Hello again! How was your month? (＾▽＾)

Before I start meandering about, what did you think of the new page layout? It’s hard to believe, but this is the first proper change we have made to the visual structure of the website since its release.
I want to thank t-sc once again for helping me with the trickier stuff like the “now playing” section.

Obviously, consider it a work-in-progress (it comes with the territory of monthly updates – there’s a few improvements that I didn’t have the time to get right before the 31st – but I assure you of my diligence towards work and progress.)

We have tweaked this current iteration a lot since the start of the month, so I’ve gotten a little used to it by now. Still, it’s surprising, isn’t it? … I really do hope you enjoy it!

Halcyon Lunch • read

Let’s recommend a story for a change!
Halcyon Lunch is my favorite manga. I feel as if this might be an unusual pick…

My friend (and renowned manga guru) André recommended it to me years ago, and I’ve re-read it many times since. It’s a relatively short read, and I’d like to keep it as fresh to you as possible, so I shall keep the story details vague. This is all you need to know:

I love that this synopsis explains virtually nothing (it also only covers the first 5 pages or so). Really, you should just read it. I find it hard to describe even what sort of genre it is… it’s like dada gag manga. Everything shifts and tumbles; it is referential to the point of being nearly incomprehensible, but it somehow pulls it off. The characters, however minor they are to the story, are incredibly endearing and profoundly stupid. There’s a gag at one point where they run out of halftones and just start using whatever is around for censors. It all feels natural. There is also the fact that Samura is an unbelievably incredible artist, I can’t get enough of it…

I really don’t want to spoil any more. I have read basically every manga of his, and while I think this applies to all of them, Halcyon Lunch is particularly untranslatable to another medium. The previous blogpost (#009) actually used an edited still from the manga as the profile picture (monitoring these avatars is probably a good way to gauge what I like).

I would love to own a physical copy one day, but it seems like it was only published in Japan, Italy and France. I am hoping that the one other guy from Brazil who decides to read it because of this post is enough incentive for them to do a release here – you know, the Italian version was published by Panini. We have them here too. So, I can guarantee like… 3 purchases, maybe. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Please read it!

Here’s something I totally forgot to do on the previous post: I have a few Bandcamp codes for ‘neuezone’ – if you use them, you can add the album to your account for free (Go on noo-dll.bandcamp.com/yum to redeem it):

March was always a bit of a “make or break” month for me. I’d say I broke most of them. There were always little bothers: in school and college, it was the season for exams; in life and weather, from summer to autumn, everything gets a little colder, anomalous – today, while looking out of a window, I thought about someone that passed away, and it instantly began to rain.

I also got sick in the middle of the month. Being sick as an adult isn’t fun… the times I remember being sick as a kid, I’d just stay home and play videogames. Now that I’m a fully grown man, I have to work from home and play videogames? Absolutely preposterous. How the hell do I prioritize this? Notice how nowhere in this website are the words “multitask” uttered. Evidently, my battle with March marches on…

But it’s not like the month sucked – quite the opposite! I got a lot of good work in, it’s just that I can’t show it to you yet. There’s something in particular that I’m excited about, that if we’re lucky, might just come out in April.

Well, let’s see… I do have lots more art lined up for next month. I’m learning a lot with this schedule. I’m sincerely thankful for you going along with this.

If what I do is truly a reflection of myself, I hope that you feel it: my heart sings along. For this year, “Bend, we don’t break” it is.

I hope you have a beautiful day, all along the way!

Signed, with love,
noo.dll__〆(￣ー￣ )
see ya!