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KICKSTARTER KICKOFF

October 30th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I started talking about this earlier in the week (and have been talking about it privately with friends and family for almost a month), but I wanted to let everyone know that I have officially launched my Kickstarter fund raising project for Theater Hopper: Year Three.

I was introduced to Kickstarter by my friend Gordon a few weeks ago. Looking at it, I recognized it immediately as being perfect for helping me raise money for Theater Hopper: Year Three. But I just kind of… stared at it. Like, for the longest time. I couldn’t figure out exactly how to make it work for me.

After witnessing Gordon’s success with the site, I was motivated to take action, raise the funds I needed to make Year Three a reality and make good on all of the previous pre-orders that people have been waiting to see fulfilled.

For those of you unfamiliar with Kickstarter, the idea is simple. Basically, you put a project on their site, say “I need ‘X’ amount of money to complete this project” and then people pledge money to your cause at a level they feel is appropriate.

Let me stress that you can donate ANY amount you want. If you want to donate a dollar, great. If you want to donate $7, super. However, there are certain tiers at which the amount of your pledge will yeild specific rewards.

You can see the rewards I’m offering on the Year Three Kickstarter page and I think there are several attractive offers that you might want to take advantage of. But, again, the amount you donate is completely up to you.

Regarding those of you who have already pre-ordered, you will automatically receive all of the rewards up to the $15 pledge level as well have your name printed in a special “thank you” section of the book. If you want to obtain any of the higher-level rewards, contact me directly at theaterhopper@hotmail.com. I am offering the higher-level rewards for 25% off the difference of your existing pre-order. We can work out the details over e-mail and you can submit your pledge to the Kickstarter site as part of the overall fund raising effort.

I am asking for $3,500 by December 31. It’s very important that we make that goal in that time period or else I do not see ANY of the money that has been pledged. The Kickstarter system will not charge you as a supporter until the goal amount and deadline have been reached. If the deadline comes and we don’t make goal, you won’t be charged one red cent.

In order to insure that the goal amount is met, I will be promoting this fund raising drive quite heavily. I just want to tell you up front that I will be talking about it often in case that kind of thing annoys you. I will do my best to keep blogs about movies and blogs about fund raising apart, but I plan on posting reminder messages quite frequently.

As you can see above, I’ve already removed the advertising next to the comic to make room for the Kickstarter widget that will show you how much money has been raised and how much time is left in the campaign. I’m giving up ad revenue to do this because – at this point – no amount of money from advertising is going to make up for what I need to deliver this book.

At any rate, this is the new status quo regarding Theater Hopper: Year Three. I appreciate your support. Thank you.

└ Tags: fundraising, Kickstarter, Theater Hopper: Year Three
[ No Comments ]

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AN INTERVIEW FOR YOU TO READ

October 28th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I almost forgot, but I wanted to share with you guys a link to an interview I did with Li Comics. It’s only a handful of questions and should probably only take you a few minutes to read, but you might find it informative.

You can read my interview with Li Comics here.

└ Tags: interview, Li Comics
[ 2 Comments ]

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KICKSTARTER BRAINSTORMING

October 26th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I’m putting together my fund raising page for Theater Hopper: Year Three over at Kickstarter and I’m having a problem.

As you may or may not be familiar, Kickstarter allows you to incentivize your backers with rewards they can earn depending on the amount the pledge to your cause. For an example, check out Gordon’s Kickstarter page for his Multiplex book.

My problem is, several people have already pre-ordered strong>Theater Hopper: Year Three and I don’t want to leave them out in the cold when it comes to rewards.

All of the rewards that fall under the $15 pre-order amount will be delivered to everyone who pre-ordered a copy so far. That includes their name on a special Thank You page in the book as well as a PDF copy of the book.

However, past the $15 mark, I was planning on offering incentives such as a custom sketches in the book, a special, limited-edition 1″ button set with a 3D theme, a new t-shirt design with 3D glasses on them and going so far as to offer up to 5 custom avatar illustrations for the backer’s personal use.

What do I do for those people who have already pre-ordered a copy of Year Three, but who also want to take advantage of the larger rewards?

Basically, I am very concerned about alienating anyone. ESPECIALLY the people who pledged their support early on and have been patiently waiting for the book to be produced.

The best idea I can come up with at the moment is to deal with these requests on a case-by-case basis. Meaning, if someone wants the higher level awards, then they can pay me the difference and I will send it to them. Maybe I offer them a 25% off discount of the difference as a small thank you for their patience.

Please tell me what you think in the comments below!

└ Tags: fund raising, Kickstarter, rewards, Theater Hopper: Year Three
[ 13 Comments ]

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NO NEW COMIC MONDAY

October 4th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Hey, guys. Sorry, I have some bad news. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, I’ve been stressing about it most of last night.

Basically, my desktop hard drive failed. This is the machine that has Photoshop, my scanner and everything else that makes Theater Hopper possible loaded on it. So, my hands are tied in terms of uploading anything new.

You might be asking how I’m uploading this blog post. Fortunately, our laptop still works and we’re able to draw a wireless signal from our router. But everything else is pretty much off the board at this point.

The good news right now is that I have everything backed up. So all of my old Theater Hopper artwork, family photos and video, all of our music, my job application data has all been saved to external hard drives. So I haven’t lost anything important.

Right now, it’s just a matter of finding the time to purchase and install a new hard drive before loading everything back onto it.

I’m watching Henry all day today and I have to study for my accounting mid term for Tuesday. So there is definitely a lot on my plate right now. All I can ask for is patience while I try to get myself re-situated.

The timing of this hard drive failure is kind of serendipitous. Some of you might remember that I experienced a similar situation last year and launched a huge donation drive to help me recover all of the data I lost.

Well, things aren’t as bad this time around, but there are still several of you that I owe artwork to as part of your donations.

Believe me, I’m embarrassed that it has taken me more than a year to get this artwork to you. But I want everyone that I still owe artwork to know that I haven’t forgotten about them. I still have everyone’s information and fully intend on completing my end of the bargain. All I can say in my defense is that 2009 has not been a very good year for me and it has been very, very difficult just to keep my head above water.

No one is putting pressure on me, or anything. So I have to say thank you for everyone being so understanding. But I’m putting pressure on myself and I want to get the work done. So I will do my best to deliver the artwork that I owe people in the near future.

Thanks again for your patience and understanding, follow me on Twitter if you want the latest updates and I will be in touch with everyone soon.

In the meantime, if you have suggestions or want to leave comments about how I can amend my hard drive situation, please feel free.

[ 4 Comments ]

NEW TWITTER BACKGROUND

September 29th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I don’t know if this is something worth mentioning or not, but I put a little bit of effort into it yesterday and I want you guys to check it out.

After months of the plain, boring default background Twitter gives you for your account, I decided to put together some custom artwork for my page. I don’t want to say much more than that because I don’t want to ruin the joke. The artwork makes a very specific reference that I think you guys might enjoy.

You can see the new artwork on my Twitter profile at http://twitter.com/tombrazelton

Let me know what you think!

└ Tags: artwork, Twitter
[ 1 Comment ]

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ADDITION TO THE FAMILY

September 21st, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

If you read these blogs, you know that 2009 has not been a very good year for me. I’ve seen the lives of friends shatter and crumble around me – divorce, miscarriage and death. My own life has been beset by difficultly – my job being eliminated, emergency room visits. In general, 2009 has been tough to muddle through.

But I have something waiting for me in December that I think is going to make everything worth while…

Baby Brazelton

Cami and I are expecting our second child.

As you can see from the date on the sonogram – July 23 – I’ve been sitting on this information for a while. Not for any particular reason. Except sometimes it’s hard to wrap my mind around the thought that we’re having another baby. I mean, Henry keeps us so occupied already, the fact that Cami’s pregnant sometimes slips my mind.

I would feel bad, but I’ve talked to friends who are also in the middle of their second pregnancies, and they admit to the same thing. You’re so busy trying to keep the first one from stabbing his eye out with a fork, you kind of forget the second one is on the way.

Well, there is no avoiding it now. Cami is showing beautifully and thoughts of the pregnancy consume my thoughts every day. Sometimes those thoughts are “Holy crap, I don’t have a job. How are we going to afford two kids in day care?” But most of the time, they are less panicked.

At any rate, for those of you wondering: Yes, we do know the sex of the baby and; Yes, we are sharing that information…

It’s a girl.

As for the name? We’re keeping that one close to the vest.

Having a girl let alone having a sibling for Henry to interact with is new territory for me. I’m not worried about the burping / feeding / rocking phase of development. I feel like I have those skills finely tuned. What freaks me out is what will happen when the kids are older and start bouncing off each other.

I never had a brother or a sister, so I understand very little about family dynamics. Cami has a younger sister, so she brings some experience to the table. But I’m coming at this with no idea if or how these two are going to get along.

This is my problem as a parent – I’m always thinking three years ahead of myself. Before Henry was born, I had all these big ideas about going to the zoo, playing catch and hanging out all the time. I gave no thought to the burping / feeding / rocking, etc.

I feel like I’m falling into the same trap with the new baby. “What’s it going to be like when she comes home crying because another girl said she didn’t like her shoes?” That kind of thing. What kind of advice can I give? Except for the highly acerbic kind?

Like anything else, I suppose I just have to play things by ear. All I know is that it will be a different experience for me.

Cami’s due date is sometime around the middle of December. But since Cami is planning on having another C-section (after delivering Henry by Cesarean last time) we won’t know the exact date until we meet with our surgeon.

All I know is that I’m very much looking forward to meeting Baby Brazelton and as I know more, I will be happy to share details with you.

In the meantime, I just wanted to put the good news out there and share a little bit of my life with you.

Thanks and take care.

└ Tags: baby, family, girl, sonogram
[ 30 Comments ]

PIMP TOM / GOTH JARED

September 18th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Back in 2004, I created a comic that introduced an alter ego for Tom who went by the name “Pimp Tom.” Reaction to the character was so positive, I created a shirt in his honor.

As part of the massive fire sale I have going on now in the store, I sold the very last shirt christened with his image. It seems unlikely to me that I will ever produce another Pimp Tom shirt again.

I was thinking about the character, though and I don’t know why I haven’t used him more often. I break out Jared’s alter ego “Goth Jared” usually two or three times a year. He even has his own entry on the Cast page!

I don’t know. I don’t have anything especially insightful to say. Maybe I’m just feeling a little nostalgic. I could bring back Pimp Tom any time I suppose. Maybe have Pimp Tom meet Goth Jared! Who knows?

I’m just making observations, I suppose.

└ Tags: alter egos, Goth Jared, nostalgia, observations, Pimp Tom
[ 2 Comments ]

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UNLOCK’D

September 18th, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I was reading a tweet from Joel Watson – creator of HijiNKS Ensue – and he was talking about how he enjoyed watching new readers plow through the archives, commenting in reverse as they go.

It got me thinking about how that’s not something you can do on Theater Hopper because, in a fit of paranoia, I instructed WordPress to shut off the commenting feature after 14 days. I guess I don’t remember what I was afraid of. Probably spammers. But truth be told, we haven’t had a problem with spammers in months (knock on wood). So I decided it was time to let go of the leash.

Starting today, anyone can comment on any comic in the archive. That might not appealing to those of you who have been with the site for a while. But who knows?

I guess I’d rather leave the option open for conversation rather than put a cap on it before it can start.

Just thought I would let you know!

└ Tags: archive, comments, experiment, unlocked
[ 1 Comment ]

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DISNEY BUYS MARVEL

August 31st, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog
Mickey + Spidey = $

Unless you’ve been completely cut off from the internet today (in which case, I’m glad Theater Hopper was your first stop after being plugged back in to The Grid), then you might have missed the news that Disney has acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion.

There aren’t a lot of details at the moment, but the news pretty much set the internet on fire this afternoon. Since I’m a bit of a movie nut AND a bit of a comic book nut, I feel a responsibility to comment.

A lot of people are responding to the news Chicken Little-style. They swear up and down that the sky is falling and that the House of Mouse is going to ruin their favorite super heroes by flattening their appeal, making them more mainstream and toothless.

As much as I have enjoyed portraying Disney as the Evil Empire in the past (and it is likely I will continue to do so in the future), I’m optimistic about this deal with Marvel.

People forget that roughly 15 years ago, Marvel declared bankruptcy. Getting in bed with Disney means the likelihood of that happening again are slim to none. Anything that protects Marvel’s solvency at this point is a-okay in my book.

Some people claim that Disney can be careless with the properties they acquire – citing Mirimax and The Muppets as examples. I don’t know if I see a lot of evidence supporting that. If anything, Marvel being associated with Disney gives them far more opportunities to cross-pollinate their characters into other media outlets than they would have been able to do otherwise.

Never mind the distribution advantage they now have with their movies. What other studio besides Disney can put a movie on 3,000 screens opening weekend every single time? Not many.

I guess I’m trying to be more pragmatic in my response to the acquisition rather than gloom and doom. If Spider-Man could survive The Clone Saga, he’ll survive this.

What are your thoughts about the Disney / Marvel merger? Are you a fan of the comics, movies or both. How do you think this will affect Marvel’s output in the coming years? What was your first reaction to the news?

Leave your comments below!

└ Tags: $4 billion, acquisition, Comics, Disney, Marvel, Mickey Mouse, Spider-Man
[ 5 Comments ]

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THE FRIDAY FIVE

August 21st, 2009 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Back in the day, something we used to do in the THorum every Friday was play a game called The Friday Five. The game was introduced to us by the LiveJournal community of the same name and the goal of the game was simple – to learn more about each other.

I was Twittering the other day, and someone who used to frequent the THorum reminded me of the fun they had playing The Friday Five. So I decided to introduce it to the blog.

The way it works is simple. I ask you 5 questions and you answer them! Since this is on the home page, I’ll ask that everyone keep their answers clean of language. But you guys do a really good job of that anyway, so I’m not too worried.

Anyway, since Inglourious Basterds is in theater this weekend, I thought we’d play a Tarantino-themed version of The Friday Five. Here are your questions!

  1. What’s the first Tarantino movie you ever saw?
  2. How old were you when you saw this movie?
  3. Tarantino has a resuscitated the career of several Hollywood actors. What down-and-out actor would you like to see him cast in his next movie?
  4. What’s your favorite line of Tarantino dialogue? (keep it clean, if you can)
  5. What’s your favorite Tarantino film?

There you go! Leave your answers in the comments!

└ Tags: Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino, questions, The Friday Five
[ 21 Comments ]

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