While fooling around looking for solid information that the competition was actually open to International Artists. I overlooked the fact that the Pixiv competition page is in English, which is much easier to read that auto-translate text from Google Chrome.

There's very little information on the page beside these rules:

Draw a comic of any genre or size.
Submit your comic with the Japanese tag 講談社まんがスカウトFes. Entries without this tag will be disqualified.

You may upload the comic in any size.
Please only use characters and stories you have created.

Submit the comic using pixiv’s manga submission function.
The comic needs to be a complete story but can be any number of pages.

The winner will be required to submit their comic in grayscale, at least 300 dpi in TIFF, PSD, or EPS format.

You may submit more than 1 entry.

No indication whether they want Japanese dialog (which would be a pain in the butt) or whether the reading direction should take precedence in the page layout (easier to go with full page width panels).

Five magazines are involved with the competition. Each magazine will select a winner who will have their work presented on Pixiv Comic's Top page with an overall winner receiving a cash prize (unless they cannot decide on an overall winner).

The competition closes on Sunday March 31st 23:59 JST (14:59 GMT)

I've just scanned in the first finished page for The 36th Chamber Part III and I'm surprised by the amount of pencil that is still visible. I've grown used to it being less noticeable as I prefer to use 9H pencils, but have been using 4H due to my supply of 9H pencils running out and the nearest craft shop from which I had purchased my pencils closing down several months ago.

It's time to put on an extra thick jumper and check on your elderly neighbours to make sure they're okay as Winter is coming! I learned this as I walked through the park and could barely see anything six metres away from me due to the fog (which was surprisingly confined within the park).



Following months of seemingly endless dental appointment I have been fitted with a crown. Far from being content to have become a King among teeth my rear two is currently battling for supremacy with the tooth directly above due in no small part to the crown leaving no room for that tooth which is exceptionally long.

( ◕ � ◕ )

I've had an Obitsu head for over a year, but it wasn't until today that I was finally able to fix the head into a body as my TTL 1/6 headless body arrived this afternoon.



The figure was listed as a "Small Breast Nude Body Figure" although when compared to Obitsu bodies it seems more like a medium. The only problem (other than toddlers running of with it) is the fact that I don't have any clothing suitable for the figure, so it's a good thing I don't have a Hentai Woody.

This somewhat large package arrived earlier today which I found left sitting on the stairs for anybody to kick down. I haven't seen James Cameron's Prometheus and have been waiting for a copy of the DVD to come through the post, although this box is obviously to large for a DVD. ( ◕ ‿‿ ◕ )

The cover for Stir Fried Product #6 is almost complete!

Just a few more tweaks to be made before everything is ready and I can go back to complaining about the Black Labrador Retriever that pounces at me each time I walk to the Kitchen to make a cup of Tea!

The Games of the 30th Olympiad have finished (although the Paralympics begin at the end of the month) and I had planned to participate in a few games myself, however this did not work out as well as I'd had hoped, especially as most of the games required more than one participant.


( ｡◕ ‿ ◕｡ )

I received a letter from the Japan Information and Cultural Centre through the post today. They had sent me a Final Fantasy IX keychain and also TEN leaflets for this years Manga Jiman competition which thematically ties in with the London 2012 Olympic Games which are just 27 days away!


I now have two classic Board Games, the original version of Monopoly (which I haven't played for fear that I'll ruin or lose any of the pieces) and an original version of Cluedo (with lead pipe made of real lead and revolver that's actually a pistol) which are both 100% complete which is more than can be said for Trivial Pursuit which consists of a loose board, the pieces which are secure in the original bag and 192 question cards which aren't that easy to keep in order without the original container.

This past weekend I attended the MCM London Comic Con (as I heard it described over the tannoy) where one-hundred and thirty small press exhibitors were all squeazed into the corner of exhibition hall. As the event is primarily a promotional show there was an abundance of advertising for upcoming films such as Prometheus which you can see in Cinemas from this Friday (as early as 00:05) and G.I.Joe: Retaliation which you can see in Cinemas next March as its been delayed for ten months for re-shooting (and probably also get the toyline into stores outside the US).
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I attended the Eagle Awards on the Friday where there was refreshments aplenty but few of the nominees had turned up so it was a very short ceremony after which Brian Cooney announced that it would be the final Eagle Awards which put an end to my recently concocted idea that if I were ever to win an award I would have written an acceptance speech in Sign. Due to delays on the underground due to a power failure on the Jubilee line I was quite late getting back home and as a result had less than four hours sleep and spent most of Saturday trying to prevent myself from falling asleep.


This was also an event where I found myself able to once more enjoy the art of conversing with Beautiful Women, although it would appear that a number of people had mistakenly bought shares in Facebook and had no money to buys comics with. However I was in a jovial mood due to the fact that the Green/Grey trench coat had arrived though the post. It was originally made by Hot Toys for the Ryo Saeba 1/6 scale figure which retails at around £120 but I was fortunate that I only had to pay £12.50 for the coat itself (the only alternative being a Triad Toys raincoat for £18.54). I also bought some bits and pieces but due to a misprinting in the programme which lead me to believe the Freedom Blu-Ray would be £10 when it was i fact £15 I ran out of cash quicker than I expected.

The MCM London Comic Con will return in the last week of October with a possible One-Hundred and Forty tables in the Comic Village and Probably those G.I.Joe: Retaliation banners as well!

A suit for the 1/6 figure arrived today so although I've still got to wait for the Trenchcoat and something to put on the feet. No idea what I'll do after that!



MCM is being held at the Excel Exhibition Centre this weekend and I have already washed the cloths, bought snacks for the weekend (two packets of Oreos, two tubes of Fruit and Nuts, two packets of Rice Crackers, two boxes of Tracker bars a bag of Pez with dispenser some Sesame Snaps and Six litres of Scottish Highland Water). Also, due to the extreme heat I've noticed this week I decided to head to a Salon to get my hair trimmed and prevent my head from overheating. I asked for the hair to be trimmed back to at least half the length but I also expressed concerns about the length of hair that extends down my neck and so the final cut is slightly shorter than I'd usually be comfortable with.

The MCM Programme is now available, although they seem to have disabled embedding, but you can still head over to myebook and read it there!

A few weeks ago I watched a video featuring John Cleese giving a lecture on creativity, the main message I got from it was to never underestimate the importance of being allowed to play. I have learned the importance of this, when confronted by a deadline whether due to my own making or otherwise my mind becomes frozen like a Deer in headlights; taking time out to play allows me to engage my brain in another way and makes it easier to reach a solution to my original problem.


I've got a complete Scrabble set (made out of two different sets) however there is the problem that nobody wants to play Scrabble and when I can convince them to play they cheat by creating words that don't exist. There are other problems like the year old Labrador that circles the living room, knocking the table as he goes.


I also have a 75 year old game of Monopoly which I'm too afraid to play unless I break it or lose any of the pieces. The copies of Mind The Gap, Rachel Rising and Conan the Barbarian arrived on Wednesday but I haven't got around to reading them all, I'll have to wait another month for the first issue of Dancer and hopefully Creator Owned Heroes and Carbon Grey volume 2.

After several months of forgetting that I'd actually started this thing I've finally gotten around to finishing the figure of X (no further information about this character can be found) as I realised that I had very little Milliput left with which to perfect his hair. There are a few more hurdles before I can say that the figure is complete (and forget about it again) such as that small problem of paint rubbing away which should be sorted with an application of lacquer and also the fact that I don't have a 1/6 suit or trenchcoat.


If you look closely to the neck line you'll notice a thin pinkish area marking where the head connects to the neck.

I wonder why that is?!

April is almost over and I really haven't got a lot done as there has been a lot of tings going on and has resulted in my calendar looking particularly full. This morning I had a Dental appointment which was a basic check up (they took some X-Rays, prodded my teeth and Gums) tomorrow I have a meeting at 11:30am and another meeting at exactly the same time on Wednesday and on Friday I have to see the Dentist again to get a filling replaced.



I painted the broken 1/6 Action Man over the weekend, although the head is a completely different one. Somebody had covered it with black permanent marker and paint thinner could only clear so much off before melting the rubber material of the head away, I made some alterations of my own which you probably can't tell, even with the aidf of a picture displaying two figures standing side-by-side. ( Cut for overwhelming manlinesss )

I realised today that the Entertainment Supermarket of Silver Town is just one month away!

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I'm not sure that I've got everything ready due to a number of unexpected events descending on me this month. The most unexpected problem to arise occurred over the weekend when the glass cover to the ceramic hob developed a crack from front to the back just over the most used ring which has led me to look for a suitable replacement. There is an Induction ring that is kept in a drawer which can be used if the hob explodes in someones face, but almost all of the pots and pans (with the exception of one cast iron Wok) are all made from aluminium.making them essentially useless as they cannot be used on the induction ring which conducts heat through electromagnetism. 

 My appointment for Maxillo Facial Surgery was today at 12:45 at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot. Most of the afternoon was spent sitting in the Short Stay Surgical Unit until 5:00 when I mad my way to Theatre 4 where I was prepped for Surgery and was soon reminded of my needle phobia. I regained consciousness at around 8:00, drank some water and ate some Ice Cream and was signed out at 9:00.

I've got a course of anti-biotics which will last about a week, and have to take some painkillers twice a day and wash my moth will Corsodyl and warm Salt water after every meal and/or snack. I'm also prohibited from using electrical items (so can't even make myself a cup of tea) and I'm supposed to have someone watch over me for the next 24 hours.

I can already tell that tomorrow is going to be a really fun day!

This week I have have found myself more distracted than usual as I've been asked to create a flyer for the charity School Aid. An existing flyer was created in Word which had the charities logo at the top looking more like a letter head and the paragraphs were in an odd sequence, asking for volunteers, introducing the charity then specifying the roles their volunteers would need to fill.


I had intended to use the photograph as a background for the entire flyer, however the pictures I was provided with were too small for this possibility. Instead I concentrated on a small section in the bottom right corner which I posterized which allowed me to keep the pic as small as possible, although it also required to be posterized. I played with the curves to get the colour balance right (the background was originally beige) and there's probably something else that requires my attention, but I can't think of anything other than the font I used for the paragraphs has odd looking 'k' and 'j' characters.

Today was Pancake Day and there as no shortage of them today as I'd bought a batch of fifteen large eggs just to be sure that there would be enough to go around. Unfortunately it had completely slipped my mind to make sure that there was any Jif Lemon Juice or Maple Syrup so today's pancakes were mostly plain.



This was also the day I prepared a Fish Pie using a selection of Frozen Fish I'd purchased, poaching them in Milk with some sliced Onion before draining the milk into a bowl to use it to create the sauce and also cook some vegetables before putting the sauce and the fish into a casserole dish, covering it with mashed potato that I'd prepared earlier and shoving it in the oven.



The pie itself tasted fine, although I was left feeling hungry, so I just knocked up another batch of pancakes!

I have been lead to believe that today holds some manner of importance, however I have found myself distracted as of late and having had time to reflect I was last able to enjoy the art of conversing with beautiful women over ten days ago. Looking at my calendar, I'll be distracted for the rest of this month and next with only the weekend of the 25th - 27th of May set aside. Of course it's Shrove Tuesday next week so there should be pancakes aplenty and the following Wednesday is the 29th of February which is extra special as it only happens every four years.



Of course today had some significance to me as I received a packet containing the hard to find Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospaeda DVD double pack. If Super Dimensional Century Orguss were still available I would be able to have the entire Super Dimension series.


My monthly stash of comics also arrived today along with two issues of Hobby Japan, Rachel Rising and an IDW comic there's Action Comics and Animal Man #6 the first issue of Conan the Barbarian (the King Conan series was quite brief) Danger Girl Over-sized Treasury Edition which was quite surprising, and I'm hoping that the series will continue so I can see Phil Noto's specials in that format, there's also Danger Girl: Revolver which looks suitably amusing.

With Twelve of Thirty-Six Pages out of the way (six of them already toned and lettered) which means I'm one third of the way towards completing this issue, although I'll have to finish it all before I can consider who to put on the cover. One thing that did surprise me, after carefully measuring and lining up the panels on the most recent page I discovered that I'd managed to make one side of the panel 5mm shorter than the other which you can see in the photo as Google+ added a black background to the transparent area of the image.



I'll give myself until the end of April to get this finished, although, as I don't have a Crystal Ball, I cannot predict whether there will be any unforeseen events that will interfere with my progress.