Hey, guys. Small status update for you.
I don’t know if you tried to access the site yesterday. But if you did, you might have noticed it was down. I have no idea what caused it and we may never know. Sometimes Dreamhost likes to stop displaying your web sites to see if you’re paying any attention.
At any rate, you’ll notice today that I am running a Blu-ray review of Up instead of a new comic. Two reasons for that:
One, the Up review was supposed to run yesterday and (as I previously mentioned) the site was down all day. So I’m making up for lost time.
Two, I forgot my pens at the place where I’m freelancing. I left them there yesterday after attempting to be proactive and completing the comic over my lunch hour. That didn’t happen and then I forget my pens. So I wouldn’t have been able to draw a new comic if I wanted to.
Not resting on my laurels, however, I made SEVERAL significant updates to my Kickstarter fund raising campaign page for Theater Hopper: Year Three.
Read the updates page where I address questions about the book’s eventual availability, the amount of flexibility regarding the custom illustration reward (available at the $20 pledge level) and you get a close look at this:
This is the image that’s going on the t-shirt available at the $65 pledge level. Eventually I will sell the design in the Theater Hopper store. But people who pledge to the Kickstarter fund raising campaign at the $65 level or above will get first crack at it.
I know committing to something like that is difficult if you don’t have a sense of what the shirt will look like. So I wanted to put the image out there to whet your appetites a little bit.
By the way, you can leave comments on any one of these update posts. If you something you’d like to say about the direction of the campaign or the information you’re receiving from me, I would appreciate your feedback!
Lastly, the most important reason to check out the Kickstarter fund raising campaign is because I finally uploaded my project video last night!
I took the time I would have otherwise spent working on the comic and used it to film and edit the video. I’m very happy with the final product and I think it’s worth watching even if you think you already know all of the project details. Hopefully you’ll find it at least a little bit entertaining.
Again, I ask that you pledge whatever you can to the project. It’s very important to me that the book be published this year and your involvement can make that a reality!
Thanks to everyone who has show their support so far. I greatly appreciate your help!
Related Posts ¬
Apr 3, 2006 | KUDOS TO ZACH |
Sep 17, 2007 | EXPLOSION! |
Jun 22, 2009 | A GOAL IN MIND |
Nov 9, 2009 | KICKSTARTER UPDATE |
In the mid-90s, you couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a disaster movie of some kind. Subsequently, the movie would explode in a giant, slow-motion fireball.
You have Rolland Emmerich to thank for that. The success of Independence Day in 1996 led to other big budget disaster movies like Twister, Dante’s Peak, and Armageddon. 15 years later (and Wolfgang Petersen’s remake of Poseidon aside) Rolland Emmerich seems to be the only guy left making disaster movies.
And now he’s back with 2012 where literally the ENTIRE PLANET is the cause of the wanton destruction of cities, landmarks and monuments.
I’ll admit being somewhat impressed by the visual of a tidal wave crashing over the top the Himalayas. But cool visuals do not a movie make. And, frankly, I’m a little worn out on disaster movies. In what way does is this destruction supposed to be entertaining? The world is pretty much in the crapper as it is. Will watching California break off from the continent and sink slowly into the sea make me feel any better about things?
Okay, maybe that will make me feel a little better. But you get what I’m saying.
What bothers me most is watching John Cusack waste his considerable talents pinching his butt cheeks together and reacting to nothing. I understand WHY Cusack is in a movie like this (Hollywood Elsewhere’s Jeffery Wells calls Cusack “the mother of all genius paycheck whores”), but it sucks to watch your heroes debase themselves.
Exhibit A: There was an extended scene from 2012 shown at Comic Con earlier in the year. Someone had the brilliant idea to take the scene and remove all of the special effects from it. The result is a bumper car ride with Cusack and his co-stars that reveal exactly how flashy CGI obscures ham-fisted acting. Enjoy.
Watching things like that, I have to remind myself that for every 2012 or Con Air he shows up in, it affords him the opportunity to do things like High Fidelity and War, Inc. (which, by the way, I just caught on IFC and thought was hilarious)
Cusack will appear in Hot Tub Time Machine next year, so I suppose we have THAT to look forward to…
With that jokey title in mind, I kind of wish Emmerich would go whole-hog with the absurdity of his films. Here’s a recut trailer made to make 2012 look like a 70s-era disaster film. I think I would much rather see this version:
All I can hope for is that people don’t take 2012 seriously – the movie OR the Mayan “prophecy” that’s been tainted by Western apocalypse fears. One, because I think it’s absurd. But two… because the day the world is supposed to end – December 21, 2012 – will be my 34 birthday. And it would be a real bummer to die in the apocalypse on your birthday.
So tell me, who here is interested in seeing 2012 this weekend? What’s the attraction for you? Mindless popcorn fun? How do you feel about disaster films in general? Leave your comments below!
Hey, guys. Just a quick update about the Kickstarter fund raising campaign for Theater Hopper: Year Three. I know you guys know what’s up, so I won’t belabor the point.
I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that, as of this writing, the campaign is now 28% funded with $979 in pledges. We’re so close to $1,000, I can taste it.
I strongly believe that the success of this campaign will be buoyed by the momentum we keep. So if you’re thinking about pledging at all, please do so now. The closer that status bar gets to being 100% filled, the more it will motivate others to help us reach that goal!
If you’ve been following the project updates on the Kickstarter page, you’ll know that I’m considering putting together some original art as part of a giveaway to get people to pledge. The idea is that since I’m starting to replace some of my DVDs with Blu-ray discs that I would make available the DVDs I no longer use and create some original art to go with them. Movies that I’m willing to let go of include A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Wall-E and Iron Man.
I think I’m going to go forward with this. So even though we’re on the precipice of $1,000, let’s make $1,500 the next goal. Everyone that pledges in advance of the $1,500 goal will be entered into a drawing to win a DVD copy of Monsters, Inc. with some original art on a sheet of 10 x 14 Bristol board from yours truly. Once I have the artwork finished, I’ll post some pictures.
Related Posts ¬
Feb 18, 2011 | BECOME AN X-PERT |
May 8, 2009 | PLEASE HELP ME WITH MY RESEARCH PAPER |
Dec 14, 2009 | KICKSTART MY HEART |
Oct 30, 2009 | KICKSTARTER KICKOFF |
Feb 6, 2009 | YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SAVE CASH! |
First, I have to give a shout out to Jackson Ferrell over at This Week in Webcomics who gave me an idea too good to pass up for today’s comic.
Last night, over Twitter, I talked about how I needed to brainstorm ideas for Monday’s comic and was not really interested in doing a comic about New Moon (although I knew I kind of had to). Jackson suggested doing a comic specifically about my disinterest in the film and our conversation evolved into what you see today.
Twitter is great for batting around jokes or story ideas, especially when you’re stuck. In the past, I would have been very uptight about integrating anyone else’s ideas into the comic. But a good idea is a good idea and I’m not going to turn it down because I didn’t come up with it whole cloth.
If anything, my exchange with Jackson actually gave me a jumping off point to do a whole week of comics around New Moon. All it took was a little push in the right direction. So, thanks, Jackson!
So, as you know, New Moon comes out on Friday and I am as non-plussed about it as I was when Twilight came out a year ago. I’m just not in the target demo (as today’s comic plainly illustrates.)
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I had an epiphany about Twilight that I shared last year. My attitude is basically “good for them.” Girls SHOULD have a franchise like this that they can geek out over. I mean, Harry Potter was close to becoming that franchise. But it was really more for kids and had a wider appeal. Twilight is a film franchise that (to my knowledge) is pretty much exclusive to teenage girls.
I mean, I know older women who like the books and movies, too. But that’s a case of arrested development no dissimilar from my own fascination with all things Star Wars or Iron Man.
That’s why I’m happy something like Twilight exists for the ladies — because it makes me look less weird.
Ever since the dot com boom, people have said that the geeks have taken over. But let’s face it, we’re all geeks. Every jock that has the ritual of going to a sports bar each weekend to keep track of his favorite team and favorite players, knows all the clubhouse drama and can rattle down the stats of any team from any era? Total geek. Mr. Money Guy who is on top of the stock market, monitoring the ups and downs of business? Total geek. Top Chef watchin’ foodie that has 5 or 6 restaurants they have to go to before they die and can name 10 celebrity chefs? Total geek.
THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS! This is what living in a technological society has afforded us – free time to care about these trivial things. Only in the past was it consider odd to devote any attention to these peripheral interests because it mean you didn’t conform to societies expectations of school, marriage, work, breed, eat, sleep, die. People used to pursue their interests at the exclusion of acceptance in society.
Maybe we’re all becoming cut off from each other. Maybe we’re all standing in the center of our own little pockets of “ME.” But I don’t think so. If you love sports or money or food or robots or vampires, why SHOULDN’T you be allowed to pursue your interests and be excited about them? We should all be so lucky, right?
So, girls, go crazy for Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. You deserve it!
What about the rest of you? At what level is your interest / anticipation for New Moon? Is anyone here planning on camping out to get tickets? What about midnight showings? Share your New Moon love in the comments below!
I’m just gonna be over hear reading production reports from Iron Man 2 in the meantime…
First, I just wanted to remind everyone to check out The Triple Feature tonight at 9:00 PM CST. Not sure what we’re going to talk about, although I know that Joe tweeted about seeing The Fantastic Mr. Fox over the weekend and I’m very eager to hear what he has to say about it.
Cami and I had a date night on Saturday and we saw Robert Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol, so I plan to spend a little time talking about that. For the Cliff’s Notes version of my review, I can say that the motion capture animation that Zemeckis is advocating continues to advance, but I don’t much see the point of it.
I mean, it’s impressive that they can use the technology to allow Jim Carrey to play 8 different roles (like some kind of digital Eddie Murphy), but the film boats an amazing cast. Between Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Cary Elwes and Robin Write Penn I couldn’t help but think that I wanted to see the live-action version of this movie more.
I think this problem is compounded by the fact that the animators stay a little too close to the likeness of the flesh-and-blood actors and don’t push them far enough into caricature. Obviously Scrooge is an exaggeration of a contorted human face and the fact that you can still see Carrey’s mannerisms through the “digital makeup” is kind of revolutionary.
But it seems like they didn’t even bother to try and hide Oldman as Cratchit, Firth as Scrooge’s nephew Fred or Hoskins as Mr. Fezziwig. Granted, Oldman’s Cratchit is about two feet shorter than the actor in real life. But the faces are almost exactly the same. What’s the point?
At least in Beowulf, Zemeckis went to the effort of bulking up and tanning the other wise chubby and pasty Ray Winstone.
Anyway, check out The Triple Feature tonight at 9:00 PM CST for more of that.
CHANGING GEARS QUICKLY!
I wanted to point your attention to an interview I did with Andrew McDonald over at New-Gen that was posted over there this morning. It’s an audio recording and it’s a little over a half hour long, but I’m really pleased with how it turned out. If you have the time to listen to it, I think there are some particular insights that you will enjoy.
Andrew asked some very intelligent questions and I thought the conversation flowed naturally. We got beyond the boiler plate about Theater Hopper and my history with the comic and wandered into some really interesting territory regarding digital media, distribution models and webcomics in general. I strongly encourage you to check it out. It will be well worth your time.
Cheers!
Related Posts ¬
May 18, 2009 | NO SHOW |
Jun 18, 2007 | NO TRIPLE FEATURE TONIGHT |
Mar 31, 2008 | TONIGHT’S SHOW |
Jun 11, 2007 | NEW TRIPLE FEATURE TONIGHT – WE WANT YOU TO PARTICIPATE! |
Jul 30, 2007 | ADDENDUM |
Now it’s time for the obligatory update on the Kickstarter fund raising campaign for Theater Hopper: Year Three.
I gotta say, when I posted on Friday about meeting the goal of $1,000, you guys responded with gusto! We’re now at $1,090 pledged with 32 backers and 31% of the project funded!
You guys kind of pulled the same trick the Friday before last when you pledged almost $350 over the course of a weekend. Maybe it’s because Friday is payday. But I like to think it’s because you guys are as excited to see this book finished as I am!
I’m starting to think that managing the Kickstarter campaign is all about highlighting smaller milestones among the larger goal. So remember that I am giving away me copy of Monsters, Inc. on DVD along with some original Monsters, Inc. artwork drawn by me after we reach the $1,500 mark.
Only people who pledge before that point are eligible for the random drawing that will award one winner! So the more you pledge means the less competition you have in the drawing! If you’ve already pledged, you can go back and INCREASE the amount of your pledge at any time to help improve your odds!
I will be sure to post an update of the artwork when it’s finished. Until then, keep pledging!
Related Posts ¬
Feb 6, 2009 | YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SAVE CASH! |
Nov 4, 2009 | KICKSTARTER SPECIFICS |
Nov 6, 2009 | KICKSTARTER STATUS REPORT |
Jun 22, 2009 | A GOAL IN MIND |
Aug 27, 2003 | VOTE AND ADVERTISE! |
I know I’ve been a little blog crazy today, but I have one more post and I promise I’ll let you go back to your daily lives.
I just wanted to take this moment to point you to my friend Wes Molebash’s new comic Max Vs. Max.
If you recognize Wes’s name, it’s because he was the creator of the excellent comic You’ll Have That which he brought to an end earlier this year. It’s a real treat to see Wes throw his hat back into the ring. As a cartoonist, he has a very relaxed and classic style and as a humorist, he is highly adept at plumbing jokes from everyday situations. I consider him to be a very well-rounded talent that I could benefit from being a little more like. From the looks of it, Wes’s time off has really benefited his art and I’m looking forward to checking out more of his work!
Related Posts ¬
Feb 9, 2007 | ONE MORE POST |
Apr 14, 2006 | JEALOUSY! |
I have to admit feeling a certain amount of pressure writing today’s comic. I knew I wanted to do something that continued to explore New Moon, but I didn’t know exactly what that would be. I knew it would involve shirtlessness, but I wasn’t sure how.
Added to this pressure was the unexpected reaction to Monday’s comic. Lots of positive comments, e-mails and feedback which I greatly appreciate!
We have a little comic ranking system below each strip and usually about 20 or so of you habitually leave your two cents and rank the comics on a scale of 1 to 10. It’s a handy little litmus test that I enjoy checking in on because it helps me know when I’m doing well and when I might need to freshen things up with the strip.
The response to Monday’s comic was unprecedented. As of this writing, it generated 52 votes with an average of 9.67 out of 10 – nearly perfect. I take that seriously because it’s one thing if a couple of guys give a comic a 9 or 10 star rating. But when you’re able to maintain that average across 50 people, that means you really did something right!
So, thank you! I’m really glad you enjoyed it.
Which brings us to today’s comic…
When I think about it, it probably makes more sense for Goth Jared to be excited about New Moon, since the sullen protagonists of the film fit so neatly into his world view. But I needed someone who was over-enthusiastic about the movie to help sell the punchline where glitter is thrown into Tom’s face. Admittedly, the punchline is a bit of a non sequitur. But it sounded funny to me.
In my head, a guy going shirtless to a Twilight movie counts as attending “in costume.” Following that line of logic, it would also make sense to cover yourself head to toe in glitter if you planned on attending as the sunken-cheeked Hollister model known as Edward Cullen.
For the life of me, I will never understand why Stephanie Meyer chose to upend the vampire myth and allow the vampires in her books the ability to walk around in daylight. Twilight would be a much more satisfying franchise if Edward Cullen’s head burst into flames every time he pokes that moussed-up haystack out of a window. By turning vampires into My Little Ponies, she has effectively de-fanged them as a menacing threat (if you’ll pardon the pun). And how boring is that?
I was combing the internet looking for the reasons WHY Meyers’s vampires sparkle in the sunlight and – as usual – Yahoo! Answers has the most hilarious dissection of the subject:
Okay, so the venom that’s supposed to help sedate you so the vampire can kill you will somehow turn you into the perfect, immortal model with diamond cells. With creative license, I can buy that, I suppose. But WHY do they?
Vampires are predators. Sparkling in the sunlight would tell your prey that you were coming. It would give you away. Now, they supposedly sparkle and are beautiful to attract their prey – humans – which would be attracted by your physical beauty. However, Edward specifically says at some point that people purposefully didn’t approach them because, due to instinct, they’re scared of them. And if they’re ungodly fast and strong, why do they need to lure their prey in, in the first place?
BEST ANSWER
It’s because Meyers doesn’t know what she writes. She seems never to have gone to 5th grade English lessons. Her entire writing contradicts itself at every possible opportunity.
I think Edward’s beautiful so Bella gets attracted to Edward, LUST. Because she never talked to anyone else, the love she feels for Edward is LUST, she only talks about Edward’s beauty. Nothing else.
Another thing abut Bella, she’s an idiot. Giving up her friends, her family, just so she can spend eternity as a 18 year old, is at the very least, disturbing.
I love you, Yahoo! Answers.
Does anyone here have any thoughts about why Meyers’s vampires are all glammed out? If so, leave your comments below. Until then, thanks for reading and have a great day!
The mounting sense of pressure I blogged about with Wednesday’s comic became very pronounced while I was writing today’s comic.
It’s been interesting tracking these last few comics about New Moon. You guys are very into it. You’re posting lots of comments and submitting ranking votes in record numbers. All good things!
The ranking thing I really blowing my mind. As if this writing, 101 of you ranked Monday’s comic and 92 of you ranked Wednesday’s comic. When you consider the average is about 20 people, it feels really good when a comic generates over 5 times that level of interaction.
So keep it going! Keep rating the comics! Keeps submitting your feedback in the comments section. I love to read about what you guys think, so let’s see more of that!
To that end… I feel a little embarrassed that I ended the arc this week with a very lame and obvious pun. But I at least hope you find it endearing. It’s nice to put a bow on these things sooner rather than later before they get drawn out.
I’m wondering if anyone here saw the midnight screening of New Moon last night and if so, what did you think?
Consensus among critics is trending downward. As of this writing, the film has been given a 29% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes. When you consider the original Twilight averaged about 49% positive, that’s a red flag. Obviously Twilight has a contingent of die hard fans. But now with New Moon, nearly 25% of the people who were on board with the first movie have jumped ship. Why?
I’ve read that star Robert Pattinson isn’t in the movie much – really only at the beginning and at the end. Co-star Kristen Stewart ends up carrying most of the movie.
Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise to fans of the books. And certainly the movie has hit upon a piece of choice casting by adding Taylor Lautner as Jacob. So there must be something that’s keeping it from connecting with the critics.
Of course, this is entirely moot. The film will do just fine at the box office this weekend. Entertainment Weekly is already predicting an $80 to $100 million haul. Obviously they’ll film the next two books as well. It’s just food for thought. I’m all about realistic expectations, people!
Time to leave your thoughts in the comments below! Are you one of the Twi-hards who saw New Moon last night? Let us know what you thought!
Since I didn’t mention it on Wednesday, I wanted to check in with everyone and remind them about the Kickstarter fund raising campaign for Theater Hopper: Year Three. Pledges have slown down a little bit and I want to make sure we haven’t lost the momentum that we built up last week!
I notice that a lot of people have been pledging on Friday’s. I don’t know if that has anything to do with people getting paid, but I thought I would just float that out there. If you think you can pledge $5 from your paycheck today, that would be awesome. You can always increase your pledge later!
I’ve been trying hard to maintain a level of engagement surrounding the project by posting updates on the Kickstarter page. If you haven’t been reading them, it’s a good way to stay connected without me having to badger everyone on the homepage.
Most recently, I posted a video update where I discuss the mini grant I applied for from the Iowa Arts Council. I submitted my proposal before I heard about Kickstarter and I got my notification letter this week. If you want to know the outcome, you’ll have to watch the video.
I’m also taking suggestions on topics to address with my Kickstarter updates. It’s kind of hard to do actual “updates” because the book is already finished. So it’s not like I can post something telling you how “I’ve written commentary for the first 50 comics and I only have 100 more to go!” All of that work is done. The book is ready. I could have it sent to the printer today, you know?
If you have questions about the book that you would like answered or have suggestions to help me promote the book, leave your comments on the Kickstarter page.
…or here, too. That’ll work.
Someone had the simple suggestion that I need to be a little more aggressive about how I promote the campaign here in the blog section of the site. They advised that I need to put Kickstarter updates ABOVE the main blog post so you are at least giving the Kickstarter updates a cursory glance.
It’s a good idea, but I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to. I’m trying not to be to overbearing. But at the same time, the closer we get to the deadline, the more paranoid about it I’m going to get.
There are 41 days left in the campaign. Please consider pledging today. Thank you.
Related Posts ¬
Feb 6, 2009 | YOUR LAST CHANCE TO SAVE CASH! |
Dec 14, 2009 | KICKSTART MY HEART |
Nov 20, 2009 | JLCM IS BACK! |
Nov 4, 2009 | KICKSTARTER SPECIFICS |
Nov 16, 2009 | KICKSTARTER UPDATE |