Posts Tagged ‘parody’
15 items.
Mar09
Before I started working on today’s strip, buzzComix was apparently having some kind of server glitch. As a result, I thought I didn’t have to prepare an incentive sketch for you guys to check out by voting for Theater Hopper.
Right before I posted today’s comic, it looks like the site came back up, which left me scrambling for something for you guys to check out.
Whoops!
Anyway, I didn’t want to post this image because I didn’t want to jinx it, but my back was against the wall. It’s a t-shirt design I did for a company called OMG Clothing. It’s called “Ask Me How I Became a Pirate” and it’s pretty straight forward. If you want the whole story behind how I was commissioned for the design, you can read all about it in the THorum, here.
Anyway, vote for TH at buzzComix if you want to check it out.
As far as the comic goes – Yes, there is a rumor circulating that Quentin Tarantino might direct the next installment in the Friday the 13th franchise. This after plans for the oft-discussed Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash crossover movie fell through. Apparently Sam Raimi wanted to make his own Evil Dead sequel. Who knew he had time to throw Bruce Campbell a bone between Spider-Man movies?
New Line studio executives are taking preventive measures not to get the horror fanboys too worked up just yet. They confess to taking a meeting with Tarantino, but it hasn’t moved beyond the talking stage.
Still, this is the furthest Tarantino has gotten promoting a cockamamie franchise reboot through the media thus far. His lobbying to direct the next James Bond picture Casino Royale got the thumbs up from Pierce Brosnan before being shot down by producers.
What’s my take on the whole affair? At first glance, it would seem that Tarantino was wildly grasping at straws and potentially putting his career in jeopardy – Especially after the critical success of Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2.
But then you let the idea marinate for a while, and it starts to sound okay to you. I mean, honestly – Why not? How cool would it be if all sorts of A-list directors started helming Z-level franchises? Personally, I can’t wait to see what Spielberg would do with Hellraiser! He’d probably turn pinhead into a tortured soul with childhood abandonment issues and who regressed into his own world to escape. Of course, that world involves torture and S&M outfits, but you have to stay true to the source material…
I think ever since Pulp Fiction cracked the field wide open for indie fare to make it to a mainstream audience, Tarantino has been riding a wave of publicity where-in he casts himself as the maverick Hollywood outsider. For him, no suggestion is too “out there”. And, who knows? – Some studio might decide to take a chance on his offbeat ideas. After all, “This was the mind that created Pulp Fiction,” the might think to themselves.
Still, I believe it’s only a matter of time before the post-Pulp Fiction blank check that was handed over to Tarantino creatively will expire if he continues to whore himself out to whatever fanboy flight of fancy flutters into his frame.
It’ll be interesting to see where this one goes.
More blogging later today. I want to welcome back an old friend that’s returned to the fold…
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I am painfully aware that today’s comic is not laugh-out-loud funny, but I hope for those of you who are somewhat familiar with Frank Miller‘s work with the Sin City graphic novels and short stories will get a kick out of the visual gag in today’s comic. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and this has been a visual style I’ve been aching to try out for a while.
For those of you living under a rock for the past four months, a big screen version of Miller’s grim and gritty tales of pulp noir will be opening in theaters this Friday. Former Desperado and Spy Kids helmer Robert Rodriguez is directing it. Frankly, I can’t think of another filmmaker who could pull it off.
The Sin City books have a VERY specific visual style to them. Incredibly high contrast work, desperate characters slip in and out of the shadows. Every so often a scene will be violently punctuated by a shock of red or a splash of yellow. Translating that to film wouldn’t work unless that style was kept in place. Otherwise, what’s to distinguish it from any other detective/vigilante versus scum-of-human society revenge flick?
The movie itself has a light narrative woven through several different stories, all arcing over a multitude of colorful and grisly characters.
Personally, I’m already entranced by Mickey Rourke’s unrecognizable appearance as the dive bar brawler Marv. The prosthetics they’ve slapped on his face make him look EXACTLY like the character. A Roman Centurion after too many highballs and a broken heart.
I’m sure I’ll have more to say about Sin City as the week progresses. I plan on building more sand castles in Frank Miller’s sandbox this week.
I want to give everyone a reminder that I’ll be in Kansas City this weekend promoting Theater Hopper and representing web comics in general with my partners-in-crime Mitch Clem and Zach Miller at the Kansas City Planet Comicon comic book convention. If you’re in town, be sure to swing by the Overland Park Convention Center between 10AM and 5PM both days. We’ll be there.
We’re actually all planning on seeing Sin City together Saturday night. So if you’re up for it, I’m sure we could all meet up at the same time.
I’m really looking forward to the weekend. Not just because of the convention and a chance to get out of the house for a little while. But also because my good buddy Jared is going to be taking footage of the whole sordid affair. We hope to combine video from this convention, Wizard World Chicago in August and the Minneapolis Fallcon in October and put together a cool little road-trip/documentary about Theater Hopper, the comic convention circuit and the craziness that comes with it. When it’s all said and done, Jared and I are going to sit down and do a comprehensive interview/retrospective looking back on the last three years of the comic. We hope to have everything assembled and ready for purchase on DVD by Christmas. So keep your eyes out for that one!
This has probably been enough self-promotion for the day. Enjoy your Monday!
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I’m not going to lie to you. I’m stealing dialogue straight out of two of Frank Miller’s Sin City stories – A Dame to Kill For and The Babe Wore Red.
That line about the microwave popcorn, however… That’s all me.
I hate to explain the joke, but the idea is to blend the gritty noir of Miller’s work with the sublime mundane aspects of suburban couple hood. Not a lot of panels to do that with, so I hope you get the gist of it.
Sorry for not uploading an incentive sketch on Monday, but buzzComix was down (as per usual nearing the end of the month). I’m making up for it today, though. Vote for Theater Hopper and absorb my rendition of Marv from the Sin City books. Portrayed by an almost unrecognizable Mickey Rourke in the upcoming movie.
Are you excited to see Sin City on Friday? You should be. I personally have high expectations for this film. I’ve been a fan of Miller’s for a long time. I hope it doesn’t disappoint.
Of course, as I mentioned on Monday, I’ll be seeing Sin City after I’ve attended the first day of the Kansas City Planet Comicon comic book convention. My partners-in-crime will be none other than Mitch Clem and Zach Miller.
I sincerely hope you have a chance to stop by our booth on Artist’s Alley if you’re in the neighborhood. Keep your eyes peeled for the 2′ by 4′ vinyl banner with the Theater Hopper logo. It’s bright red and you can’t miss it.
…dollface.
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I wish I could say that I had some sort of elaborate April Fool’s Day prank lined up for you guys today. But truthfully, I’ve been so busy preparing for the Kansas City Planet Comicon comic book convention, I didn’t have time to plan ahead.
I wonder if Zach and Mitch are as uptight about preparations as I am?
I won’t have a lot of stuff to sell at the con. I never do. I’ll have a few shirts left over from previous pre-orders to give people a sense of stuff they can buy. If I don’t have their size or the color they would like, I’ll ask them to join my mailing list (no link just yet) and I’ll send out a message to everyone letting them know when I’m doing another round of shirts.
The once facet that I am really prepared for are button sales. I’ve been working overtime the last few weeks putting together packaging for 2 different sets of buttons. I don’t know how well they will be received, but I hope they are a hit. If not, I’ll probably never have to work this hard assembling button packages ever again. I should be set for a long time.
As a side note, once I get back from the convention, I’ll probably start selling merchandise again on the site. So keep an eye peeled for that.
Anyway, if you’re in the Kansas City area tomorrow or Sunday between 10AM and 5PM, come say “Hi.” It should be a good time.
Now onto comic stuff…
I don’t know why, but Wednesday’s comic really seems to have struck a nerve. People in the THorum were complimenting it left and right and it actually got a couple of write ups at I’m Just Sayiny (a web comic review site – scroll down a little to see my entry) and more surprisingly, but no less enthusiastically, Film Rot.
I’m not bringing this up to brag. I’m just not used to people taking notice of the strip outside of the “web comic community” much less writing about it. This must be what it feels like for Jeph…
I feel kind of skittish taking any credit for these compliments, however. Because as I stressed yesterday, Frank Miller is the one who has inspired this work. All I did was parody it.
Odd, isn’t it that I’m apologizing for Wednesday’s strip but doing the exact same thing in today’s strip? I dunno. I guess I picked a winning horse. I’m gonna stick with it for a little while.
Can you believe people wanted me to put the splash panel of yesterday’s comic on a t-shirt? Bordering copyright infringement there, I think!
At any rate, I hope you’ve enjoyed these last two strips. I know I’ve had a lot of fun drawing them. As you can probably tell, I’m a big Frank Miller fan and a big Sin City fan. I actually used to practice by looking at some of the Sin City stuff and drawing replicas. So this has been a little nostalgia treat for me.
I’ll probably do another similarly-styled comic on Monday to capture reactions of the film after I see it on Saturday. So if you like what’s been going on, you have that to look forward to. Maybe I’ll cast Jimmy as The Yellow Bastard!
As for the movie itself… What can be said? Critics really seem to be on board with this one, which pleases me to no end. Not only because it is such a powerful and singular vision brought to the screen. But also because it further legitimizes the artistry of graphic novels.
Besides the recently deceased Will Eisner (R.I.P.) I can think of no other creator than Frank Miller that has done so much for the medium. I mean, between Sin City and The Dark Night Returns, there’s just no comparison!
The film production, too, is so far outside the boundaries of conventional film making, I’m willing to bet film schools are going to cite it as a textbook study in the next 10 years. If this thing takes off, Robert Robert Rodriguez’s “digital backlot” technique could spin things on its head.
I could go on, I suppose. But I think it’s time to let sleeping dogs lie. I’ll probably be back later in the day to discuss the donating incentive artwork I created for February and March.
If you recall, I did Constantine for February and Robots for March. Well… I kinda never got around to coloring the Robots piece, and now it’s April.
Anyway, I have to make reparations for that and will probably be taking this promotion in another direction. More on that later. Stop by again today if it fancies you.
Love to all.
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Let me begin by saying that Yes, I did see Sin City this weekend and its imagery has been swimming around in my head ever since. I’ve been replaying different scenes from the movie over and over in my mind. I’ve been comparing them against the comics for accuracy.
My conclusion is this: Sin City is the most faithful, most accurate, most astonishing comic book movie ever committed to celluloid.
If you’re a fan of comic book movies. See it. If you’re a fan of films that wield technical advancement with marksman precision – See it.
The only caveat I would insert is that (although black and white) the movie is VERY GORY. Lots of bullet-riddled bodies. People being decapitated. People losing hands and other extremities. People being blown up. Sin City ∗earns∗ its “R” rating. If it were in color, it would be NC-17.
That said, I hope you’re enjoying my continued re-interpretation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel classics. Today’s comic is parodying the last page of That Yellow Bastard, part 5 of 6. In my opinion it’s the best of the Sin City books. It also happens to bookend the movie, which I think is no coincidence. The more I think about it, the more I love it.
Some of you might be curious how things turned out at the Kansas City Planet Comicon comic book convention. First of all, I have to give props to the show organizers who were very attentive and made sure we were having a good time. I haven’t been to a lot of these things, but when we needed chairs for the booth, they were on it. And during the show, they came around to ask us if everything was okay and if we were having fun. A small gesture, but it meant a lot. Especially considering we were sitting on Artist’s Alley. We’re the guys who pay the least to exhibit our wares, so it’s not like we’re getting rock star treatment.
Anyway, I had a blast catching up with Mitch and Zach, as evident by this picture:
Sorry, Mitch old bean. But when you take a goofy picture, odds are it’s gonna end up on the internet.
IT’S OVER!
/inside joke.
But in all seriousness, we had a blast. Time flew by while we were down there and we had a bunch of great conversations about our comics, our motivations and our future in “The Game” as it were.
That dramaticizes things a bit, but what I’m trying to communicate is that it was time well spent and it really re-energized me.
Between work and life, there is very little room for the comic. The time I spend on it can sometimes wear you down. I’m not trying to lay a big “woe is me” story on you. Just stating the facts. Every once in a while, you run the risk of suffering burnout. This weekend strengthened my defenses against it.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth and said they liked what we do. And for those of you kind enough and curious enough to give us a chance after meeting us for the first time this weekend, thanks for looking us up in the digital realm. Hopefully we can keep you as readers.
Now only if I can figure out a way to bail Jared out of the Imperial drunk tank. He’s a handful, that one!
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I don’t know what’s going on with Web Comics List. Seems like it’s been down for a few weeks. So you probably can’t see today’s incentive sketch. Darn shame, because I think it’s really funny and it turned out pretty good. I’m thinking I might switch back over to buzzComix on the whole voting/incentive scheme. We’ll see what pans out.
Truthfully, I’m not really into the ranking sites like I used to be. It was just a kick to see how long we could stick it out in the top spot for a while and pal around with some good friends in the Top 10. The incentives are always fun, though. I like how I can typically sneak in another extra little punchline that I might not be able to squeeze into a regular strip.
Here’s hoping that today’s comic isn’t too blue for those readers with small-children. I don’t know why things have become so sexually-oriented lately. It’s certainly isn’t sexy, so it’s probably not going to drive up traffic. It’s not like I have Cami running around in a bikini for no good reason.
Although that’s an idea!…
At any rate, I had to do careful research coming up with the porn parody movie titles. Some of them are quite profane, as you might imagine. I needed to find something quasi-graphic so you would get the gist of what I was referencing without crossing the line into flat-out offensive territory.
That said, I wish I could claim these titles as my own, but I’m not that witty. These are – in fact – actual titles off porn parody films.
I remember distinctly my first encounter with this phenomenon. It was 1996 and I was a freshman in college. Cami and I were going to the local campus video store to rent Mallrats. It was in and out of theaters so fast, we never got to see it. By the time we were in school, it was out on video.
Prominently displayed in the tiny, privately owned video store was a comprehensive selection of pornography. Not tucked away in some back room behind a beaded curtain and under black lights. No. I’m talking about these things being within arms reach of the checkout counter and comedy section. You couldn’t miss them.
Two titles immediately lept from the shelf. "Black Booty" – a parody of the children’s film Black Beauty – and "Wednesday is Humpday." I don’t think that second one was parodying anything specific, but the title was so unintentionally hilarious, it became a catchphrase of sorts for the remainder of our college career.
"Hey, what day is it?"
"Wednesday is Humpday!"
Oh, how we laughed!
I’ll be back later in the day to annouce a VERY COOL CONTEST. So make sure to visit us later to find out how you can participate!
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May30
GUEST STRIP – ALI GRAHAM
May 30th, 2006 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(6 votes, average: 6.00 out of 10)
Today’s guest comic comes from my fellow Boxcar Comics compatriot and creator of the web comic Hous’d Ali Graham!
Ali told me he felt a little lame submitting this one-panel Garden State parody. I told him not to worry about it because I think it turned out great! The graffiti on the crane is excellent and it looks authentic! Truthfully, I wish I had come up with the idea.
Not everyone knows this, but Ali is a guest comic machine. I think he’s done at least two guest comics for nearly everyone in Boxcar by this point. Of course, what do you expect from a guy with nearly 1,100 comics in his archive? We joke that there should be a contest to see who can submit their guest comic first whenever one of us asks for a little back up. No one ever beats Ali.
For more of Ali’s genius and quick handiwork on display, be sure to check out his comic Hous’d!
With that, we’ll see you here tomorow!
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It may seem a little cheap to do a parody of the “;I’m A Mac…”; tv spots, but when Live Free or Die Hard slaps Justin Long in their movie as the comic sidekick to Bruce Willis, that’s low-hanging fruit too delicious to ignore.
In the commercials, Long represents the slick, hip future of computing to the stodgy, bland PC. Willis’s John McClane character is the analog equivalent to action movies. It makes sense they would try to “;freshen”; him up a little.
From what I’m hearing, thought, LFoDH does a good job with it’s action set pieces in a low-tech way. Not a lot of CGI cartoon physics. They’re doing it old school – which I admire. No one works harder than a stuntman.
I don’t know if there will be room in our schedule this weekend for LFoDH. Cami recently finished reading The Wal-Mart Effect and it inspired her to go back and re-read Fast Food Nation. This has put her in a very specific frame of mind, so I think she’s got her sights set on seeing Sicko this weekend. I kind want to see Ratatouille, but that’s because I’m a socially irresponsible bastard stuck in a state of arrested development. Adorable rodents! Awww!
If you want to get the reaction of someone who saw LFoDH and loved it, check out the most recent Joe Loves Crappy Movies. As Joe puts it, the movie is “;the balls.”; It’s cool to me that he enjoyed it so much. I’m sure we’ll be talking about it on Monday’s Triple Feature.
Speaking of The Triple Feature, I didn’t give you guys the second half of the clue for our Evening contest. So here it is:
“;POWER”;
Be sure to download Monday’s show over at TalkShoe to get the first half of the clue. Take the compiled clue and mail it to me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com along with your name, age and mailing address. One lucky winner will be chosen at random to receive a make-up bag, a cook book and two posters from the movie Evening. Happy hunting!
Switching gears, I just wanted to give everyone a status update on my computer situation.
First, let me thank EVERYONE who left comments in Wednesday blog or e-mailed me personally offering solutions. I wish I had time to thank you all individually, but the outpouring was so strong, that’s not possible. So if you took time out of your busy day to help me diagnose the problem or made yourself available to me through e-mail or by phone – thank you. Each of you went above the call of duty and I appreciate it.
Long story short, I ended up finding the Windows XP installation discs I need to repair my machine. But it turns out my hard drive was physically degraded to the point where it wouldn’t accept it. I contacted Dell customer support to help walk me through things and we tried the repair console first. But it didn’t take, so their recommendation was to do a complete reinstall. That didn’t take, either. So I was forced to buy a new hard drive.
Even though I was keeping all my Theater Hopper stuff on another smaller internal drive (so I think it’s safe) this whole episode has put enough of a scare into me to make sure I have backups of that data in multiple formats. If I ever lost my original artwork, I would probably give up completely. It would be like someone pulled the string out of my back.
That said, we’re not completely out of the woods yet. I had to complete today’s comic using my laptop, but I was running into errors THERE as well. I have a… copy of the Adobe CS2 Suite and for some reason, the version of Photoshop I had on my machine was saying that certain registry information wasn’t matching up. I tried re-installing it, but had no luck. I eventually had to load a… copy of Photoshop 6 I had lying around to get my work done.
This makes me a little nervous about getting the programs I need back on my desktop after I install my new hard drive. So if anyone knows where I might find a… copy of Photoshop CS2 (or, even better, CS3) send me an e-mail and we can chat.
It’s been a long week. That’s about as much as I can say. Everyone enjoy their weekend and I’ll see you here on Monday!
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I was at a complete loss for what I was going to do for today’s comic. None of the recent crop nor forthcoming releases have inspired me to make satire.
So I retired to my “thinking room” and spent a little time pondering the subject of Easter movies. There really aren’t any. I don’t know that there SHOULD be any. I just noticed there aren’t any. And, thus, a comic was born.
I guess my mind wandered onto the topic because as we were leaving our house to have Easter lunch with my family, I noticed dozens upon dozens of cars parked near the two large churches near our house. They were everywhere. Parked on the street, parked in the lots of nearby businesses. It’s never this busy. Not on an average Sunday.
So Easter is one of those big church-going holidays and – conceivably – families will then depart to participate in Easter egg hunts, eat ham and chocolate bunnies and whatever else odd traditions have emerged from this holiday.
The point I’m making is that the holiday is a gathering of sorts – of community, of family.
So why aren’t there very many movies that speak to this?
Think about all of the Thanksgiving movies out there. You know the basic outline. The family black sheep returns home for the holidays, everyone is stressed out, comedy ensues. You could easily transpose that formula onto Easter gatherings.
I mean, okay… so Easter probably isn’t a big travel day. And it’s not like people are given days off from work so they can go be with their families on Easter, or whatever. But you get the gist.
For those of you complaining that it’s too secular, explain all the Christmas movies out there. Most of them are more about Santa or gift-giving than the actual holiday and Easter is complete with it’s own set of bizarre traditions. So religious persuasion really isn’t a factor.
All I know is that every year ABC plays The Ten Commandments around Easter and I can’t figure out why. What does Old Testament Bible have to do with New Testament death and resurrection of Jesus? Or did someone lose a bet to Charlton Heston?
I could be completely talking out of my rear end because – admittedly – I’m not a big church goer, I don’t understand the Easter tradition… It’s just always been something we’ve done as a family. I can’t imagine I’m the only one in this boat?
What do you think? Why do you suppose there are no great Easter movies out there? Or maybe there are tons and I’m missing out? Let me know!
Last bit of business, don’t forget to check out The Triple Feature podcast tonight over at TalkShoe at 9:00 PM CST. I don’t know what we’re talking about since I missed last week’s show, but I’m sure it will be enlightening. How is that for an endorsement?
Sorry, I feel a little scatterbrained. I’m starting a new job today, so I’m mostly focused on that. But I’ll try to have it put together by tonight’s show.
See you there!
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If you’ve been following me on Twitter the last couple of days, you’ll know that I was inspired by my friend Gordon McAlpin’s excellent parody poster for Memento that I finally got off my rear end and put together a parody poster for Iron Man that I’ve been thinking about for months.
I think it turned out pretty well…
I’m proud enough of my work that I’m printing up 50 copies and plan on selling them as 11 x 17″ prints at Chicago Comic-Con this weekend. We’ll see how they do. If I have any left over, I’ll sell them here. If the demand is high enough, I’ll print up more! Either way, I thought you guys might like to see it.
Don’t forget: I’ll be at Artist Alley table #3414. Please come by and see me. I’ll be selling copies of both books, all of my t-shirts, the Iron Man parody poster and original sketches.
I look forward to Chicago Comic-Con all year and with the stars aligning between the convention, our 7th anniversary and 1,000 comics… I think this is going to be a good show for me.
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