Comic Series


 

Latest Posts

My Novels

Robots and Vampires:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00NDLMDT4

https://books2read.com/u/m2r98o

The Standard Tech Case Files: The Black Coats:

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00VTWMR7W

https://books2read.com/u/3npdlx

The Standard Tech Case Files: The Dead and The Damned

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MRSBC7I

A Little Humility Goes A Long Way, Eh?

Okay, so the full-length, YouTube process video I had planned for today is a bust. It requires a far greater level of technical skill than I have at the moment, at least in regards to making videos. So! That is what I’m going to spend the next week learning how to do.

In the meantime, please enjoy these two timelapse videos.

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

Testation

Hello all you happy people! The smog blanketing my city right now has left me feeling a little under the weather, so we are running a bit behind. But we are back with GiTS: SAC!

I was going to do a post about Alpoge and him providing a discreet counterexample to the Jacobian Conjecture today, but the more I thought about, the more I wondered what the hell the point was? Boosters are going to boost and doomers are going to doom, and the much more mundane reality of Alpoge’s discovery will be totally ignored. Frankly, neither group is worth my time or effort, so why bother?

I’m still going to do that proper process video, though. It’ll be out later today.

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

Directed by Kenji Kamiyama. Though this might be the series director, not the episode director? Not sure how it works in Japan.

We’ve seen spider tanks, now witness scorpion tanks.

Apropos of nothing, GiTS tanks would destroy WH40K tanks.

Batou is one hundred percent right. Conformity is for chumps and Americans.

I don’t think mechanical lubricant for a machine’s joints will effect it’s logic circuits much, to be honest.

As much as I love ‘komas, I don’t think walking tanks will be that effective in real life.

Togusa and Batou have a great dynamic in this series, I love it.

Also, the tech reported earlier that the Tachikoma’s have no individual quirks and that’s just obviously wrong?

Given the current state of procurement in liberal democracies, politicians thinking they can defend the country with their pride would be an improvement.

Yeah, they’re not going to do that, Aramaki. Companies don’t give a damn about collateral damage, they only care about their protecting their status.

Ah, Saito. At least he gets to do something in the series, even if it’s just look like a fool half the time.

Told you, Aramaki.

Nah, Elon’s bullshit beats this product demo any day of the week.

Poor Tachikoma.

Something we will have to remember as AI gets better is that, while they are going to be very human, they are also going to be very strange compared to us.

So Kago is twenty-eight, yeah? That’s an adult in Japan, I’m pretty sure. He should be free to ignore his parents by that point, and I’m sure that a weapons developer would have the insurance and funds to buy a body on his own. So this whole business with the tank is kind of bullshit it if you ask me. I know Japan is a patriarchal society, but they’re not that patriarchal. Adults can and do make their own choices over their.

Ah, time for the gratuitous ass shot.

Sticky foam. I’m surprised they didn’t try that earlier. Apparently, Batou is too.

Yeah, that’s a shout-out to the movie.

Aside from Section 9, nobody in this episode is competent.

I don’t think Kago was going to kill his parents, but the Major couldn’t take the risk. She had to kill him.

Screenplay by Junichi Fujisaku

Spider-koma, spider-koma/Does whatever a spider-koma can…

Ah, poor Tachikoma. First he gets left behind, then he gets squished by a giant scorpion tank.

Not Too Shabby, Eh?

I’m getting better all the time. I still can’t draw straight to save my life, but I’m getting better.

It’s all thanks to Clip Studio Paint’s 3D models… and finally learning how to break a reference down.

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

That’s Some Bad T. Rex, Harry

I understand why so many paleoartists shrink wrap their dinos now: drawing accurate skin and meat over just bones is hard!

Ah well. Here’s my shark-shaped T. rex. In Canadian colours, of course.

I’ll have the next live-blog of SAC up later this afternoon, and I’ll have my post analyzing Levent Alpoge’s work on the Jacobian Conjecture and what it actually means in terms of A.I. and mathematics on Friday.

I’ll also have my first real art video up on Friday, combining all the things I’ve learned over the last two years into what I hope is a helpful tutorial/learn along.

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

Tomorrow, Greymon

Hooo boy, that one was a pain in the ass. Also, I need to adjust my watermark settings.

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

Junk Jungle II + Megatech Machine I + II

Hello all you happy people! We’re here with another GiTS live-blog, this time taking about the newest episode from The Ghost In The Shell (2026)!

As this blog is going to be all about cyberpunk and cyberization for the next few months, I’m going to have a post later on the Jacobian Conjecture and the very silly responses I’ve seen about it from both A.I. doomers and the pro-A.I. guys.

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

And we’re back! This time to witness the most famous fight scene in anime history that they inexplicably cutoff last episode.

The assassin in the movie looked vaguely South America; this guy looks more generically Japanese. You know, for an anime guy.

Flyin’ Majors!

Machine pistols suck

Well, that broke the hypnosis, dumbass

Oh my Godzilla, they’re going to kill our hero in only the third episode! Bahahaha no, I’m kidding.

Ah, it is so hard coming from Yoko Kanno to this. No offence to other composers, but Kanno just blows you all out of the water.

Togusa shows up just in time!

The assassin is bleeding from his guts. Your definition of ‘fine’ is different than mine, Major.

Those are some ugly ass crows, man.

The concept of hackable ghosts is one part of the GiTS worldbuilding I never bought into, personally.

I think, character wise, this should be reversed. Togusa is the ex-cop; he should be one the concerned about leads and investigations. Motoko is the experienced counter-terrorism soldier; she should be the one taking about terrorist reprisals and showing people who’s boss.

I’ve never understood this sequence, either here or in the manga. The Major already knows that Togusa thought she was going to die; that’s what that earlier goofball sequence was for. So why are they discussing it again here?

80’s hair, man. One of the defining failures of humanity.

Do electric cars still need spark plugs?

Ah, our first look (sort of) at the mysterious super-hacker

The Puppet Master is much less hammy in the original manga.

I believe this qualifies as breach of contract, Puppet Master.

Aramaki could give Batman lessons

Sucks to be you, Batou.

Ishikawa’s voice is really low and growly in this show.

I’m glad the poor garbageman’s plight is treated a little more seriously here than in the manga.

Okay, so I’m going to be blunt here: the likelihood of AI’s rebelling against humanity Terminator or The Matrix style is pretty low. A greater problem, as we’re seeing right now with generative-AI, is people offloading all of their cognitive functions to the machines. They already do that with TV and Facebook memes and AI is just going to make it worse.

People are born stupid; AI will (at least in the short-term) make us even dumber.

A whole movie on a floppy disk?

Also, much like Shirow Masamune himself, I’m not sure AIs would understand the concept of free time.

This is also played a little more seriously than in the manga.

Ah, The Making of A Cyborg… but in true, Shirow-Masamune-data-dump-while-also-being-porn, style.

Whyfore is the nurse wearing panties instead of pants? At least put a skirt on, damn.

I do not remember the goofy security bot from the manga.

That is one horny ass cyborg

…I can’t believe this is being aired on TV in Japan. The Internet is less horny than this show.

In the manga, this scene was just Motoko and the nurse.

Autoplay must die a horrible death.

Agumon!

Aside from putting Agumon right at the bottom of my page, I think that turned out pretty good, yeah?

Working from references is definitely the way to go. And this reference I pulled from my copy of Digimon Story: Time Stranger, so I’m much less worried about copy right issues.

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

Section 09

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my coverage of Ghost In The Shell! Today we’re starting a live-blog of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the anime series that came out in 2002.

As a reminder, GiTS has five different but valid continuities: the original manga plus sequels, the movies, SAC, Arise, and the new anime series. SAC and Arise are the only two that don’t directly adapt anything from the manga. However, SAC has a lot more in common tonally with the original manga than the movies or Arise ever did. In fact, until the new anime series came out, SAC was the most faithful to the manga adaptation we had (ignoring the Playstation game)

And as always guys, if you want to support me you can subscribe to the website, Patreon, or buy me a hot chocolate.

One of the most famous intros in modern anime. Though truth be told, I prefer Rise to Inner Universe.

The CGI is fantastic, especially for 2002. It blows the CGI in Innocence out of the water!

The series composer for SAC was Yoko Kanno, which is why it’s better than anything else before or sense.

Ah, more sociology babble.

The series is set in 2030, as opposed to the manga which is in 2029.

A bleeding heart, the Major is not.

This is the first time Mary Elizabeth McGlynn voiced Motoko, and she’s a huge improvement over the movie actress.

In general, the voice acting in this series is much better than the movies.

Kubota isn’t from the manga; he was added for this series.

One of the advantages of a 26-episode series is you get to develop characters you can’t in a 10-chapter manga or a two-hour movie. We’ll actually get to see Paz and Borma do shit

I know they’re robots, but like, this is still pretty violent for TV

Yeah, that chick is dead.

The voice actors clearly had some fun with the dialogue; the dubs don’t quite match the subs

Batou, buddy, the Major is going to have your ass

I confess, I do not care for the battle teddy

I don’t think Aramaki has grandkids

Wow, that’s an old style phone

The pitfalls of cyborization: entirely new categories of fetishes

Trust the cameras over eyewitness statements, Motoko

I’m surprised the possibility of the Minister’s brain being switched didn’t occur to anybody sooner

That guy looks like one of the dudes from Hall and Oates

Aramaki is entirely too good at his job.

Screenplay by Kenji Kamiyama

Lithium Flower is the best ending song every and I will fight anybody who disagrees.

Honestly, it’s the fandom’s mission statement. Why are are here? Why are we GiTS fans?

Because she’s so cold and human/It’s something humans do….

And now on to the best part of the show… Tachikmotic Days!

It’s true. Verbalization is primitive.

Tiny philosophical goobers, I love ’em.

Quick Process Timelapse Video!

Hello all you happy people! Here is my quick timelapse video on me breaking down a reference and using to draw a goofy looking character.

This took me an hour and a half to draw, and is only forty-five seconds of video. How do people make, like, ten minute drawing videos?

The colouring section at the end is just me goofing around.

Anyway, if you enjoy my nonsense and want to support my art journey, you can subscribe to the website, Patreon or buy me a hot chocolate

By Jove, I Think I’ve Got It

Obviously, I have a lot more work to do. But this is the first time ever that a character I’ve drawn by hand actually looks like what I’m trying to draw. And, even more importantly, I’ve learned a process for studying that’s really going to help going forward. I’m actually going to post a video on it on Friday!

Not because it’s a new method (it’s just breaking down a reference) but because passing on what you’ve learned is the tax.

And as always guys, if you want to support my art you can subscribe to the website, Patreon or buy me a hot chocolate.