Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
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11:43 pm - Contest contest
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Hello everyone! I've started an unofficial Death Jr contest over at the gomanga forums. If you love made up contests that offer ridiculous prizes valued less than half a potato, head over HERE and check it out!
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(comment on this)
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Friday, April 6th, 2007
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3:53 pm - Crunch season!
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Just got word from Backbone Entertainment last night that they are very pleased with our story and art treatment of the Death Jr., Manga. In fact, they're so pleased that they didn't even ask for any art or text revision at all. Man o man, I'm so glad that all those sleepless nights I went through just to get the final draft out have finally paid off.
Now comes the hard part. Ink 161 pages in less than 30 days. Will I make it? We'll see. :)
I just can't wait to wrap me grubby hands around all those yummy dvds and books and games waiting as a reward when I finish. I've been piling them up as an incentive. Yum yum.... not much longer now my pets. Ah, and I can finally update my frikking comic site too. LOL
For today's journal entry, I'm posting yet again another early study of the manga. Our initial design for DJ had a more "fleshier" arms and hands as depicted in this pic. But Backbone asked us to make DJ wholly a skeleton and that's how he is today. DJ's finalized facial features are also a bit different from the one in this early design.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, February 11th, 2007
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12:53 pm
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Hey hey! First post for 2007 and work for Pandora: A Death Jr. manga continues! Revisions on the thumbnails are done and so far I've made over 300 thumbnails (and counting) in the course of this project. The problem when you're both artist and writer for the same book is that you're often tempted to make little tweaks here and there. It's fairly easy to get overboard when you're enjoying the work a little too much as well. I suspect there would be at least 50 pages of sequential art that will be edited out of the story for print but will nonetheless end up as bonus material either online or in another form. But we'll have to wait and see how that develops.
I'm currently on my last leg of pencilling work and would soon be starting the inks. I'm pretty glad I decided not to ink the pages earlier. I realize now that a lot of the first few pages needs to be fixed or redrawn.
So far the book is coming out better than I have expected and I can't wait to get this done. I hope everybody will enjoy this little title when it comes out. I've tried my best to keep this as fun, exciting, and in continuity with the original material as much as possible. But don't let the continuity factor dissuade you at all. Pandora is a self-contained story with everything you need to know (plus all new material exclusive to this version only) so you don't need to have read the comic version to fully enjoy it. But if you want the extra dimension, I highly recommend picking up the trade paperback for Death Jr Vol1 and Vol2 from Image comics. You won't regret it!
Anyway, time for me to get back to work!
current mood: busy
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Monday, November 20th, 2006
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2:45 pm
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Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
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11:24 am - Everybody loves pumpkin
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Yet another early Pandora sample art study (to be viewed right-to-left). I don't remember the reason why I made this a double page spread though. Anyway, I like how this one flows but I doubt we'll ever use this for anything official. I'll probably refine and polish this just for the fun of it. Maybe.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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11:09 am
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New Pandora pic I made to replace the thumbnail for the Deathjr Property page back at Gomanga.com.
This one came out better than I expected.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, October 20th, 2006
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3:35 pm - Happy happy
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Yay! I was interviewed a few months ago (as well as a bunch of other artists) as part of this feature thingie on newsarama about Filipino comic book artists. The article just went live today so here's the link for those who haven't seen it yet. It's pretty interesting. Read and be educated, ye little podlings.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
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10:25 am - I'm PISSSSEEDD..... and yet happy....
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I can't even begin to say how pissed I am today. Things like this makes me want to throw my hands up in the air and cry out in wonder why I even bother. WHY O WHY?!
But on a more lighter note, I'd like to thank Niko for inviting me over to be part of the Mecha Penguin community art journal. Thinking about it puts a smile on my face for a second or two before that thing that pisses me off snatches that happy thought away.
Regarding Death Jr., pencilling continues further. I hope to be finished with this book before the year ends so I can meet the new year with open arms and an empty wallet. It's great to be me.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
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12:26 am
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Early this week we recieved feedback from Backbone Entertainment regarding the first 10 pages of pencilled art (with text) for the Death, Jr. Manga. So far the comments have been overwhelmingly positive, which really puts me in a good mood. There's a couple of minor changes they wanted done but minor cosmetic changes don't bother me. I'm just happy that they are also satisfied with how the storytelling is going. That one was the real hurdle for me.
At the moment, I've finished pencilling the first 20 pages and getting ready to move on the last 3 pages of this chapter. I'm getting tempted to redo my thumbnails again but I think I'd better stop fixing what's not broken. Ah, well...
For anyone who's interested, I'm pencilling using a 0.3mm mechanical pencil with an HB lead. My paper is ordinary copypaper which I'm quite surprised to be holding up quite well to my erasures. Any ordinary paper would've been torn to shreds by now.
current mood:  bouncy
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
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5:44 pm - Manga vs Komiks?
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This is my thought about the manga vs. komiks debate that's currenty raging -- I like potatoes.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, August 27th, 2006
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10:54 pm - It has begun!
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I'm now two weeks in with the pencils for Death Jr:Manga. Pencilled about 10 pages so far and I'm just about to start with page 11 as I'm writing this. Starting with page 1 was real tough though and I had to stare at the blank paper for hours. The problem when you are doing a different genre from what you are used to is that it takes a long while to get the proper mindset.
I'm typically (and preferably) a shonen/action-oriented artist so my ideas are pretty much geared to the adventure type of stories. With Death Jr Manga, the focus is more on the character relationships and not really on the action (but there's going to be some spiffy fight sequences in the story!) so I have to downplay my basic instincts in illustrating and writing this story.
For the Death Jr Manga, I'm going for a more minimalist approach in drawing so backgrounds will be trimmed down to the basics. Not much rendering or hatching or details. It will all boil down to what is necessary to convey the story. And so far, the barebones approach is working just great. Without the burden of having to spend hours on backgrounds, I can focus my attention more in illustrating the characters themselves and writing the actual dialogue. Not really an easy task when you have to make sure that the characters are talking the way they should be talking.
I'd also like to note that making character sheets before starting this project saved me tons of extra work and frustration!
I'm going to be pencilling the entire book then be inking the pages afterwards in one mad stroke. I'm sure this process will keep the inking consistent throughout and will give me ample opportunity to make pencilling corrections later on.
We'll be sending the first 10 pencilled pages of Death Jr (fully lettered) to Backbone Entertainment this Monday for approval. All the characters have been redesigned for this project as well so I hope they'll like the designs too. Cross your fingers for me!
Anyway, time for me to get back to work. And here's a small pic from the first page of Death Jr Manga:
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, August 7th, 2006
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8:19 pm - Tarzan has New Email
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To the 2 or more people who email me once every couple of years to collect debt money, I've a new email. Send all correspondence, words of worship, and preferably love notes at this new email addy:
hai [at] homanga [dot] net
And to the people who are planning to collect debt money, be very afraid of the girl with the bat.
current mood:  weird
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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7:16 am - Death Jr Manga Ad art
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The ad I did for the Death Jr Manga. This ad was supposedly used in the Death Jr. Vol 2 comic book. I write "supposedly" because I don't have a copy of the comic book and I have no idea whether this ad really came out or not. Either way, this was a very fun activity.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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6:55 am - Thumbnails done!
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Wonderbread! After more than a month hunched down at my drafting table pretending to work while secretly downloading scanlations of 20th Century Boys, the thumbnails for the Death Jr. Manga are finally done and approved!
I've posted a couple of rejected thumbnails below. Observe how horribly drawn they are.
Now I can begin the even more painful process of pencilling all 165 pages with half my braincells :)
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(comment on this)
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Friday, July 28th, 2006
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12:34 pm - Japanese-to-English translators wanted
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Seven Seas Entertainment is currently looking for qualified Japanese-to-English Translators for a wide variety of translation projects.
If interested, please contact: translation[at]gomanga.com
(replace the [at] with an @ before sending.)
In your message, please supply answers to the following questions relating to your translation background:
1. How long have you been translating professionally?
2. Where did you learn Japanese and how long did you study?
3. Have you ever lived in Japan? If so, when and how long were you there?
4. What types of materials do you translate? (i.e. novels, manga, etc.)
5. Please list some of the titles/projects that you have worked on.
* Please note all qualifying applications will be asked to supply a test translation based upon a 2-page novel sample that will be provided by Seven Seas via e-mail.
current mood:  amused
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, July 23rd, 2006
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5:24 am - Still awake at 5:25 am
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It's now 5:25 am and I'm still awake. Just finished a pic that would be used as part of a poster thingie for an upcoming local comic convention (I won't be attending, of course). I had to color the pic twice because after I finished coloring it using cell-shading, I realized that I wanted to "paint" it. So I did. And now I have two versions of the same pic. Not really sure which one looks best. I'll probably make a different pic tomorrow ... or later... just to be sure.
I'm a little pissed that I can't seem to get my inking right. More practise I suppose is needed by this lunkhead.
Work on Death Jr. Manga continues. Finished all 140 pages worth of thumbnails. Submitted for approval. Results not so bad. Need to tweak storyline issues. I'm probably looking at another week of additional thumbnail work. No problem.
oh, and I'd like to share this bit of quote from good ol' Dr. Seuss:
"Be who you are... because those that mind don't matter, and those that matter, don't mind."
current mood:  numb
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(comment on this)
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Monday, May 22nd, 2006
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10:24 pm - Woah Creepy!
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Sunday, May 21st, 2006
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3:29 pm
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Hmmm... went to bed around 8 am this morning and woke up around 2 pm. I notice I'm getting less and less sleep lately. Yesterday I only had about 3 hours sleep. I wonder if I'm getting a little workaholic. Spent my entire day yesterday doing some coloring work for Vol 2 of Automatic (you can read volume 1 here) and making some really good progress. I've spent a lot of time working on these new pages and I'm hoping to finish them before the week is over. Maybe that's a little too much wishful thinking. Sigh.
Work on my new book for Seven Seas is kinda stop and go. Takes a while to get some feedback from the company that owns the license. I hope they decide on it soon because I'm kind of getting restless over here. The license holder asked for some concept art a couple or so weeks ago to use for a preview in Play Magazine but I'm not sure if they actually used my designs or not. I haven't nailed the design for one of the major characters yet but the title character was pretty much right on the money on my first submission. This entire waiting game reminds me of a line out of a Naruto ending, "Waiting is wasted on people like me." Rather fitting in my state of mind lately.
Speaking of Naruto, this is pretty much the only show I try to follow religiously now that Amazing Race 9 is over. I like the designs and I like the characters. Story is fairly standard but really worth following in my opinion. I should get this on dvd one of these days. But then again... me no money.
Getting a little addicted listening to Japan radio as well these days. I can't understand a lick of Japanese but that's ok. I like the rhythm and the vocals are pretty cute and peppy. That's enough for me. Well, back to work.
Would be great to have one of these though.
current mood: bored
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Thursday, May 18th, 2006
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12:35 pm - Fake Journal of a Fake Manga Artist
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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
haiandlow's journal
