#webcomic discussion

[ryebread-x]

I noticed a discussion started by @bugwolfsstuff about Lore Olympus and Loki Lord of Chaos(two webcomics I don't particularly like as well due to both being pretty poor portrayals of Norse and Greek mythology). However, there is one webtoon comic I want to talk about in a more positive light, but I felt it would be off-topic, so I'm going to make a separate post for it.

That comic is Mythos Redone by Gonzalez and Liss . Unlike the other two comics, it focuses on all the pantheons (though mainly Greek,Norse,and Egyptian). While it isn't completely accurate to the actual myths, it's made clear by the title that the comic isn't going to be a complete accurate portrayal.

The comic follows an artist named Paige, and a demon named Anthemion who makes a deal with her to give her powers in exchange for her emotions so she can make art.They then slowly start to catch feelings for eachother. Making the main couple two original characters who are connected to the gods rather than it being an actual couple from mythology. Which I like because then their personalities feel more original because they are their own characters . Opposed to taking a mythological couple doing a complete personality switch with them(which is fine on it's own but it's excuted poorly most of the time).

This comic is also one of the only versions of Hades and Persephone I like(and that's saying a lot because I don't like a lot of adaptations of Hades and Persephone). While they still are romantic in the comic, Demeter for once isn't portrayed as overbearing or controlling. All the myths are mostly being retold from Anthemion point of view as well. Demeter is portrayed as just being worried for her kids rather than overbearing.

I like how the relationships are portrayed in this as well. Some of them are non canonical to the myths such as Nyx and Gaia, who are Anthemion's moms. While Aphrodite and Hephaestus are portrayed as more health in this comic, they aren't end game but stay on good terms.

Anthemion also got with a few of the gods from different pantheons before meeting Paige as well.

However, there is one downside to this comic being while Loki is in this comic, and major side character, he isn't with Sigyn. He's with a completely different figure from mythology. However, I did see in the comments that it was confirmed by one of the creators that Loki and Sigyn were together, but they got divorced. Whether on good terms or not is unclear, but she isn't completely erased from the comic as far as I know. Updates are pretty slow, but art takes time, and she could possibly appear in a flashback since Norse mythology hasn't really been covered yet.

That one downside aside, it's still a pretty good read . The art style is beautiful, and the designs are well done as well. It also has its own original story while still including the myths and the gods as somewhat side characters/stories. Again, I don't want to spoil too much, but it's a good webcomic, none the less.

[makitstop]

God, i just read a really awesome DS3 webcomic on here

and for some reason, it reminded me of that kris straube webcomic, broodhollow

and now i’m just sad

[dogstomp]

Dogstomp #3189 - September 24th

Patreon / Discord Server / Itaku / Bluesky

[genericpuff]

On today's episode of "Rachel exaggerates things to make herself sound cooler-"

Soooo this is a lie.

No seriously, this has to be a lie. I don't make these kinds of accusations willy-nilly. This has to be a lie.

First of all, if her file sizes are truly 11GB for each episode, that would mean her file resolutions would have to be stupid high, and I just ain't buying that when so much of her art comes out looking like fried chicken.

But again, look at the backgrounds. Crystal clear. Which supports my theory that Rachel has her assistants draw the characters flat and exports them as PNG's so that she (or another one of her assistants) can slap the backgrounds in afterwards which is why when they pinch and zoom, the backgrounds look fine (as they're added in afterwards) and the characters look like they've been drawn with chalk. The shading itself isn't deep fried though, which is, again, because Rachel adds in the shading in post after her assistants have sent her all the flats.

Anyways, moving on from that, if her file sizes are actually 11GB per episode, that would mean her resolution would have to be STUPID high and that would mean there's no excuse for panels to look like this. This is not a Webtoons compression problem, Webtoons does compress images for you if you don't do it yourself but they don't result in specifically deep fried textures like this, that's ALL happening on Rachel's side. If it were a Webtoons' problem, the entire comic would look like that, not just select panels.

This is also what the panels tend to look like in book form. The book art is clearly very compressed and blurred from being too low of a resolution for print, which means either the editor is not being provided the root files, or the root files weren't ever that crisp to begin with. Either one is plausible and either one isn't good.

But of course, I'm not going to make these claims without my own proof. So here's the file sizes for Episode 12 of Rekindled, the longest episode in the series so far by panel count and page length, clocking in at 42 panels and an average of 25 layers per page (and that's including the text layers which adds a good chunk on its own, the actual art layers are like, half of that).

Also, here's what a pinch and zoom panel in Rekindled comes out looking like:

You can still pick up on some fuzziness, but the lineart doesn't look straight up chunky like it does in LO.

Meanwhile, one of my longest episodes of TIME GATE: [AFTERBIRTH] has a file size that honestly shocked me with how small it was.

Guess how many panels that episode had?

Go on, guess. Take a second. Compare it to the file size of Episode 12 of Rekindled, take your best educated guess. Time Gate: [AFTERBIRTH] is also a full color webtoon with full shading and rendering that I used to upload once a week. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Ninety-seven.

Ninety. Seven.

Not only is that more panels than what LO dishes out on a weekly basis, but its overall file size doesn't even come out to be 10% of what Rachel is claiming LO's file sizes to be.

This is what Time Gate: [AFTERBIRTH] looks like, by the way:

(don't mind the blurriness that's working against my point, that's Tumblr, not me LMAO)

But, let's face it, I didn't want to just use my own examples as a comparison, because that seems unfair. I'm not an Originals creator, I just put myself under similar pressures as one because I'm an idiot who tries too hard.

So I asked one of my Originals pals. I will not disclose their name, but they are someone who works for Webtoons Originals and has similar panel requirements and deadlines. They also work with a similar flatting + shade workflow as LO, they have cel-shaded colors and bold flat coloring.

When I asked them how big their file sizes were, they said that at 2500px width - similar to what I draw at, 2400px width - and 200-300k pixel length (again, they're drawing an entire episode on one canvas) their episode file sizes come out to roughly one gigabyte, very rarely much bigger than that.

Rachel is full of shit. This is some Tommy Tallarico level shit, exaggerating stupid things that don't matter to try and make herself seem impressive. It isn't impressive. It makes her look like an unorganized dunderhead at best, and at worst, makes her look like a flat out liar who needs to prop herself up on the dumbest shit to make herself look good. File gigabyte size isn't impressive or indicative of anything, you can achieve high quality art without your file size amounting to 11 GB, and let's face it, Lore Olympus is not high quality art. You're telling me art like this:

amounts to 11 GB?

Now the only way I can see this happening is if maybe, maybe she had like, a bajillion layers full of garbage-

Oh. Oh no. Lore Olympus. Is a sprite comic.*

(*edit for clarification: I've had people confused over what I mean by sprite comic because LO clearly isn't made with 16/8 bit sprites. Sprite comic was a term universally used back in the day for comics that reused the same body parts, heads, expressions, etc. much like how sprites are designed, often keeping an entire file full of different layers made up of these assets to make for easier development. This technique was utilized in comics like CTRL + ALT + DEL. LO is definitely not literally a sprite comic but the way its layers are designed feel very much like something that's being cobbled together like 'sprite' comics were. I'm old.)

Even with these pics for proof, with 600+ layers on one canvas, if there's barely anything on those layers, then it still wouldn't make up that 11GB file size because the amount of layers doesn't necessarily add to file size on its own, at least not by that much, unless they're actually filled with stuff. And again, Rachel's art in LO doesn't scream "highly detailed with many layers". It only had many layers because for some reason she insists on working that way even to its own detriment.

From the looks of it, Rachel's importing all of her assistants' PNG's as separate layers and adding all the shading and the extra details on their own separate layers and basically dividing everything up into tiny bite sized pieces. That's the only clear explanation I can come up with. But if so, that means she's being INCREDIBLY inefficient with her workflow that it's amounting to SIX HUNDRED+ LAYERS AT 11 GB PER EPISODE. THAT IS ABSURD. THIS COMIC IS WAY TOO LOW QUALITY TO JUSTIFY THESE FILE SIZES AND LAYER COUNTS. RACHEL DOESN'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK SHE'S DOING-

She's also very clearly using the cloud as a way to backup her work and work with her assistants. God knows how much she's spending on cloud space because of her own incompetency.

Honestly, at this point, as I sit here playing the Photoshop equivalent of Cookie Clicker, clicking the 'new layer' button over and over and over again with my mouse to truly understand what it would feel like to operate at 600+ layers per episode of a webtoon, I'm more inclined to believe she's just lying. Capping. Pulling shit out of her ass. Straight up making shit up. It wouldn't be the first time she's done that. But also because the alternative is a lot more grim - the #1 best selling webtoon on the platform is being operated like the world's worst group project and still coming out on the other side looking like deep fried garbage despite its stupid high file size.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Outdrawn

f/f contemporary romance

two cartoonist who’ve been rivals since uni, and now have competing webcomics online, have to work together on the relaunch of a cult classic at the comic press they both work at

they both struggle with art-related physical and mental health issues, and complicated families

[saltysplayt00ns]

Tearing Page 733 hind

Tch MAAAAAAAANNNN!!!  I’ve been waiting for this page to come up, cause this is just blatant kique misogyny and sexist of making females complacent of something as serious as a scratch of the muzzle from a short fuss - right here and insulting of the characters who are in Asmundr Comic. It's like the movie: thing of a clone of the person.

Page 93, 94 & 104

Lifa is just acting way too submissive on this when Lifa, who would never put up with this, Lifa of all dogs who know the red-flags of manipulative and threats of harm from unbalanced power dynamic,

Page 143 & 265

LIFA who has told and taught the family to stick together and work as a team in a no mercy environment, protect your own and think with a clear mind -  is blatantly letting family abuse slide by. And immediately go to the next Subject cause showing how evil Marduck is then Lifa’s family basically falling apart is far more important. If it was Ronja, Jahla or a female family member - bet they would be ridiculed, belittled, practically coerced to apologize. While If it was Rogio or Ranach or Roamer getting hurt or pitied or had been killing people ( which they did ) , they would be coddled and sympathized - which is what’s happening here, Rohgir being sympathized for basically wounding his sister and daughter of Lifa and it's not bluntly told but implies for Jahla to be “ understanding “ so they can move on and be a happy family again. Ignoring/brushing the problem off doesn’t fix it.

Heck THIS IS NOT HOW ROHGIR ACTED EITHER, this is like a 180 of Rohgir’s personality.

pages 263, 265 & 297

yes, he is blunt and crass and yes secretive, and would take risky decisions that would protect his family to live another day, but in any way shape or form would never raise a paw to another because his eugenic uprising would have him be Marduck 2.0 AND RANULFR .

Kaine and Lifa should be shocked/horrified since this is The one who Rohgir's family + pack fought in a war against his father's ideology of being the superior species ( that he disowned as a a father ) , that also tried to also non-consensually mate with Niita; his aunt and Lifa's sister . Stressed or not you should never resort to hurting your siblings unpurposely.  Why are the Akiulfrs even under him as subordinates? at this point if he is willing to attack the triad  leaders who’re equal to him as family . That implies he's willing to hurt his own members who HAVE no equal power over him that are no blood related members. It would be a full on rebellion.

Page 389 & 656

Roughhousing is okay, but everything is not fun and games when someone literally gets hurt. Most would even ask if it’s ok to do certain things or if a simple “ ow “ or “ stop, that hurt “ would immediately be apologized/stop all together. At least sensible people. Intentionally hurting someone needs to be stopped because you'll enable it and once enabled,  it will lead to toxic to dangerous behaviors, interactions or/and abuse. You see it all the time and you see it now.

—-------

The author really doesn’t know what he wants to do with the majority of the characters, cause literally everyone is a villan who is misunderstood or the moment he makes them a villain and then changes his mind and back peddles to make them not a villain but a misunderstood, sympathizing character. I rather suck a gallon of pure lemons before I sympathize with Ranach and Rogio.

—-------

Lifa like...this is your son, siblings or not you shouldn't be hurting each other nonetheless intent on killing. the fact Jahla doesn't even mention her biting Rohgirs neck that can kill or paralyze his spine is already a reflag of their own. why you hiding that fact saber teeth can puncture and do damage, they obviously don't break.

DIALOGUE REWRITTEN

Lifa could have said: Lifa: “ This is not like him to… “ // ( To keep secrets yeah but not to twist the truth. )

Jahla: " he clawed my muzzle off …before banning me from the Island."

Lifa: " What...??!!”

Kainen: " He may be dealing a lot with a large pack..,"

Lifa cutting Kainen off: " It does not excuse my son to resort to retaliation. Threats, but not of family and certainly NOT of his own." 

Jahla: "we talk to him as a family then? Perhaps if he sees us be fine..."

Lifa looks off in frustration and disgruntlement: "We would, but Marduck would not approve. We would already be off to find the others if we did." // ( discard the page of that Marduck introduction and he is shown later after Jahla found him by the family describing him. )

Kainen, licking lips nervously, looks over to the Beacon and where Marduck went: " He's one of Father's own and makes it clear every chance he gets." // ( In a better scene Kainen indicating Marduck attacking the Rabishu and I Kainen to prove a point when he tried to leave. )

Jahla In deep thought, scrunching eyebrows: "Perhaps, I can talk to him. I am familiar with Father just as much as he is, just tell me what I need to know about him." // ( cause the old Jahla would be gun-ho excited of learning more about Father, after all she broke with Rhovanion, monologue a poor excuse with Rome, studied the hidden languages, taken in Father's creation; Avanti - is now acting hostile of a dog she barely even given a chance. )

And that would lead to the next Page Jahla encountering Marduck NOT CRAMMING IT IN ONE PAGE. it's like the dumbest thing to state an “ oh” .

Plus it's the same pose of 3 dogs sitting overhead/bird eye view and discussing. Plus Lifa’s face is Rogio like a copy + paste of Rogio.

—--

We got now mothers enabling their kids to stay with strangers ( Feomeh with Diarko ) , Mothers letting their son do all the talking and leading ( Liari & Ralei  ) , mothers letting male family members keep their rank after disobeying a command from the leader ( Ronja and Roamer ) ,  and now excuse sibling physical assault (Lifa and Jahla ) ps. Forgot about the Nubia situation and Feaf of disregarding a non-consensual agreement to bearing a Hybrid child from the quote ' golden ' in quote lioness a few pages ago. Thanks to the commenter for jogging my memories ♥

[cupsofjade]

Ink Fox & Paper Tiger - Ep.6

A new episode of INK FOX & PAPER TIGER! Deep in the darkest ends of the galaxy, the sprite comics still linger. Listen: https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/32448162 Watch: https://youtu.be/VgO2cm3L8vM

[daintev]

Web Archive my beloved <3

I've noticed not a lot of people aren't aware and or can't find the original version of My Two Cents Plus Tax. Cuz for those of you who don't know: mtcpt was originally started in 2008 and ended in 2013. I believe Geezerflakes said she was in high school around that time?

Anyway! Since Smack Jeeves, the website it was originally uploaded too, shut down it wasn't easy finding an archive of the original comic, at some point I started to consider the entire comic wasn't archived at all! Luckily I eventually found it! (thank you web archive)

The images don't always load, so it's a bit tricky, but I'm glad the original was archived! it's so interesting to see the history and origins of things like this.

Here's the link to the archive: MTCPT Orginal Comic. Have fun! :D

[thesinglesock]

just set up an RSS reader as my home page

I love the future :D

[supersuperdupersecretnerd]

God I love angry and ugly crying expressions on characters

Anyways these screenshots are from a webcomic called Drop Out (can here here! https://drop-out.webcomic.ws/). On the short side of webcomics, with only 116 pages and 2 brief minicomics about the main characters Lola and Sugar.

Content warning is very important here; it's about two girlfriends having a road trip to the Grand Canyon where they plan on committing suicide together. Also contains drug usage, abusive parents (mentioned not depicted), and effects of trauma.

[goinghomecomic]

Going Home - Chapter 3 - Pg 5

(BEGINNING) - (NEXT)

[d-choppy]

"How did you meet ?"

Little comics with my Ocs ~ who James and Tuskiko the Harionago meet ~ I love them ~ James is the brother of Arthur and Olivia.

[skautism]

trying to make me talk about my future? on homestuck day?

[toontalks]

Let's talk about "The Guy Upstairs" (contains spoilers, a lot of them)

With the season finale of The Guy Upstairs not too long ago, readers were left with a lot to digest.

To start off this discussion, we're going to talk about the most recent episodes because it's not hard take one's mind off it. What if the officer is just teaming up with Adam (serial killer) because he wants to find more information on his allegedly “missing” sister? What if he thinks Adam killed her and wanted more information? After all, if you can't beat them, join them. The question is, how far would he actually go to get what he wants?

Unfortunately, the chances are that Adam doesn’t trust Officer Alex either. Let’s be real, Adam is a serial killer who ties up all loose ends and is very thorough in his clean up, the idea that there is another person out there who might blab, especially someone in the force at that. It would make anyone paranoid of betrayal. 

One scene that may confirm the theory that Officer Alex is double crossing Adam is where he is surprised when Hawa reveals the lipstick stained shirt in his car. His expression reveals quite a lot, especially the fact that he was genuinely surprised. The fact that he is so thorough in cleaning up after himself suggests it was something planted there.

On the topic of Hawa, (Adam’s girlfriend and Rozy’s best friend), the creator deserves applause for her portrayal of this specific character. Hawa, at first glance, is simply the dumb but supportive best friend who constantly needs her knight in shining armour (which is Rozy) As the story progresses, we see that she becomes less frustratingly naive and optimistic and starts trusting Rozy more when it came to her advice and intuition.

She also plays a little part in trying to catch Adam in the act, although it feels as though Rozy puts her in more danger revealing the truth. Hawa is bound to appear less comfortable with Adam now that she knows he’s a  psychotic murderer. In the end, Rozy just wants what’s best for her friend.

Is that really a good thing though? Think about it. Despite the way Adam phrased his assessment of Rozy and Hawa’s friendship and the obvious intention to drive a wedge between them behind his mentioning of it, he had a point. Rozy has a very unhealthy attachment to Hawa. To paraphrase Adam, she already has one cherished one and thus, does not see the need for other companions or friends, even her platonic relationship with Officer Alex was a means of securing Hawa’s safety.

She pushes away Ravi, who ironically, just wants to take care of her (even though her analysis of him being a “guy who won’t take know for an answer is spot on, which is shown a little later down when he flat out rejects him and he punches the wall and storms her) as well as other characters who help her in her plot to catch the harasser (Teddy) on campus. She holds everyone at arm’s length.

Her clinginess to Hawa may be born out of concern and affection, but it is borderline possessive. Although her wariness of Adam is mainly contributed to by him being a serial killer allegedly, there is also the presence of a subconscious fear of losing the only person who “truly cares for her”. This is something Adam exploits in an attempt to waver Rozy.

Adam is toying with Rozy. This much is obvious. The threat against Rozy’s safety (even though she is neglectful of it) is minimal as Adam clearly could have killed her at any point but has deemed her harmless. Or rather amusing. It’s no secret that he enjoys riling her up and gradually chipping away at her sanity. Something that can be seen where she contemplates stabbing him in the back (literally) to end it all. Maybe being psychotic is genetic.

Siblings, a plot twist the author reveals as she (sadly) cancels the series. This revelation only adds to the loose ends within the story. Is the scar on Rozy’s abdomen somehow related to the car accident Adam was in as a child? Is it a possibility Rozy has repressed memories? Maybe Adam as well.  Or perhaps Adam remembers. It would certainly explain why he ‘coincidentally’ ended up renting in the same building just above his sister’s floor. Perhaps he made the connection when he saw the picture frame in Hawa’s house that may have had Rozy with long hair in it. Rozy does have the same hair colour as his mother after all. Maybe seeing the photo surfaced some memories. It would certainly explain his expression after seeing the photograph.

Rozy and Adam’s relationship is already rather tumultuous to say the least. Why did he let her find him in the last episode? Perhaps he finally wants to have a proper conversation. Maybe he wants to frame her for Teddy’s murder and force an alliance. Her cleaning skills were very emphasised in the series, perhaps he wants to recruit her for evidence clean up. If not, it’s not far-fetched to believe at some point Rozy will end up committing murder for Hawa’s sake and Adam will be the only one she can turn to.

I can only pray Rozy’s plot armour would have been thicker than her apartment walls.

[dykeza]

Finally sat my white ass down and read hs2 (I left off at Sollux being reintroduced for a four years in the making joke) . So like. God I love Homestuck?

[cupsofjade]

ifpt youtube thumbnails broodhollow

Today on INK FOX & PAPER TIGER, we get a letter directing us to a tiny, strange town in the backwoods of West Virginia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LcA2yt5Vv4