The Dreaming: An Interview With Me!

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I got interviewed an interview up by Park and Barb at Silver Bullet Comics and it’s new sister site, Manga Life. Manga Life is going to be a news site much in the vein of Silver Bullet Comics, but concentrating on manga (ofcourse). The interviews are near-identical, with the Manga Life one being editted and with additional graphics, while the extended version is at The Park & Barb Show. For those who don’t know, Barbara writes Gun Street Girl for Graphic Smash, which those who like action with a supernatural twist should check out, and she and Park have a regular column at Silver Bullet Comics and now Manga Life. Manga Life is looking for a news hound, so if you’re it then checkout the site and contact the webmaster. Meanwhile, I’m intending to do some articles on manga for Manga Life, and maybe write a bi-weekly column on manga and/or anything else that is relevant. Since I like to write ham-fisted essays so much.

 

Donation News: Greenpeace it is. Save the Earth. My Taoist sensibilities won in the end over my humanitarian impulses. Not saying that World Vision doesn’t deserve money – but just next time I get my payouts.

 

New Manga Publisher: Checkout GoComi – a new manga publisher, who also did a US-Japan collaboration effort called “The Almost Legendary Shannon”. Gotta love anything to do with the Excalibur. After Seven Seas Entertainment, this can only bode well for the non-Japanese manga industry. Interestingly enough, it’s established by the same person, aka Jake Forbes, that was a former senior editor at TokyoPop. The work itself is the brainchild of Audrey Taylor and David Wise. More stuff to buy!

The Dreaming: Halfway Mark Breached!

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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.

 

Page 51 of "The Dreaming"

 

Page 57 of "The Dreaming"

 

Page 77 of "The Dreaming"

 

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.

Recommendation: DragonBall

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The regular news: I’ve nearly finished the toning for Chapter 4. Once I finish I’ll post some samples up, but right now I’m taking a breather between inking while reading manga.

 

The shocking news: For this manga recommendation, I’m actually recommending Dragon Ball. Yes, you read right, DRAGON BALL. And I shall justify myself by saying that I never meant to recommend Dragon Ball. I was going to recommend a Saimon Fumi series, but on my way to the bookshelf I tripped over an old pile of Dragon Ball manga, which I haven’t seen in YEARS. This was the first manga I bought. My old memories of Dragon Ball has been soured by the never-ending anime series and the lousy manga plotting, but this was different. This was the EARLIER Dragon Ball volumes – basically DragonBall in its glory days (before it fell victim to editorial mandates). And when I sat down to give my memory a jog, I was shocked to find how GOOD it was. And so here we have the sad story of the manga that should have ended at volume 28, but instead got dragged beyond all redemption to volume 42.

 

DragonballDragon Ball (Akira Toriyama)
42 volumes, but only 1-28 worth reading

Before I start, I have to draw a clear and definitive line between Dragon Ball the MANGA, and Dragon Ball the MARKETING JUGGERNAUT. The former is the manga, by Akira Toriyama, and nothing more. The latter would include the anime, the video games, the action-figures, the trading cards, the posters, CDs, memorabilia, marketing tie-ins… and just about everything that makes people who have never seen Dragon Ball hate it. It’s essential to make this difference, because what makes Dragon Ball a good manga is also what makes it a terrible anime (and all-consuming marketing monster). If your primary conception of Dragon Ball comes from the anime, then you’ve been tainted and probably don’t want to read the manga. On the other hand, if you LOVE the anime, then the manga is just one more part of the franchise. So therefore, this recommendation are for the non-fans only.

 

Plot
Everyone knows the story of DragonBall, including the village idiot in some Ethiopia basin. It’s an action-adventure and martial arts extravaganza which started, for better or for worse, the whole “fighting manga” craze in Shonen manga. The main character is Son Goku, a naive but lethal fighter who is six degrees of separation from the Monkey King of Chinese myth. It chronicles his adventures in finding the seven Dragon Balls – mythical orbs that will grant the user any wish when collected in full. On the way, there is first alot of adventure, then alot of fighting, and Goku himself grows from a young child to an adult with a wife and son. But none of that’s important. What IS important is that the first third of this manga is good, the middle third great, and the last third garbage. Infact, the last third has almost nothing to do with the mythical Dragon Balls – a telling sign the author (or should I say the editors) have lost the plot.

To make it easier, I’ve loosely divided it into 4 parts, with brief plot summaries.
Vol 1-16: Goku as a child and teenager. Lots of adventure, toilet humour, goofy stories, and extended bursts of gravity defying kung fu at the “Tenka-ichi Tournament”. Kinda fun – read it to understand the second part.
Vol 17-28: Shifts drastically in tone as Goku becomes a husband and father – this story arc is much darker and dramatic than before. Turns out Goku is a member of an alien race called the Saiyans, whose planet was destroyed by the arch-villain of this arc, Freezer. Probably the best part of this arc is the race by differing factions on Planet Namek to collect the Dragon Balls. This is what makes me recommend Dragon Ball as a manga.
Vol 29-35: The Androids and Cell arc. Bearable, but getting sillier by the volume.
Vol 36-42: Almost undoes the earlier greatness with it’s crapness. My quality of life WOULD be better if this never existed.

 

Why I recommend this story
If Dragon Ball ended at Volume 28, it would have been regarded as an all-time action-adventure classic. Instead, it ended at volume 42, a shadow of it’s former self. Along the way, it has been tagged violent, tasteless, crudely drawn, testosterone-fuelled, never-ending, and a monument to marketing excess. Which are all images fostered by the anime – so pervasive it upstages the original material and condemns it in the minds of people who prefer plot and character.

The intense irony of it, and I felt it keenly when I re-discovered the manga, is that none of the assertions are true. The original Dragon Ball does feature violence and testosterone, but it also has tight plotting and strong characterisations. In fact, what many people don’t realise is that Dragon Ball was always about plot and character, and not about fighting. What it does heads and shoulders above it’s imitators is its USE of action adventure to draw out personalities and set the stage. It is NOT about violence for the sake of violence, or at least it wasn’t until volume 28 onwards. It’s a sad thing that those who followed in its footsteps thought Dragon Ball was popular because of the action. No, it was popular because of the plotting and characterisations.

The part I recommend most is Dragon Ball Z (vol 17-28), which has the best share of dramatic moments. It’s also extra heavy on fighting, but if you compare this arc with the current Shonen Jump front-runners, you’ll find that there actually isn’t much “fighting” happening. It gives the IMPRESSION there’s alot of fighting because the characters mostly interact with each other through martial arts, but even so, the fighting exists in small bursts rather than extended battles. No one fight for more than 10 pages before a plot point happens and things change direction.

The best part of this is the arc on Planet Namek, where there is a race by competing parties to find the Dragon Balls and to keep others from finding it. The fact that there is a mega-villain far stronger than all other characters put together means that there is an element of strategy happening. Yes, that’s right – people SERIOUSLY using their brains in a fighting manga. They run away rather than face a stronger opponent. Is this against the sacred “He may be 10x stronger than me, but I can still beat him through persistence” mantra championed by the likes of Naruto? Yes it is, because Dragon Ball Z didn’t start this mantra. In Dragon Ball Z, weak people and idiots get pounded into the ground no matter how persistent they are. Looking at the plotting, it simply has none of the deux es machina that other fighting manga depend upon for plot. You know the story – someone gets pounded by the villain, but they then “find” some superskill while they’re taking a beating, and then somehow turns the tables on the villain. Right. Well, none of that here, except at the very end of the arc which was hinted at all along anyway.

All I’ve done is debunk some myths of Dragon Ball, and perhaps that’s enough for the average manga reader to be motivated enough to give it a try. Ofcourse, if you’re not an action-adventure fan, you’ll never like this regardless of what I say. Dragon Ball may be strong on plot and character, but it still falls squarely into the “tough action man” genre. There are strutting villains, bombastic speeches, grand entrances, astonished bystanders, cannon-fodder characters and all the things you’ll expect to find in a story about good triumphing over evil. What makes it a cut above the rest is the dynamic Jackie Chan-style action – it looks like violence, but is actually balletic martial arts manouvers. And let’s face it, a decade since the end of Dragon Ball Z, and Akira Toriyama is still the best action manga-artist you’ll EVER find. In terms of clarity and dynamism, none can compare to what he does in Dragon Ball. And he does it all without oceans of blood too, which is found in 90% of all other fighting manga for reasons I cannot fathom.

Dragon Ball was so phenonmenal because it made action adventure into something with an appeal to people of all ages. Believe me, that’s a lot harder to do that it looks.

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