Posts Tagged ‘The Matrix’
4 items.
May12
So the full media assault for The Matrix Reloaded is in full swing. After spending months intentionally trying to save myself from any plot points, the coverage for the movie is unavoidable.
It’s on the cover of Time (where I guess they let some major plot points slip) and all over television. Everywhere from MTV, to E!, Access Hollywood – hell, I think even Dateline did 30 minutes on it this Sunday! It looks like I’ll be spending the rest of the week running around with my fingers in my ears yelling “LA, LA, LA, LA, LA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
Still, despite the onslaught, I can’t contain my excitement for the film. I remember back in ’99 when Cami and I saw it with a bunch of friends. We both thought it was going to suck. That may sound blasphemous now, but think about Keanu Reeves’ record with sci-fi films. Remember Johnny Mnemonic? On second thought, don’t.
So, yeah. Look how right we were.
Expect nothing less than a week of strips relating to the new Matrix offering. It’s my duty.
Speaking of duty, I’ve taken the liberty to decrease the file sixes on some of the supporting images around the site. I was saving some of these files as .jpg when I could have gotten away with .gif. Most of these images aren’t even above 64 colors. It’s not a huge improvement, but hopefully the site will load a little faster. The background, which was around 33k has been trimmed back to 13k. You can barely detect the difference.
Of course, none of this will mean anything to you if you aren’t a web designer. But hopefully the site will load a little faster.
Two more things I’ll mention:
1.) I currently have another guest strip floating around over at Briworld to help him close out his last week of the strip. If you want to see it, you’ll have to go here. I guess Brian mentioned that his girlfriend is totally in love with Theater Hopper. I guess she must have received my bribe!
2. Your voting put us over the top this weekend and we’ve trumped No Pants Tuesday on the Top Web Comics Top 150 list. It’s a friendly rivalry, by the way. Zachary and I aren’t mad at each other, or anything.
But if you could twist the knife, that would be great! 🙂
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May14
I have to admit I was a bit nervous trying to come up with an idea to follow Monday’s strip. I had received so much positive feedback for what I felt was a relatively simple notion, I felt pressure to one-up my previous effort. If today’s strip is a case of over-kill, I wouldn’t know it. I’ve been stressing too much to see past it.
All things the same, I think it turned out pretty well. Can you figure out all the geek-related material I’m spoofing? They’re all pretty easy to identify. I was going to label them in the blog, but then I realized my audience isn’t a gaggle of dum-dums. Thank God for that!
Like everyone else, when seeing The Matrix Reloaded, the question isn’t “If” but “When”? I’m trying to figure it out. Part of me would like to be in line Thursday night – to experience that anticipation like the event it is. Then I step back and realize that I’m supposed to be responsible and go to work on Friday. That, coupled with the fact I would draw Friday’s strip Thursday night all but nix the option to see it opening day.
Fortunately, one of the side-effects of being responsible is being patient. I can wait – barely.
I’d like to point out that posters are still for sale and that if you would like to support the site, PLEASE BUY ONE! We’re nearly reached the half way point, now let’s finish strong!
I’ve received several orders through the mail – checks, money orders and cash. So if you’re not comfortable mailing a payment through PayPal, e-mail me and we can make other arrangements!
Last thing I’ll mention: I know I’ve talked about it a million times before. But I am very close to bringing back the forum.
Early fans of the site might remember I had one for a month or two, then put the kibosh on it when I decided the readership wasn’t large enough to support it. I’ve always maintained that I would bring it back if I felt it could stand on it’s own two legs. It looks like that time is rapidly approaching. So get ready for that.
Oh, I almost forgot. If you’re not too busy, could you be sure to Montana Hills and would love to settle in to the number 13 spot on the list sometime soon. Lucky 13!
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Is everyone understanding the Planet of the Apes reference in today’s strip? Just making sure. It’s a pretty old movie, y’know.
Man, who would have thought that a storyline that started out making fun of The Matrix would end up here? Sometimes you gotta go where the muse takes you… kicking and screaming…
As far as The Matrix Reloaded is concerned, I think I’m seeing it tonight. At least, I hope that’s the case. I don’t know how crazy the lines will be. I gotta squeeze in Down With Love at some point as well. I’m a big fan of those old Rock Hudson/Doris Day romantic comedies. Pillow Talk is a great flick.
But I digress. Back to The Matrix. It’s been getting some mixed reviews. Some critics are complaining that the film is hollow, that there is no human element and that it’s drowning in special effects.
I can’t decide if I’m going to give two squirts of piss over this or not. I mean, I’ll be honest. The first movie didn’t really clobber me over the head with it’s philosophical ramblings and peppering of Eastern mysticism. I thought it was cool they were aware of it, but audiences acted like The Wachowski Brothers (TM) freakin’ invented it!
In my opinion, it’s the concept that propels The Matrix. And granted, it’s probably lost a little bit of its power since the Y2K heebie-jeebies everyone was worried about in 1999 proved to be nothing but a technical boogeyman. The climate has changed. Perhaps our reaction to this material will change as well.
I also have to give the benefit of the doubt that the movie I see this weekend is only PART of the finished whole. I feel like most negative reactions should be put on pause until The Matrix Revolutions comes out in November. Until then, the jury is out.
Whatever the outcome may be, it’s evident that these movies have tapped in to a “trust no one” facet of the youth zeitgeist that has not had an outlet up to this point. I foresee The Matrix spawning all sorts of extra multimedia to support the mythology. They’re already off to a rousing start with The Animatrix and the video game Enter the Matrix which both expound deeply into the lore of the series. Pretty soon you’re going to start seeing cheap-ass novelizations. R.A. Salvatore, I’m looking at you!
If you haven’t already checked it out, we now have a forum and it’s off to a strong start. I encourage you to sign up. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
You may also notice that I stripped the images from the navigation bar up top and replaced them with text links. As the site progresses, I’m becoming more and more conservative when it comes to bandwidth consumption. I’m starting to dump some of the frills and setting my sights on more fluid design and download times. We’ll see what emerges.
I’ll be back later if I can think of more garbage to spout…
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For those of you who didn’t make it to the site this weekend, I informed everyone that the buzzComix top web comics list has reset. If you’d like to lend a little support to Theater Hopper, please vote for us on buzzComix every day. As a little extra incentive, you’ll get to see a special Halloween image drawn by yours truly for you effort. Over the weekend, we climbed up to number 11 on the list – no small feat. But I know your support can push us over the top! Be sure to get your vote on now if you haven’t seen the Halloween message. It’ll be replaced by another piece of art on Wednesday – Matrix related.
Speaking about that… Boy, November kind of snuck up on us, didn’t it? Can you believe that The Matrix Revolutions will be in theaters this Wednesday?
I figured the marketing blitz would have been in full effect by now, but my television has been conspicuously silent. Nary an advertisement in sight.
I don’t want to be a killjoy, but the buzz around the final chapter in The Matrix trilogy isn’t particularly strong. People are saying it’s much more SATISFYING than Reloaded, but not as significant as the original. Basically, they’re turning up the volume and are gonna blow stuff up GOOD.
None of this will dissuade me from seeing the picture, of course. More than anything, I just need to know how it ends. I think the critics comments on this one are essentially useless.
I tried my hand at a different inking method for today’s strip. I don’t know what persuaded me to do it. I guess I just wanted to experiment a little. Try to establish more mood. Do you like it? Hate it? Let me know what you think in the forums. I don’t know if it’ll become a permanent addition to my style. Like I said, I’m just toying around. But I’m curious to hear what you think.
I mentioned on Friday that I would have the opportunity to meet Scott Kurtz of PVP at a local comic shop on Saturday. Well, I’m pleased to report that I got a little face time with the man.
It’s always weird meeting people who’ve inspired you. It’s really difficult to tell them what their work has meant to you beyond saying it changed your outlook on things and you just wanted to say “Thanks.” At least, that was the position I found myself in.
I thought Scott was really gracious with his time. He signed my copy of PVP #1 and took care to flip through my book of samples. He read a lot of them and really looked them over. He told me to keep up the good work and that there was some really funny stuff I had done. I don’t think he was blowing smoke up my ass. He seemed very supportive – and that means a lot.
I wanted to ask him for a link to the site, but I thought that would be kind of pushy. I’ve been going back and forth on it thinking maybe I missed a good opportunity to market the site. But in the end, I’d rather have him link me because he likes what I do, not because I was looking for a handout. Would I be happy if it turns out he links me? Of course! Over the moon happy. But I’d rather earn it then beg for it.
Anyway, great experience all around. He was a really good guy. More later.
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