Genesis Survivor Gaiarth

Been watching some of my old anime videos recently. These things are on VHS tape. I got a new big screen TV. However my VCR is old and the picture quality is suspect. Perhaps it is time to upgrade them to DVDs. Regardless, I met Ital again. He was training hard under warroid Randis.

Some enemy came and destroyed Randis with ease. Ital now has to go out to avenge his adoptive father's death. This guy also needs to hone his skills and get more power. He spies on some hunters, which including the young Sahari. The hunters thought they were besting the enemy. But Ital saw it was a trap.

Ital show his courage and potential to be a hero when he saved Sahari, putting his own life in jeopardy. Fate was still on his side. In the belly of the junk beast, Ital meets Zaxxon. Zaxxon is a warroid whose parts are stripped. He reminds Ital of Randis. Ital has jump started Zaxxon, and I have witnessed that Zaxxon has mighty fighting skills.

These is pretty much just the intro. I have more to go in Stage 1. Got to locate my missing Stage 2 VHS tape as well.

Black Blood Brothers

I have decided to rewatch the Black Blood Brothers series. So far I have seen episodes one through four. We have met Jiro Mochizuki. He is an old vampire, an old blood. He is also known as the Silver Blade. Apparently Jiro has made it his mission to eliminate the Kowloon Children.

The Kowloon Children are some powerful vampires. They can quickly turn humans to vampires and control them. A group of Kowloon Children abducted Jiro's younger brother. Jiro used up all his strength defending against these vampire. Luckily Mimiko, a compromiser, gave her blood to Jiro to energize him.

Mimiko experienced the resonance, where she could read the mind of Jiro because her blood flowed through him. I don't know the full story. But it appears that compromisers negotiate agreements between the humans in power and vampires that want safe harbor in the Special Zone.

Katsucon 2012 Wrap Up

I have returned home from Katsucon 18, also known as Katsucon 2012. Memorable voice actors included Chrisopher Ayres, Greg Ayres, Richard Epcar, and J. Michael Tatum. Webcomics in the house included Phil Kahn, Onezumi, and Chris Flick.

There was some adult only features at the con. Titles covered adding eroticism to fan fiction, digital love, the hentai panel, and japanese bondage. There were many sessions I just could not attend due to time constraints. I would have loved to see webcomics are really business, steampunk to cyberpunk, make your own plushie, and guilded age.

Of course you got to love the cosplay. There was a Japanese girl there dressed as some sort of princess or goddess. She had a huge coin on her back. Who knows where that was from. There was another Asian girl. I could not recall her costume as she had really long legs on display, and used some costume tricks to make them even longer. A lot of people, including myself, liked some of the off-beat outfits like the Donnie Darko rabbit suit. That guy received a lot of high fives.

Online Promotion

I went to a short deck presentation on promoting your work online. The theme was that you are the advertisement for your work. So act professionally always. Be known for delivering the goods. Update social media on a schedule. Spend around an hour a day on this activitiy. Guest blogging can drive good traffic to your site.

Build relationships. Your fan base will most likely be people like yourself. Look and see who covers you in the press. Email them. Don't be discouraged if people say you suck. It is going to happen. Tweet during the business hours of 9am to 5pm. Reply to tweets frequently. Treat Twitter like a chat room. The months of December and January are going to be dry no matter what.

Try to reach the prime influencers. Look to Klout for determing who they are. Bloggers are usually volunteers. Help them reach their goals. Know that they want to do little work. Give them something they can cut and paste. Tell people what you want them to do. This is the call to action. It works.

Webcomics Redux

Print on demand is great for low volume printing. Createspace is a good resource for this. They give you a free ISBN number. Lulu works but is more expensive. GotPrint is good for promotional items. It is recommended that you do not do spread covers (that span front and back of book).

In general, it is best not to do work for free. Exposure is hardly worth anything. Better to partner up with a writer or artist. Make sure you have a contract to specify the terms. You don't need a lawyer to draw it up. Contracts are especially needed if you are working with your friends.

The contractual relationship could be a work for hire, where you pay them up front in exchange for all the rights to the work. Be careful and weary about giving up your digital rights. Better to do a partnership where you share a percentage of ownership in the product.

There is no guarantee of any profits. If there are any, it will probably takes years to generate them. So if you can get a fare rate for your work, you might consider a work for hire relationship. Note that it is customary to retain the right to use your works in a portfolio that does not generate revenue.

The Rise of Webcomics

Webcomics have been exploding in popularity over the last 10 years. To be successful you need to hustle. You can save money by putting in a lot of effort. Do your marketing using old school face-to-face methods. Go to local conventions. Network there.

General web advertising makes use of Google AdWords. However anime and webcomic specific ads can be purchased through Project Wonderful. You can also be a publisher for them and make money by hosting their ads on your site. Note that you need to pay $10 to start out with a Project Wonderful account.

It is highly recommended that you get your own webh site. Your URL will be your identity. Build up some content first. Then turn to ads to drive users to your site. You must be even more established to get success using KickStarter to raise funds for your projects.
More on webcomics later.