(Originally posted by the artist at http://donnabarr.deviantart.com/art/Skeletal-Blue-Rat-635440969 . Copyright Donna Barr.)

Donna Barr ( http://www.donnabarr.com ) is the creator of Stinz (a comic about a centaur in a Germanic-like country, collected in https://www.amazon.com/Stinz-Collection-1-Donna-Barr/dp/1892253437 and https://www.amazon.com/Stinz-Collection-2-Donna-Barr/dp/1892253445 ), The Desert Peach (about Rommel's gay brother, https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Peach-Collection-One/dp/1892253321 and https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Peach-Collection-Two/dp/189225333X ), Afterdead, and various other comics involving half-horses, harpies, and transformations. So when she posted to her DeviantArt account that she was doing sketches for 800 points (roughly USD$8, http://donnabarr.deviantart.com/#commission765000 ), naturally I couldn't resist. We had a brief conversation in which the concepts 'rat', 'skeleton', 'blue', and 'self-improvement' came up, and this is what she created for me. :)

"Tsuyoku naritai" is Japanese for a particular sense of "I want to become stronger" - however strong you are, whatever you're working on, the will to transcend your current limits and do better. I've been working on changing part of my self-concept, tweaking a piece of my core identity into one that produces the result of me being able to honestly say "I'm the sort of person who does some form of physical exercise every day". This little blue-furred fellow may not look like much, and his exercise of lifting a chicken bone may not seem like much - but the same goes for my own physical appearance, and the physical exercises I've been starting with. So I'm quite happy to take him on as my exercise mascot.

Not to mention, even if it's a little early, he's a rockin' Halloween image. ;)

So Tsuyoku Naritai! And Happy Halloween!