Comic,Jobs and Bills

It has been more than a month I've not updating my blog here.I have to hold the ANDIKA project for a while as I got some important jobs to be completed.It feels a bit suck that I have to halt the project when I was in a big spirit to do it.But I need to eat and pay bills...so I got to sacrifice.
I'm a bit worried if the publishers that I aim for will lose interest on my comic due to my long delay.Anyway I'm trying to finish up the jobs by this 20th June and I'm going to continue to finish up the ANDIKA project.My estimation of complete ANDIKA....in another 3 month.....but....if the publisher agreed, ANDIKA might be released a bit sooner but as a 1st part from the whole story.But that is still under negotiation....Above is a Perang Kampung art that I do for XLID's comic as a guest artist.Perang Kampung is a winner of IPCC comic as well same year as me.It will be released soon.

After 13 years in silence,Groundwerk Gather for a Storm

Pada tgh malam Sabtu dekat kol 12pm,Azan dan Jiji iaitu pejuang2 Groundwerk aka comic awal 90s tiba di rumah aku.Tah apa mimpi Azan nak gather semula.Port di umah aku tgh malam....aduh takle blah betul.Tapi team ni dah lama tak gather secara begini iaitu comic brainstorm.So mlm tu mmg mlm yg sangat berilmu.
Secara ringkas aku terangkan Groundwerk ni di tubuhkan bila kitaorg dah tak larat tgk filem2 melayu zaman kitaorg masa tu(90s)teruk sgt di samping semangat nak buat komik yg kental.Kami mula berkenalan dan berkumpul dan masa tu berusaha nak publish komik di bawah bendera Groundwerk.Namun berbagai rintangan yg kami tidak berjaya tepis membuatkan team ini selalu terperosok ke bawah tanah bekali kali.Akhirnya masing2 buat hal sendiri......



Isse selaku ahli Groundwerk juga,tiba awal pada pukul 8 mlm.Dia mmg terkenal dgn kehadiran awalnya kalau nak compare ngan kitaorg.Wife aku,Deby juga sgt sporting membiarkan kutu kutu ini lepak sampai 5 pagi kat umah.Siap buat air lagi.Memang wife yg supportive.Mojo terpaksa di kurung di dlm bilik khasnya kalau tidak dia akan jd hyper tak tentu arah pasal dia bole jd tak betul kalau ada org ramai kat umah.
Bermula dgn kesulitan pada Azan yg first time yg nak menjejaki umah aku yg kat Puncak Jalil ni.Berjanji ngan Jiji nak amik dia kat LRT Bukit Jalil end up sorang tunggu kat Bukit Jalil dan sorang ada kat stesen Puncak Jalil.Pas tu sorang gi stesen Puncak Jalil yg sorg lak gi ke stesen Sri Petaling.Dgn kepakaran semulajadi GPS wife aku,mereka bertemu jua setelah hampir 2 jam mundar mandir di sekitar Bukit Jalil.

Azan membawa selonggok artwork purba kami dan kami longgokan dan kami kaji kerja lama kami.Ada yg bole di banggakan ada yang di jadikan bahan gelak kitaorg.Melihat artwork2 kami,terpercik api semangat untuk bersatu semula tapi masing2 rasa takut dgn kekecewaan masa lepas...especially aku.Aku tahu team ni bole bawak something dlm komuniti cuma kami tak tahu tahap semangat kitaorg ni cukup kuat utk gerakkan team ni semula.Groundwerk ni bukanlah team yg boleh lukis komik je semata.Groundwerk ni semangat artis yang nak share idea2 yang berguna untuk generasi akan datang.Asas idea kami adalah dari pengalaman hidup susah senang kehidupan kami dan kita ni berteraskan bangsa yang beragama.Mix up dengan fantasi untuk merapatkan diri dengan golongan yang ingin membuka mata.

Diskusi malam sampai ke pagi itu berselang seli dgn ilmiah rohani yang juga ingin kami serapkan kat mana2 story kitaorg in future.Gathering ni sebenarnya ialah nak try compile artwork lama dan bukukan dan jual.Projek ni aku gelar Groundwerk Origin(nama sementara)-Segala artwork dan komik purba kami akan dipaparkan dlm buku ni.Yang huduh dan yang terbaik.Semuanya kerja2 lama kami.Yang tak ter-release2 sampai skrg.Mostly komik pun tak abis tapi kitaorg bedal je nak compile dlm ni.

Kami bersurai pada pukul 5 dekat kol 6.

7 month recap

Wow...It's almost April 2010 and the last time I left a post here was on August 09...I guess I'm not really good being a blogger hahaha.Hmm...Let me summarize up what has happened in this past 7 month.

- I have completed 95% of my IPCC - ANDIKA comic.It's also available in digital version on the web but just for a teaser.Here is the link - www.nanzoworks.com.Watch and support me haahaha..

- My contract with SALADIN as a storyboard artist has ended and I am no plan to works in the company so I have decided to do full time freelancer.I know,it is a suicidal job with wife to take care and a tonz of bills to pay,but I just can't see I can work by following time,traffic jams,to adapt with new people and environments and end up with a low salary for my experience anymore.
So far I've managed to solve those monthly commitment but I know I need to do something drastic for my income for the future survival.

-I am still looking for the right publisher for my comic.It's not that easy if you have a long term plan in your head.

- I am planning to do some free gift through my art in my website soon,paid art commission and sell some stuff such as my ANDIKA art on t shirt,posters,prints etc....still in plans.....lots of problems to be solve first.

- I have upgraded my PC.More powerful than before and it is my second lover now.I'm hooked with Dawn Of War 2 games now...next if my financial is good,wanna buy Storm SCOUT casing and a secondary monitor.Important for me to boost my spirit!

Basically now,I'm working my ass now just to pay the bills...Still trying to look for bigger jobs to maintain financial for more month ahead.Small and urgent jobs are good though but that is just for the pocket money.I must think how to FIND the jobs rather than WAIT for the jobs comes to me.That is my problem now.I don't know how to do that.If I just go to their office and ask for jobs that would make myself looks desperate and they may give me a cheap pay instead for a heavy jobs.I m looking for proper and professional deal.Something if I do art for books,it would be a 10 title books for a year contract....something like that.But I just don't know to deal it in the right way.

I'm a bit stressed at where I am now....how to move forward..how to change your life for a better one....get more and better income....to control your income.....you have a product but still can't go anywhere.Oh GOD please help me show me the way....

Aku dan Ramadhan

Bulan Ramadhan dah dekat...lately ni aku asyik teringat parent aku yang dah meninggal dunia.Betapa aku rindu diorang.Sebak kat dada ni aku tahan pasal kalau di layan aku tak dapat nak maju ke depan.Sembahyang pun hampeh.Aku kecewa ngan diri aku sendiri.Kerana kejayaan dlm diri sendiri tu masih tak tercapai lagi.
Aku berdoa dan berharap Ramadhan kali ini boleh bawa aku ke jalan yang lebih jelas ke arah kebenaran di samping memberi aku ilmu dan kekuatan untuk berjuang mencari kebahagiaan di dunia dan di akhirat.Aminnn....

Al Fatihah untuk mak dan ayah.....
(Rindu masakan mak; ikan bilis goreng lada kering dan air nescafe o di ptrg hari....)
(Ayah,wish we have been closer macam time first Nan dpt cek pertama dari buat komik and
boleh bawak ayah jalan naik kereta,Nan yg drive!Miss u all.Miss you dearly....)

I've just finished budgeting the pages count through my 95 percent plot/story flow of ANDIKA.It takes a total 90 pages if I include all the plot that i've been written.The rule mentioned comic pages can't be more than 60 pages.So I try to cut here and there but still didn't enough to be less than 60 pages.I need to cut more if I wanted to fit with the rule and that means I have to compress panels in a page which I hate because it will ruined my freedom in composing the scene , lots of dialogue or narration,balloon space will be pack in a certain page and most importantly the development of the characters and story might be a bit ruined.
I am already tired to rearranged the plot for the right amount of pages for tonight so I will continue tomorrow and hopefully I managed to get the pages right and start to sketch thumbnails of comic layouts before this september where that day,the judge wanted to check the winners storyline and plan .
Oh by the way monday next week the MSC IPCC have a press lunch for IPCC winners shoot at The Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur.Hmm..I'm not really sure how fun is it but the free lunch is matters.Got to sleep.Good night everyone.

Project Neosantara saga - Andika REVEALED

Here are some of the artworks that we have used for the IPCC submission and presentation.If I 'm not mistaken it been done in a quite short time to catch the submission/presentation deadline.

Here are the main characters of the story.

Andika and the legendary axe - Benta Genggara.The axe that lock the legendary 5 Siluman.


Puteri Mulan


And the rest of the characters.....






The only concept art that we managed to complete before the presentation day.


Now I'm constructing the story flow for the comic.

NANZOWORKS STUDIOS glory night!

We did it!
For the first time we did it as a team.It was a thrilling day.We cannot say much about the future plans till we heard the result.Team for this pitch are Me,Nanzo as the leader of the project,Chin Yew as the ultimate presenter and Max as the Visual Presentation Operator.Well basically that is not our 'real' function in the team.It s more like this;


Nanzo-Artist and story
Max -Asst Artist and Digital Artist
Chin Yew - Presenter Co-Writer
Sangkakaler-Mysterious Colorist





After month and weeks stay late and travel far back and forth to complete the submission,we finally managed to make it worth.

Our presentation started at 11.20 right after the tea break.I started to introduce my fellow team to the fellow judges and give the mic to Chin Yew for the presentation.As Max started the Flash presentation(with soundtrack) Chin Yew started his rock act and it catches the judges intention from start till end of his presentation.I have to admit Chin Yew has the edge when it comes to presentation.We closed the presentation by showing them 3 pages of our BETA interactive comic.

When QnA with the judges time I was a bit surprise when there were not much negative comments from them.They even said that they might vote it as they love the story infront of me.Damn I don't know how I wanted to control my face that time.Judges were positive towards our material and we re blessed with that.As the other contestant present,we started to getting more nervous except Chin Yew.He is so confident we can win from the started.I dont want to think about winning and losing that time.Just wanna get it over with it, soon(sure I wish to win,duh!).So we decided to go Alamanda and watch a movie.

The result were announced at 7pm due to wait from the animation judges votes.They announce 6 winners from the animation competition first.

After that they announced 10 winners from the Comic Competition which each of the winner received rm20k.And guess what?Our team was the first to be announced!We were so happy and relief...for all the hard work.I was been told that our comic and presentation was the highest mark for that day.All of this giving me a new hope and spirit.

I will show some pre artworks and comics for this ANDIKA project here later.