Posts Tagged ‘Taking the Bi-Pass’
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Quick note: Everyone head over to Taking the Bi-Pass to see a great Theater Hopper cameo!
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While I was mentioning anniversaries in Wednesday’s blog, someone pointed out to me one that I missed. Taking the Bi-Pass recently celebrated it’s 100th strip, and I feel like a jerk for leaving them out because Dave is a friend of the site. He’s done guest strips for us and is an all-around rockin’ Canadian. Wish him well on his accomplishment!
And while we’re still on the subject of anniversaries, I thought I would mention that today is the 4 year anniversary of my marriage with Cami. I can’t believe it’s been 4 years. It certainly hasn’t felt that long.
We’re keeping our celebrations simple for tonight. A quiet dinner for two, staring into each other’s eyes and whatnot. The real celebration comes 3 weeks from now when we go to Las Vegas – our anniversary gift to each other.
I love you, Cami!
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Jul18
GUEST STRIP – DAVE BUIST
July 18th, 2005 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(5 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10)
I know you guys were probably planning on a new comic from me today since that what I’ve been promoting since last week. But the move to our new house took more out of me than I anticipated and I have the Web Comic List incentive sketch to prove it!
Basically after five days of picking up heavy things and putting them down again, my hands are totally wrecked – not to mention the rest of my body.
It wasn’t just the physical move that screwed me up, but all of the little things you need to take care of as soon as you walk in the door. Installing the mailbox. Hooking up the washer and dryer. Reassembling furniture. Let me tell you – If I don’t see another cardboard box, hammer, screwdriver or flight of stairs in the next two weeks, it’ll be too soon!
My hands are in really weird shape at the moment because I think all the gripping I’ve done has screwed up the tendons in my thumbs. They’re very tight. It’s like my thumbs want to fold in and lay flush against my palm. Nevermind the inch-long blister on the underside of my index finger I got from using a lousy mallet to pound a stake. Or the dozen or so gashes across my knuckles from scraping them across door frames while carrying furniture…
Not to sound like a big crybaby, but holding a pencil isn’t the most comfortable feeling for me right now. Plus, just getting things set up in the house so we can find them when we need to go back to work on Monday… guys, I’m just drained.
Anyway, the plan is to go back to work on Monday and hopefully start to slip back into a groove. I would like to have a new comic ready for you on Wednesday. Partially because – as a means to escape, Cami and I saw both Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers this weekend and I have ideas. The other half of this ambition is to get back into the habit of drawing so I don’t get rusty.
Switching gears, someone who certainly ISN’T rusty is Dave Buist, the nice gentleman who provided today’s guest strip!
Dave is actually the first person to do a guest strip for Theater Hopper ever! Normally that kind of thing would reside in the Bonus Materials thing – but lazy me, I haven’t set it up since I redesigned the site back in April. It never ends, folks.
At any rate, I thought Dave’s guest strip was very timely considering Charlie’s $50+ take at the box office this weekend. It would be a shame to waste it. Extra points for getting Jared into an Oompa-Loompa costume!
Dave has a comic called Taking the Bi-Pass that you guys should check out. It’s really great and has only gotten better with age. It’s been a lot of fun for me personally to watch Dave develop as an artist and storyteller. As I recall, Dave didn’t even have a full-time web comic until after he did his guest strip for me. So we kind of have a cool link that way. Check out his site!
Another site you should check out it is Farawayistan, our newest advertiser. The comic is kind of hard to explain, but they’re kind of single-panel non sequiturs. Fans of White Ninja Comics will probably find something to appreciate here. Tell ’em Tom sentcha!
A quick note of apology to all of the creators who had guest strips running last week without blogs telling everyone where to check out their regular strips! I had a bunch of pre-written blogs in the database, but an incorrect timecode (my fault!) prevented them from displaying. The blogs have since been re-instated and the links to the individual creators sites are functional. I suggest everyone click back a few comics in the archive and read up on these talented blokes!
I think I’m going to close for now because I need to get to bed. But I wanted to remind everyone that I will be at Wizard World Chicago this year August 4 – 7 hanging out with a bunch of my web comic buddies on Artist’s Alley. Click here for more information. I plan on promoting this pretty much every time I write a new blog, so I’m trying to get into the habit now. ;D
Talk to you all again soon!
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Wanted to tip you guys off to some good links worth checking out.
First, be sure to visit our newest sponsor Chuck & Elmo. It’s a fun comic and features characters who can talk to squirrels! How can it fail?
Also be sure to check out Taking the Bi-Pass. My good friend Dave is helping to do some coding work on the site right now and I wanted to repay him with some advertising. It was an easy decision to make since I’ve been a fan of Dave’s comic since he started. It’s very good. ENJOY IT!
Lastly, if you’re a gamer, you’re probably familiar with the whole debacle that has pitted Florida lawyer Jack Thompson against seminal gaming web comic Penny Arcade. If you are unfamiliar, the story is probably way to long to go into here.
But at any rate, if you’re following along, my good friend Monk over at Digital Entertainment News scored quite the "get" and was able to sit down with Mr. Thompson for an extended interview.
The interview doesn’t cover the controversy with Penny Arcade, but covers some of the finer details of Jack’s arguments against the gaming industry and it’s marketing practices. Typically Thompson’s bombastic tactics and palpable contempt for his adversaries obscure the work he’s actually trying to accomplish. This interview does a good job of pulling back the veneer and gets to the heart of what motivates this guy to tackle the billion dollar gaming industry head-on.
So it’s clear, I’m not a fan of Jack Thompson. I think he’s a huckster of the highest order. An ambulance chaser building notoriety for himself by standing a top the corpses of violence and somehow trying to tie it to the gaming industry.
But at the same time, I am very much interested in understanding the mechanics of my enemy. I think too many people see Jack’s action as an assault against their pastime – and it is! But instead of shouting the guy down or making fun of him outright, try for a minute to crawl inside his head space. Figure out what makes him tick. What are his motivations?
An interview like this helps to do that.
If you’re a gamer and this issue is of interest to you, please read. If motivated to do so, please share it with others. Thanks.
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Hey, guys. Dave from Taking the Bi-Pass gave me a head’s up that he’s got a storyline going on at the moment where Tom meets up with the TtB-P gang at the movie theater.
It’s always fun to see these kind of cameo’s. It’s like the Laff-O-Lympics, or something!
Check out Taking the Bi-Pass today for all that cameo goodness!
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For those of you who are regular readers to the site, the name David Buist should be a familiar one to you. In addition to writing and drawing the excellent web comic Taking the Bi-Pass, David is also the author of several of the ultra-cool applications running on this very site. The Top 50 list, the blog comments and the movie review database (currently being refurbished to fit the new design scheme). David has a generous spirit beyond compare and I can’t thank him enough for everything he’s given to Theater Hopper. Help me return the favor to David by bookmarking Taking the Bi-Pass and checking his site every day. It’s worth it. Trust me.
Incidentally, David will be a parent as well in a few months. So, in addition to returning the favor on the guest comic rounds, we’ll probably be up IM’ing each other late at night trading child-rearing tips and figuring out how we can get our respective tots off to sleep. Congrats, David!
In addition to David’s strip today, you guys will want to take a break from your Valentine’s Day activities on Wednesday to check the site for a guest essay written by none other than Jerry Holkins from Penny Arcade.
I’ve been teasing Jerry’s contribution for about a week now, but it’s time to come clean. I don’t want to lay all the cards out on the table just yet. I need something to talk about on Wednesday! But I think you’ll all get a real kick out of Jerry’s work. It speaks directly toward the themes of fatherhood, responsibility and – yes – even movies. And isn’t that what this whole month has been about?
Of course, on Friday, there will be another original strip from me (about Ghost Rider, natch) but I have a feeling it’s going to be a pretty hard act to follow.
What’s up in movie land? Well, Eddie Murphy’s Norbit was number one at the box office this weekend blowing away it’s nearest competition Hannibal Rising by more than double it’s take. $33 million in three days? Seriously – what’s wrong with America?
All I can say is that I hope the payday was worth it for Murphy. Despite Roger Ebert’s endorsement for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, there is palpable public sentiment that he doesn’t deserve it (NSFW!). Couple this with the projects he’s lining up post-Norbit (like a FOURTH Beverly Hills Cop) and you can pretty much categorize Murphy as artistically bankrupt.
In other more… depressing news?… Cami and I watched Half Nelson last night. I was able to get my hands on a screener copy before it comes out on DVD Tuesday. We were both curious to see it because it was a blip on our radar when it was in theaters last year and because Ryan Gosling is the dark horse contender in the Best Actor race this year. It was well worth the viewing, I must share. The subject matter appears to be both rote and bleak when read from the page. It’s the story of a inner-city history teacher (Gosling) who through his own unique perspective gets his students to think for themselves. This sounds like territory previously mined from Dangerous Minds or more recently Freedom Writers. But there’s a twist. Gosling has a dingy apartment and a nasty drug habit and one of his students finds out.
Everything that happens from there completely deviates from every other inner city education movie cliche you can imagine and it’s very interesting to watch it unfold. Without giving too much away, there is a reason Gosling was nominated in a performance that hardly anyone saw. For those that have witnessed it, his performance is very nuanced and empathetic. Well worth the rent when it comes out on Tuesday. Check it out.
Incidentally, we’ll be talking about Half Nelson along with The Bicycle Thief in the first half hour of The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 pm CST. If that sounds too cerebral for your tastes, we’ll be talking about romantic comedies in the second half hour in honor of Valentine’s Day this week. Join us tonight at 9:00 pm CST when Gordon, Joe and myself talk about all the sappiest, gooiest movies ever to ham-handedly yank a heartstrings. It should be a lot of fun.
That’s all for now. See you guys here on Wednesday!
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