So, this is the latest interesting stuff that’s been going on.

Last week, I bought 6 games for Nintendo Wii. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Zack and Wiki, Both Resident Evil 4 and Umbrella Chronicles, and House of the Dead 2&3. I bought them from someone on Craigslist who was selling his entire video game collection and getting out of the hobby altogether. Total cost for all 6 games: $75. Can’t beat that! They all work fine and are in perfect condition. I’m playing Mario Galaxy now and it is every bit the masterpiece it was purported to be. I’m ashamed that I’m only playing it now instead of when it came out, but considering how little I paid for it, things seem to have worked out ok. Really looking forward to New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2!

On the weekend I participated in a Manga Workshop in Toronto taught by Svetlana Chmakova, who I had met at the Anime North manga workshop last month when she appeared as a suprise panelist. She’s a cool person and a great teacher. I managed to draw the prototype version of an 8 page manga about a slacker artist who loves comic books but goes to a fancy art school and has problems with girls. Go figure, right? The initial idea was a group effort generated by the class, and it spoke to me to I ran with it for my final project. Some time this summer I will finish a good copy of it and you’ll all be able to see the thrilling conclusion. Svetlana said that I was pretty advanced for this class, and I appreciated that because it’s something I probably needed to hear. I still learned a bit and had a lot of fun getting into a serious groove with some manga drawing for a solid block of time.

On Monday I finished the last class of the cartooning class I was teaching on behalf of another company in Toronto. The class as a whole was not well organized, with too wide a range of ages as I noted in an earlier post. By the time it was over, only 4 students remained. But, the ones who did stay liked it a lot. I taught a lesson about creating comic strips, using blank templates I created, and everyone completed more than one page. Most notable was this one really young girl who came up with this hilarious story about a heart (that is, a typical Valentines day-style heart, but with a face, arms, and legs) who goes to different stores around town. Based on my instruction, she drew all the backgrounds and everything like she was supposed to, and took my suggestion of having the heart’s house look like a box of chocolates. In the midst of the heart’s travels, the story’s narration abruptly informs the audience that the heart is old, and has died. Wow, obviously I was not expecting that! The whole town cried (in a panel completely comprised of “Whaa whaa whaa boo hoo” and so forth”) and we are informed that, and I quote, they “did not jump for joy“. The last panel is the heart’s tombstone that says “The End”. I couldn’t have made this up if I tried. It was great. The class wasn’t perfect but I’ll miss those kids.

So I figured I was done with teaching for awhile, but maybe not. We’ll see.

More later.

Sayonara.