Archive for ‘Blog’
644 items.
I posted the first blog last night, so when I said “come back later in the day,” I think I was running on a different timetable. Either that, or I’m just impatient. Or, potentially fearful that I will forget to update the site with the art I promised you.
So here it is. Here’s the artwork I did for a recent local coloring contest!
I probably have to explain what this is about.
Y’see, my editor over at Juice – a weekly publication created by writers of The Des Moines Register and aimed at the 20-something set – asked me if I would be interested in producing some artwork for a coloring contest they were running called “Summer Fun in Des Moines.” I jumped at the chance. I would have done it just to have something to do. But it didn’t hurt that they were paying me extra for it.
I was stuck for ideas for the longest time, though. See, even though it’s a coloring contest, IT’S NOT FOR KIDS! So I had to think of something appropriately “adult” without crossing the line into anything vulgar. I asked my editor for suggestions and he said, “People socializing. You know, drinking.” This is not an unreasonable request for Juice. They often go around to all the social events in the city and take pictures of people out having a good time. Then they post them on their web site.
I felt a little funny about drawing cartoons of people drinking, but I think what I came up with is open to interpretation. I really like how the girl turned out in this one. I tried something different with how I draw eyes and it worked. I also went a little more cartoony for the man’s jaw line. You see that kind of style a lot now, but it’s hard to get my brain to tell my hand to do that. So I thought that was a minor accomplishment.
The land marks in the background are the Simon Estes Amphitheater and the state Capitol. The Simon Estes Amphitheater is basically this metal arch over a concrete pavilion next to the Des Moines River where they have a lot of concert performances in the summer. Simon Estes is an opera singer and probably the most cultured celebrity we have, so they trot him out for all kinds of stuff.
The Capitol building is, well, a Capitol building. But I think it’s an amazing piece of architecture. I’ve been to a few other state capitals and they don’t inspire anything in me like this building does. The domes are gold leaf!
Anyway, that’s probably more Iowa history than you care about. I just wanted to show you guys some artwork I was proud of. Hope you liked it!
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I just wanted to remind everyone to check out The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST over at TalkShoe.
Last week, we took the night off. Gordon has been busy looking for an apartment and Cami and I went to the Ben Folds / John Mayer concert. Since Joe was all by his lonesome, we decided to scrap it.
This week we’re back and ready to kick ass. Topics of discussion will include Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 1408 and Evan Almighty. Be there and toss in your two cents by either participating in the live chat room or calling in and speaking to the three of us in real-time!
Another reason to tune in to tonight’s broadcast is because we’re running in conjunction with the release of the film Evening on June 29. If you haven’t heard of it, the cast is insane – Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Meryl Streep, and Glenn Close all star in it.
As part of the contest, we’ll be giving away a make up bag, a cook book and two posters. If you’re interested, just listen to tonight’s broadcast for the first half of a two-part phrase. Come back to Theater Hopper on Wednesday for the second half of the phrase. When you have the complete phrase, e-mail it along with your name, age and mailing address to theaterhopper@hotmail.com. The winner will be chosen at random!
For a synopsis of the film along with links to the trailer and video clips, please click here And don’t forget to listen to The Triple Feature tonight at 9:00 PM CST at TalkShoe.com!
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First, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has sent e-mails or left comments in support of my computer problems. I’m getting lots of great feedback.
Truthfully, though, I’m having a little trouble sorting out what route to take and I thought it might be helpful if I offer you guys a little more information.
Right now, my desktop has two hard drives. One that is 120GB that houses the operating software and all the other software like Photoshop, Dreamweaver and the like. The second internal hard drive is 20GB, came from my last computer, was wiped clean and now only contains Theater Hopper information. I have a third hard drive that is external and houses all of my MP3s, photos and video. If I ever get this sorted out, I’m going to move all that Theater Hopper stuff over there, too.
I’m starting to wonder if my OS hard drive is starting to crap out on me. My machine is about 3 or 4 years old and I noticed it was making some strained whirring sounds in the last month or so. I’ve had one person advise that I replace the hard drive with Windows XP already installed and then bring over all the old software. This might be a more costly solution, but might be more viable long term if it is the hard drive physically failing.
Anyway, that’s a little more information to go on. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do, but maybe some of you who have left suggestions can take this information to help me devise a more specific course of action.
Thanks again to everyone!
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Sorry, guys. No comic today. I tried salvaging my desktop and it’s been a slog.
Turns out I found my install disks and I called Dell to help walk me through it. The bad news is that it wasn’t registering the prompt to rescue the drive from the CD, so I ended up having to reformat my entire hard drive. It’s formatting as we speak, having taken the last 30 minutes to progress 3%. I’d be surprised if I didn’t have to buy a new hard drive when it was all over.
I can probably use my laptop to complete my work. But right now, I’m too tired to make it work. Henry was sick over the weekend and he hasn’t been quite right since. He used to sleep through the night. Now he’s wide away at 4:00 in the morning. That, coupled with the worry about my machine last night led to practically no sleep. I’m running on fumes.
I might try to update Friday, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.
All I know is that I’m glad I bought an external drive to house all my music, photos and video. I have a second internal hard drive for all the Theater Hopper stuff. So my original art will go untouched. But it’s a close call.
I’m sitting here thinking about how good things were for Theater Hopper last year. The books, the conventions, the success. This year has been a real struggle. I can’t help but think how much worse it could have been if I lost all my original artwork. I probably would have given up completely.
In the meantime, does anyone have suggestions for a reliable internal hard drive that I might set up my operating system on? Does anyone think I need to purchase a OS upgrade? The disks that came with my computer were from 2003. Thoughts?
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There’s a lot of talk about the new Apple iPhone being released today.
Guess what? I GOT ONE!
It was totally by accident. Cami, Henry and I were wandering through the mall today and our AT&T store had a sign out front that said “Only 14 iPhones left!” I didn’t think much of it because I knew it was too expensive for me to purchase, so we kept walking.
Later, we came home and I got online. I was reading articles about iPhones for sale on eBay with price tags over $1,000!
So I sat at home wringing my hands and debating about whether or not to go back to the store and grab one. I even consulted my LiveJournal friends. With their encouragement, I raced back to the store and bought one. I’m glad I did. I spoke to the manager and he said their location was the only one in Iowa, Minnesota or Nebraska to have any iPhones left in stock.
So, of course, our new iPhone is now on eBay. It’s a three day auction that I started for $650. We’ll ship overnight anywhere in the world, so if you’re interested, bid away! If you have friends who might be interested, let them know, too!
Cami and I are planning to take any profits from the sale and put them toward Henry’s college savings fund. It might not sound very exciting, but we’re trying to be creative. So it’s all going toward a good cause. Good for Henry, anyway. 18 years from now.
THANKS!
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You’d have to be living under a rock not to be aware of The Simpsons Movie coming out on June 27, but have you guys checked out their recently revamped web site? You should really check it out. There are a bunch of new interactive elements and games, wallpaper, buddy icons, the whole digital marketing gumbo. Even ring tones!
The thing I like the most is The Simpsons avatar creator. So if you ever wondered what you would look like if you lived in Springfiled, now you can make a version of yourself Simpsons-style.
Here’s another bit of Simpsons goodness you’ll only get here: Check out the recently redesigned Simpsons Online Store and enter the word “HOMER” at checkout to get 10% off your total purchase. Don’t say I never did anything for you! I think I’m going to buy the Season 8 DVDs. I’m falling behind in my collection.
This movie has been in production for so long, it’s like I can’t believe it’s coming out. Almost like I don’t want to get my hopes up until it’s ACTUALLY in theaters. But there’s a good chance once it’s out there that I’ll be seeing it, oh, ABOUT A BILLION TIMES!!!
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A few things I forgot to mention in the first post:
- A few people were congratulating me last Friday for reaching my 700th comic. Actually, that was a typo because I accidentally counted Wendesday’s “Boo hoo! My computer is FUBAR!” messages as an comic. I’ve made the correct and TODAY’S comic is my 700th – which is mind-numbing to think about.
I think the last time I celebrated the number of comics I posted was 400 or probably 500. But anymore, I think I’m just into celebrating anniversaries. You’ll hear from me again about it on August 5.
- Don’t forget to call in and listen to The Triple Feature talkcast tonight at 9:00 PM CST over at Talkshoe. I pretty much plan on giving the floor to Joe to talk about Live Free or Die Hard because it sounds like he had a blast at that movie and I want him to tell us all about it.
We’ll probably be talking about Transformers, too – if you’re interested. Join in and talk to us live!
- It’s kind of a long story about how it came into my possession, but I’m auctioning off an 8GB iPhone on eBay and the auction ends around 10:00 PM tonight. So if you’re interested or know someone that might be interested, bid away!
For the love of God, PLEASE bid. The longer this thing stays in my house, the more I want to love it in unnatural ways.
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One more thing before I forget.
I’m getting read to go to Wizard World Chicago in a couple of weeks and I need everyone’s help.
I’m putting together a small booklet with my best comics to give away to people who come to visit me on Artist’s Alley and I’m using the Top 10 of the Top 50 Comics as my sampling.
So if you guys have a little free time to go through the archive and rank your favorite strips (don’t be afraid to use that search bar to find them!), I would appreciate it. I want to give new readers the most accurate representation possible of what Theater Hopper is all about! Who better to let them know than the fans!
Thanks for your feedback. It’s always interesting to check in on the Top 50 from time to time to see what you guys are enjoying!
Later!
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Real quick….
BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
Man, not even 24 hours after I made my anti-Lohan rant, the dummy gets herself arrested for driving under the influence and for possession of cocaine ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM THE SANTA MONICA POLICE STATION! Her movie, I Know Who Killed Me, comes out in theaters on Friday. Brilliant promotion strategy, Lindsay!
Obviously Ms. Lohan has substance abuse problems and I don’t mean to make light of that. She clearly needs help and needs to get the hell out of Hollywood for a while. But think for a moment if this was anyone else. Some crazy crackhead you read about in your local paper. If you saw a headline that said “Local nut job high on angel dust involved in car chase” you’d WANT the cops to take them off the street. You’d want the judge to throw the book at them.
Not to go on another rant, but Lohan’s stint in rehab stemming from her Memorial Day arrest (for which she showed up in court for and paid $30,000 in bond toward five days ago) wasn’t enough to keep her from partying. So it’s time to employ new tactics. If they’re willing to throw Paris Hilton in jail for (admittedly) much, much less, then there should be no favoritism shown to Lohan.
At this point, you have to think that her career is pretty much over in mainstream Hollywood movies. She’s too much of a liability. I’m sure there will be a comeback down the road. She’ll clean herself up, do a couple of indie movies and then pull a Robert Downey Jr. If she’s smart, she might actually earn her credibility back.
Too bad her parents are totally nuts. I’m sure she could use some sensible advice from someone with influence over her. Someone that ISN’T her dealer.
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Apologies to those of you who came to the site on Friday to no blog. Forty lashes with a wet noodle for me.
Pretty much I was going to talk about how excited I was for The Simpsons Movie. When I didn’t get around to it Friday night and we ended up seeing The Simpsons Movie Saturday night, it felt redundant to retroactively talk about how I was anticipating it. So I held off for the full review that was posted above. I hope you enjoyed it.
Be sure to stop by the site tomorrow for a DVD review of 300. I was lucky enough to be sent an advanced copy and I have some thoughts for you on the day of it’s release. I know it’s outside the normal posting schedule, but think of it as an apology for bailing out on you guys Friday.
Oh – and there will still be comics this week. You can expect new strips on Wednesday adn Friday as usual.
By the way – did anyone notice that I snuck three comics into the mix last week? I was hoping to keep the streak alive this week. But two movie reviews and two comics is a fair trade, I think.
Last note: Be sure to check out The Triple Feature talkcast tonight over at TalkShoe at 9:00 PM CST. Gordon, Joe and I will be talking about The Simpsons Movie, I’m sure. Well, Joe might not be in attendance because he’s supposed to be flying back from the San Diego Comic Con (lucky bastard). But I’m hoping he has an opportunity to call in and give us the scoop on all the big movies coming out in 2008. If not, I’m sure Gordon and I will have lots to talk about. Superbad, The Ten and The Bourne Ultimatum all come out this Friday. So there’s a lot on our horizon!
Call in to talk to us live! See you then!
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