[1146] next comic PREVIEW

"next comic PREVIEW" July 28th, 2008 [1146]

Panel 1:
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Comic [1145] 10:04 in progress...
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I've been wracking my head dealing with details that I will have to live with for the rest of this chapter (rest of the story?) as well as a lot of other fatherhood related things over the past week. I apologize for the delay in the continuation of chapter 10. I've been able to work out most of the things that needed to be worked out in order to properly continue with the chapter. Now if only I could figure out how to remove useless things like sleep from my life, perhaps I could get back on schedule.
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Comic 1145 is well under way, still needs some work, but I figured I'd post these two versions of the same frame to give you an idea of how ideas and details get applied and often changed as I work on a frame:
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Erika is back to wearing cosplay outfits again, which is always fun, but a big part of the fun is choosing one for her. My first choice, after knocking it around a bit, was the character on the left (I'll let you figure out who it is), but in the end it just wasn't feeling right. Erika will for the most part wear almost anything, but that doesn't mean it will work well for what I'm going to have her be doing during the story.
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This morning, I decided to try a different route, and went with the character on the right (once again, I'll let you figure it out). A different look, a little more subtle, but I feel a little more satisfied with the choice, especially with one particular detail which you can't actually see in this frame.
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Anyways, a lot of blather here, and I'm sure you'd rather have a comic, but it's better than nothing. Thanks for your patience. Chapter 10 feels like it's actually coming together well, which takes a real load of stress off my head. Now it's just the work of putting it all to ... er, digital paper, so to speak.
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Piro

console

< Piro >

"a little push"

Tuesday - July 22, 2008

This sketch is actually the result of some antagonisticly friendly back and forth between hawk and i that ended up with hawk suggesting i draw him as Batman and Piro as the Joker. I found myself doodling the idea in the margins here and there for the past week till the idea took hold a little more seriously, and this one rather rudely grew out of the margin. I blame it's emergence on listening to the Dark Knight soundtrack (because i haven't actually seen the movie yet). I'm actually a big fan of the original Batman film (the movies went quickly downhill after the first one, until the most recent two movies) so i've been very curious to see how this version of the Joker works for me. Yes, i'm fairly shure i'll be happy. In a creeped out shuddering kinda way, maybe.

When i showed it to Hawk, he asked me to send it to him, and he did this rehash of it. Spooky.

I put my original version in the DPD because ... hell, hawk's version was a little TOO scary. Don't wanna skare the kiddies too much, now, do i?

had to rehash some things in the chapter, glad i did - working much better now. Sort of like battle plans, no story i write survives actual contact with drawings on paper, it always changes. For the better usually. :) Next comic is on deck and with some luck i'll be posting it on schedule tonight.

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< Dom >

"AX Stories: Backstage"

Friday - August 1, 2008

[Dom] - 18:23:54 - [link here]

Great, I'm in Japan already and I'm not done with my AX stuff. Well, here's my last story for now (I have two more I'm fond of, but those can wait until I'm back from my month-long tour of Asia).

This last story once again starts at night in the cosplay events office, where I was shooting the breeze with Bob the Trout and cooling down from a long day of running around helping people. While we were talking about how the day had gone, a pair of girls and their manager walked in. They were fairly obviously non-native English speakers, and Bob the Trout looked up from her data entry long enough to give me the "Please talk to them, my Japanese makes me sound like a 13-year-old boy with an attitude problem and you are much less likely to say something offensive" face. I know that face all too well, and so I related spent some quality time over the next ten minutes doing some impromptu translation while I was technically off-duty.

Then Bob threw me a curveball. She kindly let the girls know that I was going to be their "den mommy" backstage, meaning that I had been shanghaied for translation duty on a regular basis. Before I knew it, they were bowing politely and saying "Yoroshiku onegai shimaaaasu" in that way I can't say no to. Thus, I joined the cosplay staff on a semi-official basis. I didn't mind it too much, since it gave me something to do on a Saturday night, though I could probably have lived without a bunch of people in costumes calling me mommy.

Overall, it was a pretty fun experience, learning how a convention cosplay event works behind the scenes. I got to engage in one of my favorite pastimes, sitting down with someone and swapping stories with friendly people. I got to translate for a giddy session of cosplayers comparing notes on how Japanese cosplay and American cosplay differs (it comes down to this: America has a lot more space to build and swing around props, Japan has more lenient laws regulating chemicals).

So, with a common hobby and no choice but to spend 4 hours cooped up in a loading dock, we all ended up having a great time back there. And hell, I'm still in contact with those girls above (even though they forced me to squat down for that picture, telling me I was too tall). I'll be seeing them at Comiket in a couple of weeks, and all because I stayed in the cosplay office a little too long...

Sorry this couldn't be as long of a rant as the other ones - Summer in Japan has been punching me in the face repeatedly, and I want to get to my Japanese stories as quickly as possible. So tune in next time, when I talk about baseball, both high school and professional.