Happy 4th of July to all the Americans. Hope you have some fun celebrations planned.
Me...I think I'll go take a nap, ha ha! Got nothing going on.

I did go to Anime Expo yesterday with Michael Chang and Tim. Since I don't have the shutterbug instinct, I didn't take any pictures. Lame me. I mean, with a ratio of about half the crowd in costume, there were so many opportunities.
Lame lame lame. Lazy and lame.
Got me a few goodies, saw only a few Avatar cosplayers. Possibly missed a whole bunch, as we kept moving around and looking at the stuff on tables.

( Some Water Tribe stuff, for fun )

Funny how being far away from one's country actually revives a certain sense of patriotism.
Not that I ever was a flag waving type of person. But darn it, I do miss home.
(Thank You Radio-Canada for allowing me to listen to you on the web...when it works).

Thanks to halcyonjazz for posting this a few days ago.
Careful, may be catchy.



( It was also Quebec day! )

I've sent out 8 boxes by mail yesterday. Would have liked to send more but I raided the post office of their small boxes until they ran out.
Eight was all they had.
I'll raid another post office this week on my way to work.

Remember: if you have drawn a gift art for the book, send me a mailing adress where I can send you your copies. Contact me via PM, DA notes or email for those of you who have it.

This afternoon, have to draw something not Zhao or work related. How's that for a change?
Guess I'll put some Water Tribe pages up before I do that.
( After a few bad drawing days... )

I have only drawn $#%@ in the past few days. Eurk. I hate this. I hope this funk passes away quickly.
( Water Tribe News )

Though you probably already know that.
Nice, big HD version on Gametrailers.com
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-trailer-the-last/51238?type=mov

Fire navy ships: lost the big spike at the nose, added it to the sides instead.
<3

Happy father's day to all the daddies out there!
I've seen a few people posting pics of their dads, so here goes:
( Daddy pics )
Apart from that...went to do a bit of shopping. Having no patience to look for clothes, I ended up at the bookstore and picked up the Walking Dead #9 trade and "The Eternal Smile" by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. Two totally different styles of books. Looking forward to reading both equally.

Cleaning of the room almost done. No piles of book left on the floor, but a huge pile of magazines left to read. Too many Fortean Times, not enough time.

( More pages for fun )

Busy last few days. Had our animatic screening this past Friday- still a few things to fix but the whole is shaping up to be a lot of fun. No feedback on what the executives thought though, so we may be in for some surprises.

I need to clean up my room- I've got boxes of books coming in soon!
Sooner than I expected, in fact. I wish I'd taken a table at AnimeExpo.

Cutting away from WT the interlude to move on. All this silly, long buildup to finally get to the fun stuff (fun for me anyway).
( Finally, something is happening )

A small continuation from yesterday, plus one little image based on alisa_tana's
comment.

( Not much to show, just for fun )

foxysquid made a comment yesterday, that triggered a little idea interlude.
More specifically, this part: "...maybe an ambassador from the Southern Tribe is visiting..."
Why would an ambassador from the Southern Water Tribe be visiting?
First thing that leapt to mind was this.

( Just for fun )

What to say, what to say...
Saw "Moon" this weekend (thank you again Clio for the ride! So appreciated). Ah, what a breath of fresh air in the sci-fi genre of recent years. This is not a special effects movie (oh no it's not, ha ha! The exterior moon shots were cute...especially if you remember Space 1999). No, this is more of a psychological, thoughtful, questioning film.
Definitely worth a look. The pace is slow, but never boring.
My brain got corrupted by Hollywood though.
Every time I made a guess as to what would happen next, I was wrong. Whatever edge I had at deducing what would happen next in a movie or a story has been dulled.
Not that I was ever good at it. My mind is full of cliché.
*sigh*

( How about some Water Tribe cliché? )

On a last note about "Moon"- after I had seen the trailer and decided I really wanted to see it, I discovered the director was...David Bowie's son. I knew he was in that industry, but had never seen any of his work.
Good job Duncan!
Or Mr.Jones.
Whichever.
Or both.

Overtime hours paid off. Got the scene finished on time, did my pitch today and the only revision was to add one drawing.

Got confirmation email of my Amazon refund.

One more rush tomorrow and I can have a quiet weekend (unless another unforeseen rush happens).

One more little thing.
( Sketchy sketch sketch )

Fail day of work.
Barely did anything. Just trying to work out ideas.
So I vented out the usual way.

( Just one page of notes )

Not quite a surprise, I had a hunch it was going to happen.
4:45pm- I receive revised script pages. I'm also asked to work on them this weekend.

I don't mind working the weekend when I have to. What annoys me is surprise work for the weekend, as I have to make last minute plans to accommodate extra work hours.
Just when I thought I could sleep in.

It's a race to get everything approved and done for next Thursday. Things will be crazy until then.
Best post Water Tribe doodles while I can.
( More rambling )

First off, Nickelodeon Magazine has been cancelled.
Starting...now.
http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/nickelodeon_magazine_cancelled/

Viacom decided that in this internet age, a print magazine is obsolete and decided to stop producing it.
I'm really sad for the great creative team over at Nickelodeon magazine, that put so much energy everyday in producing one of the rare kids friendly publication. Some may not have noticed, but there was some truly great comic artists working for them, doing some really entertaining material.
Sending good vibes to Dave Roman, Chris Duffy and the rest of their team.

No more new Avatar comics.
And I was going to do a Zhao comic! An official Zhao comic to see print!
Maybe I'll do it here, for the web. Full color and all. Na.

( About the Wikipedia copied book... )

More specifically, a book editor's blood.

( There's always a first time to be scammed )

I may not be playing much games these days (heck, haven't even touched my copy of the new Prince of Persia yet), but when THIS one comes out, you won't be able to unglue me from it.

From the team that brought us Ico and Shadow Of The Collossus (two of the most awesome game ever...for me anyway), here are the first images of project Trico (Last Guardian).
( Preview video )

My plans to see UP again this weekend sort of fell through.
I decided to give a little extra effort on work instead. I did a bit more than what I was asked to do, but if I didn't, that scene of mine would have looked fugly.
Now it's less fugly and works somewhat better.
Won't know 'til it's approved, see how much corrections they'll ask for.

On another note, I'm preparing some extra surprises for Water Tribe and SDCC.
Wait and see.

( Speaking of the devil... )

Totally overslept this morning, ha ha! Hadn't happened in a while, usually my internal clock wakes me up around 7am. Didn't help that I totally forgot to set up my alarm last night.
On a good side, I slept really good.

The timing was good too- work has been going between extreme rush and sudden drops in workload. It was pretty quiet this morning, so no one missed me. I still called in to say I'd be a bit late. Better safe than sorry.
We're approaching another big deadline, June 19th. I expect much rush in the upcoming weeks.
I'm grabbing whatever slow moment I get as a breather.

( doodling WT to keep drawing hand flexible )