3 more laps to go after this – Chapters 1-4 (out of 7 is complete!). *runs victory lap for the 4th time to applause*. I’ll be starting inking for Chapters 5 and 6 on Monday – hopefully the inking for these 2 will be finished in a month’s time. I plan for the finishing date to be in late July, ahead of the original deadline.

Samples: I stuck up some random samples of chapters 3 and 4.

 

 

 

 

Other News: After some bungling with the paycheck due to the incompetence of the (large, international) banks involved, I finally got the Australian Dollar version of my TokyoPop paycheck into my bank account! I’ve decided to donate 5% of the income to a charity of choice, though I haven’t decided which one yet. I’m leaning towards GreenPeace… though I normally donate to World Vision, or the Salvation Army. But Save the Planet is a compelling argument.

But first, I detect signs of trouble bubbling on the horizon, probably a recession or even a depression lingering over the American economy. My rationalisation is simple – thanks to the slide in the American dollar and the comparitive rise of the Aussie dollar, I’ve seen my TokyoPop payouts shrink by up to 50%. 3 years ago, the American buck was going strong at AUD$1 : US$0.56. In other words, US$1 -> AUD$1.78. Sux if you’re shopping in American dollars, but great if you’re earning American $$$.

Now in 2005, the situation is tumbling, and is going to sink even further. Currently, AUD$1 : US$0.78, meaning that US$1 -> AUD$1.28. This means that for the SAME US$1, I’ve suffered a AUD$0.50 loss on the Australian dollar exchange. Three years ago, US$1000 would have gotten me AUD$1780. Now, while the price of goods in Australia hasn’t changed by much but the usual inflation percentage, US$1000 gets me only AUD$1280. Big, BIG difference.

 

Economic Woes: Is the US economy to blame for this? Well, yes, but more specifically, it’s Alan Greenspan and the Bush Administration that is at the top of my hit list. They are not solely to blame for everything, but America’s economy has been heading down the drain ever since Bush took office, and the only thing he’s done is to accelerate it. There are many reasons for the slide in American dollars, including the Petrol-Dollar VS Petrol-Euro debacle, the wallpapering of the world in US dollars, and record-low interest rates paired with record-high trade deficits. The US economy also suffers from the siphoning of service jobs to IT centers like Bangalore and China, creating a job boom consisting largely of flipping burgers and washing windows.

Why did this happen, and HOW did this happen? A low US dollar means sux be to US consumers, because imports will now cost more, leading to an even larger trade deficit (70% of Walmart products come from China, who manipulates its currency). Normally it would also mean good news in being able to export more, except that the US no longer has any factory products to export compared to slave labour countries like China. However, the American economy has been growing at about 3% a year since 2001 compared to stagnant rates in Europe and Japan. If you look at these figures, it sure looks rosy, no?

Actually, the fact American economy has been growing at 3% a year is the same reason why the US trade deficit is the largest in history. To stimulate the economy after the 9/11 incident, Alan Greenspan decided to lower interest rates to 1%, one of the lowest ever. The low interest rates caused a massive increase in spending and consuming, which is what caused the US economy to expand. But wait – where comes the money to spend? Well, much of it is on credit – borrowed from the future to pay for the present. Now 4 years after 2001, there is a housing bubble, and the average US household spends $1.20 for every $1.00 it earns. Ofcourse, when interest rates rises, and it’s doing so now, houses will be repossessed by the banks and people will find themselves unable to repay their interest on loans. Meanwhile, the Republican-held Congress has just passed a law making it more difficult for people to declare bankruptcy, along with Bush’s plans to kill off Social Security. Coupled with utterly irresponsible fiscal spending, I daresay the Republicans know that something’s up. Not to mention there’s the ongoing Iraq and Afghanistan War, which has so far cost $200 billion and counting (Contrary to popular belief, the Taliban is alive and well and back on the airwaves in Afghanistan). If there was a charity I can donate to which forces the Bush Administration to spend responsiby, I would give my entire paycheck to it.

All very gloom and doom, but perhaps the most useful thing to remember about the US economy is that one comes along every 4 years, right after the elections. Yes, US economic cycles have more to do with the US election than anything else out there. Usually, the point is for the books to be cooked until after the election, when you can unload it on the populance while they can’t do a thing about it because the president is already sworn in. The last US (brief) recession was in 2001, and in 2005 it’s time due for another one.

The Dreaming: Good news. My editor got back to me again after I submitted the summaries of Vol 2 and 3 to the EIC and herself, and apparently after they read it, the EIC is now confident my vision is compatible with his. I was asked to ignore his previous comments and just go with it. Which is great – except that I believe my plots for Vol 2 and 3 need alot of trimming and fixing up. I was amazed they were satisfied by the summary I sent up, because it was typed in a hurry and required, in my opinion, a LOT of rewrites. At least it can’t be a bad thing that they find my draft writing acceptable. However, it’s okay as I’ll have plenty of time to fix it as the plot of Vol 1 has already been pinned down, and everyone is clear that “The Dreaming” is a 3-volume story only (for now). I hope this means I won’t be getting any more baffling notes on “themes” until Round 2 swings around and Vol 1 has sold some copies.

Art-wise, all the higher-ups like what they see. Apparently there’s no aspect of the art, toning, camera angles or pacing they think need improving on, with the exception of some of the faces (which sorta sounds like a miracle). They’ll be sending detailed notes to me on that, so I’ll start fixing it when I get the notes, probably by next Wednesday.

 

Other Stuff: Keeping with my attempts at all-CG art, this is another entirely computerised piece of art. This took me less long than the previous rooster attempt, but already this random sketch has a name and a story mushrooming behind her. I’ve always wanted to do a pure black & white noirish story (though the get-up looks more pulpish), but while I’ve done pure black and white art before and had no trouble, this sort of “hyperexposed” look can very difficult to pin down in an actual manga/comic. It’s a DIFFERENT way of doing b&w art, and if not done properly with the balance of black and white in both the characters and the environment, you can end up with a confusing mess. I’m interested in doing more of this, probably as a short story. Since computer art is easier to fix up, I hope I’ll be doing it on computer as an experiment.