Here's some very interesting news for Houshin Engi fans. If you've read the Houshin Engi manga and have seen the anime, you're probably fully aware that the anime is completely awful. Apparently ShomeiTV will make a new (and hopefully more accurate/better) HE anime if they get 10,000 signatures from fans by March 31st [link] .

Normally I don't pay any attention to online petitions and I think this one is kinda iffy, but HE is my favourite manga and it deserves a decent animated version... Might not hurt to try?

The petition is in Japanese, so ~DokuganBAKA made a handy tutorial on how to sign it.



In other news I've finished the artwork for The Last Airbender Movie Prequel: Zuko's Story. That's 100 pages penciled and inked in 105 days! Right now I'm waiting for M. Night Shyamalan to approve my sketch for the cover art.

Hey guys, Christmas is around the corner and I have a few things to update.

First off, deviantART is reaching 100 million deviations. They gave special mention to Simpsonzu in their article about it: [link] and I'm not sure if it's coincidence, but today I also received Senior Member status! [link] ...I had no idea what I meant. I was hoping it meant I had been turned into a handsome Spanish gentleman, but I read the article on it and some people explained it to me so -- thanks, deviantART! I now have a backtic before my name.

Last week, I was given the okay to go by Paramount and so I began inking my pencils for the Last Airbender prequel manga -- virtually nothing was changed from the writers' (~AliWildgoose ~yaytime) vision of it. You can see a preview of it in Del Rey's freebie for Free Comic Book Day (May 1st). Totally free! Make sure to get your copy!

Reviews for Yokaiden vol 2 have been coming in [link] It's also been included in numerous 2009 manga gift guides.

I'm a Guest at <A href="[link]>Anime Evolution</a>, August 13-15 2010, here in my hometown of Vancouver.

I'm excited about AE2010, however, because the other guest will be Little Kuriboh of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series fame. I love his work. The con is flying him all the way from England, and I'm envious. I hope someday a faraway convention will invite me and pay for my airfare!

ETA: Mind you, I've been to Anime Evolution several times...just never as a guest or with a table in the artist's alley. I've also entered their mascot contest five times and never won or placed!

If you have yet to convince someone that Yokaiden is totally worth getting or if you prefer to flip through a comic before buying it, now there's an online preview at Yokaiden.com.



But wait, there's more!

I've posted some character design and concept sketches online, too. --> [link]
If want a "behind the scenes" look or are an aspiring comic artist yourself wanting to see how I work, be sure to check it out.

Also on my LJ are my thoughts on how hard it can be to pace an OEL manga. [link]

Above: Insert illustrations for the book that didn't make the cut

I've been very quiet lately, but thanks to everyone who leaves such nice comments about Yokaiden [link] on my dA. The second volume came out on November 24. Go out and get your copy now! Or request it as a Christmas gift! Photos of the book found here: [link]

Also available is the crazy coyote figure from PatchTogether  - [link]
I've requested better photos of the figure, which are coming soon.

All I want for Christmas is some nice Yokaiden fanart. Please?

The weather's been completely miserable this month in Vancouver. Nothing but rain. I can't remember the last time I saw the sun. What about where you live?

I have a new design up on PatchTogether! Behold:


Go here to vote for the mal coyote figure to be made!

No rush on this one since the crazy coyote toy prototype hasn't even made yet (and it WILL be made, because it got the required 20 preorders -- hooray), but please vote when you can.

deviantartists may be interested to know that while "crazy coyote" is a representation of myself, "mal coyote" is a representation of my good friend ~maladies, better known as *pupukachoo. We often joke that we are "twins" who are similar in many ways yet complete opposite in others -- one opposite being that I draw in an angular, bright, happy style while she does curly, dark, macabre art. It is also a running joke that crazy coyote is terrified of non-angular things, so mal coyote is like a nightmare to her.

Remember that you can still preorder the crazy coyote for the reduced price of $14.95. Once the prototype has been made, the price will go up to $19.95.

Someone asked me how much profit I make from these toys; I'm not entirely sure. The site says I get 40% of total profits made, but I don't know how much profit is made from each figure. Honestly, I'm not doing this for the money. I just wanted toys designed by me to be nicely made and easily available to anyone else who wants one!

[link]
"crazy coyote" resin figure available for preorder! Production of the toy will NOT begin until 20 PREORDERS have been met. Your credit card will NOT be charged until the toy has been made.

The price is $14.95 for preorders; after production, it's $19.95. Currently it's the most affordable toy at PatchTogether! I've seen one of their resin toys in person before (Miss Monster's Foo Dog) and I can vouch for their quality.

Thanks to EVERYONE who voted and commented to make another dream of mine come true. Now I'm just one step away -- I need those preorders so get orderin'!

UPDATE: It hasn't even been 24 hours and 20 preorders have been made. The toy will go into production. Yay! But you can still buy it for the preorder price. I'll ask them when that price goes away...

My appearance at the Vancouver Comicon was a success! For my first table at a con ever, I think I did well. Thanks to deviantART folks for stopping by. I sold quite a few of the Super Smash Brothers Brush Art cards; I redrew some on the spot, but they got sold, too (note to self: Mario characters are where it's at). I'm not sure what to do with the unsold ones...I'll either save them for another convention or sell them online. I'm leaning towards saving them.

For all you Ace Attorney fans out there, I finally uploaded these:


link to description

As stated in the descriptions, I did them close to a year ago for the Court Records Sprite Cup ([link]. I didn't mention my submission anywhere because I didn't want to influence the votes, but I won first place anyway with 52% of the votes! [link]

And then I forgot about them and just now realized I never made mention of them anywhere...but now you know! Thought it would be cool to put up something other than illustrations by me. Please read the full description!

LAST AIRBENDER UPDATE! The movie prequel manga I'm drawing and ~yaytime and ~AliWildgoose are writing is already up for preorder on Amazon. That page count is wrong, though -- it's 100 pages, not 176. Yesterday I finished penciling the first 30 pages.

[link]

I'm a featured guest at the September 13th Vancouver Comicon! 11 AM to 5 PM at Heritage Hall; admission is no more than 4 bucks. This is my first time ever having a table at a convention. If you're a fellow Vancouverite, do drop by.

Lots of journal entries this month...well, a lot of things have been going on.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by Patch Together, a site where anyone can submit a toy design. If it gets enough high votes, they make it into a toy available for purchase. I've been wanting to submit something for a while, but had no ideas. The only cute, simple character I could think of was...me. Or rather, "crazy coyote," the sketchy doodled coyote I always draw myself as.

And so:


[link]

I've always wanted a toy made of one of my designs! The crazy coyote is so flat and graphic, it really doesn't translate well to 3D but I tried my best. I've seen one of their toys in person, and they're pretty amazing at what they do.

Go register and vote if you want to take home a coyote! There's no chance of it being made if it doesn't receive enough votes.

While you're at it, vote on Jazaaboo's Frog Goosona and Miss Monster's Werewolf too.

Also: Donate to my AIDS charity walk -- if I reach $1000 by Sept 20, I'll draw Family Guy!

On September 20th, I'll be walking 10km (6.2 miles) with hundreds of others in support of HIV/AIDS research. By sponsoring me, you'll be donating to help find a cure. 100% of the money goes to the charity. If you have even 5 dollars to spare, you should donate here!

Thanks to some very generous people, I was able to raise $500 last year. My goal this year is $1000; right now I only have $180.

UPDATE

All right, I've said before that I won't draw Family Guy -- I wrote a whole journal entry about it -- because I'm not a fan of the show, but people still keep asking me for Family Guy. Therefore...

If I reach $1000 worth of donations to my AIDS walk by Sept 20, I will draw Family Guy.

Yes, I'll go against my very own words for the sake of charity...!

My San Diego Comic-Con 2009 convention report is up! Complete with photos I took. Please go take a look here.

"At the San Diego Comic-Con, Del Rey Manga announced that it will publish both a manga prequel and a manga adaptation of M. Night Shyamalan's live-action feature film The Last Airbender, which is slated to debut on July 4th, 2010. Dave Roman (associate editor of Nickelodeon Magazine) is writing both the prequel and the adaptation. Joon Choi is illustrating the adaptation in full manga style, while Nina Matsumoto, who just won an Eisner for her work with Bongo comics and is the creator of Yokaiden, will illustrate the prequel, which is due out from Del Rey about three months prior to the movie’s debut." -ICv2

That's what I'll be busy working on for the next few months! *AliWildgoose is co-writing both comics with Dave Roman. I met her at Comic-Con, and we're all going to try our best to make this into something the fans of the TV show will be happy with since we are fans ourselves. I know a lot of people are disappointed with how the movie is looking; my goal is to avoid that with this comic.

* I won an Eisner Award for best short story
* I met Matt Groening, Morgan Spurlock, Jeff Smith, Terry Moore, Phil Lamarr, Stan Sakai and Paul Dini
* It has been announced so I can finally say: my next comic project for Del Rey (just art, not the writing) is a manga prequel for the Avatar: The Last Airbender live action film

Full con report when I go home...? For now, San Diego Zoo.

Thanks to everyone who attended the FanArtdA live interview chat. It was pretty fun and there were good questions. I'll link to the transcript when it goes up.

Getting ready to leave for San Diego Comic-Con on Wednesday. For all those going, don't forget: July 25 (Saturday) from 3 to 3:30 at the Random House booth. I'll be there, and we're giving out free copies of Yokaiden 1 to everyone who comes!

The Speed Gamers are at it again, doing a week-long Final Fantasy marathon for charity. Their goal is to raise $20,000; in almost two days they've finished FF1, FF2 and FF6 and raised 30% of their goal. Go see and donate here!

Special event! This Saturday at 2 pm Pacific (5 pm Eastern) I'll be coming onto #FanArtdA where you guys can ask me stuffs.

Further details found here:

[link]

As you may've gathered, I don't really talk much...but I'm going to focus all my attention on this hour long chat so if you have a question for me, this is a good chance to ask!

I will be signing books at San Diego Comic-Con!

July 25 (Saturday) 3-3:30 pm @ RandomHouse Booth #1128

I only have one book out (Yokaiden) but I guess I'll sign anything else people want me to. I've never done this before so this should be fun!

COMMENTS ON PICTURES ARE DISABLED!

I used to read comments -- until I started getting too lazy and busy to. I then felt I was misleading people into thinking I'll read their comments by allowing them, which is a big reason why I disabled them altogether. (I don't really read the front page comments either... though I quickly skim it sometimes when I remember to.) Incidentally, this gallery isn't here for critiques OR praise -- it's just acting as an extension of my website, since I believe this receives more web traffic. Thank you for your understanding!



I'm attending San Diego Comic-Con! I didn't think I would go this year (was counting on next summer) but after my Eisner Award nomination, I couldn't resist. Not sure if I'm going to be able to attend the actual award ceremony for it, but still, this is my ideal year to go.

Also attending SDCC is my friend a great sculptor. Out of the blue, she began working on a sculpture based on my picture of Hamachi sitting on a skull.


See her blog entry about it here

It will be done before SDCC and I'm looking forward to the end product!

Things have been quiet on my side. I've been doing some work here and there -- some character designs and a book cover -- but nothing I can make public yet. I attended Anime North last month and Anime Evolution this month; hard to believe I'll be attending yet another convention. I'm thinking I might actually get a table in the Artist's Alley at AE next year.

Shoutouts to , and , whom I all met at AE and were very nice people!

COMMENTS ON PICTURES ARE DISABLED!

I used to read comments -- until I started getting too lazy and busy to. I then felt I was misleading people into thinking I'll read their comments by allowing them, which is a big reason why I disabled them altogether. (I don't really read the front page comments either... though I quickly skim it sometimes when I remember to.) Incidentally, this gallery isn't here for critiques OR praise -- it's just acting as an extension of my website, since I believe this receives more web traffic. Thank you for your understanding!



Well Anime North last weekend was fun! Next convention I'm attending is Anime Evolution next weekend. Again, I've never gotten an Artist's Alley table, not doing it this year, etc. etc. Eventually I should try but right now I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

I like meeting artists I know online at these places, but it seems with each passing year there are fewer and fewer artists I'm familiar with.

So...if you're going to have a table at Anime Evolution, let me know!

COMMENTS ON PICTURES ARE DISABLED!

I used to read comments -- until I started getting too lazy and busy to. I then felt I was misleading people into thinking I'll read their comments by allowing them, which is a big reason why I disabled them altogether. (I don't really read the front page comments either... though I quickly skim it sometimes when I remember to.) Incidentally, this gallery isn't here for critiques OR praise -- it's just acting as an extension of my website, since I believe this receives more web traffic. Thank you for your understanding!



Attention FMyLife.com fans -- their user submitted anecdotes are now being illustrated by an artist every Saturday, and I had the honour of being chosen to be the third featured artist! You can read their short blog entry about me, or skip straight to my illustration.



If you've never been to the site before, make sure to have a look; it's a good way to kill some time.