GUEST STRIP – CHRIS CANTRELL
April 26th, 2005 | by Tom- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(8 votes, average: 5.50 out of 10)
Chris is maybe jumping the gun just a little with his Dukes of Hazzard comic – The movie starring Johnny Knoxville, Sean Williams Scott, Jessica Simpson, and Willie Nelson (!) doesn’t launch itself into theaters until August 5 – but I don’t care for two reasons:
1. Any Dukes of Hazzard joke is okay in my book. The television show was high camp at its finest. Just thinking about it brings a grin to my ear.
2. Chris’s writing and illustration is so sharp, it’s like someone delicately painted my eyes with some sort of liquid happiness. Possibly LSD. I can’t be sure. Just look at that rendering of the General Lee. But a beauty to behold!
I think it’s criminal that Please Rewind does not get the recognition it deserves – especially considering Chris’s pedigree with The Asylumantics.
If you’re already reading his comics, then you are extremely switched on and I am preaching to the choir. But if you’re not, then you are doing yourself a grand disservice. Anyone who likes Theater Hopper will find more than enough to love in Please Rewind. The characterization is top notch.
That said, I hope you enjoy my rendering of his characters in my buzzComix incentive sketch. Vote for Theater Hopper to view it.
Beyond pimping Chris’s work and thanking him profusely, I have little else to say. You might want to click back one day and read the second blog I posted late yesterday afternoon. It has a lot of details you shouldn’t mix.
For example, I’m doing 5 guest comics this week in preparation of unveiling the new site design and marking my return to the comic on Monday, May 2!
Set your watches!
GUEST STRIP – JOERULES AND MADMUP
April 27th, 2005 | by Tom- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 7.75 out of 10)
Today’s guest strip comes from a pair of collaborators who met inside our illustrious THorum – joerules from Digital Pimp Online and MadMup from… well, MadMup.com.
This actually isn’t the first time these two have paired up. They worked together to bring me a guest strip while I was away in Memphis last year. Just as they knocked it out of the part last time, they do so again! My character seems to have grown some hair since the last time Joe put pen to paper, but I ain’t complaining!
The real treat of today’s strip is the inside joke in the first panel. Keen eyed observers of the comic will understand it. But if it’s not leaping out at you, I’m not going to explain it – because it simply wouldn’t be as funny.
Anyway, as thanks for their hard work, I have drawn them at the very catalyst of their creative nexus! You can see what I’m talking about when you’re treated to the incentive sketch when you vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix.
Do us all a favor and visit both Joe and Mup’s web sites. Joe has recently hit pay dirt with ANOTHER comic – this time taking aim at his favorite (crappy) movies. I’ve mentioned it in this space before. It’s called Joe Loves Crappy Movies! Check it out.
GUEST STRIP – CLAY AND HAMPTON YOUNT
April 28th, 2005 | by Tom- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 7.75 out of 10)
Shamefully I wasn’t aware of Rob and Elliot until Zach over at Joe and Monkey made me aware of them just this year. Good thing – it’s probably one of my most favorite new discoveries.
I don’t know how to explain it. The look is manga-esque, but not annoying like most of that stuff. Expressions aren’t overtly exaggerated. It plays closer to reality.
The pacing of the dialogue is a real plus. Very witty without being too eager. Still, you have to give it up for a concept like the adorable – but deadly! – iMonkey.
Honestly, if I had created that, I would have kicked my feet up and said “Looks like I’m on auto-pilot from here on out!” That’s the kind of great idea you could hang an entire strip from.
But Clay and Hampton Yount don’t stop there. Oh, no! They’ve got a real swinging comic going on and you should all check it out. Thanks for the great guest strip!
Incidentally, if you want to see my rendering of their characters, vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix and laugh at my inferior interpretation!
GUEST STRIP – CARRINGTON VANSTON
April 29th, 2005 | by Tom- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 6.50 out of 10)
DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING, DIDJA?! HA!!!
Okay, if you don’t know who Carrington Vanston is, shame on you. Carrington was the author and illustrator of a comic called Movie Punks which ran from April 2002 to December 2003 – and it kicked all kinds of ass.
When I was putting together this little guest-week-a-ma-bob, I knew I had to close out with somebody big to really leave people on a high note. Carrington’s name was the first that popped into my head.
The reasons are pretty cut and dried. I don’t know a single soul who didn’t love Movie Punks in its heyday. The writing was whip smart and covered everything from the biggest blockbuster to the smallest independent picture of 1932.
I was actually just starting to develop Theater Hopper on my own in July 2002 when I happened to stumble across it. Carrington already had a few strips under his belt and was starting to get noticed. “Oh, no!” I thought. “No one is going to take my comic about movies seriously. Everyone will think I’m ripping ∗this∗ guy off!”
So, too far gone with the original site design and character designs, I naively sent Carrington an e-mail asking him if it was cool that I was doing a movie-themed comic and that I wasn’t trying to crowd his territory.
In retrospect, it’s kind of a goofball thing to ask somebody. Like I said, I was way out on the fringe of web comics culture. It didn’t even occur to me that there were like, oh A BILLION comics about video games. I thought I was in real danger of stepping on someone’s toes!
But Carrington couldn’t have been nicer about it. He even ended up giving me some great web design tips to help me get my site off the ground. Turns out he’s also a formidable web designer. This is a good guy to keep in your corner.
I had the opportunity to meet Carrington only once when I went to Minneapolis for the 2003 Fallcon Comic Book convention. He spoke fast and had a ton of great ideas. Honestly, he’s too good for web comics.
If you’ve kept up with him at all, you’ll know that he has a great blog site called Eat My Words and has also been busy “living the dream” writing and directing his own independent pictures. I got a copy of one of his shorts that he gave me in 2003. It’s one of my favorite little mementos from my time in web comics.
There was a rumor going around that Carrington would bring back Movie Punks if Nothing Nice to Say ever stepped back into the ring. Well, we all know that Mitch Clem is back full-force, so people are still waiting for Carrington to emerge again. He once posted a blog saying he was flattered people remembered, but that he didn’t think it was going to happen. Who knows? Maybe this little guest comic will stir demand again and Carrington will bring Dexter and Seethe back to life!
We can only hope.
Three cheers to Carrington for helping me bring a great close to these last few weeks of guest strips. We’re going out with a bang!
Incidentally, if you want to see my (quasi) realistic rendition of Dexter and Seethe, just vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix and you will be rewarded with that sketch.
This coming Monday – May 2 – Theater Hopper will return with a brand new story arc and a brand new site design! I’ll also be opening a refurbished store with all your favorite t-shirt designs (plus some new designs) up for pre-sale. So if you missed out on the last round of Spoiler shirts, now is your chance to get one for summer.
When the comic come back, these last 3 weeks of guest strips will be taken out of the comic archive and placed into the Bonus Material section of the site. The blogs that accompanied them will be deleted. So on Monday, I plan on thanking all of the artists who submitted guest comics together so their names and links to their sites can be properly preserved in the news post archives.
Until then, thanks to everyone who helped me keep the store running while I took this break. You’ll never know how much I appreciated your contributions.
More on Monday. Everyone have a great weekend!
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I will be going to Wizard World Chicago August 4 -7. If you come looking for me, I’ll be in booth 9131-A – in between my good buddies Joe from Digital Pimp Online, Zach from Joe and Monkey and Mitch from Nothing Nice to Say. I’m really excited about this because I’ve joined forces with nearly a dozen other web comic creators and we’ve reserved a block of tables together on artist’s alley. It’s going to be great. And hopefully we’ll draw a little more attention to our online genre by showing strength in numbers.
However, my trip to The Windy City is now in jeopardy and I need your help.
As you are aware, Cami and I will be moving to our new home on Tuesday, July 12. Due to some unforeseen/unplanned for expenses relating to the closing costs and moving the moving of all our crap to our new home, pretty much all of the savings I’ve gathered from advertising and merchandise sales in the last year have to be diverted AWAY from the site and into the purchase of our new house.
There’s a chance that I can scrounge up the cash I need for Chicago on my own, but with your help, I can do it faster. I need your help because after we close on the house, I’m only going to have about two weeks to get the money together that I need to pay for the hotel room, gas and food for 3 days and 4 night. Sure it would be nice to have a little “walking around” money to spend on the convention floor. But at this point I’m more concerned with being able to foot the bill for the necessities. I’ve already made a commitment to going to Wizard World Chicago. Both to myself and to others. I’m not about to walk away from it now that I’m so close. I’m asking for your help so I can meet my goal.
I’M NOT LOOKING FOR HANDOUTS. If you want to donate, that’s cool. I will reward you appropriately for your generosity. In fact, there are odds that I will probably start doing portraits for donations again to help make ends meet. Look for updated information about that soon.
What I’m asking of you is to help support the site by purchasing a t-shirt, baby doll tee, hoodie, button pack or poster. These are things I already have in stock and am ready to ship out. These are already proven sellers. What I need is a concentrated influx of orders from you guys to help me recover my loss. You’ll be getting exactly what you paid for and helping me at the same time. In fact, you’ll be DOUBLY helping me. Because if I can thin out my inventory, that’s going to be less stuff we need to move! Don’t you feel better already.
If you’re feeling extra bold, purchasing some advertising would probably be the quickest way to ammend my situation. Feel free to place orders for spots out into the future. I have an ad tracking system that will keep everything organized and will make sure your ad displays on time. Those ad spots to the right of the comic up there have been kind of lonely for a while, now that I think about it… If you’re thinking about spending your advertising dollar with us, I think you’ll find our prices very fair.
If you’ve ever thought about purchasing a t-shirt, baby doll tee, hoodie, button pack or poster and have procrastinated for any reason, I’m asking you to PLEASE reconsider now. I would grately appreciate it and it would help get me out of a real tight spot. If you’re wondering what item might be best, the button packs are a good place to start. They’re already pre-packaged and easy to mail. I can get those out the door as soon as I get your order. Plus, they are very affordably priced, so you won’t feel the same financial sting that I’m feeling right now.
I feel a little bit of shame asking you guys to help pull this together for me. But as I’ve come to know you as an audience, you’ve been nothing if not patient and fair. Even if it’s not possible for you to contribute at this time, just the fact that you come to the site every Monday, Wednesday and Friday is enough to keep me going. As always, thank you for your continued support. It has been and will always be sincerely appreciated.
Related Posts ¬
Jun 25, 2004 | THE WEB SLINGER |
I mentioned this on Monday, but I’ve pulled the blog out of the archives.
In celebration of Rob and Elliot’s 100th strip, Clay Yount asked me to draw a guest strip for him. I was only more than happy to oblige.
I get a real kick out of reading Rob and Elliot. It’s a fairly pedestrian set up executed with sublime talent. It was a real treat to play in their sandbox for a while.
Anyway, the strip is up and running if you want to take a look at it.
By the by – It’s also worth noting that Joe and Monkey recently celebrated their 300th strip and that is an accomplishment worthy of recognition.
Zach Miller busts his hump 7 DAYS A WEEK to bring you guys the funny and he’s doing a damn fine job of it. Reward him with your traffic. Go on. Reward him.
Need extra motivation? Zach just celebrated the big 2-4. So click through to his site as a little birthday present, will you?
GUEST STRIP – PHIL KAHN
July 14th, 2005 | by Tom- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(7 votes, average: 3.57 out of 10)
Although I was a little concerned with the direction the punchline might take after the mention of a “bigger Thing” in panel 3, I thought this guest strip from Phil “Insert Obligatory Shatner-esque Scream Here” Kahn did a bang up job writing dialogue that sounds fairly close to how I typically dismiss lousy movies.
Phil actually has his own web comic. But, honoring his wishes, I’m not going to tell you what it’s called! Instead, Phil has asked me to refer you to Biscuit Press – the web comic collective of which he is a member. There are five great comics there for you to check out and Phil’s is one of them. How’s ∗that∗ for solidarity!
Thanks again Phil for the great comic!
Bonus points to Ali Graham for delivering a rockin’ guest strip. Any comic that has fun with Jared’s well-document hatred of all things related to Ben Affleck warms my heart. The good lad has been paying attention to the comic!
Unless you live under a rock that doesn’t get the internet, Ali is the fevered mind behind the web comic HOUSD. Ali has been consistently knocking out great work since March of 2003 and has a jaw-dropping 750+ comics in his archive.
Ali’s really upped his profile lately, churning out not one, but TWO great guest strips for my friend Zach over at Joe and Monkey back to back! So I feel pretty honored that Ali could squeeze me in! 😉
Thanks again, Ali!
GUEST STRIP – DAN BEESTON
July 16th, 2005 | by Tom- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(6 votes, average: 5.67 out of 10)
I try to think that if this was a comic I would have written, I probably would have stopped at the domestic punchline of Cami ripping Tom out of his fantasy world to do some mundane chore and leave it at that. But Dan added the cherry to the Sunday when he included Truman (on leash!) in silhouette soaring high above Gotham City. Well played, good sir! I especially like the coloring. Kind of looks like watercolor, doesn’t it?
Dan has a regular web comic gig called Invisible Spiders, but he asked me to take a moment to tell you about his new project called Genesis 2. I said “Sure, Dan! Anything for a friend!”
…’cuz that’s how ∗I∗ roll.
Thanks again, Dan!
GUEST STRIP – KRISHNA SADASIVAM
July 17th, 2005 | by Tom- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 10)
You might be curious about the squat, jaundiced man sitting next to Jared in today’s guest strip. Don’t worry, I was slightly thrown for a loop as well.
Our new rotund friend is Bob, star of Krishna Sadasivam’s PC Weenies. After receiving this comic, I went out to check out Krishna’s work and it’s great. Top-notch nerd humor. I.T. guys are going to get a real kick out of it.
What I really like about this strip is how true to life it is. I could finish a full lunch – a giant hamburger cooked medium well, juices running down my chin, a side order of fries, a tall soda… and if I take one step into a movie theater not 10 minutes later, I’ll be like “Ooo! Kettle Corn! Gotta get a bag of that!”
Thanks again for the great strip, Krishna!