Posts Tagged ‘surprise’
8 items.
Jared found Maximum Overdrive to be “very enjoyable”? Now does everyone understand why he takes the brunt of the violence in the strip?
Still, I gotta give him props on that rap. Most of mine went more like:
My name is Tom
and I’m here to say
I can get funky
almost every day!
See what I’m talkin’ about? Ahhh, you kids don’t know nuthin’! Why, I my day, we didn’t rap about killing your Mom or smoking blunts! We rapped about sneakers and people who talk too much!
Word!
[ No Comments ]
There’s no reason on Earth to assume that Road to Perdition was indirectly based on a comic-book. Watching the film, you certainly don’t get that feeling. None the less, it’s the truth. It’s just one of those little bits of trivia you whip out during polite conversation to prove just how “inside” you are when it comes to the behind-the-scene stuff. I’ll be my left nut there wasn’t a single person who watched this movie thinking “This looks like a comic book!” without some advance knowledge.
Of course, the term “comic book” tends to have negative connotations in this country. Chalk it up to the medium’s seedier pulp noir days. In Japan, the stuff is a friggin’ art form! All revered and stuff. They consider it actual literature. Now there’s a country I wouldn’t mind trading notes with.
I seriously don’t understand why comic books are dismissed so readily in the states. Something about their perceived youthful demographic makes them like books-with-training-wheels to most adults. But that’s simply not the case. There are tons of great stories being told with pretty pictures.
Let me ask you this: Why is it cool for someone over the age of… oh, let’s say 25, to dis a comic book, but then turn around and read some trash “novel” by Danielle Steel? Why is it acceptable to look down your nose at TV shows like Smallville, but that black hole of stereotypical dreck My Big Fat Greek Life gets a prime time spot behind 60 Minutes? Why do some people look down their nose at a film like Daredevil, but insist on seeing Maid in Manhattan twelve times?
I’m sure some would argue that the production values of comic book properties eternally ties it to the realm of low-grade cheese. But that’s less and less the case anymore.
Hmm… ran out of “rant power”… I guess all I’m saying is quit being such elitist snobs. Yeah. There you go.
In sad, sad, SAD news, I’m taking Cami to the airport this morning (VERY early – 4:00 AM – Yech!) so she can catch her flight to New York for a conference she’s attending. I’ll catch up with her on Saturday, but I don’t know what I’m gonna do with myself for three days. Probably laundry. Best not to think about it.
If you’re interested in participating in next week’s guest strip marathon, there are still spots available, so drop me a line. Comic dimensions should be no wider than 525 pixels (to keep the site layout from going all wonky). Funniest stuff goes to the fore. Try to include the TH characters if you can.
I gotta go to bed. Long day ahead of me tomorrow. My job is like, 15 minutes from the airport, so once I drop Cami off, there’s really no reason to go back home just to turn around and fight rush hour traffic. Oh, the things we do for those we love…
[ 1 Comment ]
First things first. Theater Hopper has slipped down to the number two spot on the Web Comics List. I think I know why. You guys haven’t had any new incentive sketches since last Friday. It’s understandable that we’d take a little slide since last Friday’s sketch was, admittedly, a little lame.
But no worries! Today’s sketch is five times awesome! Vote for Theater Hopper to witness Ben Affleck in his post-bee attack state! Everyone wins!
Second order of business. Thanks for giving me the day off on Monday. Between packing up our stuff, hauling furniture up flights of stairs and performing the family and social obligations of the holiday weekend, I was far too depleted to come up with anything original or witty.
I feel bad about it because I’m not one to normally miss updates. And although most of my American readers were probably out celebrating the Independence Day holiday, my international readers got the short end of the stick and no updates at all! For that, I apologize, mes amis.
I think it worked out for the best, though. Because I’ve been sitting on the idea for this strip since last Thursday when I learned Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner got married and I wanted as many people to see it as possible. I’m just really happy with the way it turned out.
In case you’re only vaguely familiar with the site, Mr. Affleck and our good friend Jared have been entangled in violent encounters since February of 2003. In fact, they’ve met on several different occasions. So many times, in fact, that I’m considering assembling all the strips where their paths cross and selling it as “Ben Affleck’s Greatest Hits.” It would sell like hot cakes, I tell you. If it ever came to fruition, this would undoubtedly be the cover:
I have to give points to Affleck for keeping his nuptials hush-hush. Fleeing the country to wed in a private ceremony is much more preferable than the J.Lo spectacle of a year or so back. Who care if Jennifer Garner is knocked up! It was the classy thing to do.
I wonder though, does this mean that Affleck is starting to mature? Does becoming a family man mean that he can no longer be the object of my scorn and ridicule? Who else will I hold up as my bloated, only-in-it-for-the-money avatar of Hollywood excess? Whatever happened to the hard partyin’, hard drinking’, hard gambling, stripper tippin’ Ben of yore?
Oh, well. I suppose I should be happy for him. I think he did himself a service marrying someone with a strong jawline than his. Now there will be NO MISTAKING who the “man” in the relationship is!
Oh, c’mon! You know I can’t resist!
[ No Comments ]
I’m sure if the sky really did start to fall, it wouldn’t be as dramatic or as comical as Disney’s Chicken Little. It would probably be mildly annoying and barely funny at all – kind of like today’s incentive sketch.
I was actually amped at one point to see Chicken Little, but the reviews it’s been getting have been brutal. "Uninspired," "self-referential in substitution of wit" and "Pixar does it better" are some of the more harsh barbs that come to mind.
I guess I shouldn’t be totally surprised. I really haven’t had that much faith in Disney movies since Atlantis: The Lost Empire came out in 2001. It’s been downhill from there. Treasure Planet? Interesting concept, poor execution. Home on the Range? Did anyone even see that? I suppose not if Roseanne Barr is your lead actress.
Chicken Little seemed different. At least from outward apperances. Casting Zach Braff in the title role lends it geek credibility, but I don’t know if I’m going to pay good money and dumb myself down for 90 minutes just for Zach Braff.
On the other end of the pendulm this week is Jarhead. Sam Mendes from American Beauty is behind the lens and it looks pretty good. I’ve read reviews that say the movie is essentially about nothing. And not in that funny Seinfeld way. Nothing in the sense that the soldiers depicted on film fight absolutely no battles. They just sit on their hands waiting for action. A few critics have bristled at this, but Gulf War veterans are calling it the most realistic war movie ever made because that’s what actually happened. All this build up for war and then… nothing. The anticipation of what could happen eating away at you. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Politically, I don’t know how closely it’ll mirror our current situation in the MIddle East nor do I know if it has to. But you look at something like this and your mind kind of leaps to that conclusion – "What’s the secret meaning behind all this?"
In any case, Cami and I won’t be seeing either film this weekend. Steve Martin’s Shopgirl (which I dissected in this strip) and which was given a soft release in select markets last week finally comes to Des Moines on Friday. Both Cami and I were big fans of Martin’ s original novella. In fact, I also own his book "The Pleasure of My Company" and his collected essays – "Pure Drivel". Great stuff. I might actually have to read Pure Drivel again. It’s been a while since I looked at it.
I think casing Claire Danes as Mirabell is inspired. She does that world-weary, sad-sack-but-emotionally-mature-and-brilliant thing exceptionally well ever since My So-Called Life. Of course no one could play the detached, yet sophisticated Ray Porter better than Martin himself. I have to give extra points for whoever decided to bring on Jason Schwartzman as Jermey. Not only because I think he’s a very effective comic actor, but because he snagged the role from Jimmy Fallon after he dropped out. That version of the movie I don’t think I would have enjoyed as much.
I have some more thoughts relating to the new stuff I threw in the rotating top banner that I’ll come back and express later today. In the meantime, enjoy your Friday – whereever you are!
[ No Comments ]
Whoops. Looks like I forgot to upload today’s incentive sketch. Oh, well. I’ll do it when I get home tonight. Besides, the Chuck Norris one is still funny, right?
So you know, this is the start of a new story arc featuring talking appliances. I have a certain statement I want to make with Tom’s new talking DVD player, but I’m going to let it unfold on its own for the time being. I don’t want to give away too much of the story right now because I’m pretty excited about where I want to take it.
Not much to report from this weekend. My good buddy Brian and I were going to try and take all of Theater Hopper and sneak it over to a new server. Weekend visitors might have noticed that the THorum was down in advance of that. But otherwise, it was supposed to be supah-smooth.
Of course me, like a dummy, forgot to forward the DNS before midnight on Saturday so that it would give us enough time to move over before todays update. Wouldn’t have mattered. I tried accessing my account at GoDaddy.com and I was getting errors when I tried it anyway.
So the hope is that everything will be moved over next week. Business as usual this week.
I got a bunch of really good work done on the book collecting the first year of Theater Hopper strips. I’m about a third of the way through it. There will be 169 comics with commentary from yours truly on each one. Probably a few extras, too. My hope is to have the book completed before March 25. That’s the first day of the Kansas City Plant Comicon Comic Book convention, which I plan on attending. If I don’t have the book, I won’t have much reason for going because all I will have to sell is overstock on my t-shirt inventory. It’s a pretty tight deadline, but if I concentrate hard, I think I can make it. It’s difficult trying to find time to squeeze in work on this book between my full-time job, updating Theater Hopper and the rest of my life! I HAVE to have the book completed by August 3 because that’s the first date of Wizard World Chicago. If I don’t have my book ready by that date, then 2006 is going to be a complete wash for me.
But like I said, if I put my nose to the grindstone, I’m sure I can do it. Who knows – the process might get streamlined to the point that I might have Year Two in production in time for Wizard World! How cool would that be!
When the book is completed, I’m going to need everyone’s help to get it made. There is a very steep up front cost to producing this book. I’m not using a print-on-demand service like LuLu. I’m going through a traditional small-press operation and they demand a minimum order amount. I’ll be doing pre-orders to help meet the up-front cost. Pre-ordering is a good idea anyway. It secures your order before the book is even published. So you know that if you want one, you won’t run the risk of me running out of books. A good deal!
Anyway, that’s about it for now. If I have something else to share, be sure to check back here!
[ No Comments ]
Sincere thanks to everyone who was patient waiting for this comic. It was supposed to be posted on Friday, but due to the fact that the triple A batteries in my wireless keyboard ran out and I didn’t have any fresh ones in the house, it had to wait.
Pan’s Labyrinth has been on my radar for what feels like months and this is the first time in a long while I can remember being excited about any movie that has opened in late January. Typically this is the studio dumping ground. You hardly ever see anything this inventive.
Of course, if you want to get technical, Pan’s Labyrinth was already released last year (to make it an Oscar contender) and it’s only now being released wide. I don’t care. I’ve been starving for something of substance.
It’s true that Cami originally shot down the notion that we would be going to Pan’s Labyrinth. She wasn’t interested – bottom line. I think she felt she "served her time" when she sat through nine hours of Lord of the Rings. Fantasy isn’t really her bag.
But for whatever reason, I don’t really think of Pan’s Labyrinth as fantasy. Sure, it has fantasy elements. But I’m almost less interested in stories about fauns and faeries than I am about seeing Guilliermo del Toro’s interpretation of them. I mean, Hellboy wasn’t that great of a movie. But I think his attention to detail and design pushed it from a so-so movie into a visually rich and textured one. No small task for comic book fare.
At any rate, in order to put Pan’s Labyrinth on the viewing docket, I had to pledge to Cami that I would see that new movie with Diane Keaton where she’s still desperate to prove she’s sexually viable – Because I Said So. Did anyone think of the implications of what Something’s Gotta Give would wrought? Why do I want to see movies about horny people in their 60’s? Or is that a double standard since I happen to enjoy the Grumpy/Grumpier Old Men movies? Then again… Ann Margret. RWWOR!
Thanks again for your patience waiting for the delayed comic. I appreciate it. See you here (on time) on Monday!
[ No Comments ]
Maybe it’s the lack of sleep, but this comic was WAY funnier in my head. I’m trying to play the fourth panel straight. Like peeing your pants at the sight of the Iron Man 2 trailer is a perfectly acceptable and normal reaction.
I think maybe I didn’t make bed-ridden Tom look disheveled enough by the trailer watching experience. The world may never know.
Sorry to be so self-deprecating first thing in the morning. Nothing more endearing than a comedian who immediately apologizes for then over-explains his joke. This is what happens when you operate on 4 hours of sleep several days in a row.
I used to be much better on no sleep. In the past, I could sleep for 4 hours and be fine the next day. I think the problem in this situation is that the sleeping I’m getting is constantly being interrupted. It’s as if waking up resets what counts as sleep. So instead of the 4 or 5 hours I know I’m getting, it feels more like the 30 minutes I got before my alarm went off and I was forced to start my day.
All these things will level out soon. I promise.
I also promise not to make EVERY post about being a new father and the demands of my time as a result of it.
In case you missed it last night, we made a very special announcement regarding The Triple Feature – the movie podcast I’ve been doing every Monday night for the last 3 years with Joe Dunn of Joe Loves Crappy Movies and Gordon McAlpin of Multiplex.
Last night we announced that next Monday’s show – Monday, January 11, 2009 – will be our last.
I’m bummed about it, but I think it’s the right thing to do. It’s getting increasingly difficult for the three of us to schedule anything in advance of the show and now that I have two kids I’m hardly seeing ANY movies these days. I enjoy moderating the conversations between Gordon and Joe, but I also wish I could participate more.
Gordon has his reasons of wanting to end the show. Joe, too. What’s important is that we aren’t ending the show with any animosity for each other. It was just simply time to move on.
To be frank, I don’t think any of us thought that it would last this long, but we’ve had a lot of fun doing it and appreciate the support of the listeners for the last three years.
At any rate, if you want more information about our reasons for closing up shop, visit The Triple Feature page on TalkShoe.com and download Monday’s show. We hadn’t recorded a show since November 30, so getting back together on Monday was a blast. I was laughing so hard I was crying at one point.
Of course, then again, it could have been the sleep deprivation.
Our final show will be next Monday at 9:00 PM CST. We’re going to list our Top 10 movies for 2009 and we plan to go a little long. Please help us spread the word about the show so we can go out with a bang. It would be great if you guys could set aside some time to call in. We want to make it a party.
That’s all for now. Not much else for me to talk about. I hope everyone is well and Happy Wednesday!
[ 8 Comments ]
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!
[ 2 Comments ]
