Re: Crazy Sunshine
I’d like to thank everyone who commented on my last comic rant. I really appreciate the feedback. The main issues brought up were consistency of artwork, writing style and update schedule. I’ll be addressing all of these now.
Artwork consistency: It seems I’m not the only one who has a problem with this. Part of this is because I’m trying to work out a style for myself. I kind of think my style is boring, and I want to give it a bit more individuality. So, yeah it’s something I’m working on.
Writing: People seem to want more character in the characters, which is understandable. I’d like to do character based arcs, but I’m afraid of turning into MegaTokyo. Also, given weekly updates, that’d take a lot of time (I say this even though I have something of a character-centric series (series meaning 2 comics) planned for the holidays). I will however try to put more character into their dialogue and actions.
I have to get these three things to work together in perfect balance: humour, message and character. I think most of the time MESSAGE overshadows all of those. I think it may help to focus less on such specific things all the time and just focus on some aspects of fandom in general. This comic kinda does it well, but kinda doesn’t.
When I say “Penny Arcade for otaku” I mean more a comic that serves the same general purpose that Penny Arcade does. As far as style goes, I’m thinking more along the lines of Mac Hall in terms of comic presentation and scripting, with the tone of things like NHK, Zetsubou and PPD when needed.
It seems people want better writing over better art. That’s fine, but there’s nothing more embarrassing than an ugly webcomic… thusly I will work on improving both art and writing at once, orz
Updates: Seems people want more updates, but if it comes at the cost of quality, they don’t mind.
I think at most I’d be able to swing 2 updates a week. I’ll have a less demanding major next semester, so lets see how that goes. This also requires having more ideas for comics, which is kind of hard, but getting easier lately.
Wow, it kind of just looks like I’m making excuses now. But rest assured I took all your words into consideration and will keep them in mind while making future comics. Once again, thanks.
Giving your characters, um, more character doesn’t mean having stories about their past history in long multi strip arcs. Characters can have personality through short stories. Calvin and hobbes, any looney tunes character, three stooges, penny arcade, and blah blah blah all have an identifiable personality that people enjoy without all the megatokyo story arc bs. So no worries your current format can handle it.
However, bear in mind I haven’t read too many of your comics, I think your characters are a little self indulgent and they don’t stand out enough. In Genshiken terms, there’s no Kasukabe, Madarame, or early Ogiue characters that stir up character chemistry.
Hopefully that gives you something to think about and helps out. My advice batting percentage is 50/50 so….yeah…later
I say go you. \o/
I might be back with slightly more useful feedback, but I mostly agree with rawshark’s comments on the character development issues. (Also, megatokyo completely lost me at some point.)
Just thought I’d add – while the art isn’t exactly WOO PHOTOREALISM AND LENS FLARE, I enjoy the quality nevertheless, especially the way you draw faces.
In the last panel of the “Gundam 00 #2” comic, the haunted expression on his face made me crack up. It really sold the punchline in a way dialogue alone couldn’t. :D
2 updates a week isn’t needed, but a solid update a week, once a week would be nice.
I’m with Brendan, once week would sound really good (It is about perfect for me). Only thing I have in my mind when talking about rushing comics is this finnish internet comic called “sosiaalisesti rajoittuneet” [translated something like “sosially weak”] that updates comics once a day.
It’s totally boring shit nowadays.
Make me laugh, once a week would be really awesome.