I retract my earlier statements

I've got a job now. And a reprint of Cinderelliot is quickly approaching. Right now I'm in the process of fixing the entire comic...adding pages, replacing pages, replacing text in certain bubbles, and redoing the ending. The cover I had planned for it says "First Anniversary Edition", but it's now a over month after the anniversary, and the way this is going, I'd might as well call it a Director's Cut.

So, yes. The Director's Cut is well on its way, and will have five extra pages and a wider distribution. I'm considering adding a bonus comic too, but I can't think of anything I want to write about (all the things I was going to put in it have already been cleared up through the new material). I try asking people what they'd like in a bonus story, but I get multiple variations on "Fairy Godfather gets laid". (Plus: in the new cut, he's not sex-crazed at all. He's in fact ten times more likeable, only looking for career success and affection.) I'm considering pitching it to a Canadian publisher, but the only one who would take it prints mostly books about romance, gay and S&M guides and marijuana. Well, if they accepted "Doll City"...

Gigan-X...three more characters are nearly stable, these being Michelle Rossi-Menard, Adam Graye, and Benjamin Ross, the French female pilot, the American pilot and the gay British pilot respectively. There's a fourth guy in development, Famiel Doba, the Chilean pilot. I almost considered making Major Kagiyama the main character, but since he's totally Ichirou Mizuki, I figured Aniki would find the series one day and be all " 一体何をやってるの？"

So, anyway, Cinderelliot is returning, better than ever. Gigan-X is biking around in circles. Hyperspace Bunny is in its prime and needs love. And stop asking me to make the Fairy Godfather get some ass, please, because it's hurtful at this point.

Updates and Gigan-X

Wow, it's been just over four months since the last time I posted here. Not much happened this summer - I was expecting to get a job to pay for a professionally-printed omnibus of Cinderelliot, but of course that never happened. And my opinion of Cinderelliot right now is tanking, so to spend $50+ on reprints would be horrifying. Maybe when I have more money, it'll happen...but for now, I'm considering just dumping the entire thing for free on Smackjeeves. When I think back on the comic, all I think of is what it could have been if the Fairy Godfather wasn't so offensive. The way I portrayed him still haunts me to this day.

Hyperspace Bunny is approaching its sixth chapter, and Quinn is in Season Two. The 27 Ghosts of Endo got rejected by Nelvana earlier this year for being too dark, but I want to start on a comic version of the first episode. There's something I've had in planning for months now, and it's about giant robots in 2084...

The working title is Virtual Fighter Gigan-X, about three young men in their early twenties who pilot twenty-foot-tall defence robots (i.e. Patlabor or Votoms), their squadron led by the enigmatic Major Shigeru Kagiyama. Kagiyama is the only character who I've completely finalized, and I need to be honest that he is directly based on Ichirou Mizuki, also known as the Tom Jones of Japan who's sung over 1,200 anime theme songs. This all smashed together into what potentially could be my most badass character.

The things keeping Gigan-X grounded are my current inability to design mecha, and my inclanation to add a female pilot in somewhere. The mecha pictured was supposed to be piloted by the American Adam Graye, so I gave it a red-white-and-blue colour scheme, but now it looks like a baboon-flavoured Kamen Rider. And on the female characters - I keep falling prey to the slimy giant-robot-anime stereotypes for females. My past attempts include a hybrid of Asuka Langely and Lynn Minmei, whom dies in the third-to-last episode.

So, I like 10% of Gigan-X so far, and I don't know how long it'll be before it gets off the ground. I'd might as well just put Kagiyama as a guest character in Hyperspace Bunny.

Bulletins

Attention everyone, I would like to mention a few things.

1. A professionally-printed omnibus edition of Cinderelliot will be coming out by July, but I need to raise money for printing costs and get an estimate of how many people would actually buy it. The book would include a new cover, an extra page in the second half, and a bonus two-page comic at the end.

2. I will be at the Saskatoon Anime Blitz this Sunday the 16th, dressed as Lisa Hayes/Misa Hayase from Robotech: The Macross Saga. This is what I will look like, except I won't be a toy. Anyone interested in talking to me about Cinderelliot or anything else is welcome to approach me during the convention's free times.

3. Endo Hiramatsu will cameo in Hyperspace Bunny #4. Also on the way is a comic version of the pilot episode of The 27 Ghosts of Endo.

Hyperspace Bunny Now Online

The first story - fourteen pages with colour cover - has been put online. The second story is ten pages, and will be on the way as soon as I finish its cover.

http://hyperspace.smackjeeves.com

After school, there'll be a finished character page, and I'll check to make sure that non-members can comment.

Bunny; Paperback Cinderelliot

First off, this June, I want to release a "First Anniversary" republishing of Cinderelliot, this time in paperback graphic novel form. At the moment I'd place the books - which would have both issues and a three page bonus comic - in the $5 or $6 price range, but I'd have to see how much each book would cost from Mr. Print. I'm really excited for this; this new format would make online selling easier, and maybe I could get attention from a Canadian publisher!

At the same time, I'm torn between releasing Hyperspace Bunny in print or online. At the moment, the first story rests at ten pages completed, and I can see maybe another five in the story. I'm planning to put the first two stories in one issue. After school, I'm going to pick up some small canvases and paint a picture of Bunny for the cover, in case the cover image I have right now doesn't turn out well.

My first series was about fairies and the mob. Now my next one is about aliens, robots and mad scientists...

The Periwinkle Assault

In serious news, Imagi Studios has momentarily collapsed, and the Gatchaman movie is now in limbo. The Tetsujin 28 movie is estimated to never, ever come to light, which I find extremely disappointing. Everybody buy an Astro Boy DVD, or Imagi will die. Really.

In happier news, here's the protagonist cast of a thirty-two year old book, and evidence of the first time I've ever drawn a shirtless man...


This is based on a book series by Charles Dennis, which was supposed to span four books but ended halfway. I discovered the second book, The Periwinkle Assault, by accident at the school library in 9th grade. It was enlightening enough for me to get the first book. The only objections to content in either book were how Corporal Ahmed was portrayed with the dreadful "dumb brother" archetype, a few gross jokes, and a masturbation contest. Really.

And I haven't finished Hyperspace Bunny

Because I haven't posted this to enough of my sites and blogs, here it is. My manga review got put in the Reader's Choice segment of Right Turn Only, on Anime News Network. This is part of an endeavor to pique America's interest in KCR, with maybe a stateside publishing. I really hope this goes somewhere.

Also, here's something from the Endo production...

In big news, I'm finishing a pitch for The 27 Ghosts of Endo and will be sending it to Cartoon Netowrk or Teletoon after the final exams. The sypnosis, taken directly from the pitch Powerpoint...

"A young man is hit by a truck, but miraculously recovers hours later. He is informed that spirits had helped save him, and he must pay back Death by exorcising 27 ghosts, one for each hour he was in a coma. With his companions, he begins to visit different places around the world to try and find ghosts."

I have been informed that this seems to be like Dororo, but honestly, I didn't think of that series when creating Endo. In fact, the whole idea for a ghost series came from a dream, which I made into an episode. Let's see how this pitch goes!

(Also, I'm starting a series of stopmotion films about a girl who pilots a robot. I want a Juku Couture doll, since it has excellent posability, but they're not available in Canada. And who knew it would be impossible to find a jointed Ken doll with curly hair?)

Merry Christmakwanzanukah Solstice!

I was inspired by a Giles strip while working on this. It look two days of planning and sketching, and two more days to ink and apply the grey marker. May Ray (holding the streamer) is one of my oldest characters that I still like, whom I've put in a comic for the first time in two years. There's another four characters that I haven't quite yet put online yet...

Cinderelliot: Elliot/Cain, Miles/Arbrook, King, Pinhead, Fairy Godfather

Westbury Detectives: Mara Wright (all of the above are also in this, but still...)

Hyperspace Bunny: Bunny, Ray Hatcher

Skipper the Robot Kid: Sarai Mizuno, A.M.I., Robby Phillips, Bunny2000, Sera (from the remake)

Quinn: Rick Jones

Our Own May Ray: May Ray

The 27 Ghosts of Endo: Endo Hiramatsu (that guy about to get copped by the Godfather)

I'm also in the picture frame!

As soon as I finish some maths homework, I've got some model sheets of The 27 Ghosts of Endo to post. It's based on a dream I had (which I encorperated into an episode), and odds are that it's going to be my next project.

For anyone interested, this was the Giles strip I was inspired by...

Cinderelliot Site!

http://cinderelliot.tripod.com/index.html

This was made of pure HTML. I started learning HTML and CSS back in 7th grade or so, and it's helped out now, seeing as SiteBuilder had closed down and so has Geocities, and I'm certainly not going to Webon.

Anyways, the profile pictures for Miles and the Stepsisters aren't done yet, but everything else is totally functional. Let me know if there's anything I should revisit and edit there.

Also, I saw "Planet 51", and it was a...complete disappointment. I'll have a bigger review later on. I wish we'd just waited five days until The Princess and the Frog came out, because I really want to see that.

This is the best thing I've heard all day.

As a fan of Kyuukyoku Choujin R / Ultimate Superman R, I'd have to say that this is the best tie-in song, given how it embodies the series perfectly.

Also, I went trick-or-treating, because I knew I'd be stealing candy if I didn't. I went as Gendo Ikari again because it was too cold for my new flapper costume. Did you know they still make DOTS gumdrops? I mean seriously, what the hell?

Long story short, but now I am supposedly drawing the Fairy Godfather as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, because there is a supposed need for musical numbers and leather underwear in my output.