So this marks the end of the week-long story sprung from The Invasion of The Body Snatchers remake – The Invasion. I hope you liked it. Any opportunity I can take to throw in Victor acting weird, I’ll take.

Not much new in theaters this weekend to get excited about. I guess since all the kids are going back to school, it’s going to be slim pickin’s until fall. That’s when all of the sensitive indie movies I love so much start cropping up.

Early box office projections are pitting War against The Nanny Diaries for the top spot this weekend. My money is on War (and I have a comic about that coming up on Monday!) Despite the fact that The Nanny Diaries has a strong cast, to me it looks like a warmed over reinterpretation of Raising Helen – and no, that’s not a compliment.

Plus, I think you have to fess up to the fact that Scarlett Johansson is not a big enough star to open movies on the strength of her name alone. I think she’s a serviceable actress and the 22 movies to her credit in her short time as an actress are impressive. But no one sees a movie she’s in strictly for her performances. She’s not Sandra Bullock, or whatever.

And no, that’s not a compliment.

This weekend looks like Cami and I will finally get around to seeing Superbad, which I’ve been looking forward to ever since I watched the red band trailer online a few months ago. If the red band trailer is any indication, the commercials and TV spots aren’t doing the movie justice.

As excited as I was to see the movie, there’s certainly been a lot of hype surrounding it. So I was pleased somewhat when I was talking to friends this week about it. They love the film, but couldn’t get into specifics. That’s a good sign. It means the majority of the movie is so funny, they’re not going to be able to pick their favorite lines until it comes out on DVD.

Of course, that doesn’t stop people from trying. I’ve already seen five or six different web sites peddling their own McLovin t-shirt designs. Everyone has appeared to latch onto that as a comedic touch point for the film.

All the same, I’m expecting to have a good time.

Real quick – I made a change in the store over the weekend where all items are now $15 and I am now providing discounts on shipping for bundled purchases. Save 50% on shipping on any two purchase, 65% off on any three purchase or 75% off on any four purchases. This system was a lot easier than the bundling system I had previously installed. Plus, since I’m planning on adding more t-shirt designs in the future, it’ll be easier to maintain.

I’ve also recently talked to the 3rd party vendor that wrote the code for the shopping cart I use for my site and they’re coming out with a discount code option in the next few weeks. So that means if you input a special code at checkout, you can save extra money. I plan on running promotions every so often to people who sign up to the mailing list. So if you want to be ready when that comes around, sign up now.

Since Wizard World Chicago, I’ve gotten the itch to make some changes to the site. I’m meeting with a web design company here in Des Moines on Monday for a consultation on some more air-tight features for the site. Hopefully I can bring back the comments section soon plus do a better job of integrating the Top 50 voting, social bookmarking, “share this comic with a friend” and so on.

Something that’s been bugging me a lot lately are the banner ads. I’m sure they’re no favorite of yours, either. I’d like to get rid of them, but frankly, I’ve come to rely on them. The revenue I make with them helps cover hosting fees as well as afford me the opportunity to do things like t-shirts, books and make convention appearances. All of this feeds into the site and either helps maintain it or helps it grow.

If you look at any of the big guys, they have advertising to help support them. So, in my instance, I don’t think ads will be going away any time soon. I just need to find a better way to make them harmonious with the site.

What is your opinion about advertising? Do you find the ads I’m running now intrusive? Excessive? How would you feel if they were removed and replaced with in-context text advertisements? Links that appear over key phrases in the blog copy that lead you somewhere off site? I have a strong lead on the latter option and I’m thinking it’s a viable solution moving forward.

This is an instance where the comments field would come in really handy for some quick and dirty feedback. But as such, you’ll have to e-mail me with your thoughts. I’m soliciting your feedback. If you have strong opinions either way, I would like to hear from you!

That’s about it for me. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!