Episode 4, Page #1 - "Video Room Break: Part 1"
Aoi Notes: 07/23/2007
Yes, this is Aoi House. You are in the right place!
Welcome to the start of Episode 4 of Aoi House In Love! entitled "D for Drama" which kicks off with the first page of a special 3-part "mini-arc" featuring two of Shiei's own self-created characters--Blade and Roadkill! Shiei has done several pieces of original art featuring these pair of rivals in the past, so it only seemed right to try to find a cool way to fit them into Aoi House. With the Aoi gang at Hatsu-Con, it allowed me to do just that!
I really wanted to show as many of the convention staples that make cons, well... cons. The video programming that cons offer is really a big part of that, but it also allowed me to do something special for Shiei by letting her a block of pages to go wild for a little mini-story within a story.
What we ended up doing for these pages was actually pretty interesting as we don't often do this. I generally write a script first that Shiei draws from, but here, Shiei drew the pages first and then I filled in the dialogue based on her drawings. I found that can be really tough, actually. The reason for that is that if you don't know the characters, then writing dialogue for them can be incredibly tough. But I think everything turned out great, in the end.
Oh, Shiei actually drew a total of six pages with three pages showing the version presented here and then another three showing an alternate version that we included as an extra in the back of Aoi House In Love! Vol. 1 (check in the "Aoi Notes: Print Edition" for those pages). So be sure to pick up the book so you can check those out. It's in stores now. (Yeah, shameless plug.)
Well, it's off to San Diego Comic-Con for Shiei and me on Wednesday. So if you'll be there, then be sure to stop by the Seven Seas booth. We'd love to meet you!
-Adam Arnold
P.S. We have up two new Vote Incentives for Aoi House. The first is a piece of original Elle artwork from the new Aoi House In Love! Vol. 1 book and the return of the ever-popular character chibis (first up is Nina). Be sure to support Aoi House by voting at both sites!
