Category: The Dreaming Series

The Dreaming: Update

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Geez… I’ve been so tired these past couple of days. I’ve finished Chapter 3 completely, and is halfway through toning Chapter 4. So that’s 3 chapters complete, 1 halfway done, 3 more to go. After I finish Chapter 4, I would have gone over the 50% mark (I’ll probably post up samples, but later on). I’ve also got other work I’m planning to get done after Volume 1 of “The Dreaming”, so my brain is constantly rolling and rolling… maybe that’s why I’m so tired.

First, it would be an overhaul of some of the pages of “Block 6” – which needs an overhaul because the plot is going to making a major shift in 1.5 chapters. While I’m overhauling AND drawing “Block 6” pages, I’ll be working on the main story of “Yuen”, which thankfully is divided into a number of over-arching short stories. Maybe it’s the THOUGHT of doing all that which is boggling my mind out. Oh, and I got a few more opera singer colour CGs due as well. And I gotta do the company taxes as well, and my own personal taxes. *collapses*

 

Howl’s Moving Castle News:

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/castle/
Anyway, I have FINALLY found novels by Dianne Wynn Jones in this country. But… none of the good ones, darnit. And the English version of Howl’s Moving Castle has it’s trailer and website up, and let’s hope Disney doesn’t bury this film like it did other Miyazaki films. I listened to the English trailer, and I must say I really like Howl’s voice. Definately more than the Japanese and Mandarin version. I’ll be obediently filing into cinemas when it comes out here (hopefully it does).

 

For Final Fantasy Fans:

http://www.dontpressstart.com/pro/SF6/
This is THE most hilarious flash movie I have seen for a long time. If you’re a veteren gamer and remembers Final Fantasy 6 (possibly the greatest FF game in the series), then you’ll LOVE this spoof of the Final Fantasy 6 ending. It’s by a Japanese team and titled “Sega Fantasy 6”, and features every console that has ever existed doing battle against the nefarious PSP, who’s crime is apparently being one step away from a multimedia machine. If you want to see the Sega Saturn, the Gamecube, Gameboy, Neo Geo and Playstation 1 pound the crap out of the PSP, this is your movie. I was NEVER a Sony fan so I just laughed all the way through – the spoof “special attacks” are worth it all. Watch such deadly moves such as the Nintendo “L5 Lawsuit”, “Start Up Failure” and “Tech Support” (“Please hold. Your call is important to us.”) in action.

I also give you Michael Quest III: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mq

The Dreaming: Chapter 3 inks complete!

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Inks for chapter 3 of “The Dreaming” is completed! *runs victory lap* That would be 70 pages inked, 2 chapters toned, and ahead of schedule by 2 weeks. While I wait for the feedback on it, I’m now starting to ink Chapter 4, which is already at the half-way mark! *pumps fist* To celebrate, I’ve also dug out my old Playstation 1 dancing mat and bounced around on it a bit to the tunes of Dance Dance Revolution. Who says video gaming doesn’t give any exercise? And talking about video gaming – IGN is once again proving they’re the most Legend of Zelda-obsessed gaming site out there. I’m also working on the next manga recommendation – and like some of my previous recommendations, this manga(-ka’s entire output) happens to be The Type Of Great Manga You’ll Never See A Translated Version Of. But… I still have to write the conclusion of my Rear Palace series, if anyone still remembers that.

 

“Love Manga” Article
I meant to post this earlier, but here’s a good blog called “Love Manga” , run by David Taylor, that posts manga news and discussion topics up regularly. It’s a good read, and especially good because it mentions ME! It’s easier if I just quote the article, but check out the blog if you can if you want to keep up to date with manga developments!

First up is The Dreaming by Queenie Chan. Before I write anything else, this book already has an unfair advantage; the artwork previewed on Queenie Chan’s site is just right up my street, so I’m just a tad biased. ^.^

The premise of the story is: “The Dreaming” is a mystery-horror story about a pair of identical twin sisters who arrive at their new private boarding school, only to find that it is haunted by something frightening and evil. Set in the remote Australian bush and using native myths as its inspiration, this spooky ghost story is light on gore, high on chills, and aimed at anyone who enjoys an atmospheric story.”

Already we can instantly see that this book is going to create its own culture identity, and not try to produce something Mangaish. Queenie Chans life in both Hong Kong and Australia allow for two varied cultures too seep through into her work, for example my favourite picture, the Opera Singer.
As I stated the book isn’t out yet, but her site does contain plenty of previews if you want to indulge yourself, and to give everyone a break from my ham-fisted writing skills I’ve included a link to a speech she gave at the Melbourne Monash University Manga Symposium entitled Adopting Manga: From Hong Kong to Americ. It is definitely worth the read, and gives an interesting insight into creating American Manga.

The Dreaming: Chapter Dividers

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I’m about to jet off to Melbourne for the Manga Symposium at Monash University (see below), and I’ve got my speech all fixed up. Unfortunately, there’s been accomodation problems because it’s the same weekend as the 10-year anniversary of the Grand Prix in Melbourne, so I suppose the traffic will be chaotic. I expect to spend oodles of money on taxis, since the bus and train schedules have been thrown off whack. Hopefully I won’t be late for the symposium, because the only hotel I can get is a tad far from Monash University. My panel is the last panel on the first day, so at least I won’t make people wait if I don’t manage to get there on time.

 

The Dreaming: Yay, I’ve been “unfrozen”, and my schedule has seen… a 3-month expansion. That’s certainly good news – I’m now making art revisions for Chapters 1 & 2, and it’s coming along well. The extended timetable sure takes the pressure off, though I don’t intend to slack off. The release date is still early 2006, and finishiing it early isn’t going to push the release date closer, so I predict I’ll finish 2 months after the original deadline (including revisions).

During the freeze period, I did the chapter dividers for the rest of the book.

 

Chapter 4 - "The Dreaming"

 

Chapter 5 - "The Dreaming"

 

Chapter 6 - "The Dreaming"

 

Chapter 7 - "The Dreaming"

The Dreaming: Events Settled

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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.

 

Lucy

Done completely in Comicworks