AWARDS: I've won the Spirit of Zelda Award, from the Zelda Awards, which celebrates women in comics! It's in the category of +10 years in the biz, so thank you to everyone who voted for me! Congradulations to all the winners too! Watch the ceremony on Youtube. Meanwhile, "The Dreaming" v1-2 has also been listed on the NSW Premier Reading Challenge list! These lists are screened and once you get on, you don't go off, so hopefully I use get onto the reading lists of other states too.
NEXT MANGA: Editor got back to me on chapter 2 (of 12) of "Sunset Protocol", the supernatural mystery-thriller and quasi-sequel to "The Dreaming". Chapter 1 is done, and I'm halfway through chapter 2 (aim for mid-May completion). I'm sloooowly posting 2 pages a week on Instagram and my other social media.
SISTER HOLMES: I'm having nightmare issues trying to print "The Mystery Cases of Sister Holmes" (published by Viz) as a zine via IngramSpark. I don't know what's wrong, I keep getting random pages that are lighter than the others, so I've filed a complaint. I might have to use a different desktop publishing software entirely, which means I have to redo the layouts for the whole book *cries*. Delays all round! I worked with former Shonen Jump head editor-in-chief Hisashi Sasaki to produce this, and you can read it below or on BookWalker, and the yonkoma version here.
COMPETITIONS: I just submitted to 2 manga-related competitions, and now a new one has popped up. I have to pace myself...
INTERVIEW: Australian Comics History website FOLIO has an 8-part interview with me, talking about the history of the Manga fandom in Australia.
I’ve started on Small Shen, which should be due next year in July (probably in time for a Christmas release). We shall see how it goes! Also, I’ve got a bumblebee crochet here, from a pattern kindly placed online by the Curious Crochet blog. Isn’t it cute?
Step 1: Start making the striped body. Learned to change colours in a single crochet body here.
Step 2: Added little black eyes... these were the first beady safety eyes I bought, and I'm glad I still have a use for them.... as they were actually too small!
Step 3: Sewed the stinger on. Almost made a mess out of this, as the stinger was so small it was hard to crochet.
Step 4: Crocheted the wings, and sewed the onto the body.
Here’s a pic of the finished Bumble Bee Amigurumi:
Hi all, folks. In preparation for the release of Legend of Zeld: Skyward Sword, I’ve been doing a trip down memory lane of all the Zelda games I’ve played in the past (which is all of them). For those unfamiliar with Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda game franchise, it’s probably Nintendo’s best-selling franchise right after Mario, and one that constantly has critical acclaim heaped on it. The series first started in 1986 on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and has spawned 14 games over the past 25 years. I’ve been a fan of the games since I was 6 years old – I played the originalLegend of Zelda, though it would be years later that I finally manage to beat the last dungeon. This year is the 25th Anniversary of the Zelda franchise, and it’s apt that I choose this time to recommend what I think is the best game in the series.
Most people consider Ocarina of Time for the N64 to be the best Zelda game of all time, but I disagree. For me, that title would always go to A Link to the Past for the SNES. It’s simply the most tightly-designed, complete Zelda game of the series, though Link’s Awakening and the Oracle are also worth a mention.
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Nintendo) (1992, Super Nintendo)
A Link to the Past may have been released years ago, but due to its cartoony, stylised graphics, it has aged better than Ocarina of Time. You can still play the game today and not feel the technological limitations of the hardware. Let’s face it, as great a game as OoT was, that horrible 1st-generation 3D cannot be helped unless there’s a complete graphical overhaul of the game. New textures or not, it still looks like a bunch of blocky polygons walking around.
Plot Legend of Zelda has a very simple plot, and that plot is basically the same in nearly all the games. The story is a subversion of age-old fairytale tropes. A young lad comes to save the princess of a kingdom from an evil usurper, and when he succeeds, gets nothing more than a “Thanks”. Woah, what happened to getting married to the princess and becoming the king? Everyone knows that you shouldn’t save a kingdom from evil unless you’re going to get a big reward at the end.
To fill in the blanks, the kingdom is called Hyrule, and the princess is called Zelda – hence the title of the game. Princess Zelda is also a subversive princess – she holds the Wisdom part of a magical artifact called the Triforce, three golden triangles which are the holy relics of Hyrule. The hero is called Link, and he holds the Triforce of Courage, which enables him to journey through devious dungeons and defeat fearsome monsters in his quest to rescue Zelda. The villain is sometimes Ganondorf, a thief who has stolen the Triforce of Power. Mix and match these ingredients, and you get the basics of a Zelda game.
To date, Link has saved the world 14 times, and has never gotten anything for it, not even second billing in the title (save once). Mark of a true hero, I suppose, but it also accounts for the streak of melancholy that runs through all the games. Unlike other standard fantasy stories, there is always a sense of sadness and loss with the hero’s victory. Link may be an everyman who never talks in any of the games, but his green hat and tunic makes him probably the mostly widely-recognised and beloved character in all of video-gaming.
Why I Recommend this Game
I love Action-Adventure games, especially when they involve lots of exploring, secrets and puzzles. And the Zelda games are pretty much all of that in one neat little package – you traverse a World Map, go through multiple maze-like dungeons, collect new items/weapons, discover hidden areas, and beat up horrible monsters. I like to explore virtual worlds with varied environments, and the Zelda games have deserts, swamps, towns, glaciers, mountains, woods and rivers to explore, with plenty of side-quests and mini-games to go on. You meet all kinds of weird and interesting characters, listen to their stories, and sometimes help them find whatever it is they’re looking for. It’s like an RPG, but an action game. Why don’t they make more games like this?
I mentioned Castlevania: Symphony of the Night previously as the style of game I like, and Zelda is pretty much like that game, but with a simplier inventory screen and a top-down view instead of a side-view. Unlike Castlevania, which are nearly all action-exploration games, the Zelda games always include a fair amount of puzzle-solving, which a lot of people love. Not content with just going from place to place, room to room killing baddies? Well, try and figure how to navigate this series of corridors, collecting keys and stepping on stones that will cause previously-blocked doors to open. Not sure how to get into this particular dungeon, or this part of the map? Have a good think about it, try every action you can think of, and if all else fails, do something else for a while. Your sword not working on a particular monster? Try using some of the items in your inventory. Needless to say, there is a certain sense of satisfaction you get after solving a puzzle on your own. Some of them are deceptively simple, but that’s what makes it so brilliant – the many “Ah-hah!” moments on your first play through it.
Despite the simple graphics, the game also manages to be surprisingly atmospheric. The Super Nintendo may not have been the most sophisticated piece of hardware out there, but it has many graphical effects that made it the best game system for 2D games. From the opening sequence, when you wake up on a dark rainy night due to a telepathic call for help from Princess Zelda, to the mysterious fog of the Lost Woods, to the dark, twisted nature of the Dark World… the art style is never inconsistent, and while it can get fairly dark, it’s never truly unsettling. At its heart, the Legend of Zelda series has managed to stay PG-13 all through its life, which turns out to be a boon rather than a bane – its aging fans have stayed fans, but it’s still very successful in drawing in newer, younger fans. The same can’t be said for other game series, so eager to be seen as “adult” they forget that “being adult” has nothing to do with sex and violence.
Which brings me to the reason why I chose A Link to the Past as the best Zelda game in the series. Mind you, it has tough competition, but in the end I chose it simply because… it has the best ending. Yes, it sounds like a superficial reason for choosing a game, but the ending of a game can tell you a great deal about the course of its development. Ocarina of Time is a great game, but I can’t help but feel that the final dungeon is criminally short, whereas the final dungeon of A Link to the Past is satisfying long, with a huge boss fight at the end, and a really long ending that shows everyone who appeared in the game. ALttP is the game that I feel the developers had the time to truly polish to perfection before they shoved it out the door, and there wasn’t a single moment in the game where I wondered “Where did the rest of this go?”. Granted, the Gameboy games Link’s Awakening and the Oracle games also felt very complete, but the graphics are kinda sore on the eyes, whereas the art style of ALttP means it can can still hold up today. Which is why 13 Zelda games later, it’s still my #1 game of the series.
I’m back from NYCC and trying to recover from what was really a very long trip. Due to some mix-up with the table listing, the “Bento Comics” booth didn’t end up being listed under our name at NYAF, so I guess that may have confused a few people if they didn’t spot the “Bento Comics” booth in the Anime Festival’s artist alley, at least on the map. We did some good sales nonetheless, so better luck next time.
A shot of one of the entrances of NYCC 2011. It was crazy, with so many people going!
Here's our setup for Bento Comics. The Sherlock Holmes anthology sold very well!
The other interesting piece of news is that I’ve learned to crochet. Finally. I’ve long been a knitter, but the last time I took up crocheting was a horrible accident, so I’ve not attempted crochet since… until now. It turns out that with a few good internet instructional videos from Youtube and a bit of patience, I can crochet just fine. I fumbled the first few attempts, but I seem to be doing quite well, so well that when I crocheted a little smiley cactus, I sold it off at NYCC quite quickly.
You’ll see more crochet from me later on, but for now, I leave you with the first thing I ever crocheted. It’s “Peanut Bear” (more like Amputated Bear) from Nerdigurumi, which is a great beginner pattern (with videos). I later added arms and legs to this pink bear, so it looks a tad different now.
Step 1: Start the top of the bear with a "Magic Circle". Took me ages to get this right.
Step 2: Started making the body. By now, I can stitch increase and decrease pretty well.
Step 3: Added some plastic eyes to it. I had some left-over from my little animal knittings from earlier.
Step 4: Sewed ears onto the bear. You can also sew other ears, like dogs/cats/rabbits, which would make it a different kind of Peanut animal.
Now for the final finished, limbless Peanut Bear. Don’t worry, I DID put arms and legs on it later:
I should be flying back to Sydney as we speak, so let me take this opportunity to recommend some vintage manga this week, namely Maison Ikkoku, by the best-selling female manga artist in the world, Rumiko Takahashi.
Now, I would recommend all of Rumiko Takahashi’s work, since her work is almost an institution in Japan, but I settled on Maison Ikkoku simply because it’s the most balanced of all her long-running series (and there are quite a few of them). It’s also one of her older works, with a different tone to her latest ones, which seems geared to a younger audience.
Maison Ikkoku (Rumiko Takahashi)15 Volumes
Maison Ikkoku was one of the first manga translated into English by Viz, and Rumiko Takahashi’s work remains one of the first manga to be exposed to Western audiences. Her work gained a huge following in the states (and in other countries) years before TOKYOPOP ever came to be. Apart from Doraemon, her Urusei Yatsura was among one of the first manga I’ve ever read. Her career spans over 40 years, and she has sold millions and millions of books worldwide. She is, hands down, the most prolific and best-selling female manga artist ever to have lived.
Plot Maison Ikkoku is the name of a run-down, cheap boarding house, where the residents are either broke or crazy. The building is divided into a number of rooms (with no private bathrooms), and in room number 5 lives Yusaku Godai, a ronin, described in Japan as a college applicant who has yet to successfully pass the entrance exams. Godai is a nice guy (if a bit of a loser), and constantly tormented by his crazy neighbours, who thinks the sole purpose of his existence is for them to hold loud, drunk parties in his room.
Godai’s had enough. He was about to move out of the building, when a new manager moves in – an extremely beautiful young woman named Kyoko Otonashii. Since Kyoko will be living at the boarding house as its manager, Godai decides to stay – having fallen in lust at first sight with Kyoko. Kyoko herself is a gentle, caring woman with a quick temper, and the residents quickly discover that she’s actually a widow, who had married her high school teacher as a student. Kyoko is still deeply in love with her late husband, and as Godai gets to know her better, he falls in love with her. However, the road to love isn’t so easy for these two – Godai barely scrapes into unversity, and Kyoko has other suitors. Misunderstandings and the hijinks of the neighbours also make any kind of intimacy difficult. Will Godai succeed in winning Kyoko’s heart?
Why I Recommend this Story Ofcourse Godai marries Kyoko at the end. You don’t write a 15-volume dramedy asking the readers to sympathise with the underdog hero, and then snatch the prize away in the last volume. People would be so angry. Having rooted for Godai and Kyoko for literally years of their lives, watching as Godai gets into college, almost flunks out of college, eventually graduates, attempts to find a job, fails due to bad luck, tries again, and eventually succeeds… wow, the world sure doesn’t make it easy for Godai. Unlike other manga heroes, who seem to naturally fall into leadership roles, possesses special powers, or at least has an an interesting personality or quest to go on, Godai is remarkably ordinary and average. Heck, I would say he’s below average. He struck it lucky with Kyoko.
Which is the whole point of Maison Ikkoku, a funny, poignant story about how the underdog finally wins the day. Finally. Compared to Takahashi’s other more well-known series, like Urusei Yatsura or Ranma 1/2 or even Inuyasha, the trials and tribulations of Godai seems utterly benign. While the story has its fair share of entertaining weirdos, it doesn’t have half the bombast or physical comedy of her other works – and Takahashi is mostly known for her loud, in-your-face, laff-a-minute comedy. No, this story is more rooted in reality than many of her other series, and that’s what makes it stand out. Godai eats cheap food, lives in a crappy place with crappy neighbours, constantly has money worries, ends up working in some dodgy places to make money, and constantly has to fight for almost everything he has. No need for aliens, gender-bending martial artists or monsters to spice things up. Life itself is a struggle enough, and it’s good to see a funny manga that is so rooted in a small moments of day to day life.
The romance between Godai and Kyoko is one that sticks in my mind – they’re both complex and emotional people with a lot of baggage. Kyoko feels she’s betraying her dead husband, and Godai feels he’ll never be good enough for Kyoko; often comparing himself to her late husband and her other suitors. These two drag themselves, kicking and screaming, to the inevitable final conclusion. When all is said and done, it’s a relief to see them finally acknowledge their feelings to each other. They get a lot of help (and hindrance) from Godai’s wacky neighbours, an assortment of working-class types, all of whom have sharply drawn personalities, and are always entertaining. Especially Yotsuya, the guy in room 4, who may or may not have a job, and whose life involves slithering like a snake into Godai’s room to steal food. Some of their antics have to be seen to be believed.
A Takahashi manga is always worth a read, because she’s a powerful story-teller who never fails to make you sympathise with her characters, and capable of finding comedy in the most mundane situations. Maison Ikkoku is a good place to start, as an introduction to her work (most of which is a lot whackier than this story). She excels in ensemble casts, taking extra care in the way they interact with each other, and despite the large numbers of secondary and tertiary characters, always manages to make them interesting and relevant. Her long-running series has a tendency to drag in the middle, and Maison Ikkoku is no exception, but the story ends the way it should end, and loose ends are neatly tied off. Her work is often light-hearted, with great comic timing, a fair amount of Japanese cultural references, and is always memorable.
Takahashi was one of the manga artists I tried to imitate when I was younger, and eventually gave up at, because I realised her voice was unique and inimitable. Even though I don’t follow her current work much, like some other manga artists I’ve recommended on my site, she’s a master worth learning from.
