Try to Scare Me

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.

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.

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

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:

Before I even write this review I wanna say Daniel was the first comic I read on Tapastic. So it has a very special place in my heart. I decided to re-read Daniel (which is why it took so long) so that I could do this review and try to be as fair as possible, but you know when you love something you're pretty nice about it.

Art: I think it may be because of the time that Daniel takes place, but I really love the grey scale. It almost seems a shame since you are a very amazing artist and I WANT to see all of DANIEL in color, but grey scale suits it so well. When you do decide to use color, you use it perfectly. I really love horror that happens in brightly lit areas, lots of color, like a nightmare. In Chapter Two, we see a man turn on a light and BAM color. It made my heart beat so fast! Chapter three, I am like dancing in my seat reading because I LOVE COLOR SPLASH. Your comic is probably the main driving reason behind it because you use it so well and you use it so well consistently. I've seen it used in Action comics on other websites before, but never in a horror. It was always either black/white, grey, or color. I think that is a totally different story on Tapastic, but yours is the first I have seen and continues to be the only one that I have read (and remember) that has it.

Characters: Daniel is just a lovable guy and to see what he has to put up with in the beginning and how he develops and changes throughout the story is both saddening and frighting. I really feel for Daniel because he reminds me of myself. Throughout the comic, I begin to really dislike him-- I think both Chrissy and Daniel are relatable the general audience because we've all been through situations that we couldn't control. As for Wayne, I have hated Wayne since I laid eyes on him, which is great because you're not supposed to like the guy from the start. Even if you do, you sure won't by the second chapter. Wayne really makes me want to go on a rampage, and I think that was what you were going for.

"Monster": I think some people would classify them as "demons" but I won't get into that debate. I really don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't read Daniel. However, based on the summary, I really don't think I will be ruining too much. Daniel reminds me of some of my favorite vampire books (Like, Dracula) from when they didn't sparkle and they were bound to some rules that they had to follow. I'm not sure how many of these traditional rules Daniel follows because they aren't like listed out and every story is a little different even if they follow a traditional uh way? Daniel doesn't remind me so much of Dracula, besides maybe a scene, but it does remind me a lot of the story of Interview With a Vampire, by Anne Rice, which is also a FANTASTIC movie if you haven't seen it. Not that your characters are nearly as ancient or stuffy, but how Daniel acts on his otherworldly urges. Don't listen to ANYONE who dares tell you any of your scenes remind them of Twilight, because Daniel is WAY BETTER than Twilight could ever hope to be and Daniel, the character, is a far better and more interesting vampire than Edward Cullen.

NSFW/Patreon Stuff: A lot of NSFW that I, personally, would not have marked as NSFW. I really wish that Tapastic would tell you WHY something is marked NSFW and let the authors tell the audience that there is some bloodshed, gore, pron or whatever. This is especially true for your comic because so much of it is marked NSFW and I fear that it might turn people away and much of the time, you do it because there is blood. Not that...it should...because if they're looking for SFW horror then they should just read another genre in my opinion. // As for your Patreon, thank you so much for putting the AD to your Patreon on the bottom of your comic, kind of like an editor/author's note. I really enjoy that I get to see your rewards before I even go over to the Patreon page. I'm a little worried though, about how you will add an authors note if you need one (remember "making love"?). Just something for me to point out and you to ponder over. (I wish you had shirts. I would buy a shirt/hoodie from you.)

The predictability in your comic went sky high as soon as you started doing one page updates. I understand that this is more convenient and the urge to post something frequently is overbearing. It may/not get you more followers and I don't know if you are someone who is trying to get a whole bunch of followers under your wing. I would do a couple pages, not the whole chapter, at a time so that people don't have a week to think and make a million guesses on what is going to happen the next page. What people are guessing is the "hah! Wouldn't it be ironic if--" scenarios that you have a lot of in your comic. That is what VENGENCE, REVENGE, synonyms are all about. So when people are guessing these, don't fret yourself because even the best horror movies and comics have those predictable moments in them in order to make the audience feel good about themselves and make them feel like they are in the real world where realistic things are happening. If you've ever watched a bad horror anime, you will soon realize that the reason it is bad is not the premise of it, it is the execution being so over the top all of the time. Your comic is refreshingly realistic and comfortable to think about. I don't have to wonder HOW Daniel do what Daniel do all of the time like I would in some other comics.
Also, you've tricked the audience into believing something is happening and then being like "THATS WHAT YOU GET FOR GUESSING" like you've done in Ch.6 where we see Daniel looking dapper.

TL;DR: You did good kid. I hate all the NSFW marked for blood. I hate Wayne but I'm supposed to. I'm dying inside because Chrissy isn't wearing Daniel's necklace anymore. I'm going to PM you my guesses for your comic. Thanks so much for letting me review your comic.

Wow. Sorry this has taken so long. Even before the big update I was having some trouble logging onto the forums for some reason! I have you can forgive me for this!
I would not, personally, consider this a horror comic despite there being some major horror elements within your comic. It really reminds me of "Cat-Eyed Boy" and "Orochi" by Kazuo Umezu, because of the general feeling I get when reading your comics. I feel like you've done well to not put any NSFW filters on your pages because I don't feel like any of them really NEED that filter to begin with. I can see how some readers who do not normally read horror would put this in that category, but I wouldn't personally.
The story in this comic is quick enough to keep me interested and slow enough to where I didn't feel rushed or confused. I had a hard time remembering the artisan's name, but that is because I am just bad at names in general. To me, I feel like all of the characters are, or become, very relatable as the reader continues to read this comic. Hui is a very interesting character because they are spoilers and also female. I really like that Hui is female and is a force to be reckoned with, without being obviously overpowered or angry. Yes, Hui is kinda angry, but so are a lot of people in the world.

I feel like this comic could have been turned into a horror very easily, especially with Hui being...well...Hui. However, I really love that you didn't make this a horror. I feel like the end would not have had such an impact as it had if Hui was really a "horror comic" character. (I hope you catch my drift there.) This comic is cute, witty, funny, a little dark, but all in all a masterpiece. I am very excited that I got to read this. MORE PEOPLE NEED TO SEE THIS AND READ IT.