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!