Posts Tagged ‘scared’
6 items.
You’re going to get a lot more out of today’s strip if you have either seen or are a fan of Monsters, Inc. Remember: A child’s touch is toxic to monsters!
IMHO, it was an utter travesty that Monsters, Inc. was beaten out by Shrek for the Academy’s first Best Animated Picture Oscar last year. I’ll bet my life savings that 20 years from now we’ll still curl up on the couch to watch Monsters, Inc. over Mike Myers and his overplayed Scottish brogue.
I was hoping to try something different with the strip and go at it without dialogue. I was curious to see if I could pitch a small story-arc without words. I think for the most part it succeeds. Sometimes it’s good to stretch creative muscles you don’t utilize all that often.
I bought Kingdom Hearts on Wednesday and have had a hell of a time getting it to work on my Playstation 2. I could hear the disk whirring and clicking from inside the machine, but the game would never boot up.
Well, finally – after hours and hours of attempts, I got it up and running tonight. Of course, by the time it was working, I had to sit down and do the strip for today. Right now, the game has been paused and will have to wait until late tomorrow before I can play it. I spent so much time getting the thing up and running, I’m too terrified to shut it off.
Big-ups to Syrath in the forums for suggesting I buy a lens-cleaning CD-ROM and my good buddy Jared for providing an extra one he had lying around the house.
I’d like to rant more, but to paraphrase Zach over at No Pants Tuesday, it’s late and I’m tired. Go sleepy now.
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Today’s blog will be uncharacteristically short for once. If only because there’s very little I can add to the comments I’ve made so far about X-Men 2.
All I know is that everyone in my circle of friends is still talking about it. “Did you see it?” “What did you think?” I’ve also been getting my fair share of e-mail pointing out that Gambit was indeed in the movie. Apparently a file on the Cajun appears when Mystique (disguised as Lady Deathstrike) is looking up file information on Magneto. I must be slipping in my old age because I totally missed it.
While I have your attention, can I ask you to vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics. Please remember to do it everyday. I’m just kind of hovering around 18 on the list and want to see if I can crack into the inner sanctum a little further. Many thanks!
Other notes of interest.
I watched the MTV Icon Award ceremony for Metallica tonight fully expecting it to suck. I was pleasantly surprised to see the boys still have their chops. It gives me hope for their new album and makes me want to dig out all the old ones.
Of course, right now, I’m swimming in the deep end of audio bliss. The White Stripes new album “Elephant” is totally kicking my ass. It’s a little more rockin’ then their last one. Actually, you can consider it a return to form if you compare it to their earlier works. It’s very good.
I’ll be back later with more news.
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For today’s incentive sketch, I tried to draw the poster for The Bourne Supremacy from memory. It didn’t turn out very well. The perspective is off and I’ve got some kind of contortionist thing going on with the way I have the character holding the stock of the gun.
Now the question is, are you going to vote to support Theater Hopper, or are you going to vote to see how badly I screwed up? 
I’m excited to see The Bourne Supremacy. The trailer released months ago sold me on it. I like the idea of a man on the run taking it straight to the front step of his pursuers. The whole “Where is he?” “Right next to you.” moment is a great cliffhanger. I’d pay the price of admission just to watch the five minutes after that revelation.
So I’m already amped to see Matt Damon portray Jason Bourne again, but I think I raised the bar a little when Cami and I decided to rent The Bourne Identity earlier this week. Can you believe we hadn’t seen this film up until now?
I guess when I looked at Identity, I saw all of these European locations and immediate thought of that OTHER Matt Damon identity/trashing about Europe flick, The Talented Mr. Ripley. I knew one film had nothing to do with the other, but I didn’t much care for Ripley and I think that’s what was keeping me away.
Still, if Supremacy is even half as good as Identity, I think we’re in for a treat. It’s like a James Bond movie without all the gimmicks. Bond is a comic book character. Bourne is rooted more in reality.
I have some other thoughts that I’ll be back with soon, but in the meantime, please visit our newest advertiser Hejhox. You gotta give points to a comic as creatively titled as that. Plus it’s funny! Tell them I sent you.
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Today’s incentive sketch will be sure to enthrall no one.
It had been a little while since we last saw Victor and he wasn’t really used to much effect. I thought it might be time to bring him back. I’m really happy with him as a character from a conceptual standpoint and I think there is a lot that can be done with him.
You’ll notice that Victor received a bit of a physical upgrade since his last appearance. What can I say? He’s been hitting the gym hard.
Actually, part of the change was due to the fact that I couldn’t really remember how I drew him originally and suck when it comes to consistency. But once I made him a bit bulkier and more intimidating, I kind of liked the look. One could perhaps also argue that it’s just the way Tom sees him. But that’s probably getting a little more metaphysical than we need to.
I am happy to report that progress on the Theater Hopper: Year One book is coming along swimmingly. Cami recently finished proof reading the first draft and I am now going back in to correct spelling errors, typos and broad generalizations that she thought might offend people. Saucy!
I am also happy to report that I have finished penciling and inking the cover for the book – a first draft of which can be viewed here.
The polished inks look a lot better than this. I’m really happy with how it turned out. I need to start assembling things in Photoshop, but before I start to fill anything in, I want to try and get my hands on this book. I think it might have a lot of insight into helping me make this special. I really want the artwork to jump out at you and coloring is one area of my skill set that I find a little deficient.
Now all I need is to get a little money so I can buy the book!
Something else I want to clue you guys in on: I’ll be selling two new shirt designs VERY SOON – except I’m having a little trouble deciding on the colors. You can view the color samples in the THorum here. If you’d like to leave an opinion about which color scheme you think is best, register for an account and let me know! Or, if you’re not into the whole online community thing, send me an e-mail. I’d love to hear your feedback.
I have a bunch of exciting projects lined up right now and I’m very pumped about working on all of them. I think the little mini-vacation I took on Friday did me some good. The book and the t-shirt designs are things I’ve been working on for a while. Doing that in addition to the strip three times each week really wore me down. Drawing today’s strip, though… I really enjoyed doing it again.
Sometimes you just need to take a little breather before jumping back into the marathon!
Thanks, guys!
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Mar20
GUEST STRIP – MIKE MORGAN
March 20th, 2006 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(5 votes, average: 7.60 out of 10)
Greetings, campers and happy Monday!
Today’s comic comes from Mike Morgan. Or, as I’ve come to know him in the THorum, KiltyAsCharged (great name). Mike has his own comic called The Vinyl Groove that I think all of you should check out. I dig Mike’s style. It’s very relaxed and almost painterly. Like watercolors. Am I making sense?
Mike actually sent me a guest strip to use a while ago, but it didn’t work out for me to place it on the front page. It was sort of timely and I had basically finished running, like, three weeks of guest strips and I needed to get back in the swing of things. I put that comic in the fan art section and you can check it out here.
Although the ads in the THorum are advertising it non stop, I know very little about Silent Hill. Neither the movie or the video game it’s based off of. I guess I’ve seen the trailer and I like it’s atmospheric bent. But I probably won’t see the film because I’m not much for horror.
I dunno? What do you guys think? Are you going to see it? Maybe you should talk about it here…
I’ll catch up with you guys soon. Have a great week!
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I was sitting around last night thinking about the juxtaposition between Clint Eastwood’s fuzzy, feel-good, “Hey, you’re gonna die, but it’s okay” Hereafter and the money-grubbing “INVISIBLE DEMONS ARE EATING YOUR BABY” Paranormal Activity 2 and felt that it was a potential comedic goldmine.
So I wrote this comic, penciled it, inked it, colored it, added shading and lettering… and then became immediately self-conscious about the punchline. In not fishing for compliments or anything. I’m just pointing out the weird tinge of instant regret I experienced after uploading the comic. Usually the anxiety needs a little time to marinate first.
I don’t feel too bad about the comic, though. Because the original punchline was Tom bolting upright from a bad dream in the fourth panel – and I’ve done THAT joke to death. So instead of doing what was safe and predictable, I decided it was okay to throw logic out the window (So, wait. Cami’s not a demon, then?)
And besides. I just really like the pie punchline.
As far as the movies themselves go, I really have no interest in seeing either of them.
Hereafter seems like Eastwood’s attempt at confronting his own mortality. Based on reviews, it kind of sounds like he failed the test by making a film with a sappy “I’m okay, you’re okay, you’re never alone message.” I don’t fault him for it. I think that’s exactly the kind of message an octogenarian would WANT to promote. It brings comfort.
But I don’t buy it.
Maybe experience hasn’t beaten cynicism out of me yet. But sometimes death is abrupt, meaningless and confusing. Frankly, whenever you try to attach religious dogma to death in an effort to explain it, you’re not really addressing the absurdity of it.
Maybe I should reserve judgment until I see the movie. Maybe Peter Morgan’s script answers some of those concerns. I don’t know. But based on what I’ve seen of the film and the reviews I’ve read so far, it doesn’t sound like something I’m ideologically aligned with.
Paranormal Activity 2 was the big box office winner this weekend, taking in $41.5 million. I never saw the original because I TOTALY buy into the conceit that your mind can always come up with something far more terrifying than a filmmaker could ever show. The original Paranormal Activity – with it’s locked-down, single camera aesthetic – played that to the hilt.
From the sound of it, Paranormal Activity 2 didn’t fall into the same trap that Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows fell into. But at the same time, I’m wondering why Hollywood can’t leave well enough alone.
Part of the reason the original Paranormal Activity did so well because was because of the innovation it inspired due to a limited budget. Unknown actors, minimal effects, AMAZING concept and execution. Hollywood should be making more films like this rather than repackaging experiences we’re already familiar with.
I understand that making movies requires a large investment and producers are looking for a sure thing to recoup any potential financial losses. But creativity doesn’t grow when you do the same thing over and over again.
Look at me. Should I have used a tired “startled awake from a dream” punchline that I’ve used a dozen times before or a zinger from out of left-field about pie?
On second thought, that’s not a very good example.
Did anyone see Paranormal Activity 2 or Hereafter2 this weekend? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!
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