A much-needed squee post.

[nenena]

Thing the first: kamdensl's doujin came in the mail today! Yaaaaay! And it included a freakin' awesome print of the Thompson sisters.



The book itself is completely awesome - especially in the way that the story switches in tone and setting from OH GOD NIGHTMARE FUEL to zomg angst to lol funny to d'awwwwww shippy moment without ever once being jarring about it. The story is refreshingly non-cheesy and the artwork is lovely and expressive (I particularly like the way that Kamden draws facial expressions). The ending is pitch-perfect, too. You can order your own copy here.

Thing the second: As promised, pics of Mukesh Singh's 18 Days.



Cover of the book. Please forgive the flash on all of these photographs; I tried taking pics without the flash, but then the colors were horribly washed out, so I decided to stick with flash despite the glare on the pages.

Anywhoo, I wanted to take just a few pics of the paintings that haven't already been shown among the promotional images released by Dynamite, so here they are:










Kauravas. Singh's greatest talent is perhaps his uncanny mastery of manipulating color to create amazingly striking imagery, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the way that he draws and colors the Kauravas. Each of the major Kaurava leaders has his own color scheme. Duryodhana always stands out in all of Singh's paintings, because he's clothed from head to toe in black and blood-red armor. Bhisma's color scheme is completely white. Drona is a mix of white, black, and red. The colors are a rather unsubtle way of visualizing where each of these characters falls on the moral spectrum, but it's visually striking nonetheless.

There is another portrait of Bhisma later in the book where his face looks incredibly weathered and sad, and the color scheme is all brown and green. He looks almost like a tree, in a sense, and I suspect that that might have been a deliberate choice on Singh's part.








Yudhisthira kneeling before Bhisma, armorless, waving his white flag of peace. As if this scene couldn't have been any more heartbreaking already.








And kneeling before Drona.








Karna.








BHIMA SMASH. So that character from the promotional artwork that I thought was supposed to be Karna turns out to have been Bhima all along. Oops.

Anyway, this book is GORGEOUS and still available on Amazon.com for a mere $17. I don't know how long that sales price is going to last, so hurry and get it while you can. And of course the first 40 pages are still available as a free PDF download from the LiquidComics Scribd account.






Aaaaaaand finally...


First batch of SE spoilers @ Hatomune

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Tezca is back. I don't think that this even deserves a spoiler cut because, you know, seriously. Seriously.

Non-important plot points: 1. Kid finally gets his new jacket. 2. Shioko has no idea whether Tezca's new head is supposed to be a mouse or a squirrel and looking at her drawing of it *I* have no idea either.

Important plot points: I've read over this five times and honestly I think I'm either misinterpreting the Japanese or Ohkubo has just dethroned Kubo as one of the most infuriating/hilarious manga author trolls of all time, so I'm going to hold back on posting anything until I can see the raw for myself. Or I see another Japanese source that confirms any of this.

Oh Index, you octopus-punning pantless-barbecue-loving evil mastermind, you!

ETA: More spoilers now in the comments.

ETA 2: Three new color illustrations are up at the GanGan website. There's also new wallpaper and SE stationary uploaded, too.

ETA 3: A large, textless version of this month's cover illustration is now available on GanGan Online.

ETA 4: iijyanaika just posted pics of the pages from chapter 82 and Not! in the comments here. They're not readable but at least you can see what the action looks like. Gracias!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

You're lucky you get to read that. I'm sure it fills the void left by Okubo's story arc and then some. Of course, I intend to stick out to the series in its entirety, regardless of any *ahem* bizarre developments on Okubo's part.

I also notice ol' Waffles is mentioned more than once in that there spoiler post...

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

I cant find the spoilers |:<

But WOOT cant wait for my copy of kamdens doujin to come in <3

[nenena.livejournal.com]

In the right-hand frame on the front page of Shioko's site, scroll down to where it says 「８２話ネタバレ置き場」.

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

oh wait hell nevermind. Im obviously as blind as a fucking bat.

Babel fish turned everything into a clusterfuck for me but im sure once i see the raw ill be oh my fucking god'ing.

[its-onthefritz.livejournal.com]

I am really looking forward to getting my copy of kamdensl's doujin! Can't wait to see it~.

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Tezca is back.

Oh good. I was getting a little worried there.

(Hope more spoilers are up and about soon!)

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Just updated with more!

[(Anonymous)]

Any news on Soul Eater Not?

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I will post something when and if there is!

[(Anonymous)]

To be honest, I find it relieving that the reason why the fight with Noah was too easy was because there are more of him. Sure, it doesn't make up for all the other wasted developments in this story arc, but in retrospect, it makes more sense of things.

So, what becomes of Gopher? I noticed he (or she, I honestly can't tell; dammit Okubo!) gets mentioned more than once in that Japanese spoiler blog.

Also, "Soul Eater Not!"? What of it?

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Er, Gopher is very clearly a boy. The only thing Shioko mentioned about Gopher is that he's happypants when nu!Noah appears and exclaims "It's a sexy wild Noah-sama!"

If I read or see anything about Soul Eater Not, I will post it here. You don't need to ask me for it. ^^;;

LKArtillery

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, Patty in that print reminds me a lot of Paula, from Earthbound. Cute!

Ooh man, I am interested now. Ohkubo is an awful troll, but I still love Soul Eater nonetheless. Can't wait to read the next chapter. But am I the only one who is surprised Tezca is back? He seemed pretty dead to me...


Also!
Dunno if you'll see or care about this little request I will now proceed to make, buuuuut

That Soul Eater stationery on the gangan site is terribly cute! But what does it say? I have no idea what the characters on it read. Well, aside from "shibusen" and "4242564"... I can only read English XP

Just curious.

Re: LKArtillery

[nenena.livejournal.com]

No problem!

The large letters say "Shinigami Buki Shokunin Senmon Gakkō" which is the long form of "Shibusen." The small letters say "Ochikaku kagami kara otoiawasetekudasai" which means "Please call from any nearby mirror for more information."

[aiwatan.livejournal.com]

Kamden's doujin looks more and more awesome each time I heard of it. Need it now, damn money.


I wonder how Sloth!Noah will be, given the Greedy one wasn't prone to move his ass to save his life.

Liking the cover, even if when you said "3" I was like "but I only saw 2 pics on there..." It took me some sweet time realizing the one with the dragon was Maka.

[wodalzz.livejournal.com]

Oh my, I'm getting so curious for the SE NOT, I mean, I get the idea that that black haired girl is a replacement of Soul as a partner for Maka, she showd us a DROOL at one of the pics, and I'm like 'NOOOOEEEES DON'T REPLACE SOUL! LEMME SEE A PIC OF SOME OTHER CHARACTERS!!'. I'm really, really curious. And the 'NOT' freaks me out.

I also don't get how the 'SE-NOT' series can run along with the original series as I heard the saying. Does that mean Ohkubo just draws two chapters each month at the same time, or does he has prepared it, does it go like: one month SE and one moth NOT(then the series will get exausting to follow >:[), or will it just become some omake?

[(Anonymous)]

So, what, is the new girl a weapon or something? And it's supposed to be out in Japan already, but we don't know anything about her. I mean, is there anyone who even knows her NAME?

*insert fangirl squee*

[xsuicunex.livejournal.com]

uwaaaaa~~~~ yay! I can't wait for my copy to come into the mail. (Had to wait FOREVER for my paypal to work for us) Kamden's work looks so awsome.

Hmm? Could it be? Is Okubo not as much of a fail bot as we originally feared? Well...at least it seems Noah isn't as bad of a villan as we thought...Index did seem a bit off now that I think about it. Hmmm...

Oh, and I finnaly got to read the next salvage on Mangashare. Wow. Kid's face was scary in one panel. Awsome. (Could possible troika and character development occur? Lets hope!)

Tezca being alive actually isn't so much of a surprize for me. It was kinda...yeah. Cliche, but effective.

Still doesn't really explain why all the adults just stood there like idiots when Noah went batshit on them. But okay.

My hope for SE has grown. Yay.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, this makes me feel a lot better about the last 3 chapters...kinda...at least it explains why Noah failed so hard, so that's good. ^_^

I'm..actually kinda worried about Soul Eater Not! though. =/ I hope Ohkubo putting out 2 chapters a month won't make the quality of regular Soul Eater slip any farther. I just sort of wish that he would have gotten a little farther into SE before going and starting a spin off, but I guess that's just me. XD Anyways, I can't wait for the new chapter! *hopes for the best*

[silverystone.livejournal.com]

I got my copy of Kamden's doujin recently and I am just so proud to be holding in my hands her first comic for print yay!!


And the 18 Days book renders me speachless. Hell, I'm not sure if I can even breath properly. Those illustrations are so beautiful and so confident. I don't think I've seen composition and color done like that, that well ever. The book is now on my wishlist.

Omg, the Hatomune little drawing with Kid and Shinigami! Do you supose she is suggesting that Kid and Shinigami reunite?

Thanks for sharing!

[duelsoul.livejournal.com]

Wow. 18 days images look just... sublime. Thanks for sharing it with us C:

Doujin looks and sounds very interesting, I believe that shall go on my wishlist for later consumption. Have yet to sort out temperamental paypal account.

As for spoilers... wasn't the whole point of the seemingly rushing the prior chapter so we could skip along to the next arc already? At least that was the justification I was giving it in my mind so things wouldn't seem so sucky. Not entirely sure how I feel about Noah sticking around, but I'll abstain from feeling too disappointed until I see the full raw- though I was kinda expecting/hoping he'd stay dead...

At least Waffles is happy I suppose, even he is getting beaten up -so I've heard anyways). Did he really say "It's a sexy wild Noah-sama!" because that would be just... XD

Can't say I'm too surprised to see Tezca alive either, it's more like an unreveal since everyone saw it coming.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, all I can say is if this is the way back to Maka BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF THE CLOWN, or Black*Star finding a fight like how he had to go against Mifune, or ....hell, Justin looking at Asura and saying "I don't NEED no instructions to know HOW TO ROCK!", I'll be alright with that, stupid plot points or not.

Manga /and/ manhwa were kinda disappointing overall for 2010 IMO, I hope for a better new year!

Thanks for the linked spoilers.

[(Anonymous)]

To be honest, all my information relating to the whole "Soul Eater Not!" thing comes from this webside (http://www19.atwiki.jp/souleater/pages/2.html), which appears to be a Japanese wiki on Soul Eater. Yes, it's a wiki, but so far, it's information seems to be accurate, even if some parts seem dated.

Now, that spoiler blog by Hatomune seems to have updated to show that Crona appears at the end of the chapter. Not only that, but he/she seems to be in the presence of another Death Scythe named Tsar Pushka, who is said to take the form of a shell/cannonball, which is fitting considering he's named after the Tsar Cannon (called the Tsar Pushka in Russian), one of the largest cannons in the world. Tsar is also seen with meister partner. His name isn't shown on the blog, but it appears to be given on that wiki site. However, I have no idea how to pronounce it and it doesn't seem to be a reference to anything (フコハドル, Fukohadoru).

i took pics of the regular chapter and not

[iijyanaika.livejournal.com]

hi nenena,

i hadn't seen anyone post up the chapter so i went ahead and took pics. so if no one from your LJ had seen it yet, they can take a gander

not- http://www.sendspace.com/file/ky50nt

regular- http://www.sendspace.com/file/1rdf8a

my rooms not the brightest place >.>

Re: i took pics of the regular chapter and not

[(Anonymous)]

Yay, my incessant nagging paid off! (I know it didn't).

Don't know why the pictures are upside down, but that's no problem.

Looks like SE Not takes place sometime before the main events of the series. Sid's appears, but he's not a zombie.

Anyway, as I said, the main character's name is Tsugumi, and she's a transfer student from Japan. She's a weapon (a halberd, specifically), but seems to have trouble finding a meister partner. There are two other prominent characters: one seems to be called "Meme," but that might just be a nickname; the other is Anya, a prim-looking princess-like girl who ends up becoming Tsugumi's partner. Maka and Black Star also appear in cameos; Maka seems to be the first person Tsugumi meets at DWMA.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I think you meant to thank iijyanaika? ^^;;

[(Anonymous)]

I don't want to be a bother... but when are you going to do the review for 82 and not! Sorry if I missed something in the comments, I just do want to spoil it.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I can't review either of them until somebody scans and uploads a real raw.

Re: The new chapter IN ENGLISH!

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the intent, but two things:

1. PLEASE DO NOT POST LINKS TO SCANSLATIONS IN THE COMMENTS ON MY PUBLIC LJ POSTS. Or in the comments on anybody's public, unlocked LJ posts. Ever.

(Sorry but this happens every month and I am really tired of repeating this rule.)

2. I can't do a recap based off somebody else's translations. Not to badmouth MS or anything - everybody makes mistakes in their translations, including me - but there's a reason why I always read my manga in Japanese and this is one of those reasons.

[mrocto.livejournal.com]

Read the chapter, and even if the translation is bad I got the jist.
I'd just like to say that the father-son reunion was horrible :I Here is the father who normally is weird and eccentric, but gets angry when they throw a party for him while his son is missing. Now he's just like "hey kidd,kbye."

New Noah looks promising, and Waffles saying "you're wild" or variations of just confirms that Waffles will do anything that looks like a Noah.

[kamdensl.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm so thrilled that you enjoyed the doujin (and I'm sorry for the late response; my Internet service has been really poor this week)! I was actually quite nervous and self-conscious about the pace of the story, and I'm so relieved to hear that you felt that it wasn't jumpy or inconsistent. I've been working on a couple short-story scripts for more KidLiz/KidLizPatty, and the feedback I've gotten so far is giving me more confidence to start another project.

And oh my goodness, the art in Mukesh Singh's 18 Days is absolutely stunning! I feel embarrassed to have my work right next to those god-tier paintings. I find the painting of the hands cupping the water and the painting of Karna to be especially inspiring. Seriously, I can't stop staring at these artworks; they are breathtaking.