Archive for October, 2004
17 items.
Everyone stop what they’re doing and visit our two newest sponsors Suzie View and Syntax Error Comics. They’re both excellent and both need your support.
Syntax Error has recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. For a comic rendered wholly in 3-D, that’s quite an accomplishment! I love Syntax Error. The character models are great and the writing is consistently sharp. The personalities of the characters really shine and I love reading it.
Suzie View is another great comic. You might have heard the news a couple of months ago that Tauhid Bondia (Spells and Whistles) and Erik McCurdy (It’s All Been Done) joint project took a step closer to print syndication when Comics.com picked them up and put them on their site.
What you might not know is that Comics.com is owned by United Media, one of the largest syndicates in the United States. Suzie View has reached a critical juncture in its ascension. If Tauhid and Erik can bring more people to the site and raise their traffic, there is a good possibility that United Media will renew their contract with FULL PRINT DISTRIBUTION!
This would be a major accomplishment in the world of web comics. Tauhid and Erik’s creation would be one of the very few comics to make the leap from digital to print and it would lend great credibility to the medium as a whole.
Please support Suize View and revel in the adventures of a precocious little girl who loves to make independent movies. The comic makes great references to the world of cinema. Anyone who likes Theater Hopper should LOVE Suzie View.
[ No Comments ]
If you’d like to see Jared give Ben Affleck a post-beatdown lecture, be sure to vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix for a glimpse of our latest incentive sketch. Professor Jared teaches Mr. Affleck about the differences between holidays!
I don’t really have much to say about Surviving Christmas that I didn’t already cover in Wednesday’s blog. But I knew I couldn’t let another Affleck movie slide without giving Jared a chance to take a swing at him. It’s all becoming part of the rich tapestry of Theater Hopper history.
Before I forget, everyone needs to stop and check out The Webcomic List. I recently wrote the site owner Ash about possibly moving Theater Hopper’s listing away from all the comics whose titles begin with the word “The”. I had received a couple of complaints from fans of the TH saying it was difficult to find our listing because of all the “The” comics they had to wade through.
Anyway, Ash was kind enough to honor my request, so I want to send a little traffic his way.
I really like The Webcomic List. It’s neat. It’s organized. It carries an air of non-partisanship and is alarmingly comprehensive. Everyone gets a fair shake there. If there is any web comic you can think of, it’s probably on that list.
Incidentally, if you want to check out Theater Hopper’s listing, you can view it here. Maybe you want to sneak a peek at our overall rank. Maybe you want to leave comments. That’s up to you. But now you have easy reference.
Anyway, that’s about it for me today. Cami and I are staying home this weekend, so I’m hoping to get some work done on the site. Maybe post that Truman shirt I promised you last week.
By the way, I’m still taking orders for the Spoiler shirt. That’s an on-going thing, so you don’t get confused. I just do pre-orders because I don’t have the capital to buy a bunch of shirts in advance. Never mind I don’t have the storage for them, either!
Anyway, next pre-order session ends on October 30, so get your order in today!
[ No Comments ]
Oct25
Because I know I’m going to get a lot of questions from people asking “Does Iowa really look like that?” I took the time to draw an incentive sketch that really gives you a sense of scale and space here on the open prairie. You can view it by voting for Theater Hopper at buzzComix.
So, in case you hadn’t heard, the new Superman starring in Bryan Singer’s addition to the franchise is Iowa native Brandon Routh. He’s been a virtual unknown up to this point, which I believe was Singer’s intention. I imagine he’ll be fine in the role. After all, no one really knew who Christopher Reeve was until he put on the cape.
I dunno. Looking at pictures of Routh, I think he looks too young. I mean, he’s two years younger than I am, for crying out loud. He’s also two years younger than the current, HIGH SCHOOL-AGED Superman Tom Welling from the television show Smallville.
I guess whenever I think of Superman, I think of an older father-figure. Someone in his 30’s AT LEAST. I mean, look at the new Batman movie coming out with Christian Bale. Bale is 30 years old exactly and he’s playing Batman in the first year of his crime fighting career. It still feels more correct than casting a 24 year-old to play Superman.
Maybe it’s the whole authority issue. Superheroes are kind of this alpha-male archetype that we tend to look up to. All I’m saying is that I’m going to have trouble suspending disbelief when I’m supposed to marvel at a Superman that could have been my best friend’s little brother at once point. I could give this guy a noogie, for Pete’s sake… An atomic wedgie, y’know?
Onto today’s comic. The conversation playing out online in the strip pretty much happened word-for-word in my own community, The THorum. As odd as it will be to see Routh in the blue tights, I am proud that a once fellow denizen of The Hawkeye State has gone on to bigger and bolder things.
Sure, some of you might live in states where celebrities have been cropping up left and right. But around here, it’s been less common. Who has Iowa given to entertainment? Well, John Wayne and Donna Reed are good starts. But no one from my generation, really. No. Scratch that. There’s Ashton Kutcher and Elijah Wood (both from Cedar Rapids). But, you know. It’s not common. That’s all I’m saying.
At any rate, it IS a big deal. I mean, after all this is the state whose largest newspaper has an article each week updating Rory’s status on Survivor. That’s right! Rory’s from Iowa, too! We’re taking over your town next!
Speaking of The THorum, I wanted to announce to all potential advertisers that we’re now selling ad space in The THorum. It’s a really good deal. By volume, this is probably the one place on the site that will generate for you the most repeat impressions. But lucky for you, we’re not selling by ad views, but by spans of time! So you can reserve this spot for a week, two weeks or even a month on the cheap and no one else is going to share it will you!
We recently just welcomed our 400th registrant, but there are tons of people reading the THorum who aren’t signed up. This is a good opportunity to get your site in front of a lot of people! If you’re interested, contact me for information about advertising rates and availability!
[ 1 Comment ]
Oct27
So did Tom ever manage to duplicate Ray Charles’ impeccable mastery of the 88 keys? Check out the latest buzzComix incentive sketch to find out.
It kind of snuck up on us, but the Ray Charles biography Ray will be in theaters this Friday. I find it odd that a potential Oscar contender is being released Halloween weekend. I mean, make some room for the schlock that’ll be out of theaters in a week (Seed of Chucky, I’m looking in your direction), then come in afterwords and sweep up at the box office.
Maybe this is Universal’s idea of counter programming. It’s not any more ludicrous than opening Surviving Christmas in October, I guess.
Reviews for Ray have been off the charts in terms of positive feedback. People are jumping up and down over Jamie Foxx’s performance. From what I’ve seen of trailers and commercials, his impersonation seems pretty accurate. I guess he did all the piano playing in the movie by himself. That’s pretty impressive.
I don’t know what I find so interesting about Foxx, but something about him tells me that producers and directors have barely scratched the surface of what he’s capable of.
He’s had a good year so far. He was great in Collateral. And anyone who has seen his performance as Drew ‘Bundini’ Brown in Ali knows he can bring emotional weight to even the most bombastic character. Unfortunately, for every Any Given Sunday, there’s a movie like Bait or Booty Call waiting in the wings.
He’s supposed to have a role in Sam Mendes’ Jarhead next year, which I’m already looking forward to. I think that will be a good collaboration.
At any rate, back to Ray. Looks good! Cami and I are ready to go see it this weekend.
I have an interest in seeing Saw, mostly because of the grisly “do or die” scenarios the film seems to be rife with. Normally I don’t go for brutal horror, but I think I’ll like the psychological aspects of this one. Cami has no interest. I may have to wait until it comes out on video.
Beyond that, no scary movies in the Brazelton household this Halloween. We’ll pass out candy like good neighbors on Beggar’s Night this Saturday, but I’m not going to chase any kids around the year with a machete. I guess IFC is going to be having a Halloween marathon of Italian horror classics hosted by Tom Savini. It’s almost too pretentious to pass up!
Second round of pre-orders on the Spoiler t-shirt are coming to a close this Saturday. If you want to put your money down, I’ll guarantee you a shirt with the second batch!
That’s about it for now. Less than a week until Election Day. Can’t wait until this circus pulls up stakes and goes into hibernation for another four years.
[ No Comments ]
Nothing makes my day like seeing articles titled “Is Ben Affleck’s career over?” Well, maybe “Ben Affleck’s Career Over!” would be better.
[ No Comments ]
I’m not becoming a broken record with the Ben Affleck-bashing, am I? I mean, I know I just got finished taking pot shots at him only a week ago, but I have to admit this felt right. I can think of nothing scarier than a Gigli sequel.
In any case, be sure to check out the buzzComix incentive sketch by clicking here and voting for Theater Hopper. You’ll see that Tom has learned his lesson, albeit too late.
I really like doing Halloween strips, but feel bad because I don’t get into it like some people do. I wish I could have done a full week of strips, but this one sums things up nicely.
Tomorrow I’m going to stop taking pre-orders on the Spoiler shirt. Yeah, I know the advertisement next to the comic says October 15. Ignore that. It’s an oversight on my part. A pretty stupid one, actually. It probably kept people from placing orders. Well, I’m making up for it now. GET YOUR ORDERS IN TODAY!
After I get this batch sent into the printer I’ll probably stop taking pre-orders for a while. I want to wait until the preliminary orders come back from the printer and try to develop a system to mail them out to everyone smoothly. In other words, I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, so I’ll be suspending shirt orders for a while.
Don’t worry, though. Shirts will come back before the end of the year. Did I say “shirtS”… PLURAL? Yes, there will probably be more than one shirt in the store when it reopens.
In the meantime, I plan on finally hooking up the posters section of the store as well as creating a new area where you can request commissioned artwork. Everything from portraits, to Theater Hopper characters in funny situations, even banner advertisements for your site! I’ll do it all! Look for that in the future.
Cami and I are going to try and go to Ray tonight. Cami has heard some mixed reviews. Some people are saying that the movie isn’t as strong as Jamie Foxx’s performance. I’ve heard nothing but positives all around. We’ll have to check it out and see.
[ No Comments ]
I’m getting some feedback that people can’t figure out who Cami is supposed to be. She’s supposed to be Ellen Ripley from the Alien movies. Click here for a quick visual comparison.
I knew I wanted to cast Cami in the image of a strong female and also as one carrying heavy firepower. I basically wrote this comic starting with the punchline and worked backwards. And, well… this is the result.
Incidentally, Jared is supposed to be Rocky Balboa from the Rocky movies. It’s more of a subtle commentary on the punishment he absorbs and dishes out in equal measure here in the comic…
For what it’s worth.
[ No Comments ]
