Lots to update you guys and gals on, but I’ve been too busy to do it. Blar.

Quick version:

– Thanksgiving was good. Good food, good family visit, good weather.
– Both jobs are crazy-busy, but also going well.
– Erik is back from Hong Kong. He brought the print proof for the Makeshift Miracle book home with him too and it looks very nice. As I type this I’m uploading the final cover image and tweaked pages to the printer’s FTP server based on what I saw in the proof.
– Pride of Baghdad knocked me on my ass it’s so good. Great writing and incredible artwork. Get it.
– The Digital Painting class I’m taking is going well. Last week was a real “Eureka” kind of lesson where an important couple of techniques were shown to us. Nifty.

More later… gotta dash off to the college and get caught up on marking.

Quirky Stuff From Japan – Part 1 – Bikes

About bikes behind the cut.

Latest sketch for myself… playing with line and texture more:

People have been asking about the pre-orders and what-not for the book:

Web traffic has been pouring in from new Schlock Mercenary and PVP posts about the Makeshift book. Checking my server logs, it’s pretty incredible how many eyeballs are checking out the story. More unique loggable IPs have visited the site today than there will probably be copies of the book in print, um, ever.

Obviously all those eyeballs don’t instantly turn into pre-orders, but the sheer promotion of the name/imagery is helpful when it’s on store shelves – assuming a retailer actually carries it. I have to be realistic about it – most stores won’t give a damn about a surreal-teenage indy graphic novel with a no-name creator attached to it, even if it’s a sweet price and in full color. That’s not me putting myself down, it’s the reality of the comic industry.

In just over a week we’ll get the majority of comic retailer orders in and see how many are giving the book a shot. Pre-orders at the site are going okay, but are still a far cry from the 350 needed to cover the print run all by itself. Still, each one is important and I’ve gotten some amazing orders/letters from places like the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and the UK.

I’m currently expecting that between a combination of comic store orders and website pre-orders I’ll still come up short budget-wise, but not brutally so. The book will go to press and I’ll have copies to sell at cons and to take care of reorders. It’ll eventually pay for itself in the long run, which is crucial. The last thing I’d want is to leave the company on the hook for my stuff.

That’s the update. Once I get the Diamond numbers I’ll truly know whether to jump for joy or pee my pants in terror. 😛

Searching for character ideas. I like the way this one turned out:

Drawn and colored in Photoshop.

Quick sketch done for myself today:

Yes, one-armed goblin mystics say “Glurglee…”

I’m at the college today struggling to keep my brain pulled together while suffering from jetlag. Good times.

My last full day in Japan went well, with meetings at Capcom and more shopping taking up a good chunk of the time. Workwise Udon has all kinds of incredible projects looming on the horizon. I’ve learned not to get too excited until contracts come in and the real work begins, but even if only some of the potential things discussed materialize, it should still be pretty cool.

The flight home was good in some ways and awful in others. The flight from Tokyo left an hour and a half late due to weather, but was relaxing once we got into the air. The problem came when we arrived at O’Hare airport in Chicago for my connecting flight. I received conflicting information about my connecting flight that had me scrambling to get to my gate at a different terminal. When switching terminals at O’Hare you have to re-go through the security checks, which made it even more stressful. Literally sprinting from the security checkpoint after the guard had picked through my tightly packed luggage and I was finally cleared, I left my new camera behind in the midst of the cxhaotic shuffle. Realizing it was gone after we’d taken off, it put a slightly sour note on the end of my trip. I’ve left messages at the airport Lost and Found, so here’s hoping I can get it back. Luckily I only lost my last day’s worth of photos since the rest were backed up on my laptop.

Unpacking some last night, I realized that I actually didn’t buy too much for myself. Between the shopping lists some friends gave me and gifts for folks, I’d say about 75% of what I bought wasn’t for me even though I was loaded down with luggage. It wasn’t a depressing realization mind you, it was sort of good. My nerdy collection continues to grow, but isn’t quite as Little Shop of Horrors-esque as it used to be (“Feed me, Seymour. Feed me!”).

Today I’ll do my best to muscle through things and stay awake, then I head to Oakville for my painting class. By the time I get home tonight I should be thoroughly exhausted.

More Japanese odds and ends soon.

Finally…

Getting on the plane in a couple hours… heading to the airport now. A run through of my last day and a bunch of odds and ends that didn’t fit in with other posts when I land and get back to my apartment.

Meanwhile, in Namjatown…

Meanwhile, in Namjatown…