Saturday, February 24, 2007

Japanese Toilets

Okay, so I've been reading a little about Japanese toilets lately from blogs (and 'vlogs') of people who travel a lot. On the one hand, it would be an experience to test out the 'bum wash' feature, but on the other, I'm not sure I want to. Anyways. Here are the next few comics. I'm putting them up here because my current website is not supporting the mass of pictures I want to put on it. So until I get a better website (a la design my own using dreamweaver) the comics will probably go here. Keep in mind I want to end the series with a bang, with a graphic novel explaining everything. So until then, mysteries abound!!

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Okay so the above comic continues Nick and Jen's perilous pursuit of the diploma, through the obstacles of weird and wacky (ugh, sounds like the 90s) professors. Sometimes I wonder how some people are allowed to teach.

Here's what the teacher says in the middle and last cells:
Teacher: Hello Class. I would tell you my name but I find names constraining and a product of our shallow and materialistic society. However if you must be a conformist, you may call me MOONPRANCER.

Nick: This is gonna be a long semester.


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Okay, so for this one the professor was kind of a Doc Brown meets the Borg. I had this idea a while back and originally the professor was bald, but the einsteinesque hair just kind of happened with the process. Plus I finally figured out that the spot color was fromt the KOOM. That spot color had messed up the file so much that after a few tries I finally figured it out. No more downloading 'free comic expressions' from the internet without spot checking.


OKAY, so I am going to exclude the next comic in the series because it was done so quickly and had a low grade of quality that I actually winced when I saw it in the newspaper. On we go then.
In the comic that was excluded, Nick and Jen run into eachother as they cross a corner.
I had needed a way for them to meet, but hadnt written anything or sketched anything about it. The deadline had
come and I needed something so I came up with that. Oh well.

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Okay so this comic continues from the first, showing the intro.

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In this one I got a little random. You know, spice things up, keep readers on their toes. It got a little too manga-equse, probably.

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Okay, so this and the next comic were probably the most important for the semester, laying the groundwork for future semesters and setting up the mysteries. There's only so much info I can put in each comic, but I tried my best. However post-fact it seems like I need to re-arrange the cells as it doesnt help the story telling. Eh. Well it seemed logical at the time.

So here's what's being said:
Cell2, right below the coffee shop at sunset, looking over the table:
Nick: I found them when I was heading home one day. The weird thing is, they speak spanish, and write it, but their spanish is bad, as in incorrect. Sometimes it's really bad.

Cell3, right of the table cell:
Nick: They don't speak english, but I dont think spanish is their first language either.

Cell4, Jen, next to the cafe at sunset:
Jen: The entire fact that they speak at all is weird. I guess I wasn't freaking when I heard them say something. It that all that's strange about them?

Cell5, right under Jen Speaking:
Nick: Nope. Sometimes they'll be gone for a few days, then just come back. Sometimes they take stuff like my ipod, and other devices. One day they took my toothbrush. For all I know they're making a nest somewhere. I didn't think anything of it until I saw something really weird. Take a look at this:

Cell6, the book picture:
Nick: This is from my history book. This tablet dates back to around 4,000 years ago, in middle america. Apparently the writing is in an unknown language, with no known linguistic roots.

Cell 7, with the fuzz drinking coffee:
Jen: What are they?


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This one kind of futhered the mystery. I didnt have the time to do the photoshop skills I wanted to, but it might be revisited and now I have the photoshop skills needed to tell it like it should be, pertaining to drawing/designing scrolls and whatnot. Now I did do my research on this. Etruscan paintings and whatnot. Thats probably the one use I had for the humanities class I had to take. I must say that History 101 was better than Humanities 151 any day. It told a lot more history, and there was a lot less preaching. Ugh. Anyway, here's the translation since the text is so small and I am having trouble getting it just big enough to read on the web:

Cell1/Library:
Jen: So you said the tablet was from Middle America, 4000 years ago?
Nick: yeah, apparently the images show up in several of the major ancient civilizations.

Cell2, right beside:
Nick: So far I've found that the Minoan, Incan, Mayan, Egyptian, and even Persian Empires had similar images on their walls. The images of these things aren't divine by nature, but somehow they interacted with all of these civilizations. Well, I take that back, two out of five thoughts they were divine.

Cell3, Jen, right beside:
Jen: Take a look at this. Apparently some images were seen in these cliff formations that resembled Anazasi ruins were in the middle of Mexico. These ruins were in the wrong country, far removed from the Anazasi.

(Michael's note: The Anasazi ruins are in New Mexico and date back to about 4000 years ago, this is significant. No anasazi ruins were found in mexico in real life, the anasazi were directly linked to North America and you had to climb up STEEP stairs to get to the tops of the city ruins that were carved literally into the mountains. Hence, this is significant.)

Cell4, Directly under the library:
Nick: Here are some images from the Incan and Minoan civilizations. The Incan is in an unknown language, and the Minoan is in Linear A, another unknown language. The odd thing is, most of these start 4000 years ago, and lead up to 100 B.C.

(Michael's Note: Yes, that is Linear A on the minoan picture of the girl holding the fuzz, I did my research!)

Cell5, fuzzes looking down:
Nick: and for some reason, the languages seem linked.

Cell6, Egyptian Scrolls:
As if there's a link between these civilizations and the creatures. Odd...

Cell7, Fuzzes:
Fuzz1, Red, Paco: Tenemos una problema. (We have a problem)
Fuzz2, green, Taco: Si. (yes.)

Until next time then!

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