Posts Tagged ‘kiss’
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May19
GUEST STRIP – DAVID SMITH
May 19th, 2006 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(5 votes, average: 8.40 out of 10)
Today’s comic comes to us from David Smith, the creator of the web comic A Fairly Twisted Reality.
Dave is referencing the upcoming Adam Sandler movie Click – which I haven’t decided if it’s worth seeing yet or not. I watched Spanglish over the weekend and – although I hated Tea Leoni’s character – it’s interesting to watch Sandler stretch in a different direction. Doing a movie about a father who fast forwards through the "boring" parts of life only to learn a "valuable lesson" (TM) about missing what counts in the end feels like a step backwards. Seems like he’s slumming. People seem to like him. He has obvious marquee value. Why doesn’t he trade up?
But I digress. Thanks to David for the great comic. I really like how people are continuing to play with the idea that Victor has a secret crush on Tom. I swear there is more implied man-lovin’ in this strip than the FDA requires!
Be sure to check out David’s web comic, by the way. He’s got a really unique art style and I like some of the oddball stuff he has going on. Some of it is a little ribald – a little blue – but I think it comes from an honest place.
While I’m at it, I should probably mention our two new sponsors – Eejits and Hellbound. These two comics couldn’t be further apart.
Eejits is kind of an interesting art experiment where the creator posts images of the crazy, imaginative creatures in his head. The coloring this guy does is really amazing and some of the creatures he comes up with are really cute. Check it out.
Hellbound is a more complex affair. A very lovingly detailed narrative strip with several panels per update. There’s a great synopsis to help bring you up to speed on the story so far. Plus, you can read the comic in Italian! Who else does that?
That about does it for me. I’m kind of bummed that I’m not around to run commentary regarding all the "controversy" surrounding The Da Vinci Code. I have some strong opinions about it. I might try to tackle them when I get back. But don’t feel too bad for me. Cami and I will be in Nice, France on the 22 and we’re thinking about catching a train to Cannes for the film festival where we might check out Tom Hanks’ latest offering! Wish us luck!
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C’mon guys. You can’t deny it. Davy Jones is totally hot for Captain Jack Sparrow. Why do you think he let him go all those times? It’s because he wants him to come back to him. A classic tale of unanswered love.
Think about it. What does Sparrow spend more of second movie looking for? Davy Jones’s treasure. And what’s in Davy Jones’s treasure chest? His still-beating heart! Davy Jones is one of the most unintentional emo movie villains of the last 5 years? Don’t believe me? You should totally check out his MySpace page. It’s full of bad poetry and blog posts about how “the world doesn’t understand him.” His lists Evanescence as his favorite band.
Loser.
Do you guys like today’s comic? I had a lot of fun working on it. Although, I must admit, getting the costuming details right on Sparrow and Jones was difficult. Can’t forget that nodule hanging off Jones’s face! I think I might have gone a little overboard with the eyeliner on Sparrow, but I like the way the barnacles turned out on Jones. It was a treat to figure it out.
Like most of the free world, I’m planning on seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End this weekend. We have a babysitter lined up. We’re going.
I don’t think Cami is entirely over the moon about it. When we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, we showed up a little late and had to sit in the front row. You guys know how long that movie is. That’s a long time to be staring up Orlando Bloom’s nostrils. By the end of it, we had such cricks in our necks, we were miserable. To add insult to injury, Cami was pregnant with Henry at the time. So whenever one of Davy Jones’s slimy crew members slithered into a shot, she wanted to blow chunks like she just ate at Long John Silver’s.
Switching gears for a second, something I didn’t get to talk about in Monday’s blog due to my Diggers review was Shrek the Third’s $122 million dollar weekend. Interestingly enough, it ranks third as the film with the best opening weekend behind Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.
Call me cynical, but is anyone else afraid that we’re entering into a future where ever few years there will be a new Spider-Man, Shrek or Pirates movie? Consider that between these three movies alone, nearly HALF A BILLION dollars was made in a three day time period. Ignore the complete theatrical run. Ignore the DVD sales. HALF A BILLION for three movies in three days. Insane. I don’t think Hollywood can turn their back on that kind of money. These characters will have longer lives than Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees combined!
Something else I neglected to mention because of my review on Monday was the recent installment of The Triple Feature talkcast. I know it’s too late to participate in this week’s show, but you can always download a copy from TalkShoe. This week we talked about Shrek the Third, At World’s End, Diggers and another small movie called Waitress. Joe was back from his vacation tanned, rested and ready to go. We were back up to full strength and it felt good. I really like doing these shows with Joe and Gordon. I look forward to it every week.
Hey, if you’re interested in getting a reminder sent to you VIA e-mail when new show times are posted, send me an e-mail and I can add your contact information through our listing at TalkShoe. For some reason, you can’t input it yourself, but I can manage contacts in my account settings. I just thought I would put the offer out there if anyone was interested. I get a lot of e-mails from people saying, “Darn, I missed the show!” This would be just an extra reminder.
If you’re not interested, just by a monthly calendar and write down “The Triple Feature – 9:00 PM CST” every Monday for the rest of the year!
Speaking of the variety of e-mails I get from you guys, I received quite a few in my mailbox this week regarding a certain t-shirt design…
For those of you who are fans of the t-shirt manufacturing / artist community Threadless, you may have noticed a new shirt design that was announced by the company that shares a certain thematic similarity to some shirts I’ve been selling on the site for a while.
The shirt is called “Spoilt” and it was designed by Oliver Moss. Here’s the design:
As you can see, the shirt spoils the various plot twists of a number of different movies in a manner similar to a couple of shirts I’ve been selling from Theater Hopper for the last few years:
It was interesting to read some of the e-mails that people sent. A lot of you were outraged and labeled Moss a theif. I appreciate your support, as backwards as that sounds. It was actually very comforting to know that I had a lot of people out there watching my back. But here’s the scoop and I’m putting it out there to hopefully put things to rest.
Oliver Moss is not a thief and it’s unfair to label him as such.
I knew about Oliver’s design back when the shirt was still going through the voting phase. I’ll admit that it freaked me out because I actually thought Oliver did a really good job with it and (being somewhat familiar with what the Threadless audience looks for in a design from prior business relationships with them) I knew it was going to be a hit. Someone pointed out at the time the similarities between Oliver’s concept and my own and Oliver defended himself by stating that the similarities were never intentional and that the concept stemmed from a forum post he made over at Yay Hooray almost two years ago. Oliver and I even exchanged e-mails over it and he again expressed no ill intent. I believe him. Moss has more than a few designs that have been sold through Threadless and other clothing vendors. He’s not stupid. I don’t think he would intentionally expose himself to these kind of indictments.
I know the web comic community just fought a round with the plagiarism boogeyman after the whole Todd Goldman incident, but my attitude regarding the similarities between my shirts and Moss’s shirt is this: It was a coincidence. It happens. In fact, it happens a lot in web comics where people covering similar genres come to the same conclusions on jokes. Usually it’s not intentional. Just great minds thinking alike.
Obviously Moss’s design is visually different, so he has no worries there. And, in regard to the number of similar movies “spoiled” in our designs, the fact of the matter is there just aren’t that many well-known movies with twists in their plots to expose. So, again, another happy accident.
If anything, I think Oliver and Threadless probably have more to fear from LucasFilm for Moss’s rendering of Darth Vader’s helmet. If R. Stevens was sent a cease and desist letter for the pixelated R2-D2 he tried to put on a shirt and sell, I can’t imagine how long Threadless is going to skare by before the Lawyers from the Dahgobah system catch wind of this…
PERSONAL THOUGHTS: I’ve been on a weird emotional roller coaster regarding these events. When I found out that Threadless had moved forward producing the shirt, my heart sank. I figured that this was the end for Spoiler I and Spoiler II because if I tried to continue selling them, I feared people would look at them and say “You stole this from Threadless!’
Sure, I have the date stamps of when my design was created and the PayPal receipts for the first batch of sales to prove that I got there first. But I didn’t imagine that having much sway in the court of public opinion. Moss’s design is flashier. Mine is plain. Threadless is a HUGE online entity that most savvy web surfers are at least peripherally aware of. Theater Hopper is a mid-sized web comic that’s be silently chugging along for a few years. I felt the distinct feeling of obsolescence. Was this the universe sending me a sign? Should I stop producing the Spoiler shirts? Should I do something different? Should I get out of web comics altogether? It really sent me for a loop.
Then, things got worse. Voters made the post about Moss’s design the second most popular story on Dugg. Then BoingBoing picked it up. I was almost… angry. It didn’t help that Threadless’s prize for winning designs is $2,000 which would have come in REALLY handy for me right now after being slammed hard for taxes I owe. I felt my hands were tied. There really wasn’t anything I could say to defend myself without coming off like a hater and – really – it’s not like I was the first guy in the world to think of spoiling movies and putting it on a t-shirt.
But then things started to turn. The story showed up on You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice (soon to be deleted). Although it was overly harsh and their editors didn’t do any fact checking (the reason for the deletion), people were aware of what I had been doing and there was some validation in that. Then the BoingBoing article was revised to include a link to Theater Hopper in reference to my original designs.
And then the flood came.
Traffic from BoingBoing was overwhelming the server. I couldn’t access the site through most of the day. This is always a good problem to have and it was very exciting. Several people were coming to the site that might not have otherwise. On top of that, some of them were even buying the Spoiler I and II shirts! Amazing!
And then I realized something profound. “So what?”
This shirt thing is so much bigger than me and so far beyond my control. I’m happy with the recognition that I have. I cherish all of the e-mails of support that were sent to me and thankful to those who stood up for me on the Threadless and Dugg comments board even when they didn’t have to. I’m thankful for the free market that let’s people decide what shirt they would rather have and some people decided to take advantage of it and back the little guy. Ultimately, I’m impressed that there are opportunities for BOTH Moss and myself to carve out a niche for ourselves artistically and that there are people out there who will support it.
For those of you who are new to Theater Hopper – welcome. For those of you who continue to support the site – sincere thanks.
This has been another interesting chapter in the history of this site. I never could have predicted it.
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I think I’m starting to accept this “no punchline” thing. This is The End Game. Now you know that Jimmy and Charlie used to date, that they were engaged and that a random indiscretion (at no fault to Jimmy) appears to have torn them apart. The only scene that’s missing is the final confrontation in the ladies restroom. At this point, I think jokes are only going to slow us down. But hopefully I’ve established a mood going into the last arc of the story line.
So what else happened this weekend? Oh, it looks like the Oscars were on last night! Did you catch it?
Despite not having seen… most of the nominated films, I was really excited for this year’s Oscars. I don’t know why. And even though there weren’t a ton of surprises, I was still satisfied with the big show.
Some gut reactions:
I thought Hugh Jackman was perfectly serviceable for such an outside-the-box choice for host. He was somewhat needy, but certainly didn’t embarrass himself. That opening number brought down the house! He was working his ass off on that one.
How good was that little song and dance routine at the top of the show? I went from visions of Billy Crystal and thinking to myself “Ugh, a musical number.” to “Ha, ha! That was great! More musical numbers!”
Unfortunately, his little team-up with Beyonce at the half-way point played more like a Broadway review. What is this? The Tony’s? When he emphatically exclaimed “The musical is back!” I kind of slumped back in my seat and said “Not likely.”
I mean, the thing just went on and on! Meanwhile, performances of the Best Song nominees only get 90 seconds a piece! ACTUAL NOMINEES get the bum’s rush for this crap. Bad move.
I thought the Pineapple Express parody with Seth Rogen and James Franco was hilarious. Probably the highlight of the night (no pun). If this doesn’t tell James Franco to abandon the James Dean posturing and aggressively pursue comedy full-time, I won’t know what will.
I thought Ben Stiller’s riff on Joaquin Phoenix was stupid, disrespectful and past it’s expatriation date. Wandering around stage while the nominees for Best Cinematography were being read? C’mon, It’s not The MTV Movie Awards.
The biggest surprise of the night? Sean Penn winning Best Actor over Mickey Rourke – who I assumed was a lock. You can’t really be unhappy with the outcome, though. Penn’s a great actor and Rourke brought his career back from the dead. Everyone wins.
As far as my Oscar ballot looked at the end of the night, I was 12 for 12. I could have done a lot better, but I had two strikes against me:
I went out a limb and picked Viola Davis for Best Supporting Actress and Michael Shannon for Best Supporting Actor under the assumption that Hollywood was going to take the opportunity to promote new talent. Also, both performances were very brief in their respective films and I had this nagging feeling that if they were that good in such a limited amount of time (against acting heavyweights like Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet) they deserved to win.
Instead the awards went to Penelope Cruz and Heath Ledger, respectively — both of whom odds makers were already behind.
I don’t know what to say about Ledger’s win except I guess I lost the faith on that one. Is it really a “supporting” performance, though? He pretty much owned The Dark Knight from the minute he stepped on screen. He certainly didn’t “support” Christian Bale. He blew right past him. For the sake of argument, do you think he would have won were he still alive? Would he even have been nominated? Just questioning it, that’s all.
Because here’s the thing: The Dark Knight was the second most nominated film last night with eight. All of them except Ledger were in technical categories and they were shut out in all of them except Sound Editing.
Clearly the Oscars has no love for comic book movies. Not even those that gross $1 billion at the box office world wide. So what made Ledger’s turn as the Joker such a prominent standout? Again, I’m just spit-ballin’ here.
The Dark Knight being shut out of the technical categories was the second deficiency in my Oscar ballot. I figured if they weren’t going to be recognized for anything else, voters would acknowledge the economic achievement by handing the film trophies in the technical categories. So much for that.
For the full list of nominees and winners, you can access them here.
At any rate, we’ll be talking about the Oscar winners and losers tonight on The Triple Feature and we’ll find out how my Oscar ballot stacked up against Gordon and Joe’s. There’s a lot at stake. The two with the lowest number of correct guesses have to produce guest comics for the winner. I could be in for some extra work this week! You’ll have to tune in tonight at 9:00 PM CST to hear if I lost!
In the meantime, what did you think about last night’s show? What moments stood out for you? Were there any shocks? What was your favorite moment? What was your least favorite moment? Leave your comments below!
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What the?!… Did I manage to sneak in a punchline into today’s emotional reunion between Charlie and Jimmy? I think I must have!
For me, the pleasure of drawing today’s strip was drawing Tom’s reaction panel-to-panel. I pictured him reacting to Jimmy and Charlie’s relationship drama as if it were happening on a movie screen in front of him. “This is so much better than a movie,” would be the subtext running through his brain.
Not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I kind of like the turn of the phrase “Kiss each other on the mouth.” It’s kind of like when Liz Lemon says “I want to go to there” on 30 Rock. Eh, maybe not.
All things the same, if I could come up with a design for that slogan, would you be interested in that as a t-shirt? I’m asking because pre-orders for Theater Hopper – Year Three have pretty much stalled and I’m lacking the money I need to send the finished book to the printer.
I could wait for advertising revenue to make up the difference, but the economy has severely limited advertising budgets, so I’m not seeing much return there. I figured I could whip up a few new t-shirts and try to make money that way. Y’know, spend money to make money.
Truthfully, I’m overdue on trying to produce a new shirt. I don’t know if it was complacency, fear or maybe a little bit of both. But it seems that I can’t come up with an idea that sells as well as the Spoiler shirts. Other shirts sell okay, but not so great that I can reorder them and keep selling them. Usually, I do one run of a new design, sell out and then you never see it again.
I had someone write me earlier in the month asking about the Johnny Number 5 t-shirt I was selling on the site a few years ago. Y’know “Don’t trust robots?” It was never a big seller, but the people who bought it seemed to love it.
I’ll admit that I’m probably not setting the world on fire with some of my designs. I mean, the Spoiler shirts are just a block of text. But for some strange reason, they work. Design is always something I’ve felt I could improve on.
The other problem is coming up with a good concept. You can’t do something too “inside” or specific to the comic (although that appeals to the the hard core supporters) and you also can’t do something so general that you could buy it from some other site.
I think I have a concept that might work: You know those movie quotes randomly rotating at the bottom of the page? I had the idea of graphically representing them on t-shirts so that they look cool to people who aren’t in on the joke, but make the person wearing it feel a little more special because they know the reference.
The first one I was going to attempt was from Reservoir Dogs when Mr. Blonde asks Mr. White “Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you going to bite?”
It would probably take too much to explain the different elements I want to incorporate into the shirt, but there would be some photo-realism to it so you’re not walking around with a huge cartoon across your chest.
I mean look at the shirts from comics like Octopus Pie or White Ninja (really any of the TopatoCo line of shirts). They’re not firmly aligned with the “branding” of the comic they’re associated with. I want to try and do something similar here.
What do you think? Do you think this is a good idea? What famous movie lines would you like to see represented in a graphic format? What about Jimmy and Charlie? Do you think they’re going to get back together? Do you think they’ll take Tom’s advice to “kiss each other on the mouth?” Leave your thoughts below!
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People really seemed to take a shine to yesterday’s comic. Specifically, the punch line. So I decided to strike while the iron was hot and whip up a t-shirt design…
What do you guys think? Leave me your comments. If there is enough good will to pursue it, I’ll see about printing them up in the next few weeks!
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This is a little annoying, but I have to throw it out there.
It’s a new month, which means the voting tallies have been reset at Top Web Comics. If you could throw a vote Theater Hopper’s way, I would appreciate it.
We did pretty well last month. We managed to crack the Top 100 and had a comfortable spot at 97 on the list as the year closed out. I think that’s pretty amazing for a comic that only updates once a week. Please continue to keep up the great work. Vote from home, vote from work, vote from your smart phone – it all counts. And don’t forget to VOTE DAILY. That’s the most important part. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to do it. That’s why I draw those incentive images, don’t you know? They’re a little reward. Wanna see today’s comic through the eyes of the snowflake? Just click on this link to vote and you can!
As for the comic, yeah, I know that New Year’s Eve has come and gone. I wanted to do something a little romantic. Don’t hold it against me.
Normally I take stock at the end of the year and reflect a little bit. I did some of that last week, but I didn’t indulge in the deep dive I normally take. I guess that’s because my what I want to say about Theater Hopper in 2011 and what Theater Hopper will look like in 2012 doesn’t neatly line up with celestial events. I have a lot to say about the topic, but now doesn’t feel right. Maybe I’m putting it off a little bit – avoiding it. But I also want to make sure what comes next is expressed correctly. I don’t want to leave any confusion or doubt in your minds.
Annoyingly vague enough for you? Don’t worry. Explanations will be forthcoming. Consider this comic a taste of what 2012 looks like.
Let’s avoid the movie commentary for right now and just let it speak for itself a little bit. The rest will reveal itself soon.
I wish the very most to you and yours in 2012. May the New Year greet you warmly. I will talk to you soon.
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A quick bit of business… If you want to see a humorous take on the “family” Tom is referring in today’s comic, be sure to vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics for a funny little incentive image. We were in the middle of the pack last week. Now we’ve fallen down to #91 on the list. Let’s see if we can turn that around. And don’t forget to vote daily!
Now for a very important announcement…
Originally, I was going to make this announcement last week. I thought it made sense to start the New Year with this, but decided at the last minute that perhaps a more romantic reprieve would ease us into things. Now I realize I was kind of running from the inevitable. I’ve never been the kind of guy to pull a band-aid off in one sharp pull. But I can’t hide from it any longer.
On August 6, 2012, I will be ending Theater Hopper.
I didn’t come to the decision lightly. I’ve been debating about whether to end Theater Hopper for over a year now. Even though I thought I was mentally prepared, it doesn’t make the challenge of sharing this announcement any easier.
There are a couple of reasons why I’ve decided to end Theater Hopper and why I’ve set a deadline so far out into the future.
First, the deadline. I wanted to give everyone a head’s up in advance mostly because I thought you – the audience member – deserved it. Nothing disheartens me more than to become invested in a comic I really, really like and see it end out of nowhere for no reason. It always leaves me with the feeling of “What if?” and I think you guys deserve better than that.
Setting a deadline that far into the future gives me an opportunity to wrap up a few lingering story lines and also moves the characters into a place where you know they’re going to be “okay.”
Plus, like I said, I’m not a “tear the band-aid off” kind of guy, remember.
August 6, 2012 will be one day past the 10 year anniversary of the comic and I like the idea of going out that way. Call me crazy – I just like round numbers. It’ll be a tidy break.
10 years is a crazy amount of time to do anything. Writing and drawing Theater Hopper is the longest job I’ve ever had. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but it’s time to let it go.
Part of my motivation is that I can’t maintain a level of quality for the comic that I feel is fair to you or to me. It takes me a long time to put together a comic. Anywhere from 3 to 4 hours. That was one of the primary reasons I went from three strips a week to one. Looking back, I don’t know how I ever managed to produce three a week – especially while I was going to night classes, pursuing my Master’s for two years! I guess I just had momentum behind me.
But the point is that I don’t think I can evolve my art or my technique to a point that will improve the comic or lessen my time investment. If I can’t grow or improve, then it makes it hard to justify continuing. The frustration of those limitations strips all the fun right out of it.
A lot of what makes Theater Hopper complicated to produce is coloring and shading. I don’t enjoy doing it and I’ve never been very good at it. But I’ve picked up enough tricks along the way that it doesn’t stick out too bad.
I’ve talked to a few of my contemporaries about this and they’ve suggested going to black and white as a way to streamline things. The see no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. To jettison the investment I’ve made in building up the brand and viability of the domain. They’ve made strong cases for me to reformat the comic in order to salvage it.
I’ve considered it. Switching to black and white would improve my attitude toward the work significantly. Truthfully, it might even increase my output to more than one comic a week. When you get down to brass tacks, all people really want is more content. They probably aren’t overtly concerned about all the bells and whistles thrown into the coloring and shading of a comic. I mean, look at XKCD, for God’s sake!
But, to me, that’s a step backwards. Going to black and white kind of spits in the face of the effort I’ve made so far to build my art up to what it is toady.
Taking the comic from three times a week to once a week was a loss for me. Taking the comic from color to black and white would be another loss – one I don’t think I could bear.
It is not my wish that Theater Hopper’s legacy become reductive. Stripping away the elements of what made it successful will eventually leave me with nothing. That’s not fair to me and it’s not fair to the audience that has supported me for so long. This is the way it has to be.
My concerns about the art also does not solve the content problem I feel like I’ve been ignoring for probably the last… five years.
I feel like I still have stories to tell. But the conceit that Theater Hopper is “a comic about movies” has handcuffed me. Once Cami and I had kids, the amount of movies we went to see dropped off dramatically. I don’t think this would come as a surprise to anyone. But it kind of creates a situation when you write a comic that’s about movies.
As a result of this life change, Theater Hopper became less about movies and more about how movies are marketed. And while marketing is a personal interest of mine, I can’t deny that this evolution has made me feel somewhat fraudulent over the years.
Truthfully, I thought like Theater Hopper would end after Henry was born. I always told myself that once we had kids, there wouldn’t be room for comics.
That was largely fear and inexperience talking at the time. Having kids changed my life, of course. But I was able to compromise a little bit and continue pursuing the art that I loved to make. I’m glad I did. Some of Theater Hopper’s most successful years came after Henry was born. I self-published three books. I traveled the country exhibiting at comic book conventions. I met awesome people and made life-long friends. I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.
But there comes a time when one realizes that you can’t go on forever. I realize now that it’s time to move on. This post is just as much as head’s up for you as it is for me. Believe me – it’s going to take me a while to get used to the idea, too.
Over the next few weeks and months, I’m going to take Theater Hopper in a more character-driven and dramatic direction. There will still be jokes – don’t worry about that. Oh, and you can COUNT on there being one more appearance from Cardboard Iron Man when The Avengers comes out in May.
But August 6 is the date I have targeted to put a bow on everything and call it a day. I’m looking forward to the journey that takes us there.
As always, I appreciate the love and support I’ve received from my readers all the years. You guys are phenomenal. My words won’t do your devotion justice. But I hope my art and these last few stories will.
With thanks,
Tom Brazelton
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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to kiss Victor? Click on this link, vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics and find out!
As I’ve stated before, I’m kind of dragging all of the characters out of mothballs for this last story line to give them their time in the sun. Today it’s Victor’s turn.
Victor was a character that I created as an antagonist for “the gang” and he was supposed to be an imposing monster – a mountain of a man who said very little, but who had a very black and white view of the world. Most of that has been retained over the years. As you can see from today’s comic, I think I’ve drawing Victor larger than usual. Mostly because I just like toying with the perception of him.
But what gave Victor dimension was a guest comic drawn by Brandon J. Carr several years back that suggested that Victor was dangerously enamored with Tom. I thought it was an interesting wrinkle in the character and decided to carry it forward as far as I could.
I’ve always been very careful not to exploit Victor’s sexuality – especially when he’s depicted as aggressive or imposing in a different context. He’s an extreme character, of course. But that’s where a lot of interesting comedy comes from. Just know that it’s all very well intentioned and I hope to have depicted Victor with some dimension. I think you’ll see that as the aftermath of today’s comic plays out in later strips.
LIVE-BLOGGING THE OSCARS
I wanted to give everyone a head’s up that I, Brandon J. Carr and Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies will be live-blogging the Oscar’s Sunday night. We generally have a very effective comedic rapport with each other on Twitter, so we decided to try to apply it to something in real time that everyone else can enjoy along side us.
We’re running the session through Cover It Live, which is a fun little widget that allows moderators to talk and other people to submit comments in real time. Set your bookmarks now. The fun will take place this Sunday at 7:00 PM CST at http://oscars.alloftheawesome.com. You can enter your e-mail address into the widget today and be sent a reminder just before we go live. It should be a lot of fun!
THE FAREWELL TOUR
You might have noticed that I’ve put two banners at the top of the page. One of them is linking back to the announcement that I made back in January that I’d be ending the comic this August. It’s been about a month and I’m still getting messages from people who said they just heard the news. So I wanted to make sure the news didn’t get buried and people were up to date.
I’ll admit that it kinds of stings a little when people bring it up only because it throws me back to that moment in time when I was seriously questioning whether or not I was doing the right thing. That malaise was captured perfectly in the video I posted the day after I made the announcement, if you ask me.
The other thing I will mention is my Farewell Tour Fundraising Drive. I decided at the last minute that I need to try to go to as many conventions here in the midwest as possible before I close up shop in August. So I snagged myself a booth at the last minute and will be appearing at C2E2 April 13 – 15. I’ve also got my eye on Minneapolis Spring Con in May (if they’ll return my e-mails) and possibly Chicago Comic Con in August.
That last one is kind of funny, because it will actually take place 3 days after I end the comic. IRONY!
Anyway, going to shows costs money. Hotel reservations, table reservations, food, gas… it adds up quick. And since I wasn’t planning on attending any shows until just recently, I’m not sitting on very much discretionary cash.
That’s where you come in. I’m not asking for much. I’m just asking you to consider buying something in the store. If you already own a bunch of Theater Hopper merchandise or can only afford a dollar or two, I’m also taking donations.
Donate what you think is fair. Five dollars… one dollar. Whatever you can spare. All of it helps. If I’ve made you laugh at all in the last 10 years, now would be the time to kick in on that front. My goal is to get out and meet as many of you as I can before my time is up so I can thank you in person. You can help make that happen. Who knows? We might raise enough money that I can fly somewhere further than the Midwest! Somewhere I’ve never been before. That would be pretty cool, wouldn’t it?
I’m just asking you to consider it.
Thanks for your patience and support. I’ll see you next week!
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I’ve been having a hard time coming up with follow-up jokes like I normally do with the incentive images, so I drew a profile of Victor for this week’s comic. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics if you’d like to see it.
Incidentally, last night I noticed I had a stack of incentive images – maybe 50 to 100 – and took a picture for the Theater Hopper Facebook page. I’m not quite as attached to these as I am the original artwork for the comics and was thinking about selling them through the Theater Hopper store.
What’s you’re take on that? Would you be interested? How much do you think I should sell them for? Should they all be the same price or should they be priced differently? Admittedly, the quality of some of these is much better than others.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
While we’re talking about the store, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that I’ve still got my sale going on – buy two books and get the third one free, but two shirts and get the third one free!
I could really use your support. I’m going to C2E2 on April 13 and it’s coming up fast. I need to make a little money to help cover expenses. You can read more about it on the Theater Hopper Farewell Tour page.
If you already own all of the Theater Hopper merch you can stand, I’m also taking donations. Every little bit helps. We’re making progress toward our $1,000 goal! Thanks to everyone who has chipped in so far!
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about today’s comic. I don’t want to say that this is Victor’s “coming out” comic. We’ve all known for a long time that Victor’s gay. But he’s never really admitted it to the other characters. So, in a way, he’s actualizing himself here.
Granted, his answer to Tom’s question is slightly cagey. But it’s not exactly false, either. Don’t worry. It’s all going to get sorted out in the next comic or two. But I’m not going to make a big deal about it. Because, frankly, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Let me amend that statement. Coming out IS a big deal – especially if you’re the person that’s coming out. It’s stressful. You don’t know how the news will be received or if you’ll be accepted by your peers after that.
I’ve had friends come out to me in the past and I’ve found the best way to react to that news is to hardly react to it at all.
Not to be dismissive, mind you. Obviously I’m aware of the struggle these individuals have faced leading up to those moments. But, fundamentally, it doesn’t really change what you know or appreciate about that person. If you valued them before, news like that shouldn’t really change anything.
I’ve only ever been on one side of that conversation. I can’t imagine what goes through the mind of someone who is coming out. But what matters is that the person coming out knows that they’re supported, that nothing will change and they can go about their life without carrying that horrible weight on their shoulders.
That’s pretty much how you can expect things to play out in the comic as well.
I’m not trying to lecture or impart some kind of wisdom. I’m just sharing my experience. I know there are people out there who are uncomfortable and even outwardly hostile to these issues. All I’m saying is that’s not my perspective.
Anyway, that’s my little moment for the day. Thanks for checking out the comic. Share it up through social media using the links below if you’re so inclined. I’ll see you next week!
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In nearly every appearance he’s made, Victor has been depicted as a scowling monolith – a permanent frown on his face.
For this story arc, I thought it was important to see him smile – if for no other reason than for being recognized as another human being. I decided to make Victor smiling my Top Web Comics incentive sketch as well. If you’d like to see it, click on the graphic to the left and vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics.
Something I was concerned about writing this strip is that people would think I was depicting Tom as the hero for being accepting of Victor. The somewhat purposeful stride in the last panel might lead people to that conclusion, but that’s not my intent.
Victor just took a REALLY BIG RISK by kissing Tom on the mouth. Knowing that Victor is a prideful person who maybe just overplayed his hand, Tom’s trying to be delicate about the situation.
I don’t want to examine it too much because the point was that there’s now an unspoken understanding between these two – and life goes on.
In fact, I think that’s a good place to stop for now. The comic is shifting it’s focus to Jimmy and Charlie next week. But don’t worry. This isn’t the last we’ll see of Victor.
Have a great week, everyone!
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