Those were carrot sticks before he got to them. Dork bird.

Wander's ~*favourite new food*~ is parsley. He seriously cannot get enough of it; this arrangement works perfectly as 1) he loves it so much he will dance into the cage for it whenever we want and 2) we never use the entire bunch of parsley when we buy one anyway. We give him a stalk at a time and he dismantles and chews the heck out of every part of it (leaving behind a gigantic mess, but that's a given when you feed birds anything).

Skip this bit if you hate it when your flist talks about fitness. ( Gym talk )

( Here be some art! )

I bought a pair of 120-page sketchbooks in the first half of May and I am happy to report that I'm a few pages away from filling one of them completely!!

Included in the deluge were the 24 hour comic plus another 22 or so utterly filthy comic pages for two short stories. One is an 8-pager I kinda sorta wrote about a really expensive kitchen knife we bought, the other is a 14-page-and-counting Warriors Orochi 2 epic... threesome... THERE, I SAID IT. IN A WAY.

This happened despite going through what I think was one of the most difficult and busy months of my career, joining a gym (and actually going, for the most part), being unusually social and nurturing obsessions with quite a few games in a row. I dunno what's wrong with me either, though I suspect that self-help book had something to do with it...

How do I talk myself into these things D:

Oh right, I recently learned that if doing something scares you, you should just tell yourself "fuck it" and do it anyway. The payoff's usually ridiculously good because nobody else tends to think that way! Besides, any project where evilhayama and mirness both get involved is bound for insane glory.

No posts for almost three weeks... how remiss of me! Lots has been going on. Work is exploding (in good and bad ways), there are some more cons coming up and I'm not ready for them, and our US/Canada trip is almost completely planned now. I also got a haircut after finding an awesome hairdresser unexpectedly close to where I work :D

I kinda sorta visited Adriano Zumbo twice in the past couple of months without even knowing that the man himself had been featured on MasterChef (several times). Wondered why it was so packed the second time we went! And since they finally decided to stop whining and start cooking on MasterChef we finally started watching it. Not super happy with the final outcome for multiple reasons, not least of which was the aforementioned whining.

The Tales of Vesperia release was delayed by yet another week, which was not a huge surprise after what, almost a year of delay? I picked it up two Fridays ago, tossed Persona 4 aside and racked up 60 hours on it... seriously, screw the haters, I love this game! It's so incredibly pretty, the voice acting's shockingly good, the design work on pretty much everything is both distinct and appealing, it's got all the elements I like in a Tales game and Yuri is the BEST MAIN CHARACTER EVER. I thiiink I am halfway through it but also suspect I have many, many sidequests ahead of me. Let me onto Namco Banda Isle already!

We saw my high school BFF's band live last night, which was a nostalgia trip in so many ways. It was a tiny, dingy venue with lots of character, the kind of place I haven't visited for a show in ages (think first stage of Guitar Hero, hahaha). It was so cool to run into said friend again, and it was even cooler to watch her do her thing on stage! I didn't particularly love my high school years, but she was a part of so many of the happy memories I do have; we went on so many adventures together and I think we had a unspeakably strong creative influence on each other in that time. I suppose drinking a bit and getting home at 1am is nostalgic too, but ehhh. XD

Speaking of BFFs, evilhayama and I have come up with a crazy zine concept which appears to have morphed into an exhibition of illustration and photography. The theme is "your parents' recipes" and we're hoping to have everything organised by the end of September for a mid-October launch in Sydney. I'll be setting up a site for it later this week, or bug me via email/IM/whatever if you're hungry (shutup) for details!

Is anyone interested in buying a copy of our spiffy BL artbook online? If so, I'll add it to my online shop... once I figure out postage costs to the whole world, argh.

I somehow won a prize in Comikaze24 this year?! I definitely wasn't expecting that. Thanks to anyone reading this who voted for me, because I actually voted for someone else... and not out of sheer politeness either, I really really liked their entry NAMI-CHANNN XD;;;

Lots of people I voted for won stuff this year heh heh A_A But seriously it was all awesome! I haven't had that much fun reading in ages.

Here is a slightly suggestive artbook promo pic as thanks!! I am very very excited about this, especially after seeing the test print and labouring over the design for so long - caleyndar and poshua and RAE are in it too and their art is all fantastic~ go go fujoshi crew~

( Cuttttt )

Our super hot artbook will be available at the BL Here! table alongside our assorted wares (by sb_mcinnes, caleyndar, RAE, poshua and yours truly) at Supanova Sydney this weekend. YOU MUST COME, IT IS zpxlng's BIRTHDAY.

Hurr I just finished printing my 24 hour comic, gonna spend tomorrow evening stapling! Girl knows how to party.

I've been a member of my current gym for two whole weeks now!! It's one of those trendy circuit gyms but the fees are lower and it's women-only, so I figured why not? So far I've done four workouts and a tai chi class (SLO-MO HADOUKEN), which is pretty damn good for me in every way. I'm really enjoying it; it's so much more social and personal than when I was a member of a certain giant gym chain, and I do feel like I've gotten my energy back. I realised tonight that I can't even remember what I did at work once I'm about a quarter of the way into the circuit... which is actually a good thing!

As promised, here are my highlights from Comikaze 09. What I really recommend is that you read every single one of them, because the quality this year was incredibly high! I laughed, I cried; in once case I actually laughed until I cried. So much wit! So many cool twists! People were being so darn nice and supportive to each other too... it was heartwarming to see. Thanks tedprior for convincing me to participate this year T^T

General favourites:

Pinn by tiny_monster - GAAAH IT'S JUST SOO CUUUTEE! (I like how all the working girls in the crowd make comics about work... but I also love reading them so nyerr)
(The Lives of Those Who Are) Not Us by Biccy Wong - cute art and a nice neat twist.
Exchange Day by Jen Breach and Trevor Wood - a hilarious concept illustrated well.
Hold On by Donna Morgan - absolute proof that 1. good writing makes for a good comic and 2. "I can't draw" is a pathetic excuse not to try making a 24-hour comic >:D
How to (Draw a 24 Hour Comic) by Nick Hunter - w-w-what is this guy he is amazing! And then I looked at his blog and his inkinggg aaa! He may be terrified of me when I say hi at Supanova but oh well XD
Cryptopher Rabbit by Jing - I love comics about eccentric weirdoes who just seem to be dancing to their own beat, and this is that kind of comic. Like many of this year's comics, it is also witty as all get-out. (Okay and she wrote stupid fangirly references to things in there too and I love that.)

Mature faves (requires registration):

Plush Love by C. Braes - I LOVE THIS and it is by a first-timer which blows me away even more. My hands-down favourite out of the lot, it's so solid and expressive and funny all at once!
Innocence is Bliss by Robert Raccoon - this is the one that made me laugh until I cried. The art's so simple but hot daaamn that is some witty writing under pressure.
Hidden Seek by Samantha Ee - oh man the aaart *argggl* and the story and pacing are nicely done too.

It seems like several artists/creatives on my flist are feeling a bit fragile lately, so here is a really inspirational blog entry I read this morning by Stealth Magazine's Mark Pollard. Wise words and well said!

Holy cow, I got to 24 pages with no title page and minimal cheap tricks. A few pages are kinda NSFW and while I started the comic in the General forum, evilhayama reckons I should have seen the porn coming a mile away and just started my thread in the Mature forum to begin with. We can hope, right?

I know exactly what's wrong with it but hey, when you end up with ten pages to draw in half as many hours you kinda... don't give a flying toss any more! Personally, I like what I ended up with.

Pulp Faction thread (may become registration-only when it gets moved to the Mature forum)
Folder o' jpgs for everyone else

Now to go get some sleep before dinner, I am wrecked. _o_

I'm attempting the 24 hour comic again this year and I have no idea why :DDD I start in about forty minutes.

Today is Drawing Day, too! If you're in Australia, aren't doing the 24 hour comic and have an hour to spare, consider participating in the Cambodian/Australian comics exchange that John Weeks has set up - your mission is to introduce yourself in a single comic page drawn in an hour. The target is 12 people on either end of the exchange!

Full details are at Comics Lifestyle.

This here is Kazushi:



This is a pair of designs for a character who will be harassing Kazushi a fair bit:



Poll #1402252 Kazushi's blind date
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24

Who goes with Kazushi?

Don't say I don't love you, there are even ticky boxes this time!

PS Hey guys I think I just found the oldest page on the internet

Somehow I can't help but feel indirectly responsible for this... hopefully they never find out about Megaten, right? XD

But I find the protest a bit confusing, since I learned pretty much everything I know about Hindu mythology from comics. Where does entertainment begin and end? On the other hand, Rajan Zed looks like he has a touch of the crazy.

Something I am actually prepared to claim responsibility for is this portrait of Matt Huynh for the Sexy Men of Australian Comics 2009-2010 Financial Year Calendar.



I'm relieved that he didn't burst into tears upon seeing it! Or maybe he did, I emailed the file to him so I didn't see his reaction in person. If you're in Melbourne, the calendar launch is at the Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall at 5pm this Saturday as part of Comic Book Funny. kinokofry is going, so you should go too!

I posted about this on Dreamwidth but DID YOU HEAR THAT GAROU: MARK OF THE WOLVES IS COMING TO XBLA? AAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

(I am very happy about this shut up)

AAAAAAAA

Edit: Okayyy I was so happy I drew Rock ;_;

( Clickity! )

Recently, I've been greeted by this at least once a day on my friendslist:



I don't really have a solution for it, but if you've ever wondered why nobody is discussing your video posts with you, this is probably why.



Apologies for the lack of art on all fronts lately! I've been working on something pretty big; it's just the kind of thing that's better shown off when it's ready. I'm hoping to release it for Sydney Supanova in June (or failing that, for SMASH! in August).

I went to a design conference on the weekend and now I am gay for Wired Magazine's creative director... Oh the maths and the nerdiness and the suit and the tyyyypeeee! I crawled out of the office at lunch to buy a copy of the magazine because I hadn't read the deadtree edition since 2003. I should be ashamed but I'm not, really :DDD

I'm still having issues with my art, but it's about time I sucked it up and just kept drawing. You awesome dudes won't defriend me for my shitty drawings will youuu 8D



I was converting one of my oldest undrawn comic scripts to a kinetic novel yesterday and everything was going swimmingly until I realised I hadn't finished rewriting said script last time I touched it about four years ago. Can't remember where I put my original text file either, but I bet it's still backed up on my G4 which is off in the spare room.

HOW DOES THE STORY END OH GOD?! I could just make up an ending, but I'll probably dust off the G4 this week just to see what I originally wrote. Chances are it will be a total riot because I first wrote that script when I was 17 and it has a wonderfully hysterical weeaboo quality to it that I simultaneously regret and look back fondly on. Yes, this script is more than ten years old. Shut up it'll be awesome when I'm done. (I am so keeping the shoujo flowers. I forgot how much I missed them until I read an Akira Norikazu comic recently!)

Unfortunately working on this means I'm starting to see a rather disturbing trend in my work. My stories are all about people messing with each others' heads. This might be why I don't have any longterm original characters like most people I know... I'm just too horrible to all of them. XD;;

Howeverrr I am pretty sure I'm in love with Ren'Py as a medium. I never really considered doing solo interactive fiction before, but visual novels seem to be incredibly compatible with what I see in my head when I'm writing a script. Wow, I may finally have something PG-rated to sell at Supanova this year!

( That lascivious picture from a few entries ago... )

Receiving Dog Style volume 2 in the mail spurred me into action - Modoru Motoni seems to draw the most incredible men in the world without even trying. I managed to work on most of this last night while watching the wonderful kinokofry playing Portal and finished the rest of it tonight while quietly fuming about dog owners and listening patiently to my sister venting about idiot boys. Ah, life. :3

Cover is laid out now, hooray! You still have a couple of weeks to send in something. Don't be shy!

This is the most complete thing I've done in, like, forever... and I'm surprisingly happy with it. I'll be doing a full colour version for an artbook later this year, too.

Step 1: DON'T GET A BIRD.

Gaahh he just spotted me drawing again and has clambered over legs and laptop to find me!

T_T

Here's a much cuter picture of him when he isn't attacking my tablet pen... he's been through a lot but he's really healthy and happy these days!

( +1 )

Ooooh, Miles Edgeworth: Perfect Prosecutor. I guess I should play Apollo Justice sooner or later, eh? :Da

And now to confess what's really been getting played: I bought Samurai Warriors 2 again because I'm extremely weak against the series and hot damn it's so nice in HD, I just can't go back to the PS2 version! I thought I'd had my fill with SW2: Empires but nope, I'm really hanging out to play SW2: Xtreme Legends. If anyone living in a PAL territory wants my PS2 copy of SW2 (I haz no expansions for the PS2 version, sorry) for A$35 plus shipping, I'm sure we can sort something out.

We also got No More Heroes. Unfortunately it looks like that wasn't tested on an HDTV so we need to play it one stage at a time lest we start throwing up or blacking out. D: Man it's a fun game though. It's not suffering from the control issues of certain other Suda51 games, the art direction's awesome and it takes the piss just beautifully. It even has a Michigan reference in it, wtf!

My playthrough:

fluffyduck: Did [Travis] just say...?
evilhayama: What did he say?
fluffyduck: I think he said "moe".
evilhayama: Hmm.

evilhayama's playthrough:

Travis: MOEEEE~ :D
Us: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

The lovely minakokenshou is looking for an inker! If you're good at that weird combination of fluid lines, spontaneity and contrast that makes up the josei look and are looking for art-based work, I'd definitely advise that you give it a go.

I wrote this haiku for jokersama last week, but I can't remember the exact conversation that led to it...

You and your skritches.
Always with the skritches - why?!
Fine, you can have them!

We just spent the last weekend in the Blue Mountains being impressed by fog, birds, fog and THE MAJESTY OF NATURE whenever the fog went away. No really, it was awesome! I travel a lot but I've never been to Jenolan Caves before (only Wombeyan Caves), so touring the Orient Cave was definitely a highlight. Photos to come once I find the camera cable somewhere in this half-unpacked mess we call a home.

This afternoon I think we found our new cockatiel. T^T S/he's 8 weeks old and small and grey and cute and friendly and clambered quite happily all over jokersama and me and evilhayama after some initial fluttering. I hope nobody buys hir before I can get permission from the strata management company, but we'll see how that goes when I call 'em tomorrow!

Random main character art, just a colour rough for now:



Of interest to Auscomics people:

1. The esteemed J. Marc Schmidt is interested in collaborating with another artist for a shiny new comic. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you his contact details!
2. I'm taking it easy on the conventions this year (but too bad it's the first time a whole bunch of them have been spaced apart so nicely like this). I'll almost definitely drop in at Supanova Sydney and am contemplating the trip down for Doujicon if interest rates don't come for us first.
3. It's a bit late, but I am sorting out Hayase! meetups for this year. Parking in the area is free on Sundays, so I'm going to try for those this time around - will post some dates on the comm and website soon.