Since we recently received 7+ inches of snow here in Iowa yesterday, I thought sharing this video was appropriate...
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Posts Tagged ‘Star Wars’
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After the idea was introduced that Tom's Father was calling to him from beyond, I started to think about the father/son themes in Tron: Legacy. It wasn't long before I transposed that exploration over to The Empire Strikes Back. Thus, a sci-fi mash-up was born. I hope you like it.
I went a little gonzo with the double-sized comic. Mostly because I knew there was no way I could fit all of it into four panels. Or, more accurately, inside the digital same real estate my average comic takes up.
So I went for broke. Decided to do a larger comic. Of course that meant the comic was a little bit late. But when you think about it, you're kind of getting two comics this week instead of one. So that shakes out, right?
Working on this strip last night, I definitely had a sense that I had bitten off more than I could chew. But I could see the goal line on the horizon. I knew even if the joke didn't go over, I would at least be happy with the results. Visually, the comic is pretty much everything I envisioned - and that's a pretty satisfying feeling.
I haven't yet managed to see Tron: Legacy yet, but monitoring the response to it on Twitter this weekend was interesting. Reactions seem to be split into two camps - people who thought the plot and dialogue was stupid while appreciating the special effects and everyone else who seemed to say "C'mon, guys! Tron: Legacy wasn't THAT bad!"
An airtight argument to be sure.
It sounds like there's enough about Tron: Legacy to admire from an effects standpoint, but I've also hear that if you're not a tech geek, it can kind of leave you cold. I'm not worried. Tron: Legacy looks like it fits directly in my wheelhouse.
I don't know when I'll get a chance to see the film. A friend of mine wants to organize a "guys night out" with a bunch of friends to go check it out together. With the holidays in the way, it might be a while before I'll finally get my chance.
Here's something I haven't heard people talking about... the 3D. Seems like Disney was push Tron: Legacy in 3D and IMAX pretty hard, but I've not heard anyone's opinions about it.
I'm kind of against the idea of seeing it in 3D. Aside from the glowing suits, the film already looks dimly lit. Why do I want to throw on a pair of 3D glasses and drop the brightness on the picture another 20%?
If you saw Tron: Legacy in 3D, what was your take? Worth it or not?
That's all for me. Feel free to leave your comments below. If you liked today's double-comic, click that little Facebook "Like" button to the lower right. I'd appreciate it.
Cheers!
This has nothing to do with anything, but I wanted to share it.
On paper, the idea of replacing Darth Vader's dialogue from Star Wars with other random lines from James Earl Jones's career sounds inventive, but not profoundly humorous.
Then you watch the video mash-up and realize how wrong you were.
For a generation that grew up knowing James Earl Jones from his roles in movies like Conan the Barbarian, Coming to America and Field of Dreams, you forget there was a period in the 70's where he played a lot of tough talking soul bruthahs that are played to hilarious effect here.
This blog was lost when Theater Hopper moved to WordPress in January 2009
THE COMMUNITY CENTER REC ROOM WAS BOOKED
on November 10, 2004 at 12:00 am
(6 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)
Another Star Wars comic? Why not? It's in the news right now and it's good to kind of dust off some old nerd jokes before we're deluged with Star Wars coverage next May. I thought the idea of a Star Wars fan club sounded funny and ran with it. Expect a continuation of today's strip on Friday.
I'm kind of trying something new with how I'm rendering the background and the environment the characters reside in When Theater Hopper started, it was pretty much just a couple of characters in front of a colored background. Eventually, I moved up to gradients. Then evolved toward putting two gradients together to form the illusion of two walls meeting at a corner. Sometimes I would toss in a window to complete the effect.
But I've always felt that that background should be more realistic. Or, at least as realistic as the characters in the strip to create a wholly realized situation. So I'm experimenting a little bit.
I took digital pictures of my kitchen and family room last night and used them as a point of reference when drawing Tom and Cami. Later, I went into Adobe Illustrator and used the pen tool to create the shelves, cabinets and walls in the background. It didn't really turn out the way I wanted to. Everything looks slightly skewed. Not as tidy as I hoped. I think it was a mistake to outline everything in black. The colors should look more natural, like its part of the bigger background piece. I ended up blurring it to try and create depth, then scaled back the colors because it was competing too much with the foreground.
Obviously all of this is a learning process, but I need to find a way to create more realistic backgrounds more efficiently. I know some of you are saying "Why don't you try drawing them by hand, Tom." And in the past, I have. But it's often too time consuming and not as clean as I would like it to be.
I know some people have complimented me for the use of photos in the backgrounds, but that's always felt like a cheat to me and lazy. Plus, it becomes inconsistent with other comics in the archive. Sometimes within the same comic!
I know other artists sometimes use 3D rendering programs to help them grasp the clean lines and perspectives of walls, buildings, windows
So in addition to The Incredibles doing over $70 million in box office this weekend, the big movie news is the release of the Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith teaser poster and trailer.
Personally, I'm not bowled over. I felt they spent too much time highlighting the footage from the older movies and then whizzing past anything of interesting from the new movie after that.
Perhaps my expectations are a little high - it is a TEASER trailer, after all. But, surprisingly, watching the Episode III teaser has not whetted my appetite in the least in regards to seeing this movie. It has a very rushed feeling. Not in the sense that there are a lot of quick edits and all the images are slapped together. But almost like someone forgot that it was due. I'm just imagining some guy out at LucasFilm looking at his Palm Pilot saying "So when does this movie come out? MAY 19TH?! CRAP! Quick! Get a teaser trailer out there!"
All I'm saying is that I remember back in 1998 when the teaser for Episode I - The Phantom Menace came out. I was sitting in my dorm room back at college, taking advantage of the high speed internet connection and I watched that trailer with the sound cranked up. I had chills. It was that good.
Fast forward to 2004 and I think the older generation of Star Wars fans have come to the grim conclusion that George Lucas is not making these movies for us, but the next generation of 8 year-olds that want to wield a light saber. Sure, we'll all plunk down our cash for the last chapter, but we all know the soul evaporated from this franchise a long time ago... in a galaxy far, far away.
...Marin County, California...
Something I totally forgot last week and I've been kicking myself over was the guest strip I did for Joe and Monkey. Zach posted it on Friday and I totally ignored it! I have no excuse. He even e-mailed me to remind me.
In any case, check out Joe and Monkey. If you want to see my guest strip, you can view it here.
I'd also like to point out our new sponsors, Niego and Wacky Comics. Both two excellent web comics for your entertainment purposes. I really dig Niego's style. It's simple, yet expressive. It looks like it would have no problem fitting into a syndicated comics page of a large-circulation newspaper. Wacky Comics recently celebrated their 100th comic and it has a very playful style.
I saw The Incredibles this weekend and I'm still thinking about it. I'm thinking about it SO much in fact, that I'm trying to put together an honest-to-goodness review for you guys to read! It's been a LONG time since I've done one of those.
Oh, by the way. Those of you that ordered shirts? Well, I got an e-mail from the printer and the shirts are being shipped to me TODAY. That means I should have them in the next couple of days and you guys will get your shirts before Thanksgiving! How does that sound!
Yeah... sounds good. It's a weight off my shoulders!
THEY’RE CALLED UGNAUGHTS, BY THE WAY
on May 31, 2004 at 12:00 am(12 votes, average: 8.08 out of 10)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is coming out this Friday, and as much as I'm not looking forward to trying to remember how to spell "Azkaban" each time I write in this space (A word I will continue to mispronounce until the day I die), I AM looking forward to the movie. SO much, in fact that all of this week's buzzComix incentive sketches have a Harry Potter theme. Click here for the very first one - Tom as Hagrid!
Sorry for the lateness of today's comic, but Memorial Day festivities got in the way. I'm sure you understand. At any rate, a comic Monday afternoon is better than no comic at all!
I feel that I've accurately depicted the social order of Potter-mania in the Brazelton household. Cami is a much bigger fan than I am. She's read all of the books. Even that last one that weighed a metric ton. I've only seen the movies. I enjoy the franchise, I'm not just as obsessive as some people are about it.
Don't get me wrong. I think what J.K. Rowling has done for children's literature is phenomenal success. But I can't get wrapped up in books who's entire core has been forged out of nonsensical slang words like "Hufflepuff", "remembral" "McGonagall" and "Dumbledore" - all of which cause the spellchecker in my copy of Microsoft Word to freak out and sternly say "No. Just...no." Incidentally, it's the same reason I could never get into A Clockwork Orange. Just couldn't work my way around the lexicon. Oh, those Brits and their funny words! Think I'm kidding? One word: Teletubbies.
# THE REST OF THIS BLOG WAS LOST WHEN THEATER HOPPER MOVED TO WORDPRESS IN JANUARY 2009 #
So as you can see, I've rounded out the last four of the Ten Commandments of Movie Watching. I know there was some anticipation out there waiting to see where it ended up. I hope you aren't disappointed. If anything, I hope you enjoyed getting an extra comic on Tuesday. Keep checking the site. You'll get another extra comic tomorrow.
I wanted to mention that I finally got off my can and updated some sections in the Bonus Materials area. I placed last week's guest comic as well as a couple others from when I went to New York for New Year's Eve. You can check them out here.
I also updated the cameo page. This is where I hook you up with all the little appearances Theater Hopper characters have turned up across web comic land. This time through, there are two more to add to the list. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom on both pages for the new stuff.
I still have some art to add to the "guest strips that I've drawn" page as well as to the fan art section. I feel awful, because I've been sitting on some of this stuff for a long time. But it's a start, right?
Beyond that, nothing much to say. I'm VERY excited for the weekend's movie offerings. Kill Bill Vol. 2 predominantly on my mind. I'm also looking forward to seeing The Punisher, even though I know it will suck horribly. It'll be a bittersweet few days. But I gotta support the boys at Marvel. If anything, I'm brand-loyal.
Anyway, I'll be sure to hit all these topics more in the next few days. Until then, take it easy!
I have to admit I was a bit nervous trying to come up with an idea to follow Monday's strip. I had received so much positive feedback for what I felt was a relatively simple notion, I felt pressure to one-up my previous effort. If today's strip is a case of over-kill, I wouldn't know it. I've been stressing too much to see past it.
All things the same, I think it turned out pretty well. Can you figure out all the geek-related material I'm spoofing? They're all pretty easy to identify. I was going to label them in the blog, but then I realized my audience isn't a gaggle of dum-dums. Thank God for that!
Like everyone else, when seeing The Matrix Reloaded, the question isn't "If" but "When"? I'm trying to figure it out. Part of me would like to be in line Thursday night - to experience that anticipation like the event it is. Then I step back and realize that I'm supposed to be responsible and go to work on Friday. That, coupled with the fact I would draw Friday's strip Thursday night all but nix the option to see it opening day.
Fortunately, one of the side-effects of being responsible is being patient. I can wait - barely.
I'd like to point out that posters are still for sale and that if you would like to support the site, PLEASE BUY ONE! We're nearly reached the half way point, now let's finish strong!
I've received several orders through the mail - checks, money orders and cash. So if you're not comfortable mailing a payment through PayPal, e-mail me and we can make other arrangements!
Last thing I'll mention: I know I've talked about it a million times before. But I am very close to bringing back the forum.
Early fans of the site might remember I had one for a month or two, then put the kibosh on it when I decided the readership wasn't large enough to support it. I've always maintained that I would bring it back if I felt it could stand on it's own two legs. It looks like that time is rapidly approaching. So get ready for that.
Oh, I almost forgot. If you're not too busy, could you be sure to vote for Theater Hopper at TWC? I'm inching up on Montana Hills and would love to settle in to the number 13 spot on the list sometime soon. Lucky 13!
