Comic Genesis Forums

any calvin and hobbes fans out there? the main character, scooter, seems like a older version of calvin. although i laughed out loud at some of the strips, i found it average at best. the site is http://bluesrock.freewebpage.org it's a free site so it crashes sometimes because of the bandwidth, but it's usually up the next day.

bluesrock...? I thought you were signing up with Keenspace
And why are speaking as though this isn't your comic?

Anyways, to address your primary concern: No, I don't think Scooter is a Calvin rip-off. In fact, the association didn't even occur to me until you mentioned it. You worry too much!

Gotta admit, I'm confused by your post. If you are indeed the creator of this strip, why are you critiquing it like it's something you just stumbled across? You laugh out loud at some of your own strips, but find it average at best?

Or, are you suggesting (please, God, no) that "Calvin and Hobbes" is average at best?

Anyway, every comic in the world has a loud-mouth jerk character, so I don't think you need to worry.

Bluesrock, if you have to ask you already know.

I see what you mean about it crashing, it wouldn't even load for me. And really, I don't know how any comic could be more of a Calvin and Hobbes rip-off than Red and Rover.

Bluesrock, I would suggest you move to Keenspace. I tried for several days to look at your site and kept getting the "maximum bandwidth" error as well. I finally was able to look at it early one morning. Not bad. I like your art. Scooter didn't remind me of an older version of Calvin. I don't think Calvin would mock somebody because of their race. Not a big fan of easy and obvious jokes based on race but that's just me.

Yeah, I'm really liking the art here as well. This comic should be moved immediately to Keenspace or some other comic host if anything to get it a little more organized (with easier, more uniform access to the "next" and "back" buttons so I check out all the strips with a click-click-click rapid fire).

I want more!

i'm in the process of putting my site up right now at keenspace. it says queue 3 , whatever that means.yeah, a webmaster i'm not. i thought the back and next buttons were sufficient. was is that difficult to navigate? how many of the strips did you read? i'm glad to hear you want more strips, but unfortunately, bluesrock is on hiatus right now while i create a new strip. the response i've received has been marginal at best, with very few people who really enjoyed the strip. due to the constant formal rejection from the syndicates, i've decided to go with a little more family friendly, fuzzy comic. i know, don't you just love it. more fuzzy animals being cute, but hey it's only my soul.

Reminds me of Duck Tales more than anything

bluesrock wrote:i'm glad to hear you want more strips, but unfortunately, bluesrock is on hiatus right now while i create a new strip.

...then why'd you plug?

This is the most confusing plug ever.

underbelly wrote:I don't know how and comic could be more of a Calvin and Hobbes rip-off than Red and Rover.

Holy crap, no kidding! Bassett should be deeply ashamed of himself.

Blues, you should do a strip that you like. Don't worry about finding an immediate audience. If you enjoy doing it your audience will find you. If you do a strip you don't enjoy tailored for an audience you will burn yourself out. Your strip has a lot of potential. Don't let a lukewarm response be the main reason you are walking away from this strip.[/quote]

i apprecitate all the support for bluesrock. i'm just taking another shot with a different cartoon which i think has a better chance of syndicating. can anyone help me with keenspace site? i've loaded all my comics manually through the web (not dated, don't want auto load). have deleted the comic strip that was in my comic folder. logged in for a manual update and queue. how do i actually start working on my site so i can see the comics? i can't use ftp because the public computer which i use won't allow me to download.

Dude, don't be so obsessed about syndication. You know alot of people try to get syndicated, and when it comes to comics there's sure a hell of a lot of them out there. The likelyhood of you creating something that immeadiatly pops out to a news paper as amazing is slim. They see it all. In fact if you get picked up for syndication from a lesser magazine, it's probably a good chance it's because the comic will remind them of something else that was/is successful in a bigger paper.

As said above, just do comics so that you enjoy them. You can't make a career out of a comic just like that, and if you are forcing yourself to create comics you think will be "syndicatable" it will show tremendously as it will feel hollow.

It's not art, it's just a job when you do it like that.

Now THIS is a Calvin ripoff
http://www.kimandjason.com/kjhome.html

Wellsaid, Spriteville. I couldn't agree more. Being a successful, nationally syndicated cartoonist is almost impossible. But those who have made it did so by doing a strip they love. There is nothing worse than trying to do what you think other people want to see. Bloom County by all rights should have never made it in the conservative field of comic syndication. It was edgy, funny, and crossed the line on several occassions. Berke loved doing the strip and his passion translated well to a majority of people who didn't like the bland joke a day strips. Do what you love to do and enjoy it. Who knows, Blues, you may be the next Berke Breathed. And if you are I expect commission for this pep talk and 10% of all your profits.

Regarding the Kim and Jason thanksgiving strip. . . uh. . . I don't get it. I was thinking cranberries?

Bluesrock,
IF you ARE serious about doing a syndicated strip as in the Newspapers... or for that matter anything like that, Find a copy of "Your Career in the Comics" by Lee Nordling and read it carefully... Everything in there is true in fact, SO true that the syndicates send out a flyer about this book anytime they send back a rejection. All I'll say is that everything in it is relevant.
As far as Bluesrock is concerned... your characters need to stand out from the background more. (either lighten the background or have a white "halo" around the character's bodies) It's a good strip BUT the newspapers have been shrinking strips to an obscene size so a few ...fewer ...words would help with the syndication idea.


Good luck


CAT

i think people are getting the wrong idea about why i'm putting bluesrock on hiatus. i'm not someone whose easily swayed by opinions of a few or many for that matter. bluesrock is on hiatus because i think i've taken this strip about as far as i can. can this strip be improved? certainly, there's always room for improvement. nevertheless, this strip's general premise and humor will stay relatively the same. if the syndicates aren't interested in my latest attempts, i just don't see a future for this strip in syndication. i realize getting syndicated is a longshot to say the least, but ultimately, getting paid for my work is my aim. this new strip i'm creating is a bit more family friendly. do ya'll think bluesrock is a bit too edgy? as for bloom county, i am not a big fan of this strip. although the artwork is well done, it certainly doesn't merit a half page section of the sunday comics. it's really not that funny to me. what do ya'll think of sinfest comic on keenspot.com? does anybody have any information regarding the creator?

Blues, don't be fooled by the crappy strip known as Opus. Back in the 80's Bloom County rocked. One of the greatest strips ever. Of course it doesn't age well since many of his strips were based upon headlines of that time.
Ah, those were the golden age of comics, Bloom County, The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes.
As far as your strip and your ambitions, nothing wrong with wanting to get paid to do something you love. That is a good goal. Keep writing and drawing and use constructive criticism to build on. I definately think you've got the talent.