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.
Critique Our Comic (Backspace) be gentle...
backspace
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
we have fragile minds 
So i wrote this lengthy, in depth, all explaining post about our comic and never activated my account and i lost what i typed and it's all fu-bared.
So i'll do my best to recount my thoughts here for your guys n' gals. We're looking for your thoughts on our work and where we can improve, etc. We can't really change what our comic is about (nothing basically) our the characters as this is what works for us; so we'll live or die by that.
Let's get right to it- My name is Jeremy and i write a webcomic
I wanted to say that although this is my first post here, I joined the forums here on PA and contribute regularly- i'm not just throwing up this post to promote our work and leave, i've been lurking in some threads but haven't posted anything else besides this yet. Truthfully, i've only recently begun to read PA and i hadn't realized how many webcomics there actually are out there on the web. Honestly. I don't really spend a lot of time online, except checking mail and that sort of thing, i contribute to a Highlander forum, and that says a lot about me. Unfortunately.
Since we put our comic we've realized a couple things:
1.) We're contributing more garbage to the web.
2.) We probably shouldn't have put up a store, or anything for that matter on our site EXCEPT the comic itself. Our friends wanted t-shirts and instead of tacking stuff onto the site later on we tried to built out what we'd expect we would want to have down the line.
3.) #2 was probably a dumb idea- it makes us look pathetic (we are) and makes us look like we're trying to jump on a bandwagon (we aren't)
4.) We're working on a NEW site to correct some problems with the old, and it's probably going to look like any other webcomic site because of the nature of the subject.
5.) Although experienced in working with comics, we're amateur's when it comes to anything else. We're stupid, and i'm the first to admit it.
6.) Our comic is random and a lot of people might not like it
Backtracking- We don't read a lot of webcomics for two reasons:
1.) Not a lot of time on our hands, we all work full time job(s)
2.) We don't want to subconsciously steer our comic into copying anything else. I look at PA now and then to get a good laugh, but i try not to make a habit out of it since i'm trying to be original with what i'm working on- my greatest fear is to write something and draw it up and find out PA or another comic has already done it- which - i'm sure PA has probably done everything.
I respect the heck out of PA and everything they do and the last thing i want anyone to think is that our comic is just thrown up there to try and make some money and ride on a trend- that's not our intention at all. We really just like to make comics and thought we could share it with other people, it's a lot of fun and if something more happens with it, that's cool... and if not then that's ok to.
More:
We've (Kyle- illustrator/writer, Casey- colorist/writer) actually been writing and illustrating comics since 1995 (our freshman year of High School) Casey joined us in college and we finally decided about two months ago that maybe we should put our stuff up online to share with our friends. It started as a film script we were writing through college and it just turned into a random webcomic in the years since we all joined the real world.
Here are some images for the critique:
We realize Terminator Salvation DOES answer this question, but Kyle's character is dense, so.. yeah. We don't outright name the characters but we figure after a couple strips people will realize who's who. maybe. All the comics are pretty random and that's our thing, we don't really contribute anything ground breaking or useful (like PA) it's just nonsense fun stuff.
Our site is: http://www.backspacecomic.com as i said before, we know the site is lacking... you can find the other strips here on the main page to look at.
Thank you all for reading, we really appreciate your time and are hoping that our stuff doesn't suck as there are enough webcomics that suck out there and we don't want to be one of them- we want to make you laugh! Or at least help you get through your day easier.
Jeremy
So i wrote this lengthy, in depth, all explaining post about our comic and never activated my account and i lost what i typed and it's all fu-bared.
So i'll do my best to recount my thoughts here for your guys n' gals. We're looking for your thoughts on our work and where we can improve, etc. We can't really change what our comic is about (nothing basically) our the characters as this is what works for us; so we'll live or die by that.
Let's get right to it- My name is Jeremy and i write a webcomic
I wanted to say that although this is my first post here, I joined the forums here on PA and contribute regularly- i'm not just throwing up this post to promote our work and leave, i've been lurking in some threads but haven't posted anything else besides this yet. Truthfully, i've only recently begun to read PA and i hadn't realized how many webcomics there actually are out there on the web. Honestly. I don't really spend a lot of time online, except checking mail and that sort of thing, i contribute to a Highlander forum, and that says a lot about me. Unfortunately.
Since we put our comic we've realized a couple things:
1.) We're contributing more garbage to the web.
2.) We probably shouldn't have put up a store, or anything for that matter on our site EXCEPT the comic itself. Our friends wanted t-shirts and instead of tacking stuff onto the site later on we tried to built out what we'd expect we would want to have down the line.
3.) #2 was probably a dumb idea- it makes us look pathetic (we are) and makes us look like we're trying to jump on a bandwagon (we aren't)
4.) We're working on a NEW site to correct some problems with the old, and it's probably going to look like any other webcomic site because of the nature of the subject.
5.) Although experienced in working with comics, we're amateur's when it comes to anything else. We're stupid, and i'm the first to admit it.
6.) Our comic is random and a lot of people might not like it
Backtracking- We don't read a lot of webcomics for two reasons:
1.) Not a lot of time on our hands, we all work full time job(s)
2.) We don't want to subconsciously steer our comic into copying anything else. I look at PA now and then to get a good laugh, but i try not to make a habit out of it since i'm trying to be original with what i'm working on- my greatest fear is to write something and draw it up and find out PA or another comic has already done it- which - i'm sure PA has probably done everything.
I respect the heck out of PA and everything they do and the last thing i want anyone to think is that our comic is just thrown up there to try and make some money and ride on a trend- that's not our intention at all. We really just like to make comics and thought we could share it with other people, it's a lot of fun and if something more happens with it, that's cool... and if not then that's ok to.
More:
We've (Kyle- illustrator/writer, Casey- colorist/writer) actually been writing and illustrating comics since 1995 (our freshman year of High School) Casey joined us in college and we finally decided about two months ago that maybe we should put our stuff up online to share with our friends. It started as a film script we were writing through college and it just turned into a random webcomic in the years since we all joined the real world.
Here are some images for the critique:
We realize Terminator Salvation DOES answer this question, but Kyle's character is dense, so.. yeah. We don't outright name the characters but we figure after a couple strips people will realize who's who. maybe. All the comics are pretty random and that's our thing, we don't really contribute anything ground breaking or useful (like PA) it's just nonsense fun stuff.
Our site is: http://www.backspacecomic.com as i said before, we know the site is lacking... you can find the other strips here on the main page to look at.
Thank you all for reading, we really appreciate your time and are hoping that our stuff doesn't suck as there are enough webcomics that suck out there and we don't want to be one of them- we want to make you laugh! Or at least help you get through your day easier.
Jeremy
Look, the elves were dead when i got here...
backspace on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
my apologies.
You talk way too much. I glanced at your post and thought to myself, "this is going to be a comic with way too much text and frivolity."
Upon scrolling down, I found out I was right. But, unlike most of the other comics that cruise through here, I did find something funny. Remember, writing a good comic is both additive and subtractive, just like sculpting. Don't be afraid to pare down your work:
For a slightly different message, you could also leave the fourth panel in. But the first three are completly unnecessary.
But yeah, too many words. Both of them could be about half the length and you'd get a much punchier joke. I liked the build-up of the cannon one, but ending on the fact that wikipedia can be edited by anyone was a let-down. It's a tired punchline, and not done very smoothly in this instance.
Also, as said before, way too wordy.
I personally would have just used the last three panels in your first comic posted. Just seeing two terminators fucking doesn't do a lot to explain the situation, but the first three panels aren't needed either.
EDIT: Actually, All you need to do is say to yourself "Am I willing to make a commitment to this project?"
If you do find yourself saying yes, Then you need to start thinking of how long it takes to Write, Put together, and illustrate your comic.
You then make yourself a website in hopes that you will attract a fan base. You put advertisement in your signatures and your avatar then you keep on creating.
When your fan base has grown to par and people start worshipping you, then you create a little "tip jar" because creativity costs money.
When you have expanded your comic furthermore and have gotten better with your updating, art, and tossing your fanbase a cookie or two you start to brancho out and get tagged by other comics that you tag back, thus creating a net.
When you start to climb the ladder and people are starting to throw money at you more then you start to auction of original artwork for dollas.
Soon, when you become powerful enough with a very large fanbase, you put on a cape and start to tell your followers to throw themselves in a volcano to please yourself. They do so and hellfire and brimstone rain from the sky.
Deleted what I said. That was an asshole thing and i'm sorry.
Metalbourne- I see what you're saying, it IS too wordy. We could stand to lose a lot of the text and get right down to it; usually the idea's start off how they probably should and I end up stretching the dialogue out too far because i don't want to feel like there's 'nothing there' in terms of banter. I will keep this in mind when we put up our next strip. Thank you for your comment, this was very helpful!
I should've summed up my post better as well, i wanted to try to give as much information as i could off the cusp. Thanks for enduring
KalTorak- I'm glad you like the art style. I'll focus on making sure the words are cut down so the joke is punchier, i'm seeing what you're saying and i agree. I wasn't sure about the Wikipedia ending either, i should've gone with my gut on this one and kept the different ending i had in mind; we might go back and change it later on- I hadn't seen anything done on it before but i'm pretty sure it's been out there like you said.
EWom- Thanks for picking up on this, i wouldn't of used 'legend has it' twice- it' a typo for sure. I will make sure to go back and change out one of those lines. We wanted to try and depart from the traditional 3 panel webcomic and give a little more, though you make a good case as did the others that the first three panels aren't necessary and it could've been shortened- I'll see if we can just cut down on the dialogue throughout the panels to keep it punchier and this might be a good balance.
Shiekahn_boy- heh heh, ok? Your 'legend has it' change is great, that's probably what i'll end up substituting in there, thanks for that. That's a pretty good summary of how we think things should work, in particular i like having followers throw themselves into a volcano for our pleasure. I knew human sacrifice was involved in making comics, i just wasn't sure how to go about it.
you are doing light years better than most of the webcomics that get posted here though, both in art and in content.
Thanks Beavotron it really means a lot to hear that- we'll look to try and pair our future panels down to three if possible. Thanks again!
No, pare it down. Don't think that posting your comic twice will make it funnier.
Line art - It's functional and clean. I personally don't care for the whole anime-turn-into-a-demon-when-angry expressions, but that's your call.
Also, Your perspective is real fucked, especially in the panel with the guy sitting on the stairwell.
You don't necessarily need to use linear perspective, but there should be some rhyme and reason to what you are doing. You could use tilted plane, hierarchal, parallel, or whatever. But right now it just looks like you're getting really confused when trying to apply one- and two-point perspective.
Your character designs are what I like the least, they reek of trying to imitate the author's life. Like "this is my friend, Kyle. He has a zelda hat he wears a lot. I'll draw him in his zelda hat. This is my friend bob. he's more stout than me and kyle, and he's a big fan of the hockey team, The Fucking Sticks, so I'll put him in his Fucking Sticks shirt, etc." You have three young white guys with generic suburban young white guy apparel and hairstyles. Push those designs and make them more interesting.
Coloring - You have a clean application of color, but poor decisions in using color. Your stuff is way too saturated, especially the pure RGB blue you're using for the blue jeans. Look into some color theory stuff, both from a compositionally and a representational aspect. Study how colors of items reflect off each other, the hue and saturation transitions in shadows, etc. Also, it'd probably be a good idea to stay away from arbitrary gradients instead of background.
Lettering - Your lettering is your strongest point so far. It's good and cleanly done. Watch out on what words you emphasize though. This isn't 1940, you don't need a bolded word in every balloon. For example, "Kyle, back me up on THIS." is fairly unnecessary and distracting. Also, be cautious not to overuse specialty fonts for sfx. That neon-green- futuristic looking CREAK CREAK might've been good for the terminators, but it's just out of place on a wooden rocking chair on a hillbilly's porch.
Metalbourne- I guess i'm totally missing your point here- what do you mean?
I agree on the wording, i'm going to make this priority from now on. Thanks for your comments on this.
The line art has some small issues, we'll make sure to keep a strong eye on this in the future as well, i'll defer this to the illustrator.
The Character Designs- i completely understand what you're saying here, i agree to some extent as we could've gone with something really out there, a genie, a giant squirrel, just about anything; we might look into moving into this direction in the future. I was always told to "write what you know" and i know those characters well enough to write them; but i get what you're saying, definitely, i'm going to keep this in the front of the my thoughts for it.
Coloring- I'll refer this one off to the colorist, i'm sure over time we'll be able to improve the overall style of the comic.
Lettering- Noted. I'll make sure to keep these in mind.
Great feedback, thanks for your perspective! I really appreciate it.
AHH. yes, "pair" & "pare" i slipped up on that response.
for some reason mine only work when listening to madonna and liza minelli songs.
heh heh
Couple that with the fact that so far, your two comics have been about those guys bickering with/about each other regarding websites and modern action movies, and you are working with a recipe for mediocrity.
It's true- I'll really have to think about the characters in their current forms and see how i can make them different enough to separate from the rest of the pack. You're right on the money with that. We'll have to change up the recipe for the strips, a lot of stuff revolves around conversations and i'll try to steer them into a less mediocre direction, something a little more unique.
KalTorak, I'm thinking that's how it's probably going to be, based on what the joke is it could be 1 panel or 6 panels basically as few as it takes to get the joke across without dragging it out unnecessarily. It would probably benefit our comic more to have an unconventional format like this instead of the 'standard' 3 panel- it might help us stand out from the pack like others have said, and if we can be versatile in the formats based on the joke it will give us a little freedom.
Humping makes babies.
Did you grow up in a cave?
Any good?
Anyway yeah, my point was that the joke only seems to work if you haven't seen the movie, which strikes me as odd
I think it reads wrong, i need to re-phrase it so he says something along the lines of "I didn't like how they were created" and he goes on to tell his own vision of it, so it makes more sense. You're right though, thanks for scrutinizing this.
A: they finally explained where baby terminators come from.
B: (thought balloon with fucking robots in it)
Also, are you the writer, artist, or colorist? if not the latter two, you should get them in here talkin' about this shit.
and looking at your site, your comic is named after a key on the keyboard and your logo is almost identical to ctl alt del's.
just sayin'
Yeah, i like that- something along those lines is good. I'm actually the writer/letterer. We all co-author the content but i'm the head writer if you can call it that. I cc'd them this thread so they can join in if they get a chance, i've been funneling them the comments as they come along.
We weren't going for 'backspace' as in the keyboard key, but more like 'backstepping' (like from Slider's tv show) or stepping back in time/space, as our original story had us fumbling through time and repeating the same day. We were looking at the 'Back To The Future' logo for some inspiration-
I hadn't heard of Ctrl alt del before, i looked them up- our logo is similar to theirs, but our logo was actually inspired by the new 'DC' Comics logo (see below)
There just aren't any originals idea's anymore, i feel like anything we do someone is already going to have beat us to it one way or another.
Not to say that they're any good (because they most definitely are not), just that they're extremely well-known in the medium. Neither "I don't read webcomics" or "Nothing's original anymore" isn't an excuse for unoriginal material.
Also, you do list Nate Piekos as a "friend" on your website, and on the site you link to, he does show that he designed the Ctrl Alt Del logo.
I guess it wouldn't of been a bad idea to search around, but i wanted to approach our comic without any preconceived ideas from the get go, i didn't want to get trapped in constantly comparing what we're doing to everyone else. There's going to always be the overlapping of ideas, this looks like that, and so on. It'll always boil down to who was successful first- and the judgement will lie there for many people. I mean, for example, Penny Arcade isn't an original idea- A kid i went to school with was drawing short comics having his character talking and interacting with characters from punch out and final fight years before PA was even thought of. So does that make Penny Arcade unoriginal? I don't feel that, but It's an interesting conversation- how to do you judge originality? Star Wars isn't a new idea- Lucas took mythologies and put them in space, Tolkien took them and put them in Middle Earth, Dungeons and Dragons was born out of Tolkien's world. I could easily take some mythology and put it in the setting of the American Revolution mirroring the same trials and tribulations, boom- done. Eveything created has it's roots in what came before it, and it before that, a few tweaks are made and all of a sudden it's a 'new' idea when it's really not.
Should we be tweaking our comics and turning them into something new? Yes. Are we? I thought so- I'm assuming most webcomics have 3-4 Panels- our's doesn't, does any other comic have a Ghost Cannon, probably not- does THAT make us original, again, probably not- You've got Marvel, DC, Darkhorse, etc., etc., doing comics and somewhere out there i'm sure something else has Ghost Cannon floating around. it just all keeps spinning backwards through art until the notion of art was first conceived. It's a terrific debate, one i'd like to definitely expand on here- there's a lot of ways you could judge anything out there, art is subjective which makes it's debate infinite in nature.
Going back to the topic- i can't work like that, checking out other comics all the time, digging to their roots, seeing if their logo remotely looks the same. Creatively- it's a project killer, i feel like if i did that i'd be subconsciously lifting information while i'm working on my stuff. We may look like we're copying someone (albeit unintentionally) but who's to say they didn't copy us- I've got portfolio stuff up online, have had for years- maybe they saw something i did? But because they were successful first then that's the measuring stick for everything that comes after, it's unfair, but it's true.
The bottom line is that we're always going to come up short because there's always going to be someone else with more talent, more money and better idea's, it's not a new concept to me- i knew that much getting into it. Why do a webcomic then? For me it's MY perspective, my idea's, and to me that makes it unique, original- i'm not trying to copy anyone, if i was then i probably wouldn't have any of these things i've got to work on here that the members have pointed out- i could've taken a shortcut, it would've been easy- and surely it would've then been unoriginal. At least i can say I did something from my soul, i'm trying, and the success of that can't be measured in web hits or fan counts our merchandise sold, it'll be measured by how far i can take it until i feel it's accomplished, until i feel that i've accomplished something for myself instead of sitting back wondering what might've been.
I took a deep look at what Ctrl Alt Del has, and i think it's pretty good- as an artist and a novice writer i can't say it's awful, i just can't, i got a good chuckle out of some of those comics and that's what it's there for- the fun of it, i didn't get some of the jokes, and for the ones i didn't get i enjoyed the artwork. I guess i'm just a glass half full kinda guy, i'm always looking for the good instead of the bad. That's obviously not the point of getting critiqued, you want opinions and what works and what doesn't so you can improve on the next project, as an artist who's experienced countless critiques of installation art i take everything i can- good or bad, but i just can't write off Ctrl Alt Del as no good- there's good to be found there.
Back to originality- I'm curious if you could could run some of your original idea's by me? If you have any I'd love to hear them. Honestly, maybe you've got something that could be a really great idea? How would you completely re-write what i've posted and give it a better, more original twist while remaining in the confines of the concept?
As for Pieko- We use many of Pieko's fonts (aka: Blambot Fonts), as a trade i offered up a link back to him- the least i could do for 'legally' using his fonts with his explicit permission under mild restrictions. I haven't looked at any of Nate's work, with the exception of 'Atland' his fantasy comic- which is a pretty fun read as well.
I'm liking the questions raised in this entire thread, i've found the help very useful and i think there is potential for some great debates with some of my re-directed questions in this post.
-and the jab about you linking to the Blambot site is more at your pretentious choice of wording. "Friends" is a little up there vocabulary-wise for a section that should be called something like "Links," mainly considering it implies that there's some type of friendly relationship between the two of you. I assure you the chances of someone reading your site and not knowing Penny Arcade or Blambot is pretty low. In your links section Penny Arcade should be under something like "other comics we read" Blambot could be under "useful resources" etc.
while we're on the idea of pretentious wording, I've always been opposed to people using the word "episode" for what is equivocal to less than one printed page of comic material. There have been a few guys in here in the past that have done the same thing, and it's usually been pointed out to them. Episodes in television are roughly 22-48 minutes of material, radio was 15-45. In video games, it's usually a few hours to earn the title. You're offering maybe 35 seconds for a slow reader.
What you are making are "strips." Since they're a few rows of panels each, you could comfortably get away with "pages." You want to shoot for a little more high and mighty? You could use "entries." If you really love the word "episodes," I would suggest saving it for each of your story-arcs as opposed to "issues."
But while you're here, post some more of your comics and some of the graphics from your site. So far, I'd say your logos, graphics, layout, and webdesign are your strongest points. The lettering and technical construction of the panels and balloons comes in second; the coloring and line art both have room for improvement, but the basic premise/writing is what needs to be improved upon the most.
i mean if its crits on the art you're looking for, why are the people who actually draw the thing not joining in here?
the arguments you're bringing up are quite frankly more suited to FINE ART(TM) than they are to a webcomic
i mean the discussions about "can an idea be truly original" etc. are all well and good if you're coming up with finely-wrought masterpieces chock-full of symbolism, but seriously you're making a webcomic
also, uh, where are all of the comics? theres an awful lot of history mentioned on the site (including lines like "he jumped on the Backspace bandwagon in 2006"); are there only 11 comics (unless i'm missing something)?
sorry if this seems harsh or anything, its just you seem to be treating it like you're guaranteed to become RAGING successes, and everyone is begging for wordy explanations, but there really isn't that much to soliloquise about?
Webcomic Twitter Steam Wishlist SATAN
Listen to that guy. No one is saying you have to read every comic out there, that'd be silly. But knowing what is out there, what works and what doesn't, what you enjoy and what you wish was different...you're not supposed to COPYING their ideas, you're learning from them to help improve your own. If you have nothing new to say, why bother? You must think you have something to say, in some kind of interesting way or you wouldn't care.
Yes, pretty much everything has been done before. But that doesn't mean the choices are ignore everything around you or give up. Do it your own way, do it better(or just the way YOU want to).
Gabe/Mike that draws penny arcade gives a lot of credit to Steven Silver for giving him inspiration. Tycho/Jerry has surely didn't stop reading because he was afraid he'd copy someone.
One of the weird and great things about art is that it's not really created in a vacuum. My main medium for art is photography, and I know the more things I look at, and think about and enjoy...the more ideas I start getting. When I get lazy and sit around not doing much, I am rarely inspired. So start reading other comics, but don't stop there. Do whatever you can to enrich your life and expose yourself as much as you can to new things and ideas. You aren't doing yourself any favors by closing yourself off from other people. No one is going to be impressed by your lack of knowledge, it's just not a good defense.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents at 4am. Feel free to keep on doing what you're doing.
The other bizarre thing is that as clever as the gallery script is, it's running in the wrong direction (also #3 and #5 are broken). The story goes from the bottom right to the top left, and inside the gallery widget you have to click left, which after years of using the internet I associate with 'back' to go forward. It's strange.
ManonvonSuperock hit the nail on the head with your highfalutin language. Friends? Episodes? Singularities? The friends thing is disingenuous at best. Friend means a very specific thing. I go to the bar with my friend. He knows someone else there. Hey, this is Gary, my friend from softball. Hi Gary. Not hey, look over there, that's my friend Mr. L. Slugger from softball. I use his bats. I mean it's a little thing, but I think it's indicative of a similar theme coloring the whole presentation here:
You're in love with the idea of being an internet famous web comic. You've got 9 pages of comic and 13,000 words of blog. You're hocking merchandise. You recorded a podcast. You made wallpapers for fans (with the names of the comickers right there in bright FFFFFF). And you've got artist biographies. The whole presentation reeks of cargo cult mysticism.
Meanwhile there's no focus on the work. It takes seven weeks (at one *new comic every Monday*) to tell a Wikipedia joke. In those seven weeks I do think the Worf thing is kinda funny, but other than that gag you've got:
-a lawn gnome
-a person of ridiculous power and responsibility being a silly ass
-a famous person from history beating people up (Jesus H. Asskicker, Texas Ranger; Ghandi with a Gun; Gutenberg and his Chicago Typesetter)
-a Six Million Dollar Man gag
-an extended Die Hard gag
-Said famous historical badass using an easily identifiable phrase bastardized into a catch phrase
Yeah nothing in art is original and blah blah these are tired jokes. They are really, really easy, too. They don't challenge the reader in any way.
The Terminator joke is funny but the pacing is all wrong, visually and wordually. The first panel is cramped. In the second panel you see the angry anime face way before you see the "SHUT IT" then in the dialogue you've got a complete, roller-coaster-is-having-technical-difficulties full stop with the "Kyle, back me up on this." What? The guy is turning into a demon with anger and then he sheepishly seeks validation from the other guy? And really, the robots fucking is your last panel. That's the joke. The last panel 'Done' is the ending to Lord of the Rings: it's not only unnecessary but it detracts from the rest of the work.
Edit: P.S.: iframes are really irritating. That's why no one uses them anymore. They fall somewhere between using javascript to disable right click and background midis on the Internet Annoyometer.
Don't get me wrong, there was some really good criticism that we actually talked about and plan and making tweaks. I thank you guys for that and I must admit no one here has said we should shoot our selves in the face like some other forums have. To put it simple and to get our real question answered
Did you enjoy the comic?... Not the site design, not the choice of this blue compared to that blue, not the perspective, did you look and read the the comic and enjoy it or did you run in disgust. Are there anyone else out there with our humor?
I know people will blast what I say to holy hell because I am sure there is nothing better to do. I am just trying to portray what it is we are looking for a little more in detail. For those of you who have been constructively criticizing us thank you. For those who are going to rip what I say to shit then find a tall building and have a cup of tea. Can't we all get along. The responses to this are going to be great.
the slide out top bit is just awesome
if you have read through the thread, then you'll see that lots of people have commented on the writing and whether it's funny or not
general consensus appears to be that the writing is a little wordy and awkward in places, the number of panels can probably be cut down for most of the strips, the anime faces look a little out of place, etc etc.
also uh this part right here:
kind of implies that you aren't looking for criticism at all
the whole "perspective" and "this blue compared to that blue" thing is called art, and is what people on these forums mainly comment on.
if you don't want your art to be commented on, why are you on an art forum?
Webcomic Twitter Steam Wishlist SATAN
And as to the site design being somehow irrelevant to whether or not the comic works, you could be the Hemingway/Scott McCloud of webcomics and no one would give a shit if they couldn't get to the comics you wrote easily. I tried for about 15 minutes to read through the archive but after reloading/waiting to see if the iFrame was going to pop in for the third time, I left.
That said, take what they say with a grain of salt. Sometimes they're wrong, or they completely misread your intentions. Make sure that you still understand who your audience is, and if the advice of the AC conflicts with what you believe your audience would appreciate, feel free to disregard that advice.
Usually they're pretty spot on, though.