Hey folks, normally I don't like to bend to trends of the internet. I don't have a MySpace or Facebook page (never will), I don't do video blogs and I don't have a YouTube account but I broke down and got Twitter. Now keep in mind, this account is for COMICS ONLY. Meaning you won't see dumb stuff about what I ate or the random things I'm thinking about (that's what this blog is for). I promise you, my life is really, really boring, you don't need a play by play.

But the nice thing about Twitter is it's a fast instant way to let you know how my comics are coming. A lot of times I get delayed or side tracked, and I'll get a flood of emails or IM asking what happened, but this Twitter account you'll know exactly what's going on and get a good idea of when the next update of Sorcerer's Apprentice, Queen of Games or any other series is, and what the progress is.

To follow me just add: BwillettComics to your following.

In other news I finally finished Black Cat yesterday and OMG! That show is Teh Epic. The ending wrapped up all the lose ends, there was an epic battle between all the characters and if you've never seen this series you have to. I really wish there were a few more episodes though you could learn more about the characters that show up later on. You learn pretty much everything about Train, Sepheria, Eve, Sven and even Creed but they kinda rush through the Sweeper Alliance and Anubis. The only way you learn about him is from the little pamphlet that came with the series, which is a real shame because a talking wolf assassin needs more screen time, especially since it's not 100% clear what actually happens to him at the end of the series. I suppose when you try to cram a multiple book shonen into 24 episodes with that many important characters not everyone is going to get their story told. Aside from that little complaint the series was FANTASTIC. This was one of the few series where the animation actually gets better after the first few episodes, as oppose to worse with all the rest. It's hard to pin down a favorite character since I pretty much liked everyone they bothered to do character development for, but I have to say that Eve is probably closest. Kiyoko is probably a close second, as well as Chardon

Kiyoko: Oh Wow Chardon this is the first time I've seen your face--you're totally hot! If I hadn't given my heart over to Mr. Black I'd definitely be in love with you.

Charon: *blush*

too cute.

Today was free comic book day and I went to the place that's near my house (sorta-ish by my house). The store was set up really well, the employees where dressed as Batman, Spiderman, Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and a werewolf. The had lots of cool posters up, but otherwise I wasn't too enthused this year.

Last year the selection of free comics was better and the store gave away soon cool stuff as well--posters, pokemon, promos. This year the only thing they gave away were those heroclix figures.

I can't say I blame the store for cutting back their giveaways, as the economy is bad and it took several months for them to pay for a broken window that happened at the beginning of the year, I more blame the industry. With Watchmen and Wolverine you'd think there'd be something they'd be trying to promote. I dunno, I guess 2009 just isn't a good year for comic books in general

What I *did* get was a Wolverine comic--but I wasn't too fond of the art style, too anime-like. I got an X-Men and the Green Latern one (which can show you how slim the picking really were if I picked up GL since he's probably my least favorite DC hero.)

I also bought a lot less stuff too, I just got a Hellboy comic and a crossover with Wonder Woman and the Punisher. That last one I really had to have even if it turns out the story is 'meh'. In the world of the InterWebz there is a lot of fighting and slamming about 'crack' pairings and quite frankly I can't think of a more crack pairing than Wonder Woman and the Punisher. Thus I will keep the comic as defense of any crack pairing I ever come up with. LuluxVincent, SvenxTrain--nothing, they put together Castle and Diana, and that's Canon!

As I said in my blog last Friday school is running my life more than usual with finals and I had a TON of stuff I had to do all week. The good news is most of my projects are now done except the mega looming chocolate covered wheelchair project I've got going on in Advanced Industrial Design--the project I worked on all semester and have due next Wednesday. I have most of my images done (I've got like 2 more to do) and then I have to work on a presentation board, a Powerpoint presentation and finish my sketchbook (only 14 more pages to go!!!!). I have a bit of last minute research on Motors I have to take care of just to sound like I know what I'm doing, and the Human Factors final will probably eat me alive, but all and all I'm a lot more relaxed and laid back this week--with some minor exceptions.

Epic Fail: Metro. Last week we had an election to decide on a referendum to build a new administrative building that would raise our tuition significantly, and as you remember in a previous blog I said that all state funded schools were in danger of mega-tuition hikes because of loss of funding--and the referendum passed! And if that isn't enough to send me into a hulk-like rage it turns out that the bill only passed less than 100 votes, and worse, less than 800 people voted in the election! My school has almost 30,000 students, and this big a decision is being handled by less than 4 percent of the total populous. Personally I think the vote shouldn't even count.

Epic Win: Canceled Project. One of the aneurysm causing problems on my plate was a project in SolidWorks requiring me to paint and finish the radio I designed, and I always crash and burn when it comes to painting. No matter how hard I try I always end up with bubbles and drips and I always get graded really hard on it. But because the FDM machine is soooo far behind in printing our projects not everybody can get their stuff, so the teacher canceled the project. Yay me!

Epic Win: Cheap Ice Cream. Baskin Robbins had a sale on Wednesday for $.31 a scoop up to three scoops. There was a line but I was out of there in about half an hour. I got Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chocolate Fudge and Peanut Butter and Chocolate. It was great

Epic Win: Watched by my idol. On DA today I checked my messages and one of my favorite artists MetalHanzo the artist who did the work for A Midnight Opera and Poison Candy watched me!!!! I love love his art and comment on it quite a bit and it's so flattering that he watched me back.

Epic Win: Free Comic Book Day. Tomorrow is Free Comic Book day AKA Nerd Christmas. I hope I can get a Wolverine poster. Yes, I know the movie sucks but a poster can't annoy you that much

Teh DRAMA of the Week: Swine Flu. All week I've been hearing about the H1N1 virus and it's driving me nuts. People are completely overreacting to this disease. It's smart to be cautious, I'm not suggesting anyone lick a person who's sneezing and coughing, but canceling tournaments and schools in places where there has only been one case is exaggeration. Less than 10% of the people who have gotten sick have died, and viruses live on surfaces only for a few hours. So freaking out because you touched luggage by someone who might be sick is stupid.

In the interest of full disclosure I should probably say that I have never seen the original anime (dub, sub or otherwise) nor have I read the manga. So my review will be strictly on the new Anime that's come out. I've always wanted to see the series as magical/mystical stuff has always been something I was interested in, so I am not coming into this as either a hyper fan girl or a hater.

The opening and closing sequences are really great, really well paired with the chosen animation. I especially like the really beautiful imagery of the opening and its coordination with the music, it's really haunting. The background music is some places isn't nearly as good, either very distracting or you don't even notice it--especially during the fight scenes.

The animation from the very first episode is gorgeous, smooth and epic, but you can tell it really tanks in quality by the 3rd episode when their chibi-ish comedy moments look like they were cut out of paper, and the colors seem fairly washed out as well. Some of the animation feels like an anime from the 80s instead of cutting edge 21st century CGI like you saw in the first episode. Based off of some screenshots of the original FMA the art doesn't seem as pretty, but a friend told me the art is meant to look more like the manga.

You have to admire that Funimation is trying to beat the fan-subbers with their videos, but the quality they offer is a little low. The videos take a while to load and I am really annoyed with their subbing--they make a lot of spelling errors, so my trust of their translations are a little iffy as well. I also don't like Ed's voice, he sounds too much like a woman in my opinion, and Roy's voice is too boring--I don't know if they used the same voice actors or not, I'm just taking it as I see it.

The first episode left me incredibly confused, and the second one cleared up some stuff up but didn't really pull me in, it wasn't until the 3rd episode that I really started to get intrigued. The whole use of magic-as-science, the being drafted into the military to get true power thing and the fact that Ed is an atheist I found really compelling.

I don't know if I'll end up being a full on FMA fangirl like a lot of other people, but I'll definitely continue to watch the series.

Here's a little information for those who have not yet gotten into college, especially if you pursue art, engineering or industrial design. Towards the end of the semester, about 3 weeks before the very last week is a magical time called finals. To other majors finals is only the last week, which consists of cramming, red bull or similarly driven nights of crazy typing and praying to the scantron god that you luck out more than 25 (or in some cases with those evil 'E' answers, 20) percent of the time.

But for us creative and hands-on types, finals begins long, long before we have to sharpen those number 2 pencils. Because in addition to those scantrons (since we have to take general studies stuff too) we actually have to produce something tangible, and in most cases, made of stuff that probably causes cancer. And that is the boat I'm sitting it.

There are now officially 2 weeks before finals week, and for me it's a sprint to the finish line with everything in my Industrial Design classes coming due. For this semester I had 3 studio classes: SolidWorks, Adv. ID 1 and Human Factors, and therefore had to work on a radio, wheelchair and bus stop respectively. While I got a lot out of the way, this is the way I'm looking:

--1 test in human factors
--3 presentations in Adv, Human Factors and Art and Cultural Heritage
--1 8 page paper that I now have to rewrite because I messed up what the paper is about in Art and Cultural Heritage
--2 more renderings in SolidWorks
--More renderings than I care to count in Adv.
--A painted functional (the teacher is gonna have to settle for sorta functional, the tuner snapped off) radio.
--A presentation board *and* powerpoint for Adv.

The point of this little message is to say this week there isn't an Epic Win/Epic Fail blog because I have been in my own little world to even notice anything outside my own projects.

But I did find this cool little site:
http://nasdreks.mybrute.com

You get to watch your little fighter get stronger as they fight other people. You can't control them, but there is a degree of strategy involved.