Archive for June 5th, 2006
2 items.
Seems like after being away from the scene for so long, you’d think I’d return by utilizing my own characters instead of a pink-haired make-up artist and a poorly designed caricature of Paul Bettany. What can I say? I’m an odd duck.
Cami and I have been catching up on the pop culture we missed since we were in Europe at the end of May. An adventure I lovingly refer to as "The Deep Dive." As of this weekend, we’re preparing to surface. We’re almost entirely caught up.
We went to see The DaVinci Code last weekend and – as capivated as I was by Paul Bettany’s performance – it struck me that it wasn’t much of a stretch in casting a painfully pale and pasty Brit to play the albino monk. In the back of my head, I always kind of thought Bettany was an albino anyway. Something about his giant forehead and his nearly transparent eyebrows.
I never read Dan Brown’s book mostly because I don’t get into mainstream fiction. Mostly entertainment retrospectives and biographies. So I didn’t have much in terms of bias going into the movie. I thought there were some sincerely gaps in logic. For people that are supposed to be so well educated, they make some supremely dumb decisions while evading the police. Nothing real people would actually do. Then again, the police in this movie are inept at almost every turn. So perhaps it’s tit for tat.
I feel a little odd talking about The DaVinci Code when the movie has been in theaters for more than two weeks. Typically I pride myself on being more timely. But it’s a pretty big movie and I didn’t want to look back at 2006 having let it slip through my fingers.
I have a couple of other posts that I want to make, so expect them later. Signing off for the moment because it’s late. Despite the simplicity of today’s comic, it took me a while to get back into the rhythm of producing a new comic so long after being out of commission.
More to come!
[ No Comments ]
Hey, guys. Tom here, back from vacation and back with some important news.
On Sunday the pre-order for our first book "Theater Hopper: Year One" will come to a close. If you’ve been visiting the front page and monitoring the tally, you can see that we’re currently 211 orders shy of our goal. Remember that the money from the pre-sale went toward the production of the larger print run.
I’m not optimistic that 211 orders will come flooding into my inbox before Sunday, but I’ve come too far to let this die on the vine and I still really want to see this book happen.
So what does this mean? It means that despite the lack of orders, the book is still going forward. However, I have to cut the number of books I had planned on ordering, which raises the cost per book and cuts into my profit margin. That’s unfortunate because the profits from this book is what I planned to bankroll the second book, shortening the pre-order period.
What doubly sucks is that even with the lower print run, I still have to pay considerable expenses out of my own pocket to make up the difference. My hope is that once the books are completed and I have them in hand, another wave of orders will come in and I’ll make some of that money back. But there are no assurances in life, as I thought getting a few hundred pre-orders was pretty reasonable.
But things don’t have to be that bad. If you’re thinking that you want a copy of the book, PLEASE DON’T WAIT. PRE-ORDER TODAY. You’ll be helping me more than you know.
For those of you who have already places your orders – THANK YOU. I appreciate your generosity and support. If you can help to spread the word about the pre-order deadline or convince your friends to pre-order a copy, that would be great.
I’m still trying to decide if I bit off more than I could chew or if I planned poorly. Looking back, I don’t think there’s much more I could have done in terms of promotion or advertising to get the word out. So now, it’s all in your hands. I’ve shown my cards. You know that the book is going forward whether you pre-order or if you don’t. But hopefully you recognize the financial stakes for me personally and pre-order a copy of the book before Sunday to help lessen the burden.
If you can’t afford to pre-order right now. I totally understand and I don’t mean to guilt you. This call to action is for those of you who want to buy a book but are waiting for them to be published. My goal is to motivate you NOT to wait.
Until then, your continued support of the site is very much appreciated and I thank each and every one of you who make Theater Hopper a stop in their browser every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I consider myself exceptionally lucky that I’ve been able to make it this far on what is otherwise a hobby.
It’s good to be back. I’ve missed you guys.
[ No Comments ]
