Posts Tagged ‘costume’
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I think today’s comic will make a little more sense when or if you see Tim Burton’s adaptation of Sweeney Todd. From the early reviews I’ve read, it’s Burton’s best film since Ed Wood and could have been a lock for Best Picture if only Burton had reigned in his tendency to leap for the Z-grade horror moments.
You may or may not be familiar with the story of Sweeney Todd, but wrongfully accused, his wife and young daughter stolen from him, he goes on a murderous rampage in Victorian London in pursuit of revenge. He does this by luring his unsuspecting victims into his barber shop, where his slits their throats and disposes their bodies through a trap door into the local bakery below. There, the corpses are baked into meat pies.
At any rate, Burton really cuts loose (pardon the pun) when it comes to the murder scenes. Throats being cut and fountains of blood shooting like geysers everywhere. There is nothing lyrical or implied about it. He puts it right in your face. And I could see where that might turn off Academy voters down the line.
It’s a small complaint, compared to the rest of the film, I’m told. The performances and the music are great and the story seems tailor-made to suit Burton. But I think when it comes to the blood, that’s where he frustrates critics. Because often in his work, there is a self-serving moment that nearly capsizes the whole picture. His remake of Planet of the Apes was a whole FILM of those moments – and probably the reason it’s the most reviled film in his cannon.
I’m excited to see Sweeney Todd, but there’s a lot of great stuff coming out this weekend – National Treasure 2 and Walk Hard among them. I was supposed to see I Am Legend last night with Jared, but Cami’s been really sick lately and running a fever. So it wouldn’t have been a good idea to take off and leave her with Henry. Parental responsibilities will take you out of the stronger pop culture currents. I’m fine with this. But I hope I don’t fall too far behind. There’s too much stuff I don’t want to miss!
A quick note about next week – With the holiday’s coming up, I’m thinking about taking the week off. I need it. I’m exhausted. I don’t know if that means I’m taking the week off completely. I’m planning on watching a ton of movies I’ve been backlogged on and possibly posting the reviews next week. But I think comics are out of the picture just because they take a lot of time and I”m going to have my hands full with Henry, the holidays and relatives.
Keep coming back to the site, though. I’m sure I’ll be able to float you some new content. Just the comics will be on hold while I catch my breath. Also – since we’re not doing The Triple Feature next Monday due it being Christmas Eve and all, you’ll want to keep a close eye on this space in case we announce our replacement show. We’re talking about doing it next Wednesday. So come back here to confirm.
In non-site related news, I turned 30 today. I don’t know what to think about it. I guess I can’t really think about it. I’m so wiped out from the lack of sleep, it makes it hard to focus.
There’s supposed to be this large anxiety about turning 30 that I don’t have. I mean, I understand it’s a transition out of your 20’s and the free-wheeling ease of things. The older you get, the more responsibilities you take on and so forth. But there really isn’t a part of me that’s going to miss my 20’s. I had a good time then, but I’m having a good time – if not a better time – right now. Anyone who gets their knickers in a twist about turning 30, 40, 50, whatever… needs to reassess what it is about right now that sucks so bad compared to back then and change it. No one else is going to steer the ship for you, know what I mean?
End rant.
Anyway, tonight I’m staying in with family and we’re going to have cheese soup while I open presents. Not a bad little Friday if you ask me.
Take it easy and Happy Holidays!
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Feb01
I wish there was some kind of context for this comic, but there really isn’t. I was checking my LiveJournal friends page the other day and the feed from BestWeekEver.tv posted these images of Shia LaBeouf wearing a cow costume – no explanation provided.
I suppose you could argue their existence in a couple of ways. Maybe some photographer talked Shia into taking a couple of photos to make fun of his name – which loosely translates to “Thank God for the beef.” Maybe he’s trying to reach out to the furry community. Maybe they’re a gag gift. Or maybe Shia has no idea what to do with all the money he made from Transformers.
Whatever the case may be, they fit way too neatly into my anti-Shai campaign to pass up. But instead of mouthing off for the hundredth time about why I find the dude so off-putting, I decided to post both images at a higher resolution and let the images speak for themselves.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Images courtesy of Towerload.com
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I know I kind of covered a little ground already in regards to Semi-Pro, but I decided to revisit that territory after having the chance to sit down and watch the film over the weekend.
How was it? In a word – “terrible.”
You have no idea what the weight of that lone word means coming out of my mouth. I’m a huge Will Ferrell fan. How huge? How about “A Night at the Roxbury wasn’t that bad” huge? I’m willing to forgive a lot when it comes to Ferrell’s misfires.
I’ve never been able to fully explain what it is about Ferrell I find so interesting. I think the majority of it has to do with his delivery. Just the way he’ll put emphasis on a certain word in a sentance hit me just right.
For example, there’s a scene in the trailer where a woman suspiciously asks Ferrell’s minor-league basketball lethario Jackie Moon if he’s ever been to an orgy…
“I just GOT BACK from an orgy!” he responds, incredulously.
On paper… not funny. But Ferrell makes it funny.
Incidentally, that scene is nowhere NEAR the final cut of the movie. Actually, there are a lot of scenes in the trailer that aren’t in the movie. The thing is, even if you tossed them back in, I don’t think it would have made a lick of difference.
That’s the problem with this train wreck – it has no direction from an editorial standpoint. So the jokes that are mixed in to the plot have no anchor to the events happening inside said plot. Everything feels very random or loosely tethered together at best. You could have swapped out any of those missing scenes from the trailers with the final cut and not gained anything.
If you’re unaware, Semi-Pro is about a minor-league 1970’s basketball team – the Flint, Michigan Tropics – who have a chance to be absorbed into the NBA after a franchise merger. They’re lead by owner / coach / power-forward Jackie Moon, who cami into posession of the team with the earnings of his #1 hit single “Love Me Sexy” – which really only exists to give Ferrell the opportunity to sing a goofy disco-era sex ballad. It works. The song is damn catchy.
The movie does a good job establishing Moon and a tireless, inventive and somewhat reckless promoter who will do anything for his team. But when shallow stunts fail to draw in the crowds Moon needs to be considered for the merger, he brings in former NBA Champion Ed Monix, played by Woody Harrelson. And it’s at this point that the movie comes completely off the rails.
Narratively, it wouldn’t be interesting to watch an entire movie of endless promotional schemes cooked up by Ferrell’s character. Actual basketball has to come into play. So Harrelson as Monix attempts to whip the team into shape in order to win a few games. Traded for a washing machine, the real reason he accepted the gig is to be closer to a former flame played by Maura Tierney who happens to be dating Monix’s biggest fan played by Rob Corddry.
These are all distraction that subtract focus away from Ferrell. Not that Ferrell can’t be an effective ensemble player. His tenure on Saturday Night Live and his apperances in Anchorman and Old School prove that.
The problem is that you have two divergent storylines going on. Monix’s attempt to rekindle his relationship has nothing to do with the Tropics winning “the big game” or anything else, for that matter. What’s worse is that Harrelson appears to be playing the role completely straight. We’ve al seen what Harrelson can do in a movie like Kingpin. It’s a shame he didn’t bring a little more of that to the table.
Someone who also plays it straight is Andrew Daly, who plays the Tropics play-by-play commentator – and he gets more laughs doing it. In fact, I’d say he stole the picture right out from under everyone else. No small feat considering the level of (supposed) comedic talent available in this movie.
Semi-Pro ranks as one of Ferrell’s worst. It’s right up there with Kicking and Screaming and Bewitched, if you ask me. What makes it that much more of a dissapointment is the potential lost. Considering this film seems to mix the two obscure genre’s Ferrell has mined some of his best gags from – 70’s kitched and weird sports – you’d think it would be a home run. Instead it comes off like a desperate, garbled mess.
In fact, you can instantly see how desperate the film is considering the high number of obscenities in the picture. I’m all for a comedy reaching for the hard “R” rating is what’s being offered is shocking or outrageous. But in Semi-Pro, they’re just throwing it around casually. And, believe me, you’ve never noticed how much Will Ferrell DOESN’T swear in his movies until you sit through a film where he does almost NOTHING BUT swear through the entire running time.
If you’re a Ferrell fan like me, stay far, far away from Semi-Pro. Instead, watch this trailer for his next movie, Step Brothers with John C. Reily – which looks much more promising.
That said, I’m sure that we’ll have LOTS to go over tonight during our LIVE broadcast of The Triple Feature podcast over at TalkShoe.com. Be sure to join us at 9:00PM CST with your comments and opinions! We’d be happy to take your calls!
BE THERE!
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Originally, I was going to try and pinch off a comic about Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, but I couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm for it. It wasn’t until a friend e-mailed me the other day asking if I was excited for Iron Man a week from today that I decided to throw caution to the wind and kick off my Iron Man arc a little early.
Incidentally, I didn’t notice that my cardboard Iron Man looked anything like a MiniMate until I finished coloring it.
At any rate, the plan was to do a week of Iron Man comics starting next Monday. I’m so ridiculously excited for this movie, it’s offensive. It’s literally suffocating all of my relationships. People are BEGGING me to stop talking about it. So why not extend that into the digital realm as well.
Fans might remember that Tom owned a much more convincing Iron Man costume around Halloween 2006 and could possibly be wondering what happened to it. Don’t worry. An explaination is forthcoming. You’ll just have to check out the site next week!
Being a fan of all things Iron Man, people have been sending me links left and right about Iron Man related news items. It’s very cool, actually. For example, this parody news video created by The Onion that reports on the outrage and skepticism fans expressed when it was announced Hollywood would adapt the popular 90 second Iron Man trailer into a full-blown movie. It hits close to home, but damn if it isn’t funny
Another reader sent me something a little more obscure when he delivered this link to an AWESOME poster designed designed by Jesse Phillips for a special advanced screening of Iron Man April 28 at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lamar in Austin, Texas.
The poster is 24 x 36 and printed with glow-in-the-dark ink! They’re only selling 100 and what I wouldn’t do to get my hands on one of them! I don’t know that Cami would be particularly understanding about the purchase, though. She puts up with a lot regarding my Iron Man obsession. I think this would be crossing the line.
That is unless one of YOU would like to buy me a copy! Then it might be okay! ;D
Actually, that’s not a bad idea. If you’re feeling generous. Let me know. I’d be more than happy to return the favor with a little original artwork of my own, if that motivates you…
Something a little closer to my price range are the new Iron Man toys being sold with Burger King kids meals. The same friend that wrote me asking if I was excited to see the movie was the one who gave me the head’s up on this. Yeah… guess where I went for lunch today? Sadly, it looks like I’ll be eating at Burger King almost exclusively until I collect the rest of the figures or the promotion is over.
Even though I have access to the Burger King promotion, I’m not completely happy. Have you guys heard about the Iron Man promotion they have going on over at 7-11?
YOU CAN DRINK A SLURPEE OUT OF IRON MAN’S EMPTY HEAD!
Some of you are probably saying “So what’s the big deal, Tom? Just go to 7-11 and buy one!” Well, here’s the rub. I CAN’T! Iowa doesn’t have any 7-11’s! Unbelievable, I know – but it’s the truth. In 1998, all of the 7-11 stores in Iowa were sold off and converted into Kum & Go stores. And if you’re asking what kind of idiot marketer names their store “Kum & Go,” it’s obviously one that has no sense for double entendres. Around here, we call it the “Spooge & Split”
At any rate, I’m dispirited because I can’t get those cool collectors cups. I was similarly cheesed when they had that awesome promotion for The Simpsons Movie last year and they converted a bunch of 7-11’s into Kwik-E-Marts. I was lucky enough to meet a fan at a convention who traveled to one and brought me back a couple cans of Buzz Cola. That was really cool.
Is there anyone out there with access to a 7-11 willing to send me some of these collector cups? Man, that would be wild! E-mail me and we can iron (HA!) out the details. PUN INTENDED!
Do you guys understand how important Iron Man is to me? Do you? If not, I will soon have photographic evidence for you to pour over next week that will actually align quite nicely with the crux of the storyline I’ve prepared. So stay tuned for that!
It’s completely possible that I’m setting myself up for the most monumental disappointment ever. I’m pinning a lot of my hopes and dreams of the quality of this movie and, frankly, if it turns out as badly as Spider-Man 3 did, I’m not sure I’ll ever recover.
But this movie is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid. More so than Spider-Man or the Hulk or any of my other heroes. I feel like I’ve been waiting for this movie my whole life.
Stay tuned next week for more Iron Man inspired insanity! Have a great weekend, everyone!
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Since slapping Tom into a crudely made homemade Iron Man costume, I felt obligated to return to a one-off comic I did two years ago when the Iron Man movie was first announced. It lined up well with the Halloween holiday and I thought, eventually, I might return to it. Then I thought it would be funnier to have Tom in a cardboard outfit than a fully functional piece of high-tech armor.
Plus, have you seen how much those Iron Man movie action figures cost? Stuff gets expensive!
Of course, that hasn’t stopped me from snapping up nearly every figure from the first wave of the series…
So you see, it’s a sickness. And that’s really not the worst of it…
I was going to take a picture of all of the Iron Man comic books I own, but I wasn’t feeling very well yesterday and it slipped my mind. Let’s just say that they number in the 200 – 300 range.
While we’re on the subject of collectibles, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all of the people that immediately contacted me last week offering to purchase that awesome Jesse Phillips poster for the advanced screening of Iron Man at the Austin Drafthouse Cinema Lamar. Also a big THANK YOU to those who have offered to send me all the cool Iron Man promotional items from 7-11.
I have to admit, I’ve been a little overwhelmed by the response and I haven’t gotten back to any of you yet. I feel terrible about that. So I’m going to collect all of the e-mails and sort through them this evening and try to get back to all of you tonight or tomorrow. I honestly didn’t think anyone even read this blog stuff anymore! So it was really cool to see that not only do you guys read my entries, but you’re so willing to enable my addiction to all things Iron Man!
THANK YOU!
I found out last week that my local theater is selling advanced tickets to Iron Man starting at 8:00 PM Thursday night. I was flirting with the idea of doing the midnight showing on Friday (and even going so far to call in sick to work the next day so I could watch the movie over and over!), but then I decided not to push my luck.
An 8:00 PM showing of Iron Man would be handy, but I also have Friday’s strip to finish. So I’m trying to decide if I’ll attempt to work in advance and have the strip done before Thursday so I can see through the storyline OR if I’ll take advantage of the early showing, come home and do a REACTION strip for Friday?
Or, there’s a possibility that I won’t go to Iron Man at all on Thursday. *GASP!* I KNOW!!! The reason for that is because I really want Cami to see the movie and it kind of ruins the experience a little bit if I’ve already seen it and then start jabbing her with my elbow every five minutes saying "Check it out, check it out, check it out!"
Decisions, decisions…
At any rate, that’s about all I have to share this morning. But don’t forget to carve out some time this evening to listen to The Triple Feature talkcast at 9:00 PM CST over at TalkShoe.com. Tonight we’ll be talking about Baby Mama and Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. Meanwhile, both Joe and Gordon will attempt to steer me away from all topics related to Iron Man – since I have a one-track mind.
Be there!
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I don’t have a lot to say about this strip except that I was really psyched to deliver the punchline and extremely psyched out about how I would illustrate it.
It seems like every time I do one of these little story lines, I end up plotting something out that I’ve either A.) Never drawn before or B.) Have drawn, but suck at drawing correctly. In this case, it’s option B. and the offending item is the car. I SUCK at drawing cars.
Do you remember being in middle school, sitting in home room next to the guy that was drawing, like, A PERFECT Ferrari Testarossa? Yeah, I was never that guy. I don’t have an engineer’s mind. Nine times out of ten, if you ask me to draw a car, I’ll draw a bubble with wheels and happy people inside, laughing.
Also, the sun will have visible rays and a smiley face.
That said, I’m pretty happy with how the car turned out in today’s comic. Didn’t use a picture for reference or nuthin’! I suppose I should do arcs like these more often. It forces me to develop in different ways.
I’m starting to get REALLY pumped up about Iron Man. Reviews are starting to come in and I’m doing my best to resist them. But the headlines I’ve been reading at least have been VERY positive.
I bought tickets the other night to the 8:00 PM screening Thursday night and here’s the evidence…
…and before you say it, I agree that $8.75 for a movie is frakking ree-donk-u-lous. And, yes, I do think my glasses make me look like a sexy nerd.
Probably the thing that has me most excited about seeing the film tomorrow is that I got Cami to go along with me. I mean, it was pretty much inevitable that she would see the movie with me at some point, but I thought she would take a pass on an early screening because… I don’t know… because she would have work the next day? Because it’s hard to find a babysitter for Henry on a Thursday night? There was literally any number of acceptable excuses she could have used.
But she didn’t! My sister-in-law is coming by the house Thursday night to hang out and watch Henry while Cami and I wade in up to our elbows in nerd juice. It’ll be great!
With any luck, I’ll get to see the movie a few times before the end of the week is up. Cami is leaving for DC on a business trip Sunday, so I won’t have any free time next week to see it on my own. Either way, I’ll be back here on Friday with my reactions. I promise to try not and spoil it for anyone.
Wish me luck!
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Apologies for the gross lateness of today’s comic. I had a problem with my internet connection Thursday night and couldn’t upload it. Then, on Friday night, my parents came over to the house for dinner and conversation after being on vacation for a week and I was further delayed.
I wish I had a large, profound blog post for you right now. But I don’t – which is a shame, because I would love nothing more than to talk to you about Iron Man right now. Cami and I saw it on Thursday night and LOVED it.
I have a review written for the movie and I will most likely post it Sunday. So you’ll get the full scoop then.
I could literally talk about it for hours and probably will during The Triple Feature podcast on Monday night. So you have that to look forward to as well. No reason burning everyone out on Iron Man discussion just yet.
Here’s to you and yours and hopefully you all have a great weekend.
See you here on Monday. Take care.
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# THIS BLOG POST WAS LOST WHEN THEATER HOPPER MOVED TO WORDPRESS IN JANUARY 2009 #
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Oct29
I bet the anticipation is killing you, isn’t it? What could Tom possibly be working on? What is his costume that will SHOCK. THE. NATION? What is his Halloween surprise? You’ll have to come back Friday to see!
Okay… I’ll give you a hint. He won’t be wearing an Iron Man costume, but it will be Iron Man related. THAT’S ALL I’M GONNA SAY!
Truth be told (and I never thought I’d say this), I’m getting a little tired of doing all of the Iron Man jokes in the comic. But they’re kind of easy for me to do. Inexhaustible fanboy glee is something I know a little bit about. “Write what you know,” as they say.
Speaking of Iron Man, did you see yesterday that Marvel announced Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau have signed contracts for The Avengers. The movie is on track to hit theaters in 2011 after Iron Man 2 busts wide in 2010. It doesn’t look like Favreau will be directing, but he will be an Executive Producer. It also appears that The Hulk will not be the main villain, as originally rumored. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Kang The Conqueror!
Marvel also confirmed the announcement made last week that Don Cheadle will be Replacing Terrence Howard as James “Rhodey” Rhodes. I didn’t talk about this last week and that kind of surprised a few of you who e-mailed me. I don’t know. I guess I felt like it was being covered from almost every other angle and I didn’t have anything to contribute. I was also kind of taking a wait-and-see approach. Marvel claimed that Howard wanted more money and decided to cut him out. Marvel also originally dragged their feet signing Favreau to direct Iron Man 2 over money – despite how many fans felt he contributed directly to the film’s great success. Eventually Marvel came to their senses and put Favreau back in the director’s seat. Maybe they would come to their senses and give Howard his “next time” in the War Machine armor.
But even if they weren’t going to put Howard in the sequel, it’s not like I’m all that upset that Cheadle is taking his place. Personally, I think Cheadle is the better actor and I can see him really playing well into that “I’m just screwing with you” vibe that RDJ seems to like to put across in his performances. Kind of like in the Ocean’s 11 movies. I have complete confidence in his performance.
I guess it just would have been nice to have a little consistency.
Gah… I start out talking about how I’m getting tired of discussing Iron Man all the time and look where we end up. Oh, well. That does it for me today. Gearing up for Beggar’s Night tomorrow. We’re having the whole family over for chili and taking Henry out to a few houses on the block for free candy. This is his first time. His costume? Henry’s going as a cow. What can I say? The kid is 21 months old. He’s all about animals right now.
Next year? IRON MAN!!!
Have a great Wednesday!
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I think if I made one mistake with this story arc, it’s that I didn’t push the idea that Tom wanted to defy expectations of him running around in an Iron Man costume far enough. The idea was really in response to my own catch-22 with my relationship to the movie and the character. On the one hand, I love talking about it. On the other hand, I know some of you are sick of Iron Man comics. Believe me, I understand. But in the meantime, many of you are very supportive of my love for the character. So what do you do when Halloween rolls around you need to put your character in some kind of costume? Bottom line, it would just look weird to suddenly have Tom running around as The Joker when he’s spent all year talking about Tony Stark. I thought the cheeseburger idea was kind of a happy compromise. A way to talk about Iron Man without putting Tom in the Iron Man costume. I think, for the most part, it was effective. It was a fun little guessing game for the week to see what Tom was finally going to emerge as.
Switching gears for a minute, I wanted to talk to the people who donated money to the hard drive restoration donation drive a few months ago. I want to let all of you know that I’m still working on your artwork, but it’s been slow-going. Between my 9 to 5 job, my night class, taking care of Henry and producing the comic, it’s hard to find time. I often try to squeeze in doing some of the art work over my lunch hour during the week. I pretty much feel like I’m working not stop but without a lot to show for it.
The other part of the problem is that I’ve been investing a lot of time and effort into this art to make sure everyone gets what they pay for. So even the less-expensive sketches are getting the four-star treatment. I was going to show you some of the sketches that I’ve been working on lately, but I packaged them up and mailed them off before I remembered to scan them. That was kind of stupid. However, I did remember to scan one before mailing. It’s a sketch of Charles Bronson a fan had asked for, so I drew him in his classic pose from the poster for Death Wish. Check it out…
The foreshortening on the arm is a little screwy. But, overall, I’m proud of this piece. I think I got the mood right and I was trying some different things with inking that turned out well.
At any rate, everyone has been very cool and very patient so far. I’m not getting angry e-mails or people kicking in my door with pitchforks and torches. But I wanted to let you know that I’m trying to keep up with things the best that I can and to take the opportunity to once again thank those who showed me great generosity.
That’s it for me today. Zach & Miri Make A Porno is at the top of my list for movies to see this weekend. It might be a little tough for me to go, though. My car has a flat tire and I’m trying to get it into the shop this weekend. We’ll see if the weather this weekend holds out or not. Maybe I’ll ride my bike to the theater for once!
Have a great weekend!
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