“It’s going to be OK” by Maré Odomo, based on this touching Letters to an Absent Father strip.

You can get an exclusive 8”x10” print of this for $15 — in addition to buying an awesome piece of art, your money will go towards paying the medical bills for a hurt puppy.

Juniper, a precious little Chinese Crested dog owned by GoodGameGet’s Kyle Wallace and his girlfriend, fell and broke her front legs last December, requiring surgery that set them back $3,000. That kind of unexpected debt can be a lot for a young couple, so please kick them a few bucks to help them and poor Juniper out.

See also: More Letters To An Absent Father

tags / mare odomo / dear dad / letters to an absent father / gaming / pokemon / fanart / juniper / goodgameget

New Letters to an Absent Father comic by Maré Odomo (click for a larger image). Maré made a new strip in his wonderful, kind of melancholy Pokémon comic series as a gift for Attract Mode.

Attract Mode proprietor Adam Robezzoli said that “He got some quality time observing [my son Dante] in his natural habitat, so I’m going to pretend that second panel is our father/son comic strip debut!”

So yes, it is possible for that comic to get cuter, and all it takes is reading one sentence.

Buy: Letters to an Absent Father mini-comics, Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: Letters To An Absent Father strips

tags / mare odomo / attract mode / letters to an absent father / jc / pokemon

Sketch for an unused Letters To An Absent Father strip (click for a larger image). Mare Odomo explains why this wasn’t colored and released with the rest of the bunch:

“The third strip was an idea that never really panned out. Too wordy. And I felt like I was drawing Pikachu too much.

And I don’t know that Ash would write about catching any other Pokémon. Or he would write about them all. Anyway, it’s not up to me to decide who he would write about besides Pikachu.”

What’s going on in that last panel? Is he dragging Pikachu by the neck? Pikachu looks very unhappy with the situation.

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: Letters To An Absent Father strips, mini-comic

[Via Mare Odomo]

tags / letters to an absent father / dear dad / comic / mare odomo / pokemon / fanart / ec

Letters To An Absent Father Mini-Comic, a collection of Mare Odomo’s 12 strips, including the print-only #9 comic. Man, this year has been great for indie video game zines / comics: Fort90Zine #3 (can’t wait to see it for sale online), .exp issue zero, EXP Book 1, Nintendo History System #1, and now this!

Anyway, Odomo is selling his mini-comic for just $3, with another $1 for shipping. If you pay an extra $2, he’ll even draw something quick for you inside or on the back!

Buy: Letters To An Absent Father Mini-Comic

See also: Letters To An Absent Father strips

tags / dear dad / letters to an absent father / mare odomo / zines / ec

“Pikachu! I Chose You” shirt design by Mare Odomo (click for a larger version). This tee, illustrated by the same bloke behind the Letters To An Absent Father series, will go on sale at upcoming Seattle-based shirt shop Lion’s Share Industries later this month.

[Update: Oops, I misspoke. As Odomo points out in the comments, while he is designing a shirt for Lion’s Share Industries, this image isn’t it!]

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: Letters To An Absent Father strips

[Via Mare Odomo]

tags / mare odomo / pokemon / pikachu / shirts / fanart / letters to an absent father / ec / dear dad

Pokemon Snap comic from Mare Odomo (click for a larger version). For those of you craving more of Odomo’s endearing Letters To An Absent Father strips, don’t expect many more (or any more, even) after the next one:

“I have at least one more idea for a Letters strip but I feel like it’s ended, you know? I never thought of it as a long-term thing. It started as one strip and then turned into four and somehow ended up as 12. I’m not very good at longer narratives. And not interested in the infinite storylines you find in a lot of webcomics. I like when something’s finished.”

While it’s sad to see this series ending, at least we still have all those strips that I made up in my head.

Oh, and check out this wicked Ico poster printed out by Odomo’s roommate Cory Schmitz for EXP.

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: Letters To An Absent Father strips

[Via Mare Odomo]

tags / mare odomo / dear dad / letters to an absent father / pokemon / pokemon snap / fanart / comic / ec

Letters To An Absent Father #12 (click for a larger image). I’m disappointed that artist Mare Odomo didn’t go with my suggestion for an “Against All Odds” strip, but I suppose this comic is meant to be all about disappointment.

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: More Letters To An Absent Father strips

[Via Mare Odomo]

tags / letters to an absent father / dear dad / mare odomo / fanart / pokemon / ec

Letters To An Absent Father #11 (click for a larger image). What do you do once you’ve accomplished everything you can think of to win the approval of a dad who isn’t there?

I went ahead and wrote a script idea for the next Letters To An Absent Father strip, just in case Mare Odomo is unsure where to take Ash Ketchum next (aside from Johto). Here’s how the next message to his dad would go:

“I wish I could just make you turn around,
turn around and see me cry.
There’s so much I need to say to you,
so many reasons why.
You’re the only one who really knew me at all.

So take a look at me now.
Well, there’s just an empty space.
And there’s nothing left here to remind me,
just the memory of your face.

Now take a look at me now,
‘cause there’s just an empty space.
But to wait for you is all I can do
and that’s what I’ve got to face.

Take a good look at me now,
‘cause I’ll still be standing here
And you coming back to me is against all odds.
It’s the chance I’ve gotta take.

Take a look at me now.”

I’m not sure how he’d fit that in 3-4 panels, but that’s why he’s the artist and I’m the dude who just imagines an entire world around the comics every week here.

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: More Letters To An Absent Father strips

[Via Mare Odomo]

tags / pokemon / letters to an absent father / dear dad / mare odomo / fanart / ec

Letters To An Absent Father #10, or “An Empty Chair At The Dinner Table” (click for a larger image).

Something I love so much about this series is that while it’s just a few panels and a smattering of text about a Pokemon trainer’s notes to his estranged father, you can imagine so many scenes and emotions that continue beyond Mare Odomo’s heartrending strips.

You can hear the silence in the dining room, interrupted by noises of Ash’s mother cooking dinner in the nearby kitchen — a wooden spoon knocking the insides of a pot as she stirs a redolent curry, her footsteps from the stove to the sink before she rinses her hands, and a grunt of effort as she lifts the pot to carry it to the dinner table.

You can see Ash squeezing his eyes shut and pretending to already be asleep later that night as his mom walks into his old bedroom to kiss her son goodnight on his forehead — another conversation on how they worry about each other now living on their own avoided.

And you can picture Ash not waiting until morning to leave, unable to sleep in a house that feels so empty. He walks on the dusty road from Pallet Town to Viridian City, everything else still quiet and asleep during the pre-dawn hours except for a few distant Hoothoots. He’s angry with himself for running out, for not even writing a note to lie about why he had to go. Most of all, he hates himself for realizing too late that you can go back home, but you can’t ever go back to the way it was.

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: More Letters To An Absent Father strips

[Via Mare Odomo]

tags / letters to an absent father / dear dad / mare odomo / comic

Letters To An Absent Father #8: Ash asks for advice on women (click for a larger image). When you’re a kid and all you could ever want in the world is for a particular girl to like you, to obsess over you as much as you do her, not having a dad around to answer these kinds of questions just makes growing up harder than it already is. What are you supposed to do ? Ask your mom? Settle for the awful suggestions offered by your dimwitted friends?

So, how do you tell if a girl likes you? If only Ash had ever bothered to watch Eddie Izzard’s stand-up act, he would know an easy way to figure it out while in a lake like this: splash water at her, and see if she splashes back. Everyone knows splashy splashy is code for sexy sexy!

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: More Letters To An Absent Father strips

[Via Mare Odomo]

tags / letters to an absent father / dear dad / mare odomo / comics / fanart / pokemon / eddie izzard / ec

Letters To An Absent Father wallpaper by Maré Odomo (click for a larger image). So many questions run through Ash’s head every night while he tries to sleep: “How many more of these damn creatures do I have to catch? What Pokemon should I use the next time I face Gary? I wonder if dad ever thinks of me before he falls asleep?”

While we’re featuring artwork of people sleeping (or at least trying to sleep) and talking about Pokemon, this unsettling Drowzee image needs a caption:

Buy: Pokemon HeartGold and/or SoulSilver

See also: More Letters To An Absent Father strips

[Via Mare Odomo, Games Radar]

tags / letters to an absent father / mare odomo / fanart / dear dad / pokemon / drowzee / ec