012 - Crazy Week

Even after having to work for 9.5 hours a day, last week I came home to work additional hours for a comission work. Unfortunately, it wasn't Artsy Stuff, it was a database, whose payment will go directly into the Anime Expo 2006 Fund.
Anyways, today's comic is about the OTHER things that prevented me from posting a comic on Thursday. First, on Wednesday, the Lost season finale. If you watched it, you know why the exaggerated and bizarre expression of... Joy? Ok, I was acting just a teensy bit scary. I was quite hyped. Now, I must wait. It's tough.Then it was X-Men, which was good. Thank you, Juggernaut. You have made the Internet very, very happy. The last two panels are more things I did on my weekend. In other words, READ SANDMAN! READ LOST AT SEA AND SCOTT PILGRIM!
That's all for today. I'll be back on Thursday or Friday with more comic... I hope.

011 - Inuyasha, Puberty and You (Not an Educational Film)

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I always wondered why Inuyasha just didn't... You know? Put it in? 'cause she totally wanted to, too. I guess we can't expect more in such lost cases. I always wondered if Inuyasha's Big Ass sword wasn't some sort of euphenism for something else, until it totally hit me... What do you call a sword (Phallic symbol per excellance) that grows exponentially when taken out, and whose guard becomes all hairy? A PONOS. Why a PONOS, and not a PENIS, you may ask? Well...
You know how I said this page wasn't for kids? I meant it. I TOTALLY MEANT IT, 100%.
The following is a page of a Fate/Stay Night doujin, which trascended time and space like some of its forebears by creating a monstruous meme immortalized by the only place where such ludicrousness can be found: 4chan.org
To the left, the scanslation of the doujin. If you watch the Fate/Stay Night anime you can get a glimpse of what this image is about; if you dig a bit deeper, you can find what happens in the game (Isn't it fairly obvious, though?). In the end, the whole chapter is like Impro Sex Ed right before and during the act itself. Hilarity ensues. To the right, a small image that pretty much sums everything up.

On other news, I am pleased to announce that this week I will manage to meet a deadline! For a contest! An online contest! Why am I participating, you may ask? A simple reason, truly: An idea came to me, begging to be drawn. SO IT SHALL BE. Out of last week's deadlines, I managed to finish the Comiquero submission (Still got to send it, though), and although I couldn't finish scripting DREAM(LESS) and had to scrap today's comic in favor of the atrocity you see up there, I can satisfyingly assure you that the scripting process of DREAM(LESS) has been completely revamped, in order to provide a more complete experience. The drawing process will surely change and evolve as I try my hand at drawing the 20-or-so pages as fast and good as I can. Now that I think about it, I must be pretty crazy to attempt this, considering how fuckin' busy I am. Oh well. FOR AWESOME!

EDIT: There's a big chance I won't be able to finish the second comic this week (Reasons being, the other comic submission I barely finished last night, the LOST season Finale tonight, the X3 Premiere on thursday night and the extra work I am doing to earn some extra cash for Anime Expo). If I can, I will upload some sketchbook pics related, of course, to the comics I've posted so far, including the now-infamous Inuyasha As Ukiyo-e pic, along with stories and comments on said pics. Stay tuned!

010 - MY NAME IS PYRAMID. RED PYRAMID.

Our small saga continues! The Red Pyramid's secret is revealed! Him, carrying that gigantic banana around was just another form in which he tries to impress "The Ladies". He clearlye failed; however, Elle is such a good sport she's willing to put that huge scare behind and try to befriend, even assist in his quest, poor Red Pyramid. He looks for love, but is always unrequited. What will happen now?
PROGRESS REPORT:
Everything's according to schedule. Minor setback on YU, mainly because I was Internet-less for a whole day yesterday. That has been fixed. More as it develops.

009 - RINGU IS COMING

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RINGU IS COMING FOR YOU. No wait, it's just a monster man with a red pyramid on his head. Let's call him Red Pyramid. If I were Elle, I'd totally do the same. This is not the end of this story, however... Prepare for more bizarre plotwists! Come back later this week, for more Red Pyramid, more Elle, and more WEIRD.

Progress Report:
a) Comiquero Submission: Deadline is in two weeks. It's just ten (or was it eleven?) pages, already inked, I'm just shading them. Finished so far: 4 pages. After finishing them all, then it's time for post processing them AGAIN, adjusting Levels and balance to give them the crisp, clean look in my YU comics (Which is pretty lame anyways! The difference will be, of course, the higher resolution). Personal deadline: This week for shading, next for post processing.
b) Yet Untitled: Thumbnails for next two comics, storyline for consequent comics is brewing, though not yet finalized. Personal deadline: Finish the two thumbnailed comics by sunday, draft one or two more.
c) DREAM(LESS): Three scripted and thumbnailed pages. Personal deadline: 6-10 more pages of script; if time allows, thumbnails.

008 - Origins - The Elle Story

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Here it is! A small homage to my own art history, and how the character of Elle came to be. Each panel lists a different character / idea that ultimately influenced / helped in Elle's current incarnation (Which can also be called the Ultimate Elle).
1. A dream I had when I was a kid. The girl's parents couldn't conceive, so they went to a scientific institute, where they were handed a newborn baby, that grew 10 years in a matter of days. Bizarre, but the girl became my best friend in that dream.
2. Oh man, prepubescent story ideas are totally not cool. She was generally an ass. And killed a lot of people. Heheh.
3. Two characters in the same frame, mainly because they come from the same period. Vampire girl has no story, but she had some kind of annoying attitude in her drawings (Which is a quality the current Elle sometimes has). The Mage girl, though, had one of the most complex stories I had ever created, but it was still pretty, well, black and white. And dragging, and boring.
4. A byproduct of Mage girl, silent girl barely influenced Elle, but she did influence some of her current designs.
5. The First Elle. I did dream her. And made, like, HUNDREDS of drawings of her. I'm not kidding. She originally had no wings, but they were later included for the added metaphor... The dreams she appeared at always had an extra significance... Sometimes, something deep that I had yet to understand. In fact, the original dream in which she appeared has just began to make TOTAL COMPLETE SENSE. Awesome, isn't it?
6. A character that went through many changes, and remained nameless for a long, long time. First, she was just possessed by an Evil Spirit, which granted her the ability to manifest tridimensional shadows under her complete command... Then she was a manifestation of another character's psyche (Still controlling shadows). The final version depicted here, she's the Shadow (By Carl Jung's definition) inside someone else's brain, where another Elle (The first one, actually) becomes trapped during a particularly nasty period of my life.
7. An offshoot of the actual Elle, this one hunted demons. She was actually an Angel of Death. Oh, and someone was supposed to fall for her. Geez, what a corny story.
8. The biggest influence on the current Elle, Penny is one of the few characters that was born with a name, and evolved A LOT throughout the years. She began as a painter, not a musician, with much shorter hair and name (She was just "Pen"). She was never part of any story idea... She was always kind of independent from all that, so at one point, became a musician and her own story began to form. Until it died like all good ideas. Her visual style and personality are Elle's biggest influences.
9. The reason why, in the comic, Elle can be so mean to Angel. He did some rather nasty things to her, like locking her inside a twisted mansion filled with archetypes (See character 6). She was given the choice of being forgotten or living as part of something else. The problem is that this something else became an amalgam of a rejected character concept and a very spiteful Elle. She was, literally, the one under control when I drew some rather BAD comics I made last year (Around 20 or so pages). By the end of it, she was getting over it, so no bigger harm done.
The current Elle will return next week, where she gets chased through a dark alley by a man with a lethal weapon. And I'm totally serious about that.

More Other News: First 3 pages of DREAM(LESS) (Another Comic idea I'm working on) are finally scripted. I expect to have 20-23 by next week, which means that, if I manage to get ahead with Yet Untitled, I will also start working on DREAM(LESS). It's big... And scary. But just as personal. Stay tuned.

007 - Expression of a Knot in your Throat

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Have you ever wanted to say something you just couldn't put to words? Well, this is one of such cases. Words alone are not enough in this case. It is something that really happened. I base my comics off the things I live, see, and enjoy; yet sometimes, due to individual and introspective nature of the creative process, personal things start to seep.
The original 007 comic was to be titled "Hate Comic Number One", and featured people I hated being killed off in numerous, amusing ways (Most, involving a tall man with a red pyramid on his head and a huge sword on his hand). Actually, it was just three people: A girl whose behavior and attitude irritate me to no end; Uwe Boll (Do I need say more); and Deviant Art N00bs who only draw anime and believe they're The Best Shit Since Akira Toriyama but truly have no talent. I'm scraping that comic, I'm just not doing it.
What prompted today's comic of self-reflection, then? I can cite a number of things.
First, the "Enlightment" hinted at in the first comics. That actually kinda happened, while watching a movie... The enlightment was the realization that I had been believing my own lies, and that I had finally understood the truth (Many truths!) that today's comic so obviously states. I don't like it when people lie to me, so why should I like it when I realize I had been subconsciously doing it to myself? Find a way out. Be honest. And this is it.
Second, an awesome japanese comic called "Living Game", which is drawn in the simplest, most old school style, and features some of the best layouts I've seen in a japanese comic. The story has a very basic premise that grows real fast and is the driving point behind the entire 10 volumes: A 25 guy who, after an earthquake, has to accomodate his office at home, along with the boss and the coworkers. His personal space is incredibly reduced, and even more so when the company hires a new employee: a 15 year-old girl. At first, he teases her, but soon he decides he will do his best to look after her, without realizing that decision might be the most influential and life-changing he will ever take. It's simple, it's sweet, and at some veeeeery specific points, it feels incredibly real. I don't get that often, so check it out.
Finally, Honey and Clover, another work of Japanese animation. It's a romantic story with hints of comedy, which means it might be everyone's cup of tea. Watch it, though; it grows on you. There is, however, a moment in Episode 10 that resonated strongly with my own situation. If you watch it, you'll know.
All these influences, albeit at different times, have forced me to think what I had been doing. Yes, I knew and accepted the truth. But can I face it so openly, without fear or regret? This is me, facing fear and regret, without turning away.

Another important thing to mention is that I finished this comic on Sunday, which is a whole day early. Even better: The next comic (Origins) is actually 60% done! I gotta keep the pace so I can have a reserve of comics in case I can't work on one or two.

Finally, I want to take this chance to send my best wishes to Chuy Astorga, who's finally getting his operation! (It's not what you think... It's his foot) LET'S PLAY SOME SOCCER AFTER YOU GET BETTER!

006 - This is THE END. (A.K.A. INSANITY) - part 2

Well, well, unlike the the last time I tried to post something related to some kind of end, this time we have ANOTHER Celebrity For Geeks. Last time was the Internet Infamy of the Juggernaut Bitch, which also spawned this other comic here, which depicts a rather dramatic failure for Angel. Not only did he fail to defeat the Juggernaut Bitch, but he also failed at putting Maple Syrup on the Most Delicious Pamcakes ever. Before you start wondering, yes, Pamcakes sounds 100 times cooler than Pancakes. There's something about that 'm' that makes the word well beyond the acceptable limits of cool. Say it out loud! Pamcakes, Pamcakes. It rolls like it rocks!
Another point of debatable artistry is the guns. I can't draw guns worth shit, particularly while locked inside a classroom taking notes about ASP.NET, without any sort of acceptable reference. Give me a break, I have a professional job to work at, 9.5 hours a day!
More news:
- I like Nintendo's Wii. It sounds like plain, innocent fun
- Progress is being made in the other comic project. Unlike previous attempts, though, this time I am creating a huge backdrop with similarly extensive character backgrounds. I have no idea about the direction of the story, but the setting and the characters will be the driving force behind this.
- No progress in shading the Comiquero submission. Too busy! Sleep is overrated, but it must be done at home, not at work, so I must try to sleep the most at home, lest my desk becomes too comfortable to remain awake.
- These last two comics were, like, totally scripted and pencilled in advance. Even then, I couldn't get proper reference; still, it feels more comfortable to plan things out in advance. No plans for next week yet, though! I need more inspiration, which should come tomorrow or the day after that.
- Anime! Currently Watching School Rumble 2nd Term and Fate/Stay Night. I plan to watch Ergo Proxy soon ('cause it looks too dang hawt), as well as a truckload of asian movies.

005 - Back To Normalicity

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We have a real guest in today's strip... Or rather, a trimmed down appearance of an old chum... See more about him here. The only thing I have to complain about is the third panel, which totally lacks more action on the right side of the frame. I must apologize about that: I totally forgot to ink it, and when I realized it, I had already scanned it and had no more time to work on it. If time allows (I still got to finish shading a small comic submissince January, for the Comiquero project some friends and I are self-financing. It's an awful comic, but it features the same brand of bizarre, nonsensical stuff found in these interweb pages), I may take the time to add something like a desk, a chair or even a Juggernaut Bitch Leg. Oh well.
In other news... HAHAH! I hope I have time to finish Thursday's comic... Which I will post late Wednesday. Maybe. Thanks for your comment, all you people who have commented. They're truly encouraging.