Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

On the topic of possible entries for the Ichijinsha Comic Taishō (YuriHime Bumon):

I forgot in the last paragraph that there's also one in S that has a drag queen (thus, the subject clipped from the same quote as before) as pretty much the most important character after the protagonist and heroine. I guess these guys are more palatable than big, hairy gits like the ones in "Spaghetti Western." There have been various men who've appeared in the numerous sad one-shots throughout the years, but those are the only two major ones whom I remember in serials.

Meanwhile, there may be another problem if I have to give up my ownership of the intellectual property as with the contest for my other half, which would mean that it would have to be thrown out if I couldn't get it published. If so, I'd want to make sure that I have the best chance I'll ever have of winning before I risk it. It would be better, of course, if I could instead become an established author/illustrator and thus be considered for publishing without having to take that risk in the first place. I'll have to take a closer look at the rules when I get back to those issues as part of my other stuff I'm supposedly doing. (I can also use that opportunity to look over the previous winning entry and the judges' comments for that and the runners-up to get a better idea of what they want.)

Another consideration is the problem of graphic novels. I've seen that Japanese author/illustrators often have problems getting one-shots that have been published in periodicals printed in more permanent form as they're not enough to make up a full compilation. A common solution is to put them in as extras in volumes of series by the same person, but that wouldn't work very well in my case, because these ones would read right-to-left, while my projects are left-to-right. YuriHime Comics dealt with that through Yuri-Hime Selection, but I don't know whether they'll do that again or how long it'll be in print. Authors sometimes publish sequels/spinoffs/side stories of their own works as dōjinshi, as you may have noticed (also mentioned here), but I don't imagine they're allowed to do that with the stuff that's been licensed by professional publishers.

Speaking of which, I hear that Zettai×Roman actually has quite a lot of stuff that wasn't published in the mooks, including a short from a long-out-of-print anthology, two from another magazine, and further explanation on the one from YuriHime whose details I found quite incomprehensible (also, incidentally, the only one I remember where one of the main characters is anywhere near as promiscuous as in mine). I haven't been bothering to buy the graphic novels as I already have all of the serials, but I suppose I should be checking their introductions to see whether the extras are worth it.

By the by, as I was grabbing links for this post, I found there was a tachi-yomi (reading without buying) page in case you want to try any of the publications.

Since Thursday was my one night off, I stopped by the other side of town yesterday. Unfortunately, I had not realized that it was the release date of 4th-Edition D&D, so the clerk at the desk immediately asked me, "Have you gotten your books yet?" I made the mistake of telling the truth: that I had gotten a better deal elsewhere, which of course didn't make him and Carlos happy. They made fun of me for the fact that my copies hadn't been delivered yet. I neglected to mention (as a comeback, one of my principal weak points) the fact that, as over the last few months the Wizards have revealed more of their master plan to tell repeat customers to go to hell (as mentioned here), I wouldn't be buying them at all if I weren't intending to use them to save more than the money I paid for them.

Due to the fact that 4th Edition is trying its darnedest not to be D&D, there's also the problem of the theoretical chance of publishing my campaign setting. I have no intention of retconning it to the point of being 4th-Edition-friendly, so the only chance I would have of using the d20 System or something similar is if someone else ends up producing the books and allowing them, such as the Pathfinder RPG. The reason for this is that the d20 System requires you to note on each book that it requires the 3rd-Edition or v.3.5 Player's Handbook, which Wizards will obviously be discontinuing if they haven't already. The Pathfinder RPG is designed to allow people to continue to use v.3.5-compatible materials, so it would work with that, but I don't know whether they'll allow me to actually tell people to use it. I could instead use the OGL, but that would require publishing my own basic materials. Since this was designed as a D&D setting, that would mean either (a) repeating pretty much the same stuff that's in the Player's Handbooks and Pathfinder RPG or (b) changing the setting so that those have something original worth printing as well. The latter means completely reworking the setting, which may be a good thing considering that it's not very original so far, but it defeats the purpose of publishing something I've already developed if I have to go back and start from the ground up. Of course, the chances that I'll ever have the resources (money and name recognition) to do this are rather slim.

By the way, on the topic of the subject line, DUNKIN' DONUTS® CMs have nifty tunes, but the first two* have really dumb lyrics. The "doing stuff" one is pretty self-explanatory (as is the issue with this one, the one for which it's not the creators who are stupid), but as Ms. Maelwaedd noted, it's an odd strategy to tell customers, "We understand your idiocy and provide for it!" The thing about this is, as with every spoken language except English (as far as I know), French and Italian have simple, consistent rules for how every word is pronounced. (lokodraucarn once tried to defend his mispronunciation of "coup de grâce" by saying, "I took German and Russian! No silent letters!" Yeah (again, a very belated comeback), I took Spanish and Japanese. That doesn't stop me using an American English dictionary. When I play a game where I have to vocalize a term often, it makes sense to know how to pronounce it and what it means.) A more common problem is trying to figure out which language the word is, but that's often easy, too.

*As usual, I tried looking for the videos to illustrate, but apparently now Google™ Video BETA doesn't index them anymore and instead has hardcore pornography openly displayed. (YouTube had both.) I never got that before.

As was the case with Spanish back when I thought I knew it, I'm planning also to publish official Japanese versions of my projects. (Of course, as I've noted here, my first one might be a bit heavy on the English even in the Japanese version.) I'm far from fluent, of course, but this way I can provide translations that are much truer to the author's intent than most. The expanded exposure this should provide would also give me a chance to come into contact with people who are fluent, which means I could have a chance to actually learn the language, and perhaps impose on someone to correct my work. (I think I'd have more trouble bothering to make the rest of the appropriate site bilingual to cater to these people.)

Another thing that I've pondered at times is that, since I'm going to have to learn to draw anyway, it would be really nifty if someday I could get one of my works published in my belovèd YuriHime S (not the main Comic YuriHime, as I don't imagine I'll ever manage to write works appropriately feminine or comedic for there—with Ms.? Natsuneko's work there, I might have hope, but it's nothing compared to Picard's, as I'll note later). If I did manage to achieve widespread popularity as noted above, they might let me do it cold turkey, but the more likely way is through the Ichijinsha Comic Taishō （「大正」ではなくて「大賞」） or other yomi-kiri (the comic equivalent of a pilot episode). The problem with that is that, as I've no doubt mentioned before, I don't think of many good one-shot ideas lately, as I'm so absorbed in crafting intricate webs of full-sized projects. (Even Project Cow Level, which was pre-planned to be a short, simple "practice" project, is expected to run to about one graphic novel's worth.)

And yet, oddly enough, I happened to think of an interesting one-shot idea yesterday. Although it relies on a lot of tropes, it has a major setting element that I haven't seen used for this before, and unlike some, the premise is distinctly yuri, not just a romance that happens to be between two ladies. (Oddly enough, the unusual setting for a yuri story may have caused me to have a dream last night about sleeping with a man (don't remember for sure). If so, at least I was the seme. . . .) Of course, as a short story, it doesn't have much to reveal without actually writing it, and I'd rather keep the good parts to myself just to avoid anyone else stealing them. (Yes, that's my delusions of grandeur talking again.)

If this somehow did come to pass, there's the problem that the format only allows 400 characters of commentary, much less than I'd normally use. I'd probably put most of it (and the official English translation) on the Web as a supplement to the published part, as Ms. Miyahara does. For the actual printed version, I'm thinking the essentials are along the lines of 「男で申し訳御座いません。いつか必ずレディーにもよろこんで頂けるまんがを描ける様になりますから、今は違った味でがまんして下さいませな。」 (although I haven't bothered to boot up Word to get a character count).

The "chigatta aji" bit overlaps with the question of how predisposed these Japanese folks will be to publishing stuff by some American git. I can't do much about that, but I might consider working in a more Japanese style than my own. For some reason, it seems to be coming out with a larger-than-usual proportion of pseudo-comical elements despite the fact that I don't have a sense of humor (perhaps to make up for the fact that romance is an alien concept to me), so it'll be an outlier in my portfolio in more ways than one (hey, more dovetailing with the post subject).

By the way, in the excessively megalomaniacal mōsō situation that I actually got to do a serial, Project AnthraXX seems at this point as if it would actually be palatable. Of course, it would be helluva Webcomic time in a quarterly mook. . . .

Unusually enough for me, Project Cow Level has no sex in it, as I didn't have any interest in having such content in a story about tauren and dwarves. While I'm at it, I'm considering keeping the violence to (MPAA) PG as well. That may be difficult for one of my adventure-based (type B) projects, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, as I've mentioned before, Projects Umbra and Homuncupunk are coming to have more and more sex, while Project AnthraXX is coming to have more and more story, thus blurring the gap between A and B. Consequently, AnthraXX is probably the most ready of my original projects, owing primarily to the fact that its setting is heavily based on the real world, thus preventing me from needing to create mecha designs from scratch. Of course, it's still quite controversial, but at least there's plot to thin out the sex and I don't portray YHWH in quite such a bad light. I also think that the witches' and demons' subplot doesn't overpower the main story about the protagonist and heroine, but it's still tangential enough that I haven't completely thrown out the idea of making it a separate project.

In other previews, I've thought about vague subtitles for the three story arcs of Project Homuncupunk:

Part One: The Bounty Hunter
Part Two: The Prodigal Son
Part Three: The Emissary

I chopped the first two down to one word each for better parallelism. The subtitles reflect Jūzaburō's role in the story. ("So, what's with the second one if he turns coat at the beginning?" you might ask. Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?) Riku's backstory relates mostly to the first story arc, but the second half of it has a spoiler for something in the middle of "The Hunter," so where I include that will depend on how long each volume runs. I'm also not quite sure about the wording for the third part (and can't explain without spoiling it), but there's plenty of time to think about that.

I'm thinking of also making Project AnthraXX in three parts, corresponding with the three trimesters of Ms. Brown's freshman year. These would likely be short enough that one volume of the hard copies could be devoted to each, with one extra story as an extra for each. I don't have subtitles for the trimesters, as I don't know quite where the breaks will be, but the first two extras are currently known as "Time-Gilded Paradise Lost" and "The Dark of Gomorrah"; I'm not so sure about the third, as it doesn't really seem to add anything to the series.

Just as I was about ready to start on Project Cow Level, Ms. mizuno_youko happened to be getting rid of an old (but still functional for the moment) scanner, and you know how I feel about free stuff. Just for fun, I tried it out before opening it. As you can see, it's perfectly good quality for a fan-comic—to the point that I should be able to draw each page on an 8½×11 sheet and still have the content of a reasonably sized page. (I may upgrade if I ever get to the point that I can make my own projects.) Since I won't be allowed to publish this one in hard copy, I don't think there's any particular reason to keep consistent whether it's portrait or landscape orientation. Actually, I really have no idea how the Comic Genesis engine works, but it's not a big deal. I'll get to that after my proposal is accepted. (Optimism? Who am I and what have I done with archlords?)

Also, as I noted here, I did a very small number of sketches before getting distracted by new comics. (I just got a bunch more after I finished them, so there won't be any more for quite a while.) They're test designs for a couple of main characters, as well as stock tauren. Some notes: *The mask idea came from my belovèd Poisoned Wind Globadiers. However, I was thinking that dwarves don't use warp-technology like Skaven or chaos energy like gnomes and goblins, so I came up with the lower-tech idea of just using some sort of gauze as a filter. Of course, gauze porosity is rather difficult to represent in comic illustrations. More mechanically importantly, the kerchief doesn't fit well over his muzzle (and makes him look a bit too much like a bandit), so I'll probably use a more direct copy of the Globadiers'. As you can see from the sketch in the middle, I wasn't sure about the framework for the cylinder, but upon closer inspection, there's a metal ring around the end. *Dwarven goggle straps don't fit well on races that have heads extending parallel to their lines of sight. I'll probably have them integrated into a cap (again, like the Globadiers) that buckles below the chin. I like the Globadiers' slightly convex lenses, but these are supposed to be based on a standard design (only altered to fit the tauren), so I'm keeping to the original schematics, excepting logistical changes. *I don't know how to properly draw braids, which are an integral part of the character designs for the project. For Aonghus, at least, they'll be solid black, so no one will notice. (Unlike in AnthraXX, he wears colors, so I don't have to go to the trouble of adding non-black lines to delineate him.) For the others, I'll probably use the primitive method seen here. *Speaking of braids, I considered giving Aonghus eartails but nixed that so you could see the chin-strap. *I don't really like cattle's noses with their big open nostrils, so I squished them. *I'm not sure about whether I should leave Aonghus's horn stump bare or use a cap (a couple of test designs on the middle right). I suppose a metal cap would help to emphasize his cosmopolitan appearance.

I pretty much have the first few chapters laid out, so I can get to that whenever I'm less distracted. I was originally going to start with the origin story, but I think it'd be more entertaining if I jumped right into the action. I'm thinking about it putting the flashback in Chapter 2 instead (as Chapter 1 is just an introduction to the team), but I'm afraid of doing that too crudely, like in HELLSING. I at least have an idea to link it to what the characters are doing right after Chapter 1, so hopefully it'll work a bit better.

My readership appears to be at an all-time high (apparently at least two regulars!), but I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff during its absence, to say nothing of my sloth and the fact that I've built up a lot of new things due to year's-end-and-beginning splurging. So, I'd like to see if you have any requests or suggestions. What I've got in the works is as follows:

( Ridiculously long notes )

One of the suggestions I've had for where to go with my projects early on was to make something in a setting that my readers know, instead of Project Abdiel, about which none of you give a damn. As it happens, one of my ideas, which I hadn't posted yet, turned out to have an interesting story in him. Of course, we've got a couple of problems:

1. Like Abdiel, the project contains very little in the way of human-looking beings, which is what I need to practice drawing the most. In particular, there are almost no female-looking humans/elves/Eldar, which are in the spotlight* in most of my projects.

2. The premise of a retrograde global amnesiac hero taken in by the opposite faction turns out to be the same as the big comic, which turns out to be titled World of Warcraft itself, so I imagine pretty much everyone's going to catch me on that. True, I'd plan to use it in a very different way (including reversing the factions), but I had read that part before, so I can't claim I'm not copying (if only subconsciously, because I didn't remember that part until later).

Anyway, I've added it to the database, which no longer has a lucky number of records. Of course, what's on the list is pretty arbitrary; some of them are unlikely to ever see the light of day*, such as .slice, which is even more derivative.

Speaking of the comic, apparently he lets the slaves out of the cages and chains for funerals, so they must get along reasonably well or have some back-up measure.

*These aren't really directly "good" things, so I haven't altered them.

These days, I have so many Japanese books to buy that by the time I get one, I don't remember what I'd read about it that prompted me to put it on the shopping list. This means, for one thing, that I generally go into each one with a clean slate, no spoilers, preconceptions, or particular expectations. This is especially true in the case of Aka×Pink, which I put off from a previous order because it was another novel that I'd bought accidentally. (For all I can remember, this one may predate "Yuri na Hibi.") Now that I've finally read it, I have enough kansō to fill an entire post.

Of course, in the interim, this one spent a lot of time sitting around the room, so I'm well acquainted with the cover illustration. I thought it just reminded me of Sai-Kano because of the content, but upon closer inspection, it's by the same guy. (I didn't remember the name because I didn't give a damn about that innovative-but-borderline-harem series in the first place.) Since I don't pay attention to prose, I hadn't heard of a major comics guy doing illustrations for novels before. Then again, there are only two real illustrations in the entire book. . . .

Anyway, from the blurb on the back, you'd get a certain idea of what sort of book it's going to be. But despite the fact that most of the characters are very unusual people, it's written pretty straight. (It isn't often that you read a book where the most normal guy in the cast is also the chief comic relief. He's the source of the quote in the subject line—yes, in Roman letters.) I suppose a human might have trouble taking such eccentricities seriously (although not so much as in Sai-Kano), but I like the way it explores these innovative personalities in a respectful manner.

In a similar way, despite the fact that the participants in the central fight/hostess club have to have cheesy/fetishy stage personae and outfits, and the matches are partially just for show rather than competitive, it's compared to MMA (with an octagon cage, despite the fact that PRIDE takes place in a square ring with ropes) rather than pro wrestling. I never had much interest in MMA, where the main MA (particularly among Brazilians and Japanese) is jūjutsu, because I don't much like seeing men rolling on the floor and grappling. (I guess that's in focus because it's effective in bare-handed combat. You don't need to choke someone out if you can stab or shoot him.) This one, however, focuses more on (somewhat) more dignified striking and stand-up. (I find it amusing that the one who admires "Mirko-san" is known as "Mīko-san.")

The story focuses on three main heroines, with each narrating one chapter. They are three very different individuals, but their common ground (other than occupation) is their seeking to understand what they want in life and reconcile it with what others want of them. (Incidentally, they also all use "watashi" in hira-gana, including the tough one who sees herself as a man and uses according speech patterns otherwise.) Although the different narratives overlap a lot in the same scenes, it's rather interesting to see which heroines feel it significant to describe which parts in full, and which they didn't seem to perceive at all.

Of course, yuri was still my main incentive behind this one. It's hard to say much without spoiling some of the interesting psychological elements, but suffice it to say that many of the most significant relationships in the story are between the heroines, and the line between friendship and romance, like much of the tale, is rather ambiguous. I quite liked it, with the exception of the fact that one of the relationships ends with a rather loose end.

All in all, I quite enjoyed this one and recommend it highly. Besides that, my ability to get through it led me to think that I might be willing to actually try some more novels on purpose—but, then again, I hardly have any shortage of reading material. It would be more useful to get back into reading prose in English, in case I might become able to write novels of my own, which would circumvent the problem of drawing that's currently my only real obstacle.

By the way, I was interested to see that the author is a lady who has a "my boom" about a particular color of lipstick, and who pumps iron at least once a week. The elements about practicing kara-te (she's a black belt who made it to the national championship in '02) and receiving a love letter from a younger lady are apparently autobiographical. I guess that like me, being an unusual person gives her a viewpoint that allows her to portray things differently from normal people.

I've recently made some updates to my projects database. It has also come to my attention that I'm not allowed to give you access to this information unless you join the group. Considering the glitch that stops you from editing files after a while, I may go back to just typing locally and uploading the stuff to my HP, but for the moment you can join freely, even if you don't have a Yahoo! account, and I promise not to spam you.

In terms of the actual updates, one of the most significant is the addition of two more projects: Necropunk and Perfect Score (20/20). The former is the one I mentioned earlier; the latter is my dream of making a better RPG (with a lot of background to the name), generalized for broader appeal. Of course, no one's going to use it unless I get professional marketing or at least become a Web celeb.

I also added another two fields. One is just a brief and rough summary of what each story actually is. The other is the most important theme(s) on which each project is based. Yuri on its own is not specific enough, although it is a part of "Kokuba no Ōji-sama" "modified harem," "alien human society," "counterculture," and at least one other that would be a spoiler. In most cases, I'm trying to do things that I haven't seen before, including challenging or altering common stereotypes and showing societies that are foreign to our viewpoint.

The new Project Necropunk is a shading example of this. The key design strategy (other than cool undead paraphernalia) was to depict a benevolent necromantic society, as I've never seen much of a depiction of undead creation that wasn't evil (with the exception of Abarrach. This gives us perhaps the most alien society of any of these, despite the fact that the people are, by blood, at least half human.

Use of human remains as slaves, trophies, tools, and so on is common in fantasy. However, I want to push this one to the limit and show ethical cannibalism as well. Despite the massive stigma in our society, cannibalism is, under logical morality, a victimless crime; however, like incest, it is often associated with a hideous atrocity, in this case murder. Killing others without just cause is, particularly in this dying land, a felony, but the dead are used to maintain what is left, and the remains of great people are valued highly.

Of course, this also makes the story even more controversial than the others (except maybe AnthraXX)—Even the parts about romantic and/or sexual relationships between blood relatives have never been central to a project. I'm not sure if I'd ever be able to publish it, and I don't know if I'd ever get anyone willing to read it.

By the way, I'm not intending on including anything like necrophilia or vorarephilia. I'm not interested in such things, and they don't serve any real purpose.

As I've noted before, each of Projects AnthraXX, Artificer, and Homuncupunk has at least one long background story of at least one secondary character that is unnecessary and too vast to fit into the storyline without breaking it up. (I can't for the life of me remember what I said I thought up about background in Maddie's Maids, which proves the inefficiency of my system.) If I ever actually publish graphic novels of the series, they would make good extras for those who are willing to pay for what will theoretically be available on the Web for free. The ones for AnthraXX and Homuncupunk would contain spoilers, so they'd have to be held back to certain points in the series, and all are long enough to be divided between the backs of several volumes.

For bonus material in other volumes, I have ideas such as (no bullets because they format badly in various styles):
※Author/illustrator interviews
※Author/illustrator's commentary
※Character profiles
※Lists of allusions for readers to try to identify (perhaps with rewards)
※Popularity contests (characters, items, abilities, etc.)
※Setting background (including the now-sprawling chart of departments and leadership of the Mikazuki Corporation)

Actual illustrations, including design sketches and extra pics, should be saved for daily_yuri exclusives, as thanks to my most belovèd community, since that's what you're required to post there. Maps would be an exception, as they're reasonably essential to understand the stories. In any case, I really need to get drawing.

Please excuse the cheesy and derivative title (and its effects on the wording below).

Back when I first devised the Projects system, there were only two all-encompassing rules for the various works falling under that heading:

1. A project may not include nudity (by the TSR/Wizards submission guideline definition).

2. A project may not have a female character as the chief protagonist, except where this would conflict with the First Law.

The First Law is just a simple rule that I use to keep my content in check—It's the same system used in many cases by Japanese comics and TV series (although for some reason, they consider it to be all right to show small children), even the more risqué ones like LOVE♥HINA and Strawberry Panic.

The Second is more complicated. It was something I thought up at the beginning of the Projects system, and holds true for the first few I tagged: Artificer, Homuncupunk, and Deathshead. The reasoning was that I, as a man, could not properly portray a female mind, so I should not place such a chara in the spotlight. I kept this rule for quite some time. However, I eventually took a better look at my goals. I never intended to depict anything realistic, least of all human personalities. As such, an individual's sex makes no difference. Thus, I struck the Second Law from the record.

Some time while the Second Law was still in effect, I came across another thing that I decided I should regulate. In Project Artificer, I based one element of the ancient elven race on the Eldar from Warhammer 40,000: the concept that they treat both sexes the same; both sexes are of androgynous appearance, and they consider humans and their spawn (beastmen and ogres) to be hairy degenerates. It was only natural (or should I say "artificial"?) to expand to say that, other than the need for reproduction, they saw no need to prefer one sex over another as partners. However, I could see that it would be chauvinistic to show only one side of that, as I was well aware that ♀×♀ relationships were a sexual fetish among heterosexual males (and vice versa in Japan—in perhaps a less vulgar and more aesthetic sense, as far as I know, since I avoid such material as noted below). So, I decided:

3. For each female character with a female romantic interest, a project must include a male character with a male romantic interest, except where this would conflict with the First or Second Law.

So I included one of each. I kept it this way until I thought about it again and realized that LGBT issues are a serious topic, and one that an outsider such as myself should not be putting in his comics. So I amended the Third Law to something to the effects of:

3 (Revised). A project may not include any character with a same-sex romantic interest, except where this would conflict with the First or Second Law.

This was easy to fix: I just reversed the sexes of the two offenders. That worked just fine, right? But after I removed the Second Law, I also came to see that the same reason for repealing held true here too. After all, yuri is an element of media, mostly separate from (and sometimes conflicting with) the lesbian community. Also, I could suppose that pretending that such issues don't exist could be just as insulting as depicting them inaccurately. So, I removed the Third Law as well.

Of course, not having any rule to govern this element, my honne starts to show after a while. It's not that I have anything against ♂×♂ relationships—In fact, I support them as a logical alternative to my ideal. However, also as noted earlier, my formative years taught me that men were absolutely repulsive both physically and emotionally. Just as I prefer to keep the number of male characters to a minimum, I find it unpleasant to deal with their relationships. Chauvinistic, I know, but that's something about me that will never change, so I feel that it's best to be true to myself (to a point) and write what I like. After all, why do you think I made all these projects in the first place? If I can publish them and make money, that would be a nice occupational perquisite, but that's beyond the scope of what I can consider at the moment.