Posts Tagged ‘fireworks’
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As part of this holiday weekend, today’s incentive sketch is an image of Jared wishing you and yours a very happy AND SAFE Fourth of July. Click here to view it!
In case you’re wondering what product I’m referencing in today’s comic, you can find information about it here. This isn’t the first time that the Theater Hopper crew has suffered injury caused by carefully marketed comic book movie licensed merchandise. And if you forgot, here’s a refresher.
Does everyone remember back in the day when Silly String used to be flammable? I know you’ve all seen that footage from America’s Funniest Home Videos where some dude is about to blow out the candles on his birthday cake just before someone unleashes a wad of Silly String in his face when his lips are inches from the flames. The dude lights up like a stack of dry twigs.
I guess these days the makers of Silly String learned it’s a good idea not to physically scar people for life and went ahead and made their product non-flammable. I was at least hoping to find a video of that footage somewhere so I could link to it. Oh, well.
Wanna talk about Spider Man for a minute? I know I do!
So Cami and I saw the sequel opening night and I couldn’t have been more excited. I’ll spare you the full-length review because I think everyone should go out and see this movie with fresh eyes, if possible – but I enjoyed it immensely!
You can tell that Raimi and company really settled into a groove on this one. The action sequences are very fluid and astounding. And for fans, there are tons of small references to the comics littered all over the place.
“Hey? Is that Dr. Conners, AKA ‘The Lizard?’ And isn’t that shot a recreation from the classic cover to Amazing Spider-Man #50?”
Oh, yeah. You comic book fans are going to love this one!
Just as the first movie was able to do, Spider-Man 2 is peppered with several great scenes. After losing his powers and landing on a rooftop, Spidey has to ride the elevator down to street level and has an uncomfortable conversation with the individual he’s riding down with! And when Doc Ock’s tentacles first spring to life, it’s truly a terrifying moment! (Be sure to keep an eye out for the Evil Dead reference).
I like how the story allowed for the secondary characters to breath a little more. Aunt May, Harry Osborne and J. Jonah Jameson all have a chance to really expand their range.
Of course it’s Tobey Maguire who sells it as Peter Parker and his alter ego. He perfectly captures the conflict and guilt he suffers trying to balance his two lives. The scene where he admits responsibility for his Uncle Ben’s death to Aunt May is heartbreaking and the core of the movie.
I don’t often see the same movies twice while they’re in theaters. At least not anymore. Even though I love the first movie, I only saw it once before buying it on DVD.
The sequel is everything I could have hoped for and more. MUCH better than the original, it improves upon it’s formula in nearly every category. Don’t be surprised if you see me standing in line to watch it again this weekend!
That’s it for now. For all my American readers, have a safe and happy Fourth of July! See you here on Monday!
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Was it silly of Cami to refuse that woman’s reward? Probably not. But it sure would have come in handy when Tom and Cami wanted to grab a bite to eat later! If you want to see what I’m talking about, just vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix to see the special incentive sketch.
Real quick, regarding the voting, many thanks to those of you who came back to the site every day to lend your support. You guys did a great job. We didn’t get the top spot, but it looks like we’ve lodged ourselves in a pretty solid third place. I’m happy with that. As such, don’t expect me to bother you about voting for the rest of the month, or at least not as much emphasis on it. I’m positive you guys are probably as tired of me pestering you for votes as I am whittling away a little piece of my integrity every time I do it.
I’ll probably still keep drawing incentive sketches. I think they’re a fun way to show a different facet of the comic by adding a little something extra and I know some of you have come to enjoy them. But don’t expect me to shill and shill and shill for your votes anymore. It’s too exhausting.
To that end, Theater Hopper will go back to its regular Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule next week.
Maybe you noticed, but today marks the occasion of Theater Hopper’s 350th comic. I always get a little reflective around these milestones. I can’t help it. I still marvel that this is something that I do and people come around to check it out and support it.
I don’t have anything particularly insightful to say about it right now, but know that the direction I want to take the comic is at the forefront of my mind. There are things I’ve been doing for too long that need to change. Habits I need to break. I’m not talking about the comic itself, mind you. But rather how I approach the behind-the-scenes stuff. The THorum. The merchandising. The philosophy of the comic’s purpose. Changes need to be made. I’m just not sure what those changes are just yet.
For me, Theater Hopper has been not only about creative expression, but self-improvement. Over the course of nearly two and a half years I’ve struggled to improve the writing, improve the art and improve myself. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it comes off all wrong. But if I’m not trying new things with the comic, the site, the business or how I choose to manage all of them, then we’re not moving forward. If we aren’t moving forward, there’s no point.
Sorry if this is spooking anyone. Milestones. Reflective. You know how it goes. Maybe we should move away from this line of discussion and talk more about the comic and the movie that inspired me this week
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After drawing today’s comic, I realized that I had originally planned on doing a comic about my IMAX experience at Superman Returns. But then, in hindsight, it really would have been more of a rehash of this strip. Basically, the image takes up so much of your field of vision, you can’t hope to see everything at once. During that plane crash where Lois is being tossed around like a rag-doll (seatbelts, people!) you can’t see anything that’s going on. It’s all a blur. So instead of being wowed by the effects, you’re looking for a pause button so your eyes can settle a little bit.
I used to be really annoyed by IMAX films because they are often so short. Like, 40 minutes tops. I think I understand why now. Because anything much longer than that and you risk a neck sprain. At two and a half hours, watching Superman Returns in IMAX was like watching the world’s longest tennis match. I mean, I had an inkling that we might be in for it when the opening title card came up with all that exposition explaining how Superman had been away for five years and you could see everyone in the audience turning their heads from left to right as fast as they could to absorb all the information – laughing nervously all the while. If this movie had subtitles, we would have been screwed.
So, I still have it in my head to check out SR for a second time on a more properly proportioned screen. Only problem is, I don’t know when that will be considering Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest comes out on Friday!
I don’t know if it’s me or if the film’s marketing team is doing a deft job, but Pirates is probably the one movie of the year that I’m most excited for and yet seen little or nothing about it. I’m serious. I just sat down to watch the full trailer maybe a day or two ago. I mean, I get the gist of the plot. Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow owes his soul to a octopus-like sea ghoul Davy Jones played by Bill Nighy. Adventure ensues. I’m there.
But usually this close to a movie’s premire, I’ve soaked myself in the salty brine of advance promotion. I know what all the costumes look like, I’ve read set reports, I’ve seen enough “teaser” clips combined that only 20% of the actual film will be new to me when I see it in the theater… Basically, I ruin things for myself.
But not Pirates. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of it and I think that’s a good thing. I’m really looking forward to Friday. I loved the first film so much. Stands to reason this one should be just as good. Fingers crossed!
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Even though they aren’t explicitly movie-related, I love drawing comics about the 4th of July because I love making fun of the absurdity of Americans.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my country and I understand the significance of the holiday. But as Americans, we have a certain proclivity of abstracting holidays and assigning new meanings to them.
President’s Day has become more about buying cheap linens at JC Penny’s then celebrating George Washington or Abe Lincoln. Memorial Day has become more commonly recognized as the official kick-off of summer rather than a solemn remembrance of those in the Armed Forces. Hell, in this country, the Super Bowl is practically a holiday! The 4th of July has basically become an excuse to celebrate our country by means of blowing up a small chunk of it.
At any rate, I’m cutting this blog short because I was up WAAAAY too late applying effects to today’s comic and my mind is shot. I had planned on posting a review of Public Enemies (which I saw on Wednesday), but that will have to wait.
To tide you over, I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes version – The movie is surprisingly long at 2 and a half hours and it isn’t traditional popcorn fare. If you’re a fan of Johnny Depp, you’ll love the movie. He owns it and pretty much 80% of it features him in some context. It makes sense to me now why Christian Bale wasn’t promoted more in the advertising and trailers. He’s barely in this movie. Similar to how Michael Mann yanked us around in Heat, Depp and Bale have only one scene together and it’s about 2 minutes long. So if you were looking forward to Bale going head-to-head with Depp like he did with Hugh Jackman in The Prestige, prepare to be disappointed.
I have a little bit more to say about the supporting performances and the interesting gangland-era personalities that were mixed into the story. Oh, and the “controversy” of Mann shooting the film with digital video. But I’ll leave that for later. Right now, I have to go to bed. Gotta rest up for Saturday so I can put a crater in my backyard with high explosives!
Everyone in America, enjoy the holiday. For Theater Hopper readers elsewhere in the world, have a great weekend!
Talk to you soon!
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