Guests' Web Picks

Okay, these first few links (well, most of the links I'm giving here, actually) are art-related. That is to say, they're the websites of anime artists.. who draw anime art... and are drawing..... anime.... and, um, stuff. Yeah.

http://artist.anime.net/
Actually, this is more of an online resource for comic and anime artists... but hey. This is kind of the hub of online anime art activity. Go there.

http://www.wendy-project.com/
SHE IS WENDY! Josh Lesnick has a sassy website completely devoted to a sassy original character (you know, I wonder if Wendy has a last name...) Stop by, read the Free Talk, drop in some comments, check out Josh's wacky art style... it's like Tsukasa Kotobuki meets Ryuusuke Mita meets John Kricfalusi gone scratchy. Crazy, man. There's some adults-only stuff here, so kiddies beware.

http://pendako.syste.ms/
All I can really say about Pendako is that this place houses the most AMAZING anime art I have ever seen come from fan artists. I wonder why these guys aren't doing character design at Madhouse or something... wowwww.... @.@

http://zamp.swb.de/
Zahara Medina is a very talented artist with a unique style. I guess the best way to describe her style is "gentle", or "gently drawn". If you like shoujo manga, definitely stop by Zam Paradise.

http://terraqueens.com/digical/
GDC2K is a collaboration of 12 artists from the Internet to produce a digital calendar to be distributed on CD. All the artists contribute images for each month of the year. These are then fashioned into calendar pages that can be viewed on computer or printed out and displayed. You can use the calendar art as a desktop too! Artists participating include Ian Kim, Naska, Josh Lesnick, Primera, and me. You can preview some of the calendar graphics on the website.

http://toastyfrog.simplenet.com/
Technically, Toastyfrog is more of an online zine than an artists' page, but the design, layout, and illustrations are all so nice that I just had to mention it here. Lots of humorous/parody material as well. Be sure to check out Evangelion Thumbnail Theatre!

http://www.pgaijin.com/
This remains one of my all-time favorite websites. Psychommu Gaijin is a non-profit online 'zine that is not afraid to look at the idiotic underbelly of fandumb. (Just the underbelly?) PGaijin rides the border between loving and biting self-referential satire. If you hold fandom sacred (or frequent newsgroups), don't stop here. But if you want a laugh at your own expense, you'll love it. Check out "the Fanboy list". Also, they review different beers as well. These guys are after my own heart. ^__^

http://cybermanga.com/
Hanamaru is a weekly online zine... "weekly" meaning it's updated weekly, not that the material changes that frequently ^.^;; Hanamaru is actually run by professional manga artists (!), and houses a message board, online manga, manga how-to's, and art galleries for amateurs and pros.

Evangelion:R
http://www.eva-r.com/
This is about the best fan fiction I have ever read. Evangelion:R has broken free of the Eva storyline, and created one of its own. The prose gets a little too flowery at times, but the compelling story makes up for it. This is also the most extensive fanwork I have seen, with art contests, opening and closing animation (in .avi format, sorry, Mac users ;_;), manga, and audio files with dialogue from pivotal scenes.

http://welcome.to/Bebop
If you haven't seen Cowboy Bebop yet, don't despair, AnimeVillage is bringing it out in the USA very soon. This is the best English-language site I've found on it so far. The host server is sometimes slow to respond, but it's worth the wait.

http://chat.animeigo.com/chat/chat.t
This is one of those Internet-based chats where you have to use an avatar and refresh the screen about ever five minutes or so, but it's still a good place to go if you're exceedingly bored.

http://www.anime.net/~awa/
The con that's a party. The kindest con. The con where you meet and make pals. AWA is one of those cons you go to not for the anime, but for the people. 2500 people converge on Atlanta to meet, greet, and laugh, and if they see some anime along the way, that's fine too. No matter how big and glitzy other cons get, I'll always be coming back to AWA.

http://www.fontalicious.com/
OK, so this has nothing to do with anime, really, but if you're a CG artist, there are loads of free and trendy downloadable fonts at Fontalicious.

http://www.heartless-bitches.com/
This is a wonderful, wonderful website - not half so much about feminism as it is about utter intolerance for stupidity and wussiness in BOTH sexes. Great stuff.

http://spitz.r-s.co.jp/
The official fanclub for SPITZ. Of all of my friends who like JPOP, not one of them has heard of Spitz. Their sound is very likable, yet hard to describe. They remind me mostly of Del Amitri or the Smithereens, but with much better lyrics ^.^;; One of my friends who heard their 7th album, "Indigo-no-Chiheisen", said they were "like the Gin Blossoms, but good". ^_^;;

Thanks for reading through all this! I hope you decide to check out some of these links! Jaa, ne!--EK