Posts Tagged ‘Patti’
5 items.
First things first. Can’t forget to feed the monkey. Please vote for Theater Hopper at BuzzComix. We’ve slipped down the list a little ways after being in the second spot on the list for a short while. I know we can rally the troops! And I think you’ll be extra-pleased with today’s incentive voting graphic!
Not much going on with this comic other than how I’m still flabbergasted that such a ridiculous movie like You Got Served could claim the top of the box office this weekend. It’s like I said in Monday’s blog, it’s the Kangaroo Jack of 2004. A film that has no business being foisted upon a mass audience and here it is raking in the dough.
I think the only reason You Got Served did any business is because of the lousy winter weather across the country affecting people’s judgment. I know I’m a little loopy after shoveling my driveway 8 times in 8 days. My forearms are screaming in pain.
Hopefully Barbershop 2 can knock it off it’s perch this weekend. I never got around to seeing the original, but it looks funny as hell. I hope the sequel doesn’t disappoint.
Everyone should take a moment to visit our newest sponsor Exterminatus Now! Using character models from the Sonic the Hedgehog game series, it has a great hand drawn style – very cartoonish, but sharp and detailed. It’s a web comic I think is well worth your time. It updates every Friday. Check it out!
That’s it for now. Sorry I don’t have more amusing anecdotes, but I think all the Excedrin I’m taking for muscle pain is thinning the blood going to my brain.
[ No Comments ]
I’m looking forward to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s been getting pretty good reviews so far. Even my friend Nick got to see a sneak preview and he said he liked it! He’s a smart cat, so I’m more inclined to listen to his opinions.
As excited as I am to watch another Charlie Kaufman screenplay brought to life, I’m more interested in seeing what visual tricks director Michel Gondry brings to the table. Gondry’s been known as a music video auteur for several years, directing highly imaginative (and technically complex) videos for The White Stripes, Bjork and Foo Fighters. It’ll be a treat to see how he takes a walking special effect like Jim Carrey and puts him to use.
This weekend is looking good for Cami and I. Even though I’m having car problems at the moment, I’m looking forward toward spending some time together. They say it’s going to be pretty warm this weekend, so I’m hoping I can do some maintenance stuff around the house. Weird, huh? No weirder than getting 15 inches of snow on Monday and having it all melt off by Friday. Stupid Iowa weather.
I don’t know how many of you follow college basketball – I know I certainly don’t. But this year, I have a personal investment in the NCAA tournament. The men’s team from my alma mater – The University of Northern Iowa – has made it to “The Big Dance”. They place third seed Georgia Tech today at 1:50 PM. I’ll be pulling for them. If you have nothing better to do, maybe you can flip on ESPN and see how the do!
One last order of business; Everyone make sure to visit our latest sponsor Music Television Sucks. It’s a really cool music web site that is a great resource for bands the fly under MTV’s radar. They have links to everything as well as songs and videos for download. It’s pretty cool!
That’s about it for now. Have you signed up for the forums yet? You should. It’s a popular place!
[ No Comments ]
For today’s incentive sketch, I tried to draw Tom as Obi-Wan Kenobi and I think it turned out a little more Obi-Wan and a little less like a merge between the two. That’s okay. I think it turned out fabulous.
In case you’re wondering who that strange, red-headed woman is next to Jared in bed, that his wife Patti. Patti has appeared in a few strips before this one, but not since I learned to draw women a little better.
I’ve actually been going through the archives lately attaching keywords to the comics as part of a larger initiative to make the archives more user-friendly (the full purpose of which will be revealed in time!) Going through them, I’m really amazed at how far the art has come.
I don’t mean to sound self-congratulatory. It’s probably better to be humble and not say anything. But the evolution of my style has been just that… an evolution. Looking back, there are very few CONCIOUS decisions I’ve made while refining my character designs. They just kind of happened and I think we’re all the better for it.
I wish I had the time that other artists have to improve their art. Jeph Jacques immediately springs to mind. It seems like every three weeks he pushes his style forward by a large margin. It’s very impressive. Meanwhile, more than three years later I went from this, to what you see today. Imagine where we’ll be three years from now.
Moving along, as today’s comic addresses, Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith came out on DVD yesterday. Not as much hype for this release as I recall for the first two parts of Lucas’ new trillogy. Maybe he’s saving up the advertising dollars for a big holiday push down the line.
I actually talked to Jared about buying it and he confessed that he was waiting for the inevitable, larger box set that collects all 6 films into one package. I alread bought Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones, so I figured I’m just one of the lucky people screwed by their own avarice. Ironically, I never got around to purchasing the original trillogy when it came out on DVD last year. I don’t know what I’m waiting for…
In other news, we have a new sponsor. Everyone be sure to visit Less Than Lonely. It’s a new web comic and they have about 30 strips in the archive. So it’s a good balance of having enough material to give you a sense of things, but not so much that you feel overwhelmed by it. Check it out!
Also be sure to swing by the Boxcar Comics brand new store – The Hobotique! While there are several items for sale that will satiate your every desire, I especially recommend that you scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out the 2006 Boxcar Calendar we have for sale. It features artwork from Beaver and Steve, Bigger Than Cheeses, The Coffee Achievers, Hey Suburbia, HOUSD, Joe and Monkey, The Kenmore, Niego, Nothing Nice To Say, Rob and Elliot, Yirmumah! and yours truly. That’s 12 months of Boxcar awesomeness that you can hang up in your cubicle at work or maybe in your garage while you work on that custom Chevy.
I’m trying to come up with other applications for the calendar, but I’m coming up short…
You should know that all profits from the calendar purchase go toward Boxcar getting a booth at next year’s San Diego Comic Book Convention – the biggest convention of its kind and a huge opportunity for up-and-coming artists such as ourselves. Help alleviate the financial burden by making a purchase today.
That’s about all of my babbling for the moment. Here’s hoping you enjoyed today’s comic. Thanks for your support and May The Force Be With You!
[ No Comments ]
Nov09
I think you’d hate to run into this version of Patti in a dark alley. She means business.
Kind of stretching my legs a little bit and doing a short storyline this week. I saw the opportunity after Monday’s comic, so I’m just going to see the arc through Friday. I love writing about how stupid men can be sometimes. If anyone needs proof of my own arrested development, they need look no further than this web site.
Good news for those of you that ordered shirts. I was able to send out a batch of orders from what was left in my standing inventory on Monday. Hopefully, you guys will be seeing your items by the end of this week or the beginning of the next. If there are any problems, be sure to let me know.
Unfortunately, those of you who have waited the longest – some of you placing orders shortly before my move in July! – probably won’t see your items for another few weeks. If you’ve been waiting a while, odds are strong that I was out of stock. Part of this last push with the store was to rack up enough orders on some designs to meet the printers minimum requirements. Now that the last push has concluded, I have sent the orders to the printer and should hopefully see them turned around in a week to two weeks. I already have everyone’s envelopes addressed. Now it’s just a matter of stuffing them and dropping them off at the post office.
I appreciate everyone’s patience in this regard. I learned a valuable lesson this year regarding merchandise and that is to not bite off more than you can chew. I thought it would be cool if I took some of my own money to invest in the t-shirt designs and try to build a standing inventory. The idea was to be able to turn around orders faster because I would be able to grab the item from the shelf and put it out the door the same day.
This worked okay for a little while, but what I quickly realized is that this kind of on-demand service is beyond my means. I would need a full warehouse or storage facility to meet the different demands.
Shirts like the "Spoiler" design were easy to keep stocked because there was only one color to print and it was a popular design. "Truman in a Purse," on the other hand, was difficult to keep stocked because it was printed with four colors and was less popular. In other words, if I ran out of medium-sized "Truman in a Purse" tees and had orders for 5 more, I would find myself up the creek because the minimum order amount was 30 for a four-color design versus 12 for a one-color design like "Spoiler." I ended up eating up a lot of the profit I made ordering a handful of shirts to fill orders and then being stuck with inventory I couldn’t move. Eventually, things came to the point where I needed to stop being so foolish with my money and force the situation where I could try and burn up the extra inventory I accumulated before discontinuing a few designs.
It worked to a degree. There is still some stuff I’m sitting on. But I can take these things to conventions if I have to. Or maybe I can use them in conjunction with promotions on the site. I haven’t decided yet.
What I DO know is that next time I do shirts, I’m setting up a schedule and sticking to it. Two weeks for pre-orders, two weeks for printing and delivery. Wash, rinse, repeat. Because in addition to learning not to bite off more than I can chew, I’ve learned that if a reasonable timeline is established, you guys are much happier. I totally understand why. If I were in your shoes, I would get impatient waiting for my order, too. You guys have been more than understanding in this regard, but in terms of timeliness, I’ve failed you. Anyone who is cool enough to buy a shirt and show their support for the site deserves better than this. That is my goal for next time.
When will next time be? Can’t say at the moment. Right now I’m working on something behind-the-scenes for Theater Hopper’s 500th strip. Then after that I’m working on laying out a book and commentaries for the first year of Theater Hopper strips. After that I’ll come back to shirts with some new designs I know you guys are gonna love.
Thanks again for your support. It means everything.
[ No Comments ]
So lately my comics have kind of de-evolved into weird sexual deviancy, haven’t they? I blame these early fall indie films. They all try to be so quirky and idiosyncratic. What with their loose morals!
Oh, who am I kidding. I’m a freak. Lock me up and throw away the key.
Lock me up in the basement, mistress.
Ugh.
Actually, Lars and the Real Girl looks like a real winner to me. Believe it or not, whenever the commercials come on, Cami speaks up immediately and tells me “I want to see that!”
In case you haven’t heard the plot, Ryan Gosling plays a kind of lovable dufus who purchases a very authentic looking sex doll off the internet and tries to pass her off as his girlfriend. It sounds twisted. Kind of like if Jan Brady saw her invention of fake boyfriend George Glass taken to it’s ultimate conclusion. But for Gosling’s character, it’s not about sex or deviancy. It’s about forging a deep emotional connection with someone – something. Sad and pathetic in it’s own way, but also very honest and brave. So, his family and friends indulge him.
I think it’s pretty smart of Gosling to take a role like this. It’s still in that “daring” category that he like to frequent, but it’s less dour and “Serious” with a capital “S” like his roles in Half Nelson or The Believer. Heck, that moustache alone is comedy. Since when did the Burt Reynold’s late 70’s porn ‘stache become instant comedy? For reference, see My Name Is Earl.
I’m going to tell you right now that next week is going to be kind of squirrely for me. My day job is sending me to Chicago for a three day training seminar in ActionScript. I’m looking forward to learning something new, but it’s going to suck to be away from Cami and Henry for so long. Maybe my good friend Gordon from Multiplex will keep me company. We’ve talked about trying to be in the same room together for our weekly broadcast of The Triple Feature.
At any rate, the point is that updates are going to be screwy next week. Because of my responsibilities at home, it’s difficult for me to work ahead. So I don’t have any comics on deck. I’ve sent out a few e-mails asking for guest strips, but I’m having trouble. If anyone thinks they can knock one out of the park, e-mail me before Sunday.
I will mention that next week Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror comes out on DVD and I have a review copy sitting on my desk at this very moment. I didin’t get to see Grindhouse in theaters earlier this year and I regret it. But at the same time, I’m a little worried about sitting down and watching Planet Terror because I’m not a big fan of zombie movies or excessive gore. But what I’ve heard from friends is that the gore is so comicly over-the-top, it’s not as bad as I’ve probably built it up in my head. So, with any luck, I’ll sit down this weekend to watch it and have a review for you next Tuesday. If there are no comics, in the very least, you’ll have that.
Oh, and I have another contest lined up next week related to Planet Terror you might be interested in. No, sorry. I don’t have extra copies of the DVD to give out. But I do have something… unique.
See for yourself…
Stay tuned for details on how to make this yours.
Have a good weekend everybody!
[ No Comments ]
