intergalactic messages

space_coyote @ livejournal: 2002-2010

2010-04-09T21:41:33Z

I have moved to Wordpress!

http://ninamatsumoto.wordpress.com

If you still want to follow me through LJ, friend this syndicated feed:

spacecoyote_rss

Airbender cover released

2010-03-31T00:10:50Z

The cover I did for The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story is up.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Airbender-Prequel-Zukos-Story/dp/0345518543/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269992750&sr=8-2

I'd like to talk a little about my own process for illustrating the comic.

Because film environment shots were limited and the prequel covers many locations seen in the cartoon but not the movie (as of yet), many of the environment and clothing designs were based on the cartoon. Big kudos to piandao.org and their many screenshots of the Airbender cartoon. Asides from the film pictures I was provided with by Paramount, that site and the book The Lost Scrolls: Fire were my biggest source of reference. With their help, I was able to get some of the smallest details down, from commoner outfits to forts to how Zuko's ship room is laid out. One of the writers, Alison, was also a great help and even went to the library in search of any photos I could use as reference.

For the action scenes, I researched some of the martial arts firebending was based on: namely Northern Shaolin and Xingyiquan. I looked up numerous pictures and demonstration videos online to ensure the firebenders had proper form. I also researched dao swords and had to do a whole lot of slow-moing of videos.

I was disappointed in how Zuko's trademark scar was toned down for the movie, so I exaggerated it for the comic (which makes sense in the context of the story anyway since he's been freshly scarred). One thing I like about movie!Zuko's scar is how it goes into his hair, but again, it's kind of subtle so I emphasized that. For the cover, I was pretty much free to do whatever I want; no direction was given. I made sure to feature Zuko's scar and make it one of the first things you notice, as it's a crucial part of his character.

Dave yaytime, Alison aliwilgus and I are confident that fans of the show will enjoy the comic. Since the story takes place before the film and the series, we had a lot of room for creativity and were able to stick closely to series canon. Please support our work!

ETA: Oh, and don't forget -- there will be a free preview of Zuko's Story in Del Rey's Free Comic Book Day sampler so go to your local comic shop on May 1st and get a copy!

art updates

2010-03-20T06:58:38Z

Whoo okay, lots of new art since my last post here.

First off, it's what you've always dreamed of: Final Fantasy 6 meets The Simpsons.

Then I filled out this end-of-year art improvement meme.

Posted some Airbender sketches I had sent to Paramount:

Did a couple of Samus pieces in support of The Speed Gamers 72 hour Metroid marathon. They raised over 11k for autism!

And in the past couple of days I worked on some original digital paintings because I felt I needed to do more illustrations.

That's all!

space_coyote @ 2010-02-01T11:02:00

2010-02-01T19:03:11Z

Boy I've been neglecting this journal in favour of Twitter. Here's some notable news:

* I've signed on to be an official guest at this convention in my hometown:

Anime Evolution
Vancouver, BC August 13-15

* If you live in Vancouver like me, check out the Chapters at Metrotown -- I signed their copies of Yokaiden 2 there! (photo)

* Yokaiden 1 was recently picked by YASLA as one of the 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens.

* I'm just a couple of days away from finishing work on The Last Airbender Movie Prequel: Zuko's Story, which can be preordered online.

happy holiday

2009-12-25T10:31:55Z

Merry Christmas!

art update

2009-12-21T11:18:08Z

I began inking the Last Airbender prequel comic, and it's looking good so far. Here's some art I've done recently. As you can see, I've been on a streak of digital painting...but being such an impatient and easily bored artist, I'm sure I'll move onto a different phase in no time.

First is Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear Solid. It was done for Obligatory Ice Level Day hosted by The Speed Gamers, who I'm watching right now. They've been holding a Pokemon marathon for charity. They've raised over $13,200 in just 59 hours. Today is their last day of the marathon, so be sure to head over and donate some money. My donation won me a Legendary Pokemon-naming auction and I got to name their Phione "Momar". (I drew fanart of Momar for them.)

Second is Calvin & Hobbes in my rendering of the very last panel of the comic strip.

Third is Luanne Platter from "King of the Hill" in memory of Brittany Murphy who died yesterday.

Yokaiden character sketches

2009-12-10T04:51:03Z

While putting Yokaiden 1 together, I was asked by my editor Dallas if I'd like to include character designs and other concept sketches in the back. I declined, because that would mean having less room for actual content. Now that both books are out, I'm posting these never before seen character sketches I'm required to show before I begin drawing any comic pages.

Lots of artwork and commentary within. There are also BIG SPOILERS so do not read if you haven't read the books!

YOKAIDEN 1 CHARACTER DESIGNS

Hamachi's design has changed slightly since I first finalized his design here. His shorts have gotten a bit longer, and the green fabric of at the top half of his clothing now spills past the shoulder line (the way it is here, it looks too much like his arms are detachable like an action figure). I became comfortable with his design by the end of volume 1.

I spent a lot of time thinking about Hamachi's design. He was actually meant to be a young man at first -- somewhere around 15 years old -- and it was while I was trying to get on a good path towards his final design I realized he would be better as a little boy, considering his personality and the type of story I wanted to do. This was a challenge, as I never draw children and thus never had a child character.

More progress shots of his design. Lumi and Kuzu looked quite different in their initial sketches!

After getting his "look" down, I moved onto making him stand out as a character.

Any lesson on character design worth your time will tell you a character with a good design will be instantly recognizable from silhouette. An easy way to achieve this is by making them out of shapes. As shown above, I made basically made Hamachi out of triangles.

Hamachi, Lumi and Kuzu pass the test. Their silhouettes are unmistakeably theirs.

We only see Hamachi selling bamboo in one chapter, but I still needed to decide how he should look first.

The house Hamachi and Grandma lives in.

My goal with Grandma was to make her sour and unpleasant personality seep through her skin as best as I can without making her wield a cleaver. She's not feeble, either -- she's quite lively and surprisingly strong.

Kyuumon was easy to design -- he's Nine Bucks from my webcomic Saturnalia, transported to the Yokaiden world. All I did was let his hair down and Japanify his clothing some.

Inukai Mizuki was named after the manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, famous for his yokai comics. Like Inukai, Shigeru was also left-handed until he lost his left arm (but not to a boulder -- it was while he fought in war). I didn't pay any mind to avoiding anachronisms (Yokaiden is meant to take place in an undetermined point in ancient Japanese times) -- nay, I EMBRACE anachronisms -- so his clothing was based on that of Fukuzawa Yukichi, an influential figure from the Meiji Era whose face is on the 10,000 yen bill.

In Yokaiden, kappa are a bunch of no-gooders so I gave Madkap a punkish look. I had fun with this one because there have been so many visual interpretations of kappa in the media. I wanted the other kappa to be non-identical to Madkap to show some diversity within their "race", as kappa are supposedly found all over Japan under various names.

Lumi is a female, but I opted not to give her any typical cartoon cues to her gender (eyelashes, ribbon...an hourglass figure?). As a result, people who haven't read the book think she's male and even people who have read it forget. The only visual hint to her being female are the dots above her eyes. In the Heian Era, to conform to beauty standards, women would shave off their eyebrows and instead put black dots where their brows were with a thumb dipped in black powder. Their faces would also be painted white. (See: ko-omote masks.) Since Lumi is a white lantern, I thought a "Heian beauty" look would suit her well.

As shown in Yokaiden 1, typical umbrella ghosts hop on one leg. It took me forever to figure out a way to make Kuzu different (I have a billion awful concept sketches of him), and in the end, the solution was simple. Kuzu is essentially a dog inside an umbrella's body.

Designing yokai is the most fun part of designing characters for Yokaiden, and also the hardest. Since Yokaiden is meant to be an introduction to yokai, I can't stray far from how they're classically depicted, but I wanted to put my own spin to them.

The nue was a challenge. A traditional nue looks like it's been stitched together from various animal parts. Too much of a Frankenstein effect. I wanted to give my nue a sleeker look -- not a creature made from four different animals, but looks as though it was (except for the tail). For the head, I referenced Japanese macaques, which makes me think a baby nue would be adorable.

YOKAIDEN 2 CHARACTER DESIGNS

Kyuubi and kitsune women are usually depicted in manga as young, beautiful, slender and powerful...so I had to go against the grain. While my version is much more plump, I didn't want to make her outright grotesque. Hamachi will agree that she's still quite a beauty! A lot of humans are obsessed with animals, and she's an animal obsessed with humans. Crazy cat ladies wear clothing with cats on them, so she wears clothes with humans on them! Anime fans like wearing hats with ears on them (I too am guilty of owning a panda hat), so she wears a blonde wig. Her finger necklace is a parody of animal claw necklaces. Her servants look more like what you would expect when you hear "kitsune", but I gave them all human masks. (In this design sketch, the servant wears a kitsune mask...I realized my mistake later.)

Book 2 focuses more on humanoid yokai, so I got to play around with clothing design. I had the biggest trouble thinking of an original design for the slit-mouthed woman, until I saw a creepy European-looking mask made of metal with slits for eyes and a mouth. I have no idea what it was or what it's from, but I was instantly inspired.

Binzuru is one of my oldest original characters. He was originally going to star in a comic about Japanese gods and goddesses at least ten years ago. My favourite parts about his design: his stretched earlobes and messy blonde bleached hair. His design has remained relatively untouched until just recently.

The three drawings on the left here are some of my oldest Binzuru artworks. To the right are sketches of him in his new outfit, redesigned for Yokaiden 2. You might notice one major difference between this and his final design: his face. When I created him ten years ago, I wanted him to look caucasian for some reason. While I was happy with his new outfit, his design still wasn't clicking with me and I couldn't figure out why until I tried giving him more asian features. I liked it way better immediately. (I wanted to keep him blonde, so he now has bleached hair. You're supposed to be able to see his black roots a little, but it's hard to show without colour).

The haniwa being frighteningly powerful and intimidating was inspired by a Doraemon movie featuring villainous dogu, another clay doll from ancient Japan.

I like thinking up of how my characters' parents look like, so I was glad I got to feature Hamachi's in book 2. He got his face from his mother and hair from his father. My favourite part about Hamachi's father is his almost unibrow, and I like his mother's dimples. Like Hamachi, they are also named after fish.

Yokaiden preview online now

2009-12-10T01:29:23Z

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.

I've been helping a friend support Obligatory Ice Level Day by following her lead and drawing fanart of wintery game stages, wallpaper sized! Here's some fanart I did of Ice Man from Mega Man and the Snowfield level from Contra.

spotlighted!

2009-12-08T21:34:40Z

Yokaiden 2 spotlighted at Ain't It Cool News Anime! I wanted to make special mention of this because Scott Green's manga reviews are unlike any other's. He does a nice and thorough analytical look -- an almost academic approach. See his Yokaiden 1 review too, if you haven't yet.

This holiday, let's buy less crud and give to charity. The Speed Gamers Pokemon Marathon for Charity is coming up in 10 days. Take a look at Obligatory Ice Level Day, a winter holiday for gamers created and run by one of my longtime friends. I can't mention charity and gaming without bringing up Child's Play, something the gaming community should be very familiar with by now.

toyote update; another design?

2009-12-02T11:07:42Z

Patch Together has uploaded a much better photo of the resin crazy coyote figure. Take a look!

purchase link: http://www.patchtogether.com/store/store/view/id/163

Remember, these are very limited and they'll only make however many are ordered; they won't be available for purchase forever. Get your toyote before it's gone!

I love the more detailed human figures PatchTogether makes (you can see in their portfolio) and am thinking of submitting a character from one of my works. A human character will be more expensive ($50+), but the result should be great. So I ask you:

View Poll: #1493315

the trials of pacing an OEL manga

2009-11-30T19:41:55Z

Pacing a story for an OEL manga is something I've wanted to talk about but never got a chance to -- it's never come up in interviews -- but it's something I've been struggling with and have many thoughts on.

NOTE: MILD SPOILERS FOR YOKAIDEN 1 & 2

Some of the best manga series take a few tankoubon volumes for the story to start getting really good. I always tell people to give my favourite series Hoshin Engi a chance until volume 4, because that's how long it takes for the meat of the plot to begin. A bit slow paced, but only because it's so complex, multi-layered, and the cast of characters is huge -- you have to be introduced to quite a few before the author can begin to push the plot forwards. Monster is another complex story of a different kind with a large cast, but its basic premise is set up by the end of the first volume; it ends with the protagonist and the readers finding out the "big problem". However, even with Monster, the main story doesn't begin until volume two, when the protagonist decides to take care of the "big problem" with his own hands.

One big difference between manga published in Japan and OEL manga, however:

Japanese manga is published chapter per chapter in a comic magazine like Shonen Jump either every week or every month, then collected and published as tankoubon books. The schedule is tight, and to meet the deadlines, a professional mangaka will employ a team of assistants to help with inking, toning and backgrounds -- and even then, they get very little time to rest.

OEL manga is published in book form first, and correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the typical OEL manga artist has no assistants (asides from maybe having a toner) and do everything themselves (at least, that's the case with me; I do pencils, inks, backgrounds, foregrounds, speech bubbles, lettering, tones, etc.). That's why it takes longer to produce. A year or more can pass by between volumes, and the reader can't simply read the comic magazine it's serialized in because the typical OEL manga isn't serialized anywhere.

Herein lies the problem. A Japanese manga artist can pace their stories liberally, taking a generous amount of time to set up the plot, setting and characters, but the OEL manga artist doesn't have such a luxury because readers have to wait so long to continue the story after the first few chapters.

When I began to plot out Yokaiden vol 1, I realized this problem and had to think about the pacing very carefully. The first volume had to have enough in it to keep readers interested for an entire year, but at the same time I didn't want to rush the story. (I know I had the option of making each book a self-contained story, but I didn't want to do that. I wanted my manga to have the look and feel of a Japanese tankoubon as much as possible.)

Asides from the extra long first chapter, each chapter of Yokaiden is exactly 20 pages long. I decided seven chapters was a good amount for the first book. After lots of thinking, I decided that in just seven chapters, the following has to be shown:

-Hamachi's love of yokai and how people around him react to it
-Kyuumon's entrance and his conflict with Hamachi
-Grandma's death and the setup for Hamachi wanting to enter the yokai realm
-Hamachi searching for the yokai realm
-Hamachi entering the yokai realm
-Hamachi having some sort of adventure in the yokai realm

I'm telling you now: this pacing is much faster than what I would've preferred.

In a perfect world where I have the ability to produce a chapter per week and Del Rey didn't have to spend several months preparing a volume, I would have Hamachi entering the yokai realm at the very end of the book. I may've paced it even slower and put Grandma's death at the end of the book. I would've liked to explore Hamachi's character and his relationship with Grandma more and show more instances of how much of a yokai enthusiast he is. I prefer to take time introducing readers to the characters before the big "reveal" of what the main story is. But with a year between volumes, I knew I couldn't do that.

Here's how I vaguely planned the series book by book in my head:

Volume 1: "The yokai realm must be shown! And I can't end it there -- I must show some yokai and Hamachi exploring the realm, because that's the main draw of the series. The readers have to see what the yokai realm is like. Kyuumon should be shown in the last few pages to give readers a taste of what's to come."

volume 2: "By this volume, readers are familiar with Hamachi and Lumi so I can have fun with them and put them through various episodic adventures. Kyuumon should have a presence, but not too much -- readers should see more of Hamachi and Lumi before Kyuumon steps in to ruin the fun (so to speak)."

Volume 3: "Readers should be familiar enough with how Hamachi deals with yokai and vice versa by this point, so now Kyuumon can catch up with him. The plot can advance more with Kyuumon in the picture, and if we're to see any new side to Hamachi, it should begin here."

Volume 4 and beyond: [CLASSIFIED INFORMATION]

I put a lot of thought into how to divide the story into different books without making the story too fast-paced or slow-paced. This being my first published series, I'm new to it and it's been rather difficult. (Deciding how much each volume should be dedicated to character development, plot development, and teaching readers about yokai is a whole nother juggling act...)

After all the thought and pre-planning, what has reader reception been like? Some people think the pacing in volume 1 is too fast. Some -- though in the minority -- think it's too slow (one reviewer thought it was excruciatingly so). Some think it's just right. It's impossible to please everyone, so I'm going to keep doing what I do: pace Yokaiden the best I can within the restrictions brought on by it being an OEL manga series. And me not having a team of assistants. Man, having some assistants would be sweet.

Yokaiden 2 out

2009-11-24T08:03:29Z

YOKAIDEN 2 OUT IN STORES TODAY

It has three reviews so far and they're all positive!

The first review is by Brigid Alverson at MangaBlog. Spoiler haters beware -- it gives away much of the plot from beginning to end.

The second review is by Michael C. Lorah at Newsarama, who's never read the first volume.

The third review is by Leroy Douresseaux at Comic Book Bin. It's the first rated review; the book received an A-. (He gave Yokaiden 1 a B+ last year.)

Yokaiden 2 out soon; new art

2009-11-22T01:31:28Z

Yokaiden 2 is out in stores this Tuesday!

Meanwhile, I've been waiting around regarding the Last Airbender Prequel stuff. I just did this Final Fantasy VI and Katamari Damacy mashup:

Speaking of mashups, I've been greatly enjoying DJ Hero. I like to conquer all sorts of rhythm games, but I've never tackled a DJ game asides from trying Beatmania once. It's a bit more complicated and involved than guitar and drum games, and I like that. And of course, it has a great list of songs.

Yokaiden 2 get

2009-11-17T21:43:45Z

Got my copies of Yokiaden 2 in today.

Yokaiden 2! Complete with:

Front AND back covers -- in full colour! (Pictured: only the front cover)

Greyscale artwork on double sided pages with non-serrated non-metallic edges for easy turning!

More neatly worded info on yokai you can plagiarize for your school essays without your teacher ever finding out!

Content packed to the end of the book -- no fillers, no ads for the next volume of Bakugan Battle Brawlers! It's all about me, me, me!

Order now! Receive it eventually!

toyote finished

2009-11-16T21:41:05Z

Hey guys, the painted prototype for the "crazy coyote" resin figure(re: "toyote") is complete! Pictures can be found here, but I've asked PatchTogether to take a better photo of it from a different angle because the ones they chose are kinda unflattering.

The figure is still available for order and will be shipped out in January.

How I almost got to do a cover for Newsweek magazine

2009-11-10T00:37:36Z

I don't like to talk about potential jobs until I'm sure it's going to happen, because one thing I've learned from being a professional artist so far is that any exciting potential project can fizzle out for any number of reasons so it's best not to talk about it or else a whole lot of misunderstandings will arise (e.g. when FOX said they might be able get me some work doing Futurama merchandise art, but it didn't end up happening. To this day I think a lot of people think I worked on the Futurama DVDs). So here's one tale I never made mention of in public -- until now!

December 2008, on a Wednesday afternoon while I was busy working on Yokaiden 2, I received this e-mail:

Hi Nina,

My name’s Bruce Ramsay. I do the covers at Newsweek. I have an IMMEDIATE need of and anime artist like yourself for a cover this week. Due Friday! $[amount removed] fee.

I can explain if you are interested and can contact me...

It’s Wed. night (here in NY)

Many, many thanks,
Bruce
[phone number removed]

I wasn't ever expecting to have someone from the second largest weekly news magazine (right behind Time) contact me hurriedly going "Nina! We need an anime artist, quick! And we want YOU." so for a second I thought it may've been a joke. But sure enough, his e-mail was an official Newsweek one, so I phoned right away.

Bruce sounded stressed out, and he described himself as "frazzled". The editor couldn't decide on a cover for the next issue (due Friday) and kept changing his mind on it. The cover story was to be about how the Japanese auto industry is upstaging the American auto industry, and how the US can learn from Japan's ways. The editor decided the cover art should feature The General Lee and Bo and Luke from The Dukes of Hazzard, anime style. Bruce had no idea where he could get an anime style artist, but a friend gave him two names: huge manga publisher Tokyopop, and mine. He contacted Tokyopop, who gave him a list of available artists working for them, and went to my website. He decided my style would suit the subject matter best.

I agreed to the job and did a few rough thumbnail sketches, but unfortunately, the next day he contacted me again saying the editor changed his mind again and the cover story won't be about the auto industry at all anymore. I understood that things move incredibly fast in the production of a magazine as widely circulated as Newsweek and things change all the time, so I wasn't too surprised either. He thanked me for the quick turnaround and sent me a nice kill fee for the few sketches I did, which was very nice of him.

It's too bad I couldn't do the cover, but it's still very cool that I was given this opportunity. I was reminded of this because I was recently offered another amazing job -- one so amazing that you may find yourself saying, "oh my god! Does Nina Matsumoto's luck never end?!" -- but that's all I'm saying for now.

P.S. I'd still love to do an awesome magazine cover, so if there's anyone who can get me such a job reading this...contact me?

space_coyote @ 2009-10-21T17:16:00

2009-10-22T00:17:49Z

The photos of the sculpt for the coyote figure are up now on the PatchTogether website!

http://www.patchtogether.com/store/store/view/id/163

With the release of these photos the special pre-order price is no longer available, so the figure is now $19.95. The completed painted figure should be up soon.

Some of my latest pieces:
* Zuko and Iroh inked
* Elly and John Patterson of For Better or For Worse
* Moe Moe -- Moe (as in Simpsons) looking moe (as in the otaku term)

my current top three favourite manga artists

2009-10-09T22:51:36Z

...and how they've influenced me.

1. RYUU FUJISAKI (Hoshin Engi, WaqWaq, Shiki)
...taught me character design, line work, stylization, unconventional colour choices, incorporating traditional Japanese art into manga art, humour and maintaining variety in composition.

2. YUUSUKE MURATA (Eyeshield 21)
...taught me colouring with markers, facial expressions, action poses and dynamic angles.

3. NAOKI URASAWA (Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto)
...taught me conveying subtle yet complex human emotions, atmosphere, and keeping a loose and sketchy style.

Honorable mention: TAKEHIKO INOUE (Vagabond, Slam Dunk, Real)
...taught me how to use a brush and getting the most out of inks.

Minotaurus's Plate scanlated by yours truly

2009-10-07T17:33:58Z

Fujiko F. Fujio is one of my favourite manga artists. Along with Fujiko Fujio (A) they did Doraemon, Pa-man, Esper Mami and other classic children's manga. His favourite genre to do was SF, but to him, SF didn't stand for "science fiction" but "sukoshi fushigi", meaning "slightly strange/mysterious". I grew up reading mainly Doraemon -- my works have been hugely influenced by his (though it might not be easily evident).

He's done some grimmer, bit more disturbing works, and his 34-page short story "Minotaurus's Plate" (published October 10, 1969) is one of them. In February of last year, I scanlated it to show my friends. Today I've decided to upload it here to show people what a great writer and artist he is. Enjoy!

Read from right to left.

evil toyote

2009-10-06T19:30:25Z

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 pu-sama. 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!

TOYOTE preorder

2009-10-02T18:53:02Z

I admit it -- I've been using my Twitter more often than LiveJournal lately. It's just so much easier to update, you know? I strongly recommend following me there (I'm @spacecoyotl) for all the latest news.

But I digress:

http://www.patchtogether.com/store/store/view/id/163

"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'!

Fun fact: the first time I drew crazy coyote was on May 2, 2006, in this picture:

As for work, I've been working as fast as I can on the Last Airbender prequel because the deadline is tight. This particular book is now up for preorder at Amazon under the working title of "The Last Airbender Movie Prequel".

Latest pieces up on deviantART:

Vancouver Comicon appearance

2009-08-25T06:13:51Z

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 local Vancouverite, do drop by.

Updates for today:
* Put up an interview I did for Melonz Magazine in the press section.
* Tweaked the site design a bit; updated the gallery and rewrote my profile.
* Patch Together toy design - 114 votes. Cast your vote!
* AIDS Walk - $325 raised for AIDS research; hasn't moved since last time. Donate here!

Yokaiden vol 2 cover art

2009-08-20T00:05:49Z

Here's the cover for Yokaiden volume 2:

Yokaiden 2 up for preorder!

Release date: November 24, 2009

For this cover I aimed to have a nice shot of Hamachi, Lumi and the umbrella ghost and show off their unmistakable silhouettes -- hence the backlighting.

It actually came back purple at first (the spine, back cover and title) but I asked Del Rey to change it to the same green used in volume 2. I know many people prefer it when different volumes of the same series all have the same spine colour, and more importantly, Yokaiden's green spine stands out significantly in book stores when sandwiched between Yakitate! Japan and Yozakura Quartet. No wait, I guess Yokai Doctor is now the title right next to Yokaiden... Anyway, those titles have black and white spines. I can spot my own comic straight away in a bookstore thanks to its unique colour.

Some updates:
* Patch Together toy design - Up to 108 votes now. Cast your vote!
* AIDS Walk - $325 raised for AIDS research. Donate here!

you know those guitars that are, like...double guitars?

2009-08-14T03:37:30Z

New art! Josey Wales and the Pussycats:

toyote

2009-08-12T08:27:34Z

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. 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:

http://www.patchtogether.com/?Designs_Details&Id=1432

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! While you're at it, vote on my friend's Frog Goosona too.