This will be probably the longest comment ever written to one of my E3A strips, so you better be prepared for some reading :) <br/> <br/>The story of the #032 is so wonderful it's almost hard to believe.. <br/>Three months ago the Austrian go association president mailed me telling me that there will be a master course in Vienna for young strong players, organized by Kobayashi Chizu 5p, and that Takemiya Masaki 9p will come and teach there. I could not believe my eyes - Takemiya-sensei is my favorite player, I have seen over 250 of his games now... He was further asking me to draw a comic to that occasion which I agreed on happily; I had an idea almost instantly. <br/>But I got so busy with other things that I never found the time to put it on paper, so the day of the masters course came and I still didn't have anything. Right after I arrived I grabbed a pencil and started to draw - Takemiya-sensei arrived soon so I could draw him pretty fast :) <br/>The president liked the picture (so did Takemiya-sensei, which made me happy beyond measure) and came up with the idea of doing t-shirts for the pros, but it was Saturday and there was no way they could be printed until the course ended. Just the thought of Takemiya-sensei possessing something I created was incredible... I just drew the shirts in one long sleepless night myself, delivered them along with the picture and thought that's it - it wasn't. <br/>Not only that the organizers awarded me with a set of slate and shell stones (I still can't believe it; there has to be some kind of law against weak players like me possessing those awesome things °_°) but the pros were really pleased with the t-shirts and gave me a fan with their signatures on it... <br/>This strip is hanging in the Viennese go club "GO7" now, and I hope it will remind those people who go there regularly on the special event they had the opportunity to be part of - I learned more than I did in the whole year I am playing, and not only about go. I found my lost motivation again and gained the will to continue - and most of all I rediscovered my joy in the game. Thank you :) <br/> <br/>For all the curious ones, <a href=http://www.emptytriangle.com/images/photo/slateshell1.jpg>here</a> is one pic of the stones, and <a href=http://www.emptytriangle.com/images/photo/slateshell2.jpg>another one.</a> ...and <a href=http://www.emptytriangle.com/images/photo/fan1.jpg>this</a> is the signed fan I got and here's a pic of an <a href=http://www.emptytriangle.com/images/photo/shirt1.jpg>unfinished t-shirt.</a> <br/> <br/>I will keep these short again, I promise ;)