Friending Meme!

[squarededdie]

Recently befriending the enigmatic maypirate has brought new rituals of the world of LJ to light.
This time, I got to question myself. Okay, that didn't sound just right; basically this is one of the trendy ways to introduce yourself here. I think. Any way, this was fun!

Comments

[squarededdie]

I understand your point in making covers appealing... in the commercializing/marketing sense, but that's exactly what I like to avoid.
The fact that most of my favourite books having the dullest of covers backs up my skepticism. On contrary to your approach, I usually pick stuff up judging from their title/summary or an episode I happened to read in a magazine. Comes down to each one's POV, I'd say. ;) You're making me feel bad for not concerning the mass market too much; but hell, I do haha... enough of it at work (with much frustration!) so I'd like to keep my personal stuff on the experimental, non-catering-to-the-majority side. :) Although over ten years of jostling through the doujin world has made me realize that my original art style is very unapppealing to the masses anyway...XD

I only sell my stuff off the table sorry. It's more engaging to have people who 'happened to find them' at cons buy them. ;) And... you know, there's the license thing? It's all just parodying and for fun but still? Crossing borders is... ahem. LOL Though I'm planning to upload the sold-out short story mangas here eventually. I'd love to read your critique. :)

[makowe_pola]

I was talking about the situation when I go picking up books with no recommendation. Truthfully, most back cover blurbs look the same in the long rung and it's as hard to judge a book by the cover as by the blurb lol

it's not about the mass market- a book is a product in its whole- interior- both the story and the font are equally important, difficult font to read makes the story unappealing. Same with cover- can be very simple (see British Penguin series!) and still very well designed, hence beautiful. There's nothing putting me off as much as the cover with pretty picture and very bad typography. I'm snobbish like that lol

But then when I choose books I go by the author in the first place, genre, then some recommendation by friends/magazines, but often I go for one book and leave with few others, just because I feel like trying them out.

Acha cha then there's two of us- I have like 10 years of exp of going to cons and what I learnt is that my art is in no way commercial and easy, but I've learnt to work around that and not really care. Or maybe it's just me not having marketable personality lolololol JK

But there are companies selling doujins outside of Japan Oó There was one last year on Japan Expo in Paris and I participated in first Comic Live Fail in Paris and they were there too. As far as I know- if you write a disclaimer in your book "this work is a parody, in no way connected to creators and owner of the original" (just in more smart words) you're basically ok as it's your derivative work. Of course you can't really make insane money out of it and if you do, it's better to do it legally or just fly under the radar. I know that people had problems, even with fanarts only published on the net, but that was 10-15 years ago and most big companies adjusted they view that doujin market is just another form of advertisement to their product, not a threat. Not that I try to make you do something you don't feel like lol I know I can't make you sell me something, but maybe an exchange would hold your interest?

If you post them- YES PLZ! Though I'm not sure if those are your older works if there's a point to criticize them. They're old works and you've moved forward already. And I'm not really that good in comic art- I used to draw a lot of them, but I lost my love for them somewhere and now I don't really have time. Though I did same thing as you- I drew doujins so I can experiment without consequences.

[squarededdie]

Exactly, I was referring to blind bookstore shopping. Recs are usually a reliable source for selecting books which also allow one to avoid the influence of elements such as cover art. Not sure if I can concur on your opinion of summaries though. When selecting a book randomly, yes, the overall look of the book is one element to base your decision, but as I've aforementioned, this can often be deceiving. A design of a book can look the same as well, and depending on what the current trend is in artistic styles, you just have to base your choice on something else. Don't make me start talking about Shojo comics, XD. They all look the same to me... Also, there's always the factor of what makes each of us tick; which is also what's making this an interesting conversation.

>what I learnt is that my art is in no way commercial and easy, but I've learnt to work around that and not really care.
Word.

I see a lot of artists selling their original comics via internet, but I've yet to see fan books. Didn't know companies sold doujinshi overseas. Are these Japanese companies (at least the ones I know don't sell to foreign customers), or companies reselling stuff they acquired in Japan? There's a big difference there. Maybe I'm just not looking at the right places, hehe.
FAIL??! What happened?!
I never make any money out of this haha I'M PAYING TO HAVE THIS FUN.
An exchange? I would love that. :D

Showing old stuff is out of the question, too embarrassing hahaha! Not that I'm quick in making progress though... >.> It'll be the stuff I made this year, they'll probably sell out at the upcoming Comic Market in August. Experimenting, yes. I find working on comics more in line with what I want to achieve... with art, in fusion with storytelling.

[makowe_pola]

LoL I wouldn't really go for shojo in the first place. They are scary XD

When you look at it- everything can be deceiving in the end- even your friend's recommendation, since tastes are always slightly different ;)

I've seen plenty- both original and fanbooks. From basically all around the world, but they do it most often individually, not via companies. But yes, there are Japanese companies reselling like here, they orginised Comic Live in Paris and there was a contest for a doujin to be translated to jap and sold on markets in Japan or you have the list here. There are few others, can't find them now :/ I think they are both- Japanese companies (but maybe that's too big word) and outsiders reselling books. I think there's a really big market for those comics, since they are so hard to obtain. I'd love myself to have some of my fav authors.

And, BTW, recently I had interesting talk with few people in ST, about how little ST doujins are there. Some of them are drawing their own now. I was wondering myself even, should I try drawing something myself, but sadly I'm at this point in my life that I can't really spend money and time pointlessly, without any profit. It sucks to be an adult ;_;

FAIL as in- 40 stands, basically no people coming in, boriiing~ and without the returned expense >> But it was the first thing, maybe next time it will be more interesting.

YES! Exchange would be great! I sadly don't have much to offer, only collaborative work with friends and some prints of my works ^^" I don't know if it interesting enough for you?

I understood sold-out= old things lol 'd be cool if you posted them for viewing, though I always prefer having paper copy :)

[squarededdie]

Hahaha, yeah Shojo isn't my cup of tea either, though there are a few gems. Have you heard of Fushigi Yuugi? I'd recommend that to everyone, especially the anime series which was definitely superior to the manga.

Comes down to your instincts huh? ;)

Wow, pretty interesting stuff there; the first website you showed is run by the most prominent BL doujinshi company in Japan; didn't know they sold books overseas too. I'm not into BL(they're too Shojo for me XD) so didn't care to look around much... yeah, you're right about doujinshi being popular, I've seem a lot of scanlations circulated on the interwebs, which I think is another factor the Japanese have problems toward selling their books overseas.

True, there aren't many ST doujinshi... I wonder why? There are hoards of Supernatural, NCIS, and Sherlock Holmes books though. Maybe the aspect of science fiction which requires a bit of technobabble plus the setting being a spaceship is too hard to tackle? I made one ST book but it's Kirk&Sulu so nobody takes interest, LOOOOOOL.
Well, as they say, you don't HAVE time, you MAKE time... I'd love to read your manga!

Really, that sucks. The distributers should advertise it more next time.

Sold out=old; Oh, okay, you got me there hahaha but hey, that STRBB art was months old you know! ;)

That steampunk book looks great! I would like to have that. :D
Have to agree about preferring the hard copy!
My books I have right now are all hand made copies(via copy machines, so the quality isn't that good), which is another reason I'm not selling them overseas but uploading them later on. I'm planning to get the TW book I mentioned in a past post to get professional print job so it's better to wait for that I think.

[makowe_pola]

I know FU, it was, after Sailormoon, second published shojo in here. It was cool for the first arc, I didn't like the second. And anime was much much better, but then i saw it when I was 14 and when I've tried to re-watch or reread it recently... just no. It's much better in my memories XD

I guess that BL dojins are the biggest market here lol Hm, I always thought that there are so many scanslations, because there are so few dojins (good quality dojins, should I add) outside Japan. They are hard to get, so the scanslations appears. Funnily enough I found few very good artists that way and I wanted to buy their books, but they were already out of print/sold out/not shipped internationally. The problem, bigger I think, is that Japanese are very closed when it comes to things like that. It may be awful to demand it, but the sites are only in Japanese most of the time, not shipping overseas, try talking to someone in English and majority will ignore you. Not everyone, but that's the feeling most of us gaijins get. So when I have to go through all the troubles to buy a book I wouldn't even understand... scanlation that is.

But but but... apart from the bridge everything on the ship was... simplistic, long corridors .... random planets that looked like pink sparkly Earth... It must be that technobable. But since when BL dojin needs a real plot Oó hahaha maybe it's just hard to make them into nice manga? Too many body hair on Spock or something lol I saw one that was very good, and one or two that looked like shojo, so very no.

Sadly I wish I could make time, but I can't. between my work schedule, refitting flat and few other things I need to make time (like 20hrs every week at least) for one big thing already, so there's barely time for me to draw or even sketch. Comics- as something unprofitable, must've had to be shunned for a while :/ Though I must admit I've got one OP doujin on my plate to finish (sketched like 80%). Maybe one day. If you want to see anything of mine: I actually did one comic for ST, but it's [ very short] (and one for [Gintama] and another for [One Piece]) lol There are also few old originals, but not really worth mentioning ^^"

I buy a lot of doujins, at least in Europe by European artists, so I'm pretty much used to any quality- from xerox to professionally printed one. But I'm more than ok to wait for the TW anyway :D

[squarededdie]

Oh no, really? It's been years since I last watched it too, maybe it'll be pretty different watching it now for me as well. Actually I've been re-watching a few oldies recently and they're mostly better than I initially watched them all those years ago so never know what 'll happen with Fushigi Yuugi, hehehe.

Yeah, you're kinda right about that but there's another thing provoking their paranoia... all those fans who take art and stuff from social networks like Pixiv and artists' websites seem to be really annoying the Japanese. These fans claim to be doing this for the same reason as scanlations, "the art is hard to get," but really? Pixiv is in English, and it's not that hard to find fansites, you just have to reach the search engine that specializes in each fandom and take it from there. Why not just show some links to these? They should at least start crediting the artists if they really want to gain some trust and buy books from them?

Well, I'd like a plot. XD Leonard Nimoy, yes, the massive mutt hair always looks freaky with his tender features but is it the same with ZQ? And since when did BL authors actually draw screen accurate bodily hair??! Hahahaha this is so funny... Hrmmm, sadly, ST wasn't that much of a hit in Japan (I think The Green Hornet has more fans), and perhaps the pressure of impressing the hardcore Trekkers isn't that appealing?

OMG you drew GINTAMA!!!!! Thank you for sharing these gems! Now I need to learn Polish, hehehe. Your take on Chopper is mesmerizing. Sad you don't have much time to spare for comics, but you're still dishing out art and sketches so it's cool. ;)

I need to find those European doujins. Fascinating...
Oh, and there's one thing I need to check... are you cool with minor characters being the main focus of a story? Judging from your comics you seem to sway major side so just in case. My favourite TW character is Owen so he'll be getting the most panel time...

[makowe_pola]

My guess is that while now I could enjoy few jokes and references I missed then, but the general charm of this kind of stories is gone for me now. Though Ranma 1/2 is perfect as always, for example :D Or Sailor Moon Stars. I don't even have to get stoned or drunk for this one and I had a marathon with a friend when we had very hard exam session one semester few years back and watched SM during the all-nighters (most of our exams were showing off portfolio, so watching smth didn't bother our ...hm, learning process lol).

This taking without crediting thing, as something I don't really support, at this point I'm aware that it's not something anyone can control and by sending something off to the internet one must be aware it happens an that the picture stays there forever, whether they like it or not. The "hard to get" isn't really that far off, though I think it's very poor excuse. Pixiv is in Engrish mostly and for very long time it was only in Japanese. I think there was a moment even when you had to have Jap phone number to register and in general it's quite unfriendly for non-Japanese. Again I think  it's the culture difference that plays the biggest role here. And to the boot- to see something on pixiv, you have to register first. (And you have no idea how hard is to get the returning registering e-mail from any japanese site, since most of them are treated as spam and often don't even show up in spam folder >>). But like I said- it's very poor excuse and when I understand the point of scanlating doujins (there often is some kind of plot, after all), people should respect the artist more, but they are often simply uneducated in this matter and they don't even know they are showing disrespect.

I'd like good plot too, but we're minority 8D Most fangirls don't look for plot in the first place XD. And I kind of understand no hair thing-I used to think same way not so long.ago lol but imma cured XD As for Nimoy's face - I surely wouldn't call it tender (that's Shatner's part!), but strong, angular and very characteristic. I'm not even sure if I find him handsome, but definately interesting.

I was gintamatard for a momemt back there, true. But you don't have to really understand the language to get what's going on. I added the dialogue as an afterthought and it mostly contains character's catch-phrases. Whole thing was drawn only to practice backgrounds, since Sorachi and his assistants are the masters of it.

European doujins are sadly few and far between...

God, yesyes! The fact that I draw more.popular guys doesn't.mean I don't love the less popular ones and Owen was my most loved one in TW. That's for sure. BTW, have you seen ep. 4.01? I had mixed feelings about the americanisation (totally a word), but I still think it was awesome :D

[squarededdie]

As in the harem stuff? Ranma yes, and I still love Tenchi Muyo. Well, the first OVAs and TV shows, and the 'In Love' films. Looking back at these and comparing them to the similar stuff nowadays, I feel it's more of the evolvement animation has taken in need to mirror the ever changing demographic of the target audience. As I continue to age, I find myself prone to take a liking to the shows that critics praise to be traditional, 'old school' type stories more and more...>_> Gahhhh I'm getting old. XD
I majored in film but still had to memorize a hoard of technical stuff for exams. But I don't think making portfolios aren't that easy either?

Well, have to point out that there are a lot of overseas websites that only accept local residents too. I'm half British so I can register in British sites but America, no. And I have so many things I want to buy/watch from America, hahaha, their loss. :( At this point, the only thing that can be said is that it's a no-one-wins scenario... have to leave it for betterment in the future.

Hahaha, yeah, highest of fives to plotting. Not that I'm good at it either though...
But, but, the amount of hair on his chest still looks so weird under that face. I was pretty much catatonic the first time I saw him bare chested XXDDD. SO MUCH HAIR. Never found Shatner attractive though. Difference in taste, huh? ;)

Backgrounds are essential to comics. That's another reason I don't read Shojo; most of the time you have no idea where the characters are even standing. Gintama's success comes not only from its crude jokes (LOL!) and entertaining plots, but also from the stability it gets from the established location. That makes the characters feel down to earth. I love how Sorachi brings back really minor characters all the time too. Haven't seen Prince Hata in a while though! But this might only be me. I'm more of an 'events & location come first' person than 'emotional turmoil and human relationships comes first' person.

Still, you've got me interested so it won't hurt to give it a try. ;)

Your favourite is Owen too!???!!! SO HAPPY NOW.
I haven't seen series 4 yet! I think I'll wait with the rest of my fellow Brits, XD.

[makowe_pola]

Harem or not, Ranma is just great comedy, bows to Takahashi's talents. Oh and tenchi muyo! That was also one of the very very few first anime in here, on VCR, I remember watching bad copy of a copy of a copy... good times :D We were all young and naive ha ha ha (not that I'm really old now, mind you, nor less naive...) I also feel sort of out of loop with modern productions, but I think it's mostly because anime doesn't hold much more appeal to me as a way of telling a story. Tastes change :)

I'm actually architecture graduate and while we had many learn-it-by-heart subject, majority of it was designing buildings that needed to presented later as portfolio. So during the semester we worked and the last 2 weeks were only about preparing portfolios- drawing and watching sailormoon respectively XD

I'm Polish, I could write epic stories of how I get stuff from overseas thanks to my friends. Cos of course the US stores won't sell mem a thing (as so UK and basically any other), better not get into that XD have to leave it for betterment in the future Ditto.

This amount of hair would look weird under any face IMO. He's like ... the son of King Kong or something XD I come from a very mono-culture society that has mostly fair skin, dark blond hair and so Shatner falls into my imprinted "how man should lok like" category. Not that I mind, cos Pine falls into that category too lol But like I said- even though I don't find Nimoy handsome, he's interesting and that is even better sometimes :D

I sadly don't get half the jokes, cos they are too much 'in' and I don't have this waste backgroundof modern Japanese (pop) culture, and yet there was still something that attracted me to this series, so kudos to him! And I'm way behind the currents events now, since I follow French edition and the last volumes I bought a year ago, so before I catch up, I will be at least 2 years behind XD For me the most important is plot, I can get over bad drawings even for that and then characters, locations, and I dislike titles that try to play on my emotions- and set it as the base for the plot. I like to read elaborately constructed stories, true enough.

Owen was this... cynical ass and I wouldn't like him in real life, but definitely he was great character (and the actor- not what I call a pretty face, but had something wonderfully interesting there). I disliked Toshiko, but sadly it was mostly due to the actress who played her, she didn't seem as natural as the rest, I guess. Again, I'm unlucky Polish and I doubt we are going to have TW aired here in the next 100 years, so I have to download it and will probably do it twice or just stick to one version, will see after 1st ep. I can spoil you one thing- the budget for this production was much bigger that for the previous series and it can be seen.

[squarededdie]

Architecture? Sounds complicated! Do you showcase any of your building designs on your journal?

Well, I wouldn't mind seeing it on Al Pachino for example. SON OF KING KONG so true; stop, I'm going to fall off my chair from laughing so hard.

Owen looks and acts like one my friends, and I like this friend for some contrived reason. Guess it's because we have quite a lot of characteristics in common... I think Burn Gorman is attractive BTW, hahaha. I wasn't too fond of Ianto and Toshiko due to RTD keeping on rebooting their personalities. *rolls eyes* Should've kept them as they were in the first three episodes and initial novel. Ianto more mysterious and Toshiko snarky.
Ohhhhh, you're getting me overexcited for the new series! Better keep one's expectations in check you know? XD

[makowe_pola]

No, I don't really post this stuff here- one, copyrights and blah blah I'm bound to confidentiality more blah blah blah, two- people, except my few real-life friends who I met during studies, find it boring. And it is, since majority of my work consists of drawing detail in AutoCAD.

I AM NOT GOING TO STOP


wrong head but it still seems legit

Oh, he is attractive,oh definitely :D~ I liked her better at the beginning, true, later I wanted to slap her in the face and make her wake up from that weird daze. I also felt that her character was a bit too much of a munchkin when it came to software/hardware, just too much.

You'll know soon enough :D

[squarededdie]

Ohhhh. Technology in that realm is too much for me to comprehend. XD I can't talk about the details from work either! I meant the stuff you created during education or practice? Have you thought of integrating them into your art/comics? Because I've seen more and more artists using CG software along with 2D as they advance. Fascinating.

THAT HAS TO HAPPEN IN THE SEQUEL. *rolls off chair*

Weird daze, hahaha. Same can be said with Ianto (especially in COE; his level of emo became too unbearable)...
Was she that over the top? It's pretty typical for an anime/cartoon show to include a token technical genius so I've got used to seeing them raving around promoting their knowledge in every episode, lol.

One day to go!!! :D

[makowe_pola]

I can share after the stuff is built and I can always include some things into my portfolio without going into too much detail, but lj isn't portfolio. I used to share my schoolworks on my previous account, but now I'm not able to look at them without cringing lol So if I were to use something, I'd start it from scratch more likely. And I actually use a lot of modelling 3d when I draw "regular" place, it's faster, easier and gives me time to incorporate a lot of details I wouldn't otherwise put into drawing.

They killed the interesting character earlier, so they had to replace him with an emo Ianto lol Yeah she's over the top- hello, she "fixed" unworkable schemes for an amazing device not even noticing it OTL I know one can be genius, but there should be reasonable limit to it lol

Have fun today :D