Posts Tagged ‘Boxcar Comics’
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Just wanted to send a quick shout-out to the newly formed Boxcar Comics – a new web comic collective that launched on Monday. I have a lot of personal friends who have hooked up with Boxcar and the rest of their stable is rounded out by a bevy talented artists and writers. I know these guys are going to do a great job motivating each other to improve their work and bring attention to the great stuff they’re producing. I just wanted to say “good luck,” so… “GOOD LUCK, GUYS!”
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Eagle-eyed regulars to the site will have noticed that I’m adjusting a few things in the space between the comic and the blog.
Those whose senses are keener will notice that I have forgone my membership with Dayfree Press and joined forces with the good people at Boxcar Comics.
If you tend to make the rounds in web comics circles, this is already old news. I just made the switch today and already word has traveled fast. Feels like I’m playing catch-up to my own decisions. It’s flatting, I suppose. It means you guys are still interested.
>Why the big move? It’s nothing against Dayfree. I’ve been with those guys since the beginning and I think they are all wonderful, creative, hard-working people. I have learned from them in a myriad of ways. How to communicate with you guys better, for example. How to set up a store. How to set up a forum. What resources to explore. Basically every question I ever had about publishing on-line, odds were strong that someone over there had the answer to your problem.
Boxcar offers a very similar community environment, similar traffic-sharing opportunities and support. What makes this group more appealing when they’ve been around less than 6 months versus Dayfree which has been around for two years?
It wasn’t an easy decision, I can tell you that. I knew about Boxcar from the very beginning. Zach from Joe and Monkey would talk to me about it all the time. I kept it at arm’s-length because nothing had materialized yet and I didn’t like the idea of turning my back on the creators at Dayfree.
But as the months progressed and things took shape, I knew it was a matter of time before I switched sides. It’s not because Boxcar was able to assemble a stronger roster of comics. Not that at all. In fact, I think both Dayfree and Boxcar are equally strong. What turned the tide was really quite simple.
After nearly three and a half years of making this web comic, I wouldn’t have gotten twice as far without friends. Zach from Joe and Monkey, Mitch from Nothing Nice to Say and Joe Dunn from The Coffee Achievers. These are all guys I know personally. We’ve been to comic book conventions together. Shared meals and had drinks. Laughed our asses off and told stories. Some of them I’ve been e-mailing since we started this crazy racket. We came up together. They’re close friends. People I never thought I would meet in my lifetime and they’re some of the most sincere confidants one could wish for. I tore me up to see these guys ∗over here∗ and there I was ∗over there∗
So I had to make the switch.
My leaving Dayfree is not and indicator of their quality. I have come to know and love each of the comics that are stabled there and plan to continue supporting them through words and deeds. Like I said before, they all do great work. I plan to keep reading every one of their comics.
But sometimes opportunity knocks and you have to answer.
Godspeed to Dayfree. Thanks for all you’ve done.
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Hey, guys. It’s been a busy week, so let’s jump into it. I wanna give you some fun distractions so we can all go out on a high note.
This Monday I closed down the area of the store that features t-shirts, hoodies and baby-dolls. I’m busy collecting all the orders this very moment and prepping them to send to the printer. Hopefully we’ll have them turned around soon. Thanks to everyone for their support during this last drive.
Turns out merchandise orders aren’t the only thing keeping me busy this week. I’ve added a slew of links to the top banner that I want you guys to check out. Most of them are just for fun. Some of them are Theater Hopper related, some aren’t. But I think they’re all worth your time to investigate.
First, I have leads for you on two great comic notification systems. The first is Comic Junkie. A very handy application that you can download that will let you know when all of your favorite comics are posted. It’s packed with a slew of other features like subscription and rating services. I’ve added a whole page about it under the Resources tab. You should really check it out.
The second notification system is Comic Alert! You sign up for this one through their web site and they use Theater Hopper’s RSS feed to notify you by e-mail when all comics and blogs are updated! Very handy, especially if you forget to check the site every once in a while. Register with their service (it’s free!) and add Theater Hopper to your favorites!
Of course, if you have a LiveJournal account, you can skip that whole rig-a-ma-role and visit the Theater Hopper LiveJournal feed. It automatically posts new comics as soon as they are available. I’ve been pimping this one for a while, but there’s no reason not to give it a little more prominence!
Something else that could use a little more prominence are the Boxcar Comics 2006 Calendars. I’ve contributed artwork to the project and if you place your order now, you’ll enjoy it all through the month of February. Sure I got the shortest month, but I’m not complaining because the proceeds go to a good cause – helping the Boxcar crew reserve a booth at the 2006 San Diego ComiCon. Why, it’s only the largest comic book and small press convention in America, sillies! I think they’re just about done collecting pre-orders and they’re going to send it off to the printer. So make sure you have yours reserved when that happens!
And the last bit of Theater Hopper-related goodness I’ll share with you, the brand new Theater Hopper map brought to you by Frappr! Using GoogleMaps technology, this map can tag your location by zip code and display them together with everyone else. I thought it would be cool to see how far and wide Theater Hopper readership spans, so feel free to add your location to the global party! Don’t worry! It doesn’t ask for any addresses or personal information. Although you can leave your name, a photo and some commentary if you like. I totally stole this from DJ at Yirmumah!, but who cares?! It’s lots of fun! Check it out!
A few other items because I enjoy networking.
My recently established MySpace profile. Both Mitch and Zach wouldn’t shut up about it, so I got one, too. Won’t you be my friend?
My profile at Last.fm. If you’re not familiar with this service, it’s really cool. You download a little plugin for your MP3 player and it reports back what songs you listen to and which artists are your favorite. I love music as much as I love movies, so it’s really cool to build a network of friends and see what they’re listening to. A great opportunity to branch out and listen to new things!
Last but not least, my LiveJournal page. I know everyone and their sister has one of these and I’ve had one for quite a while myself. But I was kind of hungry for a few new readers so I thought I would pimp it out here a little bit. Right now I’m writing a lot about the 10 week fitness program I’ve been doing in an effort to change some bad habits and improve my overall health. I’ve also been writing a lot about the beard I’m growing in conjunction with the program. I’ve been posting pictures and everything. It’s a long story, but it’s pretty entertaining if you want to check it out.
Oh, before I forget! I want everyone to check out Robobo! Rusty, the creator, tipped me off to a fun cameo he did recently. Check it out!
Anyway, that’s it for this week. Beyond hooking you up with all these links, we’ve been busy revising the archive to make it easier for you to search in the future. I say "we" because Dave from Taking the Bi-Pass is really doing all the work. He’s doing an excellent job at that. Visit his web site and tell him you love him!
Hope everyone has a great weekend! Take care!
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Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and before I partake in the libations that will help to wash away what was 2005, I like to take a moment to look back, take stock and examine where things started and how they ended.
2005 was a difficult year for me in a lot of ways. Lots of personal stresses. Cami got a new job. We sold our first home and bought our second home. Moving… THAT’S never fun. I lost my Grandpa and tried to guide my family through the aftermath of that. Still have a few relatives in the hospital. Somewhere in there when I was stressed out to the point I was banging on the steering wheel in traffic (it happened!), I decided to make a change in my personal health, started working out and lost 25 pounds.
So, yeah… lots of personal change. So it feels good to have moved beyond it.
As far as the comic is concerned, I don’t know if I was as dedicated to it as I could have been this year. Looking back through the ’05 archives, I’ve had more guest strips this year than any other. And while I’m proud that Theater Hopper is at the level where there are enough readers and other creators aware of the comic to help support me through a rough patch… honestly, that shouldn’t be happening to that degree.
Then again, I only blew off two updates this year. One was because my monitor fried on me, and the other one was just this week because I was still coming down from Christmas. So that’s not bad!
2005 was a year for milestones. We celebrated our 400th comic, our 3rd year anniversary and our 500th comic. All big successes. Incidentally, our 400th comic was also the introduction of our first new character in a long time – Charlie. Which could be considered successful or unsuccessful depending on your level of patience for slowly-unfolding storylines…
In the spirit of further transition, 2005 was the year that Theater Hopper moved away from Dayfree Press – the web comic collective we helped to establish – and onto greener pastures with Boxcar Comics. As much as I learned from the Dayfree guys – and I respect all of them – I think the camaraderie I have at Boxcar is a little more tightly knit as I was already good friends with Zach, Mitch and Joe. So it was a pretty smooth transition. Incidentally, I had a blast with those three jokers at Wizard World Chicago this year and hope to do it again next year!
Probably our biggest success this year wasn’t even something I did. The proper accolades go to Dave Buist from Taking the Bi-Pass for helping get our content the most organized and efficient it’s ever been. And I mean EVER!
Dave devised a new archiving system for the comics and the blogs built off keywords. So now you guys can search for your favorite strips, characters and movie references with greater ease. This has been something I’ve wanted for A LONG time. Not only for you guys, but it was even getting hard for ME to find the comics I was looking for. And I created the dumb things.
But Dave took his work one step further by also developing our Movie Review Database – and application so brilliant, I’m still grinning over it’s potential. I haven’t talked about it in a while because I’m still adding to it all the time. New movies, images of posters, cast information, links to the Internet Movie Database, plot descriptions, the works.
The idea is amazingly simple. All you have to do is create an account through the THorum. One you’re logged in, you can search for any movie that you would like to comment on and leave your own review! How cool is that! Like I said, I’m adding movies all the time. Eventually, the hope is that you can leave your two cents on virtually every movie Theater Hopper has ever referenced! How many other web comics are doing that!
There’s still a few layout glitches in the database that Dave and I are working on. Cosmetic stuff. Nothing serious. The guts of this thing work like a charm and it’s all thanks to Dave’s expert code knowledge. Once again, Dave – thanks from the bottom of my heart!
I think 2006 is already shaping up to be a great year. With my personal trials out of the way, I have more time to dedicate myself to the comic and push some projects through that I’ve been wanting to accomplish for years. I’ve designed the initial layout of the FIRST THEATER HOPPER book which will collect the first 52 strips in one handy volume. Eventually there will be two more volumes and the entire set put together will represent the first year. I plan on producing books in a similar fashion for Year Two and Year Three.
It might sound odd to offer three volumes for the first year, but I’m going that route to help me keep costs down. When it’s all said and done, the individual books will only be $9.99. When compared to other web comic collections I’ve seen, that’s pretty cheap. I want to make sure you guys get a copy for yourselves because it’s going to look really nice. More news on that in the future.
In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for sticking around and making Theater Hopper the success that it is. I’m continuously humbled by your interest in my work and only want to bring you more and better work in the time ahead.
Happy New Year and best wishes to you and yours!
THANK YOU!
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So I went over to PvP today and noticed that my good buddy Wes Molebash – Boxcar associate and creator of You’ll Have That had a guest strip up and running over at Mr. Kurtz’s site! You can view it here.
I can’t quite describe the level of jealousy coursing through my viens, but it’s borderline toxic. Like Britney Spears-toxic.
But the comic is funny as all get-out and the opportunity couldn’t have been given to a nicer guy. Scott even gave Wes’s new book a plug in the blog! And since Wes once did the same for me, I’d like to return the favor now.
Be sure to check out Wes’ book "You’ll Have That: A Comic Strip by Wes Molebash" is available at Amazon.com right now. Click here to order.
See how it works, kids? You plug my book and I’ll plug your book!
I should also send a shout-out to Clay Yount over at Rob and Elliot for sending over a bunch of traffic and talking up "Theater Hopper: Year One." Thanks, Clay!
If any of you guys have web sites and are feeling generous, please let all of your readers know about the realease of "Theater Hopper: Year One" on Monday, April 17. LiveJournal, MySpace, Facebook – whatever tools you have at your disposal to share information about the book. Any mention you can give, I would appreciate. And who knows? It might put you one step closer to those street team prizes! Just a reminder!
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