A LITTLE HELP?
I'd like to ask a serious question for the people who like to offer feedback and critiques.
What I'm curious to know, is how well the dialogue bubbles read. While this particular strip isn't a good example, normally I give each character a special color, style, or font for their individual speech balloons. (Purple for the Arbiter, Blue for Cortana, etc)
Doing that allows me to have less of the arrows pointing at each characters head throughout the comics. I would like to know if this is a problem for people, or if it comes across as easy to read. SPAWN comics used that same technique and I always thought it helped things really stand out.
Thanks in advance to any who offer their comments. I really do appreciate it. :)
ABOUT THE 'NADES
Someone wanted to know what names I decided to assign to the Grenades from number 24. I think I'm gonna go with Doug and Bob. I wanted to avoid Bob because that's my dad's name, but naming them after the McKenzie bros. was a stroke of genius.
And I like the idea of Can-NADE-ian Plasma Grenades. So kudos to Phaedrus for suggesting it. (If I had come up with it, it would be a comic strip gag by now/lol) Although I must say, all the suggestions were very creative and thanks to everyone who took the time to chime in. That strip got a record 30 comments, the most feedback yet!
UPDATE, FROM LOUIS WU, 6 DEC 07
ZZoMBiE13 was inspired by my news post to create this masterpiece (1440x900, 179k) - he totally rocks. My day has been made.
And for the record, I think there's plenty of room for as many strips as the fan community can produce.
Kitty 1-1-7 FTW!!!
Are you serious MAESTRI? That sucks :(
Well, thanks for the ones you've posted thus far.
HALO HEADS R.I.P.
Great stuff man, keep up the good work!
If Jim Davis feels that I infringed on his copyright, he's welcome to every dime I made off of this comic strip. *
But if you need to call it something, call it a respectful homage.
*which is a grand total of nada dollars and bupkiss cents. $0.00(USD)
Particular good example was the turkey comic - I knew who was speaking in the final frame without her actually being in the picture.
It works really well.
I think it would have helped to get some of the (so called) jokes across a lot quicker.
As for dialog bubbles, just having plain white is fine for most comics, but ones with lots of dialog and action can get hard to read, so it really helps.
I think your speech bubbles are fine, as well.
i like the way you drew the arbiter
just like odie
Regarding "It worked for Jim Davis"
I grew up a huge Garfield fan, had all the books and an 'I Hate Mondays!' coffee mug in college. I must say that todays strip is very complimentary of Jim Davis' work and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Although, it is almost creepy how well Arby transferred onto the Odie model. Using his mandible to represent Odies, ever dangling, tongue was pure genius. BRAVO ZULU!
There have been, however, a few comics where there is a talk bubble with no arrow that is pretty far away from the speaker; even to the point that it is up next to another speaker (such as comic #20).
It only takes a second to figure out what belongs to who, but it can be disconcerting at first.
I really enjoy reading this comic, keep up the fantastic work!
@Text Style: I like what you've done so far. Cortana in Blue, Arbiter in Purple makes it easier to quickly get to a punchline without having to follow arrows all the way back to the head. You even could go further with it: Cortana in a blocky "system-like" font, etc.
And as for the colored chat bubbles, I could take them or leave them. I think yours is the only strip I've read that uses that idea, and while it's neat, I find it a little distracting, and on rare occasion, confusing. I've never missed a joke because of them, but they don't really help the strip. I'm not saying I want it changed, just giving my opinion.
Oh, and the coloured speech bubbles look cool, I like 'em.
Well since Garfield. :D
Absolutely love it, keep it up!