Archive for August, 2002
15 items.
There seems to be a lot of controversy floating around the web comics universe lately and I’m wondering where it’s all coming from.
This morning I was greeted with a message in my in box from Mambo the Breakdancing Clown. If you don’t know him, he’s the guy who draws Super Stick Figure Crime Fighters. Apparently he got his knickers in a twist for being banned from Top Web Comics for violating the terms of use.
The body of the e-mail was basically a call to arms and to rebel against TWC and its fascist ways. While I agree with Mambo that we can do without TWC, he was going at it entirely the wrong way. TWC has a right to disassociate itself with content it finds offensive.
The whole episode got me thinking about the TWC in general and I found it indicative of the problem I have with vote sites in general. If you’ve been visiting the site at all in the last 3 weeks, you would know that I had links up for TWC and was fishing for votes. I later took them down after coming to the realization that these votes don’t mean a damn thing.
Web comics like all art are entirely subjective. What I may find funny, others may not. To try and put a label on it saying “this is good, this isn’t” seems silly and a waste of time. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: If Theater Hopper fails to catch on, it’s my fault for not putting out material of quality or doing the marketing legwork to spread the word. Putting that burden on the audience by whoring for votes just seems really low class to me. I can only hope Mambo comes to the same conclusion. For the record, he later retracted his e-mail saying it was something he put together in the heat of the moment.
In other ridiculous feuds, Zach over at No Pants Tuesday picked a fight with a certain Euro-centric gaming comic. I don’t know how much of my personal feeling I should inject into this commentary. Zach is a friend of the site, so it’s kind of hard not to side with him.
What’s lame, I think is the defense Little Gamers puts up. Basically, they’re saying, “You can’t take a joke” which is fine when you put it in context to the subjectivity I was talking about earlier.
But they latched onto the bit that Zach was complaining about their bashing Americans. That’s not what I took from it. It looked to me like he was complaining more in the overall disappointment the strip had become for him – stale jokes, and what not – and that’s his prerogative. But LG took the criticism, flipped it on its head and politicized it. In my opinion, they got defensive over the wrong thing.
I guess it makes me think twice when they say Americans deserve to be made fun of because we’re violent, gun-toting freaks and then they turn around like a rabid dog lunging at a Slim Jim at the slightest provocation. That’s like me saying it’s okay to make fun of the Sweeds because they’re not worth anything more than cheese, clocks, chocolate and neutrality. It paints them with a pretty wide brush.
I’m probably only adding fuel to the fire, but for chrissakes, people! They’re only comics – you know? Funny pictures with words and all? Lighten up!
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I don’t have a lot to say about this week’s strip other than it’s a bit of a slight against my retention capabilities. In truth, it is physically impossible for me to ignore any movie I go to. Even if it really sucks, I’m still likely to retain 90% of it and spit out quotes from it at inopportune and awkward times. Same goes for TV or really any flickering image. I think it hearkens back to a time when our Cro-Magnon ancestors were captivated by a dancing flame.
…must resist urge… to grab bone… and throw it into… air!…
I know there were some media outlets predicting xXx would stay on top of the box office for a third week. I couldn’t help but smirk when it turned out Signs was the winner. Granted. $14.4 million versus $13.7 isn’t a landslide by any means, but why anyone would expect xXx to garner repeat business is beyond me. What? Did you miss how that explosion happened the first time or do you really want to study it’s intricacies. Flawed as it is, at least Signs turns the screws a little – makes you think.
What shocked me most about the weekend are the new releases. The fact that such obvious junk as Serving Sara could come in 6th place while Al Pacino and Simone languish at 9th is appalling to me. I don’t have respect for the concept of either film, but Pacino is one of the signature actors of the last 30 years. Give the man his due, then banish the flick to the dollar bin at Blockbuster.
For some reason, I’m really geared up for buying National Lampoon’s Van Wilder on DVD. I saw it in the theater last fall expecting goofy fun and it delivered exactly at that level. Some call it the Animal House for the new millennium, but how many times have you heard that sound-bite volleyed about?
Truthfully, it’s just a good-natured goof. Ryan Reynolds plays Van like a collegiate Ferris Bueller. He’s the smooth-talking friend to all everyone wants to be. Why on Earth he would fall for the raccoon-eyed hack that is Tara Reid is beyond me.
Taking into account the gross-out gags, low-brown humor and abundance of boobie shots, the film should attain cult status in no time. I would be proud to harbor it in my collection.
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The idea behind today’s strip is pretty simple: When in doubt, add monkeys. It’s a time-honored device that only the most highly skilled comedy writers bust loose when in a pinch. All you gotta do is watch the first season of Friends for proof. The writing wasn’t strong, so they hit this scene pushing the monkey to the fore. Smart move. Once the writing started to tighten up by the third season, no more monkey. Coincidence?
Not like I… watch Friends, or anything.
I read a report yesterday that said last weekend was the lowest-grossing movie weekend in 4 years. Considering that movie prices seem to keep going up, that’s quite impressive.
You see, this is what happens when studios front-load their summer schedules with blockbusters in a bid to outdo each other. Come the end of the season, we’re left to wallow in the immense crapitude of Serving Sara.
I look at the slate of new releases for the next few weeks – City by the Sea, Swimfan, Barbershop, The Four Feathers, Stealing Harvard, Moonlight Mile, The Transporter – Is anyone going to see these movies? Besides Moonlight Mile and maybe Stealing Harvard, I’m gonna say no for myself.
I hate to be down on the scene, but maybe August wasn’t the best month to start a movie strip, eh?
Good news is in the works, however. I recently raided my parents basement and found a box of really old comics I drew back in junior high. If any of you have been reading the forums, you’ll know that these doodles depicted earth-shattering battles between myself and Jared in toon-form.
I’m working on a way to get these posted to the site. Many of them are in poor shape and will probably need some sort of “commentary track” so you can understand the dialogue scrawled across the page by a manic 13 year-old. This stuff lays kind of close to the vest, so I want to give it a good treatment.
I haven’t decided if access to these forgotten gems will be contingent on a donation but it may happen. How open are the rest of you to a “Members Only Club”? If you want to give me some feedback, you can always e-mail me – also, the forums are always open.
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I gotta lot of stuff I wanna get through in this post, so get comfy.
First off, the strip. Basically it’s an answer to Wednesday strip over at Zach Miller’s No Pants Tuesday. Zach was cool enough to stick me into his “Auditions” storyline in a little cameo. You can view it here. I’m the guy in the orange shirt. Anyway, I was so flabbergasted (and I think that’s the right word), it was only fair to return the favor.
Wait. Lemme take the back. Fair? The Gods DEMANDED it! So there you go.
Thanks to Zach for the plug and thanks for letting me portray his character as a bitch-slapping loud mouth. If you’re not visiting his comic at least once every day, then you offend me personally. I wish I could draw his strip every day. For some reason, I found drawing his character easier than drawing my own! Some stiffs have all the luck…
Thursday was such a good day for me personally, I can’t help but gloat a little bit.
I got home after a particularly long day at work to find a certain package from Sony waiting for me. To my delight, it was my own personal Network Adapter for the Playstation 2. Cost to me? Jack squat!
How did I land such a sweet deal? I was one of the lucky bastards this summer to beta test the adapter. My reward was a free unit hot off the assembly line. Joy! Needless to say, I’m waving it all inches from your face taunting “Nah na-na boo boo!”
Now if I could only get an internet connection fast enough to let me use it…
Second order of business. I nuzzled into my La-Z-Boy this evening to watch the MTV Video Music Awards. I had popped a bag of corn and settled in expecting to be disappointed like I am every year. But I watch anyway because I’m an optimist at heart.
The proceedings were got off on the right foot when James Brown came out to wrap the opening number, but things were on their way to Hell in a hand basket right-quick with that extremely forced and odd birthday ode to Michael Jackson shortly after. Things weren’t a total wash, though. The back-to-back performances of The Hives and The Vines restored my faith. Plus seeing The White Stripes walk away with a few awards was justified. Have you even SEEN “Fell In Love With A Girl”? I mean, C’MON! Moooooving… Legooooo’s…
But to top it all off, GUNS AND ROSES CLOSED OUT THE SHOW!!! Did anyone else see this? I practically shat my colon when they came on stage. Axl is looking a little beefy and the voice was a bit creaky, but WOW! It was so good to see them in the flesh and blood again, words can’t describe. Of course, only Axl and Izzy are left from the original lineup, but like Jimmy Fallon said after their set, “Buckethead did his job”.
In my opinion, their performance will be what people look back on and say “This was it. THIS is what ended Britney Spears, N’Sync and all their crappy imitators. G ‘n’ R came back and showed them how it was done. Rock has returned.”
I am giddy. Giddy, giddy, giddy.
More later, but for now, visit No Pants Tuesday and also Nothing Nice to Say. Mitch was cool enough to add me to his links so I want to be sure everyone is visiting his site. Go now! (but come back later!)
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I thought it was worth it to mention that today marks the one-month anniversary of Theater Hopper. It may not seem like much of a milestone, but I’m partial to such occasions.
With only 12 strips under my belt, I consider it a freakin’ phenomenon that the site has accumulated over 1,700 unique hits and nearly 4,400 page views. This may seem like small potatoes to some people, but it means a lot to me.
I wouldn’t have gotten this far without the help of other cartoonists in the community. There are too many names to mention, but if you head over to the links page, those are the strips you should be visiting on a daily basis.
Thanks also to the readers who visit the site and keep coming back. Hopefully I will be able to provide the kind of content you like and look forward to reading.
That’s probably enough gushing for now, but I had to let it be known. I’m having too much fun doing this not to say thanks every once in a while.
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