Archives - May 2009
May 27th, 2009 - TRT3 Is In The Warehouse
I went down to the warehouse
this afternoon to take
delivery of the books.
They're in.
I opened the cartons
and checked them.
They're
.
.
.
fine.
I guess I was kinda
expecting something to go wrong.
Like missing pages or
black ink becoming red
for some reason.
But yah.
They're fine and
waiting to be distributed.
Now comes the scary part.
As I stood in front of this
wall of cartons, I couldn't help
but wonder to myself,
"How the hell am I going
to sell all of these?!!!"
Anyway,
we're one more step closer, folks.
Check back soon!
May 21st, 2009 - My "Secret" Arcade
Everybody has a secret arcade
they go to.
What's a secret arcade?
Well, a secret arcaade is that
arcade hidden from view.
One that requires knowledge of the
local neighborhood to sniff out,
assuming you have an arcade sniffing nose
like mine. (There is a specific scent.)
It's probably not on the ground level,
which immediately presents a steep
barrier to entry for those
not adventurous enough to venture
inside "buildings you have no business
going into".
And being an arcade, there are
few windows that can clue you
to figuring out its existence in
said building.
Besides, arcade gamers are
extremely weak when exposed
to bright sunlight.
Simple shoryukens get messed up.
Cancels become impossible to pull off.
Wall raping occurs.
The secret arcade has probably been around
for more than 7 years, more likely
close to a decade.
They sprouted out between 1998 to 2000,
somewhere after the Asian financial crisis
and possibly bought over used
cabinets from older defunct arcade
operators who committed suicide
or worse, decided to turn their
arcades into LAN gaming centers.
It won't have every latest game,
maybe just one that earns money.
But you'll be able to find some relics
strewn all over its really badly
decorated interior. (Virtua Cop 1, anybody?)
It will have just the right mix of
games to bring in a niche pocket
of gamers young and old, from
Puzzle Fighter to Silent Scope
to those crap mahjong games that
don't really feature any stripping.
Take a walk into such an arcade
and you'll find folks tucked away
in their little corners, fighting
their own battles with machines
that already sucked out a lot of
their money.
Heck, you may even find some
old men sleeping on the seats
of some Daytona USA cabinets.
Yeah, everybody has a secret arcade
they go to.
But two days ago, my secret arcade
shut down for good.
The pic up there is a minute
before the shutters finally came down.
And I am sad.
Now I have to go to regular arcades
like regular folks.
May 14th, 2009 - Tourist 3 Big Update!
So after spending a whole day
at the printers, I am somewhat
glad to report that the press check
went...seemingly well.
All pages pass my QC.
I say that with trepidation
because you know how things can
still fuck up before the book
lands in your hands.
That's a mock up sample above,
by the way.
Yeah, it's kinda thick.
About the thickness of the
first 2 books combined.
I really like the paper stock
and the cover material.
It has a nice weight to it.
Makes it feel SUBSTANTIAL.
Ha ha.
Well, since we're in the
homestretch, let's get some
details out of the way.
If you've been following the
development of my getting Tourist 3
in print, you'll realize that
I haven't disclosed how much
I'd be pricing it.
Doing the math (or "matts"),
I have decided to stick with
the original intended retail
price of $17.90.
See, if things worked out
properly without all the mishaps
and delays, that would allow
me to finally make a teeny bit of
money off doing comics, while
upping the print quality
of this book significantly.
However, the total cost
has now surpassed the overrun budget
to the point where
EVERY copy of TRT3 I manage to sell
WILL lose me money.
Can someone say "Factory Records"?
(Don't sweat it if you didn't get
that last question. You will.)
Some of you suggested I just increase
the price so I can cover the new costs.
I don't think that will work
because I don't believe people
would buy a local comic book that
goes above twenty.
Besides,
I kinda like the $17.90 price point.
And I'd like to make this the
standard price point for future
Tourist books at this improved quality.
So $17.90 it's going to be.
I'm gonna try getting into
Books Kinokuniya, Ani-Play and G&B
again if possible.
If I'm rejected, we'll work
something out. Maybe selling out
of a van or something.
Adrian almost tried doing that.
Remember how I said you guys
can help me when the book is out?
Well, if anybody owns a shop or
knows of folks who run sole proprietorships
and is interested in stocking this,
I would GREATLY appreciate it
and would make it worth your while.
It doesn't have to be a comic shop
coz the Tourist isn't really a comic!
Ha ha ha ha. Seriously.
Email me if you're interested
or if you have any ideas how
to get these books further out there.
At this stage in the game,
I am all about getting readership
over profits (which is a moot point).
So...
could you start spreading the word
like you guys always do?
I wouldn't be doing this still
if it weren't for you all.
Till the next update.
Thanks for reading and sticking it out!
May 9th, 2009 - Wallpaper Modified!
OK, lots of you have pointed out
that the Loti Wonder Wall wallpaper
is a bit...spoilt.
"The kids' heads are kinda getting
cut off at the bottom. Fix it!"
Yeah, I guess I designed these
wallpapers for Mac OSX
and not Windows.
Ha ha ha.
Alright, I finally found
some time to mod it, so please
download them again if you
experienced the aforementioned
"problems".
(They're in the Products section.)
Don't worry. I'll be sure
to make Windows/Mac friendly
wallpapers in the future!
May 6th, 2009 - Nothing Is Impossible
Especially when you try and try
and try again.
I finally broke open the
Tsubtsubu Mikan Pocky (above),
which means things have taken
a turn for the better.
Printing of Tourist 3 has
commenced again and I now
have a definitive solution
and time to completion.
The proofs now look
EXACTLY like how I want them.
If no other mishaps happen,
you should be able to get
your hands on the book by
early June.
Thank you to everyone who
offered help and an even
bigger THANK YOU to Gordon!
(I owe you a copy of part 3.)
Pricing will be finalized soon.
It's going to cost a little more
because of the MUCH higher grade
paper stock I'm using.
But if you've been following my
journey to get this book printed,
you'll realize that I'm going
to lose money on each book
even at the price I would like
to sell it at.
Let's not get into money issues
right now.
We can see the finish line.
So let's head towards it.
May 2nd, 2009 - KOF XII Arrives
KOF XII is in Virtualand now.
Actually, it arrived last Tuesday.
But of course, I was too busy inking to
head down to Bugis to check it out.
You have to go see it to fully
appreciate what SNK Playmore did.
After eleven past iterations,
the sprites are finally completely redrawn
but still retain that 2D pixel look that
works so very well here.
The 20 character roster is rather small.
No, make that very small for a KOF game.
The console versions will include
some additional ones like Elisabeth and Mature.
However, don't expect it to hit the
66 character roster like Unlimited Match.
That being said, KOF XII is going
to be the base platform that future
KOFs will be expanded upon.
And I'm really looking forward to
what that future brings.
It's amazing what the Taito Type X2
is capable of, don't you think?
It being the arcade platform for
pretty much all the current 2D fighting games.
Singapore still doesn't seem to
have a Taito Viewlix cabinet to
officially house these games though.
But I'm asking too much considering
the economic condition we are in
and will accept the clones our
arcades have craftily built.
