I am painfully aware that today’s comic is not laugh-out-loud funny, but I hope for those of you who are somewhat familiar with Frank Miller‘s work with the Sin City graphic novels and short stories will get a kick out of the visual gag in today’s comic. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and this has been a visual style I’ve been aching to try out for a while.

For those of you living under a rock for the past four months, a big screen version of Miller’s grim and gritty tales of pulp noir will be opening in theaters this Friday. Former Desperado and Spy Kids helmer Robert Rodriguez is directing it. Frankly, I can’t think of another filmmaker who could pull it off.

The Sin City books have a VERY specific visual style to them. Incredibly high contrast work, desperate characters slip in and out of the shadows. Every so often a scene will be violently punctuated by a shock of red or a splash of yellow. Translating that to film wouldn’t work unless that style was kept in place. Otherwise, what’s to distinguish it from any other detective/vigilante versus scum-of-human society revenge flick?

The movie itself has a light narrative woven through several different stories, all arcing over a multitude of colorful and grisly characters.

Personally, I’m already entranced by Mickey Rourke’s unrecognizable appearance as the dive bar brawler Marv. The prosthetics they’ve slapped on his face make him look EXACTLY like the character. A Roman Centurion after too many highballs and a broken heart.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about Sin City as the week progresses. I plan on building more sand castles in Frank Miller’s sandbox this week.

I want to give everyone a reminder that I’ll be in Kansas City this weekend promoting Theater Hopper and representing web comics in general with my partners-in-crime Mitch Clem and Zach Miller at the Kansas City Planet Comicon comic book convention. If you’re in town, be sure to swing by the Overland Park Convention Center between 10AM and 5PM both days. We’ll be there.

We’re actually all planning on seeing Sin City together Saturday night. So if you’re up for it, I’m sure we could all meet up at the same time.

I’m really looking forward to the weekend. Not just because of the convention and a chance to get out of the house for a little while. But also because my good buddy Jared is going to be taking footage of the whole sordid affair. We hope to combine video from this convention, Wizard World Chicago in August and the Minneapolis Fallcon in October and put together a cool little road-trip/documentary about Theater Hopper, the comic convention circuit and the craziness that comes with it. When it’s all said and done, Jared and I are going to sit down and do a comprehensive interview/retrospective looking back on the last three years of the comic. We hope to have everything assembled and ready for purchase on DVD by Christmas. So keep your eyes out for that one!

This has probably been enough self-promotion for the day. Enjoy your Monday!