Recently Gina asked if it was possible to read my fan-fiction in PDF format. I promised to see what I could do.

I've finally got round to actually doing it. There are only two novels available so far (ePub and PDF), but that does allow for other formats too.

For more details about this, I'm going to direct you over to the He Moves Me Differently website, where all of the instructions for download and/or conversion are laid out.  Enjoy!

PS If there are any volunteers to help me prepare the other eight novels, I would be THRILLED to hear from you. <3

Manga artist Makoto Niwano took the young Obata under his wing, mentoring him and allowing him some practical hands on experience under his guidance. It was probably on works like The Momotaroh, which was being published around that time.

By 1989, the executives at Shonen Jump felt that Takeshi's art had matured enough to give him his big break. That came with Takeshi Obata's debut series Cyborg Jii-chan G, which he both wrote and illustrated.

That was followed by Arabian Majin Boukentan Lamp (1991), Rikijin Densetsu (1993) and Ayatsuri Sakon (1995). Each of those had their own writer, Takeshi supplied only the artwork.

His name was really made in 1998, when Takeshi teamed up with Yumi Hotta for the wildly successful Hikaru no Go.

The coming of age tale earned Takeshi and Yumi a joint Shogakukan Manga Award in 1999 - one of the genre's most prestigious accolades.

Takeshi Obata's fame, whilst working Hikaru no Go, was such that he was one of the artists chosen to contribute to Adidas Manga Fever - an anthology of stories created to mark the FIFA World Cup 2002.
In addition Shueisha asked him to contribute the artwork for its manga Hajime.

In 2003, Obata and Hotta took home the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize's Creative Award for their manga series. It must have seemed that nothing in Takeshi Obata's career could ever top thatmoment.

And that was when he was approached to illustrate Death Note.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that this has been the highest point of an already soaring career to date. It assured world wide celebrity for the artist and, amongst other things, spawned this blog. It also saw Takeshi nominated for the 2008 Eisner Award for Best Artist (comic/manga industry's equivalent to the Oscars), but he unfortunately lost out to Chris Ware for Acme Novelty Library #18. (Who?)

In addition to the main manga serialization of Death Note, Takeshi Obata also provided the cover artwork for its spin-off novels: Another Note and L Save the World. But we won't hold that against him.

Since Death Note, he's never been out of work. There was
Blue Dragon: Ral Ω Grado (2006), Hello Baby (2007), Urooboe Uroboros! (2008), Otter No 11 (2010) and now All You Need Is Kill (2014). 

In the middle of all that, he teamed up again with his Death Note co-creator Tsugumi Ohba to produced their how-to-be-a-manga-writer-and-artist guidebook disguised as a manga story - Bakuman. It debuted in 2008 and, though its never received anything like the attention of Death Note, it's been fairly well read.

And that's about it! It turns out that there wasn't much to learn behind the art after all, unless anyone else here has any facts or gossip that they want to share. In the meantime, here is Takeshi Obata doing what he does best.

*giggle*  It's a few months old now, but I'm counting on the fact that there might be some Death Note fans who haven't seen it yet.

For those completely out of the loop, the gentleman Panda Noting his team-mates is Kim Yoon-jae, aka LongPanda - one of the top players in League of Legends. As for the background to the competitive gaming, and the context for the Panda Note joke, I'll refer you to DrKil on Reddit.  Enjoy!

Old G&G crowd, remember when that thumbnail appeared in our old 'hood and the world went a little crazy?

Sorry for those who aren't in that particular loop, but let me bring you up to date. (And double apologies that the thumbnail is a nostalgic thing, with its offer now woefully out of date.)

Back in 2011, the denizens of MangaBullet Death Note forum Guns and Games had the opportunity to interview Drew Nelson - the voice actor who played Matt (Mail Jeevas) in the English anime dub version. 

Much fun and happiness ensued, with the results published there, on April 25th 2011. Unfortunately MangaBullet is no more, though you can still see the original interview via the Wayback Machine.

I've frequently been asked if I kept a copy of the interview with Drew Nelson, and could I arrange to have it put back somewhere on line. Of course, I did, but until now I've had nowhere appropriate to place it. After all, we're talking about a gentleman's professional name here. Lodging it alongside my dodgy fan-fiction wasn't quite in the spirit of things! Hence I never approached him about it.

Now there's Matti's Death Note News, where it's all kept reasonably clean. 

Yesterday, I contacted Drew Nelson to ask if that old MangaBullet interview could be reproduced here. His exact words were: 'Yes of course it's fine with me. Post away!'  Consider me posting away:

Meeting Matt: G&G Interviews Drew Nelson

In other news, I rehashed the Death Note Merchandise section yesterday too. I'd be grateful if you'd check it out in terms of formatting, navigation etc and feedback anything that occurs to you. Ta!

This is a short story of the last few years in the life of Trisha Abaddon, formerly known as TrishKeehl on Mangabullet.

Imagine yourself a sieve.
Then apply it to the way my brain looks like.
Yes, you've got the point.

Not that long time ago I was sitting on a meeting with a Job Councillor and after what it seemed like 1.5 hours, the lady got up, staring at me with wide eyes and said:

'You know, I'm not a smoker, but I think I need a cig now'.

And I hadn't even started on my past...

As a teenage, rebellious kid I had this plan - to die before turning 22. I thought it was long enough to taste life, and to be full of it to the point of nausea. I didn't have any more plans except those funeral ones. And to tell you in all honesty - I died. Not literally, no... I've gone to the dark pit of Hell and made myself there at home. For a good few months... or years... (remember - the sieve). But in the end I came back, to tell you this a bit gruesome tale.

I invite you to the single-person circus and roller-coaster called humbly Trisha.

I think I left some of you on my oh so well chosen point in education that IT school was. Well, I finished that school, but didn't get the title of technician. To tell you the truth, I didn't really care about it. Because the main events were happening outside my education...

I had my school in another city, so to not travel there every time, I used to stay at my father's brother home during some nights. I used to stay there unto the one night when my alcoholic uncle decided it was a good thing to rape me.

I'll spare you the details.

I managed to get away from his house early in the morning and ran through the woods to the city. I was furious. At him, at myself and at everything that had happened to me.

I stopped at the gas station, bought myself a beer and a pack of cigarettes and went to school like nothing was wrong. One thing I knew - I was never a crybaby and the world would not wait for my royal self to get myself together.

Oops, did I mention I spent my money on beer and nicotine supplies?
Yeah, I had nothing in my wallet to cover the bus ticket to get me home.

However, I had enough money to buy myself a 'phone card, so I called Mom telling her I decided to come home by foot. In the end she got in touch with my cousin who took me to his home and made me a tea.

This is important little thing to me - that hot tea. I felt so cold and shaky and it soothed my nerves and felt like a real gift from the Heavens. Since then, I'm a big lover of tea of any kind. Trisha - the tea freak - how funny is that?

What came later was a dose of total chaos mixed with a few spoons of self-destruction and poured with alcohol.

As the informed vampire that I am, I've read all the side effects - physical and psychical - of that damn event, so I would know what to expect from myself. And I gave myself a month for a total freak out when I drank every day, self-harmed, starved myself and read depressing fan fiction.

The month, but did it end? Some of those things stand with me to this day, but I got hold of myself. However, my addictive personality - that I received as a present from my dear Daddy - had different plans and I kept drinking and skipping school.

Not everything was dark though.

I used to take care of some gentle old lady that I called lovingly 'My Lady'. She was a bright star in my dark moments. Unlike my blood family - she hated lying and held a deep respect for me, for which I am thankful. I really loved her and loved keeping her a company. She was my best friend and a role model - she was very sick - she lost her leg due to diabetes, was blind on one eye and had problems with heart. But I never heard her complain - she was always smiling even when she recalled things that made a bow out of my gut.

That Christmas, she left the town to spend time with her family. I didn't know then that I saw her for the last time. I got the information she was sent to hospital - what shocked me deeply was the fact that she hid from me: she had bone cancer.

As soon as My Lady came into my life, she was gone.

Many people came to her funeral, but... not her family... not the priest, but I held the duty to keep the keys to her house, to close it once the coffin was out.
I locked the door and bid her goodbye.

I stopped drinking, much to the dislike of my father, who loves telling me how he doesn't care if I end up on a street, and the relief of Mom, who was ignoring me during this whole time anyway. Oh well. You look only good with the family on the pictures, right?

Making a quick summary: not only had My Lady died, but also a neighbour who helped us when Dad was in depths of alcoholism - a nice lady, whom I treated as my Grandma; my cat; two hamsters; and my cellphone. For the last one, I have no regrets.

I really wanted to be good, to not to let all those deaths be meaningless - I even started exercising daily.

...did you know I can get in trouble, even from such a simple task like performing push ups?

I renewed my arm contusion, that I got as a teen when I was trying Le Parkour. It hurt like hell, and being a true blood Pole that I am, I decided to self medicate with what was on our shelves at home. I found a Tramadol - highly addictive painkiller to which, guess what, I used to be slightly addicted in the past - and happily downed it.

The high... that wonderful feeling of being normal and loved. Suffering from Bipolar Disorder, I cannot really tell you what 'normal' is, but then, on those meds, it felt just right. In the end Tramadol was my first love, my teenage affection that I forgot about for seven long years.

Can you see where I'm heading?

I ended up getting more and more high with every day, until the doses became so big I was losing consciousness. I wanted it. I needed it. Good people were telling me to stop doing this, before something bad would happen and I listened to them, heartlessly... sipping on my new favourite thing.

The bad thing happened when I'd OD'd so much, I lost it while out shopping and brother had to literally drag me back home. Oh, joy, the rumours I heard about me then! Dad was happy, 'cause I reached the bottom. Godspeed.

Every good story, however, has to have a plot twist in the end.

...it didn't feel like a good thing when I was sick to my core and going cold turkey all alone. I was lucky enough I didn't get a stroke or die, because that can happen when you dance with Lady C16H25NO2.

Also, chronology was never my strong point.

But I made it. I was finally clean and ready to strike and rise from the ashes.
I've chosen a new school, that I attend to this day, this time: administration law. Hell yes. A punk rocker going straight into the heart of the system.
I've made a new, great friendships and I passed the point of my deadly 22.

I am 23 years old now and still kicking. And I'm not planning to go to the other side any time soon, not anymore.

I participate in a project from European Union, where I go to courses and learn new things.

I didn't rest artistically either.

Even though I still didn't find a publisher for my novel (it's not like I constantly look for it...), I've kept doing cosplay, outside the Death Note fandom, wrote poems and fan fiction... and enjoy the best part of dinner which is... afternoon tea!

I'm preparing a cosplay project with my brother Izzy, which is going to be GREAT. It's going to be something you haven't seen from anyone before. I won't go into details yet, but we are even plan to engage town's head into it! So look out and beware: I'm just starting and I gonna make it big!

To end it on a light note, a little trivia: for a few years, I've committed myself to my patron Goddess and being her priestess, I live in purity. That was unexpected, ha!

Here ends, for now, the story of a little Trish. But sure as hell, I'm writing a sequel to it, which will be much more amazing! Take care!

You can find me on DeviantART: Queen of Beers
Facebook: Trisha Keehl

I'll leave you with the words of John Paul II:
"Expect things from yourself, even when others do not expect from you..."