Posts Tagged ‘Hillbilly Jeff’
3 items.
Apr16
I’m going to take a minute to pat myself on the back because I think there’s a fair bit of emotion and “acting” going on in the illustration of today’s strip that I’m proud of.
* pat, pat *
Vacancy comes out this weekend and I am very much creeped out by the premise of a backwoods motel that traps two stranded travelers in a web of murder. I don’t need it compounded with the twist that the couple happens upon a video tape that recorded a murder that took place in their very room OR by the idea that the entire motel is wired with video cameras and creepy hillbillies are watching their every move before they slit their throats.
I’ll be staying at Best Western’s from now on.
The fact that the movie stars Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsdale makes me wonder if the lead characters are really in any danger. Seems reckless to kill off the only two people in the movie audience care to see. Reckless or artistically stunning. After all, Hitchcock killed off Janet Leigh in the first 30 minutes of Psycho and no one saw it coming.
Of course, these days, studios don’t take risks like that. And Vacancy’s director Nimród Antal… is no Hitchcock.
It would be interesting to me if there was some kind of Twilight Zone twist in Vacancy. Maybe the who murder-on-videotape and chasing the couple around the motel thing is just a way for the rednecks to have a little fun with the two lead characters. Maybe teach them something valuable about life before letting them go along their way. At least… I HOPE there’s a twist like that. Otherwise, to me, it looks like a paint-by-numbers slasher. We’ll see.
Quick question…. What do you guys think about Hillbilly Jeff? Do you like him? Because I’m thinking about doing two more strips that feature him. We already have a Scurvy Joe in the Theater Hopper universe. But the fact that Hillbilly Jeff just kind of materialized our of the ether makes me wonder what his back story is. If you’re curious yourself, let me know in the comments…
Big new regarding tonight’s episode of The Triple Feature and you’re not going to want to miss it!
Tonight Gordon, Joe and myself will be interviewing none other than JoBlo himself!
If you’re not familiar with JoBlo or his fantastic movie review and news web site JoBlo.com, then you’r missing out. It’s a great resource for movie fans, fun to read and informative as all get out. We were lucky enough to get JoBlo on the show and we want to make sure we have a TON of listeners. So be sure to check out The Triple Feature talkcast page over at TalkShoe tonight at 9:00 CST. Log in and leave your questions! We’ll be asking JoBlo all sorts of stuff! If you want to leave your questions in the comments here on the site, that’ll work, too. But whatever you do, DON’T MISS TONIGHT’S SHOW! It’s going to be great!
Okay, fine. You need another reason to check out the show tonight? How about another DVD giveaway?
The good people at Bunea Vista Home Entertainment have hooked us up with a few giveaway copies of the Denzel Washington movie Deja Vu. Washington play an ATF agent who travels back into the recent past to save the life a woman murdered in the present. If you guys saw this in the theater, you know it was intense! Of course, what do you expect from Tony Scott – the guy who directed Man on Fire and True Romance? This is high-action, folks. You won’t want to miss your chance to win.
All you have to do is listen to tonight’s Triple Feature broadcast either live or downloaded later. Wait until the end of the show when one half of a clue will be read. Come back to Theater Hopper this Wednesday for the other half of the clue. Send your name, age and mailing address along with the clue to theaterhopper@hotmail.com with “DEJA VU” in the subject line and you’ll be entered to win. Easy, right?
To learn more about the contest rules and Deja Vu, click here. If you guys want to check out a trailer for the movie, I’ve got one of those as well. Just click here. Deja Vu will be available on DVD Tuesday, April 24.
So, there you have it – a big name interview and an opportunity to win some free stuff? What more can you want! Remember – The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST! Be there!
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I’ve pretty much abandoned movie commentary for the week. Hillbilly Jeff seems to have struck a nerve with the readership, so I’ve committed myself to telling his story. As to exactly why Tom needs someone to watch him while showering?… Well, the world may never know.
If you missed The Triple Feature talkcast on Monday night, you missed a doozie. If I were you, I would download it right away. We interviewed JoBlo from JoBlo.com and it went great! We got into a really good discussion about the nature of online journalism, objectivity, web site management and standards. Good stuff, really. My thanks once again to JoBlo for taking the time to speak with us. This was easily one of my favorite broadcasts.
Another reason you should download Monday’s show is because we’re giving away free copies of the Denzel Washington movie Deja Vu which is coming out on DVD next week, Tuesday, April 24. The first half of the two part clue was given at the end of Monday’s show. Now is the time in the blog where I give you the second half.
The second half of the clue is “OUT”.
So all you need to do is combine the two clues and send them to me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com along with your name, age and mailing address and you’ll be eligible for the random drawing!
I spent Tuesday home from work. I took a sick day, which is something I never do. Today we have a big meeting that I have to take photos for and if I was under the weather, it would have really put my department in a tight spot. So, instead of going to work sick like I usually do, I stayed home and recovered.
I felt totally useless, though because I couldn’t do anything to help Cami with Henry. I didn’t want to touch him and get him sick. Henry is actually going in for his first round of shots today at the pediatrician, so it would have been really lame if he had gotten sick the day before.
I rarely ever take sick days because I’m typically in denial about any illness I may succumb to. I don’t know why, but for the first part of the morning Tuesday, I had it in my head that I was doing the right thing by preventing those at work from getting sick and that I wasn’t sick myself. For some reason I thought I would be able to get a lot of work done while I was home. Maybe even get ahead on some of the comics!
Of course, I am a moron. Between slipping in and out of consciousness for most of the day, I was barely able to get this comic done. Oh, well.
I started feeling better around 6:00 or 7:00 last night, so Cami and I sat down to watch Smokin’ Aces, which had just come out on DVD and the good people at Universal decided to send me a copy of. I think when the movie first came out, I slagged it for trying to be a Pulp Fiction clone. In hindsight, I didn’t know what I was talking about. I was really attacking more how the film was being marketed and not the film itself.
While Smokin’ Aces certainly has it’s own kinetic style, it’s not a Pulp Fiction clone. It’s actually a little bit more comedic than I expected and there are a fistful of cameos in this thing.
I still think I made the right decision to skip it when it was in the theater, but this thing plays great on the small screen. The DVD extras were pretty cool, too. There’s a whole piece on the stunt work, which rarely is highlighted these days. So that was nice to see.
If you’re looking for a fun rental this weekend, I strongly suggest Smokin’ Aces. If you’re looking to kill a little time until then, check out this game – the Smokin Aces Card Killer Game. I found it an interesting diversion.
That about does it for me. I’ll talk to you guys soon!
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I wish I could figure out what you guys found so endlessly fascinating about Hillbilly Jeff. If I could bottle it up and sell it, I would! You guys encouraged me to take what was otherwise a throw away character and devote an entire week to his development. I don’t know that we’ve learned anything more about Jeff, exactly. Well, except that he appears to live in an outhouse. But it was a fun journey all the same, wasn’t it? I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a real treat to read your comments this week and egg me on with your theories about Jeff’s activities and Tom’s dependency on them. Since there’s not much movie-wise to talk about this weekend, it was a nice little break.
Really, there’s nothing on my radar until Spider-Man 3 comes out on May 4. The only high-profile movie between now and then is Nicholas Cage in Next and that holds no interest for me. Can someone please explain to me his increasingly bizarre choices in wigs these days?
I’ve got my comic for Next in the can, but beyond that, I don’t know what movies I’m going to cover next week. I hope I don’t end up burnt out, truthfully. I’m participating in the 24 Hour Comic Challenge this weekend, so it’s very possible I might be completely tapped for ideas when it’s all over!
I ended up deciding on doing a personal story about Cami, myself and Henry’s introduction to the work for my 24 Hour Comic Challenge project. It will be something personal that Henry can look back on someday. I just hope that I can keep the quality consistent enough where he doesn’t look at it and say "You were a semi-professional cartoonist for 5 years? It shows, old man!" before he immolates it with his ray gun. I’m calling it simply "2006" because that really sums it up. 2006 was a turning point year for the two of us. We made a lot of big decisions, a lot of cool things happened to us and we ushered in 2007 with a new baby boy. It doesn’t get much better than that and I want to celebrate it.
There will be some exposition stuff. I’ll talk a little bit about how Cami and I came together as a couple and why we waited 7 years to start trying to concieve. I don’t want to make it sound more dramatic than it is. We were basically selfish. There were things in our lives we wanted to do first and that’s what the first act will probably be about. The second act, of course, will be the pregnancy. The third act, the birth.
I have all of this in my head right now. At some point, I need to sit down and type an outline. Otherwise, I’m going to be totally lost once we start working on hour 18 of the competition. I’ll need a road map and pleanty of references. I told Cami I would probably be calling her a lot on my cell phone to make sure I have dates and stuff right.
It’s my fantasy to turn this into a mini-book that I could sell on the site for cheap. Probably no more than $5 depending on the quality. I might give it the full-color treatment and take it to Comixpress and have it printed up proper. Or I might keep it in black and white and make Xerox copies that I staple together myself. Y’know, INDIE STYLE!
What do you guys think? Is that something that interests you? Is it something you would buy?
That’s all for the week. Thanks again for all the encouragement on the Hillbilly Jeff arc. I don’t know when he’ll be back again, but it may be sooner than you think!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
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