critics needed for comic mauling...

MrHomie · Post by **MrHomie** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 12:12 am

I make a comic based on a chatroom I frequant. It's currently not being updated, for turmoil the chatroom has taken, that I wish not to discuss here.

I simply would like some reviews or critism about the comic. mainly on it's art style and it's humor, but you can reveiw about anything you feel like about it.

This comic is pretty popular within this chatroom, but ofcourse, most everybody is casted in it, so their opinions doesn't help me all too much. I plan on making a different comic, using the same style and humor present within This comic, and hoping to avoid injokes.

http://klawkat42.tripod.com

as you can note, I am a website wizard.

Sortelli · Post by **Sortelli** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 1:32 am

Comics about specific chatrooms can't get any funnier than Jerkcity, take that as you will.

In-jokes from within a group of friends just aren't that funny to anyone else, so the best chance you have to get laughs from strangers is to go for full-on absurdity and it's hard to keep that going without doing nothing but gay dick jokes or the same stupid crap over and over every day.

So if you want to branch out and do a comic that's not about that chatroom, good for you.

But if you want to do that comic with this "MS Paint pixelly cut and paste random crazy humor wacky fun time hijinx", though, good luck getting anyone to read it over the 1.5 gigabillion other MS Paint pixelly cut and paste random crazy humor wacky fun time hijinx comics.

K-Dawg · Post by **K-Dawg** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 6:40 am

If you want a really good review for your comic go to the Technique Tips and Tricks forum. You'll get really in depth reviews there.

Mr.Bob · Post by **Mr.Bob** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:12 am

Comic is very difficult to navigate.
Some prev/next buttons would be nice.

Warren · Post by **Warren** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 7:13 am

In jokes work best when you can disguise them to be funny for other people who aren't "in the loop" too.

Hobolenno · Post by **Hobolenno** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:10 am

Warren wrote:In jokes work best when you can disguise them to be funny for other people who aren't "in the loop" too.

Very good advice. Try to make the jokes where as the most people would understand them, and get a laugh from them.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 11:36 am

No time right now, I'll come back to it later. I suggest it being moved to T&T forum, you'll get more useful rewievs there.

MrHomie · Post by **MrHomie** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:19 pm

Well, the Injokey comic wasn't meant to go mainstream. it was just something for my friends to enjoy. I understand if you all don't get it.

but yeah, what you guys said. please move to the T&T forum. (or must I start a new topic there. hmmm.)

Mr Ekshin · Post by **Mr Ekshin** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 10:59 pm

It's simply beyond me. I'm not hip enough to get what's funny about it.

Hate to say this (especially because he's fucking tops right now) but EOI makes me laugh even though I have NEVER been in one of those MUD chat whateverthehelltheyare things.

You HAVE TO BRANCE OUT TO REACH PEOPLE WHO MIGHT NOT BE FROM THAT WORLD.

There. That's your lesson. Use comedy from where you come from, but make it palatable to people who might not be from there.

It's not easy.

But I wish you good things.

Dan Nicholls · Post by **Dan Nicholls** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 3:52 am

No, but dudes...Robin Williams <i>is</i> Teh Evil!

Seriously, you've got some pretty funny jewels in there. Injokeyness and bad text colors in parts, too, but don't get discouraged. If you can, do an intro strip for those not in on your chatroom. And let the characters come to be themselves within the strip.

You can both cater to the lay reader and to the indoctrinated chatroom junkie, but remember to have fun with it. You're having fun right now and that's great!

And definitely sign up for KSpace or something, get a next/previous archival system going.

RPin · Post by **RPin** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 4:01 am

Here's my statement on private jokes.

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 9:08 am

MrHomie wrote:Well, the Injokey comic wasn't meant to go mainstream. it was just something for my friends to enjoy. I understand if you all don't get it.

but yeah, what you guys said. please move to the T&T forum. (or must I start a new topic there. hmmm.)

I can move it.

BTW, my opinion:

lack of navigation (prev-next)- really bad thing. I refuse to read more than 5 pages without it. I suggest you find someone that can code (for example in C), or something, and ask them to make a html generator for you.
Basic idea is like this:

Code: Select all

 open file "page[number].html" (for writing)
 write html header stuff.
 write "<img src='[number].gif' />"
 write "<a href='page[number-1].html'>prev</a>"
 write "<a href='page[number+].html'>next</a>"
 write html footer
 close file
 increase [number] and repeat.

Pixelatey hurtz mah I's.
your font is next to unreadable in high resolution.
Enlarging a bitmap is a NO-NO. Unless it's a sprite, and is meant to be pixelatey, but even then you should enlarge by 200%,300%,400% ect.
Otherwise different "pixels" end up having differend widths and it looks bad.

Thingschange · Post by **Thingschange** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 7:46 pm

Clicked on link. Can't find comic in 5 seconds. Don't care enough to search. Left.

Average reader will be in the same boat, fix your navigational system if you want readers.

::is currently extremely sick hence the telegraph style communication and ill-mood::

MrHomie · Post by **MrHomie** » Sat Apr 10, 2004 8:39 pm

I think it's funny that some of you guys are more focused on the webpage layout rather than the comic itself. Tripod is an overall "joy" to work with, and i'm lucky to post comics like I done there. Unless you have something against this method, i suggest you do this.

Go to the url of the comic and increase the file digit by one.

course, I personally hate proding around with HTML, so what you see is what you get. (and that not nessessarily a good thing.)

I do have a keenspace account somewhere. just need to reclaim a password, which I abruptly forgot.

but yeah, I'll keep your suggestions *The ones I could understand* in mind.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 10:05 am

As long as you know the account name and still have the email address you signed up under, you shouldn't have a problem recovering the password. Checkout Phalanx's FAQ in the help forum for the link.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 12:23 pm

MrHomie wrote:I think it's funny that some of you guys are more focused on the webpage layout rather than the comic itself. Tripod is an overall "joy" to work with, and i'm lucky to post comics like I done there. Unless you have something against this method, i suggest you do this.

Go to the url of the comic and increase the file digit by one.

course, I personally hate proding around with HTML, so what you see is what you get. (and that not nessessarily a good thing.)

I do have a keenspace account somewhere. just need to reclaim a password, which I abruptly forgot.

but yeah, I'll keep your suggestions *The ones I could understand* in mind.

I had the same problem.

I did not like having to flip back and forth between your index page and the actual comics. I, like the adverage user of the internet, have a shaky understanding of internet shorthand, an even shakier understanding of what the different chatrooms are, and the "Simple" solutions, like increasing the url number, don't occor to me. Also, I got about fifteen error messages on your index, I didn't know where the comic started, and I didn't know what the heck I was supposed to be looking at once I got there.

The simple fact is that people judge the book by the cover: if it's a pain in the butt to open, you're not going to read the book. By now, I'm used to having navigation tags and links I can click on that take me to the next one.

If you make it only for your chatroom, fine. It works. But the adverage person is the one you are catering to, and the adverage person wouldn't put up with the aggrivation of feeling confused.

CW

Phalanx · Post by **Phalanx** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 2:05 pm

MrHomie wrote:I think it's funny that some of you guys are more focused on the webpage layout rather than the comic itself. Tripod is an overall "joy" to work with, and i'm lucky to post comics like I done there.
.

Only a poor workman blames his tools.

When my archives used to be free, I used to keep my backup archives on Tripod as well. Personally I had no problem with Tripod other than the pop-ups.

Unless you have something against this method, i suggest you do this.

Go to the url of the comic and increase the file digit by one.

course, I personally hate proding around with HTML, so what you see is what you get. (and that not nessessarily a good thing.)

I do have something against it. It's called bad presentation.

Imagine trying to read a comic that's not bound and just kept as a loose stack of pages. You can't flip the pages without losing order, it's annoying as hell.

If you can't take the trouble to present your 'work' properly, why should anyone take the trouble to check it out?

As it turns out, they most probably won't.

Gage Kronos · Post by **Gage Kronos** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 2:52 pm

Art: MS paint is not something you want to use to make images for usage on the web. You should invest in one of the higher end "paint" programs like Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Painter, or what have you. If you want something free then try GIMP...which faub can direct you towards. If you don't want to make the effort or put forth the money to get one of those programs, at least try to make the images less pixelly and look as if you care about what they look like.

Content: I looked at about 15 comics. I don't understand it at all, and some of the "plot lines" were just plain bad (the "boss battle" one in particular). I don't know any other word to describe it than that, I'm sorry. Like was mentioned before, there are way too many in jokes right now, and it will completely alienate anyone that is outside of your little group. I understand that chatrooms are very random and sometimes don't make much sense, but if you're going to make a comic about one you have to MAKE it make sense...and not just to the dozen or so people that frequent the chat room.

Web Page: It's been stated before, but I feel it warrants stating again. The web page layout is incredibly bad. It looks like the only tags you used are < a href=... > and <center>. Add to this the fact that as soon as it loads I get an error window, and most people won't stay long enough to bother to click on the long line of centered links to actually read a comic or two. If you want this doubly extreme minimalist look, at LEAST put the links in a line horizontally instead of vertically so people don't have to scroll.

You need to have some kind of art on the front page. As it stands, you have text and nothing else. Like was mentioned somewhere else, people will leave if they don't like the art, and/or people will leave if they don't like the content. Considering that you have neither going for you right now, at least put both in a place where visitors can readily see it as soon as the page loads so they can make their judgement quickly.

And lastly...

MrHomie wrote:course, I personally hate proding around with HTML, so what you see is what you get. (and that not nessessarily a good thing.)

If this is the attitude you have towards your web page, then why did you bother getting a KeenSpace account? You're going to have to "prod around" with HTML in order to get your page to function here.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 4:43 pm

viewtopic.php?t=57147
This might be useful to you in the site navigation department.

MrHomie · Post by **MrHomie** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 10:14 pm

OK, from what I understand, the webpage is a problem. well, when I start my new comic on keenspace, (taking full advantage of Autokeen), this will not be (Too much) a problem. Since I don't plan on updating this comic in question, I may as well leave it as is. I mainly asked for your advise for this comic to use in my new comic. and Boy, did I ever get it. :P

another thing I'd like to point out is how funny people take to the look of MSPaint. "The Gimp Satan" of painting tools out there. I honestly LOVE MSPaint, even if the lot of you don't. personally, because I don't know any other program out there that has such a user friendly line tool. but I bet I could use another program for color or whatever else I need.

and BTW, the new comic, ain't gonna be injokey. straying from the Chatroom Setting. I appreciate all your advice, althou I might not use all of it.