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So I recently got my hands on some comic strip boards, and started mucking around with the idea of a traditional newspaper comic strip - possibly even submitting it to the syndicates.

The idea is to focus on a hard-luck, mid-tier supervillain, (still working on the name) and his various misadventures in trying to break out. Just...any feedback on the first strip here? I rarely do color, so this is kind of a shot in the dark with that.

I'm not sure how I feel about the color of his cape. It doesn't match the orange on his belt, and if it did I think it might be a bit over-the-top on the color scale, but it's close enough for me to wonder if it's supposed to be closer to that color, or if it's supposed to be a good complementing color between the red of his suit and the orange of the belt. I don't know that it doesn't work for me, but I'm not sure that it does work for me either. Also, on the belt/pants thing... what are the cracky-looking lines supposed to denote? Are they wood grain? Wrinkles? Shoddy metalworking craftsmanship? Just lines for the sake of lines? They don't stand out as much in panel 3, since it seems like he's kind of bending at the waist a little bit, but in panel 4 they seem a bit out of place. Other than that, the only thing that I can see that could use cleaning up is the points of the conversation bubbles as the drop down are kind of scratchy looking, like you used the diagonal line tool in MS Paint and they didn't render well or something, but that's a pretty minor detail.

Love the concept though.

Sounds like a fun concept.

Two things that stick out to me:
- pick where the cape is going to attach and stick with it.
- I don't know what you're doing with those serratus muscles, but it's not working.

Cool idea. I like it. Won't fly at syndicates because their shit is so entirely mainstream (see Garfield), but that doesn't mean it's not a good idea. Also, a nod to the syndicates:

@ Gared - Good points. I use Photoshop 5.5 for my lettering, and reduced the strip prior to lettering, so I get that aliased look, which does suck.

The belt - didn't get into it, but it's an ancient relic he stole, and it gives him his enhanced physical power. It's supposed to appear rock-like - smooth yet very old.

The coloring - yeah - the cape was a pain. I don't think it looks right, either. But hey, when you're colorblind, you're more than happy to get that feedback.

@ drifter - I really went for an angular look, and the sides just kinda came out like that. I might clear up some of the interior details, but I like that basic shape for my character.

Thank you both for the crits!

Honestly, I probably would only continue this in black and white, with hand lettering like I'm doing with Zaptronic. The color just doesn't look right, and takes so much more time. I'm having enough trouble just scanning them in. All I have is a Viewpoint wand scanner, and while the scans themselves look good, straightening them out alone is a major pain.

I would worry that this might overlap a little with Evil, Inc., but I like the concept ok. It sounds a bit like what Wile E. Coyote might do if he got his help from AIM/HYDRA instead of ACME.

--Patrick

Hems closely to Evil Inc and Dr. Horrible but if you do it smart and with a clever new direction I think it could work.

Been a year since I first posted this, but I've developed the concept a great deal more. My antagonist protagonist is a single father in a supervillain rut, looking to make a comeback.

I laughed.

If you want a strip to submit to newspapers, try moving the focus on how young people are lazy. When I read the sunday comics that's usually the punchline of at least 4 strips.

Also, computers are supposed to make things easier but they just make things harder!

Cynicism aside, I like the idea. I think I liked the gold armbands in the first strip more though.

Eh, it wouldn't be a syndicate submission - just a fun project.

phil said:

If you want a strip to submit to newspapers, try moving the focus on how young people are lazy.

Click to expand...

HAHAHA JUST LIKE MY TEENAGER HAHAHAOHMANSOREAL

So I think I'm going to pursue this. It's my really funny comic, and I think I need really funny.

I'd read it.

This would be the last preview strip...

So now this is a thing.

http://supervillainous.the-comic.org/

And this thing even has an RSS feed. Good man.

So this is crazy. This is really crazy. I've already got four strips done, two posted, and I am just flying through production. I feel I could seriously hit a Mon/Wed/Fri schedule.

That's funny as hell, man!

Good so far man. Excited to see where you'll be 6 months from now.

So I just got accepted into the Spider Forest Webcomics Collective. Since they have strict rules about being part of multiple groups, it looks like I'll be building a new site and hosting it with them. Something a little better looking than what I've got now.

That means no more putting them up here, doesn't it?

They don't have to know about that. If anything, I'm simply sharing them here to promote the comic. Halforums isn't a webcomic network anyway, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Yay! We're irrelevant

North_Ranger said:

Yay! We're irrelevant

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Just enough, my friend. Just enough.

Still gonna be using HF as your forum? I like this strip more than I thought I would, no offense.

I always found Zappit's strips to be well paced, written and drawn. His main problem was finally settling on a concept that he stuck with. Though, I admit, I wasn't a fan of the geek life comics. However, @Zapp[DOUBLEPOST=1378423860,1378423725][/DOUBLEPOST]I don't know what happened there, half my post got chopped off.

As I was saying @Zappit you should pull out the old robot apocalypse strips. You could use them in case you need some filler for Supervillainous. I still love the "Daddy loves you.... to a point!". That was brilliant and literally had me laughing out loud.

This is still my forum. Always will be.

I don't think I'm going to need filler. Tomorrow's strip will be late because of the flurry of activity involved with Spider Forest. I made plans to update Mondays and Fridays only to mesh with my work schedule, each strip barely takes a day and a half if I have adequate free time. I'm starting the first of two story arcs I'm really excited about. The second might be one of the funniest things I've ever written. I don't see myself overextending with this one, or losing my attention span. If it was going to happen, it would have already happened.

I still think you should expose more people to the Robot Apocalypse comics. They were great.

So here's the new site thus far - a Wordpress blog utilizing Comic Easel as my management system. Tiffany Munro: http://betweenplaces.spiderforest.com/ has been helping me a tremendous amount, building the site.

http://supervillainous.spiderforest.com/

Sweet, work doesn't block it

Huh, this move might have been very good. I just shot up over 1,000 spots on The Webcomic List.

I keep going up The Webcomic List - now 429 out of the 22,000 or so.

Bit of a development. I contacted my old creative partner from my first webcomic, Cute Ninja Girls, about taking a character I created for that strip and transplanting him into Supervillainous. He gave me his blessing, and I'm pretty damn excited because he will become part of a major storyline. Since there may be fewer than five folks who would have read/remember CNG, here's an updated rendering of one of my all-time favorite creations, the ancient demon Gul'Jagen!



And as for his history, this was perhaps his finest moment in CNG.


Dang, has my art come a long way...

The premise is still amusing. As are the cameos.

--Patrick

Woah. Supervillainous jumped up to 318 at The Webcomics List. It's getting close to cracking the top 300 after only four months of existence.

I finally installed Google Analytics, and I have to say, I'm kinda disappointed. Not in me, but some of you. Not one Canadian visitor today, on an update day. Germany, Great Britain, Singapore, sure...ZERO Canadians. Which leads me to some theories.

We've got Americans posing as Canadians.
Canada's Internet is out today. Try unplugging the modem and plugging it back in.
Canada hates me.

Zappit said:

I finally installed Google Analytics, and I have to say, I'm kinda disappointed. Not in me, but some of you. Not one Canadian visitor today, on an update day. Germany, Great Britain, Singapore, sure...ZERO Canadians. Which leads me to some theories.

We've got Americans posing as Canadians.
Canada's Internet is out today. Try unplugging the modem and plugging it back in.
Canada hates me.

Click to expand...

Another Theory: There is no Canada.

Shawnacy said:

Another Theory: There is no Canada.

Click to expand...

Good God! It IS all Alaska!

Zappit said:

Good God! It IS all Alaska!

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Great Firewall of China?

Pffft.

--Patrick

All Canadians are JCM alts.

I just read it on the forum! Sheesh.

Jeez!

Gosh!

Gadzooks!

It's official. Canadians have overtaken Germans in terms of traffic numbers. Just thought I'd update that info for all the person who might be interested.

Supervillainous cracked the top 300 on The Webcomics List, hitting 291 today.

I loved Meat just breaking the HELL out of that dude's leg.

'Nother little milestone. When you type "Supervillainous" into Google, my site is the first one to come up. I had been buried under a lot of other results before.

Grats on that, man. I really like your comic.

The time draws near. You must prepare.

*clears throat*

ZAPPIT IS A HAAACK.

drifter said:

The time draws near. You must prepare.

*clears throat*

ZAPPIT IS A HAAACK.

Click to expand...

Better grow my neckbeard in preparation.

I'm now up to 1,000 unique visitors this year on the home site. I've also started putting up vote incentives on my homepage, which has boosted my TWC rank up over 500 spots in a week.

Could turn out to be a good year.

Preview panel for Friday's comic!

Uh, wow. I've been hanging around the mid-300-400's in The Webcomic List. (not the one that requires voting) I go check my site a minute ago...

I'm 53.

It's a really good comic. With the right exposure, I think you could be Big. With a capital B.

I've hit 2,000 uniques so far this year, with a minimum of 500+ visits a week. People are still voting SV up even though I'm not actively campaigning this month.

Plus, here's a little bonus. Gul'Jagen and Dirk actually first appeared in another comic I worked on back in 2005. My partner from that comic had no problem with me just taking them.

Have you posted that on here before, or have I just been associated with this group for almost ten years now.... cause I know I've read that before.

He's posted it before.

--Patrick

Seriously, though, if you include the previous associated boards, I've been here a hell of a long time. Sometimes it all bleeds together

For the first time, Supervillainous has had over 1,000 unique hits in a week. I'm close to 1,200 right now. I think the Reddit post helped quite a bit there.

So Supervillainous hit its one-year anniversary back on the 20th. I'm doing another Reddit thread for reviews and feedback.

http://www.reddit.com/r/webcomics/comments/2br8pr/my_comic_is_a_year_old_please_give_it_a_critique/

Well, that gif's getting saved.

Huh. I was going through my old Pixel strips ( been thinking about bringing it out of hiatus) and I just discovered that Chad isn't quite the unique and original concept I thought he was.

http://pixel.thecomicseries.com/comics/25

Got a review and an interview over at Ideal Comics!

http://troamm.com/idealcomics3/blog/2014/10/13/the-quarterbin-follies-2-supervillainous/

Not just a review, but an interview? People want to talk to you now and get your opinion on things?
Hmm, you might be catching on.

--Patrick

If you’ve been following my Miscellaneous thread, you’ve seen my recent color work. Turns out I’m able to produce extra pages and still keep Huzzah! updating weekly. Well, I felt nostalgic, and started to ponder what a Supervillainous reboot/relaunch might look like. Not that easy given how the strip ended, but in keeping with the comic’s history of taking the piss out of the genre, i made this.



Lord help me, I’m extremely tempted to keep going, especially now that I could handle two weekly comics.

He is carrying a newspaper. D’ya think 20min will be enough?

—Patrick

Why the hell would I be updating this thread?

Well, I don’t think I can continue Huzzah! I came up with that during a time when I was both very sick and very depressed. I’ve tried to work on it a few times, but it just takes me back to that. I don’t want my head to ever go back there.

So I got to thinking - when was I really happy doing a comic? Well, that would be the only comic I’ve ever finished - Supervillainous. But...the Crimson Claw and the whole Claw family had their story told. It’s over. Let them be, Zap.

Which brings me to this: Supervillainous Volume 2. New cast. New story. Same world, but really separated from the original volume. I had a great idea for a concept for this one. A villain and hero, who have battled in the past, end up inadvertently dating each other in their civilian lives. When they finally figure out each others’ alter-ego, it gets very interesting.

Here‘s a sketch of the new villain “protagonist,” The Flatliner.