I was kind of sitting on this joke for a little while waiting to use it for a Monday strip when I knew more people would read it. I hope you like it.
I’m usually not one to call attention to “The 4th Wall.” In all honesty, one of my unofficial rules when I started Theater Hopper was to never break it. I always kind of viewed it as a cheap out.
But with American Splendor being all about the dissolution between reality in entertainment (decades before reality TV or LiveJournal, I might add), the joke was too perfect to pass up.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the film. It won’t come to Des Moines until this Friday, but I plan on checking it out early. There’s a lot of good stuff out this weekend. I’m going to be busy!
I’ve received some e-mails from people in other areas of the country where American Splendor is currently playing and I’m hearing nothing but positive reviews. I’ve always been a fan of Paul Giamatti, so I’m looking forward to it.
My good friend Nick suggested renting the documentary Crumb to help flesh out the experience. Since R. Crumb was a frequent artistic collaborator to Splendor’s author, Harvey Pekar, that’s good advice. I intend to follow through sometime this week.
Did anyone else notice that Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star was number one at the box office this week? I can’t say it was an enormous victory. It only raked in $7 million.
The last number one movie to rake in that little was the Ashley Judd thriller Eye of the Beholder in January of 2000. It only did $6 million in business.
When that’s the case, how much pride can David Spade really take home after getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
Related Posts ¬
Aug 31, 2009 | DISNEY BUYS MARVEL |
Jan 18, 2010 |
Something I forgot to mention that Theater Hopper is involved with is the new comics-for-your-video-iPod service Clickwheel.
A few of my contemporaries are involved, but I’ve been slow to get on the horse. The process is simple. All you need to do is go to the site and choose your favorite comic. Check out the episodes they have available and download it. The best part about it? IT’S TOTALLY FREE!
Even if you don’t have a video iPod, it’s worth it for you to check out. Any time there’s the opportunity for web comics to cross over into another medium, I think we should be there to support it.
Right now Theater Hopper only has one episode uploaded to the site. It’s a version of comic #500 and the introduction of evil movie theater floor manager Victor Kresh. I plan on uploading the other two strips in that story arc soon.
Bookmark Clickwheel now and keep checking back for new episodes uploaded to the site. If it proves popular, I might start uploading Clickwheel-exclusive content. Not full strips, or anything. Maybe additional sketches or small one-panel jokes. It’s my hope to eventually work forward enough on the comic that you can go out there and download a strip before it posts to the site. But in three and a half years I’ve never worked ahead on anything, so the odds of that are probably small.
At any rate, check out Clickwheel!
Related Posts ¬
Jan 18, 2010 | |
Aug 31, 2009 | DISNEY BUYS MARVEL |
Sep 8, 2003 | THE FOURTH WALL NEEDS MAINTENANCE |
Unless you’ve been completely cut off from the internet today (in which case, I’m glad Theater Hopper was your first stop after being plugged back in to The Grid), then you might have missed the news that Disney has acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.
There aren’t a lot of details at the moment, but the news pretty much set the internet on fire this afternoon. Since I’m a bit of a movie nut AND a bit of a comic book nut, I feel a responsibility to comment.
A lot of people are responding to the news Chicken Little-style. They swear up and down that the sky is falling and that the House of Mouse is going to ruin their favorite super heroes by flattening their appeal, making them more mainstream and toothless.
As much as I have enjoyed portraying Disney as the Evil Empire in the past (and it is likely I will continue to do so in the future), I’m optimistic about this deal with Marvel.
People forget that roughly 15 years ago, Marvel declared bankruptcy. Getting in bed with Disney means the likelihood of that happening again are slim to none. Anything that protects Marvel’s solvency at this point is a-okay in my book.
Some people claim that Disney can be careless with the properties they acquire – citing Mirimax and The Muppets as examples. I don’t know if I see a lot of evidence supporting that. If anything, Marvel being associated with Disney gives them far more opportunities to cross-pollinate their characters into other media outlets than they would have been able to do otherwise.
Never mind the distribution advantage they now have with their movies. What other studio besides Disney can put a movie on 3,000 screens opening weekend every single time? Not many.
I guess I’m trying to be more pragmatic in my response to the acquisition rather than gloom and doom. If Spider-Man could survive The Clone Saga, he’ll survive this.
What are your thoughts about the Disney / Marvel merger? Are you a fan of the comics, movies or both. How do you think this will affect Marvel’s output in the coming years? What was your first reaction to the news?
Leave your comments below!
Related Posts ¬
Dec 14, 2010 | OH NO, FAVREAU |
Jan 9, 2006 | CLICKWHEEL |
Apr 23, 2003 | WEBS |
Mar 27, 2011 | BAMBI DIAMOND EDITION BLU-RAY REVIEW |
Hey, guys. I’m trying to make a push for Theater Hopper through Reddit and wanted to let you know that a link to Monday’s comic can be found here. If you have a Reddit account, please give the link a few thumbs up or a comment to help it move up the list a little bit.
In the past, I would submit to Reddit’s main area with very little luck. But this time I’m testing out links to Reddit’s sub-category for comics under http://www.reddit.com/r/comics/. I think it will help to actually target people who WANT to read comics for a change.
By the way, if you submit one of Theater Hopper’s comics to Reddit’s Comics category, please let me know so I can promote the link here.
I would submit my own links to Reddit, but they’re pretty savvy about people who try to self-promote. I feel this approach kind of splits the difference between an authentic representation of word-of-mouth on your part and callous marketing on my part.
Whatever works, right?
Related Posts ¬
Aug 31, 2009 | DISNEY BUYS MARVEL |
Feb 11, 2008 | DUGG-GONE IT! |
Mar 5, 2009 | LAYOUT QUESTION |
Jan 9, 2006 | CLICKWHEEL |
I realize this comic might get me in a little bit of trouble with the pants-wetting crowd excited for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited to see it, too. But after watching the effusive praise pour in across Twitter last week when the second trailer was announced, I was left wondering what all the fuss is about.
I’m certainly not making the case that mainstream comics are better than indie comics. But I will go out on a limb and say just because it’s indie doesn’t mean it’s automatically better.
Now, as someone who has never read Scott Pilgrim, maybe I’m not the best person to be critical of the movie adaptation. I can certainly understand someone who has never read an issue of Iron Man looking at me with skepticism.
But here’s the thing… When the FIRST trailer for Scott Pilgrim came out, I felt it was trading heavily on that “Hey, geeks! You know that thing you love? WE MADE A MOVIE OUT OF IT!” mentality. There wasn’t anything specifically about the first trailer that made someone like me – someone who is not ALREADY indoctrinated into the cult of Scott Pilgrim – excited to see the film.
The second trailer fine-tunes things a little bit. I feel like it’s been put together much more effectively. But there’s still so much of that mid-90’s digital hipster smarm dripping from that thing, the Old Curmudgeon in me kind of curls his lip at it.
Say what you want about Iron Man. But the first trailer made you want to see the movie.
Anyway, like I said, I’m still going to see Scott Pilgrim when it comes out because I like the look of it. All I’m saying is that I’m a little skeptical based on the effectiveness of the first two trailers.
Maybe it’s because I know a lot of people in comics, the feel like this is a victory for them – seeing something like Scott Pilgrim on the big screen. Maybe they’re pre-disposed to thinking it’s awesome just like I was pre-disposed to thinking Iron Man would be awesome.
Maybe I should just shut up and read the books. Maybe then I’ll understand what the fuss is about.
But my point is… I shouldn’t have to read the books first.
The strength of the material should already be evident in the trailers. Maybe that’s because they were cut together poorly. But I’m just not seeing it yet.
What do you guys think? Is there anyone else out there confused by the hype surrounding Scott Pilgrim? Everyone I’ve talked to is basically screaming at me to read the books, but I’m dragging my heels. Am I wrong? Leave your comments below and let’s get the conversation started!
As you may have noticed, I’ve advanced the timeline of the story by four months. If you remember, it was January when this whole thing started. People were wearing coats! Time to bring everything up to speed.
What happened in those missing 4 months? Not much. Jimmy and Charlie went on a few dates. Tom and Cami caught up on Mad Men using Netflix streaming. I think Truman found a bone, or something? Trust me, you didn’t miss much.
I knew I had to advance the timeline to accommodate the inevitable comics I’ll be doing about The Avengers. But there was an ancillary experience I had at C2E2 in Chicago a couple of weeks ago that inspired today’s comic and, well… here’s the story.
So, after driving all morning, I pulled into the McCormick Center pretty much right as the doors were opening to the public at 1:00 PM. That made load-in a little stressful, but I got set up fairly quickly.
After getting settled, meeting a few fans and drawing a few sketches, word started getting back to me that no other than Shia LaBeouf was at the convention!
This isn’t a huge deal. Celebrities come to conventions all the time. He was probably speaking on a panel or something, right?
WRONG. He’s was in Artist Alley. Apparently he was there to promote a comic that he had worked on.
Everyone I talked to about Shia’s appearance that afternoon had the same initial reaction that I did. “Bullsh*t!” So I scoured Twitter for confirmation and specifics.
It didn’t take long before people confirmed that Shia was in attendance. Several people had tweeted photos they had taken with him. An opportunity had presented itself. I had to go meet him. But where WAS he?
Eventually I learned that he was in Artist Alley, table O22.
For some perspective, I was at table O2.
You know that scene from When A Stranger Calls when the police office tells the babysitter “The calls are coming from inside the house!” Yeah. It felt like that.
So I knew it was now or never. I had to get a picture with the guy. Readers of this comic know my feelings about Shia LaBeouf, if I punk out now, I’d never live it down. So I start walking down the aisle.
As I approach the end of the aisle, I see a huge line near the tables. I immediately assume it was for Shia, but quickly realize that George Pérez was at the table right next to him doing commissioned sketches and the line was for him.
And if you don’t know who George Pérez is, then I strongly recommend you read more comics.
Anyway, no one was in line to see Shia, so I walked right up to him to say hello.
“Hi, there,” I said. “I don’t mean to bother you, but I was wondering if I could get a quick picture with you?”
LaBeouf was more than gracious. “Sure!” he said. As I leaned back over the table to get in the shot with him, he put out his hand and said “Bring it in here,” to go for the bro shake. And that’s why I look a little more awkward than usual in this photo…
I know it’s a little blurry and I know that Shia’s face is obscured a little bit by his hat a little bit, but that’s him.
It was over pretty quickly. I thanked him for his time, shook his hand and told him to have a good show. In retrospect, I probably should have bought one of his books, but I seriously didn’t have a game plan before walking up to the guy. I knew if I thought about it for too long, I’d lose my nerve. So I swooped in there to get my photo trophy and swooped out.
Back at my table, panic started to settle in a little bit because I realized that my banner was promoting some mild anti-Shia sentiment on it…
I wouldn’t have thought twice about it except that he was in the SAME ROW that I was. What if he walked by it and saw it? What if he approached me about it and commented on it. He’s punched people for less, you know!
I tweeted my concerns about the banner and several of my follower suggested that I take it down to him and have him sign it.
While I can’t deny that would have been unbelievably cool, I couldn’t envision a scenario where I could approach the guy and NOT come off like a complete jerk.
“Excuse me, Mr. LaBeouf? Yeah, I just got my picture taken with you – No, I didn’t buy one of your comics – and I’m exhibiting just up the aisle from you a little way. I was wondering if you would sign my banner? Y’see, my comic is about movies and I regularly make comics about how much I think you suck. Oh! You drew a penis on my main character’s forehead! Ha, ha, ha! Delightful! Thank you very much for your time, Mr. LaBeouf.”
So, no. I didn’t get Shia LaBeouf to sign my banner. I thought it best to let sleeping dogs lie.
For the rest of the weekend, people kept talking to me about Shia LaBeouf. Often I would take out my phone and show them the picture I took with him. Incidentally, I heard from someone who was standing in line to speak with him a story about another con-goer that asked him to draw a sketch of Megan Fox naked. LaBeouf gave him a dirty look and slapped together a quick stick figure before telling him to take off. I actually thought that was kind of cool.
I guess he was only there on Friday and didn’t come back Saturday or Sunday. But, honestly, could you expect him to?
So… what do we do with this experience?
I’ve taken lots of shots at LaBeouf over the years. Mostly it was for fun. After I decided Jared didn’t hate Ben Affleck anymore, the comic needed a new straw man and LaBeouf was an easy target.
Did I ever truly hate LaBeouf? No, I can’t say that I ever gave him that much thought. But a lot of other people really seemed to hate him and I felt like I kind of taped into that. But – and here’s what everyone gets wrong – it’s not how I really felt about the guy. I took my moderate dislike of him as an actor and amplified it for the sake of the comic. After that, it became it’s own thing. Was it exploitative? Sure. Do I regret it? Well, yeah. I do.
It’s easy to forget that these actors are people. We build them up and we tear them down. We do it because it’s fun. I’m guilty of it and I’ve also been victim to it. It’s just how things are.
But I have to give LaBeouf credit for showing up to promote his comic on Artist Alley the way he did. He didn’t use his celebrity to pull strings or get preferential treatment. He met with fans, put in the time and promoted his book just like anyone else. I can’t fault him for that.
Are his comics any good? Critical consensus says “No.” But I don’t think that accounts for much. Have you ever been to an Artist Alley at a large comic book convention? It’s just like anything else. You’ll see some amazing stuff and you’ll see some real crap. Shia’s comics maybe aren’t my cuppa tea, but I’ve seen worse. MUCH worse. And those guys NEVER get reviewed. So let’s keep it in perspective.
As for Theater Hopper… well you saw how that played out in the comic.
Everything about this last arc is about evolving the characters – even if it’s only by a fraction – so that when it’s all said and done, you know that everyone is “okay.”
It didn’t seem fair to me to advance Charlie and Jimmy’s relationship or put Tom and Cami on the path to parenthood without giving Jared the opportunity to grow a little as well.
Even if “Movie Jumpers” looks totally lame.
Anyway, that’s where we are today and that’s my Shia LaBeouf story. I seriously can’t believe I’m leaving comics behind. Because I sure as hell wouldn’t have a story like that to tell without ’em.
Keep checking the site. I’ve got Avengers comics comic up soon…
…and the return of CARDBOARD IRON MAN.