I don’t think I’m making any kind of particularly witty statement with today’s comic. Anyone who has seen the trailer for Perfect Stranger probably came up with the same joke 5 seconds after they learned what the title of the movie was. But I’ll ask you to stick with me on this one. The follow-up comic I have for Friday is going to be the real pay-off.
Considering that today’s comic doesn’t exactly have a lot going on in it’s brain, I thought I would talk for a moment about the comic creation itself. Mostly because you guys seem to get a kick out of it when I have a joke that’s a bit of a dog.
Originally I was going to have Bronson Pinchot himself appear to protest the movie. But I thought that highly unlikely since isn’t he dead, or something? I kid. I know he was on The Surreal Life not to long ago. But actually, I avoided using him simply because if I was going to burn brain cells trying to figure out an appropriate caricature, it was NOT going to be on Bronson Pinchot. Instead, I decided to make the protester someone who vaguely LOOKS like Bronson Pinchot and make him the president of his fan club. Subtle, no?
When I told Cami that I was going to make fun of Perfect Stranger by pulling a reference to the television show Perfect Strangers, Cami asked me “Are your readers even going to understand it?” I think she’s under the impression that everyone who comes to the site must be 12. If it just so happens that you’re NOT a child of the 80’s like I am, what can I tell you? YouTube it.
“Standin’ TAAALLLLLLL! On the wiiings of my dreams!”
Man, whatever happened to the inspirational feel-good sitcom theme songs? For that matter, whatever happened to predictability? The milk man, the paperboy, evening TV? How did I get delivered here – someone tell me, please!
All the 12 year-old’s are scratching their heads right now.
At any rate, if you’d like to download something that DOESN’T make you feel incredibly old, grab a copy of The Triple Feature broadcast from Monday night. Gordon, Joe and I talked about Grindhouse for a full hour and I think we hit upon some really juicy topics of discussion. Pull it down to your machine and listen to it in the background as you contemplate the fate of television stars of the 80’s. It’ll be an interesting juxtaposition – trust me.
Happy Friday the 13th, everyone? Doing a good job of avoiding black cats, ladders and Jason Voorhees? Good for you!
As you can see, this is the continuation of my Perfect Strangers comic from Wednesday. I don’t know why, but I just thought it would be funny to cast Victor as a being from a village small enough in the Ukraine that they might actually worship a character from a 1980’s sitcom. No offense to anyone of Ukrainian heritage. Call it the Borat effect. People don’t really think Kazakhstan is like that. It’s all in good fun.
I’ll fess up and admit that Wednesday’s comic was pretty much the exposition needed to get to today’s punchline. I came up with “Thou shalt not be ridiculous” and worked backwards from there. Yeah, it’s kind of the same joke. But there’s humor in repetition sometimes. Give me a break. It’s a slow week!
Here’s some good news: I learned this week that my local comic book shop will be playing host to a 24 Hour Comic Day event next Saturday and I’m going to participate! I’ve always read the exploits of my contemporaries who do the 24 Hour Comic thing and I was always jealous. Finally, someone has taken the steps to organize our own event and I’m not going to miss it.
Originally I was planning on putting together the Theater Hopper origin story that’s been bouncing around in my head for a few years. But after consulting a few good friends, they talked me out of it. The catch in participating in this thing is to have 24 sheets of 11 x 17″ paper drawn, inked and lettered. I don’t want to hand-letter this story. It’s too important. Plus, there’s a strong likelihood that I’m going to run out of gas around hour 22 and I don’t want the last two pages looking like I was asleep at the wheel.
So, anyway, I tried to come up with a few other options. I had an idea for a story about Jimmy getting the day off. Except he doesn’t want the day off and keeps trying to sneak back into work. Not really original, but it’s a start.
Then I had an idea about Tom literally theater hopping into another dimension or into the movies themselves. He would take on the characteristics of people in the films he “jumps” into like Quantum Leap before going into another one. I couldn’t figure out what the point of that one would be, though.
So I talked to Cami about it and she suggested doing something completely different – a comic about our lives in 2006. A more personal story. Cami getting her Master’s Degree, our trip to Europe, our pregnancy and end it with Henry being born. I’m really warming up to that idea. I think it would be something special.
I don’t know. What do you guys think? Want to brainstorm with me a while? Leave your ideas in the comments field. Tell me what you think!