Fun_Silver

A gift of silver and negative space for one who is gold and positive.

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AV_anp.MarchOff

This is the last ALT News poster for one of my schools. The Japanese school year ends in March, so it's quite that's-all-folks-y. This month's features include my favorite quote from the most unlikely life-coach slash underdog, Harvard millionaire comedian Conan O'Brien. Who saw that coming?

We've also got a recap of the stuff the jKids like that I also like (including Duel Masters, pizza, and Obata Takeshi!) but also stuff they like that I can't stand, such as AKB48. Haha. I wish Bill Burr would rant about them, but unfortunately no one outside of Japan, Indonesia, or overzealous Otaku fanclubs in the US, gives a flying fart about them!

Here's a breakdown of this month's anchor image, powered by my newly unleashed Copic Ciaos (still use my Zebras and Midliners, though). Which came first, this or that? This. I had this art penciled already so I traced it onto a new sheet to speed up that other sooner-deadlined drawing.

Here's this month's doodad art. It's a breakdown of the wretch known as the graduate, followed by an innovative, interactive move-the-tassel-to-graduate-this-sad-sack display game, which is in turn followed by a hastily sketched, inked, and colored Duel Masters card back and pizza.

Who meets deadlines? I do! Speaking of which, here's a new, postmodern art-video-collage from my AV department.

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AV_EigoNoBuraora

This is a panorama pic of my very last day teaching at one of my schools. I invented several English-learning games that use Duel Masters cards as a component to them and they go over pretty well.

So this was the ultimate iteration of such a "DM" game, an English-powered battle royale brawler between three teams: team Kappa, team Ojiisan, and team DJ Sprinkle.

Since this was their last day of class, they had a year's worth of English to work with, so we went for conversational more than ever before. So basically the way it works is they use English to rally communal charge points and once everyone's out of ideas, the last team to opine gets to bank the points and choose a team to attack, using the charge points as damage. And then to cap each battle, we use DM cards as a randomized power/defense booster, as well as a special attack mechanic.

Even though we had a ridiculously short class period that day, that poor kappa took managed to take a BEATING.

Anyway, can't wait to try this with older kids who can really go even further with it. Gosh, I miss these kids! But fortunately, we're back for round two next year!

3...2...1...Dingdingding!

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AV_BestMems

This was a poster I did for my third year students who are graduating. It was done in record time, literally hours before deadline! Why cut it so close? Because this was an emergency assignment on top of two other major assignments. Tricky to figure out what could be drawn and inked easily enough to meet deadline, and also to include text that was super-duper simple for people to understand, but I'd say this worked for what it was supposed to do.

Easter Eggs: The chalkboard on the far left has that famous hiragana guy, the center is a total rip off of a certain other image, and the far right is based on an actual photo...).

Fun Facts: I totally didn't think to cut the poster into a unique shape to dress up the emptiness. Imagine a negative space trick in the corners! Ah well.

Baa: I miss them already.

Say, I wonder what those other more time-consuming pieces look like...

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Fun_DonDonDon

One of my senior jKids asked for a picture of Doflamingo, which was a novel One Piece request. I wish I could have gone all out and inked/colored this, but no time unfortunately.

But as an added bonus, I drew it on the back of a scrapped page-format ZLM. So hopefully he appreciated it. All year he kept asking to see more of my comics, so there he got a sneak peek at a then-upcoming dealio.

Ok, very little time, unfortunately, but fortunately we're just about done and relatively in the clear in a week, then it's back to business as usual!

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Fun_hws.ComboPlatter

This is the very last run of homework sketches for the year, and fortunately it was with one of my more playful classes, so a bunch of homeworks had drawings on them for me to riff on.

One kid drew a princess; one kid drew an otaku/nerd sorta picture; and one kid drew what looked like a random doodle between both ending edges of their homework so when combined they make a Mad-Magazine-like fold-in, so I tried something similar--it's an incredulous and surprised dude when combined.

So the kids are fond of drawing poop, so I made a cute little poop to go with their textbook definition of cute poop.

One kid wrote about the family rules he will have for his future runts, and he says he want to prohibit video games, hence my horrified little sketch for him.

Last we've got some jams from my elementary school visits. On the right is an amalgam of different One Piece characters the kids shouted out for me to draw. The idea was for me to make the simplest evocation of the prompted character, all starting with a smiley face.

The last drawing is of Nami from One Piece. They didn't actually want me to draw her, they just wanted me to draw her...um...was not expecting that. It was a little girl who kept whining for me to draw them, but just to mess with her and her pals, I took all session to draw Nami's head. The kids then went in and drew everything below the collar bone. And they also drew me. on the left and right. Either that or Spongebob.

All in a day's work.

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Fun_ChopFinale

In my last batch of homework sketches for this school year, one of my senior jKids asked for a picture of Chopper. So for a twist, I made a sad Chopper.

He's sad because he realizes,

unlike everyone else,

that it's more appropriate

to offer

condolences

rather than

congratulations

for graduation.

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ZLM_FearScience

This is beginning to feel like the dawn of a loser forever.

Zero Like Me #181:
Fear Science


Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 3. Today's setting is a car. For the third comic in a row, today's guest star is Umezawa (intentional) and today's title is another indie rock reference (unintentional), this time to the band TV on the Radio. If it didn't blow the punchline, I would have called this comic TV in the Radio, so instead we'll just reference their album, "Dear Science." We've also got a shoutout to my favorite Japanese comedian and unwitting Japanese-language-coach, Megwin!

Fun Facts: You cannot have a drop of alcohol in your blood stream while you drive in Japan (or knowingly be in a car of a driver who has even a drop of alcohol in his or her veins while driving) on pain of arrest. You cannot use a cell phone while you drive in Japan, on pain of arrest. You CAN have and watch a TV that's built into the car's dash, right where the radio should be, while you drive in Japan, on pain of possibly crashing, dying, and/or manslaughtering.

Baa: You can't even ride a bike with earbuds in your skull or hold an umbrella while biking in Japan. Yet I've seen people do both, as well as seeing cell-users in cars. But the most intense spit I've ever seen was a mother smoking in her car with her baby in the front passenger's seat (relax the window was cracked a little, sheesh). I don't know if that last one is actually illegal, but dude, that's brilliant! Imagine how much dangerous second-hand smoke smokers would spare inflicting on innocent people if they all carted around babies with them to act as human smoke filterers? Smoke can't spread to unwanted people if the baby sucks it up first, now, can it? That's just considerate.

And Japan is all about being considerate.

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Fun_Zaawaa

These are development sketches of our new character, Umezawa Azami.
An easy character to write, difficult to design...

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Fun_Hitboy

This is an emergency gift I drew for someone because I screwed up big time.

It's his favorite Reborn character, Tsuna. Plus a little Sartorialist.

I'm an idiot, dude, sorry.

Wasn't the first time, won't be the last.

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ZLM_TokyoPoliceClub

At least you don't have to sit at the back of the chibivan.

Zero Like Me #180:
Tokyo Police Club


Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 2. Today's setting is not actually Tokyo nor a police club, but it is set in Japan, for what it's worth. Today's guest star is Umezawa. Today's title is a reference to the band Tokyo Police Club, who coincidentally has a song called "Your English is Good," which I'd argue's possibly their weakest song.

Fun Facts: Japan has a thing for light skin. It's undeniable. Lighter skin's best--from the ultra-white make-up of traditional Japanese beauty care to the depictions of their historical figures in ancient scrolls, you don't want to be dark. And yet when I came here, I discovered many Japanese people can be pretty dark! Like...me-level dark. Shocker given how much press light-skinned Japanese people get abroad. Being dark is a not a death sentence, but it's something of a dangit (for Japanese) or a novelty (for foreigners); the ideal is to be as light as possible.

Baa: I dunno. Is light skin is aesthetically more pleasing? I feel like I've been conditioned to think that. I read a ridiculously fascinating article a while ago about why there are basically only white-looking people in anime/manga. I wish I could find it again...but to put it roughly, it argued that Japanese people are so psychologically insulated that any drawings are made like how we westerners make stick figures, except the assumption is that unless otherwise specified, the person is assumed to be Japanese, if anything at all.

The article introduced the idea of a stick figure analogy. If I draw a stick figure what do you know about it immediately, with no context provided? It's male. It's white. Now if I draw that stick figure with a triangle-dress, what is it? It's female. It's white. In order for me to communicate this is a black man, I'd have to tell you that this stick figure represents a black guy. I'd have to go out of my way to make explicit the context of the stick figure otherwise it is assumed it's a white male, assuming you stop to consider what the figure represents at all beyond "this is a human."

And so it is, the article explained, with anime and manga characters: they're just humans, but pausing a second past that, they're Japanese if we must assume nationality. If we make the character pronounce our language weirdly, or dress him in ridiculobviously non-Japanese clothing, or otherwise make it painfully clear he's not from around here, then he's a foreigner. This then gets around to why all "Americans" in anime and manga are blond/blue/white people, but that's another discussion.

Wish I could find that article again...

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AV_anp.Febulous

This is our February ALT Poster. This month we highlight my favorite love songs, if you can call them that. From groups like Reuben, RADWIMPS, Fall Out Boy, and Motion City Soundtrack. Plus I teach Japanese kids depressing love-related words like "dump," "cheat," and "break up." Don't worry they prolly don't get it. Maybe.

These are some detail shots of our below the fold pages: A walk-through of how to feel like a loser on Valentine's Day when nobody in class gives you jack. And a close up of our music section.


And here's the progress shot of our anchor image. I really tested out my Copics for the first time. Man it felt nice to be semi-painting with those things! But color's a whole new dimension to work in, as usual...

March's poster's looking even Copic-ier, though...!

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Fun_ChopPink

Quick Chops for some kids I met on an Elemeno school visit!
They remembered me!!

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ZLM_EveryonesAVIPtoSomeone

What did I tell you about having self-esteem, loser?

Zero Like Me #179:
Everyone's a VIP to Someone


Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 1. Today's setting is Fukui-shi, in Japan. Today's guest star is Umezawa (last name) Azami (first name), humorless Japanese Teacher of English, Assistant-Language-Teacher Supervisor, and English Section Head. Today's title is a reference to an old classmate's stellar band's song of the same name (see and hear more Great Caesar here). Umezawa's costume is inspired by a design I saw on DA.

Fun Facts: Umezawa-sensei is yet another antagonist for Zero. She is icy and irritable yet she still heralds the undying Japanese devotion to cute and non-sequitor, for instance today she is wearing a silly outfit including a ridiculously happy hair clip that has nothing to do with her mood.

Baa: For the record, none of what's going on this "season" is intended to depict actual people, events, etc. Ya know?

Yeah....Ya know.

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Fun_hws.Supongi

Here's another batch of homework sketches. First, one kid asked me to "write" Supongi Bob. In Japanese, the word for "write" is the same as the word for "draw," hence the discrepancy. And it makes sense--it clicked when I saw a teacher writing on the board one day. From the side, it looked like she was drawing because to write in Japanese is almost like drawing since they have a pictographic written language! Neat.

Next, we had a kid who liked money, so she drew a money zombie, which I tried to riff on. We've also got a torii for someone and a character I invented called Jack. It was a riff on a doodle the kid drew for a King character. Clever right? Right.

And finally a creepy Totoro riff on a cute little Totoro doodle from a kid. She is probably the strongest English student in her class, so she aced the assignment and had time to study her little stuffed Totoro keychain for her drawing.

Dang.

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Fun_Torturiko

This was a birthday present for a cool little dude, drawn in my Campus Note.

It's after an apparently popular manga/anime called Toriko. The character names got my hopes up before I looked up what they looked like--Sunny, Coco, Zebra. Yet despite its admittedly interesting premise of flavor hunters seeking the ultimate meal, the series has some of the most disgusting art stylings I've seen this side of US hipster comics. The guy on the far right, Zebra, is particularly barf-enticing. Plus Toriko (the title character, not pictured) is an aesthetic rip off of Goku.

I'm not picking this series up any time soon.

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Fun_hws.Gekka

This is a special "full page" homework sketch for a student who drew a really inspirational doodle on her homework. She drew a little bunny and a moon and mini sushi, but the moon and rabbit got me (in Japan, they see a rabbit--not a man--in the moon).

So on the back of her homework, I drew a character I haven't drawn in a while, Kaguya, the main character from Tatsuya Endo's Gekka Bijin, a manga based on the Rabbit/Moon mythos. It came out pretty well for a "live" drawing--just red pen of course, no rehearsal or anything, just do it.

Tatsuya Endo is an incredible artist and her(?) art just makes you want to draw. Speaking of which...back to work!

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AV_wkst.MexiCant

I designed a worksheet for the jKids to practice Can and Can't on, where I'd have a drawing of some stooge and then ask if he can or can't do something, and they'd write their answers below the corresponding doodle (the style was inspired by the great JJ).
Example: I [_____] often have horrific self-confidence issues.

Take your time. Spelling counts.

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Fun_hws.NoDuh

Here are some more homework sketches.

A kid drew a sumo-ish hamster-looking guy, so I drew in a rabbit opponent. Next a kid wrote in that he wants to be a chef when he grows up, so a Sanji he gets. Natch.

Then a girl wrote about her favorite voice actor, the voice of the dude from Kiki.

After that is art inspired by a fascinating piece by a kid who adores Japanese culture's insistence that people wear masks when they're sick (or preemptively to prevent getting sick). This dude thinks they work and wishes he could wear masks "forever." For the record, my good ol' US-borne maxim "cover your mouth when lung-hacking, but don't cough or sneeze into your hands, and do wash your hands constantly" seems to have helped me escape the bug sweeping the nation aka my co-workers, mask-wearers, some of which are now in their second rounds of illness. Advantage Amurrca.

Anyhoo, one kid wrote about his or her love for badminton, so in that goes. And another kid wrote about her favorite manga, one I've been thinking about picking up, Magi. Her favorite character is Jyafuaru, but since I only had my iPoop with me, I didn't really want to expend the effort to figure out what he looks like for the sketch. So Aladdin it is.

Next we've got a pikachu for a kid who's favorite manga is Pokemon (probably too indie for you lay people). And finally a fan of the incredible Radwimps wrote in with some RAD chat, so he gets a sketch of lead singer Noda Yojiro and my first ever extended-effort note in Japanese! So excited I can even endeavor at such a thing! His note listed his favorite song "Cell Phone," and asked if I liked a particular song, and in truth it's actually not one of my favorites, but it leads right into a combo of their two best songs, the last two on their latest album (lead single here).

And that's a tangent if ever I saw one. No duh.

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AV_anp.NewToo

This is the belated second of our two January ALT News posters. It features similar information as last time, including introductions to Motion City Soundtrack and My Chemical Romance, but with some small tweaks. Is it a little too heavy on the wordcount for beginning English learners? Probably, but I don't care, I love talking about stuff I love talking about, and the diction is simple enough that I'm sure they can handle it if they take their time...they've got all month!

I had to scale back our anchor image because since the previous anchor took so long, there was no way to attempt something as intensive again and still hope to make a decent nigh-post-January debut.

So we have a New Years dragon again, but this time co-mingling with a character in a fancy New Years tuxedo number, like the roaring 20s in New York or something. Emphasis on the "or something."

But this was the fun part. After last poster's experimentation phase, I was able to click into how to make a fun Duel Masters display using my ragtag team of markers.

And no sooner do I drop the bombshell on these little dudes that Duel Masters is actually a US game made for Japan, than does Wizards of the Coast drop the megaton blast on us all that Duel Masters is officially coming back (kinda...sorta).

Anyway, back to the poster, to compensate for the colorless anchor image, I markered up a special Bronze-Arm Tribe for this one, but I also made sure to include some more insider-y creatures like Hearty Cap'n Polligon and the even more sneaky Iron-Arm Tribe WITH Mode Change. Yeah. Try getting that one, kids.

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Fun_hws.Jammin

These are some homework sketch-jams I kinda-sorta did with some students. The left is a sketch a kid drew for me (haha!) and my response. Please note their original version, before they turned in their papers, featured no underpants...

Next at center is a "famous Japanese picture." as the student wrote me, consisting of various Japanese hiragana and katakana characters: he, no, mo, and ji. Inspired by their initiative, I accessorized their drawing.

Finally, I notice a few students like to doodle on their papers (and desks!) and then promptly erase them before authority figures can spot them. But if the drawing is still legible after the erasure, I try to ink it. So that's a kid's drawing, inked by me. They sometimes randomly end their compositions with "thank you" because they get graded on the raw number of sentences they write. Cheaters.

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Fun_BreakMeOff

Having finally decorated with various ink maneuvers the piece of paper a student loaned me, here is its result, the follow-up to this piece. No time for markers, but come on, man, you're getting three and a quarter characters--inked--here. We got Zolo, Sanji, Nami, and little Chopper, even, if you squint hard enough.

Okay? Ok.

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Com_Srs

A srs commission.

For reals.

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Fun_hws.DreaminJapan

Here are some recent sketches I did on some jKids' homework, or, "homework sketches," for short.

Going clockwise, on an assignment about what family rules the kids'd make when they get older, one kid basically wants his kids never to sleep. Next, a kid named Torii gets a torii. Clever, right?

A kid wrote about a famous guy named Miyazaki Hayao. You've probably never heard of him, no big deal. One kid, who's always falling asleep in class, wrote about wanting to make a friend in high school so she could have someone to talk anime with. So she gets some famous emblems of anime, including a nod to her favorite show, plus a big ol' robot. Their English is limited, so I wonder if that means she doesn't have any friends at present! jTears.

Starting our clockwise ascension, we've got a doodle commiserating with a kid who says he sucks at basketball. Then a kid who's family rules will include the stipulation that his children are never to play tennis indoors. Good to know.

And finally we end with a kid who wants to join a famous soccer club in Spain. Really cool aspiration. Never give up on your dreams.

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Fun_hws.VeryEasy

I recently corrected this writing response (to the prompt "What will you do when you become a high school students [sic]?"), which I thought was quietly beautiful. Sometimes I like to sketch in an illustration to whatever the jKids write about, these are very easy, and so I DID.

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