Hey all!

You know, this comic has taken a LOT of time to make and now when I’ve finally begun to see the end of it all I’m starting to think about what I should do next… cause, I can’t just sit around doing nothing, right!?!?
These are the things I want to do, but I haven’t really decided what to go with – and in what order…

- Get better at drawing (anatomy, color theory, digital painting etc., etc.)
- Learn how to 3D and get good at it (I want to learn how to make low-rez 3D models. I dunno, It seems like fun!)
- Learn how to program (PHP, Actionscript or C? I want to do it all! But… *sigh* it just feels like it’s kind of late for me you know, hm…)

There is one big purpose behind all of this, and that is that I really REALLLLLLY want to start making my own video- or computer games. It’s been a life long dream you know…
Until now, I’ve successfully fullfilled every dream I’ve had:

- I learned Japanese
- I got to live in Japan
- I was on Japanese TV (a pretty small gig, but I was a regular for a whole year!)
- I wrote a book
- I made my own comic

When I lived in Japan I actually applied for a job at Nintendo. They sent me this big envelope with the Nintendo logo on it, containing various company info, but unfortunately I never got the job :/ I guess I COULD have applied more more jobs there, but I wanted to try other things as well, so I never got to it again.

Anyways, I’ll probably end up working on my drawing skills and maybe do some 3D before I try to learn how to program, because drawing is like the only thing I’m moderately good at… If I’m going to learn how to program, I’m going to have to start from square one. To be honest, I’ve always admired people that know how to program, because, think of it! They make stuff happen and come alive by writing some weird gibberish in frickin’ notepad! Now, THAT’S cool :) Programming – When you’re good at it, it’s better than sex (don’t quote me on that).

Alright, it’s late and I’m just gonna shut up and post this thing already.
Take care!
/T

Hey everybody! Long time no see eh?

I’ve been drawing and drawing and planning and drawing and I’m happy to announce that all the art is finished for the remaining 11 pages!! All I have to do now is add the speech bubbles in Illustrator and upload them… and of course, write these little “blog posts” about each of them. I tell you, writing this is almost harder than drawing the comic itself, since nothing interesting ever happens in my life, so it always hard to come up with a topic, lol! (>▽<) Plus, I’m so frickin’ hungry right now everything I can think of is FOOD! I’m starving… Well, I AM a “starving artist”, so I guess it’s only natural? It’s a part of the job.

Anyways, I’ll post (or at least try to) a new page per day until they’re all up! It’s goes up to page 52 which will be the last. However, when all that is done I’ll go back and do some touching up on earlier pages and try to make them fit the rest better. Like, changing the look of Claude and Chloe, because they have a whole different look to them in the beginning of the story. Some pages will even be removed completely, so the whole story will come down to 50 pages when I’m done. But don’t worry, the plot itself is still the same. I’m just getting rid of stuff that isn’t really needed – “Kill your darlings”, as they say.

So, I guess I’ll be posting here tomorrow as well if everything goes as planned. Until then, enjoy!
/T

Yo!

My throat hurts and I’m feeling cold, does that mean I’m going to be sick? (+ _ + ) Hm, I hope it passes…

Anyways, you know what day it is today? Today it’s exactly one year since I uploaded the very FIRST page of this comic you’re hopefully reading now. However, I remember that I had a bunch of pages that I uploaded at one time and I think I changed the dates on them all, because I think that Wordpress (or ComicPress, which is the theme I’m using) only allows one post per day, or something like that. But, let’s just make things easy and say that the official “birth” of the comic was on March 10th, 2009! So, yay!! (^▽^)

I haven’t had time to plan anything special for the occasion, but I’ll see what I can come up with – if anything! :p

Anyways, enjoy the comic, wish Pierre a happy birthday(?) and I’ll see you next time :D
/T

Hi all!

There will be two small changes in how the comic looks from here on.

Firstly, I think I’ll make Claude and Chloe’s clothes pure black, instead of using screentones for them. I’ve used a dark screentone for them until now, but I’ve never really liked that look they get with this. The small dots confuses the eye and you loose the little details. I might go back and change this to the older pages when the comic is finished.
Also, this is a somewhat old change, but Chloe’s hair style changed after page 29. The old style was so-so, but I’m quite happy with the new one :) Actually, hairstyles and clothes are the hardest thing to design I think. I always have a hard time with it (- _ – ;)

Secondly, This will be the last completely computer-inked page for a while.
I want to learn how to do it the old fashioned way, so I’ll be inking with my felt pens and fine ballpoint pens from here on. If I could afford a new high-quality brush and ink, I would totally use that instead, but I don’t have that kind of money right now, so I’ll settle with this for now. I will, however, still use the computer to add screentones, panels and word balloons. And if I’m not pleased with the inking result I get with the pens, I’ll use the computer for touch-ups and such as well.

Thanks for checking in and please click the “Like” button to your right if you like this comic! Not that I have any exclusive Facebook content (sorry!), but as an author it’s always nice to see how many people actually like my work :p

See you next time!
/T

Hey paisanos! :D

Long time no see! Alright, I’m going to start off by NOT apologizing for not updating in a while :) All the other bloggers/video bloggers do that all the time, but I don’t think it’s really necessary because everyone knows how busy real life can be and it really goes without saying if you ask me. There might also be days when you just don’t feel like it, you loose motivation for a couple of days maybe, your job is tiring and you don’t feel like doing anything else than just sleep when you get home, etc. etc. There are countless reasons why any blogger won’t update their blog on time. It’s just how life is.

I’ll tell you what I HAVE been doing though. I’ve been doing the biggest research on art supplies I’ve ever done in my life… so far! ;p
Why have I done this? Because for once I want to try making a comic the old fashioned way. I’ve looked at some amazing artwork, done by people who work at Marvel. These guys use brushes, pens, pencils etc. like they used to in the old days when they didn’t have computers or Wacom tablets like many people use today use to make their artwork.
I’ve literally spent days on reading brush reviews, brush SOAP reviews, ink reviews, pencil reviews (particularly non-photo blue pencils), manufacture reviews, eBay research (in case someone would sell any of the stuff I needed cheaper than the regular stores), nib holder reviews and of course nib reviews. I’ve visited countless online art supply stores, comparing shipment fees, product prices etc., etc.!
I’m going to share some the info I’ve gathered (sharing is caring, right?) in case some of you are looking for the same stuff as I am, so here goes:

Brushes
- Rosemary & Co Series 22 #4, #5 (Hand-made high quality brushes, cheaper than Winsor & Newton AND are supposed to be really good too! Great customer service.)

- Winsor & Newton Series 7 #2, #3 (All pros use this brush, has more “spring” to it than the Rosemary brush, a bit pricey, but it’s one of the fines brushes there is)

Nib holder
- Tachikawa Comic Pen Holder – Model 40 (It’s supposed to have a good grip and I think I read somewhere that Japanese manga artists )

Ink
- FW black (People seem to be using it, so I think it’s worth a try)
- Pelikan’s Drawing Ink A (I’ve read about this in lots of places, so I GUESS it should be good)

- FW white ink (Don’t know much about this, but I think it’s okay)
- Pro White (White ink, it’s supposed to be quite thick)

Nibs
- Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib – Mapping Model/ T-99 (Good for details)
- Tachikawa Comic Pen Nib – G Model/T-3 (Nice all-round nib, used by Japanese manga artists)

- Gillott 303 (Gives sharp fine lines)

- Hunt 102 Crow Quill nib (Some pro’s use this, so I’m guessing it’s good)

Non-Photographic Blue Pencils
- Sanford Col-Erase Non-Photo Blue (The lead is supposed to be pretty hard and won’t show up much on your paper, but it’s just the right color)

- Sanford Col-Erase Light Blue (A bit softer lead than the one above, but with darker lines)

- Pilot Color Eno Soft Blue 0.7 (Soft blue lead for mechanical pencils, breaks easily, but is just the right color no not show up on a camera or copy machine)

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
I think this covers most of it (^ v ^ ; )
So, out of all this, what did I end up actually getting? I got a “Soft Blue” Pilot Color Eno Mechanical Pencil (0.7 mm) with one pack of soft blue lead on eBay. That’s it… (go ahead, laugh! Because I am… hahhaha)
I would have got more stuff, but I simply don’t have the money right now. That’s also how life is sometimes :/

It’s getting late, so I’m going to end this post here, but more pages are on their way, so stay tuned!

Until next time!
/Tomii

Yo!

As a rule of thumb, when you’re planning your panel layouts, try to limit the number of panels on each page to five or maybe six at most.

As you can see in this page, I’ve used a whole of eight panels – if you count the small ones, which I usually do! Using this many panels tend to make the page feel crammed and hard to read, which of course is not what you want. I used to do this A LOT when I first started working on this comic, but after reading up on the subject, I try to avoid it as much as possible.
But, if you have a good reason to do it, then go ahead! My reason for putting this many panels in this page, for example, is because I felt I wanted to let the characters say what they had to say BEFORE the big surprise that takes place in the next page.
In other words, in order to give the next page more impact, I sacrificed a bit of readability in this… We’ll see if it works out as planned (^ v ^ ;) Even though I’ve already made 30 pages, I’m still learning, hihi!

Stay tuned and enjoy the comic!
/T

Yo!

For those of you that haven’t noticed, I uploaded the new character art for Chloe a few days ago, which you can find at the bottom of the ‘The Characters‘ page. The new version gives a better impression of her and what she looks like in the comic. I’ll update Pierre’s and the mailman’s character art as soon as I get time to do so :)

This page also presents two new characters to the story, you’ll see what they’re all about in page 30! hihi (^ v ^ )

Oh, this is not related to the comic at all, but I saw the movie ‘Lost in Translation‘ for the first time evar yesterday and I can highly recommend it to you, if you haven’t seen it before!
Just be aware of that this movie contains no violence or action whatsoever, so if you’re looking for an action flick, this is NOT what you’re looking for :) The movie leaves you with a feeling of loneliness and might even be a little depressing, but don’t let this frighten you, because it’s really worth a watch!

Well, that’s all I had for this time, enjoy the comic and have a good weekend!!
/T

Hi all, here’s page 26 for ya!
I’ll also upload page 27 and 28 in a few days hopefully. The inking on those pages is finished, I just need to get them proofread and add some screentones and stuff – the usual :)
I’ve tried to put more time & energy into making the comic this past week and I think it’s paying off. I’m already sketching up page 30. We’ll see for how long I’ll be able to keep this up :/ I’ll do my best!

Until next time, enjoy!
/T

Wazzup everyone!?

I don’t really have that much to add, except that I’ve uploaded some updated Claude art in the Characters section (it’s at the very bottom of the page so you’ll have to scroll down) :p
Eventually I’ll make new art for all the characters, but I don’t know when it’ll be done, so you’ll just have to be patient!

What else? Hmm… Well, yesterday I finished one of the hardest Nintendo games I’ve ever played; Ghosts n’ Goblins for Famicom!
You can almost hear the game producers laughing at you when you’re playing it – that’s how HARD it is! Of course I had to use continues to be able to beat it two times, but I can at least come to level 5 without dying. When I first got the game, couldn’t get past level 2 so… yeah, “practice makes perfect” I guess :)

I’ve also discovered that if you’re getting tired of listening to music while drawing, you can always open up some random video blog on YouTube and listen to that instead. It’s actually kind of refreshing! I like to listen to this guy. He’s doing video game walkthroughs with commentaries and he’s quite fun to listen to. Highly recommended!

“How do someone get tired of listening to music?”, you might ask. Well, if you’re like me and often listen to the same songs over and over again, you know what I mean! ;p As long as there’s something in the background, I’m happy.

That’s it for now, see ya!
/tomii

Hi everyone!

I can’t remember how long it was since I last updated the comic, but I think it was like, 3-4 weeks ago! Sorry about that… (^_^;) Hopefully I’ll get more time to spend on the comic now when Christmas is over.
The next comic page will actually act as the half-way mark through the comic! I estimate the whole story to be around 48 pages, so there’s still a lot to be said and done – but I’ll get there!

This page will present two (almost ) new characters to you! Chloe and Claude.
They actually made a small appearance on page 6 already, but at the time I drew that page they had a slightly different design. I’m still thinking about changing that page later, to make them look like they do now, but I haven’t decided yet.
Many people have told me that they look like Team Rocket from Pokemon (-_-;)
I’ve watched/played a lot of Pokemon too and I know what Team Rocket look like, so I know what people are saying.
With the new design I tried to make them look less like Team Rocket and more like the other Blup Valley citizens. The biggest change probably lies in their height, because if you look at them at page 6 you can clearly see that they are like twice the size of everyone else! Why did I make them like this? Probably because I wanted them to:
1) Be different from Pierre in any way possible, and
2) look really, really evil! >:)

But then I was thinking “So why REALLY are they taller than the other characters?” Are they from a different country? Are they of a different species?
I couldn’t think of any logical/interesting reason for this, so I opted to make them the same height as the other characters. Did I make the right choice?…

I don’t know when the next comic page will be ready, but I’ve sketched out about 85% of it, so it’s in-the-works!

Thanks again for checking in and for being patient! And if we don’t see(?) each other again before New Years Eve – Have a happy new year!!

Sayonara!