I took some advice on how to adjust the CSS that runs the site from the comments section of yesterday’s blog. I’m telling you, I’m in love with this new feature! The instant feedback is great and so helpful!

I believe these suggestions have cleared up the problems people were having with the horizontal scroll bar that shouldn’t be there. Some people were sending messages saying that about an inch of the left side of the site was being cut off completely.

Are things better now? Let me know in the comments!

Since Dave was good enough to introduce the fancy blog commenting system, I thought I would take this opportunity to utlize it for a little feedback.

You guys might remember a while back when I was trying to develop some new shirt designs for the store. As per usual, the design phase takes me for friggin’ ever because I’ll design, redesign, doubt myself and then hang it up. The reason for this is because you kind of have to have momentum in order to produce these things and it’s a bit of a tightrope walk to keep the right amount of inventory in stock. I feel like I kind of have a good thing going on with the handful of designs I’m currently offering. But at the same time, I’m kind of bored with it and it’s time to branch out.

This time I think I’ve got something on my hands. Something that you will like. It’s a refinement of the "Opening Weekend Junkie"  concept I was floating around before. I have a few variations I would like you to inspect and, when you’re finished, leave your thoughts on the comments page! Easy!

Okay, onto the designs.

1. The first design is pretty literal. Not too far from the first few drafts with the exception of a TORN ticket instead of a ticket coming out of a dispenser;

2. For the second draft, I thought to myself, "If I were really a junkie, my fonts wouldn’t be so need and orderly." So I tried making things a little more askew;

3. Pushing the askew concept a little more. Throwing the fonts around at different sizes and angles;

4. At this point I started to really appreciate the simplicity of the torn ticket and thought about paring back the message a little bit. Showing a torn ticket and simply stating "junkie." pretty much gets across the same idea without throwing in the "Opening Weekend" prefix. Also, what if you’re schedule is too busy to afford you the luxury of seeing movies on their opening weekend? At least this way, you can say you’re a movie junkie in the general sense.

5. Simpifying further, I thought to myself "Maybe it doesn’t need any text at all! Yes… the design is THAT strong." Ah, hubris.

Those are pretty much the designs to choose from. For those of you who want to see the ticket stub in more detail, you can click here.

So, what do you think. Which of these designs would you wear if any?

Be gentle. Remember what I told you about the second-guessing?

I’ve been getting some great feedback from people about this latest arc. Thanks for taking the time out to shoot me an e-mail, guys!

If you could link today’s comic through whichever social bookmarking site you prefer, that would be great way to help bring a little attention to this arc and a high note to head into the weekend on!

I appreciate it!

I’m trying something a little different for the new year and am testing out in-test ads on the site. You’ll notice them as double-underlined green links in the blog posts.

I’m trying to keep them very relative to the theme of the site. So you’ll see words like “film,” “movies” and whatnot highlighted.

I’m kind of on the fence about in-text ads in terms of how intrusive they are. Part of me doesn’t like that it randomly places emphasis on my words and I have concerns that it is deceptive in a way that traditional banner advertisements are not.

But, at the same time, I reduced the number of ads appearing on the site in the redesign in an effort to maximize space for content – and I need to make up the difference somewhere.

I’m not saying the in-text ads are the solution. They’re just something I’m trying. If you have thoughts you’d like to share, please feel free to do so in the comments.

Thanks.

So I just got a new web cam after going a few years without. For the most part, it’ll be handing when I want to take a quick snapshot to update my Facebook profile with.

But I also got the cam with the idea to start streaming video of me working on the comic three nights a week through Ustream. Not just because all the popular web comic artists are doing it, but because I think it’ll be a good way to keep me honest, focused and working on the comic instead of staying up until 2 in the morning screwing around on Facebook (see the vicious cycle?)

Anyway, I just found out that in order to stream what’s on my desktop, I need to buy a program called WebCamMax and I kind of bristle at the idea of having to shell out more money without totally knowing what I’m getting into.

Who among you follow the streams of other web comic artists? What do you like about it? If Theater Hopper were to have it’s own stream where you can watch me work on the comic and maybe fire off a question or two in chat field, would you check it out?

Just trying to measure interest a little bit.

Yesterday afternoon it was cold and crummy outside and everyone in the house was asleep taking an afternoon nap.

I, on the other hand, am incapable of sleep. So I decided to whip up a quick t-shirt design and wanted to get your thoughts on it. You probably recognize the logo.

It’s the logo that appears on Eve’s chest when she acquires the plant in Wall-E.

I made it for a couple of reasons. One, because I just like the design. It’s simple and effective. Two, because I looked everywhere online for a similar shirt and couldn’t find one. So I thought, “I should make one for myself. If there’s enough interest, I’ll sell them on the site.”

So what do you think? Do I have any kindred spirits out there? Do you like the larger design that puts the logo in the center of the chest or the smaller design that is off-center and placed on the chest similar to where it was on Eve? What about shirt color?

White like Eve or black (because I know that black is the best-selling t-shirt color on the planet)?

Leave your me your feedback! I’m curious to find out what you think!

It’s been kind of interesting to read the reaction to today’s strip. People have been leaving comments here and over at my Twitter account about what mythical or pop culture combatants they’d like to see in the free-for-all.

Vikings, pirates, astronauts, zombies, cavemen, vampires, Chuck Norris, The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man… I’ve heard ‘em all!

The idea was floated around that I draw it and sell a print. I think it sounds like a good idea, but I keep thinking I’ve seen something like that before. In fact, after rummaging through the ol’ memory banks, I remember Young American Comics produced an anthology a few years ago called The Big Ol’ Book of BIZMAR – 75 stories combining Bunnies, Insects, Zombies, Monkeys, Aliens and Robots. I remember because a few of my friends contributed to it.

Certainly no one owns the rights to these kind of mash-ups. But I don’t want to pour a lot of effort into something that’s already been done.

What do you think? Would you like to see an original art piece from me featuring all of your favorite pop culture heroes and villains duking it out?

Leave your comments and suggestions for additional fighters below!

Does anyone out there have any experience writing code for RSS through WordPress? I wanted to make a change to how the comic displays through the RSS feed and I need someone to double-check my coding before I attempt to put it into production and screw everything up.

If you have any experience in this regard, please contact me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com or leave your comments below.

Something I’ve found very interesting since instituting it last week are the comic ranking results that are being returned for the individual strips.

I know a lot of comic creators who don’t feel comfortable opening up their work to this kind of scrutiny, but I appreciate it because it let’s me know how you guys feel in an environment where you might otherwise be uncomfortable telling me directly.

For instance, Monday’s comic about how they changed Cyclops’s optic blasts in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It’s the highest ranked comic on the site with the 3rd largest number of votes. That tells me a lot, so I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been voting.

Incidentally, if Monday’s comic was something you enjoyed, feel free to share it with others by using the ShareThis application that’s linked directly above the voting tool.

And if you’re interested to see how some of the other comics stack up, I’ve created a ratings page that shows you the 25 most popular comics, the 10 least popular comics and the 10 comics with the most votes.

If you think a comic is being represented either fairly or unfairly, feel free to vote and change things! The more people who vote, the more valuable the ratings become!

Thanks again!

I just wanted to collect some feedback on something site-related I’m toying with.

Under the comic, there is a link to the ShareThis! application that, on rollover, reveals dozens of links to different social bookmarking sites.

The other day I stumbled onto the Sociable plugin and really liked the way that it displayed the icons of the social bookmarking sites I choose.

My main problem with their plugin is the coding. Specifically the CSS. I want to put text around it to kind of explain what all these little images are doing there (“Bookmark this comic!”) but the way the code is written, it won’t let me.

At this point, I’m afraid I’m overthinking it.

So let me as you this: Does there need to be any text on the page explaining what those icons are for? Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit and the like? Or is it safe to assume that if people see those icons and the like the comic enough to bookmark it, they will?

I’m trying to get a sense of how you guys use these social bookmarking plugins (if it all) because I want to make it as easy for you as possible to help share Theater Hopper with others.

Right now I have a sneaking suspicion that the ShareThis! plugin I’m currently using is forcing you to jump through hoops by clicking on the link, then hunting for the social bookmarking service you want versus seeing the icon for that service front and center, clicking on it and getting it done.

What do you think? I could really use your perspective.