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...

No new HOTD in the next issue of Dragon Age?

Unfortunately, after looking at the recently updated Fujimi Shobo website, it appears that there isn't going to be a new chapter of HOTD with the next issue.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'd rather tell you guys sooner rather than later so you aren't so disappointed.  I don't know if the lack of a new chapter means it'll be pushed back to next month or if we'll have to wait an additional two months for new material.

There will however be the full color version of the "Cosplay Chapter" (as the website refers to it) printed in this issue.  I expect Shouji Sato has been too busy with work on the full color edition of the series and his new doujinshi for Comiket to finish a full chapter.

References:
Full color edition of cosplay chapter

"Highschool of the Dead" missing from the lineup

Other HOTD News
The first two volumes of the full color edition will be released on February 25, and volume three and four will follow on March 25.  They're priced at 2000 yen per volume, and if you're in Japan and get all four volumes you can send away for an exclusive Saeko figure.  I mentioned before that I'm planning on doing these volumes, but with shipping, they'll cost well over $100, so if you want to help contribute to the project and save my poor wallet, feel free to make a donation by clicking the donation button over there.  Sorry for being so shameless but I'm not a rich man... I want to do this, but there's no guarantee I'll be able to buy all this stuff with my own money.

Projects At Torpedo Tits
As for updates on projects going on around here, volume 6 seems to be progressing smoothly.  Turambar over at http://hotdead.blogspot.com/ has been a huge help already and is really dedicated to HOTD, so if you want to thank him, take a look at the HOTDWiki and help him in creating a high quality database.  Thank you to everyone else who's applied for an editor position, and I'm sorry I haven't been quicker in getting some of you things to work on.  Positions are still open to help with the remaining volumes by the way, and with how big a project this is, it's the more the merrier as far as I'm concerned.  All I need is for people to redraw and join spreads, but it requires a high level of skill as this series can be fairly challenging.

I'm trying my hand at translating the prequel novel (Act 0: A Good Day Tomorrow) that was included with the art book, but I've never translated a novel before so it's been quite a challenge.  It's very different from translating manga.  I'm going to take my time with it to make sure the writing is acceptable, and when I release it I think it'll just be a text file.  With the text formatting and all that, it'd be difficult to arrange the text on the illustrations.  Maybe some other time.

There is a separate novel edition of the series that's only one volume and is supposed to come out in March, if I'm not mistaken.  It's a different telling of the story written by Daisuke Sato and with illustrations by Shouji Sato, as you might expect.  The prequel novel I mentioned above is related to the manga's story and has no relation to this novel's story (kind of confusing, I know).  Depending on how things go, maybe I'll try to translate the novel edition as well.  No guarantees though.  Daisuke Sato has a long-winded writing style that isn't always fun to translate.

I'd like to translate some of the things in the anthology booklet which is included with the Secret Box, but we'll see how that goes, eh?


I think that's about everything I need to mention.  This was quite a long post, but I felt like I had a lot I needed to say.  Hopefully it won't be too long until we can enjoy a new chapter of HOTD.

February issue of Dragon Age preordered

That's pretty much all I have to say.  It should be in between the 10th and 14th of January, most likely, so expect the new chapter around then.

HOTD volumes: need editors

Hello, all.  A few start-up groups who want to do HOTD volume 6 have recently been brought to my attention, so this is addressed to you guys:  We should work together to get HOTD stuff done.

There are raws of volume 6 out there, but they aren't the best quality.  I've actually scanned volume 6 myself at an extremely high resolution, plus I can translate the extra stuff, so we could put out something much better if we worked together rather than if you used the public raws by yourselves.

Also, I didn't really want to bring attention to it yet, but actually one of my goals with this blog was to eventually redo all the volumes.  XLG did fine with the resources they had, but the resolution on the pages is too low to and the brightness is overdone so a lot of detail is lost.  Needless to say, scanlating 6 volumes is a lot of work, so I haven't done much yet myself.  However, the translations are basically done and I've already scanned the raws of the 6 volumes and they're more or less ready to be edited.  But, it's looking increasingly like I'll never have the time to do them all by myself.

So people out there who want to do volume 6 or the earlier volumes, or anyone who is a skilled editor who's good at redrawing and can join spreads: please send me an email (I now have an email address listed on the left side of the page) showing me what you're capable of and we can work together to produce the best quality releases of the volumes possible.

HOTD Art Book

This took a while for me to put out.  Although I scanned it right after getting the magazine it came with, I decided it would probably be a better idea not to put it up while it was still available in stores in Japan, plus I've been very busy in real life.

Well anyway, I've separated it into two parts: illustrations from the anime and illustrations from Shouji Sato.  Both are completely raw scans.  I haven't done anything with them, and they're both ridiculously huge and pretty unrefined looking as a result.  If anyone out there wants to join the images and adjust the colors and stuff, well, that's up to you, but I don't have the time to do it myself at the moment.

The Shouji Sato portion contains the cover, a new illustration, the complete SchDead Museum, and the prequel novel which was originally in an issue of Dragon Age a couple years back before the hiatus started.

The anime portion contains a number of illustrations from the character designer for the anime.

As for the color edition preview, well, there's not much to see there so I didn't bother.  It's just the first 20 pages or so of the first volume in color.  It looks pretty good, but I don't see the point in me translating it when I'm already planning on doing the whole volume anyway.  Sorry for going back on what I say so much... First I said I'd do the 4-koma, and this time I said I'd do the color preview...  I have a tendency to overestimate how much free time I'll have.

Well, without further ado...
Shouji Sato Illustrations
Anime Illustrations

Oh, one other thing.  You may notice that there are no more ads on the site.  My AdSense account was disabled for "invalid clicks" so I can't make up for raw costs that way anymore.  I'm not going to ask anything too unreasonable, but if you can spare a little money, the donation button is still good.  I make enough at my job in real life that I should hopefully still be able to afford the magazine and import costs every couple months if a few people donate, but if I run into trouble, don't get mad if I start asking for donations.  It's not that I want to make money from this... I just don't want to lose a substantial amount of money.  Scanning the series takes money unfortunately, and I'm still a student so I don't yet have a full-time job.  Many thanks to those of you who have donated already!

Well, enough of that.  The next chapter comes out in less than a month, so I guess I'll see you again then.  I hope you have a happy holiday season, whatever that may mean for you.

Highschool of the Dead chapter 28

Well, what do you know, I got the chapter in today after all.

Download from Megaupload
Download from Mediafire

This is where I'd say "See ya in two months!" but actually, I wanted to let you know that I'm planning on putting the art book that came with this issue up eventually.  With no hyperbole, it's FUCKING HUGE, so when I put it up it'll be in several parts.  Give me some time.

Also, this issue announced that there is going to be a full color re-release of the first four volumes of Highschool of the Dead.  There's not a whole lot of info yet, but we do know they're coming out in spring 2011, will be 176 pages (does that mean we'll get some extra stuff with each volume?), and are going to be B5 size.  For reference, B5 is just slightly smaller than standard size printer paper, so for a manga release, this is huge.  These volumes should be a treat, and if I can, I'd love to be able to translate them for you.

There was a preview for the full color edition included in the art book, so I'm planning on translating that so you can have an idea of what it'll be like.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and help me out if you can!!  I'm poor. ;_;

Dragon Age December 2010 issue preordered.

Sorry for a lack of updates, but I really don't have much to post about.  I might try doing the Saikin no Dead spin-off or the 4 koma parody Highschool of the Head sometime, but those are kind of low priority and I'm occupied with a lot of other things at the moment.

Anyway, this post is just sort of an update to let you know I'm alive, and as the title says, I preordered the next issue of Dragon Age, which comes out November 9th.  This issue is supposed to contain the next chapter of HOTD, and I'll try to get it out as quickly as I can once I get the magazine.  Many thanks to those who've donated or supported my scanlation through the ads on this site!  Buying things from Japan is very expensive right now, so every little bit helps.