The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Penny Arcade - Comic - The Wolf, Part Four By Tavis Maiden
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - The Wolf, Part Four By Tavis Maiden
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
Unknown User on
+3
Posts
Writing: Not very interesting, and slow. The only interesting thing that happened was in the last panel of the last strip. The first comic was also way too slow. There was no hook to keep people coming back, I only came back because it was on Penny Arcade. This is the same problem Jerry has. He writes very very slow and boring stories, but it gets readers because its hosted here. Neither one of them would survive in the real world. You have to write with a fast pace, and give people a reason to keep reading.
Art: Better than a normal person could do I suppose, but not professional quality. Travis is young of course, but he isn't good enough yet to be drawing for Penny Arcade. The art wasn't terrible, it was just white bread. It served its purpose of visually depicting what was happening, but it wasn't interesting or especially nice to look at. Its like buying some nice deli meats and then putting them on store brand white bread. The bread is there to make it a sandwich, but its not worth really talking about.
So... maybe they killed the wolf, lost one of their members, and somehow the wolf had previous skin husks?
Or are they something else altogether?
@BananaPoet: Would you actually go and say that to a person's face? Your post pulses with a sense of ownership over Penny Arcade and its products. Why would you think that it is your job to determine what is and what isn't good enough for Penny Arcade to host?
Furthermore, telling professionals how to write is just incredibly arrogant. From listening to Q&As and the podcasts plus reading Tycho's posts it's become clear to me that writing and pace are deliberate the way they're done here. And contrary to your assertion that the pace keeps readers from coming back, I think about the ongoing stories all the time and am eager to find out how the guys conclude them.
All of which makes me pose this question to you: If you don't like the comic, why do you insist on coming back and telling these artists how to make a comic to cater specifically to you?
In the last panel, 2 of the kids are calling around. I assume it's for the 4th kid, but it could be looking for survivors. I'm guessing the next strip will have to do with Currently Unseen Lookout.
Jerry indicated with the previous news entry that this would be the last in the series.
I'd say we know exactly where the 4th boy is anyway.
I don't think this is the first time Lookouts have been sent to appease the wolf.
So do the adults do a goddamn thing in this world, or are they fighting even worse things (or getting drunk in the pub with a bar wench on each knee?)
Wolf comes to a town and starts consuming the children as stated in page 1, supernaturally doing so while leaving only husks of skin clearly visible in page 2. Page 3 introduces the 4 members and the ambush ensues, with the last page showing the creature being vanquished but with a price of one of the scouts.
Crappy word play on top of sub-standard art and thin story. This Lookouts comic series was a mess.
Please page Tycho and Gabe stat.
https://medium.com/@alascii
Chalk it up to some really poor storytelling.
Also, on the matter of the comic itself, that was pretty cool. The end was pretty brutal, gotta say.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
I liked it. Fun story and art.
I'd actually would like to see a longer Lookouts story from him.
Also-There's a HUGE difference between constructive critique, and whining just because an artist creates something you don't happen to like despite the fact you claim to love 99% of everything else they do. You either support them in all they do because the stuff you don't like helps make the stuff you like better or you walk the fuck away. Shaming artists in the form of negative put-downs masquerading as 'critique' is not cool.
A very appropriate Freudian slip
It wasn't done by Mike and Jerry, though. However I do think that if it was done by them, people wouldn't criticize it nearly as much. But that's how double standarts tend to work.
It's tough because for many people constructive criticism is quite difficult, both to give and to receive. I don't feel there is much, if any, worth in saying 'this comic sucks.' Saying 'I didn't like this comic because I didn't understand what happened" is valid, but attacking that person by calling them an idiot for not 'getting it' is also worthless, because the point of not explaining something is to have the viewer interpret it themselves, and that's always going to vary by reader.
*Not sure if that's the right term but you probably get the idea.
An interesting theory, it sounds very plausible. As to your comment about the Daughters; a fan once conjectured, and Gabe/Mike later confirmed in a newspost that it breaks down like this:
Also, I seem to recall Mike, in one of the posts about the development of Thornwatch, saying they might be some manner of ghost or revenant of those who have fallen. But that was a long time ago so that may have been changed.
My only issue was the first comic with the odd overlapping narrator/character phrasing, it confused me too. It still confuses me on an automatic level when my eye skips down to read the next line. That's more of an editing thing than an artistic choice. The wording of the lines themselves wasn't the issue, it was just the visual layout.
Otherwise, I didn't have a problem with understanding what was going on.
Yup. And that's why I've withheld comment until now, myself.
IMO, it's not the best. And that's understandable, and okay.
They're mostly dead, really.
Well, somebody's staying alive long enough to have all these kids.