It is just TERRIBLE how I haven't updated this sketchblog in forever. Ahhg. You guys are still here, right? Nobody's abandoned me? Really sorry about this. Crazy couple of months, but now I'm getting back into regular sketching (or trying to), so hopefully there won't be such an awful lapse again.

Ellsmere, Year Two. Everybody has a growth spurt!


Sketches of Kanna from 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa. If you haven't yet read this series, GET THEE TO A COMIC BOOK STORE! ... or book store, whatever. Book stores stock manga, right? One thing I absolutely LOVE about Urasawa is that while he doesn't have many female characters in his various series (Monster, Pluto, 20th C Boys), what few women/girls there are are well fleshed out, liveable, likeable (or hate-able) characters. They are never "just" the love interest or a female character thrown in because you have to have at least one female characters. I don't know what he has planned for Kanna, but I LOVE her, just as I love Nina/Anna from Monster and Uran from Pluto. I think there's a real lesson in there for writers who work within a gendered genre, writing comics for specifically boys or girls: you don't have to sacrifice characters of one gender to appeal to readers of the other gender. And that goes to both male and female writers. Never have a character be just a love interest, or just the token guy/girl. Make them a living breathing character of depth, and your readers will love you for it.