Yakuza Comic #1 & #2

Hey guys, couple of things. First off I'll be needing character applications soon if you wish to be part of the characters . The deadline isn't until Thursday May 8th, but it'd be nice to see how many of you are interested and plan on applying (Post on the topic in the forum or comment on this blog post)Also, over the past day I've pretty much finalized the layout. After considering the words of a friend of mine as well as the general positive feedback I got about the promo, I've decided to redo the promo in the new finalized layout and given it a name. I've also done some work on the second one and it's ready to be uploaded as well. (Shown below)

Just as a future reference, don't expect new strips daily. I'll probably do anywhere from 1-3 a week depending on my schedule and how busy I am. (How lazy and unmotivated I am is a sure deciding factor in how many are made every week :P)

Well, here are the strips :P. Comments, positive or negative, are welcome. Just be sure that if you criticize my work, it's constructive or else you'll be completely ignored (I might even take the liberty of deleting your comment).





Oh and I'm working on a nice layout for my blog, but I can't make the header without a few more characters. Expect it sometime within 2-3 weeks.

Promo Maplestory Strip

I doubt any of you remember that I used to make gunbound comics. I think Eric was the only one around back then, before the forum was even known as Yakuza Forum. (It was called International Gaming back then, and we were pretty focused on gaming in general) I actually don't even have them anymore (so if any of you DO remember/were around, then it'd be nice if you put them up). I think I had around 10 strips before I quit gunbound and just stopped making them.

Well I've decided to pick up this hobby again, and this time around I'm going to be making Maplestory comics. Last time I took characters from members of the forum and I think I'll do the same this time.

Here's a small promo (not a real strip...not thought out and is just meant to show what they'll be SIMILAR to):



There are no guarantees that you'll be chosen to be part of the comic (except for admins, who are required to be a part of it unless they have a REAL reason not to be). I'm trying to look for a large variety of classes, genders (please do not pretend to be a female when you are a male and vice versa), as well as general look.

If you wish to have a chance to be selected, please provide the following information:

1. Name you'd like to be known as (ex: Daz, Eric, etc)
2. Character Class
3. Either a screenshot or a *BannedStory 3.0 Code of your character.
4. General level (as in a range)

*BannedStory 3.0 is a Maple Simulator you can find by googling. This is a pretty big deciding factor of whether you'll be chosen or not (sadly, because I'm too lazy to go make your character from a screenshot)

Couple of notes and tips for being chosen:
- I'll be choosing personalities in the storyline. By applying for a spot, you recognize that I have the power to control every aspect of your character. This means if you select a Rogue, I have the power to change your character into a Bandit. (although normally I'll probably discuss major changes to your character with you)
- Creativity in character creation is VERY important. I don't want 5 Dragon Knights that all look sexy...I want a beginner with the strangest cash shop suit (just an example), a cleric that doesn't seem to know how to match colors (another example), some normal characters, and some sexy characters.
- You cannot (as of now) choose to be a 4th class job. I have my reasons and one of them is that I don't really know that much about them (not to mention it provides an opportunity for a storyline in the future).

I plan on finishing my character selection by May 8th (random date, don't ask), so this gives everyone plenty of time to download BannedStory and create their character.

Here's a list of current characters to give you an idea:
- Daz (11X Hermit)
- Eric (8X Dragon Knight)

Oh and feel free to PM me on Yakuza Forums (http://yakuza.dazuba.com/forum) or comment on this Blog post if you have an ideas for the future. (This post is basically copy/pasted from my topic:
http://yakuza.dazuba.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=292)

Welcome to Yakuza Comic / History

Welcome to my blog! I'm known as Daz, owner/admin of the forum, Yakuza Forum (check it out at http://yakuza.dazuba.com/forum). I'll be posting up comics from the game, Maplestory (or Maple Story), here. Maplestory's basically a side-scrolling 2-D MMORPG that's relatively popular. They have many different versions (google it :P) for people of all locations. The currency is the Mesos, which is used for trading and buying/selling services/products. Maplestory is generally a pretty fun game where you choose classes to be. I may post guides up here occasionally for classes or quests, but it'll mostly be the comics and just general blogging.

Just in case any of you were wondering, here's a little bit of my history of Maplestory:


Somewhere around the time of Beta MS - I decided to sign up with a few friends and started a Mage. I got it up to level 30 and had a little bit of trouble deciding with a class to choose...eventually I chose cleric, simply because I enjoyed helping out my friends and the money benefits as well. This cleric got up to roughly level 55ish before I just got bored and couldn't stand the zombie lupins anymore (Went to the Shumi jump quest to kill wraiths occasionally...but thought it wasn't worth it since 9 out of 10 times, AFTER the jump quest, someone would be already there at the wraiths). I started a thief, who became a throwing-star rogue. I was pretty poor, so things went slowly and around the time I was level 29, some friends convinced me to try jMS, the japanese version of Maplestory.

They told me that jMS had MANY things that beta Maplestory didn't have. It had 3rd job, cash shop, and tons of new areas. I was pretty tempted so I gave it a try...and got hooked. It was a tenth as crowded as beta MS (I played on Sumomo, which JUST came out). Made a Chief Bandit that eventually reached level 86, a Hermit that ended up around 113, and a Cleric that was around 65. I bought cash items using 'meru' which was what the japanese called the currency. After my hermit, I decided to take a break for a while until 4th job came out for jMS but even when it came out, I just never found the time to return.

So eventually I moved on to different MMORPGs. I played Guild Wars for a pretty long time (was in a top 100 guild for quite a while before creating my own...less successful top 500 guild).

Oh and to play these games, the computer that I'm using is an HP Pavillion zd8000...kind of an older model but it gets the job done. Graphics card is ATI Radeon Mobility X600, Hard Drive is at 100GB 7200RPM, 2GB of RAM, and it's a 17" Screen.