Secondlina's Panels

 For some reason, i'm really focusing on period costume art right now. I got a couple of new books with gorgeous dresses, and i'm just going nuts. I honestly think that if I wasn't doing comics i'd be in fashion/costume design because noting makes me as happy as designing clothing. 

So far, June is disappointing. I was hoping to be able to run along in the grass under the warm, warm sun, but so far, i've been feeling like a cold, wet dog. It's rainy and brisk here in Montréal. I miss you, sunlight. Thankfully, strawberry season has started, so if I can't have sunlight, I can at least eat something that reminds me of it. Seasonal strawberries are much smaller and tastier then the big imported winter berries we get all year long. I adore it.

In other news, since all of facebook knows, may has well spill the beans.



Yup, i'm engaged. To "Link" as you folks know him, with whom i've shared 10 years of my life. He's a good fellah, and i'm happy about it. It's going to be super duper small and nerdy as far as weddings go for economical and personal reasons. But yay! Rejoicing is to be had! Whoop whoop!

Have some of the results of my historical costume obsession : A special Namesake update featuring Emma and Warrick in 1900 clothing and the cover of chapter 15 which just debuted recently, inspired by a pin-up girl seen in said design books :





Montréal and internet folks may have trouble catching me this week because i'm headed at my parents. But i'll be back! I'll be back for all of youuuuu!

-Isa

For starters, the Namesake hardcover designs are done, and look how gorgeous they are! Link did the coloring this time, to help out, and he did a great job. I'm really amazed by how well these turned out. This is a HUGE thing to take off my to-do list, so i'm glad!





In other news, I watched the movie "The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki" by the director of Summer Wars. It was awesome. Most of the movie is bitter-sweet. It's about a young woman who marries an enchanted wolf man, who then dies, and she's stuck raising alone two magical children. The mother in this movie deserves the most badass mother of the year award. She suffers so much because she's scared for her kids, because Japan is harsh to single moms, but then when people start to help her out, and when her kids can finally decide if they want t be part of human society or part of nature, it's so sad, and rewarding at the same time. Great movie, full of human emotion, with a poetic and slow pacing... I just can't recommend it enough. Bring kleenex though. Most of the time, it's heartbreaking. In a good way.



On the other side of the spectrum, i'm really HATING the new Oz movie that came out : "Oz the great and Powerful". On the good side, this movie is absolutely gorgeous, I liked the character of the China Doll, and the story is pretty okay, even though it's the basic "white tortured male comes around to distant land and safes everyone because the natives can't" plot that I don't really care for much. What bothered me about this movie was this :

In an interview, the director of the Oz film said :  " …during the years that I spent running Walt Disney Studios — I learned about how hard it was to find a fairy tale with a good strong male protagonist. You’ve got your Sleeping Beauties, your Cinderellas and your Alices. But a fairy tale with a male protagonist is very hard to come by. But with the origin story of the Wizard of Oz, here was a fairy tale story with a natural male protagonist. Which is why I knew that this was an idea for a movie that was genuinely worth pursuing."

…Jesus dude, have you ever even read fairy tales? There’s a crap-ton of male heroes. Yes, most are nameless and don’t really have personalities, but that’s also the case with all the female character’s you have enumerated because characters in original fairy tales are plot devices. Recent remakes gave them personalities. Not to mention all the ladies you just listed get saved by dudes in the end… Aside from Alice.

Also, have you ever read Oz books? Oz books are about how amazing ladies are. If you really wanted to do something with a male hero, pick someone who isn’t a “coward” in canon. The Wizard is a bad, bad guy who needs to redeem himself in the series several times. I would have preferred seeing a movie that really rolled with the fact that he's an awful, manipulative bastard. Maybe something that explores why Glinda tolerated his nasty lies. Again, they could have kept the love story between him and Glinda that they shoved in this flick, but made it tragic?

This movie just feels like it craps all over the feminism and the originality of the Oz stories by being as pandering and predictable as it can be.

I feel like this guy was just angry that there was no male character in the Disney princess line or something. I'm tired Hollywood movie directors who find concepts from the 1900’s too adventurous for american cinema and just want stuff to be all about boys and boy things. 

Isa out!

The Namesake book 2 kickstarter ended and, i'm sure you're all shocked, we made our goal! WOO! Now on to step two - working on finishing the book's design and working on the ad campaign. The good news aboutt he kickstarter too is that we actually made enough to print HARCOVER VERSIONS. I'm thrilled about that. You might not know this, but European comics are almost always printed by default with hardcovers, to the contrary of american editions (where hardcovers tend to be a big, fancy deal).

So doing hardcovers feels kinda special for me.

I'm planning on designing covers specifically for the hardcover edition, with a wrap-around cover style (like they do for comics like Fables).

I'm pretty excited about this, guys.

In other news, I'm shopping in baby stores a lot lately. Many of y friends are pregnant, and I've never been to so many baby showers in my life. The store clerks are starting to look at me funny....

I've also been thinking of trying out Scandinavian baths in an almost desperate attempts to relax the stress out of my poor back by using something I love to do - aka dunking in warm water. It would probably work better then stuff like massages, which I hate (just like Kuzko, i,m not big on the touchy). They have a couple of pretty cheap bath houses in Montréal... So it's very tempting. Hummmm. Yes. Isa likes warm things.

We got a pretty neat Namesake review today - be sure to check it out : http://io9.com/5986320/saturday-webcomic-namesake-is-an-incredible-return-to-oz-and-so-much-more

And here a few of the ads I designed. You might see these around Deviant art!



( More ads under cut! )

Tomorrow is the big day - big ass manga conference time. I hope it goes well. It's in a high school, which is always fun. I had to "boob check" the books i'm bringing thought. To make sure nothing too revealing was in the example books I was bringing because the teachers at that school really, really have a lot of prejudice towards comics in general. I don't want to give them reasons to blindly hate what i'm showing.

I love you, shonen manga, but sometimes you go crazy with the fanservice.

I'm being anti-social this week, I think i'm recovering from the holidays. Hopefully by next week, i'll be back to my usual self.

I'm debating whether to go see the Hobbit and Les Miserables in theatres or not. I mean, i'm pretty sure both movies are excellent. But i'm like a kid. If a movie is over one hour and a half, I get really stir crazy. I wasn't able to sit through a single showing of Lord of the Rings. I always have to pause and come back later. It's also why I always watch movies while drawing. I need something else to distract me. So i'm thinking i'll wait for the DVD release. I'll probably enjoy it more at home then in the theatres while my brain is going "oh god is it over yet?".

I got the art book for the Hobbit. For a fantasy artist, it's great inspiration. The details in the locations and the costumes are insane. I especially like the part about the dwarves, but you guys know I adore dwarves.

I watched the live-action Kenshin movie with Link this week. It's pretty good! The story is sortoff a mashup of the first 3 storylines. It's pretty hard to follow if you haven't read the manga. But if you are a fan, you'll be very satisfied with it. The actors are incredibly well chosen. I think my only complaints would be that there is a small lack of awesome in the battle scenes (they went for realistic, so it lacks epic a bit). And Kaoru is really, really lacking... something. She doesn't feel badass or interesting in the least. Megumi was a far better character. The movie is mostly about Megumi and Kenshin. 

Finally, I started wearing fingerless gloves and thicker socks at work and... I'm less cold! I'm cold all the time, usually. But apparently, covering up my palms and feet makes a big different (I was burning up by the end of the day). I guess that's where my heat is leaving my body. I'm incredibly happy about this, because winters are really hard on me most of the time. I need to buy multi-colored fingerless gloves I think. :)

Finished the designs for Namesake's second books cover. I'm rather proud.

Okay, so now i'm looking forward to being done with the crazy amount of school activities. I'm going back to one per three weeks at a specific library after this week (I take care of their manga reading club). And i'm glad. This month was crazy, i'm tired, and I want to draw more. Thank god September is done. We hired a newbie for the comic section too, so i'm back to part-time work too (aka four days rather then 5 per week, but I like it that way). I made some money, had fun, but now I need resting and drawing time.

Soon it will be October.

AKA Halloween month.

AKA OMNOMNOM CANDY CANDY month.

I'm still working on commissions and the Princeless comic pages (due for Halloween). And I started the work on the second Namesake book. Link too, since he's helping me by re-shading some of the pages. I,m trying to think of things I could create for the kickstarter of the book. One thing someone suggested was "Namesake plushies". I have to admit, having one or two as a prize could be awesome... I'll have to ponder that. I'm also thinking of making some cool prints, and bookmarks. And necklaces again, those did good! And bonus stories...

Check out the sketches for the front and back covers. The characters featured are Selva and Warrick since the second book mostly focuses on them.






Yesterday, for fun, I got a Tarot reading done by my beloved friend Fanie. The results were hilariously awesome. I got a card with a Roman Emperor looking over the stuff he owned that represented spiritual and material prosperity. That card was bitchin'. 

- Isa

Time and time again, i’m defending the point of view of someone who hates the way women are treated in the media, especially comics. Mostly because comics are where my expertise lies. And often, especially discussing with male readers, I have trouble making my point. I tell them I dislike how women are objectified and most of the time background characters, or “lesser” characters. Often, women aren’t heroes. They are part of the hero team and are even sometimes the main character, but it still doesn’t make them the hero. They are still relegated as “the team chick”. And usually when i’m saying this, the usual replies I get are :

1) If you don’t like comics, then don’t read them.

2) Guys are sexed up too.

3) What, girl’s aren’t allowed to be girly?

Response to #1 - Actually, I love comics. Comics are amazing. There’s a lot of really good comics out there, and, as time goes by, more comics that treat women characters well. This isn’t about bitching about the medium. This is about making it BETTER. Constructive comments. I’m not saying “we don’t want sexy girls anymore in our comics”. No. Actually, I love sexy girls. I love hot, confident, sexually active characters. What I actually want is for these characters to be 3-dimensional. A woman can have a nice bod and even still have a lot of flattering shots at the same time as she has dreams and aspirations. Sexuality, like everything else a character does, is a part of the way they express their personality. Use a character’s sexuality as more then eye candy. Use it as a way to develop a character. Some people are sexy. And you can be sexy in several ways. And the way you are sexy is linked to the way you act. What bothers me is that all comic girls seem to act the same nowadays in badly written comics. So it’s just the same person in different costumes. I loved the Black Widow in the Avengers because she was damn hot in her own way. It’s not about the sexy. It’s about how the sexy is used. Use it badly, and all you get is a empty jello lady.

Response to #2 - Again. This is all about how sexuality is used. Guys are sexualized, yes, but in an extremely flattering way for the male ego. Muscles. Flawless action sequence’s, big penis packages, and of course, female characters all over them. When a female reader sees a girl that looks like a blow up doll, she does not feel valued. However, have a girl look like Asami or Korra in the new Legend of korra, and heck yeah, that is our type of hot. Realistic but awesome bodies. Realistic and awesome personalities. Dick Grayson is awesome because he’s Dick Grayson. The fantastic abs are just a bonus. The sexual aspect is not the main aspect of the character. It’s just a sweet add-on.

Response to #3 - God yes, girls can be girly. And not girly. And jewish. And green. And whatever you want. Girls can be anything. The point is, if you pick a personality, do it well. A female character can be jealous and catty. Yes, female jerks exist. But if that is her personality, keep it together from beginning to end. In my own comic, Namesake, the main character, Emma, rarely smiles. And if that changes, it’s going to plot-related. Not happen magically because the males in the plot demand it. If a girl is girly, keep her that way unless the plot has her evolve away from it over time. Same with all the personalities. Male characters have character development arcs. Girls need them too.

This message has been brought to you by my annoyance.

So there.

Discuss.

So... Apparently, Namesake is nominated for for the Oustanding Canadian Webcomics Creator / Creative Team Award offered by the Joe Shuster Awards jury. AND THAT'S PRETTY AWESOME.



I squee'd.

It's nice to see that whenever I feel like a crappy artist and friend, the universe sends me a message that I don't suck as much as I seem to think I do. Thank you, universe.

Also, the top image is an idea for a shirt I had. Basically playing with the idea that WE ARE THE GLOWY STICK GENERATION with our Wizard wands, our Elven swords, our moon wands, our wiimotes, or sonic screwdrivers, our lgihtsabers and our unicorns.

We kick ass and love the shiny.

In unrelated news, I am now obsessed with Game of Thrones, holy shit, people, can I have a wolf and a sky bison already? I promise to feed and walk both and not let them crush and destroy too many bystanders.

- Isa

A little bonus for all the Namesake fans (especially those who participated to the Kickstarter for the printed version of volume one). This is a “work-in-progress” of the downloadable character art reward. It’s FAR from being finished (no lighting, shadowing or swaaaaaaag), but it’s complete enough to get people to see what it’s about. Basically, one of the Kickstarter rewards was character art. Said character art was originally going to be sexier pin-ups of the main 8, but me and Megan decided otherwise at the last minute because of Kickstarter’s rules. So instead, I designed character art based on the ideas of Tarot cards.

I really love this idea. It allows me to put a lot of symbolism in.



Emma is the world, or the "nameless card". Needless to say, it links to her role in the plot.

( More cards under the cut! )

In other news, woah holy crap today was weird at work. People were SO rude. I'm thinking it's because it's the end of March break and parents are tired of having their kids around or something, because WOW. I was never treated so mercilessly by clients in my life (at this job anyways). People were just... urgh. Rude. And there was a bunch of parents letting their kids run around unsupervised, I had to tell a few of them to stop running (sternly too, because I told them twice), had to take books away because kids got into the adult section, etc, etc. And while i'm babysitting, and not actually doing my job, the parents were walking around, chatting on their cell phone. Loudly. I tried to get a few to, oh, I don't know, look after their damn kids, but all I got was blank stares. One of our nicer regulars (she comes by for a veeeery large comic pile every 2 months) said it best : "These parents are assholes."

So yeah.

At least yesterday night rocked. Me and a few friends did a great Card Captor Sakura Marathon. The show is still adorable, the food was excellent and our added commentary was hilarious. It's bound to happen again soon - there's 52 episdoes and 2 movies to see!

- Isa

Got a bit tired of drawing Namesake, so I decided to take a Nintendo pause.

:D



The kickstarter has reached over 5000$ (yeah, read that in Vegeta's voice, everybody), which is super AWESOME! Every time we hit a new thousand, I would post a little something on tumblr. Here's what was posted :

( Namesake stuff )For those wondering, the fandom artist I mentioned yesterday is doing well and got her first appointment for her operation (aka the one where they poke around to see where they should cut and such). Yay! I'm still amazed by how generous people are, for both her and Namesake.

In completely irrelevant news, I think I might take this evening off from drawing to vacuum and do dishes. Because good god, my apartment look like crap. I love you Namesake, but you're taking over my life right now with your books and stuff.

- Isa