Archive for April, 2010
15 items.
So I guess you can consider this comic the companion piece to Wednesday’s comic where I suggested Sam Worthington was some kind of synthespian or artificial actor. I guess I don’t know what to say about it except that I can’t turn down a joke where someone is peeing their pants. I’m talking to my therapist about it.
I thought that I would see Clash of the Titans late Saturday evening. But it looks like I might be going this afternoon, instead. My father-in-law offered to watch Pearl for the afternoon while I go get an oil change for my car. I was kind of taken aback. I’m thankful for a little break, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do after the oil change. But when I saw a commercial last night advertising the Thursday midnight screenings of Clash of the Titans, I knew where to go.
This has been my first week home with Pearl since my contract job ended and it has been very rewarding. We have an opportunity to bond a little more now and I’m grateful for the opportunity. Having steady employment is great, but they’re not kidding when they say you don’t get this time back.
That said, taking care of a four-month-old can be time-consuming. Even when she’s napping, I’m taking care of the house so Cami doesn’t have to worry about it when she gets home. Laundry, dishes, dusting – all that. It’s only fair. As such, I feel like I’m not connected to things like I used to.
It was no big deal to take a 5 minute break at work every couple of hours and check things out online. Now I don’t have time to do that, so I feel like I’m floating a little bit.
But, like anything else, it’s about settling into a new routine. I guess I just wanted to share that this first week at home with Pearl has been a success.
Changing gears, I wanted to share something with you guys that kind of threw me for a loop.
First, I need you to take a look at this image. It’s a mockup for a new convention banner that I’m going to take as part of my booth setup to C2E2. I’ve been making the rounds, trying to gather feedback on it and figure out ways to make it more eye-catching. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen a few posts related to this.
The second thing you need to know is that I am a paying member at Webcomics.com – Brad Guigar’s site that provides support and feedback to webcomic artists trying to improve their work.
The last thing you need to know is that the general reaction to the banner is that it’s nice, but that the tag line does not reflect the characters. In other words, I’m setting up the expectations that my lead characters are “difficult,” but I show them being pleasant and non confrontational.
My reaction to this criticism can basically be summed up by the statement that I really like the tag line, but I don’t want people to think my characters are jerks.
Brad leveled me with some feedback over at Webcomics.com that must be pretty close to the truth, because I’m sharing it with you here right now.
“What you’ve got there is a derivation of the Mary Sue complex,” writes Brad. “You realize at a basic level that all of these characters are really you on a psychological level. The sooner you allow ‘yourself’ to be disliked for the sake of your humor, the sooner you can write better stuff.”
I’m under no impression that Brad follows what I do with any regularity. But his powers of observation uncovered a truth about me as an artist that I hear over and over again – My Need To Be Liked.
I think anyone that has read this blog for a while knows that I will sometimes apologize for a joke the minute after telling it. A lot of people scratch their heads and ask me “Why do you do that?” In the past, I’ve always said it was because I don’t want to accidentally offend people. But fundamentally, I think it’s because I have a need to be liked.
I don’t know that this was as much of a problem when I first started out. Probably because there weren’t any expectations. Less people were looking at the comic, so there was less of a chance that I was offending anyone.
But in the last few years I feel like I’ve suffered accusations that don’t represent me as a person that have probably changed the tone of my work. I don’t have a problem saying what’s on my mind, but I’m not the kind of person who seeks to offend. So, as a result, I’m starting to wonder I’ve been concentrating less on my work and concentrating more on trying to prove I’m not a bad guy.
I don’t know. I’m still working some of this out in my own head. But one of the advantages to the internet is that I can pose these scenarios to you guys and get an outsider’s perspective.
One of my failings as an individual is that I have absolutely no idea about how others perceive me. I try to lead a good life, I try to avoid hurting people and somehow this combination has lead me into a corner where I am not really letting me be myself through my work.
Maybe that’s the reason I’ve been toying around with the idea of doing a journal comic for so long.
Anyway, now that I’ve dumped that in your lap, I’m curious as to what you think. Is Brad onto something? If you’ve been reading the comic for more than a few years, have you detected a shift that has been otherwise invisible to me?
I appreciate your feedback!
[ 11 Comments ]
I think when we first saw images of Liam Neeson as Zeus from the set of the movie, very few of us were impressed…
…but I think we can agree that Neeson’s delivery of “RELEASE THE KRAKEN” is a classic.
That said, the REAL joke in today’s comic is the Craklin Oat Bran in the third panel. Man, what a great cereal. So much fiber. I’m pooping myself just thinking about it!
I didn’t get a chance to see Clash of the Titans like I thought I would this weekend and that doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I was looking forward to a bit of dumb cinema until I realized that lining up for that kind of abuse was, well, also dumb.
That didn’t seem to stop most people, though. Clash of the Titans made over $60 million at the box office this weekend.
Usually when a film makes that much in it’s first weekend, people start talking about filming a sequel. But I was momentarily emboldened when I thought to myself “Mythology doesn’t have a sequel does it?”
Not so fast. Director Louis Leterrier recently said that he envisioned a TRILOGY of films and Clash of the Titans writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi confirmed it. So be on the lookout for that one, I suppose.
I don’t have much more to say about the film, but I’m curious if anyone here saw it. If so, what did you think? Did anyone see it in 3D? Reportedly, the 3D effects are horrendous. I’d like to know if it’s as bad as the critics say it is. Leave your comments below.
In the meantime, I’m getting ready for C2E2 next week in Chicago. I’ve been working on a new booth banner and some exclusive merchandise. If you follow Theater Hopper on Facebook, I’ll be posting some images soon. Including a series of 1″ badges I’ll be selling as well as artwork from an exclusive print I hope to sell at the show as well.
That’s all for me. Thanks for swinging by and have a great day!
[ 28 Comments ]
Apr07
Believe it or not, this is the third time that Hillstryder – Tom’s magical, flying unicorn – has appeared in the comic. I like drawing Hillstryder (which I am not sure what that says about me) but I am more entertained by the idea that a beautiful unicorn behaves like a violent, petty jerk.
I wouldn’t bother digging up How To Train Your Dragon and Clash of the Titans again if there was something better to talk about this week. But there really isn’t much going on in theaters this weekend except for Tina Fey and Steve Carell in Date Night. The movie looks good to me, but I don’t think I could write two comics about it. I mean, let’s be honest. Nope, better to relegate it to one-comic status and then hold my breath until next week when Kick-Ass comes out.
So, yeah. Not much else to talk about today. But if you like unicorns and rainbow beams, then hopefully this comic finds you well.
Thanks for swinging by. I’ll see you guys here again on Friday!
[ 17 Comments ]
Apr09
Incidentally, the quote Cami is talking about came from an interview Tina Fey did with Esquire Magazine. But I guess she was on Oprah earlier this week with Steve Carell, too, and repeated it there.
I guess I just like the idea of Cami sitting around reading Esquire, for some reason.
For those of you that think I’m making up that story about a Korean man marrying a body pillow, that actually happened and it seems to be somewhat of an emerging trend in Eastern cultures. 2D Love, is what they’re starting to call it. Men falling in love with anime characters beyond what’s appropriate or… normal.
Interestingly enough, the phenomenon was referenced recently on an episode of 30 Rock where James Franco tried to arrange a shame marriage with Jane Krakowski’s character Jenna to keep the press from learning about his infatuation with a Japanese body pillow.
I mention that, I guess, because it also involves Tina Fey. I feel like I’m playing Six Degrees of Separation with body pillows, or something.
Back to the matter at hand, let’s talk about Date Night for a little bit. Certainly the film looks great on paper. Tina Fey and Steve Carell in the same movie? It would seem like they would have a very compatible sense of humor and a natural chemistry and I think that’s what Fox is counting on when (or if) you buy a ticket this weekend.
But if you scratch the surface, there is cause for concern. The first red flag is that it was directed by Shawn Levy who is one of the worst paycheck directors currently in Hollywood. He is to comedy what Chris Columbus is to children’s movies. Everything about Levy’s approach takes things that are otherwise funny and squeezes the life out of them. His work is safe and predictable and you only have to look at his directing credits for the proof. Just Married, Cheaper By The Dozen, the remake of The Pink Panther and BOTH Night at the Museum movies.
The second red flag is the script written by Josh Klausner – whose IMDB profile does not inspire confidence. Klausner only has 4 writing credits to his name and TWO of them are Shrek movies.
In other words, proceed with caution.
Fey and Carell have been all over the place doing press for Date Night. It seems either one or both of them have been on television every night this week. While that’s good for television – since they’re both always fun to watch in an interview context – it doesn’t exactly communicate quality in Date Night. They’re basically promoting the heck out of it now to drum up interest because (I’m willing to be) word of mouth won’t be very good afterwords. I hate to be a pessimist, but I’ve seen these kind of maneuvers before.
What do you guys think? Have I unfairly passed judgment on Date Night? Do you still want to see it? Leave your comments along with your thoughts and reflections about Japanese body pillows below!
[ 16 Comments ]
Not to sound like a complete prude, but it does kind of amaze me that Hollywood has released a movie called Kick-Ass. I ran a search for “ass” on the Internet Movie Database and while there are certainly films that have used that word as part of their title, I can’t think of a single movie as high profile as Kick-Ass to promote the colloquialism so prominently.
Even though I never read the original graphic novel on which the movie is based, I’m looking forward to the movie a great deal. The trailers make it look like colorful, sadistic fun. How ironic that the use of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” for the marketing campaign is so much more effective than “Cherry Bomb” was for The Runaways.
Aaron Johnson plays the film’s hero. I have no idea who he is. He has a fairly extensive resume, so I assume his performance will be pretty good. Although, honestly, I’m surprised the role didn’t go to Jesse Eisenberg. I guess there wasn’t enough sensitive longing in the character.
I’ll be doing comics about Kick-Ass all week, so I don’t want to say everything I have to say about the movie right now. Right now I’m getting ready to leave for C2E2 on Thursday, so I’m also trying to work ahead on the comics a little bit.
Usually I run guest comics when I go to a convention. But I thought, for once, maybe it would be a good idea to have some of my OWN work on display for people who see me at the convention and later check out the site. First impressions and all that. I’m sure you understand.
So, needless to say, it’s going to be a busy week.
If you’re going to be in Chicago this weekend and would like to say “Hi” you can find me here using C2E2’s interactive floor map. I will be at table WC-N in Webcomics Pavilion. I’m sharing the same area as Brat-halla, Shortpacked!, Erika Moen and Lucy Knisley. So if you see any of those artists, you’re in the right neighborhood!
My friends Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies and Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex will be there as well and I’m really looking forward to seeing them. You should be sure to stop by their booths and say “Hi” as well.
That’s it for now. If you’re going to be at C2E2 this weekend, let me know! If you plan on seeing Kick-Ass this weekend, leave some comments and let’s talk about it!
Cheers!
[ 38 Comments ]
The costume from Kick-Ass would be a lot more disturbing in real life.
Howdy, everyone. Another Kick-Ass comic for your enjoyment. Still trying to stay ahead of the curve this week and producing comics ahead of C2E2. I think I’ll be able to get a comic for Friday done before I leave, but Monday’s comic might be a little late because I probably won’t get back from Chicago until late in the evening.
I was hoping to stay ahead of things a little better, but I’ve been busy putting together all of the stuff I hope to sell at the show. If you’ve been following the Theater Hopper Facebook page, you’ve already seen the artwork, packaging and display of the 1″ badges I’ll be selling. I’m really proud of these. Hopefully, once I get back, I can sell them through the site as well. We’ll see what the demand is like in Chicago.
I don’t know how many of you will be in Chicago this weekend for C2E2, but if you are, there’s an opportunity for you to see Kick-Ass before everyone else.
Lionsgate, IGN and C2E2 are hosting a special premiere right before its nation-wide release on April 16th and are giving away tickets. Check out the full event and contest details on IGN and learn about how you can make yourself eligible for tickets. See link below:
C2E2 Contest on IGN: http://movies.ign.com/articles/108/1081846p1.html
In other non-Kick-Ass, non-C2E2 related news, I had a really interesting exchange on Twitter the other day that I wanted to share with you.
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the work of Tom Tomorrow, but he’s the writer and illustrator of a political comic called This Modern World. I’ve been reading his stuff in alternative weeklies for years and it’s no stretch to say that his work helped shape my personal politics.
I follow Tom Tommorow on Twitter and read a couple of posts he made in reference to reader reaction to his comic “If Real Life Were Like The Internet.”
“A reader argues that I *should* be grateful for increased attention via internet,” he tweeted. “Even when it means declining $, eventual end of strip?”
He continued “Not that I intend to go away any time soon. But if I’m eventually working for free, I’m not sure I’ll continue in the current format.”
Being an online guy, I replied “You don’t want to put advertising on your site? Sell merchandise. You can still monitize your work even if it isn’t syndicated.”
To my surprise, Tom replied, “no disrespect , but these are not new ideas. Not too many ad $ these days, and not a huge demand for political cartoon merch.”
After that, we went back and forth a little bit and I told him basically that I sympathized. I told him about Theater Hopper and how my own ad revenue is suffering and suggested (tongue-in-cheek) that he wouldn’t have to work for free. Just this side of free!
Afterwords, I guess Tom checked out Theater Hopper and sent me this message:
“@tombrazelton and it looks like a funny cartoon. damn you, now I have something else I have to read. http://www.theaterhopper.com/”
And now, against all odds, Tom Tomorrow is following ME on Twitter! This has put me over the moon.
Now, I understand there’s nothing really at stake for Tom Tomorrow to say “Hey, I think you’re comic’s funny” and then following me on Twitter. But it for someone like myself, who has been a fan of his for so long, it feels like validation.
When I was 8 years old, I sent a letter to Garfield creator Jim Davis. In return, I received a letter on custom stationary with a bite mark taken out of it and an illustration of Garfield on top chewing on a piece of paper. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It wasn’t until years later that I learned what I received was essentially a form letter that Davis’s company, Paws, Inc., sends out to everyone. But it didn’t take away from the feeling of validation I received from an artist I admire.
Talking with Tom Tomorrow in this way is infinitely better because it’s so much more personal and instantaneous. I tweeted about putting Pearl in her bouncy seat while I finished up today’s comic and he replied to that! He doesn’t know me from Adam but how cool is that?
And they say the internet is bad. Baloney. Under no other circumstances would I have a conversation with Tom Tomorrow, let alone be the recipient of his validation.
Anyway, that was something cool that happened to me this week. I just wanted to share.
If you want to follow ME on Twitter, you can find my account here. You might enjoy following me over the next couple of days as I plan on posting a lot of updates from C2E2 on Twitter and the Theater Hopper Facebook page as well. Start following me now so you don’t miss a thing!
Thanks again for stopping by and there will be a new comic for you on Friday!
[ 11 Comments ]
Hey, guys.
Not much movie related to talk about today as I have actually written this blog entry a few days ago in preparation for my attendance at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo – or C2E2 this weekend.
Typically, it’s been a tradition for several of us web comic guys to go see a movie together while we’re in town. I don’t know if we’ll get the opportunity to see Kick-Ass this weekend but I hope we do.
If you’re in The Windy City, be sure to stop by my booth in Webcomics Pavilion. I’m at table WC-N in the same area as Brat-halla, Shortpacked!, Erika Moen and Lucy Knisley.
I will be selling shirts, books (Including Theater Hopper: Year Three), buttons and original sketches.
If you aren’t able to join us in Chicago this weekend, be sure to follow my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I plan on posting several updates throughout the weekend to let you know how things are going.
That’s all for now. Like I said, I wrote this two days ago. So, right now, I need to go to bed so I don’t nod off on the road between Des Moines and Chicago. I have a 6 hour trip ahead of me. Or, had a 6 hour trip ahead of me.
…because I’m in Chicago now.
But I wrote this… two…
WISH ME LUCK!
[ 18 Comments ]
You guys know that I’m referencing Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in Iceland with today’s comic, right? The one with the billowing ash cloud that has grounded millions of airline travelers in Europe? Just checking.
Apologies for the delay getting the new comic up for you guys today. I tried working ahead so potential new readers from the C2E2 comic book convention would have something timely to look at while I was away. I was able to get Friday’s comic on the site before I left town, but not Monday’s comic. I had to sit down to work on it this evening after I put the kids to bed.
I would have worked on the comic last night except the show organizers wouldn’t let me load-out from the venue until after 5:00 PM. I didn’t get on the road until an hour later and I didn’t make it home until 11:30.
That’s not bad time, all things considered. But since I was out all night with my webcomic buddies the night before, spent the day on my feet behind my table and then another 5 and a half hours behind the wheel of a car, I was wrecked.
That said, I don’t have my convention recap written up yet, but that’s something I want to get on the site by tomorrow. So be sure to check back throughout the day for my thoughts and opinions about C2E2.
I will say that I was very encouraged by the number of people I met who said that C2E2 was their first con ever. I was also thrilled to meet the fans that sought me out and who thanked me for the work on the site. More than a couple of you said you thought my work was getting better – which was amazing. I want to thank everyone who took the time to come talk to me, buy a book or a shirt or just shoot the breeze. I had a great time talking to everyone and I have lots of fun personal stories to tell you about later!
I also had an opportunity to hang out with a bunch of different webcomic people that I have never had the pleasure to meet before and I was amazed how many of them either already knew what I looked like or were familiar with Theater Hopper after we made introductions. I have this vision in my head of being on the Webcomics B-Squad… a wannabe. But I’ve done my time in the trenches, you know? So maybe how I view my place in webcomics isn’t as low on the totem pole as I imagined!
Anyway, more tomorrow. Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoyed today’s comic!
[ 10 Comments ]
Most likely because I am an immature jerk (or possibly because I’m still riding high on puns after Monday’s comic), I kind of feel like I could have stopped after the first panel in this comic. I’ll leave it at that. I don’t want to spoil the joke for you.
Long-time readers of the comic know that this isn’t the first time I’ve explored the concept of porn parody titles. I don’t know why the idea entertains me so. I guess because it’s kind of adorably naive on the part of the pornography companies, isn’t it? Their idea is to make a movie that sounds KIND OF like the popular movie you ACTUALLY want to rent… in hopes of what? That you’re not looking closely enough? That you’re illiterate?
Or is the idea that this is as clever and self-referential as pornography gets? I don’t know. I just think it’s weird.
What’s even more weird is that this is the fifth (the FIFTH!) comic I’ve done about Kick-Ass without actually having seen the movie yet. I didn’t get a chance to check it out while I was in Chicago for C2E2 this weekend. So, hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to see it Friday after everyone has gone to bed. Cami has no interest in seeing the film, so she won’t mind if I sneak out to watch a late showing.
Speaking of C2E2, I know I promised you my recap yesterday. It’s coming! I’m still working on it! I was working on it in between Pearl’s naps yesterday and just kept going and going and going. It’s over 2,000 words at this point, which is kind of crazy. But when you have a good experience like I had, you want to share all the details.
Stay tuned for that recap. It’s coming soon. Hopefully today.
That’s all for now! Ta-ta!
[ 16 Comments ]
I promised you guys a recap of my time at C2E2 – The Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo. It’s really long, so bring a sandwich.
After scrambling to get out of town Thursday morning, I pulled into Chicago around 3:30 in the afternoon. I was a little bit stressed because load-in time at the convention center closed at 4:30 and my Google Map instructions were crap!
The driving directions the show promoters gave me didn’t help much, either. I literally spent 45 minutes driving around and around the convention center, unable to find the loading dock. It turns out, I had to go UP some crazy ramp. The docks weren’t at street level! That was a first for me!
But I made it into the convention center on time and dropped off my stuff in Webcomics Pavilion. I was too tired after driving all day to bother setting up, so I walked over to the next aisle and introduced myself to Joel Watson from HiJinks Ensue. Joel was nice enough to split a hotel room with me to help save on costs, so it seemed appropriate to at least say “hello.”
Joel was a really cool guy and we had great conversations throughout the weekend. He is very serious about his career as a cartoonist and on top of his game. I learned a lot from him over the course of the next few days.
After meeting up and making introductions with a few people from Topatoco, including David Malki from Wondermark, we decided to check in to the hotel. Later, we had dinner before I dragged Joel to Millennium Park to visit the sculpture “Cloud Gate”.
We had a hilarious interaction with some high school kid that was trying to give us grief. As we approached the sculpture, this kid – part of some kind of tour group – yells to us, “Hey, guyyys! How do you like Seattle?” We both looked at him like an idiot and just kept walking.
We inspected the sculpture for a little while and as we were leaving, Joel tried to snap a picture. Again, the same kid yelled at us “What do you think of Seattle, man?” Meanwhile, his chubby friend behind him yelled “You’re gonna get mugged, tourist!”
At that point. Joel stepped up on the kid and said “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I’m taking a picture of a sculpture – just like 4 dozen other people standing around here? Are you trying to be funny, or something?”
The kid immediately folded up, shuffled his feet like a 5 year-old and with his head down muttered “I don’t know. I was just kiddin’ around…” It was awesome.
Later in the evening, we met up with the crew from Topatoco and this time Jeffery Rowland from Wigu, Jeph Jacques from Questionable Content and Matt, Rob and Chris from Cyanide and Happiness came along for the ride. We spent the rest of Thursday evening bar-hopping through downtown Chicago. We’d go to one bar that closed at 11:00 before being directed to another bar that closed at 1:00, before being directed to ANOTHER bar that closed at 2:00. I had a blast.
“But Tom,” you whine. “Stop name-dropping. Tell us about the convention!”
Okay, okay. I get you. Well, let me say this: The first sale I made was just after the doors opened. I sold a copy of Theater Hopper: Year Three to Steve Sansweet.
Now if you don’t know who Steve Sansweet is, that’s alright. But as it turns out, he is the Director of Content Management and Head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm!
I totally didn’t recognize him because he was wearing a beard and, frankly, because I wasn’t on the lookout for anyone from Lucasfilm while I was there. But I talked to him for a little while and he said he decided to pick up my book after seeing one of my comics with George Lucas in my sampler booklet. I just hope it wasn’t this one.
I pointed out that I made 9 comics about Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith by pointing to the index in the back of the book – which he labeled “brilliant” – and said that I hoped that they wouldn’t get me in trouble. “No, no,” he said. “This is clearly parody.”
So there you have it! Theater Hopper: Year Three is approved by Lucasfilm!
I wish I had been smart enough to ask Mr. Sansweet for his picture while he was at my booth, but I was so gobsmacked by the exchange, I didn’t think of it until 2 hours later. If someone knows how I can get in touch with the guy, please let me know! I’d love to get a shot of him holding up the book for the site!
Needless to say, it was a GREAT way to start the convention.
I don’t know if my contemporaries felt quite as optimistic after Friday, though. A lot of people commented that they thought traffic was a little too light for a Friday and worried what kind of impact that would have for their show.
Personally, I talked to a bunch of people. Although, I will admit, I didn’t make a lot of sales. I chalked it up to the convention simply being so VAST that attendees were just trying to get the lay of the land and figure out what the show had to offer. Everyone I made a sale to that day was wearing a “Friday Only” badge. So I was still holding on to hope.
Friday evening, I attended the Webcomics Town Hall Panel. Since Joel was sitting on stage with David Malki from Wondermark Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza from Least I Could Do, Erika Moen from DAR, Lucy Knisley from Stop Paying Attention and Danielle Corsetto from Girls With Slingshots. There were also two guys with Zuda comics, but for the life of me I can’t remember them. Sorry.
Actually, I was kind of tuned-out for most of panel. Largely because the moderator (who I also don’t recall) was as boring as a bowl of oatmeal. He talked at length about his own webcomic credentials and then introduced each individual artist by reading lengthy bio information from a Powerpoint presentation that was being displayed on a screen behind him. He would have been better off just asking the panelists to introduce themselves and gotten on with the Q&A.
David Malki basically took the whole thing over, even calling on members of the audience who had questions. He practically muscled the moderator out completely. Kind of rude. But at the same time, completely necessary to keep the panel from becoming a total snore-fest.
There was also some minor controversy when apparently Malki called out Ryan Sohmer on some practice or another. Again, I wasn’t paying close attention. Someone from the audience also asked a question that took a shot at the Zuda guys, which most people on the panel thought was off sides. Truthfully, there wasn’t much for me to learn from listening the panel. I was just there to support the scene.
I attended the panel with my good buddy Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex. After it was over, we kind of tried to sneak in next to the group of webcomic artists also in attendance to see what their plans were for dinner. I was overjoyed when, after saying “hello” to Danielle Corsetto, she immediately recognized me and gave me a hug! I wasn’t sure she’d remember me, but we were on the Business of Webcomics panel together at Emerald City Comic Con last year. She is OFFICIALLY the sweetest person in webcomics!
Eventually, 15 of decided to get dinner together at Giordanos for pizza, but didn’t know that it is a world-renown restaurant. The wait was something like 2 hours. So we ended up going across the street to Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap for some hot wings.
There were more webcomic people there than you could shake a stick at! I met Phil Khan, Erica Henderson and T. Campbell from Guilded Age David Willis from Shortpacked! and Randy Milholland from Something Positive.
A bunch of other webcomics guys also wandered in off the street just by accident. I think Zach Weiner from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and Alina Pete from Weregeek were there, too (among many others – the Cyanide and Happiness guys showed up, too), but I didn’t get to say “hi.” There were so many of us, they had to split us up into different tables! We were half the restaurant at one point!
What was craziest about all of this interaction with different webcomic people was how many of them were already familiar with Theater Hopper. My social circle among webcomic artists is pretty small and, like most artists with social anxiety, it’s sometimes difficult for me to go up to a stranger and strike up a conversation.
But this time, I made an effort to change things and I made sure to be friendly and up front. When I walked up to Randy Milholland and said, “Hi, my name’s Tom Brazelton,” he responded “Oh, yeah! From Theater Hopper!” and that was crazy validating.
By the way, if you ever end up at Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap, get their Poncho Wings. A local recommended me to them and they were excellent. Garlic and cayenne pepper! Oh, yeah!
After dinner, pretty much everyone agreed to call it a night. Which was probably for the best.
The next day at the convention was noticeably busier and again I talked to a bunch of really cool fans. One guy came up to the booth wearing my “Junkie” t-shirt. A little later, a different guy came up wearing my Sean Bean shirt. Seeing fans wearing my shirts always brings a smile to my face.
Later in the day, a girl that I had given a sampler book to came back to let me know that she was laughing out loud while reading it. She brought her friend to my booth to show her what the fuss was about. That’s pretty awesome.
On Saturday, I was asked to pinch hit at the Reading With Pictures Iron Artist Tournament. Basically, they put me on stage with a couple of other artists and we were given a bizarre theme and asked to draw the first thing that came to our minds.
The first theme was “Superheros When They Were Young.” So, of course, I drew Iron Man as a baby. The second theme was Escape from New York meets The Princess Bride. So I drew Snake Plissken as Inigo Montoya. I got lucky on that second drawing because someone asked me to draw them as Inigo Montoya earlier in the day!
Gordon McAlpin was also part of the tournament and I have to say that his Baby Blue Beetle was adorable. I don’t know how much it was auctioned off for, but I bet it fetched a pretty penny.
I had a great time on stage drawing and helping contribute to a worthwhile cause. If you want to see pictures of the event, a bunch of them have been uploaded to Flickr here.
After we wrapped things up at the tournament, Joe Dunn and Phil Chan from Another Videogame Comic came with us to met up with the guys from Guilded Age and Cyanide and Happiness at the World’s Worst Pizza restaurant. It was so bad, I don’t even remember the name. All I remember is that someone ordered a deep dish BBQ pizza and was repulsed by it. That pizza was only mentioned in hushed tones after that.
From there, the 10 of us met up with yet ANOTHER group of webcomic artists across town at a karaoke bar called Brando’s at an event organized by Abby L, who draws The Green Avenger and The Rose Deli Project. It almost didn’t happen. The bar was very small and there was already a large, obnoxious bachelorette party taking up most of the seats.
The club owner saw we were about to leave and offered us one free round of drinks just as soon as the bachelorette party left – which turned out to be about 10 minutes after we arrived. Unable to refuse free drinks, we all spilled in to the club.
I’ve only done karaoke once in my life. Drunkenly, I tried to sing AC/DC’s “You Shook Me.” I tried to do the Brian Johnson voice and everything. It was terrible.
However, I like to sing in the car and I think I have a pretty good voice. The only problem is, I don’t know the lyrics to a lot of songs that aren’t 90’s hip-hop.
After a few rounds, I started to entertain the idea that I would sing “The Humpty Dance” by Digital Underground. Those of you familiar with Mitch Clem’s work might recognize my affinity for the song and how thoroughly it annoys others.
Joe Dunn tried to talk me out of performing the song, but when I mentioned it to Spike from Templar, AZ, she insisted I do it and promised to back me up. When my time came to grab the mic, not only did Spike join me on stage, but her husband Mike Sheridan and Joel from HiJinks Ensue joined me on stage as well. I’m proud to report that we killed it.
Or, at least I think we did. In my estimation, everyone who steps on stage to perform karaoke has to convince themselves they’re killing it or they would fold under the weight of their own embarrassment.
Two LEGITIMATELY awesome performances can be attributed to Joel’s rendition of Styx’s “Mr. Roboto.” Also, Dave Reiley from Dead Winter did a thundering version of Metallica’s “Fuel.” Needless to say, a fun time was had by all.
After karaoke, Spike was nice enough to invite everyone back to her apartment for an after party. I’m always amazed how quickly webcomic people – who are otherwise strangers – can fall into passionate, well-informed conversations so easily. Before I knew it, we were there for two hours. I could have kept talking with these people for another six.
The last day of the convention was mild compared to the previous two. I did better with sales than I did on Friday, but not as well as I did on Saturday.
One exchange I had, however, was “100% WIN” (as the L33T kids say). Near the end of the show, one of the event volunteers approached me and asked for a custom sketch. What was sweet about it was that he didn’t want a sketch of himself, but one of his wife. He identified himself as a fan of Theater Hopper, but it was his wife that introduced him to the comic. She had been on board since the early days and “shared my hatred for Ben Affleck,” he said.
He asked that I reproduce the last panel of this comic where Ben Affleck opens a package from Jared filled with bees featuring her instead of Affleck. According to this guy, his wife has been using that image as her desktop background for the last 4 years.
I happily drew the picture and turned it over to him. “Tell your wife to send me an e-mail after she receives it,” I told him. “I’d love to hear her reaction.”
I didn’t have to wait that long. Five minutes before the show was over, the man’s wife approached my table. I misunderstood the situation thinking that the husband was volunteering and the wife was somewhere else. But it turns out she was volunteering as well, just in a different area of the show! She wasn’t able to leave her post.
She was so effusive and thankful for the sketch, it was utterly heart warming. Both her and her husband were so friendly and appreciative, it was really the best way to end the convention. I left on such a high note.
For her, I decided to produce a 1280 x 1024 desktop wallpaper from the last panel of that comic. I just couldn’t let her continue about her work without something that was a little better in quality.
I talked to a lot of people about the success (or lack thereof) of C2E2. A lot of my contemporaries didn’t do as well with sales as they had hoped. Some people I talked to said they didn’t think they were coming back next year.
While I would have liked to have sold a little more than I did, I can’t look at the weekend as anything less than a complete success for me.
I got to talk to talk to a myriad of different webcomic creators for the first time. I shook hands with fans who were so supportive and thankful. Fans who told me they think my comics are getting better and how much they enjoy reading the movie reviews. One guy told me mine were the one reviews he trusted. I mean, how can you NOT feel great after a weekend like that?
I had a blast and I hope I can go back next year.
[ 7 Comments ]
