Comic Genesis Forums

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2005 3:35 pm**

The Vanisher is my comic. I'm just wondering your opinion of it.
It's http://vanisher.keenspace.com

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2005 5:55 pm**

Art first.

I don't want to seem rude here, but one important aspect of colored comics is staying in the lines. A lot of the time, it looks almost as if you're just doing a speedy, scribble-scribble coloring job that's unattractive and unappealing. It's hard to follow exactly what's going on, and I think that's a problem with the art just as much as it is the writing.

As for the story... Maybe it's just the fact that I'm currently on painkillers, but I can't follow it. At all. It's making no sense to me. I'm trying to figure out if this is supposed to be a slightly gag-based, story-line strip or not, but most of the time I can't figure out if you're trying to be funny or if some rediculous comment was made because it was supposed to be meaningful to the story and failed.

It was just... Really hard to follow, in general. Sorry.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:26 pm**

I recommend you use colored pencils instead of crayons.

If you want to look at the work of a really young person who has his act together, check out http://otp.keenspace.com .

Also, I suggest you add a ***calendar*** tag to your page to make navigation easier.

Posted: **Fri Jun 24, 2005 10:04 pm**

I'd also suggest using the computer to add speech bubbles, that way there's no unused empty ones, and usually adds more space for the art.

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:06 pm**

I'll have to disagree with everyone here and say that you should use as little computer as possible, and that you shouldn't take steps to clean up the art. Any appeal this comic has is in it's crudeness. If anything, you should stop lettering by computer and cram more stuff into it. On the newest page you used computer for a skin tone in one panel. Not good. Stick with the crayon.

Your comic is an excursion in childlike crudeness. If that's not what you're going for, perhaps better proportioned figures and clearly defined lines will suit you. But you don't have to make your comic look like every other mediocre effort out there.

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:43 pm**

I'd just like to point out that people actually *do* prefer computer-generated text if your hand-lettering is illegible... it may take some skill to get hand-lettered speech bubbles that match the overall look of your comic but are also readable.

Posted: **Sat Jun 25, 2005 4:04 pm**

Or meet halfway and make a custom-font based on your handwriting. Aslong as it's legible, it'll add a nice touch to the comic.

Posted: **Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:38 am**

O.K., that last comic, I lost my peach-colored pencil so I had to use a tan-colored pencil. The only reson in the last comic that one guy had hi face done on the computer was because it was not colored good enough. If you're wondering about my messed-up avatar, the computer did that when I shrunk the picture to fit 100x100.

Posted: **Sun Jun 26, 2005 6:14 am**

noxmeansxno wrote: As for the story... Maybe it's just the fact that I'm currently on painkillers, but I can't follow it. At all. It's making no sense to me. I'm trying to figure out if this is supposed to be a slightly gag-based, story-line strip or not, but most of the time I can't figure out if you're trying to be funny or if some rediculous comment was made because it was supposed to be meaningful to the story and failed.

It was just... Really hard to follow, in general. Sorry.

I know some kids who've followed the story. It's about kids who try to save the world from the evil Vanisher, to do that they have to go through different "worlds" to get to the Vanisher and defeat him.

Posted: **Sun Jun 26, 2005 7:00 am**

The story is hard to follow because the action is too fast. Example:
http://vanisher.keenspace.com/d/20050317.html two panels of introduction and wham! There`s the Vanisher. Between panels 4 and 5 there should be a scene with the creature appearing, glaring at them or something.
And the next one: http://vanisher.keenspace.com/d/20050325.html They are going for a mission without discussing it, preparing, etc...
You are going to fast. I had this problem at the beginning of my comic. Read the tutorials here. They are very helpful. :* for mcDuffies

Get rid of this "note to the viewers" at the bottom of some comics. It`s ugly. Instead, add text below the comic.

Ping Teo (Keenspace Gear) wrote:Adding Text and Comments

A picture may be worth more than a thousand words, but a picture and a thousand words are definitely worth more than just a picture, I say.

Do you know you can 'tag' text before and after your comic images? This makes for a lot of potential, as it's always nice to let the reader know what you, the webcomic artist is thinking. It may be a long rant, or a short comment, or a single word grunt, it's still that extra something!

And here's how you do it. As usual, me, I take my own website as an example so I can explain it better.

1. First, if you recall, your comic images are always named by date (eg 20030910.gif) and put in the /workshop/comics folder.
2. To 'add' text, create a .txt file with the same name but with a .txt extension (eg. 20030910.txt).
3. In the text file, write whatever it is you want to say. HTML coding works, so you CAN do something like this:

Heyyy!

I can do text now. Look at me Comment! Look at me Rant! I'm the Queen of the World!!!

4. Pop the .txt file in the comics folder together with the comics.
5. Trigger a normal update and there you go!

P.S. Coins, portals... Is this some Mario game?