july 2011 afterwords

Victorian vampires and werewolf inspired by Gail Carriger's Soulless novel, which Yen Press is adapting to graphic novel format. I asked Wendy and Tania which they'd rather be, vampire or werewolf, and both of them picked vampires (as I did). Vampires are just...sexier somehow. And the idea of an eternity of free time has its appeals too. I think the involuntary nature of the werewolf transformation is a big issue with me. Makes them very appealing tragic characters, but I'll take a little murderous bloodlust over complete loss of self once a month during the full moon...

july 2011

Back in ninth grade, we had this teacher who used to put little stickers on our papers if we got a perfect score. When that first test came back with a little smiley seal on it, we all chuckled a little. "What are we, elementary schoolers?" But after a while, we got kind of competitive about the stickers. We'd save them on our binders and compare who got the most, and if you didn't get full marks when there was a really cool one, you might actually get a little bummed... So while I don't expect a standing ovation for every task completed, I think a little sticker might go a long way motivation-wise...

I like nicknames because in a lot of cases, only one person calls me by a particular nickname... Makes me feel kind of happy to have a name especially from them... *^u^*

june 2011

Ah, Natsume Ono. At first I honestly was not a huge fan of her artwork, but in House of Five Leaves her style marries perfectly with the setting, and I finally GOT IT. If you want a really great read, you should check it out! If you want a really depressing great read with no series commitment, you should look for Not Simple!
I was really sad when my friend wasn't happy for me when I won the raffle T_T
But I was really happy when Ono-sensei drew me a picture of Masa from Five Leaves!
I got a poster of the characters from Gente and a copy of her new book, La Quinta Camera:

may 2011 (the lost chapter)

I'm very proud of that bonsai pot.

This colorful edition of Shrimp Art did not appear in Yen Plus.
Does that mean...this could be considered...exclusive web-only content?! O.O
Hope you enjoy~
(*Note: I am noticing this is kind of unreadable. Update to come.)

april 2011

I am so ready for spring.
Also, for the record, there is a perfectly good reason for being on chat with your coworker who sits just over a four-foot partition. What if there is an exceptionally cute link to be shared? What if you need them to be a thesaurus but don't want to interrupt them to discuss? What if you want to swap frustrated sighs about nearby coworkers? See? Not weird.

april 2011 afterwords

Shrimp Art is officially rated PG13.
Given that Highschool of the Dead will only be running in the magazine for a total of five months, I decided to continue with the zombie theme and zombify the Yen Press staff. Except for Wendy, who I suspect would hold out longer than the rest of us. She's from Brooklyn.

march 2011

Back in the fall, Yen Press announced an open call for amateur artists to submit their work for consideration on future projects with our company. I regret that I am unable to comment further on the submissions beyond the event described in this month's comic, which really did happen. But it's probably for the best as I am something of a harsh critic. (What, really? :P)
As for strip #2, I was desperately trying to think of something zombie-related to go along with our announcement of Highschool of the Dead color edition. This conversation also actually happened. It happened over the course of several hours. And similar types of conversations have happened on more than one occasion. We are the freaks. But we will be better prepared than you in the event that you are faced with such a choice, neh?