It took me two and a half years, but finally – TRIUMPHANTLY! – Pimp Tom returns!

Long time readers might remember Pimp Tom’s first (and previously last) appearance in March of 2004. Fan reaction was strong at the time and Theater Hopper’s first t-shirt we made bearing his image. Puzzled strangers the world over asked in unison “What’s ‘Ten Bucks’?” Old time fans? This one is for you.

After the holiday and the conclusion of the eligible awards period, you can’t help but feel a little used. Studios are all about unloading their “best” films at the end of the year for two reasons. Box office gold (because everyone has some extra free time to spend in the theater when they’re on vacation) and Oscar gold (it’s the latest studios can have their films in theaters and the greater likelyhood that voters will remember their offerings come nomination time). Then the first of the new year rolls around and you’re treated to such winners as Code Name: The Cleaner. Seriously – why does Cedric The Entertainer still get work?

There is such a vast ocean of garbage being dumped into theaters at this time, I feel like I have to hold my breath until Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth surfaces somewhere in a theater near me. Rescue me, Guillermo!

It’s day three since the big redesign and people seem to really like the new design. Most people either seem to be reacting to the over-abundance of red, the tiny type or portions of the site being cut off. I’ve enlarged the type a little bit. You’ll have to tell me if it’s easier to read. I’m still toying with the color scheme a little. I’ll probably try to weigh it down a little more. As far as pieces of the site being cut off, I think I know what’s causing it. Something to do with how the site has been centered using the style sheets. But I haven’t quite figured out how to fix it.

In the meantime, my priority is finding time to update the store and I’m adding content back to the site as fast as I can. A few people commented that some of the navigation on the top of the page doesn’t work. That’s because I haven’t created the content for those pages yet. But it’s coming soon and I’ll notify you when it’s live.

Many thanks to those of you who have been playing with the comic ranking system. If you’re curious, we have a page that lists the Top 50 strips that can be found here. We’ll give it a permanent home soon enough – once we’ve collected enough votes to make the list a little more rounded out. I’m thinking of going back to my good friend Dave Buist from Taking the Bi-Pass who wrote the application and seeing if we can also list the number of votes an individual strip has received. What else would you like to see on this page? Let me know in the comments section of this blog!

The list has a good mix so far, but I think people have mostly been ranking the most recent comics and they haven’t been searching through the archives and ranking their favorites. If you don’t see your favorite strip on that list anywhere, type in a few keywords in the archive search field, dig it out and have your voice be heard!

By the way – thanks, too, for all of you who tested out the commenting system in Monday’s blog. It was very rewarding to see 23 comments on the very first blog! Let’s keep it up! I invite you to give it another whirl! Tell me which films you’re looking forward to in 2007! There’s gotta be some good news after the requisite drought of the first few months of ’07, right?