I know today’s comic doesn’t say anything specifically related to movies, but it’s the middle of a story arc riffing on the gluteal fortitude required to sit through The Lord of The Rings: Return of the King – opening today.

Cut me some slack. It’ll all pay off on Friday. Trust me.

No doubt some of you are viewing today’s strip, blurred vision and weary from the midnight showings they started yesterday. If I didn’t have a job I cared about, I would be totally there. But now that I’m an old man, that kind of time commitment is going to result in a comatose Tommy in the morning.

Think about it. If the movie is 3 and a half hours and the commute back home is 30 minutes, you’re looking at maybe 2 and a half hours sleep before you’ve gotta turn around and start the rat race. I mean, I’ve gone on no sleep before, but I’m turning 26 on Sunday. I think that means I have to put a cap on irregular sleep patterns and, as my Dad might say, “Get a solid 8 hours every night.”

Reviews for Return of the King have been overwhelmingly positive. Many reviewers are willing to give a pass on the extraordinary length of the picture. The only sticking point I’ve heard so far is that there are 6 endings to tie up lose story arcs. That’s okay by me. Give Peter Jackson a little breathing room to say goodbye. The man only spent the better part of a decade producing these films.

I’m excited by the legacy Jackson has left behind. When you think of it, there really hasn’t been a series of movies told with such artistic clarity. The rules of the universe are so set, it’s quite an accomplishment. We’ll be watching these movies the rest of our lives just like Star Wars or Indiana Jones and it will be all over starting tomorrow. Think about that as your ass starts to go numb somewhere around the 2 and half hour mark.

In web comic news, I reported the sad end to Movie Punks in Monday’s blog, but as it turns out, another movie-themed web comic closed their doors only shortly after. Mr. Furious pulled the plug on Movie Comics on Monday as well.

Both Brian Carroll of Instant Classic and I have been trading our thoughts over the matter and we’re still stunned. I think, for some reason, this hits close to home for us since we all shared the same genre. I mean, between the four of us, I can’t think of any other prominent web comics about movies. So you have 4 guys in your sphere of influence doing the same thing. Suddenly, that number cuts in half. It’s shocking.

Mr. Furious and I didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but I have respect for the following he was able to cultivate for himself (albeit sometimes under somewhat controversial means).

Controversy seemed to be Movie Comics bread and butter. If it wasn’t the Penny Arcade ripoff claims, there would be some kind of drama between Furious and once co-writer Breezebringer. It was always something. And people always came back for more. Say what you want, but Movie Comics fan base was LOYAL. That’s something.

Truthfully, I felt Furious was really coming into his own in the last few months he was producing. It would have been interesting to see where he could have taken things had real life not gotten in the way.

When it’s all said and done, I think Furious went out on a very classy note. I wanted to publicly thank him for referring his readers to this site with a link from his last blog. That says a lot about his character that he would share the wealth like that and I appreciate it.

R.I.P. – Movie Comics