Our Comic Lab in the Playground: An experimentation class

[Darklord Bright]

Just tossing out an idea for a comic to come after DLE (whenever it ends) or maybe even alongside if I feel up to it.

As a preview, I'm just wondering if this catches anyone's attention. Would you read this? (Might take a little sec to load on some machines, sorry.)

[Green-Shirt Q]

Usually I'd say something like "Oh SWEET! A comic by Darklord Bright, an already proven amazing writer, and a completely new and interesting concept that's never been seen around these fancomic boards involving clevage!" but for some reason, I just can't get excited about it. I have no idea why, but there is just something about the comic that's...uninteresting. I can't put my finger on it.

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in now. I'm sure it'll be awesome.

[Keveak]

Originally Posted by Green-Shirt Q

Usually I'd say something like "Oh SWEET! A comic by Darklord Bright, an already proven amazing writer, and a completely new and interesting concept that's never been seen around these fancomic boards involving clevage!" but for some reason, I just can't get excited about it. I have no idea why, but there is just something about the comic that's...uninteresting. I can't put my finger on it.

Maybe it's just the mood I'm in now. I'm sure it'll be awesome.

I think it's because of the 90's anti-hero craze, 'this city needs a hero, but all it has is me' has been done hundreds of times.

That doesn't mean this one can't be good, though

[Darklord Bright]

Indeed, even 'cliche' character concepts can be done well if the writer is good enough.

Of course, there's also the world, but y'know.

Plus, I'm not even sure this is the Katya she's modeled off, considering she has a completely different backstory and no Russian accent to boot. Not sure what happened, but I had a really cool concept for a story I wanted to deliver and I'm hoping I can write some good stuff for it.

Edit: I might make a few more test comics over the course of this next few days to see what might be able to come of this, so as to get a better idea of the feel of this comic series, which I'm hoping, due to the first-person narrative, will be able to show off my actual writing and not just my improvisational skills.

[Cizak]

Originally Posted by Darklord Bright

...I'm just wondering if this catches anyone's attention...

Well, the first panel certainly got my attention

Jokes aside, I think it looks good. Not as good as DLE, but I'll definately read it if it comes out.

[Dogmantra]

Originally Posted by Darklord Bright

Indeed, even 'cliche' character concepts can be done well if the writer is good enough.

And modest enough.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Hello everyone. I would like to showcase a new comic I'm working on, as well as the new art style I'm probably going to use for it. This is mostly for advertising, though last time I tried a new art style and I thought it was perfectly fine, apperently it was actually complete garbage. I just want to see I'm not making another fatal art mistake.

This new comic is a reboot of my very first comic series. A superhero series I did when I was in elementary school.

Spoiler

And here is a few other posters I did as well.

Spoiler

Wow, the rubble effects looked MUCH better before I uploaded the imaged. I don't know what's causing that, but just ignore it, alright?

I think you can tell, just by how many trailers I did, just how excited I am and hope the rest of you are.

[CrimsonAngel]

Gasp, frogman is in canadialand!

[Darklord Bright]

No shading or anything on these yet, but the other idea floating around is for a campy steampunk/40s/zombie apocalypse plot.

[CrimsonAngel]

I'de tap read that.

[Maximum Zersk]

Originally Posted by Green-Shirt Q

Hello everyone. I would like to showcase a new comic I'm working on, as well as the new art style I'm probably going to use for it. This is mostly for advertising, though last time I tried a new art style and I thought it was perfectly fine, apperently it was actually complete garbage. I just want to see I'm not making another fatal art mistake.

This new comic is a reboot of my very first comic series. A superhero series I did when I was in elementary school.

Spoiler

And here is a few other posters I did as well.

Spoiler

Wow, the rubble effects looked MUCH better before I uploaded the imaged. I don't know what's causing that, but just ignore it, alright?

I think you can tell, just by how many trailers I did, just how excited I am and hope the rest of you are.

Hah, the villain is a Pretty Cure fan.

[Szilard]

Originally Posted by Darklord Bright

Just tossing out an idea for a comic to come after DLE (whenever it ends) or maybe even alongside if I feel up to it.

As a preview, I'm just wondering if this catches anyone's attention. Would you read this? (Might take a little sec to load on some machines, sorry.)

<snip>

It seems a bit reminiscent of 1984 with the whole Malevolent AI thing that's watching us all the time.

[BRC]

Originally Posted by Szilard

It seems a bit reminiscent of 1984 with the whole Malevolent AI thing that's watching us all the time.

More like Paranoia. 1984 wasn't about an AI, just a government.

[Darklord Bright]

Not seen either of those...

Anyways, the plot ideas I've had are:

Sci-Fi
Malevolent AI and 'Guardian' robots police city until the residents are afraid to even leave their homes anymore, so motorcyclist/badass embarks on a quest to disable the AI using any means necessary.

Campy 40s Movie Comic
"Who can stand against these terrible fusions of MAN and SCIENCE?", obviously 'super-imposed' monsters, and bad effects on purpose. Basically meant to knock off cheesy 40s sci-fi movies.

and the only one not yet represented by some sort of sample,
Science-Fantasy Western
About a world which is populated by the descendants of a people who fled their world (Which was a generic fantasy world which achieved technology and space travel systems) which was being destroyed by an ancient evil. Now they're on a desert planet (they crashed here), with generic fantasy races at about western level technology with some lost sci-fi technology being used as weapons and such.

[V'icternus]

That last one sounds interesting, asa concept. A lot of room to make anything you want to happen happen, and good setting for some variety of story to easily form.

As a note on the camp 40's one: It sounds like a decent idea, but there aren't that many places you can go with that past a certain point. The last suggestion definitely has more freedom.

As for the Sci-Fi AI control thing, it might just be hard to keep that interesting after a while. You'd need to introduce some new element to the story.

But yeah, that last one is my favourite, personally.

[Dvandemon]

I'm trying to write a villain but I can't decide what he'd be. He's the kind of person that wants to be in charge, but only for the sake of being in charge. He only wants power so he doesn't have to listen to anyone else. He's lazy but when he's forced into a fair fight, he uses shock and awe tactics.

@V: No, I'm saving that for a secondary villain

[CrimsonAngel]

Give him a goatee and a suit.

[V'icternus]

No-one else want to talk about DLB's thingamajig?

[Felyndiira]

Now that I've graduated, I've been working on starting my comic idea in-between searching for jobs. One of the things I've always strove to do as an artist is to expand upon the standard OotS style, and with the two main characters, I'm trying to use different styled eyes to denote their personalities.



Basically, the 12-years old main character, Flute (name changed) was a template that I've shown before. She's supposed to be a child - calm and understanding due to her experiences, although still a bit innocent and naive. Since she is drawn using standard OotS-style, her companion, the worldly and war-torn veteran Iskinder, was supposed to act as a bit of a contrast.

I've tried applying a few tricks from anime art for Iskinder to try to portray this contrast and give him a more mature look. Namely, aside from the standard scars of battle, I've condensed the size of his eyes to give him a more adult-like appearance (although he does look a bit like a villain as a result). I'm trying to get a bit C&C about whether you guys think this would work, and if there's other ways I could visually portray this kind of contrast.



If there's any other visualization tricks that you guys could recommend, I'm definitely very willing to try them out. I'm not afraid to deviate from the Giant's style, so suggestions that would otherwise not be oots-like are definitely very welcome.

[licoot]

@Felyndiira
Just one thing, the buttons on his jacket and shirt are a tiny bit out of place, it might look better if you used more natural looking colors for that bit.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Originally Posted by V'icternus

No-one else want to talk about DLB's thingamajig?

Or GSQ's thingamajig that way more effort was put into and is way more interesting and was upstaged by DLB's thingamajig?

[Felyndiira]

Originally Posted by licoot

@Felyndiira
Just one thing, the buttons on his jacket and shirt are a tiny bit out of place, it might look better if you used more natural looking colors for that bit.

Thanks, li ^^. I tried changing the button colors to gray (and making his shirt buttons a bit smaller), and it did seem to contribute quite a bit to the imagery.

[Darklord Bright]

Originally Posted by Green-Shirt Q

Or GSQ's thingamajig that way more effort was put into and is way more interesting and was upstaged by DLB's thingamajig?

Upstaged, my good sir? You've had more comments than I have.

[Herpestidae]

Originally Posted by Felyndiira

Thanks, li ^^. I tried changing the button colors to gray (and making his shirt buttons a bit smaller), and it did seem to contribute quite a bit to the imagery.

*snip*

Try re-shaping the face a bit. It's alright for Flute to be a bit round-faced; she's still a child. See if you can do something to the general shape of Iskinder's face.

I honestly don't know exactly what, though. Try making it semi-blocky and see what happens.

[Emperor Ing]

Yo Fely, I can't help but notice a major flaw in your characters' designs.

THEY HAVE NO ARMS!!

[Keveak]

Originally Posted by Herpestidae

Try re-shaping the face a bit. It's alright for Flute to be a bit round-faced; she's still a child. See if you can do something to the general shape of Iskinder's face.

I honestly don't know exactly what, though. Try making it semi-blocky and see what happens.

I personally think it may be the eyes, they're a bit too high up on his face in comparison to Flute.

Try having them be in the middle of where Flute's eyes would be

EDIT:

"Rand: I noticed that last time and asked about it, turns out Fel doesn't add them at this point in the comic making.

[Felyndiira]

Originally Posted by Herpestidae

Try re-shaping the face a bit. It's alright for Flute to be a bit round-faced; she's still a child. See if you can do something to the general shape of Iskinder's face.

I honestly don't know exactly what, though. Try making it semi-blocky and see what happens.

Never actually thought about using anime-style faces in OotS-style XD. It seemed to work quite well, though it looks a bit unusual.

Originally Posted by Keveak

I personally think it may be the eyes, they're a bit too high up on his face in comparison to Flute.

Try having them be in the middle of where Flute's eyes would be

I originally had it higher due to OotS convention, although I've tried changing the vertical placement of Iskinder's eyes. It seems that a character with lower eyes looks a bit more youthful, heroic, protagonistic, and hero-like while a character with higher eyes had a similar effect as narrow eyes. I've moved the eyes down two pixels, though, to give him a more protagonist look to balance out the eyes.

Thanks for the advice ^^.


@Rand: Pretty much; I usually leave arms out of my templates because they tend to have the most movement in scenes, so I draw them in as I pose them.

EDIT: Oops, forgot to draw pants >.<.

[Green-Shirt Q]

Originally Posted by Dvandemon

I'm trying to write a villain but I can't decide what he'd be. He's the kind of person that wants to be in charge, but only for the sake of being in charge. He only wants power so he doesn't have to listen to anyone else. He's lazy but when he's forced into a fair fight, he uses shock and awe tactics.

@V: No, I'm saving that for a secondary villain

Okay then. How about a talking Electric Joybuzzer? They're shocking AND awesome!

But seriously. You're going to have to give us a little bit more than that. What kind of suggestion are you looking for? Class? Personality? Appearance? Gender? Be more specific, because that really dosen't give us much to suggest.

[licoot]

A while ago I think someone gave a good size for a comic, does anyone remember it.

[Emperor Ing]

The way I see it there's no good or correct comic size, there's only "Is this panel big enough to contain all my dialogue/characters/scenery?"