Archive for February, 2004
16 items.
If everyone can participate in the ritual of voting for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix, it would be a great bit of timing on your part. Y’see, the counters have reset at BuzzComix and we want to make a big impression for the first of the month. Remember, you get a new incentive sketch each Monday, Wednesday and Friday as a reward for voting!
I don’t have too much for you blog-wise. I got home late from a Super Bowl party and I’ve pretty much spent the rest of the weekend digging out from a snow storm that wont stop dumping its payload. I *really* looking forward to going to work tomorrow!
I’m not sure how many of you watched the Super Bowl last night, but I thought it was a pretty good game. The second half, at least. Nothing happened in those first two quarters.
Did you catch the half time show with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake? If you missed it, you should be kicking yourself right now. The news has pretty much already circumnavigated the globe, but on Sunday night Janet Jackson flashed about 80 million television viewers.
We weren’t sure if what we saw was what we thought happened. We couldn’t even be sure if it was staged or not! Luckily, the TV we were watching the game on was equipped with TiVo and we rewound and paused the infamous moment repeatedly to determine if our eyes had deceive us.
Is it sad this was the biggest event of my weekend?
Oh, well. Onto more important matters. Everyone needs to visit Maveric PC. If you’re in the market for a new personal computer, go to these guys first. They’ll build you a screaming system. If that wasn’t enough, each system comes with a DVD drive and – as an extra bonus – when you purchase any Maveric system, you get a DVD movie for FREE! Choices include The Matrix Reloaded, X2: X-Men United, Bad Boys II, Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers Special Edition and Versus. It’s a great deal you can’t pass up.
Check out Maveric PC and tell them Theater Hopper sent you. It’s a great company that deserves your business!
Take care. Talk to everyone soon!
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First things first. Can’t forget to feed the monkey. Please vote for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix. We’ve slipped down the list a little ways after being in the second spot on the list for a short while. I know we can rally the troops! And I think you’ll be extra-pleased with today’s incentive voting graphic!
Not much going on with this comic other than how I’m still flabbergasted that such a ridiculous movie like You Got Served could claim the top of the box office this weekend. It’s like I said in Monday’s blog, it’s the Kangaroo Jack of 2004. A film that has no business being foisted upon a mass audience and here it is raking in the dough.
I think the only reason You Got Served did any business is because of the lousy winter weather across the country affecting people’s judgment. I know I’m a little loopy after shoveling my driveway 8 times in 8 days. My forearms are screaming in pain.
Hopefully Barbershop 2 can knock it off it’s perch this weekend. I never got around to seeing the original, but it looks funny as hell. I hope the sequel doesn’t disappoint.
Everyone should take a moment to visit our newest sponsor Exterminatus Now! Using character models from the Sonic the Hedgehog game series, it has a great hand drawn style – very cartoonish, but sharp and detailed. It’s a web comic I think is well worth your time. It updates every Friday. Check it out!
That’s it for now. Sorry I don’t have more amusing anecdotes, but I think all the Excedrin I’m taking for muscle pain is thinning the blood going to my brain.
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Feb06
Would you care to vote for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix? Did you know there’s a special incentive sketch waiting for you if you do? Clicky, clicky.
Cami and I are actually pretty excited about seeing Miracle this weekend. I think part of it is because this season has been total crap for new movies and also because we both like Kurt Russell. The guy just brings awesome gravity to his roles. He’s kind of like Dennis Quaid in a respect. Both of them just seem to quietly get better the older they get.
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I have to laugh at the serious anchorman hair Russell is forced to wear as coach Herb Brooks for this period piece. That thing looks like rocks would ricochet off of it if regardless of the velocity at which you chucked one at his head. People actually dressed like this in 1980? Oh, yeah. I guess they did. Thanks for nothing, Reaganomics!
How twisted is it that I want to see a movie based around hockey and filmed mostly on ice when right outside my window a massive snowstorm is dumping 4 to 8 inches in front of my garage. Oh, yeah. Really looking forward to driving around this weekend.
Here’s something of note: I recently dropped the rates for advertising in the ad pools. If you have a web site, you can seriously get a lot of bang for your buck. Imagine 50,000 ad views for only $7! Well, it’s happening, baby. So check it out.
I also wanted to announce a new donating incentive. If you guys donate to the site, not only will you get your name on The Walk of Fame and possibly a great Theater Hopper wallpaper for your computer, but ALL donators will be given access to a secret area in the forum that only donators can see! What will go on in there? Clandestine conversations? Secret recipes? I don’t know. But it’s possible you could see some extra behind-the-scenes content! I’m considering archive all the old BuzzComix incentive sketches in there. Something to think about!
I hope everyone has a great weekend! See you all back here on Monday!
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*THE BLOG POST FOR THIS COMIC WAS LOST WHEN THEATER HOPPER MOVED TO WORDPRESS IN JANUARY 2009*
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Be sure to check out our latest sponsor Destined For Nothing. They’ve advertised with Theater Hopper before and have been nice enough to do so again. The comic is a great piece of social and political satire which is sorely lacking in the web comic scene if you ask me. Check it out and be enlightened!
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I totally forgot to mention it, but Cami and I ended up going to Miracle on Friday night. It almost didn’t happen. Des Moines saw it’s 3 huge snowstorm in two weeks that day and it dumped another 4 inches on us. I spent an hour and a half shoveling out drifts from my driveway when I got home. By the time I was finished, I didn’t want to go anywhere!
But then movie geekdom got the better of me. I realized that if we didn’t see Miracle Friday night, we probably wouldn’t see it at all that weekend. Saturday night we were having dinner with friends and Sunday night is my all-important Simpsons/Sex and the City/Curb Your Enthusiasm entertainment block. I would go to a matinee… but I’m not 80 years old.
So, we caught the late show on Friday. By the way, did anyone else know that Miracle was over 2 hours long? Who would have guessed.
I really enjoyed the movie and that says a lot because I’m not usually one for sports movies nor do I know anything about hockey. Compound the issue with the fact that I already know how it ends and, well… that’s one sticky wicket.
Still, Miracle hits all the right notes. Inspiring. Emotional. Poignant without being too over the top. You can tell it was made with great care toward the players and their stories.
Kurt Russell knocks it out of the park (to mix metaphors) with his portrayal of Herb Brooks. He spends most of the movie being a hard ass to his players, but there are moments where Russell disarms him so completely with only a few glances… it’s amazing. It really is one of the best performances of his career.
I don’t know if anyone is going to walk out of Miracle thinking it’ll be a big Oscar winner. Most likely, we’ll forget about it by June. But it IS a finely-crafted movie and probably the best one of the year so far. See it now before it drops out of theaters.
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So The Cult of Sandler is taking a road trip in continuation of this week’s storyline. Be sure to check Monday’s comic if you missed it. Don’t worry. I’ll tie up all the loose ends on Friday. (My attention span isn’t that long, either!)
I’m not totally sure where I’m manifesting these strips this week. I know today’s is certainly off-beat. All I know is that the thought of some quasi-mystical Adam Sandler worshipers playing guessing games in a soccer mom van made me giggle uncontrollably. Maybe it’s Seasonal Affectional Disorder. I must not be getting enough sunlight.
By the way, if you’re wondering why I’m committing a week to spoofing Adam Sandler, it’s because his new movie 50 First Dates comes out on Friday. Cami is making me go, there’s no two ways about it. Not that I’m not looking forward to it. On the contrary, there are great psychological benefits to watching Drew Barrymore smack Rob Schneider over the head with a baseball bat. Get those endorphins pumping!
Not much else going on in my life at the moment. I guess one of the houses on my street caught fire tonight. We live in kind of a new area and there a few finished homes without families in them, so I don’t know if anyone was hurt. There was maybe 5 large fire trucks blocking off the street. Their red and blue lights were flashing for hours. It kept freaking out our beagle Truman. He didn’t know what they hell they were.
Truman’s birthday is the 22nd. He’ll be two years old. Cami thinks I should do a comic about it.
I’d better stop here before this tangent goes flying off into space. It’s late.
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I just wanted to call everyone’s attention to a few things.
First, please visit our latest advertiser Stickman Limited. The name of the comic is an apt description – truth in advertising! – but it’s a good comic, so please loan them a little link-love.
You’ll notice their advertisement right beneath the comic. I wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that this is your opportunity to also place an ad in this space. This is a great bargain, folks. 50,000 ad views for $7. The crew at Stickman Limited was smart enough to know a great deal when they see one.
Wanted to hook up my good friend Brian Carroll over at Instant Classic with a shout out. The server that IC was being hosted on was struck by the MyDoom virus. That’s why you didn’t see his site for a while. Then, once they brought it back up, he lost FTP access to his server. Well, everything is back to normal now and as a matter of fact, Brian just uploaded a new strip today. Welcome him back!
Lastly, did anyone notice this? How long has it been out there?
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If you vote for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix, prepare to go to infinity… and beyond!
So today is the culmination of The Cult of Sandler storyline. I’ve been getting some really positive feedback on it, so I guess you enjoyed it! Who knows, maybe our favorite cloaked fanboys will reappear sometime! They seemed to have gone over pretty well.
I feel a little guilty that I’m not doing a Valentine’s Day related strip. You might remember this time last year when I wrapped up my Ben Affleck/Daredevil storyline with some loving sentiment. I like doing that kind of stuff, y’know? Proclaiming my love in public. It’s fun!
The web comic landscape certainly seems to be shifting recently. First Movie Punks and Movie Comics called it quits. Now Mall Monkeys is closing up shop, too. Damn shame. Those guys really left an impression on the community – good or bad, they left an impression.
Of course, I can’t complain too much when co-conspirator Mitch Clem is bringing back Nothing Nice to Say! Start pounding the drums of war now, kiddies. Mitch is coming back to show us how it’s done!
Beyond that, I hope everyone has a good Hallmark holiday. It’s funny. In the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, I’m super cynical. I don’t want to give gifts and remind everyone that the holiday was invented by marketing people to help the diamond industry sell more engagement rings.
But then I sit down and think about how much I love Cami and everything I want to do for her and things aren’t so curmudgeonly after all. I mean, if you were going to celebrate anything, love is a good place to start!.
Take care, everyone.
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Real quick: Be sure to vote for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix. The recently introduced a new system that makes their top list more accurate. If you sign up for a free account, you can tag all of your favorite comics so it makes it easier to vote! And don’t forget, every time you vote for Theater Hopper, you get a sneak peek at some extra artwork as our way of say thanks!
Today’s comic is the third time I’ve acknowledged the fourth wall. That’s not a big deal for a lot of comics, but when I started Theater Hopper, I had a specific set of guidelines. I didn’t want to get too self-referential or “inside”.
I also tried to refrain from introducing any fantasy elements without some kind of tether to reality. Well, with The Cult of Sandler and Cami shooting fireballs out of her hands last week, I figured those guidelines are either in serious disrepair or jettisoned completely out the window. It’s probably for the best. This isn’t a journal comic, after all.
As you’ve probably gathered, Cami and I did see 50 First Dates on Friday. We went to the late show expecting the first showing to be packed with goofy 14 year olds. When we arrived for our 9:30 showing, there was hardly anyone in the theater. Of course, by the time they got through all the previews, all the goof 14 year olds showed up… late… and chattering like monkeys as they tried to find their seat.
Some obnoxious woman and her sister (mom?) plopped down next to me and proceeded to spend the entire time before the previews discussing how sick and contagious they were. Coughing, hacking, spitting… All I could think of was some noxious green cloud straining to be filtered by my lungs as we sat there in the darkness.
Seriously, people. If you’re so sick you’re complaining about it to everyone in earshot STAY HOME!
As for the movie itself, it was enjoyable. The cinematography was certainly a notch or two higher than Billy Madison, I can tell you that much! Drinking in all these lush vistas, I kept thinking “I have to go to Hawaii. I have to go to Hawaii.” like some sort of drunken mantra.
I had logic problems with the movie. Plot problems, too. I’m sorry, but I don’t find BRAIN DAMAGE to be a wholly charming device to center a romantic comedy around. I also struggled with the concept of making a long-term relationship work with someone who has no long term memory!
The whole “we’ll have her watch a videotape to get her caught up with her life” trick seems unnecessarily cruel. I kept picturing Drew Barrymore’s character waking up each morning and crying for a hour after being introduced to this grim reality. But I guess the benefit is, no matter how hard you day is, you’ll forget about it tomorrow? Hmm…
I’m pretty much comparing apples to oranges here, but I thought Memento did a much better job with depicting the struggle of someone afflicted this way. Mostly from the perspective that the human mind is devious enough to create a method to work around the handicap.
I found it particularly offensive that Barrymore’s character’s brother and father would go to the lengths of re-creating her last day of functioning memory. What kind of twisted hell is that? Not just for the person without the long term memory, but for the people around them? If I had a daughter who was a drug addict, I wouldn’t be suppling her with crack! Face the problem, people!
Ultimately I realize that we’re dealing with fantasy here. But truthfully I have an easier time committing to the idea of a man trying to reconcile his relationship with a mermaid versus what we have here. The minute you try to pass off these kinds of authentic handicaps as the central conflict of the story, you open the door to much harsher criticism and attention to detail.
That out of the way, I’m giving everyone a prescription for our latest advertiser Dr. Wuss. Check it out. It has the cure for the daily blues!
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