@madocallie So, first of all: you don't know how much I appreciate your critique, really. No, you weren't harsh at all and I really really do thank you for your time and the points you made. To which I would like to add some words, because I feel like I can discuss my learning process with someone that has put effort in approaching my work in a so constructive way!
-You are absolutely right about text bubbles and flow. This was my first digital creation ever (I had done like two or three digital drawings before taking the leap and starting the comic, kinda dumb thing to do I know), and so, I even had created up to Part 4 in a traditional page format. In summary, transforming all that into vertical format was a mess and it shows sometimes. I revisited the color and some bubbles of the first pages some days ago, but decided that I would stop redoing things until later. You have just showed to me that there will be people looking carefully at the details, and those can make the difference. I thank you for that and assure you I will change many things in the first pages (like not centered text and ugly fonts). I will also have to start doing large pages and then cropping them, which is a thing I knew would help me but I was maybe too lazy to learn. A mistake, I know.
-In regards to action scenes, I absolutely accept that you found the last one somewhat underwhelming, but I guess I'm gonna defend myself saying that it's not really my intention to create epic fights with action climaxes and I envisioned that fight ending silently with two simple moves. But the way I used to tell that is maybe contradictory, with some weird build-up that leads to an unexpected ending of the action. I will work hard to plan and develop a lot better the action parts!
-And just to comment on your positive points: I loved that you appreciated my storytelling decisions. I do think that I have a lot of work to be made with my art in general, but I try to make up for it with a narrative that have complex and weird concepts and many stories hidden within hints. This sadly will make many people lose certain details or backstory but I hope will reward those who pay attention and play by these rules like it were a game between comic and reader.
.
.
.
Now it is time for my critique. It is the first one I make and I ask you forgive any weird sentence I make; as you may have probably noticed, English is not my mother tongue. I hope I conveyed well what I wanted, and I'm sorry in advance if you do not find this useful for improvement (I can find difficulties advising you considering that you clearly have more experience and technique and have made a work that feels so professional):
.
.
.
Short story
Seven Miles Down
First things first; and that is, in this case, what one reads once one enters the title page: the premise. And I feel I need to extend myself here for some moments because webcomics are a world where it is very rare finding unique concepts as the basis of a story. It is a world full of them, but constantly overflooded by loads of different works touching upon similar subjects. Seven Miles Down starts by shortly explaining you a setting in the description that one quickly finds appealing, interested or not in the science-fiction aspect of it.
I was a bit surprised by the art style of the story. The tone and setting had me expecting something else, but I think this is one aspect that make this content unique and original. I tend to think that, although visual narrative is so important, the art style should not matter to tell your story in the tone you want. But the cuteness of the art style and the selection of those colors were indeed deliberate and that shows when the story continues: they portrayed confidence and peace at first; they convey a completely different feeling later. I can’t wait to see the style showing me the oppression and terrifying darkness of the abyss.
In regards to the technical aspect of the art style, I found a bit weird that the line art was so aliased, or “pixelated”. I do not have a problem with it knowing that it may be part of the style but I couldn't tell if it was deliberate or just part of the limits one has when using these tools.
Lastly, and though it is clearly not close to conclusion in this stage (though I know it is a short story), narratively it was impeccable. I couldn't help but to find some similarities with Ascent, being so close in terms of setting, but your story here definitely feels so natural when scrolling down a world while feeling that immersion so real.
Edit: OMG this text wall is a mess. I'll have to work a bit to properly arrange it.
Edit 2: Welp, a bit better.