I'm, uh, really tired right now. Hit the gym for the first time in a month this afternoon and I think it did me in. I felt pretty guilty for neglecting my body for so long I undertook an extra self-flagellating routine. I think that's how you spell it... and I think the grammer is correct on that. Ahh, fuck it. You get the point. The gym I go to recently banned parking bikes in front of their building so now all the bikes are lined up tight against all 3 other walls. It's almost as if the bikes are propping the building up. There's room for artful insight into the visual but, again, I'm too tired.

I was gunning to buy some jeans yesterday but the store I favour was closed for renovations and it killed my shopping mojo for the rest of the day. I had plans to start filling in gaps in my summer wardrobe but I completely deflated, walked around Shibuya with some friends and just got wasted afterwards. It was pretty bad. Luckily I had enough smarts to take last train home just in time to feel a 6.5 earthquake while lying in my futon. All in a day's work I tell ya.

I've started to sleep with only window in my apartment open again. I sleep right under it. It's nice to breathe crisp fresh air while sleeping. Only thing is, I'm on the first floor and the window is quite large and anyone could easily jump through from the street, knock me out and steal all my shit. I'd most likely wouldn't even wake up so you could ignore that second step. Anyway, think about it. Actually, don't.

TAK

Finally finished the Runaways issue this morning. My finger tips are numb from gripping my ink pens too hard and my wrist is killing me. It was an extended holiday in Japan starting last Saturday but I didn't get to see the light of day since I was so freakin' busy. Think I'm gonna let off some steam by doing some shopping. I need some new clothes for the summer anyway.

I've booked my ticket backhome in August. Just for 2 weeks but I'll be back in Toronto in time for the fan expo so I plan to check that out for a day. My sister's wedding is on the same weekend so I'll probably hit it on Friday all jetlagged. It'll be good to see some old faces and see what's new with comics. I haven't really read any in a long time. In fact, come to think of it, I haven't picked up anything here as well in a while. I used to pick up Afternoon every month but I found that I was only reading Blade of the Immortal and some random gag strips from it that I stopped. I flip through comic magazines at the local 7-11 cuz, y'know, that's free but I feel like the dude at the register is always eyeing me to buy it so... haha.

What else have I been doing... Oh, I attended a friend's wedding 2 weekends ago. Congrats, Matt!! I wore my spankin' new suit to it which was kinda cool and different. It's been about 3 years since wearing one and it felt kinda nice actually. The wedding was in the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi which is probably one of the nicest and classiest places to get hitched. My first time to see a shinto style wedding where the bride and groom were decked out in wedding kimono's and a very foreign progression of events leading up to the exchange of rings. No kiss! Well, they made up for it at the after party.

Oh, crap. I just remembered I need to get my J-passport... Man, looking at all the documents I need it's gonna be another marathon around Tokyo. Yay, me.

Tak

Butter shortage in Japan. I heard about this the other day and went to check at my local supermarket and, indeed, no butter. What am I supposed to put on my toast??

Racing to finish the first issue of Secret Invasion: Avengers/Runaways. I'll have pencils done in the next coupla days and then it's on to inks. I've never drawn so many skrulls in my life.
If you live in Tokyo, a friend of mine, Atsushi, is opening a bar later this month which I helped design the logo for. I'll most likely be bar flying there in the next few weeks so drop by and spend your yen. Atsushi is a jewellery designer and has combined his love for bling and booze into a new concept bar. So, basically, you get drunk and then buy his gear that's on display. You can find the link and a map here.

Oh, I turn 30 at the end of the week. It's been rather depressing thinking about it actually. 26 hit me pretty hard and I'm mentally preparing for something similar on Saturday. Oh, man... 30!?

TAK

Yeah, yeah. I'm not around much right now. You'll have to forgive me. Been working on a bunch of things that have kept me away from doing anything interesting to talk about.

Umm... It's warm. Cherry blossoms are blooming all around Tokyo and I'm hitting a big party this weekend to soak it all in. Will have pictures of that. Maybe. If I'm not too drunk.

A test piece I did for the Fairy Tales thing that I'm half done. You can find the colour version in a recent issue of Previews so I figure it's okay to post these. Both pencils and inks.

TAK

Made the trip to Ginza on Tuesday. I got off the wrong station so I had a bit of a hike to the gallery but it was a nice day so I wasn't complaining. Found the gallery pretty easily and, since no one else was there, got to take it all in pretty much by myself. Ahh, the benefits of not having a real job.

Anyway, the gallery isn't all that big but it's a nice clean and open space. There were about 60 pieces in total, all in nice frames and sized at around B4. They were lined up tight together in 2 parallel rows across all 4 walls. All pieces were priced at 105,000 yen which is equal to about a grand US or Canadian. A steal if you ask me. Oh, not all. A handful were not for sale. I went on the second day and a third were already taken so I'm sure by the end of the week they'll all be spoken for. I was tempted to purchase one but the subject matter was, well, not exactly user-friendly? I woulda jumped at the chance if any were from either his Blade or Ohikkoshi works. I was hoping they would have prints or some light items like that but nadda. They had the artbook though.

I'm pretty miminal in terms of mediums I use so seeing an entire gallery filled to the brim with nothing but pencil drawings was something quite special to me. I've had the fortune of seeing original pages from various artists over the last year but this stuff took detail and subtlety to the next level. Reproductions rarely do the actual work justice and this was an example, case and point. It's quite something seeing erased lines covered with the final strokes and the problem solving process all right there happening in front of my face. The faces were so crisp and figures so well defined. The work was B4 sized, yes, but they came across much much bigger. Pretty outstanding. I wish I could describe it better to you but there's just no way I'm afraid. I'm getting too emotional about this so I'll stop...

All I know is, I'll definitely be making another trip before the show ends.

TAK

Went out shoppin' today. I needed to pick up some supplies like drafting pens and some ink for my nibs. If you know what Tokyu Hands is, I went there since they have pretty much anything you'd ever want in terms of stationary. Had a quick bowl of ramen afterwards, played some Tekken 6 and got my ass royally whooped (I need to play as someone other than Law for a change...) and, finally, made a trip to a bookstore for kicks. I ended up dropping about 70 bucks on impulse buys. Anyway, 4 books in total plus some posters:

First is William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. I wanted to get his newest release Spook Country but the oversized softcover was around 40 bucks so I decided to get this instead since it was about a quarter the price. I have no idea what it's about but the cover looked cool so...

The blueish book is Asano Inio's 2nd and final book to Oyasumi Pun Pun. I got the special edition version so it came with 2 keychains. I dunno. I'm a sucker. My love for Asano Inio knows no bounds and any book by him will make me drop yen in a second. The first book was thoroughly amazing and I expect this second half to blow my mind in equal parts.

Third is Hiroyuki Samura's Blood Hurley's Carriage. He's another creator I have no qualms about giving money to. It's a one-off book about an orphan girl who is sold into sexual slavery... or something to that effect. I haven't read it yet but, uh, it's kinda messed up. I'm gonna use this as a segway for something else below. One second...

And lastly, is a ref book on factories, pipes and all things industrial. This was the best find of the day for me. I can stop scouring the net for shitty low-rez images now. Yay.

Anyway, the segway.

I was touring Ginza galleries with my friend Aleks a few months ago and happened to walk into a small gallery that caters to erotic and bondage art. It's called Vanilla and, at the time, it was showing paintings, prints and illustrations from local and international talent. Very cool stuff. They had flyers for future shows lying around so I sifted through them nonchalantly when I found one for a Samura show. Like, WHAT. It starts this week and you can see info and artwork examples from it here. What they'll be showing are originals from his artbook Hitodenashi no Koi (The Love of the Brute) which I never ended up buying despite my penchant for throwing money at the man. This show? SO there. I'll tell you how bad you missed out. HA!

Also, been feeling earthquakes all weekend. Japan rocks.

TAK