One of the goofiest things in the 70s was "Pyramid Power." It was this belief that the shape of a pyramid focused magical energies into you, like an antenna. As a kid I totally believed this. People had these glass pyramids you were supposed to meditate in to focus the magic energy. I didn't know what meditation was but I wanted one so badly.

Caleb Cook, translator of My Hero Academia and soooo many others has been harassed off Twitter by toxic "fans" who were objectively wrong about his translation choices. Caleb has been nothing but a force for good in manga. To all of you who harassed him: Fuck. Off. Fans could not wish for a better translator than Caleb, in every way. Passionate about the material. Engaged and open with fans. Absolutely skilled in translation. You should have all been wearing Caleb t-shirts instead of nitpicking single words you learned last week.

One of the key differences in translating manga as opposed to other media is you should be working with the art on the page. Comics are a visual artform, you need to take in the entire scene. Do the words match the visuals? (1) Do they express the emotions on the face of the characters? How is the lettering? Does it emphasize the words? In comics, if you only focus on the words, then you are missing the entire point of the artform. (2)

Translation student asked my advice on onomatopoeia, so sharing it here. Think of what the sound is like to you, then saying it aloud. Really say it. And then try to figure out how to write that. For example, heavy rain. (1) Does your rain go Shaaaaa or Sheerashh or Patanpatanpatan? Is it Zaarraasshhaaaa? Or Shrrsshshhs? Get inside your head and figure out how that rain sounds. You're not limited by a small vocabulary of existing words. Use your imagination and invent something new. (2)

Experiment. I head someone say the Twitter algorithm is not racial, but features the smiling person over the non-smiling person. Let's test that. And here are the pictures in reverse order:

Arrived safe and sound and can still hardly believe it. A Shigeru Mizuki KITARO and a Go Nagai CUTIE HONEY sketch. Never thought I would have either of these, much less both. The problem with both of these is there are SO MANY forgeries out there. Mizuki's family has actually issued warnings to buyers, saying that almost all "Mizuki sketches" are forgeries. But the provenance of these two are indisputable. Directly from both artists.

Translation discourse: If you leave words in Japanese you should have a VERY FUCKING GOOD REASON. "Ni-chan" and "Ni-ni" and (sorry) "senpai" have no business being left in English. (Again, unless you have a VERY FUCKING GOOD REASON). The default should always be 100% English. As many have said, manga and anime translation suffers from a legacy of bad translations choices. There was a time that language was used as a bar to clear to enter the fandom; you needed to learn the lingo to enjoy. That time is long gone.

Turkey is ready! Using the recommended 25-pound turkey for two people. Pie is out!

Do you like being able to chose between AT&T or T-Mobile? Maybe Verizon? If you were born before 1982, you didn't have those choices. There was just the Phone Company. Ma Bell. The rush towards monopolies is insane to anyone who knows history. They. Are. Bad.

I love how TONO MONOGATARI has come together. This is a beautiful comic. @DandQ TONO MONOGATARI is the first work we have done without Mizuki's direct involvement. This is sad, of course. But we will do our best to keep the old tales alive. Just as Mizuki would have wanted.

I got contacted by a website looking to do a manga database and they asked me who should be credited in the entry and my answer was Just. Fucking. Credit. Everyone! Why is this so hard to understand? If I had a minimum standard for manga crediting, it would be: 1) Original artist 2) Translator (+Adaptor if used) 3) Letterer 4) Editor. Those four have the most impact on the book and should be credited in every review, every posting, everything.

The "too old for anime fandom" thing really gets under my craw. It is such as attempt to cage things in Western prejudice that are not there in the source material. One of the reasons why Japan has such a robust comic market is they consider it suitable for all ages. (1) Asking "How old is too old for anime fandom?" sounds as stupid as saying "How old is too old for television?" or "How old is too old for movies?" Why do some people INSIST on putting things into boxes? On gatekeeping? Animation is a medium. There's no age limit. (2)

Oh, and one more vaccine thing worth mentioning. This is Pfizer. Pharma companies do not develop new medicine out of the goodness of their heart. They will expect to profit HEAVILY on this. That is the nature of the beast. (1) In clinical trials, companies like Pfizer focus on the most profitable drugs, not the most needed. That's how we got viagra, which was initially created to lower blood pressure. Pfizer hit the jackpot with that one, entirely by mistake. (2)

One of my stranger careers was working in pharma with clinical testing for new medicines. Trust me when I say all of this is good news. bbc.com/news/health-54… Also a reminder that vaccines are not a magic wand. Even at the conclusion of this Phase Three trial and a successful vaccine, I could imagine it being a year or more to actually get those vaccines distributed.