January 29th, 2010
Pot. Kettle.
Pot calling the kettle black.
And speaking of distractions, notice how long it took Topo to realize the sky around him is… well… sky? And blue? When he should be in a room? At night? He’s a slow-ish bear. Once again, explanations will be forthcoming very soon. This will mean some heavier dialogue pages, which means less backgrounds and such…. I realize there have been three big “scenery reveals” in just the past few pages, so I want to stick to one place for a bit… somewhat of a challenge since, as Topo pointed out, Mari and Rico haven’t a clue what’s going on. I’m sure the situation will figure itself out.
Have a great weekend everyone!
January 29th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
BEAUTIFUL!!!
January 29th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
I don’t understand the “what’s the use” line…
January 30th, 2010 at 1:08 am
The tree is a pocket dimension?
January 30th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
=) I love the Making Of video for this page too Mike. That house has some mighty fine line-work going on.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Geez, that house is Luscious. Fantastic, man. Keep it up!
January 31st, 2010 at 3:26 pm
That house is beautiful! And I love the pinkish sky….and how indeed it took Topo a long time to realize where he was.
I didn`t quite get the `what`s the use` line either, I took it for `well I seem to be in this really strange place to I guess I`ll hang around here for a bit` but it could also mean `I don`t know if I can find my friends`
January 31st, 2010 at 4:23 pm
The “What’s the use?” line in panel 6 is him giving up on lecturing Swoop about staying in one place (in panel 3). Swoop disappears in the 5th panel. Perhaps Topo’s separate string of thought in the 4th panel makes it confusing. Are others having trouble with this? How can I reword it? Or should we zoom out a little in the 5th panel to emphasize Swoop’s absence?
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:17 am
I think I know what was causing the confusion for me. In the upper-right panel, it’s unclear whether Topo is looking DOWN or STRAIGHT AHEAD (because the eyes don’t have irises…). It looked to me like he was looking straight ahead and the following two panels therefore didn’t make sense.
Maybe if you put some outwardly-radiating black lines in that panel where Swoop “should” have been, to emphasize Swoop’s absence? That would also make clear what Topo was looking at.
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:19 am
(outwardly radiating black lines from the shape of something that’s not there… I hope that makes sense. I’ve seen that used in comics)
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:21 am
That upper right panel is like one of those optical illusions… once you get it into your head that Topo is looking straight ahead, it’s hard to make yourself see it any other way. And vice versa.
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I agree with Esn in the above if you find it to be fitting to the scene. If not, it’s not THAT confusing.
…hmmm…
You could ALSO do what you did in page 7 by putting the little whites in Topo’s eyes to emphasize where he’s looking.
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:56 pm
And by page 7 I mean panel 7!
February 4th, 2010 at 12:03 am
Ok guys, I tilted Topo’s eyes slightly diagonally in the upper right panel. They should read as looking down now (I hope). I also liked Esn’s suggestion of the action lines indicating Topo’s surprise that Swoop isn’t where he should be. Hopefully those two changes together make the panel and the following one read much clearer.
Thanks for the suggestions!
February 4th, 2010 at 12:31 am
Nice touch up. Should I update the video now ;P
February 4th, 2010 at 4:28 am
Yes, I think that does make it much clearer. The one thing that looks a little wrong now is that Topo’s diagonally-tilted eyes seem too far on the right of his face - it feels like maybe they should be moved to the left just a little…
February 4th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Looks fine to me, Esn. He’s looking out the “corners” of his eyes.
February 5th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Your work is really stunning and fresh! …and then add another round of stunning! o.O
February 5th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
:3 The touch-up works fine Mike. Nothing too drastic but just enough to cue the reader.
February 6th, 2010 at 11:35 am
ah, I get it now with the improvements.
Nice!