Ecchan #6

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Matt

Tsukimi Ecchan

My site has been pretty quiet for a while now, due to me working on yokai paintings. Last year at this time I would be restarting the A-Yokai-A-Day project for the month of October, but the fact that I am doing this book means that the past A-Yokai-A-Day projects were successful enough. 🙂

Of course if you’re a backer of my Kickstarter project you’ve been getting a new yokai almost every day in your mailbox since July, when I started for painting this project. Now I am entering month 4 of non-stop daily yokai painting, and I have crossed the halfway point, with over 60 of the 100 final images completed. Right on schedule! Only 2 months left to go…

In the meantime, while I can’t show my new yokai paintings on my blog just yet (that’s private for backers of the project), I can show the other art I’m working on at the same time. Here is last month’s issue of Kounotori Ecchan no Eco-na Hanashi. It continues August’s theme of properly disposing of non-burnable garbage, and features a Fukui prefecture staple: the Echizen crab! If your wondering if Japan’s garbage disposal system is really so complicated that it takes months of comic strips just to explain it, the answer is YES!

I also did a tsukimi (moon-viewing) Ecchan for the footer text, which you can see to the left!

Anyway, here is the comic, and the English translation:

Panel 1: 陶器なども「燃やせないゴミ」だよ！
Ceramic-ware is unburnable garbage!
Panel 2: 割れてなくても、新聞紙などに包んで透明のゴミ袋に「キケン」と書こう！
Even if it’s not broken, wrap it up in newspaper and put it in a clear plastic bag marked “Dangerous!”
Panel 3: ゴムや皮の製品も「燃やせないゴミ」！
Rubber and leather are also unburnable garbage!
Panel 4: ゴミを細かくする機械にひっかからないよう、長いゴミは適当に切ってね！
Cut long items up into small enough pieces that they won’t get caught in the trash processing machines!

Ecchan #6

Kiku Chikyu Haku 2011

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Matt

You may remember from last year and the year before, around this time, I uploaded a poster for an event called Kiku Chikyu Haku — the Chrysanthemum Earth Festival. This year I designed the poster again, but I went with a very different feeling this time. This year they really wanted to reach out to kids, and make the poster reflect that it’s a fun, family event. For the poster this year I went with sort of a Where’s Waldo style poster that also serves as a map of the festival grounds. It was fun to get into all of the minute details, and to add some fun things too, like the 5 “Kiku Rangers,” a Fukuiraptor, an Echizen crab, and Ecchan the stork from my comic series.

If you’re in the area on October 9th, please come and enjoy the festival!

Kiku Chikyu Hakue 2011

LoveDen 2011 Poster

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Matt

I worked on one more project during August that I didn’t have time to post about last month, though I wanted to. Once again, the Fukui Railway held its speed-dating-train service, this year in conjunction with it’s “BeerDen” izakaya-train (thus the beer in the poster). I did the previous 2 posters for LoveDen, and I was happy to be asked to do it for a 3rd year in a row. This is the result:

LoveDen 2011

Last year’s LoveDen was another great success, and as you can see in the photo, a couple who met on LoveDen recently got married! Let’s hope this year’s event was as successful!

Ecchan #5

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Matt

O-Bon Ecchan

August went by in a flash, but looking back on it feels like looking back on a whole year. I painted the August episode of Ecchan no Eco-na Hanashiin the end of July, but with the Kickstarter project taking up the whole of my attention I wasn’t able to find time to post it until now.

This month features a Bon-dancing, happi-clad Ecchan decked out for a summer festival, and the comic you see below. Enjoy! We’re continuing on the same theme of how to properly separate your garbage for disposal. This month’s topic: dangerous items!

It features the return of two previous characters: Frog and Monkey. Translation is as follows:

Panel 1: 燃やせないごみだけど、このまま捨てると危ないね。
This is unburnable garbage, but it’s too dangerous to just throw it out like this…
Panel 2: こうすればいいよ！包丁の刃には布やテープを巻いて・・・
Try this! Wrap the knife’s blade in cloth or tape…
Panel 3: 割れたものは紙や布に包んだら・・・
Wrap broken things in paper or cloth…
Panel 4: 透明の袋に入れて「燃やせないごみ」の日に出そう！危ないから「キケン」と書いてね！
Put them in a clear bag on your unburnable trash day. It’s dangerous, so write “KIKEN” on it!

Ecchan #5

Kickstarter Success!

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Matt

464 backers!

My Kickstarter project for The Night Parade of One Hundred Demonshas wrapped up with great success! As you can see, we finished with 464 backers and over $18,000 in funds to get the book published! I was hoping to raise $2000 to help offset the cost of having the book made with Amazon.com’s CreateSpace, and thanks to the incredible response I will be able to cover all of the costs, and I’ll be able to use the extra money to get better options when printing to book, such as the highest quality hardcover copies for the backers, and help in marketing the book on Amazon.com and possibly even brick-and-mortar retail stores when it is finished. I’m really excited for that, but of course there is a long way to go and a lot of work to do before the book is done.

I want to give a very special thank you from to bottom of my heart to all of my backers and patrons during the Kickstarter project. Without your support there is no way I would have been able to do this on my own, and because of your help the book will be better than I had initially hoped. Thanks to all of you who are helping me make this dream come true!

Yes, that says 901 percent!

Update on The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Matt

Great news! We’ve made it to our goal of $2000 in not even five days! I can’t believe how quickly we got there! But that doesn’t mean we’re done just yet. We still have until the end of August to raise as much for this project as we can. So if you haven’t pledged yet, here’s a few reasons why:

1) You can pre-order the paperback and get a free copy of the ebook at no extra cost!

2) You can order a copy of the special hardcover edition, which will only be available for this one time!

3) You can order art prints of the yokai in the book — also only available during this Kickstarter project!

4) You get to see exclusive updates and previews of all of the yokai in the book — even if you only pledge $1 you will get access to updates about yokai and the making of this book which won’t be shown on the blog.

5) And of course, you get to show your support for the project!

If you’re planning on buying the book eventually, it is worth your while to pledge now and be involved with the making process and all of the updates along the way. And it helps me out a lot by raising publicity for the project and supporting my artwork!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/osarusan/the-night-parade-of-one-hundred-demons]

Thanks again for all of your support, everyone!

Kickstarter Update

Posted on August 4, 2011 by Matt

The Kickstarter project (link) is going strong! After only 3 days, we’ve already reached over 60% of the goal! If you haven’t joined up yet, remember, you can only sign up to be a backer until the end of this month, so don’t delay too long!

This week so far I’ve released a few new paintings to the backers of the project: the Jorougumo, the Tsuchigumo, and the Baku. Here’s a little preview of the art! If you are a backer of the project you can see the full image on the Kickstarter project page.

Thanks so much for all of your support so far! And if you haven’t decided to join yet, I hope you’ll do so!

Jorougumo (detail)

Tsuchigumo (detail)

Baku (detail)

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Author Archives: Matt

Ecchan #6

Kiku Chikyu Haku 2011

LoveDen 2011 Poster

Ecchan #5

Kickstarter Success!

Update on The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

Kickstarter Update