Need Critique and Opinions

[Alias Pseudonym]

Ok so I've been trying to develop a different art style from the one I use in my comic, so I've been playing around with just black and white, and I whipped this up. It's the first page of a story that I may or may not end up continuing, but I just want your opinions on how well the style works.

[Phalanx]

I like it. It has a kind of "cursed child's" drawing quality to it. Would be great for a fantasy/horror genre, something like "Coraline" immediately comes to mind.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

That's pretty freakin' cool. I like it because while it does kind of remind me of your comic's style, it's got a completely different feel to it. The first panel of the second row is particularly haunting. I would look forward to your possible eventual work.

[Alias Pseudonym]

Thanks. I'm particularly grateful to Blambot here for providing the font, which is called Ashcan and works astoundingly well with the visuals.

If I do do this thing, it'll be a series of gothic stories set in a suburb at night, with each story taking up one chapter and one in-story night. So I'd be pretty limited in scope, as opposed to Vigil which has an almost unreasonably ambitious scope. Also the art style here requires one step and I just scribble over the construction lines, whereas Vigil takes like four steps and a million colours, so it's much quicker to make, which is a nice change.

(And I mean gothic in the sense of the gothic novel genre. Only in a creepy suburb instead of a castle.)

[Forsakenstars]

You've definitely got something here, A.P. It's dark and bittersweet. I dig the heavy blacks and scratchy textures.

I'm kinda kicking myself for just having started to lay black and gray washes on issue two of Forsaken Stars, 'cause it adds so much time to the process. And the latest full color wallpaper killed me! Had to take a day off and give my aching fingers a rest.

So black and white is a great way to go, and you've still managed to get a great amount of depth into these panels, you sneaky varlet.

[Alias Pseudonym]

Alright people, I've got a second one of these, and a specific question about it.



And the question is: can you tell what is going on in the last panel? I like the idea of it but I'm not sure if I'm not pushing too many things into one panel with this style. General comments also welcome.

[Alias Pseudonym]

Come on, yes or no question. Can you tell what is happening in the last panel?

[Alias Pseudonym]

Well. I would still like to know about that panel. But now I also have this banner and this potential name.



What do you think?

[mikemacdee]

Oh man, horror comics are calling your name. You should experiment with it using this style.

The last panel is a little tough to make out though. I'm sure if you work with it more you'll refine the style enough to make it clearer without losing the gritty, nightmarish quality. I bet turning some of the stories from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark into short comics would give you the practice you need. I did it once with the story Oh Susannah!

EDIT: Come to think of it, if a panel makes you wonder about clarity, you could also try doing different versions and even different angles for it 'til you find the best one.

[Alias Pseudonym]

I'm already writing about zombies in my main comic though >.<

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that panels bad by now. Less stuff in one panel in the future. Anway, I made this thing, probably gonna end up using it for a title page.

[mikemacdee]

I'm already writing about zombies in my main comic though >.<

No reason not to specialize. In fact, it's encouraged in most mediums. Years ago I jumped around and tried several different types of comics/stories at once and almost never finished a damn thing. Then I read somewhere that it's good for writers and artists to specialize to narrow their focus, so I specialize in writing horror. BAM! I have an anthology's worth of surprisingly good work completed in the span of a year or two.