please rate my comic site

David7410 · Post by **David7410** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 11:01 am

Ok, two things.

First, please give the overall content of my site a rating from 1 to 10. Noting the comics you liked the most and least. With suggestions of what I could improve.

Second, should I stick to my current theme which is movies? Or would it seem appropriate to do television and/or video games as well?

The site is http://www.movie-comics.com

Thanks in advance!

Odd1 · Post by **Odd1** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 12:16 pm

I would say 9 out of 10, but I'm not all that great with number ratings... I'd say a 9 instead of 10 because there's still a lot of PA influence. There's nothing wrong with starting out that way, but hopefully your style will develop and come forward until it's unnoticeable anymore. Your humor is top!

It's up to you if you want to stick to movies in the future. It's true you could gain audience if you don't exclude video games.

You might find that after a while you run out of movies (of course there are always more movies coming out) or that you just want to try something different for a change. Your readers will probably like anything you do if you maintain your humor!

- Liz

Psiogen · Post by **Psiogen** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 12:34 pm

Hmm...

Art: Impressive, if only for the amazing extent to which you have ripped off Gabe's drawing style. Although your rendering of it still remains quite a bit weaker than his.

Writing: Not funny. Then again, considering how much your comic resembles a Penny Arcade clone, it's pretty much doomed to paling in comparison, unless it's actually as funny as its source material, which is a hell of a dificult feat.

Rating: 2/10
Your art is painful for me to look at. You appear to be a somewhat competent artist, why not draw in your own style? I sincerely hope you find your niche, but this isn't it.

David7410 · Post by **David7410** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 12:59 pm

That is my own style. It just happens to resemble penny arcade. I've been drawing like that for a long time, before I even knew of pa.

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:01 pm

I'm not gonna rate the comic, sine I didn't see any past the current one, and the reason that is, is because of the art style. as was said before, I thought it looked like an imitation of Penny Arcade, and so I was turned off to it right away

David7410 · Post by **David7410** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:04 pm

chigger, that's a pretty dumb reason not to read a comic.

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:32 pm

that depends on how you look at it. from my point of view at the time, I saw a comic that looked a lot like Penny Arcade and had been said to get its content from movies with the posibility of moving into TV and/or video games, while, on the other hand, there is Penny Arcade, which already has humor based on at least video games and movies, so I figured, based on what I'd read the comic content was and the art style that I saw, that it was at least partially a clone of Penny Arcade. I'm not saying that it is, but I'm just saying that, that was my impression, and based on that, I decided I didn't want to read it... doesn't sound so dumb to me...

David7410 · Post by **David7410** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:40 pm

Well, if you took a few mintues to actually read the comics you would find that it is nothing like penny arcade in terms of humor. PA is mostly video games.

You are putting too much infesise on the art. The art should come second to the content. So basically, you are judging a book by it's cover. So yeah, I think it's a dumb reason.

[ This Message was edited by: david7410 on 2002-03-18 13:43 ]

[ This Message was edited by: david7410 on 2002-03-18 13:43 ]

JPSloan · Post by **JPSloan** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:04 pm

The concept has potential... straight up movie parody. Unfortunately, at this point, there's neither bite nor humor. Keep working at it, though. Something that might juice up your content... read lots of movie reviews. And I mean the real scathing acid-bath career-ending reviews! It's fun, besides. Could get you some ideas of why movies are bad, and a good review is full of visual images. Just a thought.

Regarding visual quality, the PA likeness notwithstanding, you've gotten your point across sufficiently.

Whether you really have nailed this style independently of Gabe or not is irrelevent, however. Perception is reality, I'm afraid. If people think you're a PA knock-off, then in their eyes, you are. If a film student from Pakistan came to America and made a brilliant thriller that was valid in its own right, but came off just like Hitchcock, then that film won't be regarded as original.

But more than likely there was an influence, as I suspect is the case here.

Even if it's your style, you really might consider going for something different. But only if you want more readers. Otherwise, hell, it's your website. Do what you like!

Smack · Post by **Smack** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:08 pm

Good potential, comics are pretty funny, and movies are always ripe for satire. One complaint thought, is that the comics are rather large, and your server not that fast. I checked, and some of your comics are 500, even 600k in size. For someone on 56k or something slow, this would take an unreasonable amount of time, especially if trying to read your archives. You might want to compress your JPEGs further. Also, do you use Adobe Illustrator? It looks like you do. If so, use the "Save for web..." menu option to reduce the size. But keep up the good work! Let's see... I'll give you a 7. ^_^

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:25 pm

9/10. The Memento one was very VERY VERY amusing.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:29 pm

7 of 10.
Grade might a bit higher for I haven't read PA so much, so the resemblance doesn't bother me. On the other hand, I prefer adventure over one-day-one-gag comic, so that could compensate.
Best: Lord of the rings; real true.
Worst: Harry Potter; untasteful.

Oh, one more thing: Art is not less important then text with comics. Those two ar, as comic is a hybrid genre of picture and words, equally important! So, if you claim that looking at art in comic is like judging the book by it's cover, then you can as well turn to prose, because that's what comic without art is.
Oh, and, it's not really polite to answer on every critic. After all, you asked as to criticize you, it's not nice to try to convince us that we're wrong.

Srdjan
http://mcduffies.keenspace.com

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:31 pm

makes my head hurt to argue about opinions, but I must say that, from the point that many people may make the same assumption that it may well be a PA clone and deciding not to read it just because of that, it shouldn't be tossed out as a dumb reason, you'd just be losing readers, maybe you should put a disclaimer at the top, saying it has nothing to do with Penny Arcade. besides, I don't think you should be getting all pissy about this, considering you're the one who asked for opinions and input

David7410 · Post by **David7410** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:35 pm

exactly, i asked for your opinion... but how are you suppose to give me one if you won't even read them?

David7410 · Post by **David7410** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:37 pm

And yes you are right, art is not less important than the content. But you see, chigger assumed that my comics were just like PA because of what he saw in the first comic. So yeah, he was basically judging "a book by it's cover" in this case. I'm not trying to convince anyone that they are wrong, I'm simply telling it how it is. As far as it being a PA rip off... that really gets to me because it is my own work. My drawing style may have been influenced by other things (including PA)... but like Gabe said himself, his drawing style was also influenced by someone else. This IS my drawing style, so I don't like people telling me to change my drawing style because it's similiar to someone elses.

Also, I changed the format of all the comics to gif.

[ This Message was edited by: david7410 on 2002-03-18 14:55 ]

Kevin Wolf · Post by **Kevin Wolf** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 4:05 pm

Liked the "Memento" strip, but my favorite one, I'm sorry to say, was your non-movie "Shut Up Day Sale" strip. Good stuff.

All in all, I'd give you maybe a 5.5...Too many punchlines relying on "attitude" rather than "humor", like you're trying to draw an "EXTREEEEEME COMIC!!!!!!"

I don't read "Penny Arcade", so I couldn't give a damn what your art resembles, although I do beg you...PLEASE, do NOT add video-game commentary to the strip. There are aproximately eighty-five BILLION comic strips about video games on the web, so many of them that I have made a vow to not even mention the EXISTENCE of video games in "Mythocorp".

My advice: Stop going for the easy joke (Eww, he ate the pie that that guy screwed; look, MacGuyver made a boat out of a rock and a twig, ha-ha) and get weird. To work, jokes need to come from somewhere we're not expecting them.

ZOMBIE USER 8296 · Post by **ZOMBIE USER 8296** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 4:39 pm

okee, this is the last post I'll do in this one, I never said it was a Penny Arcade rip-off, I just said that, that was my first impression, and based on that I didn't read it... it was also based on the most recent comic that I decided not to read it, and that's not intended as an insult, however you may take it

Shoe · Post by **Shoe** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 4:48 pm

CHRIST AND MUFFINS PEOPLE. LEAVE THE KID ALONE.

David7410 · Post by **David7410** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 4:59 pm

hey kevin, would you consider the leprechaun coming out of nowhere with those big clippers weird enough? hehehe

Kevin Wolf · Post by **Kevin Wolf** » Mon Mar 18, 2002 5:03 pm

On 2002-03-18 16:59, david7410 wrote:
hey kevin, would you consider the leprechaun coming out of nowhere with those big clippers weird enough? hehehe

Actually, yes. I did like the leprechaun. I'm all for more leprechaun humor. It was, in fact, a neck-and-neck race for favorite between "Memento" and the St. Patty's strip.