fredart : blogbits

Well, i finally had a chance to watch the first three episodes of the Melancholy of Sizumiya Haruhi. Very amusing, and very interesting (never mind the really top notch animation by Kyoto Animation.) There are so many levels of interesting things going on in this series…. I don’t tend to like stuff just because everyone else does, and Haruhi was certainly a series that i was just waiting to not grab me the way it did my friends, but… I do wonder if there is something about the series that i like that is different than what others seem to be going nuts over. There’s something really sad about Haruhi herself, and i can’t quite put my finger on it. The dance scene at the end, Haruhi’s rather amazing indifference to exposing herself (while at the same time having a solid understanding of it’s effect on people), the exploitation of Mikuru’s assets and youthful face… Good stuff, but this is not what interests me the most.

Of course, maybe it has to do with the fact that i twitch whenever any long haired characer cuts her hair short. I always find this… upsetting for some reason. I don’t know why.

The translations of the book Haruhi is based on is also worth a read (note that these books have been selling out fast in japan). I feel like there area lot of Japanese novels where, much like it used to be for manga, there are a huge number of excellent stories that it would be great to experience. It’s been a long time since i’ve seen an animated series come from out of nowhere and go cult status as fast as Haruhi did. She’d be proud, if you think about it.

So don’t forget your required membership in SOS-dan and practice your dance steps. You never know when you may be called upon to do them.

In getting back into chapter 7 one thing i can’t help but notice is that while the chapter isn’t near as bad as Chapter 5 was (it has a lot of good sequences) the way it all goes together is not quite as solid as it should be. It’s really kinda sad how when i have big things going on (like moving to a new publisher, pulling together my fourth book) my writing suffers. It does, it just does. I’m not dealing with a disastrous chapter here, but i am looking at one that could have been done better.

In January, i had set a goal to simply produce 3 comics per week, and to produce them on schedule. I actually made a pretty decent effort at this in January. In February, things just started to get overwhelming and the comic itself almost seemed to take a back burner to everything else i had to deal with. March was rough, but April… it was an unfair month for MT readers, and unfair to the story. It’s been well over a month since MT had any kind of momentum.

I’ll get it back, i’m fairly sure of that, but what i hate is how this happens no matter how hard i try to prevent it. I don’t think its a problem with my other projects - its a problem with my methods for doing comics. Just because i produce a halfway decent comic and have been for six years doesn’t mean i have systems and methods that are what you would call effective. In fact, if anything, i honestly think the only reason MT exists at all is because i take a brute force approach to doing it. There’s no good reason why one of these comics should take 14-20 hrs to produce. I was able to produce almost two pages of Circuity art in one day, and yet todays comic took 14 hrs. The difference is startling, and is a strong reflection on the difference between being ‘in mode’ and not.

I’m trying, yet again, to adjust my approach to things, once again refine how i work. I rely way too much on things just coming together as i do them, and never give myself enough buffer to actually have the time to mull over the final result. Sure, MT is readable, but it could be better. I know i could.

Anyways, it is nice to finally have the book stuff behind me. It was way too much for one person to do, but i did it, and MT is one of many things that were sacrificed in the process. I’ve lost readers, i know i have, but over time many will come back if the comic achieves that regularity that a web based project really needs to have in order to thrive. I can actually do this, and have in recent years, just the last two months were… ugh.

One thing i also need to do is get ready for Anime Central (Acen) in Chicago the weekend after next. Lots to do for that, but honestly, that prep comes second to the comic. My goal for the week of acen is to not miss any comics as a result of that trip. We’ll see if i can achieve that far less audacious goals.

In more silly news, this finally shipped. One of these days i really want to make MT figures like this. Sometime in the near future, i hope…

- pirotunes: Peter Savage - The Passion Of Learning -

This morning i was working on a Naze Nani Megatokyo strip that seemed funny enough in its conception, but wasn’t coming together as well as i would have liked. The fates seemed to agree because in the midst of struggling with it, Illustrator crashed and somehow the file i was working on was corrupted beyond repair. >_< I took that as a sign.

When you have to really focus on a project, and do it for a length of time (like pulling together Book 4 and the extra material for that book) you have to push a lot of things aside and just focus on the tasks that have to be completed. One everything is done (including all those little things that just keep coming up, small edits, things that need to be fixed, etc - you’d be surprised how much there is for a 240 page book) you’d think that I could finally relax and take a mental break from it all. Unfortunately, things don’t always work that way. For me, almost immediately upon “whew, i’m done! Yay!,” all of those other things I pushed aside to make the completion of the project possible came pouring back in at me. Suddenly I’m in this mad panic just trying to figure out WHAT needs to be done next. Being tired and worn out doesn’t help.

The biggest problem with this project whas how much i had to put aside Megatokyo. For two weeks i have not been thinking about the rest of Chapter 7 at all. Sure, i know what’s going on, what happens next, i have my notes and sketches and stuff, but i just haven’t been ‘there’ in the story. Getting back ‘there’ isn’t impossible, but it does take some time and effort that i never acknowledge is needed.

I’m trying to regroup, to get myself back into the swing of things, and get my momentum back. I’m working on that now, and concentrating on Wednesday’s strip… and letting Monday’s strip go. I feel its better to have two decent comics this week than three rushed ones.

I always seem to discount the time it takes for me to get my bearings after a big project. I end up in a big panic trying to do things i just can’t manage, thinking i can cram 4 days worth of work into two, and then somehow magically produce a comic on the evening of the last day. Panic is bad for creativity, honestly. I stepped back this morning, took a deep breath, and regrouped myself. The book is done, i can focus on Megatokyo again. It just takes a little time to get it going.

(i wrote this for my fredart blog, but i think i should post it in the MT rant space too. So don’t do a doubletake if you see this same post there

- pirotunes: Mike VanPortfleet - Towards the Blinding Glare from “Beyond the Horizon Line” -

Around 3:13am last night i finished Book 4. It is done.

Well, almost. I still have to adjust about 12 pages and make several minor edits, and communicate some changes to the design pages with my editor this morning, all those little persnickety things that will hound me for the next few days until things are finally off to the service bureau and the book takes on its more or less complete form and we cant tinker with it anymore.

Done. It’s a word that makes you think of pushing back your chair and relaxing. For me, that’s almost never the case, sadly. These projects always take so long to finish, that they push right into the next things i have to do and i am always forced to pick up and dive right into something else immediately. Such is the case today. I have to finish these edits, write an email to my editor with all my comments, and then dive right into “monday’s” comic. If i’m lucky, i’ll have it done for Tuesday. Come hell or high water there will be 3 comics this week.

I shouldn’t say that. I seem to get flooded often.

all the little stuff aside, the fact remains - the book is done. Any edits or tweaks from here on out are only details.

- pirotunes: Biosphere - Antennaria from “Substrata” -

Just a quick note to say ‘wai!’ to the fact that i’ve now finished all the drawings for the Circuity re-vamp. 8 pages worth, all done. Done and scanned. Next is to clean everything up, touch up and tweak existing drawings, then put it all back together again with new dialogue. That’s gonna take some working, but no where near as much work at the drawings took.

Anyways, the drawings are DONE, and it feels good. Once i put these pages together I can officially put this book to bed.

Oh, got a really nice gift art from Dan Kim i’ll be posting in the MT comic space here shortly.

- pirotunes: Markus Guentner - Sommergewitter -

Today was a big day because i finished everything but one item on my big huge nastly list of things to do for the book. That one remaining item, of course is 3.5 pages of Circuity art as well as the scanning and assembly and reworking of everything i’ve done so far (yes, i am completely and totally screwed on my Thursday deadline, but luckily there is a tad of flex in it and these pages when finished can be dropped into the quark file quickly on monday so as to not delay things too horribly). Oh well, at least i enjoy working on this thing, and it’s looking pretty good. Stuff like this is fun, all the little nitpicky crap you have to do when publishing a book is not.

I’ll try to do a quick little update rant for the MT site tomorrow morning, before i dive into the last drawings. It’s been a fsking insane month. I’m tired, desperately need a break (even if it is just getting back to my normal schedule but overall i’m pretty happy. The book is looking pretty good, and I’m quite happy with the direction the circuity re-write has taken. It has shed all the mechanics of the Haibane Renmei and evolved along lines that are more in tune with my own thoughts and concepts. The metaphoric constructions are now far better suited to my ideas than the Haibane structure was really capable of supporting. Neat stuff, i might do more with it in the future too.

In regards to the Two Weeks DPD auction that ended on Sunday… uhm, i don’t really know what to say. Realistically i was thinking i might get 2k or so for the whole batch if people responded well to them. I, uh, didn’t expect it to top 10k. Man. It makes you wonder. I’m not going to infuriate you with my normal self deprecating blather about it because im too tired to get into circular arguments with myself. I’m way too tired for that tonight. I’m also quieted by the fact that the people who bid on all of these have all communicated with me about why they wanted these drawings and why they felt they were worth what they were willing to spend. So, out of respect for them, i’m going to try not to chew on myself about it

Back to work on Circuity. Should be a fun couple of days.

- pirotunes: A Positive Life - The Calling [Ambient Mix] -

Well, i’d love to say things are back to normal, everything is working, etc, but… it’s not. The good news is that the comic is back, and i’m going to try my damnedest to not have to miss any more comics because of book 4 work. I’m not saying it wont happen, i’m just gonna try. I’m trying to take a more ‘realistic’ approach to things these days.

I would like to apologize for the situation with the forums. I’ve been pushing my goons every day to get some progress on them - its not fair that they should be down for so long. Like i said, however, the nice thing is that when they are up, they will be updated and humming along on new machines. Thanks for your patience.

As for the book? Ugh, i still have tons to do. The good news is that things are looking good, i’ve made a few changes and tweaked some things for the book version that fix a few minor gaffs in the web version. I’m pretty happy with the set. In fact, its been more pleasure working on this book than any of the others so far. I actually *like* some of the comics and story arcs in this book I do have to push a little harder to finish the processing, because i have GOT to get back to working on the circuity remake, or i am going to really miss my deadline.

Trying to set up my Ebay auction for the 4 two week dpds right now, I’m figuring i’ll start the auction on Thursday and end it at Noon on Saturday or Sunday the 15th or 16th, not sure yet. Whee.

In other news, i was asked by a reader why i wasn’t also psyched up about the upcoming Clannad movie. This made me blink, because i nor any of my friends had come across this news. After a quick google search i discovered that there is indeed a Clannad movie in the works - by Toei animation no less. (you can tell i haven’t been reading ANN as closely as i should be recently :P). The official announcement stuffs can be seen here. I’m not gonna fanboy over this as much as the KyoAni remake of Clannad because, well, the nice part about it is its a remake of the Toei version which was kinda mediocre. Yet who knows, it might come out decent, you never know. Movies do have higher budgets.