The difference is subtle, but it works very very well. I should try this for backgrounds sometime.

before you do let me caution you
avoid prismacolor pens for lining. oh my god. they are the worst. i had a blue 01 literally explode in my hands after less than 3 hours of light use.

I do most of my inking digitally, so I should be fine, but thanks for the warning anyway. What would be a good set of colored pens to use, if I ever choose to try it traditionally? I only have black ink.

microns!
microns microns microns microns microns microns

Eheheh someone needs the tasty buffet stat :D

he'd never eat it, bastard is way too finicky.

too many competeing DNA structures telling him what should taste good and not enough telling him it's time to put fuel in the reactor.

Hrm, maybe he needs a lil Weight Gain 4000...beefcake...BEEFCAKE!

probably just going back on medication would help
BUT THAT AINT GONNA HAPPEN IN MY COMIC, THATS A BORING EASY SOLUTION TO THE OBSTACLES I'VE SET IN PLACE.

Eehehehe! :D Yeah who wants EASY fixes to things? ;3

BORING PEOPLE, THAT'S WHO

I read recently that much of human ability to know we're hungry or full is controlled by stomach and intestine bacteria. We're like big mecha suits for bacteria as far as eating goes. (But due to modern cleanliness something like 1/3 of the population is missing the necessary germs.)

i'm inclined to disagree personally :o but that's based on my life experiences

Well appetite is certainly more biologically complicated than that and our nervous system does part of the job. But what do you mean?

well i'm from the US :O one of the fattest cultures there is. but i've always, my entire life, been underweight. this is cause i only eat when i'm extremely hungry and stop BEFORE i feel full (because if you stop WHEN you're full, you've already over-eaten, because the signal of 'full' is delayed in its arrival from the stomach by something like 5 odd minutes). i eat the same processed crap as any other american, minus mammal meat products. i eat GMO non-organic fruits and veg and drink applejuice from china. my bacteria should therefore be similar if not the same to the majority of low income americans.

so if it was as simple as the bacteria on what i ingest why don't i have the same lack of gutz sending a 'full' signal that other americans do? the theory just sounds like an excuse for obesity, to me.

genetics, phsyiology, diet and enviroment all play major factors. narrowing it down to 'we get fat because we don't have the right bacteria on our food!' just sounds assinine. like something that 'organic' companies would promote. eat OUR food and you won't be obese!!! yeaaaaah right

Actually, nobody is saying the important bacteria come from our food. It turns out there is a large variety in bodily biome even amongst people of similar diet and lifestyle. Nobody that I have read claims complete understanding of the process but a lot of the bacteria are acquired during birth and breastfeeding. Spouses often have similar bacterial profiles too, so kissing and sex are probably important.

Yes, researchers are getting grants to study this partially by claiming relation to the "obesity epedimic". But the strongest wording I've seen has called it an "important piece of the puzzle."

I suppose all those "pro-biotic" things that have long been available at health food/ whole foods stores are trying to ride the trend, but they're not the ones originating the claims.

However large or small a role they play, Grey is unlikely to have normal human bacteria levels what with rarely being around humans :P

i dunno i just am sayin' that i would be sharing the same bacteria as other americans and yet the theory doesn't seem to be proving correct for me. which to me says that there's a lot less of the full/hungry signal riding on bacteria alone than they think. i think it has way more to do with the brain's learned reaction to the stretched sensation of the stomach walls and weight within the stomach. and that people who legit have obesity are one of two things: geneticly inclined towards it, or behaviorally inclined towards it.

There is quite a lot of bacterial variation amongst Americans, according to, well, at least two studies I've seen. I agree that genes and psychology play a big role, but I don't think anyone has 'average American bacteria'. We're just scratching the surface as far as discovering which bacteria are important, but already we know um... from memory, 1/3 of Americans are missing that bacterium tied to hunger response (not tied by statistical correlation mind you, they actually know which chemical signals are involved), and 1/7 are missing one which helps regulate the immune system. (It calms the immune system down, a function which would be in any bacteria's interest; without it, autoimmune diseases like arthritis become more common.) The majority of the population isn't missing either of these; but an awful lot of people are.

Then again, human memory is naturally very bad. The original article probably isn't visible without a login X( but here it is http://www.scientificamerican.com/a.....rotects-health I don't think I'd be able to find the other (earlier) articles I've read.

Anyway! Sorry for the long argument if it's been a bother, but I definitely consider the idea a strong one and I'm glad there's going to be a lot more research to determine how connected with obesity (and other disorders) bacteria might be.

yeah all i get of that article is the first two paragraphs :<

i mean i see where the theory is sound, but without knowing the details of how the study is conducted how can i even come close to buying into it? did they do a survey of bacteria for obese americans? did they conciously introduce bacteria and then measure the results? because if they just measured it in obese americans then automatically you've got to throw it out because while that's a correlation it doesn't PROVE anything. correlations are like a starting place, a suggestion, but require much more study.

if they were doing something where they took people who already had low bacterial amounts and actually introduced the bacteria and measured the response against a control group, THEN i might be inclined to believe what's being suggested.

OK the earlier study which I have no chance of finding did the following: take pairs of college roommates from various colleges. Make them do a diet journal so you can concentrate on the pairs who eat similarly. Then measure the gut biome (petri dish analysis, which of course can't detect a whole lot of important species unlike genetic analysis). Compare the amount of weight gained over the study period (thus this is sort of depending on the "freshman fifteen" effect). Comparing people with similar diets and living conditions is supposed to rule out confounding factors, so that a correlation was taken to imply the gut biome causing predisposition to gain weight.

And now for some quotes from the Scientific American article.

[H. Pylori was for years simply considered a pathogen responsible for stomach ulcers, but then in 1998 was shown to be important in regulating stomach acid levels.] "A decade later Blaser published a study suggesting that H. Pylori has another job besides regulating acid. For years scientists have known that the stomach produces two hormones involved in appetite: ghrelin, which tells the brain that the body needs to eat, and leptin, which—among other things—signals that the stomach is full and no more food is needed." [Of course, other research shows stretching of the stomach is also important. It's a complicated subject!] "...Blaser and his colleagues looked at what happens to ghrelin levels before and after meals in people with and without H. pylori. The results were clear: "When you have H. pylori, you have a postprandial decrease in ghrelin. When you eradicate H. pylori, you lose that," he says. "What that means, a priori, is that H. pylori is involved in regulating ghrelin"—and thus apetite. How it does so is still largely a mystery." [So much for my memory of specific chemical mechanisms.] "The study of 92 veterans showed that those treated with antibiotics to eliminate H. pylori gained more weight in comparison to their uninfected peers—possibly because because their ghrelin level stayed elevated when it should have dropped, causing them to feel hungry longer and to eat too much."

"Two or three generations ago more than 80 percent of Americans played host to the hardy bug. Now less than 6 percent of American children test positive for it." [Who knows where they got the first statistic, and these two are obviously not comparable..] " "We have a whole generation of children who are growing up without H. pylori to regulate their gastric ghrelin," Blaser says."

OK, that's about it. (Actually there's a lot more to the article, but that's it for hunger-related facts.) You can see how inaccurate my memory was.

Besides that I remember reading last year about a disease traditionally treated by surgically removing the colon, which was discovered to be caused by lacking a certain strain of gut bacteria and is now routinely and very effectively treated by "stool transplant".

I did not read this thread entirely word-for-word, but I did scan for certain "keywords".

What seems to be missing in this hunger/satiation discussion is "Blood-sugar level". This is a major component in the feeling of hunger.

And it's a key component in the Amerikan Obesity Epidemic. Clinically Obese persons tend to eat a disproportionately large amounts of foods containing carbohydrates and fats and simple sugar-types(sucrose mainly). The body tends to more quickly lower the elevated blood-sugar caused by these foods, thus causing person to feel hungry again sooner than in the case of a better-balanced diet.

So they eat more of the same. They "get their fix".

IMHO, the obesity problem is from the gradual change over the decades toward higher average intake of sweets, fats, and salts per person. Sorry, but I think this banal theory is the correct one.

All who read this, ask yourself, "How many sodas do I drink each week?"

Maybe like one? (Well, I am not fat at all, so I guess nothing about my habits is relevant)

I also saw a recent book argue that the obesity epidemic should in part be blamed on the fact that the carbohydrates in wheat are not what they used to be — that is, breeding wheat for higher yield as farmers always have, has recently led to a shift in the chemical composition of our foods. And cheap carbohydrates which the poor depend on are often wheat. So really that's just part of what you're saying.

Actually though I'm more inclined to blame corn subsidies. Lots of stuff which didn't used to be is now made primarily of corn syrup. People try to buy 'healthy' juices like cranberry juice and V8 Splash and mostly those are flavored corn syrup.

Anyway, good point about the blood glucose levels. As I said before, hunger is pretty complex; and I think obesity is too. I mean sure, heightened intake of cheap foods is a big deal. But it itself is caused by something. Couldn't be encouraged by loss of proper stomach bacteria? I'm just posing it as one of many possible causes.

just gonna keep replying in-thread to keep it focused :o

okay those studies do answer some of my questions. so there is no doubt that whatever this thing is, it is linked in some way to the sense of hunger. but how big a role it plays as opposed to other factors is...still subject to more research.

however i still want to know something that the study doesn't really touch on - are you geneticly predetermined to have lower levels, or not? because if it's a matter of genetics (someone's body not being a suitable host) then the fact still stands that the two big players are genetics and behavior/enviroment (since enviroment shapes behavior).

i think we can all agree that high fructose corn syrup is bad news. it's been linked to colony collapse syndrome in bees. so what the hell are we doing putting it in our bodies in such copious amounts? i love me some sugary crap, but i think my intake is generally on the low end compared to the vast majority of americans. give me a choice between grapes and poptarts, i'll take the grapes. 100% apple juice or a coke, i'll go for the apple juice.

we're also hardwired to want sugary fatty things for us because we're really not that long out of the trees. things that naturally contained a lot of sugar or fats would keep us going for a while, and are good for us in small amounts. bodies store them fiercely for that rainy day when food is scarce. but our behavioral patterns have changed much, much faster than our biology can keep up with.

That's an interesting comment. I find it "a priori" unlikely that there would be a genetic predisposition to carry a particular bacterium. If that 80% to 6% figure has any basis in reality, there has been a huge drop in prevalence of H. pylori over a genetically negligible time period. The whole attitude espoused by that article is that the search for genetic causes has failed for many diseases, and bacterial variance might explain some of that, especially since bacteria are heritable so the disease might at first appear to be genetic.

Of course, it's easy enough to categorise our internal fauna as part of the "environment" so that the dichotomy still stands, but it seems more productive to break down causes more rather than less.

Regarding sugar craving, I have absolutely no citation for this memory so you should not consider it as much evidence but: I remember hearing somewhere that our 'hardwiring' for sugar is really more cultural than biological. That is, many kids in many cultures cannot stand the level of sweetness in "Western" candy, and it's only because we're used to it that we can get cravings for such things.

I have noticed in the past couple of years that cane sugar is returning as an ingredient of some juices and sodas(I look at ingredient labels fairly often). There's probably little difference between the two, but popular wisdom seems to favor can sugar nowadays.

Attention to details, the over the top button down tail flap is a nice touch.

Bunners

if yo' species has a tail and wears pants
their clothing should have accomodations for it

same goes for wings and stuff!

*Grins* Not like the good old days where Disney solved that problem with either A, a square patch on the seat of your pants with a 1" hole for your tail to fit through (I.e the big bad wolf) or B, don't wear pants.

Bunners

true fact: lampwick's transformation into a donkey in pinocchio was one of my favourite animated sequences as a kid :o right up there with the pink elephants from dumbo and the entirity of the three caballeros.

Check out dem pecs! :V

Also whywhy is he tucking the knife into bed with him!?

haha he's not, he's taking it off the bed. if it's one thing kyo is now concious of, it's the fact that he doesn't really want grey carrying that knife.

Oooh that makes much more sense, yeah.

I went lookin' again to see if the knife was on the bed in another panel and instead I spied the old strippey sweater in the bag! Details!

yeah the sweater blocks your view in that panel, but it's on the bed on the last page :o and the page before that. it's been established.

such a sweet and considerate gesture... remembering the knife.

i once slept on top of an SNES super scope
it was not very comfortable

a knife might be worse

eh i've done it with a pocket knife while it was open but it wasn't as bad as these damn beds in the dorms.

those things may as well be stuffed with broken pottery fragments.

if only I could arrange the pottery fragments to my liking.

This scene is especially touching since Kyo calls Grey by name. I know calling him "kid" is his form of familiarity/endearment, but I liked seeing him say "Grey".

ayup :o he's gradually getting to that point in this chapter, where he's calling him by name.
gradually.

Oh this page looks really well-done! All around it feels a bit crisper and not quite so chao- OH HAY SHIRTLESS KYO. 8D

SHIRTLESS MENS: THE SHIRTLESS MENINING

JURRASIC SHIRTLESS
THE SHIRTLESSING
HAVE MENS, WILL SHIRTLESS
SHINDLER'S SHIRTLESS :U

a funny thing happened on the way to the shirtless
shirtless men on the roof
west side shirtless

True Shirtless
James Bond: License to Shirtless
Shirtless Wars
What shirtless may come

(Doh! Forgot to hit replay to rather than use the direct reply. I AM QUEEN OF SMERTS. :B)


Also, in a completely unrelated thing, You should come to Anthrocon next year! :U

I'M SCARED OF ANTHROCON
AND ITS FANCY LOTTERY ART TABLE SYSTEM
AND ITS BEING IN PA

I know how that is. What I do is usually go in with a few other folks (and my mercentile overlords) and we get a table setup in the dealer's room. This year we managed to wrangle a 3 table setup so its 2 tables of the artists and one table of all the SWAG in the middle. So it's like a mini artist alley, but with folks we all know. :U

If anything, I can probably wrangle it so you can room with me and mah peeps next year. It usually just consists of me, my husband, and two other artists so we tend to be fairly chill and drama-frees. :B

i... would enjoy that :o alf is a very quiet drama-free person too. i dunno if you actually remember him but he was the one whose house that redonkulous new years shindig was at all those years ago. he was the like ultra tall guy.

though next year is a whole year away and 99% chance i will forget by then that you ever offered :B

i shall wait for the day when we have goo refrigerators...so i can but myself in one...

currently they're only theoretical, but they WOULD use a lot less electricity than current fridges. and i think it'd be neat to watch all your food just swirling around in goo.

indeed. but what if they were made into beds? O_o

it'd be awful cold.

i love the cold...but just think of it...its late at night and you have a spring mattress but oh lookie theres a gel filled box on the floor that is cool and it looks like a bed. witch would you chose?

spring matress. i really hate the cold, man.
i lived on the tropic of capricorn
and it was too cold.

...suit yourself...

You know, I just now noticed how COOL his footpaws are! :O

Also I imagine his tailbase has a moderate lack of fur due to the pants hole. :v

naw, it's just matted down. like hair under a dog's collar. :o

yeah hekshanian feet are big tradactyl clawed things with a centered vestigal sparring claw, and they tend to walk on the balls of their feet.

i love this comic it is only missing 1 more thing....it needs more koji! :D

better keep reading then, cause he comes back!

oh yeah is there gonna be anymore in mishaps? i really wanna see more i love there species! so cool and soft i bet

nah, mishaps got dropped because the writer ran into issues. he was writing it using cameos, and someone whose character was central to the plot later decided they didn't want to be involved cuz they had some petty drama with another person who's OC was in the story.

so it kinda fell apart, since they yanked permission to use their character from the writer.

aw! i really wanted to see it finished :(

i did too! but unfortunately that is what happens sometimes i guess. it was a stupid drama and i am still rather disappointed at how immature the one person was...

:| wait can you make a koji back story? :D or you could make you're own version of a nikitak story

koji's backstory has already been done! it's a short comic about him and his wife.
http://inhuman-comic.com/cemetery1.php

yay!