Posts Tagged ‘shirt’

5 items.

NO SHIRT

by Tom on October 23, 2009 at 12:00 am
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(30 votes, average: 7.87 out of 10)
Astro Boy, shirt, weapons, design, charm, short pants

I realize the premise of today's comic is kind of gross. But to me, designing a robot to take the place of your dead son running around without a shirt and in short pants is a little more disturbing.

Also, once the phrase "shirtless charms" wormed its way into my head, there was no way I was NOT going to us it.

FUN FACT: "Shirtless charms" is a phrase one can also use for Matthew McConaughey.

I have been seeing trailers and promotional stills for Astro Boy for months, but it didn't really start to catch my attention until this week. I think it looks like a servicable kids film and since I learned that the team behind the CGI T.M.N.T. movie from a few years back were the ones that had put Astro Boy together, that earned it a few points in my favor.

I dunno, though. Astro Boy is an animation classic. I always flinch when producers try to reintroduce these properties to modern audiences. I mean, if it's done well, what's the harm? A new generation is exposed to a great character. But if you mess it up, you risk alienating generations of fans who grew up with the character.

I will say this: From the stills and trailers I've seen, it appears that they've solved Astro Boy's wardrobe problem in this film. I notice him running around in pants and a long-sleeve t-shirt. So maybe the producers of this film were a little creeped out by Astro Boy's semi-nudity as well.

What about you guys? Any interest in seeing Astro Boy this weekend? Any hard core Astro Boy fans out there? Or, with Halloween creeping up on us, is everyone going to see Paranormal Activity instead?

I know that Saw VI comes out this weekend. But I'm more interested to see how it holds up against Paranormal Activity. Paranormal Activity has all the buzz around it right now. When it comes to Saw VI, all I read are people's complaints about how Tobin Bell shows up as Jigsaw after DEFINITIVELY being killed in Saw III. I kind of hope Paranormal Activity puts an end to the Saw franchise's stranglehold over Halloween - or at least puts a dent in it.

As for me, I've pretty much determined that I am too much of a weenie to see Paranormal Activity in theaters. I would go, but I can't find anyone to watch it with me and there is NO WAY I'm going by myself.

I guess that's why I wasn't too upset with myself when I spoiled the entire film for myself after reading the plot synopsis on Wikipedia. On paper, the film doesn't sound that scary. The things that the supernatural entity does to torment the protagonists seems kind of lightweight. So after I finished reading it, I was left asking myself "That's it? This is what people are freaking out about?" Although, I'm sure if I was in the theater watching it, I would feel much differently. I'm no tough guy.

I guess I compare it to the horror films that I have seen that have shook me. Films like The Exorcist and The Shining. Films that were once books and are very lyircal, convincing and visceral about the true horror the heroes in them experience. If someone wrote a Paranormal Activity as a book first, I don't think it would scare me.

I know a few of you have seen Paranormal Activity. Leave your thoughts about the film in the comments below.

Beyond that, I don't have much more to share except Cami and I went to see our doctor yesterday and we have a birth date for Baby Brazelton. Cami will undergo a repeat c-section at 8:30 AM, Thursday, December 10. We're thrilled to know that we have a delivery date. It's been a hectic year and I've personally been distracted by a lot of things swirling around in my life. I've sometimes felt guilty for not anticipating the new baby's arrival as much as I should. But with a date in mind, it really gives us something to look forward to.

I made Baby Brazelton's birth date announcement on Twitter yesterday and joked that there would be no new comic on Friday, December 11. A lot of people came back with offers to submit guest strips and I was very encouraged by the show of support. I've decided that I'm going to open the flood gates and accept ALL guest strips in advance of Baby Brazelton's arrival in December. In fact, I'm planning on taking the month of December off (I'll still update the blog, though).

December is hectic enough with holidays and family gatherings. A new baby is going to splinter things even further. I'd rather put my focus where it is most needed - tending to the baby - and put the comic on the backburner for a while.

I think I've run less than 10 guest strips all year, so I feel like I deserve a little break. If you are interested in contributing to guest comic month, shoot me an e-mail at theaterhopper@hotmail.com and I will put you on the list. Since December is a long way away at the moment, I'm going to keep everyone's contact information together so I can send reminders.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and I'll see you here on Monday!

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BUNDLE BLUNDER

by Tom on April 27, 2009 at 7:19 am
Posted In: Blog
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It was brought to my attention that there was an error on the Store > Bundle page. People trying to order the One Book, One Shirt bundle were being charged for One Book and TWO Shirts! Not cool on my part. My sincere apologies.

I wanted to let everyone know that the error has been fixed and you can now place an order for One Book and One Shirt at a discounted price of $25.00. That's $5.00 off!

Thanks!

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IT HELPS TO LIVE IN A WARM CLIMATE

by Tom on February 8, 2008 at 1:12 pm
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(2 votes, average: 5.50 out of 10)
Birkenstocks, shirt, cheese 'n rice, Fool’s Gold, Matthew McConaughey, laid back, Tommy Bahama, cold, winter

Everyone is pretty much on board with the concept that Matthew McConaughey seems to have a pathological aversion to shirts, right?

I have a ton of friends that like to do McConaughey impressions and they all boil down to pretty much the same thing. Keep the eyes half-closed, speak slowly, trail off on your vowels and do it all with a stupid grin on your face.

In most ways, McConaughey has been playing off his character Wooderson from Dazed and Confused almost as long as he's been in Hollywood. You have to assume that's what he's like in real life. Every once in a while he turns in an interesting performance like he did in A Time To Kill or Frailty. Heck, even Reign of Fire had it's plusses because of him. But for the most part, it's slow-talkin', easy-goin' Matt.

Part of me wishes I could adopt the McConaughey philosophy in real life. I'm just not one of those people who can let stuff roll off their backs. I wish I knew the secret. I mean, I can guess what the secret is - "there is no secret. You just... be." or some other new age mumbo jumbo. But some people aren't wired to accept the Hakuna Matata interpretation of things and I'm one of them. I could probably save myself a lot of stress if I could tap into it somehow. But at the same time, I'd probably get a lot less done.

Fool's Gold is a re-paring of McConaughey and his co-star from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Kate Hudson. I have to admit, I liked How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. I thought McConaughey and Hudson had good chemsitry in that flick, so I'm not opposed to seeing them cover the same ground.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was one of those movies I initially rejected based on premise. It was too cloying, even for a romantic comedy. But I went, and it grew on me. Then it came out on DVD, and we bought it. Then it was on TBS all the time and eventually I let it into my heart.

What can I say?

Cami and I probably won't end up seeing Fool's Gold this weekend. We're saving up karma points so we can trade them in next weekend for a Valentine's Day babysitter. Both Cami and I are excited to see Definitely, Maybe It seems like the more interesting of the two romantic comedies. We'll see.

Not much else to report from the home front. Thanks for swinging by the site this week! Have a great weekend and I'll see you here on Monday!

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CAN YOU TELL ME WHO THIS IS?

by Tom on March 12, 2007 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Blog
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Okay, I need some direct feedback on this. I'm a little self-conscious and I need to see if people will recognize the person I've drawn for a t-shirt I'm putting together.

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS MAN?

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS MAN?

I don't want to provide any clues as to who it is or why I'm drawing him. I just want to know if people looking at it will immediately recognize him and say "Oh, that's so-and-so!" Otherwise, the joke in the shirt I'm designing won't work at all.

So, who do you think this is? Leave your comments below!

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DESIGN FEEDBACK

by Tom on February 12, 2007 at 12:00 am
Posted In: Blog
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Since Dave was good enough to introduce the fancy blog commenting system, I thought I would take this opportunity to utlize it for a little feedback.

You guys might remember a while back when I was trying to develop some new shirt designs for the store. As per usual, the design phase takes me for friggin' ever because I'll design, redesign, doubt myself and then hang it up. The reason for this is because you kind of have to have momentum in order to produce these things and it's a bit of a tightrope walk to keep the right amount of inventory in stock. I feel like I kind of have a good thing going on with the handful of designs I'm currently offering. But at the same time, I'm kind of bored with it and it's time to branch out.

This time I think I've got something on my hands. Something that you will like. It's a refinement of the "Opening Weekend Junkie"  concept I was floating around before. I have a few variations I would like you to inspect and, when you're finished, leave your thoughts on the comments page! Easy!

Okay, onto the designs.

1. The first design is pretty literal. Not too far from the first few drafts with the exception of a TORN ticket instead of a ticket coming out of a dispenser;

2. For the second draft, I thought to myself, "If I were really a junkie, my fonts wouldn't be so need and orderly." So I tried making things a little more askew;

3. Pushing the askew concept a little more. Throwing the fonts around at different sizes and angles;

4. At this point I started to really appreciate the simplicity of the torn ticket and thought about paring back the message a little bit. Showing a torn ticket and simply stating "junkie." pretty much gets across the same idea without throwing in the "Opening Weekend" prefix. Also, what if you're schedule is too busy to afford you the luxury of seeing movies on their opening weekend? At least this way, you can say you're a movie junkie in the general sense.

5. Simpifying further, I thought to myself "Maybe it doesn't need any text at all! Yes... the design is THAT strong." Ah, hubris.

Those are pretty much the designs to choose from. For those of you who want to see the ticket stub in more detail, you can click here.

So, what do you think. Which of these designs would you wear if any?

Be gentle. Remember what I told you about the second-guessing?

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