In my estimation, if you’re a child of the 80’s and a huge nerd, there are two de facto references from science fiction films that are fun to drop randomly into conversation… usually.

The first is Terrance Stamp’s commanding delivery instructing Superman (and pretty much the rest of the world) what he expects them to do in Superman II.

The second is this.

Kind of funny how they both come from the vastly superior sequels of original franchise movies?

Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with Get Smart except for the fact that Terrance Stamp plays the main bad guy. And if Terrance Stamp is your main bad guy, it’s only a matter of time before someone mentions Zod. It’s like the pop culture equivalent to Godwin’s Law or something – "Stamp’s Law?"

As far as Get Smart is concerned, I suppose it doesn’t bod well for it’s likelyhood of me seeing it that I’ve spent this much time cross referencing it with Superman II. I’d like to see it. I think it looks like fun. And I am generally impressed with the cast. Adding Alan Arkin to any movie immediately ups its cred, in my opinion. Although, didn’t this guy just win an Oscar? What’s up with Oscar winners turning around and taking the next biggest studio-backed picture they can find?

I also find it interesting that Get Smart is going up against The Love Guru this weekend. Even though The Love Guru is taking a drubbing from critics, Get Smart is being taken to task for trying to mine laughs from the spy genre – something that Mike Myers pretty much exhausted with the Austin Powers films.

So, if you think about it, this is really a Battle of the Leftovers – Get Smart reheating what’s left of the spy parody genre versus Mike Meyers plaigarising himself into nothingness.

That said, Cami and I are still on a collision course to see The Love Guru this weekend. Partially out of morbid curiosity by also because we’re in complete denial that it could ever be that bad. I guess it shows that despite Myers’ difficult reputation, he still has some good will and credibility built up with his fans.

We’ll have to see if The Love Guru dashes it to bits or not.

SWITCHING GEARS

Real quick, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will be appearing at Wizard World Chicago next week, Thursday, June 26 through Sunday, June 29. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be sitting in Artist’s Alley at table #4308. Here is a map of the convetion floor. I’m pretty much smack in the middle of Arist’s Alley, which I’m excited about.

I’m also excited because my table will be situated next to my good friends from Digital Pimp Online – Joe Dunn, Phil Chan, Rich Dinan, Irvsher Fabor and Joe Walerko. They’re great guys and I look forward to seeing them every year.

ANOTHER reason I’m excited is because I found out who is sitting two tables down from us. It won’t impress you, but it has me psyched up. ADI GRANOV!

In case you don’t know who Granov is, he’s an amazing digital illustrator who worked on the relaunch of Iron Man with Warren Ellis a few years back and has generally been doing a lot of work on comic book covers recently.

More importantly, this is the guy who has pretty much set the tone for how Iron Man is interpreted visually through multiple mediums. He redesigned the armor during his run with Ellis. He was also hired by Jon Favreau to be an consultant on the armor design for the Iron Man movie. So, if you’ve seen Iron Man, you’ve seen Granov’s work. He’s an amazing talent and I can’t wait to meet him! I’ll try to get pictures.

Anyway, I also wanted to let you know that in addition to the books and t-shirts we sell on the site, I’ll also be selling two new items.

The first will be a custom sketch that I will draw OF YOU as your favorite movie character! I printed up some sketch cards with the Theater Hopper logo and URL and they look pretty sweet. It’ll be a nice, customized takeaway for fans of the strip.

Second is a sampler booklet that collects the collects the 25 most popular Theater Hopper strips – the one’s you voted on, remember? Brief commentary for each of the strips is also provided.

There will be an extra incentive for convention attendees to pick up this sampler booklet, because printed in the back is a coupon for $3.00 off one of the Theater Hopper books! Pretty cool, huh?

Don’t worry – I plan on offering both the sketch cards AND the booklets online after the convention so you guys get to see what all the fuss is about.