Theater Hopper
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Theater Hopper (or simply TH) is a web comic based on a movie fan, his wife, and their friends. It debuted August 5, 2002 and is written and drawn by Tom Brazelton (Speedy to his fans). In 2003, Theater Hopper became a member of the Dayfree Press Webcomics Network, and is still an active member today.
Having recently passed 400 strips and still going strong Theater Hopper is quickly becoming one of the most beloved webcomics on the net. Having done guest comics for such luminaries as Nothing Nice to Say, No Pants Tuesday, White Ninja, Joe And Monkey and Ctrl+Alt+Del Tom is becomming quite the fan favorite. Toms characters have even guest starred in other comics including, but not limited to, Instant Classic, Taking The Bi-Pass and Bigger Than Cheeses.
Characters
- Tom - Tom is the main character and driving force of the strip. Based on the creator and writer, Tom Brazelton, comic Tom is a bit movie obsessed. Frequently dressing in elaborate character costumes for the openings of movies he's excited about (from Star Wars to Starsky & Hutch) and, if left unchecked, has been known to ramble for hours about the merits of seemingly small points in films. He's gone as far as to perform VooDoo rituals on certain "stars" and take things he's seen in movies out into the real world with him (http://www.theaterhopper.com/index.php?strip_id=306), and even to hand out Oscars (http://www.theaterhopper.com/index.php?strip_id=96) to family and friends when the time comes. His yearly tradition of taking his bounty of gifted DVDs into the basement for a neverending marathon is beginning to scare his loved ones.
- Cami - Cami is Toms wife, both in real life and in the comic. Though her taste in movies tends to be more towards the Romantic Comedy section of the video store, she still has all of the passion of Tom, though her inexpierence in going the full 10 yards showed mightily when she accidently stabbed Tom when dressed as Elektra. Her fandom of Julia Roberts is a mighty sticking point in the relationship, with comic results. She was also, pre-comic, apparently the Midwest Chapter Praetor in the Cult Of Sandler (http://www.theaterhopper.com/index.php?strip_id=233), and even though she has since parted ways with the flock seems to have retained the ability to levitate and throw fireballs when under extreme duress.
- Jared - Jared is Tom's best friend, enabler, co-conspirator and probable victim. If ever Tom needs someone to fully geek out with a movie to, Jared is his go-to guy. He may be the only person in the universe who not only understands Toms passion for movies, but almost rivals it. His serious problems with "actor" Ben Affleck are well documented throughout the history of the strip with the two of them getting into more than a few physical altercations. Jareds alter-ego, Goth Jared, thought dead since the sequel to The Crow was such a Dismal Flop is a semi-recurring character, known to pop up if a movie dark enough looms on the horizon.
- Jimmy - Jimmy is the first cast member of Theater Hopper to not be based on a real person. Jimmy is an employee at the local movie theater the rest of the cast is known to frequent and thusly has become quite chummy with them. He was also the subject of Theater Hoppers first long story arc, running from 6 September to 8 October 2004 we got to know Jimmy quite intimately and he has fast become one of the most popular characters in the small cast.
- Charlie - The newest cast member, Charlie, is also a construct of Mr. Brazeltons imagination. When they were younger Charlie and Cami were bitter rivals, competing at everything they could and often coming in #1 & #2. Charlie eventually followed her dream and moved out to Hollywood to become an actress, until almost out of nowhere she moved back to Iowa. In THs longest (almost two months) spanning story arc it was revelead that Charlie had a romance with Ben Affleck, which ended badly when she crushed his skull with the Oscar he won for Good Will Hunting.
- Truman - Truman is the comic counterpart of Tom and Cami's real life beagle. While he has yet to play any major role in the comic, he's still very popular among fans and just really cute. He has in fact gotten his own (http://www.theaterhopper.com/index.php?strip_id=280) strip dedicated to him once when he fell ill.
Games
Jared Brinkmeyer and Derek Rose have lent their talents to producing flash games for the comic. This can be found within the Bonus Materials (http://www.theaterhopper.com/bonus.php) section of the webpage. As of the time of this writing the games available include solitaire, memory, and a dress-up game.