Darren McGavin 1922-2006

Christmas won't be the same, this year.

Don Knotts 1924 - 2006

You kin take the bullet outta yer pocket now, Barn. Duty's over.

Reason #14 why I am a Nintendo boy.

ARTICLE

I got in.

Dear noriaki_kakyouin,

Congrats, you've been approved for combat. Be sure to read up on the rules as
e tend to update them from time to time. You will have the opportunity to update or change your fighter's poses, headshot and bio at any time through the manager. You now have 3 months to enter into a fight, if you have not entered a battle at that time, your fighter will be retired. To view battles that are currently under way in VOID City use this link: http://www.entervoid.com/battles.php

This is what the Approval Commitee had to say about your character:
Hiemie » You know what. This is good enough. It's cleaned up, and new outfit, the story was fine. Good to go I say.

Accept.

Toast » I still wish there was more to the backgrounds, but there's one thing that bugs me... in the last panel of the first page, we're looking into the corner of the room, but there's no vertical line where the two walls come together.

anyway, just wanted to get you approved before heading off to Florida. Have fun

VOIDCouncil

Second try

I'm really proud of this next try.

NEW design sheet

NEW win

NEW lose

NEW intro page 1

NEW intro page 2

STAGE 3!!! GAH!

http://www.sgcartoon.com/cartoon/?EP=2

Rejected... 5 to 1

(sigh) But the good thing is that they (the VOID Council) said that with a little work I could get in easilly. So, i'm re-doing the character and making some changes. As I am doing so I am seeing the problems they had with him... so perhaps this time i'll get in. He should be ready for upload to their site by tomorrow evening.

Their email to me:
Dear noriaki_kakyouin,

You've been declined for the reasons listed below, but you can update your poses or submit an entirely new Fighter at any time.

comments:
Zato-2TWO » The story itself has a very interesting premise, and there is plenty of room here for a healthy development. I only wish you did a bit more with his character design to make him seem more interesting; granted, he's not supposed to be anything special, but the lack of defining features makes him look blank and incomplete (especially in his face). It's like, there's the framework for a character here with nothing on it. I'm also a bit uneasy about his name. Why is he called T-Square aside from the obvious gag ? I'm sure he should have a real name, and frankly I'd be able to relate to this character a little better if he had a name to call himself instead of just having a blank slate for a head/face and a nickname instead of a name. On a more technical note, I'd have to decline you for your win/lose poses, they just look unfinished. I recommend you ink them or at least photoshop them up to make them look presentable. Your intro story is pretty decent, and unlike most entries you do show a bit of understanding of space and environments, but I can't help feeling uneasy about the lack of backgrounds you have for a lot of panels. I'd also suggest you be a bit more daring with your camera angles, most of them you have are rather static.

I vote decline, but if you polish this guy up and REALLY work to make your intro story pop, you can definately get in.

Wei Ingnan » More polish.....try and re-work and re-submit....you obviously have the ability..... both the design and the intro seem kinda dull....put some zing into the character design and the intro

DECLINE for now

Hiemie » I also agree on the design being dull. Although he is very identifiable looking at him (Even with the influx of noseless guys....), His clothes aren't anything special. The oriental shirt seems forced.

I love your writing. I have a great sense of dialouge from what I can see, just of a sense of feeling natural.

Everything looks very rough though. If you want hard lines, I would reccomend pen over pencil.

Decline for now, but I could see you getting in with more effort.

northern_raven » I am not as hung up on the appearance of your character as the other guys were. However I have to agree with them about the penciling - everything but the design sheet look painfully hurried which is really a stark contrast against your wonderful story telling prowess.

However, you've met the submission requirements, and you've put some real effort in to the Introduction Story (comic). I don't see anything here that couldn't be worked out through a few battles.

I vote Accept However: please do try to tighten up your penciling, or try to ink instead.

skullcapCOMIX » Im gonna have to say Decline also, but you could get in VERY easily. You sort of set a standard with your design sheets quality, and never met it again, making all the rest of your pages look kinda rushed.... and rushed is bad. The story is very good, and the way you tell it is very good also. This just needs to be polished up so we have nothing but your best efforts here, and you'd be in just like that.

Decline for now, but this could very easily be made into an acceptable entry.

Toast » This is a bit tough, but I think I'm going to go with a decline as well...

Let me first start by saying I love your design sheet. It's clean, clear, and shows us everything we need. Unfortunately, the rest of the submission isn't the same level of cleanliness, and that hurts you because we know you're capable of better. I'm not saying you have to color everything, but for the Win and Lose Poses, I would like to see them cleaned up to the same level as the Design Sheet as been. Sketch lines and phantom erasures are still visible in some areas.

The Intro has the same cleanliness issue, though to a lesser degree. My main problem there is backgrounds. Half of your panels have gray fill or two-tone gray fills for a background. Your ability leaps off the page, but I'm not seeing it in your backgrounds. Panel layout and pacing are good, so I've got no problems there. And it's especially evident in the Intro that you can show emotion though body language and facial expressions, and that's a fantastic skill.

Some of the others have complained about the name or design, but I honestly don't care about either. I wouldn't hold you back for something like that. I think the simplicity of his design is the POINT and the name I assumed was something he took up upon arrival in VOID, but I could always be wrong.

I feel bad about doing this because it's obvious you've got the talent to get in, but I'd like to see you push just a little harder.

VOIDCouncil

These past few weeks I have sketched and created mor edrawings than I have in quite some time. So, I decided to start a deviant art site (I hear it's what all the cool kids are doing these days).

So the link is to the side. I have little to nothing right now, but we'll see if I can't put up a lot of stuff this weekend. I still haven't shown off the tarot cards I started in 1992... let's see what things I can display.

Perhaps you have turned on SPIKE TV and seen a show called "MXC"? Well, it was a program created by comedian Takeshi Kitano (a.k.a. Beat Takeshi).

Well today I was looking at games I would like to buy (but am holding off until after my Japan trip in September) (sigh) and found a game with his name: Takeshi no Chousenjou (Takeshi's Challenge). Sounded interesting. So I Google'd it and found a wikipedia entry for it. Very cool. So I read it.

Wow. He's a dick! (laughs)

Illustration Friday: Simple

Go is wood and stone.
Go is square and round.
Go is black, white, and brown.
Simple.

In all honesty, it took me a long time to come up with this 'simple' design.

AGH! The suspence is KILLING ME!

I submitted my artwork to VOID last night at 11:00pm... and I must say that I have had my firefox open to my email account and the VOID site all day. Not browsing, mind you... just refreshing every 1/2 hour waiting for their 'yay' or 'nay'.

And tonight I will upload the Illustration Friday pic.

2 page intro

So last night I finished (mostly) the 2 page intro comic for VOID. Tell me what ya think.

Page 1

Page 2

And yes, I AM doing this weeks' Illustration Friday (laughs). SHEESH!

My pokemon brings all the nerds to the yard. And they're like, "You wanna trade cards?" Damn right, I wanna trade cards. I'll trade this, but not my charizard.

VOID

Well, here's some of the images I have finished for my character for the VOID website. So far I have posted these on their FORUMS and received a very good response. And a BIIIIG thanks to Collin for helpin' me with Photoshop 6.0. You rock.

WIN pose

LOSE pose

Diagram

VOID City // Global Comic Jam

And yet another artist thing to do... thanks to Collin who sent this to me. Wow... i'm really getting inspired to draw more nowadays. I wonder what character I would make? Perhaps "The Artistic Mouse" character I did in 1992 for the Colorado Comic Book Artist's contest. There were 100 winners... but the contest managers really messed everything up and nobody got their prises.

Also I got THIS from Collin too... man, I wish I were a better artist!

Anyone else want to join me?

And this is why we love KEPC

KEPC (89.7 fm) never ceases to give me great music. I was listening this morning and heard a great song, but the wrods were tough to understand. LUCKILLY there was a DJ this morning (it usually runs via computer) and they gave me the name at the break.

FRENCH DISKO by STEREOLAB

I found a great cover by The EDITORS for free download... but, alas, no free download of the original song.

Ze strongest von zurvives...

I cringed at the horror of the three things this person put the systems through... eew... but, the strongest one survived... can you guess which one?

HERE

Illustration Friday

MAKING LIFE


This is going to be my weekly submission to both Illustration Friday and my comic based on Go/Baduk/Wei'Qi called Making Life

Links to Derek's... and Collin's submissions

AGH! IS HE DEAD?!

No, it's just an old Russian space suit. On Friday they are dumping it out of the space station after making it a short-time radio satellite! After several weeks it will burn up in the atmosphere.

Suit sat will be over Colorado Springs on:
Feb 3: 2:04am - 2:18am (yup... in the morning)
Feb 3: 4:47am - 4:49am
Feb 4: 3:28am - 3:38am
Feb 5: 1:16am - 1:30am
Feb 5: 3:52am - 4:02am
Feb 6: 1:41am - 1:55am (optimal time)
Feb 12: 6:44am - 6:55am (even better)