Switched to Color - Need Solid Critique

[Boozeathon4billion]

I switched my entire site to color from the classic monochrome I had used for all my other comic endeavors in the past. That switch happened at the beginning of last month and I've generally gotten some pretty good feedback, but I wanted some critique, which has been few and far between thus far. So, I'm going to just ask that you be brutally honest and let me know what you think of the comics, the new site layout, and the lack of an actual "background" (i tried coloring the old one but it was too busy).

I'm looking to improve so don't feel bad at all. Just rip me up.

[Rhenny]

heya,
ok, looked it over.. I think you might wanna tone down the saturation of the colors that rich a gold and that vibrant a blue to odd things to my eyes. Try muting the colors down some and i think you have a winner. the layout is good.

[Diospyros]

I like your color pallet pretty well, personally. It seems vivid without being garish. Occasionally some single object or... substance will stand out and look out of place, but I notice this less in your more recent panels. One random aside, the shade of your beer inside the bottles is somehow subtly off-putting to me. It doesn't seem... beer-y. I only mention this because it's also the color of much of your site's background--just makes it more noticeable.

I think your backgrounds (or lack thereof) are the biggest issue for me. I notice the blankness most when your characters are standing outside against a blank horizon or inside against a blank wall. It sometimes creates an odd compromise between the comic style where characters are standing in a void and one in which they have a setting all around them. Because you have some background detail I look for it, and then get thrown off when I see a lot of blank. Probably wouldn't be an issue in black and white. It just looks odd to see so much of a solid color. Because some of your jokes require setting you'd probably be better off adding a little more detail than going the other direction. I don't think you'd need to do much... maybe just slap on some color variation on that blank wall/sky (simulating clouds/haze for the sky or the texture of a wall) and not even worry about discrete "objects" (like individual clouds, lightswitches, doorways, whatever) unless you needed them for your gag.

As for the comic content, funny, but not all of it is my cup of tea. Some of it works for me (personal highlights include: everything with Jesus in it, sex with vampire vs. werewolf, and your Mario ref). I may just lack the cultural references for some of the ones I didn't find as funny. It does seem like you're covering a huge varieties of topics in the cartoons, so it seems like any one reader will probably be left a little cold by some of your panels. I don't know that this is necessarily a problem... Probably pretty normal.

Just my random thoughts. I've been checking you comic fairly regularly since I first join CG, so obviously, I do like your stuff. Site layout looks good.

--Diospyros

[Boozeathon4billion]

Thanks for the feedback. I will mess with the background colors sometime soon (because I don't like the blue/brown contrast either) and I'll mute some of the colors in upcoming comics to see how it looks. I'll also be working on backgrounds more as of May, when I've graduated from college and have a little more freetime.

As it is now, I'm going to school full time, taking senior level courses, working three part time jobs, maintaining an online radio station for the school, and doing this webcomic for fun... so when things get busy, the comic ends up being less detailed. I usually go back and fix them because I always have ideas for backgrounds, but sometimes just don't have the time to mess with it while making it. My goal is to get a comic up every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday without fail. If it needs improvement, I can always do that later, but I just don't want to miss an update while trying to "perfect" my strip.

Thanks again. I'll make those changes in the near future and if you have any other comments/feedback/ideas, please let me know.

[Tpiro]

I think the more muted colors of the last few comics are really great.