Comic for Monday January 5th, 2004

"Weird and Wacky Times of 2004" Sunday - January 4th, 2004

Okay so here is my first real post of the new year. I apologize for not getting a real post up for last week's comic, but I was in desperate need for sleep and things didn't get much better throughout the whole weekend as I was feeling a tad under the weather. Worry not for I will be sure to mention the particulars of last week's comic along with this ones.

I haven't really been up to much. New Years Eve was pretty cool. I spent most of the night working in the comic though. It was a weird thing really cause the comic turned out to take almost triple the time it took to do any normal comic. I don't know if it was the background or what. More on what I thought of the final outcome to follow.

Rob was cool enough to let me borrow the first four Trigun DVD's. I had yet to see it despite all the rave reviews I had seen about it. I watched the first disk and I have to say that it is an excellent anime that lives up to the hype. It's got the right mix of action and humor. It's been awhile where an anime that wasn't strictly a laughfest (i.e. Excel Saga) has come along and made me laugh as much as this. The way the main hero, Vash, comes across can only be described as priceless. Sure the whole womanizing fool has been done before, but somehow Trigun manages to keep it from being too cliché.

I also fell to the pressure of downloading the first two episodes of Naruto since I am now on a HUGE Naruto kick. I had been meaning to buy the manga for some time now and I finally broke down and got the English version. I LOVED IT. Although it bothers me a bit that I can tell that somehow there's something missing from the translation. For those of you who are not familiar, Naruto is a series in the super Japanese weekly comic collection Shonen Jump. It follows the adventures of a young ninja named Uzumaki Naruto. It goes into a lot of the whole ninja society and mythos which is a nice touch. A lot more than this comic does anyway!! If you want to see more info on the series just click the links.

Anyway, I did DL the first two episodes and they were the usual high standard J TV anime art. The art stuck strictly to the art from the manga and it was just as well since the manga designs fit in to be animated. My thought after watching the two episodes was that the anime was just as good as the manga. It was very fluid and music was superb and matched the mood of the story perfectly. I'll definitely have to pick u the rest of this series somehow...

Also I have been watching the first season of 22 and I gotta say I love 24 as much as I love Naruto. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jack Bauer is the man.

Was it just me or did anyone else watching the comedy line up on Fox tonight think that Arrested Development had the most laughs out of all four hit shows including The Simpsons, Bernie Mac, and Malcolm?

Okay so lets start off the NS talk with last week's new Year strip. I was very pleased with the way it turned out. I liked the way everyone came out and really only had a few problems such as why Julienne's hand is a mess in two of the panels. I did like the way the sky turned out. A bit different look to it then from when we saw the sunset in the first chapter. The location of just where Tom and Julienne are is a mystery and I'll leave it like that for now.

As far as plot points go this one had a few. It should be obvious now that Tom wants the Hyourinken, but it also seems that he is not affiliated with Amatsu Mikaboshi. Could he be being used? Or is there another force interested in the Hyourinken? Also a point is how Julienne uses Kelly's name in quotation marks... Oooooo.... Could this have something to do with why Kelly knew so much about this so called "spirit"?

Today's comic brings us to the Kawasaki Homecoming dance. They haven't gone inside yet as should be evident. It took a bit of research to get everyone's clothes just right for a dance that isn't exactly formal, but should have the chara's all dress up a bit more then they had earlier in the day. Overall I am pleased with the final selection.

Again this harks back to the earlier story I had been telling about my real life situation these particular events are based on. I obviously had said yes to my crush's friend and had all but resigned myself to my fate. Hell, I even imagined that it wasn't all that bad. I mean the girl I was going to go to the dance with was a very sweet and pretty girl. Besides my crush probably already had a date anyway...

You all know where this is heading now.

The night of the dance comes and we all meet up. Everyone's looking good and everyone's happy. Then I see my crush get out of her ride and come strolling up and though it wasn't the last, it was most definitely the first time I had one of those John Hughes time-has-stopped-moving moments. I don't know if I looked as shocked and awed as Yuki does in this strip, but I was definitely feeling that way. So everything ended up alright anyway. I never did get the crush, but I know being the jackass I am, would've messed it up royally had I did. So in a way instead of having any real resolution or events in my mind, its more sorta locked away as a childhood memory of when you really were kinda wide eyed and innocent.

If only Misaki were as lucky right? Not only are his insides quickly turning into the consistency of lukewarm Jell-O, you know Tom is bound to show up and cause some problems sooner or later. How bad can one night get? Just wait and find out.

Vote for Ninja Spirit!!

River is sorry for lack of news posts.