Character Profiles: Part Two

What? No, I didn't make this all up on the spot. I had it all planned out from the beginning, really!


... Really!

Character Profiles: Part One

No, really, his name is really Herbert.

Ode To Omnipotence

being a comic artist is like being able to play god without having to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a medical degree.

also, doosch is read "douche", and UNF stands for University of North Framlingham, not Universal Noise of Fucking.

Straight To DVD Edition

I bet you that some dudes out there are filming it right now.

Google it up at your own risk.

Retarding Force

You could've just stopped first and redid all the calculations, you know?

Error Before Trial

and in case the calculations were wrong, just remember that every trials-and-errors always start with an error.

Hypothetically Speaking

And the bike lock strikes again with scientific menace.

Organically Devised

Believe it or not, your umbrella is the best rain repellent out there.

Painfully Useful

And now we just need to make sure that the result is reproducible.

Everything Is On Sale

60" Flat Screen LCD TV for $700? What good does that do?

Wobbley Gobbley Goo

And I'm thankful to all of you who took the time out of your daily life to read these comics.

Internet Win

It's really too bad I never got a cute neighbor randomly asking for cheese, because I always have a gallon of milk and a bottle of vinegar ready for the occasion at all times.

Legally Blunt

I hope Disney doesn't sue me for using their name three times in a comic.

Shepherding Fairies

I'm still stuck wondering whether his parents gave him that name just to mess with him to be able to decide where I stand on this issue.

Though I do think he should name his kid Tooth and Godmother.

More reading on this case!

The dude with the funny name
The DA article that sparked controversy
The DA HQ comment that sparked even more controversy
Why Mr. Fairey is sued for plagiarism
Recent update on the lawsuit:

You decide.

Just FYI

I'm sure you all share Dude's opinion on these things.

Disturbing Imageries

Why did you even have to bring that up? Seriously.

Natural Experimentalist

I'm telling you, it's for science!

5-Star Review

Really, she could have just smiled and said no.

Secret Ingredients

If it has the consistency of sperm, then it must taste like it!

Thanks to kim for this comic idea!

Priority List

If you're ever in southern California, be sure to check out these coffeeshops:

Portfolio Coffeehouse in Long Beach, CA

The Gypsy Den in Costa Mesa, CA

Much more special than Starbucks.

DICFOAWTFMC

I sketched out this comic while sitting at a Starbucks located next to a Barnes&Noble that has another Starbucks inside. There was also another Starbucks right across the street that I could spot by simply looking straight ahead from where I was sitting.

I will never understand marketing.

Although to be fair, in Manhattan it was useful to have that many Starbucks around, because they're the only place that will certainly have a restroom.

e1nquarium

To keep myself occupied during this period of unemployment, I decided to get myself a fish tank last week. I figured taking care of fishies would be a better course of action than to fall deep into depression of not having a job.

That said, I present you, the e1nquarium!





Peanut, the Ghost Catfish, likes to hide behind plants. Apparently these bottom-dwellers just like shades in general.



Although once in a while he'd come outside and show himself off. Strangely enough, he does this at some seemingly random time when I wasn't looking. This was the only shot of him not hiding that I could get. They say that Ghost Catfish need buddies, so in the future when I have a bigger tank I might get Peanut some friends: Butter and Jelly.



Mo the Yellow Apple Snail likes to wander around to places, sometimes even all the way up to the surface. Just the other day he seemed to have fallen down from the top of the tank, since I found him upside down and unable to move around. Stupid suicidal snail scared the crap out of me because I thought he died, but turns out he's perfectly okay and has been out and about all day.



Fluffy the Zebra Danio is a top-swimmer, and the way he darts from places to places makes me afraid that one day he's gonna dart out of the tank. He's a little hyper, but he seems to be entertaining himself and not attacking the other fishies.



I also got myself some Ghost Shrimps as recommended by Jo. At first I was rather hesitant to keep some shrimps along with my fishies, but as it turns out, these two have been more entertaining than any of my fishies. That above is Fred fighting with his own reflection. Fred is the fatter one of the two shrimps.



And this is George. He's a lot more adventurous than Fred, but he also likes to hide under the big fake rock decoration when he's tired. Every morning I'd wake up and freak out because George is always missing, but later on in the day he'd show up again.



The visual aesthetic of Cardinal Tetras was one of the main reasons I decided to start a tank. When the fluorescent light is on, the blue stripe on their body GLOWS, and somehow that amuses me to no end. I think Peanut is awesome, and Fred and George are entertaining, but these Tetras have got to be the prettiest fish in the tank. Eenie is the one at the top with a kink on the stripe, and right underneath him is Miney. Minnie is the one at the very bottom. It's actually really hard to tell Minnie and Miney apart, but if you look closely, Miney is slightly fatter than Minnie.




And here we have more of the trio posing in front of the fake rock. It's one of the few rare shots I managed to get of all three of them schooling, since Eenie likes to venture out alone, while Minnie and Miney seem to always go everywhere together.



Also due to Jo's recommendation, I got 2 Sunset Dwarf Platys to increase the color variation of the fishies in the tank. Platy is the fat (possibly pregnant) orange platy. This whole week she's been a douche to the rest of the inhabitants, especially the shrimps. She gobbles up just about every food I threw down there, and when the flakes were all gone, she'd go after Fred's algae wafer bits. Platy also seems to be constantly pooping because everytime I turn around to look at the tank, I see her swimming in front of my face with a long strand of shit dangling off her butt. Very womanly.



Puss, the other dwarf platy is a bit more shy. He always roams around the back of the tank and hide behind the fake rock. Here I managed to manually adjust my camera's focus to catch Puss hiding behind the rocks and plants.

I'm getting two more Guppies in a few weeks, and then my tank will be complete.

I Like Them Manly

For the record, it's pronounced "Tar-gay", not "Tar-get".

Erratic Error Bar

But that last bounce didn't even obey the laws of physics!

California Roll

And I bet the slimy part that makes sea urchins look so juicy is actually a mixture of sea urchin sperm.

On Power

equivalently, with great power comes bright lightbulb and a large amount of energy being used.

24 hours, 24 pages!

I'm seriously thinking of participating.



There's a store hosting this in Rancho Cucamonga, which is about 25 minutes drive from here, and another one in Manhattan Beach, which is about an hour away. The Rancho store looks like a more viable option, but the Manhattan Beach store looks a lot more fun and organized. Events like these look like they would be a fun social, as they are intended to be, but normally after much deliberation I always end up with a conclusion that I'm not very social after all and that it would probably be most comfortable for me to just participate from home.

It really is quite unfortunate that I don't know any comic artist around here with whom I can go to events such as this one. Most of my artist friends do illustrations, and my persistent efforts to drag them down into the world of sequential arts have had the success rate of a sickly goldfish trying to live inside a plastic igloo sitting in a hamster cage.

If you are also a comic artist and can't find a site that hosts this event nearby, I suggest you join me and participate from home. I will be online in my DeviantArt chat channel, #arke1ntoofle throughout this 24-hour period, during which I will try to finish 24 comic pages. Rough pages, of course, for it is not humanely possible for one person to finalize one comic page per hour, complete with toning and everything. Share your story ideas in the chatroom! Brainstorm with us if you haven't had any idea! I may not own a physical establishment to host an event like this one, but since everyone has internet these days, there is nothing wrong with hosting an event in a cyber establishment.

Start time: Saturday, October 3, 2009 - 1pm PST
End time: Sunday, October 4, 2009 - 1pm PST
Location: DA Chat Channel: #arke1ntoofle
Bring your own snack, food, and energy drinks, though. I can't supply you these things digitally.

Size Matters

It is human nature for one to always want a bigger slice of fish.

It is also human nature to act with incredulity and suspicion should that bigger slice of fish ever materialize, because if something is too good to be true, then most likely it is too good to be true.

Mango A-Go-Go

I am currently in possession of a robo dwarf hamster named Mango, who has the tendency to perform the most amazing backflip while running at high speed in his silent spinner wheel.



While Mango is no stranger to the concept of acceleration, it seemed like the idea of deceleration escaped him completely; the little guy would repeat this feat no matter how many times he flew, flipped, and fell with a loud thud on his bedding-covered cage floor. Persistency is indeed a virtue, but especially more so when it provides a lasting amusement to the outsider watching you make a complete fool of yourself.

Informed Indecision

Let's all face it: What would life be without free high-speed wireless internet?

Serve While Hot

Enter: A Cute Girl.

Exit: The 4th Wall. Again.

Content Unavailable

iStereo(Type)

For the record, I hate stereotypes, but I have to admit that stereotypes exist because at some point in time they were true, and maybe they still are. People aren't that amazing to make up their own false stereotype and popularize it.

Remember, folks! Don't be a stereotype!

check out the ANIMATED VERSION:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wT7zM8XgXQ

Teamwork with an I

because you're my statistically significant other.

according to xkcd, if i spend my weekends making graph, one day i will end up with that girl at the end of the bell curve.

Vongola History Lesson - Final Chapter Cover

For those of you who are still waiting for the next chapter, rest assured that I am working on it. Here is a proof: the cover page illustration for the upcoming chapter. Click to enlarge



The next chapter I release will probably end Vongola History Lesson. I don't have any intention to continue this (crack) story past this coming chapter, so I thought I should end with a small bang. This is the chapter cover illustration for the upcoming chapter (which will be about 30+ pages). I thought the last chapter deserve a jump-style colorspread. If you're curious about the weird wolf thing in there, you'll see who that is in the chapter's extra.

And if you have NO CLUE what Vongola History Lesson is, and want to know, you can read the chapters from the links below. Disclaimer: none of them are canon. I just make shit up as I go.

chapter 1 | chapter 2 | chapter 3 | chapter 4 | chapter 5

At one point I was thinking about actually printing the entire Vongola History Lesson and sell it as a doujinshi, but then I realized that it would probably be too much work. So instead, I'll just zip up the entire story and set up some sort of download link after it ended so you can enjoy the chapter in your computer for free.

If you enjoy reading this and want to show your support, I'm planning on printing this illustration as an 11x17 poster, which will be sold at Anime North (Toronto, Canada) and at Anime Expo (Los Angeles, California). The poster will also be available for purchase online after July. The price is still to be determined, but it will probably be $15 (including shipping).

again, apologies for the very very long delay in finishing this chapter. I hope you all enjoy this, and thanks much again and for reading (and waiting) and all the support. You guys are a great fandom.

CIRCUS IS IN TOWN

I FINISHED MY VERY VERY FIRST ONE PIECE COLORSPREAD (and the strawhats aren't even in there)!

click for a bigger version.



this took about 20 hours to do, spread over an entire week. 4 hours of sketching, 4 hours of inking, 9 hours of coloring, and another 3 hours-ish of finalizing. it doesn't seem much, but planning the layout itself took about 2 weeks and many pages of my sketchbook, since none of the layouts seemed to be working.

will be sold at Anime eXpo (in LA) and AnimeNorth (in Toronto) provided that i get a table to sell things. if you purchase this buggy spread you also get a set of the following buggy doodles printed in 4x6 as a thank you gift.

mohji
cabaji
buggy

MY POKEMANS ARE BETTER THAN YO MAMA'S

click for a larger version.



with the upcoming release of dragonball evolution, i think it's only about time before hollywood produced a live-action pokemon movie.

if that happens in our lifetime, don't tell me i didn't tell you so.


aside from that, this is the first complete colorspread i have ever done (never thought it would be something NOT one piece, huh?). even though the white ink still gave me shitload of problem, i consider this quite a milestone. this was done on an 11x17 piece of paper, planned, inked, and colored with copics over 3 weeks, totaling probably about 30 hours worth of worktime (yes, the rest is procrastination).

this was done as a response to jo's challenge to make my own bastardized version of her poke-paradise.

i think my pokemans can beat the living shit out of her pokemon any day.