Posts Tagged ‘respect’
4 items.
I want to remind everyone that we’re still offering incentives for your vote at BuzzComix. Just click on that link to take a look at the extra sketch created for the promotion.
Along Came Polly was number one at the box office this weekend. It took a pretty big haul – a little over $27 million. I’ll admit, it looked interesting to me at first. But then I sat back and thought about it. Ben Stiller has played the “neurotic-guy-looking-for-love-and-confronts-his-fears” character in romantic comedies too many times. There’s only so many ways you can devise to humiliate and mortify this archetype on screen. Frankly, it’s old hat.
Everyone knows that Stiller has the chops to do something more. Reality Bites, Permanent Midnight and The Royal Tenenbaums are all proof of that. So why go slumming in these sitcom-level features? And if you’re going to do a movie for a paycheck, why not switch it up a bit?
I feel bad for Jennifer Aniston. Another great talent – comic timing you could set your watch by. But from the reviews I’ve read, it sounds like she’s stuck in another thankless girlfriend role. When you consider Bruce Almighty, Rock Star and Office Space, she’s racking up a gnarly little streak, too.
Some of you might have noticed that the forums have been reinstalled. Well, they’re not in full-swing just yet. I’ve decided to hold off on that until I can make a few more tweaks.
Something about the old forum that really kind of burned me was that I couldn’t get it to look anything like the rest of the site. I’ve tried monkeying around with the administration controls, but I can’t get the level of customization that I’m after. From the looks of things, I need to lay out my own version of the forum complete with the background images and color schemes that I want. Trouble is, I’m not sure how to do that without rendering the whole thing inoperable.
That’s why I’m putting out the call to you guys. I need someone with PHPBB2 experience – to help me whip this thing into shape. If you have experience with your own forum or know someone who does, please referr them to me. I would be interested in talking to them.
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GRR!
Okay, I had written this huge, long blog post about today’s comic, but Firefox totally crashed on me and I lost it!
I’m too disheartened to try and rewrite the whole thing, so I’ll give you the bullet points:
- I was paranoid about doing a straight-up movie parody because I often feel that a Theater Hopper character should narrate the action in order to keep it grounded in the Theater Hopper universe. In this instance, adding Jared or Tom would have ruined the pacing and, plus, I wanted more room to draw Hellboy and Abe Sapien. I know this is not important to anyone else.
- I am aware that Hellboy is not actually 60 years old, that he ages differently than humans and is technically a teenager. But I maintain that watching Ron Perlman chug Tecate, smoke stogies and wield firearms kind of kills the whole “teenage” vibe. Also, what teenager would tolerate being called “boy” I think the joke still works.
- I kind of forgot how excited I was to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Despite its pacing problems, I loved the original Hellboy and held my breath for a sequel. Now that it’s here, I kind of neglected the hype, but am very excited to check it out on Friday!
So, there you have it. The Cliff’s Notes version of today’s blog. The original was much more elloquent. But you know how it goes when you lose an e-mail or an essay or whatever. It’s like your computer broke your heart. You need a little distance.
Stoopid com’pooter.
Have a great Wednesday, everyone!
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Today’s comic is as much about comic Tom slapping Jared for a terrible joke as it is about real-life Tom slapping himself for not coming up with a better one.
I don’t mean to be overtly critical of myself. I’m just explaining the genesis of today’s comic. Sitting around, staring into space and trying to come up with a joke about Shutter Island is no small task.
The marketing for the film has done a very good job of obscuring exactly what about Shutter Island makes it so terrifying. From what I can gather, it’s about the criminally insane, twisted experiments and some kind of psychological time bomb Leonard DiCaprio has roiling under the surface as he tries to solve a missing person case. But beyond that, I can’t connect the dots.
Added to this, Martin Scorsese directed it. Certainly the man is not above making mistakes (Kundun, anyone?) but the man gets a pass on his name alone. Scorsese lives and breathes film and it is evident in his work. It’s a rare treat to watch a film maker whose love of movie transcends money or art. Watching Scorsese’s films, you get the distinct feeling that he tells these stories because he has to. For that alone, I’ll watch anything he directs.
So how do you make fun of a movie you know nothing about directed by an auteur you greatly admire? Like I said, no small task. When the chips are down, just have your characters slap each other silly!
What do you guys make of Shutter Island? Are you excited to see it? Does it concern you at all that the film is being released in the dead-zone traditionally known as February? Would it encourage you to learn that Scorsese picked this weekend on purpose after DiCaprio’s availability pushed the film past awards season?
It was 19 years ago this weekend that Silence of The Lambs was released. If you recall, it did pretty well at the Oscars. It was the last film to earn all 5 major awards – Best Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay and Film.
I’m skeptical that Shutter Island can repeat the same feat, but I’m excited to watch Scorsese slip on his horror boots again. If it’s anything like his last foray into the genre – 1991’s Cape Fear – then we’re in good hands.
Leave your thoughts about Shutter Island in the comments below!
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It’s not common for Tom to show this much responsibility, forethought and restraint. But when it comes to ceremony and tradition, he’s a total pro.
Hey. Funny story! Remember last week when I was all “Hey, guys! I have seven comics left to produce to wrap up Theater Hopper by the end of the year, so there are going to be weeks with double comics?”
So I made that announcement and then my hosting provider decided, “Nope.” The site was down for three and a half days.
I never really got a good reason as to why the site was down, which was frustrating. But I’m not sure if I would have understood anyway. All I cared was getting it back up in time to get these comics published.
When I shared news of the site being down on Facebook, one of my readers suggested it was the universe’s way of telling me not to end the comic. I mean, how do you contend with THAT?
WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, UNIVERSE!?
At any rate, here’s the first comic of the week. I have another comic inked and will hopefully have it posted tomorrow or Wednesday. I have a third comic that’s been penciled, but not inked that I want to have out there by Friday.
After that… I’m a little afraid. Friday is my birthday. I work on Saturday from 11 to 6. I have social commitments on Sunday. Then there’s Christmas and Christmas Eve. That means there won’t be a lot of time to prepare the two comics I hope to publish next week. One of them in particular I want to post on Christmas. It would be a nice bit of synchronicity. But we’ll have to see if I can carve out some time to do it.
We’re racing toward the finish line, folks. Thanks for your patience after last week’s downtime. Keep a close eye on the site for the next few weeks. LOTS happening!
See you again soon!
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