There’s not much more to say… Night Parade has been keeping me too busy to post much. I’m sure many of you are waiting for an update on the book, so I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give it a decent post in a while. Expect the big announcement on that pretty soon though!

Ecchan #10

Panel 1: スプレー缶を捨てるときは、必ず穴を開けないといけないよ。
When you throw away spray cans, you must poke a hole into them.
Panel 2: 他のゴミに混ざっていると、ゴミを回収して運ぶとき、とても危ないんだ！
If you mix them up with other types of trash, when the trash is collected it can be very dangerous!
Panel 3: こわい！じゃあ、スプレー缶は、いつ、どこに捨てればいいの？
That’s scary! So, when and where should I throw spray cans away?
Panel 4: 町内で決まっている『資源ごみの日』に、ゴミステーションで分別して出すよ。
Take it to your trash station on the designated day and throw it in the designated bin!

Christmas Ecchan

Happy New Year! I meant to upload this post on Christmas, but the end of December flew by me so quickly that it was January before I even knew it! I’m happy to say that The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons is almost finished, and will be published very soon — hopefully within a month. In the meantime, here is last month’s Ecchan comic, and a Santa Ecchan to celebrate the holiday season. A little late, but better late than never!

I did find out recently that Ecchan will not be renewed next year. That’s a big disappointment, as I really enjoyed making these. There will still be three more comics (up through March) in this series, but that will be the end of the series, unless it ever gets renewed some time in the future. It’s a little puzzling to me, as city hall has spent so much time, money, and energy trying to reinvent Echizen this year as a) a hot spot for storks, and b) an ecologically restored, clean and green town. Hopefully this just means a change of direction, and not that the move to promote ecology and wildlife was just a one-year fad… but it’s hard to tell with politicians and bureaucrats.

Anyway, on to December’s comic:

Ecchan #9

Panel 1:「プラごみ*はプラスチックとして再利用されるよ。」
“‘Puragomi’ is recycled as plastic.”

Panel 2:「汚れていたら、水でさっと汚れを流そう！」「え！？ゴミなのにどうして洗うの？」
“If it’s dirty, wash it out with water!”  ”Huh!? Even though it’s trash, I have to wash it?”

Panel 3:「汚れがあるとリサイクルできないないんだ。」
“That’s because it can’t be recycled if it is dirty.”

Panel 4:「資源を大切にするために、私たちも協力しなくちゃね！」
“We all have to work together to conserve resources!”

This month’s Ecchan comic has been finished and continues the theme of separate trash. Looking at it here I often forget that we’re seeing a slightly incomplete version, as that funny brown bar at the top demonstrates. That empty space is used, along with a large area below the comic, for extra information on the month’s topic. So if it looks strange on this site, that’s normal! Today’s comic doesn’t make much sense on its own, but it headlines an article detailing the proper way to separate plastic trash from other nonburnable trash.

Ecchan #8

Panel 1: 「プラゴミ」って、プラスチック製のゴミのこと？
“Puragomi…” does that mean plastic garbage?
Panel 2: ううん、ちがうよ。商品の容器や包装に使われていたビニール製のゴミが「プラごみ」なんだ！
Not quite. Plastic containers and plastic wrappers are classified as “puragomi.”
Panel 3: ほら、このプラマークが目印だよ！
Look, here is the “puragomi” mark!

Halloween Ecchan

Anyway, on to the main topic of this post! The October edition of Ecchan.

Obviously I wanted to do a Halloween-themed Ecchan, which you can see to the right. The story doesn’t have anything to do with Halloween, but it’s nice to keep up with the seasons somehow, especially considering that Japan is so in-touch with seasonal changes that to let them go by unnoticed seems weird.

This month continues the same topic as before. Here is the script:

Panel 1: CDラジカセこわれたから、買ったんだ！
“My CD player broke, so I bought this!
Panel 2:これはどうやって捨てるの？
How do we throw this away?
Panel 3:小型家電は「燃やせないごみ」だよ。
Small consumer electronics go in “nonburnable garbage!”
Panel 4: 電池は必ず取り出して、有害ごみ(※)として捨てるよ。
Make sure you take out the batteries, and treat them as hazardous garbage!

Ecchan #7

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

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

Kiku Chikyu Hakue 2011

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!

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

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)

Click the image!

So what’s the story?

Today is August 1st (at least in Japan anyway — it might still be July for some of you in the States). Until the end of August, I am trying to raise $2000 for this project to cover the costs of publishing this book. That’s 31 days to get as many pledges from you guys as possible.

But the pledges aren’t charity! You get something for it, too!

• Every backer, even for a pledge of a mere $1, gets super top secret insider access to all the updates on this book as it progresses. This will be kind of like what I have been posting on my blog this past month, only much more informative! You’ll get to see all of the finished paintings as I make them, as well as the sketches and drafts that came before them. You’ll get insight into my process of making the images as well as more details about the paintings and why I chose this or that yokai. You’ll also get more previews of the text from the book to tide you over until the publish date.
• You can reserve yourself a copy (or two, or three) of the paperback book to be delivered when it is published, or an ebook version as well.
• You can also reserve signed, matted art prints (like the ones you can find in my Etsy store) of the paintings in the book — and these will only be available through the Kickstarter project, so don’t put it off until September!
• For really big yokai fans, I am also making a “collector’s edition” of this book — a 200+ page, full color hardcover edition of the book that is only available through this project. Full color hardcovers are ridiculously expensive to make, so you won’t be able to order this once the project is finished.
• And the “grand prize” pledge gives you the opportunity to contribute to the book and make every copy a little bit cooler, by choosing any yokai from Japanese folklore not already in the book and having me illustrate it and add it to the finished book! For each Yokai Preservation Society pledge, the book will be become 2 pages longer (one full-color illustration and one description)!

The Kickstarter patronage drive will end August 31st, but the project will continue on after that for a few more months. The paintings are scheduled to be finished in November, and I expect to have to book completed in its entirely by early December. Whether I can publish it at that time is up to Amazon’s CreateSpace service, but you can expect the book to be available either by the end of 2011 or in the beginning of 2012.

I’ll still be making occasional updates about the book here on my blog, but more of my attention will be focused on the updates for super top secret insider access — I want to make sure every backer gets their $1 dollar’s worth!

So head on over to the Kickstarter project page and have a look!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/osarusan/the-night-parade-of-one-hundred-demons

I hope you decide to support me!