Posts Tagged ‘Goth Jared’
11 items.
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!
[ No Comments ]
Betcha didn’t think I would have a new comic for you on a Thursday, didja?
Just goes to show that you’ve gotta check the site often because there’s NO TELLING when I might go off the deep end and give you extra content!
I really enjoy it when a storyline slowly materializes from out of nowhere. Usually I’m much more focused on the quick zinger and I don’t give a lot of thought toward expanding my ideas.
I do that partially because I want Theater Hopper to work no matter where you jump into it. Sure, there are subtle references to past comics that enrich the experience if you’ve been a reader for a while. But I don’t ever want to get to the point where the punch line is… oh, I dunno… “TURNIPS!” and the only way you’ll get it is if you’ve been reading for 5 weeks.
That said, this Underworld storyline will wrap up tomorrow. I’ve got to keep things moving since there are so many new flicks coming out this weekend. Things are starting to look up at the local multi-plex.
In case you missed it yesterday, I suggest everyone check out our latest advertiser Destined For Nothing. I think you’re really like what’s going on over there.
And while we’re at it, show a little love to our other advertiser Digital Entertainment News. That site is a class act all the way.
Give these people some due attention. Their contribution to the site helps keep us going.
Oh, also – if you missed it – read yesterday’s blog. I posed a question about auctioning off original art that I still haven’t heard back on.
Cheers!
[ No Comments ]
Sep19
Well, that concludes are little goth saga for the week. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I did. Its fun exercise to graft a new look and personality on one of the characters. Things should be (relatively) back to normal on Monday.
This weekend is pretty big for new releases. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed because I’m not sure what we’ll see first.
Obviously, I’d like to see Underworld. But Cami doesn’t care much for vampires or werewolves. Funny. She never had a problem with Interview with the Vampire. I guess when a bloodsucker is played by Brad Pitt, it’s not so difficult to stomache.
Oddly, Cami is interested in seeing Cold Creek Manor this weekend. I don’t care much for Sharon Stone, but I’ve been very interested in Dennis Quaid ever since Frequency and The Rookie. He’s one of the few actors I’ve come to respect more the older he gets. He just seems more and more comfortable on screen. Plus, I like good haunted house stories… suspense, not gore. I think this will be the pony to bet on this weekend.
Beyond that, not much else to say. Seriously.
[ No Comments ]
Dec08
Don’t you hate it when the lines of communication get crossed? Tom and Jared are going to look pretty silly trying to get into the theater for free with Tom looking like a Las Vegas hustler and Jared looking like a Hot Topic reject.
Those of you familiar with the site are probably aware of Jared’s long dormant personality – GOTH Jared. He’s kind of like the evil Captain Kirk except lethargic instead of evil and without the goatee so you can tell them apart.
So Blade: Trinity opens today and I’m in this weird paradox where on the one hand I know it will be formula and I don’t care about it, while on the other, seeing a vampire movie two weeks before the holidays really turns me on. That’s great counter programming, kids.
Blade as a franchise is kind of an odd duck for me. The first movie was filmed before the success of Spider-Man and X-Men or the notoriety of Daredevil or The Hulk. It’s kind of this Marvel comic book property that exists in its own pocket universe, protected from the detractors of the comic book genre.
Part horror, part action, part blacksploitation – the Blade movies are unique unto themselves. That said, is it shameful to admit that I find the lead character and Wesley Snipes’ performance the least intriguing aspect of the movies?
The first Blade was notorious for it’s off the wall violence and gore – something not seen in traditional comic book adaptations. That rave scene at the beginning where all the blood comes out of the fire sprinklers really set the tone. Plus, it casts L.A. street urchin Stephen Dorff as the main baddie. Hilarious casting!
Blade II had a pre-Hellboy/post The Devil’s Backbone Guillermo del Toro in the director’s chair. This film caught a lot of flack for being too dependent on shoddy CGI, but I thought The Reapers were pretty cool as far as creatures-of-the-night is concerned. Those little Predator-like mandibles coming out of the sides of their faces were pretty inventive. And really, how can you go wrong by adding Ron Pearlman to anything. With a shaved head to boot!
With Blade: Trinity, casting is again what has caught my attention. Jessica Biel, shedding the “Daddy’s little ‘Girl Gone Wild'” image and transforming herself into an ace archer. The erstwhile Van Wilder – Ryan Reynolds – packing on 25 pounds of muscle as a former vampire. WWE wrestling potentate Paul Michael Levesque – AKA “Triple H” putting on the pointy fangs. Indie Queen Parker Posey doing the same. And for the hell of it, they threw in Patton Oswalt.
Kids, Wesely Snipes is going to be the least interesting thing on the screen.
Naturally, Cami wants nothing to do with seeing this movie in the theater. So maybe Jared and I can weasel our way into it after navigating the crazed holiday crowds. We’ll see.
By the way, only a few more days to pre-order all of the clothing items in the store. December 10th is the cut off date! Don’t forget!
[ No Comments ]
I hope everyone is enjoying this week’s arc. I plan to keep rolling with it until either I’ve run out of jokes or no one wants to hear Ocean’s 12 references any more.
I dunno. Ever since I did that giant month-long arc where Jimmy lost his job, I’ve been much less uptight about keeping Theater Hopper a gag strip. I think I’ve introduced enough characters at this point that the comic can stand up on its own two feet a little more. Sure it only took two and a half years to do it, but gotta walk before you can crawl, right? Sheesh…
Speaking of Ocean’s 12, I’m going tonight with Cami and the rest of the family. I’m talking my parents, her parents and her sister. It’s kind of this weird tradition or something now. We all went to see Ocean’s 11 three years ago about this time. I think it actually came out on or near my birthday… Yup, IMDB confirms it. December 7, 2001. My birthday is on the 21st. Must have been a busy time of year for us to put it off two weeks. Or maybe we saw it twice? Who knows.
Critical response has had the air of tepid bemusement. It’s not as if they can really find anything wrong with the movie, but they’re all giving off this vibe like “Yeah. Yeah. This was fun, but get back to making movies more like Traffic, Mr. Soderbergh.”
But honestly, who else like Soderbergh could put together a cast like this? There must be something about the way the man operates that lends him this favor with actors. All we’ve been hearing for months is how much fun they all had making this movie. Well, yeah. I’d be having a lot of fun, too if I was trotting all around Europe with 11 other movie stars. D
id you know the sequel was filmed for the same amount of money as the first? Or at least Soderbergh insisted as much. I don’t see how that’s possible considering the locations and the additions to the cast. It could all be Hollywood hogwash, actually. A nice thought to stir up interest and have people asking “How’d they do that?” before even stepping foot into the theater.
At any rate, we’re going tonight.
I wanted to remind everyone that today is the last day to place a pre-order for all the cool shirts, baby doll tees and hoodies we have in the store. I’ll be taking orders until midnight, so as long as I receive your payment before then, we’re cool.
Actually, if there a few of you out there who are interested in purchasing the Professional Movie-Goer t-shirt or hoodie, it would be great if you could place your order now. I’m actually just a few orders shy of making the minimum order amount set by my printer.
Conversely, none of you ladies were interested in the Truman baby-doll, so I’ll likely be expanding the design into tees and hoodies to meet the minimum order amount there. Naturally, I’ll be extending the deadline on that one.
That’s about all the self-promotion I can think about for the moment, so it’s time to switch gears and promote someone else!
Misfile is our latest sponsor and it’s a great anime-inspired comic about a boy accidentally turned into a girl by a hard-drinking, drug-abusing fallen angel. It’s a unique concept and the pencils are awesome. Check it out!
That about does it for me today. I’ll come back later if I have any other thoughts about Ocean’s 12…
[ No Comments ]
Dec15
LIKE PICKING THE WRONG DOOR ON LET’S MAKE A DEAL
December 15th, 2004 |
(4 votes, average: 9.00 out of 10)
Today is more of a dialogue piece, which I think is fun to toss in every now and then. I preface my blog with these comments since I’ve been going a little cameo-crazy lately. I don’t want to disappoint anyone who was expecting to see The Harlem Globetrotters or Don Knotts show up in the comic this week.
Not much to report movie-wise at the moment except Des Moines is finally getting some really good indie movies in the local theaters that I need to sprint out and see before some big budget number bumps them off the screens.
Top on my list is Sideways, a slightly more adult (re: middle aged) drama written and directed by Alexander Payne. If the name sounds familiar, he did Citizen Ruth, Election and About Schmidt. Payne finally gets out of Omaha for this picture, taking us into the sun-baked hills of California wine country. Extra points for casting Paul “Pig Vomit” Giamatti – my favorite silver screen neurotic.
I’m also hyped to see Primer and The Machinist.
Primer is kind of hard to explain. Filmed for only $7,000, it’s the tale of two inventors who accidentally create a time-travel device. Basically the movie is a sci-fi morality tale in the vein of an old Rod Serling Twilight Zone episode, exploring what the technology does to the friends and the knowledge of themselves.
The Machinist is also a creepy indie starring the soon-to-be Batman, Christian Bale. Basically a descent into madness, Bale plays a blue collar industrial worker who is suffering from insomnia and hasn’t slept in over a year. The story isn’t grabbing my attention as much as the reports that Bale lost 63 pounds for the role and the physical transformation is shocking. What can I say? Curiosity got the cat.
No guarantee that I’ll see any of these movies before they leave town. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Spanglish and The Aviator all come out this week. Next week is my birthday and then Christmas. Busy times ahead.
The government needs to make some sort of food-pyramid type of chart to help me balance the big budget studio pictures stuff with the mind-tweaking indie fare.
[ No Comments ]
After I drew today’s comic, I was a little bit lost as to what incentive sketch I should throw together that tied in with it. Then, looking back at the first panel, it kind of hit me and, well, this was the result.
Why is Goth Jared such a happy Goth? Because he feels so AWESOME!
After a summer of nearly no romantic comedy releases, Cami is suffering withdrawal and is jonesing for a fix. To that end, she is supremely excited for Just Like Heaven. I have to say that I agree. I am also very excited for this movie.
Sweet Home Alabama excluded (I thought it was cloying, regional hucksterism – trying to net that “NASCAR Dad” dollar), I greatly enjoy Reese Witherspoon in romantic comedies. She seems smart and winning and I think she’s fun to watch.
I’m also quite fond of Mark Ruffalo, who is charming in every film he appears in. His performance was the only thing redeeming about 13 Going On 30 and I like that he’s able to switch things up. His role as Detective Fanning in Collateral was also satisfying. To me, he’s an actor that’s pretty much good in any genre even if the film around him is total crap. He’s the next John Cusack without all of the “boombox-over-the-head” romanticism in his background.
Of course, the big news about this movie is that it’s the first post-Napoleon Dynamite role for fro-less Jon Heder. Gotta admit I’m suckered by his trailer closing line delivery of “I’m ninety-nine percent ∗parched∗ right now. I could sure use a ∗co-la∗.” What can I say? I’m easily amused. It’ll be interesting to see if he can trump such an instantly identifiable and unique character like Napoleon.
Not much news right now except I know there are a handful of you out there waiting for me to deliver a few shirts. I’m getting to it! Haven’t forgotten you.
I’m steering myself toward a sea change in my life right now and I’m kind of doing some stuff to put me on firm ground, mentally speaking. I’m making a couple of changes to my habits and routines. So hopefully I can kind of fold it into a pattern that allows me to be a little more productive while being a little less exhausted.
I’m looking forward to it.
Oh – I’m still looking for some programming help with the site. Mostly archive functions. So if any of you out there have experience with PHP or maybe even databases, please contact me!
[ No Comments ]
For those of you concerned that today marks the last appearance of Goth Jared, fear not. His lack of planning and available resources see to his continued status as a member of the living. Click here to learn his fate.
I hope you don’t find today’s comic too macabre. I’m certainly not aiming to make fun of suicide. But think of it this way – If your kids can handle the concept of an animated Johnny Depp marrying the rotting corpse of woman while cavorting around town with a bunch of dead people (Ala Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride), then they should be able to handle today’s comic. After all, how many times have we seen Tom and Jerry inflict mortal harm upon each other?
All in good fun people!
No really commentary for today except to say that Cami and I are planning to paint the afternoon red when we catch a matinee of Just Like Heaven on Sunday. After that, expect a full week of strips continuing to have fun with The Corpse Bride.
Not ∗that∗ kind of fun, you sickos.
In the meantime, if you have a LiveJournal account and would like to add the Theater Hopper feed to your friends list, I would be much obliged. You’ll get all the latest comic and blog postings delivered directly to your friends list. Can’t be that kind of service with a stick.
Or a corpse.
Or whatever.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
[ No Comments ]
Jan14
I will freely admit to stealing the “shoegazing” moniker from My Bloody Valentine’s Wikipedia page and I link to it freely to provide context that would otherwise be unrequired for certain other webcomics.
I’m no great fan of the band, but I am familiar with their work. In particular, the instrumental tracks off the Lost in Translation soundtrack which were penned by My Bloody Valentine’s lead singer Kevin Shields. I like that album a lot.
As for the movie, My Bloody Valentine 3D, it looks like pure, Grade-A shlock. I’ve been making fun of the trailer for this film since it came out last fall.
At first, I thought the trailer was a put-on. Something The Wayans Brothers cooked up for an extension of the Scary Movie franchise. But it’s 100% for real. A bunch of anonymous pretty-somethings getting hacked to death by some guy in a gas mask. Brilliant.
My favorite line in the trailer isn’t from the movie itself, but a great bit of marketing all the same: “Nothing says ‘date movie’ like a 3D ride to Hell!”
Sounds like something my wife would really like!
I guess that’s something I don’t understand about the positioning of this movie. Once again, a horror film jumps the gun by being released months in advance of the terror-filled “holiday” it shares a name with. Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween was released on August 31 of 2007 – two full months before the actual holiday. At least the remake of Black Christmas managed to get it right by being released on Christmas Day in 2006.
But if the producers of My Bloody Valentine 3D are trying to promote the film as a date movie, why not wait a month for Valentine’s Day to roll around in February?
Obviously this movie is trash. I mean, look at the teaser poster. It looks like an advertisement for a ride at Universal Studios!
But what do you guys think? Does it look like a fun time at the movies to you with the potential for a great audience experience? Does the 3D gimmick hold any value for you? In other words, do you think My Bloody Valentine 3D is a movie you would see if it weren’t in 3D?
I’m curious as to everyone’s take on this film. Leave your comments below and let’s discuss!
[ 22 Comments ]
By the way, I don’t know if you noticed, but since the site relaunch in January I’ve dusted off three obscure characters in a little more than a week’s time.
How do you guys feel about seeing Victor, Charlie and Goth Jared again?
If you’re a new reader and not familiar with these guys, I encourage you to check out the cast page for a little background information as well as links to some of the story lines they were featured in!
If you’re a veteran reader and if you think there are any important characters or story lines I overlooked, use our handy new contact form and let me know!
[ 10 Comments ]
