Posts Tagged ‘first appearance’
18 items.
So this is the first Theater Hopper strip, eh? God, I had hoped it would be funnier. But, what are you gonna do?…
Thanks for taking time out of your busy work day to waste a few quick seconds at my site. This is something I’ve wanted to take a swing at for a really long time. Hopefully, with your help I’ll improve.
If you like what you see so far, please tell more people about the site. I also encourage everyone to visit the forum and register. It’ll be a cool place to hang out and talk smack about movies.
As far as today’s strip goes, it’s a pretty common scenario for me. I’ve been known to drop impersonations of Dr. Evil randomly into many conversations. I think the more intellectual friends of mine are a little tired of it, but afraid to tell me to knock it off for fear I may call them “frickin’ eediots”. Or maybe not.
I’d love to get some suggestions on how to make the site better, but unfortunately, I’m having trouble setting up my e-mail through Microsoft Outlook. Eventually it will be tom@theaterhopper.com. But in the meantime, if you have suggestions, take them to the forum and I can pick them up there.
Thanks again and I’ll see you here soon!
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So the first week of Theater Hopper has come to a close. I have to say it’s been a moderate success. Thanks to everyone who has visited the site. Here’s to many more hits in my counter. Er, I mean… laughs and ever-loving friendship! Yea, that’s the ticket!
Today’s strip is basically an indication of how badly my wife doesn’t want to see XXX.
That’s right, I said wife. I really haven’t made any attempt to explain it in the past, but like most strips, the characters are representative of real people in my life. The blond haired fella is supposed to be me, the woman (obviously) is my wife Cami. She asked to be in a strip and she got her wish.
The brown haired dude you saw in the last two strips was the toon alter-ego of my good friend Jared. As far as I know, he never asked to be immortalized in four-color glory, but sometimes life throws us curve balls, y’know?
Whether or not these are the names of the characters, I’ll leave that up to you to decide. I may end up giving them different names down the line – I may just leave them nameless. If you have an opinion in the matter, post it in the forums. Better still, you can now e-mail me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com. I finally got Microsoft Outlook to work, so I can now receive all your comments.
Speaking of which, if you have any suggestions on how to make the site better, I’m more than willing to listen. I’m thinking about adding a section underneath the blog area for movie news. If you can think of any other features I can add, send them in.
One last bit of business and then I’ll let you go about your merry way.
I’ve got to give major shout-outs to a few people who linked to me in their news blogs and for whom I would like to return the favor. Each of them run awesome strips and you need to check them out immediately.
Muchos gracias to:
Zach Miller of No Pants Tuesday
Zach of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Mike and Aric of Fish Strips
Sean of Force Monkeys
Regular gracias to these fellas for being such extra nice guys:
Eric Drobile of Mall Monkeys
David Stanworth of Snafu
Carrington Vanston of Movie Punks
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Many apologies for posting the strip late today. So late in fact, many of you are probably laying eyes on it for the first time Tuesday.
I was under the assumption that Monday being Labor Day and all, not many people would be visiting the site. How wrong I was when I checked my counter logs and recoiled when over 90 people had stopped by. That’s like throwing a kegger and forgetting the keg. Oopsie! Forty lashes with a wet noodle for me.
I probably would have been quicker with today’s strip if there wasn’t such a complete void where my multiplex used to be. FearDotCom was the only new release this weekend and I wasn’t exactly hyped to see it. I could have taken the extended weekend to catch up on flicks I missed, but looking back on the last 4 weeks, there hasn’t been much worth catching up on.
You’d think the delay would result in an especially witty toon today, but I’m sorry it didn’t work that way. I know writing about the lack of good movies seems like a cop out, but I’m not the only one taking this route.
At least this time out, you get a new character! Yes, meet Jimmy – the hapless movie theater employee. He’s very much the “Leave it to Beaver” type. I figured I was overdue introducing a new element to the strip and figuring that for the amount of time these characters are supposed to be spending in theaters, a new foil was appropriate.
It will become more evident as Jimmy makes more appearances, but the concept behind his character is that he’s a theater worker who actually enjoys his job – quite a departure from most of the popcorn jockeys I’ve encountered. Stick around to read more of his exploits.
I’ll have more later, but I’m off to enjoy the dwindling hours of the holiday and conversely, the summer.
Wednesday’s strip will be on time. I promise.
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This is the strip Cami has been bugging me to do ever since I started Theater Hopper. Whether or not she appreciates the punch line, I’ll have to wait until later to find out.
But seriously, ever since I put the strip together, she’s been bugging me to stick our 7 month old beagle Truman into a strip. She’s also been bugging me to make a Julia Roberts joke. This is odd because, to my knowledge, she’s a fan. How else can I explain to my friends that Runaway Bride is in our DVD collection? It wasn’t one of my picks!
Regardless, I was happy to sling tiny pebbles at that goofball smile of hers. The woman has a grin like the Joker with teeth the size of piano keys. I’ve seen less ivory on elephants.
I hate Julia Roberts.
Those of you who watch the news might be aware that today is the one year anniversary of a rather significant event in our history. I have nothing to say about it really. Why add to the chorus of talking heads?
However, I will say this. Life is short. Love your family. Trust in your friends. Go outside and be a citizen of the world. Time is against you. Giving anything less than your all is a waste of your time. Laugh, love, experience. Live.
To you and yours; Love, Luck, Hope and Faith.
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Today’s strip features the introduction of a new character. Everyone, say hello to Nick! Now play nice.
Let’s not confuse Nick with our other theater employee Jimmy. Nick happens to be based on a real person. He’s a college buddy of mine – one of my best friends. So don’t start lumping him in with the fictitious characters because he wears a bow tie and vest.
Besides, I plan on featuring Nick in strips outside of a theater setting.
Nick lives in Minneapolis just like some people I know and he actually works in a theater. He’s a projectionist at the movie theater at the Mall of America. I draw Nick with a bored expression because he’s about 20 times too smart for this job. He’s a recent college grad just getting his start, so if anyone has use for an awesome writer in the Minneapolis area, let me know and I’ll pass along the message to him.
The more astute readers out there might have picked up on the hint of Comic Book Guy I injected into the character in panel three. This is wholely intention as I feared I hadn’t made a Simpsons reference on the site in a while. Plus, it seemed to make narrative sense.
I was going to make mention of the season premier of the Las Vegas Real World that debuted last night, but it’s a waste of effort and I’d rather leave room for Jared’s blog.
In the meantime, everyone should be listening to Tomahawk if they aren’t already. Mike Patton is illest!
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Once again I have to apologize for updating the site a little later in the morning. It appears that the situation with my satellite internet has transformed from a “Mother Nature screwed me over” thing into a “Tom can’t solve his own technical problem” thing.
For the life of me, I can figure out what’s wrong. I bring up Explorer, it tells me it can’t make a connection. I check my Network Adaptor information, it tells me that the networking cable isn’t hooked up. I look at my networking cable and it is clearly plugged into the wall and computer. I think my computer is trying to trick me.
Regardless, now I have to put in a call to customer service where I’m sure their answer will be something obvious like “Did you check to make sure your cable is connected?” or something equally lame. If any of you have suggestions, please contact me.
Obviously this snafu with my internet connection is throwing a monkey wrench into my plans for replacing the forums and adding a Bonus Materials section. Since I’ll be out of town this weekend, it looks like these two items will have to wait until next week.
Stay tuned for updates!
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I’m going to keep today’s blog short because I just spent the last 6 hours drawing and inking today’s and Friday’s strip. I’ll be away from home tonight, so I won’t have time to do Friday’s strip in the evening. I had to put it together Wednesday night. I think you’ll like it, though. I’ve made it extra-mushy for Valentine’s Day.
Awwww…
Hopefully, you are all enjoying this full week of strips. It’s been a lot of fun putting them together, but I’m glad my regular shift is only three days out of the week. I think I would be really stuck for ideas if I had to come up with something every day. In this instance, I just got lucky with a story line I could stretch out. You gotta strike while the iron is hot!
I’ve been getting some good feedback lately, which is nice. I want to let everyone know that I really appreciate your kind words and support and feel free to e-mail me any time you like. I try to respond to each e-mail I get. Fortunately (or unfortunately?) Theater Hopper’s popularity is at a sustained level right now and I can still do that.
A lot of you have been writing in with your reactions to the Oscar nominations, which I think is great. I’m always down for listening to a differenet set of opinions or being clued in on a movie I’ve yet to see. It’s times like these that I wish we had a forum to discuss things more in depth. There’s only so much ground I can cover in a blog.
That being said, I’m going to wrap it up. Jared is back on the scene, so I’m gonna let him do his thing. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the excellent Valentine’s Day conclusion of the Daredevil storyline. And, just because I love you, expect to see a new review from Nick posted soon!
Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy!
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Uh oh, kids! Looks like you’re in for some continuity! Should you check back on Thursday for the next installment? I’m just say-in’…
Underworld comes out this weekend and I think it’s tale of star-crossed vampire and werewolf lovers is gonna strike a chord with closet goths everywhere. I guess they’re calling it the Romeo and Juliet for the monster-loving crowd.
Frankly, I’m just happy to see a movie with a good werewolf in it. Vampires always get the screen time. I guess they’re more interesting and romantic figures than a howling hairball. But can you remember the last really good werewolf picture? It’s been a while.
Everyone needs to check out our latest advertiser, Destined For Nothing. Unlike most comics, these guys have a political bend to their work. They tackle actual real-world stuff and make it funny. Give ’em a little clickeroo for me. I appreciate it.
By the way, if you’re thinking about buying a poster, better make it soon. There are only 30 left and I plan on taking whatever I have in stock to the Minneapolis FallCon on October 4 and 5. I have a pretty strong feeling I will sell out if I do.
So don’t let procrastination be your excuse! Buy a poster now, before they’re gone forever!
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I called the Witch Doctor, he told me what to do… Vote for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix!
Not much for me to comment on today other than I’m excited to see Starsky & Hutch. Cami and I are going with a bunch of friends. I’m really looking forward to seeing it with a crowd.
The movie has been getting good reviews so far. From the sound of it, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson aren’t making fun of the franchise so much as playing it straight and letting the laughs evolve from the situations. That’s good to know. That means they’re not being cheap with it.
Of course, in full pimp attire in today’s strip, I have to pay homage to the brilliant casting of Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear. I mean, can you think of anyone better for the role? Maybe Chris Tucker before he wanted everyone to think he was the second coming of Eddie Murphy.
Long live Tha Doggfather.
It’s been a long week for me personally. The home improvement projects we started last weekend, we’re still mired in today. We’ve finished painting our living room and dining room and made some progress on the flooring we’re installing – but after working an 8 hour day, the last thing I want to do is more manual labor. I need a nice Saturday morning where I can wake up kinda late, then lean right into this and get it done. Of course, I have to meet my CPA to work on my taxes Saturday morning. Oh bitter irony!
Hopefully your weekend will be more restful than mine. Take it easy, yo.
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Let’s head on down to the ranch, partner and round up some votes for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix!
“Pimp Tom” seemed to go over so well on Friday, I decided to bring him back one last time today. But now I’ve created another problem. Who the heck is “Scurvy Joe” and what is he doing hanging out with Jared?
I picture “Scurvy Joe” as the town derelict who will do favors for people in exchange for sandwiches. He can’t handle the 9 to 5, but he’ll do anything for a pastrami on rye!
…that’s his slogan. He has it printed on his business cards…
Sorry if I seem a little disconnected. Cami and I finished up all of our home projects this weekend. Well… almost. We still have to nail in all the quarter-round over the baseboards on the floor we installed. You younger kids down care about this stuff, I’m sure. But when your weekend is composed of multiple trips to Lowe’s, tunnel vision starts to set in.
I’m glad that most of the labor is complete, but now we’re facing the task of getting rid of all the garbage we produced and cleaning everything up. Not fun.
Something that WAS fun, however (hey, remember when I used to talk about movies?!) was Starsky & Hutch, which I went to see on Friday. I really enjoyed this movie. It’s not as gut-bustingly (is that a word?) funny as Todd Phillips last movie Old School, but it has a very friendly charm about it and I can see it growing on me after repeat viewings.
You can really tell that both Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson have an affinity for the material. They’re not so much as spoofing it as paying homage to it. Will Ferrell’s cameo was nice. Probably the funniest part of the movie. I can’t wait to see him in more leading roles.
I remember reading somewhere that there were several shots in the movie composed to be exact recreations of scenes from the television show. Not being old enough to have seen the program when it was originally on the air, I couldn’t pick out which ones were which, so I guess I wasn’t meant to enjoy it on that level. Conversely, when they brought back the original Starsky & Hutch – Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul – it didn’t resonate with me. I knew I was watching something supposedly “important”, but kept thinking to myself “Who are these old guys supposed to be?”
The end credits are a real treat. There are some out takes including footage of a couple of the Ford Torinos they wrecked during a couple of the stunts.
Oh, yeah. And Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear is off the hizzle fo’ shizzle. I had no idea a man that tall could be that skinny. Snoop needs to put some meat on his bones! You’d think with all the dope he smokes, he would have consumed enough munchies-inspired Twinkies to have earned that extra “G” in Dogg.
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