• 09:01 So, it was never announced anywhere, but seriously, Lego RB has LEGO SPINAL TAP. I'm not kidding.
• 09:02 To clairfy, I'm not talking about a song - the actual BAND is in the game. In Lego form. Now that's just epic.
• 10:13 Just replaced all the fire alarm batteries in this house. MY EARS FEEL FANTASTIC.
• 11:22 I just got a wrong number call from animal control looking for "Scott." Sounds like poor Scott's about to lose his dog!
• 18:19 Watching Ken Burns' "Mark Twain" on Netflix. It's narrated by Goliath!
• 20:32 Penciled two exceedingly wacky pages today. That does it for DS #03.

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Shortpacked!: Men are from Mars, retcons are from Venus

Our hamster babies are finally old enough to wander out and about their living area themselves.  Ham mommy doesn't like that very much, and will go drag them back to the nest, but ever so often we'll find them eating some food on their own.  So tiny!  Seriously, they're like a centimeter or two long.  The video exaggerates their size.  They could fit on a quarter.  




Anyway, they're adorable.  And there's five, we think.  Five is the most we've seen all together at the same time, but there is a chance there's a sixth or more in there.  But we've seen no evidence for that.  They just spend most their time buried in fluff under their mom's butt, so it's not very easy to get a headcount of them.

I believe they're still blind at this point.  Their eyes haven't quite opened.  So they're just clawing about on the strength of their other senses.  Not that adult hamster sight is incredibly great...

I think my radiator’s broken. Or maybe I just don’t know how to use it because I’ve never used one in my LIFE, but I know it isn’t coming on. There’s a little knob at the bottom with number 1-8 on it that turns, and it was set to 8 when I arrived, but it never came on, so I set it on 5 to see what would happen, and it still hasn’t come on.</p>

Hmm. Any advice? I’m used to gas or electric heating, not steam/water.

I don't like to talk about potential jobs until I'm sure it's going to happen, because one thing I've learned from being a professional artist so far is that any exciting potential project can fizzle out for any number of reasons so it's best not to talk about it or else a whole lot of misunderstandings will arise (e.g. when FOX said they might be able get me some work doing Futurama merchandise art, but it didn't end up happening. To this day I think a lot of people think I worked on the Futurama DVDs). So here's one tale I never made mention of in public -- until now!

December 2008, on a Wednesday afternoon while I was busy working on Yokaiden 2, I received this e-mail:

Hi Nina,

My name’s Bruce Ramsay. I do the covers at Newsweek. I have an IMMEDIATE need of and anime artist like yourself for a cover this week. Due Friday! $[amount removed] fee.

I can explain if you are interested and can contact me...

It’s Wed. night (here in NY)

Many, many thanks,
Bruce
[phone number removed]

I wasn't ever expecting to have someone from the second largest weekly news magazine (right behind Time) contact me hurriedly going "Nina! We need an anime artist, quick! And we want YOU." so for a second I thought it may've been a joke. But sure enough, his e-mail was an official Newsweek one, so I phoned right away.

Bruce sounded stressed out, and he described himself as "frazzled". The editor couldn't decide on a cover for the next issue (due Friday) and kept changing his mind on it. The cover story was to be about how the Japanese auto industry is upstaging the American auto industry, and how the US can learn from Japan's ways. The editor decided the cover art should feature The General Lee and Bo and Luke from The Dukes of Hazzard, anime style. Bruce had no idea where he could get an anime style artist, but a friend gave him two names: huge manga publisher Tokyopop, and mine. He contacted Tokyopop, who gave him a list of available artists working for them, and went to my website. He decided my style would suit the subject matter best.

I agreed to the job and did a few rough thumbnail sketches, but unfortunately, the next day he contacted me again saying the editor changed his mind again and the cover story won't be about the auto industry at all anymore. I understood that things move incredibly fast in the production of a magazine as widely circulated as Newsweek and things change all the time, so I wasn't too surprised either. He thanked me for the quick turnaround and sent me a nice kill fee for the few sketches I did, which was very nice of him.

It's too bad I couldn't do the cover, but it's still very cool that I was given this opportunity. I was reminded of this because I was recently offered another amazing job -- one so amazing that you may find yourself saying, "oh my god! Does Nina Matsumoto's luck never end?!" -- but that's all I'm saying for now.

P.S. I'd still love to do an awesome magazine cover, so if there's anyone who can get me such a job reading this...contact me?

• 16:55 Angie had an "unsuccessful pregnancy" pcer the weekend. We just found out. #
• 19:00 @alibee sorry, that was a typo for "over". Right now, we're just coping, but thank you. We both appreciate it. #

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OH HEY LOOK IT'S MID-NOVEMBER MAYBE I SHOULD GET STARTED ON MY NANO OR SOMETHING

Hellish multistage move was hellish in several stages. Many thanks to all the people who braved Hell to help get me to my new home. The move knocked out my Internet, and then Verizon dropped the ball in several ways and kept my Internet down for two weeks. (It would have been three, but I had a fit at a manager and they expedited my service. A week late. As you do.) The fact that my Internet is now up is largely ceremonial, as I'm now in Portland bunking with mad artists; but IT IS UP.

So Verizon says.

They've been wrong about this before.

Anyway. If you wondered where I've been for the last few weeks, the answer is: yelling at someone about my missing Internet.

(And that was the FUN part of the month.)

May November be quiet and filled with people. And wordcount.

• 10:15 Alright, I'm working all day again. ENTERTAIN ME, TWITTER.
• 15:34 My friend's NetFlix account is increasing my quality of life while I work.
• 17:20 I just booted Mac system 6.0.3 from a "floppy" and formatted a "hard drive" inside of MESS. God, I'm a nerd.
• 19:53 Comic already uploaded. I was diligent in working today. Huzzah.

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Originally published at rivkah.com. You can comment here or there.

I’m on the floor of my new apartment. No bed yet. Makeshift desk made from the remains of a dresser until I can find a suitable drafting table. And yet, it’s home. All my clothes are finally hung. My art supplies are in order. And tomorrow I head out for paint and curtain rods.

It’s always a bit strange being in a new apartment. If you shook my room, it’d rattle. But eventually, the blank spaces will fill and it won’t feel so insubstantial anymore.

Tomorrow, at least my air mattress and my new camera are supposed to arrive. At last: PICTURES.

Sleepy. I’m looking forward to finally being able to get to work tomorrow.

Shortpacked!@TNI: It's head-in-a-jar time!
Shortpacked!: Her, uh, anatomy makes slightly more sense than Blackarachnia's.  

Hello!  Everyone and their mother emailed me asking about the lineart for the Mike/Amber Smoochy-Smoochy strip.  Well, you can have it!  But you'll have to fight each other for it first.  That's right, it's auction time.  

As usual, it's on 12"x18" art paper, was rendered in blue pencil and Copic brush marker, and comes to you rolled in a mailing tube.  Add it to your collection!  Or start one.  I'm not fussy.

Auction ends in 5 days.  

So, like, even back before I started getting all the Batman guys from DC Universe Classics, I kinda coveted their Robin.  It was my favorite Robin design ever!  It kinda helps that Tim Drake's One-Year-Later-through-Batman-RIP outfit was based on hisNew Batman Adventures look, sure.  You know me and my Bruce Timm designs.  I liked that the green is dropped and he's just a red, black, and yellow guy.  But the comic takes it a bit further and draws him closer thematically to Batman's motif.  He's got a scalloped cape, for instance.  And those little tufts on his gloves.  And, oh, hey, pockets on his belt!  He's like a mini-Batman with red.  It kinda makes sense, don't it?

I passed it up at the time because I wasn't collectingDCUC, but I am now!  So, yay, an excuse to get him.  And the fun thing is, BigBadToyStore still had him in stock for non-secondary-market prices!  (they don't seem to any more)  And so I was just a day or so away from just going ahead with the whole thing and ordering him when I found that damn Robin at our local Target.  Just sitting there on the shelf.  What?  Okay.  Well.  I guess miracles do happen.  

Robin joins my Batman in punching villains now.  Sometimes he even gets the punching!  (Okay, most of the time.  He's only second behind the Riddler.)  The toy comes with a few accessories.  He's got his martial arts staff that Tim Drake likes to carry around and two Batarangs.  (Robinorangs?  Birdorangs?)  I kinda wish he could store the -rangs in some of his pockets.  But no, they'll probably just get lost.  I prefer the staff.  He also comes with a stand, as he's not part of the "build-a-figure" deal.  

I'm grateful that there's a smaller, teenager-sized body-type for Robin to be.  It just wouldn't do, being the size of everyone else.  Plus, y'know, I guess it'd come in handy for the rest of the Teen Titans.  

Anyway, speaking of Power Rangers, you know how they all wore color-coded outfits when they were in their civilian identities?  Red Ranger wore red, Pink ranger wore pink, etc?  Robin totally did that in the very early comics, I noticed, as I've been reading through my Batman Chronicles collections.  Dick Grayson is always in a yellow collared shirt under a red sweater and green pants.  Wow, that's a bit conspicuous.  Batman probably color-coded his civvies, too, but blue and gray formal wear is a lot less outlandish.

I had a fantastic weekend.

Things were busy, as always, but time opened up for some strange reason. There wasn't any looming immediate deadline, things at the college were rolling along well... I actually had time to hang back a bit and socialize. It was great.

Friday night we went out for Korean food down the street, engaged in great conversation and then dragged people back to Zub Haus for cocktails and video games. Street Fighter IV and LittleBigPlanet playing ensued. I can't remember the last time we just spontaneously hung out without needing an event, birthday or holiday to serve as the reason. It was great just hanging out because we could. Using the house as our headquarters was comfy and way cheaper than partying it up at a bar. Everyone had a ball.

Saturday morning I woke up and joked to Stacy that I had so much fun on Friday that I wanted to do it all again.

"Well, why don't you? We don't have anything planned for tonight" said the wise Stacy.

And so we did! We invited more people, pulled together a greater variety of wine and spirits, people brought amazing snacks and we all chilled out, chatted, laughed, played Apples To Apples, competed at video games and enjoyed cheeses, cookies, chocolate, crackers, fruit, dips, Halloween candy and much more. I finally shooed people out the door at 4am but I honestly could have kept going until dawn.

Today Stacy, Chris, Eric, Derek and I ventured up to Pacific Mall for shopping, wandering and more good food. We just got in the door a little while ago and I'm feeling completely satisfied about our weekend. A burst of social goodness that was much needed and appreciated.

Our friends kick ass.

I've been re-reading my Usagi Yojimbo collections, and decided that I would continue to read through all of my back issues, to get the whole tale in total. That meant figuring out where my issues began in relation to where my collections ended, so that I could have the whole story to read. That turned out to show that I needed three volumes, although the third one would overlap slightly with my back issues. Accordingly, I made a purchase from Amazon tonight:

Grasscutter, Usagi Yojimbo vol 12
Grey Shadows, Usagi Yojimbo vol 13
Demon Mask, Usagi Yojimbo vol 14
Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, Girl Genius vol 8
The Complete Peanuts 1963-1964

I almost bought Through the Wild Blue Wonder, the Complete Pogo vol 1 and The Complete Bloom County vol 1, but my order was getting expensive enough.

I also looked through my Bone back issues and collections to see what I need, and it turns out I only need a single back issue (#38) to complete that run. Rather than buy a collection, or the 1,100-page Complete Bone I think I'll look for that single issues.

• 00:15 ROOOOOOOLL TIIIIIIIIIDE, ROLL! #

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• 14:43 @kiruppert Great, that opening rhythm is in my head AGAIN. #

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In that one Belle Starr post I screwed up the format of the coolest page in the set, so here it is again.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Originally published at Rivkah.com. You can comment here or there.

November 6th. Three days in New York, so far. Sunday, I move into my new apartment.

What a harrowing journey this last month was. And yet, what a blessed one. Never have I felt more the breath of G*d lingering over my shoulder. Yes, it was a lot of work getting here. Yes, is there still work yet to be done. But every bend and corner, every hill and valley, no matter how steep, has never been too sharp or too steep to get around again.

I’m in Windsor Terrace right now. A little cafe called The Oak and the Iris. Coffee is a dollar thirty-five, sixty cents cheaper than anywhere in Austin. The barista speaks broken English, and half the conversations around me I’d need a translator to interpret.  It’s a brisk, sunny 65 F out, and the coffee is delicious.

Six months ago, I made a decision that I would move to New York. I needed comics and I needed friends. This move from the college town I grew up in to one of the most populous, diverse cities on earth has helped me to realize that I need never be truly stuck. If I find myself in the mire, I can swim free again. I needn’t fear stagnation or despair.

So how appropriate to have my first set of keys in my pocket with the key chain given to me that says simply:  New York.

Welcome to the next stage. Welcome to the place I can never say I didn’t have the opportunities. Welcome to my new home.

This is going to be a fascinating journey, and I hope a few of you who’ve seen my posts wane over the course of the last few years will stick around to watch, be it on livejournal, twitter, facebook, flickr, or the face of my new site and blog (mucho tweaking to follow). But no matter what happens, this chica is going to finish another book and get published again. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

Love and Kisses,
Rivkah.

It made me laugh.

ROBROBBOBoommmbleroobbbblerumbleroooble!

SOMEBODY is good at playing hide and seek!

• 11:32 ZOMG. Lego RB has the pig that Peter Frampton got at Pink Floyd's garage sale. Seriously.
• 12:16 I don't understand jazzercize. They always seem to work out to pop music. Shouldn't they be jogging to Miles Davis?
• 21:47 What the hell? Why isn't my comic updating? Did daylight savings occur when I wasn't looking?

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Shortpacked!: He-Man blah blah blah.

Hey, just got back from seeing Ok Go.  That's why we're a little late.

1) What the fuck.

2) Here is the first photo of our baby hams that we were able to take!  They're about a week old now, having been born the day after we realized the little slut was preggers.  

If you disturb her too much or cause her stress, she'll, well, eat the tiny purple turds.  So, yeah, we keep our distance.  But I had a moment of opportunity and took a photo today.  So we finally know there's at least three!  Three tiny purple turds.

They stay buried in the huge nest their mom made for them pretty much always.  The mom will leave to grab food and then disappear back into it. 

Man, how do these things work out?  I mean, she started building a nest a few days before these kids popped out.  How did she know?  No one ever told her how to care for babies, but then she totally does.  She even knows she has to build a nest for them.  

But then, hams tend to cannibalize their young, so it's not a foolproof thing.