Posts Tagged ‘irony’
8 items.
Dec08
[The blog for this post was lost when the site was transferred to WordPress in January 2009 – Tom]
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Someone else is going to have to tell me what the hell is going on with my BuzzComix “vote for me” incentive sketch because I sure as hell can’t recall what was going through my mind as I drew it.
I suppose the same could be said about today’s comic. I don’t expect any of you to be up-to-date on the movie trailers and advertisements for kids films, but honest to God, there is a clip in the trailer for Agent Cody Banks: Destination London where we learn that Beanie Babies were developed by the CIA. At this point, a Beanie Baby dressed in a camouflage uniform lunges for some dude’s throat. It’s not a great joke to begin with, so it stands to reason the best I could come with was a lame pun to parody it with.
Is it just me, or has this been a pretty dull March for movies? There is absolutely nothing new in theaters that I want to see. What do people do when they aren’t watching movies? Read books? Talk to their family members?
Good news on the home front. It looks like Cami won’t be leaving for the Mega Mall on Saturday after all. She’s leaving Sunday and taking a day off on Monday. I recognize that’s an odd schedule to arrange, but I’m happy because Cami and I will have at least half of the weekend together. Now none of you need worry about me watching Schindler’s List alone in the dark, slitting my wrists afterward.
“But Tom! What about Sunday?” you may ask. Well, Amazon just delivered the third season of Futurama to my doorstep this week, so I will likely spend the Sabbath wallowing in its four-disc glory.
Keep checking the site today. I have a couple more messages I’m too lazy to type in at the moment.
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Oct08
This isn’t the first time I’ve used to comic to explored the metaphysical. I never really understand my own motivations with these strips or what I hope to accomplish. But it’s a cartoon, y’know? It’s fun to play around in the sandbox sometimes. Frankly, I could see myself doing another strip set beyond the event horizon of irony – if for no other reason than to have an opportunity to use that phrase again.
As for the news that Warner Bros. is fast-tracking Lethal Weapon 5? I’m not sure what to think about it. I never really enjoyed the franchise even though it pretty much invented the modern buddy cop movie and, shamefully, I’ve seen all for of them. Certainly Mel Gibson could use a hit. And why not play into the dangerous, screw-loose persona of Martin Riggs one more time? It dovetails perfectly into Gibson’s off-screen antics in recent years. I mean, need I remind you of this?
But what about Danny Glover? The dude is, like, 62 years old. It was always a running gag in the movies that Glover was heading toward retirement and was getting "Too old for this…" Well, you know the line. It was funny up to a certain point. But 10 years after Lethal Weapon 4, it just looks sad.
The only interesting detail about this news is that Shane Black is supposedly writing the screenplay. If you don’t know Shane Black, he’s the guy who wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – a Robert Downey Jr. vehicle that was cool before RDJ won back audience love with Iron Man.
At any rate, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a really sharp and funny movie that I highly suggest you check out. Personally, I thought it was a great post-modern twist on the buddy cop template that Lethal Weapon was responsible for. Really, what Shane himself was responsible for. Because he wrote the original Lethal Weapon as well. Actually… he pretty much worked on all of them.
OKAY! So you can take that one of two ways. Either Shane Black is a one-trick pony or you can be really excited that they are maintaining the integrity of the franchise. For me… I kind of felt like he said everything he needed to say with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That would have been the way to go out.
But what do I know? The movie isn’t written, yet. It’s not filming. It’s just another franchise Hollywood is looking to reboot because they have literally choked the life out of original film making and want a proven hit. Can you honestly say you wouldn’t see Lethal Weapon 5 when it comes out in theaters? Well, okay. Some of you could probably say that. But, at some point you’ll see it. On DVD or cable. You’ll see it.
AND THEN THEY’VE GOT YOU!
That’s it for me. We’re half-way through the week, folks! Make it a good one!
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Oct10
I know this comic has nothing at all to do with movies and for that I apologize. Well, not really. Because I’m really happy with the way this one turned out.
I feel like I kind of keyed into something with the idea of Tom and Jared breaching reality – or at least what passes for reality in a cartoon universe – and ideas just seemed to spring up from that.
I mean, if you’re familiar with the concept of the Event Horizon (or at least saw that crappy movie starring Sam Neill that shares the same name), then you’re pretty much familiar with the idea that anything could happen if you ever manage to make it to the other side. Once I started playing around with that, I had this flash where maybe Tom and Jared met their alternate-reality female doppelgangers. Because, in my mind, it made sense that if Tom and Jared from this reality were able to breach the event horizon of irony, their female counterparts from another dimension – mirroring their actions in every way (minus the Y chromosome) would have breached it as well.
It’s science.
At any rate, once you get the notion to draw your characters as women there’s no way you can turn away from it. And this is where we ended up!
So I hope you enjoyed the comic because, truthfully, I’ve got nothing else for you right now. I don’t really have my eye to the movies this weekend because there’s nothing new I want to see. Body of Lies – the title makes it sound like a movie Maddona made in the early 90’s – looks to be the big draw this weekend (although I’ve heard it’s not good and probably won’t make back it $90 million + budget).
I don’t know what’s going on with Russell Crowe lately, but there have been very few movies I’ve wanted to see him in recently despite how much I enjoy his performances. I thought he was good in 3:10 to Yuma. I saw him in American Gangster (although that really wasn’t his film and the story cheated us the big showdown between his character and Densel Washington’s character.) I feel like I have to face facts that the guy who was 100% intensity from L.A. Confidential is gone, replaced with something… doughier.
Interestingly enough, I feel the same way about Kevin Spacey. I much prefer the Kevin Spacey of L.A. Confidential, than, say the Kevin Spacey of The Life of David Gale. Kind of random, but there you have it.
Anyway, Cami and I won’t be around this weekend for movies anyway. We’re seeing Jim Gaffigan in Omaha on Saturday. I guess tickets were in such high demand, he added a second show that night. Meanwhile NOBODY EVER COMES TO IOWA! Ugh. Frustrating.
We’re really looking forward to the show, though. We’ve had these tickets since April, if you can believe it.
Alright! Closing up shop for the week! Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend! See you here again on Monday!
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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!
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This has nothing to do with the comic. But it’s a funny little story related to my hand injury that just popped into my head that I thought you would enjoy.
This took place last Thursday, the day after my visit to the ER. I wasn’t doing much of anything that day except sitting around with an ice pack on my hand, admonishing myself, going “Owie, owie, owie, you stupid muther…”
At some point in the afternoon, there was a knock on my door. I went upstairs to see who it was and it was a solicitor.
A clean-shaven middle-aged man with a handful of pictures informed me that he was going door-to-door asking home owners if they would appreciate his business painting their house numbers on the curb in front of their homes.
“Perhaps you’re familiar with our work,” he asked, as he flashed a series of photographs in front of me. Most of the photographs were of plain house numbers. But some of them were also adorned with the logos of popular sports teams. A Chicago Cubs logo here, a Kansas City Chiefs logo there.
“No, I’m afraid I’m not familiar with your work,” I said.
“You know, the real reason you want to get your numbers painted on the curb,” the man said as he continued his pitch, “is because they’re much more visible to emergency vehicles. These emergency vehicles can’t see the house numbers when they’re so far away from the street.”
“That’s funny,” I said, holding up my bandaged left hand, “because we actually had a little situation here yesterday that required a visit from an emergency vehicle and they seemed to find the house just fine!”
“Uh? Oh! Oh my,” the man stuttered.
“I’m not trying to give you a hard time,” I said. “I understand what you’re doing. But I don’t think we’ll be in need of your services.”
We wished each other well and the man went on his way.
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Although Cami didn’t actually see Dear John this weekend, we had a conversation about it when I told her that the film had unseated Avatar’s 7-week run atop the box office returns. The film raked in $30 million against Avatar’s $22 million haul.
Avatar’s downfall had to happen eventually, but a $30 million opening weekend for a romantic drama seems beyond the pale. Certainly some counter-programming against the Super Bowl played its part. But when I discussed the film with Cami, she felt that the film was probably buoyed by fans of Nicholas Sparks’s book from which the film was adapted. Sparks also wrote The Notebook and, well, ladies LOVE The Notebook.
“Do you think Channing Tatum had anything to do with the box office,” I asked Cami.
“That lunkhead? Uh, no,” she replied.
This was the jumping off point for today’s comic as we discussed how ridiculous and fake Channing Tatum’s name sounds. It should be noted that Cami suggested a play on words and write a punch line that somehow involved Carol Channing.
Honey, I love you. But that was never going to happen.
I mean I never want to underestimate your intelligence and assume you guys aren’t going to understand certain references. But Carol Channing? I have to draw the line somewhere.
That said, I’m pleased that Cami finds Channing Tatum as weird as I do. Not just the name, but his whole on-screen persona. Or, rather, NON persona. To us, Tatum is pure tapioca. The guy looks like he’s sleepwalking through every performance. At this point, I don’t know if his eyes being half-lidded all the time is an acting choice or a genetic anomaly. But even in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra from last summer, he looked bored. He’s firing semi-automatic weapons, running away from explosions and he looks bored.
To me, Tatum is like a jock that somehow wandered onto a movie set and someone said “HIM! Put HIM in front of the camera! He’ll do!”
I’m curious if any of you guys saw Dear John this weekend. Was it any good? How does it compare to The Notebook? Because as schmaltzy as The Notebook is at times, you’d have to be soul-dead not to be drawn in by that ending. Can Dear John hope to hold a candle to it? Any thoughts about the bland appeal of Channing Tatum?
BTW – Bonus points if you can guess the movie I’m referencing with the title of today’s strip.
Leave your comments below!
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Oh my goodness! Two comics in a week? THE PROPHECY IS COMING TRUE!
As promised, here’s this week’s second comic. The goal is to publish one more this week – and it’s an important one because it will be the LAST APPEARANCE of Charlie and Jimmy. Get your tissues ready, true believers. It’s gonna be a weeper!
Originally, there wasn’t going to be much of a punchline to this comic. As I conceived it, the passage of time and the parking lot getting darker was going to be the joke. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought how thirsty Tom was probably getting as he meticulously poured out the contents of a giant beverage. So I’m glad I took the extra 43 seconds to think it through. I believe the comic is better for it.
Not much else to tell at this time except to expect a third comic this week and hopefully two next week. My birthday is this Friday and that kicks off a five-day stretch of social commitments (I also think there’s some kind of holiday in there?) But one of the comics is Christmas themed, so I’d really like that to go live next Tuesday.
For the moment, it looks like the very last Theater Hopper comic will land smack-dab on Monday, December 31.
Thanks again for checking in on these last few comics as I scramble toward the finish line. I’ve you’d like to share it with your friends on your Facebooks or ya’ Twittahz, that would be cool.
Take it easy. See you in a couple of days!
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