Friday, September 30, 2011

"New" Black and White illustration from Dragon Magazine July 2008

Dragon Magazine is the name of the magazine in which the short-lived HOTD novel was serialized.  There were a number of illustrations produced for these chapters that have yet to be reprinted.  The novel went on hiatus like the manga and a complete version of the novel was supposed to come out in March of this year, but surprise surprise, Daisuke Sato was unable to finish it so it's still unreleased as of this writing.

And so, here's a very nice black and white illustration of Saya by Shouji Sato that was published with the second chapter of the novel.  At this point, there's no sign the novel will ever be fully released, but back-ordered issues of Dragon Magazine are actually very cheap on Amazon.  If anybody out there is in Japan and wants to go out of their way to get the old issues and scan the illustrations or send them to me, email me and I can potentially compensate you.  I would order them myself, but Marketplace sellers on Amazon Japan very rarely ship overseas and a proxy service would be too expensive to be practical.

Here's the illustration:
http://i.imgur.com/7s5ix.jpg

And for those who want the un-resized super ultra mega overkill size:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wnq5k322v8ey36z
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5XOIUM0O

So, why do I have this issue?  I got it a number of years ago when I went to Kinokuniya and it eventually went in a box and I pretty much forgot about it... until now, of course.

Hope you enjoy it.  Next issue with the color chapter comes out in about a week.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

HOTD color chapter in the November issue?

According to a reliable source, the October issue of Dragon Age (released September 9th) states that the November issue (available October 9th) will have a color chapter of Highschool of the Dead.  There are apparently no other details.  This is most likely a colorization of a previous chapter, which may mean the Full Color Edition will get a continuation during the series' current hiatus, but since there's no information, it could be anything.

I'll give you more information as it's available.

UPDATE: I can confirm firsthand that the preview does mention a color chapter of HOTD appearing in the next issue, but there are no other details whatsoever.  I guess I'll let you know what the deal is next month.

Monday, June 13, 2011

HOTD back on hiatus?

The new chapter wasn't in this latest issue of Dragon Age, and there's no mention of the series returning in any future issues.

However, there were a few relevant illustrations this issue, so here they are.

http://www.mediafire.com/?2y2t1v8qrn12626

I know I haven't been too productive lately, but my life has gone through some big changes recently, so I've been a bit occupied.  The volumes are in progress.

I'll keep this one brief, so that's all.  See you again soon.

Monday, May 9, 2011

No "New" Chapter This Month

This month, instead of a new chapter, we get a color version of another of the extra chapters, this time "Dead Illusion" (the one with Morita talking about girls he wants as his groupies).  I don't know if this means we'll be getting more full color volumes eventually, but I'm kind of disappointed there's no new content...  but oh well, whatcha gonna do.

If you want some updates on stuff going on around here, the full color volumes are progressing slowly but surely, as is progress on the black and white volumes.  My life's a bit (read: extremely) busy recently, and it's likely going to be that way until the summer, so I can't guarantee much until then.  I guess the next chapter is most likely coming out in July, but I'll be there to translate it when it does come out.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Highschool of the Dead chapter 29

The wait's over.  Here it is.

Due to the length of the chapter (50 pages) and other obligations, it took a couple days, but it's done now, so... I have nothing else to add to that sentence.

http://www.mediafire.com/?4c1szl4hau54w5r
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3QQFQYNC

Tell me if the links go down.

Other news: the volumes are progressing smoothly for the most part, thanks to the people who volunteered to help clean.  Thanks a lot guys! I'm going to be starting work on the Full Color Editions soon.

If you want to donate, I'd appreciate anything you can spare.  I unfortunately can't generate any revenue through ads anymore, and the Full Color Editions set me back a lot.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone affected by the earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan.

UPDATE: I made a pretty bad typo on the last page, but it should still be understandable.  Deal with it.

UPDATE2: Oh right, something I forgot to note.  The elementary school last chapter was spelled "Shintoko" but in the Japanese version of this chapter it was actually spelled "Niidoko." It has the same kanji, but a different pronunciation.  They both seem to be valid pronunciations, but for now, I'm going to stick with Shintoko to avoid confusion.  I'll probably change it to Niidoko if/when I do volume 7.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Some good news for a change

Next month, HOTD is supposedly returning along with Triage X.

So, assuming this wasn't a troll of some Japanese website, I will be doing the next chapter in about a month's time.

See ya then!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Still Recruiting Editors/Cleaners to Help with Volumes

With the progression of the main series stalled, I'm shifting my focus for now to the volumes, both the original black and white releases and the forthcoming Full Color Edition, which is to be released later this month.  However, we're low on manpower.

What I need are people experienced in Photoshop (or any image editing program that can use layers and .psd files) willing to commit for at least a whole chapter and stick to strict guidelines.  The plan is to release the volumes at a very large size, so no blur filters are to be used.  The leveling process is also very delicate and subtle to keep from losing details such as gradients, so editors can't simply use white erasers and black lines or the edited parts will stick out like a sore thumb.  If you're with a group, I don't mind crediting your whole group if you want, but you'll have to stick to the conventions I've laid out.

I'm pretty sure that even without additional people helping to redraw, we might be able to finish the volumes within 18 to 24 months, but I'd like to finish them much sooner than that if possible.  If you want to lend a hand, send me an email showing me what you can do, and I'll send you an individual chapter.  If there's a particular chapter you want to work on, just tell me, but that's on a first-come first-serve basis so if a lot of people apply (doubtful) I can't guarantee you'll get to work on exactly what you want.

By working together, we should be able to produce something great relatively quickly, so I hope even just a few of you out there want to work on this.

Friday, January 14, 2011

More bad news

It seems that HOTD won't be running next month.  The month after that, Triage X is supposed to return, so the soonest we're likely to get new HOTD is...  not for a while.  Three months at least.

Triage X isn't such a bad series though.  Give the two volumes of that a read if you haven't already.  The scanlation for Fire Fire Fire is also underway if you want something a little different from Shouji Sato.

Anyway, will I do the full color Cos-Play of the Dead chapter that was included in this issue?  Well, I'd like to, but life's awful busy right now to be spending time doing something I'm just going to be doing again in a couple months.  I'm not going to say that I won't do it, but don't expect it right away.  But hey, have this new illustration for the time being.



And here's the full-size image:
http://www.mediafire.com/?9fli335m5rxabr2
That's right, a Mediafire link for a single image.  Got a problem with that?

On a side note, if there are donors who don't want to be listed, please tell me.  I've only included first names for obvious security reasons, but I'm thinking it may be a good idea to be more open than I have been about finances here.  As I see it, the only way to be credible is to link donations to some name.  I don't really have anything to hide as far as that goes, after all.  If I forgot you somehow, don't be shy to correct me.

Talk to you later...