Yo

I’ve always admired people that know how to program. These people make things come alive by typing some weird mumbo jumbo into a text editor, or whatever they use. All I know is that it’s all text and I don’t have the slightest clue how they do it. Okay, I know SOME programming, if you count HTML… (x_x;) I also know some CSS (does that count as programming?) and some Actionscript 3, which is very fun to work with. I only know the basics though… I’m thinking about learning more about it after I’m done with this comic and I’ve gotten settled in my new apartment and all that. I’ve actually got some verrrry easy things done with AS3, and what I love about programming is the feeling of joy when the things you’ve done are actually working. And the more complicated it gets, the bigger the joy :)
I think I’ve already mentioned this, but I really want to start making my own games, you know. It’s a dream I’ve had since I was a kid. I know it’s NOT impossible, but you have to be smart to do it. And you have to know some math too I think…
I’M TRYING TO THINK BUT NOTHING’S HAPPENING… hah!, just kidding :D That was just something I heard on the Howard Stern Show the other day. It’s some kind of sound effect they play sometimes, and I thought it kind of sums up how I feel when I try to program :p

Well… it’s getting late, so I think I’m going to wrap things up here, watch some “Happy Console Gamer” on YouTube (EXCELLENT video-game-review-guy), while practicing my drawing skills and head to bed.

Enjoy the comic!
/T

PS: That’s hot chocolate their drinking. I’ll add a note to the page later… (＾ω＾;)

Eyyooooooooooo!

I’m moving into the city in about a month from now. Right now I live in my own house (okay, I’m renting it) on a farm in the countryside – the exact same farm I grew up on as a kid! It’s a really beautiful place and I’ve been thinking about this for a looong time, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I would benefit so much more from living in the city that I finally decided to just do it! I’m still unemployed and live on benefits, which really sucks ass because it makes you feel like a looser all the time. I can’t afford to own a car, so I can only get to the store by buss or by asking my neighbors for a ride.
All this is a real pain in the ass and it’s going to be so nice to just to be able to get my groceries whenever I want, you know… plus, in the winter, you have to warm up the house with a wood stove, because otherwise the electric bill will skyrocket. And the stove is really small, so you have to like check on it every 20 or 30 minutes and… yeah, I think you get the idea :)

BIG plans for the new apartment though! I’m going to decorate the room with Japanese stuff only! >:) Yes! I will have the most stylish apartment in town (not that I care about what the others do with their homes though) and I already have a bunch of pots and furniture to make it happen (I also actually LIVED in Japan as well, so I have a bunch of authentic stuff too). But, I’m telling you, because I’ve been reading up on the subject, if you’re going to decorate your home in a Japanese manner, don’t have your stuff scattered around the house, because it will “interrupt the harmony” or something like that :) “Less is more” is the key here.
COMPLETELY unrelated to the comic, but at least I’m trying to make it sound interesting, lol!

Now, enjoy the comic!
/T

Yo!

I’ve been looking into the art of pixel graphics since yesterday. It’s quite amazing how much emotion you can put into a picture with what seems to be super simple graphics. Something trivial as choice of color can really make a picture come to life in a whole new way.
I’ve come across two great pixel-art-themed forums so far…

- Pixel Joint, this is the bigger one of the two, with 28.000+ members! They have a great pixel art gallery and all kinds of interesting stuff. Definitely worth a watch!

- Pixelation, A bit smaller than Pixel Joint, but seems to be a pretty interesting site nonetheless.

Also, this is not a forum or anything but it’s really cool! It’s called IsoCity and if I understand it correctly, it’s purpose is to showcase peoples portfolios, by letting the artists create a small pixel house/structure on fixed spaces in this “city”. Check it out to see how it works! (^v^)

Alright, that’s enough pixel talk for today, adios muchachos! Enjoy the comic!
/T

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

Hi all!

Man, I’m not used to publishing these many pages in so little time and I’m really not used to blogging in general, so I’m kind of running out of things to say here, hehe (^ , ^ ;)

This is not related to the comic at all, but I guess most of you have seen/played “Super Mario Bros. Crossover” by now? If you haven’t, then I suggest that you do so!
Jay Pavlina, the author of the game, has uploaded it to Newgrounds for everyone to play (in fact, if case you see it on any other site, it’s stolen, unless it specifically says that he has given the site his permission to post it).

So what’s all the fuzz about? Well, get this; Jay has not only recreated the entire game of Super Mario Bros., he has also added 5 extra playable characters except Mario. All of them are retro gaming superstars, of course, and they are none other than Link, Mega Man, Simon Belmont (Castlevania series), Samus (Metroid series), Bill R. (Contra).
Each character has their own set of sound effects, music and gameplay and well, you just have to play the game to fully understand how perfect this game is in every way.
There’s also an interesting in-depth interview with Jay, where he tells us more about the story behind the game and stuff.
During that interview, he admits that he slept “next to railroad tracks”, because he didn’t have enough money to pay his rent! But did he let that stopping him from completing the game? Heck no! He kept on working, probably day and night, seeing nothing else than the goal in front of him. What a guy, huh?
I can totally relate to this, because this comic is done under very similar circumstances!… Ok, maybe not quite as bad as sleeping next to a railroad track (^ v ^ ;) But I don’t have any money, I’ve worked on this comic for a very long time, and I’m not getting payed to do it. So why do I stick to it? Because I have a passion and a set goal that I’m constantly aiming at and I have decided to finish this comic matter what it takes. In fact, I think this is true to any independent indy-game developer or amateur comic artist like myself. I “feel his pain”, and I wish him the best of luck in his future projects. By the way, use the search function on Twitter and type “mario crossover” and you’ll see how this game is literally sweeping over the entire internet, it’s crazy! :D

Anyways, enjoy page 33. I hope to be able to upload the next one soon – if not tomorrow ;p
/T

EDIT: The authors website is: http://www.exploding-rabbit.com/

The design for the robot I though up on the train on my way home from work. Of course I had to work on it for a while, but I knew from the start that I wanted it to a) be simple, and b) look like Pierre. Most of the details on it have a purpose, which you’re going to see eventually.

I also had to think of a good name, and what could be a better name for a baking robot than GLU-10 (pronounced “gluten”)? If you didn’t know, gluten is the very same substance that makes your bread loafs and sandwiches hold together and not fall apart. It’s what makes the dough sticky when you mix flour with water.
How do I know all this? Because my father is allergic to it and he has to buy a special kind of flour that doesn’t contain gluten. I tried to make cinnamon rolls with it once. It was hell.

Anyways, now Windows’ “Automatic Updates” is starting to bitch about restarting my computer, even though I’ve pressed the I’ll-restart-the-god-fricking-computer-later-thanks-for-asking-though button three times already!
There are times like these that makes me dream. It makes me dream of the day I’ll be able to pick up my pay check and go buy a Macintosh. No more virures, no more malware, no more driver hassle, no more blue screen, no more [insert favorite windows problem here]. It just works.
When we talk about Mac OS, that’s when you can start to talk about programming as art… *Windows asks me again; ‘Do you want to restart you computer now?’ I click ‘Restart Later’*… because it’s just so beautiful.

Alright, this thing is driving me nuts, so I’ll see you guys later!
/T

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 guys!

I’m feeling a little down today :/ The reason for that is because today I got some bad news at work. To make a long story short; I won’t have a job to go to next week. It’s not because I got fired, but the thing is that I was only there as an intern and today I was told that the internship will end at the end of this week!… Yeah, it was super-short notice, but it was because of an “human error”, so I can’t really be mad at anyone.
I guess I could see it from the bright side – now I’ll have more time to work on the comic! But, on the other hand, if I can’t pay for food and rent.. well, you get the idea (>_< )
Ah well, I’m not the only one to be unemployed and broke these days – far from it!

To all of you who are also unemployed: Everything will be alright, sometimes you just have to give things time and N-E-V-E-R give up (<– this is the most important part to remember)! Better times are coming, friends. Just hang in there!

Now, enjoy the comic!

/T

Hi everyone!

Sorry about the delay, but I’ve been a little tired from work lately and this page had a little more detail than usual. I actually build Pierre’s whole store in 3D to be able to get the right mood in that lower right panel! I think it turned out nice, don’t you think?

If you haven’t checked out the ‘Characters’ section lately, you should! Because I added two new-ish characters there this week – namely Missy and Ms. Denise! And, as I wrote on my twitter, I’ll probably redraw the other characters as well to get a fresh new look on them too.

One more thing, I’m thinking about making a so-called “fan page” for this comic on Facebook … but the problem is that I don’t know exactly what I would do with it after (^,^;) Ah well, I guess I could just create one to begin with and see where it goes from there? I’ll twit about it when it’s done! :D

Well, it’s Saturday and it’s cold and windy outside … guess I’ll just have to spend my whole day drawing and drinking tea, yay! :p Man, I haven’t played any video-games in AGES … it’s time to change that!! (*-* )

Now, enjoy the comic!