Journey Into History

This is one of those strips that I'm not sure I have the confidence to say much about. There were periods in my life when I watched lots of movies, but the past four years, the period Tom deals with primarily, is not one of them. In fact the only two chunks of Hollywood history I can claim any understanding of are the late sixties-early seventies and the late seventies-eighties. Sure, I've seen most of the blockbusters and classics along with a healthy dose of silent films and b-movies, but I'm just not that good at talking film. Too often, I can't remember the stars' names and I'm not all that quick to quote the great lines. In other words, I'll not have a much to say about this strip's usefulness as a source of movie reviews.

The Concept: The comic's a little story in the midst of lots of commentary on movies. Each strip is followed by a blog entry that puts the strip and movies mentioned in the context of Tom's life. At least that's where each entry starts. From there, the entries branch out in whatever direction Tom's inclined. Sometimes it's news, sometimes the depths of movie history. . . I enjoyed most of the entries I read through, but the archive is huge so I admit I was not able to dig through all of it, blog entries, that is. I have read through the strips, so far 432 deep. I didn't do it in one sitting and not in order either. At the very least, Tom's created an interesting little world full of characters talking of not much more than movies. If the strip and blog aren't enough, there's a thriving forum community doing more of the same. It is great evidence in support of the impact of the Long Tail. Niche communities are the future of fun in entertainment. As a guy who watches a couple dozen movies a year, tops, I don't think I'll ever be a regular visitor to Theater Hopper, but I understand why thousands of others might want to call the place a second home. Advertisers are fools not to be falling all over themselves to get in on this kind of market. Here is a very narrowly defined group of people who spend lots of money on movies and DVD's and Tom's offering rock-bottom prices for advertising, but a look at the advertising on the page seems to indicate it's mostly small-potatoes-netizens who've figured this out. To some degree, of course, I'm biased in calling the strip-blog combo an important and underutilized market, but hits will do the talking in the long-term.

The Art: It's crisp and confident, but not stellar. Tom's established a fairly consistent style. He plays loose with a thick line. No master of anatomy, most characters boast only a few poses and the more than occasional awkward panel. The blurred photo backgrounds behind the figures, awkward or not, really help to pull the whole thing off. The more simplistic backgrounds on many pages also work fine. Artistic problems only dominate when Tom tries to get fancy with drawn backgrounds (mind you this isn't often. Tom seems to understand his artistic weaknesses and hides them well). Mostly though, after reading through a dozen strips, you know what to expect in the art department. It gets the job done most of the time. A couple of the recurring characters have a rather endearing look to them. For example, Tom's hair is five or six masterful strokes.

The Story: Hmm. The characters don't do much that doesn't involve movies, but flicks are the reason people are stopping by so have at it. The jokes are sometimes predictable and sometimes funny, but they're almost never of the laugh-out-loud variety. For me, this was fine as long as the strip got me somewhere near the start of the blog post which I, more often than not, enjoyed reading (If some of the blog entries have a weakness, it is their tendency to wander a little too much. That said, perhaps the HB Comic-Blog doesn't wander enough.).

There are genuinely funny moments here that are going to be very different for each viewer, I think. I enjoyed the Hummer ad in #308, for instance and at least a couple dozen references to movies I have seen.

I really think Theater Hopper may be in the right place at the right time. This is a strip that will never be syndicated outside of the net and I don't think it would do well in print. It's got appeal for a good chunk of the people who are out there surfing the web to waste time and be entertained. Tom's created an interesting environment for htem to while away the hours in. I like the fact that lots of the people poking around the site are likely non web-comics people. I'm thinking Tom's work is a decent introduction to the medium. Heh, there's an ad, 'THEATER HOPPER: A GATEWAY COMIC.' The strip holds more than a couple clues for people wondering where web-comics may be headed.

Thanks for submitting this one. I enjoyed it despite not having seen more than a few of the movies discussed. As always, I welcome your comments and clarification.