Hey folks
I wanted to take some time for a little self-reflection. This might be a bit long and boring, so if this isn't your type of read, you can ignore this post and move on with your day. Otherwise, if you’re interested, read along.
(Pictured above: A rare and happy Charlatte n Dreadna)
So last Monday, the Jump! Newgrounds Comic contest winners were announced. Although I didn’t win, I was still excited to see Dead Silence as a runner-up in the top 10. It may not mean much to some, but for me, it’s something I was genuinely proud of.
That said, after reading the reviews, I can understand why I got the score I did. So today, I thought I could discuss these critiques and, as the news title stated, do a little self-reflection to address these responses. This isn’t going to be me defending myself; it's just some fun facts that even the judges might like to know.
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“Clearer written dialogue”
Admittedly, I rely on hand-drawn text a little too much, sometimes not realizing how messy it looks. It’s definitely more suited for titles and headers. I’ll try to keep the use of boxes in mind whenever necessary. And I’ll try to dedicate some time to make a font that’s fit for my darker tones.
“More longer and graphic kills.”
I wanted to add this towards the end. There were even plans for each victim to have their own dedicated page. But trying to create a story like this within a 15-page limit was a lot more than I could chew. There might’ve been at least a page or two I could’ve cut out or redone, but with the buildup I was adding, some of those pages were kept at the cost of a rushed-looking ending. Hopefully, I won’t try to cram a large story into a short comic next time.
“Some pages come off a bit chaotic and disorganized.”
I’m inspired by Portal 2: Lab Rat whenever I make my comics. I like to see the chaos and mess flow naturally as you read the panels.. Though I could understand some parts (like pages 5 and 10) could use a bit of fixing to their flow. Plus, a lot of the panels are a bit overcrowded; That mostly had to do with both the dimensions I gave myself to work with and how much I tried to show in each page when some could’ve used fewer panels.
“Tongue and cheek edgy tone”
Admittedly (as embarrassing as it is to share), there have been a lot of suppressed feelings I’ve bottled up over the years of my life that are only now being expressed through my art. I’m a bit late on the whole emo phase, so, for now, it’s here to stay. But even I’m aware when it’s a bit much.
Making the comic, I realized just how edgy and cringy it was going to be. And my God, was it going to be harder to read at an earlier point; thank God I double-checked and revised the story. I knew it would still have those tones in the end, so I actually tried to balance it out with some proper storytelling. Gotta have some controlled chaos after all.
“Stiff poses”
My one true weakness that I’m still trying to conquer to this day. Ironically, ambitions are my enemy. I get a little too confident with some poses that would work, but I soon realize that I don’t have proper reference or properly sketched out shapes to do so, and thus I back out and do something simpler instead. It’s become a bad habit that I’m still battling.
“The art was interesting for sure, but kinda felt lost in the story telling.”
Not too sure if I’m reading this right, but I wanted to try addressing it:
In this case, I believe they could be referring to Charlatte’s and Dreadna’s sudden appearance without a proper introduction. For stories like this, I tend to purposefully leave out certain details and scenes so the audience could draw their own conclusions and theorize what happened and what led to these events. Although in this case, I felt like it wasn’t important to tell these characters’ background info for this story anyway. Still, I could see how that may confuse the reader. We were working with a limit, so I had to get creative.
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And with that, that just about wraps it up. Congrats on reading up to this point. And congrats to the winners of the contest! It was fun participating; I’m glad it got me off my ass and made me create some lore for Charlatte. She’s a favorite character of mine, and I hope to doodle her up and Dreadna some more in the future.
And if any of the judges happen to be reading this, a very special big thanks to you for reading and reviewing my comic! I’m always looking for improvement wherever.
That’s all for now. Hope to see yall later <3
