Webcomic Above Thread :o

[K-Dawg]

Chat Rouge

Let me get right into it, Chat Rouge is a fun, enjoyable little strip. It chronicles the tale of one red cat (Chat Rouge means red cat in french) and his battles against the evil toaster, microwave...basically any electronical device.

I do have to say as enjoyable the strips are they do get repetitive, and the use of the faux french accent can really be irritating.

http://chatrouge.stripspace.com/d/20050131.html
This is an example of it, here ze is used as both "the" and "we".

http://chatrouge.stripspace.com/d/20050214.html
In this one I have more a gripe with the addition of "Z" in the dialogue. It honestly took me 3 minutes or so to try to figure out what Chat was saying in panel 2. It always seemed like if the Z was tacked on it was used as a "S" so that's how I read it as. So I read "Dayz Inz and dayz outz iz plan..." as "Days in and days outs is plan..."
It wasn't until someone pointed out that "iz" was suppose to probably mean "I" that I could finally see it.

I'd ask that you try to fix the faux french a bit. I know it is essential to the comic but as shown up above it can really get confusing and make the comic hard to read. Maybe possibly dropping some of it for words like "he", or "we" where it can be very confusing for which one Chat is speaking of. Or, even use the real french words for some of the things that Chat says. Also, when Chat is saying "the" you could make him say "zhe" or something instead of "ze".

http://chatrouge.stripspace.com/d/20050808.html
In this comic is a good example of using the "z" very well. For "this" you made it "zis"

As I was saying before the strips can tend to be very repetitive. Chat sees the toaster/microwave/etc. Chat attempts to destroy it; Chat succeeds. Out of all the storylines in the comic I enjoyed the one with the computer and meeting Tuna and Corky; mostly because the plot here didn't pertain to the defeating any appliance. It seems now the plot is back to destroying a toaster, but I don't see it fair for me to comment on it right now as I have no clue where this storyline may end up.

There was also one more thing that grinded my gears a bit reading through the archive; there were a lot of comics near the beginning that made absolutely no sense to me, or I had no clue what was going on.

http://chatrouge.stripspace.com/d/20050221.html
I have no clue what Chat is doing in the second and third panels here.

http://chatrouge.stripspace.com/d/20050307.html
In this comic I have no clue what Chat is doing to the bear, or why they are starting a band...it just seemed like something very random just happening out of the blue.

http://chatrouge.stripspace.com/d/20050207.html
All these random comics didn't really seem to fit in with anything. It just left me confused about why they were there.

Now the art has really improved from the first comic to now, I really do enjoy the new colour strips. I did notice originally Chat was grey, which you explained you couldn't find the right tone of red...but now Chat is a bright red. Is there any reason to why you decided to change him to red? With the new colour came more backgrounds, which is always a plus. I did enjoy the gritty feel Chat had at the beginning but with the comic evolving I feel this is a good step.

Overall, Chat Rouge is a really good comic, but the faux french can really be detrimental to it. Other then that I don't have much else to say that's bad about it. I'd like for it to focus on more types of storys where Chat met Tuna and Corky instead of Chat's constant infatuation with destroying appliances.

I give Chat Rouge 6.5 Dawgy Dawgs out of a possible 10 Dawgs.

And I leave you all with my favourite of all the Chat Rouge comics:

http://chatrouge.stripspace.com/d/20050713.html

[The Neko]

Placeholder for Angry D. Monkey.

*cracks his knuckles*

[Sam_Charette]

Both done.

Go For It!

Storyline:
This comic is your general "highschool friends" style of comic. There's nothing specifically new about this storyline, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It helps to ease you into it, and as a gag strip the last thing you want is to have to wade through backstory to get up to speed.

First impression:
My first impression was a very positive one. The artwork is nice and clean, coloured, and the gags are genuinely funny.

Writing:
I like twisted humour. I really do. It is for this reason that "Go For It!" really appeals to someone such as myself. Neko has a very good grasp on what makes a situation funny and almost always shows himself capable of bringing the worst part of a subject to the forefront and make fun of it. Some of the comics are a little weak compared to the others, but that's to be expected in anything. The majority of them are well written and funny.

Artwork:
It's a comic strip, and it makes no attempt to be more than that. As far as comic strips go, though, the artwork here is very good. All of the characters have at least slight differences to them to keep them easy to distinguish, the lines are clean, it's in colour (which appeals to me). Even the wording is well done, as it is easily readable and the emphasis on certain words is very clear.

Website:
The website is also well done. Among webcomic sites I'd rate it pretty high, as not only does it look like some effort was put into it, but also some skill. The main page is clean, but with style. The navigation is easy and appropriate. There's even a really nice flash page for the cast that is quite well done. This site looks professional, which is a fair notch above most web comic sites out there.

Advice:
Advice is difficult to give here, as there are many good things about this comic. One piece could be to focus on less sarcasm/depravity but, let's be realistic here, then I'd be advising him to make it less appealing to its target audience. I guess the best advice I can give is "Keep it up, and stay on schedule!" (because I'm dissapointed when he doesn't )

Overall:
Overall I'd say this is one of my favourites and has been pretty much since I saw it. It's one of a few on my list that I make sure to read every chance I can get.

Examples:

The strip that made me bookmark this comic.
http://goforit.comicgen.com/d/20050124.html

Panel 3 is the best!
http://goforit.comicgen.com/d/20050617.html

The Tooth Fairy
http://goforit.comicgen.com/d/20050711.html



Nob the Blob

Storyline:
Several creatures of varying strange design live in a castle together and share some... interesting times

First impression:
My first impression wasn't terribly great, I must admit, but I'm the kind of fellow who's impression can be hampered by the comic style. (unfortunate, but true)

Writing:
The writing, like the artwork, is rather simplistic. Once in a while you get a sparkle from a comic but the humour doesn't tend to appeal to me. The mini-ninja is a fun character, and the fact that Nob can change shapes often adds to the situation, but the humour tends to be pretty tame in comparison to other comics. For some this will be a good thing, but for others not so much.

Artwork:
The artwork is simple, but it is intentionally so. It's obvious that the artist puts some effort into the comic, unlike many others that use MS Paint as a medium, but it's also obvious that the artist isn't putting that much effort into making it as good as possible. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. There has been some improvement in the artwork over time, most notably when Vorticus switched from MS Paint to the Gimp, but he remains true to the strip throughout by keeping it simple.

Website:
The website is very much like the rest of the comic. It's simple in design, and it's functional. Although not as much effort has been put into it as has been other sites, it's also not just a basic web page that you see in just about any webcomic startup on CG.

Advice:
My advice would be to keep doing what you're doing if it's making you happy. There's room for improvement for sure, but if that takes you away from the strip you want to make it's not worth it. I'd love to see the artwork improve, but then it would lose its style.

Overall:
Overall it's a simple strip that stays true to that theme throughout its existance and to some that's appealing. To those looking for killer art or rich sarcasm this won't be appealing, but then again not everyone is looking for that.

From my own perspective, as someone who does enjoy better artwork and a more acerbic wit I can't say that this comic has much in the way of lasting appeal, but don't let that stop you from checking it out. I've been told I'm too picky

Examples:

A cute punchline
http://nobtheblob.comicgen.com/d/20050928.html

A very good punchline
http://nobtheblob.comicgen.com/d/20050926.html

[Orion]

Okay, here it goes.

Storyline: Three roommates ( two guys and pure evil in the shape of a woman) get into various wackyness. Also a liberal mixture of unrelated gag comics.

Humor It's often very funny, I especially like Mer. However, it can sometimes just leave you scratching your head. A good example of this was the dating arc with Zak, especially the final comic http://anythinggoes.comicdish.com/index.php?strip_id=22. But overall there are more hits than misses. It rarely makes me laugh out loud but it kept me happy. One reccomendation to keep in mind is that evil does not always equal funny (although it often does) so be careful of that.

Art: This was confusing at first until I checked the 'about' section and realized there was more than one artist. The sort of unstable art style threw me at first, especially since it still seems like there is more than just two styles in there. However, I'm used to it now and it doesn't cause a major problem.

Web-designOverall it seems pretty solid, no annoying backgrounds, no blistering font colors, etc. One thing I might recomend is toning down the size of the comic itself. The level of detail in most of them isn't so high that shrinking a bit would hurt anything and would at least reduce the file size a bit for those with the dialup.

Overall I'd say it's good. The shifting art style and switching to and from continuity can be a little confusing but that may just be for me. Keep it up.

[ManyWorlds]

This might contain a few (minor) spoilers. Consider ye self warned.


First Impressions:
Not bad. Nothing really grabs my attention immediately, but the title and banner are interesting. On to the comic!

Artwork:
The art is decent, and has improved since the strip's beginnings. A somewhat unique style, something that a lot of comics lack. Definitely better than a lot of comics that crop up.

Story:
A bit cookie-cutter at the beginning, but it quickly developes an intriguing, amusing story, if not the most original. The characters can be somewhat cliche (the idiot hero, the suffering 'side-kick', the powerful mage-tutor, the elf chick) but as its been said, cliches are cliche because they work.
The writing and plot is rather reminiscent of Discworld (is it just me, or does Ringach look familiar? Hmmm....), a nice change from many of the comics that attempt the style achieve.

Website:
Decent design, and that starry-background wallpaper is a nice touch. ^_^

Overall:
An amusing comic for any fantasy reader. It's now on my list of regulars (ie, comics I visit on a regular basis).

Grade:
B+ / A-

[Nicotine]

Many Worlds by James Totts

Art:
For the first 62 comics, I think it

[Dotty]

Noir et Compagnie
by: Nicotine

I'll just shoot from the hip with this little review.

Noir et Compagnie is a random little humor comic that updates on Mondays and Fridays. Panel numbers vary from comic to comic, and the punchlines have both had me scratching my head, and outright laughing...which is bad. I'm having breathing problems right now. ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!?? EESH!

The main selling point, I find, to this comic is the characters contained within. There's something about noir.....she's much like the female version of whatever the main guy in "go for it!" is named.

(I keep wanting to say alex, but i've never actually learned their names, as they're not said enough and never really important to the punchline.)

She's quite sarcastic, and looks down upon everything with this sort of biting hatred that screams both "you're so cute and funny" and "i wish you were dead, cause you're so pessimistic". To put it in better terms, she spits the truth, yo. Tells it like it is. You simply can't fail with a character like that.

Noir has a slutty friend who is blonde, and aptly so, as she lives up to their airheaded reputation. She's ditzy, she's emotionally out of whack, and she shows it off for the sake of showing it off....sometimes quite creepily, as noted by Noir on several occasions. She also appears to switch boyfriends a lot. This fits the character well, and it adds to a little realism. (Seriously, we all knew a blonde girl in school that dated a new guy every other week.)

Noir also appears to have a little brother...who listens to everything she suggests, be it wearing poison ivy loincloths, to drinking out of the toilet. This character doesn't have much depth, he's purely there to make you smile...and he has a tendancy to be effective.

Noir's mom. I like this character. Biting attitude, lazy slack carefree look on things like housecleaning (at least when it's her turn), and she works at hooters. This just screams "Single mom tv show character"....but it also shows why Noir is so dark, and why her brother is so damn retarded.

Bad parenting.

A new character was introduced, who is the brother of a character Noir met in the bookstore. He speaks with an accent, so I have to read slow to read what he says....I think it's french. The title would suggest that anyways. she has a long name from her father having many girlfriends. He's a pervert. They don't get along. It works.

My favorite character of all, however, has to be the bowl-cut pervert cocaine snorting stalker boy. He doesn't say much, but his constant and never ending stalking quest just gets weirder and weirder....and it's quite amusing to watch him evolve. Personally, I'd kill him. Thats just me though.

As I mentioned earlier....this comic reminds me of Go For It! ....it just screams similarities. I'm certain they weren't intentional, and maybe I'm just out of the loop on the angsty sarcastic random funny adventure genre, but there is similarity there. The differences, besides art styles and panel numbers, would be the punchlines. Nekos are heartless, burn right to the core, and make that little neko in all of us jump up and down and want to throw a party. That little fucker gets right excited.
The little noir, however, when you read this comic....she just makes you feel like smiling. I didn't do much when reading this strip, except smile. I found the comic fun. Bottom line, that's what it was. Fun.

Making a fun comic is exactly what I'm trying to do myself. No need for a super huge emo all engrossing storyline....every damn fantasy comic in the world does that. I'm just trying to make something like an 80's cartoon. A basic simple storyline with a twist here and there, but overall a fun product.

I'm not even sure if Nicotine TRIED to make this fun. It just seems what the characters say flows naturally. I said earlier that the comments some characters made don't make me laugh. I just scratch my head and think "....thats it?" , but no strip was a bad one in these archives. They all succeeded in making me smile. Some made me laugh. Smiling, however, is a magic only a good webcomic can capture, in my humble opinion.

Does a comic need smiles to be good? No, not really. Errant Story doesn't make me smile. I read it, but for different reasons. My favorites, however, make me smile. That's a good thing.

This strip here is a good example of the one fault to this comic. Anatomy. I'm pointing you at dudes hand on chicks butt. It's on completely backwards.

There's a few more details like that, but I don't focus on it. I'm trying to focus on this review, with what the comic seems to be trying to accomplish. Presenting me with pretty colors, realistic (when it's meant to be...sometimes it's downright wonky) conversations, and an interesting cast of characters, while making me feel happy...yeah. That's the good stuff.

The bad? If you're an anatomy nut...this comic will make you rip your hair out. It's mostly done in a puyo/kawaii style, so anatomy is a harder thing to judge, really. Just little things, like backwards hands, really stand out. Characters postures are often limited too...but judging by Nicotines "addictive art" thread in off-topic junk, she's working on that.

It also has filler in its archives. That's a personal thing for me, when I want to sit and read a comic...filler ain't cool. I learned that lesson a long time ago, trying to read comics with years worth of archives.

Bottom line? If you want a good time, check this comic out. It's not a huge archive (35 strips, I think...?) so it's quick to go through, and who knows...it might just catch you. Nicotines last few strips have been top notch, for writing and quality....so I'm expecting big things.

[Levi-chan]

Edit: Schplangdunny!

First Impressions:
Supremo. From the banner to the layout, I was wowed. I had the feeling that my worktime was going to be eaten up, honestly. And that was almost the case, too.

Artwork:
It's pretty good, man!

The first page has a pencilled look which honestly, is something I prefer. The variations with the shading were pretty cool - and it's something I miss with the 'clean' version.

Not that the 'new' version is bad. It's far from it! The cleanness of the lineart is very appealing - and don't even ask about the colored pages which are just SUPREME - but I kinda miss the shading level-variations. But it's your call, Tdot.


Story:
The story is a wee bit familiar. You can trace some of the plot-paths from the first 10 pages or so - but it still turns pretty tight. When I finished the archives, you can't help but be attached to the characters. So Tdot must be doing something right here.

The humor is something that's niggling me though. A little bit of it is executed pretty...lamely. The timing's pretty off, and it's not too snappy, so it kinda kills the intended effect. This is just for a few of them - the majority is pretty okay.


Website:
SUPREME layout. EXCELLENT banner. Man, it's pretty good! Everything is laid out nice and clean so you can find what you want pretty easily. Except for the archives drop-down - maybe you can tweak it so it, or the link to it is more visible? That would be super.

I also like how multiple comics are lined up in the archives page. It's too good of an idea that I may someday...borrow it for my archives.

Overall:
SUPREEEMO. Awesome stuff, Tdot. Just a few tweaks here and there and it will be perfect!

..and you got a new reader!

Rating: A-

[Netpoet]

Edit: done!

Review of Hopscotch

Website and initial impression

Ok, first initial feel of the piece is very good. Nice, muted website (which matches the feel of the comic after reading it), and most of the links work. HOWEVER... your links page goes to a 404 error... at least set up a page saying "Links coming soon!" or something of that regard. Bad form to have it dump to a 404 like that.

Also, on your gallery page, I had broken images and links for the "RANDOM" gallery pieces. Ok, on to read.

Artwork

Very nicely done artwork. The style is very clean and precise, and though each comic is only one panel long, the story itself moves things along nicely... each page has enough between story and artwork to convey what you want told. Very nice (if a bit short so far, like I'm one to talk. lol)

Writing

Very interesting so far. Almost poetic writing, very nicely done. Again, a bit short (again, like I'm one to talk with 14 pages done. :p) I definitely want to see where you go from here.

Overall

*bookmarks* Fix those few website glitches, and I'll be reading from here on out.

>Net

[Warofwinds]

Tales of the Traveling Gnome:

First impression: wow.
Second impression: cool.
Third impression: hey, where's the rest of it!? Whaddya mean you're only on page..14?!

Bookmark it early, folks, and get into now.

ART:

This is what totally caught my attention and made me want to read when I first came across the site. The lines are crisp, clear and thin, allowing the color to make the depth (rather than contour, cross-hatching, etc) in a delightfully refreshing way. No cel-shading here, but rather smooth, more realistic tones and wonderful shadows. Speaking of shadows, they are nice and deep on close-ups, but do not always provide depth in landscape. Some pages (compared to others) seemed like the bg and fg were on much closer planes. Also I feel the highlights could use a little brightening in the darker, sometimes fire-lit, pages (ex, http://ttg.comicgenesis.com/1-004.html). They

[Prettysenshi]

Edit: I'm done with my review, as can be seen below!

War of Winds Review

The Plot: (taken from the onlinecomics.net) A tale of adventure and battle, of a man and his unlikely allies as they take part in a war fought by immortals, but a war that will be won by mortals. Fallen empires are on the rise, and ancient races long forgotten must save themselves.
***********************
Art: Nicely done. I love the multitude of colors used by Kez. I like how she draws her own unique way, and it doesn't look like she's trying to imitate someone else's style. However, there was one thing about her art that nagged me a bit: The way the made shadows fall things, like the characters and their surroundings....I was wishing that it was more blended, to create a smoother transition of the value scale used in shadowing. Finally, the dialouge is nicely presented. She doesn't use speech bubbles, and just shows the text as it is, with color surrounding the text. This doesn't take away from the comicpage, and I was glad that I could read the dialogue with no problem.

Story: Long and deep. Kez truly puts effort into her work, and you can tell. She tries to make her story very detailed and is succeeding. I'm still very new to the story, but so far, it's not half bad. I like it that as I read the comic, I get a sense of culture, cuz that always adds to story-based comics, and I the overall narration of the comic. It helps when reading it.

Site Layout: (and yes, this does contribute to the webcomic in some way) I like the layout. It's dark, but doesn't hurt my eyes when browsing the site. The navigation is easy enough. I know where to go to get information, or to view previous comics, and the links aren't broken, that's a plus.

So, overall, based on everything mentioned, I give War of Winds, by Kez, a three out of five.

[CaptainClaude]

My first attempt at reviewing a comic.
It's not exactly brilliant analysis...

CIRCLE ARCADIA

Site:
Circle arcadia uses Black as a pae background, something I

[CJBurgandy]

I'm not very good at writting reviews, but here goes:

Reckless Youth

Art-
The art style is unique to me. If it has style influence, I couldn't personally place it. Claude seems to have a good grasp on the male human form, in a still cartoony way. I will say though that I think his women look a little on the masculine side, but that's forgivable. The coloring is somewhat flat with selective shading. As little shading as there is, it all seems to flow nicely and is pleasant to look at. Truly, the only thing I think he needs to improve on art wise, is softening up his females a little. (though women don't appear too often in his archive, they are there if you look.)

Page Layout-
The site is quite easy to use, with a small amount of navigation buttons at the top and the comic right below them. I don't need to scroll side to side, even though I don't have my internet browser up at full screen. The cool colored blue backgrounds are not distracting nor harsh on the eyes.

Story-
The story has a religious theme to it, and although it has some obvious Christian background in it, it's not specific to the Christian religion, and brings in elements from other religions as well. It takes an interesting look on the idea of someone who is to do God's work really isn't perfect. In fact, he's a drunkard with slight stubble and a crazy group of peers that he interacts with every day, including a chibi version of himself. The story is good so far and every update makes me wonder what is going to happen next and usually leaves me giggling. Interesting site gags are hidden on most of the pages, and some of the best jokes don't really need words (Example) and usually make me wonder why I didn't think of it first.

This is so a 4 out of 5.

[Yeahduff]

Burgandy Comics, Inc.
by CJ Burgandy.

Burgandy Comics, Inc. blurs the lines between autobiography and magic realism in what is primarily a cute gag strip. While her best friend is not a goddess and and she probably doesn't slip sedatives into the the drinks of attractive female friends (though you never know), CJ Burgandy puts a good deal of herself into her comics, from her devotion to her pets to her celebrity romance with KeenSpace's catgrrl admin/savior. The results are unabashedly cute and just a touch naughty.

BCI follows Burgandy as she looks for love, artistic validation, and rent money in her homestate of Alaska. She's the kind of girl who can't avoid trouble, but she doesn't particularly want to. She's a flirt who sometimes goes after what she wants without thinking of the consequences, allowing for a myriad of comic hijinx. The afforementioned goddess, Neely, is her foil: grounded, a touch jaded, oftentimes acting in a parental role for CJ. The large cast also includes demons, bisexuals, and hockey players, but CJ and Neely are the two who really stand out.

Burgandy draws with a simple cartoon style, using just a few lines and little detail. Her colors are bright and cheery, which fits well with the subject matter. She obviously very much enjoys drawing women, particularly ones with curves, as made evident by the vast predominance of cute women in the cast. The line work could use more confidence and could show more variety in thickness, but in all Burgandy achieves all her goals.

The comic only truly starts as 2005 begins, when Kisa Lian is introduced. A more refreshing foil for CJ then Neely, she's shy and sweet and guarded, and she has a hypnotic effect on CJ. What's more important than her effect on CJ the character, however, is her effect on CJ the author. Since Kisa Lian's appearance, Burgandy Comics, Inc. is more focused and shows more humanity than in it's four previous years. Where in 2003 there is a lot of filler and a lot of tangents that lead nowhere, the more recent work knows what it is and where it's going.

Burgandy Comics, Inc. is light as air. I dreamt of supercute lesbians the night I went through the archives, which means not only will I have to go through the archives every night, but that CJ Burgandy is certainly realizing her vision. In terms of growth, Burgandy may want to try out some darker themes some day, but as it is it's great guilty pleasure reading.

[K-Dawg]

bumping this up, if you see this you are reviewing Yeahduff's comic.

[Yeahduff]

Simultaneously bumping and clearing confusion.

[Black Sparrow]

The nice thing about reviewing good comics is that you get to be picky.

Eight to One by Brian Duffy

Art:
Duffy has a very defined style that works well with his comic. He presents high detail and obviously takes great care in high-quality pen work. I admire his consistant textures and, most of all, his recent detail on Mary's hair.

Something that does bug me, however, is the way he does the eyes on his secondary characters. Lori's eyes is particular seem unnatural because of the heavy shading he puts around the eyes, and the large white circles where the pupils should be. It's as if Duffy hasn't quite cemented the secondary eye designs the way he has for Mary and Charles.

Writing:
As someone who greatly appreciates dark humor and gratuitious angst, I found the writing in 8:1 quite enjoyable. In a dark and depressing sort of way, of course.

Honestly, what seems to have started as a cynical sort of gag comic has become a serial comic with well fleshed-out characters and an intriuquing (if a little cliche) story. That's right, I said it. The friends-crushing-on-friends thing is cliche. But I enjoyed it. Because the characters seem real enough to give the convention credit.

Site:
The site is, quite simply, plain. It's black text on white background blah. Again, it does fit the style and tone of the comic; however, I find it too plain. The lack of color only makes the ad at the top even more annoying than usual.

Second: the comic and buttons are centered, but nothing else is. This is inconsistant, and it just isn't very visually pleasing.

Third: There is too much text without much visual stimulation. It took me a little while to find the archives, characters, links (etc) buttons even though there's nothing there to distract from it. My eyes skimmed right over the buttons without even realizing they were buttons. The same goes for the First/Last/Next/ThisWeek buttons. My eyes couldn't differentiate between the seperate ones immediately, so I ended up clicking on the "This" in "This Week" instead of the "Next" button until I consciously corrected myself.

Overall:
A great comic. Anyone with a dark sense of humor or generally cynical outlook on the world will find this quite a treat. Fairly regular updates and consistantly high quality guarantee that regulars will rarely be disappointed. As for me... Congrats, Duffy. You've got a new reader.

4 out of 5

[MrEff]

Here's mine for Operation Neko....

Art: It comes across to me as that typical "faux anime" look. It feels like not much was put into the development of original characters (or at least characters in an original style) That and I can't figure out why all of the male characters look more feminine than the females do.....

I do like the coloring work, but the "sound effects" need to be toned down some..... Ex: http://operationneko.comicgen.com/d/20051003.html by spelling out what's going on it almost seems like you don't have confidence for you art to speak for itself..... or you don't trust the reader will understand what you mean to accomplish.....

Story: I found it very difficult to follow the story. The whole right to left concept really does not work.... I'm guessing you use this to make your comic more "Japanes" but all it's doing is taking away from whatever plot you are trying to establish, I should have to take breaks from the comic because the layout is giving me a head ache.... I think you would do much better with a traditional "left to right" style....

Overall: There is some serious potential but there needs to be a lot of work done first, (one of the benefits of being a new comic), don't get discouraged over my honest opinion.... I'm not much into this genre of comic, but a few developmental changes and I would be more interested....


-MrEff-

[Nightgaunt]

Site: You

[Dutch!]

I'll jump in again to keep the show on the road.

Okay then. RUE THE DAY.

SITE:

Well, there's not a whole lot there. If it wasn't for the comic, this place would be fairly bland, eh? There's a tagboard, the comic, a little calendar, and a few text links. Otherwise, nothing. Mind you, the joint doesn't really need much else, so it's workable.

I did miss an archive option though so I could see early on how many strips I had to look through. Maybe that would be a good idea to include.

ART:

Simple, at times rushed, and often a little disjointed and discontinuous. The first strip was a shocker. Pretty ordinary, but the second one was much cleaner, and this is the standard fare of the strip. The characters are usually clearly defined, although at times the style can get a little difficult to tell people apart.

I liked the way the artist wasn't too worried to try different styles or layouts from time to time, regardless of the final outcome in regards to artistic style and such. To me it shows a willingness to improve or at least shake the comic up from time to time.

So while fairly simple, I didn't mind the comic art when done properly. Some of the hurried, scribbled ones I could have done without, but the generally style is suitable.

WRITING:

This is where it lost it a lot for me. Right from the very first strip I had trouble working out exactly what was going on. For some reason some great big Cthulhu bugger was summoned to destroy a town. I guess I'm not in the demographic that this appeals to, and it seems to be a fairly recurring theme. Mind you, when this feller was summoned to basically keep the wildlife away from the campfire later on, I got a chuckle out of that.

The humour is hit and (for me, mainly) miss, and this is probably because it appears so random. There is a lot of needless swearing and generally violent humour throughout, and I feel this is the leg the comic tries to stand on. There's a lot of content involving army life (although I hope this is highly exaggerated or I think we're all in trouble ) which usually was pretty good and, although it didn't really help develop the characters for me, helped a lot in developing a relationship with the artist, if that makes sense.

While I found the writing the weak area of the comic, it did at times give me a chuckle or two, which rewarded me for reading through the archives. For some reason I really enjoyed, or probably more accurately, appreciated, this specific one.

http://ruetheday.keenspace.com/d/20030616.html

I don't know...something about taking the piss out of classic novels, poking the stick at naval terminology, and the sheer outrageousness of obliterating an obese mammallian floatation device had me nodding in complete agreement with this one.

OVERALL:

While it's not one I'll come back to, mainly because I don't fit the audience and that's nothing to do with the author, I liked the way the artist was willing to try different things. The amount of language turned me off a fair bit, but it's clear that, despite irregular updates, the author enjoys his work. I'd like to hear that this work becomes a more regular comic, as I think it will improve with regular, consistant scheduling.

Good luck.

Cheers.