Posts Tagged ‘resolution’
4 items.
This blog was lost in The Great Server Crash of January 2004. These blogs are automatically generated by a PHP script operating through the site. It takes my words and translates them into HTML before saving them to the server. Due to an internal error caused by my hosting provider, this blog was lost before I had a chance to save a hard copy to my machine at home.
One thing is for certain, though. It was likely insightful AND hilarious!
Please enjoy the rest of the archives…
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So today is the last day of 2004. And, as one would stand to reason, this is the last Theater Hopper comic of 2004. I love it when these little milestones occur. It’s just so… tidy.
I got the idea for today’s comic from href=”http://www.theaterhopper.com/thorum/”>the THorum where we actually discussed the Worst Movie of the Year. I had chosen Super Babies: Baby Geniuses 2 as my contender for the title, even though I admitted I hadn’t seen the movie.
The resulting discussion got me thinking. I’ll spare you the details of the actual conversation. It’s all archived in the THorum for you to read at your leisure.
Anyway, the conversation got me thinking. Here I was, unobjectively labeling this movie as the worst of the year, but essentially talking out of my butt having not seen it. I was reminded of more politically charged climate earlier in the year and all of the critics who were shouting down Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 9/11 without seeing one frame of celluloid.
Obviously comparing Fahrenheit 9/11 to Baby Geniuses 2 is a bit like comparing apples and oranges, but it’s the attitudes about the film I am dissecting.
I don’t know. I really don’t have anything deep to go into here. Just random thoughts about how media and perception shape our opinions. Frankly, it’s all so unimportant to close the year with. I have headier matters to tackle.
If you’ve noticed a pensive tone in today’s comic, that’s intentional. I also felt a dash of the romantic was in order. Such is the coming of the New Year. The opportunity for change can be both terrifying and exciting.
You’ll be seeing some changes to Theater Hopper starting next Monday, January 3, 2005. This is a bit of advanced warning.
Basically I’ve decided to change how I approach creating the comic every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In August of 2005 I will have been doing this for 3 years. It’s time to stop flying by the seat of my pants when it comes to this stuff and take my preparation a little more seriously.
I know you guys aren’t aware of the behind-the-scenes stuff or the effort that goes into the comic. But it’s surprisingly little. I’m usually coming up with gags the day I sit down to draw the comic.
Instead of being strictly a gag strip, I’ve decided to push Theater Hopper and its characters into deeper waters. I’ve found the topical aspects of the comic help to keep it timely, but that timeliness has a shelf life. I mean, has anyone cared about my opinions on Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets since I did a strip on it in November 2002?
I’ve found that the best feedback I’ve received has been for the slower-paced character development arcs. When I undertook the month long exploration into Jimmy becoming unemployed, it really struck a nerve. People wanted to see more of that and I knew it was the direction I needed to go.
The objective is to make the characters more human, more relatable. And not just these talking heads when it comes to pop culture. I want them to become something more than a filter for me to pass my opinions though. I want you to actually care about them.
For those of you that are worried about all this talk of new directions, please take comfort in knowing that Theater Hopper will still take place in the world surrounding movies and pop culture. It will just have less to say about the specific details.
For those of you who are worried we’re going to go all serious on you, don’t be. I still plan on batting Ben Affleck around from time to time.
The idea is to move away from comics that specifically reference “Movie X” or “Movie Y” coming out onto DVD and instead plotting out longer story lines in advance.
Next Monday, I’ll be introducing an all-new original character to the cast. Her name is Charlie and she’s a rival from Cami’s past. Her introduction will signal the new beginning of Theater Hopper.
New Year. New Beginning. See you Monday.
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Here it is, the fist comic of 2006, and I’m late with the blog. Not a good way to kick things off, is it? Well, if it makes you feel any better, I feel torn up inside about it. Check out my Webcomics List incentive sketch if you don’t believe me!
Incidentally, after being asleep at the switch throughout the month of December, it looks like they finally reset the vote counts. We’re at number three as of the authoring of this blog. Let’s see if we can’t reclaim the top spot with totalitarian fury!
I haven’t had a chance to see Brokeback Mountain yet, but I’ve seen the trailer. I’ve mentioned it before – that line that Jake Gyllenhall’s character yells to Heath Ledger – "I wish I knew how to quit you!" Totally removed from context like that, it’s one of the greatest, most quotable, unintentionally hilarious line deliveries next to James Van Der Beek’s twangy "I don’t want… yer life!" from Varsity Blues. At any rate, I’ve been struggling to find a way to incorporate it into the strip and I think I finally found a situation where it made sense. I’m happy with how this comic turned out.
I’ve read articles about the line. I guess they say people have been laughing about it in theaters. But, at the same time, if people are talking about it – that’s a good thing, right? At least they aren’t ignoring it completely.
Cami and I both have an interest in the film. I want to see what all the hub-bub is about. It looks as though it’s been positioned as the big Oscar contender in a year rife with lightweights. I think Cami wants to watch it for hot man-on-man action.
Yes, I am being sarcastic.
We were hoping to see the movie today, but it doesn’t look like it’s showing yet in our area. We’ll probably see The Producers instead – despite the fact that we’ve already seen the Broadway show and heard the filmed version is as if they took a camera and pointed it at the stage. No one I know is talking about The Producers. I think it was a big mistake for them to open on Christmas Day. Apparently that was Mel Brooks decision. He didn’t want to compete with King Kong. Yeah… ‘cuz, you know… they’re like EXACTLY the same movie. I love Mel Brooks, but sometimes I feel like he doesn’t know when to quit. I was watching History of the World: Part I on AMC over the weekend and I was laughing my ass off. I don’t know if the filmed version of a musical that was a film 30 years ago is going to do the trick. I mean, I enjoyed the stage version when I saw it. But isn’t it kind of like Xeroxing a Xerox?
I guess my parents saw it a week ago and really liked it. But they go to about 5 movies a year, so their rating scale is skewed a little differently. Oh, well. It has Will Ferrell in it. And that’s like throwing in catnip when it comes to my comedic sensibilities. What can I say? Ferrell is my kryptonite!
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It’s a new year and, as you may have noticed, there is a new coat of paint on the old joint. Welcome to the all-new Theater Hopper!
People who know me are aware that I’ve been kicking around the idea for a redesign probably since last October. At least, that’s when I started working on it. I’ve probably have ideas or at least loose sketches lying about since early last year! But, of course, life gets in the way, you self-publish a couple of books and, well… where does the time go?
Part of the goal behind redesigning the site was purely cosmetic. As you can see, I’ve widened the content area of the site to a little over 900 pixels wide. My counter statistics were telling me that the majority of you were viewing the site at 1024 x 768. So many of you were, in fact that the two resolutions below it (800 x 600 and 640 x 420) COMBINED couldn’t compare. To me, that’s a lot of wasted real estate. Especially considering that those of you viewing the site at a resolution LARGER than 1024 x 768 outnumber those below that resolution by a margin of nearly 3 to 1.
That’s kind of technical. And I’m getting away from my point.
The other goal behind the redesign was to get the site to a point where it could kind of generate it’s own activity and help maintain traffic flow. As you may recall, Cami and I are having a baby in February. Clearly my resources will need to be dedicated to my family at that time. But I also didn’t want to abandon the site or come back to comics faced with the challenge of rebuilding what I had lost.
To that end, we have introduced several new features!
First is the Mailing List. Sign up and I’ll be sure to notify you every time the comic updates. This is a great little reminder in case you don’t check the site every day. Don’t worry, I’m not going to spam ya’. It’s just a little extra customer service on our end!
Second is the “Mail This Comic to a Friend” feature. This is so those of you who are already fans of the comic can help me spread the good word. It’s a very easy e-mail form that lets you include a message along with the link to the specific comic you’re referencing and a great way to tell people about that HILARIOUS Theater Hopper strip you read today without having to open your mail client!
Third is the excellent “Rate This Comic” feature. (I’m really thrilled about this one.) It’s simple – just navigate yourself to the comic you want to rank, click on the link and place your vote on a scale of 1 to 5. This is a great piece of instant feedback that I can use to figure out what you guys like to see in the comic! Eventually, once we’ve collected enough votes, we’re going to post a link to a Top 50 page so you can see the most popular Theater Hopper strips of all time!
Again, this will be a great advantage to bringing new readers to the site. Instead of seaching through the archives as a means to being introduced to the site, they can check out the Top 50 page and see if there is anything to their linking! Hopefully, with your feedback, we can hook ’em and bring new readers to the site!
Last, but not least, we are introducing a brand new Commenting feature in the blogs. Now you can leave INSTANT feedback for each of the comics and the individual blogs. This is a major coup for me. For a while now, I’ve been posting a lot over on my LiveJournal page. Mostly because I enjoy the feedback I get from the readers. I thought to myself “Why can’t I have something like this for Theater Hopper?” So, with a little help, we brought the feature to the site! My goal is to post more often to this space and really bring the blog back to the foreground again.
This feature will be great for people who want to leave feedback about the comics who might be a little intimidated by sending an e-mail or joining the THorum Of course, my hope is that if you’re posting, you have a strong enough investment in what’s being communicated to return to the site more often to see how others have responded to what you’ve left behind!
There are also some smaller touches we’ve added to the site including a the weekend box office office estimates for the Top Five films of the week, courtesy of Box Office Mojo as well as a few new pages that haven’t been added to the site yet – permanent homes for information about the history of the site, the cast, my contact information, press I’ve done and which conventions I’ll be appearing at. You’ll see announcements about these new areas as they are added!
Also be sure to check out the new store! All of your favorite goodies are there, but we’re streamlining the ordering process and also adding a permanent section that allows you to bundle different items together at a reduced cost! That’ll be the first part of the site besides the home page to be up on two feet in the very near future.
If you guys are feeling up to it, I would love for you to take advantage of the commenting feature to get your thoughts about the new site design. Test things out. Play with it a little bit. I’ll be making changes and additions to the site all month and I would love to get your opinion about what we can do better.
With all of that said, I need to take a special time out and call attention to all of the help I’ve been given by a wonderful guy – Dave Buist, creator of the online comic Taking the Bi-Pass.
Dave has been an invaluable resource to me over the past month. He’s the guy that actually wrote the code for all of these wonderful applications. He helped me out immensely by creating databases to manage everything and he did it with great enthusiasm and efficiency. Often times, Dave went above and beyond creating features for the site that I hadn’t even considered.
As a small token of my thanks, I have attached a permanent link in the footer of the site to give credit to Dave for his enormous contribution to the site. Without him, none of this would be possible. Please show your support for Dave’s hard work by visiting Taking the Bi-Pass, bookmarking it and adding it to your weekly reads! Thanks, Dave!
That about does it for now – although I’m sure more will come up later. Again, take a look around, rank your favorite comics (use the archive search function if you need to!), leave comments and let all of your friends know about the exciting changes happening to the site.
2007 is going to be better than ever!
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