I went to the Best New Manga shindig yesterday and did a little talk about our comic. Lots of kids asked me to sign their books for them. It was kinda cool. After the show, we (that is to say me and a few of the Sweatdrop peeps) hit the British History Museum (where I must take Shari one day, I must!!) which was right next door to where we were anyway. I hadn’t been to that place since I was a kid. It’s changed so much and it’s all that much more mind-blowing now. I adored it. Though our time spent there was brief, but I shall return.

Starbucks beckoned and we hung out there for a while discussing random things. After that Rik, Wing & I split from the group and went to grab some Sushi and Japanese Curry in Central London. It’s like.. tradition. We always grab a bite to eat when we meet up at a Japanese restaurant. This was all a mere introduction however, to our main outing. We were heading off to watch Pan’s Labyrinth.

I have mixed feelings about this movie. The trailers, posters and general advertising built this up to be an amazing fantasy tale mixed in with the drama’s of the real world. However, as it turned out, I’d say the movie was 20% fantasy, 80% war story. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a good movie, I did enjoy it, but that didn’t however stop me from being disappointed by it. I was in the mood for this amazing gothic fantasy tale, and that’s not what I got. Shari and I felt like they had wasted an amazing premise to what could’ve truly been the fantasy tale of the decade.

It was beautiful, it was good, but it wasn’t what they advertised it to be. I’m not quite sure how to take that. Anyway, I guess now I can get back to planning our new comic project. We’re working on a fantasy epic pitch of our own. It’s based on an idea I had 5 months ago that somehow got mixed up in a weird dream I had.

What? You thought we’d finish one book and then quit? Pffft!! Never XD

Managed to get a scan of the review from NEO Magazine concerning Best New Manga. Thanks to Rik & Wing for that. Quite a few of the comics in the book get a mention in this.

We got a mention too, though it’s tiny it’s a mention none-the-less lol They basically say “This comic is manga” about our story. Thanks for the update XD nah, they do say that we’re part of the list of comics they appreciate.

Min Kwon’s Haru-Sari and Fehed Said & Shari Chankhamma’s The Healing evoke a more traditional manga style and feel yet all possess their own unique slant on the medium.

I thought some of you might appreciate reading the full thing. Click here to download it.

Got a nice little mention in a review at MangaLife concerning our short piece in Best New Manga:

Fehed Said and Shari Chankhamma’s The Healing is another strong self-contained story, particularly in its successful creation of a well-realised fantasy world in just a handful of pages. The art is delicate, yet has a grotesque look appropriate to the setting, and the character and environment designs are interesting and evocative. The plot is a little predictable in places, but even so, the story packs a considerable emotional punch.
# read full review

Also got a small mention on a blog:

The Healing by Fehed Said & Shari Chankhama, a fantastically realised story that if I described it any more, would rob it of it’s gravitas.
# read full blog post

We got a mention in NEO magazine too, which I’ll try to grab this week. They gave Best New Manga a 4 out of 5. Sweet!

I guess fantasy may very well be our strongest genre. I have to admit, I do like writing surreal stories set in fantasy realms more than anything else I’ve attempted. It’s damn hard though, as you really are designing a whole world as opposed to just a handful of characters.

The title said it all!

But in case it wasn’t clear, let me say it again here, The Clarence Principle will be published by SLG publishing, to be released May 2007.

We have been keeping this to ourselves for almost a year now! glad to be able to tell the world! I finally finished the new ending and sent it off, now everything is final, official, and all set. The book will be 200+ pages, in 6×8″ size (I wish it was bigger, but well). This is marked our first major release, and hope it’s not going to be the last ^____^

we will bring you more news about the release when we have some, if you haven’t checked out The clarence principle in our project page yet, please do!

*swan lake off*

Today is a wet day. As I got on the train, I happened to sit right opposite a seat that had a leak above it. The leak would drip when the train was moving and it dripped a lot, so the seat below it was quite wet. Slowly people boarded the train and they all occupied the seats around me, but still avoiding the one directly in front of me. No one actually noticed the leak, as it’s only visible as the train moved. No one knew that seat was wet.

Finally, a gentleman decides to take that seat, but before he sat down, I decided to say something.

Fehed: Sorry, that seat’s wet.
Gentleman: ??? .. oh, thanks.
Fehed: ^_^

As the journey continued, the rest of the seats were all occupied except that seat. Suffice to say, people would attempt to sit there and I would now intervene. “Sorry, that seat’s wet.”, I kept saying and they’d thank me and move on. Eventually, growing tired of the same phrase, I started playing around with it.

• Sorry, that seat is a tad moist
• Excuse me miss, there’s a drip there
• Sir, I wouldn’t sit there, it’s damp

None of them really had any ring to them that the original phrase had though, so I moved back to just saying “the seat’s wet”. After a while, I was surprised that I’m the only one saying anything. People were perfectly happy just staying quiet and letting others attempt to take the seat. People who I had saved from getting a damp butt, just sat there minding their own business.

The woman next to me stopped reading her book for a moment, turned to me and asked “What will they do when you get off the train?”. Coincidentally, the next stop was mine. So I got off and started dissecting this experience. If I was any smarter, maybe I’d have come to some kind of a conclusion about it. Right now, all I have is “That’s just fucking weird… are people really that badly anti-social?”

I did however remember a social experiment someone attempted on a train. They had an actor stand around till the carriage got crowded and then pretend to faint. There were two instances of this experiment. The first, the actor would faint and fall to the ground, and people eventually moved towards him to offer some kind of help.

The second, the actor would faint and fall to the ground and there would be a hint of blood trickling from his mouth. During this instance, no one approached the man on the floor. Was it out of fear? Was it out of a feeling of inadequacy? Blood from the mouth would make anyone believe that it was quite serious, so maybe they thought “Well I’m not a doctor, I probably can’t do anything”.

The behaviour in that experiment is understandable to an extent. But… would it really kill people to say “sorry, that seat’s wet”?