So instead of doing a “cast photo” like I hinted at on Wednesday, I couldn’t resist trying to tie a bow on this arc by explaining Victor’s actions and his new, “no costume” policy.
However, now I’m afraid that I’ve created more questions than I’ve answered by introducing Victor’s formal rival, Burian.
Who is Burian? What is his history with Victor? The world may never know.
But if you’re curious, Burian is Ukranian for “Near The Woods” or “God’s Child.” At least, according to this web site it is. So, as you can see, I’ve done a little research. That counts as an investment in the character, doesn’t it?
All I know is that Furry Vengeance is a ridiculous movie title and I couldn’t let it go without commenting on it somehow.
Seriously, is anyone watching out for Brenden Fraser these days? It’s one misfire after another with this guy. Extreme Measure didn’t do so hot and it had HARRISON-FRIGGIN-FORD in it. Fraser is like box office kryptonite. If he’s in a movie, I don’t want to see it.
I mean, I thought this little stunt from the Golden Globes earlier this year was embarassing…
…but to attach your name to a movie called FURRY VENGEANCE?… Brenden, take your meds.
That’s it for me today. Also, I haven’t forgotten the Iron Man 2 review I promised you. It’s still sitting on my desktop, half-written. I just haven’t had an opportunity to finish it yet. Hopefully I will soon. But now that the movie has been out for two weeks, I guess it’s a little anti-climactic.
Oh, well. I want it to be “on-the-record,” so I’ll get around to publishing it soon. Thanks for your patience on that one.
BTW – Anyone seeing MacGruber this weekend? I’m really excited to see it. I think it looks hilarious. I know Will Forte isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I think he’s probably one of the most undervalued performers on Saturday Night Live. I’m really curious how they’ve managed to stretch out a :30 second sketch into a full-length movie. I think sending up 80s action movies and asking all of the other performers to treat it completely seriously is the exact right way to go about it.
If you have dreams of making life-saving inventions out of household materials, leave your comments below.
Or maybe you want to talk about Furries and Ukranian baby names. I don’t know. HAVE AT IT!
So, here it is. This is the artwork I was threatening to do a week ago. A nice little cast portrait to commemorate my Iron Man 2 storyline. Apologies for the lack of color, but I think it looks better in black and white.
Yeah, I know it kind of ended with a thud. But I’m really proud of about 95% of it and thought it was worth celebrating. Goodness knows I burned up a lot of midnight oil putting it together for you guys.
As a special treat, I filmed myself drawing the artwork last night and sped it up for you in this delightful little YouTube video:
If you find that exciting, then I have even BETTER news for you!
I have decided to auction off the original inked illustration you see in the video on eBay. You can find it here. It’s on a 9 x 12″ sheet of Bristol board with a 1″ border (so you can frame it if you want to!) I will make sure to mail it flat.
Bidding starts now and the auction will remain open for the next 5 days. I don’t sell original artwork all that often, so if you’re looking for a one-of-a-kind piece from yours truly, now is the time to snap it up!
Now if I can get serious for a moment…
I went to this extra effort with the video and the auction because I’m afraid I have some bad news and I wanted to let you guys down gently. There isn’t a good way to say it other than to just come right out and say it…
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, I WILL BE SCALING BACK PRODUCTION OF THEATER HOPPER TO ONE DAY A WEEK.
This decision was a hard one for me but, ultimately, necessary. With the end of the Iron Man 2 story line, now seemed like the best time to make a change.
The primary motivation behind this cutback is actually very positive. A year after having been laid off, I have finally found full-time employment again! I start work in June and am very much looking forward to the opportunity.
But, as such, I recognize that I cannot continue to dedicate myself to Theater Hopper on a thrice-weekly schedule. The late nights spent staying up past midnight working on the comic have caught up with me. I don’t bounce back like I used to when I was 24 years-old and just starting the comic. Add to the mix two children with irregular sleeping schedules and, well, the end result is that I’m not 100% like I should be.
There’s been a lot that I’ve sacrificed for Theater Hopper. Primarily sleep. But my health, my attitude and my availability to my family have all suffered as a consequence. I don’t blame anyone by myself for these choices. But, at some point, one has to recognize when enough is enough. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to be effective in all the areas I need to be effective in.
Part of me wondered if it was better to end the comic completely. But I didn’t want to do a disservice to you, the fans, for supporting me. Nor did I want to perform a disservice to myself and the investment that I’ve made over the last 8 years.
Eventually, Theater Hopper will have to end – as all things do. But when it does, I want to make sure it goes out on a high note with a story that satisfies the long-term readers and appreciates them for their kindness and encouragement.
Until then, it will be business as usual content-wise. I’ll continue to make fun of the latest releases, just not as often. I’ll probably be playing around with the format a little until I strike the right balance. But from now on, you can expect a new comic here every Monday morning.
To aid the transition, I encourage you to follow Theater Hopper’s RSS feed. I also encourage to to follow Theater Hopper on Facebook and my personal account on Twitter. They will be the best places for you to receive news and updates as well as links to the most recent comics.
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them either here in the comments section or in the THorum. If you’re not comfortable with that, e-mails are okay, too.
This is a large adjustment for me, as I’m sure it will be for you. I will miss updating the comic three times a week. But, in the end, I know that this is the decision that will benefit me and my family most. At this point, it’s all about realigning my priorities. I will always enjoy producing the comic and interacting with the fans. But my family, my livelihood and my personal health must come first.
As the excellent, supportive and understanding audience you have always been, I know you will appreciate my reasons.
Again, I thank you. You have been much more kind to me than I deserve.
It’s been a little while since we last talked. Two and a half weeks, to be exact.
Let me tell you what happened.
On Monday, October 24, I posted my comic about Halloween and social media-themed horror costumes. The very next day, my family and I went on a little vacation. Where’d we go? Walt Disney World! It was Henry’s first trip out of state and – as you can imagine – it was a pretty big deal.
We had a great time going on all the rides and doing all the touristy stuff. Coming back to reality, however, proved a little more difficult.
We came back on Sunday, October 30 – which also happens to be our town’s night for trick or treating. I know, I know. Halloween is on the 31st. But around here, they do trick or treating the day before. It’s a regional tradition that started in the 1930s by women’s magazines as an anti-vandalism campaign and it just kind of stuck.
The point is, that morning, we were up at 4:00 AM EST to make our flight, we got off the plane at 2:00 PM CST and we basically had very little time before we suited up in our Halloween costumes to canvas the neighborhood for free candy that evening.
Naturally, everyone was exhausted and we were in bed by 8:00 PM that evening. That explains why there was no new comic on Monday, October 31.
NOW… should I have anticipated this and created a comic in advance for the 31st? Yes, I should have.
Could I have tried to play catch up that week and produce a comic for Wednesday or Thursday. Yes, I could have.
Neither of those things happened.
You know how it is with vacations – especially if you work a full time job. You go away for a while to decompress and you come back more stressed out than ever trying to play catch up with the life you put on hold.
That’s what happened to me, so I decided to take a mulligan on last week’s comic.
Fast forward to this week… why no comic on Monday? Well, the story is a little less dramatic but basically it involved some personal matters that needed to be attended to over the weekend. I was planning to finish the comic Monday night and post it Tuesday morning, but instead I got a call from a friend who was in town and I hadn’t seen in 10 years. He wanted to grab a drink and catch up. I mean, the dude was in my wedding. I couldn’t really say “no.” So Monday night kind of got thrown out the window.
Anyway, that brings us to the present. I worked on the comic last night and here it is.
Shamefully, I can’t take full credit. My good buddy Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey gave me the idea to dress Tom up like a woman for this comic. But the suspicion surrounding Tom’s choice was all mine.
Looking at the trailer for Jack and Jill, I think Adam Sandler is pretty much daring us to hate him completely now. Either that, or he’s so insulated by money that he doesn’t care. It basically looks like the kind of low-rent movie Sandler’s cynical Hollywood comedian character from Funny People would star in. In fact, the first time I saw this trailer, I thought it was a striaght up parody.
I’m a Sandler fan, to some degree. I’ve probably seen more of his movies than I care to admit. But it’s clear from the outset that Jack and Jill is a one-joke premise and, frankly, there’s not very much that’s charming about a 45 year-old man running around in drag.
To me, Jack and Jill looks about as desperate as Eddie Murphy in Norbit or Martin Lawrence in Big Momma’s House 2.
Actually, when I think about it, Jack and Jill is worse.
With Murphy and Lawrence, you could at least argue that they’re trying to create distinctive characters. With Jack and Jill, it’s pretty much Sandler running around in a wig, delivering lines in a pinched-off voice. No one is really going to look at Sandler and give him credit for his character work. He’s basically been playing the same characters since his days at SNL. Keep in mind, this is the man who created “About To Sneeze Man” as a cheap Halloween costume idea on Weekend Update.
I wanted my comic to be more of a take-down piece of Jack and Jill, but I realized that disparaging the movie was not unlike beating a dead horse with a barrel of fish recently shot at.
Man, I seriously can’t wait until The Muppets comes out and rescues us from this nightmare.
Anyway, that’s all I have for you on the comic/movie front. But I did want to share one last thing with you as a kind of reward for being so patient the last two and half weeks.
You remember that I said that the family and I went to Walt Disney World, right? Well, they have this event at the Magic Kingdom on select nights called Mickey’s Not-So-Scary-Halloween Party. They have a specially themed parade and fireworks and you get to run around the park trick-or-treating and collecting candy at all the attractions.
They encourage you to dress us, so we did.
I enjoy dressing up with my kids for Halloween only because I like to think that it makes things a little more special for them. I want to demonstrate to them that it’s okay to have fun and be silly. That said, I was a little nervous about walking around Magic Kingdom dressed up like Thor. It didn’t occur to me until we were on the bus on our way to the park, “What if I’m the only adult in costume?”
I’m pleased to report that’s not the case. There were several adults in costumes and I received many compliments and high-fives.
Incidentally, I take my cues from Henry when it comes to costume choices. Last year, he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear. So I dressed up as Woody. This year, he wanted to be Captain America. So it was only natural that I go as Thor. They’re best buddies! “Avengers Assemble!” and whatnot.
Plus, now I have my very on Mjölnir. That’s something you can enjoy year-round.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the photo. Sorry again about the delay. Incidentally, when I’m off-schedule like this, it might be beneficial for you to subscribe to Theater Hopper by e-mail.
WAAAAAYYYY back at the top of the page, there’s a form field where you can input your e-mail address. When the site updates, you’ll receive automatic notification. It’s very handy when I flake out. But I promise to better next week.
Since I haven’t updated for a while, I’d sincerely appreciate it if you used the ShareThis application below to let people know that there is a new Theater Hopper comic up on the site. Facebook it, Google+ is, Twitter that bad boy… whatever your comfortable with. You guys have been doing a great job spreading the word and it really helps. C’mon… It only takes a second, right?
Thanks again and have a great week!