Greetings from my little studio apartment in Tokyo! I-It's been a long time, hasn't it. 8D() When I first e-mailed the associate of the study abroad program about my housing in Japan some months ago, I had requested to stay in a dorm, or anything not-host-family for that matter, because were I to stay with a host family, they would surely think that I'm shunning them since I'd be perpetually locked inside my room working on the comic on top of my studies. ...A-As it turns out, not very much work on the comic has been done either way. My deepest apologies!! _-_()
So, yes, for the record, two weeks after my return to the states from my trip to Taiwan in August, I flew back across the Pacific to Japan, where I'll be staying until August this year studying at Waseda University. I'm staying in an apartment building on the property of a temple located near Asakusa and Ueno, and life is wonderful. 8D The past three months of my stay here has proved to be more eventful than perhaps the prior twenty years of my life combined, and at this point the only things I miss about America are a small handful of restaurants; but even then, bachelor-living has given me some sort of handle on cooking, so I could at least pretend that I'm back in America whenever I make myself a meal that's five portions too large for the average Japanese.
Asides from that, I love pretty much everything about this country. In spite of the smaller portions, the food is still delicious; the transportation is amazingly efficient and I never want to drive again; and while I always used to wear just simple t-shirts and jeans back in the states, Japan has since infected me with its obsession with fashion, as evident from the 15,000 yen I plopped down last week on a new jacket, complete with fur-lined hood--I'm still telling myself that this is Okay, because it was a birthday present to myself.
Incidentally, January 4th was my 21st birthday! Except too bad 20 is the legal drinking age in Japan, so I was already good for alcohol from the moment I stepped onto these soils back in September, in effect rendering the whole glory of 21 kind of null. Nevertheless, it was the most fulfilling birthday I've ever had, and I still made sure to give my liver a good beating with gallons of girly cocktails before the day was done. 8D Furthermore, the day after my birthday was the temple priestess's birthday too, in which she and her family brought me out with them for even more food-whoring--Two-Day Birthday Extravaganzas for the WIN! >3<
...and today also happens to be Azalea's birthday. Aheheh. 8D() (Yes, I purposely timed the update for this day. This is very dorky of me, I know. :X)
A-anyway. I suppose what you're really here for is this: No, I have NOT forgotten about this comic! I fully intend on finishing Directions of Destiny--all 16 volumes of it! Suffice to say, however, I've had a few distractions since I first put up that "Update in August!" note way back when, and again I apologize for not saying something sooner. But still, I've been sketching every now and then, and every so often I've been brainstorming at plotting the story as well. My vigor for this series is still just as strong as ever...!
...Although I guess I shouldn't beat around the bush in saying that, um...a regular update schedule is probably not happening just yet in the immediate future...
AAHH I'M SO SORRY >A<
The thing is, I looked over the previous summary I had written for Unit 2, and um... it sucked balls. I think it was last editted in either 2003 or 2004, perhaps even before this last revision of Unit 1, and every time I try to read it, muscles I didn't even know I had start to cringe. So the past few weeks I've been starting from a clean slate. Progress is coming along at an even pace, albeit a little slow, but so far I can at least say that it's far less repulsive than its previous iteration, if not just a little disjointed.
My main problem with Unit 1 was that I didn't think through the whole book before I first started work on it five years ago, which is part of the reason how we ended up puddling through four revisions before ending up with the final product. So with the second book and on, I want to get at least the whole thing scripted first before I even let myself think about drawing any pages. Seeing as I'm still strugging to just put together a coherent summary however, it probably goes without saying that there's still a long ways to go before we get to find out just what exactly is going to happen with our dear starcrossed lovebirds Auden and Chrystelle. :D()
So I've got another seven months here. I'd be lying if I said that I wouldn't mind skipping out on a few social gatherings to work on this comic, because I honestly do want to make the most of my time abroad. But like I said, that doesn't mean all work on this comic will be completely halted! I-it will just be mostly behind-the-scenes work is all. :D() As far as actual pages goes though...it's probably not going to look like I'll have any real comic updates here until I get back to the states. >_o
Th-that is to say, the comic is officially on hiatus until August. In the mean time however, I've moved the bits of trivia about the Alatus Institute onto a temporary page on AlatusInstitute.com, which I plan on updating with a real layout in February, with regular updates continuing on there while I write out Unit 2; and I've also replaced the current comic pages on this website to match those in the book. In case you didn't know (and if you didn't order the book, you probably wouldn't know since I never made a public announcement about this!), for the printing of the book, I had completely revised several pages between Sections 1.1 through 1.3, as well as finished all the pages that were left incomplete in 1.4 and 1.5. Now that everyone who's ordered a book has received them, I'm finally putting the revised pages up here for all the freeloaders. Please read through them if you're interested! :D
Now if anybody who's ordered a book has yet to receive their copy, please contact me about it, because as far as I know, all the books have been shipped! As far as orders for prints go, because they include free sketches, I'll have to finish a batch of sketches here first before mailing it back home to my mom to package it together with the prints to mail them off. Either way, they'll get to you eventually, I promise! D8 But if you cannot wait, I'm more than willing to offer a refund; just drop me a line!
Well, I think that's that. I'm still planning on updating my personal site eventually, and I'm hoping to put up new stuff in my art journal as well. If you're interested in reading about my adventures abroad, you're also welcome to take a look at my Stuffings in Japan blog, which I've been updating with a little more consistency. And again, I plan on updating AlatusInstitute.com over the next few months periodically, so check back on that from time to time! Otherwise, Adieu until August!! >3<
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