Hushicho's Official Words

Show Appearance!

2011-11-03T12:15:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

I'll be doing a comics and collectibles show in Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday, 5 November. It's at the Days Inn on Merchants Drive. Here's the address if you're in the area and need directions:

5335 Central Ave. Pike
Knoxville, TN 37912

The show will be from 10 AM to 4 PM, so come by and see me! I'll also have my exciting 'impurity bracelets' for $1 each...although if you mention that you're a fan of Incubus Tales or Lamia, I might just toss you one for free. And of course you get one free with every purchase!

I will also be running a second table called Utakata Books, which will sell very inexpensive copies of assorted Japanese-language manga, including Nakayoshi, Trigun, Dragon Ball, and more! Stop by!
I hope to see you there!

Incutales Special!

2011-10-03T18:51:00.001-07:00

Everyone! Incutales Special will be starting on 9 October, this Sunday! Be sure to stop by. I've made this special promotional image just for you, in the style of my favourite classic books from my younger days. I hope you like it!

Incutales Special will feature mainly short and self-contained episodes, only a few pages at most, but typically single-page and able to be enjoyed by themselves. Incutales Special will appear every Sunday! It will show the breadth and variety of the Incuverse, the omniverse in which Incubus Tales takes place.

Incubus Tales, the original comic, chronicles the satirical and sexy adventures of Dhiar, an Incubus who owns a shop called Phantasies. It is located at http://www.incubustales.com and updates Tuesday and Friday weekly.

Tumblr and More

2011-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!

I do still update this blog, but not as often as my tumblr, which has sort of become my official place for saying things. In any case, please do check my tumblr...it'll be sure to keep you updated! It's at:

http://hushicho.tumblr.com (naturally!)

A new video has been completed, one months in the making, for Incubus Tales. You can take a look here:

http://hushicho.tumblr.com/post/9668386614/if-youve-been-wondering-where-chanas-been-and

I hope you'll enjoy this!

Appearing at Comic Show!

2011-06-06T05:11:00.000-07:00

Just to let all of you know, I'll be appearing at the Knoxville Comic and Anime Show on 18 and 19 June, Saturday and Sunday respectively. You can find out more about the show here:

http://www.comiccitytn.com/Convention_Listings.html

As always, I will be doing sketches for you, and naturally I will have all of my art print posters and comics with me! Stop by and say hello!

June Commission Special!

2011-06-01T05:25:00.001-07:00

As summer begins, I am still catching up on my rest from all my travel this past month. I'm not that fond of summer altogether, because I can't stand heat.

But my complaints about the heat pale in comparison to my dear friend Hawkye's pain.

Right now, he is suffering from an oral infection that will kill him if it is not treated. He is looking into treatment options, but like many people in this country, he cannot afford insurance, so his options are severely limited.

He has always been a supporter of my work, and always a regular reader of and commenter on Incubus Tales, and so for this month, I decided to do a special!

Any sexy commission order will receive a discount! And what's great is, even if you just get a sexy sketch along with a more involved, formal commission, you get a discount on the whole order. It doesn't have to be outrageous, just...sexy!

My rates start at around $10-15 for the least and quickest thing I can do, which is still lots of fun. Think of it...one less game on Steam, one single time eating out...and someone who needs help will get it. Because I am donating as much of my profits as I can to Hawkye, so that he can have help with his dental issues.

I don't want to lose one of my dearest friends. I love him like a brother. Please help me with this. I'm not asking for handouts, though I always appreciate donations and tips.

But I am suggesting, why not heat up the summer early? Let's do some sexy art! Of course I am also available for non-sexy commissions too, don't worry!

You can contact me at hushicho@gmail.com or send me a message through tumblr. I'm very fast, very professional, and you've seen my quality if you're a regular reader of my tumblr or of Incubus Tales.

I'm happy to provide references and pleased clients if you need any such thing. Just let me know.

Outlantacon!

2011-05-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

I’ll be appearing at Outlantacon on 13-15 May. Come see me!

I’ll have books and posters with me, including the fabulous new The Incubus, the omnibus edition first volume of Incubus Tales!

If you’re going to come, though, please don’t fly. Don’t fly to the United States, don’t fly from the United States, don’t fly with a stop in the United States. I will not have my friends, fans, and readers raped and molested by creeps and scum such as are currently employed in US airports and defying our fundamental rights every day.

You can still order my work online, and I’m happy to communicate with all of you through the wonderful medium of the internet! I might be fun to hang out with in person, but no-one is fun enough to justify the degradation currently perpetrated upon people in US airports.

I hope to see some of you at Outlantacon, though! It’ll be a great GLBT-oriented show, and there will be a lot of fun to be had! It’s also in Atlanta, so there’s plenty to do even when you’re not at the show! I intend to party hard!

See you there! I’ll be in the dealers’ room!

Haters Gonna Hate

2011-03-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

I don’t want to get very political, but I have something to say regarding the recent controversy over attempting to extend the so-called ‘Defence of Marriage Act’.

Basically this is an act of war. It’s a war declared on citizens who depend on these people for government and protection, for rights afforded to arbitrarily-chosen other citizens, but not them. It is an act of discrimination. It is an act of evil.

Does that sound too extreme? Maybe it does. But have you ever lived somewhere you were regarded as less than human? If not, try it sometime and see how you like it.

Spoiler: you won’t.

To all of you politicians trying to defend it, trying to extend and promote it:

You are no representative of the people. You are distracting from the real issues and solving no problems. In this time of economic crisis, you are doing nothing to remedy the problems and, instead, are focussing your efforts on denying American citizens rights.

That’s what this is all about: denying Americans rights and freedoms that are afforded to other Americans. It is an inalienable right that all are created equal under the law. That isn’t something you can just cherry-pick out of the history of this country. Admittedly, the United States has had plenty of time to be unfair to social groups. It’s called bigotry, and it’s ugly no matter who is the target.

It also doesn’t belong in politics. Especially when politics are being mixed with religion, which seems to happen far too often these days. Church and State are legally separated in the US.

To you politicians attempting to keep things unequal, to waste our time and money with furthering inequality for citizens who pay your exorbitant salary, I have this to say: you will be defeated. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not the next election, but you will lose your jobs. It won’t be a costumed hero who punches you out, even though you’re an over-the-top villain who is difficult to take seriously. It will be the ballot. The voice of the American people who, last I checked, were all entitled to representation and basic rights…not just the rich, or the light of skin, or the heterosexual.

You will be remembered in history as relics, frauds, and charlatans, obsolete and outdated, tools of hate and tools of bigotry and intolerance. People will look back, in history classes, and wonder how it could be possible for some people to hate other people so much, and for something so ridiculous. And they will laugh at you. Some of them will hate you. And that is how you will live in history, if anyone even remembers your name.

You are not martyrs, or heroes, or champions of any people. You are just sad individuals who prosper from the suffering of others. And you do so out of fear. And you should be afraid, because time marches on and waits for no man. Time marches on, societies and cultures evolve and mature, and people move past their differences because they have to, in order to prosper.

Non-heterosexuals have had extensive rights in many societies long before the United States, and they will continue to have them long after. It’s not even a matter of stepping into the twenty-first century. It’s a matter of stepping into the real world and seeing the real people around you, not some sort of twisted caricature of humanity that merely echoes your own intolerance. Ancient Egypt had prominent status for gay couples. Even the Norse, widely thought to be the epitome of masculinity, also did the same. The Celts were, likewise, what would be thought today to be ‘progressive’ in their lifestyles. Because you know what?

A person’s sexuality doesn’t have any bearing on whether they can contribute to society. If they could see this thousands of years ago, why is that so difficult to see to people now? We have the internet, for god’s sake. You can learn anything you want to with five seconds of typing and a click.

To the citizens who are so sadly deluded as to think that this act is worth defending: you are ignorant. You are misguided. It will not impact your life even slightly if you don’t personally know anyone who is not heterosexual. And if you do, it’s not your life to begin with. It’s not your choice to make, who someone else marries. And if it bothers you that much to see your acquaintances being able to be joined in a union, if you are convinced that it will affect your life and your relationship that much, then I think it’s time you look at this life and this relationship and understand that something is wrong.

Time to be an adult and face the fact that if there is a problem with your relationship, it isn’t because of someone else’s relationship. However much you might like this to be true, it isn’t; if there is a problem in a relationship between two people, the problem lies with them, not with two people who aren’t in a relationship with them.

At least fifty per cent of all marriages end in divorce. And this is heterosexual marriage I’m talking about, heterosexual unions recognised under the law. There are ‘reality’ shows and contests to marry people. Las Vegas has drive-through chapels where people can get married, with no fuss and no reverence whatsoever.

Taking a step towards equality by getting rid of an act that should never have been passed in the first place is not going to harm marriage.

I would say that the statistics fairly clearly show that the largest harm to marriage has been done. The sanctity of this union has long been absent. There is no need to defend it.

There are people I know who have been together for decades, heterosexual couples. It can work. But you know…the overwhelming majority clearly cannot handle marriage. Why are they still allowed it?

To them, it is something they take for granted. To non-heterosexuals, it is almost a luxury. It is something some people would give everything they have, to be able to do. And people have cheapened it, made it worthless, so that it has become a cheap trinket to auction off on a game show.

Why are we wasting time with this act? Why are we wasting money defending this act? Why is attention being taken from examining the economic problems of the country, and the world, and perhaps putting some of the corporate ‘masters’ in their places, taking away their monopolies and their other evil little toys, and actually fixing things for the people who are suffering, while politicians sit in their mansions, well-paid and supplemented by the people who hire them out like hookers.

There are more problems in the world than we could ever hope to solve. However, trying to deny citizens the rights they deserve and promoting laws that deny people rights they would otherwise have is not helping anyone. It isn’t solving any problems. It isn’t protecting anything. It isn’t helping marriage, it isn’t helping the economy, and most of all, it isn’t doing jack squat for America.

So I guess I just want to say…fuck DOMA. And fuck the idiots who think it’s a good thing. Fuck the people who made it happen, and fuck the ones who want it to keep going.

And if you think that’s too harsh language, you haven’t lived as less than human. What I’ve said was mild and gentle. And it was moreso than this joke of legislative idiocy deserves.

tumblr!

2011-02-13T01:16:00.001-08:00

I have a tumblr now! I'm very new to all this, but it's located here:

http://hushicho.tumblr.com

Enjoy! :)

Heroes

2011-02-03T02:21:00.000-08:00

This is a bit of a personal post, so I don't blame you if you become disinterested and opt to read something else. But I thought it would be interesting, at least, to write about this, and I thought it was something that needed to be expressed.

When I was quite young, barely 7 years old, I remember meeting a hero of mine. He was an actor named Jon Pertwee. For those of you who don't know him, he was an incredibly popular actor, and one of his best-known roles was as the Doctor, the third one, in Doctor Who. He was renowned, and appropriately, for being larger than life in his appearances.

I remember being a bit starstruck by just seeing him. There he was, the magnificent man who was a hero of mine, a childhood hero, right there before me. When I met him, he was just as heroic and magnificent as I had seen him be on the screen. In retrospect, I realise now that it could have easily turned out differently. He could have just been presenting a certain facade on-screen that he wasn't able to maintain in person. He could have been terribly rude and disappointing in person. But he was none of those things; he was magnificent and magnanimous, and he maintained my image of him as an amazing superhero. I will never forget meeting him.

The opposite experience was when I contacted Dynamic Pro, the studio founded by Nagai Gou, who was one of my inspirations when I started making comics. Nagai Gou was responsible for pioneering series, controversial series such as Harenchi Gakuen, Devilman, and Mazinger Z. But in recent years, basically since 1990, his work has been far out of the popular eye. Most of the work he's done in the past 20 years has been short bursts, flashes in the pan, and although his work has its fans, most of the time it's under the radar of the mainstream. The manga never last too long. The anime based off them tend to operate on the premise that once upon a time, the title or character was popular. It's sad, but I started to understand when I contacted them.

Ishikawa Ken, Nagai sensei's partner in Dynamic Pro, passed away a few years ago. Since then, Nagai himself has been more or less retired, barely doing any real manga work. I don't blame him. After contacting Dynamic Pro, I can understand why; I contacted them after doing some very strong comic work in Japan and thought that, since internet-based work was gaining popularity at the time, perhaps I could speak to someone and do something for them with some minor characters that were scarcely used even in their own series, and never appeared since. It wouldn't be a great amount of extra work for me, and it would bring Dynamic Pro more acclaim and attention, even if only because it would be an international collaboration. Those are always good for attention.

The response I got was unbelievably rude. I don't remember the man's name who replied to me, although I feel sure I've seen his name somewhere or another. He was incredibly rude and could barely communicate in English, but insisted upon writing in it, despite the fact that I had written him in Japanese. I'm sure he probably thought I didn't understand how rude he was being, since he assumed I hadn't had much experience in communicating in Japanese due to my American email address, but he was very wrong.

It was humiliating and depressing, chiefly because he seemed to think that Dynamic Pro were on a level with Disney, and apparently he had no idea that Dynamic Pro had barely any output to speak of in the past entire decade. As a former fan, it made me feel embarrassed and ashamed for the studio that Nagai Gou had founded, because that was his name, and it was being dragged through the dirt in this way.

Even a cursory flick through web searches makes it perfectly clear how outre Dynamic Pro has become in the Japanese mind, to say nothing of the rest of the world; other than Italy, Nagai sensei's work is all but unknown, and even there it is only embraced in the form of the 70s. I used to wonder why this was so, but now I think I understand: it is the incredible arrogance and egotism of Dynamic Pro's dealing with people. Now that Nagai sensei is mostly retired, Dynamic Pro mainly rides on his coattails. Ishikawa sensei passed away with a respectable following and series of successes, but that and Nagai sensei's past work cannot sustain a studio that feels no need to continue or to innovate.

I used to be an avid fan of Nagai sensei's, but I see no reason to support Dynamic Pro further. They are not Nagai sensei, merely his assistants and embellishers, and it's also clear that they have never really applied their abilities in order to uphold his good name. Is there any reason to maintain a studio if they fail to produce anything at all, and above all that they fail to maintain the respectability of the name of their founder?

So there you have it, my two widely varying experiences with childhood heroes. Jon Pertwee will forever remain a godlike figure amongst men, an unforgettable encounter with stars in my eyes that stayed there, affixed like a cosmic firmament. Dynamic Pro will forever be a disappointment, tinting my respect for Nagai Gou, who formerly occupied a position of great respect and heroism, and who now merely maintains one of pity.

There are many different ways to address fans, whether in a professional capacity or otherwise. And it makes all the difference in the world.

I just thought I might share this with you, as it's important to me and something that tends to come to mind. I'm sure many have had similar experiences. Above all, I hope that it can be informative and interesting to you, and perhaps educational too, in the way you comport yourself when dealing with your own fans and those who regard you highly.

Guruguru GRAVITY Lyrics and English Translation

2011-01-13T02:40:00.000-08:00

Another translation of lyrics from the wonderful game Beautiful Katamari.

This was a quick translation, but I tried to get the sentiment across. I hope you'll enjoy the song, and I'm sure you'll be able to sing along better now!

As always, I would appreciate a link back if you use these lyrics.

Enjoy!

ぐるぐるグラビティ

何か足りない気分
ありふれた色だよ

もしキミといるなら
We can roll it up!
いますぐに

いつもと同じ空
たいくつな色だよ

もしキミとみるなら
Gonna make a star!
ふたりきり

ねぇ今日もまた逢えないのかな
七色の奇跡探しに行こう

世界中で僕らは笑う ah
ミラーボールは僕らをてらす
今、回りだしたら
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. ah
SHOOTING STAR.
I'll take you to the milky way
届くかもね

ステキなキミのGRAVITY

何かに追われてる
落ち着かないセカイ

キミと一緒なら
make the Katamari
思い切り

ねぇ今日はどこで逢えるのかな
足りてない欠片(ピース)
探しに行こう Let's Go!

世界中で僕らは回る ah
エイトビートは僕らのリズム
今、踊りだしたら
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. ah
SHOOTING STAR.
I'll take you to the milky way
届くかもね

不思議なキミのGRAVITY

ねぇ今日もまた逢えないのかな
七色の奇跡探しに行こう

(行こう!)
世界中で僕らは笑う ah
ミラーボールは僕らをてらす
今、回りだしたら
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. ah
SHOOTING STAR.
I'll take you to the milky way
届くかもね

ステキなキミのGRAVITY

Guruguru GRAVITY

Nani ka tarinai kibun
Arifureta iro da yo

Moshi KIMI to iru nara
We can roll it up!
Ima sugu ni

Itsumo to onaji sora
Taikutsu na iro da yo

Moshi KIMI to miru nara
Gonna make a star!
Futarikiri

Nee kyou mo mata aenai no ka na
Nanairo no kiseki sagashi ni yukou

Sekaijuu de bokura wa warau ah
MIRAABOORU wa bokura wo terasu
Ima, mawari dashitara
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. Ah
SHOOTING STAR
I'll take you to the milky way
Todoku kamo ne

SUTEKI na KIMI no GRAVITY

Nani ka ni owareteru
Ochitsukanai SEKAI

KIMI to issho nara
Make the Katamari
Omoikiri

Nee kyou wa doko de aeru no ka na
Taritenai kakera (PIISU)
Sagashi ni yukou Let's Go!

Sekaijuu de bokura wa mawaru ah
EITOBIITO wa bokura no RIZUMU
Ima, odoridashitara
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. Ah
SHOOTING STAR
I'll take you to the milky way
Todoku kamo ne

Fushigi na KIMI no GRAVITY

Nee kyou mo mata aenai no ka na
Nanairo no kiseki sagashi ni yukou

(Yukou!)
Sekaijuu de bokura wa warau ah
MIRAABOORU wa bokura wo terasu
Ima, mawari dashitara
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. Ah
SHOOTING STAR
I'll take you to the milky way
Todoku kamo ne

SUTEKI na KIMI no GRAVITY

Guruguru GRAVITY
GRAVITY Turning Round and Round

Feeling like nothing is good enough
It's a plain colour

But if you're here
We can roll it up!
Right away

The same old sky
It's a boring colour

But if I see you
Gonna make a star!
Just the two of us

So can't we meet again today, eh?
Let's go searching for a rainbow-coloured miracle

We laugh all over the world ah
The mirrorball shines on us
Now, spin it around
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. ah
SHOOTING STAR.
I'll take you to the milky way
I think we're gonna make it

Your awesome GRAVITY

Running after something
A world that never settles down

If I'm with you
make the Katamari
With all my heart

Hey, why don't we meet somewhere today?
Not enough pieces
Let's go searching Let's Go!

Spinning all over the world ah
Eight beat is our rhythm
Now, let's go out dancing
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. ah
SHOOTING STAR.
I'll take you to the milky way
I think we're gonna make it

Your wonderful GRAVITY

So can't we meet again today, eh?
Let's go searching for a rainbow-coloured miracle

(Let's go!)
We laugh all over the world ah
The mirrorball shines on us
Now, spin it around
HEAVENLY.
I wish I were a witch tonight. ah
SHOOTING STAR.
I'll take you to the milky way
I think we're gonna make it

Your awesome GRAVITY

New Sketch Blog!

2011-01-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

I opened a new sketch blog a few days ago. I hope you'll stop by and enjoy what I have to show!

It is located at:

http://hushisketch.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

INTO THE SKY and BOYFRIEND A GOGO Lyrics and English Translation

2010-12-31T04:35:00.000-08:00

This time I have two of them! I apologise if they're not the best, but as always I try hard. I'm a little tired from New Year's anticipation, but I'm excited too. I want to share the excitement with you, so please enjoy these lyrics and translations! I've tried to get the essence of the song and its tone.

I hope you will enjoy my work!
As always, a link is appreciated if you want to post my translations elsewhere.

INTO THE SKY

目覚めていつもの朝がきた
隣の君は変わらずオヤスミ
たまには朝食いい匂い
おはようキスとか夢膨らむ

理想・現実、かなり違う
ホントの答え何処?

(Into the sky) ほら、
知らない街にとびだして
(Into the sky) ねえ、
見つけたのは君が1番だってこと

春夏秋冬恋の予感
トキメキ感じる旅にでようか
ホントの答えは見つかるの?
小さな夢のツボミ膨らむ

運命の人あなたですか?
一年中恋曜日

(Into the sky) 今、
自分に問い掛けた
(Into the sky) ほら、
わかるのは君が1番だってこと

忘れないで、大事なこと
小春日和、君の隣、優しく包んで
夢をみよう、君の夢を、ぬくもりを感じてる

(Into the sky) ほら、
知らない街に飛びだして
(Into the sky) ねえ、
見つけたのは君が1番だってこと

INTO THE SKY

Mezamete itsumo no asa ga kita
Tonari no kimi wa kawarazu OYASUMI
Tama ni wa choushoku ii nioi
Ohayou KISU to ka yume fukuramu

Risou - genjitsu, kanari chigau
HONTO no kotai doko?

(Into the sky) hora,
Shiranai machi ni tobidashite
(Into the sky) nee,
Mitsuketa no wa kimi ga ichiban datte koto

Haru natsu aki fuyu koi no yokan
TOKIMEKI kanjiru tobi ni deyou ka
HONTO no kotae wa mitsukaru no?
Chiisai na yume no TSUBOMI fukuramu

Unmei no hito anata desu ka?
Ichinenjyuu koiyoubi

(Into the sky) ima,
Jibun ni toikaketa
(Into the sky) hora,
Wakaru no wa kimi ga ichiban datte koto

Wasurenaide, daiji na koto
Koharu biyori, kimi no tonari, yasashiku tsutsunde
Yume wo miyou, kimi no yume wo, nukumori wo kanjiteru

(Into the sky) hora,
Shiranai machi ni tobidashite
(Into the sky) nee,
Mitsuketa no wa kimi ga ichiban datte koto

INTO THE SKY

I wake up as usual, like every morning
And you, right next to me, haven't changed, sleep well
And sometimes the good smell of breakfast
Good morning kiss while still full of dreams

Ideal -- reality is quite different
Where is the real answer?

(Into the sky) Look,
Let's take off to an unknown town
(Into the sky) Hey,
Being found by you is the best

Spring summer fall winter premonition of love
My heart's thumping shall we take a trip
Can we find that real answer?
Our little dream is blooming

My soulmate -- is that you?
All year long, days of love

(Into the sky) Now,
I've asked myself a question
(Into the sky) Look,
Being understood by you is the best

Never forget, the important things
Indian summer weather, you beside me, gently covering me up
Dreaming, your dream, I can feel its warmth

(Into the sky) Look,
Let's take off to an unknown town
(Into the sky) Hey,
Being found by you is the best

BOYFRIEND A GOGO

朝から dance dance
ドレスを選んだら
土曜は go go
キミに会いにゆくの

きもちはもう high high
答えも決まってる
でも今夜は night night
プロポーズは早い

Baby きまぐれなオトコノコ
予想なら意味ないわ
いくじなしオトコノコ
かっこつけてばかりBOYFRIEND

きっと雲の上
天使が笑ってる
そんな不器用な恋だから
バラの花束に
驚いたふりして
瞳見つめるわ
チャンスを逃さないで

二人は done done
離れられなくなる
ひとりじゃ so so
涙がこぼれそう

無口なのもキュート
悪くはないけれど
ハートは say say
スッキリするんじゃない?

Baby よくばりなオンナノコ
ヒミツさえ知りたいわ
さみしがりオンナノコ
だってわたしきみのGIRLFRIEND

いつか神様に
望みを聞かれたら
言っていいかしらひとつだけ
ダイヤのリングも
お屋敷もいらない
明日もあさっても
キッスで目覚めたいの

Baby きまぐれなオトコノコ
予想なら意味ないわ
いくじなしオトコノコ
かっこつけてばかりBOYFRIEND BOYFRIEND

きっと雲の上
天使が笑ってる
そんな不器用な恋だから
バラの花束に
驚いたふりして
瞳見つめるわ
チャンスを逃さないで

BOYFRIEND A GOGO

Asa kara dance dance
DORESU wo erandara
Doyou wa go go
KIMI ni ai ni yuki no

Kimochi wa mou high high
Kotae mo kimatteru
Demo konya wa night night
PUROPOOZU wa hayai

Baby kimagure na OTOKO NO KO
Yosou nara imi nai wa
Ikuji nashi OTOKO NO KO
Kakko tsukete bakari BOYFRIEND

Kitto kumo no ue
Tenshi ga waratteru
Sonna bukiyou na koi dakara
BARA no hanataba ni
Odoroita furishite
Hitomi mitsumeru wa
CHANSU wo no nogasanaide

Futari wa done done
Hanarerare nakunaru
Hitori ja so so
Namida ga koboresou

Mukuchi na no mo KYUUTO
Waruku wa nai keredo
HAATO wa say say
SUKKIRI surun janai?

Baby yokubari na ONNA NO KO
HIMITSU sae shiritai wa
Samishigari ONNA NO KO
Datte watashi kimi no GIRLFRIEND

Itsuka kamisama ni
Nozomi wo kikaretara
Itte ii kashira hitotsu dake
DAIYA no RINGU mo
Oyashiki mo iranai
Asu mo asatte mo
KISU de mezametai no

Baby kimagure na OTOKO NO KO
Yosou nara imi nai wa
Ikuji nashi OTOKO NO KO
Kakko tsukete bakari BOYFRIEND BOYFRIEND

Kitto kumo no ue
Tenshi ga waratteru
Sonna bukiyou na koi dakara
BARA no hanataba ni
Odoroita furishite
Hitomi mitsumeru wa
CHANSU wo no nogasanaide

BOYFRIEND A GOGO

Since this morning dance dance
I've already picked out my dress
Saturday is go go
It's a date, then?

Feeling high high
The answer is yes
But tonight is night night
It's too fast for a proposal

Baby fickle boys
Don't mean it if you expect it
Boys without self-confidence
Are all such cool BOYFRIENDS

Surely, atop a cloud
An angel is smiling
Because this love is so clumsy
Pretending to be surprised
At a bouquet of roses
Look into my eyes
I won't let this chance escape

When a couple is done done
But they just can't separate
Being alone is so so
It always feels like you're going to cry

Being tight-lipped is cute
It's not bad, but
My heart is say say
Isn't that clearer?

Baby greedy girls
Want to know even your secrets
Lonely girls
Because I am your GIRLFRIEND

Someday the gods
Will listen to my prayers
I think, just one:
I don't need a diamond ring
Or a mansion
I just want to be awakened with a kiss
Tomorrow and the next day on

Baby fickle boys
Don't mean it if you expect it
Boys without self-confidence
Are all such cool BOYFRIENDS

Surely, atop a cloud
An angel is smiling
Because this love is so clumsy
Pretending to be surprised
At a bouquet of roses
Look into my eyes
I won't let this chance escape

Colorful Heart Lyrics and English Translation

2010-12-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

I've done it again! I'm on a roll today. Some days I cannot function in two languages effectively, but today I've been in the mood, and I was inspired. The song got into my head, and it is so beautiful, so I went ahead and transcribed and translated 'Colorful Heart'.

Just a few brief notes for this one: 'iroaseru' means 'to fade', but it has a connotation of colour, so 'iroasenaide' means 'don't fade', with the context being for one's colours not to fade.

As usual, the same things apply to this translation as to all of my others. I don't claim to be perfect at conveying meaning to others, even though I can understand the meaning. Japanese, as a language, is extremely context-heavy and also tends to love double-meanings and wordplay, so I've taken some poetic touches, here and there.

As always, please give me a link if you use my translation. Thanks, and keep rolling!

カラフルハート

沢山のモノを拾い集めてる
こぼれてしまった大事なことが
モノクロのように横たわって待っている

優しさ達夢のカケラ
手にとってみようまた輝くさ

なくならないであの日の永遠
やわらかな毛布の雲で泳ぐときを
色あせないであの日の永遠
カラフルなハートをもう一度

掴めずに落ちた愛しい言葉が
星の砂かぶって見えないだけど
月明かりの下反射してる素敵だね

尖ってると傷つけあう

でも本当はまんまるだから

なくならないであの日の永遠
流星のそよ風に髪なびく夜を
色あせないであの日の永遠
カラフルなハートをもう一度

キラキラした私色の塊
いつか全部わたせるように Ah

抱きしめたいなあなたの永遠
星空のまなざしで包みこむように
守っていたいなあなたの永遠
カラフルなハートになって

あなたの永遠 Ah
祈っていたいなあなたの永遠
つながっていきますように・・・

Colorful Heart

Takusan no mono wo hiroiatsumeteru
Koborete shimatta daiji na koto ga
MONOKURO no you ni yokotawatte matteiru

Yasashisatachi yume no KAKERA
Te ni totte miyou mata kagayakusa

Nakunaranaide ano hi no eien
Yawaraka na moufu no kumo de oyogu toki wo
Iroasenaide ano hi no eien
KARAFURU na HAATO wo mou ichido

Tsukamezu ni ochita itoshii kotoba ga
Hoshi no suna kabutte mienai dakedo
Tsukiakari no shita hansha shiteru suteki da ne

Togatteru to kizu tsukeau

Demo hontou wa manmaru dakara

Nakunaranaide ano hi no eien
Ryuusei no soyokaze ni kaminabiku yoru wo
Iroasenaide ano hi no eien
KARAFURU na HAATO wo mou ichido

KIRAKIRA shita watashi iro no katamari
Itsuka zenbu wataseru you ni Ah

Dakishimetai na anata no eien
Hoshizora no manazashi de tsutsumikomu you ni
Mamotte itai na anata no eien
KARAFURU na HAATO ni natte

Anata no eien Ah
Inotteitai na anata no eien
Tsunagatte ikimasu you ni...

Colorful Heart

Collecting so many things
The overflowing things, so important
Lie in wait like monochrome

Warm kindnesses
Pieces of dreams
Take them in our hands, still full of radiance

Don't disappear
The eternity of that day
That time swimming in the gentle blanket of clouds
Don't fade
The eternity of that day
Colourful heart, once more

The precious words I couldn't hold onto, which fell
Couldn't put on the sand of stars, but
Under the moonlight
Reflecting
It's breathtaking

You can hurt yourself on a sharp point

But that's why it is really a perfect circle

Don't disappear
The eternity of that day
That night where your hair fluttered
In the gentle breeze of a shooting star
Don't fade
The eternity of that day
Colourful heart, once more

The me-coloured katamari sparkled
One day to be passed on Ah

I want to hold you
Your eternity Ah
To wrap you up in a look of the starry sky
I want to protect you
Your eternity
For our hearts to become colourful

Your eternity Ah
I want to pray for you
Your eternity
So we can be connected...

Harvest of Love Lyrics and English Translation

2010-12-27T02:17:00.000-08:00

By popular request, I am doing more songs from the Beautiful Katamari soundtrack! This one is called 'Harvesting Rice of Love' or 'Harvest of Love'.

I left in something that some might be confused by, and that is the 'lovery'. I think this is a word pun, something that is very common in Japanese. Because there is effectively no difference between the 'l' and 'r' sound in Japanese, the word 'lovery' is a word that has a double-meaning. It refers to the lovers of the song -- a lovery day, as a descriptive word -- and also means lovely, which is of course what English speakers will understand from the word.

Madder is a colour of red, and 'akane iro' means 'madder-coloured'.

The rice shower she mentions is from a wedding, where rice is thrown to symbolise prosperity. I know some people won't get that immediately.

The Kobe line is a bit rambly and it's poetic licence that I put what I did, but it's essentially what the line means. I hope you don't mind.

Please do give me a link if you use my translation!

Enjoy, and keep rolling!

恋の稲刈り

金色の田んぼの中で
稲刈りに励んでるあなた
放課後のクラブを(野球)休んで
汗水流してる

駆け寄ってあいさつしたら
驚いてすぐにうつむいた
照れないで頭の(真っ白)タオル
まぶしく輝いて素敵(見とれちゃう)

知っていたよ私への熱き恋は
もぅ少しだけ強気で来ればいいのに
明日の休み手作りのクッキーもって
わら集めの応援するね
Lovery harvest day

稲刈りに追い立てられて
ぴょんぴょんぴょんと逃げるカエルたち
かわいくて後ろから(一緒に)ジャンプ
あなたがほほえんだ

「交替!」と呼ばれたあなた
コンバインすぐに飛び乗った
真剣な顔して(両手の)レバー
華麗に操作する素敵(見とれちゃう)

吹き出されるお米の流れを見たら
ライスシャワー思い浮かんでドキドキ
うちの嫁に来てくれだなんておばあちゃん
早すぎるよ恋はこれから
Lovery harvest day

あかね色に空が(そっと)
染まる
染まる
染まる
明日も晴れる
(Bright shiny tomorrow)

いわし雲が拡がる果てない空に
飛び立ちそう私のこころ軽くて
きっといつか二人で育てた苗が
実を結んでコウベを垂れる
Lovery harvest day

知っていたよ私への熱き恋は
もぅ少しだけ強気で来ればいいのに
明日の休み手作りのクッキーもって
わら集めの応援するね
大好きよ!

Koi no Inekari

Kin'iro no tanbo no naka de
Inekari ni hagenderu anata
Houkago no KURABU wo (yakyuu) yasunde
Asemizu nagashiteru

Kakeyotte aisatsu shitara
Odorite sugu ni utsumuita
Terenaide atama no (masshiroi) TAORU
Mabushiku kagayaite suteki (mitorechau)

Shitteita yo watashi e no atsuki koi wa
Mou sukoshi dake tsuyoki de kureba ii no ni
Ashita no yasumi tedzukuri no KUKKII motte
Waraatsume no ouen suru ne
Lovery harvest day

Inekari ni oitaterarete
Pyonpyonpyon to nigeru KAERUtachi
Kawaikute ushiro kara (isshou ni) JUMP
Anata ga hohoenda

'Koutai' to yobareta anata
KONBAIN sugu ni tobiotta
Shinken na kao shite (ryoute no) LEVAA
Kirei ni sousa suru suteki (mitorechau)

Fukidasareru okome no nagare wo mitara
RAISU SHAWAA omoi yonde DOKIDOKI
Uchi no yome ni kitekure da nante obaachan
Hayasugiru yo koi wa kore kara
Lovery harvest day

Akane iro ni sora ga (sotta)
Somaru
Somaru
Somaru
Asu mo hareru
(Bright shiny tomorrow)

Iwashigumo ga hirogaru hatenai sora ni
Tobitachisou watashi no kokoro karukute
Kitto itsuka futari de sodateta nae ga
Mino wo masunde KOUBE wo tareru

Shitteita yo watashi e no atsuki koi wa
Mou sukoshi dake tsuyoki de kureba ii no ni
Ashita no yasumi tedzukuri no KUKKII motte
Waraatsume no ouen suru ne
Daisuki yo!

Harvest of Love

Amid the gold-coloured field
Working hard in the rice harvest, it's you
You took the day off from your after-school club (baseball)
Sweat is flowing

Rushing over with a greeting
You're surprised by me and hang your head
Don't be bashful
The towel on your head (pure white) is shining -- beautiful (I'm enchanted)

I knew it -- just a little more before you send your heated love my way
It's okay to keep coming on strong
On tomorrow's break I'll bring you homemade cookies
Straw-collecting cheer
Lovery harvest day

Ejected from the rice harvest
The frogs run saying pyonpyonpyon
So cute -- from behind (along with them) jump!
You were laughing

'Shift change!' you called
You jumped right on the combine
You put on a serious face (with both hands on) the levers
Operating it so beautifully -- beautiful (I'm enchanted)

Gushing out -- look at the rice!
It makes me think of a rice shower, my heart pounding
I must become your bride...and grow old with you
All too fast! Love is from here onward
Lovery harvest day

The sky has (softly) become
Tinted
Tinted
Tinted
Madder
Tomorrow will be beautiful too
(Bright shiny tomorrow)

Cirrocumulus clouds stretch into the endless sky
My heart is so light I feel like I might fly away
Surely one day we'll raise seedlings together
We'll make it happen in Kobe
Lovery harvest day

I knew it -- just a little more before you send your heated love my way
It's okay to keep coming on strong
On tomorrow's break I'll bring you homemade cookies
Straw-collecting cheer
I love you!

Sayonara Rolling Star Japanese Lyrics and Translation into English

2010-12-26T09:17:00.000-08:00

A little gift for everyone, even those who may not know me or my work, or what I do.

I am a huge Katamari fan. I should probably explain, Katamari Damacy is a series of games where the object is very simple: roll a ball, called a katamari (it means 'mass' or 'lump' in Japanese) and collect things on it to make stars and planets. It sounds silly and odd, but it's actually one of the greatest game series ever made. The music always complements the unique visuals perfectly.

It's also a very special game to me, because webbychan -- my mate who passed away in 2007 -- suggested I get the first game when it was released. I will always associate him with 'Sakurairo no Kisetsu', or 'Cherry Blossom Times' as the title was translated.

Many of the songs have a certain 'mono-no-aware', which if you don't know what that is, is a kind of sadness. But it's a very Japanese concept that permeates Japanese culture: it is a sense of sadness of the impermanence of things, but a happiness as well that they were able to be experienced at all. It's often called the 'ah'-ness of things, because it reminds one of sighing in a mixture of happiness and sadness.

Anyway, the third console game, Beautiful Katamari, is one of the funnest of the series, and I dearly love the soundtrack. Pretty much every song on it is brilliant. It also features Matsumoto Iyo, a very famous idol from the 80s, doing a delightful song called 'Boyfriend a Go Go' which is one of my favourites.

But my absolute favourite is 'Sayonara Rolling Star', and recently I was trying to find a translation to show to a friend of mine who didn't speak Japanese but really loved the sound of the song.

The problem is, there isn't one that I could find. It was quite a challenge even to find the lyrics.

And so, even though my talent at translation is lacking, I thought I would supply them to you based on both my own hearing and what I confirmed at the handful of lyrics sites I managed to find with the song on them. I'm fine at understanding Japanese, it's just very difficult to convey that meaning to others, especially when so many things in Japanese have many levels of meaning, and sometimes double meanings that are necessary to understand the full meaning. But I did my best. I've included Japanese, Japanese transliterated, and English lyrics.

I did a few little inside jokes in translation that fans of the series should get, like the Eternal reference and some other things that are in the spirit of the lyrics, since there are references all over them about the game. It's such a beautiful song. Such a beautiful, beautiful song. I hope I have managed to convey its beauty.

I hope you'll all enjoy this. Please do give me a link if you're using these anywhere.

And keep rolling!

サヨナラ ROLLING STAR

どこに転がるか分からない
でも私たち幸せだった
傷つけてはすりへるような感じ
わだかまりのかたまりね

どうしてこのまま
進んでいけないんだろう
不思議だね

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
強くまわり続けよう
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
綺麗な○(まる) にしようね

気持ちが高ぶっては消える
打ち上げ花火のようなせつな
毛糸球がほどけていくように
小さくなるこの気持ち

いつまでいられる？
つないだ手が少しずつ離れてく

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
それぞれ大きくなって
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
○く転がっていこうね

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
さよならはつらいけど
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
前を向いて生きていこう

さみしいよ改札で手を振って笑い合う
こらえきれない前に後ろ振り向いて涙

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
小さな○をかいたら
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
大きな○で支えてあげて

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
一番大好きだった
Good to see you. あなたのこと
忘れないよ絶対に

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
いいかな？
いいよね？
またどこかで...

SAYONARA ROLLING STAR

Doko ni korogaru ka wakaranai
Demo watashitachi shiawase datta
Kizu tsukete wa suriheru you na kanji
Wadakamari no katamari ne

Doushite kono mama
Susunde ikenaindarou fushigi da ne

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Tsuyoku mawari tsudzukeyou
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Kirei na maru ni shiyou ne

Kimochi ga takabutte wa kieru
Uchiage hanabi no you na setsuna
Keitodama ga hodoketeiku you ni
Chiisaku naru kono kimochi

Itsumade irareru?
Tsunaida te ga sukoshizutsu hanareteku

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Sorezore ookiku natte
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Maruku korogatteikou ne

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Sayonara wa tsurai kedo
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Mae wo muite ikiteikou

Samishii yo kaisatsu de te wo futte waraiau
Koraekirenai mae ni ushiro furimuite namida

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Chiisa na maru wo kaitara
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Ooki na maru de sasaete agete

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Ichiban daisuki datta
Good to see you. Anata no koto
Wasurenai yo zettai ni

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Ii ka na?
Ii yo ne?
Mata dokoka de...

SAYONARA ROLLING STAR

I don't know where we're rolling to
But we were happy
This feeling like injuries wearing us down
It's a mass of ill feeling

Why is it this time
We can't seem to keep going
It's so strange

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Keep rolling strongly
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Make a beautiful ball

All that self-confidence vanished
Like fireworks, in a twinkling
Came unwound like a ball of yarn
Feeling smaller

Can you do it eternally?
Our joined hands are little by little coming apart

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Every time you're becoming bigger
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Let's roll

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Goodbye is painful, but
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Live your life looking forward

So lonely at the ticket taker
Waving and smiling
I couldn't stand it
Before I got there, I turned around and cried

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
If you take care of that little ball
Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
You can make it into a big ball

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
I loved you the most
Good to see you.
I will never, ever forget you.

Good to see you. You are my rolling star.
Okay?
Is that okay?
Until we meet again, somewhere...

be

2010-12-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

I know most all of my readers are aware of these things, but to those who may not be, I'd like to offer a gesture of tolerance, understanding, and acceptance this holiday season. If more people would take these things to heart, so much suffering in the world could disappear.

Sexism is discrimination against anyone because of gender or gender identity. 'Reverse sexism' is itself a sexist term, because it presumes that the person being discriminated against is always necessarily sexist and already discriminated against the other person. Sexism is discrimination due to gender or gender identity against anyone, male, female, hermaphrodite, transsexual -- anyone. And it is wrong.

Racism is discrimination against anyone because of race. In the modern world, most people have mixed and rich heritage of many races of people. Racism is ludicrous to begin with, but especially today. Most distinguishing by race is merely cataloguing by physical characteristics.

Ageism is discrimination against anyone because of age. In a world where life expectancies are longer than ever, and medical technology is more advanced than ever, people are more capable for longer. Yet attitudes persist that after 50, a person's worth is lessened. Similarly, people under certain ages are also discriminated against by others and sometimes even denied fundamental human rights.

Discrimination and intolerance know no bounds. You can be racist against your own race. You can be sexist against your own gender. In short, a person can be discriminatory against his or her own social groups.

Discrimination exists against sexual preference. This essentially makes any non-heterosexuals into second-class citizens, unable to enjoy fundamental rights that are afforded to heterosexuals. It can lead to abuse, attacks, and hate crimes, and it is every bit as wrong as racism, sexism, or ageism. Non-heterosexuals are often completely and unfairly disregarded in casually discriminatory statements, practices, or laws.

But I would like to give you a little reminder. You can download the images below (please do not link them directly from here) and upload them to your own blogs, comics, webspace, and whatever else you want.

The message is a simple one: be.

Be who you are, and allow others to be who they are. Help to stand against intolerance, injustice, and all other forms of detrimental discrimination in the world. Don't be afraid to say 'I don't agree with this' or 'this makes me uncomfortable', regardless of who is doing it. Intolerance is intolerance, regardless of its source.

The road to ruin is paved with good intentions, as the old adage goes. Even charities and non-profit groups may promote intolerance without understanding why. If more people contacted them and let them know this, they may be more willing to change, to be more inclusive.

Before you support any group, ask yourself the following questions:

Are they helping one group by discriminating against another? This is not uncommon, especially in today's world. For example, in many communities, men -- and most especially heterosexual men -- are not supported in any way if they are victims of sexual abuse or rape. Similarly, specific men's health issues are often overlooked or downplayed, and male sufferers of diseases commonly associated with women -- such as breast cancer -- are significantly overlooked because of promotion, publicity, and popular misconception. Beneficial groups can help those suffering from a common condition without being exclusionary or promoting misinformation that in turn causes others to be exclusionary. In a world of dwindling attention spans, it is important to present a balanced view concisely. If more people speak up and contact these groups, it may be possible to help them and, by so doing, help others.

Are they actually helping people? For example, there are plenty of shelters and similar places run by religious-affiliated groups who help the less fortunate and victims of abuse and other crimes. However, some of these have been shown to use the opportunity to force their views on those they help, which can lead to other problems and can be very harmful to a delicate emotional state. In some cases, if these victims do not agree, they are denied any help. It is one thing to have the religious information available to those who are interested, but a very different thing to impose these beliefs upon those who have no other choice.

Are they addressing an actual problem? People have only limited funds and other material support to dedicate to problems that affect them. Several groups exist to combat the adult entertainment industry, for example -- an industry more heavily regulated than virtually any other industry in the world, made up of adult professionals who are paid for their work, like any other job. It is common for these groups to misrepresent the industry as abusing and exploiting women and children (overlooking the facts that abuse is illegal, men also work in the industry, that all-male adult videos exist, and that children are not allowed in adult film because it is illegal), but what are they doing to actually help those they claim are victims? Often, nothing. It may be better to find a group who actually works with legitimate abuse victims and helps them to repair their lives and heal, or a group who works to stop illegal exploitation.

Does their approach make you uncomfortable? If so, you may want to look for another cause to support, or contact them and let them know why you feel uncomfortable. If anyone attempts to judge you for choosing not to support any group, you can remind them that it is your choice in the first place. If you feel that a group is presenting itself in a way that makes you feel excluded, weigh the positive and negative and ask yourself: are they being tolerant? Are they letting others be who they are, or are they promoting discrimination against others, implicitly or explicitly?

Above all, the most important thing is to be who you are, to allow others to be who they are, and to consider the people and causes that you support. It is your choice, to weigh the benefit and detriment of each and every group, cause, and person. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is tell them if you have a problem with a part of their approach, because they might not even realise that it is offensive or objectionable to someone, or that it is misrepresenting facts.

If you support being yourself and letting others be themselves, please feel free to add one of the following images to your internet presence. Remember to download them from here, don't directly link them, and upload them to your own space on the web. If you'd be so kind, please do make the buttons link back here (http://hushicho.blogspot.com/2010/12/be.html), so people can read and find out about be.

Urgent Petitions

2010-12-08T02:13:00.000-08:00

For all of you regular readers, you know how important it is to me that these petitions be signed as quickly as possible. They do make a difference.

If you can't sign them yourself, at least spread the word and try to reach those who can. These are all issues that affect the world at large, not just the US, but some petitions are restricted by geographical area. Nonetheless, you can still do an immense amount of good by telling others who might be able to sign, or who might know people who can.

Save Wolves - This petition is to stop a very rash move by a very foolish man, who may endanger the lives of thousands of endangered animals if he does what he intends to do. If he is allowed to do as he pleases, protection for all endangered species will be compromised by his actions. This administration has allowed more than enough destruction of nature and wildlife. It should not be permitted to do any further.

Clicking the link will take you to Defenders of Wildlife, one of the foremost wildlife protection charitable organisations that exists in the world.

Protect Human Rights - The recent wikileaks debacle has polarised people. However, things have -- as usual -- gone much too far. And, as usual, the strongest supporter of insanity is Joe Lieberman, a politician whose disturbingly extreme policies have caused him to be rejected by both major parties in the United States.

Please sign this petition, which aims to stop proposals by Lieberman and his supporters to implement laws that would be retroactive in nature. If they are allowed to do this, it's over. The justice system, the Constitution...I'm not exaggerating when I say that will all be in danger. If they're allowed to implement laws that are retroactive, it would be like outlawing potato chips tomorrow and then punishing everyone who ever bought, owned, or ate potato chips then, despite them not having been illegal before then.

You can see where this is a worrying issue. So whatever your thoughts on wikileaks, this goes far beyond that. This is undermining the very nature of law, and it must not be allowed to happen.

Honestly, if these politicians had either maturely owned up to their actions or let it blow over, it would not be such a huge disaster. But they have made a huge fuss over it, which says nothing so much as 'we know what we did was wrong and we did it anyway', even if they actually didn't. Since there are no longer legal protections for government whistle-blowers (thanks, Supreme Court, for protecting politicians from being responsible!) -- people who can point out wrongdoing in government -- this country and indeed the world needs an anonymous place in which to do that.

Governments must be made accountable to their people. They cannot be allowed to make decisions the people overwhelmingly oppose, cannot be allowed to oppress their people, and above all cannot be allowed to imagine that they are above the system of checks and balances that are supposed to restrict them and make them accountable. The United States government especially has been guilty of this very 'teenager-ish' behaviour, and it must stop. It is time for politicians to think about the people that they have wronged and understand that politicians are held accountable by the very people whom they have shamed by their actions.

It is not wikileaks or any other third party who should be held accountable here. It is the government and specifically the people who committed these disgraceful acts that have been revealed to the public. They are embarrassing to the American people, they are in violation of international law, and they are unethical and unscrupulous. These people have brought shame on an entire country of people.

Don't be angry at wikileaks or the person who revealed it. That's just silly. That's as stupid as getting angry at a waiter because your food was bad. He didn't cook it. That's a 'kill the messenger' mentality, which is a mistake.

Be angry at the people who did these things. These same people are trying right now to ride roughshod over the law so that they can punish someone who did nothing wrong, simply because he enabled their own indiscretions to be revealed.

Each and every politician who was and is a part of this should be forced to apologise to the American people on national television and resign his or her post. There is no excuse for this kind of behaviour. None.

So please consider that when you are considering whether or not to sign this petition. You need to sign it. If you have read this far, you know you need to sign it too. So please do, and please spread the word. Tomorrow will be too late.

COLOR OF LOVE

2010-12-02T01:59:00.000-08:00

I thought today I would share with you one of the most powerful and moving songs that I have heard in recent years, coupled with one of the most poignant videos I have ever seen.

ARIA - COLOR OF LOVE

The lyrics are below, with my own quick translation. I'm still unfortunately under the weather, and I understand very well but I don't always convey what I understand to others very well. I hope they will give you some idea of how beautiful the lyrics are anyway.

COLOR OF LOVE
words and music by ARIA

Far-off days smile from this sky
Even the tear-stained nights seem precious

Multicoloured canvases
Piled up one by one
Are the greatest gift from you

Pure white sky and
Deep red streets
Melt together this day
As if they would forever continue that way

When I embrace a dream painted as a child
Someone by my side always came to protect me

Multicoloured kindnesses
Met by chance one by one
Now are my greatest treasure

Gentle wind and
Warm love
Meet by chance that day
As if wrapping you in their embrace

Can you see the color of love?
Can you see the color of love?
Can you see the color of love?

Pure white sky and
Deep red streets
Melt together this day
As if they would forever continue that way

COLOR OF LOVE
words and music by ARIA

Toozakaru hibi ga kono sora hohoemu kara
Namida someta yoru sae itoshiku omoeru

Hitotsu hitotsu kasaneta
Irotoridori no CANVAS wa
Anata kara no saikou no okurimono dayo

Masshiroi sora to
Kurenai no machi ga
Tokeau konna hi ga zutto tsudzukimasu you ni

Kodomo no goro egaita yume o dakishimeru toki
Dareka ga soba de itsumo mimamotte kureta

Hitori hitori deaeta
Irotoridori no yasashisa ga
Ima dewa sou nani yori no takaramono dayo

Yawarakai kaze to
Atatakai ai ga
Meguriau sonna hi ga kimi o tsutsumimasu you ni

Can you see the color of love?
Can you see the color of love?
Can you see the color of love?

Masshiroi sora to
Kurenai no machi ga
Tokeau konna hi ga tsudzukimasu you ni…

(from AS Lyrics)

COLOR OF LOVE
words and music by ARIA

遠ざかる日々がこの空微笑むから
涙染めた夜さえ愛しく想える

ひとつひとつ重ねた
色とりどりのキャンバスは
あなたからの　最高の　贈りものだよ

真っ白い空と
紅の街が
とけ合うこんな日がずっと続きますように

子供の頃描いた夢を抱きしめる時
誰かが傍でいつも見守ってくれた

一人一人出逢えた
色とりどりの優しさが
今ではそう　何よりの　宝ものだよ

やわらかい風と
あたたかい愛が
巡り会うそんな日が君を包みますように

Can you see the color of love?
Can you see the color of love?
Can you see the color of love?

真っ白い空と
紅の街が
とけ合うこんな日が続くように…

(from AS Lyrics)

Japanese Web Lamentation

2010-12-01T07:11:00.000-08:00

I remember in the late 90s, when I used to surf the Japanese internet and just enjoy the refreshing difference of the kind of sites I'd find, as well as the different aesthetic and, oftentimes, the different kinds of art and different things they did. It was always something new and exciting.

However, recently it's been more depressing than anything else. It's a reflection of the society, admittedly, and right now Japan isn't in a good way thanks to some dodgy direction for the country and a lot of upheaval as the generational shifts force society into new ways, even as the old guard try to cling to the old.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I understand some of the secrecy. I understand the need that some of them feel to add a password or a hidden URL to access their sites.

But you know what? Most of the time, it's just stupid.

The most common reason that these people give for them putting their sites behind a password or a generally stupid URL is to prevent 'foreigners' from reproducing the pictures and reposting them elsewhere.

News flash, guys: most reposting and reproduction is done by Japanese people on the Japanese internet, not the all-inclusive label of 'foreigners'. There were some isolated incidents over ten years ago where a handful of American sites attempted to lift art from Japanese sites and charge visitors for the privilege of viewing it, but that was pretty much dealt with quickly. It was also completely blown out of proportion, and more or less zero of the modern Japanese internet has ever had to worry about the same.

It's just xenophobia, and it's crass.

As for reposting of images, don't put them online if you don't want them to find their way around again. Most of the time, the images are jpg anyway, which means that they're incredibly lossy. They're not suited for print. Any professional would be able to tell you this. If you're worried about people not finding their way back to your site or you getting the credit you need, learn how to comment in the file of a gif or put a watermark on the image that can't be covered or removed without disrupting the image itself.

Another thing about Japanese websites is that they aren't around forever. Most websites are impermanent by nature, but Japanese websites are the example of ephemeral web presences. If a website owner loses interest in the fandom or doesn't want to draw anymore, as many of them are hobbyists, the site can just close overnight and you will never see the art again. This is one of the reasons why people will save and sometimes later repost the art. It is also not uncommon at all that site owners will remove work that they no longer like, or work of a series that they no longer follow, without any warning.

Having a website for your art is wonderful, but it's self-defeating if you make visitors jump through so many hoops to see it that they end up quitting because it's not worth the trouble. Who wants to sit there and try to figure out the (usually misspelled) answer to a puzzle that only makes sense to the person who wrote it, to see art that may or may not wow them? It's a shame, but a lot of people just decide they'd rather click on another site that doesn't have the ridiculous restrictions and actually, you know, gives them content that they don't have to work so hard just to see. Attention spans are devastatingly low, especially online; if you haven't gripped an audience in half a minute, you're not going to get them to stay and figure out a quiz for the next five.

Most of the time, the content hidden by these endless tests isn't even controversial, or worse yet, the creator thinks it's much more prone to excite than it actually is. When I can be bothered to figure out the inane clues, most of the time I'm greeted with content that reaches such stunning extremes as two male characters having a drink together, or a character with his shirt off at the beach, or something. This is not controversial.

There's really no reason to put a password or hidden URL on your website. It's going to end up posted online somewhere, no matter how much you try to persuade your visitors not to do so. And even doing that and posting it on your site is going to tempt countless visitors to do it, simply because you asked them not to. It is an incredibly ill-considered tactic.

If you are going to go to the trouble, however, use some logic. Yes, you'll have an extra layer of assurance because all visitors obviously wanted to access the content if they bothered to figure out the password. However, any password is going to give them pause. If you wrote down the password in a paragraph on the index page, it would still make them have to read that paragraph in order to find out what it is.

If you are determined to make it a guessing game, at least make it something that people in the fandom would know. Most sites aren't dedicated to a single series. But those that are could have the password or URL be something from the series. However, it does no good if this is some obscure reference that not even many of the fans will know.

To illustrate, I went to one site looking for Lord of the Rings work. The site I found was a great site, but there was a hidden URL to access part of it. So I sighed and read the question.

'In what year did Bilbo adopt Frodo as his heir?'

I used to be pretty conversent in Middle-Earth, but who memorises things like that? To boot, it's not like there is a single dating convention for Middle-Earth, since Tolkien never liked anything that was straightforward or simple.

Virtually no member of the fandom is going to know that. They shouldn't be expected to know that. It would be much better to ask something like 'what is the name of the Hobbit who claimed the Ring from Gollum?' or 'what is the name of the grey wizard?' or 'how many rings were made for the Elves?' At least people would know them offhand, and they're things that any fan of the series can be expected to know.

But I did some searching and found it out. It wasn't that easy, but it wasn't ridiculously difficult. I still shouldn't have had to take the time doing that.

The unfortunate thing is, that's one of the easier times you will have if you go to surf the Japanese web.

So many sites now have two-part guessing games, too. So you end up with two obtuse clues and a frankenword that makes less sense. You end up with a word like 'dildofruit' or something and you wonder why on earth you had to spend so much time figuring it out. Usually it's wrong and you have to try to guess what the writer originally intended, because they write riddles that they don't realise only make sense to them.

I know there probably aren't many people reading who will understand what I'm talking about, but I hope some of them might know and feel they're not alone by reading this. I'd write more of the Japanese sites, but I can't figure out all the hints to get to them!

In Defence of Prince Charming

2010-11-26T00:27:00.000-08:00

Recently I have been watching some films I missed, and several of them are prince-and-princess fantasy romances...I always have had such a weakness for those. However, in my recent resurgence of interest in that particular style, I recalled Disney's release Tangled, which tells a quirky new version of the Rapunzel story.

From what I found out, due to the profits of The Princess and the Frog being less than they wanted, and because they think the princess genre is outre, Disney don't plan to do any more princess films indefinitely after Tangled. They even shifted the marketing to concentrate on the male lead, Flynn, rather than the princess, in the hopes of bringing a larger audience than young girls to the cinema.

But really, is that the answer? The Princess and the Frog brought in more than enough profit, but they spent so much because of picky potential audiences (most of which just complained and never intended to see it anyway) and puttering around trying to change it, again and again, until Tiana was comparatively put through hardly any hardship at all. The original concept for the film was quite solid; but then people started complaining because Tiana was in a situation...that was pretty much exactly how Cinderella, Snow White, and countless other princesses before her had been put in. It became a very ugly race issue, especially when people started to complain about her prince not being of her exact same race -- what difference does it make?!

But I digress. Does this mean that we're going to see just computer-animated films? Just 3D animation now, with hit-or-miss premises and all made in the Pixar way? Not that I hate Pixar or anything, but I personally can only take so much CG animation. It's everywhere, it's overused, and it's achieved poorly more than it is achieved well.

Does this mean that one of the few things Disney had left that it did well, that it distinctively held, is going to go by the wayside, simply because they're foolish enough to think that Princes Charming are no longer trendy?

I have never known a little girl who didn't love the idea of princesses and princes. I have known only a handful of adult women -- and men, for that matter -- who don't hold a special place in their hearts for them. I think it's disgusting how some 'experts' on the subject now claim that girls as young as six years old should be dieting and being interested in what adults think is 'hot' or 'cool'.

Because you know what? Most of the people who complain about Prince Charming are the people who don't have any idea what the hell they're talking about anyway.

These stories aren't about waiting around doing nothing and expecting some handsome knight on a white horse to spirit you away from it all, without any actual emotional investment from you. It isn't about some oppressive male power-holder taking you away to dominate you, either. It makes me wonder if the people who complain about these stories ever bothered to read or watch them.

Prince Charming is a reward. He's an ideal. Cinderella, for example, didn't just sit around doing nothing and hoping that she'd be rescued by Prince Charming. She did a lot, she worked hard, and she took her happiness where she could. She appreciated the small things and the everyday delights that her wicked stepfamily overlooked. Anyone who paints a portrait of a girl sitting around diddling herself while she waits for her prince to come has no familiarity with the stories at all.

Prince Charming falls in love with his princess, not because she's just pretty, but because she's beautiful, and that comes from the inside. She has endured. She has worked hard, and she has put up with things that some might not. She has kept her hope and her inner beauty, the inner light that makes her so special, and that is what Prince Charming falls in love with. That is why he doesn't fall for any of the other girls. They don't have that.

The stories are to teach a lesson, and that lesson is that being good and keeping hope alive, even if things aren't the way you might want them all the time, will bring eventual rewards. It's a very hopeful message. Prince Charming is the ideal partner, and he comes along to appreciate you for who you are, because you've ideally been a good person and kept hope alive within yourself.

Fairy tales reward the good and punish the evil. They spread hope to those who try to do what is good and what is right, even at personal cost or suffering. Prince Charming is a light, perhaps distant, in the darkness. But his distant light is something that is drawing closer, and you can take comfort in that. One day, your prince will arrive. It may not be today, but it will be someday. He may not ride a white horse, he may not have perfectly coiffed hair, and he may not be able to carry a tune, but he will be your prince. And that will be the most wonderful thing in the world.

I think what most of the people who criticise Prince Charming misunderstand is that very fact. They themselves are often the type who too literally interpret the stories, instead of listening with the ears of a child and then digesting as an adult. No, it's unlikely some actual handsome young fellow of royal blood will come and rescue you at some unexpected point and then spirit you instantly away for a perfect marriage full of love and no real obligation to consummate. But it's very likely that, sooner or later, patience, diligence, and hope will bring their own reward in the form of one who loves you for who you are, and what you do.

Let's believe in Prince Charming. He always believes in each and every one of us.

Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame

2010-11-26T00:05:00.000-08:00

Those of you who know me will probably know that I used to be fluent in French, and I was a complete francophile for many years. I still love the culture and the language and hold it in high esteem, even though my speaking and comprehension is a tad rusty from disuse. I can still read through my Docteur Justice collection though!

At the time Disney's film Hunchback of Notre Dame came out, I wasn't really that into Disney films, and by then I'd kind of distanced myself from them because of what I'd heard about how their company works. I can admire the skill and expertise of their work, but at the same time I don't really like the company at all.

But it was a surprisingly good film, with an equally surprising amount of bold statements about society, corruption, herd behaviour, and real evil.

To be honest, my favourite version of the story was always the 1939 version. I know I'm not alone in this one. It was the 'why was I not made of stone, like thee?' one. That one will always stick in my mind as being the definitive film adaptation.

However, Disney's version of the story takes a different angle and does it very well. It has a message that is very applicable, especially now: one of not being complacent and obeying, simply because an edict comes from someone with a title, one of tolerance for those who are different and those who may not be a part of our lives, and one of doing what is right, even if you are the only one who does so. It's a great statement of what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, and it really doesn't pull any punches. It surprised me, and very much, for being a Disney film. But, like many fairy tales, Disney films are also often unfairly regarded as sugar-coating things. They don't really, most of the time. Just enough to keep things a little rosy, especially in this case. There was plenty of sadness, plenty of that 'reality' that people keep going on about...plenty to show that they were firmly in touch with what is going on.

I say this is definitely one to give a watch. Maybe it will inspire you as it did me.

Why I'm Against the TSA -- And You Should Be Too

2010-11-23T00:11:00.000-08:00

Most of you who read this blog regularly know who I am and are familiar with my work. I do comics, and I don't shy away from nudity and adult content. I think the body is a thing of beauty and that shame shouldn't be something associated with it, but this is largely a world full of societies of shame, chiefly because shame sells. The clothing, makeup, hair care, and other such companies would lose significant sales if shame wasn't maintained. It's sad but true.

However, while I view the body as a thing of beauty, it is also something not to be trivialised either. While comics and drawings of naked people are fine entertainment, they're comics, drawings, and from the pen of an artist. Adult films, similarly, are the creations of people working together and being well-paid to do something that they enjoy doing, to bring enjoyment to others.

You might think this means I have no problem with the TSA's scanners, because of this. But that's not true.

The body is beautiful, and there shouldn't be shame associated with it. That does not, however, mean that it should be open to be shown to anyone and everyone, at any given time, without your consent. We control who see us naked, when, and why. Stars of adult film are no different; they simply have a profession where they are often naked at work. But they could find other employment if they did not wish to do so any longer, which several have done after a successful stint in adult film.

Allowing a complete stranger to have comprehensive nude photography of you is not something that should ever be required to participate in transit. And whatever some might say, flying is necessary for some people. There is no comparably rapid transit available to another continent, and until they build a bridge from the East Coast to Europe, air travel will be the only timely option.

The scanners used by the TSA are not only inadequately-tested and dangerous, with regards to radiation, but they are completely unnecessary. Backscatter scanners, such as they use, are nothing more than glorified metal detectors. They can detect objects, only if those objects are not obscured by folds of skin or parts of the body. They furthermore do not need to make a full nude image of a person, in order to detect any items. Similar scanners in use elsewhere in the world merely have a generic paper doll, upon which areas appear where an item is detected. Basically all this scan does is detect metal. That's pretty much it.

If you refuse a scan, you're forced through a 'pat-down', which is a nice way of saying 'sexual assault'. During these 'pat-downs', their personnel are told to handle your genitalia and private areas, including the chest. This is, not mincing words, sexual assault. As I have said before, we tell children 'if anyone ever touches you in a way that makes you uncomfortable, tell them no and go find an adult'.

Of course, they give you the option of going into a 'private' room, which is in fact rarely private and typically open to the outside. So you might as well just have it done in front of even more total strangers, which is really a better option since, if you're mistreated (as many travellers have now revealed they have been), you'll have witnesses.

Not that the TSA believe they have to pay any attention to the law, or else they would know that the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution would seem to indicate their entire operations in violation of the foundations American law. No, they believe they are above the law, and so they do as they please, without concern for any restrictions or legal repercussions.

They must be stopped. The only way that will happen is for people to stand up, band together, and put aside their differences to say 'this is not okay'. Whatever politicians of whatever position can try to give it as much spin as they want to, but it doesn't change the reality of the situation. Politicians don't have to go through the indignity that the people do.

If enough people speak out, take a stand, and continue to insist that this is wrong, something will be done. Action will be taken. And if nothing is done, and this is continued to be permitted, where will it stop? Where will people draw the line? If we allow people to violate our bodies and even commit sexual assault against us, and against children and senior citizens as they please, where is the line drawn? Are we, then, going to allow our persons to be violated randomly as we go about our daily business? Shall we allow them to intrude into our houses, perhaps because we live under a flight path?

The TSA's antics have already affected international mail. They have already managed to assert their overcreeping jurisdiction beyond the bounds of airports. It is far past time for action. We must say no, and we must refuse to submit to what is clearly abuse of power and practices that are wrong, unjust, inhuman, and plainly put, evil.

The TSA are in violation of fundamental human rights. And though some may think that a mention of Nazi Germany invalidates arguments, they could not be more wrong. The parallels, to any students of history, are particularly chilling and extremely compelling.

The time is now to refuse to allow the TSA to do as they please. This has gone far enough, and it is long past time for it to end. Do not fly, if you have to travel. Write the airlines and tell them that you will not be flying until the TSA's 'security' measures are either made less invasive or done away with entirely. If you have to fly, refuse to be scanned, and insist on having a non-TSA police officer with you if you are patted down. Do not allow them to take you into a private room; make sure you have witnesses. File a complaint with the TSA after flying, and be sure to sign the petitions by organisations such as the ACLU, WeWontFly.com, and DemandProgress.org.

Don't insist that your friends and relatives fly to visit you. It may mean that you aren't able to see each other for a holiday, but if you care about these people, you won't mind because that also means they won't be sexually assaulted to come and see you. Personally, I would sooner die than cause a loved one to experience his or her body being violated by a stranger abusing power.

The TSA's measures have not made a bit of difference. The TSA has, in its entire existence, not made any material difference in any incident whatsoever. Their methods are questionable, their results, or lack thereof, speak for themselves. Other countries in the world -- far more targeted, like Israel -- have drastically less invasive and demeaning airport security, and they do just fine. Why is it, then, that the TSA seem to imagine it necessary to dehumanise and debase those who fly from or to the United States?

Oppose the TSA, before it's too late. We have already lost so much. I for one don't want to think about if we wait much longer and lose our ability even to take a stand as we are.

Thanks for a Great Show!

2010-11-21T11:25:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to make a post to thank everyone involved with the fantastic show yesterday, and everyone who came to see me and the comics! It was a splendid time, and I'm exhausted but happy!

Thanks so much!

Comic Show Appearance TOMORROW!

2010-11-19T08:41:00.001-08:00

To all of you, just a reminder: I'm going to be appearing at a comic show in Knoxville, Tennessee tomorrow!

The show will be at the Days Inn at Merchant's Road. Here's the address, so you can put it into whatever directions website you like:

5335 Central Ave. Pike
Knoxville, TN 37912

The show will be from 10 AM to 4 PM or thereabouts.

I hope to see you there! I'll be doing sketches and of course I'll have all of my comics there too. If you want to take a peek at the Lamia Director's Cut, come on by!

COICA -- Contact your Senators NOW!

2010-11-18T18:22:00.000-08:00

This is not only a scary potential legislation, it's also potentially an extremely dangerous one. It basically gives the United States government control over the entire internet -- the World Wide Web, I might remind them -- and all of its included content and sites, giving them the ability to censor the web just like inhuman governments such as China and Iran do. Not that this is any surprise, given the proclivities of the US Government in the past ten years, but enough is enough.

Please contact your Senators here. Tell them to oppose COICA and that if they support it, they're doing a disservice to every American. Remind them that you vote, and that if they support COICA, you won't be supporting them next election, or any of their corporate sponsors, for that matter.

We have to stick together for this. Please. For the sake of the world that's being inherited by the young ones. So that they'll actually have a world, and not just a mass of issues that their forbears left them, that is if anyone is actually left after the inevitable backlash. This is an international legal mess just waiting to happen.

Please, let's not allow it to happen in the first place.

Little Addendum

2010-11-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

If you're in need of another source for the information, check out the article from The Japan Times Online here. There are plenty of other sources around for it, so just check google, goo, yahoo, infoseek, or your favourite internet search.

And please, if you would, sign and spread the word about my petition here.

There is also an ACLU petition here. Please sign it too. The ACLU are more likely to be heard, so we need to support their efforts too.

If we can get enough people to sign it, we can get this more notice in Washington, which is what we need more than anything right now. We have to stand together and put our collective foot down that we are not going to accept the actions of a small organisation shown to be corrupt, which now seeks to assert its power over the American populace at large.

If only 500 people sign this petition, it will at least raise a few eyebrows. There's no reason why we can't get many, many more than that.

ADDITION: Please also visit http://flywithdignity.org/ . It's a great site that has opposed the TSA, in a growing number of sites and organisations opposing the monstrous group.

When Does It End?

2010-11-18T06:13:00.000-08:00

Now I've received word that things are even getting worse outside of passenger air travel.

The US has decided to limit severely any inbound packages to US addresses, thanks to TSA paranoia. I don't know about other countries, but I've just learned that Japan Post will be limiting, at least for the next month, all packages to the US to 1 pound, no more.

While EMS shipping is expected to be available for any weight around mid-December, EMS is extremely expensive and all customers can't pay such a high price.

Unless sellers take the time and painstakingly long process to register as a 'reliable shipper', they're basically limited to 1 pound.

So goodbye to any manga, doujinshi, books, furniture, even religious items like kamidana.

Naturally, as with the rest of their paranoia, they haven't listed any indication of when this will actually end, and the mid-December date is merely an estimate.

With the economy in the shambles that it is, limiting commerce is not the answer. And even though 'reliable shippers' can get things through -- after a process that is at least 30 days long, usually much longer -- this yet again unfairly limits commerce by creating a limited elite. Smaller businesses, or businesses who are unaware of these arbitrary changes, will be hit the hardest. This is going to have a severely negative effect on the economy.

Promoting insular monetary behaviour is unacceptable.

Note that the USPS have also neglected to mention, as of this writing, these limitations on their official website. Good going!

Write not only your representatives, but please also take the time to complain to the US Postal Service here. This seems to work best with IE. And contact your representatives here.

This is intolerable and ridiculous, and especially at this time of year is only an outrageous stunt to ruin buyers' holiday season.

It's already intolerable what they do to air travellers, but extending their influence to the postal service and the American public? Inexcusable.

They have crossed the line. Let's let them know it won't be allowed.

Lamia says 'I don't think so!'

2010-11-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

Lamia says 'I don't think so, TSA!'

This is an image that I am releasing for free use by those who oppose the TSA's heavy-handed actions and are working to fight for our rights and our dignity as American citizens.

Lamia and the image itself, as well as its contents, remain copyright Hushicho. The image may not be altered in any way, and full credit must be given somewhere on the site where you have used the image. A link to my official site at http://hushicho.captainn.net/ is appreciated.

That Won't Fly

2010-11-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

I want to encourage all of my friends, all regular readers of my blog and comics, and all of the people who simply stopped by here by chance, to engage in what is termed civil disobedience. It is long past time for this to be stood up against. And I would like to direct you to the blog of one courageous man who had the integrity to do so.

http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/2010/11/these-events-took-place-roughly-between.html

If you can travel by way of other means, don't fly.

If you have to fly, refuse backscatter x-ray machines and above all, refuse to be searched. The TSA have implemented searches where they direct their employees to touch your genitals. This is sexual abuse and is not to be tolerated by anyone.

When we are children, what do they tell us? Do you remember?

'If anyone tries to touch you in a way that makes you uncomfortable, tell them no and find a responsible adult.'

It's time to practise what we've told our society's children up to now.

Tell them no. If we don't start now, we'll never finish the fight to get our rights back that were squirted away after 2001's abysmal kick-off of fascist paranoia.

Refuse backscatter scans.

Refuse invasive, sexually abusive pat-downs.

Tell them you're perfectly willing to go through a metal detector like everyone else and have your baggage scanned like everyone else.

And tell them that if they touch you in any way that makes you uncomfortable, including your genitals and erogenous zones, you will have them arrested and bring suit against them in court for sexual abuse.

'It was on the website' does not constitute a legally binding contract.

'You should've known when you bought the ticket' does not constitute a legally binding contract.

'You walked into the airport' does not constitute a legally binding contract.

The only thing you are obligated to do if they will not accept your refusal is to leave the property. You have borne no threat to anyone, you possess no weapons or dangerous items, and you have done nothing criminal. It is their prerogative to allow access or deny access to any member of the public if it is private property. If they subsequently interfere with you leaving the property, they are completely at fault for first ejecting you from it and then disrupting an attempt in good faith to comply with their directive.

And don't think for a moment that this procedure is restricted to adults. No, quite the opposite; they have already stated they will perform this search on anyone and everyone they arbitrarily choose. If you were thinking about taking your daughter on that trip to Hawaii for Thanksgiving, think again since either they'll have a full and explicit nude portrait of her courtesy of backscatter, or they'll be molesting her.

It doesn't change things that they provide people with a person who is their same gender, to search them. It doesn't take away that it is abuse, or that they might be deriving pleasure from it. There are such things as homosexuality and bisexuality. And furthermore, any time anyone touches your genitalia or any commonly erogenous zone (such as the nipples) without your permission, it is sexual abuse because these are sexual areas, whether or not they derive sexual pleasure from it themselves.

Speaking as a person who has survived sexual abuse in his life, I have no desire to be so treated again. It's bad enough when it's someone you care about and whom you trust with your body (in my case, a now very much ex-boyfriend), it's just as bad, if not worse, when it's someone who does it by abusing their authority.

That's what this is about. It's not about security in the slightest. They have full profiles of every person flying with them and can find out whatever they want to know with a metal scan. This is about exerting power over people and about controlling them, allowing these TSA molesters to feel superior to the people who paid good money for the privilege of being treated like assumed criminals.

No, check that; criminals at least aren't sexually molested in public.

Please also take a look at this valuable and important links, of people who are interested in the same goals:

National Opt-Out Day - Flying for Thanksgiving? Opt out of the search!

We Won't Fly - Stand together in unity against sexual molestation by airports.

And for those of you who may feel more motivated when you see a very real person's issues with these searches, I'd like you to take a look at this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ra3ov1mEZE&feature=player_embedded#!

If it doesn't make you think, then nothing I say or do here can.

Together, we can make a difference. It's time to put our collective foot down and say no, just like we tell children to do in kindergarten.

Let's set a better example than people have been.

Contact Your Representative, Say No To COICA

2010-11-12T15:20:00.000-08:00

A particularly nasty bill is proposed and in the US Congress that would presume to allow them to censor the internet. But not just for the United States -- for the world at large. Sites that some governing body deems unsuitable will be wiped from the face of the internet, not just in the US but all over the world. Clearly, this is a completely insane idea.

Those of you in the US, please write your representatives.

You can find their contact forms here.

The markup is scheduled for 18 November. The act is properly called S. 3804, Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act.

Let them know that what they propose is not only the wrong way to go about this, it will inevitably cause all taxpayers millions in court costs when this is taken to court...perhaps even international tribunal. It's a huge mess, an immense presumption, and overall something that will do no good to anyone, least of all the copyright holders it purports to champion. As a copyright holder and holder of intellectual property, I find this proposal chilling and outright evil.

Other sites you can visit are DemandProgress.org's site here and the Electronic Frontier Foundation's here.

Please act before it's too late!

Ka-Blam is Awesome

2010-11-03T19:37:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let all of my regular readers know: Ka-Blam is an awesome printer.

You can visit them at http://www.ka-blam.com/ and I hope you will.

I have used them for years, and I have never been disappointed with their quality and pricing. What's great is that they also handle sales for your comics through Indy Planet, which is the world's foremost independent comic shop.

You can visit Indy Planet at http://www.indyplanet.com/store/ for all kinds of fabulous comics.

They're not paying me to say this. I just always like to give credit where it's due, especially when I find a reputable and reliable business. Naturally, I want to encourage people to do business with them, because I think it's very important to support honest and dependable businesses!

So I hope you'll give them a try. They're always quick to reply, you can always depend on them, and personally I try to rely on them for all possible projects that I can.

Help Me Sell!

2010-11-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

To all of you kind and faithful readers, I have something for you today.

First of all, I have to say by way of introduction that I can't travel like I used to, for various reasons. So I depend on people who live elsewhere to help me market my works. No matter where you live, I likely can get things to you, and I'm very happy to do so.

To make this easier, I am providing you with a pdf file of the Cornucopia Studios Winter 2010-2011 Catalogue, which lists all of our products that we are currently offering for sale. It is a small file, so it can easily fit on a plain CD, or even a mini-disc. You can burn them and take them with you to a shop, and the shopkeeper can look over the catalogue and decide what to do. It's also easy to send the link to anyone who is interested. It will be available until the catalogue is no longer valid, so you don't have to worry about it being too ephemeral.

Since all of our works are gay-friendly and most of our works are at least for mature audiences (even if they don't all have explicit content), I would suggest that bookstores and novelty shops in gay-friendly parts of town (and even 'gay ghettos', concentrated areas of gay-friendly businesses and venues, which exist in many cities) be the first places to visit. Comic shops in general should be agreeable to most of our output, especially since it is available through ComicsMonkey too, which is an independent comic distribution service. For Roaring Twilight, our RPG sourcebook, you could try any gaming shop.

Be sure to be courteous, and also be sure to point out our web links at the start of the catalogue. If any of the vendors are interested in learning more, they can access most works completely for free, or they can write me for digital reader copies. Be sure to make sure soliciting isn't expressly forbidden. Usually all you have to do is ask to speak to the manager or the owner, and this works best at smaller, non-franchise stores.

Download the catalogue here.

I am also looking for reliable people who would like to sell the comics directly. You would be able to pocket the profits past cost. Great venues exist. If you might be interested, please contact me. If you're going to these venues anyway, selling a few books doesn't require a lot of effort. There are also many shows, conventions, group sales, and so forth that will sell books for you, if you provide them. Venues include:

- conventions, such as comic, game, anime, and so forth.

- trade shows.

- parties and underground gatherings, such as goth nights and raves.

- poetry slams and open mic nights.

- book discussion groups.

There are so many more. Just be sure it's welcome and then go for it! I'll be happy to help you in any way I can.

Working together, we can accomplish so much. I'd like to be able to show the world that through the goodness of people in honest co-operation, we managed to accomplish something amazing.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Comic Show 20 November!

2010-11-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

To all of you faithful friends, fans, and readers in general, I will be appearing at a comic, anime, game, and toy show on 20 November 2010! It's a Saturday, and I'll be there with all my comics, posters, and of course my pencils, pens, and paper if you would like a sketch or something more formal too!

The show will be at the Days Inn at Merchant's Road. Here's the address, so you can put it into whatever directions website you like:

5335 Central Ave. Pike
Knoxville, TN 37912

The show will be from 10 AM to 4 PM or thereabouts. Of course I'll have Lamia there with me, both versions, so if you'd like to take a peek at the Director's Cut or just look and see what awaits you on the website, stop by and say hello! Show your support!

I hope to see you there!

Glee Rocky Horror - Bigotry Refined

2010-10-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not a fan of Glee. And I personally think it's reprehensible what they did with Rocky Horror.

I understand it was network demands. But they had a female character play Frank (thereby completely undermining the entire point of the character), censored the word 'transsexual' (which is a great big slap in the face to any actual transsexuals watching), and overall butchered the attempt.

This is 2010. It's time to wake up.

They should not have done the episode at all if they couldn't do it right. This just sends a message out that discrimination is okay and that heterosexism and heteronormative behaviour is the only acceptable behaviour. This is especially shameful considering how Glee has tried to appeal to a gay audience.

I urge you all to write the network and demand an apology for this. It's not just that they've butchered something that I like, Rocky Horror...but the way that it was done, it was clear that it was nothing more than phobic attitudes against the GLBT community.

Write, contact, and boycott. This will not be allowed to stand.

You can contact Fox at askfox@fox.com.

Let them know that their censorship was unwelcome and bigoted, and that it is unacceptable in this day and age. Forcing the cast of Glee to place a female character in a male role because of clear homophobia is unacceptable, as is the censorship of the word 'transsexual', which sends a message of intolerance and hate to all transsexuals in the audience.

Tell them that you will be boycotting their network and all products and businesses advertised on their network until they issue an apology for their interference. It is not only their destruction of a beloved classic, Rocky Horror, but even more their open assault on the GLBT community, some of whom love Glee for its otherwise positive portrayal of gay characters.

Contact GLBT organisations and let them know you're not happy about this. And contact advertisers whose products appear on Fox and specifically on Glee. Let them know that this is not acceptable, and that when the GLBT community comes together, it is a thing to be reckoned with.

And if you would, sign my petition here and give Fox the message that what they did with Glee won't be tolerated by their GLBT audience. I may not like Glee, but to do that to all those who do is a slap in the face.

A Call for Artists!

2010-10-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

As all of you regular readers know, the sexy vampiress Lamia is going to launch her own series on Halloween! The site will officially go live, if it goes according to plan, on 29 October, so everyone reading this blog will be able to check out the early launch!

A Call for Creators

Lamia

I would also like to extend an invitation to any and all artists willing to work with my output. Each issue of Lamia will receive a Standard Edition and a Director's Cut edition, and both will be available in print and digitally. I typically do the Standard Edition's cover myself, but for the Director's Cut, a special release, I get another artist to do it.

Contract Info and Details

Any artists who are interested in this would have essentially carte blanche for the cover's content. A small contract would be necessary, due to the series characters being my copyright, but that much is necessary with any such work. For payment, I can offer either a percentage of sales, or we can treat it as a commission and I can pay you up-front for the work. I additionally have no problem helping you to set up a Ka-Blam and Indy Planet account so that you can profit from releasing art prints of your work. I will also happily take art prints to conventions and shows and sell them for you.

Glorious Artistic You

I am also in the planning phase of a gay-friendly, gay-oriented comic anthology that will be called Glorious Artistic You. I have always been gay-friendly in my work, but especially lately I think that an anthology like this will be well-received and serve a good purpose. In recent years, discrimination and bigotry have hit all-time highs, and that is especially tragic after all of the work that we did to improve life, to promote equal rights, and to be seen as something other than second-class citizens. I've discussed this problem in other recent entries, so I won't get into it again now.

Series Details

Glorious Artistic You will be a series updated every week and will be treated like a monthly magazine. Each week, I intend to update twice, with two pages forming an installment of a comic. The next week will be a different comic. Every four weeks, we will come back to the same comic, in a new installment.

For example, week 1 we could have comic A. Week 2 would be comic B. By week 5, we would return to comic A for another two-page episode. Week 6 would be a return to comic B, and so on.

Success, popularity, and interest will dictate how many comics are done by me. I am using this, in some ways, as a test for some comic ideas that would not be able to continue on their own. Eventually I may do two series per month, with each title switching out every other week, or less, or more.

Guest creators can do any number of comics, which will optimally update on days not used for other updates, for maximum exposure and interest.

Contract Details

I am currently looking for artists and other creators willing to work on Glorious Artistic You. Contracts will be negotiated in 4-week (1 month) increments. I expect at least 1 update per each week of that period, and all updates are to be delivered to me digitally before the beginning of the contract month. You retain all rights for your creations and stories, however I require a link back if they are posted elsewhere in the duration of Glorious Artistic You. I also will want to negotiate the ability to include them in a printed edition, for which you will receive a part of the profits proportional to your contribution.

For example, if you contribute 8 pages out of 32 total in the book, you will receive 1/4 of the profits for the book.

You don't have to do four comics, of course. You can if you want. You can simply do four pages of one comic, or a series of pin-ups.

Content

Pretty much any content is acceptable, because I don't want to restrain your creativity, but ideally I would like to see gay-friendly and uplifting work, rather than unpleasant or depressing work. The name is Glorious Artistic You, after all! Everything from comics to art to pin-ups is perfectly fine. Written works are welcome too. You can show full nudity or none at all, as far as content, and it can appeal to audiences everywhere from all-ages to adults only.

Advice to Interested Creators

Of course I am always happy to hear from fellow artists, and these are both opportunities for work, exposure, and getting a name out there. My studio may not be a huge, wealthy studio right now, but we always try to be fair and to do right by our creative members and friends. There are a few things we do and don't want to see, though, so I will tell you up front.

* If you're homophobic or not comfortable working on something that has gay content, don't write us. You should know better anyway, but if you're going to write regardless and ask for work but insist you won't work on something with gay content...you won't get a response. I'm already busy enough addressing emails from people who are willing to comport themselves maturely.

Depicting a character who, in the story, is gay doesn't mean that is going to be apparent from a picture in the first place. But drawing even explicitly gay content doesn't make you a homosexual, any more than drawing heterosexual content makes you a heterosexual. Alex Ross, who is happily married, has drawn a most famous gay kiss and has many times stated his support of fans regardless of sexuality. He is regarded as one of the most respected comic artists working today. It's not going to limit your success except with the insecure. And if someone is that puerile in the first place, take it from me: you're not going to be able to rely on them anyway.

I am trying, more than ever, to promote support and tolerance for all sexual orientations. Love shouldn't be discriminated against. And I won't tolerate discrimination in my studio.

* Deadlines are important. If you can't work with deadlines, you need to get yourself to the point where you can before you write. I can be flexible on a case-by-case basis, but if I'm sitting waiting for a page on the day it needs to be uploaded, that adds stress to my life that I don't need. It's much better if you have an idea, draw the pages you'll need for a month or two, and then write me.

At the very least, I'd like you to have a concrete idea about what you'd like to do before contacting me about doing it. If you have an idea about a sexy circus acrobat going on an adventure with the Monkey King, you might decide to develop it and, in development, it might transform into a stripper who can change into a superhero. That's kind of an extreme example, but ideas do change during development. It is important for me to know the tone we're going to be establishing so that I can promote your work optimally.

I am eager to hear about your ideas for comics and your ideas for stories. I'll even help you brainstorm! But if you are writing me about participating in Glorious Artistic You, please have something either prepared or in the process of being prepared. It will be weeks or months before we launch it, but it's much easier and more helpful if you're at least mostly ready. It leads to less stress for both of us.

* You don't have to be gay to work with us. And nobody in their right minds will think you are if you do. The only thing I ask is that you be tolerant yourself. You're likely to get some gay or gay-friendly fans from your work, and I wouldn't want to introduce them to someone who, for whatever reason, is going to hate or abuse them. I want this studio and all of its output to be something I can feel comfortable endorsing.

* You won't have control over other creators' work unless you are working with them. You don't have to do adult-oriented stories, for example, but another creator may want to do them. Your works will be separate. Mutual respect and maturity must be understood before participation in Glorious Artistic You.

* You will have to do things to specifications. This is just because I want everything to be of a consistent size and quality, and for print things must be to certain specifications.

* I'll want to hear from you regularly. While you're working on something for the studio, I'll need regular status updates so that I can make my own plans accordingly. If you've hit a snag and will be delayed in something, if you tell me ahead of time, I can account for it and offer help. Even just a quick email to say everything is going according to schedule will help me to keep my own schedule.

I look forward to hearing from any of you who might be interested in contributing to Lamia or Glorious Artistic You! Please send any correspondence to my email address. Just remove the spaces. You know how it goes.

hushicho @ gmail . com

I look forward to your mail!

Horror Technique: Shown Versus Implied

2010-10-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

Recently on The Groovy Age of Horror, one of my favourite blogs, there was a very in-depth article that discussed at length the dynamic and persistent debate of what is shown in horror and what it means, how it can be significant, and how the medium can make a difference. It's very well-written and beyond my depth to explore here in summary, especially since such depth was reached in the article itself.

However, it did get me thinking, and this is a debate that will go on forever: is it scarier to show something or to suggest it?

I will go with 'suggest', but conditionally. It's more or less universally parroted that it's always scarier to imply things, and that's why popular horror icon H.P. Lovecraft's works enjoy a sort of universal acclaim for being eerie without typically being explicitly filled with exhaustively-described monsters; in Lovecraft's world, the horror is often implied with suspense built up around it, and that is what makes it so unsettling and disturbing.

A quote, perhaps paraphrased, and attributed to Alfred Hitchcock, Val Lewton, and various others, is 'there is nothing more frightening than a closed door'. In the proper context, it's true: there is nothing that is more frightening than the possibility that anything, anything at all, could be behind that door. It's not true in every single situation, of course. A great deal of horror depends on suspense, so if you're not doing horror or suspense as the genre, a closed door won't necessarily be scary. But this is something of a no-brainer.

Sometimes it works, even then. Imagine the audience's surprise when their candy-coated feel-good adventure opens a door to unleash...a horrific villain! It even worked in Star Wars; things didn't feel quite right when they arrived at the cloud city, and the door opening to reveal Darth Vader was genuinely striking and scary. Sometimes seeming dissonance with the ambiance can work very well. A closed door is scary, even if it is also hopeful. But most viewers are going to assume that something complicating or conflicting will lie behind it, because much of drama lies in conflict.

Much of the sense of fear in anything lies in the way a work is realised; if a work is not well-made, it won't be suspenseful. But quality is subjective, and so one person's abject horror will be another person's joke. This is yet another reason why what is shown tends to be subject to how it is shown, and how often. A monster design that is frightening to one person may be ridiculous to another. However, if the monster itself is built up within the narrative of a work and only shown after it has been built up and the audience drawn deep into suspension of disbelief, it will be much more terrifying than something just shown every time it does anything.

It lies squarely in the fundamentals of suspense. If we look at classic horror films, we see suspense as the key, the linchpin to successful tension of the audience. The scariest film I have ever seen in my life is Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte. I was so frightened that I got shivers and my skin went cold. But it is psychological horror through and through, and suspense from moment one. There is no monster, nothing is particularly explicit, no grotesque visceral violence...and yet, it is utterly terrifying. It is a descent into madness where the audience is taken along for the ride, where eventually they are made to question everything around them, most of all their own sanity.

Halloween spends the first few minutes showing the audience a painstakingly built-up murder, through the eyes of the murderer. It is not a particularly graphic event, but it is made all the more horrific by the utter revulsion the audience feels -- and revulsion lies at the fundamental basis of much horror -- and the suspense and disorientation that is built around it. The killer, called 'the Shape', is very much the Boogeyman: he can seem to appear and disappear. He cannot be stopped. He cannot be reasoned with. Any motivation that is attributed to his actions is only done by his enemies in an attempt to rationalise it, mostly to themselves. He is barely shown, his actions are not lingered upon...and he is all the more terrifying for it.

The original Alien, while often also classified as science-fiction, is at its root a horror work. Much of that horror lies in disorientation, an inability to understand what the nature of the horror itself is, and why this is happening. Body horror asserts itself strongly, and in many ways, in my opinion, the concept of the self as source of fear is the basis of most fear reactions in horror.

To me, the most horrific thing that an audience can be made to do is to confront themselves. Most people have aspects of themselves that they find distasteful. For many, it is the dark side, the side that could imagine all manner of horrors that they have tried to avoid. The things they would never do, the things they would never say, the situations they hope never to be in...and yet they exist in the mind, and the possibility exists that they might. It is frightening to make the connection in one's own mind, much more frightening. It is easy to laugh or to dismiss a costume that you find silly or uninteresting, but it is much less easy to dismiss what your mind has shown you. In many ways, it is almost an accusation, a call to the audience to confront themselves, throwing open the doors and defences that have been so carefully crafted, to protect them from the aspects of their mind that they fear. They would like to deny that these aspects are there. But, even for a little while, they must confront them and accept their existence. That, to me, is horror.

Even if they aren't aware of what is happening to that level, they're aware that something isn't right. They feel unsettled. They may never understand that a part of the horror they feel is the horror at their own minds and what they can imagine.

This is yet another reason why being too familiar with the monster, antagonist, or what have you is also something that tends to weaken horror. If you become sympathetic to the monster, it is really not as scary anymore. If the monster becomes pitiable, even if it continues doing horrific things, it is more a tragedy than a scary story. Familiarity means that impact of an appearance is lessened.

Every masked slasher film has suffered from this, with some of the worst examples being when the mad killer is turned into some sort of wisecracking antihero that clearly the audience are supposed to cheer for, as he slaughters through the nominal protagonists. They cease being scary, then, and they become a more heroic figure, even if what they do isn't what most people would consider 'heroic'; they are champions of a sort, for the audience.

Even extreme acts of violence can become pedestrian if there is nothing to build up to their horror. Having explicit acts of visceral violence through a film is often nothing but a masturbatory gesture, and it builds up audience insensitivity. Just as in works where the world presented is thoroughly unsympathetic along with all of the characters, that acts against the whole point of horror. If you don't care, you won't be scared. If you aren't appalled by what you're seeing, or what's being implied, then you won't experience horror.

Similarly, it is easy to point out the differences between Alien and Aliens. The first is a horror, the second is a science-fiction action film. While there are suspenseful parts in Aliens and horrifying parts -- the latter of which are mainly when the audience considers the ramifications of what has happened in the colony, rather than anything being shown -- largely it is an action film. The creatures are not as terrifying as the original in Alien, both because there are so many of them (thus robbing it of its uniqueness and making it more understandable due to social context), and because they are seen much, much more frequently and clearly, as well as destroyed with far less effort and trouble than in the original film.

The Blair Witch Project was one of the most successful examples of horror implied rather than seen, and it was also among the most well-received...at least initially. However, largely due to social saturation and everyone knowing the film's secrets, people weren't as scared, the longer it was out. This isn't surprising; if you know you're not going to see a 'Blair Witch' going into it, you don't get the suspense up that it will happen. It's another case of the horror being unveiled and too familiar to the audience, rather than the suspense built up and the secrets kept, and it illustrates my point all too well: familiarity breeds comfort, which is the antithesis of suspense, tension, and horror.

It doesn't always work, I'll be the first to admit. Monster films tend to be the worst of them, because either they have a costume they know is goofy and just use the technique to hide, or they don't have a monster at all and try to build suspense in the hopes that no-one will want to actually ask the important question. Usually, there has to be some kind of horror present, even if only strongly implied. The most terrifying situations are ones that involve the audience, even vicariously.

The Cask of Amontillado is terrifying because of its situation, and the fact that the audience has come to identify with the victim. They have been brought into that world. The Whisperer in Darkness, similarly, builds up a suspenseful mystery that is made into horror in the last few sentences, when the reader realises that (through the protagonist's narration) they themselves were so close to that unspeakable horror and didn't even know it at the time. It's the same with stories like Pickman's Model.

When you get right down to it, it can just be said that suspense of the unseen is also easier to do relatively well, whereas suspense of the clearly seen is not. It takes great talent and great vision to have something seen enough to become familiar and still retain its feeling of terror. It does not take so much of that to make something barely-seen or unseen scary, because the audience has no way of concretely saying 'this isn't scary, and here's why'.

Being explicit can also disrupt the ambiance of a story. If a story is meant to be more lighthearted, action-oriented, or otherwise having a completely different mood built up from the beginning, throwing in something grotesque or explicitly horrific can completely disrupt the mood and create a dissonance that damages the work. It is one of the reasons why horror-comedy combinations tend to be either loved or hated passionately, and why the genre is so small; humour and horror are difficult to combine successfully because their moods are so discordant. Implications of horror work better in these cases since the full gravity of the situation may be delayed until a point in the story where it can be realised with more impact.

Ultimately, the debate will continue ever on. However, it is my opinion that implied, subtle horror tends to work better in most cases than more explicit, visually-shown horror. From practical considerations such as budgets and writer ability, to more profound considerations such as the confrontation of the self, I feel that the suggestion of horror is usually superior.

Your opinions may vary.

LAMIA!

2010-10-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

The sexiest vampiress in the known universe, Lamia, will be coming to you very soon courtesy of yours truly! Lamia is an homage to the fabulous vampiress vixens of the 1970s, and what's even sweeter, she comes complete with a cute gay best friend, Antonio.

The both of them get into all kinds of adventures and mischief. Lamia will be posted online as a webcomic, and that will be collected into the standard edition of the comic, released regularly. There will also be a 'director's cut' version, which will feature extra pages of additional story and sexier content! Both editions will be available in hard print copy and in high-quality digital copy.

If you'd like a sneak preview, skulk on over to http://lamia.comicdish.com and download the free wallpaper pack!

It's my sincere hope to have Lamia start by my favourite holiday -- Halloween, or Samhain as it's better-known!

Keep checking back for more updates! I think you're going to like Lamia. I know she likes you!

Science Fiction, Double Feature: Why Rocky Horror is a Masterpiece

2010-10-17T09:02:00.000-07:00

I was not one of the johnny-come-latelies to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I saw it at quite a young age, and long before it really hit the mainstream and suddenly everyone was doing callback parties for Halloween. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, not at all; everyone should know this film. Everyone should appreciate it, and everyone should be aware of its significance.

I'm also extremely fond of Shock Treatment, which was a film too far ahead of its time to be appreciated when it was released. It's a pity, since in many ways it's actually more polished and slicker than Rocky Horror, but it was often compared to its predecessor (to which it was not a sequel) unfavourably when in actuality they were two very different works that are incomparable. It's better to consider them siblings. Shock Treatment is especially important in this day and age of 'reality TV', king-for-a-day celebrity, and music video culture, which it more or less entirely predicted.

But today I'm going to talk about Rocky Horror, why it is special to me, and why I think it should be special to you, too. Especially at this time of year, my favourite holiday Halloween and my favourite season of autumn, it is important to remember the things like this.

From the very beginning, Rocky Horror seems like a story that is little more than a musical pastiche of 1950s Americana. However, as it continues, it quickly becomes clear that it is a deeply subversive work, one that calls more or less everything about that period's values into question. Brad is hopelessly lost in self-denial of his true desires, but until his and Janet's ordeal, he was never in any situation to discover them. You can notice it even as early as 'Dammit Janet'. Similarly, Janet easily begins to come into her own once her inhibitions have been chipped away, coming to the realisation that she isn't happy to be a demure, retreating, virginal trophy.

Frank and the strange cast of characters who greet us on our journey through the film's chronicle are eye-openers. It is especially noteworthy that Frank is bisexual and a crossdresser. Tim Curry's perfect portrayal makes Frank into an icon, a larger-than-life figure that is more godlike than anything human, so much so that it makes his show-stopper 'I'm Going Home' all the more poignant.

All the subtleties in the background, all the details, all the little things...you could watch the film hundreds of times and never catch them all. It's amazing how painstakingly the film is constructed and, even with the help of the commentary from Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn on the DVD, there are so many things there that it is impossible to note them all in a single viewing, or even in several.

But the thing that always gets me, which I didn't understand for some time, is the special magic of Rocky Horror. Viewed as it is, it seems a bit downbeat and depressing. There has been this explosion of identity, this vital party wherein every single person involved has had to face his or her true self and realise what it is he or she really wants, and who he or she really is. And then, just as quickly as it had begun, it ends again. Fortunately, it avoids the hackneyed plot device of everything going 'back to normal'; it's clear from 'Super Heroes' that everything has changed, which is confirmed by the reprise of 'Science Fiction, Double Feature'.

But how can it be salvaged? Part of the reason why it's important it seem downbeat is because in the films of the 1950s, anything deviant from the norm -- especially aliens from outer space -- always had to be defeated and the status quo preserved. It's just another aspect of the film's subversive nature. It is important that as the audience, we sympathise not with the two supposed protagonists Brad and Janet, but with anyone else. Brad and Janet are as much the antagonists as anything, the oppressive force of 1950s American conformism. We cheer when they themselves are subverted and their strong aspirations of mediocrity dashed irreparably. Any who identified with them at the outset are forced to question themselves through Brad and Janet's own experiences.

But we are not Brad or Janet. We are the Transylvanians, the creatures of the night who make a party of things when 'sensible folk' don't dare step out. We are the ones who spend our nights in this strange and wonderful mansion, where anything and everything could and does happen. There is nothing beyond imagining in Frank's mansion.

And that is why it must go the way it goes. The night must end, and day comes again, so that light can be cast on the reality of Brad and Janet's situation. They must understand what they did, what they always were, and what they have awakened themselves to see. It was always there, it was always them, and now, can they ever conform again? Even if they try, they can never, ever forget what happened. Even if they pretend, they will know they are pretending. What is seen cannot be un-seen. What is experienced cannot be taken back.

But we creatures of the night, who have seemingly been defeated and our plans foiled...what of us? We know ourselves, although every journey through Frank's discovery and floor show changes us. We notice new things, about everything else and about ourselves.

The night goes and then comes again. Even if we have gone through it once, we will go through it again. It will come again. And that is the most comforting thing of all. It's a show, a show for us. It's a party for us. The players do their part, and then it all happens once again. When the sun sets and darkness falls again, Frank and the rest throw another party. It's not a linear experience. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a cycle. Like so many of the best stories in the world, it can be seen as a metaphor for the endlessly-repeating cycles of nature. Of night itself, where anything is possible. And to some, that unlimited potential is so scary.

To me, it is comforting. It is always sad to me that night has to end. It is like being afloat in a magical world of unlimited potential, and then daylight comes and shows you exactly where your boundaries and limits are. But night...night is a different story entirely.

It's why I embrace Rocky Horror so wholeheartedly. I know that, after the last note fades and the lights are out in the Criminologist's study, it only needs the urging from me to start it up again. Frank and Columbia and the others pick right back up and start again. And even before we had VHS and DVD, that was still what it meant to me. All it needs is for night to come again, for everything to start again.

In all the periods of my life, Rocky Horror has been there for me. Ever since I saw it for the first time, it has given me the assurance that I am not alone, and that even if we are all aliens and outsiders, we at least have each other, and we throw great parties. In the darkest time of my life, I watched Rocky Horror almost daily, just for that reassurance. It seems like, no matter how bad it gets, Frank and the rest are always there for me. And they never fail to cheer me up and to strengthen me.

From the first notes of 'Science Fiction, Double Feature', the tone is set by some of the most iconic science-fiction actors and films referenced in the lyrics. But Rocky Horror itself is one of the most iconic science-fiction films ever made. And it isn't just sci-fi. It's so much more than that, it's difficult to pin down into any singular genre.

If you haven't seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show, you need to see it. And you need to see it, not at a mass showing with all the callbacks and props, but at home, perhaps with friends, and plenty of snacks and fun. I'm not much of a fan of the showings, but they can be fun. However, I think the first experience needs to be a personal one. See it. Embrace it. And as Frank so famously says:

Don't dream it, be it.

Words to live by.

Hi, I'm Gay: A Writing Guide

2010-10-16T14:34:00.000-07:00

Since Hollywood, comic books, and various other media seem unable to get it down, after a conversation with a friend, I thought I would offer a few tips on how to write characters who are gay. Things I say to do or not to do are just opinions and just rules of thumb, not written in stone and not unchangeable -- most important of all is doing what feels right and what reads right, and what seems to be most effective for the story and genre.

I may not be considered an authority on anything, I honestly don't know. But speaking as someone for whom 'gay' is a social label (one of several), I know what I like.

- If the be-all and end-all of the character is 'a gay guy', toss the concept out. Start over again and develop the character from the beginning. Sexual orientation is an important part of a person, but it isn't the sum total of any person's being. If you're just tossing in this character simply to be a gay presence, you should examine why you feel you want to do that and then ask yourself, who is this character? No-one is just a set of genitalia, to be defined solely by sexual preference. It is just one part of a whole.

- Gay characters do not have to be either irrepressibly cheerful or utterly miserable. In any world, but especially fantasy worlds and settings, consider the logic behind any circumstances where the character is discriminated against or treated poorly. Just because there is high discrimination against non-heterosexuals in this world doesn't mean it's going to be that way by default in any other. The best-known example of this clumsy treatment is Mercedes Lackey's writings, where the main character is a dismal gay guy. Don't feel you have to prove that 'gay' is a misnomer when it comes to homosexuals. It generally makes your work tolerable only by teenagers desperate for any identification, or by people who have absolutely nothing to do with the subject.

On the other hand, irrepressibly cheerful gay guys often come off as trying way too hard. We have problems like anyone else does. Even in a world where gay guys aren't discriminated heavily against, problems must exist. Bad days happen; we aren't always going to be rays of sunshine, as much as we might like to be.

A character can be convincingly mostly cheery or depressive, though. It's just that if a character's raison d'etre is ebullience or misery, they're going to come off as questionable. And if the readers come up with questions about the motivation behind the character's mood and those questions aren't well-addressed in your narrative, it's going to become weaker in their eyes.

- Don't throw in stereotypical health problems because you think it will be engaging to a gay audience. Chances are it won't. If you're not aiming for a gay audience and you throw it in anyway, chances are high that someone in the audience will, regardless, find it cliched and probably very, very presumptuous, or even offensive.

- Gay men are not all feminine, or in touch with their feminine sides. Some are more macho than heterosexual men. There is no such thing as a 'typical' gay guy.

This doesn't mean there aren't mincing camp queens around. There are a lot of them. But it also bears thinking about why these men act so iconoclastic to traditionally expected 'masculine' behaviour. Some act that way as a reaction to what they have been pressured into their whole lives, others because it is truly more comfortable for them. Why would your character act this way? If you don't know, you should think about it.

There's nothing wrong with queeny guys. It's just that they've been far overdone, sometimes in offensive ways, up to now. Some gay audiences will find them irritating and will question the motives of the writer. It is, in some ways, comparable to the presentation of characters of colour in roughly the first half of the 20th century; some of the situations and characters were true to life, but a good many of them were also written by an author simply mashing together stereotypes with little understanding of the reasons behind it, usually only including the characters due to it being a popular trend. Because of that, many of these portrayals are viewed as uncomfortable or even offensive today.

- Similarly iffy are the promiscuous party boy, the body maniac or narcissist, the diva...these have all been overdone. Proceed with care if you intend to try and present them again.

- Be very careful about using epithets. These are words that are offensive by nature. They are generally only permissible when trying to convey some message with the situation, or to teach a lesson. Most gay people will not be comfortable with the 'f' word -- the one that is generally only acceptable when referring to a cigarette. Similarly, don't use the word 'gay' to mean 'stupid' or 'unacceptable' -- many gay people take exception to this, and justifiably. If you don't understand why, simply insert one of your own social labels in there. 'That's so Jewish.' 'That is just the most Chinese-American thing I have ever heard in my life.' 'How black.' It's a really ugly misappropriation of a word by the ignorant.

- Gay people do not exist solely to dole out meaningful advice and life lessons to their heterosexual friends. It happens sometimes, but it's getting a little old for that to be the new standard role for any gay characters. The trope is called the 'magical negro' (and I'm sorry if it sounds insensitive, that's just its name) because of the prevalence of black characters being cast in this role for some time after trend shifts meant they could no longer be caricature comic relief. The same shift of trends seems to have landed gay characters squarely in the position of existing solely to give profound, life-changing advice to their straight buddies.

While it's true that many gay people do actually have a lot to say on the subject, most of the time the characters are not allowed any real lives of their own. Most gay characters still are never allowed to have actual relationships and are basically just accessories to the more 'acceptable' straight characters' lives.

- Gay people aren't all about sex any more than straight people are. Although it is a sexual orientation, that doesn't necessarily refer to sexual intercourse, but instead to sex as in gender. With any character, sexuality or lack thereof is an important part of the character, his or her motivations, and aspects of life. Many gay guys are more comfortable in a mature way with sex, as in sexual intercourse, than their straight friends, simply because it is one of the things that most gay men have to come to terms with during their own self-realisation. One of the only universal unifiers between gay men is a love for other men. Historically, one of the points of unity was the admiration of the male form and the male sexuality.

Many gay men have a more informed approach to sex, but that doesn't mean they're all sex maniacs, or even that all of them have sex at all. Similarly, however, it doesn't mean they don't. If you want to throw a gay character into your story but can't bear to think about him having sex, maybe you should consider whether or not you really can handle having him there.

- Gay men and straight women often get along well. However, that doesn't mean that they're interchangeable or that they experience the same things emotionally, sexually, or otherwise. They have many commonalities, but don't make the mistake many writers do and think that they are basically just the same thing in a different shape. They're not. Men who would rather be women (and vice-versa) are transgender, not gay. It is a very important distinction. Most gay men are happy to be men who like men and don't want to be women, and don't identify as female. Drag queens -- men who dress and often perform on-stage as female characters -- are not necessarily transgender either. In fact, they don't even have to be gay. There are plenty of straight guys who love to wear women's clothing and have absolutely zero desire to actually be female.

If you find yourself writing a gay male character as basically a woman with a penis, there's something wrong. If you find yourself writing a gay male character as endlessly admiring women and desiring to be a woman, ask yourself whether or not you might just want to write a transgender character instead, and do your research. It is a whole different, and of course beautiful, world. Just don't mix them all together and expect no-one to call you on it.

- Most important of all, develop your character organically. Develop his hopes and fears, his triumphs and his tragedies. Don't just fill him full of character flaws, because that tends to be nothing more than a handy way to attempt to cover up weak writing. If he's just a placeholder, ask yourself if making him gay serves any real purpose.

Saying that an otherwise unexceptional character is gay, for no reason other than to make him stand out, usually comes off as desperate and ultimately uninteresting. If the character isn't making an impression, saying that he is gay may win him some fans, but they will quickly give him up if he doesn't grow a personality as well. While it is potentially interesting for a character to have an unexpected sexual preference, ask yourself: what does this contribute to the story and to the character? Does it really have any role? Is there any real reason for it to come up? As someone who has been through many, many dates, I can say that just being gay does not make someone interesting, kind, engaging, deep, or appealing.

These are just my thoughts, and I hope they might at least give you a few thoughts of your own about writing characters who are gay and actual people too. The depth that should be developed with any character must of course be developed regardless of sexuality. That is just one aspect of many that can enrich characters.

And as always, I'd love to hear from any of you with thoughts or ideas about this topic. Let me know your approaches to characters and their sexualities as an aspect of their identities!

The Plight of Gay Youth

2010-10-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to take the time to address a very real problem that is finally receiving some notice, and it's long past time. Intolerance is at the highest point it's been in ages, and of course that has an effect on youth. They see intolerance from older people and in the world, and they think it's okay. The misuse of the term 'gay' to mean 'stupid' or 'bad' is as hurtful as any other epithet, but since it's gays, it's largely dismissed.

Because, you see, it's not trendy anymore like it was for a few minutes in the 90s. The American view of reality is distorted; you get 'reality' television that all of its viewers know isn't real, for example. That's not the be-all and end-all of things, but a vast amount of the American population, especially the younger part of that, is heavily influenced by what is trendy or popular.

There have been a huge amount of suicides amongst gay youth who were bullied. This is intolerable. But what's being done about it? The only thing I can find is a video movement called 'It Gets Better', to encourage gay youth and let them know that things improve, down the line.

But is this really true? I don't think so. I want to encourage them like anyone else, but if someone is depressed and upset enough to seriously consider ending his own life, it's not going to help him to basically be encouraged to put it off. If they're that unhappy, it's just delaying the inevitable because it really doesn't necessarily get better. Maybe if you're rich, or pretty, or you fall in with the right crowd; maybe if you're incredibly lucky, or you happen to be in the right place at the right time.

Basically you just get older and the struggles usually get less immediate and more frustrating. You grow into a world where you are a second-class citizen and actually having rights like everyone else is an everyday battle. You're accused of being everything from unnatural to evil. And gay culture isn't that much better -- in a lot of the popular gay culture, your existence might as well end at 30, or if -- god forbid -- you're black.

In the media, gay characters have slowly become included, although it's important to note, it isn't like the 90s, where apparent novelty meant that gay characters could feature on-screen and actually be fully-realised people. Now gay characters tend to be reduced to the status that most characters of colour did in the earlier half of the 20th century: the 'magical negro', a trope wherein the character is basically created to support a more 'acceptable' mainstream character by dispensing advice. And because of the American tendency to see things as media portray them, that's unimpressively where we are.

Lady Gaga and Katy Perry can cry about it all they want, but what have they done besides bemoan it? Them, Ellen, the rest...at least one MMA fighter presented his email address and offered to fly to the school of any bullied gay kid that wrote him, and talk to the bullies about why what they're doing is wrong and what they should do instead. We need more things like that.

If I had the money -- and believe me, I wish I had money -- I would establish a fund encouraging gay youth to hold their school system accountable, to tell them what they need to do and how to do it. One of the most important things here is for them to feel empowered, and they are going to have to start lodging formal complaints about their clearly lacking school systems and start initiating lawsuits against them. The educational system in the United States, as in pretty much the entire rest of the world, is a horrible mess.

This situation can only be improved by hitting them where it hurts, and that is by lodging formal complaints with the schools, the school boards, and going to media like newspapers and making a big stink about it. If necessary, the schools should be taken to court as well. While it is the responsibility of parents to raise their kids right (and chance would be a fine thing), the responsibility of stopping bullying amongst schoolchildren lies squarely with the schools and their personnel. If that isn't being done, they aren't doing their jobs. And when it gets to where children are taking their own lives rather than face another day of bullying, those personnel are being negligent in their duties.

I don't know if it would be helpful to take the bullies to court. It likely would just lead to lives of resentment because they probably are too stupid to understand that what they're doing is horrible and hurtful, or maybe they're just looking for any attention, which they never got from their parents. The parents aren't always responsible for their children turning out as bullies, though, I will admit. Is it a solution to bring the parents to court as well? I can't say. But it is unquestionably a failing on the part of the school systems and their personnel.

There are so many things that need to be improved in this country, and in this world. We need to empower our youth. And when we're talking about bullied gay youth, it's intolerable if they're not supported. They need to feel like they have options, and that they are being supported by something that can accomplish things. A fund to support and to inform gay youth about complaining and getting action from their school system needs to exist, especially now. One of the leading causes of despair is a feeling of futility and helplessness; this is especially strong when trapped in the grasp of the educational sytem. It's unfortunate, but we will need some serious funds for this sort of thing and someone who knows what he's doing to set it up.

I would like to hear others' thoughts about this as well. These are just my personal thoughts on the matter. I would like to encourage everyone, of course, to encourage and to support gay youth, to be there for them, and to encourage them to take action if they are being bullied or being discriminated against. It is never too early to teach social activism, and when you belong to a highly-discriminated-against minority, it is more of an essential life skill. Gay youth need to learn not to accept discrimination or poor treatment, and what they need to do to stop it. They need to learn that the kind of behaviour being allowed by their school system is not acceptable under any circumstances.

Intolerance has cost us so many lives that might have been brilliant leaders and breathtaking artists, people who could have shaped this world into something better. Matthew Shepard is one of countless youths whose lives have been cut short because of irresponsible parenting, ignorance, intolerance, and the predominant American mindset of 'if it isn't trendy, it isn't worth anything'.

Let's try to get out of that mindset. And let's try to be a little more there, and a little more accessible, for gay youth who need that encouragement.

Indie vs Marvel and DC

2010-10-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

I don't usually take time on this particular blog to speak about things like this, but I feel it is important to cover this topic, especially right now.

Marvel and DC, if you weren't aware, are the two largest comic book companies in the United States. They publish primarily superhero-based comics, and it is their output that has a significant effect even on independent comics and creators. Along with Diamond Distribution, they form a triumvirate stranglehold on the market, and it is because of that I come to you now with my appeal.

This is aimed at all of you who enjoy comics as a medium, but especially those of you who come here and are gay, or read my work because it features non-heterosexual characters portrayed in a positive light.

I know some of you still buy Marvel and DC comics. You still want to support your local comic shops, or you've had a subscription forever and have become used to it, or you like the character and are hoping that the title will improve, month after month. I'm not going to tell you to stop buying and expect you to actually do it. That's unrealistic for me to expect.

However, I would like to ask you to consider your purchases more carefully. And there are many reasons why I would like to do that.

The first is that the big two companies influence other comic creators. It can be viewed as simply as 'if you buy their comics, you won't have enough to support the independent, accessible creators that really care about you as an individual'. It's all too common that creators of online and independent comics get the shaft because people spend wads of cash on things they often enjoy less, and when it comes time to donate to their favourite comic or to buy a printed book from them, they don't have enough. Though I might also mention that even $5 is enough for most independent creators. If multiple people are generous, $5 from many adds up and helps them to afford the supplies they need to continue making comics. The big two, on the other hand, don't have these kinds of budget woes. If you don't buy the comics right when they come out, they'll still be there in a month and their staff will still have enough to buy their supplies.

The other and less obvious influence is that good or poor choices by Marvel and DC have a marked influence on the market for comics altogether. Their questionable moves have made many creators suffer, both independent and otherwise, and they keep doing these things because people keep irrationally throwing money at them.

I will be very frank here: things are not going to change. Things are not going to improve. The title you have been following for years in the hopes that it will improve, someday, is not going to get better. In fact, none of it is going to go anywhere until and unless people speak with their wallets and say 'I don't like this' and stop buying it. If you're complaining about it and still paying for it, you're not doing any good. You're still a part of the problem.

They have spent decades alienating all of the fans who were fans during the Silver and Bronze Ages, in the misguided mindset that readers want to see incessant mega-crossovers and visceral violence, where heroes stopped being heroic and every month holds a new, horrible, casual death, thinking that this will sell, sell, sell! And now they're finding that people don't actually like it -- after years of complaining and driving away everyone who had a grievance -- and attempting to get those fans back.

The good series and the consistent series always get put on hiatus or cancelled, and it's not due to lack of support by the readers and consumers, it's due to personal bias by the management. There have been numerous titles put out by both Marvel and DC that have done exceptionally well, especially in the economic climate, and gathered vast, strong followings that were cancelled or put on indefinite hiatus because someone higher-up just didn't want it to overshadow yet another 'dark' or 'ironic' book.

And if you think they care about you, they don't. While independent creators and labels generally do care deeply about every reader -- we know where our livelihood comes from and do this out of love and desire to create and entertain -- Marvel and DC don't. They don't at all. If you think they do, you're deluding yourself. And if you think they're going to bow to any pressure other than monetary, you're kidding yourself even more.

I'd just like to take the time to cover a couple of examples that illustrate this very well indeed.

The most compelling reason never to buy Marvel comics again is summed up in two words: Freedom Ring. An exciting character who happened to be gay and was given a novel power, he was met with enthusiastic approval and support...

...and killed off in one of the most horrible ways any character has ever met his end, not more than 5 issues later. Many readers were outraged, some put off Marvel permanently. The company was met with several threats of boycott. And why not? The incident was the comic book equivalent of a hate crime. There was no reason to do what they did.

So naturally Marvel immediately tried to backpedal and claimed that they had intended to kill him off from the very beginning, but they only made him gay at the last minute.

And?

Does that excuse that sort of treatment? It doesn't, and it doesn't change what they've done.

They've never backpedalled enough to actually bring him back and give him decent treatment. Oh, and in case you didn't glance over at the ComicVine page I linked, they also had him paralysed almost immediately, for no good reason either. It's not really unreasonable for readers to get the impression that this virtual violence against a gay character was a thin veil for a much uglier reality: the well-known homophobia that has existed in Marvel practically since the beginning.

But wait, you say, they have a policy now that any character can be made gay! They made Rictor and Shatterstar gay lovers!

And?

The policy is nothing more than damage control spin doctor magic in a desperate attempt to reclaim the massive alienated audience. Jim Shooter's policy in the 80s was that of strict homophobia, and the 70s were no different, with several stories openly demonising gay characters. The 90s had a desperate attempt to garner a gay audience with a disastrously tacky coming out story with Northstar, a character whom we all knew was gay and who made it abundantly clear long before then. And the only reason they haven't utterly done away with him -- and they've tried -- is because he's become Captain Gay, poster boy for gay characters and representative of all of them.

They don't care about you. And they especially don't care about you if you're gay. The Freedom Ring story would have been blatantly offensive no matter who they put in it and no matter what their sexual orientation. However, making him gay -- and then handicapped -- and treating him so badly is inexcusable.

Pair that with the overly litigious nature of Marvel, and you have a company that not only doesn't care about their readers, but is openly hostile to them. They are well-known for getting fansites shut down and loosing their overactive lawyers with threats aplenty to readers and fans. Regular readers of the popular Scans Daily community are all too familiar with their stunts.

DC's recent Blackest Night was unspeakably offensive in more or less every was possible, but one of the most offensive actions took place in a tie-in called, ironically, 'Cry for Justice'. One of DC's very few non-heterosexual (and non-promiscuous) characters, Tasmanian Devil, was brutally murdered and made into a rug.

A rug.

That's about as much as they care about you.

Before anyone asks why I should complain about that when characters everywhere are getting killed off, let me say that I disagree with almost every one of the disgustingly casual write-outs comics have been doing in the past 20 years especially. It doesn't matter who it is. But the fact is that they've chosen to do this especially to some of their already minuscule number of characters representing the gay readership, most of whom barely see any appearances at all.

Another classic antic from DC was allowing Chuck Dixon, who is well-known as a homophobe and a bigot in general, to write Connor Hawke, a character created to be different, built up to be the next best thing of DC: a new Green Arrow who was neither a womaniser nor promiscuous. He was presented as a naif essentially, fresh from a monastery and not the type of man to chase skirts, as his father had done.

Praise came in from everywhere, especially the gay community, who were enthusiastic that a hero could be shown that didn't have to be the kind of tiresome collector of sexual conquests as most superheroes had become. Naturally, some wondered if he might be non-heterosexual, especially since DC had not really kept up with the times very well and had a decisive lack of non-stereotypical gay characters. Pretty much the only one even discussed at that point was the Pied Piper, a Flash villain.

Dixon, who had inexplicably been given the reins to the Green Arrow title, did a predictably poor job. As if his bad writing wasn't enough, his bad personality added to that: he lashed out at gay fans and became well-known for his homophobia and opinions that non-heterosexual characters didn't belong in comic books. Drugs, teenage pregnancies, and everything else he wrote, apparently, was a-okay, but in his words, homosexual characters were unacceptable for comic books, especially when they're read by young people.

Kyle Rayner, another character built up to be the next big thing as the new Green Lantern, was a hard luck guy who honestly didn't have much personality. He was an artist, and a comic artist, which enabled most of the writers to write from (idealised) life. As their forebears had done, Connor and Kyle became close friends.

What many people don't know is that DC intended to make an event to remember out of their unique relationship. Connor's pure outlook and Kyle's social awkwardness would come together in a kiss. It may or may not have led to a relationship between them.

However, chiefly due to Dixon's constant remarks and threats, they did not do it. Rather than discipline one of the worst writers in the company's history, they instead allowed the two characters never to have their moment. It is perhaps unsurprising that both of them have been replaced and have faded into obscurity. And it is a very sad thing.

It just tells you where you stand in their esteem. Rather than oppose one obnoxious man, they chose to offend hundreds, if not thousands, of fans, readers, and most importantly, buyers.

I would just like to say that most independent comic creators aren't like that.

Unless you're dealing with someone who is a real homophobe nutjob -- and they're probably going to be that pretty obviously in their work -- most of the time, what you see with us is what you get.

We know where our bread and butter comes from. It comes from the readers who are supportive of our work. It comes from the people who support us not only professionally, but personally, and socially.

It comes from all of you.

So, while I can't tell you to stop buying Marvel and DC and start letting them know why, I can at least encourage you to buy less of their output. But do let them know why. That's important. It doesn't really matter how many do; they don't care about that, clearly, if their actions up to now are any indication. We don't have to be in the hundreds to make a difference. Being hundreds or thousands doesn't necessarily get their attention. If just a few will firmly let them know, maybe they will take notice. Maybe they won't, but the attempt should be made.

But we will take notice. We independents, we creators who care about our readers and their support. We do care, and we do take notice. And while it is important that we stretch creatively and do what we have to do, it is so very, very important that we do right by you.

I just want you to think about this, and I hope very much that you will.

Regarding Pandemonium Renaissance

2010-08-21T05:21:00.000-07:00

You know, it's been a while since I worked on Pandemonium Renaissance, which is one of the most cherished works I have ever done. I felt that everyone deserved a little update on what's going on with the title, which is not cancelled or ended.

I actually was about to pick up work on it again before the problems happened with SmackJeeves, but since that happened, the delicate inspiration I have always needed for Pandemonium Renaissance was a little damaged. I certainly didn't want to continue it at SmackJeeves, but at the same time I wasn't up to creating a whole new site at ComicDish and I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with it.

However, I have now decided, and I've begun work on it.

What I will do is, I am going to do full-page, glorious art nouveau pieces and tell the story in poetic language. I intend to colour as many of the pieces as I can and make a gorgeous picture storybook. I plan to release it in paperback and in hardcover. If the response and support are good, I'll also be willing to collect the SmackJeeves run into a comic for you to purchase as well.

The storybook Pandemonium Renaissance will be more like something that Luceferos and friends put out to tell their story and to show you how beautiful, how glorious Dis really is, and how magnificent the Abyss is. I was always challenged and, to some extent, frustrated by the comic format for the story, and I think the new format I am currently implementing will be much more suited to the story. It will also very likely lead to some new and gorgeous posters being made available for your enjoyment.

Of course, if this idea takes off and is met by significant support, I have other ideas too, like a festive grimoire, and other fun and beautiful things to enjoy. I know Pandemonium Renaissance was and is loved by many, and I never want to disappoint them. The story is my way of conveying to the world what I have seen in my visions and dreams. So I am sure you understand when I try to convey that it must be the absolute best I can do.

My plan is to take this Autumn and dedicate it to creating Pandemonium Renaissance as a storybook for all of you. Ideally I would like to have it available for the holiday season this year, but that may not be possible since it does take significant time, energy, and attention to do each and every piece of art, and I did ideally want to colour them all. I will not rush myself on this, because I don't want anything less than the best I can do, and I'm sure you don't either!

In any case, Autumn is dedicated to Pandemonium Renaissance. I finished inking the first picture for the book today, and I think it's going to be great fun and quite a healing experience to do. I'll be keeping you updated as regularly as possible, and I think you'll be surprised and impressed at what I've been doing lately!

Stop the Witch Hunts. Take a Stand.

2010-07-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

Recently it was mentioned that yet another crusade has been announced, to 'combat child porn'. While I completely agree with stamping out pornography that exploits children, I suspect that -- as usual -- the crusade's announced intention is nothing near its actual goals.

In the past decade, adult entertainment has been increasingly discriminated against and 'ghetto-ised', that is to say, it has been forced into a sort of ghetto, an area where similar things exist in a sort of insular world from the rest. Because of a completely frivolous law demanding ridiculous amounts of documentation for adult film actors, some studios suffered massive losses, and all studios in the US today are forced to file much greater documentation for their employees than practically any other industry.

What especially irks me is that the adult industry is often presented as some sort of mafia-run, crime-affiliated, exploitative, illegitimate business that is conducted in shady warehouses and seedy motel rooms. The adult industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, with some studios that produce films comparable to Hollywood quality, such as Digital Playground's big-budget extravaganzas. Maybe once upon a time, adult films were associated with illegality...chiefly because they were made illegal by the same puritanical sorts that seem to be on the same soapbox now. Even nudity, which is not adult material (and the Supreme Court even said so when a nudist film finally brought it to court), was harshly dealt with, especially male nudity. Double-standard, anyone?

It's always the same buzzwords; adult content is purportedly 'endangering' others. As if it's some sort of a weapon. When I was in middle school, some friends of mine at the time purloined a porn mag and flashed a peek of the centrefold at me. I was nonplussed, but mainly because of the massive airbrushing. I wasn't 'endangered', I didn't shrivel up and require hospitalisation, and I don't even remember what she looked like now anyway. Endangering someone means that you are putting them in danger, which means that they may suffer injury, possibly serious. If you are letting your 12-year-old son drive your motorcycle on a cliffside, you are endangering him. If he discovers your vibrator in your closet, he's just embarrassing you.

Canada, England, and a few other completely insane countries have even gone so far as to outlaw any drawn images that may be considered pervy, which contain subjects who 'look' underage. Considering this includes fictional characters, such as aliens and magical beings who may look 19 for pretty much ever, it's rather ridiculous. How do you apply age to a fictional character anyway? I know people in real life who were late bloomers and looked 15 until they were 25. The creepy types who pushed these laws through apparently would like to restrict these people from engaging in any adult behaviour if they 'look' underage. By what standards are we exactly judging this, though? Art styles vary wildly. I have seen art that has depicted fully adult characters, even 40+-year-olds, who are drawn in a style that makes them seem much younger. I have, conversely, also seen art styles that depict supposed middle-schoolers so that they look like collegiates.

And what about the masters like Caravaggio? Are we going to stamp out masterpieces of art because they have subjects who 'look' too young? And shall we destroy Parrish and his gorgeous oeuvres for the same reason? It's inane and ludicrous.

This isn't about protecting or endangering anyone. It's about lazy parenting and lazy lawmaking. Most of all, this only punishes those who already abide by the law and work to put an end to true exploitation and unscrupulous such activities. This is comparable to running a campaign to have cheese removed from grocery stores because you don't think your children should have it. And it's comparable to actually getting cheese removed, or restricted for purchase, simply for that reason. If you don't want your children to have cheese, how about just not buying them cheese and monitoring them, guiding them, being a parent to them so it doesn't become a part of their lives until they are at a point where they can decide for themselves about it?

I am an adult. I have the right to my own entertainment. I am not saying that adult films should be sold in every store, or that children should be able to go out and buy their own. But I am saying, it's time to take a stand. Lawmakers and fanatics need to back off. It's trickling down to the rest of us; I'm not in the adult entertainment industry, but as an artist, I am affected. Every artist is. It's time for parents to be responsible for the children they just had to have. I am through sacrificing rights and privileges for someone else's inability to be a responsible parent.

The attempt to encourage adult sites towards the .xxx domain suffix should be vehemently resisted. While they cite that it will make filtering those sites easier for schools and parental controls, it will also make it easier to further restrict and eliminate adult sites altogether. Many sites with adult content already work with these filters and controls. And if they do not, it is the job of the people who update the controls to find which sites need to be added. It is simply more laziness, more irresponsibility, and an uncomfortable attempt to place everyone involved in a single place for convenient disposal or further marginalisation.

Furthermore, websites that refuse to link to any sites that use the words 'boy', 'girl', 'teen', et cetera are only contributing to the problem. So now words are also endangering? When I say 'I'm going to have a night out with the girls', it means I am going to go out with my friends who happen to be female. I don't mean I'm going to go cruise the elementary school to take some kids to the coffee house. Similarly, when someone says 'I'm going out with the boys', it tends to mean 'I'm going to go out with my male friends'. For example, famous singing group, the Oak Ridge Boys, were well into adulthood and no-one thought the name was misapplied. Sites that advertise 'hot boys' are generally assumed, by most adults with any degree of common sense, to feature attractive adult men. And last but not least, 18 is the age of majority in most places, though 16 is the age of consent in most places. Therefore, some adult stars are teens. Let's not make 'teen' any more demonised than it already is, as a term. What's next? Twink? The more people pre-judge these words to be bad in meaning, the more it will further be promoted.

It's time to put your foot down. The media buzzwords about children being 'endangered' and women being 'exploited' (it's always like this; as if there are no men in adult film) need to stop. We need to make it clear that this is ultimately only detrimental for society and culture, and furthermore lazy and irresponsible on the part of authorities. As an artist, I refuse to be further censored just because someone who had to spawn some offspring can't do his or her job. I already have a more difficult time of things because some of my comics have adult content, meaning I can't use most printers for my work. I am discriminated against because of that adult content, when I have to take measures to make sure this account or that account aren't linked to it. That is, frankly, unacceptable. And I say that it needs to stop. Now.

Please do take a stand. Write your lawmakers, write your representatives, or even phone them and say this must stop. Saying you're doing something to 'protect children' or 'protect women', and so forth, is just a cheap and frankly exploitative way to get votes and support. It also makes it easy to try and demonise anyone who questions your goals, casting them as some sort of criminal or child-hater. News flash: not everyone likes children, and it's not a bad thing if you don't. But just because you don't want to pick up the slack from lazy parents doesn't mean you don't like children. If anything, it means you don't like lazy parents.

Let's take a stand and prevent this from going any further. It needs to stop right here, right now.

Manga Publishers F-Up Again

2010-07-03T00:39:00.000-07:00

I am an independent professional who relies on the support of fans and readers. Because of this, I also tend to support creators whose work I enjoy. I lean towards 'indie' sorts and the type that are like me in terms of the way they create, but I have a wide variety of creators that I support.

There is an unfortunately large number of people online (and offline, for that matter) who come along with the attitude that they are entitled to anything and everything online for free. I agree that it's a problem, especially when they read something, enjoy it, and then don't support it. I always go out of my way to support the things that I enjoy, because I know that the individual, unique voice that created it will never be seen again.

Even if I find something similar, it will never be the same. Each creator is different. Each creator brings something different to anything. And if I allow that voice to go silent, then I am betraying my own love for what it has shared with me.

However, the recent actions by a group of publishers in Japan and the United States have gone much too far. This group banded together for the chief purpose of stamping out scanlations.

'Scanlation' is a portmanteau term of 'scan' and 'translation'. Scanlations are essentially the manga equivalent to fansubs, which are fan-subtitled episodes of anime. Scanlations are, in turn, scans of manga that are translated by fans.

The motivation behind scanlations is to expose a new audience to a series to which they otherwise have no exposure. The translations are done out of a love for the series and an enthusiasm to share it with a new audience. When the series is licenced for official release, scanlators typically cease their work and point interested readers to the official release.

In another parallel with fansubs, this is essentially the same approach that fansub groups have. As someone who has known several fansubbers, I can say that the vast majority of them work very hard purely out of love for a series and, when that series is made available to their region in a quality release, they are only too happy to stop their unofficial efforts and point others to the official ones. The goal of fansubbers, as with scanlators, is to provide something that is not being provided, to broaden the exposure of a series that they love so that it can be shown that there is an audience for it.

The publishers have all but stated that they believe scanlations are the Antichrist. It is their intention to stamp scanlations out entirely, with claims that they have ruined the manga industry and other such hyperbole. There are, naturally, a few things that have been left out of this discussion.

The first is that the exact thing has been attempted before. In the 80s, anime releasing companies invented the 'Maison Ikkoku effect', which they claimed explained how fansubs were destroying any chance of anime retaining a foothold in the US marketplace. Because of fansubs, companies such as Viz asserted, their release of Maison Ikkoku failed to be an overwhelming success.

Then, as now, they failed to consider a few points:

- First, Maison Ikkoku was a relatively obscure series outside of Japan that was also nothing like the only other well-known series from the same creator at that time.

- Second, Maison Ikkoku's pace is slightly slower than that of a Tolstoy book. With an emphasis on iyashi-kei slice-of-life situations, Maison Ikkoku was suited even only to a certain Japanese audience, certainly not the sort of series that would take a US audience at the time.

- Third, Maison Ikkoku's aforementioned tone was completely different from what was wildly popular at the time, which happened to be action-filled, flashy-effects spectaculars, typically with sex and violence. The attempt to release such a series so completely untested shows tremendous lack of foresight on the parts of its releasers.

- Fourth, dubs at the time were a crap shoot. Some were decent. Most were mind-numbingly awful. This period of slapdash dubbing instilled an entire generation with knee-jerk hatred of English dubs, and for good reason.

- Last but not least, a typical anime VHS at the time cost around $20...for a dub. Usually they were priced at $30 for a subtitled version. These tapes were usually an hour long, but some were longer. None ever exceeded two hours in length.

Despite all of this, it was claimed that fansubs had ruined Maison Ikkoku's chances, that fansubs were entirely responsible for its commercial failure, and that long-running series like Maison Ikkoku would never be able to be released to a US audience.

Those of us who knew better suspected that it was a case of sour grapes from a company who had made a mistake and simply looked for the most convenient scapegoat. Fansubbers could hardly answer these accusations, especially as it was before the age of widespread internet access. Companies like Viz could make whatever allegations they pleased, and fansubbers and fans alike had no recourse to answer them.

Now, twenty-something years later, we see how fansubs have completely ruined the anime industry...since one of the most profitable booms in history has essentially integrated Japanese animation and comics into American culture. Long-running series, which would never be able to be released to an American audience, are everywhere.

But now the publishers are saying that scanlations are the imminent destruction of manga. Once again, Viz are at the forefront of these claims; you'd think they'd have learned from the Maison Ikkoku incident. I'd like to bring up a few points to this discussion:

- In Japan, I could go to any given bookstore and be reasonably confident of finding a recently-released tankouban. I could also go online and read others' opinions of that series, or even ask friends if they think the series would suit me. Conversely, in the US, the limited number of titles released, many of which are years old, are often not even available to libraries. I can't always find opinions from anyone who may have read a certain title, even if it is available in English. And although I am at a great advantage because I can read Japanese -- and typically buy manga in Japanese, and can browse the internet in Japanese to find reviews -- most readers in the US do not share my ability.

- In Japan, most tankouban cost somewhere between $4 to $6, with an odd few actually closer to $10 and beyond, an exception rather than the rule. In the US, tankouban prices typically begin around $10, with an odd few dipping under or over that figure. When manga were first released in the US, it was not uncommon to see books priced at $20 or more. Like the high prices for the tapes, the ludicrously exorbitant price tags do not exactly encourage people to take a chance on a series they don't know, haven't heard of, and may not like.

- The creator typically receives little to nothing for manga released in other countries. It's the publishers who really profit from publication outside of Japan. This is why I tend to prefer to support creators whom I can contact directly, and whom I can be certain receive the support I want to give them.

- There are so many companies, like Tokyopop, who are absolutely deplorable in the way they do business. I never want to support their spurious business practices. Because of this, I do support the manga titles, but in Japanese.

- Plenty of companies blithely butcher a series with terrible editing that doesn't even bother to involve the original artist, or they simply flip the panels or pages, resulting in disconcerting layouts. Flipping pages was common practise for some time and is still done by some companies. Some companies will just omit pages they don't like, resulting in a confusing final product, which makes one wonder why they even bothered to licence it in the first place if they didn't intend to release it intact.

- Many companies licence a series and then never finish it, even going so far as to do up to the next-to-last book and then no more. While that's no problem for me -- I can just look to a friend in Japan, Kinokuniya, Celga, and so forth -- not everyone has access to those resources and, as mentioned before, not everyone can read Japanese. Now more than ever, now that these companies are becoming so vehement about obliterating manga scans and fan translations, I want to say this: don't start something if you don't intend to finish it. Licencing something and then dropping the release and whining about low sales is a good way to get people not to buy anything from you again, because they can't be sure you'll see it through to the end. At the very least, scanlators work for free and most who are passionate enough about a project will either see it through or hand it off to someone else who will.

There are so many reasons why this latest witch hunt will only serve as detrimental to these publishers and everyone around them who is tangentially involved.

People aren't going to take a chance and spend over $10 on series they don't know if they like, aren't sure if they can count on, and can't trust to be finished. If anything, this will simply increase the occurrences of people checking the books out from their local libraries (if they can find them) and reading them, then picking them up once the series is finished...much later.

People also are less likely to take a chance on a completely unfamiliar series. If they haven't heard anything, can't find anything online (ideally a preview to read), and don't know the author, they're not as likely to just pick it up. Scanlations provide a way for potential readers to see different works from the author and see if the style suits them. Some of the titles they peruse may never become available formally in their language.

All series, naturally, cannot be licenced. Ultimately what publishers choose are series that they think will make the most profit. For whatever reason, be it age, obscurity, or any other justification, many books will never see the light of day in other languages. Is it really a detriment to the profits of the creator if a work that is never released officially in another country is provided in scanned form? I say it is not. Most readers of manga I know would go out of their way to buy a book they love, even if it isn't in their own language. But they have to read it and understand it first, or else they will never know that they love it.

An additional point I would like to make is that not all manga is collected into tankouban. I dearly love the Yes! Precure 5 and Yes! Precure 5 Go Go manga that ran in Nakayoshi alongside the TV series. Yet they were never collected into tankouban and, likely, never will be. If I had not seen a chapter of the manga scanned, I would never have known it even existed. Even now, trying to seek out the series, I've only managed to collect a handful of Nakayoshi with the manga. Is it really right to obliterate any scans of that existing? Many of the 'telephone book' manga magazines like Nakayoshi are discarded after they are read. That means that these Precure 5 comics stand a good chance of never again seeing the light of day. How is that helpful to the talented creator who composed them?

The scanlators are not all pure, blameless entities, just like the fansubbers are not. People are people. But by and large, the majority of the fansub community, just like the majority of the scanlation community, are people who have a passion for what they do, and what they do is done out of love and admiration. Once the titles are licenced, to be made available in their region, they stop doing what they do because they don't have to now; their goal is achieved. A wider audience will be able to share their appreciation, and easily.

mp3s were not wiped out. Fansubs did not vanish from the face of the earth. And scanlations will not go away. All that has happened is that now, people who want them will have to look in different places. And now, all these manga publishers who were so concerned about profits and revenue will receive even less because people will be less willing to take chances on things they can't be sure they will enjoy. All they have done is create yet another inane buzzword. I am reminded of a friend who worked professionally in voiceovers and struggled to find a host for his website back in 2001, because many hosts refused to host him due to him using mp3s for his portfolio samples. The mp3 format, at the time, was the most economical combination of space and quality. And yet, because it was another stupid industry buzzword, everyone was put through tremendous inconvenience simply because an industry could not get over itself.

I encourage people to support the things they enjoy. There are too many people online who think that everything is theirs for free, and they need not support creators who give them enjoyment. It is not an infinite resource, and each voice is unique and deserving of support if it touches you. I agree that there is a problem with some people online, and that they have caused the rest of us to suffer. I am not endorsing rampant free everything. But I am endorsing being able to make an informed decision since the majority of consumers all have a limited amount of space for things we buy.

Essentially, there must be a middle ground. If publishers are going to insist that scanlations and manga scans in general are made pariahs, they must provide something to compensate for that. If they refuse to allow unofficial product, then it is their responsibility to provide official. That is a fundamental aspect of capitalism. If they can't provide something that is desired and someone else does, then that someone else will receive the support they deserve, which the original party lost.

I might also mention that, as per usual in both Japan and the US, many of these publishers completely flooded the market during the Japanese culture boom that occurred years ago. Japanese animation and comics have become an integrated part of American culture. They have lost their novelty. Because of that, companies can no longer just put out whatever they can licence cheaply and rely on it selling simply because it's Japanese. And yet, actions like this attempt to sweep away scanlations are the kind of thing that such overconfident firms tend to do. They think that they can do anything, produce anything, make any move, and have no end of support. It is actions like this that communicate a belief that even if they lose customers from this, there are always as many customers just waiting to replace them. But that is a fallacy in reasoning. Customers are now a very finite number for larger manga publishers. Antics like this only alienate increasing portions of that finite number.

Essentially the publishers are using scanlations as a scapegoat for declining sales, rather than looking to themselves for the much larger reasons. Manga have lost their novelty. Many series in the past 10 years have become homogenised and formulaic. A consumer public more familiar with the medium will no longer buy arbitrarily and blindly, but instead will become more discerning. That is what has happened.

It's the same thing that happened with Maison Ikkoku, essentially. And in twenty years' time, I would imagine we will see a more completely integrated medium of sequential art, with manga, American comic books, and European comics, all melding together into a cohesive whole...and all who are surrounded by this looking back and laughing at the idiots who tried to blame their own poor business sense on the most convenient scapegoat. It's one thing when you're a sole proprietor and don't have a lot of money. It's quite different when you're a multi-million-dollar publisher who should know better.

Shame on everyone involved in this.

Appearing at Knoxville Comic and Anime Con!

2010-06-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

I just want you all to know, I'll be appearing at the Knoxville Comic and Anime Con on 26 and 27 June 2010. That's in a couple of weeks! It's at the Knoxville Expo Centre, which is easy to find, and admission is only $5 a day. I'll be there peddling my wares and meeting people, and doing art for them too! Please do come by and get a sketch!

I hope I'll see some of you there. :)

The official site is at http://www.knoxvillecomicanimecon.com/ and it lists all the particulars such as hours and more information about guests and vendors. I'm sure it's going to be great fun!

Incubus Tales has moved!

2010-04-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

Just so you're aware, if you weren't aware before, because of SmackJeeves administration being idiots in general, Incubus Tales has moved to ComicDish. Please update all your links and bookmarks to the following address, to continue to follow and support Dhiar and all his adventures:

http://incubustales.comicdish.com

Thanks very much for your continued support!

Put Your Foot Down...Yes You!

2010-03-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

Generally I don't take the time to write about causes unless they mean something to me. In the past year I have written about the need to stop environmental destruction, awareness of one's diet, and one of the most important causes for myself and any artist: censorship. But it goes beyond that now, and the recent SmackJeeves fiasco has set me to thinking, as well as my interactions with various people I've discussed the matter with during the past week.

Something that has got to be stopped is overreactive legislation on art, especially sequential art storytelling, or the medium will be destroyed before it really has its greatest chance to blossom. One of the most controversial topics regarding this is the portrayal of young-appearing characters in comics, and this is one of the topics about which I feel most passionately.

I will say first of all that I am vehemently opposed to actual child pornography, and also to exposing people to sex too soon in life. Responsible parenting should be employed at every stage of a child's life, to ensure healthy development. Note that I say 'responsible parenting', not 'trying to get laws passed so you don't have to do your job that you agreed to do when you got yourself knocked up and decided to keep it'. There is a significant difference, and it is unfortunately missed by many in the modern world.

In any case, actual child pornography has nothing to do with legitimate pornography and adult films. There are so many rules, regulations, and standards in adult filmmaking today that it makes the MPAA look like a bacchanalia. One of the things that I find most objectionable about the way anything adult-oriented or made solely for adults is discriminated against, especially in the last decade, is that so often the people who never watch, purchase, or otherwise enjoy it are the same people trying to put more and more limits on it for the people who do enjoy it. That would be as ludicrous as someone asking me to write up laws regulating the packaging of meat products.

As vexing as this is dealing with real people, it's even more infuriating when the characters are fictional, the situations invented, and the locations nowhere in this world. Some countries have passed laws prohibiting even ficitonal characters who 'appear underage' from engaging in any activity of the naughty kind, under the claim that it is to combat child pornography.

There are a number of reasons why this is a complete load of nonsense.

The first of which is the fact that it attempts to criminalise things by way of 'looking' or 'appearing'. Even in real life that would raise a complicated issue, the first facet of which is: who is going to judge? Many people may look underage to a person who has little experience with people under the age of 30. And it is no secret that most politicians and other law-related professionals not only tend to concentrate on the over-30 demographic, but are also in that same bracket themselves.

The second facet of this is: even if someone does seem to look underage, the quickest show of identification would prove they are not. However, that is generally only required when making a formal application of some kind or attempting to make an age-restricted purchase, such as adult videos, alcohol, cigarettes, et cetera. The law cannot prevent someone from having a relationship on the basis that they 'look too young'; there have been cases where people have successfully sued, and rightly, for being discriminated against because someone wrongly mistreated them, thinking that they were a different age than they are. And that does not even begin to consider the people like Gary Coleman, who will appear to be childlike for his entire life. What about young-looking actors like Alyson Hannigan and others who portray teenagers successfully into their 30s? If they were so discriminated against, they'd be in and out of court with a successful case in no time.

The second reason is, as these are fictional characters, fictional situations, and fictional locations, they cannot be judged adequately by laws established to govern completely different worlds, societies, and people. The easiest example of this is the Vampire: whatever age they are bitten at, they tend to stay for the rest of their lives in appearance. One of the most famous examples of this, Claudia from Interview with the Vampire, is clearly not a child after some years, despite still having the appearance of one. If we apply the laws as they are conceived, does it really protect...anyone? If we were to judge the situation as if Claudia were an actual person in this world, would it hold water? No, of course not; we could examine documents and see clearly that she was born long enough ago to be old enough to be someone's mother. Is it, then, permissible to discriminate against her by saying that because she has a youthful appearance, she may not enter into a sexual relationship? No, it is not.

Do most people in this world live to be thousands of years old and exist in a land of eternally-blooming flowers and magical fruit? No? Well then why should a law applying to this world apply to the denizens of that one? Are there races of shapeshifters well-known in this world? No? Then why should it apply to them, when they could take the appearance of any age that they please?

Look at the Elves in Lord of the Rings. Or even better, look at the Hobbits. So, because Hobbits generally look youthful for decades, any Hobbit-sex is criminalised? An Elf could look like a young teenager and be the age of an average human's grandfather, so they're not supposed to have sex? Good luck telling them that!

The third reason is, this cannot be evenly enforced at all. There is no real standard, only subjective judgement, and typically by those who do not understand art and are not qualified to assess artistic value. Are we supposed to destroy works of past masters of the Renaissance if they depicted 'underage looking' subjects in sensual situations or poses? Doesn't that show rather flagrant disregard to their time period, in which they may have been considered adults? Adolescence is a relatively recent invention, historically speaking. Even modern masters such as Maxfield Parrish depicted youthful exuberance in various states of undress or suggestive draping; does that, then, make it illicit?

What about differing styles? Absolute age cannot be objectively applied to artwork, because each and every artist employs a different style. Take a look at some European cartoons for adults, with their youthful and strange, almost inhuman, proportions. Now look at Japanese manga. Now look at Peanuts. Look at Garfield. Try to apply an absolute age to any of the characters; you're likely to be wrong. Look at Picasso and try to apply an absolute age to some of his subjects.

To choose a specific individual feature that is often a stylistic choice, let's take body hair: some artists draw it all, some pick and choose where to have it, others don't draw it at all or feel they can't. Many adults do have body hair, it's true; but many also shave, trim, and wax. Some adults keep their bodies completely smooth: I need only point out swimmers, bodybuilders, and the like, the majority of whom rid themselves of all body hair. It doesn't make them somehow not-adults, but some who attempt to condemn, for example, Japanese yaoi stories, have tried to allege 'underage looking' antics because they don't have enough body hair. It just further demonstrates utter ignorance of art, specifically by disregard for stylistic differences and aesthetic choices.

Art is a deeply individual, personal, subjective experience. What one person judges about a piece of art, another person will judge the exact opposite. It cannot be tied down and dissected. Art is expression, and each individual person will derive something different from it, because art speaks to personal experience, personal judgement, personal aesthetic. It cannot be held up to a legal standard because frankly, art is as inscrutable as magic. There are methods to self-expression through art, but there is no method that can ever be tought to give one person the ability to assess any individual piece of art for every possible meaning it can have to every possible person who experiences it.

It's one thing if it's a clear attempt to just apply some sloppy Photoshop filter to a photograph to get around a legal loophole and make it into a drawing rather than a photograph. But making any kind of 'drawn pornography' (a stupid term in any case) illegal is nothing short of laziness and attempts to thought-police. It's clear they have no comprehension of the creative process, or they'd know that most artists don't work with actual models and don't require a photographic reference to draw something. Where does it stop? Whether or not the things appeal to you, stop and think: is it really logical for them to step in and make restrictions for anthropomorphic animals, pregnant males, and other creatures that don't exist in this world? Can there really be any reasonable standards applied legally to them that would be legally sound if they did? With a legal precedent showing that they can step in and say 'you can't draw this sort of thing', what's to stop them from taking a little bit more and cracking down on something else?

The only thing that can stop them is if creators, publishers, and other concerned parties -- especially voters -- get together and put our collective foot down. Government, especially the United States' government, has acted like a spoiled child for over the past decade, a spoiled child whose parent never told it 'no'. Now is the time to say 'no'. We are the voters, we put them in office. And more and more, they're willfully refusing to upload the freedom of expression established in the United States and many other countries. That's not doing their job. It additionally seems to indicate an inability to differentiate from reality and fiction, which is not something that I applaud in people who command as great a social influence as politicians do.

Do you really want someone deciding the future of your country if they can't tell the difference between a real person and a fictional character?

Recently creators, actors, and publishers banded together to defeat a proposed law in Japan that would be more of the same morality legislation, criminalising depictions of imaginary characters in imaginary situations. I can only hope and encourage people in other countries to show the same kind of solidarity.

To quote a sequential art legend in one of the most thought-provoking political works of sequential art from the past 50 years -- V from V for Vendetta -- 'People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.' And this is true. Governments should not feel like they have carte blanche to do whatever they please, as long as they put a certain spin on it or try to shame people into agreeing with them. Each and every politician should be aware that he or she is accountable to each and every voter and each and every person who is affected by their decisions. Morality cannot and should not ever be legislated, especially when there are plenty of more deserving issues that need addressing; when millions of people are starving because they're unable to find work, who honestly cares if someone has naughty comic books?

There is much more protection for novels and the written word; they wouldn't dare to pass a law restricting the sale of Nabokov's Lolita, for example. So why, then, is it permissible to attack sequential art?

If people are punished for possessing or creating pornography of imaginary characters as if they were real people, it's a logical progression that they can be punished for possessing or creating stories that depict illegal acts with any imaginary characters. What's to stop them, after a legal precedent is established, from punishing a creator for having a character die during the story? Is it murder or manslaughter? You may think this sounds ludicrous -- because it does -- but it's exactly the same sort of situation. It's exactly as ridiculous as holding someone responsible for drawing a comic or having a comic someone drew, with other situations that would be illegal...if they were real people. Which they aren't.

When one legal step is taken and supported, accepted, subsequent steps are much easier. When it is allowed to punish people for one thing, albeit a controversial thing that doesn't appeal to everyone, it opens the door for other things to be controlled or done away with outright. Even if you think 'that could never happen to what I like', think again. It starts with something that is an easy target and an easy foothold, easy for unscrupulous politicians to cast shame on its supporters and proponents. They're just using it as a stepping stone to get to where they really want to go, to control what they really want to restrict.

This is punishing someone for thoughts, ideas, and creations. And that is unquestionably wrong, and unquestionably in defiance of, at the very least, the United States Constitution.

I urge each and every one of you to go write your political representatives, locally and nationally, and to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. You can find the official website here:

http://cbldf.org/

The time for sitting by and hoping for the best is long past. Creators, readers, and everyone else are having their rights trampled on by people who are not qualified to make the decisions they are doing. And it is the power and the responsibility of every responsible citizen to put a stop to it. Write your politician and say this isn't acceptable. And make sure to let your voice be heard in any and every situation where this is applicable.

Midnight Down begins!

2010-03-20T20:32:00.001-07:00

Check it at http://www.booksie.com/fantasy/novel/hushicho/midnight-down

I hope you enjoy! Please do help me out by signing up for booksie and supporting Midnight Down there! It'll be updated weekly on Sundays, during active chapters (with a week or two between chapters). I really appreciate your support, in advance. Do be sure to show that you like Midnight Down, because it's only through your support that I will know it's worthwhile to continue.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, Midnight Down is a tale of a buxom sorceress, a gay vampire prince, a delightfully manly lycanthrope, and a dandy demon. Their adventures are always a tongue-in-cheek look at the pulp history of horror...and there are pictures too!

Potentially Serious Problems -- PLEASE READ!!

2010-03-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

Please head to the forums for regular updates and interaction. This is actually reposted from there just in case anyone who reads the blog isn't a member. The forums are the best place to keep up to date, so please, if you can, go to http://hushicho.freeforums.org and join us!

Well, since SmackJeeves's Terms of Service have been updated, I feel like our days there are numbered. This is extremely unfortunate and I'm extremely upset, not only because I liked SmackJeeves before now, but also because I'm sick of this sort of frankly bullshit that goes on with so many sites.

Basically they've gone the 'obscenity' route, and I just want to express why this is so bad.

Essentially the term 'obscene' is an extremely, extremely subjective word. It's so vague that, in terms of legalese, it's immensely vague and difficult to determine. Oftentimes it's left up to a consensus or a judge, or something like that. To simplify, for something to be classified as 'obscene', it must have no redeeming value artistically, politically, et cetera.

You can see where I'm going with this, I think, and why I am so upset about it.

It's a term that makes flagrant abuse of power look more and more like a reality. Because anyone can accuse something of being obscene, as long as it lacks value in their opinion. It's extremely difficult to determine in a court, but it's not so difficult for someone at a website to insist that something is obscene, even when it may not be.

It's also immensely insulting. When you work as hard as I do on a comic...bleed for every line and every word, wrack your brain for the best way to do something, develop yourself constantly and hold yourself to ridiculously high standards to continually improve...the very possibility that this might happen is maddening. If I seem to be overreacting about this, I'm honestly not; I've just seen this sort of thing go sour very quickly, in the past.

And then there's the huge chore of reposting all of the previous pages on a new site. It takes hours, if not days, when you have a comic as long as Incubus Tales. It's insane, it's daunting...

And it's also tedious, because I'm sure whatever I go with, I'm going to have to design a new site from scratch, work in all the ads, work in all the code...I'm not exaggerating when I say I barely have time to eat my meals between all my art and comics work. This is going to throw a huge spanner in the works, if it happens.

Of course, let's hope it doesn't. But I don't like feeling like Damocles, and that's exactly how I feel at SmackJeeves now. I've made a post on the topic, but who knows if they'll actually listen. It would be nice if they would. I'd like to have a potentially awful situation resolve in a pleasant and easy way, for once!

But I'm just warning you ahead of time: if anything happens, just check here and I'll make sure you'll be updated. If you can, I hope you'll voice your opinions on that topic too, in the SmackJeeves forums -- please do let them know this won't be tolerated, in advance! They haven't done anything...yet. But that doesn't mean they won't. And this is a chilling precedent for something like that.

Utakata

2010-02-27T17:03:00.000-08:00

My favourite word in Japanese is 'utakata'. Its literal meaning usually refers to bubbles on the surface of liquid, sometimes used to describe sea foam. It also has another meaning: something ephemeral, something transient, something that does not last.

Today I was out for my piano lesson, which went as well as could be expected considering I've been sick and haven't been able to practise as much as I'd like in the past week. I went and did some shopping and finally was able to go back to my usual grocery, which is in a place called Downtown West. There are a couple of ethnic groceries there and some great cultural things, one of which is Karaoke Studio. Karaoke Studio is a karaoke box, which is a Japanese-style place where you go, pay a small fee, and get your private room to sing karaoke, on your own machine and television. You can bring friends, refreshments, everything. I've always loved the Japanese approach to karaoke, and anymore I sang more Japanese songs than anything, usually enka.

I came to know the owners, Tomo and Sei, and we became friends. Tomo would come and sing with me for a few songs when she got some time. I would learn new songs to sing with her, and it took me down a wonderful sort of memory lane -- her favourites were mainly 80s and early 90s, but sometimes we'd sing later songs or enka. My favourite song to sing was and is 'Tsugaru Kaikyou Fuyugeshiki' -- an enka standard. The machine even had a hard rock version, which was challenging and entertaining. One of my friends that I would occasionally go to the box with came to refer to 'Tsugaru Kaikyou Fuyugeshiki' as my song, since I always sang it when we would go.

To be honest, Knoxville -- where I live -- is not a very nice city. When I came here, ten years ago, I was happy to be out of where I was. This place is better than that one was, certainly. But Knoxville is a place where there is nothing much to do. Anything truly interesting, artistic, beautiful, or cultural tends to be choked away and vanish, leaving nothing but half-assed gentrification to an otherwise dump of a city, administrated by some of the most notably corrupt government in the country. And that is certainly a pity, because once upon a time it was a beautiful place that was nice to live in, although now even the scenery is being eaten up by ugly new buildings, incomprehensible and ill-conceived road construction, and electrical towers -- not that they help anything, especially the latter: power grid problems are as bad as they always were.

This is a university town, so there is at least a somewhat broader spectrum of culture and ethnicity, but when it all boils down to it, you have basically hollow consumerism, bars, and football in Knoxville. The one single place worthwhile to go, the Old City, is the poster child for what the city has lost and why: owned largely by flakes who refuse to renovate but refuse to sell, the most happening part of town consists of barely a single city block, punctuated by empty storefronts and buildings that could be exciting and interesting...if their owners bothered to give a care. Not that the art crowd is better here. It's essentially a bunch of housewife dilettantes for the most part, who really are playing at art. The sad thing is, they've fooled plenty of people, myself and other actual artists included, and it only makes one a bit sadder when realisation dawns.

I don't go out; I hate bars, full of smoke and full of mostly nasty crowds who want nothing to do with anyone else. If I want to be alone and drink, I can stay home and I can even be naked if I want to! Once upon a time there was an informal gathering called Temple, where classic 80s and 90s music and retro fashion, as well as goth crowds, were the order of the day. But unfortunately, like all the great aspects of Knoxville, that went away.

And now I must say farewell to the single remaining thing that I ever had to do in Knoxville for entertainment. It was a wonderful five years of karaoke. It helped my kana and kanji comprehension with speed-reading a necessity. It helped my pronunciation and made me stronger in Japanese. But it made me stronger in other ways too. When I hit a depressive streak a few years back and became paranoid, I went to the karaoke box at least once weekly, and that helped me through it. When my mate passed away three years ago, I did the only thing I could to heal myself emotionally: I sang. Karaoke Studio is one of the few places around here that I can say I've made memories at, and it's something that has legitimately helped me in life, in a significant way.

They close their doors in August. I don't know if I can go back again. But if I don't, then I must say goodbye inside myself. And even though my groceries are still in Downtown West, it will be hard to go there anymore, because the wound of seeing where I once spent so many happy hours and sad hours, hours of emotion and hours of healing and recovery, will be too much for me.

I'll leave this with my favourite song by tommy heavenly6. It's called 'Lost my pieces'. My translation, on the fly, appears underneath the original Japanese.

I Lost my pieces
Falling into Star dust
雨みたいに
散らばってく

Why are they leaving me?
すべてが裏切るの
I thought that's forever…
何もかも消えて　そうすべて

I had a dream, so… in my dream
Under the star light, baby…
I'll say goodbye to you…ok?
everything is just a dream
so…When I wake up
I lose you from my head
…oh yeah

I don't remember you
when I see you in down town

Where are my pieces?
どこへ行っても
息が詰まる
窮屈だわ
耐えられない
I had a dream, so… in my dream
Under the star light, baby…
I'll say goodbye to you…ok?
everything is just a dream
so…When I wake up
I lose you from my head
…oh yeah
涙があふれ落ちて
うるさいベルが鳴り響く
神様　追いていかないで!

I don't remember you
When I see you in heaven

I had a dream, so… in my dream
Under the star light, baby…
壊れてしまうわ
あなたこそがすべてだった
でももう瞳をあけるわ

I had a dream, so… in my dream
Under the star light, baby…
I'll say goodbye to you…ok?
everything is just a dream
so…When I wake up
I lose you from my head
…oh yeah

I don't remember you
When I see you in heaven

I lost my pieces,
Falling into stardust
Like rain they've scattered around

Why are they leaving me?
Must everything betray me...
I thought that's forever
Everything goes away...yes, everything

I had a dream so...in my dream
Under the starlight, baby...
I'll say goodbye to you...ok?
everything is just a dream
so...when I wake up
I lose you from my head
...oh yeah

I don't remember you
when I see you in downtown

Where are my pieces?
Wherever I go
I find it hard to breathe
It's too narrow
I can't bear it

I had a dream so...in my dream
Under the starlight, baby...
I'll say goodbye to you...ok?
everything is just a dream
so...when I wake up
I lose you from my head
...oh yeah

My tears fall
The noisy bell rings out
God, I can't follow you!

I don't remember you
When I see you in heaven

I had a dream, so...in my dream
Under the starlight, baby...
I'll break it apart
You were everything to me
But my eyes have been opened

I had a dream so...in my dream
Under the starlight, baby...
I'll say goodbye to you...ok?
everything is just a dream
so...when I wake up
I lose you from my head
...oh yeah

I don't remember you
When I see you in heaven

Sick. :|

2010-02-20T03:40:00.000-08:00

For everyone who is checking here for updates about when my break will be over and Incubus Tales will start perhaps its most exciting chapter yet, I have a date for you: 2 March 2010!

It was going to be this coming Tuesday, but well...as the subject states, I'm currently ill and that means I've lost a couple of days of work and I'm not where I want to be before starting the new chapter. I'd much rather be at my goal so that I can bring you even more great stories.

The story, if you're interested, is like a convergence of awfulness. My housemates have had a touch of a cold or something that they passed to each other, but once they started feeling bad they told me to keep my distance so I didn't get sick. Unfortunately it was a couple of days too late, but that didn't become clear until later. The thing that really set it off was that one of them decided we needed to refinish our wooden countertop. This would otherwise be great, but since it's in the middle of an especially chilly winter, there was inadequate ventilation and we couldn't really open the windows and doors like should have been done.

So the day after that I started feeling especially cruddy. The same symptoms my housemates have had, made worse by the reaction to the intense fumes of the wood finish. I think the worst of it is over, but that doesn't change the fact that the aftermath is horrid: scratchy throat, mild fever (and the headache that goes with it), congestion...I'm just going to have to take it easy for the rest of the weekend.

But next week I'll be working to achieve my set goal and then on 2 March, Incubus Tales returns! So look forward to that, and I'll see you there.

Until next time, be well!

...and don't refinish your wood surfaces without adequate ventilation.

Bangles! No, really...

2010-02-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

I have great news for you! I've been working on a comic collaboration involving bangles, which are extremely important accessories in India, traditionally. You see them virtually everywhere, and you usually buy bunches at once because they're worn several at a time. Additionally, since they're glass, inevitably a few will break, so you'll want to have replacements. There are even whole markets dedicated to them.

They have a very special place in my heart, so I hope you'll await news of the collaboration with bated breath! I think you'll all be touched by it.

Tangentially, I bought some new bangles for myself recently. It was just a little reward for completing this collaboration, and something to commemorate it. I looked around the net, but a lot of places didn't have sizes listed or simply didn't stock extra-large, which is the size I require. However, I found a great site called Beachcombers! And they have been fantastic. One of the owners, Jody, custom-made my set of bangles and even provided a helpful video, because believe me...it has been a really long time since I last wore bangles. They send free extra bangles with every order, their custom sets are incredibly affordable, and honestly I can only encourage you again and again to look around at Beachcombers! They stand behind their products and their work, which goes a long way with me. Tell them hushicho recommended you. The bangles I received are of the highest quality, and they also ship internationally. If you've been waiting for a convenient opportunity to try bangles -- or bindi (forehead jewels), mehndi (henna tattooing) or khussa (traditional shoes) -- then take a peek at Beachcombers's fantastic selection.

Anyway, please do stay tuned as they say, check back for more news on the upcoming bangles project and other projects in the works. There are plenty I'm working on, and so many fun things to share with you in the upcoming months!

Incubus Tales site redesign

2010-01-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

As regular readers of Incubus Tales will by now know, the comic's site has been redesigned to be less intense and easier on the eyes. The decision was made long ago to do this, but only recently have I really had the time to dedicate to getting things looking and feeling like I thought would be appropriate. Of course, I've still got to tweak a few things and make sure that it's going to work, but I think this is a lot better than how it was.

In other news, I've put Pandemonium Renaissance on hold temporarily, because I really need the right inspiration for something that is so much a work of concentrated art, I suppose is the best way I could say it. It's very intense to do, and I want to make sure I do it right. Additionally, having only Incubus Tales as an active, deadline-oriented weekly update comic has freed me some time and opportunity to do things like changing its site design, which I think is good. I'm also working on commissions (which I'd always like more of!) and some special projects, as well as fun stuff for all you readers.

For everyone wondering, Masquerose and Midnight Down are coming along beautifully. Everything is going along at a steady and pleasant pace, and I feel sure that it won't be a very long time before we see both active and there to be enjoyed. As the launch for Masquerose comes closer, I'll be more forthcoming with details, but right now I want to keep it something of a surprise. I hope you understand, and I'm sure you do!

Recently I also completed another project that I'll be sharing with you all when it's ready and released. I'm really happy with the work, and I'm sure you will all be able to appreciate it, as you always do.

In my spare time I've been doing my piano, which is coming along very nicely, and playing Lego Batman. It's a hilarious and fun game, and if you haven't played it, it's definitely worth a spin. Lots of fun, and it never takes itself too seriously...thank goodness!

See you next time!

New Design, New Direction

2010-01-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I don't know if it's entirely a new direction, just a sort of different mindset, a different approach to things. I hope you'll enjoy it!

I'm keeping this blog to keep you all appraised of what's going on in my life, and I'll hopefully keep it pertinent to comics and other pro stuff. I'm sure other things will slip in from time to time though.

I'm really happy with the new design of my website, and I'm thinking it will stay that way for a long time indeed! I always get put-out eventually with my site designs, but this one is one that really pleases me for its smooth look.

As you may have seen, a new comic is coming called Masquerose. I don't know when it's going to start; that depends on how soon I can get it to a comfortable point and get everything else sorted out. Finishing the redesign was a huge step, though, so that'll make it much sooner that Masquerose will arrive. I hope you'll enjoy it when it does!

As promised, and as I've kept pretty secret for a while now, I am also going to be starting up Midnight Down again, but this time it will be an illustrated serial novel. I found it worked much, much better in that format, and I'm also much more satisfied with the outcome so far. I'll be linking that in on the site, of course, when it's ready!

Okay, so maybe a little personal stuff won't be unwelcome...I've been learning piano, which is something I've wanted to do for years and years, and I'm so excited/nervous about my lesson tomorrow. I've been working for the past three weeks on holiday assignments, such as learning new scales and chord progressions, and I've also been working on some classic Celtic tunes, 'The Earl of Moray' and 'The Blue Bells of Scotland'. I've pretty much got 'The Earl of Moray' presentable, although 'The Blue Bells of Scotland' is less smooth but still all right.

The reason why it amuses me so much is because 'The Earl of Moray' is the very song that lends its name to the term meaning 'misheard lyrics', 'mondegreens'. The book 'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy, a book of misheard lyrics from popular music, explored the concept of mondegreens extensively, as did its two popular sequels. The term 'mondegreen' comes from the pronunciation of a line in the song, 'they have slain the Earl of Moray / and laid him on the green', which was misheard as 'and Lady Mondegreen'. If you listen to a native singer performing it, it's probably easy to confuse. But it completely cracks me up nonetheless to be playing this song.

Anyway, I expect that's probably enough for one update. Keep checking back for more!

And keep reading my comics!