Something I wanted to mention yesterday but was too busy fighting off a migraine to recall is that Zach Miller – yes THAT Zach Miller, the one from the erstwhile No Pants Tuesday – has thrown his hat back into the web comic ring with a new strip called Joe and Monkey.

What’s Joe and Monkey about? Simple, really. It’s the tale of a delivery boy named Joe and a monkey named Monkey. Oh, and be on the lookout for Kleptobot!

Anyone familiar with Zach’s work knows that Joe and Monkey has been in development for a long time. There’s a good reason for that. Y’see, Zach sometimes has a little problem with updating on time. Not a strike against him! Just stating a fact!

Well, Zach knows it just as much as we do, so he decided to do something about it. That’s why he produced A TON of comics in advance so he would never miss an update. You think I’m joking, but the amount of comics he produced weighs literally 2,000 pounds.

At any rate, I’m really excited to see Zach producing comics again and also experienced a warming of the heart when he mentioned Theater Hopper in his opening blog and had lots of nice things to say. Thank you, Zach! You cut to the core of me!

Incidentally, I will be sharing a booth with Zach at Wizard World Chicago August 13 through 15. Don’t forget Mitch Clem of Barrett’s Lament or Neil G from Robot Stories. They’ll be there, too.

Since it’s a Friday and we seem to be doing “shout out’s”, I’ve decided to link up a couple of dudes I think you should check out.

First, whydoncha head on over to Fuitad.com. Please do not confuse this site with my former hosting company. People in the web comic community are already familiar with Fuitad. He’s the guy who came up with Top Web Comics. Well, he owned a hosting company for a while – the one TH was having problems with – but sold it two months ago. Long before we were having any issues.

At any rate, Fuitad helped me get out from under that hosting situation and allowed for Theater Hopper to move to a new server. As a way to return the favor, I want you all to check out his site. He has a comic, by the way. It’s drawn pretty well!

Another site I want you to visit is a comic that you will be talking about for a long time to come. Don’t ask me how I know. I just know. It’s called The Useless Superheroes and the illustration on this comic is OUTSTANDING! It’s a loving parody of the superhero genre. If you read comic books like I do, you’ll appreciate all of the references. It’s extremely well done.

Also, because Zach Miller is the most handsome man in Minnesota, check out his new web comic, Joe & Monkey. Just so you know, he

I’m looking forward to the trip to Wizard World Chicago, but a little nervous, too. From Des Moines, it’s a 6 hour drive to Chicago. That’s the furthest I’ve ever driven somewhere by myself. Hopefully I won’t get desperately lost and end up dead in a crack house somewhere.

I’m also a little panicked that I didn’t bring enough stuff to sell. I only have maybe, 20 of my original posters left. Jared gave me his last 6 copies of the DVD to sell. I’m bringing, like 8 t-shirts – all mediums and larges that I’ve been waiting for someone to order and that I’ve been sitting on. I still have a lot of the Trainspotting parody poster. But the item I worked the hardest on – the 24 page sampler booklet with a new, never seen before comic – well, I only have about 150 of those. Still, if I sell out of merchandise, that’s not really a bad problem to have, is it?

I went totally D.I.Y. on this booklet. They’ve all been lovingly arranged by hand. I was going to take them to a professional printer, but they wanted $300. Sh’eah, right!

Once I get to Chicago, I expect things to be in full swing. I’m sharing a room with Zach Miller from Joe & Monkey. Let’s hope he doesn’t snore!

The two of us are sharing a booth with Nothing Nice to Say’s Mitch Clem. We were also supposed to be booth-buddies with Neil G from Robot Stories, but he had to drop out at the last minute because he’s buying a house and needed to get his stuff together. We’ll miss Neil, but I’m sure we’ll have a good time. It’s like a reunion of the Minneapolis FallCon!

…except without Carrington, who we will also miss.

Before I wrap things up, be sure to check out our latest advertiser Built For Comfort. These guys are just getting off the ground with their comic, but I think it looks pretty good. The site design is tight. BOOKMARK’D!

I prepared Friday’s comic in advance and it’s sitting in the display cue ready to go. Hopefully I didn’t screw things up with the code and you’ll have a nice comic about Aliens vs. Predator to kick off your weekend.

See you soon!

Wow, I tell you guys that I have some advertising space open and you come a’running! Please, please, please check out our latest sponsor. I promise they won’t disapoint.

Wacky Movies is pretty much that. An interesting collection of short films, writing and an internet chat show. Lots of interesting stuff to see here. I got a kick out of The Playground Patrol.

Our next sponsor should need no introduction, but I’m breakin’ all the rules, baby! Joe and Monkey! Zach Miller (formerly of No Pants Tuesday) has been kicking ass and taking names with his new comic. He updates seven days a week, people! And he hasn’t missed a day yet! If that doesn’t earn your faith and devotion, I don’t know what will.

Lastly, don’t forget to check out O’Deer Comics. These guys are frequent advertisers on the site and we love their business. Show them how much we appreciate their support by visiting their web comic often. They update five times a week and have a really good storyline going on right now.

That’s about everything I can think of for the moment. Please visit our sponsors!

You may have noticed that we have a new sponsor this week – the awesome Joe and Monkey.

Now, normally this would be cause to celebrate all on it’s own. But our good friend Zach Miller pulled a bait-and-switch on us. A very awesome bait-and-switch!

For the entire month of January, the erstwhile original punk rock gangsta of web comics Mitch Clem is running the show at Joe and Monkey!

You might remember Mitch from such previous web comic hits as Nothing Nice to Say and Barrett’s Lament. And if you don’t, it’s time to make yourself familiar.

All of this awesomeness is leading up to the ultimate in awesome. The return of Clem to his own full-time gig, The Coffee Achievers in February. Who says winter has to suck!

So if you want to see if Mitch still has the mojo, check out Joe and Monkey for his triumphant return to web comics!

By the by, besides the current column sponsorship, all of the advertising spots are available for purchase. If you’re interested in putting your site in front of a bunch of people for the New Year, now’s the time to come aboard. I’m making a concentrated effort to re-introduce Theater Hopper to the web comic community, so I’ll be stirring up a lot of press that will hopefully draw traffic here.

Click here for ad rates and information.

Just wanted to send a shout-out to my good friend, creator of Joe and Monkey and fellow Boxcar Comics brother-in-arms Zach Miller.

His book Totally Boned: A Joe and Monkey Collection recently won the 2006 Lulu.com Blooker Prize – an award the on-demand publisher give to self-published material as a means of drawing attention to quality content found online. A category in which Joe and Monkey firmly resides.

Great job, Zach!