Wow! This has been one hell of a week! We had a ton of work to do in a very short time frame. But SOMEHOW we made it! You may notice that there are a few changes with the site….like – everything! Life in Aggro is now our main focus, and as such for our 10th comic anniversary we are proud to present it on its own web address (don’t forget to BOOKMARK!), its own logo and color scheme along with the actual comic itself! I spent time cleaning up the HTML as I updated to the new scheme, as for some reason I found that there were issues in IE and Firefox that I didn’t catch before in displaying certain pages and oddly enough displaying borders on pictures. Anyways, the site should be much cleaner and consistent looking then it once was. If you were using Google Chrome (as Pie and I are) then it should have looked fine.

In recent news, Hayao Miyazaki was recently quoted as finding the trend of people using iPads on the train as “disgusting” as it is a “strange masturbation-like gesture”. He was summarized as finding equal disgust from cell phone and manga reading trends. The article at Silicon Era went on to quote an even more crazy bastard, Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam. He was quoted saying some pretty absurd things regarding gaming habits which I find amusing and hypocritical coming from someone who creates several things that do not bring any productivity to the world – as if every human endeavor needed to.

Though Miyazaki’s comments weren’t as jarring as Tomino’s, he seemed a more prime candidate for the topic of this week’s comic considering his wild and wonderful imagination. Perhaps growing old makes creators crazy? So many artists act like snobs and believe that their specific art form is somehow better than others’ and tend to have surprisingly narrow minded views. Is it derived out of some sense of insecurity? Do they feel so little about themselves that they have to take such a close minded approach? Either way, it makes for a good laugh imagining how Miyazaki might fix the slumping Japanese (or should I say world?) economy.

For those who aren’t familiar with the works of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, I VERY HIGHLY recommend checking out some of his sensational animated films. In many ways, I can truly say that I jest because I love. His movies are of the highest caliber and I have fallen in love with his style and imagination. I have so much respect and admiration for him and am grateful to be able to be inspired by his work. Two of his many movies I recommend for those not familiar with his stuff are Castle in the Sky and Howls Moving Castle. I think those two movies will give a good idea of his sense of spirit and imagination, though all of his movies I’ve seen are excellent and worth watching. Sadly his latest movie, Ponyo, was a little lacking as it was geared more toward little kids, but the eye candy for the film was still amazing.

Well, back to putting our noses to the grindstone! We have come pretty far getting the comic on track and I am happy with the way things are turning out so far. I really love working alongside Pie as we have a lot of fun making the comics together, so I hope you all enjoy them as much as we enjoy making them!

Thanks for the support everyone!

I've been tempted to listen to the "How to Train Your Dragon" all week but have been trying to resist so I don't get sick of it. I really want to see the movie now and I think it kinda sucks now that I missed my chance to see it in theatres. I've been reading comments people have been posting in response to tracks of the movie and some of the things I've seen really spark one of my pet peeves; I HATE it sooo much how so many people have the mentality that "cartoons" are for kids. I HATE it SOOO MUCH!

The comment that sparked it for me was someone responding off an emotional track saying something along the lines of how the track makes him/her kinda cry, how he/she likes the movie, stressing that he's/she's eighteen, and then asking if it's weird. I don't intend to be mean, but what does your age have anything to do with it? Cartoons/Animation is just another form of film. I have the suspicion that a lot of people want to label animation as being off limits under the idea that "cartoons are for kids" because of an insecurity of their own maturity, kinda like how elementary and middle school kids start having the urge to have romantic relationships to signify that they're more grown up. >_> I'm reminded of once during my early years in high school when I was obsessed at the discovery of Japanese animation, I got some of my cousins into Ranma 1/2. Both cousins were really into it but one night when I brought them a new tape of episodes, one of them who's about five years older than me said she wasn't going to watch anymore because she was too old for cartoons. What?! Grrr.... I can go on with more examples, but I don't want you guys to suffer from my ranting. >_>

Today's comic is our tenth page! XD I'm happy we made it so far and I hope we continue going for a long time. =) I've been really happy to hear recent feedback of our comics making friends laugh.

Bear was pretty ambitious about the creation of this comic considering how many things there were to draw and color in this one. I know Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are world famous, but I'm really curious how many people won't get this since it's more related to anime than games. o_< I hope you all get some laughs out of this one regardless. XD