Page 87 and 88 Are Complete

 I have uploaded pages 87 and 88 of my web comic Zheph Skyre. For those of you who maybe wondering, the flashback sequence is almost finished. I do not want to dwell in a flashback for too long at a time like certain stories do.

Here we have Zheph's parents sending him and his sister up to their room while they discuss some important issues.

Apparently these two haven't told their children why they have tails, horns, or red eyes while everyone else they meet do not. For some reason, the father believes they should wait. Both of them also wish to leave Corthon as soon as possible, but Zheph's mother is still pregnant and obviously would not do well to travel. Now the only question that remains is where did Zheph's family go in the present day?

AMV Contest at Anime Boston 2013

I usually enjoy the AMV (Anime Music Video) Contest at Anime Boston. There are usually really good AMVs that I enjoy. All of the AMVs that were in the contest were very well done, except for the last AMV in the contest. That one just didn't have any effort put into it at all! It was just the same clip from a Dragonball Z movie played over and over until everyone got sick of it.

This one was a great Action AMV. It is called "Shoot Me!" and it was created by BecauseImBored & Irriadin. The Anime is Black Lagoon, and the song is Tommy Gun by Royal Republic. I want to try to watch this series if I can find it.

I really liked this Action AMV. It has some ridiculous imagery, but since the Anime movie, "Summer Wars," is based on is about the Internet, it makes sence. The song is Going Digital by Jason Radford, and it is also in the Digimon Movie. I really want to check out Summer Wars now because of this video.

This was a rather creepy video, but I found it really enjoyable. This video seemed to fit the theme of Anime Boston this year, which was "Tales of Yokai" which are Japanese spirits. This video is from tehninjarox, and it has footage from Natsume Yuujinchou, Another, and Kanon 2006. This Anime is called Infinite Darkness by The song is Sail (Unlimited Gravity Remix) by Awolnation.

This AMV, called RadioAkshun, was created by Ileia using footage from Rebuild the Evangelion. The song is called "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons. This one was also a good Action AMV. I have seen Evangelion, but not this new series.

This AMV is called Moonfall, and it was a really good Drama AMV by Shin. It contains content from The Vision of Escaflowne, and the song is Rabbit Heart by Florence and the Machine. I have only seen a little of The Vision of Escaflowne, but I want to see more.

This video was voted "Best Comedy" and it is obvious why. At first, this video appeared to be just an upbeat AMV, but then it revealed some really funny, creative editing that made the audience laugh. This AMV is called Magic Mouth and it was made by Bashar of The Ages. It contains clips from Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the song is "Magic" by B.o.B.

Otaku T-Shirt Design

I decided to add this design to my CafePress store. I created the symbol based on the Laughing Man logo from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex with the haircut of Cloud from Final Fantasy 7. I also added the text "All Hail Japan!" in English and in Japanese.

This design was originally for my college Anime Club, of which I was president of for a year. I also used this design for a DeviantArt contest, but I did not win that.

I decided to use this design in my store because I believe the audience for my web comic would interested in this t-shirt. I found out that more people would like more popular cultural references in their products as I sold things at Anime Boston. I am hoping not to receive any trouble for this, because I consider this a parody of Anime and parodies are protected by law.

Page 87 in Black and White & Holden's Memorial Day Parade

I uploaded the next page of my web comic, but it is in black and white for now. I did not get as much done on it at Anime Boston because I was really busy. Hopefully I can get back on track as soon as possible.

This past Monday I went to Holden's annual Memorial Day Parade. It was alright. As usual, we walked from graveyard to graveyard as a prayer was read, the band played, and a gun salute was fired. My dog did not care for the gun fire though.

Anime Boston Vendor's Table 2013

 I went to Anime Boston 2013 this year. I did not get to go to that many panels as I was very busy selling stuff at a dealer's room table with a group of artists. I also tried to film as much as I could, unfortunately I would have required a press badge in order to gain access to certain areas and I did not have that much time to film a lot more. I will try to post a video about what I did manage to record.

I did not sell any of my art prints unfortunately. I believe people would have preferred items fan based on popular culture. I did however manage to sell quite a bit of magic cards and comic books. Some people did take my business cards and flyers for my web comic, so this was an interesting experience. If I were to do this again, I would have to make things more appealing to this audience than just my own concepts. I hope to have some copies of my web comic printed out as well besides just the 1st two chapters printed in a binder for just a preview.

I shared my dealer's room table with some interesting, talented people. Another artist was Malcolm Jones who represented a whole group of artists who banded together to form an art studio that makes and sells fan art called Funky Fox Studios. They make buttons, hair clips, posters, side bags, and a lot more neat stuff. They are also working on some original stuff including a web comic series of their own!

One artist I shared my table with was Tanya Austin. She made quite a few interesting little steam-punk styled top hats and hair elastics. She even dressed up in very impressive, elaborate costumes.

There was also Shaun Nakasone, who had these very cool vinyl dolls on display. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to grab one of his cards to display for this blog.

I highly suggest checking out these artists' work. I will have more posted on Anime Boston later this week.

Page 85 and 86 of Zheph Skyre & Today's Page

I have completed pages 85 and 86 of my web comic Zheph Skyre. I have been really busy with getting everything I have ready for Anime Boston which is why these pages took this long to color in.

Here we have page 85. Zheph's mom greets her two children with concern as they arrive covered in dirt. However, Zheph's father arrives covered in just as much filth.

Here we have page 86. Zheph's father greets his children now. They appear to have a difficult question for him. He tries to answer it the best he can, unfortunately the children appear to make it even worse. I was thinking of how difficult it can be for parents sometimes in real life.

I was trying to finish this picture I was making in time for Anime Boston. It seems as if I won't have enough time though.

Page 86 in Black and White & No New Web-Comic Pages Next Week!

I uploaded page 86, but it is in black and white still. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish coloring it in tonight, but I should have it done by the end of this weekend.

There will be no new pages for Zheph Skyre next week! I am preparing for my vendor's table at Anime Boston, and it is taking a lot of time and work! I might have one break page, but that is it! I might have more than two pages for the week afterwards. Here's hoping!

The Great and Powerful Oz

I went to see The Great and Powerful Oz at the Strand Theater in Clinton the other day. I really enjoyed the movie.

(This image is from http://www.nerdist.com/2013/03/review-oz-the-great-and-powerful-a-whirlwind-adventure/)

There were a lot of awesome, colorful visuals, there was a very strong story, had some interesting characters, and it had many funny moments. It was interesting how the movie began in black and white and the screen was contained in a square format much like the original Wizard of Oz. The Wicked Witch of the West was very well done, with some of the aspects of the Deadites from Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series incorporated into her character.

There were only a few things I would have to nitpick about. The Wicked Witch of the East could have been done a little better. James Franco was good in the movie except for a certain part where he should have been much more intimidating and grand. But those are just a few nitpicks.

I could tell this film would have been awesome in 3D, but I heard from a friend that it seemed a bit too long of a movie to have in 3D and caused her to have motion sickness.

Page 85 is in Black and White

I have uploaded the next page of Zheph Skyre, but it is in black and white. I have had a very busy week, and the next two will be just about as busy if not more. Especially since I am getting things together for my vendor's table!

I just saw the movie The Great and Powerful Oz tonight at the Strand Theater in Clinton, MA. Hopefully I can write a blog about it tomorrow!

Page 83 and 84 of Zheph Are Up

I have uploaded page 83 and 84 of Zheph Skyre last night. I am really glad at how this page turned out considering it appears the next two pages are going to take a bit more effort.

On page 83, we have a flashback. I didn't want to be specific to when this is, but hopefully since I have the black between the frames helps give the hint. If it isn't clear, I will go back into it and make it clearer.

On page 84, we get to see Zheph, his sister, and his mother who is pregnant. I hope that it is clear that Zheph is younger right now. I wanted to show some flashbacks within this story because it would be weird without them. How else can I explain why a 14 year old inventor would be living by himself, be targeted by everyone in the city, and have a princess as a friend?

Portrait Photographs of Artists

The Worcester Art Museum had opened a new exhibit last week in the Photographs, Drawings, and Prints Gallery. It is called "Portrait Photographs of Artists," and it contains sixty photographs of famous artists throughout America and Europe within the past century.

(This image is from http://www.worcesterart.org/Exhibitions/portrait-photographs-of-artists/)

Among artists that had been photographed were Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

Page 83 of Zheph Skyre is Not Finished

Page 83 of Zheph Skyre is uploaded and in color, but it is not quite finished. I finally got to a page with much less detail to draw, however I have had a busy week. I have to practice using a camera for Anime Boston.

Free Comic Book Day! May 4th 2013

This past Saturday, May 4th was Free Comic Book day again! Again I had to wait until after I got out of work in order to stop by That's Entertainment to look at the selection of free comic books. I was very surprised that there was such a large selection this year! I don't know if I missed out on the selections in the past and was stuck with only a few choices because of that, but I saw at least three sections of comic books with over six comic books each. One of the sections was for young children, one was for teenagers, and one was for mature adults.

There was a free The Walking Dead comic book available. It contained a segment from the a Walking Dead comic book I already own, and a few other segments from the other comic books. As far as I can tell, compared to the television show, the comic book likes to follow more characters other than the main protagonist. That is one of the reasons why the comic books and the television show are so different, because certain things are able to be done in graphic novels that are not able to be done on television. Who thought Image comic books would have ever come out with something good besides Spawn?

There was also this Wolverine comic book. I would expect to see more mature rated comic of Wolverine considering he has sharp claws made out of the strongest metal there is. He can not just slash through machines all the time, he must have to use his claws against humans and mutants.

It was interesting to read through the stories in Raymayan. There appears to be various artists and styles within this comic book company, Graphic India, that all work on stories surrounding a few certain characters. You don't often see that for any series, at least not for numerous years after a few reboots.

I really liked the free comic book Radical. It contained parts of graphic novel stories, some based on well known stories of old like Aladdin and Hercules, but these pages don't have any speech bubbles whatsoever. It just contains images, very well crafted images of the stories. I'm guessing this company prefers people to see the beautiful artwork rather than text. I am not complaining!

It was surprising to read Soleil. Apparently Marvel comics is publishing comic books from Europe, but translated into English for an American audience who probably has never seen. There are some very unique styles and stories here, and I am interested to read more of some of this!








There were a few other comic books that I was also interested in reading, but I could only get 5 free ones. There was a Mega-man comic book, Star Wars Comic book, Tomb Raider comic book, a Green Lantern Comic book, and a few others that peeked my interest. If you were able to get some free comics this past Saturday, hopefully you got some interesting ones!

Page 81 and 82, & Chapter 2 Ends

I have finished pages 81 and 82 of Zheph Skyre. And that ends Chapter 2 of the 1st book of Zheph Skyre. I will try to get these pages printed out so that I can display them at Anime Boston at my vendor's table.

Here we see Zheph aggravating himself over his inability to not think about Vanessa in a romantic way. He fears that if she rejects him, their friendship would be ruined. Perhaps that might happen, perhaps not. Will Zheph get the courage to find out?

Zheph contemplates about what he should do before he goes to sleep. It seems like he wants to keep busy until he takes a look at a picture. Is this a picture of him and his family? And why would he have such a reaction to this picture?

Page 81 and Holden Community Television

I have uploaded page 81 of Zheph Skyre, but again it is in black and white.

I have begun to volunteer for Holden Community Television yesterday, and they asked me if I had any suggestions for television shows we could work on. Some shows HCTV have worked on were one about hiking, one about the "Taste of the Towns", and one about a magic show a local magician wanted to perform. I mentioned that I will be going to have a vendor's table at Anime Boston, and they automatically saw possibilities in that. They are going to lend me a camera and microphone in order to tape some of Anime Boston! I'm hoping this will be an opportunity for some publicity for my artwork and web comic as well as a chance for me to get a good job.