Tag Archives: Webcomic design

She !s me! (Oh no! I’m a girl!)

Posted on September 4, 2010 by | 5 Comments

If I’ve had one primary complaint when it comes to gender transformation comics, it’s how lightly they treat the experience of waking up and finding that your body, your very identity, is no longer your own. To be honest, this works both for gender transformation comics and for body-switching/face-switching comics, but there is a greater level of horror attributed to being in a body that is alien to what you fundamentally are. Mind you, I’m not claiming men are better than women, or women better than men. But the truth is, we’re familiar with our own bodies. Waking up not only as someone else… but as the opposite gender? For all it’s played for laughs, when you get down to it, it’s a thing of horror.

That’s not to say there are no comics that touch on this horror theme (amusingly enough, one of the biggest offenders of the gender-switch-for-humor theme did briefly give us a glimpse of the less pleasant aspects of gender-swaps). Unfortunately, I can’t give a full review on She !s me! (Oh no! I’m a girl!) for one fundamental reason: the comic is in German. And my grasp of the German language is limited to a bare dozen words (considering I flunked out of it in high school, along with Spanish, French, and eventually Latin). Fortunately, the first seven chapters have been translated into English, for those of us who either proved inept at learning German, or who never had the opportunity.

First, I have to state this: the navigation system is suboptimal. If you have JavaScript disabled on your computer, you’ll be forced to open each thumbnail independently, and then back out of the image to go to the next. I suspect this is an aspect of the webcomic service that S!M is a part of, but I must say that not everyone will realize this is a JavaScript issue and could just give up on the comic. (Hell, it took me a while to realize that NoScript was preventing the system from operating properly, and I’m used to the quirks of the system. Some people may not even realize their system has JavaScript disabled.)

The comic itself takes a refreshingly honest look at the psychological aspects of an unwanted gender change, and as more than just the psychology of transsexualism. While S!M does indulge in some traditions found in many TG comics (such as the protagonist taking time to “explore” her new body, though the screen is blacked out in both the original German and in the translated comic, and the character refreshingly feels sickened afterward at what “she” did), the story also follows some realistic progressions: the protagonist decides to “sleep it off” at first only to wake up still a girl, and she even contemplates suicide but botches the job. When she tells someone she trusts about what happened, the response is also refreshingly honest, with the doctor in question refusing to believe and accusing her of being involved in a prank.

Sadly, the German-to-English translation has only been of the first 131 comics; there’s over 400 additional comics in German that have not been translated. As the last update in the English-language section was over two years ago, I suspect we won’t be seeing updates for English readers anytime soon (unless someone were to volunteer to do the translation and alter the existing text bubbles). That said, S!M is a refreshing and disturbing examination of what would happen if a gender transformation occurred in real life, and (assuming you activate JavaScript for the site so you can use the comic’s navigation) one I recommend reading.

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Lizzy

Posted on August 5, 2010 by | Leave a comment

I’ve been seeing advertisements for Lizzy for some time; to be honest, the animated advertisements on Project Wonderful did little to attract me to the comic (I found the animation to be distracting, especially if I was viewing a site with Project Wonderful ads at work or other places where I don’t necessarily want people viewing my computer monitor; this is especially true for ads that skirt the edge of being work-safe). Finally I decided on a whim to click the link (partly because I like the cartoonist of the site I was visiting and felt that clicking an ad would be an easy way of showing loyalty) and found myself drawn into a bizarre world of cyberpunk fantasies and insanity.

Lizzy stands out from its brethren through its use of Flash animation. While other comics have experimented with HTML coding (like Damonk’s surreal comic Framed!!! did eight years ago) or shifting beyond the fourth wall (the most recent updates at Footloose are a prime example), there are few Flash comics out there. Fortunately for those readers on dial-up or with a slow DSL connection, the comics are included in a non-flash format. Naturally, a lot of the impact is lost with the JPEG comic; readers are also forced to travel through the Flash pages to reach non-Flash content, but the pages load considerably faster than the Flash content.

The main character of Lizzy is a young lady (named, naturally enough, Lizzy) who is looking forward to moving away from her home to New Urbia City, a megalopolis that can be viewed via telescope due to the vagaries of the world Remco “ChainiaC” Ketting dreamed up of. From the very start, when three teens drug Lizzy so to “have their way” with Lizzy, the comic proves to be for the less squeamish out there. (Needless to say, this comic is Not Safe For Work or for children.) Lizzy does escape being raped thanks to some not-benign rescuers who are apparently experimenting on the girl without her knowledge. From there, things take a decidedly bizarre turn with a combination of hallucinations and dreams that not only promise to puzzle readers, but leave Lizzy’s own experimenters scratching their heads as well.

If I were feeling charitable, I’d describe Lizzy as a deconstruction of the Cyberpunk genre. I’m going to be more honest; Lizzy often feels like it skirts the edge of a bad drug trip. There are several scenes where I’m unsure if the main character is hallucinating, displaced in time, or being made to see things. Her finding a band of misfits to join up with and befriend would smack of Mary Suedom if Lizzy weren’t so refreshingly flawed. (As an aside, I must applaud ChainiaC for his design of Lizzy; she’s short, plump, and fairly plain-looking. That alone would help this comic stand out from so many of its brethren.)

While the story in Lizzy feels slapdash at times and tends toward the confusing more often than not, ChainiaC deserves full kudos for his artwork. While the backgrounds tend to be somewhat minimalistic more often than not, his work on character designs is phenomenal. Each character shown has proven to be fairly unique in body-type, posture, and even to some extent facial features, rather than carbon copies only identifiable through hair and clothes. While the comic is admittedly better read in Flash, there’s enough to the story and characters that both formats are enjoyable.

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reMIND

Posted on February 23, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Generally as a rule of thumb, I avoid reviewing webcomics until they’ve had at least 35 updates. Part of this lies with the fact my own webcomic lasted but 33 updates before it succumbed to terminal hiatus (to the point that it’s no longer online and the hard drive holding the only files of it corrupted, unfortunately; in hindsight I regret removing it from the Keenspace servers when I first launched the Tangents review site). I figure any comic that has lasted at least 35 updates has gotten enough inertia rolling to remain viable.

I’m making an exception for the graphic novel reMIND as cartoonist Jason Brubaker (who is a professional storyboard artist and compositor who has worked on over a dozen major films and in print comics) is documenting the process of creating this graphic novel and giving some excellent advice that both print and web cartoonists will find helpful. While the comic aspect of reMIND has only had fifteen updates, each update is a double-page spread that tells a story that is graphically pleasing and quickly catches your interest even as it gradually builds the story and setting.

The comic is about Sonja, a young lady inventor whose cat Victuals goes missing one day… and turns up a week later with the ability to talk, manipulate objects with his paws, and comprehend things. As there have been only fifteen updates, it’s difficult to determine the gist of the story, but it appears to involve stories of lizard men (in what is either a contemporary fantasy or science fiction setting), missing animals, odd bubbling waters, and the uplift of at least one feline. From what Brubaker has said in his blog, I half-suspect that Victuals is the real protagonist of the story, and that Sonja will be playing more of a narrative role in telling Victual’s tale.

While the comic itself promises to be a fascinating tale well worth reading (both in a virtual format and when Brubaker eventually has it published), it is the research Brubaker has compiled and documented that I suspect many web cartoonists will find of use, both for online venues and for possible print compilations. Brubaker has done a considerable amount of research on creating graphic novels, including coloring processes, outsourcing segments of the art to reduce time spent (such as flatting colors, which can save cartoonists a couple of hours), lettering and font creation, and on internet resources that web cartoonists will find useful.

This research also includes information on promoting graphic novels (and by extension, webcomics), the use of advertising, and on active forum communities that may be of use for artists. What’s more, Brubaker also talked about a problem common with many internet resources; the majority of internet resources are out-of-date and in some cases obsolete. While the majority of this information was gathered with an eye toward getting a graphic novel into print, much of it can be adapted to web cartoonists who have no intent on print publication, either due to the animated aspects of their work or the limitations found in print venues.

What makes reMIND so effective is the marriage of comic and resources. There are a number of webcomic resources out there; some of them are even updated regularly. Likewise there is a growing number of webcomics that use blogging formats to allow the cartoonists to talk about their work and what went into each update. The marriage of these two helps show how this information can be used by creators, and allow readers to learn a little of what goes into creating a webcomic. Add in the fact that reMIND is an artistically skilled work that shows considerable storytelling promise, and you have a comic that is worth reading to both creators and fans alike.

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Aetheria Epics

Posted on June 6, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Back in the ’80s, I first encountered the Choose Your Own Adventure books, which allowed the reader to be more proactive in the story by choosing the protagonist’s actions. While I soon moved on to more serious literature (relatively speaking; I know my English teachers despaired of my fascination for fantasy and science fiction), I enjoyed the diversions these adventure stories provided. This format of storytelling has occasionally appeared in webcomics, with Damonk’s Framed!!! having had an HTML-coded “find your own adventure” for several strips and the comic Ctrl-Alt-Del likewise having several reader vote-directed adventures appear when the cartoonist was bored with his own storyline.

Following in these footsteps is Aetheria Epics. AE follows more in the footsteps of CAD rather than Framed!!! in that there is one storyline that reader votes is directing, rather than the continuous choices (and in-jokes) that Damonk scattered in his name-coded strips. AE is designed as a roleplaying game (very likely similar to some Japanese roleplaying computer games) allowing the readers to decide through majority vote on the protagonist’s posture, decisions, and dialogue choices. In fact, many aspects of the story have been selected by fans voting for it, from the genre to which character (of three) would be focused on to her personality type.

As part of the decision-making aspect of the comic, readers were able to select what part of the game world (Aetheria) the game would take place in, with a mixture of science fiction and fantasy settings available. The first story is a fantasy setting following the story of a young somewhat aloof female Summoner named Allete and her two friends Lily and Iris. The choices provided actually help drive aspects of the comic; one example lies with an early choice where readers decided Allete would dress casually instead of wearing the mandated uniform for Summoners, which resulted in a confrontational encounter with Instructor Magius shortly before class began.

That is not to say that the readers have complete control over the storyline. Certain parts of the comic are undoubtedly intended on occurring, such as the protagonist’s search for a nonpareil creature to form a contract with. At one point of the comic, the readers were given a choice: to apply herself on her own terms, to seek out Instructor Magius and apologize, or to run away. Undoubtedly the first two choices would have led to the quest for nonpareil summon, either through Allete’s own desire to prove herself or through her teacher’s suggestions.

While other comics have delved into the “Choose Your Own Story” genre in the past, I’m not aware of any that have consistently stuck with this theme or given their readers as wide a variety of options in terms of shaping the characters and their personalities. What’s even more impressive is that Kristof S. is writing this comic five times a week (mostly) while simultaneously writing and drawing another comic, Circumstances of the Revenant Braves. And while Aetheria Epics might not possess the vivid lines and crisp colors of other comics, the minimalism to line art and the glowing coloring style help give the comic an ethereal feel that fits the comic nicely and helps it stand out from its peers.

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Darths and Droids

Posted on April 12, 2009 by | 1 Comment

I’m a purist in some ways, especially when it comes to webcomics. This probably explains my aversion to Copy-and-Paste artwork and on the use of Poser-type programs in creating comics; to me, comics are a crafting of pencil and paper (or more recently stylus and drawing tablet). Thus I can be dismissive when it comes to alternative forms of webcomics, unless considerable effort is put into the strip to distance it from its peers (such as Crimson Dark for Poser-designed comics and Dark Red among photo comics). While Screencap comics have existed for a bit (though DM of the Rings is the only one I know of), I’ve avoided the genre as not being a webcomic as I perceived them to be.

It was four simple words on TV Tropes that first drew me to Darths and Droids: “Jar Jar, you’re a genius!” Despite that and despite reading about the series on TV Tropes, I was honestly surprised to find myself enjoying DaD considerably. See, I seriously dislike the prequel trilogy for Star Wars. I wasn’t too thrilled with Episode I, found Episode II to be clichéd and unimaginative, and ended up completely loathing Episode III. To me, Star Wars was the original unremastered unbutchered movies that I grew up with, and even then I saw the flaws and idiocies that existed in these films (to the point that to this day I’d love to see Mike, Joel, and the Bots join forces for three final MST3Ks where they make fun of the original Star Wars trilogy… for that matter, I’d probably enjoy watching them lambaste the prequels as well).

The character interactions and the “reimagined” storyline are what managed to overcome my prejudices against this comic. It has been several years since I last wore a GM’s hat (though I’ve managed to heal enough from the GM burnout I suffered from that thinking of running a game no longer gives me sharp migraines), but I still remember well on the vagaries of my gaming group and the bizarre twists that they’d throw my way. Over half of the plot twists that happened in my games were a result of things the players suddenly “realized” about the game, and I was deemed the best GM ever because of how imaginative my game became (despite the fact that imagination came from my players, not me). I see a reflection of that in DaD.
It is this divorce from the Star Wars prequel trilogy that helped win me over. While there are some fundamentals that are echoed, the writers help revamp the story into something far more believable (such as the whole “restoring balance to the Force” which the Jedi don’t want in the comic; that’s one “prophecy” that they figured out for themselves and see as a warning, not something to strive for). Some stupid elements, such as the midi-chlorians being responsible for the Force, are explained away as the fevered imaginings of the players who in the midst of roleplaying made it up on the spot. And it works.

While DaD can get confusing at times as it shifts between player interaction and character interaction, this is an element of honesty that any roleplayer can attest to. GMs and DMs will nod as they recognize player dialogue and incidences that happened in some form in their own games. Gamers will likewise see bits they recognize, whether it’s players running off on a tangent from what the GM originally had planned, players killing (or otherwise rendering moot) Non-Player Characters that the GM worked hard to build up for future games, and plot twists that leave both GM and players wondering just when the game went so far off track.

Mostly though what I find works well in DaD are the interactions between the players. The early comics based on The Phantom Menace dealt with more than just the building of the game and storyline; we also had an introduction to the characters, including Jim, who initially plays a gung-ho hack-and-slash character with Qui-Gon Jin (and stays just as gung-ho with his replacement character), Ben, who plays a more thoughtful and reserved character with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ben’s kid sister Sally who plays Jar Jar Binks and whose roleplaying has lifted Jar Jar from the role of hated comedy relief to one of the more popular characters, Pete, whose power-gaming and meta-gaming has caused his character, R2-D2, to replace Jar Jar as the most despised character, and Annie, a drama student and acquaintance of Ben’s who started as Shmi and later took up the role of a rather complex and less whiny Anakin.

And of course, there’s the GM, who I especially sympathize with. I’ve been there. I’ve watched as players go haring off in odd directions that I didn’t anticipate. I’ve seen players pull stuff out of their sleeves and leave me speechless while frantically trying to figure out how to compensate. I’ve also stopped planning in advance and just letting the players build their own stories (or at least until the GM burnout struck). And it’s here that I outgrew my aversion for the genre and the original story, and grew to just enjoy reminiscing of games of old. Darths and Droids is more than a parody of George Lucus’s deluded egoism given form in three movies. It is an homage to roleplaying groups and gamers, and whether you’re a gamer or just watched in bemusement as your significant other pretended to be something else several times a month, DaD is well worth reading.

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Gunnerkrigg Court

Posted on January 28, 2009 by | 1 Comment


One of the most insidious problems faced by webcomics is the balancing of artistic improvements and artistic complexity. While cartoonists can limit the amount of complexity found in their comics, critics of the cartoonist may view the efforts to restrain out-of-control artistic improvements as a lack of skill or even laziness. This often leads the cartoonists to present examples of their better work, sometimes offering the better art as computer wallpapers that donators can access or even in the form of prints that are sold in an attempt to make a profit in what often began as a labor of love.

Another venue for artistic improvements can exist in-comic; Gunnerkrigg Court is but one of a number of comics that utilizes a different art-style to designate a different venue for the comic, in this case when Antimony gazes into a spiritual realm to recover a magical stone. While GC uses highlights in hair (to help give the art a feeling of depth, there is minimal shading in the strip, and details are often minimalistic as a result. A sense of inter-panel continuity is also added with Antimony’s hair when she is glimpsing the other-world, with her hair flowing from scene to scene and literally joining Antimony between panels. The effect is quite striking, and in many ways a poetic flow of visual imagery.

The latest strips also emphasize the intensive planning that went into the comic as a whole. The cut on Antimony’s face (that only appears when she is in a spiritual world, and was inflicted on her by a ghost when she was on the banks of the River Annan) is but one of a multitude of elements that repeatedly appear, often planted in previous chapters without explanation and then glimpsed again and again until finally an explanation is revealed. These Chekhov’s guns not only are used for background and to promote a sense of continuity, but can even be the primary focus of stories themselves (with the very first storyline with Shadow 2 and Robot having not only driven the story that led to Antimony being on the banks of the River Annan, but for both characters to join the cast itself).

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Megatokyo

Posted on December 13, 2008 by | Leave a comment

Webcomics are first and foremost a visual medium. As such, effective use of artwork is an integral aspect of any successful webcomic. However, due to the large amount of time that goes into planning and drawing a comic, often certain aspects of the comic’s art will suffer. Artists will often use (and abuse) such time-saving measures as copy-and-paste (CaP), use of dialogue dumps to minimize art, sparse backgrounds, and more. (Karen Ellis goes into this with more detail and humor in her diary comic.) Another thing (related to CaP) that artists will often use is what I call the “talking head” method, where static figures end up fairly immobile while talking to each other.

Admittingly, this is a problem inherent in visual media, and not just for comics. If characters are in a fairly immobile situation, such as sitting on a sofa playing games or talking, stuck in a car, or even stuck in a cubicle at work, then there’s not really much action for the artist to work with. Of course, character types and personalities can help modify this (such as having a fidgety character, or someone who’ll readily whap someone at a perceived insult or even just joking around), but if the characters are sitting around talking, it’s difficult to avoid the talking head syndrome. But as the latest update for Megatokyo proves, it can be done, and can bring a scene to life in the process.

Fred Gallagher often derides his artistic abilities, perhaps because of his roots as an architect rather than a classical art student (though I don’t know the specifics of his education, Gallagher has admitted to possessing a master’s degree in architecture). I must admit some amusement at his dismissal of his architectural artistic skills; one thing I regretted in the six months I was creating a comic was my own inability to draw decent buildings (or draw at all really). Gallagher has an attention to detail that is both the bane for MT (with the amount of time that goes into each comic) and one of its brightest aspects. Unfortunately for Gallagher, he’s a poster-child for artistic complexity, though he’s been trying to decrease the time spent on each comic.

The panel that initially stood out for me was the fourth panel of Wednesday’s comic with the prongs of Ping’s fork sticking out of a piece of pie she was eating. It soon dawned on me that this was just a piece of the larger puzzle; Gallagher was showing two characters eating and drinking in the comic even as they carried on their conversation. Nor is this the first time he’s done this; five years ago we watched Tohya Miho and crew chatting over tea and cake, though admittedly Gallagher’s art has improved significantly since those earlier strips. However, these strips seem fairly immobile. They’re snapshots of set moments, and while they show movement, these movements don’t flow. (Of course, part of my view on this may be because Gallagher used three straight panels of CaP. I understand his wanting to showcase the shock Piro was in, but I feel there are better methods of revealing shock, like dropping a fork or cup.)

In comparison, the latest strips with Ping and Ibara Junko flow from panel to panel. Rather than giving us brief photographs of the events, we’re getting a feel of motion without animation. We’re watching them eat and drink, with motions carried through from moment to moment while they talk. This encompasses hand gestures, changes in facial expressions, and body positioning. Even the brief use of CaP found in panels 6 and 8 of this previous strip are disguised through Ping’s motion and a shift in camera angle. It is these touches that help turn a static media into something fluid and living.

It is this eye to detail with the humanistic touches that brings Megatokyo to life, and increases the connection readers feel toward the characters. The characters feel alive, and draw people into the story. People want Ping to find love, and feel bad for Ibara’s embarrassment concerning her dad hitting her up for money at school. This emotional investment is what keeps people coming back even with the erratic update schedule MT is currently going through. Ironically, this attention to detail is one of the very things causing the intermittent update schedule, but when it works, Gallagher slams it out of the park, making the wait more than worth it.

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