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< Piro >

"Broken Limbo"

Monday - August 18, 2008

I need to apologize for the very serious delay of the past week. Most of it stems from a very difficult problem i was having with the new t-shirt printing and production that took almost 4 entire days to resolve... a problem that needed to be fixed and at times i wondered if i was ever going to overcome. It has delayed not only this comic (since i have been spending most of my time on it) but has delayed production and shipment of all the shirts that you folks have ordered from the store. The good news is that last night i was finally able to resolve and fix the issue. Subsequent testing has confirmed that the issue is indeed fixed, and the print quality of the shirts is up to what i (and you) expect them to be.

The limbo i have felt like i have been living in for the past week is now broken.

Of course, the euphoria that came with finally resolving the problem (it had to do with being able to properly print in high speed (bi-directional) mode as opposed to normal speed (unidirectional) which was more than doubling the time it took to print shirts) has now passed and i'm having to face the big catch-up with not only orders but the comic as well.

This comic is actually not too far off from being done, but i still have a few more frames to finish before i can post. On top of this, now that the printer is working properly i have to actually be there to ramp up production so we can fill all the outstanding orders.

So, that said, I would first like to apologize for the delay in shipment of your shirt orders from the Megagear store, and let you know that we are now back online and orders will start being filled and shipped as soon as i can get them printed and out the door. Thank you for your patience. As for the comic, it's coming - and now that i am past this big hurdle with this new production method and i will be switching my priorities back to that thing that i would much rather be doing - drawing comics.

I also owe you folks a rant with more info on what exactly this all is. I'll do that too in the next few days.

Ah, the joy of learning the ins and outs of new production methods, new machines... Sometimes it's learning the technical bits and tricks and ins and outs of machines that always have their own personality and quirks. Sometimes it's a question of learning what voodoo or magical incantations to recite. Sometimes it's finding that hidden little hatch on the back marked with a squiggly looking cephalopod-like creature that pops out and reveals an intake where where you can pour appropriate measures of your own blood. Finally found that hatch last night. Hopefully it will stay satisfied for a while as i try to rebuild my red blood cell count with copious amounts of coffee and wheat thins.

It's a bit of a spoiler, so if you'd rather wait for the finished comic, don't look, but here's a rather nice frame from this upcoming comic. I'll be posting the finished comic as soon as i can finish up the remaining frames later this afternoon. Thank you again for your patience - time to get back to work.

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< Dom >

"Valkyria, Valkyria"

Saturday - September 27, 2008

[Dom] - 01:46:05 - [link here]

I have seen myself in Geek Magazine. The picture is... kind of random, but if you want to see me getting my geek on, take a look on the left side of this cosplay picture. That's me with Yumicco and Momo on page 20.

On to important news! Today, I went to the Valkyria pre-release event at the Metreon. As you may have noticed from my gushing praise of that game a few months ago, I'm a huge fan of the game and was thrilled at the opportunity to meet the producer of my favorite Sega game in years. Hell, let's not mince words here: Valkyria is my favorite game in years. The moment Seiya told me about the event, I rearranged my work schedule so I could head into San Francisco, snag an autograph, and maybe get some neat swag.

As I walked by the Sony Store at the Metreon, I felt a twinge of regret at not trying to register as press for the event - sitting down and talking with creative minds is one of my great joys in life, and if I'd been a bit better about keeping my press credentials, I might have had some time to pick Nonaka Ryuutarou's brain. (Hmm... I wonder how many places would consider MegaTokyo and my blog here to be a sufficient reason to grant me an interview? I'll have to check on that)

But, I got to pick at Nonaka's brain anyway, so I felt great just being there. I didn't have much time to talk to him because I've never been one to hold up a line, but I did get back in line a few times with no intention of getting more autographs, just asking more questions. Between Seiya and myself, we found answers to a lot of the questions we felt were unresolved from the game, learned more about the future of Valkyria downloadable content (there's a second extra mission coming, which he told us before the official Japanese announcement; the fate of the DLC in English is undecided, but probably based on whether or not the game does well), and who the hell would name a tank after a small rodent (the Germans).

We also got some laughs when, as part of a promotion with 1up, the Sega staffers said that anyone who knew the Japanese name of Valkyria would get a prize. I pulled out my Japanese version of the game and was immediately handed a Sega hoodie, feeling a bit sheepish about letting my fanboy run wild. But, I had a whole lot of fun and reminded myself just how much I like this game, so it was completely and utterly worth giving in to my inner fanboy to attend this event and squeeze every last bit of enjoyment out of it.

Just as a reminder, the English demo of Valkyria Chronicles goes up on PSN on October 9th. The game itself will be released in November. I heartily recommend buying it, and just to make sure that I've done my part in making this game successful, I will buy the game in English even though I've already played it and beaten it in Japanese. It's that good, folks. If you don't believe me, try the demo! It's fun, dammit! Fantastic art direction, great gameplay, a story you can get behind, Stupid Scout Tricks, what else do I need to do to convince you that this game is fun? Run around in a Valkyria costume? I'll do it, dammit!

Okay, enough of that. Back to Lego Batman... because, you know, that'll make me feel like less of a fanboy.