Posts Tagged ‘popcorn’
13 items.
So since today’s comic was about unemployment and also since the season premier of The Apprentice 2 was broadcast last night, I decided to do a little homage to that narcissist we all love to hate – Donald Trump! It’s today’s buzzComix incentive sketch. Click here to view it.
So Jimmy has lost his job. This is part three of the potentially 9 part story. Depends how well it’s being received I suppose. It’ll go on at least until next Friday. If you have thoughts about it, you can always share them in the THorum.
Jimmy’s always been the optimistic one of the bunch. You can see it reflected in Monday’s strip and the third panel of today’s comic. Kinda sucks that he’s getting the short end of the stick, don’t you think? All he wanted to do was work hard!
Where will Jimmy go? What will he do next? Check back on Monday for the exciting… continuation!
Still not much to talk about movie-wise. The theaters aren’t serving up much that I’m interested in. Pretty much the only new films of interest this weekend are Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Cellular.
I know a lot of people are probably going to hate me for this, but I think the RE franchise looks pretty stupid. I haven’t seen the first one all the way through. I caught part of it on cable and had to turn it off because it was so dumb. The sequel doesn’t look that much better to me. I’m not bolstered by the fact that the original’s director and writer Paul W.S. Anderson came back and wrote the sequel (it’s being lensed by first-time director Alexander Witt). Anderson should just have the work “HACK” tattooed across his forehead and be done with it.
I don’t really care much for star Milla Jovovich, either. Model-turned-actress isn’t one of the more inspiring job transitions in my book. I think she’s pretty effective in comedies like Zoolander and Dazed and Confused. Maybe because her screen time is limited to a few minutes.
But for most of you, it won’t matter. She’s hot, right? And it’s all about hot babes killing zombies with big explosions. I’ve never been a fan of zombie flicks (Romero’s Night of the Living Dead notwithstanding, of course) and the whole Eastern Block, sunken-eyed model look of Jovovich doesn’t light my fire, either.
The only other new movie to mention this week is Cellular. I think the advertisements for this flick make it look incredibly dumb, but I guess it’s been getting good reviews. Both Ebert & Roeper seemed to like it, although I don’t know how much faith to put in them. Supposedly they keep that action moving at a fast enough clip that you don’t stop to think about the glaring plot holes.
I just find it funny that writer Larry Cohen’s last writing credit was the Colin Farrell thriller Phone Booth. I’m beginning to think this guy must be on the payroll of the telecommunications industry…
So, anyway. That’s what the weekend looks like. I’m probably going to avoid the theaters altogether this weekend. I’m just pretending that the same world-ending zombie virus has infected all the movie houses in town. It makes them easier to avoid and dulls the heartache just a little bit.
See you here on Monday!
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Sorry for the delay in getting today’s strip posted on time. I have a good excuse! Honest!
I didn’t plan ahead!
That’s really about half of it, actually. I didn’t plan ahead and I celebrated my 27th birthday with my family last night. I didn’t get home until about 11:30. I stayed up until 1:00 am drawing and inking the comic before hitting the hay.
I woke up this morning and added a few more touches, but I actaully had to go out and brave the cold to complete some holiday-related errands I needed to run. I actually took a vacation day from work to accomplish this! I got back about mid-afternoon and posted the comic to the site.
Some of you might complain that today’s comic is not movie-related. Please note Exhibit A: Popcorn! You can’t have a movie without popcorn! And you can’t do anything popcorn-related without risking Tom ingesting all of it.
Meet the Fockers comes out today and everyone I know wants to see it. I don’t understand the appeal and I didn’t particularly care for the first one. The minute Ben Stiller flushed the toilet he wasn’t supposed to and the septic tank flooded the backyard with stinky-stink, I pretty much tuned out.
Still, any movie that can pull Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand together must have something going for it. Let’s hope the script lives up to the level of talent they’ve corralled.
The movie I’m really looking forward to this weekend is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Advance reviews accuse it of being too clever and too inside for it’s own good. They say writer/director Wes Anderson’s script sacrifices characterization for these cute, little set pieces. I say, “Who cares!” I love Wes’ vision. He’s one of my favorite modern directors. I think you either get his dry sense of humor or you don’t. It’s no coincidence he’s cast Bill Murrary in his last 3 movies. The man is a master of the deadpan delivery. I worship at his alter.
What about the rest of you? What are your holiday movie-going plans? Let us know in the THorum!
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Jul17
GUEST STRIP – KRISHNA SADASIVAM
July 17th, 2005 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 10)
You might be curious about the squat, jaundiced man sitting next to Jared in today’s guest strip. Don’t worry, I was slightly thrown for a loop as well.
Our new rotund friend is Bob, star of Krishna Sadasivam’s PC Weenies. After receiving this comic, I went out to check out Krishna’s work and it’s great. Top-notch nerd humor. I.T. guys are going to get a real kick out of it.
What I really like about this strip is how true to life it is. I could finish a full lunch – a giant hamburger cooked medium well, juices running down my chin, a side order of fries, a tall soda… and if I take one step into a movie theater not 10 minutes later, I’ll be like “Ooo! Kettle Corn! Gotta get a bag of that!”
Thanks again for the great strip, Krishna!
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Jared sure do love his soady-pop!
Have you guys ever tried mixing in Hot Tamales with your popcorn? It’s really good. A little bit spicy, a little bit salty, a little bit sweet. It’s like the poor man’s kettle corn.
I’m not sure where I first picked up the habit. I think it was from a babysitter that had weird taste in snack food. In retrospect, it is a little gluttonous. Popcorn isn’t good enough. It must have CANDY it in! Could be worse. I could be adding M&Ms. "Melts in your mouth" my ass!
I know today’s comic is a little ribald, what with the drinking going on in the fourth panel. But it’s not like this is the first time that alcohol has entered into the comic as a plot device. I wonder if Jared resents being characterized as a drunk from time to time? He’s actually a very respectable chap!
I want to remind everyone that I have two new shirt designs for sale in the store. The pre-sale ends Wendesday, March 8 – after which I’m going to remove them from the store so I can concentrate on getting them printed up and mailed out as efficiently as possible. If you don’t like the new designs, I brought back an old favorite!
I’m still working on the Theater Hopper: Year One book. Every time that I think I’m close to being finished, I forget about all the small details that need to be wrapped up first. Gotta go back and correct the errors Cami caught in her proof and I have to write up commentary for the photo tutorial I’m doing. I think since laying out the comics and writing the commentary for all 156 of them was 80% of the work, I keep thinking I can kick back a little bit. Last week kind of threw me off my work schedule as well, so now I have to get back on track.
It would be really great to get the cover artwork assembled and colored so I could share that with you guys. But I also have to finish doing my taxes and there’s a guy coming to the house to fix our washing machine.
It just doesn’t stop, does it folks? ;-D
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I wish I knew where the idea for this joke came from. Trust me, kiddies. The original version was much, MUCH worse.
I used to work in a movie theater back when they switched to talkies and I remember quite vividly the gelatinous glob that was the base for the “butter” topping we put on popcorn. It looked like cud or maybe that viscous white gel at the bottom of a can of Spam. It came wrapped in cellophane in gigantic two-pound bricks. We’d toss it into the machine with the pump on it which was basically a crock pot that warmed it up and melted it down. Then, like an oil slick, we’d slather it over the top of each order of corn.
Knowing what I do about this butter product, you’d think I would avoid it when making my purchase at the concession stand. Sadly, I do not. I’ve often imagined if there might be a more natural alternative. Maybe actual butter? But, more likely, it would turn out to be something worse.
I don’t know how many of you had a chance to call in and listen to The Triple Feature talkcast on Monday night, but if you missed it, I would strongly encourage you to download it. I think Gordon, Joe and I had a very good show on Monday talking about Pan’s Labyrinth and the recent MPAA rules change and I’m really looking forward to next Monday’s show where we’ll talk about the recent Oscar nominations – announced today. Join us next Monday at 9:00 pm CST and be sure to participate!
Regarding the Oscar nominations, I guess I’m still kind of digesting it. I think it’s interesting that Dreamgirls could lead the pack with eight nominations, but not garner one for Best Picture, Best Director or Best Screenplay. I think it’s funny that three of it’s eight nominations are in the Best Original Song category and I think it’s REALLY funny that it’s only acting nods went to best Supporting Actor and Actress (Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, respectively) rather than to the film’s two leads, Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles. It makes me feel justified in the sense that I wasn’t very excited about helping to feed the egos of two high-profile members of the entertainment community who I believe think a little too highly of themselves to begin with.
I find it odd that Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Blood Diamond and not The Departed, but I’m otherwise pleased by the nominations in that category. Giving Ryan Gosling the nod for Half Nelson really came out of nowhere, but it was a welcome surprise.
I was shocked to see Alan Arkin on the list for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine, but was even more surprised to see Mark Wahlberg beat out Jack Nicholson in the same category. Who would have thought I would have ever uttered “Mark Wahlberg” and “Academy Award nominee” in the same sentence. Shame he’ll never live down being Marky Mark.
In the Best Actress category, I think it’s intesting that Meryl Streep is the only American actress in the running. Just goes to show what Hollywood thinks of women performers. Apparently if there is a British accent involved, that adds legitimacy? Look over the last few years of Best Actress nominees and hardly any are American. I think it’s an odd coincidence. Incidentally, at this point, I think it’s Helen Mirren’s race to lose.
Quick sidebar: Did anyone notice that Borat was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay? Wait a minute? So you mean it WASN’T REAL?! DAMN YOU, SACHA BARON COHEN!
That’s a pretty high level look at things. Typically I also like to comment on the technical categories like Best Special Effects and Best Makeup. But I think I’ll leave things be for the moment.
What was your take on the Oscar nominations. Are you excited about this year’s ceremony? Leave your comments below!
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“Popcorn safety goggles?!” Oh, man! Where do I come up with this stuff?
I cop to a continuation of the joke from Monday’s strip, but I don’t feel bad about it. I have a joke in mind for Friday’s comic that I think will wrap this little arc up into a nice, neat package. Besides, it’s not like there’s anything else besides Premonition coming out this weekend.
Sure, there’s lots of advertising around Dead Silence, but I find I don’t have much to say about horror movies because they’re all pretty much the same. And then there’s Chris Rock’s directorial debut I Think I Love My Wife. Which to me looks like some kind of 1980’s situational comedy about the differences between men and women. I’m pretty sure I can’t make a joke there without getting in trouble with Cami.
So Premonition is the gravy train I’m riding for material this week. If you don’t like it, hang tight. TMNT comes out next week. I’m sure I’ll have some nostalgia-laced commentary for that little time warp.
Incidentally, the lack of interesting movies this week was something Gordon, Joe and I talked about in our weekly talkcast, The Triple Feature this past Monday at 9:00 PM. If you missed it, you can always download it from iTunes. We also talked about 300 and how it’s unprecedented success (the largest opening for film in March ever) might affect the production of the graphic novel gold standard, Watchmen. I thought it was a really good show. Check it out!
And while I’m slingin’ links, I have to give both Gordon and Joe props for their excellent 300-themed comics. You can view their respective efforts here and here. To be honest, I was jealous I didn’t come up with either joke myself. But it’s the kind of writing that would have required me to actually *ahem* see the movie. So I’m kind of wringing my hands over that one. By the way, did you know these comics were Multiplex’s 125th and Joe Loves Crappy Movies 300th? Milestones all around!
Switching gears for a second… I made a post on Monday that seemed to generate a lot of interest. Basically, I posted a drawing that I did of Sean Bean, but didn’t share that fact with you guys. I asked you to guess who it was because I was going to use the rendering as part of a t-shirt design that referenced an earlier comic and I wanted to make sure people could identify who it was supposed to be without being prompted.
The responses were really interesting. Some people knew right away that it was Bean. Others thought it looked like Ben Affleck or Ben Affleck (which was weird). Other people couldn’t make a guess because they’re really not familiar with Sean Bean’s body of work. A fair assessment. He’s not all that well-known.
So what did I learn from this feedback? I learned that if I produced the shirt, the majority of you would get the reference and that’s a good thing. But I also learned that because I used Bean’s IMDB publicity photo, I might be making myself vulnerable to some legal action. So what do we do?
Well, this brought to the fore something I’ve been thinking about for a while and that’s my caricature skills. They’re kind of bad. I mean, does this look like Samuel L. Jackson to you? Yeah, me neither. So I’ve decided to do something about it.
Yesterday I ordered a couple of
At any rate, I was really pleased to see the level of participation in the comments area from Monday’s post so I think I’m going to continue posting caricatures and let you guys guess who the person is supposed to be as a regular thing. It’s fun, it gives you guys something to talk about and it’ll help me improve my art. Sound like a plan? Let me know what you think in the comments! Natch!
What about the shirt design? I think I might still go ahead and finish it just because it was a very rich vision in my head and I’d like to see it completed. That doesn’t mean I’ll produce that version of the shirt. I might swap out the image of Bean from Monday’s post with another once I start to get a little better with the caricature. We’ll see. In the meantime, I have other designs I want to try. So it’s no big deal.
That’s it for today! See you Friday!
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Aug13
GUEST STRIP – PAUL SPENCER
August 13th, 2007 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(2 votes, average: 8.50 out of 10)
Hey, everyone!
First of all, I have to apologize for there not being a comic on Friday. Originally, the plan was to update using my laptop while I was in Chicago. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of assuming that my hotel was up to speed with 21st century technology and would offer free wi-fi access.
They did not.
Well, that’s not exactly true. The did offer wi-fi, but they charged $10 a day! Sorry, but when I’m paying out the nose for a room, don’t add insult to injury.
I probably would have been able to update Thursday night if there was free wi-fi, but the rest of the weekend was absolutely crazy. I had a great time, though and I’m going to give you guys the full convention run down on Wednesday along with my traditional post-convention wrap up comic.
Last but not least, I need to give my thanks to Paul Spencer for his excellent comic. Paul draws Make With the Funny and delivers on that promise every week. His art is excellent and I want to steal his brain to learn his coloring and shading techniques.
Sincere apologies for not getting the comic up on Friday, Paul. But maybe it works out better since your comic updates each Monday.
Check out his site, folks. Send him the love!
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Before you start sending me e-mails, yes, I know I screwed up the last panel in today’s comic. Everything looks right at 1:00 in the morning. I’ll fix it when I get home tonight.
Here’s hoping that everyone had a safe and happy new year celebration. If you’re reading this, I have to assume that’s the case.
Our New Year’s celebration was decidedly white, suburban and boring. Cami and I took Henry to Applebee’s at about 5:00 at night for dinner. We came home, put him to bed and watched a rerun of Saturday Night Live in the ’90’s on NBC until 9:00 PM. Henry is teething again and was up crying the night before, so Cami was exhausted and went to bed around 9:30. I stayed up because I felt I should, but only lasted until about 11:00 before I went to bed. Oh, well. At least we were together when the clock struck midnight.
That sounds bad. It sounds like we had a boring New Year’s because of Henry. That’s not true. We had an awesome New Year’s. I guess I just called it “boring” because to an outsider, that’s probably what it looks like. Truthfully, I probably wouldn’t have done anything different even if we didn’t have Henry. I went to see the ball drop in Times Square when 2003 rolled over into 2004. Since then, I haven’t really cared about celebrating the occasion.
Once you’ve partied with EVERYBODY, you don’t want to party with ANYBODY.
As you know, I live in Iowa and tomorrow is the big caucus. Cami and I have both decided to caucus for Barack Obama. It’ll be our first time caucusing, but we felt it was too important to pass up. I vote in every election, but I’ve been more proactive this time around. I’m tired of sitting on my ass assuming things are going to shake out the way I hope they will.
Odd that we would get a babysitter so we could sit in a church and argue with people about politics on a Thursday night, but not get a babysitter so we could go out and ring in the new year. But something tells me this caucus is a little more important.
We actually went to an Obama rally here in Des Moines yesterday. We took Henry and he behaved great. I felt like I was doing something good for him. It was a good time.
I know none of this has anything to do with the comic or with movies, but now that the new year has begun, prestige pictures have all evaporated from the landscape. There’s certainly some catching up I have to do in terms of what I’ve seen and what I haven’t. But if the goal here is to be timely, I’m not going to talk about Atonement, three weeks past it’s release date in favor of uncovering the intricacies of the cell phone horror movie One Last Call.
A couple of guys that NEVER miss a movie are my good friends Gordon McAplin from Multiplex and Joe Dunn from Joe Loves Crappy Movies. After taking the holiday week off, the three of us are getting back together tonight for a live broadcast of The Triple Feature talkcast at Talkshoe, 9:00 PM CST. Tonight we’ll be talking about all the great holiday movies we’ve seen. So set your alarm and be sure to join us tonight at 9:00 PM CST! See you there!
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I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Jared is someone in the comic I like to characterize as keeping his lunacy just below the surface. He’s the guy who could snap at any moment, but he treats it like it’s common knowledge. It could all be a front, but you’re never quite sure. He’s kind of like Creed from The Office with the creepiness factor dialed down.
I kind of wanted to leave it open to interpretation in this strip as to whether Jared regularly packs heat when he goes to the theater or if this really was an accessory to his viewing of Punsiher: War Zone.
Truthfully, I just wanted another excuse to draw The Punisher’s death’s head symbol. It’s just so damn imposing. Probably one of the top 5 design choices in comics, if you ask me.
Reviews are starting to surface for Punisher: War Zone and the consensus is pretty much what you’d expect. It’s shot very well, but it’s violence and tone is repulsive. Read this review from Roger Ebert. It expertly describes what makes the movie difficult to endure, but it actually makes me want to see it more!
I feel a little bit guilty about this because I think the movie is pandering to it’s audience by making the violence so graphic and I’ve been totally suckered by it. Essentially, Punisher: War Zone is torture porn for the action movie crowd. For someone like myself who has been a vocal critic of films like Saw and Hostel, it’s completely hypocritical for me to be so excited about Punisher: War Zone.
I was sent a promotional link that I’m reluctant to share because it is VERY, VERY graphic and I try to keep things PG-13 around here. But I’ve pretty much endorsed the film anyway and the clip does a very good job of illustrating my point. What I’m linking to is basically the reddest of red band trailers. You will see people shot in the face, people whose head’s are blown clean from their bodies and critic blurbs that use four-letter words. In other words, if you are very young or you are accessing the site from work, THIS CLIP IS NOT FOR YOU!
If you’re old enough to vote and have a cast-iron stomach, you can the red, red, red band trailer for Punisher: War Zone here.
Punisher: War Zone was produced by Lionsgate and their name has been increasingly associated in my mind with producing schlockly, degrading, violent, lewd and offensive movies. They’ve made it their job to provoke people and some of it appeals to the lowest common denominator. There are high points. They producedBill Mahr’s Religulous andOliver Stone’sW. ealier in the year. But they also produced the aforementioned Saw and Hostel films as well as Transporter 3, Good Luck Chuck, Bratz: The Movie, Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector,Employee of the Month and Alone in the Dark.
I’m skewing things a little bit to bolster my argument. Actually, if you look over their history of films since they were formed in 1998, the studio has some Oscar and indiepedigree. Affliction, Buffalo 66, Gods and Monsters, Amores Perros, American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream, Shadow of the Vampire, Monster’s Ball, Fahrenheit 9/11, Crash. All I’m saying is in the last few years, they’y seem to be producing more dreck. Certainly other studios do the same, it just seems more pronounced to me with Lionsgate. Maybe it’s neither here nor there, but it’s something I’ve noticed.
To that end, I’ll probably see Punisher: War Zone on Saturday night. I would go tonight, but we’ll be out celebrating my father-in-law’s birthday. I’m really looking forward to taking a two year-old to a nice resturant an hour past his bedtime. Should be fun!
Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll see you here Monday!
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BUT WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SMELL-O-VISION?
July 23rd, 2003 | by Tom(9 votes, average: 7.56 out of 10)
Despite what the comic may suggest, I’m actually a big fan of the Spy Kids franchise. The latest offering (in theaters this Friday!) has me very excited. In case you didn’t know – it’s in 3-D.
I wish more films had gimmick’s like this. Sometimes I lament that I wasn’t born in the B-Movie era of the early 50’s. I would have loved to have been there in those specially themed movie houses, decorated like Aztec temples or and Amazon jungle to watch a Saturday afternoon serial with horrid production values. The movie theater experience these days is like lambs to the slaughter.
Look at me. Talkin’ about the “old days” like I was there, or something.
“Why, in my day, you could buy a loaf of bread, a pint of milk, a penny whistle and still have enough left over to see an Errol Flynn movie before catching the trolly back home!”
Feh!
I’ll be “out of the office” the rest of this week. I’m leaving for Las Vegas on Thursday and won’t be back until next Monday. I plan on having a kick ass time with my parents and Cami. We’re staying at Treasure Island, which has a pirate theme. So even if I lose all my money gambling, I still have pirates!
For those of worried about getting your regular TH fix this Friday and next Monday need not worry. I put out the call for guest strips and got some great stuff in return.
In fact, you guys – the fans – were SO enthusiastic, I received several guest strips from which to choose! How do I plan on solving the problem? By posting all throughout my vacation!
So that means, in addition to getting a comic on Friday and Monday, you can expect comics on Saturday and Sunday, too! Aren’t I nice?!
WHO are the artist penning these modern marvels of publishing history? You’ll just have to check in to find out! I’ll also be posting my blogs ahead of time in conjunction with the guest strips, so you have that to look forward to as well.
I may have a few other issues to tackle before the day is out, but I think this is good for now. Maybe in the meantime, you can show me some vote love over at TWC for taking such good care of you!