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.