Stopover at LinT: The End...

Obviously this isn't Colby's art style.

You wouldn't think it was mine either... except that it is. Yeah I have a few art styles...

But well done LinT!

It's not often that you get to witness a webcomic ending.

No I don't mean an ending as in creator gets bored and/or is kidnapped by real life and disappears for a few years *looks around innocently*. I mean a proper proper ending. Like "They all lived happily ever after. Or not". THAT kind of ending.

For those of you didn't notice, Colby Purcell's LinT ended early this month. As you know, it has been one of my favourite comics, so I just wanted to give a shout out as I wait in anticipation to see what she plans to do next.

And speaking of being kidnapped by real life, sorry about the lack of updates.

It's holiday season here. And while I am aware you guys have had it over since Christmas/New Year's, I still have Chinese New Year to handle... *phew* I can barely keep up with doing my comic in full-colour at the moment... (Yes I got ambitious). So hang on in there, I plan to continue some comics I've been reading in the review list so far...

Hotspot #16.2: Happy Birthday! Now... About That White Glove...

"Oh rub it in Daenon. Why don't you?!" - Jin

Wow. It's been another year already.

Last year, I challenged myself to ramp up the number of updates to my experimental comic The Longest Sojourn in order to finish it earlier so I could continue working on The Jaded.

I did some calculations, and decided to double the number of updates so I did not have to be doing TLS by this time this year.

So how did I do?

Well the good news is I managed to keep my promise up for most parts, and steadily kept on a twice-a-week schedule other than the week that I moved house. But hey, it's moving a house... gimme a break!

To improve my efficiency I swapped from traditional ink media to full on digital Wacom tablet. It was a bit rough in the transition stage but I dare say my work is fast approaching where it was before the change.

The bad news is I grossly underestimated the number of pages I would need to tell the story to the end. Yes I could have rushed it, but I decided not to ruin the ending of a series that has in a sense, grown up with me. So I had to extend TLS by another chapter, which means that The Jaded is still on standby until all daemons are uh... exorcised. (Sorry, bad TLS joke)

So at the end of the year I gave myself, I am still doing TLS.

But I am enjoying it immensely since I ramped up the schedule. The story just flows better. And I am wrapping up the penultimate chapter and starting the finale next week. It's on schedule (revised) but it's moving along, it'll just take at least another six months to complete.

So overall setting myself a goal has been a success. It's not everything I hoped for, but it got me started on the right path, and I know that I'm on the home stretch now.

Here's to another year, and beyond!

And then... The Jaded, Satyrant... HOTHE... W:DOA... so many ideas, so little time...

Hotspot #21: Deconstructing Comic Collaborations and Crossovers

I have a confession to make.

I like collaborations and crossovers. Sometimes. In fact, I have a positive hankering to find ones which are done well.

The problem is that they rarely are. Which is perfectly understandable. After all the more people you add to a project, the more ridiculously obfuscated and difficult to manage it gets.

At the present, my mental backburner can't seem to stop thinking about collaborative efforts on the web. You see, I really really want to make one.

However, having taken part in a collaborative efforts before, I KNOW how difficult they are. And I've been thinking about how to make one and how to make it better. And so far I've identified the main problems with them are:

A. Focus - This is part and parcel of the whole collaborative schtick, apparently. When you have 5 different people with different styles of writing, you cannot expect them all to be heading in the same direction without a plan. Or a script. For some, part of the charm of collaboration lies in the lack of planning and spontaneity of it all. So... is there a way to maintain this and yet overcome this obstacle? More on this later.

B. Overall consistency and the lack of it - This is the main problem with having N different artists with different art styles taking turns working alternating pages. The overall effect? Reader keeps having to adjust to different styles and learning to recognize character A when drawn by artist B and character A when drawn by artist C. This is still acceptable if you're only switching styles say, every chapter or story, but when it's done page to page with vastly different art styles and formats... It can be really distracting.

C. Maintaining creator enthusiasm, or having a means of continuing after it has waned - When these collaborative projects start out, usually it's all RAH RAH from the get go. After the first few weeks, the enthusiasm dies and more often then not, so does the comic.

D. Scheduling- Some creators have lives. Some have VERY busy lives. The problem is usually when Creator A is free, it's Creator B's turn and Creator B is Busy. So Creator A has to wait for Creator B to be free, but when that time comics around... NOW Creator A is busy. Oh dear. In programming there is a whole field dedicated to solving this problem. That's how much of a pain scheduling is.

E. The fear of editing someone else's work in a collaborative project. I always yak and yak about HOW I write this blog to learn about making better comics. I have come to terms with one truth, especially with the recent look at a few comics. If there's any story involved, you need to plan ahead. And edit and proofread your planned plots. No getting around that. Period.

F. No finishing line. This is indirectly tied to the first point. With no finishing line, there is no focus in the project. And with no end in sight, creators can lose enthusiasm quickly, because frankly, as fun as a collab is, no one wants to do it forever.

So looking at the above observations, what I can I gather from this?

1. Goal. What do I want out of the project? Is it a fun exercise only? Is it an experiment? Or a serious effort? I need to decide on what I want, and take the steps I need to ensure it gets there, everything else be damned.

2. Finish Line. I need to start with an end point in sight. It doesn't have to be set in stone, but I need to know the scale of the project, how long it will probably take and how it will end. All this needs to be decided before I even start.

3. Inertia. Keep it quick and keep it moving. If it takes a year to finish a story, that's too long. If it takes too long in-between turns, that's BAD. People WILL lose interest in that time and it will be nothing but another famous abandoned project. So there needs to be a scheduling system that allows for busy people to pass their turns to people who have time, all the while maintaining a fair amount of balance in the amount of work people end up doing.

4. Robustness. The attrition rate for collabs is high. I need to plan for this and make sure that when people do drop out, the structure of the project is such that it is robust enough to survive with a replacement. Short and modular stories is the way to go.

5. Map. Plan the story first. It doesn't have to scripting all the way, but we need to come out with a preview of sorts first and THEN commit to a final version. Perhaps a round-robin, spontaneous storyboard version where the different artists get to do their fun stuff, then when that is done, we do the edits and corrections so it all makes sense, and come out with the real thing?

6. Roles. Division of tasks. This might not sit well with some. I will have to think hard about this. Instead of doing the normal one page a person way, for the sake of keeping a consistent style, I can think of two solutions to this so far:

a. One creator does rough 'pencils', one creator does linework, one creator does colours, one creator does text and editing etc etc. Might cause problems since everyone wants to be the penciller, although it might be possible to avoid that if the stories are kept short (~10 pages each) and the roles are rotated every story so everyone gets a chance to do each job.

b. Each creator focuses on a particular section and character. For example if there were 3 characters A, B and C. Creator Z draws all instances of Character A. Creator Y draws all instances of character B. Creator X draws all instances of character C. This is similar to what they did for the Disney feature Pocahontas, but it could get messy. On the other hand, consistency is maintained throughout the series, but then creators might get bored of just drawing the same over and over.

Wow that was a LOT of text...

With all this in mind, it looks like I'm going to spend more brain backburner time thinking about what's needed in planning and executing a collaborative project and maybe try a real example with what I've thought of.

You're all free to poke holes in what I've thought of so far. ;)

ps: Why yes that is a new banner image...

Happy Halloween!

Well, I'm busy as heck, but I did take a little time to do a quick halloween pic of my TLS characters dressed up as anime characters! See if anyone can actually name them all!

Enjoy your Halloween, don't eat too much candy ;) And happy comicking!

Postcards #12: Sunset Grill

Back in March (Yes that IS how long my backlog is) Kat from Sunset Grill sent me this email:

Hi there,

Stumbled on The Longest Sojourn lately and was rather surprised to
realize that it was by the same person doing this blog (which I'd been
following for a few months longer). I think I failed a spot check
there. At any rate, I'd love to have your thoughts on my comic, Sunset
Grill, whenever you have time or room in your queue.

http://www.sunsetgrillcomic.com

Good luck with your Advanced, by the way, and I hope you chose
somewhere warmer for it than I did for mine. The wrecks were lovely,
mind, but Lake Superior in September might not have been the cleverest
plan. *grin*

Cheers,

Kat Feete

One thing I should mention straightaway is Sunset Grill is a 3D art comic. That is, a comic made out of screenshots from custom made 3D models. There are quite a few of them out there, but I never really caught on to them for some reason.

Looks like this is a good chance to study why.

Hi Kat,

I finally got around to reading Sunset Grill. It took me a couple of days to get through the archive, and another few days to actually think about what I wanted to say in words.

Firstly I have to say I really like your writing, there's a wry sense of humour and the dialogue is funny. The futuristic setting and class conflicts, underworld and characters are also well-developed and engaging.

I have a problem with your speech bubbles though... more on that later.

I have to admit when I started I wasn't really enthused because of the 3D art style. At first I couldn't quite put my finger on the concrete reason behind it, but after much contemplation I think I've managed to narrow it down to three points:

1. Uncanny Valley Syndrome

Given that you work with 3D stuff, I'm guessing you should already be familiar with the Uncanny Valley Syndrome, maybe under another name, but just in case you haven't, I refer you to the excellent Wikipedia article. Here are some excerpts:

The uncanny valley hypothesis holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.
...
A similar problem exists in realistic 3D computer animation, such as...

I think this is the biggest obstacle you are going to have to overcome. People are weird with regards to this thing. The more realistic the art looks, the less they tend to like it. Especially if it's 3D. I experienced a little bit of this when I started reading your comic, it took a couple of chapters before I could stop feeling uncomfortable about it.

I believe Pixar avoided this syndrome by heavily stylizing their 3D characters in The Incredibles and Up! You might want to consider it.

I'm not saying that you should immediately drop your art style and copy theirs, or anyone's. But I just wanted to bring your attention to this point, so you can decide for yourself what you would like to do about it.

Edit: I feel that I wasn't clear enough on this point, so I'm inserting a bit of additional explanation taken from the my comments below:

Basically, if a 3D depiction of a human being is "almost real", but not quite, or does not quite act like what it is expected to be, psychologically it can creep out the viewer.

My opinion is this is because what they see is something almost "real" but part of their mind tells them something is not quite right with it... so DANGER! THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM! Which explains the discomfort.

To avoid this, one can either:

1. Make it so realistic that the viewer cannot differentiate it from the real thing (CG effects in movies)
2. Move away from making it realistic, but instead stylize it and keep it cartoony... but in 3D (pretty much what Pixar and Dreamworks do)

Bottomline is, having your stuff in between these two extremes is kind of a danger zone. You might get the Uncanny Valley effect... you might not, and it varies from person to person.

2. Lack of Exaggeration, Contrast and Color Balance

The 3D models are given a lot of attention to detail. I like how you vary their features so much, the fine details you put in their clothes. But when you put them in comic form... the panels and pages well... feel... dead. Very static. Realistic-looking, and posing is good, but there's a problem with comics about being just realistic and nothing else.

Correct me if I am wrong, but in my book 3D art is mainly works for animation. I think it works pretty well to convey an action realistically if you have the advantage of moving frames. Unfortunately this is a comic. In a comic you need to compress several frames of action into a single panel. And for that to work well... you need to exaggerate the hell out of your art and posturing as compensation.

Sometimes people describe it as the art having a lot of "energy". Sometimes this means throwing the rules of time and laws of physics out the window... or at least bending them a bit.

For example there is a scene I quite liked where the cook Ana confronts Corrine for selling her out... with a kitchen cleaver.

It's not a bad image, but it does not quite send across the full extent of the menace which a few minor changes would have helped do:

This is in terms of posturing only. There is another problem in the colour palette used in the comic... It's always the same range of colours, and they do not change to reflect the environment.

At most it gets slightly lighter and darker, but that's it.

Here's an example. The setting for this is supposed to be a creepy street or backalley. I wouldn't really expect to see it lighted so well with soft, warm lights that show the colour of things so clearly!

A few seconds' work of levels adjustments throw deep shadows and take out some of the warmness, giving the feeling of harsh, fluorescent, street lighting in a god-forsaken part of town.

3. Very limited fixed perspectives and panel composition/speech balloons.

I have a love/hate affair with speech bubbles. Mostly its because many people use speech bubbles that clash with their art style. Speech bubbles like those used in comic life mimic those used in American comic books. The art style is bright bold and cartoony most of the time. It works well.

The cartoonyness of the font and bubbles do not as work well with realistic 3D art.

Lastly, the layout of the bubbles can be confusing. Sometimes they overlap and it's hard to see who is saying what.

Comiclife is a fun tool, but a few tweaks would really go a long way towards improving the bubbles:

The other thing is that the composition of the panels is severely limited.

I don't think I would be exaggerating if offhand... I said that 90% of the pages in Sunset Grill just consist of two characters standing and talking. The camera tends to stay fixed at the same distance from the talking characters, and takes pictures of them from the same angle.

This can be fine for a humour comic, but it can be boring as well. For a comic with action it's a complete No-NO.

After a while all the panels start looking the same. And that is pretty much synonymous with "boring", which in turn is synonymous with "bad".

Consider changing the point of view, add more close ups or compose the panel from the POV of the characters, and maybe even focus on inanimate objects when the long dialogues are going on.

Let the camera explore a little more. You can discover interesting ways to tell a story when you don't just take the direct approach of putting text and the picture of the character who said it together in the same panel.

Overall, I think your writing's good, but your medium of presentation and execution needs more work to stand out.

I'm still not convinced about using 3D art for comics yet, but I do respect your choice to use them and I hope the points here will help you improve them.

Good luck, and happy comicking!

Oh snap, I meant to write a postcard, but I ended up with a mini essay. I'm pretty sure I broke my 500 word limit again. XD

Edit: ArtPatient also reviewed this Sunset Grill a few months ago here.

Pinging Art #3: Wacom Intuos4!

In the heart of Kuala Lumpur there lies a place of called Plaza Low Yat. It is called an "IT Mall". Everyone knows it as THE place to buy anything electronic. I'm told that in US they call them "Fry's" or something like that. Or was it "Curry's"? No, wait- I think that's British.

Hm... fries and curries...

Well, anyway... in KL it's Plaza Low Yat.

Mind you this place which exists in perpetual organized chaos is not quite like the chain-store atmosphere of Fry's. It's simply an entire marketplace-like mall consisting of miscellaneous little outfits dedicated to selling electronics and electronic media.

I hate malls, so I have never been there in my life.

But due to certain circumstances which require I obtain a new graphic tablet, I decided to venture to the only place I could be certain to 100% find a Wacom Intuos 4 which I had long coveted.

My main worry was the price. I had already visited other stores in search of my dream tablet. I was really hoping not to have to resort to going to Low Yat, but tiring of condescending shop assistants trying to fob off old stock to me at jacked up prices (Think Intuos 3's at 30% more than recommended prices) I figured that intense competition would help me find a tablet my poor budget could afford.

Of course, on arriving there on the first day of the end of Eid, I ended up avoiding maybe 50% of the usual crowds. Not too bad at all. But as it turns out, lots of the vendors in Low Yat aren't above trying to fleece naive-looking girls looking for esoteric pieces of computer equipment either.

I hope I don't come across as too pompous when I say I am neither. But after some intense search, a lot of walking, price checking, and some very interesting observations on the art of dodgy salesmenship yielded an interesting experience.

"Oh those models aren't out yet, try this one, this is the latest!" (Intuos 3, HAH!)

"My price is the best miss! My competitor says he's selling them for 300 ringgit less but I assure you, he has none in stock! I checked!"

Fortunately I DO check. And competitor has them in stock for price within and below my budget. I emerged triumphant with a brand new shiny Intuos 4 and a hole in my credit card.

Well, a metaphorical one, ok?

So what can I say about it? (the tablet, not the hole). After my teeny A6 Graphire 2, the Medium Intuos4 really is very very nice. I can draw directly on the comp with this thing, and I found that the bundled software it comes with works much better than Photoshop for drawing and painting.

One of the first things I drew with the tablet. A self portrait where I look like a deranged killer. You'd look like that too if you'd spent your whole day in a mall.

It has to be said the Intuos 4's control is so much better (I still have more control with my chienese brushes, but let's not compare apples and oranges here). I am definitely enjoying learning to use it, ranging from the funky LED buttons and the touch wheel that lets me change brush size on the fly. It will come in handy when I go back to full colour comics again.

Overall...

Let's just hope that it's as hardy as my old Graphire 2. Now that was a solid piece of work...

UPDATE:

So far I find it quite possible to create an entire comic digitally. In fact I think the textured surface and the standard nib do a pretty good approximation of pencil on paper. I haven't quite experimented with the different nibs (felt and brush) yet. We'll see how that goes, but for the meantime, sample of the digital comic making process:




I still think my rough blues had more energy though.

Stopover at Catalyst: Nice but Niggly...

I'm not sure how I found Catalyst. It's been on the edge of my radar for quite a while now, but I never did remember how I found it.

However... I came across it regardless, on a whim I went through the archives recently. It's quite a fun read... the art is gorgeous, the characters (well some of them) are interesting and the world is nicely different and original.

I won't say the writing is bad or anything per-se... but I will be honest that after getting to the end of the archive, something really niggled me about the story, especially when I can't help but feel that something is missing.

I frequently think about what makes good storytelling. In fact I've been accused of (and plead guilty to) of thinking too much. In my previous entry I think I mentioned a phrase that stuck in my head shortly afterward: 

Some good writers are bad at telling stories.

This is something I feel quite keenly, because I have a feeling I myself sit in this demographic; that is, I have a pretty good command of the English language, I can write fairly decently and I'm aware what makes for bad writing; I can come up with unconventional original ideas and plots and have the added bonus of being able to draw somewhat.

But damn me, telling them stories well is where I run into all the problems. More often than not what I end up with is a faded, meandering, afterimage of what I envisioned, with the important things left out and what that does remain being arranged out of order. 

This is particularly prevalent in my experimental comic, The Longest Sojourn. Granted, it IS a comic I started when I was a gawky teen, when I wasn't aware of the importance of scripting and storyboarding. You can see it by how the chapters jump here and there, and how the plot gets more caught up with the characters's development it forgets about the direction and all that and meanders unnecessarily. Part of it is due to schedule, of course. Having to rush pages in-between real life commitments and flights and buses and trains doesn't make for smooth storyflow. Still...

Anyone can tell a story. The telling it well part is the hard thing.

Hm... about that something about Catalyst which still niggles me, even though I'm willing to bet most of the readers will not notice it on a conscious level- I think I know what it is now. I see too much of the same storytelling flaws I've made in it to be comfortable. 

There's a good story in there, make no doubt about that, but means of execution did not do it justice, and that was the niggling feeling. It could have been amazing and it only ended up pretty good.

There is a reason why I turned to scripting entire stories and getting them proof-read and rewriting the flaws out of them before even committing them to paper. Storytelling flaws, once executed, sadly cannot be corrected.

And I knew all this, but sometimes I forget them too.

Well I always did say the main reason I write this blog is to improve my art and writing skills.

Once in a while, I re-learn a lesson I forgot too, and be brought into awareness on how there's a gap in my knowledge that I still need to fill. 

And make use of.

Postcards #11: Reporterz

Today's Postcard will be a surprise to some. I'd originally decided to NOT review this comic, but I spent so much time replying the author as to why that was so that I realized that it was pretty much an anti-review.

It then struck me that such information would actually be really useful to some other authors in the same boat, more so than an actual review so... here we are. An anti-review Postcard.

The email sent to me from the creator of the comic is an extremely well-written and respectful email even if I didn't agree with some of the content. This was probably why I spent so much time replying it.  For the sake of privacy I've blanked out some of the information.

From: mastercougar**@******.com
Subject: A (Slightly Unusual) Review Request
To: webcomicfinds@gmail.com


Dear Ping Teo,

Do you review sprite comics?

I ask because the general opinion of the Internet seems to be that sprite comics are low-quality horse dung by default. I disagree- in my opinion it's not so much the quality of the medium itself as the quality of the people who make them. If intelligent writing were brought onto the scene, then in theory a sprite comic could be crafted that could stand up there with renowned hand-drawn webcomics.

So that's what I aim for. The question is, am I succeeding? I'd really like to know. Unfortunately, two problems have hindered my finding out. The first is the gut reaction most people have to sprite comics, so much so that they dismiss them on sight, rather than providing me with any insight I can work with.

The second is that the first hundred and fifty comics were written in 2004-2005, when I was thirteen. The writing there embarrasses me, and I know what I did wrong. What I'm interested in finding out is: how am I doing now? It's the recent comics I really need to focus on, ie: Storyline five and onward.

I know I'm asking too much of you. But I really need some good, solid feedback on what I need to do from here. Having followed your blog/column for some time now, I think that you're the best person for the job. I get the impression that you won't shoot the strip on sight because it's a sprite comic, but you won't be wishy-washy about it either. I'm really curious to know where the strip needs to go from here to stand on its own merit.

It can be found here:

http://reporterz.comicgenesis.com/

As for the plot, it starts out with a semi-generic video game journey, but I've gradually been trying to turn into a philosophical speculation on the nature of fiction, sprite comic clichés, and reality.

My hope is that, even if you don't particularly enjoy the strip, you'll find something interesting to think about, and that I can get some useful feedback from your analysis. If you're not interested in reviewing a sprite comic, I understand and respect that.

Thank you for your time.

Will, or Mastercougar

P.S.: You may recognize the site layout.

I know what some will think... Sprite comics? There is as the author said, a tendency to dismiss work based on the category the comic belongs to. This is not the first sprite comic that has asked for a review, but this is the first one I've thought to write a comphrehensive reply to:

Hi Will,

Well, as a rule of thumb, I generally only review comics that interest me.

I don't have any particular aversion towards sprite comics. I used to read a bit of 8-bit Theater, and before that Imanewbie (even though I never played UO I could follow it, and enjoy the absurd humour). I think the most recent one I read was a WOW sprite comic, albeit that one didn't last long and wasn't very good in all honesty.

Mind you, I do view sprite comics that are made by taking sprites from existing video games and sprite comics that use their own original homemade from scratch sprites differently. I class the former as something closer to fanfiction (or a fancomic, in this sense) and the latter as a comic with a highly stylized art style. (I believe the term they prefer to use for this kind of comic is "pixel art", and will shoot you if you call their work a sprite comic). For the purposes of lessening any confusion, when I say "sprite comic" after this I mean sprites taken for video games.

I am not saying that sprite comics can't be good and popular. They can be and are, sometimes even more so than original drawn comics because they already have a built-in fanbase to start with and they fulfill a very niche market. And yes, the not having the art chain slowing down the progression of plot and story does help. If you are looking for a fun hobby that can be enjoyed by many other people, yes, sprite comics are fine, just as fanfiction and doujinshi are fine and are even respected in their own ways.

If that's all you are after, you can stop reading at this point and ignore what I'm writing about below, and skip to the part about my feedback on your comic.


-----

Anyway, back to what you said: If " a sprite comic could be crafted that could stand up there with renowned hand-drawn webcomics" is what you are hoping for, I'm sorry... No. Not if those comic had anything other than a brain dead zombie doing the writing.

I don't shoot down ideas based on the general opinion, but as everyone who reads my blog knows, I don't hold back when someone asks me for my honest opinion. I believe that to be nothing more than a pipe dream.

This is the part where I probably get flamed. Yes I know the arguments that have been made about sprite comics and how they are viewed. I disagree with with what has been said. Like it or not, comics are a combination, and partnership of art AND writing. You can't neglect one facet, focus on the other, and argue that is enough to compensate because of "highly intelligent writing". Think of it as a score based system. If the scores were seperated as 50:50, and even IF you scored a perfect 50 for the writing, the art is disqualified because it's not your original work, and by extension your entire score.

It's like someone wanting to be a seen on the same standing as a Michelin-starred chef because they can create recipes but they can't cook and use pre-made ingredients for everything.

Like I said, if you're not aiming for that, that's fine.

-----


So much for my view of sprite comics in general. Moving on to something specific: your comic :)

Your letter was so charming and intelligently written, I have to say I was hoping to be proven wrong in my prior assessment of sprite comics. I love comics that surprise me.

But I found your comic really hard to get into. I tried. I really did. But the combination of the unappealing presentation and the overwhelming feeling that it was all a very big rant on sprite comics community stuff put me off. Not because of the fact it was a sprite comic, you understand, but just that as a comic it is not appealing to a reader, especially a new one.

I know you're interested in improving it, so I'll just try to keep it down to points on what could have made it better:

1. Website design:
I'm pretty sure the original Ocean Blue Template I designed for common use from CG comics didn't look like that, and while I applaud your attempt to customize the template, I really wouldn't recommend the background tile you are using. It is too garish, and it really distracts the attention of the reader away from the comic. Please consider something a bit more muted.

2. Subject content is a mystery
Your header says "A comic by MasterCougar". The daily news page looks like a rant about sprite comics. I have no idea what the comic is about in a glance, but from the point of view of a new reader, I'd assume this entire sprite comic is a rant about sprite comics. It could be wrong of course, but in this thing called web comics, first impressions are everything. A braver person than me would still feel the urge to hightail it out of there. It is highly unlikely a first time reader will hang around long enough to read your FAQ. And if your comic is hard to start reading, it doesn't matter how good your writing is, because no one will be reading it. At least consider a relevant tagline like "A sprite comic parody of sprite comics spanning different universes" or something like that.

3. Art and Layout:
Even sprite comics have to pay attention to their layouts. I am not criticizing this from the artistic point of view and saying something like it is just a mish-mash of sprites from different games. I don't really care about that, it's a sprite comic, that's what they do. 

I'm talking instead, about readability. I see walls of texts squashed together and tiny, blocky fonts that are hard to read. There is no spacing between panels, and the bright colours make it even harder for the eye to isolate a region as a panel. Space it out more, and learn to use empty space in the page to denote time.

4. Dialogue and Infodumping
There's WAY too much dialogue per page, and too much of it is not necessary. No one likes being lectured at, and no one likes being overwhelmed with unnecessary information. Even if it IS a sprite comic, the rules of good comic storytelling apply: SHOW, don't TELL! And don't infodump like you're doing now.

5. Inconsistent style
The beauty of pixelated sprite art is it that it makes use of a very limited template of colours and shapes, sharp and precise positioning of pixels in ingenious ways such as dithering and patterning to replicate colours and textures. In your comic I see none of that. Some your sprites are "blurry", especially when you zoom in on them and others in the same panel are sharp, resulting in clashing styles. Your backgrounds look like photos run through a photoshop artistic filter. The over all effect is awkward and inconsistent, it feels like something cobbled together badly. You may have a reason for that, but whatever it is- it's not working aesthetically. It may be sprite art, but sprite art still requires attention to look good.

6. Storytelling
You can write. But your writing still suffers in terms of storytelling. They are two different things. Some good writers are bad at telling stories. The biggest flaw I see in your writing is you cram in too much information (like I said, infodumping) and you have a tendency to try over-explain everything to readers, instead of letting them come to the conclusion on their own.

The last thing that annoyed me is petty... I really really dislike the substitution of Z for S in "Reporterz". It's just... tacky. This is a personal preference thing, but I thought I'd just mention it because I know I'm not the only one with a problem with this kind of naming gimmick.




To sum it up: I really admire the effort you are putting into trying to make a good sprite comic, but in my opinion, your comic is suffering because it isn't being presented as a comic, but just a piece of writing interspersed with sprites and lot of text in bubbles.

The worst thing is that somewhere along the way, you've seem to have gotten the idea that the reason people don't like it is because it is a sprite comic, and it in turn might have made you overlook the fact that it may be due to some other things your comic is lacking in, and not the genre your comic falls in. I can tell you now that while for SOME of the people it may be true, a lot of other people are read other sprite comics like Bob and George, but they are not reading yours. And it is most likely due to the multiple reasons I have listed above.

I hope I haven't been too harsh, and that you won't give up on something that you obviously enjoy despite my observations. If sprite is what you still want to do because you love the style, go ahead, but do consider making it with a comic in mind, instead of a just making sprite comic in mind. Honestly, the best thing you could do with your sprite comic is make it a silent sprite comic. Now I WOULD read a sprite comic like that. Hell I would make one like that, just for the challenge.


Anyways, The best of luck, and Happy Comicking!


Regards,
Ping Teo
Lonely Panel: The Webcomics Travel-Blog
http://www.lonelypanel.com