Posts Tagged ‘Truman’
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Well, here we are. The New Year and the launch pad for the new direction I’m taking Theater Hopper as outlined in last Friday’s blog. Kind of kicking things off with a mystery here. Are you intrigued? Are you hooked yet? Are you? ARE YOU?!
Can you smell the desperation rolling from your computer monitor? Can you? CAN YOU?!
For those of you that want to take a closer look at Charlie, I’ve posted my original rough outline of her as the buzzComix incentive sketch. You can see a tiny sliver of it in that handy graphic in the upper-right hand corner of the blog. Click on it to see the whole thing.
Part of Theater Hopper’s new direction is presenting it to a wider audience. So if you could take the two seconds to click on that little graphic, I would appreciate it.
So, who is Charlie? Where does she come from and how does Cami know her? The answers may surprise you. Be sure to check back Wednesday as we chip away at this ICEBERG OF MYSTERYTM!
In movie-related tidbits, I went to see The Aviator yesterday with Cami and my sister-in-law. What can I say? It’s a long one?
I thought the movie was pretty good, but wasn’t left with the best impression. Leonard DiCaprio’s obsessive, repetitive muttering sometimes gets the better of the story. After a while, you start feeling nervous and a little obsessive compulsive yourself!
I suppose that’s the sign of talent – when you feel what the character is feeling. But sometimes I don’t want to feel half-crazy.
Of course I have to tip my hand to Martin Scorsese. His flair for visuals is as strong as ever. He even dips into the well of computer generated effects for some amazing shots he wouldn’t have been able to get otherwise. What I love about Scorsese is that he has a firm grip on how much of that stuff to use. There are some really impressive visuals that don’t look like a Macintosh barfed on the screen. In other words, they don’t really get in the way.
If anything, watching The Aviator certainly piqued my interest in seeing Hell’s Angels. The $4 million dollar war epic Howard Hughes filmed once and refilmed again for sound during the 1920’s. Looks like a real barn-burner.
Beyond that, I’m still processing things. The film spends a lot of time on Hughes early days in Hollywood. Which makes sense for such an avid film historian as Scorsese. Hughes really went a long way toward presenting film as a more realistic art form including graphic sex and violence, so it’s interesting to see where some of the conflicts between artists and censors first took root.
However, there’s very little attention paid to the loony, tissue boxes on the feet, piss in milk jars Hughes that I think many people recognize Hughes for. His eccentricities. His illness. The film is called The Aviator for a reason. Scorsese wants us to remember him not only as a filmmaker, but as a man who set distance, speed and time records in aircraft – developing some of the fastest machines to ever travel the planet. Never mind what he did with commercial aviation when he bought TWA. All in all, pretty interesting stuff.
I don’t think The Aviator will clean up with any awards, which is kind of a shame considering how long Scorsese has been overlooked. But it is an ambitious picture and if you’re at all a fan of Scorsese, you should see it. All of his films are required viewing in my book.
That should cover it for now. See you on Wednesday!
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No blog just yet because it’s 1:00 in the morning. I really wish I could write these out in advance, but frankly, I’m not that smart.
I had a crazy movie weekend and watched Million Dollar Baby, Sideways and Garden State on DVD in the span of 24 hours. I want to talk to you about it, but I’d like to wait until I don’t have to pause for 30 seconds between each word to make sure the spelling looks right.
In the meantime, why don’t you vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix. Today’s incentive sketch isn’t comic-related, but instead a portrait of my beagle Truman. He’s made a few appearances in the comic in days of yore. Tuesday is his birthday. He turns 3. I love that little furry freak.
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Apr27
GUEST STRIP – JOERULES AND MADMUP
April 27th, 2005 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(4 votes, average: 7.75 out of 10)
Today’s guest strip comes from a pair of collaborators who met inside our illustrious THorum – joerules from Digital Pimp Online and MadMup from… well, MadMup.com.
This actually isn’t the first time these two have paired up. They worked together to bring me a guest strip while I was away in Memphis last year. Just as they knocked it out of the part last time, they do so again! My character seems to have grown some hair since the last time Joe put pen to paper, but I ain’t complaining!
The real treat of today’s strip is the inside joke in the first panel. Keen eyed observers of the comic will understand it. But if it’s not leaping out at you, I’m not going to explain it – because it simply wouldn’t be as funny.
Anyway, as thanks for their hard work, I have drawn them at the very catalyst of their creative nexus! You can see what I’m talking about when you’re treated to the incentive sketch when you vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix.
Do us all a favor and visit both Joe and Mup’s web sites. Joe has recently hit pay dirt with ANOTHER comic – this time taking aim at his favorite (crappy) movies. I’ve mentioned it in this space before. It’s called Joe Loves Crappy Movies! Check it out.
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Have to hold out on the commentary for the moment guys. I’m beat. After mowing the yard after I got home from work, I ended up taking Truman for a walk that lasted about an hour and a half as our house was being shown by a realtor to some prospective buyers. I think we circled our block about 6 times!
As such, I’m bone tired and my legs kind of hurt. It took me a little more time than usual to draw today’s strip on account I couldn’t figure out which way the thumbs would go with an arm behind your back. I’m also trying out some new shading techniques. Have you noticed?
Anyway, more commentary later – including insights on The Nerd Police.
In the meantime, won’t you consider pre-ordering a t-shirt? They’re for sale again, you know?
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First, because I can’t do a strip featuring Truman without showing a real-life picture of the little guy…
There. Does that make your Wednesday or what? He’s a sweetheart, folks.
Drastically pushing the timeline forward in the “Nerd Justice” story arc, I began to contemplate what it would really mean to lose your nerd license, should such a thing exist.
Surely one of the first privileges to go would be the internet. This is not to say that nerds are the only people who use the internet. We just use it so much better than the rest of you.
I don’t know what I would do without the internet. But strapping a satchel to Truman’s back doesn’t seem that far fetched when I really stop to think about my options. It’s either that, or start writing crazed, repetitive notes to myself Jack Nicholson-style.
“All work and no play make Tom a dull boy.”
“All work and no play make Tom a dull boy.”
“All work and no play make Tom a dull boy.”
Because it is obligatory, I want to remind everyone that pre-orders for shirts WILL END next Monday, May 16. So be sure to put your order in now so your purchase will be included in the batch that I send to the printer. We have a lot of really great, new designs to choose from – So choose wisely!
I wanted to quickly call your attention to a review that was handed down to Theater Hopper from the fine web site Journey Into History. You can find it if you follow that link and scroll down a little bit. For the impatient, a link directly to the review can be accessed here.
You might not be familiar with Journey Into History because it’s just getting off the ground. But it’s a very cool idea for a site. Basically, the concept is to take a web comic and use it to review… other web comics! Artist and writer Bob Stevenson then dissects the comic in a follow up blog.
I was very attracted to the site largely because of Bob’s writing style. I think he is very concise and accurate with his opinions. I just got the vibe from reading his stuff that he didn’t tolerate much B.S. – But that any criticisms he would make were fair and delivered with a velvet glove.
While not entirely complimentary to Theater Hopper, I felt Bob has some very strong insights into the mechanics of the comic. Stuff that I hadn’t even considered, but when pointed out to me, rang true.
He had plenty of good things to say about the comic – and that’s always welcome – but it’s the politely worded criticisms one can use to really advance their art.
A lot of other “review” sites could learn a lot by Bob’s example. You can tell he really takes the time to digest the material he’s reviewing – even when the archives are huge.
For example, Bob freely admitted that while he read most of the comics in the archive, he didn’t read all the blogs. He also confessed to not being that familiar with movies from the last 5 years ago, so he wasn’t the best to judge whether my opinions on recent cinematic offerings were on the money or not.
These deficiencies on his part did not color his review at all, I felt. Some people might look at this comic and say “Well, I’m not into movies – so therefore it sucks.” Bob gave it a fair shake and worked with the material he took the time to absorb.
Anyway, I’m ranting a little bit. But it’s just so refreshing to get feedback like this. Do yourself a favor and check our Journey Into History. Read the archives. Odds are Bob has covered another one of your regular reads at some point. It’s good stuff.
In the meantime, everyone should really consider signing up for that mailing list thingee over on the right hand side, below the comic. If you were signed up before hand, you would have already known about the Journey Into History review because it was something I shared with the subscribers Tuesday afternoon.
You never know when I might drop some more knowledge. Wouldn’t you want to be the first to know it?
More later. Maybe some vitriolic missives about the assured suckitude of The Fantastic Four when I have a minute later in the day.
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Jul16
GUEST STRIP – DAN BEESTON
July 16th, 2005 |- Comics »
- Comics »
- Guest Strip
(6 votes, average: 5.67 out of 10)
I try to think that if this was a comic I would have written, I probably would have stopped at the domestic punchline of Cami ripping Tom out of his fantasy world to do some mundane chore and leave it at that. But Dan added the cherry to the Sunday when he included Truman (on leash!) in silhouette soaring high above Gotham City. Well played, good sir! I especially like the coloring. Kind of looks like watercolor, doesn’t it?
Dan has a regular web comic gig called Invisible Spiders, but he asked me to take a moment to tell you about his new project called Genesis 2. I said “Sure, Dan! Anything for a friend!”
…’cuz that’s how ∗I∗ roll.
Thanks again, Dan!
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Like most kids his age, Truman is is pretty embarrassed by his parents.
C’mon. You don’t think I could let a movie with a title like Must Love Dogs could slip past my radar without an affectionate tribute to my one and only beagle Truman?
I wish I had a cute new photo of him to post for you guys, but since the move, I think our digital camera is still buried in a box somewhere.
It’s unbelievable how often I get e-mail asking me when I’m going to put Truman into the strip next. Odd because he’s only been in three or four that I can recall off the top of the head and he never has a speaking line. I guess he must make an impression.
Should Truman become a regular character in the comic? The Scooby to Tom’s Shaggy? Or perhaps more accurately, the Snoopy to Tom’s Charlie Brown? Food for thought.
I don’t have a lot to say about Must Love Dogs except that it looks like a perfectly serviceable romantic comedy. Even though I know that it’s aimed squarely at the middle-aged divorced market – and let’s face it, how often is THAT demographic being played to? – I don’t even view it within the context of the treacly genre it clearly aspires to.
Casting Diane Lane as the lead goes a long way in this respect. Her unflinching work in Unfaithful three years ago saw to that. And, of course, by adding John Cusack to ANYTHING, you increase your film’s ranking on the Tom Brazelton Cool-O-Meter(tm).
I’d really like to take Cami to the movie this weekend and I wanted to admit it publicly so you guys don’t think I’m some kind of curmudgeon 100% of the time when it comes to romantic comedies.
Hey, does anyone out there have any experience with PHP? Or more specifically, any kind of scripting similar to that which helps display the comics on the site in the timely manner we’ve all come to appreciate?
I’m looking for a way to insert ALL of the guest strips that have been given to me back into the archive so that people can view them. But at the same time, I need to figure out a way that they system won’t officially “count” them. That is, figure out a way that the script can skip over assigning the guest strip a number like in the upper right hand corner of the comic.
Basically what I want to do is give an exact numerical representation of the number of comics I’ve actually sit down to write and draw rather than include guest strips in the archive and say they were mine.
For example, I always hate it when I read some kind of web comic press release that says “The Adventures of Pixel and Poxel recently celebrated 500 comics!” Not so fast, pal! I noticed you had 47 guest comics in your archive. So shouldn’t you be celebrating your 453rd comic?
Does that make sense? If any of you guys think you might have a solution or would like copies of the files you could maybe toy around with, drop me a line.
I’d like to acknowledge the people who’s hard work has helped me through hard times by giving them the continued exposure that the deserve, but I also want an honest representation of my own investment. Just a little piece of mind.
Thanks.
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Fart humor? Oh, yeah. I WENT THERE! Edgy, no?
Even when Truman is causing mischief, he’s still utterly adorable, isn’t he? Enjoy this sketch of him in quiet repose.
No rhyme or reason to today’s strip except I felt we had all gone too long without seeing Truman in action and I missed him.
Do I have any opinions about The Fog? Other than it’s an excuse to pull together too-pretty television stars for a pointless remake of a mediocre horror movie, no.
I mean, I don’t know if the remake picks up the pace at all, but the original was ponderously slow. I mean, it’s a fog for crying out loud! Run away! Buy a really strong fan and hide behind it! Not one of John Carpenter’s more inspired ideas, that’s for sure. I suppose he was trying to tap into that slow, building sense of dread like there was in zombie movies of the day. I didn’t work.
Please take this moment to visit the store and consider buying t-shirt, hoodie or baby doll tee. All three, if you so desire. After October 31, I can’t afford you the luxury any longer. Some designs will come back. Some won’t. But it’ll be the last time you’ll get your hands on ANY of them for a while.
Buy a hoodie, kids. It’s getting cold outside! Bundle up!
Also be sure to scroll up a little bit to that space between the comic and the blog and sign up for the Theater Hopper mailing list. I’m going to have some big announcements in the coming weeks and mailing list people will be the first to know! They were the first to know about the store being closed and they were the first to know about my pal Jared’s stop-motion film "A Clay In The Life" before I announce it in this space on the site!
Lastly, for you consideration – I want to present to you two options for being notified of the most current updates to the site.
First, if you have a LiveJournal account, add the Theater Hopper syndication feed to your friends list. Every time a new comic is posted, LiveJournal updates. Same goes with news posts. And you can leave comments! Instant feedback – very handy! I check for messages in there often, so go for it!
The second option is for people who don’t have LiveJournal accounts. It’s called Comic Alert! and it’s a cool little system that utilizes Theater Hopper’s RSS feed to notify you VIA e-mail when the strip updates. It’s really easy to sign up for. So if you’re interested, leave your contact information and add Theater Hopper to your favorites. In fact, to help get you started, here’s a link to Theater Hopper’s listing in the system. Leave a review while you’re at it!
Thanks, all!
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Is Dewey as sweet and cuddly as he appears? Maybe not…
I don’t know if today’s comic is as funny as it could be on it’s own, but it establishes the direction of the arc. I think you guys will like what I have in store for Dewey in the next couple of days.
If you’re not on board with this one, well, too bad. I’ve been sick since about 11:00 Monday. Throwing up. Multiple bathroom trips. Chills. Fever. The works. I actually took a sick day from work to recouperate. I NEVER do that. I didn’t start feeling better until about 4:00 yesterday afternoon, but my head was still too foggy to come up with anything complex. Oh, well. It’s the destination, not the journey, right? Or have I mixed that up again?
King Kong comes out today. Don’t know if Cami and I will be able to make it out tonight to see it. I know I have some catching up to do on some other household duties since I was out of commission for the last two days. Namely, the two to four inches of snow that dropped on us last night. The driveway won’t shovel itself!
I’m happy to see that Kong is getting mostly positive reviews. In some cases raves! I don’t know why, but for the longest time, it seemed like some of the bigger critics and box office handicappers had it out for this movie to fail. Something about the bloated $200 plus budget, the fact that Peter Jackson’s movie is almost a full hour longer than the original and some even arguing that a remake need not be made at all.
I can see the argument on that last point. Especially when you factor in Gus Van Sant’s shot-by-shot remake of Psycho from a few years back. But by-in-large, I think the nay-sayers wanted to see a little cosmic comeuppance befall Jackson after he won Best Picture and Best Director for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. I mean, I think we can all be honest and say that was a "gold watch" in terms of being rewarded. I don’t know if it was the better picture when stacked up against Mystic River. It certainly wasn’t the best of the three films in the Lord of the Rings trillogy – not with all those tacked on endings. It was pretty much a way for the Academy to say "Good job on doing these three huge films back-to-back-to-back, have them be profitable and not killing yourself. Take this home and put it on your mantle."
That said, I’m glad the nay-sayers are wrong. I’ve been a Jackson fan since Meet the Feebles and really got a kick out of the underated The Frighteners. I think Kong will go a long way toward solidifying his reputation as this generation’s go-to guy for the all-out "big entertainment" blockbuster. A Spielberg replacement, perhaps? Just a thought.
Sorry I don’t have much more to say. I’m blaming the illness and will leave it at that. Hopefully I’ll be a little more sharp on Friday. See you then!
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Most people would probably be upset to have all of their laundry strewn across the floor, but Dewey makes michief fun! Even though we know the terrible truth about him!
Man, Dewey’s a jerk!
I hope you’re enjoying the arc so far. I’m gonna tie things up next week by actually getting the characters into – y’know… A MOVIE THEATER? Oh, oh! And making MOVIE REFERENCES! And guess what? I’ll even tie it back into King Kong. Yes, Virgina. There is a Santa Claus.
Speaking of the petulant ape, tuns out Peter Jackson’s opus only earned $9.7 million on it’s opening day. Remember those nay-sayers that wanted to see Jackson fail? Maybe they’re getting their wish?
$10 million on a Wednesday is nothing to sneeze at, but for a movie supposedly as large as this one having the advertising behind it that it does, that’s kind of a surprise. It ranked 21st on the all-time list for Wednesday openings. Universal was looking for Kong to do about $80 to $90 million in business over the first five days. Now they’re lowering their estimates around $55 to $65 million.
Rumor has it that Kong is having trouble attracting women, which makes sense to me. In my mind, monster movies typically occupy the same head-space in men where the Three Stooge’s and baseball statistics go. Are there any women readers out there that would either like to confirm or deny these theories? As always, we talk about the newest movies in the THorum.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the 3 hour running time has also been keeping people away. At least until the weekend. People lead hectic lives, made even more hectic by the holiday season. If you had 3 hours to kill on a Wednesday night, would you use it to see a giant monkey picture or to round up the last few presents for friends and family?
Or… y’know. Volunteer at a soup kitchen, or whatever.
Either way, it’s not like summer where people can kind of blow off work to see Star Wars: Episode III and their obligations aren’t as stacked up. Kong will do just fine over the course holiday, especially this last weekend before Christmas. People will be out in force in the nation’s malls, running around like idiots when they’ll say, "Man, I could really use a break. Wanna go see a movie? King Kong? 3 hours? PERFECT." Sites like The Drudge Report have prematurely labeled the film "King Bomb." They’ll be proven wrong.
Incidentally, what business does The Drudge Report have reporting movies? Slow day at the office, guys?
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