Slime Mansion

In my comics class we're doing a class project, a sort of anthology where we each draw a part of a complete graphic novel of an alternate retelling of the Greek myth of Hercules (or more accurately Greek, Herakles?). We're basing the story directly off the original legend where Herakles killed his own family and set off on the twelve labors and stuff, so it's definitely not Disney, and it's definitely definitely not Kevin Sorbo. But since the original legend made Herakles out to seem kind of like a stupid jock, we're also trying to inject some relatability in him by exploring his psyche?

Anyway, for the past several weeks we'd been going back and forth regarding the character designs, and eventually it ended up being me and two other people working on combining everybody's suggestions into a single design. Another guy in the group did the final bodies, but I got to take charge of the heads and the costume drawings, which is all I ever really cared about because by Jove, I want Herakles to be a hot bara superstar >8(!!

So an update on school, the previously mentioned financial aid fiasco has been sorta resolved, except I did end up getting a lot less grants this semester because of how late everything got processed, so meh :[ But anyway!!

This semester I'm taking a Sequential Art class! *_* There've only been three sessions so far, but it's very interesting and exciting, and the professor is amazing as well! He explains things very clearly, and his lectures are like a narrative in that you sort of get this feel that there are plot devices like foreshadowing and thematic overtones going on, and stuff that he hints at in the very first lecture eventually comes full circle in a later lecture. I'm looking forward to getting better at comics through this class!

Anyway, our first homework assignment was to do a two-page comic about an autobiographical incident, so um, I've included that in this entry for those of you who are interested. :D

Hey, check it out! I got interviewed at Animenewsnetwork! Evan, the guy who interviewed me, was somebody I'd met at Otakon this year. I had gotten interviewed a few times in the past, but I'm still a bumbling mess. Fortunately Evan managed to make sense of it and translate it into a coherent article.

One thing that readers might get confused about is him saying that I'd been reworking Directions of Destiny since printing the first volume--it doesn't mean what you think it means!! I'M NOT REDOING THE FIRST BOOK AGAIN I SWEARS! I just meant that I'd been reworking future chapters of the comic that I had previously planned in my head before, and also fleshing out the details of the overall plot. So that's why I'm finally starting Unit 2, because I feel more comfortable with where the story is going now. :D

ANYWAY, GO READ THE INTERVIEW YAY

Confession: one of my secret favorite pastimes is going through Japanese fan art sites looking at pictures of these two. :[ (It's Ike and Ranulf from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance!) Oh my gooooodddd I love Fire Emblem everybody should play iiiiit. I've been replaying The Binding Blade (the one with Roy in it) recently aaahh it makes me so happy, even though I really shouldn't be using my free time on it. 8D()

So school started this week, and guess what guys! I STILL DON'T HAVE MY FINANCIAL AID! I've went to the office to ask about it before but they only told me that it's still pending, but due to further complications that has since arisen, I went back to the office today to pester them some more about it.

Well, back in June they had asked me to provide proof of citizenship, so I showed them my US passport which they had scanned. I go in today telling them about my situation and the counselor is like, "Well, let's see if we can get this fixed for you." She takes a look at my file, and one of the things she looked at were the documents containing the scan of my passport. She looks at it for a second and turns to me saying something along the lines of, "Well, you came in as a college student, but are you on a permanent visa now?"

And I was like, what? I am a US citizen...?

And then I took a look at what she was looking at, and oh man you guys you're gonna LOVE this: the page they scanned from my passport was NOT the first page that contains my vital US citizenship stats, oh no; the page they scanned was MY JAPANESE VISA TO STUDY ABROAD. IN JAPAN.

YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYSSSS!?!? WHAT THE HEEEEEECK?!??

I'm supposed to bring them my passport again tomorrow and hopefully everything will be resolved, except they keep telling everyone that it'll take four to six weeks for financial aid to arrive from the time that our final documents are submitted. I don't think I can AFFORD to wait another month for my financial aid?? But ugh, whatever, I guess I'll see what they tell me tomorrow. =__=