Stuff I Did Last Week

Between now and my last entry, there's some exciting "highlights" that happened.

I found a fat black widow in my backyard.

So then I smashed it till it's butt exploded.

It crawled around for a bit but then settled down.

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So I Guess I'm Allergic to Kiwi...

(this entry if full of gross reactions so don't read it if you're sensitive to that sort of stuff)

 About a year ago, I discovered something quite dastardly about kiwi fruit quite by accident.  A few hours after eating this furry fruit, I experienced hours of stomach pains followed by  several trips of unadulterated liquid diarrhea.  It just made me feel sick for a while.  This event was very puzzling when it first occurred as I've eaten the fruit before and nothing like this has ever happened.  I su...Read more

Asians, the Generally Smarter Race

Here's an interesting article I read in the LA Times:

Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos? http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lincoln16-2008jul16,0,3712530.story In summary, the article examines the students of Lincoln High School who come from various parts of Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.  Both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. And yet Asians ma...Read more

Cantonese vs. Mandarin

Mandarin seems like the Chinese language to learn in America.  Even among some of my Cantonese speaking friends or relatives, when they want their baby to learn Chinese, Mandarin is their choice.  China is the future, people say.  I used to expect most US chinatown communities to primarily be Cantonese speakers but seems like either Taiwanese people or Mainlanders are flourishing in this environment as well.  <...Read more

Earthquake and Random Artwork

Before I talk about the Sichuan Earthquake, here's a random drawing of a cute nerdy girl.

Gross, yet appealing.  Other students throw stuff at her yet she still has an awkward smile on her face.  What a poor girl.  It reminds me of the character Ichigo during her flashback in the movie Kamizake Girls.  http://www.youtube.c...Read more

Artwork: Life Ages

When it comes to drawing people of different ages, there's several things you can do to indicate age.  Mostly basic things like: proportion, costume, attitude.  When I drew this, I didn't really study real models or anything, (which I should've but am too lazy) I just drew on what I generally knew. 

Babies and children look more the way they do with a big forehead and their eyes, nose, mouth pr...Read more

Cartoon Musings: Mickey Mouse

When I look at the world of cartooning, success, and mascot popularity, several characters come to mind:  Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Doraemon, Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, Totoro, Bugs Bunny, Mcdull, etc...  These are characters that have all become icons and merchandising cash cows.  These are the type of creations which I can only dream of making. 

So let us briefly examine probably the world's most popular if not recognizable cartoon character: Mickey Mouse. 

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Thread of White Hair

Here's my first irreverent post. 

I was admiring how tremendously sexy my hair looks in the mirror the other day, and as I was doing so, something caught my eye.  In the sunlight, a gleaming line of white contrasted with a sea of black hair.  Not fully believing what it was, I soon managed to isolate this foreign strand and plucked it.  Sure enough, it was a single thread of pure white hair.

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Chow Yun Fat is the King!

Photo Courtesy www.templeofchow.com

Since this is a site of Asian movie origins, I might as well start the early blog with a small tribute to one of Hong Kong's finest movie actors, Mr. Chow Yun Fat.  I wish I could say I've been a fan of his since his breakout shows and movies in the 80's but it wasn't until 1999 did I ...Read more

My blog has been launched

Nei ho.  I'm James Mar, a cartoonist and freelance artist.  Visit my website at http://www.jamesmarstudio.com