Personally I would be proud to get (and have gotten) a letter like the one you got, BloodKnight.
There is an overtone of jealousy in the letter, but that does not automatically make everything in it baseless. Even from the excerpt you've given us, there's merit in some of the points:
- flow of action is often difficult to follow and confusing. (True. I read through the comic, from time to time I had to stop because I was confused to what happened, especially in the fight between REd and Orc.)
- The dialogue is also difficult to read at times both due to font/size choices, as well as your silly placement and flow of text. (Not a problem for me. I have more problem with your character dialogue. It sounds too... unnatural. It doesn't sound so much like 'talking' but 'talking from a script'.)
- Your story is also not that great or intruiging. The beginning is ridiculous. heres how it comes across
some clumsy elf figure walking, oh look a bear, oh but the elf can stare down the bear bravo, he is the only guy who mentions this. A lot of other people tell me that I have one of the best intros for a webcomic, probably due to the lack of "OMG LETS START A COMIC" or "HI, My name is Dickpenis and this my friend who players games all day, Winnie the Pooh" or it isn't sprite.
(Heh. It's not a bad beginning for a webcomic, even if I didn't see the point it played in the story myself. But if you're comparing yourself with the HNTRAC-esque worst of webcomic-dom it's not really a fair comparison, is it? You're on a different level. Why are you comparing yourself to beginners when you're striving to be a professional? (unless you're not, then forgive the assumption)). If you want a comparison, compare yourself with the best, not the worst.
- And now all of a sudden we are at some gladiator match where some presumeabley scottish guy and snooty lizard are having a boring discussion. (Aye. Conversations are typically boring. One of my favourite ways for going through conversations is to overlay it with action. Like the opening sequence of Terinu )
- Good art does not ever make up for bad writing, and good art does not make up for bad story and action progression. (True, I'm afraid. Comics are equal parts art and story. Although the question would be how this applies to you.)
Was my writing *that* bad or is it above expectation from a guy who never wrote a comic before ? TELL ME.
On the professional arena, it doesn't matter whether you've never wrote a comic before or if you've written a thousand. It's like saying 'Red's doing pretty good for a girl who never fought before'. It doesn't matter if she never fought before, she still gets squished by the orc. Similarly, if you're going to pimp it as something good, it has better be good, else the audience feels cheated.
Personally (and I suspect you may hate me forever for saying this) but from the point of a reader, the writing is... boring. Not because of the events that happen, but the inane speed at which the story moves,
And when I say speed i don't mean as in how frequently the comic is updated. I'm talking about the speed at which things happen/pages ratio. Basically, not a lot happens in each page. The story runs slow, and slow updates only make it worse. Do a little calculation and planning. At the rate you're going, it's going to take you one year to output a 50 page issue! Can you fit everything you want it that? Or is it goign to take two years to tell part one? How many years are you going to need to tell the whole of your story then? It's not planning too far ahead. It's gauging a realistic scope for your story. It's pacing.
Another major problem is the portrayal of the characters (say Red). You have her all hyped up by lizard guy, and from that point on the story (and the fight with the orc) has lost all its suspense. At that point we KNOW Red is going to win, even when she gets in a little bit of trouble, we KNOW she's going to make a comeback. The 'little bit of trouble' just feels like a contrived plot device to whip up some "oh no's!" from the reader.
The last point I'd like to make is that the writing feels...
cliched. When I read it, I feel like I've reading mixed scenes regugitated from various books or movies. Of course, I'm sure as it goes on that might change. But at the present that's what it feels like.
For a first timer, you're doing okay as a writer, but there's a lot of room for improvement. Making mistakes as a hobbyist is forgivable. Not learning from valid criticism as a professional is not.
The letter implies jealousy of you getting your artist, but there's also a lot of good criticism in there as well. Use it well.
