Get Your Webcomic Reviewed!

[Jrej]

That's a good thing!
I am always impressed by the quality and the details in each of your reviews!
That's an art by itself.
Too bad there not that many in webcomics!

[keii4ii]

The Ninth Circle by @Blacksanz

If I had to use one word to describe this comic, it would be "expressive." Kyros is a very expressive character, and I love how you bring out that aspect of him with facial expressions + body languages, all accentuated by the composition. Your action shots are very energetic as well. Never a dull moment in this comic -- even the calmer scenes (such as this episode) feel like the calm before the storm. Or rather, between the storms.

I also really appreciate that you don't draw the same face on every character. Their eyes and brows are different. Their noses are different. Their expressions are different when they're expressing roughly the same emotion. You could push their differences even further, but what you've got right now is good stuff!

My main complaint is the speech bubble placement. The default order is left, then right, then down. This order is often violated; for example, at the bottom of this episode, the first text is at the bottom left. Then my eyes have to move UP to read the next text. In that episode, it's not a huge deal because there's not a lot of text to make things confusing, but in episode 1, I was honestly unsure whether the comic was meant to be read left to right or right to left. "Never make your readers wonder 'do I go up-right or down-left?'" -- I'm a fervent proponent of that philosophy! In that school of thought, "left to right" and "downward" should never compete against each other. The two directions need to work together.

Mediocre At Best by @muhdreams

Gag a day strips aren't my thing, but I have to say, I LOL'd at some of these. Especially the Hair Stylin'. That was unexpected.
I realize you're intentionally going for a "lo-fi" art style, but I think there's... too much white space. It makes the comic seem unfinished. Cyanide and Happiness has a similar style, but they use colors to make their strips seem like a finished product. xkcd uses an even simpler art style, but they use a good amount of black to make the art look complete. Something to think about. Sometimes there's a beauty in unfinished-looking art styles, but here it just looks unfinished.

IMAGICA=verse by @Zannen00

You know how sometimes, a story has a magicky setting, but after four chapters in, you're STILL not sure just how common magic is. Is it a closely guarded, super esoteric secret shared only among the few? Or is it used in everyday lives of average Joes and Janes? What is the public attitude toward the use of magic? etc. That sort of stuff needs to be made clear ASAP, which your story does. You have no idea how much I appreciate that. XD

Pacing-wise, I think you're doing great, introducing the world quickly and then the character's predicament. I do have to wonder though: in chapter 3, the main character just airs her family's dirty laundry in front of strangers whom she should be trying to impress?? I realize she's young, and probably more trusting than cynical old me, but 1) that still seemed like too much, and 2) none of the other characters seemed to think much of it. No "wow, did this girl just tell us all that about her family?", no "yep, another sob story case", no nothing...?

One other thing I want to mention is THE LETTERING! Please pick one font size and stick to it. The only cases where you would use a smaller or a bigger font size is to indicate an actual change in volume: shouting, whispers, distant murmurs, etc. There are also punctuation issues throughout, so perhaps find a proofreader?

For the next person:

please review Mediocre At Best, IMAGICA=verse, and Heart of Keol. Thank you!

[Zannen00]

(OvO) wooowww...detailed review!!THIS IS SO AWESOME!

the main character just airs her family's dirty laundry in front of strangers whom she should be trying to impress??

ERRRR....eheheh.....I,uh....come to think of it...I need to rectify that in the coming chapters

And I will fix the lettering size...once I get used to the text type in Manga Studio
(I SWEAR the settings has a mind of ITS OWN!!)...And uh....punctuation?Example?

All in all,Keii4ii,THANKS SO MUCH for taking your time to write a review about my comic!
You have just make me realize something I would never have thought of before!
I need to look more into how I tell my stories.. :3

[rainbowolfe]

Mediocre at Best @muhdreams
First things first, I love all the visual and verbal puns in your comic. Since their puns, they're actually quite original. I see a lot of Gag Strips are just "relatable events" or overused tropes that you may-or-may-not have seen on the internet before. Even the dark jokes you throw in there make it stand out(in a good way), and make it a more unique Gag-A-Day.
The only tip I have for improvement, though, would have to do with the lineart! You're going for a simple style, and I like that, but there is a such thing as too simple. It just seems "unfinished" in a way. Now, I'm no proffessional, but adding variety in line thickness(or thinness) would really add to it all. And(unless its part of the style you're going for) go for neater/smoother lines? 6/10!

IMAGICA=verse @Zannen00
Your story/plot is good and interesting. I took it as a more modern take on "Magical Girls" or any variant of it. The characters have a variety in looks and personalities, which makes them interesting and fun to look at! Many of the characters are also very relatable. The main girl, Val, is absolutely adorable and I really feel for the mother.
The main criticism I have is that the font(s) don't really match the tone of the story. They just seem out of place, and font can be really important for setting the tone! You can use http://www.dafont.com/ to find a variety of nice texts. The only other thing would be to tone it down a little with the "airbrush" tool. 7/10

Heart of Keol @keii4ii
Tbh, I can't think of a lot of stuff to critique for yours, so sorry if this ones a little short :o
Your art is amazing. The coloring, the expressions, the backgrounds, just everything is so great! The only thing that I can notice, though, is that in some panels it's difficult to tell what's going on. It rarely happens, and it's just a little thing, but I just thought I'd point that out. Aside from that, you have a really high quality comic! 9/10

For the next person:
I'm pretty sure you get IMAGICA=verse, Heart of Keol, and Destiny Awaits. Correct me if I'm wrong, though!

[hannahmcgill]

Hello. I make RAWR! Dinosaur Friends and am looking for feedback. I don't enjoy #/10 ratings so I will make do with something different but hopefully still entertaining. Further reviewers should not feel obligated to hand me any numbers at all.

IMAGICA=verse @Zannen00
ART:
Nice line quality on your drawings. Lots of good width variations, I can clearly see the characters. As the comic progresses it seems like you get more confident drawing. Good. Keep that up.

Some things you might look into doing are value studies of light and shadow, and anatomy studies of human beings. They might be difficult to draw but that's the point.

WRITING:
I was able to follow the story, which is 2/3rds of the battle. It's a fun, breezy story. The concept of there being too many magical girls and competition between them is charming and unique. I'm not the best at writing, but as a reader I feel like you should continue to stay away from gutting your reader too much emotionally and instead carry on with fun action sequences, neat clothes, and interesting monsters. The drama you have is enough to carry the character's purposes and any more I fear would make the comic less enjoyable for me.

DESIGN:
I'm enjoying your clothing choices a lot. They wear a lot of cute stuff, and you're not scared of getting away from pants/jackets like a lot of comic artists tend to get stuck on.

Some of the characters are difficult to distinguish from each other on a face-by-face basis (like the girl and her mom in the most recent chapter). Look into ways to differentiate facial silhouettes more, whether it's eye shape, cheek bones, chins, or brows. Also, you can make people look older by adding lines to their faces in the creases of their lips and eyelids.

I give your comic gigantic T-rex in the first page good job/10.

Heart of Keol @keii4ii
ART:
Well that's just eye candy. Nice. For the sake of anyone reading along to find good examples of what to do with a comic, Heart of Keol employs volumetric lineart, clear body expressions, contrast between foreground and background, and a painterly color style that seems to be expressive of the author's personal style and taste.

I think the only thing I would hesitantly suggest is the use of different sizes of brushes on some of the shading and highlights. Sometimes the smaller brush size gets too busy/sketchy and distracts from the lineart, or adds textures that don't seem appropriate for smooth surfaces.

WRITING:
I enjoyed the main character's attempt to speak Korean and how his life was set up. The conversations seem natural and characters have their own voices. The art compliments the writing well and the expressive cues that followed the mysterious girl's mention of 'a better place' were particularly well done. The explanatory page about Korean vs. English was also adorable and well-done.

DESIGN:
I dislike the all-caps, kinda standard writing-ish looking font but that's kind of a personal preference.

I definitely dig the brush strokes around the speech bubbles, and I'm able to differentiate the characters well. I liked how you gave the main character's face a chin indentation because I'm kind of bored with perfectly pretty boy characters.

I give this comic plant-magician being startled by a comet/10.

Destiny Awaits @rainbowolfe
ART:
The animation is a brave choice and one worth exploring. Definitely continue to experiment with it because not everybody can do that with their comic. The characters would benefit from some real-life studies of anatomy, but you're doing a good job with their silhouettes and making sure their limbs are visible and communicating (which sounds kinda simple but isn't actually).

I think if you're going to rely this heavily on color, some color theory studies would benefit you greatly. I don't mean go by-the-books only do 'appropriate' color schemes, but really investigate how color effects mood and story comprehension. There's a lot of room for emotional color schemes and stuff that doesn't make sense, or is very deliberately tacky.

WRITING:
I'm a little confused in terms of where all the characters exist on different planes, so I'm glad you've incorporated a familiar story of four souls banding together to save the world. A lot of people don't get that their comic can have some familiar elements in order to present unfamiliar ones, and still be creative, and still keep the user engaged.

The opening prologue reads a little top-heavy, though it's very creative. This comic seems to contain a lot of self-expression, which is super important. You should keep writing and experimenting with wild abandon.

DESIGN:
I feel like panels aren't being utilized as well as they could be, with some odd choices in white space, and there's a bit too many fonts that could use some more love and attention (in particular a lot of the sound-effects). However, I was able to follow the story by glancing through the comic.

I give your comic eleventy billion multiverses with demons/10

Next person:
Review Heart of Keol, Destiny Awaits, and RAWR! Dinosaur Friends. YAY!

[Cielle]

thank you @muhdreams for your review! I am going through and revising some of the older pages in the prologue. When you say the speech bubbles are messy, what do you mean exactly? Is it the shape, the way they're laid out on the page (order), or something else? I want to make it better (especially since I've learned a lot since I began Reus...=▽='). Your advice has been very helpful! I'll definitely use less onomatopoeias in the future (and probably go take out some of the non-essential ones in the old pages too). Above all, thank you for taking the time to read and review Reus! It really means a lot to me!! \TT▽TT>

@Blacksanz thank you for your kind words and tips for improvement. Sorry I took so long to reply; I was (literally) out in the desert and off the grid for a bit on vacation. but I digress. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I said it to muhdreams, and I'll say it again: I'll use less onomatopoeias from now on. I never knew people had such strong opinions on them. I always thought they were kind of funny, but in any case you're right, there are too many in my comic. I guess I got carried away (•﹏•) as for drawing older folks, to be honest I had never really tried before I drew the commissioner. I'll work on drawing old people. Thank you again for your review! It was very constructive and helpful.

[Blacksanz]

thanks for the review @keii4ii !
I found it very fair and helpful, you are quite right, even I have problems with my speech bubbles when reading my own comic again, it's so URGGGGGGGHJJ!! So, I am taking it seriously and I will try to arrange better speech bubble placement. Thanks <3

and @Cielle, you are most welcome, I am glad my tips helped you somehow

[muhdreams]

Hey no worries! As for speech bubbles, personally I found it to be a little messy. I'm gonna use 'prologue part 2' to hopefully try to explain my reasoning at least:

• Since this chapter focuses a lot on the talking, the impression I get at least is that you show them talking and moving to move the plot forward and do a bit of world-building as well. For example with the panel where the two commissioners are talking and going up the stairs, the speech bubbles looks like it covers 60% of panel, and so for me personally it think at least the layout of speech bubbles needs to be improved so its easier to follow along too.
• More on that though, the speech tail bubbles look silly. Especially the really long ones. This kinda also goes back on my point that layout needs to be improved cause the long speech bubble tails always wrap around the characters. Which isn't to say that its bad, cause it means to me at least is that you want to characters/art to shine! So really to summarize, work on the layout of your panels so it'll be easier to follow along!
• I'll comment on the onomatopoeia too lols: its not that bad, but it blends into the art that I don't even notice it. Back to the prologue, there was that one panel were someone was looking at the city, and there was those 'zaa' in the background. Did not even see it. Same for the 'splash' in the next panel where someone walked in a puddle. Some of them were fine. Like when that one dude slammed the door at the end, that one was okay, cause for humour and whatnot, but yeah. A few of them kinda just blended in the background.

Phew! A little long but hopefully that clears up what I was saying. If not lemme know, and I'll try again (haha). Most of my criticisms comes from my really poor eyesight, so yeah...

[Jrej]

I'm glad to see so many detailed reviews poping up!
Hope this keeps going!

[goenn]

Hey! I'm the creator of HERO.SYN. Feedback would be much appreciated~
(I apologize in advance if I sound too harsh!) (also I won’t be touching on story, mostly on the technical parts)

Heart of Keol @keii4ii

An amazingly beautiful comic, there’s not much else that really needs fixing. This is a good example of a comic in a painterly style and I’m loving it! I guess the one thing that feels kinda weird would be the random chibi moments. It doesn’t bother me but it might bother other people.
9/10

Destiny Awaits @rainbowolfe

Hey, an animated comic! Good on you for exploring the boundaries of the medium! I like what I’m seeing here, but there are some issues.

The anatomy isn’t good and the poses are stiff. I suggest looking at either reference books or real life to get a good grip on anatomy. Posemaniacs is nice for the really weird poses (although you have to go on a bit of a hunt for them which I admit, can be kinda annoying D:) To improve on poses, you can practice doing figure or gesture drawings. This site also looks pretty cool for that kinda stuff.

Another thing would be perspective. It’s wonky and doesn’t follow the rules of perspective. There should be a horizon line and vanishing points but the buildings and the people don’t seem to adhere to it. Perspective is one of the more difficult parts of art to master so watching somebody do it kinda helps out a lot more. There’s a lot of Youtube videos that can help you improve. I find the perspective segments done by Mark Crilley to be incredibly helpful (and his other videos aren’t that bad either, if you’re into the anime/manga style).

One other thing I’d like to touch on would be colour. This entire comic is in colour and it would help it a whole lot more if the colours chosen were in sync with the atmosphere. (I’m sorry) but the colours feel very bland. You can search up colour theory on google or you can look at how other people do the colour thing. One comic that I know that does the colour thing real well would be Demon’s Mirror so you can see how harrodeleted does the thing. There’s also a tumblr dedicated to art references so there’s that. Like this! (this one has gigidigi of Cucumber Quest explaining how she does colours in her comic - that one is also very good at colour) Colour comics can exhibit atmosphere and emotions really well so it’s best to master colour theory!

There’s a lot to fix but with practice and effort, you can improve.
6/10

RAWR! Dinosaur Friends @hannahmcgill

It’s a dinosaur comic! Some of the humour is kind of subjective though (I’m not all that much of a dinosaur fan, I’m sorry. But people who like dinosaurs would like this one.) It’s in grayscale and the technique is done well. I can see the background, foreground and the middle ground! There are also dynamic perspectives too which is good. Though I would like for the comics to have some context behind it, so that other people who aren’t as well versed in the whole dinosaur thing can also gain the knowledge.
This one has no rating because I’m not a dinosaur person.

Next person:
Review HERO.SYN, RAWR! Dinosaur Friends, and Destiny Awaits. Thank you!

[Merryweatherey]

Destiny Awaits

I like the introduction. You could definitely work on the quality of the artwork, but a good style and thematic excuses it. I enjoyed reading the introductory part very much. The narrator character is drawn in a quirky way, and the changing colours provides some rather nice goofy macabreness to the episode. Pretty good.

On episode 2 I'm starting to get kind of confused about the story. Do the souls cause chaos, innocent mischief, or are they saving people? It's a bit blurry at this point. I still like the themes you use.

The further I go into episode 2, the more confused I get. I really like what you're trying to do, but it feels like the explanations are kind of messy.

I like that you incorporated youth-like fashion into your portrayal of the future, but I can't help but feel it a bit strange that America is already known as Neo-America by 2084, but that can work depending on how cartoony you intend the world to be.

Despite the quality of art, which could definitely be improved upon, you manage to make each character easily recognisable. That's very good. But there's still a lot of confusion about what sort of world this is, and why a girl chomping on a human arm suddenly appears as a protagonist.

Overall I like this style of comic, so I think you should keep going. Maybe find someone to help you improve your art.

Rawr! Dinosaur Friends

This title is funny.

I've read a bit into it now. Dinosaur Comedy is fun. I like the stylistic choise of black and white silhouettes. For some reason it gives it feels like a nod to the silent comedy films of the Charlie Chaplin-era. This is good. A good style is very important.

I like the strange philosophies you invoke into your jokes. I must admit I haven't laughed out loud, but I do find them amusing. Very good!

HERO.SYN

I must admit as a personal prefference, I don't like it when a story starts in the middle, or when a main character is about to die, because you already know where the story is going that way. I once watched an Anime that started the first 5 minutes with the climax battle. It just made the rest of the series feel like one boring flashback before we can get to the actual story.

But it can work if there's a twist to it.

Your art is definitely very good. Elf-boi is sadistic-sexy.

I love your use of scribbled foreign text, to signify another language, rather than the character just speaking English. This is a mistake I've made in the past. Oh wait, they started speaking English.

Well it can work, I still like that they have their own language, and how that language is portrayed. I love that he doesn't come from Japan. Manga-styled webcomics often have the mistake of making a character from Japan simply because they think it's cool. The USA and Europe can be cool origins for an anime character, too! That's why Japan so often uses foreign countries for character origins.

North Farrow is an unusual name. Story is taking a bit too long to get anywhere. It feels like they've been walking that hallway for a while now. Okay here comes the boss. Aaaand, he's not an Elf, he's a cyborg? Alright. Staring is rude? But aren't they chatting with each other? Isn't it rude not to look the person you're talking with in the eyes? Sillyface Cyborg's have no understanding of social conventions. Ah, a nice city idea. I love a story that starts in a city like that. Bonus points if they can't get out.

Aaand it's over. I liked it, it kept me reading, but you should start the story a bit faster. Well done.

Now for my comic, Magnolia Online!! .. Again. Sorry about that, but it's my favourite comic!

The next person should review Magnolia Online, HERO.SYN, and RAWR! Dinosaur Friends

[goenn]

Thank you very much for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Yeah, it does start off kinda slow, the story needs to get to the meat quicker!!!

Ahh, I'm sorry if I didn't make it clearer - North was staring at his modded parts and had the : O face on. It kind of annoyed Hakta ^^;;

[rainbowolfe]

@goenn Heyo, thanks for reviewing, and definitely thanks for all the links :3 They've been helpful~

@reonmeriwethe Hmm, I see eoe Thanks for reviewing, by the way. I'll have to work on the clarity in that epiosde!
Ooh, also for pointing out the 2084 thing. That one's a typo.

[Jrej]

Awesome reviews here! I love how this topic keeps us reading some new stories.
We get to discover the hidden gems of Tapastic!

Just to sum up next reviews should be:
RAWR! Dinosaur Friends, HERO.SYN, and Magnolia Online.

[Jrej]

Full cycle by the way!

[aspiderjonny]

Hey Guys! I'm Jonathan Aleksey, creator of Jonny Comic and Valve Comic I'll do my best to give fair reviews, though I'm not a very critical guy ('cept when it comes to stupid/pointless reboots and "new #1's", but when does that ever happen in webcomics?)

RAWR! Dinosaur Friends
For a gag-a-day, it's pretty good. At first the silhouette design seemed werid and gimmicky. But after some time with it, it grew on me. The dinosaurs are expressive and structrually different, so I was never confused. Also, black is only used one the character, where the background is grayscle. This was a smart choice.

My favorite thing is the use of the scientific names for dinosaurs. This has the potential to educate people on dinosaurs, like Jurrasic Park did 20 years ago.

Joke-wise, it's alright. It's not laugh-out-loud but it did give me a smile. And really, that's the most gag-a-days ever do for me so it's good for what it is.

Also, I know it's scientifically accurate, but seeing Raptor's and T. Rex's with feathers is still really werid.

Rating: 7.5/10

HERO.SYN
Story driven comics are more my forte, so I really enjoyed this. First off, in response to the last review, I don't mind stories "starting in the middle" as, if done well, can lead to good mystery. And it's done well here.

The characters all seem interesting. Soare and Lauvelia are nice and knowledgeable, perfect guides to this alien world. The child is scared and confused (like the reader), but be careful. A sad frigthened child character can easily turn annoying if it goes too far.

I got no complaints on the character models. They're in proportion and expressive. I didn't notice any mistakes when reading.
I was about to complain on the use of the "manga dots" for shading. In the beginning they were distracting and in the case of p7-10, actually made it difficult to see what was going on. But you seem to have fixed that problem by the 14th page. Good work.

If I did have one real complaint, it would be backgrounds. I'm very big on backgrounds and there wasn't anything too interesting here. Since the characters are about to go to work it would be a good opportunity to have big panels showing the workspace and equipment. Maybe even say a city outside. I say this because when you introduce a new culture, expectially an alien one, you have to show it visually. We have to see how this world operates as oppossed to ours.

Anyways, I really enjoy this and are interested one where it's going.
Rating: 8.5/10

Magnolia Online
So this is another gag-a-day, so I'll just say what I said about RAWR!: It made me smile and that's enough for me. Though one thing MO did do that RAWR! didn't was that in the beginning, I really did think it was gonna be a story-driven comic like HERO.SYN. I didn't realize it was a comdey comic until Level 3. I don't know if that's genius or not.

So I'm not realy sure how "orginal" MO is. Gamers making fun of gamers is as old as the creation of webcomics. But I don't read those so MO was still fresh to me.

Even though Vanilla is techincally the main character, I found myself relating better to Rita. Probably becuase I don't touch MMO's, like, at all, and Rita's the newcomer. She doesn't understand why someone would pay $15 for a costume and why someone would make FIVE different characters. (Seriously, my sister has 10 different saves for Skyrim and I can't even get through my first before I die of spiders and boredom) The fact that the comic focuses on both Vanilla and Rita is great. This allows people who play the games and those who don't (like me) to enjoy the comic in different ways.

The art is great. Characters and background are bright, colorful, and expressive. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the chibi look. Some times the overly cutesie-ness iritaes me. But the bodies are a bit bigger than most chibi works and I love it for that. I found I understood what the character's were feeling more in their body language than their facial expressions. That's not really a bad thing and I don't think it needs to be changed too much (since you're waay past your first year anyway).

Oh, I should probably address that I only read up to Level 7, mostly because of time. So I don't really know if anything changes story/art wise. I did a quick look at the more recent level. The art still looks great, though maybe I was right and it IS a story-driven comic. I don't know but the first seven "levels" were great.

Rating: 8.5/10

So those are my reviews. Neither comic was bad and I don't regret reading them at all. My comics are Jonny Comic and Valve Comic. They're superhero comics, similar in art and tone but different in character and genre. You can review one or both.

[Jrej]

Thanks for participating @aspiderjonny!
Always so nice to see more reviews coming.
Next up should be:
HERO.SYN, Magnolia Online, and Jonny Comic/Valve Comic!

[bedmoss]

Hey there, guys!

Just wanted to pop in and say how great this thread is! ( ' v ' )
I recently gave feedback on another thread and it's sort of helped me remember that I loved trying to help other artists improve their work! I'd offer to give reviews and feedback here but I'm not looking for reviews of my work (it's only just started and just a humble gag comic xD) and I might start my own thread like WintreKitty's.

Best of luck to you guys!

[hannahmcgill]

Thanks for the reviews. I think I do need to step back and try to figure out how to add more context to some of the comics, but in the end I'm happy with its niche.

I think it would be a huge mistake for me to court the tastes of people who prefer human characters and long-form comics with this project, because the people who read and enjoy it specifically like it for the dinosaurs and scientific jargon mockery.

[Jrej]

Thanks for the comment @bedmoss !
I really enjoy this topic as well. I was so happy to have feedback on my work and there are very few review topics out there.
This one has to advantage of taking the weight off a unique reviewer.

Please let us know if you start your own review channel. I'm sure lots of creators here will be interested in more feedback!