Review my comic and I'll happily review yours

[StopWatchers]

Thanks for the review @kellychen! And thank you for the advice on the contrast, I'll try to kick it up a little. I'm glad you find the characters strongly defined, and once the story really gets going in chapter 2, I always saw it as a character driven story. So this comment makes me think I'm on the right track!

You're comic is just incredible! I absolutely love your artwork. The gradients you use instead of solid colors is so interesting, unique and quite frankly beautiful. Whether it's cross hatching, or dots, or patterns, whatever you use adds such dimension to your pages that solid colors just cant do. Your page layouts as well are so well though out, I'm envious at how perfect they are.

It's a small thing, but I also think it's a really cool detail that the page icons you have on the left form an image of your character. I think you're the only person I've come across to do that and it's so smart! Keep up the great work!!!

[StopWatchers]

Thank you @leahvillart!! I'll definitely check out the Clip Studio Pain tips as it seems like that's the most consistent critique I've been getting is about perspective. And Jack the Ripper may or may not appear again after chapter 1....I guess you'll just have to wait and see

I'm also glad you're laughing at those jokes, glad to see the humor's landing!

I just finished reading your comic Teach Me To Kill and it's super interesting!! I love the juxtaposition between the dark story and the cartoonish characters. It's so original and works so well together! The character designs are so well done. The prologue was so well done! It's what convinced me to subscribe to your comic. I loved the character with the heart eye patch! Her personality is so amazing, the humor mixed with the killer, I love characters like that. And her large friend with the mask is such a mystery. I can't wait for them to come back into the story!

My only critique, and it only applies to page 8, is the text within the word bubbles on that page. In the second panel there's excess white space around the dialogue, and then in the very next panel there doesn't seem to be enough. In addition, in the very last panel there's too much text within one word bubble. I have no problem with dialogue heavy pages, but when it's really long like that I feel like it should be broken up into smaller bubbles, or have spacing added between paragraphs. For most I think seeing that much text in a word bubble may be a turnoff if they're no already invested in your characters.

Obviously this is a small critique, other than on that page, I didn't notice anything else along those lines. You are off to a great start! Thank you for sharing it, I'm glad I was able to start reading it early into the story like this and I'm excited for what comes next!!

[StopWatchers]

Hiya @mileshonor!! Thank you for the review! I'm so happy to read that you like the story and it's what drew you in the most to read it. That's the part of the comic I worked and worked on before drawing a single page. I wanted to wait until the story was exactly how I wanted it to be and a story I'd be excited to read. I figured if I would be a fan of it others would be too. I'll look into making the panels stay out a little better in this chapter, which takes place at night. Starting in chapter 2 the story is mostly set during the day so I don't think it'll be as big of a problem then.

I really did the art style you have for you comic, Betwixt! Not having defined panels is such a cool idea. It really adds to the overall feel of you comic. Taking place in the afterlife (kind of), not having panel outlines and having the colors taper off like they were painted with a brush really gives it a light, mystical feel. It almost feels like a story book, in a good way. The character designs are so cool too, along with your color schemes. What do you make your comic in? Photoshop? Is it all painted completely digitally? It's a great style! I really am liking it so far and can't wait for you to post more!!

[StopWatchers]

Thanks for taking time to read my comic @N1ghtm4r3! I hope you continue to enjoy it as I post more pages.

Is you comic completely hand drawn? I haven't seen many comics like that on here since I've joined. It's a very cool direction to go in, especially with so many people inking and coloring their pages digitally. It really helps to set your comic apart from others. I really like the designs of your robots, very 80s Transformers (in a good way)! The robot battles are a lot of fun as well, the way you draw them.

I would suggest centering your dialogue text rather than having it left justified like you currently have it. I think you'll find the white space in your word bubbles won't be as noticeable when the bottom dialogue line is only a couple of words.

Keep up the good work!!

[mileshonor]

I really like that idea of making a story that you yourself would like to read! I try to do that, too.

Thanks for your review!! I'm glad you like it. As for how I make it, I use an app called Clip Studio Paint to draw everything, meaning it's all digital. It certainly saves me time, but I'd like to incorporate traditional art in the future.

Thanks again!!

-HM

[keii4ii]

That was an enjoyable read. I liked the quick pacing, and the art packs a lot of personality and expressiveness. The three protagonists seem to have different/unique personalities and mannerism, and it should be fun seeing that get fleshed out!

I agree with the others that the foreground blends in with the background too much. It's not a matter of increasing contrast overall; it's a matter of separating the focal elements (usually the characters/foreground) from the rest of the image. One way to do it is to increase the contrast for the focal elements, and decrease it for the rest (you pulled this off real nicely in the last panel on page 8 BTW!). But that's just one way, and I'm sure you can figure something out that suits your style and preferences!

Also, with regards to lettering, I would avoid doing something like the bottom of page 2? The balloons must be read downward, then my eyes have to travel up to get to the next one within the same panel. IMHO, it's best if the eyes don't have to go up to find the next balloon even in different panels on the same page! (though maybe that could be just me XD)

So yeah, I would definitely recommend thumbnailing, and figuring out balloon placement while thumbnailing.

You don't have to review mine, but if you want to review it or just check it out, it's Heart of Keol. It doesn't seem like a fair exchange since yours is only 8 pages so far, and mine is well over 100 XD;

[leahvillart]

@StopWatchers aah thank you!! glad you liked it!
And yeah you're right about those critiques. When I'm done with chapter 2 and start getting everything ready to publish the hard copy of Volume 1, I'll redo all the prologue and the first 13 pages to fix everything.
I see lots of errors, like the text bubbles (not only from page 8), omg those text bubbles.. haha, also the style has changed (improved) a lot since page 14, so it needs to match.

Hope you like Clip Studio and find it easier to work with! It has lot's of tools for comic making, and there are tutorials on youtube. ^^ I'll keep an eye to see if Jack the ripper appears again haha.

[StopWatchers]

Very cool! Honestly I haven't heard of Clip Studio Paint, but I'm going to check it out. From the look of your comic it looks like a fun app to draw in!

[StopWatchers]

Thanks for the advice @keii4ii, and for reviewing Stop Watchers! Funny enough I do thumbnail out my pages along with word bubble placement (seemed like a better idea in the thumbnail). But, luckily, I can say with confidence that no other page within this chapter or the next as a word bubble layout like that one. So it won't be an issue on future pages!

I'm glad you enjoy the character personalities! Even though it's early into the chapter, it makes me happy their personalities are already so distinct as that was something I really tried to do when writing the story.

Of course I'm going to review your comic! I didn't read the whole thing obviously but I did read what you have for "Reprise" currently. Wow! Your art is truly beautiful! I love the brush stroke style you have. The thick, black ink, strokes around the word bubbles and panels are so unique and really adds to the whole atmosphere of your comic. And I especially love it where there is no panel outline and it's just the rough painting of the background that denotes the edges of the panel. Very cool!

Do you draw your comic on an iPad or tablet? I only ask because the brush strokes look like how they look when painting with an iPad app. But you put the stokes to use better than anyone I've ever seen! When you really look you can see pretty much every stroke you made, and yet they blend completely together when you're looking at it at the same time. It's truly amazing how you've been able to accomplish this.

You have a true piece of art that you're creating! When I have time I'd like to go back and read your entire comic so far. Keep up the amazing work!!

[keii4ii]

Oops, sorry for assuming you weren't doing thumbnails X'D My bad!

And thanks for giving my comic a look! I'm glad you like the art. It's too bad that the latest chapter is a horrible introductory point... I can't imagine anything making sense X'D But hopefully you'll find the story to your liking if you start from chapter 1.

I use good ol' Photoshop and an Intuos tablet. Really wish I had an iPad Pro though ;_;

[StopWatchers]

No that's cool, I took no offense! And I wasn't completely lost in your story, I was able to get somewhat of a handle on what was going on, but obviously it'll make more sense once I read it all.

[scarlet_wings_kaili]

Thanks, @StopWatchers
Sorry, I've only had time to reply now.
If you're curious, the dot patterns are screentone which are more commonly found in manga. While traditional screentone is hella expensive, there are free ones you can download from the internet. Or if you use photoshop, I can tell you how to make your own. Let me know if you want me to show you

Page layouts are always going to be a learn in process for me since that's what gets me the most excited about comics XD
I actually borrowed the icon trick from @keii4ii Go check out her comic heart of keol

[StopWatchers]

I've been really happy with this thread so far! I've gotten to review a lot of great new comics and also had some really good feedback on my own. Thank you to everyone who has posted so far!!

I'd really like to keep it going so if there's anyone else please review my comic and then leave yours for me to review back!

[zikab]

X-peeriance | Tapas

X-er Size | Tapas

Pantective | Tapas

[theladiesi]

I liked Stop Watchers. The art style matches the time period. The concept is cool with time travel and future tech. It will be cool to see where this story goes.

Our comic is Arcus Ink. It's a sci-fi comic about a planet at war. We only have a few pages up which introduce the world. It'd be great for some feedback.

Arcus Ink :: Arcus Ink Cover | Tapas

[StopWatchers]

Thanks for your interest @zikab but as stated you must review my comic first. Once you do I'll be happy to read through yours and give you a review back!

[StopWatchers]

Thank you @theladiesi for the review! I'm glad you're liking it so far and I hope you continue to read as the story grows!

As for yours, you have beautiful visuals, especially the space backgrounds! One of my critiques you already seemed to have rectified on the most recent page, which was to make the comic bigger. Nice job!

My other critique is with your text. It seemed like the text size might change sometimes from panel to panel. I'd keep it a more consistent size unless you're trying to emphasize something with the shift. Also I would add just a little more white space between the text and the boxes they're in. Sometimes the intersecting lines of the two boxes get a little close to the text. Just give a little extra space between the two for the text to breath.

Overall very nice start, interesting story so far, I look forward to what comes next!

[N1ghtm4r3]

yeah it is completely hand drawn,only digital is the dialogue and to clean around the boarders

[15Spells]

hey guys iam new here i would like for you guys to review my manga i will review yours https://tapas.io/series/15-Spells

[PP-Asper]

I saw a little of your comics, and what i saw it seems pretty amusing and ilike your art a lot,keep going! and now here is mine hope you enjoy it! https://tapas.io/PP-Asper/series and congratulations