Posts Tagged ‘Nick’
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Today’s strip features the introduction of a new character. Everyone, say hello to Nick! Now play nice.
Let’s not confuse Nick with our other theater employee Jimmy. Nick happens to be based on a real person. He’s a college buddy of mine – one of my best friends. So don’t start lumping him in with the fictitious characters because he wears a bow tie and vest.
Besides, I plan on featuring Nick in strips outside of a theater setting.
Nick lives in Minneapolis just like some people I know and he actually works in a theater. He’s a projectionist at the movie theater at the Mall of America. I draw Nick with a bored expression because he’s about 20 times too smart for this job. He’s a recent college grad just getting his start, so if anyone has use for an awesome writer in the Minneapolis area, let me know and I’ll pass along the message to him.
The more astute readers out there might have picked up on the hint of Comic Book Guy I injected into the character in panel three. This is wholely intention as I feared I hadn’t made a Simpsons reference on the site in a while. Plus, it seemed to make narrative sense.
I was going to make mention of the season premier of the Las Vegas Real World that debuted last night, but it’s a waste of effort and I’d rather leave room for Jared’s blog.
In the meantime, everyone should be listening to Tomahawk if they aren’t already. Mike Patton is illest!
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Today’s strip is special in that “stripped down” kind of way. Lately, I’ve been posing my characters with one standing and talking while the other sits on the couch. I just recently noticed I was doing this in the last three strips and thought we could use a change. I guess you could call it my “Lay-Z-Boy” period.
Anyway, whenever the art tends to suffer, I at least try to compensate by coming up with a good idea. Or at least a lot of words in an attempt to confuse you.
Today’s strip is directed at all the morons who complain about all the “May/December” match-ups movie producers assemble in their romantic comedies/dramas/dramadies.
The most recent complaint I can recall is when they stuck Richard Gere and Winona Ryder together for Autumn in New York. But Winona dies at the end, so I don’t know what they were complaining about.
Either way, these older man/younger woman parings are nothing new in Hollywood. As I illustrated in a most clever fashion today, it’s been going on since at least the 1940’s. Does that make it right? Probably not. In fact, I’m one-hundred percent sure that it’s pretty much a shameful anti-woman policy because what it ends up doing is sending the message that you are no longer romantically bankable past the age of 40. We need someone younger to fill your role. It’s pretty disgusting if you ask me.
But, if anything, the movie industry thrives on one thing – repetition. What worked once in the past must surely work again two, three or a thousand times if we limit the options of the movie-going public. Most producers wouldn’t know an original idea if it made lunch reservations with them at Spago.
:: switching gears ::
I was hoping to hold this strip off until this Friday because my good friend Nick was going to have a review of A Guy Thing that I could tie in with it. But as it turns out, this was the only idea I had at the time, so I ran with it.
Speaking of Nick, you may have noticed he is co-starring in todays strip. He’s appeared in a maybe two other strips and I thought it was a damn shame I was using the red-headed kid who worked at the theater instead of an actual real life friend. So anyway, I threw Nick into the mix to throw down some awesome science.
I figured it was appropriate Nick come barreling in with some heavy facts because the kid is sharper than a tack. If you want the proof, you should probably read the essay he wrote for us regarding independent theaters. It’s a howl.
Read on, true believer!
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I’m sticking my neck out on today’s strip. If you’re not familiar with the annoying ad campaign for AFLAC, you’re S.O.L.
For those not in the loop, the ads feature a duck voiced by Gilbert Godfried is attempting to extol the virtues of supplement insurance to clueless humans by screaming the name of the company at full volume. Typically, these individuals are sitting on park benches, oblivious to the helpful tips of this thoughtful water foul. Instead, they dismiss his quacking like so much noise.
Anyway, it’s a long way around for a joke, but I figured AFLAC = Affleck — what’s the difference? If all else fails, you’ve got a duck calling me a jackass. You don’t see that everyday.
I went to see How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days with Cami last night. It was my penance for dragging her to see Daredevil. How this system works, I don’t know. She was asleep during Daredevil for at least 30 minutes. Hey, I didn’t fall asleep during Maid in Manhattan!
There was too much to make fun of! 🙂
But I digress. How to Lose A Guy was actually much better than I expected. A lot of my other guy friends were dragged kicking and screaming and came back reporting it wasn’t that bad. I thought they were full of it. Now I am a member of their chorus.
The film is loaded with standard romantic-comedy cliches, but you don’t really mind because the execution isn’t insulting to the audience. Clearly it presents a stylized version of New York where things are glossy and fabulous and there are about 3 black people in the entire city, but what are you going to do?
Dialogue is really the strong point in this movie. All of the characters are intelligent and well-spoken. Sliver-tongued, they string together sentences confidently and sincerely. It’s a refreshing twist on some of the leaden garbage that passes for prose these days.
Watching How to Lose A Guy reminded me of how good an actress Kate Hudson really is. Remarkable for her age, she’s already surpassed her mother, Goldie Hawn, in terms of pure, radiating talent. I gotta go back and watch Almost Famous for a second helping.
Matthew McConaughey wasn’t half bad, either. He can’t act his way out of a paper bag if things get too complicated, but when the writers get out of his way and allow him to work his charm, he is entertaining to watch.
I’ve finally decided to end the “What Would You Buy” survey. The results were about what I expected. The majority of you – over 1/3 of the 300 who replied said they would like to donate, but didn’t have money. The next closest contender was a t-shirt with 17% of the vote.
I would like to make t-shirts, but I’m kind of on the fence about it. I have a lot of concerns about quality. Sure, I could slap a logo on a t-shirt sold from CafePress, but we all know those shirts are second-rate crap and will start fading after three washes,
Brunetto Shirts, on the other hand, are high quality silk screened tees that will stand the test of time. The down side, is that I need 40 pre-orders from you guys before I can put in my work order to Brunetto.
Unless there are people flooding my inbox clamoring for them, I think for now, I’m going to shelf the idea of doing any merchandising. I may do some stickers down the road. Wallpaper sounds nice. I just need something equivalent to dipping my toe in the water. Something where I don’t have to put a bunch of money up front.
In the meantime, the poll has changed to “Which Film Will Win Best Picture?” It’s pretty self explanatory.
Last thing I’ll mention: Checking my referral logs through my counter, I noticed I was given a brief mention over at Briworld. I don’t know how many people are tuned in to this web comic, but it’s high time more people know about it.
I love the art style of the characters and if I could get the crew of Theater Hopper to look more like them, I would. Check out Briworld. It’s a real treat.
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For those of you who are confused by the appearance of the dude in the blue shirt up above, don’t freak out. He’s not some random dude I just stuck in there for kicks.
That’s my good friend Nick! He’s appeared in a couple of other strips in the past, but I use him sparingly because, y’know… he lives in Minnesota.
But, yeah. Comb through the archives for more Nick-tacular action.
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Last weekend was nothing short of a movie-watching frenzy for my wife and me. On Friday, we saw School of Rock which she kept calling School House Rock. However you’d like to refer to it, it was good. It’s refreshing to know that Richard Linklater can make another fun movie after such heady fare as Waking Life. Not that I didn’t like that movie, it’s just that I get migraines whenever I think about it.
On Saturday, we saw Intolerable Cruelty. Although I liked it, I stopped thinking about it by the time I got home. The movie was full of close-ups of George Clooney and Catherine Zeta Jones. Their beauty only reminded us in the audience how unattractive we really are, except my wife; she’s hot.
Saturday nights are meant for parties, bar mitzvahs, and discos. So of course it would make sense that we watched Philadelphia. The movie was an early birthday gift from my mother-in-law. I’m not exactly sure what it is about me that made her think of Philadelphia, but it was a very sweet gesture and she’s one of the sweetest people I know. The movie made me want to buy those action figures that they advertised on SNL. Where can I get those?
And yesterday we saw Kill Bill. Tom’s description did it justice so I won’t go into it. I just want to say that I’m glad Erin, the love of my life, is cool enough to see that movie with me. Not only that, she didn’t want to leave in the middle, when the going got bloody, like the female half of the couple next to us did. Yes, I picked a good one.
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