The comic thread for August 07, 2009

Fiz

Tossrock

oh man

panel 4 is so rad

YaYa

this is mildly confusing

but hey there's a robot getting hit with a car right there, that's okay by me

Fiz

It was weird because I looked over at the time and realized the thread wasn't up yet. Automata is too interesting for it to be sitting in thread limbo

Zombiemambo

what the fuck

this image did not show up for me

Tossrock

I would totally make Carl in panel 4 my avatar, with "A physical confrontation would be profoundly unwise." as my title/location but I'm sure like 8 other dudes will too

>:(

Goatmon

Wonderful.

Lord Dave

I don't get it, let's discuss eye colors

Clint Eastwood

I liked the part where the robot did the thing.

Goatmon

It took me a cuople reads to figure out what Carl is doing here, but I guess he took control long enough to walk backwards into traffic, and put himself back to normal.

Tossrock

The best interpretation I can come up with is the autonomous process switched off in panel 5 (potentially due to Regal's "Professor" line?), Carl steps forward and then gets nailed by the car which causes a system spasm or something.

The idea may also be that red indicates Error, not evil (which would make sense instead of just being a dramatic tool), in which case it could just be reacting to the "error" of getting hit by a car.

edit: Goatmon may be right about him stepping backwards

Rehab

Tossrock wrote: »

oh man

panel 4 is so rad

Detective Regal's serious face is very well done too, as is the car impact.

Anyone else notice that in the last panel where the Detective is saying "I had you, Carl. It was gonna be pow, and lights out" not only is Carl refuting that verbally, but the rain hitting him in the forhead there looks to form the word "no."

Goatmon wrote: »

It took me a cuople reads to figure out what Carl is doing here, but I guess he took control long enough to walk backwards into traffic, and put himself back to normal.

Good call, his body language actually makes it very clear that he is stepping backwards and not forwards now that you mention it.

Faricazy

The red/blue eyes are confusing to people? Really?

Tossrock

Faricazy wrote: »

The red/blue eyes are confusing to people? Really?

Mostly the fact that they turn red again as the car hits him

but let's hear the obvious answer you've deduced

spell it out for us dullards

Goatmon

Someone needs to tell Mike and Jerry about how long a line there is of people who will suck their dicks if they were to make an Automata comic book. Just one, even!

Faricazy

I am host to an autonomous process which has, as its aim, your death.

It's right there. Yeah, it probably also means error in the case of the car, but that really doesn't matter much. For all intents and purposes the red means DANGER WILL ROBINSON. Why try to find depth where it is not needed?

Tossrock

So what you're saying is that you don't know why they turned red when he was hit by the car. Which was the confusing part. Hmm.

Glad you could point out the obvious part that everyone already understood, though. Thanks for that.

Brolo

Gabe really needs to work on his transitions between panels when he's trying to show actions. It's not something that happens a lot in PA, but when it does happen in things like CTS/Over-Easy/Automata, the action isn't as clear as it could be.

Faricazy

I swear Toss, one of these days, POW, straight to the moon.

Butler

Toss is right, though, Fari.

Tossrock

:oops:

Rehab

I think some people were just whining too much about it being a science fiction cliche. However, it works so well exactly because it is basically just an immediately understood thing for everyone who has ever seen movie or show dealing with robots (and the way Gabe has handled the Automatons eyes with the swirl effect and making them stand out in the same way that blood did in Sin City, I think it looks really cool too). Also . . .

It lets you know the exact moment that Carl "turns."

In the last comic it made it clear that while Carl was "hacked" by the music thus having the possessed red eyes, the other robots were not as you saw an innocent bystander robot in the fourth panel with blue eyes.

Red is a pretty common color used for something that is malfunctioning, at alert, or dangerous (red rings of death on the 360, don't push the red button)

It lets you know the exact moment that Carl "turns back" and regains control over himself.

Darmak

I really enjoyed this comic.

the cheat

comic lacks sexy bitches.

mr0range

Like this and the last page, the actions are a bit disjointing. Not confusing, but don't really flow either. Mike has grown great as an artist, but still needs to work on some storytelling when it comes to spacial relations and time between gutters/panels. Like the other page with the gun shooting up and the next panel a bullet hitting the drum, while understandable, doesn't flow smooth and usually requires a re-read/view.

Really nice looking stuff, but maybe all that was required was at least one further pulled back establishing shot of their relation to the curb and street.

It can very well also be 'blamed' on trying to fit everything into a 1 page comic, where this type of storytelling may require some breathing space of at least 2 pages.

I'm talking too much.

#pipe

Rolo wrote: »

Gabe really needs to work on his transitions between panels when he's trying to show actions. It's not something that happens a lot in PA, but when it does happen in things like CTS/Over-Easy/Automata, the action isn't as clear as it could be.

the action is not confusing in the least though

also this comic is gorgeous and Carl as a character becomes more compelling in each new frame.

#pipe

It sure is funny how people berate CAD for over explaining every little thing

then complain how the new comic doesn't make sense and should have 6 extra frames to explain everything

exist

Man, lookin so badass in panel 3

Druhim

this is glorious

ASimPerson

#pipe wrote: »

It sure is funny how people berate CAD for over explaining every little thing

then complain how the new comic doesn't make sense and should have 6 extra frames to explain everything

I would say there's such a thing as a happy medium. It took me a few readings to understand was going on in this comic. Maybe I'm dense but I didn't even realize they were outside until I noticed the raindrops.

Okay, so yeah, I guess I am kind of dense. But still.

Druhim

they ended up outside at the end of the previous comic
it was pretty obvious there

#pipe

Dru we are surrounded by stupids

Faricazy

Druhim wrote: »

they ended up outside at the end of the previous comic
it was pretty obvious there

someone in the last thread posted something along the lines of "why does the last panel just have outlines of a few bricks?"

Rehab

I like how Gabe and Tycho actually bring up CAD Syndrome and talked about it for a second during one of the podcasts. If I remember right, I think it was the comic about Gabe throwing Tycho's DS against the wall out of frustration from Mario Hoops. They were trying to bring up the game in the strip somehow but avoid the "hey, so I've been playing [insert game]" route.

Darth_Mogs

Rehab wrote: »

but the rain hitting him in the forhead there looks to form the word "no."

Oh shit. Probably not intentional, but damn, that's a good spot.

Edit: Or maybe it is. Looking at it for a few minutes straight makes it just look too much like it to have been an accident. If it was or wasn't, it's still neat.

I absolutely love these comics. They are just so rad.

exist

not intentional? I don't know man. He had to have atleast noticed and decided to keep it that way.

Nuzak

oh man panel one

and panel three

and panel four

god it's fantastic

Goatmon

Druhim wrote: »

they ended up outside at the end of the previous comic
it was pretty obvious there

The indication of them being outside was kind of confusing, too.

I didn't even remember them landing outside until I saw the new page. I had to check to make sure I didn't miss a page, and realized they had actually landed outside at the very end of the previous page.

Sure, the signs that the fight went outside are there, but there was no background to it which makes it a lot easier to overlook.

This is a trivial complaint, though. I can't get enough of this new thing.

Butler

#pipe wrote: »

It sure is funny how people berate CAD for over explaining every little thing

then complain how the new comic doesn't make sense and should have 6 extra frames to explain everything

On the other hand, when someone genuinely doesn't get something and they ask a question to clarify we do tend to jump down their throat all HURG BLURG HOWWW CAN YOU NOT FOLLOW THIS?

Ringo

#pipe wrote: »

Rolo wrote: »

Gabe really needs to work on his transitions between panels when he's trying to show actions. It's not something that happens a lot in PA, but when it does happen in things like CTS/Over-Easy/Automata, the action isn't as clear as it could be.

the action is not confusing in the least though

also this comic is gorgeous and Carl as a character becomes more compelling in each new frame.

I agree with Rolo. Panels five and six caused me momentary confusion as to what was being depicted, and I personally felt such confusion was rather jarring when reading it.

I feel that I both understood and enjoyed the comic as a whole, but probably would have enjoyed it more if the storytelling was clearer.

TheySlashThem

so good