Archive for April, 2010
15 items.
I floated the concept of this comic to Cami late last night and her response – her exact words were, “So, the premise of the comic is that you would rather fly to Korea than see a movie with your wife?”
“Pretty much,” I said. “Yeah.”
So I’ll be sleeping on the couch for a month…
Naw, I kid. Cami takes this stuff in stride. Although, I always feel a little dodgey representing our relationship in the comic as duplicitous or cruel. We kid around, naturally. But we don’t make it a habit of lying to one another.
Comedic license and all that. I’m sure you guys understand!
After nearly 4 years since her last movie (an eternity in Hollywood years) Jennifer Lopez has returned with The Back-Up Plan. If you don’t know the plot, it centers around a women in her 40’s (Lopez) who can’t find “The One” (uhhh, sure) and who conceives twins through artificial insemination.
Later, she meets the man of her dreams and the film explores the stages of a relationship as they develop completely out of sequence.
I pretty much checked-out on the concept of this movie after viewing the trailer. In which, there is a scene where Lopez walks with her knees locked together, presumably after visiting the insemination clinic, to keep the business from falling out.
As a dude, I don’t know how everything works down there, ladies. But I’m pretty much 99.9% sure you wouldn’t have to walk like that after having the procedure. Maybe the reason Lopez’s character hasn’t met “The One” yet is because she is an out-and-out moron.
I asked Cami if she was at all interested in seeing this movie and she thinks it looks stupid. Instead, we’re going to take Henry to see Disney’s Oceans and see how that goes over instead. We saw Disney’s Earth last year and even though it was put together from recycled footage from The Discovery Channel’s series Planet Earth, it was still a marvel to see on the big screen.
Henry is very funny about movies when we suggest them to him. If we ask him if he wants to see a movie or watch a DVD, he automatically says “No. I hate movies.” As you can imagine, this breaks my heart. But, you kind of have to take it with a grain of salt. Henry is a very determined little child and doesn’t entertain distractions very well.
Say, for example, Henry wants to go outside. It doesn’t matter if you asked him if he wanted a piece of candy instead of going outside. He’d still turn you down and say he hated candy because he is so focused on that ONE THING he wants.
He’ll be fine once we plop him down in the theater. We’ve taken him to a few films now and he never has a problem sitting through them. We’re looking forward to it.
At some point, I’m need to see Kick-Ass. I didn’t get a chance to check it out when I was in Chicago last weekend for C2E2. I’ve talked to some friends that were over the moon for it and I’ve talked to some friends that say the third act pretty much betrays the concept established by the first two-thirds of the movie. I think my expectations are in check, but I still want to see it.
Not much news, otherwise. Settling into a groove since coming back from the show. I’m slowly putting all of my shirts and books back into storage.
I have a plan for updating the Theater Hopper store in the near future either using the Magento or Open Cart shopping cart interface. I haven’t decided which. Once that happens, you should be able to buy a few new items including Theater Hopper: Year Three, a new shirt and a set of five 1″ buttons that I designed for the show. All good stuff.
Of course, this can only happen once I’ve shipped off everything for the people who preordered Year Three. They’re my priority right now. All the envelopes are addressed and packed up. Some are ready to be shipped. Some still need custom artwork. I need to develop a schedule for that so I can get those books out the door. I’m about a month behind where I want to be with that. Not good.
But, yeah. That’s my life right now. Thanks for swinging by the site today. Does anyone have aspirations to see The Back-Up Plan this weekend? If so, you’re braver than I. Lemme know your thoughts and feelings in the comments section and I will catch up with you soon!
Cheers!
[ 13 Comments ]
First, if you’re a relatively new reader to the site, then you probably aren’t familiar with the previous story arc that this comic is referencing.
WAAAAAYYY back in 2008 when the original Iron Man was in theaters, I did a story line about Tom going to the movie in costume wearing a homemade costume made out of cardboard boxes. It was pretty well received. I’d be pretty stupid not to revisit the concept now that the sequel is coming.
And, yes, I know that Iron Man 2 won’t be in theaters for two weeks. And, YES, I know that I will be sacrificing easy jokes in reference to Furry Vengeance. But I don’t care. Iron Man 2 is coming and I am BEYOND EXCITED!
Since there will be a lot of Iron Man to cover in the next two weeks, I won’t bore you with a bunch of extraneous fanboy pants-wetting. Instead, I wanted to offer my sincere apology for Monday’s comic being so late.
I was up last night working on the comic and – since I feel so invested in this particular story – I wanted to get the artwork just right. But I had to turn in early and get some sleep because I had two job interviews today and I didn’t want to be a drooling, sleep-deprived zombie all day.
As a result, I was pretty much away from the computer all day today. When I wasn’t in an interview, I was taking care of Pearl. Later in the evening, after we put Pearl and Henry to bed, I participated in the recording of a podcast I was invited to called The F.I.L.M. Army produced by the Fancy Pants Gangsters. It’s a very well-produced and entertaining podcast and you should check it out.
I had a great time shooting the breeze with The F.I.L.M. Army crew for an hour and it reminded me of the good times recording The Triple Feature. There’s an option for me to come back and do more shows and I’m willing to do them. It all depends on when or if they decide to invite me back.
The show I appeared on should go live sometime this weekend and I’ll be sure to remind you when it does. Be on the lookout for that.
In the meantime, sincere apologies again for the late comic. I always feel bad when I can’t meet deadline, but when you have a 4 month old and a job search to juggle, sometimes it’s hard to get the pieces to fall into place.
Feel free to speculate about the forthcoming Iron Man 2 story line and if there is anything specific you’d like to discuss about the film, feel free to do so in the comics.
See you here (hopefully on time!) this Wednesday! THANKS!
[ 14 Comments ]
Perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that if Tom was destined to return as Cardboard Iron Man a Cardboard War Machine wouldn’t be far behind. Really, can you blame me? It’s friggin’ War Machine. I don’t even care that the comic character was created in the mid-90’s to make Iron Man darker and more “extreme.” HIS NAME IS WAR MACHINE. It’s literal AND fun to say. Instant win, right there.
The first Iron Man did a good job hinting at War Machine’s inclusion in the franchise after Terrence Howard looked at the Mark II suit in Tony Stark’s garage and said “Next time, baby.”
Of course, now that the sequel is here, it isn’t Howard that will be in the suit. After contract negotiations fell through, Howard has been replaced by Don Cheadle.
For the sake of consistency, I would have preferred Howard kept the role. But it’s hard to complain about Don Cheadle stepping into his shoes. That’s like going to a restaurant and having the waiter take away your hamburger while you’re eating. Then, five minutes later, he comes back with a replacement burger that has cheese and bacon on it.
I’m a little mad you took away my burger while I was eating it. But you gave me cheese and bacon on this new burger. I’m starting to forget about the first burger altogether. Damn, this is a tasty burger!
What I’m saying is that Don Cheadle is awesome.
And a major contributor to heart disease.
That’s all I have for today’s blog. Be sure to check back on Friday for more Iron Man 2 related goodies! Who will show up in costume next? Will the briefcase armor make an appearance? Stay tuned!
In the meantime, why don’t you add your two cents to the conversation about Terrance Howard being replaced by Don Cheadle in the comments section? Good decision? Bad decision? YOU MAKE THE CALL!
[ 25 Comments ]
I have to say right now that the response to the last few comics has been phenomenal and I really wanted to thank you guys for the comments and suggestions you’ve been leaving.
A lot of you have been trying to guess where the story line might be going and I LOVE that. It tells me you’re invested in what’s going to happen next. That’s good, because this week was pretty much all exposition – getting all of the characters “in costume,” so to speak, so we can kick the action into high gear next week.
Someone wrote me on Twitter the other day asking if Cami would show up wearing a cardboard Black Widow costume. And while I think the visual gag would have been hilarious (if somewhat difficult to pull off), I decided to play it straight and put Cami in the sexy catsuit instead. I honestly believe this is one of the best renderings of her I’ve ever drawn.
Besides, I think the contrast of a hot babe running around with a couple of dorks in cardboard costumes is still an effective visual gag. It gives you some eye candy, at least!
I was writing on Facebook about how much I’ve been enjoying this story line. Both in terms of what I’ve already accomplished as well as what is lying in store for the weeks ahead. I’m feeling really enthusiastic about it and I hope that enthusiasm is translating for you guys.
I think it boils down to authenticity. I’m a crazy Iron Man fan in real life, so now it’s working it’s way into the comic. I actually consider it a point of pride that I’ve haphazardly “branded” myself as the crazy Iron Man fan. It seems like there isn’t a week that goes by that I’m not talking about Iron Man to someone on Twitter, trying to convince them to pick up Matt Fraction’s recent run on Invincible Iron Man.
When the first movie came out, things were so crazy because people were sending me Iron Man cups from 7-11, stickers, theatrical posters… One guy even sent me a full-sized Iron Man theater standee! It was wild!
All I’m saying is that I appreciate all that stuff but what I appreciate more is that you guys are zeroing in on my passion for the character and are echoing that same enthusiasm. It’s personally very satisfying for me. So, thank you.
As a side note, I’ll mention that a few of you living outside of the United States have already seen the movie and are talking about it. That’s fine, but I’m in total lockdown mode now. I’m not reading any reviews and I’m not watching any more clips. I saw a clip with the briefcase armor and I felt like I had already seen too much. I don’t want to accidentally ruin something else.
That said, I do know some things about the general consensus regarding the film as a bi-product of simply being online and absorbing things. I’ve seen a few headlines raving about it and a few headlines saying its a disappointment.
In my mind, that brings me back to an even keel. It’s not important to me that the critics or blogosphere unanimously love the movie. What is important to me is that I control my expectations walking into the theater and – for once – just enjoy the film while freezing out all of the hype.
I don’t do this very often because, typically, I find the marketing of a film as interesting as the movie itself. But this one is for me to savor. I am greatly looking forward to it.
Not much more for me to say at the moment. If you have thoughts or reactions about today’s strip or the developing story line, feel free to leave them in the comments section. I always welcome your feedback!
Have a great day and enjoy the weekend!
[ 16 Comments ]
I forgot to put this in the blog earlier today, but I wanted to share a bit of news that made my fanboy heart swell with glee.
Last night, Cami and I were watching 30 Rock (as you do) and out of nowhere she said, “I think I want to watch Iron Man tomorrow night.”
I looked at her with what must have been an expression of shock and confusion. Was she messing with me?
“Are you messing with me,” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I want to watch it again before the sequel comes out next week. I really liked the first one and I haven’t seen it in a while. I figured tomorrow would be a good night to watch it.”
I LOVE THIS WOMAN!
[ 4 Comments ]
