Posts Tagged ‘roller coaster’
2 items.
First off, let me say that this strip took FOREVER to figure out how to stage and draw. You think drawing a car is hard? Try drawing a roller coaster! Coloring and shading was no walk in the park, either. Especially that third panel! It was like doing everything backwards!
But I’m happy with the result.
I need to talk about something serious for a moment. It’s about the book pre-sale.
Here’s the thing: Sales are good, but there is information about this pre-sale that I haven’t shared with you. There are deadlines to consider and now it’s time to let those be known.
THE BOOK PRE-ORDER WILL END SUNDAY, JUNE 11.
Y’see, I’ll be attending Wizard World Chicago this year on August 4- 6 and I want to be sure and have copies of the book with me. In order to have the books printed up and delivered by August 1, the printer needs the artwork by June 11.
The reason for this pre-sale is to raise the money needed to pay the printer. In order to do that, a certain number of books need to be sold. As I said before, sales have been good but they’re not moving as fast as I need them to. Which brings me to my second point:
I NEED 240 MORE PRE-ORDERS BEFORE SUNDAY, JUNE 11.
The reason I didn’t mention the pre-sale deadline or the number of pre-orders I needed was because I didn’t want you guys to look at those figures and become complacent. I didn’t want you to look at those numbers and say "Oh, he’ll get what he needs before then. I’ll just wait until the book is published."
Don’t think like that. I need your help. Not to get over-dramatic, but the success of this book could seriously impact the future of Theater Hopper.
The goal with the first book was to raise enough money through pre-orders to pay for the cost of the total run. The profits of every book sold after that would go toward the production of the second book and so on. Thus shortening the length of the pre-order or eliminating it altogether for subsequent books. A snowball effect.
If I can’t get the first book off the ground, there is a strong likelihood that there won’t be a second book. I don’t want that to happen. Because if I’m incapable of getting a single book off the ground, then I need to re-examine how much time I’m dedicating to Theater Hopper. Say that out loud scares the crap out of me.
I don’t want to guilt you guys into buying the book. I realize that it’s tough to come up with the money for these things. I know most of you are in high school or college and you don’t have a lot of spare cash.
But it only takes a few of you to make a difference. Between 6,000 and 7,000 of you visit this site daily. All I need is for four percent of you to pre-order the book to make this a success. FOUR PERCENT! That’s nothing! I know you have it in you to help me.
Remember what you’re getting. 200 pages, full-color. 156 comics with brand new commentary. 11 guest strips. A 6-part crossover. An original signed and numbered sketch from me. A $20 Fandango.com gift certificate if you get 5 of your friends to pre-order along with you. Can you see that I’m serious about this? I need to make this happen. I need your help to do it.
PLEASE PLACE YOUR BOOK PRE-ORDER TODAY!
Cami and I will be gone from May 18 – 31. It would really help to ease my mind to know that before we left, the pre-orders would be complete and we can move forward. After nearly 4 years of continuous on-time and FREE content, this is the most important thing I can ask you to do for me in return.
Thank you.
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Is today’s comic a little bit of a cheat? Yeah, but I needed a break after drawing all that cray-zay coaster action on Wednesday. Plus, I thought it worked really well for the pacing. Really, I just like the idea of being a participant of a disaster, being stuck upside down and then casually suggesting Poseidon as an entertainment option.
From what I’ve read, Wolfgang Peterson’s remake moves along at a fairly brisk clip. The boat gets turned over somewhere around the 20 minute mark.. Some people have complained that the film doesn’t give you enough time to get to know the characters and therefore you’re not invested in their peril. I think that’s hogwash. I’m tired of bloated action pictures giving you every boring detail about a character to get you to care about them more. "She’s a mother of three AND she goes to night school! Will she make it home in time to protect her kids before the alien invasion!" Please. You know most of them are as good as dead anyway.
Peterson’s decision to forego the pleasantries is a good one. His directing style is less about people anyway. But the bigger reason is that the goal of these disaster movies is to put you beside the people in danger as you wrack you brain trying to figure out what YOU would do. At least, that’s my theory.
There was a strong outpouring of support from people after I announced the pre-order deadline of June 11 on Wednesday. Sincere thanks to all of you that placed an order. As you can see, the little meter below the comic has been updated. We’re getting close, but we still have a ways to go! As the bold, circled date on my calendar communicates, today is payday. So if you think you have a little money to spare, please pre-order the book. And remember – the faster we get your order, the faster you get your book!
There’s some great stuff happening in the Theater Hopper universe lately. I recently did an interview with Comixpedia – which was a big deal for me. Comixpedia sometimes gets flack for only being interesting to other web comics creators. I don’t think that’s true. I think they’ve made great strides – especially in the last 4 months – to make their magazine an essential resource for fans and creators alike. That’s why I was more than pleased to have been contacted by them to do an interview for their "movies issue." If you’d like to read it, click here for the full article.
Movies seem to be the topic-de-jour right now because I also have an interview in Zoinks Magazine that is coming out in June. I love Zoinks Magazine. These guys do a great job of promoting the web comic scene and doing it through a print magazine is an excellent way to spread the word to potential audiences who haven’t gotten into online comics yet. I should mention that my contribution to the issue besides the interview includes a sidebar about the movies I’m looking forward to seeing in ’06, a brand new illustration of the Theater Hopper cast, and I also contributed to the cover artwork along with Chris Cantrell from Please Rewind.
If you want to get your hands on this issue, you need to pre-order now. You don’t have get a full subscription (although I would highly recommend it). You can order one issue at a time if you want. If you haven’t read Zoinks, I suggest picking it up. It’s a really great publication.
A couple of more things I need to mention:
Today will be the last comic you see from me in a while. Cami and I will be going on vacation on Thursday and we won’t be back until May 30. I have a bunch of great guest comics lined up for you over the next three weeks. I haven’t lined up the itinerary yet, so be sure to come back on Monday to see if your favorite web comic artist is contributing the the mayhem. A lot of very talented artists sent in some GREAT work, so you’ll want to be sure and check it out.
Once I get back from vacation, I will be attending the Iowa I-Con comic book convetion on June 10 at the Polk County Convention Center in Des Moines, Iowa. Incidentally, one day before the book pre-order deadline! It’s $5.00 at the door and they’ll be open from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.I will have a bunch of shirts and posters for sale and will be doing sketches for anyone who wants one.
I’ve been trying to go to I-Con for the last two years. But it seems like every time it’s going on, I have to be out of town for one reason or another! It’s nice to finally be able to attend a convention in my own backyard.
By the way, if any of you out there have exhibited at conventions before, I’m looking to upgrade the quality of my booth presentation. I want to build some kind of PVC display area that can go behind the table. Stuff I can hang banners and t-shirts from. If you guys have any insight on how I could assemble something like that, let me know!
At any rate, that’s the news that’s fit to print. Thanks again to everyone who has pre-ordered a book. Keep ’em comin’! We’ll make it to our goal in no time!
Have a great weekend!
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