浪漫菖蒲 / Roman shobu

I finally moved my blog to a new address since Blogspot no longer offered the FTP uploading service I was using before. The new address is now journal.saicoink.com.

I haven't been able to update the blog since I've been traveling a lot the past few months and working on lots of comics. Here is what I've been up to the last couple of months.

Released fourth volume of original mini comic series Open Spaces and Closed Places back in February! You can get your copy here.

Here are some progress shots of the cover printed on Risograph and a photocopy machine. A Risograph is like a photocopier except it uses coloured soy-based inks and duplicates faster and cheaper per page at large volumes. The colours don't photograph very well. You have to see the covers in person to see the florescent hot pink and yellow (which appears lime green in some of the photos below).




The hot pink and yellow layered on top of one another produces a brilliant orange.





We're still trying to find a way to print that won't produce so much excess ink that never completely dries. Some of the covers were printed with Risograph all the way (three layers of yellow, process magenta or red, and black), but since the black created some streaking problems, for the final run of covers the black was replicated on a photocopy machine instead. Samples of Risograph printed flyers and books I have from Japan don't have this same problem - maybe if we used newsprint?

I did some heavy colour editing of one process photo to reflect the actual colour of the book cover, but there was no way to completely replicate the hot pink as seen by the naked eye on a computer screen:


Extra special thanks to Kris Mukai and the staff at the Pratt Institute print shop for making this a reality.

Final product bound with colour insert:






As you can see, we also produced a print variation with red ink instead of hot pink. In addition to web order, you can also pick up OSCP4 and other issues in person at The Beguiling (Toronto) and Rocketship (Brooklyn).

In addition to OSCP4 and producing another issue of Sunflower Club, I also contributed a page of fanart for the Lady Gaga fanzine Prison for Bitches and a short story for the anthology Expired Seafood. Both books were released at TCAF this year!

Currently working on the 2010 issue of Arabesque zine, OSCP5, and thinking about a zine about Eroguro Innocence that I'll get around to someday...

Anyway, I will be updating this blog much more often now that I'm finally home and have a more regular work schedule. The next post will be a brief report of TCAF and Anime North events I attended in May.