I missed the Hayao Miyazaki special on Tuesday due to having that meeting with Comic GUM but some charitable soul has uploaded it on youtube and it can be found here in 7 parts. No subtitles or anything which is unfortunate for the non-Jers but you can catch a glimpse of his new movie and follow his process of creation. He smokes like a chimney throughout the thing, too.

TAK

I had a surprise meeting with Editors at Comic GUM last night. One of the first people I met after arriving (O-san) generously set it up for me and I was worried about what I'd talk about and what I'd show but it ended up being super informal and just a bunch of dudes talking. A large part of the discussion was devoted to how awesome the Ghost Rider movie was. Cage's head on fire. How could it not be awesome. The editor even took us out to dinner next door and the discussion continued there. We did talk a bit about what I should do and to not hesitate to e-mail them or call them for advice whenever I felt I needed it. I was really surprised that there was no pressure to work them at all and that giving advice to any creative hopeful was just part of their job. In an industry where I thought ideas and properties were closely guarded, it's pretty cool to see them so non-chalant about all this stuff.

The discussion turned to the overseas market and transplanting foreign talent. I asked whether the success of titles in the States and Europe are making them cater to different audiences. The answer was, quite frankly, no. Japan is such a big local market, they are the first readers they aim to please. In the end, foreign volumes don't actually make them much money anyway after rights and costs, etc. so it's considered a small bonus on top of regular J-sales. The discussion turned to having foreign talent work in Japan and what the attitude towards that was. In fact, there are already a number of Korean and Taiwanese artists having success with it it seems and even at Comic GUM, there was a Korean artist who had already published a series through them. So, it's not like they are blocking non-J people out of the market. The logistics involved with quite possibly having to move here and speaking Japanese is the big hurdle that most creators face which make them give up on their own. While most editors and projects are worked out over the phone backhome, a face-to-face meeting is still considered a must here in the beginning, hence, living somewhere close to Tokyo is prefered but not necessarily mandatory.

If you've ever been curious about what a publishing office looks like:

I gotta go pay my rent now. More later.

TAK

For the past week and a half I've been either drunk, sick or asleep. I believe that's the human condition in a nutshell. Not sure if it was the flu I caught or not but it took me down like a bag of rocks and I'm still only at about 90% health. I changed my diet a little while ago and was trying to switch my sleeping schedule again so I think all these anomolies decided to kick me a good one.

I saw that the June solicitations have been released so here's some cover sketches I did for the new SMLMJ cover. We had trouble deciding on the final for this one as well so I went through quite a few sketches. Enjoy.

TAK

I just caught the new "Part 2" episode of the program Professional: Style of Work with Naoki Urasawa that aired about an hour ago. Well, it was him and another guest who is a world famous conductor. Both were pretty awesome. I commented about the first part that aired back in January but this add-on segment was more focused on the hosts interviewing the man about his approach and style.

One of the many questions they asked was "where does he get his ideas or his inspiration from?" and his answer was quite interesting. Movie trailers. He mentioned that trailers often plant you in a situation where you know nothing of the characters or the context of their dialogue but the gripping drama that's unfolding is what he tries to latch on to and digest. From there, he makes up his own beginning, middle and end. Since trailers often show the climax of a film, he keeps a mental note of that plateau and then works towards eventually reaching it. Sometimes taking years to do so. One example he cited took him 5 years.

It felt rather short since it was split between 2 guests but still interesting nonetheless. I'm sure this will show up on youtube some time very soon.

The next episode scheduled to air is on March 27th with animation legend Hayao Miyazaki. I'm stoked for this one. Can't wait.

TAK

Been busy with various projects this last little while. I'm still doing a cover a month for Marvel and since SMLMJ is up in the air after issue 20 (for which I've already done the cover for) I've been asked to jump around on cover duties on other titles. So, you'll get to see my interpretations of non-Spider-man related characters in the near-future. Something I haven't done since my last fill-in job on Runaways. Wow. That was a loooong time ago.

The 2007 Shuster Awards nominees have been posted and my buddy J. Torres is in the running again this year for "Outstanding Canadian Comic book Writer". J. and I created Sidekicks together back when I was still a student and it helped kick off my career in comics so I owe the man a lot. He won last year but it would be awesome to see him take it a second time. Please hop on over and vote for him here. For those not in the know, the Shusters are awards honouring Canadian comicbook creators. If you're a fellow Canuck, help out and give a shout!

I've got some more cover sketches I did for you to check out. This time, it's for SMLMJ #14. I recall having problems agreeing on a final design for this, hence, the extra page of sketches. Enjoy:

TAK

Michael Jackson is in Japan at the moment. I saw him on the evening news visiting Tokyo Disney World with fans screaming "My-keru! My-keru!" as he arrived and left. I hadn't seen a picture of him in a while but the man has no nose! He's like a token anime character! Whaaat!

I turned on comment filtering after noticing some jerk spamming past comments so I apologize if it takes a while for your comments to show up. Message to jerk: I get, like, 150 hits a day. That's it. You're wasting your time here. GO. AWAY.

Did you manage to check out that Spider-man 3 trailer over at NBC? It's gone now but holy crap was it wickeeeeed. Harry gets majorly clotheslined and dies. Haw-haw! Oh, yeah... Spoiler! Nah, I bet he jumps up and grabs Pete's throat like any good villian would. Can't wait to see this movie, yo.

I don't have any exciting new art to post but I DO have sketches I did for the most recent cover of SMLMJ. I believe it's #16.

TAK

I'm off possibly snowboarding but definitely visiting friends this weekend. Being in a mega city like Tokyo is awesome but it also gets tiresome after a while. There's only so much concrete a wholesome Canadian boy can take before wanting to see some greenery. Well, it'll be snow this time of year of course.

I'm in the process of revamping my website. I've been talking to my web guy Tu about it since Christmas but never got around to it till now. I'm thinking about adding a simple Q&A board so people can inquire about my work and stuff but I also wanted to ask what YOU the visitor would like to see. More art? Photos? I'm open to suggestions on making this place a bit more entertaining.

I bought a can of Dr. Pepper the other day and saw that it was accompanied with a great illustration. Here's a sample:

You can go to their website to download your very own, btw. Just go to the "Band Goods" section and they have a bunch of cool images.

Also, here's a photo I forgot to post from my last trip. I crashed in a hotel for a night after boozing and woke up the next day to find this. It was probably the biggest reminder that, yes, I was in Asia.

TAK