How happy are you that I’m not doing another comic about the Ten Commandments of Movie Watching? I received positive feedback on the 3-part arc, don’t get me wrong. But after a while it’s like that “knock-knock” joke that goes on forever and ends with the person asking “Aren’t you glad I didn’t say ‘Orange’ again?” Regardless, I hope you’re enjoying today’s bonus comic.
I’m really looking forward to Kill Bill Vol. 2, but I have to admit it kind of snuck up on me. While Cami and I were away in Las Vegas, they started running the television ads for the flick. We’d be sitting in seedy casino bars and one would flash on screen. “Holy crap! Is that coming out next week already?” I would ask myself. And then a drunk transvestite would try to hit on me.
But I kid. I think it’s going to be a great movie. It already has a TON of advance buzz – all of it positive. I mean, c’mon! Was there anyone who saw Vol. 1 who DOESN’T want to know how this thing ends?
In random web comic news, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has returned to a regular update schedule. Zach’s comic was one of the very first I read outside of the big names like Penny Arcade and PVP. I always got a kick out of his sense of humor. Check it out and tell ‘im I sentcha!
Oh, did you know we’re taking pre-orders for shirts? Maybe you want to put your money down so you’re not running through the streets naked. Cover up, man!
I was up late Sunday night working on today’s comic and right now I’m at home watching Henry as he’s now going to day care three times a week.
As such, I’m going to need a little bit of sleep before I dive into the blog post that will accompany this strip. I have a couple of important things to talk about and I want to be sure I have my ducks in a row mentally before I proceed.
You can expect an update to the site in the afternoon while Henry is down for his nap and I can dedicate a little concentration to what I need to say.
In the meantime, please enjoy this interview of Shia LaBeouf from last Friday’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Apparently, Shia was being paid each time he used the word “outrageous” because I counted 6 times his vocabulary made employ of the word.
Then again, I probably shouldn’t be surprised considering how fond he is of repeating certain words.
Enjoy. It’s outrageous!
First I just want to say thanks to everyone who wrote a comment or sent an e-mail expressing support or concern after I shared the story of my hand injury last week. I’ve always maintained that Theater Hopper fans are some of the most courteous, supportive and understanding fans in all webcomics and your words encouraged me to get back on the horse that much faster.
That said, a few of you were teasing me a little bit when it came to my hand injury being similar to that of Shia LaBeouf’s while he was filming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. A bit of karma played against me for giving the actor such a hard time in the past.
It’s cool, it’s cool. While my injury was nowhere near as serious as LaBeouf’s, turnabout is fair play, I suppose. I gotta give LaBeouf credit, though. He showed up for work with his injury. I don’t know if I would have done the same.
Then again, if a $200 million action sequel were resting on my shoulders and Michael Bay could provide a kevlar cast that looked like skin, I’d probably find the proper motivation to go back to work.
A few of you suggested that I write my injury into the comic. While I recognized that it would be therapeutic to do so, I wasn’t sure how to go about doing it. Then I got an e-mail from one CP Newcombe who gave me a nugget of a great idea. Immediately upon reading it, I could think of at least five different directions to take the storyline. So you have CP to thank for this next little story arc that not only bring Shia LaBeouf back into the Theater Hopper, but another long-lost character once thought dead. Who could it be? You have to wait to find out!
I things that are not hand-related, Cami and I saw Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince over the weekend. Cami didn’t like it because she felt the film took too many liberties with the book and was hard to follow. She recognizes that certain changes had to be made to adapt the book to the screen, but was ultimately disappointing.
I, on the other hand, was perfectly happy with the movie and I attribute much of that to the fact that I’ve never read a single Harry Potter book.
I tried reading the first book before the first movie came out, but I found Rowling’s use of language too impenetrable and annoying to bother to continue. It’s all the made up words. They distracted me.
So, as a result, my exposure to Harry Potter has occurred exclusively in the domain of film. Aside from the fourth movie (which I thought was horrid), I’ve enjoyed them all so far.
I suppose now that I’ve had some time to get away from the movie a little bit, there were some things about The Half-Blood Prince that bothered me. Certain revelations that should have a large impact simply don’t shock the way they should and there’s a little too much hemming and hawing over the multiple romantic subplots to keep the tension going.
Something I’ve noticed about the last few films is that their visual tone has become darker and darker, but the plot elements don’t always match up to this. Things should be getting deadlier and more serious for Harry, but the films seem to force this balance with the light stuff which then feels out of place.
I know Joe had some pretty strong opinions on the movie, so I’m sure we’ll debate these issues and more on tonight’s episode of The Triple Feature. I strongly encourage you to listen live at 9:00 PM CST. You can participate in the chat field with the other listeners and we always have a lot of fun. Plus, you get to the listen to the behind-the-scenes stuff before and after we record the show. I’ve been told by some it’s the sole reason they listen to the live broadcast.
Hope you can fit us in tonight and that everyone has a great week. Thanks again for all your support and I’ll talk to you soon!
A couple of people expressed interest in seeing a photo of my stitches. So, while changing the dressing on my hand last night, I snapped a shot and posted it from my Twitter account.
It’s not for the faint of heart, so I’m not posting the image here in the blog. But if you follow this link, you can see the damage I did to myself.
Enjoy?
To me this comic is funny not because Jared doubts Tom’s story about being assaulted by an anthropomorphic piece of audio/visual equipment. Instead he finds the story questionable because Tom’s injuries are not consistent with the length of his beating.
Hate to spell it out for you, but it makes me smile.
I’m coming to a close on this little story line, so I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Not much for me to talk about except that Cami and I saw neither Moon OR Food, Inc. Saturday night as my parents had Henry stay over at their place. Neither of us could muster up the enthusiasm for Food, Inc. and we missed the only showing of Moon that evening before we left my parents house.
Instead we watched my review copy of I Love You, Man on Blu-ray. I’ll be reviewing it for the site and you can expect to find it here tomorrow. I’ll be sure to remind you on Twitter in case you forget.
I’m sure my lack of commitment to new movies will get me in trouble with Joe and Gordon tonight during our recording of The Triple Feature at 9:00 PM CST, but we’re probably going to talk about 500 Days of Summer, which isn’t even in wide release here until Friday. So what can you do?
I’m kind of annoyed because both 500 Days of Summer AND Funny People come out here on Friday and I can’t see either of them because Cami will be out of town with her Mom and Sister celebrating my Mother-in-Law’s birthday. I guess I’ll have to get caught up in the week before the Chicago Comic Con.
If you’re looking for something to do between now and The Triple Feature at 9:00 PM CST, I encourage you to swing over to my good friend Zach Miller’s web comic which you might remember is called Joe and Monkey.
I’ve been talking to Zach lately and he’s been drawing panels like a fiend preparing for JaM’s return. If I’m not mistaken, he’s already several weeks ahead and plans on updating every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the foreseeable future.
It brings me great joy to make this announcement because I am constantly being approached by Zach’s fans about when he is going to bring Joe and Monkey back. Zach and I are friends and speak on a semi-regular basis, but I’m usually as much in the dark about this subject as the rest of you. So I always feel like I’m disappointing the person asking the question when I can’t give them a definitive answer.
But Zach is back on the horse and updating again. So be sure to swing by Joe and Monkey to see what he’s up to.
Incidentally, Zach and I will be sharing a table on Artist’s Alley at Chicago Comic Con August 6 – 9. You can find us at table #3414. If you plan on attending the show, it would mean a great deal to both of us if you came by and said “hello.” We are both very friendly and will likely chat your ear off.
Cheers!
I knew at some point I wanted Tom’s fantastic story to be uncovered as a lie. In terms of bringing David “back,” it was really the best of both worlds. I got to dust off an old character without actually keeping him in continuity.
It was also a great way to cover any gaps in logic there might be. People asked pretty early on how Shia could possibly mistake Tom for Jared when they’ve never even met. Frankly, I never thought that was something that would come up. I should have my characters lie more often! It’s the perfect catch-all solution!
I realize that the punchline to today’s comic is kind of “hur-hur,” but the great thing about it is that it was something literally said by real-life Jared after I posted to my Facebook page about my adventures in the ER. At the time, I kind of groaned at the pun. But now I appreciate it for what it is. Thanks, good buddy!
Not much else for me to talk about today except if you’re trying to find Monday’s recording of The Triple Feature, we had to scrap the show. Joe had to back out for personal reasons and that left us at a disadvantage. Joe and Gordon were going to talk about 500 Days of Summer but I haven’t seen it yet because it doesn’t come out in theaters here until Friday. No offense to Gordon, but it would be kind of a boring show if he was the only one talking about the movie (and I think he’d be the first to agree with me on that point.)
The other thing I’ll mention is that my good friend Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey found the floor map for Chicago Comic Con so now you’ll know where to find us on Artist Alley. Zach and I will be sharing table #3414 and we’ll be standing right next to our friend Joe Dunn and the rest of the Digital Pimp Crew at table #3416.
If you’d like to view the map, you can do so here.
Chicago Comic Con is being held at the Rosemont Convention Center in Rosemont, IL August 6 – 9. If you’re in the area, please stop by our booth. It would be a thrill to meet you and I’m giving out free buttons!
Until then, stay frosty!
I kind of got more than I bargained for with this little arc about my hand injury, Tom’s grand lie and whatnot. I really didn’t expect it to last two weeks, but I’m very satisfied with the conclusion. I hope you are, too.
Incidentally, if the last panel of today’s comic looks a little familiar, that was intentional. I parodied my own work – Jared’s first encounter with Shia LaBeouf – which you can find here. Ah, memories… Memories and poorly drawn caricatures of Harrison Ford.
Not much else to mention today. Cami is going out of town this weekend with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law so I’m on full-time Henry duty starting today. I’m trying to think of things we can do that will keep him away from television. He’s become very demanding as of late. His hunger for Wow Wow Wubzy and Go, Diego Go know no bounds.
Depending on the weather we might hit up a local wading pool or maybe the zoo. But if it’s not warm enough or if it rains, we’ll be trapped in the house. I don’t know if I have enough Play-Doh to last us the entire weekend.
From a movie standpoint, it’s kind of bad timing that Cami is leaving town. 500 Days of Summer, The Hurt Locker and Funny People all open here today. I don’t know if we’ll have any time to see them together before I leave for Chicago Comic Con on Thursday.
G.I. Joe opens August 7 and will probably be the movie Zach, Gordon, the Digital Pimp crew and I end up seeing (as is our annual tradition). So I don’t know when I’m going to get caught up on the others.
Oh, well. More important things to worry about at the moment. Now where did I leave that Play-Doh?…
Have a great weekend, everyone!