This week Pie explores the spooky and haunted locales of the Fatal Frame series, except with a slightly American twist. I would imagine that going through all those abandoned homes is bound to turn up things that were better left alone. Or, you know, not exposed.

Fatal Frame is a rather interesting Japanese survival horror game in that you go around taking pictures of ghosts to exorcise them from the random spooky Japanese haunted mansions/villages throughout the various installments. Being a series by Tecmo, the same people who brought us DoA Xtreme Beach Volleyball and will bring us Dead or Alive Dimensions, it’s not surprising that the protagonists of the series are young and attractive Japanese girls.

Though what makes the series interesting isn’t the lead characters but the environments that they are put in. I’ve only lightly played Crimson Butterfly but I’ve been interested in the series for a long time because they are really great at setting the mood. When Pie and I would sit down to play FF:CB together, even though she enjoys the setting and wants to play, she could only handle being spooked out so much before having to take a break. I think it’s cute but as a result we ended up not getting far…well that and the fact that we have game A.D.D. and tend to bounce between many different things.

As far as LiA goes, I’m happy to say I started to advertise on a few webcomic sites, Rare Candy Treatment and So… You’re a Cartoonist. Well, those are the only two, actually. I find advertising a bit difficult and I have mixed feelings on it. For one, I hate self promoting – in a way it feels sort of egotistical, right? I mean, in life I don’t like it when people go around being boastful and yet in a way advertising feels sort of like that. On the flip side though, I want to get the word out there and grow our readership and I feel that I shouldn’t have word of mouth or other people do the heavy lifting for us either just because of some stupid neurosis.

More than anything I want to get our comic out there. I want to see if more people are genuinely laughing and enjoying what we are putting out. I want to keep testing the waters and seeing if we are accomplishing our goals in this comic by cracking some smiles for other gamers out there. In a way I want LiA to be popular and successful even if Pie and I are not. Does that even make sense? Seeing other comic creators out there, I really feel like I need to get a firmer grasp on the comedy so I can make sure we’re hitting the mark swiftly and consistently.

Thanks for reading my stupid neurotic ramble and enjoy this week’s entry!

I'm happy we got to do a Fatal Frame based comic this week. We have the second and third games of the series, but have only really touched the second one for maybe about five hours. The concept of the franchise always intrigued me. I really love haunted atmospheres in video games.

Bear recently came across a newly started web comic called "Doctor Cat". It's stylishly cute and funny. The artist has things other than the comic at her Deviantart site, many of which I think are charming and have a good sense of humor. I'm feeling kinda envious because I wish I could be witty and funny too. It seems like a lot of really good artists I've met or have talked to have that kind of wit, humor, and charisma and are just oozing new ideas of things they want to create; it's like they're on a whole different level.

I recently started thinking more on what kind of art projects I'd like to work on during my in-between-comic times and I actually didn't come up with much. I used to do a lot of original graphite doodles, but that was years ago. I wonder if I'm just out of the "creation" groove. I really want to grow more and be creative and skilled like all those artists I longingly look up to the stars to.