fredart : blogbits

heh, i should know better than to rant about stuff like like getting negative emails about stuff related to my schedule. My mailbox has been flooded - no idea when i’ll be able to get through all of them, but i will say i appreciate all the kind and supportive words. I really don’t let negative criticism hit me as hard as i used to. Much of it seems almost pointless, just part of the whole ‘its not cool to like MT’ thing that came from who knows where… actually, i suppose it comes from just having a certain level of popularity or readership - it instantly makes you less cool for some reason. Who knows. If anything when you step back from it and look at it all objectively, its been a pretty interesting run, the past six years.

It’s always interesting to hear from people who have been reading it from, say, comic 10. I also hear from some people who read it, then stopped reading for a few years, then came back and caught up but the people who astound me are the ones who just keep reading, and have been doing so since it first went up. When i think of all the things they’ve had to deal with, as well as all the growth and changes Megatokyo and I have gone through in that time… i’m glad that they found it worth sticking to.

Readership gain or loss is kind of hard to track, really. Sometimes people stop reading things just because they drift off to other things. I’m as bad as anyone. I have plenty of sites and comics i’ve read and enjoyed over the years, and with some of them i’ve just drifted away for a while and never actually went back. There is so much out there vying for your attention, so many things to dive into, more often than not loosing someone isn’t an act of them not liking it anymore, its just that their attentions led somewhere else.

Even for me, the focus of my work changes all the time, as has MT. For many people, its been fine, they’ve like where it’s gone. For others, its gone in directions that just don’t appeal to them. From a popularity point of view i probably should have analyzed things and picked the most profitable direction, but alas, my creative stuffs don’t seem to work that way.

Anywhoo… the real reason for that MT rant was to clarify what my ’status’ bar really represents - goals i set for myself. It’s kind of dumb to post them that way, maybe - in the end, when i miss one, its not just me that gets bummed but lots of readers. My hope is that for the readers, the the disappointment of missing a goal is balanced by the satisfaction of getting a finished comic. There are times i struggle more than others, but its always worth it - otherwise i would have given up on this adventure long ago.

Oh, and no need to email me. Please. ^^;;

In other news, i got snagged again… damnnit, Asmodeus, you bastard. I ended up letting him pre-order this for me. I just can’t get over how much she looks like Kimiko to me. there are several Saber figures that look like Kimiko, there is some kind of odd similarity they have. Yes, it’s Saber, but to me i’m getting a cute PVC of Kimiko with this preorder. I dont have room for lots of figures, so aside from some fantastic Nayuki figure coming down the line in the next year or so, this is it for a while.

pirotunes: Dj Krush & Toshinori Kondo - Sun Is Shining

One thing i’m really bad at doing is taking care of gift art. There are people out there who i have owed gift art for over 8 years (longer too, but i don’t want to think about that). I’ve owed Richard a drawing for a while now, and when he recently ordered some stuff from the MegaGear store, i decided to make sure i did something nice to send along with the package. Of course, it took almost 2 months to finally do it (and held up his order for that long. Good thing he’s a friend or he’d kill me :P) but i finally pulled together a nice little drawing of kimiko for him. It’s actually two drawings - a pencil drawing on ink jet paper, then a high res print on marker paper that i colored with copics. Of course, i had to pander to his little megane (glasses) and meido (maid) thing, but why not, he waited long enough, he deserved it. Oh, and if you want this particular drawing you’ll have to hunt Pocky down and kill him. Richard, i hope you enjoy it!

(click here to view the artwork)

(i should note that Richard isn’t REALLY into the whole maid thing, but his Meganeko obsession thing makes it easy to tease him by adding all sorts of other fetishistic categories. I almost did a bunny girl Kimiko, but that might have been mean :P)

pirotunes: YBU Vs. Rae & Christian - Soul Magic 98

There aren’t many anime series that i put down the debut date on my calendar, but Kyoto Animations reworking of Kanon was one (Thursday, October 5th). Of course, I don’t live in japan so its not like i could turn on the TV and watch it on BS-i, but a high quality torrent of the raw came up pretty quickly once the show was over.

I didn’t open it up and watch it right away - i was working on Friday’s comic - so i saved it till i had time to watch it. I was not surprised at all when a very nice mkv fansub of it turned up the next day (so i downloaded that too). Did i watch it right away? No, i waited until this morning, and it was worth the wait.

I actually have a MT rant forming where i talk about a few things regarding Kanon, the new version, popular attitudes about it, etc, so i’ll save my comments for that. One thing it did make me think about was that Anime in general is not something i always have streaming in the background, either on the TV or on my computer. I am very selective about when i watch things (which, of course, means that i don’t watch anywhere near as much as some people). For me, this keeps the experience of watching a favorite show what it should be - something rather special, something enjoyable, something to look forward to.

Even after all this time and the overexposure and generally overdone saturation only the japanese anime / manga / game market is capable of doing, Kanon is still my favorite … what? story? game? property? emotive entity involving characters, story, mood and visuals that it seems i will always have a special place in this old melodramatic heart of mine? Ground breaking but by now overhyped and overexposed game full of snow and melodrama that makes the elite minded turn their noses up at it?

Sure, whatever you want to call it, i don’t really care. I love this show, i couldn’t be happier with how nice a job Kyouto Animation is doing with it, even if I do know the story backwards and forwards and can even watch it unsubbed without diffuculty — stories are about experiencing them. The details are just that, details. Emotive responses come from watching and experiencing stories, as they unfold, as they happen. Thats what this ‘remake’ is. It may be considered by some a waste of time and resources by remaking something that was made only a few years ago, and total pandering to Kanon fans, and so what? I’m going to revel in it and not feel an ounce of shame. Not a single ounce.

pirotunes: Last regrets (Full Chorus Version) - “Kanon ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK”

Just a quick update on two things going on with MT right now. First off, we are bouncing back and forth between the two main servers (some of you may have got a ‘login window’ or something when hitting the site earlier today) We’re working to get the damn server stuff under control. Hopefully by tomorrow all of you will be hitting MT on the new server (Mishio) and it will be going lighting quick for you. Hopefully we can keep the splats to a minimum.

The full page approach to creating these comics is actually a real headache at first for me. I’m not used to nailing down the layout BEFORE having finished drawing. It’s forcing me to think more than i like to This may not be the most stellar comic you’ve ever seen, but in the long run it should lead to far more interesting layouts. In fact, i’ve been looking at a lot of layouts in the process. I’m actually looking forward to mastering this approach, i feel it’s something that’s helping me grow as a comic creator.

Oh, and those of you who, after reading my current rant, keep emailing me these belittling snitty emails about how i need an editor to kick my ass, please… go to hell. Thank you.

Also, sorry about the fact that comments are closed here on Fredart for a while. Because of a certain fucktard who keeps spaming my comments (and even tried to spam the forums) i can’t allow comments until i get a newer version of Movable Type installed and some better tools to control fucking idots like that. Feel free to email me if you have comments. Thanks for your patience.

Friday night sarah and i were downtown Ann Arbor and wandered into Pinball Petes just for the hell of it, and played a bunch of random games. It’s always fun to do that from time to time. While playing Dead Or Alive 2, i was thinking to myself that i hoped no one was actually watching how crappy i was at playing the game. It was at that point, of course, that two fans recognized sarah and i and came over to say hi. ^^;;; Oh boy. I think i need to practice more (and so i’ve pulled out my copy of DOA2 Ultimate. It’s been ages since i’ve played fighting games, and i forgot how much fun they are. Of course, Sarah totally kicks my ass in them… still… (sigh))