Archive for July, 2011
9 items.
Okay, so it’s been a little more than two weeks since I updated. That’s really bad. But let me explain how it happened.
Basically, I got thrown for a loop by the 4th of July holiday last week. Didn’t really plan in advance and was exhausted after all the family activities and whatnot. That’s why there was no comic last Monday.
I thought I would be able to compensate and post a comic later in the week, but late-night work commitments pretty much drained me of my energy reserves in the evenings last week to the point that I was going to be early, completely wiped out.
I hoped to get back on track over the weekend, but I was once again laid low – this time by crippling illness. Fevers of 103, chills, vertigo, migraines, back pain, night sweats, fever dreams. I don’t know what I picked up, but whatever it was certainly took advantage of my weakened state. I was pretty much out of commission from Friday night until… well, I’m still not 100% at the moment.
I went to a walk-in clinic on Saturday. They couldn’t confirm if I had a viral or bacterial infection. But they put me on antibiotics anyway. Then I went home and slept for 16 hours. It was tortured sleep, that much I can say – punctuated by thunderstorms, which made it all the more exhausting.
So, yeah. Last week? Not a great week.
I will also admit to a certain lack of confidence in this comic’s punchline. Frankly, the comic doesn’t stand very well on it’s own unless you know Jared’s long and sorted history with Shia LaBeouf.
I’ll also admit to a little bit of selfishness. I thought if I could extend the Shia-hate for a week, I could run this ad (or actually, a variation of that ad) on a few web sites to help draw eyeballs to the site. I have no doubt it would have worked. I just had way too much on my plate last week and prioritized things very, very poorly.
But you know what? I’m not going to beat myself up about it anymore. I was already sick with some kind of infection and started to make myself even sicker with guilt. I just have to dust myself off, say “sorry” and move on. Next week, bigger and better things await, right?
Hey, it can’t all be Chaucer.
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Check out this piece of original artwork by Casey Weldon. It’s a poster for the fictional movie at the end of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and it immediately brought a smile to my face.
The artwork is acrylic on wood and Mr. Weldon is selling it for $900. That’s a little rich for my blood, but it has inspired me to re-watch Pee Wee’s Big Adventure immediately and without delay.
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Remember last year when MTV Geek asked the cast of Harry Potter to do and say things “the right way – the American way?” It was pretty effin’ hilarious.
The shine is a little bit off the apple the second go around. But still, it’s nice they did a follow up.
Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog
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First things first, guys. I have a bit of site business to attend to.
Whether or not you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook and the myriad of updates I’ve posted pertaining to the matter, there has been a long-standing drama unfolding over the last few months. Specifically, I’m talking about the development of… A NEW T-SHIRT DESIGN!
Check it!
The design of this shirt has been going on for so long, I don’t even remember when I first came up with the idea for it. I want to say last Christmas. That may or may not be true.
What IS true is that I need to give a big shout-out to Joel Watson from Hijinks Ensue and Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex for helping me refine the idea. This shirt would not look at all good without their influence. If you guys know Joel at all, he is like a t-shirt making machine. He’s knows his stuff and he provided me with a lot of great art tips as well. So thanks, guys! I’ll be pestering you again real soon!
Anyway, I’m running a pre-sale on this shirt now through Friday to help me raise the funds to print up the first batch. The goal is to take this new design to Wizard World Chicago – which I will be attending – August 11 – 14.
Shirts are $12.00 and I would really appreciate it if you bought one now rather than later. Plus, don’t you want to be the first on your block to have one? Thanks, guys. You’re the coolest!
Now, onto the comic!
Despite taking all kinds of box office records and breaking them over it’s knee like dry kindling, I’m not doing a comic about Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. I just… don’t care. Sorry, Gryffindor. I stuck it out through six moves, but totally gave up after The Half-Blood Prince. While I applaud the continuity that director David Yates brought to the series (it was sorely lacking), there’s just something about his murky style that flattened the franchise for me and made the last few movies completely unmemorable.
And for the record, no, I never read the books (please consult recent t-shirt design above). I don’t have the knowledge of the characters and events that help fill in the gaps within the movies. So, sorry. Just not my bag, baby.
I have a Harry Potter in mind for another comic, but I’m worried it won’t be timely for next week. So we’ll see what can be done about a bonus comic this week. After all, I have to keep that pre-sale up in the air, don’t I?
As for today’s comic, lots of people were steamed about Netflix’s price increase last week. I was actually sent more than one e-mail asking me to sign a petition against the company or to add my name to the disgruntled customers who are walking out on them.
I don’t begrudge these individuals their right to be mad about this situation. Certainly I am just as easily offended in other matters. But this time around?… I’m coo’ with it.
Look, even before I read the reports about how the studios were putting the squeeze on Netflix for licensing right (an estimated $2 Billion with a “B” projected for next fiscal year), I was already pretty much on Netflix’s side anyway.
Netflix is a monster of the first order. It clogs up the USPS and it sucks down bandwidth from servers like mad. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to adjust their pricing to compensate.
Yeah, nearly doubling their prices is pretty severe – and I was one of the DVD + streaming combo customers affected – but when you look at the big picture, a movie like this is necessary to keep the company afloat.
Frankly, I hope this pushes Netflix further into the realm of streaming. That’s where it’s all going anyway. Typically I’m the kind of guy that says companies should provide content in every conceivable format people expect to find it. But Netflix opened the bottle when it made streaming available. They can’t stuff it back in now and go back to mailing out discs. Not gonna happen.
So, yeah. I’m not signing any petitions. But I did drop my service package from streaming + 1 DVD to strictly streaming. And I’m okay with that.
Don’t work, folks. It’s ALLLLLL going to be okay.
SIDEBAR: Today’s comic was inspired by a Twitter conversation I had with Dustin Rowles over at Pajiba. He originally made the comment about download movies directly to one’s brain. Immediately, my thoughts turned to Johnny Mnemonic – a “cyberpunk” movie about a mnemonic courier played by (who else) Keanu Reeves with an 80 gig hard drive implanted in his head.
Man, remember the days when 80 gigs was considered to be a lot of storage? Like, an inconceivable amount of storage? Oh, 1995. You were adorable.
Fair warning, Johnny Mnemonic is horrible. Probably the worst of the mid-90’s “internet” movies that got the technology all wrong. Granted, at least Johnny Mnemonic is set in the future so they have a little wiggle room when it comes to depicting an internet built completely in Virtual Reality. It’s not like Sandra Bullock in The Net, y’know. But still… pretty bad.
Wanna taste? Here you go…
Johnny Mnemonic gets a pass from me thanks to a cameo from Henry Rollins – one of his first movie roles, I believe. And he’s as hammy and over-the-top as you would expect him to be. But I love it anyway.
I remember making a bunch of my friends watch Johnny Mnemonic when we were in high school. Not just a bunch of guys, but guys and girls together watching this awful, awful movie. BEGGING for it to be over. I’m shocked I wasn’t thrown out of the group when it was over. I’m pretty sure they all hated me at that moment.
Anyway, lots of fun for all.
Don’t forget to pre-order the new shirt and be on the lookout for another comic this week. Fingers crossed!
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Originally the word on the street was that the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man wasn’t supposed to hit the web (ha!) until Thursday. Conventional wisdom placed it ahead of Captain America: The First Avengers when it launches in theaters on Friday.
But lo-and-behold! It’s here a day early! Enjoy!
I’ll say that the trailer hits a couple of different notes with me. Some work, some don’t.
Meeting the young Peter Parker at the beginning plays a little too much like Harry Potter to me. Then, fast forwarding a few years to the present day, we’re confronted by Andrew Garfield’s wild haystack of hair and I get a distinct Twilight vibe.
But after that, I think the trailer shapes up very nicely. Right away, you can tell that Marc Webb’s version is grounded a little more in reality. At least in terms of casting Peter as the outsider. Garfield barely even utters a line of dialogue. Mostly he keeps his head down like a beat dog. I find that kind of endearing. It’s certainly a stark contrast from widdle Tobey Maguire’s wounded puppy-dog routine in Sam Raimi’s original.
I’ll also give credit to Webb’s use of the first-person in Spider-Man’s sprint across the city rooftops.
The cynic in me could honestly have done without everything leading up to that moment in the trailer. I think if we were only give the first person shot, it would have taken the audience to catch on that we were actually seeing the city through the eyes of Spider-Man. Then, when his reflection is revealed, I think people would have gone through the roof. But maybe that’s just me.
What’s your take on this trailer?
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Sorry for the delay on this week’s comic, but hopefully you’ll find the comic being double-sized worth it. I was excited to put this comic together, but it kind of kept growing on me. At first, I said to myself that it would be the typical four-panel. Then I thought of another joke and made it six. Then I thought of a fun reversal and made it eight.
Truth be told, I have another throw away joke in mind using the set up from this comic that I might post as a bonus strip tomorrow. We’ll see.
Anyway, the big reason the comic is late is because I spent the weekend with my Dad in Chicago. A couple of years ago, my Dad won a contest where he won two tickets to sit on top of one of the row houses behind Wrigley Field for a Chicago Cubs game and he took me with him. It was a rare treat and we had a blast. As we sat there watching the game, I told him “You know, we should come back every year and make a tradition out of it.” So we did!
Actually, we didn’t go last year because I was unemployed and it didn’t feel right. But we made up for it this year and went to TWO game.
By the way, we’re not hanging out on the Wrigley rooftops. That’s not the tradition. Those buildings are all now privately owned and it’s crazy expensive to get access. Naw. We bought tickets and watched the game from The Friendly Confines this time out. It was fantastic.
Not to go on and on about sports (because frankly, I know nothing about the subject), even if you don’t like baseball, you *have* to go to Wrigley Field once in your life. A game at Wrigley is what you imagine baseball to be. I’ve been to a couple of other baseball stadiums in my lifetime and nothing competes. There’s a friendly, neighborhood vibe and people still have fun even when the Cubs suck.
For the record, the Cubs won both of the games we saw last weekend against the Astros. 4 – 2 on Friday and 5 – 1 on Saturday. As a matter of fact, Chicago Cubs outfielder Marlon Byrd hit a home run into the bleachers we were sitting in on Saturday about two rows back and two people to the right of where we were sitting. We were close enough to high-five the woman who claimed the ball. So that was pretty exciting!
Anyway, that’s our tradition and one day we hope to bring Henry into the fold with us. Maybe when he’s a little older. I’m certainly looking forward to it.
Of course, being in Chicago meant that I wasn’t able to make it to Captain America: The First Avenger. I hope to get caught up with it this week. I’ve been hearing good things. Everyone says the same things, too. It’s a long movie, but it moves fast. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s light. It’s a great comic book movie. Some say it’s the best Marvel movie since Iron Man and I don’t doubt them.
As you may or may not know, Captain America: The First Avenger was directed by Joe Johnston who also directed one of my favorite movies – The Rocketeer. It seems like Joe has a talent for lensing sepia-toned adventure movies set around World War II. It’s kind of weird to me that he hasn’t gotten more work. He only has 8 features to his credit. But, hey… The Rocketeer was awesome and that’s good enough for me!
If I get a chance to see the film this week, I’ll be sure to let you know what I think.
In the meantime, I’m getting ready for Wizard World Chicago in a couple of weeks. August 11 – 14, as a matter of fact. I hope you’ll come out to see me. I’ve been going to Wizard World Chicago since 2004, but opted out last year to try C2E2 on for size. C2E2 was a great show, but hella expensive. Too rich for my blood. I’m setting up shop again in the Rosemont Convention Center this year and I’m looking forward to revisiting my old stomping grounds.
As a matter of fact, I just received my table assignment in Artist Alley. You can find me at table #3314. I’ll be right next to Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex, as a matter of fact. Very much looking forward to seeing him again. It’ll be a good time. If you need a copy of the convention floor map, you can find one here.
Of course I will have my new shirt at the convention, but if you want to get yours now, I’m actually placing the order with the printer TODAY. Ordering yours now guarantees that we’ll have your size available as part of the first print run.
Reaction to this shirt has been positive, but I’m only doing a small run at first. After all, I can only take so many shirts with me to Chicago! So if you don’t want to take the risk that we’ve sold out of your size after Wizard World Chicago, I’d be placing your order now!
That’s all I’ve got for today. Thanks again for your patience. I hope you enjoyed today’s extra-large comic. I might post that run-off gag tomorrow if I have time to draw an extra or panel or two. Keep your eyes peeled for that and I’ll talk to you soon!
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To be clear, I have no interest in seeing this movie. That a trailer even exists for it 6 months out seems… ambitious at best, delusional at worst. This film is sitcom-level piffle that will be immediately forgotten two weeks after release. But humor me. Watch the trailer anyway…
These stunt-casting movies like New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day and Love, Actually that feature a cavalcade of celebrity cameos are almost becoming a genre unto themselves. They’re like the Laff-A-Lympics of cinema.
…and they must be stopped.
“Coming Spring of 2012… ARBOR DAY!“
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This was a comic that I had intended to publish shortly after last week’s Captain America comic went live. Unfortunately, I’ve been preparing for Wizard World Chicago next week, and time got away from me.
I still liked the joke, though. I thought it was a fun, alternate take on the other comic. It’s a nice bit of characterization on Victor’s part and I think it serves as a funny juxtaposition against the eight-panel complexity of its predecessor.
So, anyway. I hope you enjoy this throw away joke and I’ll leave it at that!
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