New Character Designs

spuds · January 2012

Long time lurker, long time ago poster.
I figured it time to spoof all the damn cop shows out there. I'm still working on all this (have been working on these designs for awhile), launch in a couple of months, I'll post progress and stuff as I go along. Enjoy.

Candy Beaver, Director of Ops

"Bets" Forensic Scientist

Guy Flaymour, Goon Trainer / House Mom, makes great muffins

Major Dick Powers, Field Director

"Gooch" IT nerd, code monkey, ladies man.

"JJ", Jamal Johnson, Demolitions Expert, aka "The token black guy"

NakedZergling · January 2012

I like it. Clean style, consistent look. Good work.

Spectre-x · January 2012

Your suff has a lot of personality, I like it. The only thing a bit off is JJ's nose. There's a bit of a tangent there at the tip.

m3nace · January 2012

These are really cool, clean and charismatic. I mistook Dick Powers' legs for clown shoes on the first one though, but maybe that's just me.

brokecracker · January 2012

m3nace wrote:

These are really cool, clean and charismatic. I mistook Dick Powers' legs for clown shoes on the first one though, but maybe that's just me.

Once you see it, it cannot be unseen.

These are really fun! Can't wait to see them in action.

spuds · January 2012

you are right on that tangent. Thanks. I think if I put a white mark where the pants line would be on Major Dick, it could read better. Thanks for the feedback!

Kochikens · January 2012

One thing to keep in mind, is that in that first piece you posted you should never cut someone off at the joints. Especially the knees.

The_Glad_Hatter · January 2012

Altough he DOES look pretty rad with no legs and clown shoes... Nice designs by the way. Hope you get your comic online asap.

spuds · February 2012

A little work in progress, no background, effects, etc...

spuds · February 2012

A little sneak peek, comic #1
1.1.png

lizard eats flies · February 2012

One thing that caught me was in the first panel, the word bubbles didn't flow correctly for me. I read both of Candy's lines back to back, instead of reading it with Dick's line in between.
The floating cigar amuses me.

rts · February 2012

Yeah I did the same thing, probably something worth looking into. Also I think you have a really good thing going here.

Mayday · February 2012

lizard eats flies wrote:

The floating cigar amuses me.

I'm even more amused with all the ash he's getting in his coffee.
@Spuds: those boobs... I get it that they're supposed to be huge and stylized but they don't look right on the second panel (her right one goes under her arm?!).

spuds · February 2012

Thanks for the feedback.

yeah Mayday, they bother me too...couldn't figure it out... I have A TON of work to do on drawing girls...I think I know how to fix it.

Any suggestions on the word balloons? Maybe an example? I guess I could just detach it and move it down a notch.

The ashes into the coffee is a deliberate site gag. Glad you guys like it.

spuds · February 2012

Not that I want to get in the habit of fixing things and just want to plow forward, but for the 1st strip I reworked it.

1.11.png

Mayday · February 2012

Generally, a reader's eye wanders left to right FIRST and only then (when there's nothing left) up to down. I have little experience with actually drawing comics, so I'd better not draw it myself, but I'd say you need to actually put Dick's bubble between Candy's bubbles (oh my!).

spuds · February 2012

hmm...I'll have to look around at different comics, see if I can find something. It has to be common.

DirtyDirtyVagrant · February 2012

Yeah, generally you read right to left and then down. Hell, you don't even have to look very far. Read some of the conversations in Penny Arcade.

NightDragon · February 2012

Well, to start...bewbs don't start at the trapezius. They also don't "end" behind the armpit.

Honestly, if you just google "drawing breasts" and look at the result from donmai.us , that might help you a bit, because all of the errors listed there are things you're doing. (Even though it's anime-styled, the suggestions are still relevant).

Obviously the more you understand real anatomy, the better you'll be able to stylize anatomy in such a way that still looks correct. For the time being though, that reference should help you with the easiest-to-fix problems.

spuds · February 2012

well... my wife has a nice rack, time for some life study drawings. Thanks, the reference should help. Guess, I'll just have to spend a day drawing boobs.

NightDragon · February 2012

Not a horrible assignment! :P

NibCrom · February 2012

Here's how I would set up the dialogue balloons in the first panel:

earthwormadam · February 2012

proper

ninjai · February 2012

Major dick powers. I wonder what those powers are?

spuds · February 2012

good feedback on the balloons, thanks!

ninjai -

spuds · February 2012

Pushing along, quite a few strips done, here's one. Obviously, this is just art. I'm trying to keep the art between 1.5 and 2.5 hours. This pulled in at 2.5 hours.

spuds · March 2012

A strip halfway into season 1. One of the running gags are the things JJ and Gooch talk about deep into the night while performing surveillance.

farbekrieg · March 2012

artistically i think you are killing it (in fact the only thing that struck me as weird is the ear placement on a guy in the last panel)... the writing still seems weak, in this particular case bland... which im hoping is due to being delicate around the 'race' issue, but the two bubbles at the end repeat the same joke (minority overcoming diversity) and are interchangeable.

As an example (not particularly a better ending, but one i would find funnier. but my sense of humor is pretty awful) is to have gooch awkwardly drinking from his beverage and rather guiltily eying jj.

edit: i know this is how things work stylistically in these webcomics (PA/CtrlAltDel/etc), but mouth placement in the corner of the face always seems weird... structurally.. when the head is partially turned it works, but when looking directly at them (or close to it) it starts to weird me out. so panel 2 fine, panel 3 seems off-ish

spuds · March 2012

I think that is some valid feedback.

Damn humor. Hmm, Gooch drinking and looking, just doesn't do it for me in the last panel, and it's not really in Gooch's personality to NOT comment on it, he's kind of a smart ass. I was finding it funny that to Gooch, he didn't relate JJ to the black kid, but yet the Chinese girl. I always thought it a funny esthetic that in text books as a kid, there is a black kid in a wheel chair, a blonde girl, a chinese girl in leg braces, a mexican girl with a lisp (not sure how that's illustrated, maybe that's a better punch). So, to me they really aren't interchangeable, they mean different things.

I think I can pump it up a bit, make the dialogue more sharp. I guess I'm trying to find that line between highly offensive (which I don't want to do for the sake of doing it) and PG-13.

As far as mouth placement, I know what you mean, I guess that's a style choice.

Nic · March 2012

Diggin' the style. Makes me think of somewhere between Stephen Silver's Danny Phantom designs and a little bit of Dave the Barbarian. Keep it up!

spuds · April 2012

Launching my comic tomorrow, hope you guys come check it out. I appreciate the feedback!

Linespider5 · April 2012

This is

Pretty Great!

It also looks like you're having fun making it, which is always the sign of a great comic.

Penny Arcade

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