Posts Tagged ‘Charlie’

31 items.

THE ZOMBIE IN THE MIRROR

by Tom on October 28th, 2009
27 votes, average: 8.44 out of 10
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THE ZOMBIE IN THE MIRROR

The Michael Jackson concert documentary This Is It comes out today for a limited two-week run. Without getting into the sticket-wicket of commenting on the singer's personal life, I will say that I've always enjoyed Jackson's music and obvious talent. But as an "event", This Is It doesn't feel like something I need to participate in.

The movie is a compilation of interviews, rehearsals and backstage footage assembled as Jackson was preparing for a series of sold-out shows in London. That's great - I mean, who wouldn't want to see the behind-the-scenes footage of what was meant to be one of the largest concert spectacles of the last 20 years. But from a narrative standpoint, what exactly is going to be the payoff?

I mean, it's not like we're going to see the result of all this hard work and preparation. We're not going to see Jackson on stage in front of tens of thousand screaming fans, pouring his heart and soul into the music and delivering the performance of a lifetime. We're going to see him on stage at the Staples Center standing in front of a bunch of backup dancers wearing wifebeaters and track pants.

At least, that's my impression of it.

From an entertainment perspective, I'm not sure what the audience is meant to take away from This Is It. At the end of the day, the man is dead. We'll never know what could have been. So is the movie meant to memorialize him in some way or are the producers counting on some kind of morbid curiosity on the audience's part to investegate Jackson's last recorded performance.

There is a stop-and-look-at-the-car-crash element to this that I am skeptical of.

But to each his own. If you plan on checking out This Is It during its theatrical run, I'd love to hear what you thought about it!

As for the movie's release, so precariously close to Halloween? I don't really think anyone would show up at the theater dressed up like Zombie Michael Jackson. But if you're going to any Halloween parties this year, I bet you'll see more than one.

To a certain extent, it's unavoidable. Certainly Jackson himself didn't help matters any by setting the template for a zombiefied "look" with his video for "Thriller" over 25 years ago. Of course there is the bigger-than-life persona of the man himself. A celebrity of his stature is simply going to attract this kind of weird homage.

But if you take the macro view, it's kind of weird dressing up as a dead celebrity for a holiday, isn't it? I mean, how many people are going to go to a Halloween party dressed as Ed McMahon or Farrah Fawcett? Maybe they're just not as iconic. Food for thought, I suppose.

What about the rest of you? Any ambition to see This Is It this weekend? What about Halloween? Going to any parties? What about your costumes? Share your comments below!

I have to live vicariously through you this year because we're staying at home on Beggar's Night. Immediately afterwords, I will be watching the live 7-hour lockdown of the Ghost Adventures crew on The Travel Channel - because I am a nerd.

15 Comments

WORSHIP AT THE ALTAR OF YOUTH

by Tom on June 19th, 2009
20 votes, average: 7.65 out of 10
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WORSHIP AT THE ALTAR OF YOUTH
Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics

Ryan Reynolds isn't the only one who can grate cheese off his abs. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to see what I'm talking about.

I think we can all agree that Ryan Reynolds is a very attractive person. I have no shame in admitting this. In fact, I'm certain that were I disciplined enough, having abs like Ryan Reynolds would clear up roughly 43% of my self-esteem issues. If this acting thing doesn't shake out, he could be a full-time Men's Health cover model.

Cami's line about me nursing a crush on Reynolds since Van Wilder wasn't an exaggeration. In addition to his physical appearance, there's just something about his delivery I've always enjoyed - even when he's playing it broad. Van Wilder is an infinitely more enjoyable film because of what Reynolds brings to the role. For proof, watch the Reynolds-less Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj. It's basically the same movie set in a different location and putting Kal Penn in the lead role.

Although can someone please explain to me how National Lampoon got away with calling the film "Van Wilder 2" when Van Wilder is nowhere in that movie?

The Proposal comes out this weekend and it looks like a boilerplate Sandra Bullock rom-com piffle. I didn't mean to be harsh with the punchline of today's comic by pointing out Bullock's age (she's actually 45). But it really sticks out to me in the commercials and trailers for this movie when she's been paired with an actor roughly 15 years her junior.

Of course, with leading men, this is never an issue and sometimes even MORE prominent. Actors in their 50's being paired up with actresses in their 20's you see it all the time. Don't misjudge me and assume that I don't think Bullock is allowed to do the same.

But look back at Bullock's career. She's usually been paired with actors roughly her same age or older. And Bullock is nothing if not a creature of habit. She's been acting in the same kind of movies for roughly a decade now. So even if the formula changes a little bit, it's note-worthy.

I know I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I kind of hope they work it into the script somehow. It would be an opportunity to make it funny.

Switching gears, I wanted to talk about some of the issues we've been having with the site for the last week and a half. By now you pretty much know what's going on with the malware errors, Google Chrome, Safari and the like.

I can tell you that we're doing everything we can to scrub the site at every opportunity, but we've been compromised in a way that we can not immediately fix. Someone shared with me a link to this article that will hopefully shed some light on the situation and give you some insight as to the problems we're dealing with.

I can only hope at some point someone will develop some kind of defense for this thing because every time I locate and strip the malicious code, it's back on the site a few hours later. Until then, I feel like I'm twiddling my thumbs.

On top of this hacker problem, I'm also experiencing difficulties with the recent upgrade to WordPress 2.8. As you can see, the comic ranking system is frozen and the calendar and search functions normally to the right of the blog are missing.

Behind the scenes, the post tagging system does not work and I cannot edit the status of my posts. It's a real drag.

Combing the internet, I can see there are several unhappy customers. People are pretty much saying it's completely bungled on WordPress's part.

I was thinking I would roll back the site to 2.7, but I guess I didn't make a backup. I thought I did, but now I can't find it. Maybe I e-mailed to myself and deleted it before I realized the problems 2.8 was having. But it's a mess.

Anyway, that's my problem, not your problem. But I just wanted to give everyone a status update.

Let's talk about the weekend! In addition to The Proposal, Year One is also coming out and it looks like it's getting trashed in the reviews. It's a shame, because I really respect and admire Harold Ramis. But you could kind of tell from the trailers that the movie didn't have a clear direction. What's up with Jack Black and Michael Cera skipping through time? It looks confusing.

Is anyone still planning on seeing Year One? What about The Proposal? Or is everyone waiting for Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen to come along next week and step on everything? Leave your comments below!

18 Comments

CODA

by Tom on March 6th, 2009
3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 10
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CODA

Well, that's the end of it. Now you know the story of Jimmy's and Charlie's past. Will they get together in the future? Time will tell. But for now, consider this chapter closed.

Sincere thanks to everyone for indulging me these last few weeks. It was important for me to do this. I know longer story lines aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they help me from going stir crazy. It helps me shake the cobwebs off, creatively-speaking. It's easy for me to fall into a "talking heads" kind of situation and these longer story line with their specific demands help me break free of that.

I suppose if I wasn't completely afraid of alienating people this storyline could have gone on a little longer. There were a few contrivances that I used to get the characters where I needed them to be. But, compared to when I first introduced Charlie and wandered, lost in the desert for two months, I think this was a nice piece of economical story telling.

Agghh. You know what? I feel like I've been defending this story line since day one. I need to stop that. The majority of you - and I'm talking, like 95% of you - have been great. So encouraging and helpful. I really appreciate it. I need to stop apologizing for doing a longer story line.

I have a bad habit of defending myself before I'm even attacked and I can see that being very annoying to people who are already on my side. So you know what? This story line was AWESOME and I had a blast doing it.

What else is there to say? Well, I'm working on a t-shirt design for "KISS EACH OTHER WITH YOUR MOUTHS" and I'm going to see Watchmen this weekend. Other than that, Cami is having a girls night out and I'm going to do more comic stuff this evening.

It's been a stressful week for me. I had my first performance review at my new job, my first physical in 15 years, a midterm and worked hard to try and end this storyline in a way I could be proud of. I had a lot on my plate. So I think now I'm just looking forward to relaxing a little bit.

We're back to regular comics on Monday. It's a safe bet I'll be talking about Watchmen.

THANKS AGAIN AND HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

12 Comments

CHEERING SECTION

by Tom on March 4th, 2009
11 votes, average: 8.45 out of 10
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CHEERING SECTION

What the?!... Did I manage to sneak in a punchline into today's emotional reunion between Charlie and Jimmy? I think I must have!

For me, the pleasure of drawing today's strip was drawing Tom's reaction panel-to-panel. I pictured him reacting to Jimmy and Charlie's relationship drama as if it were happening on a movie screen in front of him. "This is so much better than a movie," would be the subtext running through his brain.

Not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I kind of like the turn of the phrase "Kiss each other on the mouth." It's kind of like when Liz Lemon says "I want to go to there" on 30 Rock. Eh, maybe not.

All things the same, if I could come up with a design for that slogan, would you be interested in that as a t-shirt? I'm asking because pre-orders for Theater Hopper - Year Three have pretty much stalled and I'm lacking the money I need to send the finished book to the printer.

I could wait for advertising revenue to make up the difference, but the economy has severely limited advertising budgets, so I'm not seeing much return there. I figured I could whip up a few new t-shirts and try to make money that way. Y'know, spend money to make money.

Truthfully, I'm overdue on trying to produce a new shirt. I don't know if it was complacency, fear or maybe a little bit of both. But it seems that I can't come up with an idea that sells as well as the Spoiler shirts. Other shirts sell okay, but not so great that I can reorder them and keep selling them. Usually, I do one run of a new design, sell out and then you never see it again.

I had someone write me earlier in the month asking about the Johnny Number 5 t-shirt I was selling on the site a few years ago. Y'know "Don't trust robots?" It was never a big seller, but the people who bought it seemed to love it.

I'll admit that I'm probably not setting the world on fire with some of my designs. I mean, the Spoiler shirts are just a block of text. But for some strange reason, they work. Design is always something I've felt I could improve on.

The other problem is coming up with a good concept. You can't do something too "inside" or specific to the comic (although that appeals to the the hard core supporters) and you also can't do something so general that you could buy it from some other site.

I think I have a concept that might work: You know those movie quotes randomly rotating at the bottom of the page? I had the idea of graphically representing them on t-shirts so that they look cool to people who aren't in on the joke, but make the person wearing it feel a little more special because they know the reference.

The first one I was going to attempt was from Reservoir Dogs when Mr. Blonde asks Mr. White "Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite?"

It would probably take too much to explain the different elements I want to incorporate into the shirt, but there would be some photo-realism to it so you're not walking around with a huge cartoon across your chest.

I mean look at the shirts from comics like Octopus Pie or White Ninja (really any of the TopatoCo line of shirts). They're not firmly aligned with the "branding" of the comic they're associated with. I want to try and do something similar here.

What do you think? Do you think this is a good idea? What famous movie lines would you like to see represented in a graphic format? What about Jimmy and Charlie? Do you think they're going to get back together? Do you think they'll take Tom's advice to "kiss each other on the mouth?" Leave your thoughts below!

27 Comments

FALLING ON YOUR SWORD

by Tom on March 2nd, 2009
8 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10
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FALLING ON YOUR SWORD

At this point I'm trying to build Jimmy back up into the selfless person we all know him to be, so I figured his reasons for working at the theater where he was so brutally dumped needed a dash of sympathetic irony.

I really wanted to go more in depth with Jimmy's realization of what he lost and his expression of how much Charlie meant to him. But at the same time, emotional hand-wringing is like standing still from a pacing standpoint.

So the idea is that Jimmy is paying for his sins at the scene of his greatest failure. It's also the scene of his "rebirth" into the nice guy we've come to know him as.

I don't know if there's much more I can say about it than that.

Be sure to listen to The Triple Feature this evening. We record live at 9:00 PM CST over at Talkshoe.com. With any luck, our good friend Joe Dunn will be back in the saddle this week after missing out on our Oscar recap last week.

Odds are good we'll be talking about Watchmen, since that's about the only thing going on in movies this week. So if you're looking forward to seeing it, spend an hour with us as we pontificate its importance.

One other thing - and I know it doesn't have much to do with movies - but does anyone plan on watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon when he takes over for Conan O'Brien tonight?

I'm not a big fan of Fallon's, but I'm interested to see if he can emerge from this as his own man. So much of his shtick to me seemed stolen from Adam Sandler -- what with his bits on Weekend Update with his guitar during his early days at Saturday Night Live. He seemed to mature a little when he was promoted to reading "the fake news" on Weekend Update a few years later, but he was pretty much Tina Fey's puppet.

He did the movie thing. No one bought into it and he's become almost a curious footnote in comedy known more for cracking up during sketches on SNL than actually being funny himself.

But I've been reading a lot of the press surrounding the show and it seems like he's very enthusiastic about the show. Some of the stuff they say they plan on doing sounds a little unconventional in the late night format, but they really seem to have their sights set on the next generation of fans.

Conan O'Brien will always be *my* late night guy. I remember staying up to watch his first show and even though I was only 15 years-old, I could tell how awkward and nervous he was. A bunch of his jokes bombed in that first week. But the shows got funnier and he honed his own self-deprecating brand of wackiness and now he's moving on to The Tonight Show. He graduated.

I guess the point I'm making is that if someone like Conan O'Brien can make it - a performer NO ONE thought would be around after a year - is it possible Jimmy Fallon can do something positive for himself in late night?

So what do you think? Will you be watching tonight? Do you have any bias against Fallon? Do you feel like you should watch - like it's a tiny historic moment? Leave your thoughts below!

15 Comments

DOWN, DOWN, DOWN

by Tom on February 27th, 2009
3 votes, average: 8.33 out of 10
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DOWN, DOWN, DOWN

Well, that's pretty final, don't you think?

I know it's kind of a contrivance to have Charlie go nuclear in the overreaction department, but there are two things to consider here:

  1. Plot efficiency.
  2. The honest assessment that some girls have a zero-tolerance policy on screwing around.

On the second point I would like to reinforce that there is certainly nothing wrong with having standards. And who knows? Maybe Charlie has been jerked around by womanizers before? As we learned from her introduction story line, she doesn't suffer fools gladly.

But we're not going to explore that here.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, next week will take us out of flashbacks and we will learn how Jimmy ended up working at the theater that was ground zero for his greatest heartbreak. One week after that, I should have everything wrapped up.

Thanks, by the way, for indulging me these last few weeks. I know Theater Hopper is traditionally about bringing you the funny, but it's good to flex a different set of muscles from time to time. Hopefully I've been able to compensate with enough dramatic tension to hold your interest.

Thanks, also, for the outpouring of support on the whole transcription effort. I posted a blog entry late Wednesday night and woke up Thursday morning with e-mails from a dozen people write in offering their services. I've assigned coverage up to January 2005 and still have more e-mails to sort through. I feel confident that we'll not only have coverage for the entire archive of comics, but we'll have them transcribed in short order. I honestly wasn't expecting that this would be something you guys would be excited about, but I'm glad you proved me wrong!

If you'd like to see which months are still available - along with the items I am offering in compensation for your help - you can read about it here.

Not much for me to talk about movie-wise this weekend. Nothing new in theaters except Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li - both of which look like a couple of turds on wheels to me.

I'm sure the Jonas Brothers movies will rake in significant box office by attracting the tweener crowds, but I saw some footage of Street Fighter and WOW, was it bad. Wire-Fu was nakedly evident and the fight choreography was stilted and tired. To add insult to injury, the editing was atrocious. Pulling wide on shots that revealed too much of the wire work and claustrophobic, "eat the camera" close-ups that kept you from seeing what was even happening.

It's probably not getting worked up over. If it doesn't star Raul Julia and Jean-Claude Van Damme, why bother, AMIRITE?!

I was thinking this would have been the weekend for a more ambitious movie to try and get in front of Watchmen before it lands in theaters next week - some middling Sandra Bullock or Kate Hudson comedy that didn't stand a chance of making a ton of money in the first place. But I guess the studios look at Watchmen like it's the 800-pound gorilla. Make way.

I kind of wish I could have wrapped up this story line sooner so I could get hip-dip in the hype surrounding Watchmen because - like it or not - after two weeks, I think it will be over. I don't think Watchmen has legs. Advance reviews have been too polarizing and it doesn't sound like fanboys are going to be happy with it beyond a pure visual interpretation. At this point, the burden of proof is on Watchmen to impress me. I'm not turning over on this one as readily as I did Iron Man. I am cautiously optimistic.

What about the rest of you? Are you ready to submit to Watchmen? Have you read any of the reviews online? Have they influenced you at all or is Watchmen critic-proof? What's your impression? Leave your comments below.

18 Comments

COLD TILE

by Tom on February 25th, 2009
2 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars
COLD TILE

Oh, noes! What's Charlie gonna do?

I've been setting up more than a few of this Friday cliffhangers during this storyline, haven't I?

Well, once you see what Charlie does on Friday, we'll catch up with everyone in the present next week. Hopefully, we'll learn more about why Jimmy is still hanging around. Stay tuned, people! We're in the home stretch!

Not much for me to talk about today. Well, except that maybe my Netflix experience. Still goin' strong!

I realize that I didn't talk about Man on Wire when I said I would last week. Man on Wire was the first film I rented from Netflix and also happened to be the winner of the Best Documentary award at the Oscars on Sunday.

I liked the movie a lot. It was arranged with a very tight narrative with a great blend of reenactments, interviews and original footage.

In case you're not familiar, the subject of the film is Philippe Petit, a French tightrope walker who walked the span between the twin towers of the World Trade Center shortly after they were completed in 1974.

The movie is more about the planning stages of the walk more than the walk itself. So the filmmakers are able to milk a lot of tension our of the reenactments as the original parties explain their actions as if it were happening in real time. The walk itself feels like some kind of hazy dream, but certainly a one-of-a-kind moment that seemed to impress and capture the imagination of everyone involved - even the authorities, who could do no better than to charge Petit with trespassing

Petit comes off like an eccentric in his interviews or perhaps a hyperactive child. But I admire anyone who feels compelled to create art to serve a higher purpose. He performs his walk not for profit or fame (although those things come later), but to inspire others to dream. Ah, existentialism as only the French can make it!

I kind of wonder if hanging around Petit in real life would be exhausting. But I have to admit I was charmed with his magic trick and balancing act at the Oscar's when he delivered his acceptance speech.

Philippe Petit

In the words of Best Week Ever, "please be in our lives every day."

As for the next movie in our queue, Cami reserved Henry Poole Is Here. I'm not sure why. I thought we were being diplomatic with our choices. I rent one, then she rents one -- back and forth and so on. She says she rented it for me! I don't anything about the film, but I'm happy to watch it all the same. It has Luke Wilson in it, so how bad can it be?

Don't answer that.

I'll be back later in the day to pose a question to everyone about contributing transcripts of the comics to the site. Until then, talk amongst yourselves. Who here has seen Man on Wire? What were your thoughts?

17 Comments

SAFE HAVEN

by Tom on February 23rd, 2009
4 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10
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SAFE HAVEN

I think I'm starting to accept this "no punchline" thing. This is The End Game. Now you know that Jimmy and Charlie used to date, that they were engaged and that a random indiscretion (at no fault to Jimmy) appears to have torn them apart. The only scene that's missing is the final confrontation in the ladies restroom. At this point, I think jokes are only going to slow us down. But hopefully I've established a mood going into the last arc of the story line.

So what else happened this weekend? Oh, it looks like the Oscars were on last night! Did you catch it?

Despite not having seen... most of the nominated films, I was really excited for this year's Oscars. I don't know why. And even though there weren't a ton of surprises, I was still satisfied with the big show.

Some gut reactions:

I thought Hugh Jackman was perfectly serviceable for such an outside-the-box choice for host. He was somewhat needy, but certainly didn't embarrass himself. That opening number brought down the house! He was working his ass off on that one.

How good was that little song and dance routine at the top of the show? I went from visions of Billy Crystal and thinking to myself "Ugh, a musical number." to "Ha, ha! That was great! More musical numbers!"

Unfortunately, his little team-up with Beyonce at the half-way point played more like a Broadway review. What is this? The Tony's? When he emphatically exclaimed "The musical is back!" I kind of slumped back in my seat and said "Not likely."

I mean, the thing just went on and on! Meanwhile, performances of the Best Song nominees only get 90 seconds a piece! ACTUAL NOMINEES get the bum's rush for this crap. Bad move.

I thought the Pineapple Express parody with Seth Rogen and James Franco was hilarious. Probably the highlight of the night (no pun). If this doesn't tell James Franco to abandon the James Dean posturing and aggressively pursue comedy full-time, I won't know what will.

I thought Ben Stiller's riff on Joaquin Phoenix was stupid, disrespectful and past it's expatriation date. Wandering around stage while the nominees for Best Cinematography were being read? C'mon, It's not The MTV Movie Awards.

The biggest surprise of the night? Sean Penn winning Best Actor over Mickey Rourke - who I assumed was a lock. You can't really be unhappy with the outcome, though. Penn's a great actor and Rourke brought his career back from the dead. Everyone wins.

As far as my Oscar ballot looked at the end of the night, I was 12 for 12. I could have done a lot better, but I had two strikes against me:

I went out a limb and picked Viola Davis for Best Supporting Actress and Michael Shannon for Best Supporting Actor under the assumption that Hollywood was going to take the opportunity to promote new talent. Also, both performances were very brief in their respective films and I had this nagging feeling that if they were that good in such a limited amount of time (against acting heavyweights like Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet) they deserved to win.

Instead the awards went to Penelope Cruz and Heath Ledger, respectively -- both of whom odds makers were already behind.

I don't know what to say about Ledger's win except I guess I lost the faith on that one. Is it really a "supporting" performance, though? He pretty much owned The Dark Knight from the minute he stepped on screen. He certainly didn't "support" Christian Bale. He blew right past him. For the sake of argument, do you think he would have won were he still alive? Would he even have been nominated? Just questioning it, that's all.

Because here's the thing: The Dark Knight was the second most nominated film last night with eight. All of them except Ledger were in technical categories and they were shut out in all of them except Sound Editing.

Clearly the Oscars has no love for comic book movies. Not even those that gross $1 billion at the box office world wide. So what made Ledger's turn as the Joker such a prominent standout? Again, I'm just spit-ballin' here.

The Dark Knight being shut out of the technical categories was the second deficiency in my Oscar ballot. I figured if they weren't going to be recognized for anything else, voters would acknowledge the economic achievement by handing the film trophies in the technical categories. So much for that.

For the full list of nominees and winners, you can access them here.

At any rate, we'll be talking about the Oscar winners and losers tonight on The Triple Feature and we'll find out how my Oscar ballot stacked up against Gordon and Joe's. There's a lot at stake. The two with the lowest number of correct guesses have to produce guest comics for the winner. I could be in for some extra work this week! You'll have to tune in tonight at 9:00 PM CST to hear if I lost!

In the meantime, what did you think about last night's show? What moments stood out for you? Were there any shocks? What was your favorite moment? What was your least favorite moment? Leave your comments below!

27 Comments

POPCORN DROP

by Tom on February 20th, 2009
9 votes, average: 5.56 out of 10
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POPCORN DROP

In order for there to be some kind of progression to the story, I knew Jimmy's checkered past would have to come back into play. But I was having trouble succinctly interjecting a scenario that wasn't basically a simple misunderstanding that would have felt at home on an episode of Three's Company.

That's why I upped the stakes emotionally by revealing Jimmy and Charlie to have been briefly engaged. I didn't want to make it easy for him to explain it away.

It's no so much the betrayal of this one kiss. It boils down to the difference between saying you're cool with your loved one's past indiscretions and being confronted with it face to face. It's going to be too much for Charlie to handle and you're going to see that in the upcoming strips.

I don't want to get too much more into it. I want the story to reveal itself in it's own time. But I think you guys are going to be pleased not only with how this situation is resolved, but how it continues to play into past events within the Theater Hopper universe.

Switching gears... I wanted to announce that I am at home this morning. Don't worry, I'm not sick. I'm taking the day off! But it's not a day off in the traditional sense.

No. Today is still a work day!

I presume you guys remember my hard drive crash last fall and how I staged a donation drive to help aid in the data recovery? As part of that donation drive, I promised to those that donated original art of various sizes and complexity. Some of those people have received their art, but the majority have not. Between my job, Henry, night school, the holidays and everything else... it was all too overwhelming.

I was feeling pretty bad about myself for making people wait this long when they were so quick to help me in my time of need. So I decided to commit to taking a major chunk out of my artistic responsibility "to do" list and am taking a day off work to get things done!

I'm not saying I'll be able to get all the artwork done that I need to. But I should be able to get a sizable chunk out of the door. This will help not only to take some of the burden off my back, but help me more easily communicate with those of you still waiting for your commissioned pieces.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay. I will do right by you and your generosity. You WILL get what you paid for.

That's it for me today. Time to belly-up to the artist table and get to work!

With thanks...

4 Comments

THERE WAS HAND-HOLDING, TOO

by Tom on February 18th, 2009
5 votes, average: 7.20 out of 10
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THERE WAS HAND-HOLDING, TOO

If you were following my Twitter posts yesterday, you would know that I expressed some anxiety about there being no punchline in today's comic. I always put myself under this pressure to make every, single strip funny in these larger story lines even though I know that this exposition is necessary to keep the plot moving. Even though I want a punchline, I don't want to undercut the emotional sincerity. It's a tightrope walk, that's for sure.

Speaking of tightrope walks, I just got my copy of Man On Wire in the mail from NetFlix yesterday -- my first NetFlix rental! *swoon!* I'm already looking forward to going home and watching it. Well, that and tonight's episode of Lost.

I didn't get a chance to watch Man On Wire yesterday because I had my night class. But tonight my schedule is clear! I'll be sure to tell you what I think.

Incidentally, I chose Man On Wire as my pick to win the award for Best Documentary at the Oscars on Sunday. If you'd like to see the rest of my picks (and the story related to The Triple Feature behind my reasons for making them public,) check out this post from Tuesday. Y'know... in case you missed it.

A couple other site things real quick...

You may have noticed that I added a couple of prominent links to the homepage immediately to the lower right of the comic - a StumbleUpon link and a Tip Jar link.

The StumbleUpon link I created because, since the launch of the redesign, I am very interested in getting individual comics listed back on the site. I've had lots of really good luck with people finding the comic through StumbleUpon in the past, so I want to take full advantage of that going forward.

I know today's comic probably doesn't fall within the "OMG! I have to share this with everyone!" category, but if you could find it in your heart to submit the link anyway, that would be great. Go back into the archive and submit your favorite comics as well. It may be mooching the system, but I'd like to have ALL of Theater Hopper's comic listed in StumbleUpon. Who knows what might catch on?

As for the second link, the tip jar... I was hesitant at first. I didn't even have the idea to add it until someone had written me asking if I had one available. I didn't know there was a demand for such things! But it was explained to me that sometimes people don't want (or don't have the money to) purchase something in the store and would still like to show support. A tip jar kind of covers that base. So if someone wants to kick in a dollar or two from time to time, they can feel like they're helping out without breaking the bank buying a shirt or a book.

It should go without saying that tips are not expected, but they are certainly appreciated. This is the last I will mention it because I don't want to be the guy standing on the corner of the internet with his hand outstretched. It's simply an option for you guys. If you like a particular comic and want to reward me (for whatever reason) it's there for you. I'll leave it at that.

That'll do it for now, but I have a second post coming up later in the day talking about Henry's second birthday - which is today! Be sure to swing by the site later or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Talk to you soon!

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