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I liked the guy.

It's the right-wing and well-to-do of his country and others who hated him. To hell with those clowns. At least he flipped the bird to the U.S. corporate types and their political supporters. And I don't give a rats ass if he taxed the well-to-do to feed the poor, whether they worked or not. Good! Others should follow his lead.

And he wasn't a dictator. He was duely elected in the fairest elections to date. He might have been a hard ass... a lot of leaders are in developing countries, but he was a lot better than most.

R.I.P, UGO Hugo.

My argument was that style is used as an excuse by some to attack or dismiss as irrelevant the art of others as either inappropriate for the story, or unoriginal. Everybody is a critic these days, and if they can't find something specific to attack, they'll invent something. ._.

Sure, as some have mentioned, you can argue that gritty or dark stories and themes require more realistic, or at least not cutsey art, while gag-a-day works better with silly, less complex drawings, but that wasn't my point, and it's a subjective issue anyway.

And we're back on manga... okay... manga, as has been noted, is a broad term used to describe all Japanese comic art. It's the Japanese term for comic, or, as I understand it, actually a corruption of the english word magazine. Many argue there is great variation in manga, others argue it all looks the same. I was looking at a book in an art store the other day that said very plainly that manga characters, especially females, cannot be simply big-eyed characters, but must conform to very specific physical characteristics and measurements, otherwise it isn't, in the words of the book's author, 'true manga'. <_<

I also read a blog a year or so ago that claimed that manga was the ultimate cartooning style that covered all genres, and with it's advent rendered all other cartoon and comic styles obsolete and useless. Oh brother. 9_9

I won't argue manga vs. western art, or realistic vs. cartoony, or 'original' vs. 'derivative'... it's all subjective, as I said. Just render the art that best suits the story you are telling in the way that you and you alone feel it ought to be rendered. Let the long-hairs and the sidewalk supervisors froth and rage all they want. Remember the old saying about bugs farting under the water. ;)

We focus too damn much on style here. Honestly, I never gave style a second thought until coming here.

All the blither-blather about having an original style, wholly uninfluenced by other techniques is pointless in my eyes. You can draw characters in any style and they serve the same function.

I didn't set out to re-invent the wheel, just to tell cute stories with cute characters. My style has morphed a bit and will continue to do so as my artistic temperment changes, not to please some self-styled critics.

The art style is only important in so far as it is sufficient to tell the story. Anything beyond that is mere hubris.

Which is one of the reasons I'm very shortly getting out of the business of webcomics.

I've made some money doing fetish and softcore stuff, since that is highly specialized, but webcomics, frankly, are a black hole for artists. Like requests or art trades, they yield almost nothing for the creators beyond eye strain, lost life hours, and sore wrists.

It's a circle jerk scenario where folks read and comment on each others work largely for fellowship and moral support. Too much product, too few readers. An upside down supply and demand issue.

It'll remain that way until webcomic artists realize they're screwing themselves and decide to change it.

It's the result of the snarky world we're living in. Being polite is classed as old fashioned. Humor is derived from belittling others. We've all become Don Rickles! O_o

A little harmless ribbing is one thing, but I have little use for snark. We should all start being a little more thoughtful. Remember that old axiom: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

Thus spake the wise and postulating Thumper in Bambi. ;)

I object! I use the word toss all the time when a character is throwing something!

I guess I'm just an old tosser. ;)

Incredibly, as simple as my comic looks, it takes about 16 hours per page or more to do. Longer when I used only Ms Paint. Glad to see I'm not the only one wasting that much of my life. ;)

I have to agree. Sometimes bad stands out, and that can be good.

When Star Wars came out in 1977, FX movies were hit and miss in terms of realism and quality. So, Star Wars, which was really a rather mediocre effort in my opinion, stood out as a shining example of technical achievement. Now, every movie has awesome visuals, and none really stand out in my eyes.

So I'll stick with Ed Wood and Godzilla. ;)

Most would probably say 2D animation for mine, since the comic itself is patterened to resemble a cheap Hanna-Barbera Saturday Morning cartoon from the days of old.

I, however, would prefer a live action TV series since the original concept was taken from a script I'd written some years ago, then wrote as a YA novel. It'd have to be done a bit more seriously than the comic, though. No intelligent crabs. ;)

Since most movies are made from a series of storyboards, which are, in essence, comics, the two mediums are already joined at the hip.

I alway compose my panels like a movie, or animated cartoon. Close ups, medium shots, wide angle, reverse angle, establishing shots... they're all in my comic. Obviously, panning or dolley shots are out of the line up due to the static nature of the medium, but enough elements are there to get the point across. ;)

I had a pet rock.

But it died. :(

Double Edged Sword

or...

Two Sides of the Blade

I would say it's determined by a combination of factors, not the least of which being subject matter and personal taste.

Also, none of us knows how much money was spent, or advertising done for these huge, multi-million reader webcomics. I'm sure that's a factor as well.

I'm glad you mentioned this, Mags. I just re-read TOGM last week and was struck by the fantastic progress of Skrael's art. It progressed more slowly when I read it the first time, but when reading it back to back, the change was remarkable. 0_0

It almost improved too much. That's not a criticism, just an observation. I found myself fondest of the art in the latter half of book two, which had a light cartoony feel to it, but still looked clean and professional. It seemed to fit the story best. (Art like in your banner.) But, as Skrael improved to near anotomical perfection, especially with Chad, Beth, and Sylene, the cuteness of the characters seemed, for me at least, to dim a bit.

I realize that the comic had progressed from a more humorous, semi-comedy to a much more serious plot-centered yarn, but I liked the art best before Skrael read all those anatomy books. ;)

I generally agree with KentuckyFriedPopcorn's view... that the art and story should suit one another. Art that's too good for the writing can throw the story off as much as poor art can ruin a well written strip.

I try to balance the two in my own cartoon, though I don't know if I succeed or not. It's a struggle all of us go through, I suppose.

In the end, it all boils down to personal taste.

By the way... what the heck is slagging?

I had a similar situation happen to my old thriftshop PC back in 2011. It turned out to be adware. Locked up all my systems and made it appear I'd had a HD crash and had lost all my data. What had actually happened was that the adware had hidden all the programs and done a bunch of other things. There were like 27 viruses involved! 0_0

Obviously you have internet access. I did as well. I read a ton of how to's online and finally found one that described similar symptoms to mine. It reccomended I download Malwarebytes, a virus cleaning program. It failed to download the first time (I have dial-up). But it worked with an older version of that program. It cleaned out the adware and viruses in record time. Then, I had to go back and manually unhide all my programs and data. Took me three days, but I'm old and stupid.

Not sure how to do all that with a Mac, but it worked for me. Give it a try. Good luck.

The Newtown tragedy was shocking, even to an old cynic like me. Who in God's name could look one 7 year old in the face and pull the trigger on an automatic weapon, let alone twenty? It boggles the mind. I can't even process it.

As to violent comics, TV, Movies, etc.-- I don't know. Maybe they help spur violent behavior, but I doubt it. More likely the people prone to violence will simply choose the more violent media to indulge in. Or, liklier still, these ticking time bombs will go off all on their own, with or without violent media.

And while I'm not especially fond of the gritty, graphic stuff that's so popular these days, I wouldn't dream of banning it. That way lies madness.

Plus-- we like to think of these times as terribly violent... they're not. Not when compared to the Old West, Medevial Europe, or even some modern countries. The atrocities that occur here now are tame next to that. Think of the Harp brothers, or Vlad the Impaler, or Gengis Kahn. Talk about psychos! And look at what the Syrians or the Palestinians go through every day. Hideous!

We humans are a foul bunch most of the time. I suppose all we can hope for is that we gradually grow out of this maniacal urge to destroy one another.

I agree. Many, especially here in America, fetishize the 1950s as if all things done in that period were beyond reproach. Nothing could be farther from the truth. ._.

As to creativity... that's an in-born thing. You either have it, or you don't. I don't believe it can be taught, in so many words.

School, as I see it, is the product of the culture it represents and seeks to perpetuate the practices and alleged values of that culture. Things that deviate from the accepted norms of the culture, be they creative or not, are generally unwelcome in the class room.

There are exceptions, however. ;)

I suppose The Unthinkable Hybrid might be considered a furry by some. He's basically an animal, even if he was a human once. And I do use obviously sentient animal characters in the stories now and again.

I never got this so-called furry debate anyway. In my day, animals of varying degrees of anthromorphism were common in cartoons. Nowadays, every body is trying to make a thing out of it. WTF? Let the furries alone. 9_9

Some things just have to be taken in stride, kiddies. Don't be so damn bullish for logic and rationality. They ain't as keen as they're cracked up to be. Otherwise people wouldn't have invented cartoons and fantasy in order to escape from them.

Plus... they're only cartoons in the first place. ;)

Good advice and a shrewd observation in regard to the going rates being down graded by guys selling out for peanuts just to get the job. I agree it's a bad idea. It sets a poor example. Once rates start sinking, getting them up again will be like pulling teeth.

Plus, nobody likes a sell-out.

And yes... credit where credit is due. There's nothing worse than for a huckster to take credit for someone else's work. (See the Cabbage Patch Kids fiasco for details on that) If, as you say, a writer is also involved, I hope he/she is getting due credit as well. Heck, if you're doing the artwork and someone else is handling the writing and plot development, then what is this other guy actually doing? Buying talent? Some folks might credit that in itself as being creative, but I'm dubious about that point-of-view.

The only thing he asked me to do was create hamsters. He does have a final say in what the concept will be, but he is picking from a lineup of my own drawings. I think I'd see this as a collaborative effort, in that case.

How specific was he about these hamsters? Did he have ideas about them from the start? Personalities? Specific physical characteristics? Colors? A concept of them in relation to their role in this game? If he had all that, they're his characters and it's a work-for-hire scenario.

If he just asked for a spread of generic hamster designs, and left the creativity up to you entirely, it seems to me they are your characters and he's merely renting them. A collaboration.

Plus, if he's pushing you to have 100% rights, I'd be leery. That's just me. Sure his idea might and probably will flop. But, if it blows up, as they say, I'd sure hate to see another fella rake in the swag with my work, while I was left with a measely three or four hundred bucks.

Might want to consult that attorney. ;)