Claudia's Story by Ashley Marie Witter / Anne Rice

For my birthday I received this stunning comic adaption of Interview with the Vampire from my grandparents. Can I just say now, that this is the most beautiful graphic novel or manga that I've ever read! Everything about it was so wonderfully executed, and the artist's style is absolutely gorgeous!

From the illustrations, to the (of course, as it was written by Anne Rice) brilliant story, and even the presentation of the book itself was excellent; a sleek, hardback book with a blood red dust jacket.

The drawings are done on a pale sepia background that is textured, almost although aged with time, in monotone shades with the frequent splattering of red blood. Naturally, there are many chrysanthemums included throughout the pages - one of the symbols fans associate with Claudia. The endless reams of delicate, intricate clothes and bonnets and jewellery are a pleasure to look at, and honestly, I think I may have drooled once or twice... In literally every couple of pages, Claudia has a change of wardrobe, and every time I am left amazed and incredibly envious of both the artist's talent, and Claudia's own wardrobe!

I have no holes to pick whatsoever in this adaption of the story, as it was just flawless, giving details about Claudia's innermost feelings that the book did not reveal, as it was all from Louis' point of view. The language was dead on, and everything about it - including the eloquent tone - was just perfect.

This book would make a beautiful edition to any Vampire Chronicles lover's bookshelves. I just love it; 10/10! 

Spring's Here And I'm Still Failing!

But I'm still drawing wintery-styled pictures. It's annoying. I always write down what I want to draw, but it seems to morph into something different every time.
I think it's my laziness - and also the fact that I always rush to finish what I'm drawing!
 Ok! So my goal for the rest of the year is to think about quality, not quantity! :D

I think this goes well with my starry BG!

This picture was meant to be a coloured sketch, but for some reason it turned into a fully coloured picture. I love doing sketches but I get really OCD about the line work! So it turned out actually quite neat. It was meant to be a pic of Aika in her Innocent World dress, but I felt like doing a shiro lolita instead. Oh yeah, and the 'sweet rain' part was inspired by this song by Y&CO. :)

It was my sister's birthday on the 2nd (she's 10!), and I had a really nice time, but I ended up in hospital again as I had something like a fit/seizure. Another example of me failing! Damn my stupid brain!

Also! I'm starting to draw my fancomic, Funhouse, again! (It's a fancomic/doujin of Stephen King's IT with the pairing Henry x Patrick. My favourite book.) I wanted to have a week off drawing in black and white - it get's dull after a while - but it turned into a two month break. Whhhyyyy? Why do I lose track of time in such a bad way???

Random pages

 Check out the rubbishness! XD You can read it at my website or at my Deviant Art account if you want to scar your eyeballs. :)

Black Butler Chapter 78

Okay so here are my thoughts on Black Butler chapter 78:

The detail is amazing in this picture!

-The cover picture is GORGEOUS! Reminds me of Yana Toboso's earlier cover pictures in the 1st few volumes!

- I think we might be getting somewhere with the plot... I mean, Sebastian's face was so shocked at the end. Could the guy he was chasing be a demon? It was certainly too fast to be human.

-The cricket is a little boring as I'm not really a sporty person, but Yana's artwork is amazing. She's even moving on from every character being a bishounen!

- Lau turning up and bringing his scantily-clad Chinese ladies was hilarious! XD And the way he pretended not to know very much English!! *dies*
 

 - MY BABY IS BACK!! Ahem... I mean, Maurice Cole isn't dead. ^^ The way he suddenly disappeared after falling out with Redmond kinda scared me. I really need to make an Maurice Cole appreciation post or something. XD He's a very minor character but I like him because he's a cunning little psycho ;D.

Getting jealous are we? XD

-Ciel's getting more independant.

-Sebastian could have some competition with whoever that guy is that he's chasing. I wasn't paying enough attention as it was 12 at night when I read it! ^^;

- This page is beautiful. I love the way Sebastian can just do a back flip through the air as if he's flying or something! He's so graceful (I'm so jealous. I wish I was some unnatural demon flying thing XD).

-The dude in those Kuroshitsuji road show adverts is really handsome in my opinion. He reminds me of Malice Mizer for some reason...

Challengers by Hinako Takanaga

Challengers by Hinako Takanaga has to be one of my favourite mangas ever. Along with Black Butler and Loveless of course. :)

Some people complain that the artwork isn't as good as the author's latest works, but I would kill to be able to draw like the art-style of Challengers! It looks kind of retro in a sense, but goes through a bit of a revolution of art style... In short I love it.

The story follows a Freshman student called Tomoe Tatsumi, who studies robotics in a really good universtity. Despite being really intelligent in his studies, he seems a little bit half-witted at times (but cute as holy hell). As Isogai put it to Kurokawa-san, he's a 'laim-brained sweetheart' XD
Tomoe meets Mitsugu Kurokawa, a salary-man living in Tokyo, when Kurokawa's friend, Isogai, throws up on Tomoe (they're drunk by the way XD).
The freshman doesn't have a place to stay, so Kurokawa offers him a rent of his apartment, much to Tomoe-kun's brother's displeasure. Who, by the way, becomes quite an important character later on in a sequel called Koisuru Boukun. Kurokawa-san act's as Tomoe's Landlord despite having romantic feelings for the boy.
He tries to make Tomoe understand those feelings by kissing him goodbye, but due to Tomoe's umm 'laim-brainedness', he misunderstands the kiss as an American custom, and so, Kurokawa has to jump through even more hoops to get through to him!

I can honestly say that I loved all the characters, except for maybe the lady at Kurokawa's work, who found out he was homosexual and took it upon herself to try and 'rehabilitate' him. Creepy!

Challengers is cute, funny at times and lighthearted. I would defiantly recommend this manga to any lover of shounen-ai!