The Empty Doghouse
I hope you like the slightly tweaked new look of the page. For me, the best part is that I don't have to scroll to read the blog anymore. I'm working on getting the other pages to conform. All in good time. Keen's been giving me trouble with a certain image, and the comments for the blog aren't working yet, but we're getting there...
In the meantime I'm not very happy in real life. There's an empty doghouse in my backyard that I still can't bring myself to clear out. And somewhere near an orchard I know there's a small mound of red earth with a sprig of bougainvilla stuck in it.
Fourteen years.
Comics by Candlelight
Sounds romantic, doesn't it? Well, not really. I don't recommend it on the long run. The wax, smoke and attracted insects just don't do it.
Back in Malaysia now. We had a blackout here last night, mostly due to a pretty bad electrical storm that resulted in lightning striking the house. (This is relatively normal, by the way) Anyway. the region lost power for a while, and since I had a deadline to follow (BUFFER IS AT ONE WEEK! GAAAAAH~!!!!) I went ahead and desperately tried to finish the pencils for the next batch of pages.
Five candles provide just about enough light for my bad eyes to draw, although I do think that it looks rather bizarre when drawing a comic begins to look more like something out of a Deepavali festival. Anyway. power is back on, I have the pics finished and scanned and now have the task of colouring them.
Planning to redo the rest of this page. I have a lot of fanart to put up and some other stuff. Also have tons of email to answer. (I'm sorry. I am a bad person. I know) Still fighting with jet lag and the 35ºC heat. Bah. Also considering moving the blog to its own page or at least changing the iframe idea. not sure about this, will see. I have a sneaking suspicion that no one here but Chuck *waves* reads this thing.
Other than that, Happy Birthday to my Sister Qin! Happy 16.
A Long Silence
It's been a while since my last blog... Yep, I'm still alive. No, I haven't been able to access the internet for about a week, which will account for my long silence and absence from the web. Of course, as long as the comic updated correctly while I was away, this might have passed unnoticed to most of you.
To begin with I spent the last few days with my family in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a pretty much a peaceful kind of holiday... we just hung around Edinburgh. My father had fun checking out all the Scottish cuisine (FIY, haggis is pretty nice... and yes, I know what it's made of). I regret to say we didn't go out of Edinburgh... a pity, since I really wanted to see the Loch Ness, but my father didn't really seem keen on the idea. Well... he is getting on with the years now...
I'm not sure why, but why didn't anyone ever tell me that Scotland was just so darn...
beautiful?! Fantastic landscape (mountains, lochs and incredible architecture), and wonderful, wonderful people. After London, the friendliness and hospitality of the Scots was unbelievably refreshing. We stayed at Glendale House, where the couple running the B&B, Elaine and Duncan, were the perfect hosts. The quality of life there is such an improvement over London...
...actually, compared to London, the quality of life in generally almost everywhere else is better compared to London, but let's not get side-tracked here.
Anyway, Scotland really is my kind of place, and another thing I love is that the people there seem to share my unhealthy fascination with swords, gun and blades. I really wanted to get a full-size Scottish Claymore for my bedroom wall (Or at least a short sword, or a highland dirk... maybe one of those dinky sock knives) but this being post 9/11, you know how hard it is to transport those things when you're flying. Just miniature reproductions for now, I guess.
The War Buffs amongst us might find a visit to Ediburgh Castle a must. The castle itself is fantastic, built on an incredibly defensive position atop this giant... rock... hill... It doesn't take a military genius to be able to appreciate it.
Scotland aside, I also visited Greenwich before my sister's graduation and visited the 'Tintin at Sea' exhibition. It was worth every penny of the admission ticket... we got to see tons of stuff, but the best part of it for my was being able to see the actual pencils and inked art by Herge himself, complete with pieces of redrawn board or white paint where he made the occasional mistake. Also saw the preparation work he did for his comics... good Lord! So much detail... I didn't know Herge scripted and story-boarded entire books before actually beginning on the drawing. Such thorough planning ahead... must emulate.
I'm currently getting ready for the annual flight back to Malaysia. Goodbye to the cool climate of England and Hello to the humid hot tropics of South-East Asia... hopefully I'll be able to settle in by then, work on my computer projects, my comic buffer, and Gear. The buffer should stretch until... the 25th, I think. The Graphic Smashers will finally catch up on the 28th, and finally I can synchronise both comic runs. The Graphic Smashers will miss the daily updates, but goodness, did I give them their money's worth the last few months or what?!
Hope everyone's been enjoying the story so far.
Black Earth is longest and the most complex The Jaded story I've attempted to date. Also, I've been working on the script for the whole series in general, and with luck, my projected series runtime can be reduced from the improbable 10 years it currently is to a more plausible 5-6.
This will probably be my last time online until I reach Malaysia around the 20th. I'll be taking a detour to Singapore to visit my grandfather. Then after that it's home for the first time for what feels like a very long time. Wish me a good journey.
Moop! Ping out!
