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]]> Rant ME - Hawk has enough to deal with this week.
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The same goes for the next couple of days. This is my last week (finals) for college. Hopefully, after this week I'll be done with college for good. The whole graduation deal still hasn't hit me yet. I guess I won't believe it until it really happens.
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"Here! I did this for you so you don't have to worry about it and so you can study hard and pass all your exams and graduate with Grand Super Supreme Honors that are SO GOOD that they'll have to make up a WHOLE NEW HONOR just for you!!

:)

Katy"



That totally made me laugh and made my day. Thank you katy! <3
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What makes me scared is crap like this . In horror movies, the protagonists are broken down until they grasp just how powerless they are in the grand scheme of things. It's not just how sinister the machinations are - it's the lack of power they have to stop, alter, or escape their fate within the Master Plan. Somehow, when contextualized properly, it sounds all too familiar.
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Finals start this Friday. -.-

Oh yeah, I got Ananth hooked on Prison Break. For months now, I have been telling him to watch the show, but he wouldn't. So he finally watched it tonight and now he's hooked. I win.
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Scott Pilgrim Vol. 3 comes out at the end of the month! SP makes me excited the way I used to get excited about Saturday morning cartoons as a child. Speaking of which, what the hell happened to Saturday morning cartoons? There's a lot of ... really terrible ones ...
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Speaking of Shannon, she'll be at the Ubisoft booth. Stop by and say hi, if you have a free moment between all the new video game shenanigans. ;) Esteemed gamersTycho and Gabe will be there too, and ... that's really all I know.

Hawk and I will be hanging out for a lot of this week, so you can expect some shenanigans out of us, I'm sure. Also, Jami's birthday was on Saturday - happy birthday man!

Anime Boston is coming up at the end of May. We're looking forward to it - manohman do I miss cons.

That's all for now! Work is going to be intense this week, so there may not be a lot of posts again.
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I have finals next week but after that I graduate!
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Today after work I got to hang out with Hawk, Jami, and Audrey. We grabbed some food and Audrey and Jami introduced Hawk and I to the movie Kung Fu Hustle, which I've got to say was pretty damn funny. And ridiculous. So many nods to so many things in that movie, too.

Next week is going to be a crazy one. Shannon's headed to E3, and Hawk and I plan to get up to some shenanigans and begin working on a new project with Jami and Katy. And when Shannon gets back from E3, we'll be digging in our heels on another comics project as well. And Applegeeks is going to pick up the pace some - we don't want to start dragging our heels on this storyline, so rest assured there's some action coming nice and soon.

I guess we keep pretty busy around here! You guys have a good one. :)
]]> Rant Gabe made a wish. He wanted to see the Cintiq tablet in action so he could decide if he should get one, personally I think he should.

So with my Cintiq in front of me and laptop with iSight on the side, I created video #1



That was okay, but we need something better. Here is video #2



The second video is about 4mins long but in real time the coloring took me about 20 minutes.

This is also my first time using iMovie, which is an awesome program.

EDIT: Let me point out the Cintiq tablet DOES NOT improve one's art skills. What I did in the second video can be easily done with a regular tablet.
]]> Rant $10 Threadless sale till midnight May 8th. Some new stuff, a lot of reprints.
]]> Rant AIM 9:28 PM 05.01.06
<
Hawk: oh shit
Hawk: i just thought of something
Ananth: ?
Hawk: you know how controllers have that vibrate option....
Ananth: .....
Ananth: this better not be dirty ...
Hawk: Wii...vibrates?
Ananth: ..........................
Ananth: lol
Ananth: LOL
]]> Rant ]]> Rant Sentinel in the upcoming X-Men 3 movie.


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Once again, sorry for not having a comic up today. The comic will go up on Monday. A new AG Lite comic will be up tomorrow.

I mentioned I was working on a character deisgn portfolio for class. Along side of that I have been sketching out some Applegeeks prints for upcoming conventions.



I'm hoping to turn one of them into a large banner.
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I have a paper due tomorrow. Also, I'm working on creating a character design portfolio for an independence studies course I'm taking this last semester. The portfolio is due May 3 and I have two more characters to finish.

Another Applegeeks Lite will be up Friday.
]]> Rant EDIT: CNET has a fun article about the event.

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So a little background here ... Shannon flew out to San Francisco a few weeks ago to participate in the Frag Dolls Casting Call. So ... what does that all mean?

The Frag Dolls are a group of girl gamers sponsored by game developer Ubisoft. A few months ago, they had an open call for girl gamers to submit resumes and bios for consideration as a new Frag Doll. Shannon entered, and she ended up as one of the eight finalists that got flown out to San Francisco for the Casting Call event. It was held at THX in San Francisco, and comprised of a series of interviews and tournaments. Gametrailers.com is documenting the event, in five or six shorts released once a week, all the way up through E3.

All very cool stuff, but I already know what a lot of you are thinking. I know, because the first time someone told me about the Frag Dolls, I rolled my eyes too. A group of hot girl gamers, sponsored by a large corporate entity? My first thought was that it was a rather transparent marketing ploy. Of course, it helps to dig deeper before making a judgement. Turns out that they are hardcore. I've watched Shannon play with a couple of them on XBox Live, and they don't screw around ... they'll fuck you up rightquick. (And if you meet them in real life ... well, I heard they killed a man once.) (I'm kidding.) (OR AM I?)

Let's get serious for a moment ...

There's this controversy about girl gamers and how to make them more visible, simmering on the fringes of the (hardcore?) gaming community. Women tend to become marginalized as an invisible demographic, which (as most girl gamers will probably tell you) sucks. Female gamers also often have trouble being taken seriously - especially if they're pretty or particularly girly. In most entertainment industries, good looks tend to work in an individual's favor. Ironically, things seem to work backwards in the gaming community, especially when it comes to women. The prettier a girl is, the less credit she seems to be given for her skills - this on the top of the negative modifier they automatically receive because of their gender. Of course, if one logically approaches it, skills are independent of appearance entirely - a sexy movie star can still be a shitty actress.

Also often called into question is the relationship between the Dolls and sponsor Ubisoft. Here's a link to an article I find particularly interesting, as it deals with Ubisoft and the Dolls separately, but if you're going to read it be sure to read to the end (It's long, and can be misleading if you stop partway through). The relationship seems, to me, to be a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, the Frag Dolls wouldn't exist, period, without Ubisoft. On the other hand, Ubisoft is a large corporation, and the natural conclusion regarding corporations is that money is the bottom line - so it's easy to follow that line of reasoning and assume that the Frag Dolls are a marketing ploy. If you look around their site, though, it becomes apparent that Ubisoft gives them a lot of leeway. Their logo is inconspicuously placed at the bottom of the page, and that is essentially the only official mention of them.

The Frag Dolls do play a lot of Ubisoft games, including GR:AW, but it's logical - it is a great game, and currently the most popular FPS on the 360. They're certainly not restricted to playing and talking about Ubisoft games - they play a lot of Halo 2 as well, and regularly blog about a variety of games on a variety of systems - sometimes from a uniquely female perspective, sometimes as an average gamer, and sometimes with all the insight and flair of an industry insider.

The girls themselves are rather different from each other. They all seem to favor different kinds of games, and each girl has a varied skillset. The first installment of the Gametrailers videos does a great job of highlighting this, and also does a great job of thrusting their intelligence and gaming skills into the limelight.

In the end, Ubisoft has assembled a skilled, multi-talented group of gamers. They are articulate, current, and thus far seem to be saying and doing a lot of interesting things. On their own, they seem poised to help pull the female gaming demographic into a better state of visibility, straddling the fine line between their gender and their status as gamers. It's up to Ubisoft to step back and allow them to run with what the Dolls have started.

At some point on Tuesday, Gametrailers is going to post the second installment of their Casting Call miniseries. Shannon's interview is in this one, so I'm looking forward to it. As for who I'm favoring for the outcome - well, don't ask me that ... I'm obviously biased. ;)
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Not much to say. Busy working on my day job, scripts, and laying groundwork for a few new projects. You know me (us, even) ... always thinking about the next project we can do.

Don't have a whole lot to say tonight ... probably post some more later this week. Going to have to get used to posting at least two more times a week, since we'll be updating four times. Bear with us over whatever transition we end up with.

Time to sleep.
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]]> Rant Jamie

Jamie: you on your new laptop?
Hawk: yeah
Hawk: i got a 17" in my lap
Hawk: >.>
Hawk: <.<
Jamie: HAH!!

Recently my brother got a new MacBook Pro and I got the 17" Powerbook G4.
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Also, I finished AG Lite #2 and it will be up tomorrow.

Now, if I'm not mistaken, I have homework to finish now.
]]> Rant PA's newest podcast. (Scroll to the last post for a link there, or follow this one.) I gave it a listen last night, and it was fuckin' hilarious ... I'll have to go back and get the rest now. It was pretty interesting to you hear them talk their way through the process of developing a strip. Ah ... and thanks for the good words, guys. :)
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Here are couple of doodles I did while I was in class yesterday. I was trying out couple of panel ideas for the guest strip. Even though I didn't use the second doodle, I really like it.

I started to add hair (check HawkEye cam) to the Eve model. I'll post better pictures once I finish with the hair.

Anyway, I better get ready for class.
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Now a moment of your time, if I may. While this has been a vague idea on the backburner for a long time, credit must go where credit is due - the awesome format and setup of the comic on the site is all Jamie. Jamie Noguchi does Angry Zen Master, and he also does his AZM Minis, which are a more random style of strip, often not pertaining to the standard fare of AZM. The idea behind AG Lite, and the AZM minis, is to provide a potential escape from the story and plot of the larger format comic. This is where we can make pop culture references, attempt non sequiturs, and speak directly to the audience by hammering through that dreaded fourth wall. While AG Lite may one day bear the insufferable marks of continuity, it will never turn into a serious storyline. The extent might be - for example - a moldy piece of pizza in the fridge gaining sentience and terrorizing the denizens of the house. And none of the story arcs will be long-winded. Above all, we hope to keep AG Lite dedicated to randomness and humor.

Oh yeah, the update schedule is Wednesday and Friday! I know, we have the wierdest update schedule ... but now we update just about every day of the week. Tuesday and weekends is when we take a break. ;)
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So yeah, this week.... I don't think I really want to think about it. I got a 5 page paper due tomorrow. Ananth and I are releasing Applegeeks Lite on Wednesday. We are also doing another guest strip for Fred on Wednesday. Then another AG comic on Thursday....then something else on Friday. Doesn't this week sound like fun??

Now and then I'll find some time to work on this, just to keep me from going insane.
]]> Rant EDIT: Oh, what?! Mookie went there ... This won't go unpunished ...

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Things have been pretty busy, so I'll try to be brief. Today's comic gives us a little insight into Gina - I hope to follow this line of character development somewhere interesting. I believe we've got another guest comic for MT coming this Wednesday. Also, AG Lite is premiering this Wednesday ... we hope you guys like it. And of course, Thursday comic as usual (we hope - we've got a lot going on this week).

Saturday was Katy's birthday, so belatedly, happy birthday Katy! We all went to Dave and Buster's, hung out, and had a good time. We also got a pretty cool waiter, so if you're reading, this is a shout-out for you, man. I spent Sunday at Shannon's, working on scripts between Easter stuff while she did art and messed people up in GR:AW on XBox Live. It was a day well-spent, in that lazy-yet-productive sort of way.

On a sidenote, I started playing through Kingdom Hearts 2 with my friend Fil - it's interesting. Some awesome (and lovingly gratuitous) cameos from some great Square characters, but eesh ... the intro part of the game is 3 hours long. Expect to hear more in the weeks to come, I suppose.

I've got to be up early for work tomorrow. It's going to be a busy week, so I'm going to attempt to start it right. I feel like I'm forgetting something, so if it comes to me then I suppose you guys can expect another post ...
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