I've been working on my comic Ragtime for a few years now and I feel like I'm lacking motivation. Also being so slow has been growing a fanbase really difficult.
If you could take some time to check out my comic, I would very much like to hear from you.
Tell what you like or dislike, things you find confusing or unclear. Also general advice would be appropriated.
Jan '22
Feb '22
I would just keep on going, you will get better with time and you are already on a good level.
I personally don´t like that everything is so dark, there should be better contrast, lighter grey, white.
It makes it hard for me to look at the pictures
Before I start, I just want to mention that this is just my personal opinion. What you do with it is in your hands.
Okay, I've read all 11 chapters, and this is what I have to say.
The first thing I want to talk about it is the art. The art style is a bit clunky, but it definitely has its charms to it, which I enjoyed. But one thing that bothered me was there was too much stuff happening in nearly every panel. Like, there was no room to breathe in. But after Chapter 6, you managed to give more space and let the background stand out more on itself than filling out the whole panel each time. When I read your first chapter, I didn't know what was going on for most of the time. But this is something everyone can improve on.
The dialog itself is not bad, but you can feel it's rushed. What I mean by this is there are nearly no little pauses between characters talking with each other. Non the less, what I did like was the exposure you did about, for example, the burning tree or the ragtime. Informative and simple. That's how it should be. Something I want to mention is, I'm not a big fan of introducing a bunch of characters at once. Because it always goes like this: Here's character A and here is B. That's C, that's D, etc. But you gave them the time to let them chat and interact with others, which is, in my book, a plus. Also, little nit-pick here, I saw some mistakes while reading. Nothing bad, just some words have one letter extra or are missing one. As I said, nothing bad, but keep an eye out while writing.
And because you have an action comic, you know I will have to say something about the action scenes. Now, if I had a gold star for well-done action scenes, you would definitely get one from me for sure. Yeah, I know I said your artstyle is clunky, and some panels are too hard to figure out what is going on. But my god, you managed to work that bitch of a camera off really well during the fight with the robot. You used and managed different angles instead of using the same point of view other creators do. And let's not forget that you managed to use every panel to its fullest, making me feel the oomph of an action scene. Well done.
I did subscribe to you (and will give every episode a like after writing this) because you got me interested in your story, and I want to see more. About growing a fanbase, I can't help there much, considering I have to do this myself too. But besides saying promoting here, I would suggest trying to interact with others. It's all about connections and people like users who can talk more than only about their work.
Good luck to you. 
Firstly I wanted to say thankyou for going do in depth with you critiques.
With the first few chapters I was trying to make everything mysterious but I realized it made things a little to unclear. Also I've always struggled with writing, pretty sure I'm dyslexic, so you're feedback on the pace is very helpful.
Thanks again for taking the time to read my story, should be going for a long while till it's done.
Hey man, I totally relate as someone who has some pacing issues and also a learning disability. I read the first two chapters of your story just to get a feel for it, and if you want to see how I addressed similar issues, check out my comic! I'll do pros and cons for you. Take this advice with a grain of salt-- this is just what I got from reading the story so far.
Cons: Sometimes the art is unclear and it is hard to parse what is going on, what time of day it is or where characters are. There are also some grammar errors that take me out of the story-- "Wonder" is about thinking, "Wander" means to travel or move aimlessly. On an early page where the Jazz Man says she saved his life back "their" after kicking the drone, it should be "there." "Their" is a pronoun for a person. And I had issues sometimes figuring out which panel went first or second on certain pages. Characters would sometimes flip flop personality traits, and I would make sure you keep that consistent.
PROS: Incredibly fun and unique story that has far more personality then a run of the mill sci fi or steampunk adventure. I had no clue what was going on, but didn't mind, because it was batsh*t and quirky. The characters have nice voices, the setting is different, and I instantly felt like I was in an underground comix version of something like cowboy bebop.
My advice:
Clarity: You want people to understand the story, even if it is whacky and fun. Adding things like narrative captions can help. I use them in my story whenever I jump time or locations and it works. If you are having trouble ordering word balloons, remember that the highest balloon on the left is the first one people will read.
Simplicity: I love drawing tons of details. You have lots of incredible detail work in your comic. Saving those super detailed drawings for your most important moments only will save you time and effort, and make the story easier on the eyes. For pages that have action, making the backgrounds simple helps focus the reader on the action only. Zoom out from pages like the car driving through the smoke/cloud/smog, like thumbnail size or small picture size and see how it looks. If you can't tell what you're looking it, simplify the drawing until it's much clearer from far away.
That's about it! Good luck, and if you ever need to talk, let me know! Staying on the forums and interacting with the community is also a good way to gain new readers and motivate you 
Thankyou for starting to read my story but I would describe the first 2 chapters as a representation of the entire series.
I drew that stuff 2 years ago so a lot of the things you talked about I'd already adress. Also there are points in my story where I wanted things to feel unclear, I've got a diploma of animation so I've heard teachers say this a bit, you gotta know the rules before you can break them.
Why is it bad that someone asks what's going on in the first chapter? I want them to feel that way, you're on an alien planet and this is how I choose to represent it.
Ah, I see. Mainly the issue with being too mysterious on the first few pages-- at least this is my experience-- is that people will not keep reading. If they aren't hooked by the first few pages, it is hard to get them to stick around. I did not realize it was another planet, and if basic information like that is really unclear people won't stick around to read since they don't know what's happening. If your artwork has really radically changed maybe consider redrawing some older pages to keep them current. If not, then I wish you luck, and hopefully more promotion on the forums can help you gain more readers!
My story is a representation of my brain and when I first started my story it was at one of the worst moments in my life. The first chapter specifically is a depiction of how clouded my brain was, like trying to look through smoke. Those drawings my emotions smashed together to make a story, I'd never change them.
closed Feb 5, '22
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