The Q's Comic Review (Fancomic Writers Please Read!)

[CrimsonAngel]

Making a futurama reference should make you a deity; A pantheon of one. I mean, just for no raison.

You are truely the greetest.

[Kumo]

Funny. He references the one episode of futurama i've watched in full and i don't get it until someone mentions the hypnotoad.

[CrimsonAngel]

Funny. He references the one episode of futurama i've watched in full and i don't get it until someone mentions the hypnotoad.

Glory to the hypnotoad.

EDIT: Just noticed I made the same references as everyone else.

[Kumo]

Glory to the hypnotoad.

wait, four episodes. one where he becomes smart for a while, one where he's the only guy on the planet who isn't rendered inoperable because he was already an idiot, the invasion of the bouncing ball alien's planet, and one where all the robots were sent to an island for destruction.

"We couldn't defuse the bomb so we reset the word that activates it."

[Green-Shirt Q]

Why can't I win at chess using the sheer force of anger?

New Review!

Reality

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[John Cribati]

Will there be a character named Murphy... and he will write a law? Maybe.. The Law?

The LAAAW?

[BRC]

eek! I'm next! (unless Xarty and Sinister get 8 comics out before friday or whenever Q does his reviews.)

[Blayze]

Is Lost at the X-Files level of "beyond over-complication" yet, or has it surpassed the previous master?

[icastflare!]

hmm. this surrealistic form of art gives me an idea for a new comic. gotta write it down for once me and crimson finish up vengerance rising.

[MethosH]

Sweet! Nice review! Thanks

I hope you don't lose the interest in reviewing comics, since I got much planned for Reality and would like to see a future review of the upcoming issues

[Green-Shirt Q]

Why did I fall for every single prank?

New Review!

Rebellion|Revolution

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I officially call the "Taste Of His Own Medicine" Contest OVER. Since it's the end of March and that's when I said the deadline would be.

Remember when I said I'd give the winners a cameo (of their choice, but shut up about that. There has been a change of plans)? You may have noticed that ALL the people who entered the contest made a cameo (with another, completely unrelated cameo going to my best buddy on these forums, Randy). So why did EVERYBODY who entered get the prize?

Because EVERYONE'S A WINNER!

I will give the other part of the contest prize, the review of these reviews, next week.

And I'll actually review Rebellion|Revolution a week after that.

[Nageto004]

Aww man I forgot all about april fools day, I didn't get to trick anyone.

[Kumo]

Because EVERYONE'S A WINNER!

Or everyone's a loser and you just wanted to be nice about it. >.>

... why do i get the feeling i just said something incredibly stupid?

[Silverraptor]

Or everyone's a loser and you just wanted to be nice about it. >.>

... why do i get the feeling i just said something incredibly stupid?

"Stupid is as Stupid does."

[Kumo]

"Stupid is as Stupid does."

I've heard a similar yet subtly different phrasing.

"Jerkwad is as Jerkwad does."

[Green-Shirt Q]

Why doesn't anybody ever answer my questions?

New review!

Special Comic: Reviewing the Contest Entry Reviews

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[Dogmantra]

Hang on, I didn't make it incredibly obvious that the apologeticity (that's a word now) in the penultimate panel was mocking the apologeticity in the third panel? I am good at subtle jokes. I am not good at jokes that people actually get.

[Kumo]

I'll admit i made my point about as poorly as humanly possible. (and that it wasn't that great a point to begin with)

At the time i thought you were mainly criticising the color chosen for the cave as being bland. Criticising a cave for being gray IS kinda pointless.

[Silverraptor]

I take it that I got alot of points. But what does that add up to? Anyways, I glad you liked my comic, Q.

Edit: Also, you might want to put links to all the comic entries in the first post.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Why did it take so long for me to make this review?

New review!

Rebellion|Revolution (for realsies, this time)

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[BRC]

Wewt, finally! I have achieved "Not scum" status!
Let me address some things. Spoiler ed for those who haven't read the review yet.

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Concerning the Text: Yeah, I noticed that, believe me. I tend to get pretty verbose in my writing. Anytime I had more than two sentences of text it was a major hassle to squeeze it in. For the latest comics I upped the size of everything except the font, it makes the images themselves huge, but at least it dosn't look like each panel is 80% text bubble.
Concerning the Character Designs: That was a major concern for me when I first designed James. He's supposed to be a standard by-the-book DSF officer, which meant short haircut, neat uniform ect. Standing alone this was perfect for him, however, it made him look pretty much like every other DSF officer. The OOTS style isn't good at differentiating characters without major distinguishing features.
Maria has red hair, I think she's the only one in the comic so far, but she doesn't have much else in the way of distinguishing features, and since she doesn't always wear the same outfit, yeah.

Of course right now, the characters are primarily living their everyday lives. As the events begin to definine them more and more, as they move away from being just a police officer and a waitress with radical political beliefs, as they more and more become the Foxhound and the Laughing Jackal, I intend to update their character designs to make them more distinctive. Expect Foxhound Division to start modifying their uniforms soonish.

As for the color scheme, I dislike using bright colors, I don't know why, when I draw, tend to stick to the dark side of the palette.

[Blayze]

Wait, it's me next, isn't it?

Colour me stoked.

(I was going to try for a Blackadder-style pun such as "We're as stuck as Sticky the Stick Insect, who got stuck in a sticky bun", but nothing leapt to mind. Perhaps I could make it leap higher.)

[Green-Shirt Q]

Why must I always be so slow?

New Review!

Let's Play Estra: Interactive

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I'm starting to think I should just not review interactive comics from now on.

[Darklord Bright]

The more helpful supplement to this.

Generally speaking, I rather enjoy interactive comics - but I really couldn't get into this one, either.

One of my favourite stories ever was told in interactive comic form, and it was done very well. Unfortunately, it was in a place I can't really link here, but it was incredibly good nonetheless.

The reason though, that they tend to have a lot of text, is that they're modeled off the old games like Zork, only with more freedom in your character's choice. It comes down to, in the end, how it is handled to decide how good it will be. You need to find a healthy balance of text and image (And it actually isn't necessary to put dialog in the comic itself, given that the medium is supposed to be text supporting an image.) but the trick that makes interactive comics hard to do well is that both your art and writing should be able to support each other. If they can't do this, the comic won't do well.

Also, seeing as these are modeled off text adventures with accompanying images, try not to write a textbook in each of the descriptors. Make more images to accompany the text if you simply must drag it on, but it's rather hard to leave opening for player decision if it just goes on forever.

The main character's personality is generally decided by the players, but it's possible to have the character deny things they wouldn't do (but I wouldn't recommend this approach, as it removes some player freedom.), or do what I generally like to do - allow the players to decide on things like appearance, equipment, and backstory up until the starting point of the comic based on a few choices you give them. This allows the likely personality to be shaped beforehand and so allows the character to seem to be acting "In-Character". To go along with this, it's good to remember that the NPCs are not controlled by the players. They can have personalities and quirks which help to carry the story somewhere instead of just relying upon the players to do it.

Basically, if you understand the conventions of what you're doing in an interactive comic, there's very little reason for it to do badly - the main character can often develop a personality over time just because the players will get used to directing them in a certain way, in both action and speech.

Finally, one of the major conventions used in this sort of story is the theme of discovery. Allow the players to discover the story naturally, don't dump anything they shouldn't already know on them, but make sure to give them hooks. If the story is gripping enough, the players will actually want to discover more about their surroundings in order to understand their situation better. It should also provide an interesting read for those who were not able to contribute to a comic or who's option wasn't taken, otherwise it will miss the mark entirely.

Sorry for the hijack, but after all the deconstructing, I felt the need to be constructive.

(Might I also mention that Blayze's writing is rather good, but I found the story in question to be rather uninteresting. I would garner more interest out of a Blayze-written interactive if there was a slight bit less to read through at times, and the storyline was something that I found to be more gripping. It feels kinda sad to see a good writer make something that just really doesn't interest me - but I acknowledge that there are people out there who really do like your story. It's not bad, but I personally thought it could have been replaced with something else.)

[Green-Shirt Q]

The more helpful supplement to this.

...

Sorry for the hijack, but after all the deconstructing, I felt the need to be constructive.

That's okay. I didn't think I was very helpful anyway.

I don't really see the appeal in interactive stories at all, and don't read too many. Therefore, I don't really know enough to critique them. Thanks for the help.

You know what, that advice was pretty good. If the Comic Reivew was going on any longer (there should be about 2 or 3 left to do, and then I'm probably moving on) I'd ask you provide additional analysis for EVERY review like this!

[icastflare!]

oh goodness, vengeance rising is next. crimson is gonna have to kick the lead out or were gonna get skipped.

[Kumo]

... is it too late to give permission for 'Flaws'?

I have a few ideas on what needs to be fixed but i figure, it can't hurt and other people see things you don't.

[Mad Mask]

You know what, that advice was pretty good. If the Comic Reivew was going on any longer (there should be about 2 or 3 left to do, and then I'm probably moving on) I'd ask you provide additional analysis for EVERY review like this!

Aww... Since fancomics aren't going to die any time soon, I would had hoped that this project would have lasted some more time...

Especially since I don't consider Planum Commedia to my most representative work, being too old, unfinished, not even truly started and probably abandoned forever.

Maybe I'll get out the upcoming series (which will be more up-to-date with my current "comicry" skills) I've been preparing for the last month before the review closes down, but I doubt I'll have enough time to get enough issues out.

[Blayze]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Looks like I'm going to have to leave interactive comics to the Andrew Hussies of the world. Hell, might leave comics in general to other people and focus on writing stuff.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Time to break away from the reviewing for one week for something I've been planning for a little while.

Special Comic: Tagging

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This is just a little experiment. Let's see how long we can keep the "tag" going.