Web Comic Whoas

[Oblimo]

So, several months ago, my deviant friend Mad Adric and I decided to try our hand at making a web comic, to see if we could hack what it took.

I write up five scripts. He starts sketching character designs. We both spend hours IMing (we're in opposite hemispheres of the globe, so that was interesting) ideas and web-found images for references.

It took us three episodes to get the look & feel we wanted, and we couldn't quite hack it. In fact, I wound up ignoring a bunch of deadlines for work in the process. But I think it nearly burned Adric out to a cinder. I still feel guilty.

I put together a proof-of-concept web comic site for our experiment. I would love it if anyone would care to take a look, offer critique, and especially advice on how the heck you crank out a well-illustrated web-comic every two weeks:

Novilunium Test Web Comic Site

Thank you!!

 

[Oblimo]

Wow, tough crowd.

Okay. Art sample. Here's the female lead:

http://oblimo.pbwiki.com/f/Galatea-as-Lillith-for-Lit.jpg

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I gave it a look over. It confusing, but seems like there could be potential. The art seems to change styles a few times between 0 and 3 but it seems that by 3 he has settled into his stride. The story needs some exposition. Is it one green woman or three? is she just jello, some alien gelatinous being or a figment of the guys imagination?

My personal opinion (and I am a fan of sinfest, questionable content, strip tease, the devil's panties, gpf comics, and least I could do) kill the flash. Art doesn't need the extra complication of being kind of animated, even the scene where she is "making" the super hero outfit and there are some pans up her body. It really doesn't add anything to the comic and clicking to get from panel to panel is just silly.

I haven't read your wiki or any of your story so there may be information amongst you and your fan base that is taken as a given, but if you are starting a full on web comic you might want to start at the very beginning and explain some of the more unusual aspects.

And tell your artist to stop using flash. Or if he really really has a flash fetish, make flash games to go with the comic but leave the comic as a coimc not a mini-movie hybrid.

My two cents.

 

[Oblimo]

My two cents.

A very worthwhile two cents! Thank you!

This was all purely experimental stuff to see what worked and what didn't. I was hoping I could figure out a "Show, Not Tell" way of introducing the weirdness of the female lead - one clue per episode, that sort of thing.

I probably should have tried a more direct approach for my first attempt at sequential art story telling, I suspect.

(Also, I kept suggesting to tone down the flash tricks, but Adric wanted to figure out how to use his brand new Flash software, so I really couldn't complain. )

 

[Mr C]

bumpity.
Very cool actually. I'd rather see regular updates then sporadic large updates, but whatever. I came by the forum today specifically looking for comics (hard to find really), and this is an interesting find. Like most artists yours obviously enjoys drawing characters more than backgrounds, but it's enough for me to check back later. Please keep it up.

 

[blizzmf]

Like her curves. Does she have a sister? Great work....

 

[Oblimo]

Thanks!!

Very cool actually. I'd rather see regular updates then sporadic large updates, but whatever.

Adric was hoping to develop a style where we could crank out a comic every two weeks. I think the effort fried his brain.

Like her curves. Does she have a sister?

Yep, Black Cherry. She's dead at the moment, though. (The novel is the backstory of the comic, and I was hoping to do the reveal-what's-going-on a little bit at a time schtick in the comic itself. Right now, I'm writing scripts that are in search of an author.)