the doors opened. I met Zach from No Pants Tuesday first, then Mitch from Nothing Nice to Say arrive and finally, Carrington from Movie Punks . Suffice to say, they were all really cool.
It was weird to meet these guys in person after corresponding with all of them in one form or another over the last year. I knew what they looked like, I knew their sense of humor, but it’s like they weren’t real people until they were right there in front of you.
Conversation flowed like wine and we were all getting along great. Sometimes, we’d be so deep in conversation, we’d ignore people checking out our booth! Whoops!
But I’m glad things turned out that way and not the other. It would have really sucked if we were all just sitting there, staring off into space with nothing to say to one another.
In terms of people who came to check us out, I’d say the turn out was pretty good. True, the majority of people who stopped by didn’t know who we were or what our comics were about. And when we told them they were on the web and that we update multiple times a week, we got some interesting reactions.
But I’d say most of those reactions were positive! A lot of people promised to check out the site. And if you’re one of those people and you’re reading this right now – I love you!
Carrington and I would sometimes have some odd overlap when were explaining our sites to people. People would ask one of us what it was about, and we would say “Well, it’s a comic that makes fun of movies and it’s updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.” Then they would turn to the other and we’d say “Ditto.” We had fun playing around with people and charge that one was ripping off the other. Good times.
The biggest treat of the convention was meeting the people who were already familiar with the site. The crew from Still Untitled came to visit and we chatted them up for a good while. They were really cool. BobaBen from the forums also said hello and it was good to see him.
All in all, it was a great experience and it was great to sit around and talk shop with the other creators. I had so much fun, I’m thinking about heading out to another convention in Kansas City this November. Theater Hopper Tour ’03!
Be sure to keep checking the site because I’ll be offering TWO posters that were on sale at the convention. I have a new one for Theater Hopper and a SPECIAL EDITION poster created by the four of us who shared a booth together. It’ll be a trip!
[ No Comments ]
Apr29
GUEST STRIP – CARRINGTON VANSTON
April 29th, 2005 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 6.50 out of 10)
DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING, DIDJA?! HA!!!
Okay, if you don’t know who Carrington Vanston is, shame on you. Carrington was the author and illustrator of a comic called Movie Punks which ran from April 2002 to December 2003 – and it kicked all kinds of ass.
When I was putting together this little guest-week-a-ma-bob, I knew I had to close out with somebody big to really leave people on a high note. Carrington’s name was the first that popped into my head.
The reasons are pretty cut and dried. I don’t know a single soul who didn’t love Movie Punks in its heyday. The writing was whip smart and covered everything from the biggest blockbuster to the smallest independent picture of 1932.
I was actually just starting to develop Theater Hopper on my own in July 2002 when I happened to stumble across it. Carrington already had a few strips under his belt and was starting to get noticed. “Oh, no!” I thought. “No one is going to take my comic about movies seriously. Everyone will think I’m ripping ∗this∗ guy off!”
So, too far gone with the original site design and character designs, I naively sent Carrington an e-mail asking him if it was cool that I was doing a movie-themed comic and that I wasn’t trying to crowd his territory.
In retrospect, it’s kind of a goofball thing to ask somebody. Like I said, I was way out on the fringe of web comics culture. It didn’t even occur to me that there were like, oh A BILLION comics about video games. I thought I was in real danger of stepping on someone’s toes!
But Carrington couldn’t have been nicer about it. He even ended up giving me some great web design tips to help me get my site off the ground. Turns out he’s also a formidable web designer. This is a good guy to keep in your corner.
I had the opportunity to meet Carrington only once when I went to Minneapolis for the 2003 Fallcon Comic Book convention. He spoke fast and had a ton of great ideas. Honestly, he’s too good for web comics.
If you’ve kept up with him at all, you’ll know that he has a great blog site called Eat My Words and has also been busy “living the dream” writing and directing his own independent pictures. I got a copy of one of his shorts that he gave me in 2003. It’s one of my favorite little mementos from my time in web comics.
There was a rumor going around that Carrington would bring back Movie Punks if Nothing Nice to Say ever stepped back into the ring. Well, we all know that Mitch Clem is back full-force, so people are still waiting for Carrington to emerge again. He once posted a blog saying he was flattered people remembered, but that he didn’t think it was going to happen. Who knows? Maybe this little guest comic will stir demand again and Carrington will bring Dexter and Seethe back to life!
We can only hope.
Three cheers to Carrington for helping me bring a great close to these last few weeks of guest strips. We’re going out with a bang!
Incidentally, if you want to see my (quasi) realistic rendition of Dexter and Seethe, just vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix and you will be rewarded with that sketch.
This coming Monday – May 2 – Theater Hopper will return with a brand new story arc and a brand new site design! I’ll also be opening a refurbished store with all your favorite t-shirt designs (plus some new designs) up for pre-sale. So if you missed out on the last round of Spoiler shirts, now is your chance to get one for summer.
When the comic come back, these last 3 weeks of guest strips will be taken out of the comic archive and placed into the Bonus Material section of the site. The blogs that accompanied them will be deleted. So on Monday, I plan on thanking all of the artists who submitted guest comics together so their names and links to their sites can be properly preserved in the news post archives.
Until then, thanks to everyone who helped me keep the store running while I took this break. You’ll never know how much I appreciated your contributions.
More on Monday. Everyone have a great weekend!
[ No Comments ]
