I told you it was a crazy week…

Zynga’s upcoming Mafia Wars 2 game is poised to take the Facebook game market by storm and the UDON crew was happy to help lend a hand.

A new online comic short story written by me with artwork by Omar Dogan helps set the stage for the Las Vegas-based crime game coming soon to a browser near you.

You’ll need to be signed in to Facebook and ‘Like’ MW2 in order to read the story. Let me know what you think of the comic if you get a chance to check it out!

Click here to check out the MW2 online comic

Comic Book Resources has a new interview with me that went up today. It’s a pretty extensive one, including my memories on growing up asa gaming/comic/anime nerd, how I started my webcomic, working in animation and the professional comic work I’ve done. Click on through to check it out!

This week has been completely bonkers in terms of things happening – projects on the go, possible future projects in development, teaching, Japanese language class and other responsibilities. I’m definitely feeling the crunch right now.

On the good side of that equation, we decided to post up 5 pages from Makeshift Miracle this week instead of our regular 2 as a way to build up extra momentum for the series and thank people for showing their friends the pages. Since I’m typing this on Wednesday that means 3 pages are already up and, unsurprisingly, they’re gorgeous. Shun Hong Chan’s artwork never ceases to impress.

Speaking of Makeshift, we got some fantastic press this week as well, including interviews at USA Today and Robot6. Check them both out as each one has different exclusive upcoming artwork.

A couple weeks ago I sat down with the Guys With Pencils podcast and we talked up a storm.

We covered a crazy range of subjects: animation school, creative careers, storytelling, comics, characters, life experiences. It’s a wild ride of subject matters and I was positive they would edit it down to something singular in terms of focus.

Apparently not. Click on through to listen to part one of two as we cover the creative gamut.

I can’t properly explain to you how happy I am to finally be able to post up this first page of the new Makeshift Miracle.

In late 2010 Erik Ko, the head of UDON, showed me samples from an artist named Shun Hong Chan. The sensitivity in his line work and beautiful soft colour tones blew me away. It had a wonderful emotional quality. Erik knew his artwork would be right up my alley.

“Wouldn’t this guy be perfect for a story like Makeshift Miracle?” he said.

Absolutely. I’d always talked about writing another story that pulled together my love of manga along with modern supernatural fables like Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. Those influences fuelled Makeshift back in 2001 and they’re near and dear to me.

“I mean, we could even do a new Makeshift if you wanted. Makeshift 2.0, something like that.”

I chuckled at the sound of “2.0” but couldn’t get the idea out of my head. When I originally wrapped up Makeshift in 2003 there was a lot left unexplored. I had a ton of other ideas, ways to expand it and delve into secondary characters and the nature of dreams. The idea of rekindling that sounded like a great opportunity. On top of that, over the past 8 years I’ve learned a lot about writing, pacing and dialogue.

The half-joke turned into a real conversation. If Erik was willing to give it the go ahead, we’d rebuild Makeshift from the ground up with Shun on art. As soon as his first character design sketches started coming in, I knew we were on to something special.

Throughout 2011 I’ve had to keep this quiet and barely anyone, even my close friends and family, saw any artwork or knew that this new story was going to be announced. I think part of the reason I kept it so secret was that couldn’t believe it was actually happening.

But now, today, here we are.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled with how it’s all developing and can’t wait to show you it all. I hope that as you follow along with our story the characters come to mean as much to you as they do to me.

Click on the page art to head to the new site

Teaser 4 is up at the website. A press release with all the details should be going out tomorrow.

Teaser 3 went up on the site this morning.

Teaser 2 went up on the site this morning.

Three journal posts in one day… yowza.

Anyways, without anyone noticing, an old website of mine went through a bit of a revamp and this teaser page was posted up…

More details soon. All I can say right now is that this has been in the works for a while.

In the midst of everything else going on (and starting next week there will be even more, details on that later) I started a night course at Seneca. As part of my Professional Development for the College I’m taking a Japanese language course.

I’m nervous and excited about it. Japan and Japanese culture is obviously near and dear to me, but the idea of learning a new language (beyond the limited amount of Japanese slang/simple speech I already know) is intimidating. The only other language I attempted to learn was the basic French taught to all Canadian students, and it was one the lowest marks I ever earned in school. The instructors were unengaging and I had no desire to try and improve in it. Now I’m older and wiser, but it’s still nerve wracking.

If I have time I’ll type up some of my notes from the class, both as interesting blog fodder and as a way for me to help memorize new material as I learn it.

LESSON 1: Introductions/Basic Information

Hajimemashite.
Watashi wa Zub desu.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Nice to meet you.
I’m Zub.
I look forward to working with you. (Not an exact translation. It’s a very cultural term.)

—

If I was introducing someone else I would say

Kochira wa _name_-san desu.
This person is _name_.

You add –san to the name as an honorific, but never for yourself or introducing your family.

If I wanted to add a bit more detail about myself or the person, I could say

Zub wa Seneka no sensei desu.
Zub is a professor from Seneca College.

The ‘no’ is possessive, so whatever noun is in front of the ‘no’ is possessed by the latter noun. In this case it’s “Seneca” and “professor”.

You have to put the ‘wa’ or ‘no’ in there. You can’t stack two nouns one after another without them.

—

You can swap in all kinds of stuff.

Watashi wa Toronto no Zub desu.
I’m Zub from Toronto.

or

Watashi wa Kanada-jin no gakusei desu.
I’m a Canadian student.

For countries, you just say the name of the country and add “jin” to it to denote “people of” that same place.

Examples:
Amerika = USA
Chugoku = China
Doitsu = Germany
Furansu = France
Igirisu = England
Kanada = Canada
Kankoku = Korea
Nihon = Japan
Osutoraria = Austrailia
Tai = Tailand

—

If I want to make any of the above a question, I just have to add “ka” to the end of the sentence. For example

Kochira wa Kanada-jin desu ka?
Is that person from Canada?

or

Kochira wa Toronto no Zub desu ka?
Is Zub from Toronto?

To which I could answer.

Hai, Toronto desu.
Yes, Toronto.

or

Iie, Toronto dewa arimasen.
No, not Toronto.

or

Iie, Oshawa desu.
No, from Oshawa.

—

Getting a bit more complex, you could give people choices.

Zub wa Kanada-jin desu ka, Amerika-jin desu ka?
Is Zub a Canadian or American?

and answer it

Kanada-jin desu.
Canadian.

—

We also covered the first 20 hiragana (letters) of Japanese writing. If I get a chance I’ll post those practice sheets up later on. Memorizing those symbols and relating them to the corresponding sounds is going to be tough!

Wish me luck!