Today’s buzzComix incentive sketch really has nothing to do with today’s comic. It’s just a bit of still life I did while watching Truman sleep. Click here to view it.

I don’t know why I was compelled to draw it. I guess I’m trying to evolve my style a little bit. Looking at stuff like the Sketch Dump over at Penny Arcade is pretty good motivation. Incidentally, congratulations to Mike and his wife on the birth of their son Gabriel. The pictures are great and I thought Jerry’s introduction was very heartfelt and mature.

But back to the comic at hand…

We’re in the middle of a storyline right now. If you’d like to go back to the beginning of the arc, just click here and it will whisk you a way to a week ago when all this tomfoolery first started. Do you have any opinions on the story so far? You know you can always leave your comments in the THorum. I hang out there quite regularly, so I’m pretty sure to see them.

As things are shaping up, I don’t think I’ll be able to cap off this arc by Friday. So it’s likely that the story will extend into next week. I know that might divert my coverage of up-and-coming movies, but I’ll still talk about the new releases in the blog. So watch this space for updates.

If you’re noticing a slight refinement in the look of the strip, that’s intentional. Over the weekend, I bought Ben Caldwell’s Action! Cartooning and I’ve been putting some of his tips to good use.

If you’re an artist working in this medium (web comics, print comics, napkin doodles, what have you) I strongly suggest picking up this book. Unlike most “How-to’s”, Ben’s book actually SHOWS you how to with some very helpful instructions. This as opposed to showing a picture and saying “Copy this.” He really does a good job walking you through it. The book is less than ten bucks, so it’s well worth the money.

I originally had my eye on the book over at Amazon.com, but came across it at my local Barne’s and Noble, so you should be able to find it there in case you’re the immanent type and can’t wait for something to be shipped to you.

I guess I picked up Ben’s book to try and introduce a little more polish to my artwork. My overall goal is to start getting the characters to look a little less like each other and more like individuals. I think it’s going to be a slow transition. Partially because I’m still learning and partially because I don’t want to make any design changes so jarring that it sours your taste for Theater Hopper. I’ll leave that to the clumsy writing and occasional political grandstanding.

At any rate, it’s the direction that I’m going…

In slightly movie related news, Cami was channel surfing last night and came across a documentary on A&E called Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy. Incidentally, this is the same documentary that will be appearing on the supplemental disc when the Star Wars trilogy is released to DVD on September 21.

I have to admit, the documentary was really good. They spend the first 45 minute detailing the difficulty bringing A New Hope to screens in the summer of 1977 and a little less time on the subsequent movies. But they did a really good job uncovering some facts that I wasn’t already aware of as well as getting interviews with the entire cast and high profile figures on the production side.

I was excited that the original trilogy was finally making its way to DVD, but I wasn’t planning on being the first in line September 21. I mean, I still haven’t picked up the Indiana Jones trilogy yet!

But now I’m kind of rethinking my position. Part of my apprehension was the cost, the hype and the fact that I’ve seen these movies dozens of times. I’m ready to see a cut with better picture and sound of course, but I was in no big hurry.

Seeing this documentary on Sunday night has lead me to believe that the supplemental materials could be worth the price of admission alone. If the other goodies they’ve packed into the boxed set are half as good, I’ll be satisfied.

You should really keep an eye on A&E in the coming weeks and try and catch a repeat Empire of Dreams. If you were a little on the fence about things like I was, it’ll definitely remind you about why you fell in love with Star Wars in the first place.