A sneak peek at Christmas

I am currently in the process of writing "A Hattington Christmas Story" which is going to be a parody/tribute of the beloved holiday classic, "A Christmas Story". I've had the idea for this rattling around in my brain for a couple of years and now I'm finally writing it out. I've blogged before a bit of how we try to make our parodies fresh as well as really portray the original material in a good light. This is no easy task and we really do put quite a lot of thought as well as some research into these types of stories, maybe more so than the mainstream "parody" movies do (i.e. Superhero Movie). I'll share with you a little bit of my process so far.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had several long discussions with Steve, Michael, Andy and my wife, Michelle (she does the voice for Blonde) about exactly how I should tackle this particular project. As you will remember with "Hatman Clause" I took more of the base concept from the source material and wrote something entirely new and different. Well, with this I want it to be more close to the source material, and yet still tell an original story. Which as you might guess is going to be like a tightrope act in order for it to work.

So, in these various discussions I picked the brains of my fellow 3twins-ians and asked, "what scenes from the movie should we portray?" and "what should we try to shy away from or more or less alter in a way?". I'm not going to give you a whole lot of spoilers for the answers we came up with, because, where's the fun in that. However, I will give a few teasers as to what I've come up with:

A Christmas Story was set in the 1940's and was about a man recalling a particularly memorable Christmas from his past. Well, the approach I'm taking with my 3twins tribute version is: Setting it in the 1980's and it will be Hatman recalling a particularly memorable Christmas from his past. So, the story will have the same "feel" and we can still reference '80's things like the movie referenced '40's things.

The next question was, "Do we have our regular cast of characters play parts in this?" Or "Should we try to extrapilate a past for Henry Hattington out of what we already know and therefore, certain characters (i.e. Leppy, Indigo, Blonde...) who appear in nearly every single issue will be absent from this story?" And the answer we agreed on is the latter, many of our regular cast will not be in "A Hattington Christmas Story". However, I am working in new characters that will somewhat "fill the shoes" of the absent cast members as well as a surprise here and there for a few cameo's from people we have met in the Hatman universe.

As you can guess, this will be a bit of a departure from our normal adventurous style, however, I really hope that when it goes online, it will feel like a warm tribute to the classic Christmas movie that is number one for many people.

-Jason

Asking questions

Greetings Hatmaniacs!

I'm the sort of person who's always asking questions. Face it, your teacher was right- it's the only way to learn anything. Today's question is one you might never have ever thought about:

What is a webcomic?

The population of North America by and large are very familiar with comic books, comic strips, and, to lesser extent, graphic novels. If you mention the names Batman, Spiderman, Snoopy, or Garfield the average person is going to know exactly who you're talking about (OK, Batman has like 15 different variations but you get my point)

But what about webcomics? If you mention Skull the Troll, Gabe and Tycho, or Dust Puppy would you necessarly get the same recognition outside of Net Savvy folks?

For my posts I'm going to start off with an exploration of the popular genres and titles of the greater webcomics universe. My intent is to help us all understand how the Twinsverse fits in the great world of webcomics and promote what I consider to be a unique art form spawned by the Digital Revolution.

Your homework for next time is study the collected works of Scott Kurtz @ www.pvponline.com (after you've caught up on Hatman of course!)

Until then, True Believers, Excelsior!

Uncle Mutzie

3twins is back for another Indy Comic-Con

Come and check us out this Sunday, June 28th at the Indianapolis Comic book show were we will be doing Caricatures and showing our latest issues of Hatman and Indigo. As this year progresses we will, with each foot make steps to making 3twins a well known name in the comic world. For all you collectors out there, for the first time ever 3twins will have original artwork up for grabs made specifically for our fans, much like trademark companies do. Jump on board now while the handle is warm, 3twins is going to get really hot and our products extremely valuable.

"It aint easy..."

3twins.net has been on line for over 4 years now. We get feedback, but not as much as we'd like, and not the kind that we need.

All the time I hear "I really like what you're doing with the website", or "That last comic/cartoon was great". Don't get me wrong, we LOVE to hear that you like what we work so hard on, but we need true constructive criticism.

I know there are things we do that make you think "ugh, I hate when they do that" or "not this again", but we don't know what those things are. Believe me, when we do hear that people don't like something, we change it. The main reason Midieville is on a break is because we heard from several people that they like the content, but not the visuals. SO we're starting from scratch to make it as awesome visually as the rest of the content on 3twins.net.

What am I asking? I want you to post your least favorite thing about 3twins.net. Whatever it is! It would be great to get a blog discussion going about this.

Thanks for your feedback. BUT Please post it HERE!!!

Andy

What we mean by "Family Friendly"

When Andy, Jason and I first started writing stories for 3Twins.net, we made the decision that we were going to maintain a family friendly atmosphere on our website. But the question is, what exactly does that mean?

I'll start with a little background. During the Silver Age of Comic Books (1956 - circa 1970) comics were much more clean than they are today. This was largely due to the fact that the newly created Comics Code Authority (sort of like what the MPAA is to film) imposed somewhat strict regulations on the content of comics. With The Code in place, most comics strayed from graphic violence, sexual content, foul language and drug use.

Throughout the 1960's, however, an underground comic book market began to grow where The Code did not apply and comics were free to explore whatever sort of content they pleased. Additionally, in 1971, Stan Lee and Marvel Comics were approached by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to do a comic that would combat illicit drug use. Lee accepted and did a three part Spider-Man series showing the harm of abusing drugs. The Code, however, did not approve, but Marvel published the comic anyway and gained widespread acceptance.

The unfortunate side-effect of this action, along with the rise in the underground comic book industry, was that The Code began to undergo a series of revisions that loosened up its rigid standards. Throughout the 70's and 80's, grittier comics began to emerge, such as Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, depicting harsher displays of violence, more sexual content, and drug use. Today The Code has mostly gone out of favor as many comics do not even apply for it and even Marvel has abandoned it in favor of its own ratings system. So while many if not most, comics maintain a family-friendly element - the door is now open for comics to take on any terrain they wish.

So what does this have to do with 3Twins? Well, as I said, with the decline of The Code came an increase in violence, sexual content, inappropriate language and drug use in comic books. This means that many comics are no longer suitable for children and that many adults who do not wish to look at this type of content will avoid them altogether. So when Andy, Jason and I began writing our own stories, we decided that we wanted to make content that anyone could view and enjoy without having to worry about these things.

We believe that a comic can be a multi-layered and deep story that adults will appreciate without having to delve into the use of violence, swearing, sex and drugs. However, we knew that some potential viewers might see our approach as too soft and they might assume that "Family Friendly" means that our target audience is children and parents. In reality, though, we want anyone who loves comics and cartoons to love our stories.

Thus we have always sought to maintain a delicate balance in our comics in order to keep them both appealing and appropriate for all ages. This is not always an easy task, but we believe that keeping this standard in mind helps us as writers to not simply go for the easiest joke or device to draw in viewers. Ultimately we believe this will help us to be better writers and offer you better stories.

~Steve

It's Bloggerin' Time !!!!

Hey there True Believers! This is Mutz and I'm the latest addition to the 3Twins family. No, I'm not the fourth twin but I'm more of a Ringo to the 3 Twins Beatles. I'll let them sort out who's John, Paul, and George.

I'm the new resident tech guy for the group and general outside-of-the-box thinker (actually, I don't even believe in 'the box' so that's a pretty easy task). I also do some voice work, so check the credit for my name.

I just wanted to post and say hello to all you Hatmaniacs out there.

so, um..Hello!

Excelsior, Nuf' Said, and No Prizes to you all,
Mutz

Facebook Quizes

3twins recently began creating Hatman & Indigo themed quizzes for Facebook. Our Facebook fan page has grown quite popular in the short time we have had it, so we decided to branch out to more Facebook users.

The quizzes you can take currently are only available to Facebook, but we may create more for other internet aplicaitons.

To date, you can learn what Hatman & Indigo main character you resemble, what Terrible Trio member you most relate to, and what Hatman & Indigo friend or feind you are. It's all for fun, but some of the results can be quite enlightening.

Post a comment and let us know what you think of the quizzes, and anything else we do.

Thanks,

Andy

More sneek peeks into Ion Bunny 4

I previously wrote about Ion Bunny 4 and how he will square off against the Mad Hatter once more, but what I failed to mention was that unlike our previous issues of Ion Bunny, which have all been penciled and inked by Steve Surine, this one will be penciled and inked by our new artist, Brittany Bankert. To the side is a concept sketch she did of Ion Bunny and his alter-ego, Ian Bunay. We're excited about this new style for Ion Bunny since it lends itself really well to the "cute, yet not cuddly" nature of the "hare raising" electro-phile.

Stay tuned for periodic updates on all things 3twins...

-Jason

Hatman & Indigo in HD!

Last week we released our first High Definition issue of Hatman & Indigo. We will continue to have standard definition versions available, for quicker load times, but from now on we will always offer HD versions of each comic.

Having the HD version of the comic not only allows the images to be cleaner on high resolution monitors and TVs, it also affords us the ability to easily convert the HD flash into BluRay and DVD options in the future.

We at 3twins.net, LLC are continuing to expand our horizons, and always looking to the next best thing we can offer to you, our fans. Not only will we continue to offer HD versions of Hatman & Indigo on 3twins.net, we are also looking into other mediums to broadcast our Heroic and Incredible friends.

Keep sending your feedback, we are always willing to rise to any challenge.

~Andy

Next for Ion Bunny

In my last post, I wrote about the upcoming Hatman stories but as of yet, we have not discussed Ion Bunny on our blog. What we have done in the past is try to have one issue a year that is either a stand alone or an offshoot of a specific Hatman story (such as Ion Bunny 2 following the Mad Hatter from Hatman into Ion Bunny's rabbit hole).

Well, for this year's story, we are changing things up a bit. It will be a 2 issue story (however the second issue may not come out until next year) where our furry friend squares off against the Mad Hatter among his search for a new place to live.

Ion Bunny 4: Revenge of the Mad Hatter should be released this fall.

Upcoming Hatman stories

I've tossed it around in my head a bit and I think that the whole idea of this blog thing is to give you fans a sneak peek at whats coming up, so I'm going to list the titles of our upcoming Hatman issues, leading up to issue 50 with a very brief teaser of what to expect.




Issues 37B-39: Back to the Beginning parts 2B, 3 & 4 (Hatman and Indigo have traveled back in time to prevent the Terrible Trio from stopping Henry Hattington becoming Hatman, will they succeed and if they do, will they create more time travel troubles that need to be fixed in order for the present to be restored? One of the parody covers will be of: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure)




Issues 40-43: Superheroes (As the Damsel family gets ready for a graduation party for Blonde finishing college, Hatman recieves an invitation to a Superhero convention. A new characer will be revealed in this story! One of the parody covers will be of: Giant Size X-Men #1)





Issues 44 & 45: Many Happy Returns... (The Terrible Trio are at it again as they attempt to steal the leprechauns ruining Hatman's birthday party. The parody cover will be of: Super Smash Bros. Brawl)





Issues 46-48: The Revenge of The Big Giant Pumpkin Headed Man (Halloween at the Bill farm, need I say more? One of the parody covers will be of: The first Scooby Doo Movie)





Issue 49: A Hattington Christmas Story (Hatman recalls a christmas from his childhood, this issue is loosely based on the family classic "A Christmas Story". The parody cover will be of: A Christmas Story)





Issue 50: Attonement (In our milestone 50th issue, expect the unexpected. One of characters will never be the same again! We will feature 50 variant covers some by YOU!)





-Jason

The 3rd Twin

As 3Twins.net continues to grow and bring you new, fun content, one question we get a lot is, "Where did you get the name 3Twins?"

The story actually begins on July 20th, 1980 when Andy and Jason were born. Andy and Jason are actually identical twins, and this is the root of where the "Twins" part of the 3Twins name came from. The "3" didn't come along until about 9 months later when I was born - but I'm not even a blood relative. In fact, I didn't even meet Andy and Jason until the bus-ride to school on our first day of first grade.

That meeting was the first in a long series of encounters (some good, some not so good... more stories for other days :P) that led to me becoming best friends with Andy and Jason about mid-way through High School.

Around that time Andy and Jason ended up living with their grandparents who only lived about a mile and a half from me. I ended up spending a lot of time over there with them playing video games, watching movies, and even writing some of the stories and making movies that would one day lead to our website. I spent so much time there that Andy and Jason's grandparents started to refer to me as The Third Twin.

Like I said, we spent a lot of time making silly videos. At first we called our videos Tuesday Evening Taped (get it?). Eventually, Jason had the idea to make these skits into a cable access show and he even took a class at the Kalamazoo cable access station to get things started. He created the name HyperFiction for our company and we changed Tuesday Evening Taped to The HyperFiction Comedy Hour.

Unfortunately we learned that the name HyperFiction was already taken and so we began trying to think of a new name. That's when the Third Twin nickname rolled back around. We all liked it, and so 3Twins Productions became the name of the company.