Emirant

Anime Expo!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:28:00 +0000

I just wanted to mention that I will be at Anime Expo in LA this July 4th weekend. Is there any interest in an OO meet-up, let me know :D

Comic will probably be late ^_^;

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:34:00 +0000

It's Tuesday now, but I can already tell that I may not have Thursday's comic done in time. This is a very hectic week for me. I have multiple deadlines due for stuff, plus I am also in my annual art panic mode as I prepare to get all my artwork for the Project A-kon art show done in time to get it into the mail. Oh, and it's a holiday and convention weekend coming up. So, yeah, I am very distracted this week! I will try to have something posted on Thursday, but I don't know if it will be an actual comic :)

Closing the OO store

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Yeah, as the title states, I will be closing the OO cafepress shop soon. No one actually bought anything from there anyway, really (^_^;;;;), and it has actually been costing me money every month to maintain. I may re-open it again later as one of the free basic cafepress shops that allow for limited product offerings, and perhaps offer new limited-edition items. My dream is to create Beauty Man Garden store T-shirts for the various locations (sort of like Hard Rock Cafe shirts -- "BMG UBERSHIBUYA" "BMG PARTY PLANET" etc.)

I am closing the OO shop is because right now I am desperately trying to save up money for a glorious Wacom Cintiq 21UX, a drawing tablet I want so much I have actually been having dreams about it ^_^; As you can see, it is crazy expensive, so every little random expense I can eliminate will help :D I am sad to see the store go, but hopefully I will be able to bring it back later with new designs (drawn using the Cintiq! XD) Wish me luck!

Facebook and Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:07:00 +0000

Hey, I want to thank everyone who has joined the Strange Candy Facebook Group! It is fun to see the faces of our readers. I often forget that anyone else is actually looking at this comic, so I am rather amazed ^_^ I want to draw some special artwork for the group or do something but I am not sure what yet!

Also, as I am finally embracing social networking stuff (give me a break, I am old now!), I am on Twitter, @magicalemi if you are bored and want to follow. I don't have all that much of interest to say (mostly along the lines of 'reading manga right now, woo!' or 'I ordered cheesesticks and they gave me fishsticks!' but I will twitter when I am working on the comic and when comics are posted.

Oh, hey, is anyone going to Anime Expo this year? The recent announcement of Morning Musume as a musical guest has piqued my morbid curiousity, so I will probably attend. Maybe I could hold a meet up with our tens of readers? XD

Strange Candy Facebook Group

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:08:00 +0000

I am a dork, so I created a Facebook Group for OO. I expect that I will probably end up being the only member, but it seemed like a fun idea at the time :) If you read OO and are on Facebook, check it out! I don't really have an idea of what to do with it yet, but suggestions are welcome.

8 Years! (wow)

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:41:00 +0000

So, this week marks the 8th anniversary of Strange Candy. Kind of hard to believe that it has managed to continue this long. That is a lot of comics! Of course, we are only doing 1 a week now, but still, I had no idea in 2001 that I would still be working on this in 2009 :) It was suggested that it may be time for another handy dandy relationship map (the last one we did was in, er, 2004...) so here it is! These are harder to put together than you would think. Hopefully, this will maybe help a little for people to remember characters or character names or relationships (or just confuse you more, lol). I know there is a lot going on in OO, and it may be hard to follow with only one comic a week. I expect the comic makes more sense when read in clumps XD But I thank everyone for reading and for sticking with us over the years. Happy birthday, OO!

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:50:00 +0000

Hello Everyone, Emi here! Happy New Year! I had actually intended to do a regular comic today, but I went out of town to visit my parents for new years (couldn't see them at xmas, as they were snowed in) and I, er, kinda forgot to do a comic ^_^;;; So I scrambled at the very last minute and without all my normal comic-making resources, to have SOMETHING for y'all ^^;; Sorry about that! :D At any rate, it's now 2009 (woo hoo!) and I hope that everyone has a safe and prosperous year!

Kyaa~!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:31:00 +0000

Today's comic is ecchi *^_^*;;

Happy Thanksgiving!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 20:31:00 +0000

For those of you in the US, I hope you have a nice Turkey Day :D I actually had a pin-up drawing of Eeichi and Takeshi done and set to post today, but then I went and forgot to upload it -_-;; Now I am away from home visiting my parents, so I don't have access to it *sigh* I will post it when I get home Saturday. In the meantime, all I have to offer is a recent, non-OO picture I drew, which can be seen HERE.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great day!

Minor Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:19:00 +0000

I have changed the OO Guestbook to a different system. The old one was, well, OLD, and it would lose the very few messages we get in it in the first place. So I changed to a different system which will hopefully work better. Not that we get tons of people signing the guestbook (though that would be nice... ^_-) but at least we'll be able to see the few who do! I have also tried to fix the navigation on the archived comic pages, because I know that they haven't worked in ages, but I am not sure if I have fixed them yet. Still poking around at them.

I am also thinking of changing out or removing the OO forum, as it is rather dead, and Ponju has been having some forum issues lately. I am still not sure where I will move it (or if I will keep it at all) but I would prefer a 3rd party location. Hrm.

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Mine was okay. I am also happy that the US election is over! I voted~! :D Yay!

Right now I am struggling with the fact that I have too many hobbies and so little time that I have a hard time maintaining any of them! I want to draw OO, draw non-OO stuff (as seen on my DeviantArt account), I am a manga moderator over on MAL which takes up a lot of time, I also like to knit (winter is coming, I feel an irresistible urge to knit scarves as if I was a shoujo manga heroine), I am trying to keep up with manga and non-manga reading, watching anime, and watching live action asian dramas. I also write DVD reviews for another site, so I have to meet my deadlines there @_@ I am aware that I have basically abandoned my poor BMG comic project which never even got a proper start in the first place ;_; and that drives me crazy too, I really want to do more with it! I had great plans for Shin. I need to go back to that at some point, or maybe reboot it from the beginning? Hmm. And I also still want to do another OO calendar- I have been saying this for years! But I can never manage to finish enough illustrations -_-; And I want to eventually do another OO Caramelldansen and fix p the Hana Yori Dango one I made... *sigh* Does anyone else have this problem of too many hobbies, too little time? I need to win the lottery so I can quit my job and live a life of leisure :P

Ok, this post is long and rambling, so I will shush now :)

YaoiCon!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:01:00 +0000

Is anyone going to YaoiCon this weekend? I will be there! If anyone wants to meet up to chat, drop me an email! I will mainly be there Saturday. :D

Anime Expo~

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:04:00 +0000

There will probably not be a comic next Thursday (July 3) as I will be at Anime Expo. I will try to post *something* random, but I don't think I will have the chance to put together a complete comic~. I will see you all again after the con! :)

Fanime!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:00:00 +0000

For those of us in the SF Bay Area, FanimeCon is this weekend. Is anyone going? I will probably go on Saturday, I think. This is the first time in a while that I have only gone 1 day of a convention instead of the full weekend, but it was either 1 day or miss the con ^^; I am still trying to decide if I will go to AX in July or not.

Happy Singlehood Awareness Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:27:00 +0000

Oof. Already today has been a massive pile of FAIL for me -_-. I had a comic almost completely done, saved it, and when I went to work on it again later, I discovered something in the file got corrupted, and I ended up losing all that work. ARGH -_-; So, no comic today... Not even a Valentine Pin-up! I suck!

I do have one random thing for you.A little animation I did. Hey, all the kids are doing it! I caved into the pressure!! XD It sucks and isn't quite 'there' yet, but hey, I tried. After all, you can never have TOO MANY versions of this video ^_^

As for the elections and stuff.. well, I won't be discussing politics here because really, I don't think people come here to read that stuff, and if you are the type of person to make voting decisions based on what some random webcomic person suggests, you need some help... Whoever you vote for should be your own decision based on your own informed research. I am not here to campaign for any particular candidate and I do not endorse any whose poor likeness may appear in the comic, all characters in the comic are there simply for attempted humor and/or abuse, in my opinion.

Yes

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:44:00 +0000

There will be a new comic on Thursday the 29th :) This remix is to celebrate the anniversary of Xuanwu's Create A Comic Project ^_^Woah, is it already the 28th? o.o This month has flown by. I just realized my birthday is on Sunday. Why are the years slipping by so quickly? ;_; So old now -_- Er, anyway, yes, new comic tomorrow :D

OOF!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:22:00 +0000

Ok, I am obviously back from Japan now. But remember THIS comic from way back when? That is pretty much how I have been this week since my return. So much to unpack, so much to catch up on at work, so little sleep XD I hope everyone (US folks, at least) will have a good Thanksgiving this week! I have a posted a little seasonal non-OO artwork, just to replace the Halloween pic. I expect there will be a new comic the Thursday after Thanksgiving. Thanks for your patience! ~_~;

In Japan!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:38:00 +0000

Arrgh! I am so sorry that the site hasn't updated! I thought I had queued up everything properly to update with some of the fanart and strange english things to display here while I am on vacation in Japan, but apparently it didn't work. I am in Japan right now, and my internet access has been spotty, so I only noticed just now that it didn't work. ;_; Sorry! I will post some photos or something when I get back. I fly home tomorrow, so I will probably not be able to update anything until late Thursday night, maybe? Not sure. Argh. Again, sorry for the Halloween picture here!

The Forum is Back! Plus site Maintenance

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:56:00 +0000

The Forum, which was hacked recently, is back up!

I am doing some editing now and this weekend on the OO page and drop-down archive menu (including marking which comics in the archive belong to which story arc, etc). There has been some weirdness going on with the archive page layouts and navigation. I also plan to make some edits on the character page and links page. I just wanted to mention this in case the site ends up looking funny for a while :) I am also playing with the idea of completely redesigning the whole OO page layout, but I am not sure if I will yet ^_^ In the meantime, there are a whopping three whole comics over on the Beauty Man Garden. Heh ^^;

I am also attempting to attend AtsuiCon next year as well ^_^

Random note: I will be going to Japan again this November, from the 5th to the 14th. This will probably impact the comics that will appear in those 2 weeks, so if anyone wants to contribute any artwork, remixes, or anything for me to post remotely when I am away, please send them to me at magicalemi at aol dot com.

Thanks!

BMG and Commissions!

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:31:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

It's that time yet again. I am ~~extremely~~rather broke and desperately need to earn some money for a trip I am going on, so I am opening myself up to do some art commissions, if anyone is interested ^_^ My commissioned artwork is better than my general OO art, really! Check out my Commissions Page for more details!

Also, I have been working on a little side project. There isn't much there yet, and I probably shouldn't link to this yet, but I figure that if there are people looking at it, I will be more motivated to work on it and update it. To that end, I give you The Beauty Man Garden!

http://beautymangarden.com

This is the Official Site for our Favorite restaurant chain, and it will feature a random comic every once in a while. I have no set update schedule for this site, so please be sure to check back every now and then. Let me know what you think. If you have suggestions for menu items or other things I can include there, let me know in the OO Forum or the Guestbook or comment on that site.

Thanks! :D

Comic Genesis Weirdness

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 05:09:00 +0000

Due to a recent server change and DNS switch, Comic Genesis has been acting a bit funky. There is a new comic for July 12, but it seems to be showing up randomly. The site sometimes goes back to the older place holder comic. Hopefully the server switch and site update will sort itself out soon!

Easing back into it...

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:37:00 +0000

Gah @_@ This past weekend I ended up not having enough room in my car to bring my desktop computer from my parents place to my apartment (I had a lot of other stuff I had to cart down here too), but I did have my scanner and drawing tablet. So, I decided to try and draw something with my laptop. Gah, my drawing tablet has decided not to work -_- As I learned last night, coloring with a mouse is uncomfortable, awkward, and takes forever ^_^; And using my laptop for this is strange - I can't judge colors on it very well, so I have no idea if this pinup looks ok or not ^_^;; I also realized that I don't have all my usual fonts on here either. Oops. Ah well, this is a start anyway! Must get back to OO soon... and get a new tablet someday!

The Police concert was awesome :D Aside from a strange arrangement of 'Every Little Thing She Does is Magic'' everything else sounded awesome. I am very glad I went!

My next convention is Anime Expo coming up in LA. I am very excited. I have a press badge, so hopefully I will be able to get in to most of the major events. Woo hoo!

Progress, progress....

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:22:00 +0000

Time for another status update! Things are moving right along. I have moved from TX to CA, I now have a job (which I started last week) and I now have a new apartment! This Friday the guy from the cable/internet company is coming over to do my internet and cable install, and then this weekend I will be visiting my parents and picking up some stuff to take back to my apartment (namely my desktop computer, hopefully my scanner, and other misc stuff, as much as my car will hold... moving by yourself sucks when you have a lot of heavy boxes and you live on the 2nd floor...) So, as I keep saying, OO will return in a week or two, fingers crossed! In the meantime, I am going to see the Police in concert tonight, and I am totally excited! ^_^ W00t!

Hello Again ^_^;

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:12:00 +0000

Hi! I know everyone must be totally sick of seeing my poor excuse for a comic that has been sitting up there for the last several weeks! I am so sorry about that! I actually intended to have a real comic online this week - I now have access to a scanner and all the tools I need to make a comic, but then, just as I began my job hunt, I was actually called in for an interview, and I had to drop everything and drive 4 hours south for it. So now I am away from my scanner again O_O;;; *sigh* The interview seemed to go well, and they want to see me again on friday, so I can't head back home yet until that interview is over. It's kind of a commplicated situation. I am determined to post SOMETHING of some sort this weekend (probably another pathetic emi-comic ^^;) If anyone has any fanart, I will probably post it, so send it to me! :P Thank you for your endless patience...

Still no Internet! But I have some boring photos...

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 03 May 2007 22:03:00 +0000

Hello again everyone! Yeah, still no updates! I have finished the first part of my roadtrip from TX to CA. I am still without internet access. I am sitting in a Starbucks in Reno right now, actually, and I had to drive 45 minutes to get to it. ^_^;; I think I will finally be back online with a steady connection on Monday or Tuesday, but even then, I will only have my laptop and small tablet, not my desktop and scanner, so I am not sure if/how I will be able to do the comic. I will see what I can do... I think all my scripts are saved on my desktop, actually O_O oops...

Ugh, this was a long road trip. For some ~~boring~~AMAZING photos from my drive, check THIS out. Yep, my trip was that exciting. Poor kitties...

Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about what was going on with me! :D I will try to get the comic back up ASAP!

Farewell, Texas...

noreply@blogger.com (Emi) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:28:00 +0000

Yeah, as you can see, another week of no comic ;_; I am at work right now (my last day!) and have no internet left at my now-completely empty house. Tomorrow I begin my drive to California (with Vicious and Spike in cat-carriers in the back seat... FUN ^_^;) Maybe I will take some photos along the way and post them or something, I dunno.... Anyway, I am not sure when I will have access to the internet again, but I will try to keep everyone posted! :D

I have also been following the Todd Goldman fiasco that Xuanwu mentions in his rant. Wow, things just get worse and worse. The similarities in suspected theft artwork are way too close to be accidental...