Posts Tagged ‘penance’
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At this point I’m trying to build Jimmy back up into the selfless person we all know him to be, so I figured his reasons for working at the theater where he was so brutally dumped needed a dash of sympathetic irony.
I really wanted to go more in depth with Jimmy’s realization of what he lost and his expression of how much Charlie meant to him. But at the same time, emotional hand-wringing is like standing still from a pacing standpoint.
So the idea is that Jimmy is paying for his sins at the scene of his greatest failure. It’s also the scene of his “rebirth” into the nice guy we’ve come to know him as.
I don’t know if there’s much more I can say about it than that.
Be sure to listen to The Triple Feature this evening. We record live at 9:00 PM CST over at Talkshoe.com. With any luck, our good friend Joe Dunn will be back in the saddle this week after missing out on our Oscar recap last week.
Odds are good we’ll be talking about Watchmen, since that’s about the only thing going on in movies this week. So if you’re looking forward to seeing it, spend an hour with us as we pontificate its importance.
One other thing – and I know it doesn’t have much to do with movies – but does anyone plan on watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon when he takes over for Conan O’Brien tonight?
I’m not a big fan of Fallon’s, but I’m interested to see if he can emerge from this as his own man. So much of his shtick to me seemed stolen from Adam Sandler — what with his bits on Weekend Update with his guitar during his early days at Saturday Night Live. He seemed to mature a little when he was promoted to reading “the fake news” on Weekend Update a few years later, but he was pretty much Tina Fey’s puppet.
He did the movie thing. No one bought into it and he’s become almost a curious footnote in comedy known more for cracking up during sketches on SNL than actually being funny himself.
But I’ve been reading a lot of the press surrounding the show and it seems like he’s very enthusiastic about the show. Some of the stuff they say they plan on doing sounds a little unconventional in the late night format, but they really seem to have their sights set on the next generation of fans.
Conan O’Brien will always be *my* late night guy. I remember staying up to watch his first show and even though I was only 15 years-old, I could tell how awkward and nervous he was. A bunch of his jokes bombed in that first week. But the shows got funnier and he honed his own self-deprecating brand of wackiness and now he’s moving on to The Tonight Show. He graduated.
I guess the point I’m making is that if someone like Conan O’Brien can make it – a performer NO ONE thought would be around after a year – is it possible Jimmy Fallon can do something positive for himself in late night?
So what do you think? Will you be watching tonight? Do you have any bias against Fallon? Do you feel like you should watch – like it’s a tiny historic moment? Leave your thoughts below!
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I was getting kind of tired of drawing profiles of characters for the Top Web Comics incentive image, so I did something a little different today. Jimmy’s trials at the movie theater kind of reminded me of Atlas, so I went that direction with the incentive sketch. Vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics if you want to see it.
I realized while plotting this week’s comic that it didn’t contain a joke. It sent me into a miniature panic. I’m not exactly known for writing drama and – to me – writing a comic without a joke feels… unfinished.
Ultimately I determined that cramming in the joke for the sake of one really didn’t benefit things. So maybe today’s comic isn’t funny, but it moves the ball up the field.
Incidentally, is everyone able to follow along with the changes in scenery? I’ve been doing a lot of jumping around from location to location – sometimes flipping back and forth between different sets of characters. I know you guys are smart and are probably following along just fine. I’m just self-conscious about it.
Like I said, I don’t write drama. Most of my comics are fairly self-contained. I really haven’t had to think of my story telling in terms of “What’s happening over here while these characters over here are talking about something else?” It’s kind of weird.
Something interesting that’s been happening in the last few weeks is that people have complimented me for allowing the characters to “grow up” a little bit. I can say with all honestly that it has not been intentional. But, with what I know about where I want the characters to end up when I end the comic in August, I would have to admit the transition has been almost subliminal.
Since announcing the comic’s end, I’ve made clear my intentions to let readers know that the characters will be “okay.” Perhaps some of this maturation is the unintended byproduct of that?
Sometimes I feel like it’s best to get out of my own way and kind of let the characters write themselves. I know that sounds pretentious. But in this case, I feel like its an honest assessment of how things are playing out.
On that note…
I NEED YOUR HELP
I’ve been presented the opportunity to attend and exhibit at Emerald City Comiccon in Seattle this March 31 – April 1 and I would really, really, REALLY like to go.
However, this was not a convention I had originally planned on attending. That there is now an opportunity is a complete fluke. As such, I don’t really have the money to secure a plane ticket, a hotel room, cab fare and the rest.
This isn’t really your problem. If I don’t have the money, I shouldn’t go, right? Buuuuuuut… if you have it in your heart to make a purchase from the Theater Hopper store or perhaps donate to my “Farewell Tour,” it would be really, really, REALLY helpful right now. That’s all I’m saying.
If you can help, great. If you can’t help, well, that’s how the cookie crumbles. Even if I don’t end up going to ECCC this year, I will be going to C2E2 in Chicago two weeks later. So, there’s that!
That’s all I have for right now. Thanks for checking out the comic and I’ll see you next week!
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I didn’t put together an incentive sketch for Top Web Comics today because I kind of ran out of time. Also, beyond generating sketches that I might or might not sell at a future date, I don’t know if it’s doing any real good in terms of A.) Generating votes or B.) Generating traffic.
I don’t know what it is about me that I insist on tinkering with how the comic is promoted when the finish line is only a few months away. I guess I can’t leave well enough alone.
That said, if you still want to vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics, you can do that.
I had the idea for today’s comic kind of before I decided if it was a good idea or not. I had this romantic idea in mind – that Jimmy would be willing to work at the movie theater because it made it easier to remember Charlie being there – but couldn’t decide if I was hitting the same beat as last week’s comic.
Either way, I think I’m going to have to squeeze in some jokes into next week’s comic. If nothing else, I certainly need to get Charlie’s side of the equation in there.
Part of me feels like I’m running out the clock a little bit in anticipation of May. Because I think by the time The Avengers hits, I might be in the mood for a reprieve from the dramatic stuff. I think you know what that means.
CONVENTION SCHEDULE
I wanted to take a quick moment and share my convention schedule for the next couple of months. It’s pretty aggressive and no one is more surprised than me by how active I’m going to be in the next few weeks.
- Emerald City Comic Con – Seattle, WA – March 30 through April 1
- I’ll be hanging out at booth #307 with Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex and Angela Melick from Wasted Talent.
- C2E2 – Chicago, IL – April 13, 14, 15
- I don’t know what table I’ll be at other than in the webcomics section of Artist Alley. Come find me!
- MCBA Springcon – Minneapolis, MN – May 19 & 20
- This is a smaller show, so I should be pretty easy to find. But they’ve got great selection. If you live in the Minneapolis area, come out and see me!
It’s weird. A month ago, I wasn’t planning on going to any of these shows. Then I did an interview with Kurt Sasso over at TGT Media and we talked about C2E2. I went to the show its inaugural year and said I wasn’t interested in going back due to the expense. Kurt ended up giving me a few tips and talked me into going. I even managed to find a cheap hotel downtown, too!
Shortly after that, Gordon sent me an e-mail about ECCC. One of the people he and Angela were sharing a booth with had to back out and he asked me if I was interested in filling the spot.
I went to ECCC in 2009 and it was one of the most exhilarating/stressful trips of my life. I had never flown to a convention before. I had no idea how to get my merchandise there. I was kind of on the outs with a few people in the webcomic community at the time. I had no idea how it was going to go over.
That said, it was a profoundly positive experience. ECCC is so well run and the people of Seattle are so welcoming toward webcomics, I look back on it fondly. I ended up socializing with other webcomic creators I had never met before and got to speak on a panel with Jeph Jacques, Danielle Corsetto and Robert Khoo. It was crazy validating and I’ve been struggling to go back every year. I’ve always kicked myself for not going in the years since.
So here’s Gordon with this opportunity and I’m struggling to find a way to make it work. I’m cashing in hotel rewards points, I’m looking at Priceline for cheap flights ever 15 miuntes, I’m hemming, I’m hawing. Finally I decided to pull the trigger and leave it all on the table – damn the expense. If I’m ending Theater Hopper this year, I’m going out with a bang.
And then there’s the Minneapolis Springcon. This was the first comic book convention I ever went to back in 2004. It seemed fitting that I hadn’t been there since 2007. It seemed appropriate that I should try to go back.
So here we are. Three conventions in two months. Cami isn’t exactly thrilled about it, but she understands. So if you’re going to be at any one of those three shows, help me make it worth my while, yeah? After all, there’s no telling the next time we’ll get to see each other again…
That’s it for now. Have a great week, everyone!
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