"Weird Al" Yankovic's "UHF" Six Panel Cinema

Back when the FUBAR 2 Kickstarter fundraiser was under way, I pledged much more than I had originally intended because one of the rewards was too enticing for me to pass up (I suppose that this is what makes some Kickstarter projects successful and others not).  The reward in question was a "Six Panel Cinema" page by none other than FUBAR head honcho Jeff McComsey.  The idea behind Six Panel Cinema is simple, yet brilliant - you take a movie and whittle it down to its six most important or memorable scenes.  Jeff has given a number of movies the six panel treatment, most of which can be seen here: http://sixpanelcinema.wordpress.com/

I jumped at the chance to choose one for myself, and it should come as no surprise that I chose "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1989 classic, UHF.  I'm a big fan of Al's and the movie is one of the highlights of his career.

After I paid up, I buckled down and watched the movie one more time, choosing the six scenes you see depicted in the image above.  It was tough going with only six - there are so many more important scenes (and I wanted to include a panel of the Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies music video, but alas...).  Other than a cameo in the last panel, I completely cut out Victoria Jackson's character, and that's a shame.  But I did manage to work in most of the other main characters and, ultimately, I think that I chose the most important scenes.  I'm very happy with the way this turned out.

I told Jeff that I wanted to letter the page when it was finished, and he was gracious enough to turn it over to me for that purpose - I had to be involved with the creative process in some capacity.  I also took the opportunity to hand draw the UHF movie logo.  I'm no artist and what I ended up with isn't perfect, but it's my honest best and a tribute to just how much I like UHF and how much of a fan I am of Al and pretty much anything he does (check out his great new web series, "Face to Face"!).

I also colored a version, using the original movie poster colors:

In the end, we used colors that matched the theme of the rest of the page, which was the right choice.  Jeff and I also chose Lee-and-Kirby-style nicknames from the movie.  I went with "roooad maps!" and Jeff took "dog snot" - I was tempted to use the entire "festering bowl of dog snot" line, but perhaps simpler is better.

This is the second comic featuring Weird Al I've been involved in.  Last year I worked with Adrian "Bago" Gonzalez in creating "Accordion Theory", which I mention at every opportunity.  I can't help it.  Whatever.

Anyway, this Six Panel Cinema will find its way over to my webcomics section before too long, where it'll live forever in reverence.  I hope that you, faithful readers, enjoy this short comic.  And if Al finds this via a web search for himself...hi, buddy!