Happy Halloween the end

Alright, this is it,

this is the end of the Happy Halloween crazy adventure ha ha ha.

A few updates.

- We are finally up on comicrank as a moderator finally approved us.

- The drunk duck award will be starting announcing winners starting november 5th.

- Update might be up a little earlier.

- We have 3 new submission to the voice contest game and I will post them after the usual routine updates+curiosities.

Anything else? Of course:

Happy Halloween! - the pirate way -

Happy Halloween n.7

Some of you already saw this one around.

Ohohohoooo, what's so mysterious about this Mooona Lisa smile?

Happy Halloween n.6

Braaaainsssss.... Reveeeengeeee....

This is, by far, one of my favorite (together with the Shallalas one).

The pose just came out to me when I thought: a monster stretching his arms out, wait... there's two! XDDD

If you think about it the Mummy is like a super ancient zombie... how comes he does not eat brains? Is he on a diet?

Halloween 5

Okay, tonight is Devil and Witch go to a ball! :D

Happy Halloween 4

Shall I continue? I have so many more...

Hurray for the Halloween extravaganzaaa! :D

Happy Halloween 3

I have more.... muah ah ah!

maybe a lighter background.

Happy Halloween n. 2

No, seriously, you know what's about to happen to the poor little vampire... right?

Ha ha ha ha

Happy Halloween n. 1

Yup, there's a total of 6 drawings. (4 done and two more in the making).

Happy Halloween! :)

Callista's voice: submission 1

According to Selene in this clip hear you can hear what she imagines to be: the Yellow pony evokes Callista's voice in my head. The purple pony... kind of reminds me of the aunties, or at least foxy's ex.

I love this show, by the way, it's so cute and funny! XDDD

Calendar work in progress..

Happy Deepavali, everyone, I stay at home today... let's see if I can create something cool today!

Today I post the last two sketches that I've managed to create for the calendar... after these I have had no time to create any more because school has started already... so if you have any requests or any suggestions let me know. I still want to draw a few.

So today we one image from the future chapters and one from the past.

Enjoy.

calendar work in progress...Martin and Pea

A little bit of Martin and Pea, today, for our calendar sketches.

One was basically feature in a chapter cover and the other one... well... you'll see! ha ha ha.

It's time for me to start coloring these little thing, it's almost Halloween already, right?

Otherwise the calendar will never get done on time. :D

Kane's voice: Submission 1

Second voice entry for today... by Lauand.
She picked the Spanish dubbing for the Princess Bride (I'll look for the man's name soon and let you know) and she thinks that the voice actor for Westley is perfect for Kane.
I'll risk embedding the video again.



This is quite interesting because if you look at the Italian version of the movie, the voice actor for Westley (Roberto Pedicini) is what I hear in my head when Westley, our doctor, talks... :D

Chapter 17 cover

Alright, let's take a break from the calendar sketched and the voice challenge... (that so far has only one entry).

And let's look at the cover for chapter 17 together. With this chapter we enter in the 5th volume and we approach the ending of the regular story.... after which will come all of the specials and spin offs.

Martin's voice: submission 1

I interrupt the posting of the sketches for the calendar (although I still have a lot to show because I am working on the like crazy) to post here the first submission for the voice contest.

I will embed the video for now although, we know, internet changes fast so hopefully you all can see it before it disappears or moves:



This submission comes from ~tiffc she posted the link on Deviant Art and says: "Alright, this is a long shot but I thought I would try this: [link] 1:22-1:27 for Martin? xD "

The voice she picked has a name Sergio Tedesco, famous italian voice actor, worked in theater and was also a very good tenor.
He was also Katsushiro's voice in the Italian version of 7 Samurai!
Eventually moved on to dub Pat Morita in the Karate Kid movies.
He was also Gus Gus in Cinderella!

Quite talented.

So... Sergio Tedesco as Martin. Official submission n.1!

calendar work in progress... Pifo and Rose.

I did mention I had something in mind for Rose as well. I wanted to draw something dainty but sexy so here she is... I love Rose she's round and has big eyes with long lashes.

So for Pifo's world I am more into the previous Pif' for the simple reason that it gives out a very cool silhouette, almost like an ink spot. Eventually I had to put the "I don't enjoy coVn" one because it's a crucial moment in Pifo's life! Ha ha ha.

But we'll see maybe I'll draw more of Pifo as an adult like he is now, on the first page of chapter 17 (so cuuute!) XDDD

Calendar work in progress... shallalas!

So... have you ever wonder what the Shallalas do when they don't go around shouting "Doctooooor" or "Little Westleyyyy" or "Ourssssss"....

Well, of course, as you can see, their mind is still unidirectional but they are hormones so what do you expect? ha ha ha.

So unless they have a nice afternoon at home....

Maybe they train hard to achieve their goal, because they believe that dream do come true with much effort....

As we know, right now, the poor things are suffering because of the strike.

So this would be their take on the whole thing.

What do we want? Little Westley! When do we want it? NOW!

Chapter 16 - Curiosities

"If the mountain..." (I think I wrote this sentence the other way around in the Italian version and I shall have to fix that, LOL).

This proverb was chosen because of its being coeval to the story itself in the first place. Although it has always been attributed to the Prophet Mohammad it was actually something that Francis Bacon first mentioned in one of his essays.

The second reason I chose it it's because, being Cat Egyptian (not black African), he was probably raised a Muslim. Chances are that if the butt bucket was not introduced by the previous pirate Balthasar, grandpa Cosimo, it would have been introduced it. Currently there are 3 Muslims on board - although Cat does not really believe, traditions and how you have been raised become habits: Cat, Yusuf (the tall guy with the pointy nose) and Husein (the short guy with the turban).

The third reason I chose this it's because of it's literal meaning... I think it's very direct and to the point. Not to mention poignant.

Somnambulism... is a real disease but it was not taken seriously or not seriously treated until the XIX century.

But we know from Shakespeare that people knew it existed!

Most of the time the action done during the condition of sleep walking is not connected to subconscious will at all. In fact, if you consider for example, La Sonnambula by Bellini... Amina really does not have reason to walk in the sleep, she is not guilt ridden and she does not care for Rodolfo either... she simply walks. Most modern cases are completely not connected to the person's wishes either.

In our case is Callista driven by the"troubled heart" sentence she overhears in her sleep or did she miss Cat so much that she went to see him? Was she simply so sleep deprived that the sleepwalking condition kicked in or was she only half asleep? Who knows... it went well anyways.

Remember the line: outside of danger everyone acts cool?

I think it also applies to love advise. How many times you go to a friend to ask: what should I do? - and they tell you: you should tell him.

Which is something they would never do themselves. LOL There you have it!

Lio has had a nice conversation with Foxy but much like Kes she has not said the "L" word yet, neither has Castalia. Ironically enough all these emotionally constipated and clueless women are pushing the little sister to go ahead and confess. Turns out Callista really is the bravest girl on Earth! Ha ha ha.

Pudic. Funny enough while other online dictionary don't have a clear definition except the one related to pudendal... wikitionary has the same definition as my old Oxford Dictionary.

Clear proof that old books and paper still are better than the web, when it comes to content (also proves that the web needs to go semantic and that the google engine is getting worse and worse day by day).

Btw I just came out of class where I told my students: If I say a complicated word and you don't know what it means... please stop me and ask me so that I may answer: go get a dictionary!!! - that's what my teacher always told me when I was a kid XDD it was the best thing that ever happened to me, let me return the favor. (honestly, I think it makes people more proactive).

The contemporary version of it would be: do not panic, google it! Ha ha ha.

As somebody already noticed on Smack Jeeves, Cat and Callista's story is a palindrome (go get your dictionary, now XD). But while Cat was physically giving things to Callista to help her metaphorically, Callista is emotionally giving help to Cat to raise him up psychologically.

Starting with the key point that these two are the same, share the same view and see each other like a reflection in the mirror, Cat develops immediate understanding and thinks: I have been there, I can help.

Callista, by reaction, enters as a round and does the same in return: I have been there, I can help.

So if he physically gave her shoes of the same size - metaphorically gave her legs to walk.

She gave him a feeling of the same size - metaphorically gave him legs to walk too.

The whole thing is also about them walking - hand in hand - without tripping (Callista on tongue and feet and Cat on low self esteem). He gave her his hand first, the second time, on the island, when he did not know what to do... she was the one who reached out and stretched her hand out to him.

Of course when you get comfy shoes, no matter how comfy they are you still have to get used to the fact you have comfy shoes, especially if you did not have them before. So it might take a few days to adjust (but luckily the shoes - in this case Callista - know how to put you at ease by being at ease) Cat is still a bit out of it, actually not a bit... he is so much out of it that he forgets his most important headband!!!

In short his waking up and rushing to work is the most gigantic "HUH?" he ever uttered.

But Callista, being the smart girl she actually is, since she understands that what they have been through is a delicate moment in life for both of them bur requires adjustment, decides to remove any form of embarrassment and puts the blame on the hair being too long. Isn't she a cutie?

Il Pirata Baldassarre - capitolo 16 A

Buona lettura,
ora che abbiamo finalmente messo mano sul capitolo 16 posso mettere nella sezione Plunder il capitolo 15.

Open publication - Free publishing - More commedia

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 16 A

Alright people,
here we go!

The release is out and you can click on the title of the post to read it on Smack Jeeves or follow the flash file to Issuu to download the pdf. (although I will be uploading the finished chapter in the download section once it's done - about to upload chapter 15 btw)

Open publication - Free publishing - More comedy

calendar work in progress...

So tonight get ready for update! :D

The flash version of the chapter will be up at around 8pm Singapore time.

Also I will fix chapter 15 with the correction to the last typos and will put it for download in the download section.

I just wanted to say that I finished compiling the volume and am currently working the freetalk. Are there any question you would like for me to address in these freetalk at the end of the volume? Otherwise I'll just talk about the usual games and the fan art received :D

Also I found the missing Foxy and Lio that I was supposed to upload yesterday. I did not rename it twice... I simply misplaced it LOL.

The poll to pick the design of the calendar is still up.

Let me know which version you would like to have for download and print.

calendar work in progress...

I must have saved one of the Lio and Foxy wrong.

No time to rescan now so here we go with Kane.

No wonder I had two of the same image called 7 and 8. I have to be more careful with the "save as".

anyways tomorrow is release day so I can take time to scan the extra Lio and Foxy to show again on the following update. :)

Okay, so, the semester starts today again.

It's a very heavy semester but I will try to run the classes as workshops - I found them to be more efficient than just vomiting information and then assign homework... beside what homework? The year 2 students don't even have time to go to the toilet this semester.

Neither do I... ha ha ha. Ops, too much information.

Anyway, wish me luck! I start a brand new class tomorrow and I haven't even gotten my art supplies yet. Maybe I could perform a few magic tricks! ha ha ha.

Alright, time to go get my coffee and print the rosters. See you later! :D

calendar work in progress: kane and castalia.

revisiting certain moments makes me nostalgic *_*

how about you?

So how is the sound hunt going? Did you find an actor or a voice actor whose voice inspire you?

Do you want me to start with who I have in mind? XDDD

Not fair, I already proposed the shallalas!

Anyways... the semester starts tomorrow. I had ordered art supplies with the school two weeks before I left for Italy... 5 weeks after I still haven't received anything but a lot of paperwork and not in the efficient way because the whole purchase system has changed.

But this reinforce my theory that laws and rules should not be retroactive except in extreme cases.

Happy sunday everyone today I will: clean the kitchen, sweep my floor, do another laundry, prepare the next update fixing all the typos.

By the way if you are an ipad user and you like this apps called Flipboard you can follow the blog and the comic via filpboard as well.

I am still trying to device an ideal way to show up on smart phones and tablets.

Very very soon I will.

calendar work in progress: Wes and Kes

How about today for the calendar work in progress I show you Wes and Kes?

So I will add some extra drawings of the "future" just like suggested under the previous post :) it should be fun.

How much fun am I having drawing skinny skinny legs XDDD.

But now that I think about it I have not yet decided on the layout.

Last year I made a desk calendar. What kind of calendar would you prefer this year? Horizontal or vertical?

Calendar work in progress: Cat and Callista

Alright since one person asked and Bonifacio VIII once said: silence gives consent.... I will show you the work in progress for the calendar.

So in the end I have decided to pick the cartoony style I had developed while testing art supplies (don't get me started on the art supplies because it's turning into an adventure).

These are some of the preliminary sketches for Cat and Callista.

I have decided the calendar should revisit some precious moments, what do you think? :D

The one ring og Fynn

As I promised I shall post here the updated version of elianthos' drawing of the one ring of Fynn. (click on the link to go leave a nice comment under her deviant art page :D).

As you may all be busy looking for videos on youtube for sounds and voices I was wondering... mh.... who knows if Pifo's voice will show up.

I am currently working on the concept for the calendar and maybe you would like to see the work in progress as it goes along. What do you say?

If you would like that I will post the whole thing from sketches to complete product! :D

The VOICE challenge

Alirght, people, it's time to get the game started!

It's very simple: you have to pick a voice that you think might go well with this or that character from the comic!

I already received two proposal so soon enough you'll see me linking videos from youtube and stuff... unless you find a better link for me to post with a phrase or a song or something that you deem to be perfect (otherwise you'll have to go with whatever I find).

Now I know that a lot of you will propose American actors/voice actors but you have to keep in mind that European voices sound different and you have no idea how much more different voices are in Asia!

So I truly hope to receive names and voices from around the World and yes, here I say it: I put no limitation on the language spoken.

So if let's say, for example, you find a hot actor or singer from Finland that you think could be perfect for our Fynn... please do send me a sample of his voice as it would be incredibly awesome to hear the doctor speak in his own language: apua!

The game is opened to all the characters!

I proposed the shalalas for example but if you can find a nice voice for Rose going fantastically mooon river on us, I would love to hear that too. Or if you have an Indian actor in mind for Quoque just bollywood me like crazy.

What do we do with all the sounds, except for having fun for a while? I was thinking, time permitting, of creating a short video associating the voice to a drawing, compiling it together... at first character by character. So if you pick a 10 seconds line per character that we could blast under the drawing, imagine how hilarious that would sound.

So here comes the CHALLENGE!

If you go hunt for sound and send me a link, indicate the timing of the line you want to pick. I will splice and edit the sound for you so that when we go to POLLS I can already put the sound under the drawing and the result should be something to giggle about for months to come.

At the very end, the most voted will be edited together!

So, are you in?

-------------------

Lettori italiani, serve una traduzione? Mandatemi le voci dei vostri doppiatori preferiti, se volete (lo se che ne avete un paio in mente, ne ho un paio in mente pure io XDDD).

-----------

I forgot the most important thing:

1) you can use song

2) you can send a youtube video

3) you can send any kind of link to a video or a sound file

where? You can post here, in the shoutbox, under the posts (any post), on facebook, on deviant art, via email at the usual dedadaniels(at) yahoo.com, or under the comments to the comic itself.

Castalia fan art

And we're back in business!

elianthos has created a new fan art, after a long time that she needed to dedicated to a painting for a show, and she delivers a preeeeeettyful Castalia in tears.

She calls this: I saw my lady weep. Click on the linked title to visit her Deviant Art page and leave her a nice message!

Btw she has also completed The Ring of Fynn (I shall post that tomorrow) and it looks pretty sweet in its new colors.

As far as I am concerned... I bought fabric last night and I will create a hinged cloth doll muah ah ah.

I will officially launch the voice matching game this afternoon then!

Back cover test and new game

Alright so... scanning gold leaf is not the best solution. I'll try and take a picture later.

I have finally updated the calendar until november 16th, that is when chapter 16 ends... hence the volume ends too. Can you believe this? Only a few more months and this story will be over. O_o

But in the meantime have you give a thought about the musical/voice game?

Whose voice do you think of, what voice resounds in your head when you read this comic? Harrison Ford? Vittorio Gassman? XDD

I have to be honest when I draw the Shallalas I keep hearing in my head the voices of the little Ururu Sarara (have you ever seen a Daikin commercial?) they are soooo cute! Big fan! Big fan!

Back to Work!

Alright, finally back to old schedule, it's time to list all the things I must do in the next few weeks.

- Front and Back cover to volume 5

- Cover to chapter 17

- translate the first 16 pages of chapter 16 in Italian

- render the rest of chapter 16 (already lettered in English BTW)

- start thinking about the new calendar (right?)

- plan new little games.

- finish the mermaid illustration... oh, but first... borrow a wacom tablet from school or I cannot do any of the above.

This is my thumbnail study of the cover for volume 5. Mostly color and pose. I need to add some Klimt like texture and I wonder if I should give Pea a fancier hairdo :D.

Btw remember when we played with the real beauty? Would you like to play the same game but with voices?

What kind of voice or whose voice do you associate with the characters?

Thar be interview (Martin)

I believe Emily had a question for Martin.

It arrived a bit late to be posted on pirate day - as I was packing - but I promised her he would answer her question so... here we go.

"I have a question for Martin:

What do you think Pea has done to your gloves?"

Martin: Mh... I honestly don't know what to expect, milady, because I gave away my gloves with the intention of keeping her mind occupied and her hands safe. She seemed very distressed and sad and I thought that a little bit of kindness might cheer her up. I hope she's alright, that's all I hope and next time, definitely, I will rescue her!

Back to work!

I am finally back in Singapore and the blog, the illustration, and everything else should go back to be active as it used to be... since the life of the hermit is the life for me. :D

This vacation cost me a lot of troubles and a wacom tablet (yes, I brought it with me thinking I would use but I was never given a chance to - I should have known better since I was going back to selfish altruism XDDD)... it was left behind in Turin, in my sister's house, due to the usual factor: but I wanted to do you a favor!

How ironic I had just posted about that.

So aside the fact my luggage was lost and found in 3 days, a bunch of good and bad things happened.

Amongst the good things it was my birthday and I got presents from my friends! (although I did not manage to meet them all).

Amongst the bad things, we kept getting stopped by security and the police for the weirdest reasons (the main one was probably that my friends are Chinese - it's true that Italians are biased but I guess they also have to thank them buddies from Motherland China for always trying to smuggle in some fake or dangerous stuff... let's not forget why Italian palm trees have all died in the first place and the poisonous milk and toothpaste from few years back).

But anyways not knowing where Singapore is... was a big problem for us. All the people I talked to said it was either Japan or China (and it's neither) which makes me think: I studied this stuff when I was in elementary school, don't they teach geography anymore?

So we go stopped in Amsterdam because Clyda had too many wires and cables in her bag and me... I was wearing a bandana.

In Sicily I prevented two policemen from taking away Adrian (he does look like a criminal XDD) right before boarding - managing not to miss our flight.

And everywhere we went we had to deal with so much crap!

At the same time when you find cool people... they are cool beyond imagination, like I've never seen in any other Country. Like the cobbler who fixed Clyda's shoes for free and was learning Chinese and Hebrew all by himself using the dictionary.

Or my parents who are 72 and 61 and are more tech savvy than any of my students. (yes, they are, don't pout!) and left my friend speechless.

Of course the best experience was with food.

I love Singapore but being an island with very little farmland it's a Country that is forced to import a lot... therefore the ingredients are not as fresh as they could be and being a vegetarian if you don't eat fresh veggies then you get sick... tomatoes are barely orange and lucky me I don't really like them, but then again when it comes to green veggies they don't taste like much and I guess this is the reason why they have to add gravy which, unfortunately, I don't like.

So I made my fill of vegetables with fresh olive oil and salt and nothing else when I was there! Ah, broccoletti, my only weakness.

Of course somebody discovered Gianduja chocolate. Din din face on all the time!

Gianduja is oursssssss!

Chocolate with hazelnut... imagine a square of nutella that melts in your mouth (but not as sweet and not as... industrial)....

Okay so they made these sets that came in 3 colors, since Turin seems to be still celebrating the 150th anniversary of Italy! (God bless them)

So the red one was bitter gianduja and the green one was coffee gianduja and the white one was a classic gianduja... and they were all super delicious - I am not a chocolate person either (I am a coffee and licorice lover instead).

As you may have imagined my sketchbook has become more of a scrapbook while I was there, increasing his weight to almost 2 kg... with tickets, napkins from coffee shops, chocolate wraps and museum tickets and such.

So Castalia... would you like some chocolate?

Yes, please, can I have some?

What what?

Chocolate is ourssssss!

Ourssssssssssssssss!

Yeah, mh, I didn't bring any back. Actually I did not manage to bring almost any of the stuff I wanted to back because it was very hard to pack on the last day and things were misplaced to help me out, and the sudden realization that my wacom wasn't there with me did not make an impression on anybody else except me and my friends who were positive I had packed it since, before we left Turin, we checked the room and it was empty!

Once again irony striking at the wrong moment should teach me a lesson about nagging in my comic against this and that... especially if I am going back to visit the source of my nagging ha ha ha ha.

Next time I will lock the door while I pack so nobody will help me... forget to pack things properly!

Btw if you are interested in seeing what my trip was like and all the stuff I saw... here's the link to my travel blog.

See in you 21 hours...

Hello mates,

I will be traveling today, going back to Singapore, so I won't be available for the next 21 hours.

Today we also received one of the saddest news ever: Steve Jobs is not longer amongst us.

So maybe, staying silent for a bit, would be a nice thing to do. I don't know how many of you use a Mac but, for me, are life savers. My life and my work have improved like there's no tomorrow ever since I started using macs. It cannot be denied: his machines work.

So people may thank him for little toys like iphone and ipad - that are nice things, true - but let's face it, I've had a macbook pro for 2 years and never had to worry about a single stupid thing that made my life a living Hell before: Installing and uninstalling, viruses, incompatibility, software crashing or freezing... and for every curse I throw at Gates for inventing things like Windows 7 (and I have a brand new pc in the office, with windows 7 that every 10 seconds comes up with some weird request and restarts by itself or does not allow me to do this and that) I sent ten thousand blessing to Steve Jobs.

Rest in peace, Steve, and thanks for making my life a whole lot better and show the world that normality exist and computers can be efficient and perfect for more than 2 years!

Final Curiosities for Chapter 15

This final pages only have one main curiosity: the doctor shouting "help" in Finnish.

At this point of the story where these guys come from and what they have been through should be quite clear even though I never fully explained their background in details... I play on your ability to use induction instead of the usual deduction method (that is also rather misleading and brings to assumptions rather than conclusions).

This chapter was quite tough to unravel: it's about assumptions.

I admit it, I am a big enemy of assumptions. When somebody tells me "I just assumed" I want to slap them in the face... usually I either get in trouble or my life will turn into a living Hell for a couple of weeks.

I'd rather have people ask me first or at least gather enough informations before coming to a conclusion.

Usually that happens for lost ability to focus or laziness - very often that will force me to work twice as much to fix the problem - because instead of thinking backward, using induction, searching for the source at its start people uses what is immediate and recent and therefore come up with their own solution... by using deduction.

What's the difference between deduction and induction? Deduction works like this: it rains, the floor will be wet. Induction works like this: the floor is wet, it must have rained.

In short what Sherlock Holmes uses is an induction, not a deduction: elementary my dear Watson. :D

Add on top that most of the times when you point out the fact that the deduction is actually damaging you I often hear this answer: gee, I was trying to do you a favor.

Now, some people are quite transparent and state what they want. I am like that. But I swear that whatever I sad for the first 26 years of my life must have been in Turkish Ottoman because for the sake of my future and many other things my life was complicated and turned into a nightmare. Hence with the best intention the worst damages were procured.

After that I decided to remove myself from all the people who wanted to do me a favor and my favorite line became: do me a favor, don't do me a favor!

I have been living by myself since I was 17, found true independence only at 25. It was hard.

So since this is a theme so dear to me I wanted to put it in the comic. Translate it in the lives of our pirate friends, and show just how much troublesome altruism can be when it does not meet the other person's demand.

I wonder if anything like that happened to you as well.

Il Pirata Baldassarre - Capitolo 15 - FINE

Open publication - Free publishing - More commedia

The Pirate Balthasar - Chapter 15 - END

Open publication - Free publishing - More comedy

Drunk Duck Awards Finals!

Hello there, mates!
Guess what? The finalist for the Drunk Duck Awards are finally up and The Pirate Balthasar had 3 nominations!

Apparently we were nominated for two more categories but it was my fault for not noticing that there were ties to be voted! (I wish they were announced in the quacks, I read them every day).

I'll probably miss on the whole voting thing too! XDD

Who knows what happens next...