Posts Tagged ‘aftermath’
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I’ll be frank and tell you that today’s comic is pretty much just me screwing with you. It’s fun to kind of hint that the arc might be ending and then pull the rug out from under you.
I know that we’ve been going with this storyline for a while (since January 3, to be exact), but the fact that we’re only two comics away from the big 400 should be a clue as to when things will wrap up.
You know what will be really cool when this story line ends – I will have started it on #375 and ended it on #400. I wish I could say I planned it that way, but I didn’t. I just love when these little milestones are book ended so well.
Oh, and another reason why the arc has to end on Friday is because the Oscars are being broadcast on Sunday. Which in turn means that I will OFFICIALLY have something worth while to comment on in the world of movies. Hey, when they’re dumping steaming turds like Are We There Yet? and Son of the Mask into theaters, I’ll take anything I can get!
As I mentioned previously, I watched a virtual butt-load of movies this weekend.
We started out Friday night by trying to go to Sideways, but the movie started at 7:05 and we got there at 7:20. Everyone I was with said “So what? We’ve only missed the trailers.” But of course, as a completionist, I threw a big fit and we went to see Million Dollar Baby instead.
What can I say about this film? It’s probably my favorite dramatic piece this year and I think it should win Best Picture for sure. I think Academy voters will give it to The Aviator for its sheer spectacle, but that’s a mistake. I don’t think I have ever been as emotionally invested in a movie like this for a long time.
I had read advance reviews that explained how the movie is set up one way for the first two acts, but totally turns you on your ear in the third act. So I knew there was a twist, but I didn’t know what.
As the movie gained a wider release, people started writing about the third act and tried to stir up controversy around it. I deliberately avoided these articles and, actually, I’m kind of proud of myself for it. Usually I gobble up every bit of advance press I can find, but this time I exercised a little willpower. I’m happy that I did. The third act wouldn’t have as much emotional power if you knew what was coming.
All I can say is that if you haven’t seen this movie, please, please, PLEASE see it before Sunday. You won’t regret it.
Anyway, after seeing Million Dollar Baby Friday night, Cami and I caught a matinee of Sideways on Saturday. One of my co-workers told me that he had seen the movie and didn’t think much of it. He commented that all of the characters were pretty miserable and unlikable. But I’m an Alexander Payne fan, so I kind of knew what I was getting into before I checked it out.
Although I imagine I could have gotten more out of the film if I were perhaps middle-aged, I really liked Sideways. The ending really did it for me. I thought it was note-perfect, and that goes a long way toward leaving a favorable impression in my book.
I think a lot of people can recognize Paul Giamatti’s character from their own experience. Devastated by a divorce, he becomes sad, defeated, damaged and intent on destroy himself in small increments – he becomes everybody’s burden. You sit there and watch him and hope for him to overcome his struggle. You want him to hook up with Virgina Madsen’s character. You want him to be happy and dispose of that voice in his head that says he doesn’t deserve it.
Giamatti’s character represents this grand struggle I found very relatable. He wants to be more than he is but feels held back by life or circumstances. When really, he’s the only one holding him back.
I know that sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but that’s what I got from it.
The only movie I didn’t see this weekend that I wanted to was Constantine. Cami read some negative reviews and signed off on it. I wasn’t surprised. Her interest in it was tenuous at best. It’s a comic book movie about demons and stars Keanu Reeves. It doesn’t exactly have “chick flick” stamped all over it.
But despite my better instincts, I still want to see it. I think I’ll go see it by myself tonight while Cami is at her night class. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to the theater by myself, but I’ve missed too many crappy comic book adaptations to let one more slide. Oh Blade: Trinity and The Punisher! I hardly got to know you!
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Jared makes a good point. I totally forgot about those “wine-shooters” we were doing before we got something to eat and then see the movie.
Guess you boys can’t hold your liquor like “Mr. Bloated Kidney”.
That’s me, by the way.
I remembered some of the other things I wanted to talk about.
Seeing comic book movies at comic book conventions is starting to become a kind of mini-tradition among our ilk. You guys might remember this comic I did regarding Aliens Vs. Predator when Zach and I went to see it during Wizard World Chicago.
I guess the next big comic book movie to hit the screen will be Fantastic Four. It comes out a month before Wizard World Chicago this year (August 5-7), but since I plan on avoiding the movie like scurvy when it’s unleashed upon an unsuspecting public, maybe the radioactive half-life on the film will have expired and we can snap it up in a dollar theater when we all assemble again.
Another couple notes of interest: Yes, Zach ∗did∗ in fact wear that very same Homestar Runner shirt. And yes, Mitch ∗did∗ in fact wear a very similar Jawbreaker shirt.
I’m nothing if not a stickler for the details!
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In Zombie America, Linday Lohan will still be working and she will look FABULOUS!
I’m really sorry that I didn’t come back with a blog sooner. I need to stop making promises like this to you guys.
To be fair, work has been hectic this week. I’m preparing a newly designed web site for my company and have been concentrating on it on it so diligently for the last two weeks, it feels like there has been little time for anything else.
My personal life has been cluttered as well. Relatives visiting from out of state. Cami away at her night classes. Packing up things in the house for our move on July 12. My attention hasn’t been this fractured since 1996 when – over the summer – I graduated from high school, prepared for college and watched three elderly relatives pass away.
It is 11:08 on a Saturday night and this has been my first time at the computer since I left work at 5:00 on Friday.
I’m making excuses. I know it. I’m divulging all this personal crap when you’ve come here to be entertained. I know it. Maybe I’m showing too much of my hand here. Maybe I should stick to the script, be mysterious, not let you in too much on my personal life. But I can’t do it. Because sitting here and typing everything out makes it more real, helps me deal with it and helps me move forward. And this is just as much for me as for you.
Besides, not everyone can be a tough-talkin’ hombre. Maybe in some sweet way, my insecurity endears me to you? A boy can dream, can’t he? How very emo of me.
Hey, I just saw Bewitched tonight and I would love to sit here and talk about it. But truthfully, I’m just so tired these days.
Just… bear with me for a little while. Things will get back to normal eventually. In the meantime, I appreciate your support and patience. And for everyone who sent me an e-mail, purchased a shirt or advertising to whom I haven’t responded yet, I will get to you soon.
I promise.
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Is today’s comic a little bit of a cheat? Yeah, but I needed a break after drawing all that cray-zay coaster action on Wednesday. Plus, I thought it worked really well for the pacing. Really, I just like the idea of being a participant of a disaster, being stuck upside down and then casually suggesting Poseidon as an entertainment option.
From what I’ve read, Wolfgang Peterson’s remake moves along at a fairly brisk clip. The boat gets turned over somewhere around the 20 minute mark.. Some people have complained that the film doesn’t give you enough time to get to know the characters and therefore you’re not invested in their peril. I think that’s hogwash. I’m tired of bloated action pictures giving you every boring detail about a character to get you to care about them more. "She’s a mother of three AND she goes to night school! Will she make it home in time to protect her kids before the alien invasion!" Please. You know most of them are as good as dead anyway.
Peterson’s decision to forego the pleasantries is a good one. His directing style is less about people anyway. But the bigger reason is that the goal of these disaster movies is to put you beside the people in danger as you wrack you brain trying to figure out what YOU would do. At least, that’s my theory.
There was a strong outpouring of support from people after I announced the pre-order deadline of June 11 on Wednesday. Sincere thanks to all of you that placed an order. As you can see, the little meter below the comic has been updated. We’re getting close, but we still have a ways to go! As the bold, circled date on my calendar communicates, today is payday. So if you think you have a little money to spare, please pre-order the book. And remember – the faster we get your order, the faster you get your book!
There’s some great stuff happening in the Theater Hopper universe lately. I recently did an interview with Comixpedia – which was a big deal for me. Comixpedia sometimes gets flack for only being interesting to other web comics creators. I don’t think that’s true. I think they’ve made great strides – especially in the last 4 months – to make their magazine an essential resource for fans and creators alike. That’s why I was more than pleased to have been contacted by them to do an interview for their "movies issue." If you’d like to read it, click here for the full article.
Movies seem to be the topic-de-jour right now because I also have an interview in Zoinks Magazine that is coming out in June. I love Zoinks Magazine. These guys do a great job of promoting the web comic scene and doing it through a print magazine is an excellent way to spread the word to potential audiences who haven’t gotten into online comics yet. I should mention that my contribution to the issue besides the interview includes a sidebar about the movies I’m looking forward to seeing in ’06, a brand new illustration of the Theater Hopper cast, and I also contributed to the cover artwork along with Chris Cantrell from Please Rewind.
If you want to get your hands on this issue, you need to pre-order now. You don’t have get a full subscription (although I would highly recommend it). You can order one issue at a time if you want. If you haven’t read Zoinks, I suggest picking it up. It’s a really great publication.
A couple of more things I need to mention:
Today will be the last comic you see from me in a while. Cami and I will be going on vacation on Thursday and we won’t be back until May 30. I have a bunch of great guest comics lined up for you over the next three weeks. I haven’t lined up the itinerary yet, so be sure to come back on Monday to see if your favorite web comic artist is contributing the the mayhem. A lot of very talented artists sent in some GREAT work, so you’ll want to be sure and check it out.
Once I get back from vacation, I will be attending the Iowa I-Con comic book convetion on June 10 at the Polk County Convention Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Incidentally, one day before the book pre-order deadline! It’s $5.00 at the door and they’ll be open from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.I will have a bunch of shirts and posters for sale and will be doing sketches for anyone who wants one.
I’ve been trying to go to I-Con for the last two years. But it seems like every time it’s going on, I have to be out of town for one reason or another! It’s nice to finally be able to attend a convention in my own backyard.
By the way, if any of you out there have exhibited at conventions before, I’m looking to upgrade the quality of my booth presentation. I want to build some kind of PVC display area that can go behind the table. Stuff I can hang banners and t-shirts from. If you guys have any insight on how I could assemble something like that, let me know!
At any rate, that’s the news that’s fit to print. Thanks again to everyone who has pre-ordered a book. Keep ’em comin’! We’ll make it to our goal in no time!
Have a great weekend!
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As much as it would have been fun to draw a protracted fight scene (not), it was time to stick a fork in this little story arc and move on.
My thanks to Brian Carroll for the inspiration to do these strips. Hopefully neither of us have damaged each other’s reputations too much. 😉
I recognize the punchline to today’s comic is kind of dark. But you’d be surprised by the thought process that led me to it. I spent serious time contemplating what was funnier – “coma ward,” “burn ward” or “graveyard.”
I certainly don’t mean to make light of anyone who is in a coma, been horribly burned or is dead. But looking for something shocking and weighing my options, I decided to go with “coma ward” because, well, people come out of comas all the time, right?!
It might also fertile ground to harvest another story from later. Admit it – Who’s a little curious to meet the guy that Jared put in a coma? Exactly. Y’see, you guys are just as twisted as me.
As you probably know, Oscar nominations were announced yesterday. The big news is that there are now 10 films in contention for the night’s big prize – Best Picture.
I can’t say I was particularly surprised by any of the nominations except for possibly District 9. Even though I thought it was a smart film with some original ideas, it kind of played like a sci-fi shoot em up by the end. I think of it more like a summer blockbuster than a Best Picture contender.
Naturally, I was pleased to see Up nominated. In my heart of hearts, I’d like to see it win. But I know it won’t. Up is a good movie, but not Pixar’s best. If they’re going to take the award, I really want them to earn it. Wishing they would win is more of a reaction to Up being the first animated movie to be nominated in this category since Beauty and The Beast in 1992. But the nomination in itself is a reward and I hope the AMPAS continues to look at the field of animation when making their Best Picture nominations in the future.
What do I think will win? Avatar. It’s not the best movie among the nominees. Not by a long shot. But I think Academy voters won’t be able to resister rewarding director James Cameron for his technical achievement or his box office success. As of this writing, the movie has been number one at the American box office for nearly 2 months. It’s made over $2 billion dollars in world-wide box office. These are numbers too big to ignore. As much as some people idealistically think the Oscar’s should be about artistic merit, it’s also about business. James Cameron is now the man with the two largest grossing films of all time. The story of his success alone will secure a win for Avatar.
Interestingly enough, I heard yesterday that Avatar is only one of three films in Oscar history that has been nominated for Best Picture without being nominated in any of the writing or acting categories. Some food for thought.
As for the other nominations? Well, I’ll save some of my predictions for later.
In the meantime, if you’d like to download an Oscar ballot you can use to make your OWN predictions – and then compare them to the actual winners on March 7 – you can download it here.
What do you guys think about widening the field of Best Picture nominees to 10? Do you think all of the Best Picture nominees are deserving or are some just filler? What nominations surprised you the most? Do you think there is an opportunity for an upset in any of the categories? Share your thoughts and reactions below!
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I’ve been having a hard time coming up with follow-up jokes like I normally do with the incentive images, so I drew a profile of Victor for this week’s comic. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics if you’d like to see it.
Incidentally, last night I noticed I had a stack of incentive images – maybe 50 to 100 – and took a picture for the Theater Hopper Facebook page. I’m not quite as attached to these as I am the original artwork for the comics and was thinking about selling them through the Theater Hopper store.
What’s you’re take on that? Would you be interested? How much do you think I should sell them for? Should they all be the same price or should they be priced differently? Admittedly, the quality of some of these is much better than others.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
While we’re talking about the store, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you that I’ve still got my sale going on – buy two books and get the third one free, but two shirts and get the third one free!
I could really use your support. I’m going to C2E2 on April 13 and it’s coming up fast. I need to make a little money to help cover expenses. You can read more about it on the Theater Hopper Farewell Tour page.
If you already own all of the Theater Hopper merch you can stand, I’m also taking donations. Every little bit helps. We’re making progress toward our $1,000 goal! Thanks to everyone who has chipped in so far!
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about today’s comic. I don’t want to say that this is Victor’s “coming out” comic. We’ve all known for a long time that Victor’s gay. But he’s never really admitted it to the other characters. So, in a way, he’s actualizing himself here.
Granted, his answer to Tom’s question is slightly cagey. But it’s not exactly false, either. Don’t worry. It’s all going to get sorted out in the next comic or two. But I’m not going to make a big deal about it. Because, frankly, it shouldn’t be a big deal.
Let me amend that statement. Coming out IS a big deal – especially if you’re the person that’s coming out. It’s stressful. You don’t know how the news will be received or if you’ll be accepted by your peers after that.
I’ve had friends come out to me in the past and I’ve found the best way to react to that news is to hardly react to it at all.
Not to be dismissive, mind you. Obviously I’m aware of the struggle these individuals have faced leading up to those moments. But, fundamentally, it doesn’t really change what you know or appreciate about that person. If you valued them before, news like that shouldn’t really change anything.
I’ve only ever been on one side of that conversation. I can’t imagine what goes through the mind of someone who is coming out. But what matters is that the person coming out knows that they’re supported, that nothing will change and they can go about their life without carrying that horrible weight on their shoulders.
That’s pretty much how you can expect things to play out in the comic as well.
I’m not trying to lecture or impart some kind of wisdom. I’m just sharing my experience. I know there are people out there who are uncomfortable and even outwardly hostile to these issues. All I’m saying is that’s not my perspective.
Anyway, that’s my little moment for the day. Thanks for checking out the comic. Share it up through social media using the links below if you’re so inclined. I’ll see you next week!
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