Posts Tagged ‘panic’
3 items.
The two movies Tom is referencing in today’s strip are Catch and Release (starring Jennifer Garner) and Smokin’ Aces (with Ben Affleck). Smokin’ Aces is really more of an ensemble piece, so I’m not sure it actually qualifies as a “Ben Affleck movie.” More like a movie Ben Affleck happens to be in.
Does it surprise you that Catch and Release is the film I’m more excited about seeing? It surprised me. A few years ago, I would have been chomping at the bit for a film like Smokin’ Aces. Large cast full of actors I like, lots of mayhem. Looks like fun. But recently when I look at the commercials or the trailer, all I can think about it how it looks like a Pulp Fiction rip-off a decade warmed over.
Catch and Release, while still wearing the comfortable trappings of a traditional romantic comedy, looks much more interesting to me simply for the inclusion of Timothy Olyphant and Kevin Smith. I’ve been a fan of Olyphant since Doug Liman’s Go and I always found his quiet menace as Sherrif Seth Bullock on Deadwood. He’s not the conventional choice to play a romantic lead and I like that kind of twist in casting.
Of course, Kevin Smith as the wise-acre sidekick adds shading. It’s interesting to see him act in movie that aren’t his. So I’m curious to see how he performs when it’s someone else’s words coming out of his mouth.
Something interesting I learned about the production of Catch and Release is that Jennifer Garner was newly pregnant with Ben Affleck’s child (shudder) and was just starting to show a little. So apparently there are several scenes in the movie where Garner is either standing behind something or wearing baggy clothing to obscure her mid-section. Call it the Steven Segal technique.
I totally didn’t get the impression that Garner was pregnant during filming when looking at commercials, so I guess that’s movie magic at work. But now that I have this information in my back pocket, I’m going to be looking for it during the movie.
I don’t really have much for you today besides that. Real quick, though – does anyone have experience with RSS or, more specifically, Ryan North’s RSSpect application? I’m trying to get Theater Hopper running a little bit smoother on the feeds (in particular the LiveJournal RSS feed) so that the comic will appear with a portion of the blog.
My hope is that people who have friended TH in their LiveJournal accounts will read the comic, see a little bit of the blog and then be inspired to visit the site and read the rest. You know, make it less of a passive experience while still giving them what they want. Plus, I think there is value in people actually being able to SEE the comic in the feed rather than just a link. Who knows? They might end up visiting the site and leaving comments under the blogs! To that end, if you have comments of your own, you’d know I would love for you to share them. What movies are you excited about seeing this weekend? Am I wrong about Smokin’ Aces? Let me know!
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What was Tom thinking about? Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comic to view the incentive sketch that explains it all. Or none of it! You’ll have to click to find out!
By the way, great job with the voting, guys. We’re doing well on the charts. Almost 750 so far in January. I think that’s great for only updating once a week! Keep it up!
I apologize for the comic being late this week. I was laid low by a migraine Sunday night that made it kind of impossible to sit upright or, y’know… be exposed to light. I don’t often get migraines. Usually they’re brought on by stress. I would say last week was pretty stressful.
I’m doing better, though. I was having a hard time reconciling the decision to announce Theater Hopper’s conclusion in August. I even made a video about it. I posted it to the blog last week, but I know most of you probably missed it. I wanted to post it again just to kind of get it out of my system. Also because I think it has a message that is worth listening to, even if I did kind of stumble onto it at the end.
Keep in mind that the video was recorded the evening after I made the announcement, so everything is pretty much sitting right on the surface here.
But like I said, I’m doing much better now. Everyone has been amazingly supportive and understanding. I know that announcing the end this far out was absolutely the right decision to make.
I mean, if I was having this kind of difficulty a week ago, announcing the comic ending with no warning would have been much, much more upsetting. I’m positive it would have alienated fans and left a bad taste in my mouth personally – with the potential to ruin the last 10 years of my work. That’s not how I wanted to go out.
But, yeah. Moving forward. Now with another comic under my belt since making the announcement, it’s getting easier. I’m getting used to the idea and I’m excited about what’s coming next.
That said, I knew what this week’s comic was going to be about a week ago. I probably should have had it in the can earlier so I could have posted regardless of whether or not I had a migraine. But I’ve been working without a buffer for this long. It’s kind of hard to change my stripes now.
BY THE WAY… THE STORE
Now that we’re all on the same page with the comic ending in August, I have to undertake the unfortunate business of clearing out the Theater Hopper store. I need your help with this. Nothing is going to bum me out more than looking into a closet full of Theater Hopper merchandise 8 months from now and thinking “Dammit. Now what I am supposed to do with this stuff?”
That’s why I’ve gotten a little aggressive with the pricing. Right now you can buy two books and get one for free. That offer also extends to shirts – buy any two shirts and get one free.
It’s likely that most of you reading this have already bought a book or shirt for yourself in the past. But don’t let that stop you from taking advantage of these deals now. Buy a shirt for your little brother. Buy a book as a birthday gift for a movie-loving friend. Don’t be afraid that they won’t like it. I sell these things to people at comic book conventions who have never heard of webcomics, let alone Theater Hopper. Without fail, they come back the next day looking for more. You’re friends will love this it – and they’ll really appreciate that you bought them something unique.
In an effort to pick off the low-hanging fruit, I’m going to feature an individual item until I’m sold out of inventory. The first item in my sights is this t-shirt design, “Emerging.”
This was actually a design I created for Threadless a few years ago. It didn’t get picked up, but I liked it enough to produce it myself.
I literally have TWO of these shirts left – one XL and one 2XL. I’m selling them for a paltry $5.00. Two of you are going to pick them up. Bundle them with two more shirts and you’ll get this shirt for free! You can’t beat that.
C’mon. Who’s gonna help get the ball rolling?
I’m sorry to have to push the hard sell on you guys. But like I said, I don’t want August to come around and be confronted with a closet-full of unsold Theater Hopper merchandise. It’s too sad to contemplate. Help a buddy out. If you can’t make a purchase, at least use the little Facebook and Twitter buttons on the pages of the items you like and share them with your friends. Who knows – maybe they’ll take a look?
That’s all I have for now. More comics soon. And thanks again for all of your support!
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I had a lot of fun drawing the expression Tom made in the fourth panel of today’s comic, so I decided to see if I could push it father in today’s Top Web Comics incentive sketch. I believe this is what’s called in the comedy world as “pulling a face.” Check it out!
Sorry for the delay posting today’s comic. There was a bit of a kerfuffle involving the site’s server host. Apparently there was a potential security compromise and our host was forcing password resets on an incremental basis. I didn’t find out about it until after I tried to upload today’s comic! But things are back to normal now.
Considering Theater Hopper’s slow descent into oblivion this August, I had the idea that I should recognize certain mile makers along the way. That’s why Cecil showed up into today’s comic.
I never really took advantage of Cecil. I basically created him to give Jimmy someone to bounce things off of when Tom or Jared weren’t around. He didn’t say much, he appeared in maybe one or two strips and he will be missed barely – if at all.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, CECIL.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the larger narrative of this story and realized that I really haven’t planned things out very far.
I mean, I have dozens of ideas for strips and I have a general sense of how things are going to go. But I haven’t sat down to actually plot things out.
That’s kind of a concern. Because, in the past – whenever I wrote a longer storyline – I would use this thumbnail approach and things worked out fine. If things went on a little too long, I’d could end the story with very little impunity before moving on to the next thing.
But now that there is A DEADLINE looming on the horizon, I need to be a little more economical about how things unfold.
There are 28 weeks until August 6. That means only 28 more Theater Hopper comics on the present once-a-week schedule before I wrap things up for good. My concern at this point is that I might take more than 28 comics to finish telling the story I want to tell.
That’s good news for you, I hope. I have no problem producing extra comics if it helps me tie things up in a nice little bow. I just need to make sure I time this out right. I’m going to start to have planning in advance, outlining plot points and sticking to them.
Y’see… this is why I announced the comic ending so early. It gives you pleanty of time to iron out pesky little wrinkles like this!
DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE STORE
Several of you took my words to heart last week when I blogged about getting rid of my Theater Hopper inventory. Many thanks to those of you who placed orders. I’ll be shipping them this week!
I want to keep the store top of mind for everyone, though. I’m sincere about selling this stuff off.
Food for thought: If you buy any two Theater Hopper books, you get the third for free. That’s a savings of $15, folks.
Did I mention it includes the Artist Editions? Get a sketch thrown in, while you’re at it! I’d be happy to draw whatever you like.
Be sure to spread the good word around. I could really use your help!
That’s it for today. Thanks for your patience and I’ll see you next week! Or maybe sooner!
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