• Location: Burbank
• Mood: busy
• Music: RDI News

Prompts and other

Didn't manage to get through all the prompts, work interfering as always. A big thank you to everyone who threw in ideas or just made fun comments, it lifted up my mood immensely XD

But hey! You never know when I may get to them. In the meantime, some doodles.



sweet_gardenia asked for grocery shopping Zhao.
Not that he'd carry his own basket. His ideal for food shopping would be, of course, in a new territory he conquered.


Em threw in the Beatles. My brain went all Yellow Submarine on me...


Combining rashaka and masterofraviel idea into one.
Big fire nation robes hide the assets. Uniforms show a little bit more...



That throne room, again...


Donna Barr has been posting all her Desert Peach issues on the web! Yay! I don't have my copies here with me, so they're a joy to read again.


Nope, Zhao would make a terrible Peach.
But he'd make a decent Winzig (disguised as Peach), like in this issue:
http://www.desert-peach.com/comic/the-desert-peach-10-page-13/





Last Airbender Manga Adaptation.
Got my copy today. Doing adaptation of adaptations, with even MORE constraints (I bet the authors didn't have as much liberty with the material than Shyamalan managed to pull with his film) isn't easy. Unfair, if you ask me. If Shyamalan can change stuff, so should the authors! Na!
Ah, the hurdles of approvals.

Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus have done their best in such circumstances. Knowing also that they worked on both Zuko's story and this book at the same time in an insane deadline time also puts things in perspective.

The positive: I like that they've decided to have Katara be the main narrator. I'm sure we're seeing a bit more insight into some moments than we'd be shown in the film. It's those little moments that are great! It gives more substance to the book than a straight, scene for scene cut of what one will be able to see on the big screen.

On a con note: it also means that some characters pop in and out, sometimes a bit too suddenly. After all, Katara can't be everywhere and see everything.
It was overall handled well, but there were a few moments where I found it a bit jarring. For example, at the end, when Zuko and Uncle are seen together on a raft escaping from the Northern Tribe. A reader that didn't know the serie would wonder how they got there and if they would be swallowed by the Ocean too, like the rest of the Fire Nation fleet.

Some of the art and linework by artist Joon Choi has some very nice moments.
As a question of personal taste though, it is a bit inconsistent. I've noticed a change in line and drawing quality right at the midpoint of the book, when Aang goes to the Northern Air Temple. The delicate line suddenly lose some of their finesse. It is noticeable as the two pages face each other. Details in background also become minimal. There are a few image layouts that are a bit awkward, but that's me nitpicking (ex. - Aang in the Water Tribe tent, second panel, where he seems to be sitting on a bowl...that Katara has just brought in).

It is possible that the deadline strain started to attack the artist too.

This was a tough job for all those involved, and their efforts and hard work should be applauded. I know I wouldn't have been able to have done better (which is a bad comparison, seeing as I'm not a writer. I would have turned the whole thing into a train wreck right at page two, ha ha!).

Personally, I prefer Zuko's story. I must admit to being biased towards Nina's art, plus the authors had more liberty in term of story structure and the story beats they wanted to achieve, and it shows.