Finals BEGIN!

Entries due August 9th, 23:59 PST

Highway Status:

Bad stuff a happenin'

Round Guidelines:

THIS. IS. The last round o_o Make it happen, make it good.

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[link] vs [link]

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Final Round Spectator Entries:

[link]

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FINAL ROUND JUDGING



so, it's been a long road (LOL PUN) for both of you to get here. Now it's my job to decide who takes home the gold. Well, assuming the other judges don't overrule me. Which they may. Anyways, since both entries are pretty substantial and I could easily go on forever with point-by-point, I'll spare you all that this time and focus on the main things. Feel free to pester me if you want more specific critique on some area.

Art wise, niether of your entries were the best looking that I've seen from you. Considering the length of them, that's understandable. Rose's entry was cleaner than the last couple, with relatively strong consistency, though it was pretty bare bones in some areas. Swinger's could use some work on anatomy, and generally some tightening up on the linework. Unlike most entries I've seen though, Swinger's visuals get stronger at points near the end instead of the beginning.

It's the story where both entries really attempt to throw their punches. Various plot points were ommited in both - Anarchy didn't so much as cameo in either of them - but overall I was impressed with how much you guys packed in.

The falling whale made me laugh. The biggest problem I had with Rose's entry was that nothing really added up. There were lots of things flying about - Isaac cameo, contestants leaving, Kirk, Metis, etc etc ... but none of it really seemed to interconnect. A lot of the pieces could have been pulled out, and the resolution would have remained basically unchanged. Kirk himself contributes remarkably little to the entry as a whole. The last page also rather severely disrupts the tone set by Jacky's final line. It probably would have been stronger if cut off there.

On the other end of things, Swinger's entry covers a lot of things as well, and also gives only passing attention to Jacky. That said, most of the points all interrelate to the ending. It took me a while to figure out HOW they all related (especially to realize what the epilogue was saying), but when I did, it was a rather impressive knot.

Swinger's entry was also a tad anticlimatic, and took a fair bit more work to piece together, but it was also more conclusive. Rose's entry, admirable as it was, felt like a lot of different stories passing by each other; Swinger's felt like one story with many different converging streams. For that I give him my vote.

Congradulations to both of you for making it this far. Whoever wins, you both put forth a strong showing.



SWINGERZETTA

Comic starts abruptly. You could use some title treatment or some wide background shots to introduce a sense of 'beginning.' Constant use of the same waist-up camera again and again. Some wonky perspective in the backgrounds. Again, faces and bodies are lumpy and distorted, and proportions vary in places. Jackie and the other new characters weren't mentioned by name. Some bad masking with the wand/fill tool. Snickersnack. How did the pigtail girl instantly know about the ballast world? Seems tacked on. Good ending. Mouse seems to affect the plot more than Jackie.

DEADROSE4U2000
Better intro. Weak text; often off-center. Obvious use of fill tool leads to jagged edges; do not rely on the fill tool to make whites; go in and draw the whites yourself. Building silhouettes are childish. Jackie's invisible partner is never mentioned after the beginning. Spelling/grammar errors: Dazzling, not dazzeling. You're, not your. Thinking, not thinkg. Whether not weither. Coordinates, not quardinents. Using the ~ to add 'cuteness' to dialog is an internet-based meme; looks childish in comics. Proportions warp between panels. Jackie and KRK fight for no apparent reason. Jackie also offers him life advice for no apparent reason. The whole episode with KRK is 7 pages out of 30 (after which KRK is never seen again) and could be skipped entirely; it was not relevant to the ending and was like most of deadrose's entries with an extra separate story surrounding it. What Jackie did to Metis wasn't clear. Cheesy ending.

Neither entry seemed to feature its opponent much; Swinger's motivation seemed to be to feature as many characters as possible while rose's was to focus on Jackie. Swinger's took Jackie's plot into account (briefly, though more than deadrose's) and was more consistent in a build-up of action while deadrose's had bursts of action here and there. Some nice interaction between the characters in deadrose's is balanced by the cleverness displayed by those in Swinger's. Overall, I felt a stronger sense of cohesiveness in Swinger's story, which lead to a more complete sensation overall. Though Swinger needs to work on his angles, anatomy and line control, I cast my vote for him.



Deadrose4u2000

After reading rounds 1-4 I was thoroughly looking forward to your finale and I’m pleased to say you didn’t disappoint. The plotline with Metis was engaging and well paced throughout the rounds and her destruction at the end was a little sad. Jacky is a thoroughly likeable character, with her ‘lets get down to business’ badass attitude. Your entry was well paced and I enjoyed the humour. The whale gag made me chuckle, and yours was definitely the easier to read of the two, but there were some elements I found a mite confusing.

Issac’s introduction, whilst making sense in a vague sort of way, would have left me stranded had I not read entries of some of the other participants. This isn’t something you should take for granted in storytelling. Your own plot should make sense standing on its own, because a lot of readers don’t like to chase down loose ends in other peoples galleries.

Kirk’s own story was something that could have been quite moving, with him coming to grips with the possibility of being a monster, but it felt like your opponent was something that didn’t quite fit into your plot, so you just shoved him into some middle pages to get him out of the way. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t more of a showdown between the finalists and that he didn’t have a bigger part to play. That said, I liked Jacky’s delivery of the ‘life lesson’ and mercy. It was another nice insight into her personality.

The were some small spelling errors, such as “quardinates” instead of co-ordinates, but they didn’t detract much from my overall enjoyment of the piece.

One thing you might want to consider is investing in a more user friendly font. Some speech bubbles were very text heavy and the font was often so small I felt myself straining to read it. (This could be because I need glasses XD) but Caps would have made things easier and more bubbles with less text would have been more visually appealing.

Swingerzetta:

Right from your audition I felt engaged. Kirk was instantly a character I could empathize with and that kept his story interesting and your characterizations felt the most ‘real’ to me. The reunion between Metis and Jacky was touching. I especially loved the hug panel between them. The traditional inking and grey washing (digital screen tone? Or markers maybe?) Whatever it was, it was beautifully soft and even though you beat yourself up about the ambiguous and messy shading it worked oddly well with your lines. Adding some nice depth and shape to the drawings.

Your ending was well wrapped up and everything resolved in a more complete way. Jacky’s involvement felt much more seamless than Rose’s handling of your own character, but your piece fell down in other ways.

One thing I noticed about your entry is that all of your women were exceptionally ugly. Their breasts tend to be low on the body or strangely shaped and they all have rather broad shoulders or thick necks. You need to work on your female figure drawing. That said, I did know who they were all supposed to be.

Your handwriting was easy to read in all of the speech bubbles and surprisingly I enjoyed the traditionally rendered text, it fit in well with the whole entry. That is, until I reached Page 6. The extra tails added to your letters in the narration boxes made the text look messy, rather than adding to storybook quality of the lettering. If you’re going to handwrite your letters you have to be VERY clear with your printing and whilst I could read every word, it looks sloppy.

Overall the piece was great. All of the background details were something I definitely appreciated and your paneling was varied, but still easily readable.

This final was insanely hard to judge, but I’m giving the win to Swingerzetta for a more resolved piece and better characterization.