New Belkar Bitterleaf prequel story (plus Don't Split the Party) in PDF from Gumroad

[Ruck]

Do they really? Imean, I know there are always differences; the first Calvin and Hobbs strip compared to the last one has clear art differences, and Space Pilot 3000 has very different pacing than The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings, but I don't think Bill Watterson or David X. Cohen would look back and hate the early stuff, or have difficulty looking at it. It takes all series a bit to really find their place and hit their stride; the beginning is always rougher than the later episodes. Which really flows into your overall point rather well.

Watterson definitely has strips he looks back on and thinks are mistakes. (He thought it was important at the time to establish how Calvin and Hobbes met, which he later realized was unnecessary, and the Uncle Max series of strips, which made him realize C&H wasn't really designed for Calvin's parents to have other adult relationships.)

[Peelee]

Watterson definitely has strips he looks back on and thinks are mistakes. (He thought it was important at the time to establish how Calvin and Hobbes met, which he later realized was unnecessary, and the Uncle Max series of strips, which made him realize C&H wasn't really designed for Calvin's parents to have other adult relationships.)

Yeah, individual strips (bytheway, kudos, my fellow C&H superfan!), but i dont recall him saying that it pains him to look at the early days. Those bits were the unsteady ground and growing pains a lot of series or episodic media go through. He tried something out, it didn't written well, he fixed it (I really like Uncle Max, but dude called it; he was unnecessary). But that's different from considering your early work painful to look at or read.

[GrayGriffin]

Yeah, individual strips (bytheway, kudos, my fellow C&H superfan!), but i dont recall him saying that it pains him to look at the early days. Those bits were the unsteady ground and growing pains a lot of series or episodic media go through. He tried something out, it didn't written well, he fixed it (I really like Uncle Max, but dude called it; he was unnecessary). But that's different from considering your early work painful to look at or read.

He has also stated that he dislikes some of his old dinosaur comics due to the inaccuracies presented therein, as well as the composition for some of the older comics (although some of those were due to format restrictions of the time)

[littlebum2002]

Eh, most artists and/or writers hate their old stuff, or at least have difficulty looking at it without going "Oh my god, I've learned so much since then." Creators are privy to the entirety of the process - when we make something, we know how it looks in our head and everything that went into it, so we fall short of our own expectations. If we don't feel like we're constantly improving, we worry we're stagnating and lose motivation. Meanwhile, when we read it as readers, we notice so many fewer flaws because we have nothing to compare it to.

The old art style was great, and had a lot of charm. As readers, that's what we see. But comparing it to the new style, there's a lot that can't be done with it that can be done now. As a creator, that's what Rich sees. It doesn't mean the old style was bad - it's just that Rich has learned a lot.

Do they really? Imean, I know there are always differences; the first Calvin and Hobbs strip compared to the last one has clear art differences, and Space Pilot 3000 has very different pacing than The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings, but I don't think Bill Watterson or David X. Cohen would look back and hate the early stuff, or have difficulty looking at it. It takes all series a bit to really find their place and hit their stride; the beginning is always rougher than the later episodes. Which really flows into your overall point rather well.

I'm 99% certain there is no writer on the Simpsons who looks back on the early episodes and thinks "Wow, this show is so much better now".

[Peelee]

I'm 99% certain there is no writer on the Simpsons who looks back on the early episodes and thinks "Wow, this show is so much better now".

Similarly, I'm 99% certain that if you watched The Simpsons a few seasons in and compared them to the first few episodes, there would be noticeable differences in drawing style , pacing, voice acting, characterization, interplay, etc. Meanwhile, take episodes from the middle of the run and present-day, and such differences will likely be less noticeable.

All I'm saying here is that the initial learning period trying to find its unique voice is never a bad thing, and I'd be surprised if virtually all authors/creators hated that period later on.

[hroþila]

I'm 99% certain there is no writer on the Simpsons who looks back on the early episodes and thinks "Wow, this show is so much better now".

There's a key difference: most of the current writers didn't write the classic Simpsons material. They were fans. Of course they're going to think those classics are better.

[littlebum2002]

Similarly, I'm 99% certain that if you watched The Simpsons a few seasons in and compared them to the first few episodes, there would be noticeable differences in drawing style , pacing, voice acting, characterization, interplay, etc. Meanwhile, take episodes from the middle of the run and present-day, and such differences will likely be less noticeable.

All I'm saying here is that the initial learning period trying to find its unique voice is never a bad thing, and I'd be surprised if virtually all authors/creators hated that period later on.

Wow, I'm looking through the first season on the Simpsons Wiki, and I totally forgot how rough those episodes were.

[The Giant]

Huh, that's weird. I could have sworn I warned this thread already.

Let's please keep this thread free of derailments and irrelevant conversations, please.

Oh yeah. I did.

This thread is for discussion of the Belkar comic and issues related to ordering from Gumroad. If you want to complain about the new art style yet again or tell me about how I'm a terrible liar for evolving as an artist, go start another thread so I can more easily ignore your opinions.

Anyone who posts on this thread on any other topic than the topic indicated for this thread will be infracted.

[PickerOfNits]

Rich,

I just bought and read the Belkar story from Gumroad. Awesome story. But you have a typo in it, I believe. When Belkar is fighting the big thing, he makes a comment that it has "skin like a bageutte" where I believe you meant "baguette" instead.

Picker of Nits

[Windscion]

I've heard that the O-Chul prequel is actually bluescale rather than greyscale.

If this was the Erfworld forums I'd tip you for that.

[DanielPhermous]

Bought the "Don't Split the Party" PDF a while ago but some of the frames are screwy. I've tried re-downloading, viewing on different computers and so on but with no luck. From the looks of the thread, no one else is having a problem.

I was kind of hoping on finding some way of contacting the powers that be that did not involve creating a forum account, but oh well. Twitter didn't work. I was also hoping to be able to post a picture to show what I mean but apparently I'm not allowed. It's on a few pages but the ones with the anti-magic bubble are all like this. Also disjunction. The magical spell effects are the wrong colour and contained within a box. Some sort of glitch with translucency, maybe?

Any known fix?

[The Giant]

Bought the "Don't Split the Party" PDF a while ago but some of the frames are screwy. I've tried re-downloading, viewing on different computers and so on but with no luck. From the looks of the thread, no one else is having a problem.

I was kind of hoping on finding some way of contacting the powers that be that did not involve creating a forum account, but oh well. Twitter didn't work. I was also hoping to be able to post a picture to show what I mean but apparently I'm not allowed. It's on a few pages but the ones with the anti-magic bubble are all like this. Also disjunction. The magical spell effects are the wrong colour and contained within a box. Some sort of glitch with translucency, maybe?

Any known fix?

Whoops, I actually did get your tweet and forgot to respond because I wanted to see if I could see it before I said anything.

This seems to be a problem with some PDF reader programs and not others on the pages where the black dragon uses Anti-Magic Shield. On my computer, it shows up in Apple Preview, but not Adobe Acrobat Reader. That's the reason no one else has noticed/mentioned it.

I haven't yet figured out a way to make it show up correctly in Apple Preview (and presumably whatever program you're using), but I will keep trying things. If I stumble upon whatever setting I need to change, I'll issue a new PDF with the problem fixed; you'll get an email with a new download link when that happens. In the short term, I'd suggest switching to another PDF reader if it's too distracting.

Thanks for being persistent in pointing this out.

[DanielPhermous]

Thanks for being persistent in pointing this out.

No problem. I'm glad it's to be fixed. I was really weirded out by no one else here apparently having the problem. Does no one here use a Mac?

[Porthos]

. Does no one here use a Mac?

I have a Mac, I just didn't notice the discrepancy.

Now that you mention it though, I see what you mean.

[Arkku]

I was really weirded out by no one else here apparently having the problem. Does no one here use a Mac?

I use a Mac, but I actually read the comics on my iPad and it doesn't have the same problem. Which is really weird, since it's presumably based on the same code. But yes, I can confirm that with Apple Preview on macOS the anti-magic field colour is wrong.