Try to Scare Me

[papachan]

First off, I am not very easily scared. I study horror as a hobby, and if you've read some of my other threads, you would know that I really REALLY love the genre.

You might be asking: Hey, where is your horror comic if you love it so much?

Horror is difficult. For some people, it is difficult to read. For others they don't want to get caught reading it in public. For others they are uncomfortable even drawing it. Again, horror is difficult. I will never stress that enough. So, no, I do not claim to be an expert, but I do believe that I have been around the block enough times to understand some of the basics and to at least tell you what you can do to make it better! That's all you want, right?

What I review:

• Story. Self explanatory. If you have shorts, I will review ten of them and tell you if you consecutively do a good job or not. I really hope that I cannot GUESS your ending. An ending that you can guess in a horror comic, in my opinion, is a bad ending. I will let you know what I think your ending will be in the beginning, middle, and towards the end. I will give you my honest guesses, you'll just have to trust me. A horror comic can be amazing all the way through, but if I can guess what is going on at every turn, that really gets boring.

• Art. This does not include how fancy you draw. How you could improve your art or whatever. It really is about how you use this art to make an atmosphere that fits with the story of your comic. Does the atmosphere, backgrounds, choice of color, etc. fit with the atmosphere your comic should have? Jimmy the Fancy Murderer is not going to be scary if there are flowers in the background of your comic. It will be funny, not scary, and will belong in the COMEDY section of tapastic. While comedy is very important in horror, it should not be making me laugh maniacally every three seconds. Facial. Expressions. Are. The. Most. Important. Thing. In. Comics. And. Manga. About. Bad. Stuff. Going. On.

• Characters/Monster- Can I relate to your character? Should they be? Did you make Mickey Mouse scary? Should Mickey Mouse be scary?

• NSFW. Are you consecutively putting NSFW in the right place? There have been times when I have read comics that are constantly putting NSFW up for gore, and then put it up because a character cussed a bit too much, then forgot to put it up for EVEN MORE excessive gore. This doesn't make any sense and really, NSFW filters disturb the flow of the comic altogether. However, they need to be up for poor innocent souls.

PLEASE let me know WHY your comic may have a NSFW filter up. Should I be able to read it even without those pages?
I will not listen to music unless your strips are divinely inspired by it. Music should not be your only atmosphere.
If you want me to critique an idea, you can lay it out here or shoot me a PM. If you're scared of a nasty review, let me know and shoot me a PM. I swear I'm nice! I don't judge harshly! Even though I may seem like it!

[Sanz]

does it have to be finished for you to review it? i have an issue almost done, thats just getting started. and does it have to be horror? mines not but i could use and honest opinion about it.

[papachan]

It does not need to be finished. Well... I guess it doesn't have to be horror. I'll review it anyways. c:

[Sanz]

Awesome! Thanks!!
http://tapastic.com/series/Los-Esmeraldas

[SirHellsir]

(cries internally) My comic is zombie themed, but is more of an action with really stupid humor and the first OH-SHIT scene will happen at the ending of the first volume (when the introductions ends and the plot starts moving)
Check it out if you want
Bite Madness
If you see it, tell me what you think of the "coloring". I'm trying exactly what you say, only certain elements have color over a black and white backgroung, so I can redirect the attention of the reader and cause more impact when blood or a supernatural phenomena happens.

[maelstrom51210]

Oh, hey, my comic is a horror thing. Here. I'd really like to see what you think. Thanks!

[VermillionWorks]

I was kind of debating whether I should post my comic here since you mentioned 'predictability' and I've already had a few reviewers say my comic was predictable. XD I mean, I don't know if you'll see the actual ending coming or not, BUT welp...

Not saying "DON'T YOU DARE BRING UP THAT UP", you can say what you feel you need to, just saying I'm already kind of aware of it. XP

Anyway, my comic is DANIEL, and it's a vampire horror story mixed with drama. It's also set in the 1930s.

It's NSFW due to graphic violence, swearing and just some uncomfortable moments. Most of the time I mark pages NSFW due to violence, blood/gore and perhaps an excessive amount of swearing, but I'll also mark pages with things that people just may not appreciate having pop up on their workplace computer screen, like some recent pages where one character was REALLY invading the space of another. XD

I've had people say they were disturbed by my comic, but I don't know how much it gets to people who are more desensitised...it'd be interesting to find out!^^

[dglisson]

My comic is a horror/supernatural adventure comic. I'd love to get a review and I do agree with your premises. I only have the first chapter done. Let me know what you think! It's called Beast Bait.

[PocketFloral]

Hey I would love a review for my comic Glamour, it's a horror/slice of life, I'm not sure if it's exactly scary like how most people define good horror but it's focused moreso on atmosphere. There's some animal death/blood/vore/cursing that has mature warning but that's mostly for very sensitive readers and isn't graphic (it is definitely integral to the story tho to see most of those pages).
Anyways thanks you for looking at my work and hope you're having a good day!

[papachan]

Los Esmeraldas beings very well. Immediately it is action packed, has some horror aspects to it that I wasn't expecting, and the main character is so mysterious. I am immediately having a problem with being able to read your speech bubbles, however. The text within them is small. I was stalking your comments a bit, and I found that you have a big monitor which is part of the problem. A way you can deal with this is to make sure that when you are finished you look at it at 100 percent zoom. If you have a program that won't let you do that, then Microsoft paint will. You can also preview your comic, which you should always do, and imagine it a little bit smaller than what it is showing you because of the sidebar to the left of you work will be added when you actually post it.

Your characters are pretty interesting overall. I especially love how you have chosen to name them. I am not sure if you picked the name after you designed them, or vice versa, but the names really suit their characters. This is really important for a comic like yours where a lot of stuff is being thrown at the reader right from the beginning. I like the names you have chosen for the ship, the planets, and the creatures on said planets. As of right now, they are familiar enough I can guess what the planet may look like, and what those creatures may look like. I would advise that you eventually start adding it odd names that don't make sense so that the reader doesn't get a picture in their head and ends up disappointed. When I character design, I jumble up names I like until it sounds cool.

Black and white is my favorite way to read comics and manga. I like that you have chosen to do this throughout the comic as it suits the atmosphere. Not too dark, not too light. As of right now, it is perfect.

OKAY. So this is the beginning so I am going to guess what is going to happen. The description tells me a lot. I will PM you, since there is no spoiler tag, and I don't want to spoil anything accidentally.

[Jabbage]

Oooh, I'd love a review of my comic The Art of Monsters. It's a finished comic and I just brought out a print version of it!

I've always refrained from calling it horror because although some people have described it as a horror comic in comments and reviews, I've never intended it to be one. I think anyone going into it expecting horror will probably be disappointed... basically I'd just love to see your reaction!

[Sanz]

thank you again !! i appreciate it !!

[papachan]

This is just a delightful comic.

I am not sure for action, romance, or comedy comics/manga, however, you have followed a big rule that most good horror comics follow. Before the ending of the chapter we are introduced with a dangerous problem that we know nothing about as the audience that poses an immediate threat to an atmosphere that was created before. I know a lot was going on in the beginning, but you somehow maintained a lighthearted atmosphere that was threatened by the zombie. This early on, it doesn't matter how long the threat remains as long as we are left with the impression that we are not as safe as we thought we were.

Unless you are doing shorts you should always have some sort of "cliffhanger" or "catch". You've done this! At the end of the first chapter I am reeling with questions that I know will eventually be answered.
Your comic is fun, has wonderful character designs, and makes me wonder about a lot of things going on in this universe. How you control the vision of the audience is very well done, and I hope to continue to see this in the future. Make sure every death, even in a comedy, is done for a reason. You've done really well doing this so far, but make sure that you continue to do so. Death just for death's sake will get boring very quickly in a zombie comic.

To be honest, right now there is not much for me to criticize you about. (Isn't that great?) Besides one thing. Why is there a purple background behind the comic? I have never seen this before and the whole time I am reading this, I am wondering why it is there. I think it is taking away from the "color attraction" effect you are going for. I really love the color on black and white background, you should really keep it up. I haven't seen that done before, but I wish more people would think to use that as an option because it is FANTASTIC.

[papachan]

No problem! Thank you for letting me review and read your comic!

[bouncyegg]

Take a look at my bank account. That's the real horror right there.

http://tapastic.com/series/thebouncyegg

[papachan]

Oh, hey, my comic is a horror thing. Here. I'd really like to see what you think. Thanks!

Hi! It most certainly is a horror thing. But I am not going to read it all.
Story: The pacing of this is so fast you go from point A to point B in two pages. I read very slow, so don't think that I am saying this because I am zooming through your work. Hm...one thing I dislike is that the main character is so casual with everything that is going on around him. Let me say here, I was raised Catholic and have a fascination with exorcisms. I'm not as familiar with Shinto exorcism and house cleansing, but I feel like all of this is very easy for the two of them. Yes. I realize that your character should, for all tense of purposes, be able to perform these things. However, he is still a young man and she is a young woman!

Art: I love the lack of color. For horror comics, it is pretty much required in order to build up a dark atmosphere. (I'm saying that and a million color artists are going to come in through my window and eat my cat) I like that you separate each chapter with a picture so that we can SEE that the chapter has changed. I don't think this is something commonly done in American comics, but it is done in manga. I can tell that you have put a lot of time and effort into designing this, the characters, the world, etc. IT REALLY SHOWS. I can see that it isn't done, but keep up this good work! I like the different font you use later on in the comic. I think you should stick with that.

Dialog: I want to add this for your comic because you are using honorifics. You use "Name-san" for the demon kid. I think this is fine for your main character because she still respects him, however other students DO NOT. I wish you had used something else for them to call him, like yōgisha, when they are not speaking to him directly. (When I looked it up because I wanted a "meaner" honorific, this seemed perfect to me.) Now I'm not Japanese, but I am fluent in Chinese so please take this advice with a gigantic grain of salt. This is totally personal to me, and -san is perfectly fine. Really. It is a nice touch to give the comic authenticity!
You have put dialog in every single panel I have read from chapter one to chapter four. I decided to skip to random chapters after that because in one sitting, reading all of that much dialog was overbearing. I'm just not used to it in a horror comic/manga. I think over these next couple days, I will continue to read through and and comment how much I like certain parts.

Overall, I think this is a nice comic. I can see the hard work you put into it, and I hope you're really proud of it. I would be. c:

[R.n.P]

Can you review mine too not sure if it will scare you but has some body horror scenes especially at the beginning THE LAST SAMURAI

[SirHellsir]

I'm so happy to get my first review and glad you liked it.

I have read a lot of long format stories and the better the cliffhanger the more obsesed over the story I would get, so I always keep that in mind.

I have never liked the death for the sake of death, no matter how small the character, it always need to have an impact on the plot or other characters.

From the begining I felt the purple background was distracting, it's nice to have an opinion on it. I was trying to give each volume/arc its own color, but I think I might have a better alternative that helps the panels instead of taking attention from it.

[maelstrom51210]

Yay! I'm glad you liked it~ I think the pace and dialogue stuff gets better in later chapters, or at least I hope.

Dorp, Toru's actually supposed to be Catholic. I guess I didn't really show that well.

Thanks!

[iddqd]

Horror is a great if often misunderstood genre. Just finished binge watching Phantasm I to IV and The Blob. Okay, so maybe the genre lends itself well to B-movies, but then again B-movies are awesome.
My comic is a fantasy/horror. I love both genres, I'd like to think I understand both well, and I think that they can mix to good effect too... Not sure if there's much to scare you, but I'd like to see your take on it, if you wouldn't mind. There are currently no NSFW pages. The comic is Eternal Autumn.