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Cataclysm Comic Strip
Thomas514
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Registered User regular
Anyone else feeling like this today?
If not, how the hell is the game?
If not, how the hell is the game?
Thomas514 on
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I mean, it would work if it was crysis. Then it would only suffer from being cliche.
The art, while not horrible, feels derivative of various gaming comic styles in a pretty uninteresting way. Their hands hint at where perhaps a lack of understanding is letting you down (I dont know why they both have stumpy middle fingers?) and the both have pretty boring faces, the same eyes, no eyebrows, the same expression.
Looking at your other comics, there seems to be more variety, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of originality in the jokes.
Thomas Clemmons
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Here, I will start the ball rolling:
Thomas Clemmons
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ROFL
Thomas Clemmons
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This is a forum for criticism and help, not just a place to throw your comics; it is pretty dang rude to post a snarky "rebuttal" comic when people made some valid points to try and help you out
and on the subject of criticism, please PLEASE don't do so much copy pasting of linework; it makes the comic look lazy and cheap!
I can see from some of your other comics that you CAN make visually interesting comics with varied panels; PLEASE don't fall into the pattern of thinking "nobody will notice if i cut and paste, so i don't need to put the effort in to redraw stuff"
not only does redrawing/mixing it up between panels make things look better, it means that you'll keep improving a million times faster
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Who died and appointed you the dignity arbiter?
Yes, this is definitely the way to encourage us to give you helpful advice.
What you got here was, at best, a light ribbing and a little feedback. If you're trying to create a flamewar to drum up traffic it won't work, you'll just get your thread locked. So what exactly are you trying to accomplish here? I'm not seeing any attempt in your latest comic to address the criticisms given for the first one; just evidence of a monumentally thin skin.
(this does not bother me as much as it may seem)
Maybe I'm becoming too spoiled by Ronnie's comic!
really you have some skills on the art spectrum, but your writing leaves a lot to be desired
Copy pasting is cruise control for cool webcomics.
Edit: That was rude what I said, but you hurt my fat feelings.
Edit 2: But really, these (not me) are the funniest and most artistically talented people you'll ever hope to meet. Their advice is gold. For art, ask Mister Whoopsie (among other brilliant artists right here in this forum). For comedy, ask The Lonely Bastard (among other hilarious snarkmachines here in this forum). You'll never go wrong.
Having said that, it seemed like this thread was going to devolve into a mashup thread where some people were reposting redos of my comic (which I thought was kinda fun) so I thought it would be fun to "rib" you guys back. Seems like I was the only one thinking it was fun. I take what you guys say seriously when there are serious critiques (just as I do with any serious critique) but I can't always make those adjustments that I decide to make overnight much of the time.
I just think it's kinda funny that there are comments on here about me being thin skinned and rude when I get much of the same from many of the denizens in these forums too. It comes across, to me, like things are good for the goose and not for the gander. I was just trying to poke back at your ribs like you were poking mine. It's all good fun.
Thomas Clemmons
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Still, You want to move your ass on those crits. A copy paste comic about video games already exists, its called Ctrl+Alt+Delete and in general it looks like this:
All the time. Like, every strip that face. Its terrible. Don't do this.
Laziness will not reward you in the long run, If you want to find the general internet's thoughts on CAD any indication. Its strait up bad cartooning, which is just going to slow down any improvement you could be enjoying. Start drawing every panel, start with the next strip. This is coming from an animator who draws every frame, you have no excuse.
Finding some tips on cartooning is also pretty easy, Id start with John K's Blog. Hes insanely critical of mainstream cartoons, and can make anyone feel like they've done a disservice to the golden age of animation or good design in general. Figure out what principals of his apply to you and then go from there.
Its hard to get into depth on your skills with so little drawing going on. But that middle finger is still stubby for no reason.
Most of the comments you were getting were either unhelpful or parody. People like to hide behind the veil of the sincere reputation this place has, but outside of Iruka, Fletcher, and rfilyaw's posts, you haven't really received much in the way of constructive criticism in this thread.
Artistically, I think your biggest current weakness is lack of diversity. Without the words, the strips you've posted come off as very vanilla. There isn't much drawing me to the next frame.
From a writing standpoint, it seems a bit like you're cutting it off at the "acceptable" level instead of brainstorming a concept that really feels "exceptional". One of the best methods for getting over this is to verbalize your concept to someone you know and judge their reaction. Being funny is very very difficult. It does not come naturally and you sometimes have to be willing to scrap a concept for mediocrity.
If you combine that feedback with the need for visual diversity, you may find yourself opening up to more avenues for humor. Right now you rely pretty extensively on dialogue. Try an exercise or two where you have to make a comic with no dialogue as funny as possible. Don't stop doing this until you've gotten positive feedback from a test audience. This will definitely help you produce funnier, more engaging work on a consistent basis.
Our first game is now available for free on Google Play: Frontier: Isle of the Seven Gods
As for the comment of doing a comic with no words, that is a great idea. Maybe I should do a series of pantomime comics. I've seriously been thinking of ways to improve my body language skills as well as my figure drawing skills but keep up a 2-3 times a week update schedule.
On that, last question ive been pondering, I know a lot of people say less good comics are better than more lesser quality comics - and I for the most part tend to agree - but stats show on my website that when I post everyday (even if I don necessarily think the comics are the best) those are the weeks that I get most visits and feed back. This leads me to believe that consistent posts, whether the very best or not, is better than sporadic or very few comic posts. Yes or no?
Thanks again guys, been pondering this stuff for a while and all the feedback has been great
Thomas Clemmons
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As in, if you say you are going to update, say, three days a week, update three days a week, and make sure it is the same three days every week. No matter what. If you can keep a schedule, that will be the first step in showing you are actually invested in your work. And, if you care, the readers will care.
Improving as an artist and running a webcomic as a successful business are two totally unrelated disciplines. By and large I think we're better able to help with the former.
A recent Webcomics Weekly (#71 or 72; I'm not sure which, unfortunately) talked about the whole copypasta thing. I think you should check out to what those guys have to say about it; in a lot of respects they're the closest the internet has to a council of authorities on the business of webcomics.
where's my art, squidbunny
I took my arts and went home since none of the other artists seemed to want to play anymore.
Also, I'm not sure if it's been said, but have you ever considered working with another writer? Aside from what everyone has said about copying and pasting, you obviously have artistic talent. If you're not completely against the idea, it could be a good idea to keep an eye out for someone that can write while you concentrate more on the art. Having a writer to work with as your partner doesn't mean you wouldn't be allowed to contribute to the writing, either. It just means you'd have more time to focus on maxing out your talent. (:
And as for Thomas' question about CAD, it is simple: it's familiar, easy comedy. You don't have to think about it. And, for a lot of people, that is enough. It is straight up Family Guy style humor.
Either:
- Something completely random and wacky is said in the last panel because it is so off the wall it must be funny
- It is a joke that has been told a million times before but this time by different characters
or
- It relies on a reference to pop culture
Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these things, as long as you don't use them as a crutch.
Popularity isn't always the mark of a good comic. Personally, I'd make it separate from your mission as an artist for now. You are in a saturated medium and you have a tired subject and a sort of plain style, You can go all out trying to get people to look at it, but your life will be easier if you make content that surprises people and they begin to spread it themselves. Once you feel like you have something thats damn awesome, advertise the shit out of it.
Consistency is a great exercise in itself, for sure, But there are comics that have been so good they were forgiven for long periods of down time Gone with the blast wave comes to mind. VGcats also falls in this category, though its not my favorite comic. If you cant find the time to practice and update, Update less, or update with pretty experimental stuff thats helping you study. Or bust your ass.
I agree that the Webcomics.com guys are the best authority on things, ill have to check out that podcast. Another thing I've learned in this thread is that things still get perceived wrong on the web. My posts on my website are all very cheeky and I thought that was pretty obvious from the spirit that most everything else is written on the site (especially the About page), I forget that there will be new readers coming that may not get this at first so ill keep that in mind in future posts.
THanks again for all the posts, lots of great things learned and to think about here.
Thomas Clemmons
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every tv show you watch will have a bad or mediocre episode
every comic book you read will have a bad or mediocre issue
and every webcomic will have a bad or mediocre strip
nothing is perfect
I make strips all the time that I find average/shitty, but as long as there is the occasional gem in there that makes people crack up, they will keep coming back looking for the next one
Plus if you keep cranking out comics every week consistently, the difference that having a larger archive makes is pretty huge (speaking from experience here)
New readers have a bunch more strips to read through and get hooked on (which also means more pageviews for advertising), and also it feels pretty dang good to have a steadily increasing backlog of work that you may be able to capitalize on in the future!
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All of the comments here have given me a lot to think about and some things to put on the schedule to change. I keep posting comics while I try to improve and progress so hopefully over time my art and writing skills will show some considerable change over this next year.
Thomas Clemmons
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