Unemployed Pandas

Catch P.M.B.Q. Studios next at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, July 2-5! 

To those who are not going to Anime Expo, we will also be exhibiting at San Diego Comic Con, July 23-26.

Sorry it’s been pretty quiet on the blog front lately.

Really appreciate everyone coming to visit FanimeCon a few weeks ago.  Things went well, and it was nice to welcome new readers to the site.  Also, it’s just nice to finally have the story of Ninja Panda and Samurai Panda available to give context to the shirts at the PMBQShop.

We’ve got our hands full doing re-orders for Anime Expo, keeping up with the comic, plotting schemes with Sakura of America, Manga Start, and BayAnime , planning the re-design and re-opening of the PMBQShop and also working on new t-shirt designs.

With that said, I gotta get back to printing up some prototypes for this summer’s designs. See ya (via comic update) on Monday :)

- PMBQ

*5/22/09 PLEASE NOTE PANEL DAY & TIME ARE UPDATED!!*

P.M.B.Q. Studios will be at Fanime Con next week, in San Jose, CA!

Check us out in the Dealer’s Room, where you’ll be able to see the fruits of my artistic labor these past few months (aka t-shirt and product designs).  Some of these things will be cross-posted from my blog.

You’ll be able to find me at my booth on Friday and Monday, but on Saturday and Sunday I will be in the Artist Alley with my very talented friend Jeannie Lee.  I’ll have the Unemployed Pandas Limited-Edition ashcan (e.g. mini-comic), along with buttons and posters for sale.  In addition, I will be taking a limited number of art commissions.  

Additionally, Jeannie, Karen Luk and I will be giving a special presentation:

History and Intro to Manga Art
SATURDAY at 1pm (updated!)
Marriott Salon 3 (updated!)
No Badge Required!

This presentation is FREE and open to the general public (meaning you don’t need a badge to attend).  It’s geared towards parents and anyone who is new to manga/anime.  It ties into my free drawing resource, Manga Start.  (Who knows, we might be giving out some door prizes, too…imagine that ^_-)

Hope to see you there.

- PMBQ

Win This T-shirt!

PMBQ and I have been tossing around a few ideas for t-shirt contests for readers of unemployed pandas. As you know PMBQ is also the artist behind pmbqshop.com where she offers up some great panda apparel. What you might not have known is that there is a special edition t-shirt design of Ninja Panda and Samurai Panda that has only been available at Anime and Comic shows.

The shirt has been the hottest of the season so we decided to give one of these to a fan of unemployed pandas. Here is a sneak peak of the special edition t-shirt design. You also have the option to pick a different design from pmbqshop.com.

Contest Details

If you had a chance to read through the series, you’ll notice a good amount of sarcasm combined with humour. For this contest, simply submit a caption for one of the last two Friday Odd Jobs pages (American Idol or H1B1 Swine Flu). You can submit the caption either in the comments of the page or by sending it via tweet to @upandas. Extra points if someone retweets the caption!!

The winning caption should capture the spirit and character of the unemployed pandas, so have fun with it. I have found that pulling the old ninja or samurai uniform from the closet and meditating for a few hours gets me into the right frame of mind. Just a thought.

We’ll take all entries until Monday, May 11. Then PMBQ and I will huddle up and pick the winner. Good luck to all.

-Mervyn

I suppose it’s finally time to address a question that keeps coming up at both conventions and online: What’s going on with Tea Club?

My hope was to get back to it later this year, as I got back into the swing of drawing comics with Unemployed Pandas.  I will be honest, though; the last storyline of Resident Tea-vil will most likely never get finished.  It’s simply a case of losing steam, and as it’s sat for quite a few years now it’s really hard to get back into it.  The story actually was supposed to go on for another 10-12 pages and then end, and I had already storyboarded it.

Regarding Volume 2 of the Tea Club manga, such a project may not happen anytime soon.  If you look at any graphic novel, it is a significant amount of work.  The first volume alone represents 6 solid months of intense writing, storyboarding, pencilling, inking, Photoshop-toning, and Illustrator-lettering that was 95% completed by my own hand.  It was a heart-wrenching, stressful, and mind-boggling experience that my body and mind are strongly advising me not to go through again.  I have no regrets about having completed it, but I definitely need to re-think my work structure when it comes to putting volume 2 together.

So those are my initial thoughts about Tea Club.  I also miss it dearly.  The characters are still a joy to draw, but at the moment I feel a bit out of touch with where the whole universe left off.  I have been brainstorming on how the next Tea Club arc will begin, though, so please know that the entire story has not been abandoned.

Right now, I’m really enjoying the chance to finally tell the story about Ninja Panda and Samurai Panda.  Ninja Panda, Samurai Panda, and the myriad of panda characters that have graced my t-shirt line over the past few years have been patiently waiting to have their story told, and their presence has increased so much over the years that many anime/comic convention attendees often wonder what the heck a “random generic catgirl” is doing in their midst.  (Don’t worry, it saddens me to hear them think that Hana Neko is a random generic catgirl too.)  This year has been interesting in testing out the waters with Unemployed Pandas, and it is strange to hear an outcry from old Tea Club fans wondering about Tea Club Volume 2.

It’s finally gotten to the point where I decided to leave it open to discussion. What do you guys think?  Would you be interested in seeing more Tea Club sooner than later?  Leave a comment and let me and Mervyn know, so we can figure out the next step…

- PMBQ