Stylene and Josh

I've been getting back to colouring some of my sketches. The whole point of having this blog is to give me a place I can showcase my ideas.
These are two characters from my graphic novel/highly desired TV series. When writing the scripts, I've on occasion teamed these two together. There was something appealing about the match up and apparently it took me a while to figure out why - it's the contrasts.
I mean, just by looking at them you can already see differences and it is further reinforced by the personalities. Stylene is a small, agile, intelligent, serious and some would say temperamental character, whereas Josh is big, tough, a bit immature and while he isn't dumb, he isn't as smart as the others.

Finished! Again!

Yay! I've finished my graphic novel!

Yes, I know I said the same thing several months ago, but this time I am properly finished.
I've made the tweaks, extended a couple of scenes, created my own font and finally come up with a surname for one of the main characters.

It it now ready to submit to a publisher. Hope they like it.

My subconscious is more talented than me...

...and it knows this, which is why it tries to spite me from time to time.

You see, when it comes to composing music, I have next to no talent. I can barely struggle to come up with an original tune in my head. Oh sure, I create something if you gave me one of those music maker computer programs where you place sample tracks, but it would be rather generic. I envy those musicians where the creative process seems to come naturally.

But what's annoying though, is on occasion I have a dream that features music which I'm pretty sure is original. Sometimes I can remember a couple of bars when I wake up, but shortly afterwards it's gone. Why, just the other night my arrogant jerk of a subconscious came up with an original Rammstein song. It sounded quite good and would certainly sit comfortably on one of their albums.

I've also had the occasional dream that have given me some good ideas to incorporate into my 'Dogs Of War' stories. Fortunately I can remember these when I wake up and make a point to jot them down.

It's just so cruel that I have all this untapped potential but am unable to actively access it.

Diablo auctions post 2

Well, after a slight re-scheduling, the Diablo 3 real money auction feature is up and running.
However my plan to make a bit of money isn't really coming to light. I planned to sell only Legendary class items, but haven't found that many and the ones I have found are mostly lower level items which would be quickly replaced by others as the player progresses. I suspect all the good stuff is in the Inferno difficulty setting (the hardest fot those of you not familiar with Diablo 3) but this is rather hard and I haven't made much progress.

It was interesting looking at some of the real money auctions to see what prices people were asking. Some were at 200 US dollars for individual items. This is about three times the price I paid for the entire game! I suppose you have to admire their optimism and pity their greed. Although good on 'em if they did get a sale. 

Man, if I've got a blog I really need to use it more often.
Erm anyway, recently I bought the long awaited game Diablo 3. Fun as it is there's a really intersting feature I might try to take advantage of.

Diablo 3 contains an auction house. Here you can put up all the goodies you have collected and as you would expect from an auction, other people can bid to acquire it. At the time of writing, you bid using the money you gather in the game. However soon Blizzard will activate the feature where you can deal with real money.

This is both intriguing and scary. I like the idea as it might be a way for me to make some money (although I don't know how much people are willing to pay when it involves real money and I'm sure EVERYONE would be doing the same thing as me), but it's a little worrying that computer games have reached this level of exploitation.

Still, time will tell. I'll continue to play Diablo 3 and amass a stockpile of sweet loot ready for sale.

As a final note, in the EULA, it states that any money earned is classified as income for tax purposes. I figured that would be the case before I bought the game. What I'm curious about though, if you make money off the game, can you declare the purchase of ther game itself as a business expense? 

Dogs Of War - volume 1

Finished!
It took a while, but I've finally completed my graphic novel. Still a few tiny tweaks to make, but overall it's DONE.
Of course, finishing it was one thing. The next is to find a publisher willing to take it on. Bugger knows where I should start, I know nothing about the publising world.

Carrots are... good for you?

Carrots!

No, not the vegetable variety - the proverbial on-the-end-of-a-stick variety.
EB Games have recently released a loyalty card. The idea is that as you buy games/place pre-orders/trade games etc, you earn points (which EB refer to as the aforementioned 'carrots'). Sounds pretty much like every other loyalty card out there but here's the hook - you start at level 1 membership and as you earn enough points you get upgraded to level 2 and so forth (up to level 4).
They have fiendishly tapped into the video gamer's psyche of the desire to level up and get access to better perks like with many RPGs. Extremely cunning and clever in my opinion, just a shame that I'm becoming less and less interested by the games themselves as the years roll on. I'm still a bit iffy about buying Diablo III, but that's for another blog post.