Comicgenesis is Catatonic?

So I haven't been able to update The Longest Sojourn this week due to the site and server being down every time I've tried.

I wonder what's going on?

I guess that kinda rules out me doing any reviews of any CG comics either :(

Three Years is a very short time.

And yet it is a very long time as well. So many things have happened I don't think I recognize webcomic-dom anymore.

Oh scratch that, I don't think it can even be called webcomics-dom anymore. On return from my self-imposed exile from the world of webcomics I find that it seems more "mainstream" than newspaper comics nowadays. Certainly none of that "GOSH! They've got comics on the web!" vibe it used to exude!

Admiteedly I am no longer a dewy-eyed idealistic college student. Maybe a little older, (the wiser part is debatable) and maybe a little bit more cynical and jaded (sorry, I had to make that pun), but still with a love for comics and writing...

Well I guess it will make re-exploring webcomics a little bit more interesting then!

Hotspot #12: Breaking Your Arm Patting Your Back

My latest column is up over at Comixpedia. It deals mainly with typical mystery tricks, and just for kicks I inserted some webcomic personalities and mascots in the comic. I may be a limited artist in some aspects, but I do flatter myself that I can ape art styles somewhat.

However, I have to say the recent theme, Mystery comics, gave me a bit of a twinge, because even more so than fantasy or sci-fi, Mystery has always been my favourite genre. I like stories that make readers think. I like the mystique of the unsolved. Most of all I like the concept of someone being able to see further than anyone else just because he/she observes and reasons accordingly.

So why does this give me a twinge? Well, one shortcoming of being in the Comixpedia staff is that I always feel I shouldn't ask or suggest that my own mystery comic, The Jaded be reviewed because it wouldn't be good journalism. There's no point writing/drawing a webzine if everyone who wrote for it just used it as a platform to talk about their own works. It'd be patting yourself on the back. Even worse, it just wouldn't have been fair, me misusing my influence that way.

And so, as a sucker who is very much at the mercy of her conscience, I held my tongue. And now that Mystery month is over, and despite the twinges, I'm very glad I resisted the temptation.

Ironically when I first started doing The Jaded a couple of years ago, to me, there was nothing I wanted so much, or considered a greater honour than having a Comixpedia review of the said comic. I suppose it sounds silly, and it's probably a sign of progress that I no longer feel so badly about it and even dare to admit it as I am doing now. It's not that I think a Comixpedia review is any less of an honour. It's not that I care any less for my comic. (Granted, it's on hiatus now, but that's because I'm too busy and I care too much for it to churn out a half-assed job. I'd rather put it on hold and do it properly when I have time.)

It's just because I want them to do it of their own accord, with no prompting from me. I want people to review my comic because they see something in it, not because they want me to write about theirs or link to them and it's a way of catching my attention. I want to be sure the comic is reviewed on its own merit. so only then I can be sure that it was picked because it's a comic of quality [x] about topic [y], and not because author [z] makes it.

I want all this because I know that more than anything else, it'd be a true test of whether it is good. And yes... I know that at this, many people will jump up and down and protest and declare that a review isn't proof that a comic is good.

On its own that point stands true.

But to me, if someone takes the time to analyse and write about something you created for the sake of the thing itself that you created, with no strings attached, no favours expected, and without knowing you...

No matter what anyone else says, in my not-so-humble opinion, that is the greatest compliment of all.

I rarely write and inform the comics featured on Webcomic Finds that they have been reviewed. I only do it for those cases where there's something on the site itself that leads me to believe that they are looking for feedback and would appreciate it greatly.

Why? Simply because that how I would want it myself.

Stopovers at two "Dies and is 'Ded' Laughing" moments

As you all know, I've been busy recently and even went for a spate of time without reading webcomics. Now that I'm bent on catching up, I'd like to share two moments from two of my favourite comics where I laughed so hard I choked:

The first is from LinT, where great drama and strife is being enacted.

Both moments need context to understand, so I'm going to be obliged to give a quick background blurb. Naturally, spoilers abound!


At the moment, Sangwine, the blond elf is confronting his long-time rival, Al'bert, who taunts him back by professing he knows where Sangwine's house fairy (long story), Hope, has been taken. The result is Sangwine flying off the handle and threatening Al'bert with the worse fate that can ever befall an elf.

And I'm not talking about balrogs here.

(Clicky to see full sized page at source)


Next is Nahast, which managed to impress me by not pretending, like most fantasy comics do, that long flowy hair can hamper vision, and women do not need support while running around:



So while the girls go off to do their erm... supporting, Xu're, the shaman and his spirit guide, Thunder, arrive at the lighthouse where Tzelan is training the girls...



I suspect the thing that makes both jokes work so well is because they're so subtle and told with an entirely straight face. Ironically, it because these two comics are primarily fantasy comics, unlike the humour strips that people call the 'funnies', that makes the joke all the funnier for being unexpected.

On another note, most of you should notice that the current theme over at Comixpedia is Mystery comics, which alone should tell you why I asked for recommendations to Mystery-themed comics last post. Thanks for your suggestions so far, and keep em coming. Even if they're not used here or there, the recommendations will come in handy next time I'm bored and want to sink my teeth in a big fat mystery!

Pinging Art #0.8: A Demonstration of Inking with Chinese Calligraphy Brushes

Hey everyone! It's been a while, but I've been too busy (god forbid) to draw so the blog didn't get updated in the meantime.

Today I'm making a cover for Chapter Four of The Jaded. It's been a custom for me to have a portrait of a different character for each cover, so we had Jade for Chapter One, Jin for Chapter Two, Doc Ice for Chapter Three... now it's Lysanne for Chapter Four.

The chapter name is "Tears of the Deserted" and there's some fun stuff in store as I get to draw lots of fancy-dress. I want Lysanne posing in fancy dress with a set of tanzanite jewelry.



These are my pencils of the picture. You'll notice they're quite finished and clean. My friend Steve Bryant from Athena Voltaire once told me that best inking is done on good pencilling, and muddy, messy pencils are very difficult to ink, so I'm taking his advice as a philosophy to inking.

Let me introduce you to my new arsenal of inking tools. I like inking using brushes. Recently I switched from my usual sable brush and india ink setup to something closer to my roots: Chinese brushes and inks.



There are several reasons why I prefer the brushes and ink to their western counterparts.

Firstly, grindiing the ink sticks on ink stone to make ink everytime I want to ink may sound tedious, but I actually quite enjoy doing it. I'm told the process of grinding is supposed to calm you down and get you into the mood for writing/inking, but for me the main two advantages of this is 1) I can control how black I want the ink to be, which can be ridiculously black, and which my luckless india-ink counterparts have to resort to searching for super-black inks or drying out their ink bottles for. 2) My second advantage is I get fresh, new ink each time I ink. Anyone who has used india ink before should know that about half-way through the bottle, most india inks tend to "go off" after a few weeks/months, and start sedimenting (I hate it when that happens, it makes for horrible blotchy inking). With the sticks, I only make enough to use each time, so there's hardly any surplus left to go bad.

Secondly, the good chinese brushes, while larger at the base than the sable brushes, can retain just as sharp a point, and hold far more ink, making it easier to make long, smooth strokes as you need not dip the brush in as often. An added plus is that even the more expensive hair for the brush (xiao lang mau or wolf-hair) is still cheaper than sable. (Well, at least where I live). I guess they charge cut-thoat prices for these in America and Europe, but here they're literally a fraction of the price. Plus they actually have decent pencil-thick handles, instead of those ridiculously toothpick-thin ones. (Ok, I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean).

It's worth noting that for any kind of brush inking, it's always worth investing in the best brush you can afford. For chinese brushes, steer clear of the goats-hair brushes. Those are horrible.



These are the results of my rough inking. As you can see, despite my best attempt to keep the paper clean, I smudged some ink across Lysanne's nose.



After scanning the image into Photoshop, I do some painting over (to get rid of the smudge) and some levels tweaking to emphasize the black and get rid of the paler greys. The lighter grey washes I use for shading,



I make a copy of the clean inks and do some further levels tweaking, so that the images becomes almost pure black and white. I'll use this layer for quick colouring (easier to paint-bucket), then toss it away when I'm done.



Going banzai with the paint-bucket, I quickly fill in the large spaces with flat areas of colour, using a brush to fill in any spots the bucket misses.



After that's we toss away the stark black-and-white layer, and superimpose the clean inks on top of the colours. I usually like to add a bit of colour and shading to this, and not to mention the high-lights. Note how alive the highlighting makes her hair look.



Add a frame, background and the text, and we're done.

Around this time I notice the mistakes in perspective and facial features in my original pencil, but it's rather late to do corrections now, which will be a pain and proves why Steve is right, it's always best to correct your mistakes at the pencil stage, and not when you've gotten to the end of the whole process!

So ok, I'm still Alive

Time flies when you're running around applying for jobs and going for interviews. I do apologise to those of you who worried about me. I didn't realise over a month had passed before Kelly over at Comixpedia gave me a poke about my Essence contribution. Which, btw, you can read here. I grouse a lot about vampires there.

As you will no doubt have noticed, there is a new review below. Hooray!

Lastly, if any of you feel like pimping comics, this is the time to do it. I'm looking for recommendations for comics with a mystery theme to them. Please post them in the comments section and I will be very grateful (and so would the creator, I suppose.)

I'm still going to be busy. I've had to put The Jaded on hold and am barely managing to keep The Longest Sojourn running, but one thing at a time, and as much as I love comics, some things are just more important sometimes.

Aaannd it's 2 am in the morning, I am going to sleep.

33rd Leg: The Dementia of Magic

Comic: The Dementia of Magic
By: Nicholas Killewald

Setting and Elements: Fantasy, Magical World, DnD Influenced
Content Type: Adventure, Humor

Art Medium: Inks, Cel-shaded colours
Art Style: Simplifed Cartoony.

Is About: The adventures of a thief and his soceress sister in a land ruled by and inept king who is constantly conscripting peasants into his army.

Website: http://www.dementiaofmagic.net
Frequency: Irregular
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
I must admit my first impression wasn't very favourable. Whatever else I may think of the comic later, at first sight, the art for DoM isn't very impressive. As most comics rely on art to draw the reader in and writing to keep them there, I suspect the writing must be excellent to keep them there.

The website design is simple, although the slick Photoshopped (or should I say, GIMPed?) title image contrasts badly against the simple and cartoony art style of the comic. Link colours aren't bad, but a little tooo bright. Navigation however, is straightforward and easy to use.


The Concept: The Dementia of Magic is one of the many and common stereotypical DnD variant comics out there. You have your hero the thief, his sister the sorceress and the people of their village. I have to admit this premise didn't exactly thrill me, and if this comic had not been linked to by Catharsis, I probably would have taken a brief look and moved on. However, because the link IS there, I'm willing to give this a chance (See the importance of recommendation?). Good execution and new spins on non-original concepts can make for good reading, after all.


The Art:
The art for DoM isn't anything to talk about at. Nicholas' art is extremely simplified, which isn't a particularly bad thing, but simplified art often needs smooth lines and geometric shapes to carry it off. Despite the artist's best attempts, the wobbly linework with unvarying thickness results in a rather flat look.

The early strips are quite rough, but over time many improvements have been made, such as the change from black and white to full colour and the clear, more consistent art. The newer strips expecially show quite a bit of effort and attention to detail, and the new colouring work is actually quite good.

While the initial font was hard to read, the change to a more eye-friendly font was a godsend.

The art so far has shown a slow and steady rate of improvement, and whatever is lacking in artistic skill the artist more than makes up for with the amount of effort and attention to detail put in.


The Writing:

In all honesty, I wasn't very impressed by the first storyline. While the story was surprisingly original (No motely crew meeting up and setting out on a quest) a lot of the details didn't make sense.

Ping's train of thought:

"Eh? They killed the dragon and are heroes! Why are they running away? That doesn't make sense!"
*goes on reading anyway*

However, the writing improves drastically after Magic Mushroom storyline, and I'm happy to report that the stories often transcend their set-up and plot inconsistencies by being quite orignal and entertaining. There's also a lot of interesting world-building going on. OK, I generally don't like fantasy that's built on Tolkien unless it has a twist, but I do like to see attempts to develop the thing out of the bloody fantasy sterotype so it adds something to it. The latter strips especially show a lot of thought being put into the world-building, ranging from programming principles put into spellcasting and a forays into the properties of the plants and culture of the world.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that the most distinctive thing about DoM is the concept of Nasal Flies. I won't tell you what they are and spoil it, but I laughed my head of and judging by the guest strips, they seem to be pretty popular.

While there are many plot inconsistencies early on (these get progressively less and less as time goes on), you get drawn in by the story so (most of the time) you're willing to suspend disbelief.

Another point about DoM is the frequent and regular use of self-insertion. The author often appears in strips pertaining to the creation of the comic, and sometimes at pivotal plot points, making jokes at his own execution of the comic. This makes the whole comic feel more like a comic where the creator learns how to make a fantasy comic. Self-insertion being what it is,it sometimes works and sometimes doesn', but all in all I found the self-insertion strips to be tolerable, instead of the usual closing of the browser window and the vow to never return ( though I shouldn't be one to talk. I've used it myself a few times.)

And... Do I see a reference to Catharsis here?


Problems:

Despite the fact the art is not exactly the comic's string point, my complaints are all concerning writing. Other than the aforementioned plot inconsistencies...

WARNING RANT INCOMING
This is one thing about DnD variant stories that annoys the hell out of me. "Thief" is NOT, and should NOT, be considered a respectable profession. It is definitely an profession you DO NOT admit to having in the open unless you want to be tracked down and tossed in the dungeon for. No one should be able to say "Oh that's So-and-so the Thief's house over there", especially as they live in a place where there are lots of soldiers running around conscripting everyone. I know it's imperative for most fantasy stories to have the stealthy sneaky thief character, but for god's sake at least have the guy/girl pretend to be a shoemaker or peddler or farmer or something.

The other main problem I have with the writing is what I call "It's a Small World After All" and "The World Revolves Around Our Protagonists" syndrome.

The former refers to the fact how every character in the world seems to know everyone else, when logically, that should not be possible. Not only that, the in a lot of cases, some new character the protagonists meet knows someone else the protagonist knows from the past. Not only that, but the characters seem to run into the same people in different places over and over again. Whether it's the palace guard or the evil mage or the elven librarian, it does make you wonder after a while if the population of the entire fantasy world barely reaches double digits.

The latter syndrome is also one that is common in most fantasy fiction, but is no less annoying for that. This refers to the annoying tendency for everything important that ever occured to happen to, or around the main the characters. While I realise that the story wouldn't be very interesting if NOTHING happened to them, how believable everytime something major happens the main character just happens to be in the thick of it decreases.

Overall:

It's hard to put my finger on what exactly it is that makes this comic work. Despite having a number of non-trivial shortcomings (both in art and writing), I found myself enjoying the comic and actually liking the characters.

I suspect this may be due to the sheer amount of effort that has obviously gone into the comic. The creator shows such enthusiasm and depth of thought about the background and world that the reader feels it, and is pulled along with it.

DoM may not be to the taste of most people, but if you don't require lavish art, like original storylines and have a high threshold in suspension of disbelief, give DoM a try, and you may find that you'll enjoy yourself.

Oh, And the concept of "Nasal Flies" is genius.


The Next Leg:

I was going to review Stuff of Legends, but as the comic appears to have reached an end or hiatus, so I decided to head back to the DoM link page and pick another comic.

This is a good thing, really, since I seem to have a bias towards fantasy comics and really should be experimenting more of the other stuff.