I do notice, however, that the art for this one and the last one isn’t quite as high-quality as the ones before, so there does seem to be a slight sacrifice for updating twice a week - it’s still very good, but it feels like some finishing touches are missing.
I didn’t notice a difference. The art’s great here. I like the plot teaser with his almost give away. And the coo was priceless. I love Swoop’s beanie.
The art is fine! Just look at panel four - nothing lacking at all. It may be that there are more close-up, facial reaction shots lately instead of the panoramic cityscapes that might make you feel that way Esn. If Mike had the big scenes on each page, folks would complain that the story was dragging. Also, we don’t know about the layout for a printed piece - something that would affect the panel types… I say keep up the great work!
As innumerable folks have been quoted as saying “I’ll know it when I see it”, what I see in your strip is some mighty-fine art work (not “stupidly” drawn) and a interesting story line (which I intend to follow). PLEASE, keep up the good work!!! Thank you for a smile!
Yeah, I can’t see any lapse in quality at all o-o. Maybe a lack of soft lighting but that varries from page to page anyways.
The transition from the previous page to this one is good, but I’m wondering if it’d be stronger if it ended with the “Lentil Festival!” line rather than the “Still no sign” line. still I think I’m just nit-picking because it’s not a staggering thing. I’m just reading “Lentil festival!~” “So…what’s your point?” as more amusing and rediculous than “I could use a lunch break” “So…what’s your point.” Again, nothing staggering, because both of them work and I see the need for the last panel on the previous page too, just my two cents out there.
Ohhh! And new characters too eh?! Exciting!
@Esn: Mike explained what it was in the comments a little ways back if I’m not mistaken; but the context doesn’t matter for the point I was making, it was more of the emoitional ‘anti-villain’ ridiculousness at its peak in a witty, high-energy line [followed by a nicely placed 'word' in there XD]. The same sort’ve comedic tension could be produced if he had said something like “Street party!”[though I find a Lentil festival to be much more amusing]. That high energy line is followed by a slightly lesser energy line, followed by the release of the comedic tension in the top panels we see above for the ‘punch line’.
The joke evidently still works, I was just thinking that it might be stronger if the high-tension line was saved until the punch.
Hey gang, sorry I’m a little late responding. Looks like you guys pretty much had the discussion on your own though, which is great! It makes me feel like the OSF community is… gelling? geling? jelling? Anyway, you get the idea.
As for the artwork, the two pages previous to ‘Coo’ actually involved quite a bit of time. I don’t think the artwork suffered due to the new schedule. I’ll be the first to admit there are less than inspired periods and overly hectic weeks that prevent me from doing my best, but I wouldn’t start updating twice a week if I thought there’d be a significant drop in quality.
‘Coo’ was indeed a rush job and I’d like to come back and do a few touch ups (as I’d do with just about every page), but like Larry says, there are more story driven moments where overly rendered backgrounds can distract, even harm, the flow and quality of the story.
At some point I will revisit the work as a whole and polish each page. I’ll also be sure to do it in a concentrated period, so that the pages flow consistently without noticeable changes in quality, color, saturation, etc. This’ll most likely happen when I put the print edition together…. which is a different discussion altogether, I’m afraid.
Shane, in regards to the lentil joke, you totally got it, and it’s definitely the funniest panel to me as well, but as you can see, it doesn’t make sense to everyone. Heck, I didn’t know what a lentil was until eight years ago, and that’s just because I started working at a restaurant nestled deep within the upper middle-class aging hippie demographic that is West Berkeley. Take all of that versus joking about needing a lunch break, which is slightly more universal, and you can see which was the easier joke to end the page with. I also wanted Puff’s eyes rolling in the last panel, which I suppose he could have been doing in the lentil panel, but alas, the layout just didn’t allow for it.
But hey, this comic’s a marathon, not a sprint. There’s plenty more jokes and art left to do, with plenty of time to get one of the other right!
Thanks to all for the comments and feedback! I appreciate every word of it.
June 27th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Great dialogue! This one’s very funny.
I do notice, however, that the art for this one and the last one isn’t quite as high-quality as the ones before, so there does seem to be a slight sacrifice for updating twice a week - it’s still very good, but it feels like some finishing touches are missing.
June 27th, 2009 at 1:09 am
I didn’t notice a difference. The art’s great here. I like the plot teaser with his almost give away. And the coo was priceless. I love Swoop’s beanie.
June 27th, 2009 at 6:22 am
I love how he says “this ride needs a seat belt” ! he’s such an anti-villain… makes it all more amusing.
June 27th, 2009 at 9:24 am
yeah, you gotta love max. he’s a villain, but he probably doesn’t know better. it’s just a paying gig.
June 27th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
The art is fine! Just look at panel four - nothing lacking at all. It may be that there are more close-up, facial reaction shots lately instead of the panoramic cityscapes that might make you feel that way Esn. If Mike had the big scenes on each page, folks would complain that the story was dragging. Also, we don’t know about the layout for a printed piece - something that would affect the panel types… I say keep up the great work!
June 28th, 2009 at 1:27 am
@Larry: I did say that it was still very good.
Probably, I’ve been spoiled by some of the previous entries.
June 28th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
As innumerable folks have been quoted as saying “I’ll know it when I see it”, what I see in your strip is some mighty-fine art work (not “stupidly” drawn) and a interesting story line (which I intend to follow). PLEASE, keep up the good work!!! Thank you for a smile!
June 29th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Yeah, I can’t see any lapse in quality at all o-o. Maybe a lack of soft lighting but that varries from page to page anyways.
The transition from the previous page to this one is good, but I’m wondering if it’d be stronger if it ended with the “Lentil Festival!” line rather than the “Still no sign” line. still I think I’m just nit-picking because it’s not a staggering thing. I’m just reading “Lentil festival!~” “So…what’s your point?” as more amusing and rediculous than “I could use a lunch break” “So…what’s your point.” Again, nothing staggering, because both of them work and I see the need for the last panel on the previous page too, just my two cents out there.
Ohhh! And new characters too eh?! Exciting!
June 29th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
love the last five panels. reminds me of every morning that i wake up (including the pigeon).
June 29th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
The way Swoop gets up is just awesome, and too cute! `Coo`
:D His expressing when he sees the pigeon is priceless.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
I’ll just add my praise to the heap here… the art work is fantastic.
June 29th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
@Shane: Actually, I didn’t understand the “Lentil Festival” line in the previous one; I have no idea what that is (I suppose I should Google it).
June 30th, 2009 at 5:10 am
@Esn: Mike explained what it was in the comments a little ways back if I’m not mistaken; but the context doesn’t matter for the point I was making, it was more of the emoitional ‘anti-villain’ ridiculousness at its peak in a witty, high-energy line [followed by a nicely placed 'word' in there XD]. The same sort’ve comedic tension could be produced if he had said something like “Street party!”[though I find a Lentil festival to be much more amusing]. That high energy line is followed by a slightly lesser energy line, followed by the release of the comedic tension in the top panels we see above for the ‘punch line’.
The joke evidently still works, I was just thinking that it might be stronger if the high-tension line was saved until the punch.
June 30th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Hey gang, sorry I’m a little late responding. Looks like you guys pretty much had the discussion on your own though, which is great! It makes me feel like the OSF community is… gelling? geling? jelling? Anyway, you get the idea.
As for the artwork, the two pages previous to ‘Coo’ actually involved quite a bit of time. I don’t think the artwork suffered due to the new schedule. I’ll be the first to admit there are less than inspired periods and overly hectic weeks that prevent me from doing my best, but I wouldn’t start updating twice a week if I thought there’d be a significant drop in quality.
‘Coo’ was indeed a rush job and I’d like to come back and do a few touch ups (as I’d do with just about every page), but like Larry says, there are more story driven moments where overly rendered backgrounds can distract, even harm, the flow and quality of the story.
At some point I will revisit the work as a whole and polish each page. I’ll also be sure to do it in a concentrated period, so that the pages flow consistently without noticeable changes in quality, color, saturation, etc. This’ll most likely happen when I put the print edition together…. which is a different discussion altogether, I’m afraid.
Shane, in regards to the lentil joke, you totally got it, and it’s definitely the funniest panel to me as well, but as you can see, it doesn’t make sense to everyone. Heck, I didn’t know what a lentil was until eight years ago, and that’s just because I started working at a restaurant nestled deep within the upper middle-class aging hippie demographic that is West Berkeley. Take all of that versus joking about needing a lunch break, which is slightly more universal, and you can see which was the easier joke to end the page with. I also wanted Puff’s eyes rolling in the last panel, which I suppose he could have been doing in the lentil panel, but alas, the layout just didn’t allow for it.
But hey, this comic’s a marathon, not a sprint. There’s plenty more jokes and art left to do, with plenty of time to get one of the other right!
Thanks to all for the comments and feedback! I appreciate every word of it.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:57 am
Oh no doubt that the professor’s expression is priceless Mike XDD