THE LUCK

January 4th, 2006 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Wouldn’t you know it? Just as soon as I sit down and invest a bunch of time into drawing a strip about Steven Spielberg directing a remake of Mary Poppins, a spokesperson for the director has to come forward and squash the rumor.

Here’s how it all went down according to the Internet Movie Database’s Movie News page:

Spielberg Quashes ‘Mary Poppins’ Rumors

Steven Spielberg has played down rumours he is planning to remake Mary Poppins. The Saving Private Ryan director was linked to the project by Sir Richard Eyre, the director of the London stage show of Mary Poppins. He said, "Spielberg wants to make a new film of Mary Poppins and we’ve talked about it a lot. "It will be hard to outdo the original but kids love the story and I’m sure that the remake will be a real success." But Spielberg’s representative Marvin Levy counters, "I never heard of this and couldn’t imagine Steven ever doing a remake of a classic – and a (Walt Disney) classic at that. "There’s a Broadway show from Disney but nothing involving us in any way."

This always happens. Go to the trouble of spoofing a Wizard of Oz sequel starring Drew Barrymore? Talks fizzle out. Quentin Tarantino might direct the next installment in the Friday the 13th franchise? Nope. He says that was never going to happen.

So, are there any projects in the pipeline that you guys want me to put a stop to? Because I’ll do a comic about it and that’ll be all she wrote!

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DUH

January 2nd, 2006 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Wednesday’s comic will be delayed because I am a moron and forgot to upload it to the server.

I have a doctor’s appointment at 5:00 PM, so don’t expect to see it until early this evening.

Sorry for the screw up, guys. But it’ll be worth the wait. I’m really happy with how the artwork turned out on this one!

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THE YEAR IN REVIEW

December 30th, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and before I partake in the libations that will help to wash away what was 2005, I like to take a moment to look back, take stock and examine where things started and how they ended.

2005 was a difficult year for me in a lot of ways. Lots of personal stresses. Cami got a new job. We sold our first home and bought our second home. Moving… THAT’S never fun. I lost my Grandpa and tried to guide my family through the aftermath of that. Still have a few relatives in the hospital. Somewhere in there when I was stressed out to the point I was banging on the steering wheel in traffic (it happened!), I decided to make a change in my personal health, started working out and lost 25 pounds.

So, yeah… lots of personal change. So it feels good to have moved beyond it.

As far as the comic is concerned, I don’t know if I was as dedicated to it as I could have been this year. Looking back through the ’05 archives, I’ve had more guest strips this year than any other. And while I’m proud that Theater Hopper is at the level where there are enough readers and other creators aware of the comic to help support me through a rough patch… honestly, that shouldn’t be happening to that degree.

Then again, I only blew off two updates this year. One was because my monitor fried on me, and the other one was just this week because I was still coming down from Christmas. So that’s not bad!

2005 was a year for milestones. We celebrated our 400th comic, our 3rd year anniversary and our 500th comic. All big successes. Incidentally, our 400th comic was also the introduction of our first new character in a long time – Charlie. Which could be considered successful or unsuccessful depending on your level of patience for slowly-unfolding storylines…

In the spirit of further transition, 2005 was the year that Theater Hopper moved away from Dayfree Press – the web comic collective we helped to establish – and onto greener pastures with Boxcar Comics. As much as I learned from the Dayfree guys – and I respect all of them – I think the camaraderie I have at Boxcar is a little more tightly knit as I was already good friends with Zach, Mitch and Joe. So it was a pretty smooth transition. Incidentally, I had a blast with those three jokers at Wizard World Chicago this year and hope to do it again next year!

Probably our biggest success this year wasn’t even something I did. The proper accolades go to Dave Buist from Taking the Bi-Pass for helping get our content the most organized and efficient it’s ever been. And I mean EVER!

Dave devised a new archiving system for the comics and the blogs built off keywords. So now you guys can search for your favorite strips, characters and movie references with greater ease. This has been something I’ve wanted for A LONG time. Not only for you guys, but it was even getting hard for ME to find the comics I was looking for. And I created the dumb things.

But Dave took his work one step further by also developing our Movie Review Database – and application so brilliant, I’m still grinning over it’s potential. I haven’t talked about it in a while because I’m still adding to it all the time. New movies, images of posters, cast information, links to the Internet Movie Database, plot descriptions, the works.

The idea is amazingly simple. All you have to do is create an account through the THorum. One you’re logged in, you can search for any movie that you would like to comment on and leave your own review! How cool is that! Like I said, I’m adding movies all the time. Eventually, the hope is that you can leave your two cents on virtually every movie Theater Hopper has ever referenced! How many other web comics are doing that!

There’s still a few layout glitches in the database that Dave and I are working on. Cosmetic stuff. Nothing serious. The guts of this thing work like a charm and it’s all thanks to Dave’s expert code knowledge. Once again, Dave – thanks from the bottom of my heart!

I think 2006 is already shaping up to be a great year. With my personal trials out of the way, I have more time to dedicate myself to the comic and push some projects through that I’ve been wanting to accomplish for years. I’ve designed the initial layout of the FIRST THEATER HOPPER book which will collect the first 52 strips in one handy volume. Eventually there will be two more volumes and the entire set put together will represent the first year. I plan on producing books in a similar fashion for Year Two and Year Three.

It might sound odd to offer three volumes for the first year, but I’m going that route to help me keep costs down. When it’s all said and done, the individual books will only be $9.99. When compared to other web comic collections I’ve seen, that’s pretty cheap. I want to make sure you guys get a copy for yourselves because it’s going to look really nice. More news on that in the future.

In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for sticking around and making Theater Hopper the success that it is. I’m continuously humbled by your interest in my work and only want to bring you more and better work in the time ahead.

Happy New Year and best wishes to you and yours!

THANK YOU!

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WHAT DID SHE THINK?

December 28th, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

As promised, I wanted to come back in today and blog about Cami’s reactions to Sin City.

We hunkered down with a big bowl of popcorn last night and watched it together. It was a lot more violent than I remember. I think when I watched it for the first time back in April, I was more under the spell of it’s visuals. Anyone who reads comics knows its probably the most literal adaptation of any franchise put on film. At that initial viewing, I think I was geeking out so hard, I kind of glossed over how brutal it actually is.

So as this revelation comes to me, I’m thinking to myself “Cami’s hating this. It’s gory. It’s too grotesque. She’s hating this.”

As the credits rolled, I sheepishly asked her “What’d you think?”

“I liked it.”

Imagine my surprise! I asked her what she liked most about the movie.

“The yellow blood!”

Looking back, Cami was pretty engaged in the whole thing. She would ask me questions throughout.

“Wait, wasn’t that girl dead?” “Why is that guy yellow?” “How come Elijah Wood is sitting on the porch when he was killed earlier?” She seemed pretty engaged.

Turns out she liked the segment with Bruce Willis the best. That was my favorite part, too. I think it’s the most poetic and probably the best use of Willis as an aging action star yet.

Of course, for pure vicreal thrills, nothing beats watching Mickey Rourke as Marv lay waste to a bunch of no-name cops. Watching him bust through that windsheild? Man, I get chills just thinking about it!

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NO MONDAY STRIP

December 24th, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Apologies for the lack of an update or any forewarning on Monday. After being with my family for a full weekend, Cami and I both pretty much crashed Sunday night. Monday was reserved for doing darn near next to nothing.

It’s dissapointing to me in a way because I always trick myself into thinking "Oh, boy! A holiday! Time off from work! I’m gonna get SO MUCH STUFF DONE for the site!" and then it never happens because prior commitments and exhaustion set in. Right now, I’m so thrown off my routine, I don’t know what’s what…

There will be a comic on Wednesday. I promise.

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I WANNA SEE WHAT HAPPENS

December 21st, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

My occassional e-mail buddy Fenris over at Aikida got linked by my chum Mitch and he made some sort of comment about possibly breaking his one-day unique hit record. I thought I would toss him a link from the front page to see what happens. Plus, Aikida is a really great comic that I’ve been following for years. If a little more link-a-tude convinces Fenris to stay the course and keep pumping out excellent comics, then it’s time well spent!

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PREDICTABLE

December 16th, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Reflecting on King Kong’s box office "failure" on Wednesday got me thinking about this noise I’ve been hearing about a software program that can predict a movie’s success. Have you guys heard of this?

Apparently, some egghead at Oklahoma State University wrote a software program that can predict whether or not the next Hollywood turd-burger is going to be hit by applying seven criteria to each movie and averaging them out – rating by censors, competition from other films at the time of release, strength of the cast (or Star Pow-ah!), genre, special effects, whether it is a sequel and the number of theaters it opens in.

Using a "neural network" (shades of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, here) to process the results, films are placed in nine categories. A "flop" meaning less than $1 million at the box office. A "blockbuster" meaning more than $200.

The study proved that 37% of the time, the network accurately predicted which category a film fell into. 75% of the time it was within one category of the correct answer. Spider-Man and Shrek were correctly identified as blockbusters. Waking Up In Reno and Running Free were pegged as flops. I guess it must be right, because I’ve never heard of either of those last two movies.

Professor Ramesh Sharda has been working on the program for over seven years and has analyzed more than 800 films before publishing a paper appearing in the journal Expert Systems With Applications, set to be published in February 2006.

Naturally Sharda is already in discussions with a "major Hollywood studio" (he wouldn’t say which one) to further refine the system to improve its accuracy.

I think any movie fan with a heart and a mind knows that this specific leap in technology can only mean bad things for audiences. Clearly Sharda is someone who actually HATES movies and doesn’t want you to have a good time spending your entertainment dollar. Apparently he believes your discretionary income should go to more college scholarships. Or perhaps the athletic program. GO OSU, COWBOYS!

A program like this could turn movie marketing on its ear. Think about all the little brain trusts studios currently hire to handicap the success of a film. It’s understandable to a degree. Studios and producers make increasingly larger investments. They want to protect those investments. But by using the criteria outlined in Sharda’s program, Hollywood money-handlers could potentially deep six a movie before even one roll of film is shot. If our good friend H.A.L. doesn’t think your movie has enough star power, you’re done. Too much potential competition at the time of your film’s release? We’ll bury it in September.

Film’s are already being treated more like disposable product and less like art. I’m not taking the shallow view on this. I know that as long as there has been entertainment, there are pictures out there that will be treated as such – nothing more than a mild diversion.

But at the same time, would a movie like Apocalypse, Now or even Citzen Kane be made today with all the market research and bottom-line thinking that seems to have poisioned the industry? Films for adults are dumbed down to PG-13 so studios can reach further into the pockets of teens with disposable income. Potentially great films are rushed into theaters prematurely without much care because, "Hey, we can always make it up on the back-end with DVD sales!"

A program like this will continue to shift the balance away from thoughful expression and more toward commerce. The two can exist side-by-side if given room to flourish, but that doesn’t seem to be the industry focus anymore. Movies will end up looking more and more alike. Celebrity status rather than good stories will play a larger factor into what films get made. There will be less films for adults who are seeking serious and intelligent options and the overall artistry of cinema gets dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Culture evaporates and America continues to earn its stripes as the home of dum-dum entertainment and overweight popcorn jockeys.

People wonder how films like Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo can continue to be made. It’s seeds like Sharda’s program that force us to reap the harvest of mediocrity.

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SICK DAZE

December 14th, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I’ll say this for being sick; It sure gives you the time to catch up on a bunch of movies.

I had something flu-like on Monday. So after sweating it out Monday night, I stayed home from work on Tuesday. I ended up watching The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, The Naked Gun 2 and 1/2: The Smell of Fear, The Lonely Guy and Goodfellas (because it just happened to be on).

I can say without doubt that the first Naked Gun is probably one of my favorite comedies, but that I hadn’t seen the second in a long time and I kind of remember why. Despite the addition of Robert Goulet, it’s vastly inferior. Not just in terms of the humor, which feels a little overdone. But there are huge plot holes in the thing! In my opinion, some of the best humor evolves from the characters being placed in a totally absurd situation and reacting to it with complete seriousness. That’s why the first Naked Gun movie is hilarious and also why the first Airplane! movie is hilarious. Leslie Nielson and that deep baratone of his adds the perfect amount of weight to ridiculous lines like "It’s true what they say. Cops and women don’t mix. It’s like eating a spoonful of Drano; Sure it’ll clean you out, but it’ll leave you hollow inside!" That’s why it’s such a shame he’s started wasting his talent in stuff like Mr. Magoo and Spy Hard in the late 90’s. Those movies were just flat-out stupid.

Moving on… The Lonely Guy. I’ve been on a Steve Martin kick ever since watching Shopgirl a few months ago. I have no plans, however, to endure Cheaper By The Dozen 2 when it comes out this month.

Instead, I’ve been combing through his back catalog. I already owned Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid and it’s one of my favorite movies. Actually, Jared turned me onto that one years ago. We think it’s brilliant. But I picked up The Lonely Guy only partially remembering it from the times it’s been on basic cable. It was pretty funny. Cute. It’s kind of dated though. It suffers pretty heavily from the 80’s flavored synth soundtrack. It makes me wonder if the movies we’re watching now we’re going to look back on in 20 years and go "Ugh! What was up with the music back then?"

I don’t know what it was about movies from the 80’s, but very few of them seem to have a timeless quality about them. I’m sure you can say the same thing about any era, really. The movies that ARE timeless are certainly in the minioirty compared the majority of crap that comes out of most major studios. I suppose that’s why their timeless, but still…

And finally, Goodfellas… I caught it on HBO. To me, Goodfella’s is one of those movies that I will stop whatever I’m doing to watch. It’s so arresting, you can’t really turn away from it. I think that’s a big accomplisment. Especially after nearly 15 years. An even bigger accomplishment if the movie is on television. You know how it goes. You’re at home, watching TV, some movie comes across your radar. You think, "Oh, that’s interesting." and you watch it for 15 minutes or so before going back to channel surfing. Not Goodfellas. It comes on and I forget I even have a remote. Man, what a great movie. I’m still seeing helicopters.

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FRAPPR MAP

December 2nd, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

I was monkeying around with the Theater Hopper map and noticed they had a handy little code application that you guys can click through to access it. I thought I would test it out in this here blog.


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BIG AUCTION!

November 30th, 2005 | by Tom
Posted In: Blog

Well, if you voted for Theater Hopper at the Web Comics List, you kind of already know the big news. The incentive sketch I put up is now available to own courtesy of the fine people at eBay!

Bid for this artwork on eBay!

I created this piece in ink on an 11 x 14" of Bristol board. So it’s big and suitable for framing! I guess since I was so excited about reaching the big 500, I just wanted a way to extend that excitement to you guys and give you the option of being a part of it.

I set the auction up yesterday but didn’t get a chance to post about it until today. At any rate, the auction ends 5 days from now, so be sure to get your bids in! This is a great holiday gift for yourself or maybe the big Theater Hopper fan on your list! It’s totally one of a kind and can be yours… IF the price is right!

One other note today, congradulations to Sam Logan whose comic Sam & Fuzzy also crossed the 500 strip threshold this week. Sam’s being more low key about it than I am. I thought he gave a good reason, too:

"I don’t really have anything profound to say about my 500th consecutive Sam and Fuzzy strip," said Sam.  "Perhaps if I was growing sick of it, or getting ready to pack it in altogether, it would feel more monumental — like I had completed some great challenge or overcome some tremendous obstacle. But I don’t feel that way at all. No, today is just another day, and today’s strip is just one more comic that I loved creating and am thrilled to be able to share with so many people."

Very well put. Incidentally, I feel the same way. I mean, 500 comics isn’t a challenge or an obstacle. It’s a lot of fun! I plan to keep doing Theater Hopper so long as you keep reading it. But where Sam and I differ is that when I stop to smell the roses, I also grab people by the sleeve, shove their face into the thorny bush and say "SMELL THESE ROSES! AREN’T THEY GREAT?!"

Man, who would have thought that Theater Hopper, Sam & Fuzzy and Questionable Content would all hit 500 comics in the same week. Hear that? That’s the sound of the planets aligning.

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