SPARING YOURSELF FROM GOD’S WRATH WAS NEVER SO EASY!
October 22nd, 2003 | by Tom









(8 votes, average: 8.00 out of 10)
Okay, the dialogue isn’t exact, but if you can accept the liberties Raiders of the Lost Ark takes in regard to protecting yourself from God’s fury, you can accept a little fudging on my end.
I mean, seriously. You can avoid a good ol’ fashioned supernatural face melting simply by not looking at it? That’s kind of like those kids who figured out they could still copy those specially protected music CD’s just by inking some black marker over a portion of the inside rim of the disk…
I’m still a little on my Indiana Jones riff, but you can expect a return to more current film analysis on Friday.
Be sure to check back on the site a little later. I want to discuss a few new options the site has to offer.
GUEST STRIP – JOSH ANDERSON
June 3rd, 2006 | by Tom- Comics »
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(10 votes, average: 5.10 out of 10)
And the guest strips just keep on coming!
What can I say, I figured if I’m out of commisssion, then it’s just good manners to give you as many great guest strips as I can.
Give thanks to Josh Anderson for his contribution. I loved the Indiana Jones reference in the second panel as – in real life – I tend to invoke that quote whenever there is an obstacle that impedes me from doing whatever it is I wanted to do.
Mowing the lawn, for example. "Dandelions. Why’d it have to be dandelions."
I don’t know.
Be sure to check out Josh’s web site L.A.P. Dance Productions. In addition to comics, they have some great digital shorts, reviews and all-out rants. Lots of quality content to be found there.
I have one more guest strip for you tomorrow and then it’s back to work on Monday. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Cami and I were threatening to see The Break-Up on Friday night, but the negative reviews kept us away. We’ll see what the word of mouth is. I dunno, is it just me or is Jennifer Aniston incapible of playing anything above Rachel 2.0? She needs to do something like The Good Girl again and quick. If we see this movie at all, it’ll be for Vince Vaughn.
Chances are we’ll catch a matinee of X-Men 3 on Sunday. We actually saw it in France on May 26 – one whole day before you! Booyah! Downside was that (even though were had our fingers crossed for English with French subtitles) it was completely in French. We did a pretty good job following along, though. Big, dumb action movies like that… you’re only job is watching things explode. But like I said, we’ll catch the matinee in English to pick up on the more subtle points.
See you tomorrow!
Every time I think I’ve put a bow on an arc, I always think of different ways that I could stretch it into infinity.
Today’s comic was supposed to be the end of the Shia LaBeouf arc. But obviously the way I’ve set up the punchline in today’s comic, there has to be some kind of action taken against Shia next week, don’t you think?
I guess I’ve been hip-deep in this storyline so long, I don’t know if you guys are into it anymore? If you have a free minute, send me some feedback, won’t you?
So far this week, I think I’ve made a pretty good case against Shia – both in the comic and in the blog. I wanted to squeeze more examples into today’s comic, but there wasn’t enough room in the second panel to do that.
Regardless of the damming testimony I’ve come up with so far, I knew that photo from the set of the upcoming Indiana Jones movie was my secret weapon. First of all, that leather jacket isn’t working for me. It communicates only one thing – “Greaser.” I don’t need you screwing up my Indiana Jones movie with any shenanigans from Grease.
Second, Shia SHOULD NOT BE DRIVING THE MOTORCYCLE WITH INDIANA JONES RIDING BITCH! You want to ride a motorcycle, that’s fine. Here’s a Vespa. But if you’re hanging out with Indiana Jones – guess what? – HE’S DRIVING!
You want another reason to hate Shia? Check out this production photo from the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:

WHAT IS UP WITH THAT MOUSTACHE? KNOCK IT OFF!
Probably the most dispiriting aspect of this whole Shia debacle is that he appears to have become Steven Spielberg’s protege. And with Vanity Fair declaring him “the next Tom Hanks,” there are too many favorable associations floating around this kid. Did he make some kind of bargain with Lucifer? Because, if not, I think we should all strongly consider having Steven Spielberg committed to a mental institution.
That’s as much venom as I have for you today. Have a great weekend!
GUEST STRIP – BRANDON J. CARR
May 21st, 2008 | by Tom- Comics »
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(3 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)
Hey, guys. Thanks for visiting the site today. I really hope you enjoy today’s guest strip from Brandon J. Carr. I think it’s an excellent Indiana Jones parody and I love Brandon’s style. I’ll tell you – if I was one TENTH the cartoonist Brandon is, I’d be going places!
Brandon has a comic called Weird Adventures In Unemployment that you really need to check out. He also has a blog that he semi-regularly updates and the dude just celebrated his birthday! So wish him well!
Thanks, Brandon!
Thanks also to those of you who have sent their positive comments and prayers to me and my family as my Dad underwent open heart surgery yesterday. I tried to provide updates through the day with my Twitter account and it helped keep me sane. It also helped that the hospital staff kept us updated every step of the way. We knew what time he went into surgery, what time the first incision was made, what time he was on the heart/lung bypass machine and what time he was stitched up and moved to ICU. It made the wait much less agonizing.
I came back to the hotel room last night and wrote a complete recap on my LiveJournal. So if you want to read it, that’s where it’s at.
I wish I could talk more about movies. The Cannes Film Festival was over the weekend and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull is creating a lot of buzz. I am peripherally aware of these things right now, but it’s just not my focus. Give me a week or so to get back on track.
Actually, I have kind of a funny blog post in mind about a Indiana Jones toy I received from Burger King last week. It’s about Shia LaBeouf. I took pictures and everything.
Anyway, that’s all from me this morning. I’m going to get ready and swing by the hospital for a visit. I’ll probably be there until the afternoon before I have to go home to Cami and Henry. I got a call from my Mom this morning. She couldn’t sleep and went over early. Dad is alert and awake. Uncomfortable, but doing well. The surgery really went as well as we could have hoped for. Now we’re focused on recovery.
Thanks again for your patience and support. I’ll talk to you again soon.
Hey, guys. If you have a minute or two, swing over to Juanmanimation – a really cool animation blog that belongs to Juan Manuel. Juan left a comment on Monday’s comic and that’s how I got clued in to it.
Juan has a very entertaining retro style and he’s thrown in a few movie references in his work I’m sure you guys will love. I was especially enamored with this one:

That’s the kind of idea I would have killed to come up with. Brilliant.
Sometimes I regret not going to animation school…
GUEST STRIP – DAVID BUIST
July 3rd, 2012 | by Tom- Comics »
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(5 votes, average: 10.00 out of 10)
In my 10 years of producing this comic, I have been very fortunate to have friends like David Buist.
David, in addition to producing his excellent comic Taking the Bypass, was INSTRUMENTAL in creating content management features for Theater Hopper that carried it through some of its most prosperous years.
So imagine my extreme pleasure to receive this guest strip from David in my inbox. I was really touched. And he did an EXCELLENT job of capturing the spirit of the “real life Tom” punchlines I’ve done from time to time.
David produced a guest strip for me once before in 2007. But if you want to get a sense of what his work is REALLY like, then I strongly encourage you to visit Taking the Bypass, going back to the very first comic and reading everything he has to offer. You won’t be disappointed.
David’s a great friend and I really appreciate his contribution.
Thanks, David!