Posts Tagged ‘creepy’
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So by now you’re getting the gist of how this story arc works, right? Basically it’s like one, giant Opposite Day. But don’t worry. I’ve got a good punchline for Friday’s strip.
I don’t have much to say that’s movie related, so I’m going to touch on a couple of subjects and wrap it up for today. My apologies, but everyone in the house is sick right now. Henry’s got an ear infection and both Cami and I have come down with a cold.
First things first, if you missed Monday night’s Triple Feature talkcast, you missed a doozy. Our good friend Gordon from Multiplex was out of town and couldn’t participate, but Brian Carroll from Genrezvous Point stepped in confidently and and match Joe and I point for point. He gave us lots of interesting background information on his reinsertion to the web comics scene, the direction of Genrevous Point, the future of his previous comic Instant Classic and much more.
Oh, and watch out when we start talking about Citizen Kane.
Again, if you missed the show, it was a good one. There were lots of people in the chat room and from most accounts, everyone had a good time! You can still download the show to your machine, however. All you have to do is go to The Triple Feature profile page at TalkShoe.com and download it!
A good reason to download this week’s show is because it contains the first half of two clues associated with our DVD giveaway of both Wild Hogs and The Ex. (Detailed information on both movies can be found in Monday’s blog.) So listen to the show and grab those clues! The second half of the clues are as follows:
For the Wild Hogs DVD giveaway, the second half of the clue is: “PIGGY”
For The Ex DVD giveaway, the second half of the clue is “OF MY DREAMS”
Put the clues together and e-mail your answer along with your name, age and mailing address to theaterhopper@hotmail.com. And, so I can keep the entries organized, please label the subject line of your e-mail either “WILD HOGS” or “THE EX”. Please do not combine your answers or I will throw out your entry. Winners are chosen by a random draw.
Okay, so here’s the last thing I’m going to mention and then I’m out of here.
I recently read a couple of articles about social networking – StumbleUpon.com in particular – and the ways that it can be used to help promote Theater Hopper. I’m looking for a leg up any opportunity I can get, so I was hoping to direct a few of you to Stumble Upon and convince you to sign up with the hopes that you’ll tag Theater Hopper and share you links with others. Ultimately, through networking, more and more people will become familiar with Theater Hopper.
You can tag the entire site by grabbing www.theaterhopper.com or you can tag individual comics that you think are funny and want to share. The idea is tag Theater Hopper enough times that it will show up in random site displays, or “stumbles,” to potentially new readers.
I figure the law of averages has to be on my side. The more people I can get to sign up and tag Theater Hopper, eventually it will pay off.
For those of you worried about adding the application to your browser, it couldn’t be easier. I signed up and already tagged a bunch of sites that I’m into. In fact, if you want to see my links, you can check them out by clicking the button below. Click under “Pages I Liked” for the stuff that I’ve hitched my wagon to. Maybe that will give you a sense of how Stumble Upon works.
At any rate, it’s kind of an experiment. If you have a little extra free time and want to give it a shot, I say go for it. Also, keep your eyes peeled in the future for requests from yours truly to tag specific comics – more topical comics, maybe about Harry Potter or Transformers or whatever (more topical than that obviously) that I’ll ask you to grab and share with other Stumble Upon users. If you want to try it out on your own and tag your favorite comics, go ahead. I’ll also be working on adding a button that will help you do that automatically.
That’s pretty much it on my end. Be sure to check back to the site on Friday for the conclusion of The Invasion story arc!
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So this marks the end of the week-long story sprung from The Invasion of The Body Snatchers remake – The Invasion. I hope you liked it. Any opportunity I can take to throw in Victor acting weird, I’ll take.
Not much new in theaters this weekend to get excited about. I guess since all the kids are going back to school, it’s going to be slim pickin’s until fall. That’s when all of the sensitive indie movies I love so much start cropping up.
Early box office projections are pitting War against The Nanny Diaries for the top spot this weekend. My money is on War (and I have a comic about that coming up on Monday!) Despite the fact that The Nanny Diaries has a strong cast, to me it looks like a warmed over reinterpretation of Raising Helen – and no, that’s not a compliment.
Plus, I think you have to fess up to the fact that Scarlett Johansson is not a big enough star to open movies on the strength of her name alone. I think she’s a serviceable actress and the 22 movies to her credit in her short time as an actress are impressive. But no one sees a movie she’s in strictly for her performances. She’s not Sandra Bullock, or whatever.
And no, that’s not a compliment.
This weekend looks like Cami and I will finally get around to seeing Superbad, which I’ve been looking forward to ever since I watched the red band trailer online a few months ago. If the red band trailer is any indication, the commercials and TV spots aren’t doing the movie justice.
As excited as I was to see the movie, there’s certainly been a lot of hype surrounding it. So I was pleased somewhat when I was talking to friends this week about it. They love the film, but couldn’t get into specifics. That’s a good sign. It means the majority of the movie is so funny, they’re not going to be able to pick their favorite lines until it comes out on DVD.
Of course, that doesn’t stop people from trying. I’ve already seen five or six different web sites peddling their own McLovin t-shirt designs. Everyone has appeared to latch onto that as a comedic touch point for the film.
All the same, I’m expecting to have a good time.
Real quick – I made a change in the store over the weekend where all items are now $15 and I am now providing discounts on shipping for bundled purchases. Save 50% on shipping on any two purchase, 65% off on any three purchase or 75% off on any four purchases. This system was a lot easier than the bundling system I had previously installed. Plus, since I’m planning on adding more t-shirt designs in the future, it’ll be easier to maintain.
I’ve also recently talked to the 3rd party vendor that wrote the code for the shopping cart I use for my site and they’re coming out with a discount code option in the next few weeks. So that means if you input a special code at checkout, you can save extra money. I plan on running promotions every so often to people who sign up to the mailing list. So if you want to be ready when that comes around, sign up now.
Since Wizard World Chicago, I’ve gotten the itch to make some changes to the site. I’m meeting with a web design company here in Des Moines on Monday for a consultation on some more air-tight features for the site. Hopefully I can bring back the comments section soon plus do a better job of integrating the Top 50 voting, social bookmarking, “share this comic with a friend” and so on.
Something that’s been bugging me a lot lately are the banner ads. I’m sure they’re no favorite of yours, either. I’d like to get rid of them, but frankly, I’ve come to rely on them. The revenue I make with them helps cover hosting fees as well as afford me the opportunity to do things like t-shirts, books and make convention appearances. All of this feeds into the site and either helps maintain it or helps it grow.
If you look at any of the big guys, they have advertising to help support them. So, in my instance, I don’t think ads will be going away any time soon. I just need to find a better way to make them harmonious with the site.
What is your opinion about advertising? Do you find the ads I’m running now intrusive? Excessive? How would you feel if they were removed and replaced with in-context text advertisements? Links that appear over key phrases in the blog copy that lead you somewhere off site? I have a strong lead on the latter option and I’m thinking it’s a viable solution moving forward.
This is an instance where the comments field would come in really handy for some quick and dirty feedback. But as such, you’ll have to e-mail me with your thoughts. I’m soliciting your feedback. If you have strong opinions either way, I would like to hear from you!
That’s about it for me. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday!
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I agonized for a little while whether or not I would have any dialogue in the last panel. While putting the comic together, I found the visual of Tom having a psychotic breakdown almost funny enough on its own. But I thought, “Why leave things to chance?” and added the oft-repeated phrase originally spoken by Will Ferrell as fashion designer/international assassin Mugatu in Zoolander.
I felt a little guilty lifting the phrase because I don’t want people to think that I’m in the habit of stealing jokes. That’s why I give credit where credit is due.
While a more creative writer might have been able to conjure up his own humorous phrase expressing disbelief, I also felt like the “crazy pills” line felt natural coming out of Tom’s mouth. It sounds like something he would say because it’s something that I say from time to time.
People do that. They adopt words or phrases they hear in popular culture and repeat them. That’s how they become sayings.
I’ll give you another example that involves Will Ferrell. “Strategery.” Who would have thought that a made-up word satirizing George W. Bush’s speech patterns would become so popular? It’s practically in the Oxford Dictionary.
Anyway, I’m just saying that “crazy pills” isn’t so much joke stealing as it is “joke referencing.” If you find it uninspired or it offends you… Well, I’ll try better next time.
It is factual that Cami has no interest in seeing Shutter Island. Which flummoxed me up until I started to talk to other women about the movie. No other women in my life, it seemed, held any interest in seeing Martin Scorsese’s newest picture. I can kind of see why. The commercials are creepy. The tone appears to be very dark. Shutter Island doesn’t exactly look like a “feel good” movie.
Of course, this is not to say that Shutter Island is a turn off for ALL women. I’m sure there will be several women in the audience this weekend. Just not any of the women I know.
But I am undeterred. I will see the movie by myself if I have to. And I have to. The last movie I saw in the theater was It’s Complicated. I owe this to myself.
I’m very interested in watching Scorsese turn the screws. I’m picking up a distinct Hitchcock vibe from this film. Maybe it’s the 1950’s time period the movie is set in. Certainly the psychological horror aspects play into things. Ultimately, to me, this looks like Scorsese’s love letter to Psycho, or something. I can’t wait.
We’ve already talked a little bit about Shutter Island in the comment section from Wednesday’s comic, but I’m curious to get your take on why women have negative feelings toward the movie? You’d think they’d at least give Leonardo DiCaprio a cursory pass. But I guess he’s moved beyond his heart throb phase, huh?
Too bad he looks perpetually 12 years-old.
What are your theories about Shutter Island? NO SPOILERS! Leave your comments below!
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