As you've probably noticed, there's no new strip today, even though Fridays are my update day.

Since I started a new job a couple weeks ago, and since I started right smack in the middle of their busy period, and what with the Thanksgiving holiday and all, I decided this week would be a vacation week for me. This will also allow me some extra time to get ahead on stuff, so I won't feel the need to pull this vacation crap again.

Whee!

Happy (day-after) Thanksgiving!

Okay, so maybe the Marlon Brando & Roger review of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" deserves SOME explanation -- but only some. Specifically, Marlon Brando's outfit.

Before Stanley Kubrick ("2001: A Space Odyssey," "Dr. Strangelove") left the U.S. for England, he and Brando started to collaborate on "One Eyed Jacks" (1961), with Kubrick slated as director. He would head over to meetings at Brando's house in the Hollywood hills, which Brando had designed and decorated to resemble japanese-style architecture. Brando, in his usual kooky way of doing things, would insist that visitors remove their shoes and follow the traditions of a typical japanese home (which wouldn't be kooky at all if Brando had been japanese, if he'd been living in Japan, or if it hadn't been the late 50s, but he wasn't, he hadn't and it was).

I seriously doubt Brando wore a kimono, nor did he likely tie his hair in a samurai-style knot. He also wasn't old, and he hadn't gone the way of latter-day Elvis yet, but that's how I see the scene.

Steve and I have worked out all kinds of wacky details about Brando, which will appear occasionally in the strip.

Some have said the substantial differences between Brando, Kubrick and the producers of the film not only got Kubes to quit the movie (after which Brando decided to direct it himself), but were one of the final straws that chased him out of the country for good.

Thanks for reading Popcorn Picnic!

If you're now reading this, you must have had some kind of reaction to this week's strip featuring Marlon Brando -- who, yes, I know is meant to be dead (he's far too big to REALLY die) -- and Roger, the actor who played E.T. in the Spielberg movie of the same name, and who has been permanently typecast ever since.

This strip is quite a bit different than what I've done so far, so I hope it doesn't seem too out of place without significant explanation. I'm not going to explain much because explanation tends to ruin everything, and as I occasionally insert more strips like this, and you see more of the context I'm building, I think they'll work their way into the Popcorn Picnic universe just fine.

What I will say is this: That the bulk of this week's script comes from my twisted genius friend Steve. I'm always bugging him to write stuff for me, especially odd celebrity-inspired stuff like this week's strip, because he craps it out pretty much effortlessly . . . until you ask him to do it. And since I'm hoping he'll write more stuff for me to turn into real-life comics, I'm also hoping y'all might drop a comment or two and let me (and Steve) know how you feel.