Git ‘Er Dunham

EXPERIMENT UPDATE!!!
If you enjoy HijiNKS ENSUE at all, and you want to see it continue, or you support my EXPERIMENT to try and make a living from this comic PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take 60 seconds and fill out this marketing survey [LINK]. It’s 23 multiple choice questions and it shouldn’t take more than a minute. It would really mean a lot to me.

Thanks!

~Joel

ACTUAL POST!

I was going to write a long post about how fucking tragic it is that America embraces lowest common denominator comedy but I think I nailed it with my early synopsis: Basically Jeff Dunham has a show where incredibly racist puppets do incredibly racist things. If he were actually funny, I wouldn’t be offended at all. It’s lazy comedy and it sucks.

I remember watching this guy in the 90’s when I was a kid and… yes, I admit I wanted to be a ventriloquist [dodges all the things you are throwing at my head place]. At the time he had his main fuzzy green monkey muppet, Peanut, and the jalapeno pepper-on-a-stick guy. When I was 11 the fact that the pepper character was sleepy and lazy and slow witted didn’t really register with me. Growing up in SE Texas the only Mexicans I knew about were cartoon mice with sombreros. The seeds of lazy racist comedy were there 15 years ago. Now his line up of co-starts consists of: Aforementioned green fuzz monkey guy, old guy, lazy mexican food stuff, black pimp with gold chains, dumb ass white redneck Nascar dude (psst… America, he’s making fun of YOU) and THE CORPSE OF A DEAD FUCKING MUSLIM TERRORIST! WTF!? I just… I have no idea.

It isn’t his racist, no-effort comedy that offends me. It’s the fact that it works; that America loves it. What a waste of LOLS.

BOOKS!
Books are going out in the mail every day. Artist Editions are taking forever because I want the drawing to be personalized and good and not 400 sketched of Josh’s face looking slightly to the left.

When you get your book, post a pic on Twitter with the tag #hebook.

SERIOUSLY, IF YOU WANT BOOKS BY THE HOLIDAYS, ORDER NOW!!!

The Darkseid Of The Fox

[HOLIDAY SHPPING DEADLINES!!! I’ll be announcing these soon, but if you want a book (especially an Artist Edition) you should probably ORDER IT like right now]

This origin story may sound familiar, and it may completely contradict the previous origin story for the Evil Fox Executive but hey, whatevs.

So Fox has decided to shelve Dollhouse for November sweeps, and air it 2 eps at a time when it returns in December. Sounds like they are blowing through their already canned episodes and fulfilling a contractual obligation with Mutant Enemy at the same time. A few days ago I would have said, “Meh, go for it. The show just isn’t resonating with its intended audience. The stories range from mildly intriguing to flat out boring (ie “Not Without My Baby” starring Echo Dushku).” Then (just like last season with 1.12″Omega”) they threw a curve ball and showed what was probably the 3rd best episode of the series so far, 2.4 “Belonging”.

I’ve been saying since the beginning that this show sould be Dollhouse: The Adventures of Victor and Sierra. Last week’s ep was irrefutable proof to this point. Sierra’s origin story was fucking intense. Just brutal. There was character development, depth, drama and suspense coming out the yang. And she and Victor have such fantastic chemistry even in their blank doll states. I wonder how much of this improvement had to do with Jonathan “Space Beard” Frakes being in the director’s chair? Maybe this season can end with Echo being brutally murdered by Alpha then Victor and Sierra can take over for the fictional 3rd season that will only air in my fevered dreams.

YOU CAN WIN VIDEO GAMES FROM HIJINKS ENSUE BY DOING COOL STUFF!!!
There are 3 contests that you can enter to win a copy of Borderlands (PC) or Ghostbusters (360), but you have to ACT QUICKLY.

Thanks to everyone that came to see me in Austin, TX this past weekend. The Ka-Baam! shows were a fantastic experience and I hope to be involved next year as well. You can see the comic book covers I created for the improvisers to… improv off of HERE and HERE. The reader meetup after the Friday night show was a blast as well. It’s weird to think that I have internet-friends in pretty much every major city in America. The book signing at Rogue’s Gallery in Round Rock was fun too. Randy and the staff were extremely nice and we had a some very stimulating geek conversation. If you are in the Austin area, you should give them a look see.

I’ll be posting a ton of pics from the whole weekend on Flickr soon.

Jazz Fangs

What can we expect from a Whedon-directed episode of Glee? Dark Willow and Andrew the uber-nerd signing a mashup of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and Positive K’s “I Got A Man”? A medley from “The Music Man” performed by Wash’s impaled corpse (I’ve seen Alan Tudyk in Spamalot and the man can definitely sing and dance like a fancy-prancy-leaf on the wind)? Or just an awesome hour of geeky TV? I was already going to watch every episode of Glee from here until infinity any way, but I’ll be sure to watch Joss’s episode TWICE AS HARD! WITH MY EYES!

Commenters, what do you want to see in Whedon-Glee?

COME SEE ME IN AUSTIN THIS WEEKEND!

Book Signing at Rogue’s Gallery Comics and Books, Saturday Oct 24th from 1-3pm, with a possible reader meetup afterward (depending on how many of you show up)

2 Shows with KaBaam! (Improv Super Hero Comedy Action Show) Friday Night and Saturday Night at 8pm [MORE INFO HERE]

GO SEE THE FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL!!!

The whole HE crew caught The Found Footage Festival last night in Dallas and it was fantastic. The hosts Joe and Nick collect shitty VHS tapes from resale shops, yard sales and dumpsters then put together a show with the absolute worst clips. They’ve got cable access weirdos, work out videos, local commercials, insane family videos, and infomercials for terrifying products. I can’t recommend you checking out their live show AND buying their DVD’s strongly enough. Showing their DVD’s to a group of people is an instant party.

Their next live show is Sunday Night (10/25) in Austin at the Alamo Draft House ( 2 shows! 7pm and 9:30pm) (why is everything cool happening in Austin this weekend?). Go and laugh until your face parts hurt.

BOOK UPDATE:

Almost all of the non-artist edition books have shipped! Artist editions of all kinds will start shipping next week when I get back from Austin. I’m so thrilled that you guys are about to have this book in your hands. When your book arrives, post a pic to Twitter with #hebook.

Don’t have a book? ORDER ONE! It wants to come to your house and love you with LOLs.

LAST THING:
Check out this Josh cameo in a webcomic made by two of our very own Fancy Bastards.

Little Boxes All The Same

Josh is acting on the theory that the more times he pushes the button the more millions he gets. He assumes additional strangers are dropping dead, but you gotta’ break a few eggs to make a money-omelet.

Watch the trailer for The Box and tell me the movie wouldn’t start and end exactly like this. Based on what I’ve seen The Box is a stupid name for this movie. It should be called The Button, or The Button in the Box, or HOLY SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT DUDE’S FACE WAS IT EATEN BY A MONGOOSE?!

I hope this movie features my favorite button-related dialog of all time:

How can he possibly resist the maddening urge to eradicate history at the mere push of a single button? The beautiful, shiny button? The jolly, candy-like button? Will he hold out, folks? Can he hold out?

PODCAST UPDATE:

We are currently in the planning stages of resurrecting The HE Podcast. Scheduling was always the problem and it still is. Everyone is too busy. To that end we are working on having one permanent studio (Eli’s house) with all the fancy gear we already own, and one portable studio that can be thrown together at a moment’s notice and used and relatively any location. That will require some new equipment. So while I am trying to sell every computer I own in order to purchase a laptop that can handle the Podcast’s processor and RAM intensive requirements, I have also posted an AMAZON WISH LIST with a few of the items that would make the mobile studio a reality. Namely the two Blue Snowball Mics (which are half price right now) and the PreSonus Headphone Amp. Most of these things are high dollar items, and I’m not saying the Podcast won’t return without them. It’s just part of the overall plan to have this mobile recording capability.

MEDICAL UPDATE:

Your generous DONATIONS have completely paid off my first medical bill! 1000 thanks to everyone that donated or sent an email/twitter/etc wishing me a swift recovery. The 2nd bill just came in the mail (from the 12 hour hospital stay) and it’s $1800. I am probably going to do a limited print or some such to raise money for this. If you are interested, stay tuned.

I am also considering offering certain comics as larger prints in the store. Maybe 11X14 instead of 8.5X11. The Calvin and Hobbes/Wash/Firefly comic comes to mind.

CON/APPEARANCE UPDATE:

Come see me in Austin, TX this weekend. You have 3 chances! [read more]
I am confirmed for Staple! (Austin, TX) and Emerald City Comic-Con (Seattle, WA) in March and I’m lining up new cons left and right. I might also be at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 as well. I’ll let you know if that’s going to happen or not.

Sympathy For The Symbiote

Marvel hired the guy that wrote Seabiscuit to script the Venom movie? Sounds like a shitbiscuit. Hey-ooo!

I started reading Amazing Spider-Man in the mid-90’s and Venom was front and center for most of that time. One thing that sticks out in my head-parts is him constantly threatening to eat someone’s brains. Even the “talking” action figure that came out when I was in 5th grade said “We want to eat your brains!” He didn’t actually talk, but you could pull this strip of red tape through his enormous backpack to make him repeat garbled phrases. It actually sounded more like “WIWACHHHNNTOEEEEEUHHHBRACHCHCHCH!” Anyway, the point is how are they going to turn brain eating alien symbiote into a hero?

I read that Marvel did this in the 2000’s with a few Venom solo titles. I also know that there is little evidence that he actually ATE any brains. According this this CBR forum thread, Venom talked a big brain-eat game but never got around to closing the deal. At one point the symbiote (not Eddie/Venom) was feeding off human brain juice, but it turns out (I shit you not) that the same chemical was found in chocolate so Eddie Brock just kept some Hershey’s bars around to quench his better half’s brain thirst. This little tidbit might make you rethink your zombie survival plan.

I wonder if there was ever a “What if?” type comic where Peter Parker chose to bond with the symbiote permanently. That would have been cool. Speaking of cool, this movie will be the opposite of that. I can feel it in my Spider-sense, which is the sense that warns me when Spider-Man related movies with suck with the proportionate speed and strength of a spider that sucks.

NEW THINGS OF INTERST!!!

Come see me this weekend if you are in or arround Austin, TX. I will have 3 separate appearances and would like to schedule a reader meetup lunch/coffee/whatever for Saturday afternoon (10/24). More info HERE.

I have added 2 new appearances in November. I will be at the West TX Comic-Con in Lubbock on 11/7/09 and the Dallas Webcomics Expo the following weekend (11/14).

I have also confirmed registration for Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, March 13-14.

BOOK NEWS:

The service I use for my store seems to have misreported the number of Ultimate Fancy Editions of the book that were sold. Instead of 150 it looks like only 147 were ordered. I’ve spent the last few days frantically checking and rechecking Paypal logs and everything seems to point to my store just reporting the wrong number for no reason.
Bad news: books havent shipped yet because I’m terrified there are missing orders out there somewhere.
Good news: There may be 2-3 more UFE’s for sale soon. I will post on Twitter and the first two to respond will get first dibs. FOLLOW ME to get in on that action.
Other Bad news: When it’s all said and done, someone somewhere may not get an UFE they think the ordered, either because the paypal transaction never went through or some random eff up of the internet. If this turns out to be you I will find a way to make it up to you.