Thursday, December 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Getting back into drawing. :D
For a long time, I've taken some time off from drawing. But the spirit is biting me recently... Maybe I might even bring back Vexing. Who knows!
I decided I will review Professor Layton in the form of a comic though. Obviously it won't be in depth, but it'll get the point across...
Anyways, I spent a lot of time drawing this charmander, so instead of a lengthy blog post, I'll post this. It's a WIP still-- I'll try inking/coloring it in tomorrow. Til then~!
I decided I will review Professor Layton in the form of a comic though. Obviously it won't be in depth, but it'll get the point across...
Anyways, I spent a lot of time drawing this charmander, so instead of a lengthy blog post, I'll post this. It's a WIP still-- I'll try inking/coloring it in tomorrow. Til then~!
 |
| This Charmander's got swaaaag~ |
Friday, December 16, 2011
30DAC: Day 5
Day 5
Character You're Most Like
The funny thing is, I've already thought about this. And people I've known have talked told me this, too. I've been told I'm a mixture of:
Character You're Most Like
The funny thing is, I've already thought about this. And people I've known have talked told me this, too. I've been told I'm a mixture of:
 |
| Osaka from Azumanga Daioh |
and
 |
| Konata from Lucky Star |
Not that these are desirable characters to be. ;_;
Konata is your female otaku-gamer-girl type. She'd rather play video games, read manga, or watch anime than do homework. And most of the time, she does. The funny thing is that it's not like she's actually dumb, she just cannot apply herself to a lot of things outside of her interests. She's also incredibly sarcastic, something I love. There were more things that we were similar on, but for the life of me, I've forgotten them. It's definitely time to rewatch this series.
Osaka is your classic spacey-girl type. Again, not dumb, because she has shown herself to be rather profound when it comes to solving puzzles, but just spacey. A classic moment is when she's in class and she randomly starts to follow her eye floaters around with this big smile on her face. But beyond being spacey, she's also downright weird in a wonderfully hilarious way. However, I'll have to recommend the manga over the anime-- it doesn't do it justice. :c
Osaka is your classic spacey-girl type. Again, not dumb, because she has shown herself to be rather profound when it comes to solving puzzles, but just spacey. A classic moment is when she's in class and she randomly starts to follow her eye floaters around with this big smile on her face. But beyond being spacey, she's also downright weird in a wonderfully hilarious way. However, I'll have to recommend the manga over the anime-- it doesn't do it justice. :c
So take the otaku-sarcasm from Konata, the weird spacey-ness from Osaka, and you essentially have me. A spacey otaku...
Fuck my life.
Fuck my life.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Penny and Aggie
You know that series that catches you completely off guard? One that you are only warm towards in the beginning, but slowly works its way up to favorite status? That series for me was Penny and Aggie; a story about two girls who hate each other in high school (original, I know) but slowly become important parts of each other's lives. Their relationship slowly grows over the years, becoming something neither one of them expected. Sadly, it ended far too quickly when it was just getting to the part I truly adored about it-- and didn't end too well, in my opinion. But at any rate, let's get started on my first webcomic review. (aw yeah, awesoooome)
Story
The plot of this story varies between high school drama and slice of life. What's nice is that the comic matures and grows up along with its writer and artist, so the one-shot comic to comic episodes are short lived. And at the same time, the characters do too. Where Penny and Aggie start out as one-dimensional archetypes, they slowly become molded into complex women tangled in each other's lives. They don't want to start caring about each other, they never planned it, but slowly they do.
Until finally Aggie truly starts questioning her sexuality. There have been hints here and there about the possibility of her being gay, and other characters mused about it as well, but it was all foreshadowing until halfway through the series that she realizes that she's not all into men. And slowly, the two girls realize there might be something more to their friendship than, well, friendship.
Eventually, the two do finally admit their feelings for each other... or at least admit they want to explore the relationship between them. Considering they only get together in the last part of the series, I won't go into too many details about their relationship. However, it does allow them to look at what they really want out of life, and what they want out of themselves. I was rather surprised when there relationship never hit the typical cliches but ran into actual problems and concerns I myself ran into when I finally realized my own sexuality. Many of the concerns Aggie had were the concerns I had, so it was nice to finally have a gay character to relate to.
That being said, the story wasn't entirely revolved around their sexuality. One of the most moving chapters to me was one dealing with Aggie's conflicting emotions regarding her mother's death and her own blossoming adulthood. Then there's that mind-blowing chapter where all the possible futures Penny has gathers together to make a decision that will affect her for the rest of her life... For a high school drama, there's a decent amount of depth and thought.
And surprisingly, there's a lot of metaphor and symbolism throughout the series, something you don't find a whole lot in the "non-artsy" stories. Take this defining moment for Aggie:
Uh oh indeed.
Grade: B
Not a fan of how gimmicky the beginning is, and the ending is a let down, but everything else is truly wonderful.
Art
Since this story has seen two different artists and has been around seven years, PaA has understandably seen a dynamic art style. Where this comic is fortunate, however, is that even the initial art isn't hard to look at, which is more than you can say for many other fledgling comics. However, my preference lies with the initial artist, Gisele, rather than the artist the series ended with, Jason. Gisele grew into an expressive, more human style, whereas Jason's style has a doll-like feeling, and tends too rely on only a few expressions. In some cases, Jason still needs to work on his anatomy (something I need to work on too in the comic world, bawhahahabaw). Unfortunately, with the exception of a few comics, the entire series is in black and white. This is a shame, because they seem to have access to people who can color-- which suggests they're sacrificing quality for quantity. This theory is backed up by the rush job they did with the ending, which is terrible.
For the most part at least, the art progresses rather nicely and is good. It's not great, but it's better than most of its counterparts.
Grade: B
Overall
Bottom line, Penny and Aggie is by no means perfect. It grew through out its entire life, and ended with more room to grow. Most of its flaws could be overlooked if not for the rushed ending-- T, the writer had planned for it to end this September, and when it was obvious that the story was going to run a little long, most of the story was cut out in favor for a "time skip" ending. You know, one of those endings where they flash forward to the future and explain everything we missed? Yeah, that kind of ending. Much of what they talked about were things I would have liked to seen. They were things I cared to find out about and seen fleshed out. And considering the next project T and Jason were going to work on was a spin-off of two of the characters going to college together, it makes me wonder if they just got bored of the Penny/Aggie romance. If that was the case, why all the build up? Why not implement it sooner? Why would you build up their romance to leave it so... lack luster?
The ending is what you remember most, and this ending has tainted the rest of the story for me. It's the reason why I can't give it an A despite how far it came from the beginning. It was like they learned absolutely nothing... and it was very disappointing.
Overall Grade: B
You be the judge. Visit Penny and Aggie at:
http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=1
(The default page leads to the spin-off. I could care less for that noise.)
 |
| Famous last words. Well, last straight words. |
The plot of this story varies between high school drama and slice of life. What's nice is that the comic matures and grows up along with its writer and artist, so the one-shot comic to comic episodes are short lived. And at the same time, the characters do too. Where Penny and Aggie start out as one-dimensional archetypes, they slowly become molded into complex women tangled in each other's lives. They don't want to start caring about each other, they never planned it, but slowly they do.
Until finally Aggie truly starts questioning her sexuality. There have been hints here and there about the possibility of her being gay, and other characters mused about it as well, but it was all foreshadowing until halfway through the series that she realizes that she's not all into men. And slowly, the two girls realize there might be something more to their friendship than, well, friendship.
 |
| okay in some areas it's not so subtle but you get the idea |
That being said, the story wasn't entirely revolved around their sexuality. One of the most moving chapters to me was one dealing with Aggie's conflicting emotions regarding her mother's death and her own blossoming adulthood. Then there's that mind-blowing chapter where all the possible futures Penny has gathers together to make a decision that will affect her for the rest of her life... For a high school drama, there's a decent amount of depth and thought.
And surprisingly, there's a lot of metaphor and symbolism throughout the series, something you don't find a whole lot in the "non-artsy" stories. Take this defining moment for Aggie:
Wait for it...
Uh oh indeed.
Grade: B
Not a fan of how gimmicky the beginning is, and the ending is a let down, but everything else is truly wonderful.
Art
Since this story has seen two different artists and has been around seven years, PaA has understandably seen a dynamic art style. Where this comic is fortunate, however, is that even the initial art isn't hard to look at, which is more than you can say for many other fledgling comics. However, my preference lies with the initial artist, Gisele, rather than the artist the series ended with, Jason. Gisele grew into an expressive, more human style, whereas Jason's style has a doll-like feeling, and tends too rely on only a few expressions. In some cases, Jason still needs to work on his anatomy (something I need to work on too in the comic world, bawhahahabaw). Unfortunately, with the exception of a few comics, the entire series is in black and white. This is a shame, because they seem to have access to people who can color-- which suggests they're sacrificing quality for quantity. This theory is backed up by the rush job they did with the ending, which is terrible.
For the most part at least, the art progresses rather nicely and is good. It's not great, but it's better than most of its counterparts.
Grade: B
Overall
Bottom line, Penny and Aggie is by no means perfect. It grew through out its entire life, and ended with more room to grow. Most of its flaws could be overlooked if not for the rushed ending-- T, the writer had planned for it to end this September, and when it was obvious that the story was going to run a little long, most of the story was cut out in favor for a "time skip" ending. You know, one of those endings where they flash forward to the future and explain everything we missed? Yeah, that kind of ending. Much of what they talked about were things I would have liked to seen. They were things I cared to find out about and seen fleshed out. And considering the next project T and Jason were going to work on was a spin-off of two of the characters going to college together, it makes me wonder if they just got bored of the Penny/Aggie romance. If that was the case, why all the build up? Why not implement it sooner? Why would you build up their romance to leave it so... lack luster?
The ending is what you remember most, and this ending has tainted the rest of the story for me. It's the reason why I can't give it an A despite how far it came from the beginning. It was like they learned absolutely nothing... and it was very disappointing.
Overall Grade: B
You be the judge. Visit Penny and Aggie at:
http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=1
(The default page leads to the spin-off. I could care less for that noise.)
Monday, December 12, 2011
30DAC: Day 4
Day 4
Anime You're Ashamed You Enjoyed
Oh boy. This one.
This is actually a rather ... difficult answer for me. There's only two series I can think of, and one I still refuse to admit I'm a fan of. There are little disclaimers whenever I talk about them. "It's not like I like it," "I'm not a fan or anything," "UGH GOD I HATE IT SO MUCH likeinepisodefiftybagillionandtwointhedirector'scut," etc. They're both fairly popular in both Japan and America, so really, it's not like a social stigma or anything-- it's just that typically they're not the kind of series I go for, and that in itself makes me feel dead inside.
quit stalling already OKAY OKAY Here goes nothing. There's no turning back I guess. I'm officially a "fan" of them from now on... The first series I'm ashamed I enjoy is:
Inuyasha. Considering I was 11 when this series first aired, it's not a big surprise that I watched it religiously when I was younger. Every Saturday night I'd turn on Adult Swim, wish desperately that I could have magical adventures like Kagome. This was at the phase of my life where while I was aware that reality was soul-crushingly boring and... well, soul-crushing, I still had some inner hope that it'd turn out differently. And boy was I wrong. However, as I grew up, the series didn't, either. Eventually when I was 15 or so I realized that Inuyasha and his friends weren't actually getting anywhere in the series and that it was just a bunch of rehashed plot points over and over. When Bleach came out, I managed to stay away from that series, because I said, "Oh, it's basically like a boy's version of Inuyasha, except with no adventures."
However, even though I fell out of love with the original series, when the Final Act arrived, I found myself flocking back to the series. I knew how it was going to end... and yet, I still couldn't pull myself away from it. I guess I'd react the same way if the DiC version of Sailor Moon came back: I would hate it with a passion, but it's Sailor Moon so fuck it I'm going to gobble that shit up. It's been about ten years since it originally aired, so I've "known" it for almost half of my life, so I try and convince myself it's understandable that I like the series. At least it's a reason... Which is more than I can have to say for the second series I'm ashamed of liking.
Fullmetal Alchemist. I can't even remember how old I was when this series first aired. I want to say I was 14 or 15. At either rate, I can't blame liking this series on nostalgia. And considering it's not even that bad of a series, I can't explain why I dislike the fact that I like this series. It's like that boyfriend you don't love anymore. You don't want to be with him, but if he goes to leave, OH GOD WHY SO MANY TEARS. And it wasn't until recently that I realized I was a genuine fan of it. I realized that I would actually move away from the computer and pay attention to the TV when it came on (as opposed to my usual style of "watching" where I leave the TV on for background noise). And then when it came to planning out a cosplay for myself, I stumbled across Ed's pocket watch over the net-- I squealed like an idiot and ordered it. That's when I had my crystallizing moment of fandom, I suppose.
Considering Inuyasha is a worse and considerably less thought out story than FMA, I'm surprised that I'm more ashamed about liking FMA than Inuyasha. I couldn't explain why. FMA seems like something I'd like, too-- and adventure story that attempts to have a complex them (attempts, although at times the original story could be cliche). I also can identify with Ed on a few levels, which is strange, because until then, I never identified with a male character. But unlike most series, I can't consciously pin down how I feel about it. At least with Inuyasha, I could say, "I like it, but FUCK that was an awful series."
For whatever reason, these two series have found a way to worm themselves into my heart. What series are you ashamed you enjoy? Are they the same series? Or completely different. And does anyone else get what I mean about FMA???
Til tomorrow, folks~
Anime You're Ashamed You Enjoyed
Oh boy. This one.
This is actually a rather ... difficult answer for me. There's only two series I can think of, and one I still refuse to admit I'm a fan of. There are little disclaimers whenever I talk about them. "It's not like I like it," "I'm not a fan or anything," "UGH GOD I HATE IT SO MUCH likeinepisodefiftybagillionandtwointhedirector'scut," etc. They're both fairly popular in both Japan and America, so really, it's not like a social stigma or anything-- it's just that typically they're not the kind of series I go for, and that in itself makes me feel dead inside.
quit stalling already OKAY OKAY Here goes nothing. There's no turning back I guess. I'm officially a "fan" of them from now on... The first series I'm ashamed I enjoy is:
 |
| I WANT TO CHAAAANGE THE WORLD, NA NA NA NA JAPANESE WORDS |
However, even though I fell out of love with the original series, when the Final Act arrived, I found myself flocking back to the series. I knew how it was going to end... and yet, I still couldn't pull myself away from it. I guess I'd react the same way if the DiC version of Sailor Moon came back: I would hate it with a passion, but it's Sailor Moon so fuck it I'm going to gobble that shit up. It's been about ten years since it originally aired, so I've "known" it for almost half of my life, so I try and convince myself it's understandable that I like the series. At least it's a reason... Which is more than I can have to say for the second series I'm ashamed of liking.
 |
| KIMI... er... no..... Uh, ... Kimi... I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD, NANANA.... |
Considering Inuyasha is a worse and considerably less thought out story than FMA, I'm surprised that I'm more ashamed about liking FMA than Inuyasha. I couldn't explain why. FMA seems like something I'd like, too-- and adventure story that attempts to have a complex them (attempts, although at times the original story could be cliche). I also can identify with Ed on a few levels, which is strange, because until then, I never identified with a male character. But unlike most series, I can't consciously pin down how I feel about it. At least with Inuyasha, I could say, "I like it, but FUCK that was an awful series."
For whatever reason, these two series have found a way to worm themselves into my heart. What series are you ashamed you enjoy? Are they the same series? Or completely different. And does anyone else get what I mean about FMA???
Til tomorrow, folks~
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