Posts Tagged ‘celebration’

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7 YEARS AND 1,000 COMICS

by Tom on August 5th, 2009
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7 YEARS AND 1,000 COMICS

I thought black was supposed to be slimming. Dear Lord, someone remind me never to insert myself into my own comic ever again! I looked so much better when I pulled this stunt before back in 2004.

I wasn't planning on doing anything special for Theater Hopper's 7th anniversary. But when I found out that I had crossed the 1,000 comic milestone, I thought it made sense to announce both at the same time.

I had actually figured out that I had reached the milestone almost serendipitously. Back when the archive database was being managed by PHP, I knew exactly how many comics were in the archive. It even went so far as to exclude guest comics, movie reviews and other "tagged" entries from the complete tally.

However, since moving the site into WordPress, I kind of lost track of how many comics there actually are on the site. I guess they don't make a plugin for that.

Basically, I was sitting at my computer last week thinking about this and decided to do something about it. So I downloaded all of the comics in the archive and cherry picked all of the guest strips, movies reviews and other non-comic graphic entries from the folder.

Lo and behold, it was actually last Wednesday's comic was our 1,000th! Since there was nothing particularly special about that comic, I decided to bide my time a little bit and come 'atcha with a proper acknowledgment.

And here we are!

I think you guys know what is coming next. I don't mean to preface that in a way that makes it sound trite, but what I'm about to say next I say a lot. Because it's true.

I simply couldn't do this comic without you. I'm amazed that anyone is still interested in what I'm doing 7 years and 1,000 comics later. Some of you have been with me since the beginning. Some of you are just learning about Theater Hopper. It doesn't matter if you've read every comic in the archive or just a handful. Every, single one of you have contributed to the success of Theater Hopper and I thank you for it. You are amazing.

If you have it in your heart, I'd really like to raise the roof on crossing this milestone and promoting it as far and wide into the internet as possible.

Please let as many people as possible know about Theater Hopper's anniversary and 1,000th comic. Use Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg... whatever you use and spread the word.

Let the guys at Fleen and Comixpedia know what's going on. Say something about it in your LiveJournal or in a forum you visit. Anywhere else you happen to frequent, let them know about what's going on here.

I don't promote myself quite as much as I used to (or probably should), but this is a moment where I want to set aside modesty and invite as many people as possible to check out Theater Hopper so they don't miss the next 1,000 comics!

Thanks again for everything you do and be sure to check the site later today for a couple more announcements. I have a few special treats up my sleeve!

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BIRTHDAY BOY

by Tom on February 19th, 2009
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henry09

This was a post I was supposed to write yesterday. But due to a hectic, stressful and overloaded schedule, it didn't happen.

Yesterday was my son Henry's birthday. And as I did the year before, I thought it would be nice to post a picture of the little guy so everyone can see how he's doing.

Henry is doing very well having recently had tubes put in his ears for the second time and his adenoids removed to correct chronic ear infections he was having earlier in the winter.

Since Henry turned 2, we finally cut him off from pacifiers and we're dealing with the ramifications of that right now. He really didn't use them very often except when we put him down at night and he would use them to calm himself down. Now that they're gone, he has to find other methods to relax. So he's been shooting heroin into his eyeballs for about a week now.

I kid! I kid!

Every Saturday we take Henry to a music class where he learns rhythm, songs and dancing to a beat. It's been paying off. He often sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and it's tonal doppleganger, The ABC song.

He's a bundle of energy, that's for sure. HIGHLY verbal and bossing us around already. He's deeply addicted to Mickey Mouse Club on the Disney Channel and listening to Daft Punk in the car. In fact, he demands them by name! Well, almost. "Robot rock, Daddy!"

My son is awesome.

Happy birthday, buddy.

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NOT TRYING TO BRAG, BUT…

by Tom on December 1st, 2004
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This isn't me trying to be a big shot or anything. I just like celebrating milestones.

I checked Theater Hopper's statistics for the month of November and we posted our biggest number of unique visitors in the history of the site - 170,124.

This blows my mind. It breaks our previous record by about 10,000 hits.

Like I said, this isn't me trying to brag. And really, when you compare those numbers to some of the other web comics out there - several that even started after Theater Hopper - there's not a lot of reason to call attention to it. Most sites wouldn't want to tell you the traffic they do because it might make them look "weak" in face of the "competition."

I don't feel that way. I'm only in competition with myself and my prize - my validation - is to make the best comic I can. Of course I want to share my passion with others, so if there's an audience for it, why not put it out there?

I sometimes think it's easy to overlook exactly what those numbers mean. Frankly, I'm stunned that there is anyone out there interested enough in what I'm doing not only to visit once, but keep coming back or even mention it to their friends. Theater Hopper is growing because of the dedication and support you've shown and I just wanted to thank you for it.

All 170,124 of you.

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EVEN MORE!

by Tom on November 17th, 2004
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Oh, before I forget. Extra cool guy and Dayfree Press alum Jim Burgess is celebrating a milestone with his comic Able and Baker - 200 strips! Be sure to visit the site and join the celebration!

Also a big shout out to JDizzle Comics, our latest sponsor. JDizzle was off the scene for a while this summer, but is back and better than ever with a brand new web site. Check it out!

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200 STRIPPERS

by Jared on November 14th, 2003
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Happy 200 strips Theater Hopper!

Happy Birthday Nick!

I am looking forward to a weekend of fun. My good friend and fellow blogger Nick is turning another year older on Saturday. I am helping him celebrate by honoring him with my presence. Birthday presence.

What? ...presents? ...yeah, right.

::runs to store::

Anyway, we are going to see Mike Doughty in MN and plan to generally have a kick ass time.

I can already taste the Grain Belt.

Mmmmmm...

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BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

by Tom on November 29th, 2002
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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!

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LANDMARK

by Tom on September 25th, 2002
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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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A REASON TO BE HAPPY

by Tom on September 23rd, 2002
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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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