First, I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who sent a message of congradulations and support regarding the announcement of our baby boy. You guys are awesome. In addition to sending e-mails and leaving messages in the THorum, I was surprised to see comments turn up on the LiveJournal RSS feed and my MySpace page! Heck, threads were even starting to pop up in other online communities. The guys over at the Digital Pimp Online messageboard even sent their best wishes. Amazing!

Thank you so much. I’ve shared many of your messages with Cami and we’re talking about preserving them along with yesterday’s announcement as part of the baby’s scrapbook. Who knows – maybe he’ll find it interesting that so many people were excited about him being brought into the world without even knowning him!

In need to share some other news with you guys right now. Obviously not as big as announcing your first child, but if I don’t do it now, it won’t make sense later.

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be attending the Minneapolis FallCon Comic Book Convention this weekend at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’ll be there both Saturday and Sunday, 10 to 5. My good buddy Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey will be there as well, so you should come out and say "Hi!"

FallCon was the very first convention that I attended back in 2003. This was actually the first time I met Zach as well as Mitch Clem and Carrington Vanston. I was a little uncomfortable at the time because I didn’t know how to act or what to do. But now that I have a few conventions under my belt, this one is going to be a breeze.

I wasn’t able to make it to FallCon 2004 or 2005 which bums me out. Seems like there was always something in the way like a wedding or family commitments getting in the way. It’ll be great to go back to where it all started when I began to think of Theater Hopper as more than just a hobby.

If it matters to you, Cami will be coming with me to this convention. Her first convention appearance ever! She probably won’t be hanging around the booth all day, though. My sister-in-law is coming with us and she and Cami will probably check out The Mall of America at some point. It’s, like, a requirement. But still, if you’re lucky, you might get a chance to meet her.

Cami is bringing along 10 of her hand-made Truman dolls to the show, stitched up especially for this occassion. Demand was so high for the dolls we gave away for the "Theater Hopper: Year Two" pre-sale, we’re testing the waters to see what demand looks like on the convention circuit. If things look promising, we might start selling them on the site! How does that sound to you guys? Is there a demand for hand-made Truman dolls? Would you buy one if we offered them here? You guys should e-mail me and let me know!

At any rate, I’m sure I’ll share this information again in tomorrow’s blog. I just wanted to put it into the universe now so it wouldn’t be so last minute!

Hey, guys. By the way, I have a couple of sponsorhip ad spots open below the comic and above the blog if you’re interested in getting some inexpensive coverage for your site. $10 for 30 days can’t be beat! I’ll tell you, the number of impressions you see with these ads are insane. And I give everyone who advertises with me a username and password to log into the ad server and see how their ads are doing. It’s really cool! Click here to learn how to take advantage of this deal!

I’m scrambling a little bit because in exactly one month I’ll be going to Wizard World Texas. I need to come up with a little more dough to pay for "Theater Hopper: Year Two." I suppose the more financially responsible thing to do would be to wait until I had all of the money before sending the artwork to the printer. But I didn’t have that much time. I pretty much had a month and a half to turn the book around. I did it, but the money wasn’t there yet. So, if you want to help me out, even the smallest gesture counts. Get a sponsorship link for $10 and it’ll make a difference!

Or, of course, you could pre-order a copy of "Theater Hopper: Year Two" and help me out even more! I’m expecting to get the books back from the printer on November 8, so you won’t have long to wait! Order the Year One and Year Two bundle for $25 and I’ll send you Year One today!

I think next week I’m going to get off my can and post that eBay auction I’ve been talking about. Cami also stitched up a few more of those hand-made Truman dolls from the Year Two presale for me to take to the Minneapolis Fallcon. I sold a few, but I still have a few left over and I think I’m going to put those up for sale on the site next week as well.

Just giving you the head’s up! Thanks!

 I’m going to forego my little write-up of Saw III for the moment because I want to share with you a little picture…

"THEATER HOPPER – YEAR TWO" IS IN STOCK!!!

I got a call from Josten’s late last week telling me that copies of Year Two were finished and so to be delivered. Imagine my surprise when I came home yesterday evening and found about 16 large boxes stacked on my front porch!

It was more surprising than last time considering that I had to drive to the frieght distribution center to pick up all the books when they couldn’t navigate their truck down my suburban street last time. I guess this time around there were no such problems!

I’m thrill that the books are in exactly two weeks early. That means Cami and I will be filling out envelops all this week getting set to ship off the books that everyone pre-ordered. Hopefully your pre-order was a little less agonizing the second time. I know it took us a while to turn around the first book.

But that’s water under the bridge. "THEATER HOPPER – YEAR TWO" IS IN STOCK!!!
 
I’m beyond thrilled that these books are in my hands. I kept flipping through it all last night. This is the book where I started keeping high resolution files. You can really tell the difference from those I had to take from the web site. The low res comics are still legible. But the new comics are just astounding.

Remember, in addition to the comics with BRAND NEW commentary on each, there is a foreward by my wife Cami, guest strips from the era as well as over 80 sketches. I’ve also included a handy index that outlines all the movies I made fun of that year in alphabetical order with the page number next to them so you can find it in the book easily.

If you’d like to buy one, you can do so here. And if you haven’t bought "Theater Hopper – Year One" yet, you can bundle both books together for $25 (plus shipping and handling).

Remember that all books will be signed by me! So if that’s an incentive for you, I wanted to put that out there.

Thanks again to everyone for their support. I never would have thought it possible that I could produce TWO books this year, but you guys stood behind me and helped make it happen. I am completely humbled. THANK YOU!

As much as I would love to talk about Casino Royale right now, I’m afraid I have another story I want to tell. This has nothing to do with movies. It has to do with something personal that happened to me. So buckle up, because it’s a long story.

As some of you might recall, this weekend I went to Wizard World Texas. Originally, I wasn’t going to go. But after the success I had with the launch of "Theater Hopper: Year One" at Wizard World Chicago back in August, Cami sweet-talked me into fast-tracking "Theater Hopper: Year Two" and premiering it at Wizard World Texas. When I learned my good friends Mitch Clem, Zach Miller and Taki Soma were planning on going as well, it was a done deal. I was excited. I felt like we had some momentum behind us and we were riding the wave.

We left Des Moines last Thursday and it took us about 12 hours to get to Arlington. We made it to the hotel, gathered up our stuff and checked in. A little later we went to the nearby Bennigan’s where we ran into Zach and Taki. I took Cami back to the hotel room to hit the hay after a long day on the road and then went back to Bennigan’s to catch up with Zack and Taki. We had a great time sharing stories and telling jokes. I went to bed that night really looking forward to exhibiting the next day.

Despite the fact that we had been on the road for so long the day before, I woke up with a ton of energy. I was bouncing around the hotel room getting ready. I was eager to meet the fans and get going. Cami and I spilled out onto the parking lot a little bit later ready to head out to the convention. I was carrying a bag with Cami’s books in it and popped the trunk to throw in the back.

Then I noticed something was wrong.

"Uhh… where are those two big Tupperware’s with all the shirts in them?"

"What?"

"The Tupperware’s. Where… ohmigod, we’ve been robbed! Someone broke into our car!"

Here it is – the first day before the convention, I’m amped up and ready to go and the rug has been completely pulled out from under us.

In a dash, I went to the front desk of the hotel. "You’ve gotta call the cops! Our car has been broken into!"

"Tsk," said the hotel clerk, dejected. "That’s, like, the four or fifth one today!"

I was put on the phone with the Arlington Police Department and gave them my contact information. Within a few minutes, I was contacted on my cell phone by an officer who helped me file my report. Here’s what they stole:

• Two Tupperware containers containing the following items:
• 25 brand new Spoiler t-shirts that had been delivered to me earlier in the week.
• Roughly 25 t-shirts of various designs. The last of my shirt inventory that I had planned on selling off.
• All of my promotional materials including about 250 fliers that I had printed up so I could hand them out to people who visited my table.
• Various display-related tools and materials. This includes a movie-themed table cloth I use to dress up my space, flashing lights I put on the PVC display behind me to attract attention and things like scotch tape, string, a pocket knife, stands for me to prop copies of the books on, sharpies to sign the books and recently created cardboard signs to make things on the table more engaging. For example, a sign that says "You laugh at it, you buy it!" to put on the Spoiler shirt.

The also stole a cell phone from the glove compartment. It’s actually my old cell phone that I threw in there after it was replaced last month. It doesn’t work. So I guess the joke’s on them.

They stole a ring that cost me about $10 that I left on the dash when I was trying to get into my pockets to pay a toll, but didn’t take the loose change also left scattered.

They tried to yank out the auxiliary cable and charged for my iPod that I have mounted into the dash. It was stretched out all over the place, but they couldn’t get it free. Miraculously, it still worked so we had something to listen to on the ride home.

What pissed me off most is that they took my Game Boy DS and every single Game Boy game I had ever collected since I was about 12. I had brought it with us to give Cami something to do while I worked on the convention floor. I probably wouldn’t have brought it otherwise.

Here’s a list of things they DIDN’T steal:

• My two-wheel cart that I use to load in with.
• My mannequin torso wearing a Spoiler shirt that I use as part of my booth display.
• A 56" long tripod bag containing all of the pieces of PVC I use to hold up my 4′ x 2′ Theater Hopper banner and price list behind me.
• A folding chair for Cami to sit in and be comfortable.
• My sunglasses.
• Four boxes of books – two for Year One and two for Year Two.

The last item on the list is what really surprised me. Besides the Game Boy, the books were the most valuable items in the car. I don’t know how to feel about that. Either we’re dealing with illiterates or they just didn’t think the books were very funny.

As devastating as it is to be stolen from, at least they didn’t break a window to get in. That would have made the car ride home ESPECIALLY difficult. Apparently they must have had a slim jim, shimmied it in the door and popped the lock that way.

More than anything, the theft was just bad timing. I’m convinced I could have used the shirts to sell more books. I bundle the two together for a discount at conventions and people seem to really like it. I can’t tell you how many people came up to my booth, saw the Spoiler shirt on the mannequin and asked "How much is that? I have to have that shirt!"

I would tell them it was $10, but that I actually didn’t have any with me because my car was broken into the night before. People were sympathetic. Some people told me "Welcome to Dallas!" I had one girl tell me car theft was really common in the area because it’s very touristy. She worked at a restaurant in the area and her car was broken into three days after starting her job. It figures. In between our hotel and the convention center was Six Flags over Texas. Ameriquest Field where the Texas Rangers play is also right next door.

I told people that if they really liked the shirt that I would take down their mailing information and send them one when I got back home. Surprisingly, I actually sold a few that way. Only one guy balked when I asked for the money up front.

We were able to sell a few books and make some money. Friday was actually a good day, sales wise. We couldn’t match it on Saturday, though – which was a busier day on the floor. We had a goal in mind, but we only made about half that. So it was frustrating to suffer a wasted opportunity. We didn’t even make enough money to cover the cost of the trip.

Still, as unnerving as it is to be stolen from, I’m actually pretty thankful that it wasn’t worse. They could have stolen my iPod or my laptop which I thankfully had the common sense to take out of the car. If they had taken that, I would have been much more upset.

More importantly, we’re safe. They could have tried carjacking us while we were driving around or kidnapped us. Who knows? That’s the bad thing about being stolen from. It makes you crazy paranoid. I thought I was getting over it at one point until I opened up the trunk on the way home and saw a used cigarette but in the back. It makes you feel violated all over again.

But at the same time, I thank goodness she was there because she really pulled me through it. She kept me from flying off the handle. She kept me sane.

Am I annoyed I was stolen from? Of course. But you have to move on. I choose to think about some of the happier memories like getting to spend the weekend with great friends, hanging out and talking for hours just to see who could make the others laugh. I think about going to see Stranger than Fiction that Saturday night and feeling totally moved. I think about visiting Cami’s family and how gracious they were to have us spend the night on Sunday before we faced another 12 hours in the car driving home. I’m thankful for the restorative powers of a home-cooked meal.

At any rate, that was the bulk of my experience at Wizard World Texas – warts and all. At this point I think it was almost good it happened this way. I guess I don’t have to worry about getting rid of the rest of my shirt inventory anytime soon! It’s an opportunity to start over. I think I’m going to circle the wagons and do exactly that. When it’s all said and done, Theater Hopper is going to be better than ever!

That said, don’t ever stay at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Arlington. That hotel sucks! 

 Hey, guys.

I’m writing this after a particularly large, gut-busting Thanksgiving meal and I am looking at Cami and Truman both sound asleep on the couch and I desperately want to join them. So I’ve decided that there will be no comic for Friday. Sorry to flake out on you like this – especially for those of you outside of the States who don’t celebrate Thanksgiving day. But the fact of the matter is that this is one of the last holiday’s Cami and I will have – just the two of us – before the baby comes in February and, well… I want to take advantage of it without the threat of deadline over me. I just need a day off.

I appreciate your understanding.