Seems like Japan is a "hive" of activity when it comes to underwater life (what a terrible mixed metaphor but you get our drift! Haha – "drift" – just some juvenile humour at work here). This story, however, isn't funny. Although the photo is remarkably beautiful, CNN.com tells us in its "Japanese Fishermen Brace for Giant Jellyfish" article that, "Giant jellyfish descend on the Sea of Japan, causing untold devastation to coastal villages and leaving a trail of destruction and human misery behind." The species is called Nomura's Jellyfish and it can grow 1.83 metres (6 feet) in diameter and weighs 204 kilos (450 pounds). They swim in shoals and can rip fishing nets apart. We wouldn't want those stingers wrapping us up any time soon.
This is footage of the Kuroshio Sea Tank at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan – it's quite beautiful and calming, although we'd prefer to see the larger creatures like the whale shark and the manta rays in their natural habitat. Thank goodness mermaids are too clever to get caught.
Tilaweed's having a great run this week on our blog and on Jozef's Deviant Art page. We thought you might want to see an origins pic that Jozef painted as a gift for our former US colleague and long-term friend Cat many years ago. She looks a little different now, as she has evolved in line with the new story and new look.
We promised in a previous blog post we'd bring you a surprise and here it is! Tilaweed in her element. The "BEFORE" piece is the wash Jozef did to establish the colour palette of Tilaweed's underwater environment (notice it's very different to the colour palette used for Hyfus's ocean territory). Like the Hyfus Issue #1 cover, the realised Tilaweed "AFTER" artwork is essentially a pin-up piece but with story elements embedded into the artwork. When the series is released, there'll be one more piece of visual information added to this cover painting that we don't want to flag just yet. Hope you like it.
The character designs in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland film are simply stunning. Helena Bonham Carter as the "off with your head" Red Queen and Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter are our personal favourites. Tim Burton films are must sees for us. Not all of them work story-wise (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being one of them) but they're all visual feasts. Can't wait till 2010.
Something we may all want to take a look at to determine our individual culpability and what we can do. This is a world class documentary about the devastating effect of overfishing on global oceans. Without minimising the importance of the message, we have to ask ... what will the mermaids think?
Okay ... we don't want to mock any of our Asian neighbours but we really do recommend that people in publishing get good translators and proofreaders. These pics came from our new favourite website – engrish.com – which features ... well a picture's worth a thousand words. Here are some beauties from the Anime/Manga section, as well as the Books/Magazines section (wonder what Disney has to say about this – we're betting it's unauthorised usage of the Winnie the Pooh character). These pics are just the tip of the iceberg – check out the menus and signs– absolute classics! The archives go back to 1996 – there's longevity in this website. Guess the lessons haven't been learned yet.
