Things I've learned about Katsuhiro Otomo from older interviews in his GENGA art book...

• Otomo believes it's a bad idea to work on comics for rewards
• Otomo believes the struggle and process behind a work is important and valuable, not just the final image
• Otomo has said that if you really are a true comics artist, all your secrets will be laid  bare on the page in one sense. It is important to confront yourself and shadow self, because that is what you're readers will see in your comics: YOU, HIDDEN PERSONALITY AND ALL

That last one really gets me. Really moves me. It rang true to me. When you're an author, a manga-ka, you can't necessarily just pick and choose your subject matter and what you're going to write and draw all the time. You can't always leave the things you're running or hiding from in your personal life out. You will find, with the more involved in writing and drawing you get, the more your demons WILL come calling. All those unpleasant aspects of your personality and life you would rather forget. Your demons.

You have to put those in. Otherwise not putting your demons and secrets into your stories will result in being creatively blocked. I had that for a while. I found I was leaving the things that made me uncomfortable, (that drew strong reactions from people in their real life raw form) out of my work, ESPECIALLY my art. The things I was truly AFRAID OF. I found I had a lot of them (in my life) but I kept unconsciously leaving them out, because they made me feel sad, awkward, angry, hateful, or depressed or whatever. I eventually found, the more I put those monsters, those demons in, the more material I had to continue and work with, as a writer, and ESPECIALLY as an artist.

And THAT'S How to Draw Comics: The Otomo Way!

It's important not to work for rewards...EVER...

The drawing and writing work on comics, scripts, and novels itself needs to be its own reward.

The work on your projects needs to be perceived as a reward in and of itself.

You can draw like Katsuhiro Otomo or Moebius, if you learn to teach yourself not to work for rewards and learn to be rewarded by the work and ONLY the work.

How is that possible, you ask?

Because Moebius and Katsuhiro Otomo both used that technique...

Katsuhiro Otomo's biggest reward has always been his work and projects themselves.

And it shows...

And when an artist only draws for rewards...THAT shows, too.

Rewards include MONEY, FAME, POWER, STATUS, ONLINE COMMENTS, MEDIA PRAISE

Pretty much AVOID working for ANY of those things.

DevART Ironies: "Yeah, I I want to work in OEL Manga, and draw as good as Otomo himself...But I live in a log cabin in Scandinavia. Is that a problem?"

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Well....Uh.....you see.............well, I........*Sigh*

Jonny. You Inspire Me

Jonny is the same old Jonny. He's evolved, but he still has that good old fashioned positive attitude of his I always admired. Not even a steamroller could stop him. And it's already tried to, time and again. He never gives up. Just gets right back up and keeps moving forward. Jonny's got quite a bit of strength too, just like all my greatest personal friends in my private life do. We may have our assorted vulnerabilities people aren't as aware of, but we're all strong in our own ways. This bonds us as friends. Or, it does for me anyway. We're all heroic warriors that have all faced setbacks, but we have not allowed those setbacks to define us. We just didn't realize it in the beginning.

Work, and Enemies

Would you go out and promote your work when you have as many enemies as I do?

SHOULD YOU go out and promote your work when you have as many enemies as I do?

CAN YOU go out and promote your work when you have as many enemies as I do??

You tell me. THEN I'll decide.

Why I Don't Judge The Tabloids

Well, the New Testament says not to do it, so I don't

Good enough reason not to for me anyway. Can't speak for heathens, I mean OTHERS!

Airing Today On The All Time Favorites Tube

Today's Menu

Death Note: The Finale Episode (continuing yesterday's theme)
It's Going Down - by X-Ecutioners
Cain and Abel, The Bible Cartoon (spoilers posted in tweet)
"Big Shot" - Billy Joel (Still Image Music Video). Is that a rock?

TV Show as Soapbox....

Using your TV show as a "soapbox to point out other's shortcomings", like South Park and Teen Titans?

Kiiiiind of a DICK move. Not FaceDick Level Dick. But still, pretty penis-ish.

In theory if you're using your power to discredit others for abusing power, in theory you're committing the same crimes you're penalizing everyone else for.

DICKS.

Movin On Up

I submitted a tech idea to DirecTV, and it's actually going to get reviewed by the higher ups. Powerful people in the company that run DirecTV will be viewing my tech invention. Maybe even applying it. Anthony Wood himself might even be seeing my handiwork, which would be a HUGE honor. Considering he's one of my personal heroes, in the same league as such people as Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Lawrence Lessig, and Tim Berners-Lee. For those NOT in the know....Anthony Wood founded Roku and invented Netflix Instant Streaming, and DVR. As a Founding YouTube Upload Engineer, I can appreciate achievements like that...

The "Danger" of Relocation....

I'm not actually any more vulnerable living somewhere other than where I have been if I were to have the proper resources. I'm actually pretty resourceful, IF I have the right tools to work with.

I didn't realize until just now that when I do finally relocate to somewhere else, I'll be responsible for more of the physical aspects of relocation than I had initially planned. I put to much faith in my adoptive parents, and they ended up betraying me and stabbing me in the back on numerous accounts.

If I DO relocate in actuality, whether sooner or later (no matter to me, I can wait years either way), it probably WON'T be with any sort of favorable blessing from my parents.

But the desire to pack up and move, even if I'm traveling solo ultimately could be harsh, but that's kind of the whole point of everything. You know "Starting a new somewhere entirely by yourself" just may be what I was destined for. Considering what I've already been through and all the dangerous situations I've already been put in, seriously, how bad a little travel. I LIKE travel. I get wanderlust. That's just how I am. In my later years I probably will be flying solo, by necessity, both literally and figuratively.

Achieving Independence....

Genuinely if you choose to relocate, and it's not with anyone, you need to find a job. My adoptive dad manages a pharmacy, and works 8 hour days to support his family (i.e. me and my mom and brother). He works 8 hour days, 5 to 6 days a week on his feet running a local pharmacy to support himself and his family. I'm starting to get old enough where I can appreciate the nobility of a lifestyle choice like that more than I used to. My writing work ethic always has been inspired by my adoptive father's work ethic. No one really can say he's not a hard worker, because he is a hard worker. He sacrifices a lot of things to make my life easier. The older you get the more you do tend to relate to being a cog in the machine I guess. You can't ALWAYS "dream your way into the dreamy perfect powerful life you've always wanted and lusted after, no strings attached" like all the self-mastery new agey books talk about. Sorry, if you're like 90% of the population, you gotta work, not dream. And there's no guarantee your dream won't destroy your life as mine has done to my lifestyle anyway...

A Job that probably isn't that hard...

I'm considering getting work as a retail cashier. Maybe not before I move though. I worked with and around a LOT of cashiers when I bagged hundreds upon hundreds of groceries at my towns Winn-Dixie.

I remember actually kind of enjoying that job at the supermarket. Never got too crazy most of the time. Not enough to stop me from collecting a lot of paychecks at $6.50 an hour. Back in 2000.

One thing I know about cashiering, most cashiers keep a calculator handy, for the calculations they can't do in their head. You don't have to be a math expert just to take people's money.

You want a receipt with that?

If my second/first  best friend can move and find a job at a sporting goods store, then dammit! Maybe I can get some day job too. Comics career ain't going anywhere...

Call it what it REALLY is demographically, Teen Swim, NOT "Adult" Swim

Adult Swim's demographic is much lower than mine. They're trying to court teenage viewers obviously. No one over the age of 21. Adult Swim isn't Adult at all. If Adult Swim actually wanted an actual REAL adult audience, they'd emulate CBS primetime, Military, ION TV, VH1, History Channel, AMC, Boomerang, and Ovation, ( which are tailor made for old people, or so it's been said), NOT Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, G4, Comedy Central, and MTV, which are for immature teen viewers. A schlockfest. 

Adult Swim is far from mature. Especially lately. Cowboy Bebop is probably the most mature show they've ever aired. I actually don't feel guilty watching DVR tapings of that show with my 62-year-old dad. He actually likes Cowboy Bebop quite a bit (and he's a Frasier and NBC fan, not at ALL an anime fan, but he does like Cowboy Bebop.) He HATES Family Guy and Aqua Teen.

There's a difference between audacious and shocking (but immature and crude) teenage rebelliousness, and it's older viewer polar opposite: Wisdom, Experience, and Maturity. Shows like Frasier and Cowboy Bebop have maturity. Family Guy and King of the Hill don't. They're just more White Trash. Garbage to throw away. No thank you. 

Headline: Cartoonish Cartoonist Draws Again

Some textural practice

"Mail", Digital Comments. Same Difference....

.....

I guess he sort of...left

Hot Off the Press Yo! Word.

Heerooooooooooooo!!!!!!

Oh Relena :D

I believe the success of this page in particular, if I had to pick one element and factor, is time.

I spent 50 minutes on this page, once I added the songs I listened to while pencilling. I've never sat my but in a chair to draw comics, continuously, for that much time. Bit of a Breakthrough for me.

The so-called "Mole Network" exists....

Purely due to how envious others are of my high amount of POWER to begin with.

Much of the time, people DO spy on me because they ARE jealous I'm more powerful than them, and they DO seek out my weakness.

This same thing happens to all powerful people of my stature, give or take. It happens to all powerful people, no matter how "small" their power and influence is.

People are envious and jealous
And rivals will always attempt to seek out your "achille's heel" for their benefit and exploitation
They will also make attempts to dig up your always innocent followers and punish them for believing in you
This feeds the mole spy "Traitor" (rival actually) factual profile quite a bit.

Superstar of the Family

While the media and regular fans frown upon me, with my family and friends I've always had, Now I'm a superstar in their eyes. I've signed autographs in 2 copies of my art book friends and family own.

Apparently when your friends and family buy your book, they still want an autograph from you (the author) half the time. I guess it's meaningful to THEM....

But where am I going with this. Hmmm. I guess I forgot.

If I Had to Pick a Career, and Proclaim I Had "The Look" of Any One Specific Profession....With My Dark Beard-Mustache and Black Curly Hair....

I'd say I look like a Novelist.

I'm a Novelist and Novelistic in every sense of the word.

I definitely look more like a writer than an artist.

Comics Page Artist Bookmark, Page 150

I've done a book's worth of comics pages by now. I have no idea how many panels I've drawn. A lot.

Out of those 150 comic book pages that range from shitty to clean, 20 are actually good.

1 out of every comic book pages I pencil in is actually decipherable.

And now. Onto the NEXT 150! Looking forward to it.

Took me a while to get the hang of drawing sequential art.

One of the secrets I've learned is you can often tell how much time went into a panel by its textural density.

Either way, I feel like progress IS being made on this front, the comic book front.

My compositions started off weak enough, but gradually, over time, with the more work I put into it...

They EVOLVED. My style and abilities evolved. Certain pages I'm very proud of. Others, not so much.

DeviantART, though it does serve its purpose, is hated for a reason. MANY reasons, actually.

One of those reasons I sort of hate deviantART is because there's no real manga and comics archive. Just doujin. Where is the DeviantART of amateur comic book pages? I'd be on that sucker day and night.

But I've come to realize comic book page-type DA-equivalent sites are in short supply.

This is because there is a difference between sketchbook and sequential art.

Sequential art is HARDER TO DRAW! If it wasn't it would flow just as much as sketchbook art.

For a while now, let's say for the last 1 to 2 months or so, I've completely forgotten about my WCN Account (webcomics nation). 

So there is WCN

But being one of the best webcomics artists around, I did LEARN a thing or two from my early days in webcomics (The 2007 and 2008 era). 

...Just as all real anime is built to not be "like anime and manga", but "as anime and manga", the best webcomics art not just to be drawn "like regular print comics" but instead "as regular print comics". Just because you don't get as many rewards as the big names doesn't mean you shouldn't try and get back to work! The greatest webcomics artwork can rival most regular printed comic book and manga artwork. If you're going to reach my level or better yet, go beyond it, you have to take what you do seriously. Take your artwork, training, and practice serious. It's important. So it should be treated as such. 

When I logged off of WCN, I was returning to my traditional art training roots, both literally and figuratively. Now after taking some time off, I feel like I can better compete with my own pioneering rate I set for myself, initially and to begin with.

And yes, End Times is still very much alive. It'll be back in time more than likely, one way or another if my current quality work rate is any indicator. I just happen to believe if you have to choose between putting out shit and putting out nothing tangible, you should go with the latter and bide your time until you actually have something decent and new. I've kept a pretty low profile lately. But I doubt that'll last. 

Ahem...

So I walked up to the prison front door.

"Yes?" The front gate guard said.

"Yes, is this the jail where they provide you free room and board, with TV and a laptop and books,  by yourself in a prison cell? I'd like to rent a cell."

"Son, I don't think you understand this place, what it's about, OR the justice system. You have to commit a crime to end up in a jail cell. You can't just volunteer."

"Does watching "Girls Gone Wild" count?"

"No."

"Dammit!!!"

Daily Schedule (Weekdays) 4 a.m. to 2 a.m.

4 a.m. - Noon - Wake up, Watch TV (mostly cartoons)

Noon - 1: Eat Breakfast, Check my inbox, Energy Drink, Begin Prepping for Day

1-2: A little bit more TV

1:30 - 6 p.m. : Drawing and Writing and Reading and Websurfing, off and on, interchangeably

7 p.m.: Winding down, Calling it a day, TV,

1:30 - 2 a.m.: Generally this is the time I fall asleep

Being Famous AND A Workaholic....kind of sucks...

The whole "celebrity thing" kind of tends to eat away at my writing/art work schedule....

Hey, cool! The INTERNET, TV, NEWS, Hollywood and RADIO Turned Me Into a Martyr...I'ma jack a plane

Clearly I no longer rule the overnights. In the 90s yes. Now, no.

I'm the King of the Early A.M. Now.

I'm looking forward to getting my show on TV...Eventually, in a lookit the Dead Wikipedia dude posthumous kinda way...

Don't sweat the small stuff kids. I'm looking forward to watching it from the grave. 20 years after I die in my 50s and stuff. Cartoon Network will be cancelled by then, so they're out of the running. Whoopsie. Misjudged THAT trajectory..

Ce La Vie...and death.

New Shit to Sketch down in my Books. SKETCH THIS SHIT, MAGGOT!!!!! GO GO GO!!!! DRAW DRAW DRAW!!!!

• ·       Advertising Commercials
• ·       American PR Brandwashing Propaganda
• ·       All Cartoon Networks
• ·       Krin
• ·       Crows
• ·       Biker Gangs
• ·       Red Scare
• ·       Soviet Art
• ·       Muslim Architecture
• ·       Dance of Shiva
• ·       Lady Liberty
• ·       FireBlade
• ·       Arab Spring
• ·       Egypt
• ·       Mubarak
• ·       Twitter
• ·       YouTube
• ·       DeviantART
• ·       That One Repetitive and Oh so Popular Viral Perv Video Website
• ·       Barack Obama
• ·       The News
• ·       New-Wave Horror Movies (The Ring, Saw, Weird Shadow Figures in Dark Rooms)
• ·       Squid (regular and giant)
• ·       Ship at Sea
• ·       Helicopter
• ·       Country Expressways, Grassy Valleys with Highway Roads and Fields/ Trees
• ·       Trees
• ·       Forrests
• ·       Winnebagos
• ·       Floods
• ·       Giant Holes
• ·       Mitt Romney
• ·       France
• ·       Weapons
• ·       Genga: Original Pictures by KATSUHIRO OTOMO
• ·       Fire
• ·       Water
• ·       Brushfires
• ·       Car Chases
• ·       Dialogue Scenes
• ·       Sanford
• ·       Traffic
• ·       Driving
• ·       Crime Shows
• ·       Neighborhood Hooligans, Swords, Drugs, Toddler Bullies, and Martial Arts

Gentlemen [and ladies]. I believe it is time to kick some ass: SOME ART....

Image Boards 2013

Two Things You Should Never Let Go Of: LOVE, and VENGEANCE

The world can TRY TO make you suppress your true feelings. But some feelings are not meant to die. Some feelings last forever, whether positive or negative.

NEVER FORGET....THE POWER...OF YOUR FEELINGS.

They are the foundation of Life and Having a Soul. 

-JM

Out of an Early Retirement..and BACK to being BUSY as All HELL!

Finished a few small stacks of the following, which are now sitting on my desk:

• Script
• Short Story Collection
• Comics, Shaded and Revised
• Image Boards (mix between storyboards and layouts)

Honestly, I was GOING TO log back on sooner and give some form of one of my little stats. reports, but I couldn't find the time. I had family over at my house, and they stayed for a LOOONG time. A LONG FRIGGIN TIME! Roughly about 62 hours. Needless to say, I don't get much work done when I have guests over....

The bad part: I still got miles to go on this journey. The good news: I'm so far past the starting line of this marathon, I can't see the starting line anymore. 

By now, if my private stats are any indicator....

60% of my audience lives in China...

Asian Live Action Cinema Favorites?

Favorite Hong-Kong and Japanese live action Films?

Yes, that's right. I've watched enough Hong Kong Wuxia by now I now actually have a list.

·       Dance of the Drunken Mantis

·       Wu Dang

·       Last Hurrah for Chivalry

·       The Zatoichi: Blind Samurai Series

·       Hard Boiled

·       Hero

·       Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

·       Versus

None of that for me thanks. I'm a weak, nerdy, small, spineless WIMP.....

Just call me BITCH.

Say, would you like to borrow one of my books. Teaches me all the wimpy things I need to know how to be a wimp that doesn't fight....!

Founding an Animation Studio

Founding your own studio STARTS WITH Good art. That's why you need to be or work with artists who know how to make CLEAN Drawings. If it's not clean on the computer or page, it's not going to be polished on the TV screen, either.

Good, Great Art literally makes or breaks an indie or co-production animation studio...

Before you can succeed in setting up an operation, you're drawings must first be good. Your vision has to live up to its OWN potential. If it doesn't look good on paper, it will look just as bad in the video reel. 

Glasses And Weak Eyes Make You a Better Artist Half the Time

The Proof? Look at all the photos of animation and comics artists. How many where glasses? Lots!

Jhonen Vasquez
Katsuhiro Otomo
Osamu Tezuka
Miyazaki
Thomas Romain
George Lucas
Steven Spielberg
Scott McCloud
Bill Watterson

And don't get me STARTED on writers and that glass-wearing = genius connection.


Being nearsighted, farsighted, or having astigmatism or any other sight deficiency and having to wear glasses for it can make you a visionary!

Shitty Life Test

Life is a test. Did I pass. Huh, huh? Did I??!!

Will Smith says "Parents Just don't Undastand"....

But Private Eyes and anti-Trojan manufacturers do! Perhaps you should email them for safety advice.

Selling a Show to Cable TV Animation is HARD...

Yeah, especially since my passion with and obsession for creating TV shows incindentally elevated it's status from obscure and glamour-less to "THE MOST WANTED SHOWBUSINESS JOB IN THE WORLD!" Yeah, my bad. Sorry for making society want my job so badly. But hey, at least I landed a SWEET, SWEET media empire online! So not all is lost.

I must be the first trendsetter in history who gets left in the dust in every wake of all 22 pop cultural and media cultural trends he DOES set. Doesn't pay a dime.

Lo and Behold Me, For I am the Southeaster Redneck Junction Fire Master

Burning road Controlled Fire state-funded pathways with State Fires to keep the "timid" masses boxed into one state. Thanks for staying, but YOU CAN'T LEAVE.

That seems like a lot of work just to get me to stay in one....city.

Burning down a whole forest?? FOR ME??? Aw shucks, you shouldn't have...paid off the state government to seal the exits off.

Nothing suspicious about that.

The world's changed in the last 12 years...

It's amazing how the public wants to "know me". Well, I can assure you it's not a mutual understanding. Some people think they know me very well. But if  that's true, why do I not know them.

I live on a hostile, abrasive planet. I certainly don't know my family anymore. Whatever knowledge I have of the society that used to  be, is gone.

I live in Afghanistan, apparently.

I used to know plenty of people, but due to being isolated from the world for so long, the world I knew has been replaced by an aggressive, angry, alien society.

How can anyone truly "know" me when I don't actually KNOW anyone anymore. Which I don't. The people I knew growing up have changed. I'm surrounded by people, every single day, yet I don't really know anyone. Everyone around me has changed. And apparently not for the better. I'm still the same person, albeit older.

I'm not famous, but I am isolated  from society. All I see are strangers, alien life forms, and of course, phonies.

"End Game"?

That's funny, I don't remember ever saying or writing down I actually had one. But I like to let people use their imaginations.