I've wanted to give one of these a try! It's going to take me a little time to get into these, so I will reserve a place here and do the reviews as I get time~ Working working working, busy busy busy~
@nessiefynn
These are all my first impressions! Also, if anything I say here isn't useful to you, feel free to disregard. I'm biased toward certain things, and I acknowledge that.
Establishing shots are well-paced, and we get to some action pretty quickly, which I like. It doesn't take 20 pages for something to happen. Dialogue is very fluid and realistic. The art is really clean and smooth, and the lettering fits the comic style well. The backgrounds and the characters mesh well together and aren't at odds.
I really like how you established the doctor-y occupation of Pen by his look and the pharmacy setting. You showed it all very visually, which I enjoyed. You've got a good handle on visual storytelling.
For things that can be improved, I think some of the poses are a little stiff and rigid, especially some of the more action-y ones (I'm thinking in particular the scene where Mildew is riding Violet). In animation you always hear the term "Push the poses" in order to get the action across more, to be more entertaining for the viewer, and I think that applies to comics too. It's just more entertaining (in my opinion).
Here's an example of what I mean, "exaggerating": http://img10.deviantart.net/0825/i/2006/290/f/5/how_to_exaggerate_by_batangbatugan.jpg
I think your style really lends well to exaggeration, and would be cool to see what you did with it.
Story-wise, at least in chapter one, it feels a little cookie-cutter. It's not bad, and it establishes characters, has good pacing, and concludes well, but it's a story I've read many times before. I'm a little more harsh when it comes to a story, because I went to school to study literature, so for me personally I usually want more emotional/character centric stories. But not everyone is interested in that, haha, so it's really up to you. That's my bias.
It feels kind of like a pilot episode of a TV show. The characters sort of have a "wide appeal" that you often see in stories meant for extremely broad (and generally younger) audiences. There aren't really "issues" being discussed, just characters having a good time with a little bit of a lesson thrown in.
I also wonder about the world the characters are in. It's not really explained why Ramparts is a satyr-like creature of Chancel is an angel-like one; they're just sort of "there" and they exist. Which lends itself to that "wide appeal" thing a little I feel. It's similar to Adventure Time and a lot of modern cartoon shows. But for me personally, I like to see the world and why the characters exist in it, what impact they have on the world, etc.
In a lot of literature, you often come across this: If the character isn't human, they have to have a reason for not being human. Because essentially you're writing for humans. That's why you always get that one human character to contrast with. For comics like Maus and novels like Redwall or Watership Down, the authors aren't really discussion animal issues, they're discussing human issues. Animals are the vehicle they choose to use to get their idea across.
That's something that I'm personally playing with in my own work, and it might be something cool to think about for you as well, if you haven't already.
Overall though, the comic is really well done, and I could see it being part of an anthology. It lends itself to a sort of "one-shot" category, and the way you write is very suited to it. Which is a huge plus in comics! The characters are super distinctive and the world is interesting. You art is very clean, and it's obvious you've put a lot of work in. I've subscribed! Keep it going :)!
@anmarisinkman
These are all my first impressions! Also, if anything I say here isn't useful to you, feel free to disregard. I'm biased toward certain things, and I acknowledge that.
So! Really like the art style and the greyscale. You color is nice too, kinda has this nostalgic feeling.
I read the first chapter, and then I read a few of the more recent chapters. I'll start with the older stuff first~
Early Chapters:
My first impression is that it kinda meanders. I'm not really sure what the story is about. The characters all seemed to be kinda mean, except Marcus. I think it was for the comedy effect, but I just found them a little cruel (that's just my bias peeking through lol, lots of people love the cruelness). I have an inkling that Nem and Marcus have a thing going, and that's probably what's going to hold the thing together, but I'm not sure. The dialogue is sort of cumbersome, and at some points it was hard to read. It kinda felt like I was reading a novel, not really a comic. The visual beats didn't match the dialogue very well.
I think in the beginning some of the characters lack a defined silhouette and have a liiiitttle bit of same-ness going on (at least with the short haired characters). I was getting Nem confused with Erica, mostly 'cause I had to look a little harder to notice the details that differentiated them.
Later Chapters:
The meandering dialogue has cleaned up a lot and things are much more to the point. It moves the story along at a better pace. The characters are also more defined I feel, and you've gotten better at the beats on a page (the most recent page has a "pause" where Nem just sighs, which is a nice pacing touch).
The thin lineart style works really well, and the greyscale shading with highlights is awesome.
I feel like the characters all talk in kinda the same way? Just a little. I don't mean you have to go in and make someone sound like a hick from the hills, but there are often small nuances in conversation that make people "sound" different. For instance, someone who's very forceful and to the point will talk in short, clipped sentences. But someone who is wishy-washy will meander on and on and on, sidelining the point. In another way, someone with very successful parents may speak more eloquently than someone who lives in the trailer park. Both might be college students, but they would speak differently.
Overall it feels like this is a "practice" project, because the difference between the first chapters and the newest are very defined. You've improved a lot, and as a result it kinda throws the story off a little. Also, the later themes seem to be much more "mature" than the earlier chapters. The storytelling style is very different in the later pages, much more condensed.
For improvement, I would suggest maybe trying different angles when you're having a dialogue scene. The comic is very character/dialogue heavy, and the camera always seems to be at the same level no matter where the characters are. It might spice up the composition to move it around a little.
Also, the plot doesn't really feel solidified around a central point; it's sort of memoire-esque. My questions for you would be: What's your end goal for the comic? Are you intending to make it a graphic novel? Is it episodic without a defined end? Right now, I don't really know. It feels like it started out wanting to be a graphic novel, but the story is more "memoire/episodic" than a graphic novel is now.
I think you're going to get really good at this though. The improvements you've made since the first chapter, and the fact that you're looking for feedback tells me you're in this to win it. Your art is really good, and I can see you getting an even better handle on visual storytelling as the chapters move on. This is excellent. Keep going!
@Blobsyoowhan
Woooo, gags! I needed a laugh, haha.
I found all of your strips pretty funny, and you've got nice comedic timing. I also like how lighthearted the jokes are. You're not bringing anyone down with them!
But because of the format and the lack of a defined character (except in the more recent strips), I think you might have some trouble getting people to stick around... the pop-culture references are nice for the moment, but I think keeping an important through-line to make your comics connect to each other is also important. And it doesn't have to be a single character either. Kate Beaton does Hark, a Vagrant! by using similar themes, such as history and literature, and ties them all together with her art style.
The art is really nice and well-suited to the genre! My suggestions for improvement here would be color, and perhaps working on line confidence. Some of the lines are sketchy (I know they are textured, but with textured lines I feel the sketchiness might be even more apparent), but that will improve with practice. There's also a lack of color unity, I feel. For instance, on the Monsters page, the colors appear to be chosen randomly, and as a result you get a bit of a discordant, uncomfortable feel.
But then, that could be intentional haha! If so, carry on!
Overall I think you're going in a good direction! Really cute and fun comics. I feel like you can stick them together in a book one day if you wanted, then tour it around some conventions. If that's your eventual goal, haha. Keep up the good work!
My comic is still in it's baby stages, but you can find most of the prologue here if you wanted to take a look: www.miragecomic.com I so appreciate it!
I update pages on the site ahead of the ones at Tap, so the Tap pages are behind.