Posts Tagged ‘dream’
25 items.
Nov12
So as the strip indicates, I finally got around to seeing Elf on Monday night. I really enjoyed it, too. A lot of the funniest bits were used up in the trailers and television commercials, but curiously, I didn’t care. Will Ferrell is such a joy to watch, it never even fazed me.
All those reviews that said Elf was going to be a new holiday classic sound a little ambitious, but they’re not far off the mark. When it comes out on DVD, I know I’m going to buy it. And after I own it, I know I could watch it over and over. Truthfully, I’ll probably go back a see it a second time when it still in theaters. The feeling it gives you is just that good.
Admittedly the conclusion starts to get a little sappy, but they wrap it up nicely with a recap of the characters a few years later. James Cann does the hurried, New York executive thing to a “T”, but I couldn’t help but think how a method actor such as himself probably didn’t have to stretch too far to get annoyed with Ferrell’s antics. Those two look like they would react as oil and water in real life just as easily as they do on film.
But of course, the reason to see Elf is for Ferrell. A lot of his lines would have fallen flat or sounded just plain dumb coming out of another actor’s mouth. But Ferrell brings a child-like innocence and glee to the role. You really start believing that he’s just a hyper-active, sugar-addled 8 year old trapped in the body of a middle aged goof. His enthusiasm is infectious. I particularly admired his character’s unique diet that allows him only to eat sugar products. I wish I was an elf…
Changing gears, I want to take a minute to call attention to our newest sponsor Phancy Pants. I’ve known co-creator Kiel kind of informally for a while. He’s a good guy and he’s got a great comic going for him. The site design is tight, too. Check it out!
I also gotta give props to those who have been donating to The Walk of Fame. Did you know if you donate five dollars or more you can get a cool Matrix-inspired Theater Hopper desktop wallpaper? It’s true. But you don’t have to donate that much if you don’t want to. ANY donation amount will still get your name enshrined on The Walk of Fame. Something to consider!
Friday will mark the 200th honest-to-goodness, drawn and written by me Theater Hopper strip. You might remember we crossed the milestone once before, but that was back when there were guest strips in the archive (you can find those now on the bonus materials page) but they were moved to represent a more honest count. I don’t have anything planned for the occasion, but I’ll probably have more to say about it on Friday. In the meantime, I just wanted to give a brief thanks to you guys for helping me get there. Thanks.
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Y’see. I TOLD you there would be a comic today. Just… a little later than I had planned.
Sorry for the delay, guys. But there was some sort of screw up with my server. I couldn’t upload the strip to the site! Never mind the POST Thanksgiving lay about attitude I’ve been carrying. Woke up late, ate some leftover turkey, slipped into a turkey-coma on the couch in the early afternoon, and woke up to start decorating the tree for Christmas.
My, how the day does fly by!
Anyway, here’s your holiday-themed comic. If you’re not picking up the reference I’m throwing down, it’s homage to the great Mr. Creosote scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. I love that movie.
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Theater Hopper: First Blood! At least the Rambo vibe was what I was trying to achieve with today’s buzzComix voting incentive sketch…
I know it’s kind of cheap to make a Roger Ebert fat joke, especially considering the man just had a stroke and that Ebert fat jokes are a tired cliche when it comes to mocking film reviewers. Coupling the irony, since his stroke, Ebert has lost a lot of weight and looks fabulous!
Well, the hell with it. The vision of being consumed Burmese python-style by Roger Ebert was just too good not to commit to paper. So, here it is.
Truthfully, I like Ebert a lot. He’s one of the most educated film reviewers and historians out there. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the only film reviewer to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Not too shabby! Then again, he wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls for Russ Meyer. So I guess you take the good with the bad.
I actually find myself agreeing with Ebert more now than I used to. Certainly more than that jackal-faced co-host of his Richard Roeper. I think Ebert does a better job of looking at films from the entertainment perspective. By that I mean, he’s perfectly willing to discount a totally non-sensical plot as long as he was entertained in the end. He’s more of a believer in the “magic” of movies – a romantic notion I can totally get in step with.
Roeper on the other hand, often over-intellectualizes things and tries to compare Martin Lawrence movies to Fellini. He’s constantly trying to flex his knowledge. Ebert doesn’t have to. We all know he has the chops.
Nothing much else to mention on the home front. I probably won’t be seeing any movies this weekend unless I can get to the local art house and catch The Triplets of Belleville. I’ve been chomping at the bit to see it but I haven’t worked it in my schedule.
Beyond that, I plan on enjoying the 40+ degree weather we’ve been having in Iowa of late. Compared to the weeks and weeks we were getting dumped on with snow, it’s a welcome change. There’s a good melt going on out there.
Oh, before I forget, be sure to check out our latest sponsor JDizzle Comics. It’s a great strip. Well written and very funny! I like it a lot.
Take care, babies! See you on the flip side!
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The “Female Empowerment Fairy?” “Mr. Happy?” I have no idea what’s wrong with me.
I guess looking forward at the movies that are coming out this weekend, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous served itself up on a silver platter to be made fun of.
I mean, first of all, you have Sandra Bullock who is all of 41 years-old playing an FBI agent trying to compete against 19 and 20 year-olds in a Miss America-type pageant. I don’t think there’s a bucket big enough for me to dump my disbelief into before accepting this concept.
Second, from all outward appearances, they decided to remove the one redeeming quality of the original movie, which was the potential romance angle with Benjamin Bratt. Instead, they’ve replaced him with… a back-talking, no-nonsense body guard in the guise of Regina King. Uh, okay. What kind of weird escapism is this?
Don’t ask me why I know this stuff, okay? I’m a married man, remember. Sometimes compromise means watching Miss Congeniality instead of taking a nap on a Saturday afternoon.
Anyway, instead of going the obvious route and apply my deeply entrenched male perspective on the “chick flick genre, I thought it was about time Tom was served a little comeuppance – even if it was in dream form. Needless to say, the result is somewhat… unique. Hopefully for the younger readers of this site, the joke will go over their heads.
Incidentally, Tom waking up startled isn’t a new concept for Theater Hopper. It’s kind of a cheap devise, but I have a lot of fun with it. Especially when I get to dust off the old trick and apply it in a new situation. It’s a little experiment to see if I can take something from funny, to not funny and back to funny again. I guess you’ll be the judge of that. At least the pajamas are changing from strip to strip!…
Not much else to report today. Stop by the THorum if you feel like saying “Hi.” We’ve been seeing lots of activity in there lately!
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Morons should not be allowed to drive The General Lee. They don’t know how to get in.
Okay, first things first. A few of you are going to look at today’s strip and exclaim – “OH MY GOD! HE’S TOTALLY RIPPING OFF SCOTT KURTZ!”
Well, I’m here to tell you “Congratulations for figuring that out. In fact, if you ∗didn’t∗ figure that out on your own, I’m going so far as to actually provide you a link to the comic I am directly referencing. It’s called “an homage” and I’ve also provide you a link to the definition of that word just in case you are unfamiliar with it.”
At any rate, it’s wholly intentional and I have plans for using the visual repeatedly in a storyline this week, so get used to it.
Oh, I wish I could unveil my grand plans for how I plan to wrap things up on Friday. What I have in store is delectable. But I can’t share it! That will ruin the surprise!
Is anyone else psyched to see Dukes of Hazzard this weekend? I am. I wish I could put a finger on my affinity for that old television chestnut. I think I am so fond of it because it was a show I would often watch when I would visit my grandparents. We would hang out at their place and I would watch reruns and those were happy memories.
Plus, it is – be default – AWESOME to watch a stunt driver launch a car over a crevasse…
Something else I’m excited for is Wizard World Chicago. Me and a whole bunch of other cool people are going to be there this Thursday through Sunday and I’ve been looking forward to it all summer. This year’s outing is shaping up to be one of those events that will never happen again in your life. I can already sense it. All the pieces are already falling into place. All the people I like will be there and I know we’re going to have fun just socializing and catching up. I can just tell that this will be something special. Something we will never be able to recreate again and I think it’s great.
I’m leaving town at noon on Wednesday. Think of me while I’m on the road, listening to my recently purchased copies of the new Sleater Kinney and Dane Cook records to whittle away the six-hour car trip.
When I was a kid, six hours in the car was tantamount to torture. Nowadays, I can do six hours standing on my head. I drove to Memphis and back in a straight shot. Dallas, too. Those are about 12 hour jaunts.
It doesn’t start to bother me until I think “Hmm. Six hours. That’s one-fourth of my day. I could watch 3 or 4 movies in that time span. Maybe 3 or 4 if they’re really good Hollywood classics like Citizen Kane or Bridge Over The River Kwai. Anything with the pre-Star Wars editing sensibility. You know the ones where they actually settle on an image and let you ABSORB IT for longer than two seconds?
I’m getting off track.
Something I was going to discuss on Friday that didn’t get discussed what a revision to our archiving structure.
First, major thanks to Steve Napierski for stepping up to the plate with an awesome solution. Steve has a comic called the outer circle that you need to check out. I’ve yet to properly thank Steve personally, but perhaps by sending some traffic his way this early in the morning, it will buy me some time and I can compose a proper e-mail.
That said, Steve solved a problem that has been plaguing me for a long time. Whenever I asked for guest strips, I always felt bad about shuffling them off into the Bonus Materials area of the site because I felt the people who contributed deserved high-level recognition and their work (and links to their site) front and center on the main page.
The conundrum came into effect when I felt guilty for misrepresenting MY OWN contribution to the site.
For example. Before Steve’s solution came into effect, the archive said I had over 470 comics. When IN REALITY, I only had 450.
I want what’s out there to be honest and reflect my individual efforts. So when I go about town someday down the road bragging “I have 10,000 comics in my archive!” no one will come along and say “You’re full of it, Brazelton! You only have 730 comics! The rest of them are all guest strips!” (extrapolating the amount of guest strips I’ve run so far this year, my figures do not seem out of bounds)
What Steve did was modified the archive code so that any title that begins with the words “GUEST STRIP” have their numerical place in the archive skipped over, but their physical location to remain rooted on the front page. Additionally, on the archive page, guest strips are given their own special location, organized by date.
How’s that for the best of both words!
So I am very happy with the outcome and want to again thank Steve for his help. There were a few other people eager to lend their support that I had to unfortunately turn down. Again, like Steve, they don’t know this yet because I haven’t had a chance to e-mail them. Sorry, guys! But I will catch up with you soon!
Now all that’s left to do is add back some of the earlier guest strips into the archive. Be on the lookout for those in the near future.
Things are going to be hectic for me this week as I prepare to go to Wizard World. I really only have tonight and tomorrow night to get my ducks in a row.
What really sucks is that I came up with a cool idea for a promotional give-away about 5 hours ago. I’m going to make custom 1″ buttons for the show that I’m giving away for free. So if you stop buy, feel free to grab one.
The artwork is 90% done. It has everything but text, otherwise I would share it with you. That will come later. But once I get the art back from the printer, I need to start assembling buttons when I get home from work. This, in addition to staying ahead of my update schedule so you guys will have a fresh comic on Friday while I’m out of town.
I tell you, this train doesn’t stop!
I should have some time to kill Thursday morning to make a batch of buttons in the hotel room as I wait for them to open the floor for preview night. Since I’m taking my button making machine with me to the con, I can always make more if I run out. So that will be nice.
Anyhoo – just giving you a fairly large peek into my world! Time for bed!
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There won’t be another new incentive sketch for the rest of the week, so get your jollies from this one while you can. The reasoning for a lack of sketch is explained there in.
Oh, heck. I can’t keep you in suspense! I’ll be away from my desk whooping it up Windy City style in Chicago for the Wizard World Chicago comic book convention and nerd-a-palooza this Thursday through Sunday.
I think this is going to be one hell of a show. From the sound of it, a lot of people are going to swing by the booth – which I consider serendipitous and not an indicator of any fictitious “internet fame.” Come out to see the show if you can!
I’m a little delirious right now because I had to draw, ink, color and letter two comics back to back. Since I won’t be near a computer on Friday, I had to finish that comic today to put it in the system for later. As such, I had to cut corners a little bit and leave out the shading. But I hope to toss that back in when I come home next week. You guys don’t mind, do you?
I don’t mean to get too topical regarding the confederate flag atop The General Lee, but since the show went off the air, the symbol has become an anachronism and certainly more offensive. I’ve heard that the new Dukes of Hazzard movie somehow deals with this in a humorous manner, so it’ll be interesting to see how they playfully laugh it off while still staying true to the original General Lee design.
Anyway, it’s late here and I need to be up for work in a few hours. I’m leaving town at noon and have a 6 hour drive ahead of me. If you’re reading this in the afternoon, think of me. I’ll be blaring the new Clutch record at top volume somewhere in either Iowa and Illinois!
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Remember on Monday when I was talking about that comic that PvP’s Scott Kurtz originally drew and how I was going to tie it back to something fun today? I keeps my promises!
Okay, maybe it plays a little “inside.” Some of you won’t be getting that big a kick out of it if you haven’t been following PvP. But to me, the idea of Tom and Jared colliding mid-air with Cole and Brent in their respective fantasy world General Lee’s was too hilarious to pass up. If today’s comic left you Poker-faced, you can always go back and read Scott’s original comic for reference.
Nothing much clever to add today. I actually wrote this blog on Wednesday and time stamped it so it would appear with today’s comic. I’ll be back from Wizard World Chicago on Sunday night.
Have a great weekend!
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My original draft of this comic had the infant Jared bursting forth from Jennifer Garner’s swollen stomach like the Alien. Y’know… Demon Seed style.
But I opted against it. I thought it was a little crass.
Still, Baby Jared isn’t someone to mess around with. He’s one tough little customer! Koochie-koochie-koo!
You may have read that Mr. and Mrs. Ben Affleck recently celebrated the birth of their first born on December 1 – a baby girl. So it stands to reason that our favorite punching bag might have a little anxiety about the momentous event.
Still, in all seriousness, congratulations to the happy couple. Just because Ben Affleck sucks as an actor doesn’t mean I should begrudge the welcoming of his first child.
I feel like I haven’t had a lot of movie stuff to talk about lately and that makes me kind of sad. Is it weird that it’s almost the end of the year and the only film I’m remotely excited about seeing is King Kong? I mean, Fun With Dick and Jane looks interesting. I heard it was co-written by Judd Apatow, so that’ll get me in the door right there. I’ll see Munich, mostly because I feel like I should. I’m planning on avoiding The Chronicles of Narnia like the plauge.
The only thing that really has me captivated at the moment is the new X-Men 3 teaser trailer.
This kind of caught me be surprise. Because, like any good fanboy, I spent my time hating the idea of an X-Men movie directed by Brett Ratner for so long, I forgot that there might be something worth investigating here.
Some quick thoughts:
Kelsey Grammar as Beast. He looks pretty good. Maybe a little old. A little too fuzzy. But it’s Grammar’s voice and presence that are going to sell this role. Still, I don’t know how they plan on tossing him into any battle sequences. The man is 50 years-old! Maybe they’ll switch him out with a CGI character for the more frenetic stuff.
A character that should have been done totally CGI was Vinnie Jones’s Juggernaut. I’m sorry, but that ultra-buff body suit they have him standing in looks stupid. The Juggernaut is supposed to be 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. If they could make the Hulk semi-believable in CGI, they could have done the same here. Just stick Vinnie Jones’s head on a digital body and be done with it. That helmet he’s wearing looks dopey, too. I understand that they want to leave the face plate open so you can see the actor emoting, but I much preferred the domed look of the character in the comics. In the movie he looks like and extra from Gladiator.
Good to see Colussus is on the team roster now. You can see him in the background walking with the group in the opening shot. Oh, and eagle-eyed viewers will notice – wait for it – THE FASTBALL SPECIAL! at the end of the trailer.
If you don’t know what The Fastball Special is (and it sounds kind of dirty, now that I think about it), too bad. That’s for comic geeks ONLY. Okay, maybe that’ll make up for the Juggernaut looking stupid.
Other thoughts:
Hugh Jackman is starting to look kind of old to play the non-aging Wolverine.
Halle Berry got a new haircut for Storm! Like I care…
Ben Foster as Angel looks promising. The wings actually look like they should.
Famke Janssen is back from the dead as Phoenix and she appears to have become evil. Okay.
No one passed the note along to James Marsden that his version of Cyclops is the most boring character in the franchise.
Beyond that, nothing much more to say. It’s too bad that they decided to do a movie about "curing" mutants and that there is no sign of the Sentinels. I think movies today need more giant robots.
If you have any opinions about the movie or the teaser, we’re talking about it in the THorum here. Check it out and I’ll catch up with you guys later!
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Why the thought of Mary Poppins being bitten in half by a ferocious Tyrannasourous Rex would bring a smile to a sleeping Tom’s face, we may never know. Maybe he dreams of dinosaurs?
For what it’s worth, I think today’s incentive sketch turned out really sharp. Almost like a textbook reference, isn’t it? I’m also really pleased with how the Tyrannasourous Rex turned out in the third panel. I was a little scared to attempt a rendering that was an action shot. It’s been a while since I’ve try to draw something like that.
Honestly, though… what up and coming artist didn’t cut their teeth drawing a million dinosaurs growing up? I don’t know you about you, but I was facinated by the beasties. I used to love the Stegosaurous. And when Transformers came out with the Dinobots, I wasn’t in love with Grimlock like everyone else. Snarl was my man! Stego-Powah!
So is Steven Spielberg really chomping at the bit to do a remake of Mary Poppins? Would I lie to you? Apparently there has been a West End revival of the original musical in London and it’s been selling out since it opened in December of 2004. Spielberg wants to remake THIS version. Not the Disney version with Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and the dancing animated penguins.
Having not seen the London revival, I can’t judge whether this is a good idea or not. The plan is to bring the stage show to Broadway sometime this year. But I think it’s become newsworthy because Spielberg appears to be an unlikely fit. Especially when he dipped into similar territory with Hook and the Peter Pan mythos and came up empty handed.
Some people are impressed by Spielberg’s ability to alternate popcorn blockbusters with personal and poignant films. For every Jurassic Park, there is a Schindler’s List. For every War of the Worlds, there is a Munich.
I suppose it’s a smart strategy, but I count myself in the vocal minority that wishes sometimes that Spielberg would hang up the childish trappings and deliver more art. He obviously has the chops for it. Maybe he finds it displeasing. Maybe a film like Saving Priviate Ryan is made for guilty reasons. Or perhaps he makes films like Minority Report to retain clout in Hollywood. The further he goes, the more I wonder "Which filmmaker is the REAL Steven Spielberg?"
Or maybe at this stage of the game, keeping us guessing is his next deft move.
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Johnny Rotten once asked his audience "Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?" I hope you don’t feel that way in response to the conclusion of this arc. Admittedly, the whole "It was only a dream!" plot device is as old as the hills, but I feel that it ties things up nicely and has a little fun referencing the previous comics. Actually, I would be proud to bundle this week’s strips together and give them to someone that I was trying to explain Theater Hopper to. In my mind, the arc just feels right.
I keep promising to come back and blog more, but I haven’t had the time. Work has been crazy and I come home at night exhausted.
Tell you what, a quick plug and it’s off to bed for me. Check out Multiplex and Banana Chips– two of our new monthly sponsors. They’re both great comics. I’ve been reading Multiplex for a while and love it. Banana Clips is something new for me, but I really dig the artwork.
I’ll try to come back later and give them the proper write-up they deserve. It would also be fun if I could give your my Oscar picks before the show this weekend. You’re maybe a little curious about that, right?
Talk to you soon. Keep your fingers crossed.
I hope you enjoyed this arc as much as I enjoyed creating it!
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