Archive for January, 2006
19 items.
Whoops. Looks like I forgot to upload today’s incentive sketch. Oh, well. I’ll do it when I get home tonight. Besides, the Chuck Norris one is still funny, right?
So you know, this is the start of a new story arc featuring talking appliances. I have a certain statement I want to make with Tom’s new talking DVD player, but I’m going to let it unfold on its own for the time being. I don’t want to give away too much of the story right now because I’m pretty excited about where I want to take it.
Not much to report from this weekend. My good buddy Brian and I were going to try and take all of Theater Hopper and sneak it over to a new server. Weekend visitors might have noticed that the THorum was down in advance of that. But otherwise, it was supposed to be supah-smooth.
Of course me, like a dummy, forgot to forward the DNS before midnight on Saturday so that it would give us enough time to move over before todays update. Wouldn’t have mattered. I tried accessing my account at GoDaddy.com and I was getting errors when I tried it anyway.
So the hope is that everything will be moved over next week. Business as usual this week.
I got a bunch of really good work done on the book collecting the first year of Theater Hopper strips. I’m about a third of the way through it. There will be 169 comics with commentary from yours truly on each one. Probably a few extras, too. My hope is to have the book completed before March 25. That’s the first day of the Kansas City Plant Comicon Comic Book convention, which I plan on attending. If I don’t have the book, I won’t have much reason for going because all I will have to sell is overstock on my t-shirt inventory. It’s a pretty tight deadline, but if I concentrate hard, I think I can make it. It’s difficult trying to find time to squeeze in work on this book between my full-time job, updating Theater Hopper and the rest of my life! I HAVE to have the book completed by August 3 because that’s the first date of Wizard World Chicago. If I don’t have my book ready by that date, then 2006 is going to be a complete wash for me.
But like I said, if I put my nose to the grindstone, I’m sure I can do it. Who knows – the process might get streamlined to the point that I might have Year Two in production in time for Wizard World! How cool would that be!
When the book is completed, I’m going to need everyone’s help to get it made. There is a very steep up front cost to producing this book. I’m not using a print-on-demand service like LuLu. I’m going through a traditional small-press operation and they demand a minimum order amount. I’ll be doing pre-orders to help meet the up-front cost. Pre-ordering is a good idea anyway. It secures your order before the book is even published. So you know that if you want one, you won’t run the risk of me running out of books. A good deal!
Anyway, that’s about it for now. If I have something else to share, be sure to check back here!
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It’s been one heck of a week, kids.
As you may have noticed, Theater Hopper was down earlier in the week. This was somewhat related to our recent move to a new server. The story is on that’s pretty complicated and one I’ve been wading in up to my eyeballs, so I don’t know how keen I am on retelling it. But we haven’t talked in a while, so I’ll give it a shot.
Basically what happened was that the server move was successful, but we carried over some unwanted guests into our new environment. Dreamhost – Theater Hopper’s new host – caught them and shut us down. What kind of unwanted guests, you might ask? Hackers. They somehow compromised our old server and were using it as a proxy of some sort. Probably for warez sites. We’re not sure. What we *do* know is that some jackass thought it would be fun to leach our bandwidth, slow our server down and cause a whole lot of problems for people who only want to entertain.
At the time Dreamhost shut us down, they fingered us as guilty before even discussing it with us. That left me a little cheesed off. We’re as much a victim as anyone else here. If they had communicated what they had found, we could have partnered with them to resolve the situation faster. But that’s not how things unfolded. Instead, we had to sit on our hands for two days waiting for them to get back to us. It was a bit of a let down for me because I had heard such great things about Dreamhost. This certainly put us off on the wrong foot.
But things are up and running again and we have a new comic for you today.
I should stop to give sincere thanks to Brian for helping to facilitate the switch and talking to Dreamhost in a language they understand. Left to my own devices, I’m pretty sure Dreamhost would have gotten me kicked off the internet altogether. Also thanks to Dave for reconnecting the database that manages the comics and the blogs after the server move. I’d be dead in the water without these guys.
I’ve gotten a few e-mails asking me if I’ve noticed the similarities between my talking DVD player and Penny Arcade’s DIV. My response is "Yes. I’ve noticed them." But I would like to point out the important difference that my character wears shoes and gloves while DIV is essentially walking around naked. Okay. So my talking DVD player isn’t wearing pants, either. But gloves and shoes are better than nothing!
I tried to make my talking appliance look different from the his more well-known counterpart. But there are only so many ways to anthropomorphize small, grey rectangles of technology.
At any rate, keep your eye on this arc as we’ll probably see a cameo from DIV in the upcoming strips. Maybe a couple other pieces of talking technology as well.
As long as we’re on the subject, you should check out the incentive sketch I drew of the talking DVD player. It was the very first drawing I put together of him, plus some notes for personality traits. The whole idea is that he came to life after being disgusted by Tom’s terrible tastes in movies. So it stood to reason that he should be very tweedy and intellectual. That’s why I’m questioning whether or not he should wear spats. Cuz, y’know… spats make you look REALLY smart!
Something else I wanted to draw your attention to are the FREE COMICS you can download through my page at Clickwheel. If you have a video iPod – or heck, even if you don’t! – check out my most recent updates. I’m adding all of my incentive sketches to the site as miniature anthologies separated by month. This is the first time I’ve made these sketches available outside of the site. If you’re interested, they’re out there!
I’m going to try and keep adding sketches until I’m all caught up. After that, I’ll add more comics.
Thanks to everyone for their patience this week. One thing is for sure, I never really knew how cut off I felt until I was forced into that situation. Not having access to the site for this period of time has made me really thankful for what I have. Thanks to you guys for making that possible!
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Real-life Tom would love nothing more than a trip to the former Soviet Union. Comic-strip Tom just doesn’t get it.
I don’t have a lot to say about today’s comic, so I’m just going to blow over that fact and direct your attention to something very important.
If you visit the store, you’ll see that I’ve put all t-shirts, hoodies and baby-doll tees back on the site. But more importantly, EVERYTHING IS ON SALE!
In an attempt to burn through the last of my inventory and raise money to cover the up-front production costs of the Theater Hopper – Year One book, I have cut costs on everything. T-shirts are now $9.99. Hoodies are $24.99 and baby-doll tees are $14.99. The best part of all? FREE SHIPPING!
Now I have to forewarn you: There are a limited number of sizes in the available designs. So if you’re thinking about placing an order, don’t wait. It’s very likely that your shirt could be snapped up by someone else!
This sale will continue for the next two weeks through February 6th. I don’t think prices can go much lower. So if you want a good deal on Theater Hopper shirts, hoodies or baby-doll tees – now is the time!
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For those of you wondering if the sale I announced in the store is for real or not, I have a dozen packaged orders sitting in my office that say "Oh, yeah. We’re for real, baby."
Now maybe you’re thinking to yourself. "Twelve orders? That’s not very much." I urge you to keep in mind that this was the first day of the sale and we’re working from a limited inventory. So if you’re thinking of ordering anything, DON’T WAIT. I can’t stress this enough. I’ve already had to tell a couple of unfortunate souls that the shirt they wanted was no longer in stock. This saddens me as much as it saddens them. Mostly because I have to refund their money. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!
Remember that all t-shirts are $9.99, all baby-doll tees are $14.99 and all hoodies (or should I say "hoodie?") are $24.99. Our sale ends two weeks from now on February 6. If I’m already having to be the bearer of bad news in regards to diminished inventory on the first day, you don’t want to be caught out in the cold on the second to last day of the sale with nothing to show for it. Prices will not be this low again for a very long time.
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The crowd in the background of the fourth panel is supposed to be an homage to the creators/characters from whom I borrowed our cameo robots for today’s strip. Can you guess who is who? Vote for Theater Hopper at Web Comics List for a clear view. But forget about that guy on the far left. He’s just a stand in.
For those of you detecting the subtle commentary in today’s strip, congratulations. We’ve just reached the pinnacle of this arc. The whole reason behind introducing the talking DVD player was to get to this point.
I don’t fault Penny Arcade for introducing DIV into the world. If you were going to pick a talking appliance to add as a bristling sidekick, the antiquated DiVX technology was a nice, obscure reference. What I’ve noticed since then is if you have a comic that it somewhat technology-based, it must have some sort of ambulatory robotic counterpart. Hence why the X-Bot from Ctrl+Alt+Del and Pintsize from Questionable Content get a shout-out.
This isn’t meant to be withering criticism. It’s just a device that I’ve noticed in other comics that was lacking in my own. I thought it would be fun to introduce my own talking appliance. But instead of treating it like an official cast member, use it as a mouthpiece to deconstruct some of the cliches inherant in comics. In all storytelling, really.
Almost every comic out there has some kind of fantastic secondary character that comments on how foolish we mortals can be. It’s a way for the author to turn the mirror on the audience without getting in trouble for it. Look at something as generic as Garfield. He’s sarcastic toward his owner that can’t get a date. If you gave a human character those lines, you’d have a hard time relating to him. You’d think he was a real jerk. Give them to the cat and it becomes "Oh, isn’t that cute!"
As revenge on the double standard, I decided to take the concept of the fantastic, impossible comic strip character and turn it back on itself. Take THAT, storytelling device!
But who am I to say what works and what doesn’t? One thing I’ll say, each one of the three comics I took a playful jab at today are certainly getting a lot more traffic than I am. So maybe they’re onto something. Blame Stitch. His comics kind of put me on this anarchist bend. I’ll work it out of my system soon and things will return to normal. The talking DVD arc will end this Friday. So thanks for indulging my quasi-rants in the meantime.
I want to remind everyone that the big sale going on in the store is still happening, but you’re running out of time to make the purchases I know you’re aching to place. Don’t forget that all t-shirts are $9.99, all baby-doll tees are $14.99 and all hoodies are $24.99. Inventory is limited, so we might not have your size in the design you want. Don’t wait for someone else to swoop in and take it! Remember – FREE SHIPPING on all orders!
If I could appeal to you on an emotional level for a minute, even if you’re not interested in buying a shirt…
I could really use your help right now.
I got in a car accident yesterday. Don’t worry. Everyone is fine. No one was injured and I can still drive the car. But winter’s in Iowa aren’t very forgiving and I need to get this fixed as soon as possible. I haven’t gotten an estimate yet (that’s later today). But my insurance deductable is $500. This couldn’t have come at a worse time for us. Not to start playing on the world’s tiniest violin (and I’m not going to go into all the details) but we have a lot of bills flying out the door at the moment. Fixing the car is just one of those unforseen expenses that we’re having to scramble in order to cover.
My logic is this… I have all of these shirts that I need to sell. You like to wear shirts, don’t you? What’s stopping you from getting something really cool that you know you’ll enjoy and – in the process – help a stranger out of a pickle?
I’m not asking for charity. That’s never been the kind of relationship we’ve had. All I’m saying is that I have some great shirts at the lowest prices I’ve ever sold them and you would be doing me a monumental favor by buying one. All the while, you still get something in return. It’s a great deal all around. Everybody wins.
Think about it and thanks again for your support.
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I just wanted to pop in and say how awesome you guys are with ordering stuff from the store. I put the call out, and you totally answered.
But I also want to give everyone a heads-up that I haven’t been able to process today’s orders just yet. It’s possible that some of you may have ordered items that were snapped up by someone else and I have to adhere to a first-come-first-serve basis.
I’m hoping that’s not the situation we find ourselves in for the majority of you, but it’s happened a couple of times already. So like I said, just a head’s up.
If someone has already claimed the item you want, I will follow up with you personally and let you know. I’d be happy to either refund your money or apply it as store credit toward the purchase of another design. It kind of sucks, but that’s the stuff you run into when you’re working with a limited inventory.
I’ve been able to keep up with updating what’s in stock. I’m just saying it’s not happening tonight. I have a wicked head cold and I need to get to bed. Plus, I just got the estimate back on my banged up Element and it was $1,800. Yeah. That doesn’t help much, either.
But you guys are great! Thanks so much for your support!
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For those of you who might have been holding out on your order today due to my post from last night, I wanted to let everyone know that the inventory reflected in the store is up-to-date and accurate. There should now be no confusion regarding what designs are left, so you won’t have to worry about ordering something that someone else may have snatched up first.
We have several styles and sizes still left, so I encourage you to get in there while the gittin’s good! It’s my hope to burn off the remainder of my inventory so I can start fresh with new projects in the future – namely, the Theater Hopper: Year One book! So that means you’re unlikely to see discounted prices on these shirts for a long time to come.
Our sale ends on February 6, so ORDER AWAY!
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There’s usually not a lot of argument as to the question of mortality when one is struck broadside by an eighteen-wheeler. But if you need further evidence of David’s untimely demise, vote for Theater Hopper at Web Comics List for the proof.
After "outting" the erstwhile David as a device to lampoon wacky secondary characters, there was no choice left but to kill him. I had pretty much rendered him impotent at that moment, so why not go out with a bang, yes?
That was pretty much the plan all along. Establish a new character, reveal him as a tool designed to deconstruct conventional storytelling approaches, kill him off. I’m begining to worry this might be a theme for me. The killing off of characters, at least. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that Dewey met his end at the top of the Empire State Building.
I don’t have much more to say about the arc than that. I feel I’ve pretty much left everything I wanted to say in the strip. I was happy how the art turned out on this last strip. It’s good to go out on a high note, but I’ll be happy to going back to making fun of new movie releases. I say that every time, don’t I?
Sales are going strong on the great apparel liquidation of ’06. I’m not going to beat you over the head about it. After all, it’s the weekend. We could do without the extra shilling.
Okay, one last shill. The sale ends February 6.
Here’s hoping everyone has a great weekend!
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After suffering through winter, days without sunlight and overcast skies, now I finally have a single day to pour my frustrations into.
The story about January 24 being the most depressing day of the year is actually a real thing. I guess this is what happens when psychologists have too much time on their hands. They figure out ways to determine which days suck most by contrasting different variables such as weather, debt and motivation levels. "Time since Christmas" is actually another one of these variables, which I think says all that needs to be said about the validity of this research. Wouldn’t this variable automatically exclude 2/3rds of the world’s pouplation? How about "Time since Rosh Hashanah?" Seems only fair if you want to be thorough.
Personally, this time of year is depressing for me because theaters become a dumping ground for the movies that couldn’t make a big enough impression to compete with all the Oscar hopefully that flood theaters at the end of the year. Seeing a remake of When A Stranger Calls or Big Momma’s House 2 cluttering up screens doesn’t surprise me. But what has really bummed me out is that the remake of The Pink Panther is being dumped in February as well.
I know in my heart of hearts that there is NO WAY this remake is going to be any good. For one, you just aren’t going to top Peter Sellers. I’m sorry, you can’t. Not even if you’re Steve Martin. And I LOVE Steve Martin. Second, Beyonce Knowles is a co-star. Not a good sign. I like the fact that Kevin Kline is playing Inspector Dreyfus. Jean Reno is a good casting choice as well. But if I had a Magic Eight Ball and asked it if The Pink Panther was going to be any good, I have a strong feeling that it would respond with "All Signs Point To ‘No’."
It probably doesn’t help that the movie has been pushed back TWICE away from it’s original Summer 2005 launch date, either.
Not much else to say. I was about to mention the sale going on in the store again, but you guys already know that there’s only a week left to take advantage of the reduced prices, don’t you? February 6 is the cutoff date.
Let’s talk about something else for a minute. Like perhaps my MySpace profile!
I know for a fact that MySpace is kind of pointless, so don’t send me e-mails trying to make me aware of that fact. But I’ve run into a lot of really cool people through the service. People that are perhaps more casual (though no less enthusiastic fans) that I might not otherwise cross paths with. Maybe they’re too busy to join the THorum or too intimidated to send an e-mail. If that’s the case, go to your MySpace account and ask to be added to my friends list. You know I’ll say yes!
By the way, I hope this doesn’t offend the Google Gods, but I need a little help understand AdSense. I think I’m doing it wrong and Google FAQs aren’t helping me out very much. If you have any expertise, will you please send me an e-mail?
Also, I’m trying to feel my way around Search Engine Optimization for the site. I kind of feel like I’ve reached the point where advertising and link exchanges are only going to do so much for traffic, so I’m trying to grow in different ways. Again, if you have any suggestions, please send me an e-mail. Thanks!
Remember that fun Frappr map thing from a while ago? Well, it’s sort of like that. Totally informal. I just want to see who’s alive and kickin’ out there!
Sorry for the delay with today’s blog. I was having computer troubles for most of the morning and early afternoon. I’ll catch up with you soon.
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