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chief364
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've been over in the advice corner getting some feedback from people, and they told me to post my comic here. I've never done anything like this site before; in fact I just taught myself HTML and CSS last weekend. Anyway, I was hoping to getting some opinions about over here. Don't be afraid to be honest! Just know I'm using stick figures on purpose.
http://notapuff.com/
JENGA
http://notapuff.com/
JENGA
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I like it!
@NakedZergling I guess I'm just fond of stick figures. I spent a good majority of my elementary and middle school years drawing them. Also, they take a lot less time to draw than actual people. I wish that making comics was all I had to do, but it isn't. In fact, I'm trying to finish writing a paper for a college class right now.
@cakemikz, that last one is pretty damn funny.
As soon as I finish this research paper I've got an idea for another comic, so I'll post it here later so you guys can let me know what you think.
Also, here's a thing I drew of Geoff Peterson from The Late Late Show in a parody movie poster of The Terminator. If you're a huge geek about the show like me, you know that the guy who voices him got famous for his Arnold Schwartzenager impersonations. The text in the sunglasses is supposed to read "ASS MODE", which is a running gag on the show. It did not convert very well.
If you cross-reference to the other two threads he's created for his comic in other sub-forums it might make a little more sense, though it's still not funny.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/154103/new-webcomic#Item_71
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/154164/new-webcomic#Item_2
it looks like that gears of war laser death gun thing.
It's a little too random.
If your doing a general comic, with no theme, that's fine. However, if you switch gears in a couple years or some other amount of time about the theme, people will be pissed. I know after a year or two of PVP not doing game related things I was like "Why is it called PVP anymore? It's just turned into another generic comic like in the newspapers." I know it's the name of the company, and I still read it today but it's just not as good anymore.
the art actually hurts it, it is not a good joke for a stick figure comic
the key to making it work would be to not show the body til the end, and then go to town with what a body stuffed with suppositories would look like
EDIT: Maybe I can keep the stick figures, but just do what the Perry Fellowship Bible does. You know, like have really simple artwork contrasted by super detailed artwork.
Besides man, how are you going to get fan art once you're internet famous if the characters don't have any unique features?
I heard that a good rule of thumb for creating cartoon characters is to make them recognizable by their silhouettes... At least that's what Futurama does.
I do not own Winnie the Pooh nor claim ownership.
what are honeys
@rfilyaw look it up in the urban dictionary.
That's the only way that joke could work.
Exactly.
I'd honestly slow down, stop vomiting out these really unfunny strips, and work on the scripts. The art obviously takes no time at all, so I think you're going to need to concentrate on your writing. Heavily.
just read this
http://campcounseling.blogspot.com/2011/08/mid-week-treatise.html
I admit the suppository OD got a chuckle out of me. And definitely read The Lovely Bastard's link. It's time well spent.
Also I like your Peterson drawing, do you have other stuff that is not stick figures?
And you make stick figures
which are the least recognizable kind of cartoon, sillhouette or otherwise
And these are just really bad, too. You can do better, the Peterson drawing proves that, but you keep making these stick figure comics that just don't work, partially because the jokes are poorly thought out and partially because your stick figures are terrible
terrible
at conveying action and emotion. What you're "leaving to the reader's imagination" is the entire joke. You provide them with the basic elements of what could be a joke and a punchline, but the reader doesn't get it in any recognizable form and has to make an effort to arrange the elements you've provided into what might have been the intended joke.
That can work if part of the joke is assembling the joke for yourself. If it's a funny riddle, say. But they never are. All of your jokes are about as sophisticated as the most mundane knock-knock jokes. They're bad. They don't make sense. Not in an absurdist kind of way, either. They're clearly intended to work in one specific way, but the logic behind them is flawed and just doesn't flow at all. They don't work.
So you need to think about your jokes. Have them make sense. And drop the stick figure look. It's awful. It works against you. If you like the look, you're the only person in existence who does, I'm sorry. It's just no good. You need to do more.
@Spectre-x
Just as a point of interest, the most loved webcomic of this... genre? kind... is Nedroid (possibly), and here is the first ever Nedroid, and the latest:
http://nedroid.com/2005/09/2210-whee/
http://nedroid.com/2012/01/deadly-weapons/
So don't be afraid of changing it up and just completely play around with it until you get something that is both quick enough to fit into your schedule and likeable.
Ask what Nedroid is about, people will say the characters Beartato and Reginald, which is true, but the first strip was about unicorns, the second was about a mayor, the third was just some round little characters. But it doesn't matter. No one remembers that.
So just keep at it and be okay with changing things up.
Not that is is an angle you should go with, or that personified things are always funny (I tend to think so), but this was the first thing I thought when I read that.
Changes aside, varying your character's pose and angle takes very little work simply by cutting and pasting, mirroring, stretching and shrinking in photoshop, MS Paint, or whatever you have to use. Adding pupils/eyelids opens up a lot more character expression. Even at the most simple, such as family guy, having the eyelids and pupils adds a lot to the conveying of emotion, focus direction, etc.
Making each panel look significantly different can make the entire piece seem more interesting. Only very seldomly will each panel be repeats of each other in most big webcomics, and that's usually if having a slow, subtle progression is required. Try more dynamic angles, close ups, etc. You don't have to be very elaborate to get more definition, just try new things.
You are definitely improving from what you posted in H/A, though!
If so, have you considered doing art like that for your comic strip? You wouldn't be able to put out strips as fast, but that would probably be a good thing since you'd want to really plan and refine your joke and presentation before going through all the effort. A series of higher quality jokes done with that higher quality art would be a lot more likely to get noticed.
@Eric lmao on your edit. Also, I've only been able to work with paint so far, but I just downloaded GIMP 2 so that should help expand what I can do with my artwork. Just have to figure out how to use it first...
@wonderpug Yeah I did!
Also, I was initially planning on doing like an xkcd or chainsawsuit ripoff, but I think I'll make a humorous sci-fi comic that has an epic story arc. (Well, I'll consider it to be epic... we'll see what everybody else thinks) I'm currently working on the story outline now. As soon as I get done with classes I'll post my initial character sketches below. Well, if I have time; I've been really busy lately. Just got a second job, plus I've got to sell plasma tonight at some point.
EDIT: I was able to take pictures of them quick. Here there are. Just so you know, Tali is going to be the main character. Also, keep in mind that the artwork for Stork has already been changed.
Will the whole cast be aliens? Is it onboard a space ship or on a planet? Will it be rebels vs. an empire or just slice of life in SPAAACE?