#also if the second panel looks odd with the speech bubble it's because i did the same kind of shit i did with the kk comic except horizonta

[parin-gurumin]

This is from a drawpile session canvas from december 2023 of course that I foolishly thought I posted here already but whatever. This is pretty much what their exchange was like at the blueberry academy, they're funny

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1112 review

It's good to be back! To be honest, I had a fairly busy April, so it feels like the big break has gone faster than previous years. I thought I would suffer more. Maybe we're all just getting more used to this now-annual tradition. Hope Oda's feeling more rested as well!

This is the chapter that could be the twelfth of volume 109, but I think it's more likely the first or second of volume 110 instead. Both Dorry and Brogy's arrival in chapter 1110 and the ancient robot standing in chapter 1111 are incredible end-of-book cliffhangers, but I think maybe chapter 1111 has a better volume opener, easing into its action with the wordless page of Mars breaking from the barrier while Jinbei looks up, awed. But we'll see, the opening pages here also do a lot to ease a returning reader back into the conflict in its present state. In a matter of panels, Oda reminds us of the Buster Call, Nusjuro's disabling of the Pacifistas and Bonney's power over them, and the giants' goals and location. But it's possible the return from the break was a motivator for this level of restaging as well.

After those opening two pages we're right back into the action. Even if it's brief, it's great seeing Franky get a win. The long tail of his speech bubble running under Redking's legs in the anticipation panel is fun as well. Bonney's methods are pretty funny as well, when compounded with Guillotine's shock despite having witnessed the transformation happen.

Mars is not wasting any time in the Labophase. There seems to be an electrical effect around his blast of energy, but I haven't read up enough on his specific brand of yokai to say if that should be interesting or not. It's cool that we can see the back of Vegapunk's lab here, and the side structures that looked like speakers from the front are plugged full of power and audio cables like speakers from the back too. I wonder how many design elements here were influenced by the knowledge that it would be used to send an important message really, really far.

Stussy and Kaku's dialogue in the following scene seems at odds with Lucci's immediate recognition of and deference to Mars in his bird form a few chapters ago. Maybe he's better at recognising voices than the two of them are, or he may simply hold a higher rank and have gotten more hints about the true nature of his bosses than the other two. I'm sad for Stussy's sacrifice, in part because this arc hasn't at all made the most of her as a character. Her betrayal of Cipher Pol was a compelling early twist, but then she lost her stylish and memorable original outft for the same leotard look every other woman in this arc got, dropped off the map through the middle of the story, just to get finger gunned and now make the ultimate sacrifice. This is a character who's been lurking on the sidelines of the plot for seven years. That's getting close to the point where there, at least in Japanese, the series might have readers younger than she is as a character. A minor character, sure, but I hope this isn't truly the end for her. Oda can offer far better.

That said, I did say a few chapters back that I expected the need for someone in the control room to turn off the dome to be a problem to solve, though I predicted a race against the clock to get on the ship before it launched, not fully staying behind. Careful what you wish for I guess.

And on the topic of sacrifices and problems to solve, I wonder what Edison has planned to help the Sunny make the distance. If you asked me to guess, I'd say something in the junkyard. Not the ancient robot specifically, but I think whatever he's going to get will be the excuse to bring someone from the Strawhats' side in contact with it.

It's a good moment for Usopp rallying the crew here, both to follow the plan and to improvise if it doesn't work. Confident leadership from a once self-proclaimed captain. Good for him.

The squished up Ju Peter head as he swallows the building is hilarious. Being able to capture the shape of the turret embedding in the back of his skull and the wrinkles of everything folding up around it in monochrome with only the white shading on his back body is some great artistic detail. It cannot have been easy to make that read clearly.

The situation gets more dire after this last little win though. Luffy's back in normal form, and even if we're handwaving away the exhaustion effect at the end of Gear Five, Oda is telling us clearly it won't be enough to stand up to the monstrous Elders. Love the detail of his hand still being on fire from Red Roc even as he clutches it in pain from Warcury's deflection. It makes such an absurd visual. The question does have to be asked though: was the sheer power with which this attack was rejected relate to haki, a monstrous ability, the strange regeneration that keeps these beats immortal or something else? It can't just be natural hardness like Kaido's dragon scales - that wouldn't hurt Luffy like this did. There needs to be an energy involved for there to be pain on Luffy's end. I don't want to sound too consipracy-minded though; haki is the most obvious bet. Look back to the moment in the Katakuri fight when they meet fist to fist and Luffy's hands are hurt by his superior haki. There's a similar trembling effect around the the injured hands, and though they were also swollen there, that would be hidden by the inflated fist in this case.

Saturn's spider limbs coming over the edge of the Labophase cloud is a wonderfully terrifying visual, as is the silhouette of the centaur Nusjuro, and each of them so bad for the groups they're confronting. Even with the inevitability of Zoro and Jinbei arriving in time to protect the group with the Sunny and Luffy and the giants close to converging with Franky's team, we still don't know how to deal lasting damage to one of these bastards. You have to hand it to them, as villains, they've all found their way to the worst places they could be for the heroes very, very efficiently, and at this stage no one is expecting any of them to be felled in this arc.

Mars' final scene with the snail just emphasises the 'game over'-ness of the whole last two pages. I don't think he'll succeed in stopping it, the broadcast is the most obvious thing to fulfill the promise of a huge, world-shaking event coming from this arc, but there'll probably be some kind of deception involved in why he can't cut things off from here. I'm curious to see what the inside of Punk Records looks like as well. Maybe it's just big computers, but it would be cool for it to be something with a bit more mad science cred, like a giant brain in a jar.

I'm determinedly not getting my hopes too high for a Toriyama tribute in next week's colour spread. Which isn't to say it's not likely, but I don't want to be disappointed if it doesn't turn out that way. With only a minute on the clock, Mars at the broadcast's apparent source and two groups of heroes being menaced by unstoppable foes, the climax of the arc feels afoot, so it's going to be time to start the big reveals, cavalry calls and final turnabout moments as the 110th volume escalates. Good time to have that post-break momentum, if you ask me!

[a-queenoffairys]

Now the WIP and digital versions of comics 2 and 3 are available, I wanted to share something I noticed while I was working on them a few months ago. When reading the comics I often felt like the dialogue was a bit weirdly paced in places, like you'd have characters with open mouths but there was no speech bubble, or a clearly missed opportunity for drawing out the suspense using bubble placement.

When I looked at the sketch versions of the comics (which have draft dialogue written on them), it became more clear. The illustrator had planned out the speech bubbles and the panels so they both flowed perfectly together, but the letterer apparently preferred to condense as much dialogue into as few bubbles as possible.

This page was the most offensive example in my opinion - they even switched two of the bottom panels around, ruining what could've been some really good emotion in this scene.

Here we have the final page as it was published (I added the bubbles to the blank page and did the English translation). Aside from Odd's open mouth in the second panel, nothing seems too amiss, though Delmas's rant might feel a bit condensed. But then you look at the concept version.

Odd's speech bubble is in the right place and Delmas's rant isn't so condensed. But then you also have Odd and Ulrich sharing that look in the middle panel because they are off battling the forces of evil. Suddenly this shared glance turns from "Oh no we're in trouble" to "He hit the nail on the head but we can't tell him that." And Delmas facing away from them as he says they may need to repeat the year gives a more sombre tone to the end of this scene. He's not angry, he's disappointed. He knows they can do better.

There are plenty more examples of the letterer not following the illustrator's plan for the speech bubbles, but I think most of them read as a little awkward and not as tone-destroying as this one. Still, I think it's a shame everything was planned out so well and then it got ignored.

Illustrated by Ullcer, full pages available on codelyoko.fr

[natsubeatsrock]

My Ten Favorite Chapters of Fairy Tail

I've been going back through the old chapters recently and remembering how much fun I've had reading Fairy Tail. It's easy to forget that there have been chapters that I genuinely enjoyed throughout the series. You’d think, for a guy planning to remake the series in his own image, I wouldn’t like many chapters of Fairy Tail. However, this list has been something I’ve wanted to do for years.

So, to celebrate almost 5 years of blogging and 10,000 posts here, here's my list of favorite chapters throughout the series. Emphasis on my list. A few of my rankings have changed over the years and I acknowledge that a few times in this post.

Number 10: Chapter 417 - Lone Journey II

The month before I started posting on this blog, I did the Fairy Tail 30 Day Challenge. Thinking back, there are plenty of things different from me then and me now. For example, I actually liked Gruvia back then. Of the many things that have changed, it's funny to think that this was, at one point and time my favorite chapter. For a long time, I've considered it to be the best chapter in the series.

What I love about it is that it's a chapter where Mashima shuts his characters up and literally lets their actions speak for themselves. This isn't a particularly unique thing to happen. Obha and Obata did the same thing for most of a chapter of Death Note. However, I love the content of the chapter. I love the connection between Natsu and Gildarts. I love how it calls back to their fight during the Grand Magic Games. I love how we see that Gildarts does care for Cana. 

The reason I've grown to love it a bit less is the difference between my first reading it as I was getting into the series and me reading it in the context of the complete series. I can't ignore how annoying it is that this is the only chapter that exists in between the second time skip. And speech bubbles would have been appreciated during the waterfall scene. Still, it's one of my favorite chapters.

Number 9: Chapter 430 - Operation Purify

Closer to the end of the series, there was a panel of all the dragon slayers that was hailed as one of the best pages in the series. Ehh? It's not bad, but calling it the best in the series is a stretch. I already have my pick for best page locked in.

If I'm perfectly honest, I would have put chapters 430-435 if not for any reason but the sheer hype going through them the first time through. However, aside from only honoring single chapters, this was the only chapter with no flaw big enough for me not to like it, looking back. I mean, Erza single-handedly mowing down forces is bad, but this was after the Kyouka fight.

However, the moment of note is at about the middle of the chapter. Because after a year of separation, going their separate ways, Team Natsu is finally back in action. And they all share the same cry on a single page: “We're all fired up! I'm not even looking at the page and I'm getting chills thinking about it as I write down my thoughts on this chapter.

Number 8: Chapter 418 - Challenger

Natsubeatsrock is a hilariously ambiguous name to have. Since I've started this blog, I've realized just how loaded my URL actually is. It's been assumed to have ties to my series Opinions I'll Probably get Stoned For, either because of the title or because what I'm saying is blasphemy. Funny thing, it could also have been tied to the fact that Natsu is my favorite character and my middle name means stone. Not sure beats would have been the right word to have in the middle, though.

However, my name comes from one of my favorite chapters. After the time skip, we're briefly introduced to Lucy's work during as a journalist. If I were a bigger fan of Lucy, this would be a great chapter for me to have gushed over her growth as a wizard. I especially like that she was keeping track of the members of the guild.

However, if you can't tell, the most important thing in this chapter is Natsu’s return. Unlike a lot of people, I'm impartial to his post-time skip looks. But the idea that Natsu has flames strong enough to destroy the arena and melt clothes is simultaneously hilariously nonsensical, disgustingly overpowered and one of the coolest things that Natsu has done in the series. Period.

Number 7: Natsu and Asuka

Guys. I said that this was my favorite special chapter in the series. Did you really think I wouldn't have it here? I know that I made a chapter review for this a few years back, but I don't mind talking about it again. While I don’t think that this is my favorite omake anymore, it’s still a very solid chapter. 

I still believe it's a great display of how resourceful Natsu can be. I love the extra insight we get into Alzack and Bisca’s relationship. It's the best chapter in the FT Matsuri. And this chapter may have convinced me that Asuka deserves nothing but love and protection. I'm scared about what a potential time skip involving the hypothetical NYCC children would do to her. 

Maybe the worst thing about it is that it only ever gets mentioned because Natsu and Lucy didn't kiss like Asuka wanted them to. However, that's obviously not about the chapter itself and, as I demonstrated when I talked about it, you don't need to mention it to talk about the chapter and the good things about it.

Number 6: Chapter 205 - To Continue Down This Path

Even though I did make fun of my old choices during my go-through of the FT Challenge, there are some choices I'm glad I made even now. Up to this chapter, we don't have a good idea of how strong Gildarts is. Especially if you watched the anime where he has only introduced the arc prior. We know S Class mages are powerful, but Erza seems to think Natsu could beat her and we saw Laxus get defeated, albeit only barely by getting double-teamed. So we’re aware that even S-Class isn't akin to invincibility.

In addition to that, Natsu has been known to edge out victories that make no sense for him to have. Natsu’s next win after this battle holds that to be true. So, even against incredibly high odds, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Natsu would find a way to win.

Which is what makes Gildarts unleashing his power all the more insane. Natsu, a character who has, up to that point, always strived to beat whatever opponent he's faced, realizes that he can't just power through. This chapter forces Natsu to realize how weak he is and is a challenge for him to get stronger in his weakness. Does the series do anything with this? Not nearly as much as it should have. But this is still one of the favorite moments for Natsu.

Number 5: Chapter 507 - Voice

The fact that this is one of my favorite chapters shouldn't come as that much of a shock to people that have followed me for long enough. What might be shocking is that it's one of my top ten favorite chapters, even in my top 5. The fact that Natsu and Gray were fighting for about three chapters before this was stupid to a lot of people who were paying attention. There was no need for them not to be in their right minds and little need for them to take out their frustration on each other. 

One of the big fears I had over this fight was that it would end because their supposed love interests whom they thought were dead would stop them. It would have been hilariously cliche for them to come and immediately stop them from fighting. While I can understand wanting a ship to happen, this isn’t the way I’d want to see my ship happen. I’m even annoyed that their arrival is what gets attention from fans when this is brought up.

Thankfully, Mashima decided to pick Ezra for this role. Feelings over ships aside, Ezra was the person best qualified to stop Natsu and Gray fighting over nonsense, considering that's something she was doing from even before the events of the series started. That Natsu and Gray (and the audience by extension) are reminded of their own reasons for not wanting Erza to cry when they see her tearfully breaking their fight up was an amazing twist on what I expected. To be blunt, Juvia and Lucy could have not shown up and this would be just as impactful, if not more.

This chapter would be much higher up on my favorites if it zeroed in on this aspect. However, the rest of the chapter isn't very important or impressive. It sets up the fight against August by showing the members of Crime Sorciere failing to beat him. It’s not particularly bad, but it’s not better than what was before it.

Number 4: Chapter 415 - That Is The Power of Life

One of the weird trends that all of my favorite anime shares is that they make other people cry for one reason or another. I find that to be a weird trend for me specifically. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that there are people who enjoy crying. However, I'm not a huge crying person. I can count the anime that have actually caused me to get close to crying on my hands and only one of them actually is one of my favorites. However, I can think of three Fairy Tail chapters that definitely pushed me to tears and two are on my list.

The Igneel and Natsu storyline was, like so many things, handled badly. I think that it could and should have been a more relevant subplot/character aspect throughout the series. At the very least, the fact that Natsu seems to have stopped actively looking for Igneel since chapter 1 should have been more directly addressed. That being said, the impact of Natsu seeing Igneel dying is not lost on me. Igneel would have had to go anyway. We learned this chapter that the dragons only had a limited amount of time outside the dragon slayers. So seeing Igneel disappear would have been sad for Natsu anyways.

But having to watch Igneel lose half of his body and get blasted by Acnologia makes the situation feel even worse. It's like someone shooting the family pet after breaking its neck. There was no need for that to happen. Watching as Happy watches Natsu watches Igneel die is sad enough on its own for me. Watching your fave cry over losing his dad after looking for him for so long. 

This chapter marks an important shift in Natsu’s motivation. Whereas before the goal to defeat Acnologia was somewhat unnecessary and unconnected to the main cast, now Acnologia has a target painted on his back. Would the takedown be handled well? Depends on who you ask. This chapter is on this list and that one isn’t.

Number 3: Chapter 9 - Dear Kaby

I'm supposing that the vast majority of people reading that care about me are Fairy Tail fans. At one point or another, we fell in love with this series. There was a specific moment that we decided that this series was worth reading and/or watching days worth of material that varies in quality as the series goes on. This definitely happens for every series, to some extent, but it feels more significant for long-running series. 

This chapter was that moment for me. At the time I first saw the episode this chapter was based on, I knew a fair amount of anime. I had grown up with DBZ, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and Naruto, among other anime that I don't remember much of. I wasn't aware of what I was getting myself into when I decided to watch this series my younger cousins and siblings were so interested in. However, I figured that, even as I enjoyed the beginning of the series, there was no real reason to think this would be different.

But when I got to this episode, I realized this series was special. This was something I was in for the long haul. Even reading this as a chapter, I still think of how different the end of this arc is, even to other arcs in the series. On the one hand, it deals with the issue of Kaby and his father in an amazingly emotional way. On the other hand, it gets undercut by Natsu’s unwillingness to take the reward for a job they didn’t actually do. Mashima made both work in one chapter and that is amazing.

Of course, there’s a little more at play in this chapter. Natsu gets mad at Kaby’s disdain for his dad’s work, which works amazingly well with his character and search for Igneel. Lucy is revealed to be a writer in her own right. There’s something special about a series called Fairy Tail being told mostly through the lens of an aspiring writer. It's stuff like this that makes this chapter a delight to come back to very early on in revisiting the series.

Number 2: Special Mission: Beware of the Guys Who Show a Keen Interest!

One of the weird trends that occurs in fandoms is shipping the main characters together, regardless of any chemistry they may have with others. However, if writers plan not to put characters that the fandom would otherwise assume will end up together, there are many different ways to handle the way that will play out. In a lot of television I've seen, the two will actually get together, they’ll date for a little and break up for one reason or another. I’m not really a big fan of that.

Things have happened differently in the manga I’ve read with this. In Bleach, the question of liking Ichigo was brought up to Rukia very early on and never addressed. I liked that way, even though plenty of fans were shocked to find out the implications of that statement. But Mashima couldn’t possibly do a better job. Right? Wrong!

I think that tackling the issue of whether or not Lucy likes Natsu in an omake was an interesting decision. It doesn't take away from the main story but it's out there for fans to experience if they really want to. The main takeaway of this chapter was that the idea of Lucy and Natsu getting together is awkward for Lucy and nowhere on Natsu’s radar. Of course, they could those feelings, but not overnight.

Too bad so many people thought this was a sign Mashima would develop a romantic relationship between them. I'm not sure if I could have blamed that one on him. Though, considering his Twitter art antics, he’s not doing much to help keep that break mentality up within fans. Then again, I’m not sure there’s anything Mashima can do on that front.

Number 1: Chapter 100 - To Tomorrow!

If you can't tell a big reason why certain chapters are in my favorites, it's because of how they represent in what the series could have been. I do believe that Hiro Mashima is capable of great writing, even and especially within Fairy Tail. It's just that he does something to mess up what good there is. But that doesn't mean that I can't like something I know is badly written. 

Erza not dying, at least to me, represents a sign that characters important to the narrative were in no real danger of dying. Looking back, it's hard for me not to think about how the explanation for Erza and Jellal surviving is stupid. And Natsu very likely should have lost his fight to Jellal. I could easily see someone saying these are issues with this chapter.

However, for me, this chapter stands out as the single best chapter of the Tower of Heaven arc, arguably the best arc in the entire series. I love how this chapter signifies a shift in Erza’s thinking about her friends. I love how the beginning and end of this chapter deal with Erza’s ability to cry, which was already mentioned in this arc at least twice.

I love how this chapter all but confirms Natsu’s terrible ways of handling death. This matters especially in light of the other people he has lost in his life. Think about how Erza has been portrayed up to this point in the series and you’d find her death to be unbelievable. This was the moment that brought me the closest to crying upon my first reading of the series. I’m proud to call this my favorite chapter in the series.

That’s my list! See you!

[scraplette]

Lost Light #22 Thoughts & Feels

Goodness. It's been a while since I've written up one of these posts but, now that I'm free of the grips of cosplay, it only makes sense to hop right back in with this issue. And, oh boy, what an issue!

Under a read more for the biggest of all spoilers.

+First off, the Misfire/Swerve team is beautfiful, and I will tear this universe apart to keep them together. Fite me.

+Yay! Megatron is back! I'm happy to see him but obviously Magnus and Rodimus will be a bit miffed. Not like they parted on the best of terms... Yeah, bugger you, Terminus.

+HAND! GIANT HAND! WHA?!

+OH SHIT! IS THAT CYBERTRON?! WHAT'S GOING ON! WHAT DO YOU MEAN “That's Primus” WHAT!

+Throwing in one more WHAT for good measure.

+BTW I was wrong. A few T&F posts ago I said that the Council couldn't become even bigger pricks than they are now. I was wrong. They heard my statement and said “Primus, hold our planet sized beer,” and considering what is revealed later in the issue, their hypocrisy has reached all an new levels of prickness.

+”Okay, so you see the fleet of Decepticon worldsweepers? See the green one? That's us. We're in there. I'm waving.”

I hope Megs waves back. It'd be rude not to. Also, the following exchange of “Why are you in a worldsweeper?” “Hm?” is perfect. Say what you want about Autobot Megatron, I will never not love the Rodimus/Megatron back and forth. Even the little admission from Rodimus, that Megatron “isn't that bad once you get to know him”, brought a smile to my face.

+I'm glad that Megatron wasn't the Big Bad like the last issue was hinting at. After everything he went through with the LL crew, plus his second chance in the FU, I would've been super irked if he went “evil” again. It's a shame the current IDW canon is ending, though, I would've loved a mini series detailing Meg's time in the FU. Looks like he's been busy.

+Do something? What can they do, Flame? Flame? FLAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMEEEEE?!

(Yes, I know this one was a bit forced, but it's been forever since I've seen Flame! How could I resist!)

[Bites on fist] HGGGGNNNN!!! This is really sweet!

+It is hard to conceive of a greater affront to the Mechanica Divine than a multitude of false Cybertrons.”

OH DO FUCK OFF! You're flying around in the biggest possible example of your hypocrisy!You've moved the goal posts so often I doubt you can even see them any more! Later in the issue Megatron explains that the council altered Cybertron itself, allowing it the power of space travel and transformation. Remember how enormous a sin deviating from your Alt-modes original purpose was to the Council? Nah? No worries. Neither do they.

Nuuuuuu! I wanted Megatron and Pax to be happy together Q_Q

But wait, hang on, did Megatron ever meet FU!Rung? The only contact I remember them having was Megatron seeing FU!Rung's corpse. Bit of a stretch on the Council's part to claim Megs “loved” Rung. Does this mean FU!Rung survived the moon battle? Just another question to  question for Roberts at TFNation.

+Oh no. Terminus died... How tragic.

+DRIFT D:!

+Pharma's thirst for Ratchet is so strong, you guys. Even gods struggle against this thirsty boy.

+Adaptus?! COME AGAIN?

+skdgjndfjg Megatron interacting with the Scavenger is just so GOOD!

+I know a lot of folks have been waiting for this meeting between Drift and Megatron. It was short but no less sweet. It's also cool to see the Zero Point used again, we haven't seen it since the Shadowplay Arc where Rung was struggling to bridge the gap. And awww! Megatron became a Medic like he always wanted to Q_Q

+”It's a good colour, Sweve”

PFFT XD

+Yuuuup. Really want that Megatron/FU miniseries...

+Again with the Ratchet, Rodimus, Rung, and Tailgate chant. I'm 100% sure The Magnificence has it's own agenda. However, I have no idea whose side it's on.

Were Grimlock and THUNDERCLASH'S(sighwhataguy) speech bubbles swapped around? THUNDERCLASH seems pretty eager to blow up a planet.

+Right, time for the meat of this issue. If what Adaptus/Pharma says is true then this is possibly the biggest reveal in all of the IDW canon. I'll go over the identities of the other Guiding hand members before moving onto the big boy himself, as I've got quite a bit to talk about there. Oh yes.

I ADORE that Censere was Mortilus. The kind, sombre bot who quietly went about his duty, ensuring that the dead of Cybertron were not forgotten. It's also so refreshing to see the God of Death portrayed in a rather positive light. The only interaction we've had with Mortilus has been through his followers who, if we're perfectly honest, have all been giant edge lords XD I would've loved for them to meet Censere face to face. I bet he would've been horrified by their actions, maybe even invited them into his stronghold for a chat about their life choices. It's so sad that he died the way he did -_-

Tyrest... Gotta admit, not so thrilled about that one. Admittedly, it makes a lot of sense, especially when you start going over some of the details. He lead the research into “spark splicing” and had access to the Matrix, plus he was able to build a portal to one of his fellow gods. I always thought it was odd that his portal, ya know, actually worked because we all thought he was a little nuts. But maybe, just maybe, a little part of him remembered his connection to the Guiding hand. It's also quite tragic to see how the supposed god of wisdom was broken down over the years, his sanity chipped away at to the point of self-harm. Either way, I dunno, I think if we'd seen more of Tyrest after Remain in Light I probably would've liked this reveal a bit more, but it can't be helped since the end is fast approaching.

The Magnificence. The font of all knowledge is also Epistemus... Yeah, I'm fine with that. All good XD

Okay... Primus... right, I double dipped and bought the issue off the IDW app before they recalled the issue, so I've been holding onto this spoiler for a whole week.

[takes deep breath]

RUNG IS PRIMUS!

I'M ACTUALLY LOSING IT!

HOLY SHIT!

My mind is whirling, guys. When I saw that final panel everything clicked into place and it ALL MADE SENSE. The brightest spark, his serial number(reversed it becomes one) his memory problems, his odd habit of being in important points in history(which can't all be linked to Elegant Chaos because Rewind said there were billions of entries), the hotspot on Luna1,his deja-vu upon seeing the Luna 1 portal, no one remembering him. Everything!

I'm just stunned.

Roberts has really earned this reveal. I'm thrilled to bits by it. But now now I'm wondering, since a running theme of MTMTE/LL is the interpretation of myths and legends and how time can alter our perspective of those tales, how much of the creation myth is true. Are Rung, and the other members of the Guiding Hand, actual Gods or just REAAAAAALY ancient Transformers with unusual abilities. Did Rung and Censere really have a punch up? Is Rung truly responsible for the creation of the Cybertronian race?! HOW? Why doesn't he remember anything? How did we go from Warrior God to Nebbish Noodle Arms McCutie? Did he really fuse with Vector sigma? Is he Primus made flesh or a reincarnated spark? I have so many questions about my favourite character being the source of EVERYTHING.

+Love that final panel btw. It's like Rung got bored of everything and decided to have a sit down whilst he figured out how to clean his glasses one-handed. Please, PLEASE, let the first panel of the next issue be him, looking at the stunned faces of his friends, saying “What?”

+It’s such a shame that the comics only have a few issues left, I’d have loved to have seen this storyline expanded upon. Imagine how the Cybertronian race would've reacted to seeing the God for real.

+Oh dear. How are Cyclonus and Drift going to take this? The Knights are fake and the gods walk among you as normal dudes.

+Oh, we still don't know what Rung turns into but it's probably to do with spark creation/storage.

+We also still don't know why Ratchet was fading away a few issues ago.

[comic-critic-squad]

did you know thesodasmuggler also believes the alpha omega wolf theory that was debunked long ago ? i hear theyre an ex fan of kique. i hope their comic wont be influenced by asmundr and home.

The Dreyrugr is bad.(Also, pretty sure Soda is still a fan. She’s in the Home Discord, but then...her friends who’re friends with us have said she doesn’t like it, so, uh...okay. Who knows.)

Anyway, before anyone asks why TD is bad because I know how y’all are, here's my screaming back from when I read it:

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

So I'm going through Soda's comicStarting at the beginning and justwow have I ever mentioned how much i just L O V E historydump prologuesbecause oh boy. oh boy do i do.also jesus CHRIST this comic needs a copy/line editor 

watch me go volunteer in the comments all "hey dog your dialogue and narration is incredibly clunky and outright bad at some points soooo hire me."these people really need to make a script for their whole comic before they start it, go through drafts, and get inputand fucking get someone to check their text for mistakes and shit because MAAAN it's obvious a lot of these people know more about art than anything elsebad dialogue is my kryptonite...I mean, I personally wouldn't go with "arduous" there because that's...not usually why people use it...but anyway

I HAVE TAKEN ISSUE WITH EVERY LINE OF TEXT SO FAR JFC 

First thing first: this entire prologue is unnecessarythat said...Actually, nevermind. I tried moving around parts of that sentence but it's so fucking bad and "uh, obviously" that I can't. It needs to be entirely rewrittenAnd not state...really fucking obvious shit...this could've been shortened to "however, survival brings competition" 

i repeat: i have taken issue with every single bit of narration thus far   

why is she is writing like...thatONCE AGAIN THIS IS IGNORING HOW ENTIRELY USELESS THIS PROLOGUE ISit's like she's giving a sixth grade biology lessonreally? if a species fails to adapt they're weak? WHO'DA THUNK

Dingo-01/07/2018

OH ITS THIS COMIC THAT I DESPISE THE DIALOGUE OFThe prologue is so badLike bro

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

i'm fuel of copyeditor ANGER todaylol, cliches

I used to not get why editors harped on about getting rid of cliches in writing but now I'm on board

Dingo-01/07/2018

I’ve seen that line used more then once in some comicsOr movies for that matterIt’s ridiculous

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

askfjsf REMOVE "DOWN"

Dingo-01/07/2018

UGH

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

i wish i had enough energy to do a prologue rewrite but it's easier to scream about this instead

Dingo-01/07/2018

It should be “WHEN IT COMES TO DESPERATION” like the down is so unnecessary manScreaming is good

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

this is fucking bad

literally what the fuck is that second clause referring toafter reading this, my new opinion is even comic writers need to hire editors for their stuffi'd really only ever thought about editors in the context of literature but HOO BOY not anymore

GreatHornedOwl-01-01/07/2018

that word vomit makes no sense

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

it's all shitwealreadyknow.jpeg, toooh my god

GreatHornedOwl-01/07/2018

like, im dyslexic af. but 'battle for dominance over survival' seems so odd

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

https://thesodasmuggler.deviantart.com/art/The-Dreyrugr-Page-5-638601038?ga_submit_new=10%253A1476050769

the whole thingshe really used thattwo cliches in the prologue aloneI can tell I'm really gonna enjoy this thrilling talefinally past the prologue

GreatHornedOwl-01/07/2018

they need to source their quote because they didn;t come up with that

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

now I get to FEAST MY EYES on the dialogueit's a common phrase that I don't think anyone knows the sourceI see it all over facebookkill me

GreatHornedOwl-01/07/2018

i've seen people claim it came from this comic on CS

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

i googled it out of curiosity and suppoooosedly Zig Ziglar coined it"author and motivational speaker"i can really see how these are two species that have been at war for centuries and truly despise each other

"get lost!"such anger

😩-01/07/2018

That smilodon is apparently a vampire

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

https://thesodasmuggler.deviantart.com/art/The-Dreyrugr-Page-9-640365984?ga_submit_new=10%253A1476588895

uh whatso are they just sacrificing themselves for no fucking reasonwhy not just fucking run and tell the dude yourselfwow, well that was the most contrived reason just to have a fight scenethe fucking wolf ran anyway and was attacked while running so why not have just had that happen from the start

GreatHornedOwl-01/07/2018

i hate that trope. where two idiots will sacrifice themselves so one can get away, but the one is a coward who freezes

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

KJFHSHDFHDJGFHDGFDF

YOU CAN REALLY SPOT A KIQUE FAN, MANi...hate...

this immediately made me think of that line from Asmundr where one of them was like "only ranulfr can make the ground shake like that"

"let's talk about something both of us already know" 

"We did what we believed right. I don't doubt they could return either, but whatever happens, we'll be ready, father."removed six words from that and kept the same meaning. come on, soda.

can you say C L U N K Ythese characters are just as emotionless as Home's charactersokay looki know relatively fuck all about technical stuff with comicsbut these speech bubbles threw the fuck out of mei didn't realize the left bubble was supposed to be read second 

i went back to the preceding panel and was ???? "act like one" what?i had no idea what "corpulent" meant, but the context made me think it meant something like wretched

no. it means fat.

Jarl-Shipumhard-01/07/2018

long ass body

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

why are these characters all hyper-aggressivealso i still have no idea who's who;KKDASFL;KJASDF IM SCREAMING LMFAO

YEP, THE QUALITY TRULY REMINDS ME OF ASMUNDR AND HOME, TOO

Dr. Baron O’Beefdip-01/07/2018

Why are some of these pages so dark?

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

no idea but that's part of why i can't tell these fuckers apartall of them have dark designs and look the goddamn sameis this the leader or a kid complaining to their parent

Dr. Baron O’Beefdip-01/07/2018

I care so little for these characters. I can't even keep track of their names.

Swamp Ass-01/07/2018

Same.

Dr. Salt-01/07/2018

finished it and that was the most disjointed comic I've read so farat least Home is pretty easy to keep track ofbut that...bad transitions

[silverstarsheep]

I just adore your art style, it's so cute! I'm thinking of making comics myself. Do you think you could give me some tips on angling or facial expressions or overall detail?

Thank you so so much! I really appreciate that! Like, a whole lot. ^^

I’m not exactly sure how much I’ll be able to help you, though I can at least give you some pointers on expressions! I’ll do my best. I’m sorry this is coming a bit late! 

I’m going to use Bendy for my examples, just because he’s super easy to draw and I have him on hand/mind at the moment. But! These can be used on just about anyone.

Keep in mind: this is just my way of doing things. There isn’t one “set” way to create great art! There’s a lot of experimenting, testing and growing when it comes to artwork.

When it comes down to expressions, there are a few things to consider: what are they feeling? How intense is this feeling? How far can, or should you push it? How can you make this feel realistic? In visual storytelling, showing what a character is going through is far more important than telling the reader. In a comic setting, there’s a very fine balance–since you have images to go with the words, but you can’t convey each minute action… At least in a reasonable amount of panels, the dialogue and the images have to work together when they’re used in tandem.

When a character is shouting, you have to push their expression further–it won’t be enough to show them with their mouth slightly open, or with a flat face. Give them wide eyes, or shut their eyes completely with frustration. Open their mouth wide, maybe even get their body language involved if you have enough room. Throw their arms in the air, have them pulling at their hair!

Likewise, if what they’re saying is quiet or somber, soften their expression. Have their gaze ill-focused, or looking to the ground. Their shoulders could be slumped, their brow could be low. Their mouth could be almost, or entirely closed. Or are they happy? Raise their eyebrows, widen their eyes with joy! Bring out that smile! Use as much variety and as many shapes as you can!

Because I’m a visual person, here are a few examples to give you a better idea of what I mean:

(I’m sorry if my handwriting is hard to read)

Which facial expressions are more interesting? Sure, the ones on the left are going through the motions of emoting, but the ones to the right REALLY show how the character is feeling!

Body language is also immensely important when it comes down to expressiveness. Every part of the body can be used to convey a message. The crossing of arms can indicate disgust, or even put a small barrier between two people. Slumped shoulders show disappointment or sadness. Every little movement a character makes can have a massive impact on their overall tone. Here are a few examples like the above:

Even minute changes to a static pose can make a BIG difference! Test around and see what works best.

I’ve noticed that some animators have mirrors near their desk. This is so they can look up at their reflection and make a face into the mirror. They project their character’s feelings onto themselves, that way they can see what sort of facial expression would be best suited to that emotion. Nowadays we can just google this, but it’s still a good idea. Don’t be afraid to look up references whenever you need them. I know I do frequently! There’s no shame in using references!

My friend linked me to this wonderful guide, which goes more in-depth than I did here. Take a look!

I’m sorry I can’t help you quite as much with angles. I feel that I’d need to do a little more research in order to be able to articulate this more fluently. Perhaps some other time I can try and revisit this and go more into depth about perspective and foreshortening, but for now, here’s another great guide that might help you along in the right direction. I use a similar structure for my own drawings! 

Speaking of foreshortening, here’s another tutorial! I don’t use this particular method, but it may work for you!

I know you didn’t ask for it, but I’d like to give you some tips about comic making. If you don’t want them, then I guess you can just stop reading, pfff. Either way I’ll put it under a cut so this post doesn’t take up so much of the dashboard.

I have to admit, my method of creating comics is… Unconventional in a variety of ways. I’m sure it’s not the worst way to go about it, but it may be a bit odd. Everyone has their own way, and a part of the process is finding what clicks well with you and your work flow. This is just my method, one of many!

I’ll start off with some of the important basics in comic making! I went to a small panel about comics at a con last year, and there I learned a few tricks and tips!

When it comes down to speech bubbles, it’s a good idea to keep the flow of the comic in mind. Usually comics are read from left to right, so when it comes to speech bubble order it’s best to keep this in mind. Height and distance between the bubbles in the same panel can also alter the order that they’re read in. It’s likely that our eyes will go to the panels on top first, so when it comes to order, it’s better to put the first bubble higher up than the second!

It’s also a good idea to keep in mind where your speech bubbles will be, and how much space they could potentially take. To avoid covering up too much of the characters it’s a good idea to plan these out ahead of time, and leave some extra space for these.

As well as speech bubble order, character order is also important. Again, since we read left to right, the first character we see we will assume is the protagonist, or even the hero. For example, let’s say you have a man using binoculars to spy on someone within a building. This can go two entirely different ways! If this spy was on the leftmost side of the panel, looking into the building that the person on the right is working in, it’ll come across as a hero digging up some dirt on an evil organization. Flip it around, with the person being spied on to the left inside of his home, and the spy outside and to the right of the panel, it’ll come across as a protagonist in immediate danger!

Something I need to remind myself of frequently is guiding the reader’s eyes about the page. This is best done in a subtle manner, where you use the characters and scenery to “point” towards the next panel. You can also use speech bubbles to do this, as when we read our eyes naturally follow along to the next bubble! Having the rightmost bubble lead into the one within the next panel is a pretty easy way to do this. One way I did this in my BatIM comic was by using Bendy’s spaded tail as a literal arrow. Did you notice? Even if I didn’t have the end of his tail pointing, I tried to aim his tail towards the next panel, especially if he’s not facing the “right” direction. The way that a character faces can also have an effect on this, so keep that in mind. They shouldn’t always be facing right, so it helps to have ways to lead reader eyes along.

One comic I poured a lot of focus on for this particular tactic is this one. Here I have Reaper Bird essentially point to where I want the reader’s eyes to go. You’ll also notice that it pops out of the panel now and again. That was a fun little detail I decided to add; in this case I used it to make Reaper Bird feel a little stranger, as it didn’t always fit into the box, even though Gaster did. A nod to how it covers up the dialogue box in-game. You can use this tactic to draw more attention to a character, such as for an introduction! Sometimes you don’t even have to limit them within the confines of the walls of a panel!

Speaking of panels… Making them all the same size and shape gets relatively… Boring. Not to mention there will be times where you either will have too much room for a single panel, or simply not enough! It’s far more engaging when the panels are different in size and shape. Just be sure to keep the flow in mind. We read from left to right, top to bottom. If you want to stack corresponding panels, be sure to make it clear that the top leads into the bottom, and the bottom leads into the one to the left of those!

So here’s how I make my comics: first I start off with my idea, and I plan out the basic idea in my head. From there I’ll write down the idea, and where exactly I want the comic to go. If I need to, I’ll write a basic script so I know what needs to be said and when. If I need more detail, or if I feel I’ll forget what I want to see I’ll script it out more, maybe sketch out panel ideas/format. From there I sort of… Grab paper and start going at it. I ghost out panels on my page. When I say “ghost,” I’m referring to the very light sketches and shapes I create to give myself a basic idea of where I want characters to be, and what I want them to be doing. I start with these light sketches to help me shape my drawings, and so I can easily go back over them and fix any problems or errors.

Once I feel I’ve got the panel looking basically like how I want it, I put a box around it and move to the next one. Though it’s probably better to use a ruler or a straight edge to create your panels. Even though I’m pretty good at making a straight line, and when I ink the boxes it usually works out… My panels are a wee bit lop-sided, haha! I used to plan out each panel carefully and then measure them out on the page I’ll be drawing on. While this doesn’t work for my flow NOW, it may be a useful tactic for you! For larger comics, careful planning is definitely key, but for shorter comics it’s not quite as important.

Anyway, once I have a page ghosted, I’ll go back over it and finish up the sketches, and make sure that each one is easily distinguishable for the inking process. This is usually where I make sure that the readability of the comic flows well for the reader. It’s also when I’ll share it with friends to get outside opinions. It’s usually a good idea to do this! Because you tend to get used to your own art, and you’ll likely miss errors. (I’ve done this too many times to count.)

After things are settled, I start working on the backgrounds. While not absolutely ESSENTIAL, having backgrounds can make your comic look a little more natural. It can help build atmosphere, and give the reader an idea of where the character is! I usually wait until I get the characters drawn, that way the background and character can mesh together a bit better. However if it’s easier to start with a BG for you, then that’s fine, too!

Then it’s off to inking! I focus first on the characters, then the foreground objects, then the background. Colors are next, should I go with them.

Here’s one page I have where I have the ghosted sketch, please excuse the potato cam quality! It’s not much, but I hope it at least gives you an idea.

Here’s a sketch of the full comic, before I inked it. You can still see some of my rough sketch work and where I started to plot out the background.

But that’s all I can think of, at least for right now. Feel free to ask more questions–I’ll do my best to answer them! I hope this helped out, at least a little bit. I’m sorry that it got quite a bit long… And hopefully this all makes sense, somehow. I feel a bit scatterbrained when it comes to teaching!

Good luck with your comics!

[enchantingnightmaredoughnut-blog]

The Second Play Test

Since i’m now done with half of my graphic novel, with only small features not finished and added yet, I decided to do another play test. The reason I decided to do this now was because there is enough done for the play testers to fairly judge what the graphic novel will look like when finished and there is enough time and work for me improve and fix all the issue they might find.

The questionnaire:

I’ve decided to use the same questions to see if I’ve changed the issues that were mentioned before and they are still relevant questions that I need to know in order to properly improve my graphic novel.

The results:

I wanted to know how the art and the all the other features in my graphic novel are seen and if they work and come across how they are meant to be.

I asked 8 people this time, four girls and four boys all in my target audience age range (13-16 year old), the reason I did girls and boys is because though girls are my main audience, I also want to make it so that boys can enjoy the graphic novel too so I wanted to know if boys like it or is it too feminine.

Question 1-

I asked, ‘What do you think of the art style and why?

I was wonderful to know that everyone liked the art style, almost all of them found it; cute, effective, adorable, brightly coloured, simple, fun and perfectly fitted the story and target audience. This is wonderful because I know know the art does appeal to my target audience and it fitting so it doesn't look odd and that people love the art since that is a huge part of a graphic novel.

Question 2-

I asked, ‘What do you think about how the graphic novel is laid out and why?’

This was also very positive, they found the layout good because it wasn't too crowded/cluttered, easy to read/follow, interesting, perfect and professional looking. This is wonderful since I didn’t want it to look amateur looking and unappealing by it being crowded, since this can make it hard to read and that could result in people become confused or frustrated and hating the graphic novel to completely missing the story. Some told me how I could improve it which was experiment more by adding more variety in the shape of the panels, which I think is a very good idea, adding variety and stopping it for getting boring and repetitive, so I’ll try to do this in the next chapter, especially in the fourth one since that chapter has an action scene which i want to be very interesting.

Question 3-

I asked, ‘What do you think of the interactive elements?’.

I got great feedback for this question since not only did people try to tell me how they felt about it but also how I can improve it. Most people said how they are fun to use, interesting, funny and brilliant (such as the enlargeable speech bubbles). Other told me about how sometimes it is hard to read (this is mostly about the colour red which I currently trying to figure out since its too late now to redo all the speech bubbles) and the page numbers which is mostly because I've not properly added them yet but its great to know that people want them to be added.

Question 4-

I asked, ‘How could I improve this graphic novel?’.

Some of the answers are similar to the answers about such as the quality of speech bubbles and the page numbers and one person said how I should developed/add more characters which I’ll try to do with Marshmallow in the next chapters. Most people said about how they liked how it was and they want me to continue with how it already is, so I now know what I’m doing is good and there are only a few things I need to add or try to fix.

Question 5-

I asked, ‘Did you find any glitches or problems and if so what were they?’.

It’s great to know that once again no one found any glitches in my graphic novel but there is always the last play test to finalized if my graphic novel is truly glitch free.

7 people said yes saying that they would because they loved the art, the characters personality, it’s enjoyable, entertaining and the story is fascinating while having great quality. This is amazing to know since it shows my work still appeals to my target audience. 1 person said maybe, it depend on the final product which is understandable since it still isn't completed yet. 

OVERALL

I received fantastic feedback which will greatly help me since I know understand what is good, what they enjoy, what more i could add, how i could improve and know that my graphic novel  still appeals to my target audience. I will be apply all my research to my graphic novel with the rest of the stories such as trying to add all the ideas they said i could improve on such as the page numbers, possibly the speech bubbles and the panel shapes in order to keep my audience interested for when it is finally completed.