Most kids grow up totally enamored by the concept of robots. Not Tom. He’s convinced they’re out to destroy us. His mind has been poisoned by one too many bad sci-fi movies.

I was trying to think of some other kids movies with cuddly robots, but the first that came to mind were Short Circuit and The Iron Giant. Both do a very good job of depicting the lead… appliances – as relatable, gentle characters. Then it’s ultimately revealed that both of their existences were to be an unstoppable killing machine and that whole notion of “A robot you can trust!” gets thrown out the window.

I’m sure I’m forgetting literally DOZENS of other movies where the robots are helpful, but it seems to me the scales tip in favor of my “CRUSH PUNY HU-MANS!” theory. I’m sure Red Robot would probably agree.

I was kind of bummed to see that Theater Hopper dropped a couple of spots over at buzzComix. We were at number two for a while, now we’re down to number 5. I can’t begrudge getting beat out by Alien Loves Predator, but it would be cool if we could place a little higher on the list.

If you vote for Theater Hopper, remember that you get to see an exclusive incentive sketch! I really liked the way today’s turned out. It’s kind of violent, but it’s all in good fun. Check it out!

Regarding the movie Robots, I have to admit – I’m not that excited to see it. I think it’s Robin Williams that’s keeping me away. The way the trailers are cut, you’re lead to believe it’ll be 90 minutes of Robin Williams screaming the whole time.

Hey, I saw Aladdin back in 1992 and when he played The Genie, it was really clever. Why do the same thing twice? You’re not going to top it. The fact that his character is named “Fender” only serves to remind me of Futurama’s “Bender”. And when I start thinking about Bender, I start thinking about how much MORE I would rather be watching that.

Seriously, if my arm got sliced off during an episode of Futurama, I would wait to go to the hospital until the show was over first. I don’t care if I’ve seen it a dozen times.

When I learned Ewan McGregor was the lead voice actor in the movie, I was forced to take pause and re-assess my opinion of him. I mean, I’m sure he did it for his kids, but an actor of his talents couldn’t have held out a little longer for Pixar?

Maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. After all, this is the same man who acted out FULL SCENES against a nonexistent, digital Stephen Fetchit.

The only reason I would go to see Robots is because a good friend of the site (and creator of current advertised site Silent Kimbly) Ryan Sias had a hand in creating it. Apparently he wrote a few jokes for the movie, which he has detailed on his site. So, if for some reason the dogs are unable to keep you away from Robots this weekend, visit Ryan’s site first and become familiar with the scenes he describes. When the flash across the screen, you can show “I KNOW THE GUY WHO WROTE THAT JOKE!” I know it would make Ryan happy.

Something that’s made ME really happy is reserving my hotel room for the Kansas City Planet Comicon comic book convention on April 2 and 3. I made it official today. No backing out now!

Of course, why would I want to back out when I’m sharing a booth with my good buddies Zach and Mitch? We’ll all be crammed together at one table promoting Theater Hopper, Joe and Monkey and Nothing Nice to Say, respectively. I’m really looking forward to it.

Something fun that you guys might not know, but real-life Jared is also coming with me on this trip. He’ll be taking footage of our journey in hopes that we can compile it along with footage we plan to take at other conventions throughout the year for A DOCUMENTARY we’re making! Pretty exciting, huh? We’re taking footage from Planet Comicon as well as Wizard World Chicago in August and the Minneapolis FallCon in October. We hope to have the documentary edited and on DVD by Christmas. If you stop by our booth in Kansas City or our other two stops, there’s a good chance you’ll be in the movie! Something to look forward to!

By the way, did you know that Jerry over at Secret of Mana Theater was trying to organize a blockade of web comics in Artist Alley for Wizard World Chicago? Yeah, he’s thinking that we can all request to sit by each other when we submit our forms so that way we can present a unified front! I think it’s a great idea – a real show of solidarity. Plus, I think it will send the message home that we’re ONLINE comics, not print comics. Which, admittedly, people aren’t expecting when they go to one of these things. I remember last year telling people the comic was online and they were like, “Really? Wow, man! That’s wild!” It’s humbling to be confronted with the fact that our medium is still relatively young.

Anyway, that about does it for now. I hope all of you have a great weekend! Support Ryan Sias – Go see Robots!