Magic? A bus? What has that Aoife got in mind now? I’m not sure sometimes, she’s that kind of character. Turn in next time for more.
FYI. The baby’s delivery date is officially next week. So if I’ve forgotten to modify the notice on this page, it could be due to various things, but my standing advice to readers is to to check in on Bata Neart on Friday’s for updates on the comic’s status. Also I am updating on my RAWRtacular Facebook and Twitter feeds so that’s also a good way of finding out what’s happening.
Basic plan is to stop Bata Neart and Back Office for at least 4 weeks in and around the birth. It’s very possible that I’ll add to that, but all going well I’ll have a new drawing rhythm in place and restart production. I hope to make disruption to the comics as predictable as I can manage and again I thank everyone for the their patience 😀
I am provisionally setting the next update for Friday April 10. Please check back then 🙂
Good luck, Rawr! We’re all wishing you and your family all the best! ^_^
Cue The Who! 😛
Warm thoughts and good vibes to you and your fam, Rawr. 😀
@Kessy: Thank you 😀 The baby isn’t out yet, so I’m going to keep truckin’ as long as I can. I hope you guys don’t mind the huge update break that’s now coming. (Especially given that Aine is about to encounter some future tech).
After 4 weeks, that next batch of Bata Neart pages will auto-update without my interaction. I’ve built up about 4 updates worth of pages to keep everyone going 🙂
@Azreal: Thank you Azreal!
Just as a side note to everyone, I will try to use this week’s comments section as a news-feed since it will sit on the site index for a while. I’ll try to update you with what is happening.
As a first bit of news, I have been assisting pro manga-ka Nao Yazawa (who’s most famous manga ‘Wedding Peach’ became an anime in the 90’s) in establishing an online production course for Manga School Nakano, where she instructs in Tokyo. I will be among the very first test students of the course in which I’ll hope to be trained in professional manga production techniques.
Part of the course involves creating a 16 page one-shot manga. Nao knows about my comics, including Bata Neart, and has suggested I could use them as material for a one-shot. At the moment I’m gunning between doing Chapter 6 as the one-shot, or a new short story I’ve written called ‘Last Day: Stand Tall!’. If Nao requires me to do a work with pre-made characters, Bata Neart Chapter 6 will be put forward as my selected one-shot.
The course in addition to the new arrival might cause more disruption to the updates than I bargained. So this years’ Bata Neart schedule might be very ‘swiss-cheesy’ for the coming months. To balance everything out, Back Office might go on hiatus for the length of the course (about 12 weeks).
As compensation I’ll try to share a stream of the art coming out of the course and report back on anything I can 🙂
Best of luck to your growing family! 🙂 And good luck with attending that course, but I can’t help putting in yet another reminder that family is time-consuming and far far higher in priority.
I’ll keep an eye here and on Twitter, I guess. Facebook is not exactly my preferred medium.
Have a calm weekend before the… awaiting awesomeness 🙂
As everybody has already said, best of luck! 😀 Take your time to welcome the new addition and rest. (Because there is no rest for the wicked… or new parents. Haha.)
And love Ashling’s face there in panel 4. Haha
All the best to you guys, and an easy delivery to your wife. I’ll be thinking about you. 🙂
Well, that would be an easy way to brush it off. That’s some pretty quick thinking on Aoiffe’s part. As goofy as she may see, she’s pretty good at sizing things up.
@O8h7w: Thank you 😀
As a by the way sort of thing…Albert was born on Wednesday night and is now at home with myself and Anna. He’s doing well while we settle into the ‘new normal’.
He is awesome in a magnitude of ways, in particular he loves to sleep, which means that might still be in action all going well. I’ll keep you all posted 😀
In addition, in the weekend prior to the birth I was attending an online manga class with Nao Yazawa, and she has encouraged me to produce a 16-page one-shot manga based on Bata Neart as part of the course. She will be training me to make this story using pro manga artist techniques. It will also be left-to-right, just as manga tend to be.
This short will be *semi* non-cannon to the main story and will feature Ashling, Aoife, and Aine. I say *semi* because I might actually be able to wedge this into the main tread of the plot. More details will come as that goes.
But all-in-all, life is little awesomer, and the little is is both tiring me out and giving me a daily boost happy-juice, so I’m hoping it’s gonna be good into the future.
@Jen: Thank you Jen 😀
I’m glad you like that. It took me a few tries to get suitably *indignant* look on her face 😀
@Delta: Thank you 😀 Thankfully fast delivery for Albert with no complications to him or to Anna. We got back home after only 2 days 🙂
@melaredblu: Aoife’s a sharp one alright. I always reckoned that she’d use her eccentric nature as a tool, such as here.
Congrats, Rawr, that’s wonderful news! ^_^
You just really love names that start with A, don’t you? LOL
It’s a good name, though. I have at least three generations of Alberts in my family tree.
Very happy to hear the good news! 😀 Congratulations, of course, Grattis! Happiness and tiring, sounds just right. Greetings to Albert, and to Anna as well! 🙂 You take good care Mark – of both them and yourself! 😉 (and yes, very many exclamation marks, which I think is completely appropriate)
I’m a little late, but congratulations and hail to the sleep-deprived.
No matter how many time they tell you how safe childbirth is today, you wouldn’t be human without a little apprehension. I’m glad to hear the good news that all went well. Come back when the time is right–not before. We’ll still be here. 🙂
@Kessy: Thank you! I only just realised that now. Jepp…got a thing about ‘A’ names 🙂
Part of the reason for choosing ‘Albert’ was that it pronounced the same in both English and Norwegian. Thus, his Irish & Norwegian grandparents won’t have too many problems saying his name 😀
Also, later on he can shorten it to ‘Al’ or ‘Bert’ if he wants to.
@O8h7w: Tack så mycket 😀
@Delta: Thank you again 😀
Thankfully, it went very quickly, and Anna was only in pain for a short while. Also Albert appears to have been born with everything running normally. Everything has been very routine which is the best anyone can hope for.
Albert himself is a surprisingly good sleeper too, so we’re not too tired and I’m actually able to do my Bata Neart homework for Nao’s class. I now have nearly 12 pages full of Ashlings and Aines to present for this Saturday 🙂
Just to keep you going, here’s an improved-design Ashling from a short while ago. She was made with techniques Nao has been teaching me 😀
Belated congratulations to you and your wife, Rawr! 😀
Very nice Ashling pic. Is that a sneak peek at Neart changing forms that I see there?
We are kept going by the contagious nature of baby bliss 😀 – but yeah, that is a nice pic!
I love your comics so much! 😮 Just started reading both and DAAAAAMN.
I will say, though, that Back Office says 2 weeks and Neart says 4? 😮
Thank you Hector, I’m glad you’re enjoying 😀
The Back Office entry was a typo, both are out for 4 weeks, and will actually be back soon.
As a matter of fact, I’m inking the next Back Office page now, and all going well a Bata Neart page tomorrow.
That is in addition to a special 16-page Bata Neart one-shot manga that I’m making as part of my training with Nao Yazawa & Manga School Nakano.
Alright! 🙂
I get the feeling Aioffe’s going for Sufficiently Advanced Technology here…
@Hector: Perhaps…but she’s a fan of old-school ideas too.
@Azreal: Ah….should have thought of that…is a little spoiler of the coming pages there. Kinda going for a Magical Girl trope here. You’ll see in the next couple of weeks 🙂
@O8h7w: Thank you 😀 Really like how much everyone is into Albert 🙂
Speaking of Albert, how about some photos. You’ll lose your daddyhood licence if you don’t have photos to share…….
@Rawr
I just caught up only to find that it will be irregularly posted? You monster. Still I have subscribed to your RSS.
And is it me or does Ashling look one step away from being a Catgirl?
Not to worry, the restart is on schedule and you’ll see a new page next Friday!!
I guess Ashling is a bit of a cat-girl huh…. I’ve yet to explain she has a gravity defying hair style so that does fit 🙂
Actually, Ashling’s hair kind of reminds me of the “air intake” style you see in some of Key’s work.
Hair that acts in defiance of gravity can be handwaved away in whatever was best suits the setting. It’s such a minor bit of suspension of disbelief that we really don’t care. Though Ashling’s hair looks more like… I’m not sure. I want to say wings, but that’s not the best term for it.
@Kessy: Oooo…I see what you mean:
@Henry: I’ve always assumed she was using massive amounts of hair-gel 😀
Truth is, when I was originally re-sketching Ashling back in 2005 (on that bus-ride to Shanghai), I was trying my best to give her ‘memorable’ hair that would make her stand out from other manga-style characters.
By the time I was at Pudong airport, waiting for the plane that would bring me home from my year in China, I mindlessly sketched Ashling’s iconic ‘intake/cat-ears’ and I was instantly taken by it. Thus from then, it has been an essential element of her design 🙂
LOL! And I know exactly where that screen shot is from, too. I think I shall have to resign myself to otakudom. Although, in my defense, Air is my favorite anime ever. The blue haired girl’s name is Minase Nayuki and she is actually the character I most closely associate with that hairstyle.
I think you’d have to get a lot more gravity defying than Ashling’s hair to trip anyone’s disbelief suspenders. I mean, we’ve all been conditioned to accept pink, green, and purple as ordinary hair colors at this point so…
I don’t think anyone has complained about Largo’s (from Megatokyo) hair, which straight up seems to not have any gravity at all.
Anyway, in some shots it looks like her hair is a completely seperate entity that can detatch and fly off. If you took her hair and moved it down a foot, it would look like wings.