i know it's not void culture to leave comments on old stuff but the random-comic god and the turtle of thursday critic reminders had a baby and made me pet sit it.

i can't believe fowlie was out here in 2007 just drawing mimi the mime getting deadass raped by her character. this is so fucked up. :V but also. kind of amazing? the crux of the classic edgy comics era. new webcomics could never (not that they should. maybe the cultural need for this kind of art has passed us forever? that window is glued shut we can only look outside, now). but i really liked reading it. i love how toony it is, with the train and the balloon dog. and the traditional media, how rough the finished parts are and how loose the wips are and getting to see the process.

and it's such a charming tidbit to add that Nova was a toon? this toonville stuff goes way back, huh?

and Kozi's side: she's just been this powerful all along, huh? I mean of course she's gotten more powerful but she was already really good back in 2007. get that bread, fam. never stop getting the bread. become the god of loaves. I gotta continue reading to find out who that baby was, huh? it wasn't maddie probably ? kozi's side was toony in a different way from Fowlie's. esp. i like the rubber duck talking to Mimi and the medicine cabinet exposition.

i hope these two artists are doing ok and living their best dreams. it's really challenging to see people agreeing to fucking each other's characters up on this level. y'all are so much braver than me.

Whee, last-minute crits....

Both entries, interestingly, had the same strengths and weaknesses, I think.  Beautiful, detailed work that was unfortunately a bit hard to read.  When going that detailed, it\'s a good idea to be really paranoid about whether or not your foreground and characters are differentiated enough from the background.  

Also... the stories?  Where was the big, epic, meaningful take on the effects of rape and such that you promised us?  They kinda read like essays - this happened, then this happened, and then this happened, the end.  There was some shocking images on Fowlie\'s part, but there wasn\'t a lot of substance.  

Both had their charm, though.  Mimi\'s French pit-hair and her bravely brandishing a deadly plunger had me in stitches.  You guys basically rock.  Just maybe work on the script a little longer first next time?  

Man...

Kozi: I\'ve always been your secret stalker since last week ago. Always. And this battle could possibly be what fired me up to stalk you. Your style is obviously the hit-charm of the century, and the story telling makes me feel as giddy as I used to be when I watched early 90\'s Sunday cartoons that used to be good until Disney Channel decided to puke out all those awful...awful teen shows. At first the first pages confused me, but luckily, the arrows showed me the way. Now, some people might not find this to be a good thing, where panel layouts can be too confusing that even with the arrow, the reader can easily lose the flow along with their interest. While I do agree with that, I also don\'t think it\'s a major problem, if not at all. In fact it can be part of a charm to a comic if used sparingly. A lot of comics I love use this type of paneling and it can be a fun read if it\'s actually on a book where you can hold it in your hand. Now when it\'s digitalized, I person has to scroll up and down and this way and that, just to follow an arrow and that can get a little frustrating. I think for that part to make it work (imho) is that you keep the page size smaller where the reader doesn\'t have to move their body to move the mouse to scroll around, if you know what I mean.

So sorry for the rambling, but overall, this has been my favorite comic of mimi. I love, LOVE the dark story being told by someone as comical as her, and it was rather addicting! You make both a light hearted comedy go very well with something as dark as \"rape\" and so on...

fowlie: I honestly love your character. He is scary, seeing that he has bleeding rape tenticles...but he also have some sort of humor in him that makes him rather approachable to the reader. Even though the situation in the comic is obviously not something to take it lightly in many stories, I love the fact that you somehow managed to still keep it comical, which I can\'t really understand how you did it! Usually when it comes to situation regarding these sexual violence, I tend to feel uneasy (which I did), but this comic didn\'t make me feel all too bad. In fact, the comic relief helped me feel relieved, if...that doesn\'t sound weird.

Though of course, the comic is still very sketchy and unfinished, which I can understand. Next time I hope you can finish your next battle.

What the hell, I\'ve got some time right now. It should also be noted that I\'m not reading any of the other comments, so I may repeat what\'s already been said.

Kozi - I\'m not sure if the dis-jointed paneling for the first page works, especially since the climax of the scene (the ending) is the first thing anybody sees as they come across the page. The rest of the images just add up to extra info, rather than giving a good build-up of suspense or whatnot to the \'point\' of the page.

I love the parallelism on page 2 (real-page 3, but I\'m going by the page numbers you used, excluding the cover/warning). It\'s very well done in terms of pose and angle, but I\'d like to see a background or better texture behind Nova, since there\'s a nice one behind Mimi.

Love the layout of page 3, the falling TL Bot is informative without being distracting, and the payoff is sweet, the result of good build-up. This is how your first page should have come across. Personally, I would have liked to see a background behind Nova (again) in the first panel, but it\'s not a big thing.

Diggin\' the layout and set-up of page 4, your story-telling really plays strong here. I think the second panel would be stronger with a more dynamic angle portraying Nova exiting the car, either a deep close up or a bigger long shot to showcase more of the damage. As is, it\'s kind of a medium shot that accomplishes its goal, but that\'s about it.

I don\'t have any real problems with page 5, although it should be noted that breaking the line of action can be a risky thing to do. It didn\'t do any damage to the story in this case, but it\'s generally a rule of thumb to keep characters aligned the same way throughout the scene, rather than have them switching sides. If the stork comes in from the left, keep him there until a new element is introduced, thereby creating a new line of action.

Page 6, eh, cinematic, but a little too much too early. Playing up the suspense probably would have worked better by not making the tentacles *so* apparent. Either that or go the other direction and make them much, much more menacing. Right now it\'s accomplishing the task of letting us know that Nova\'s on his way to a clueless mime, but playing up the drama and dynamics can really sell the story.

Page 7 shows more of what I mean. Nova is a scary guy, but he\'s squished all into the side of the page. Give him more space to breathe and show off those arms of his. He\'s got a killer line that perfectly suits the situation, so really sell it! You probably could have even split this into two pages, giving Nova more panels to enter the room and be a badass, then on the next page show him actually attacking and relishing the chase.

Page 8 is comedic and well done, though it becomes apparent that you ran out of time. There\'s also a good \"Oh shit\" moment at the end, which you sold me on, the result of good build-up through the rest of the page (oh shit, no exit. oh shit, no weapons, oh shit, he\'s here!).

Nice work with the shadows and suspense on page 9, although I think her sign just be a bit more visible, I almost missed it my first time reading. Still, good execution through the rest of the page.

Page 10 is alright, though you could have intercut the Nova\'s conversation with Stephanie with more scenes of Mimi on the run. It works pretty well as is, though.

Fowlie - I figure you also ran out of time, so I\'ll leave it at that. Nice establishing shot (on page 2, page after the cover), nonetheless, albeit common.

Page 3 has some really good story telling layout, so props for that. I would have reversed the second and third panels, to keep Nova on the same side of the scene, following what I said earlier about crossing the line of action (in this case, Nova and the wall), but it\'s not too jarring. I\'m really impressed with how you slowed the frantic pace from him being drunk to him wanting to get more drunk. Very good use of negative space.

Page 4 starts off okay, but the horizon line is REALLY high in your opening shot. It throws off the perspective for the panel, which hurts the shot a bit. Things get really congested after that, and I think you may have dedicated too much space to Mimi showing off (which is build-up and support) and not enough space to the \'point\' of the scene, where Nova gets angry, bit by the dog, then is about to play squishy with its head. That impact of him snapping back is lost because of this. Good move postponing the squishing until the next page though.

Nice page 5, the pay-off is there and good, and Mimi still gets enough space to herself to play her part.

Good impact on page 6, although quality took a major dip here. I\'m sure it would work better with hatching and toning, but it still works alright. The second part works great, Mimi stands out and Nova still gets his in. It\'s a great balance between screen time and emphasis.

Page 7, very dynamic, good work setting up the punchline. The collision could be played up more, so that the following panels aren\'t so congested, as even build up needs more room sometimes. Again, watch out for crossing the line of action, here\'s an example of a point where I *was* thrown off by the trading spaces. Good close-up to start off the second part, and good impact with the sign. Things get lost a bit at the end with the beat-down, feel free to jumble things up and tilt the panels not only to sell the impact of each one, but also to help set each one off as its own moment.

The smaller panels on page 8 use their space really well, and track the story with good proportions of space dedication. Panel 4, which takes up the most room and should therefore be the \"selling point\" of the page, seems like it\'s too low-key. The subject matter is good for the impact of the scene, but the angle is a medium shot from just about eye-level. Spice it up by taking a close-up of someone\'s face and expression, or shoot it from a more dynamic angle, either from the ground or directly above, or have something in the immediate foreground to give a sense of immersion. Good sell for the second part with the trap, very comedic and well played. Great way to sell the expressions too. I feel panels 4 and 5 should have some more space, especially panel 5. The third part is pretty intense and scary, so props for that. The last three panels seem almost like an afterthought though, but I can see how you want to really sell the shot of Nova coming in with tentacles drawn. The three panels could possibly be moved to the next page, but keep them the same size to keep that muted sense of horror.

Page 9\'s layout is great, and in this case it probably wouldn\'t work to have those last 3 panels on this particular page. In the second part, Nova\'s silhouette show could definitely be a lot bigger to portray him as even more menacing. The negative space on the sides of the panel really distract away from him as the focus and kills the impact. Good layout and impact for the last part of the page with the train.

Good closers for the last page, I can tell you\'ve got good narrative and cinematic habits here. I really would like to see that last page finished up, as it really could sell the comic as a whole.

Good stuff from both of you guys, keep it up!

Whew, where to begin? First off THANK YOU to everyone who\'s commented and given both of us great feedback on this battle! I had alot of fun battling you Fowlie and I hope to have Mimi return for a rematch someday. I\'ll be touching on a few comments/questions that stood out and I wanted to address.

Angie- While I see your point, I disagree. I think using arrows to direct a readers eye and shepherd  it to where you want to go is fine, if not an unconventional way to work sequentials. I do agree I may not have succeeded in getting the effect I wanted across, but Jinchuu seemed to get it! XD I wanted the reader to \'climb\' upwards with the panel layout and perhaps feel like they are sneaking up to see whats going on in Mimi\'s apartment.

Silver Sehkmet- My arrows! they do nothing! XD As with Angie, I disagree (since...well arrows SHOULD be easy enough to follow), but considering the outcry, I hope to try and fix my technique in my next battle to where I can be creative with panel layout and not confuse. Compromise~!

Caravaggio- Not every battle in Void should have a conflict and neatly packaged resolution in one go. The story continues with my next battle.

Sixtem- Hands down my favorite comment made on the battle thus far. I was very interested in your P.O.V and what you got from the battle on both sides.

Jinchuu- This wont be the last Void will see of Mimi+TL Bots baby. I plan to feature it in a short BB or my next battle STAY TUNED!

First off I wanna say both of your art styles are fucking FANTASTIC. I always enjoy your battles. <3

Kozi: I honestly liked the serious twist near the end, it gave a little more depth to Mimi\'s character- showing that just \'cause she\'s a toon, doesn\'t mean she\'s an indestructible bundle of silliness. Your panels were very well put together- easy to follow. The story, while it was still rather silly, was entertaining. Very enjoyable. <3

Fowlie: Damn, that was a fun read. I really enjoyed the cartoony faces and gags you tossed in there. Contrasting from Kozi\'s comic, yours was far more goofy and mocking- also very enjoyable on my end. There were a couple instances where I had to re-read and inspect the panels to really get what was happening, but it didn\'t slow up the comic too much. Awesomesauce~ <3

Whoa now, great comics you guys!
Tell me if I\'m doing this wrong. . .

kozispoon: Just loving your style all the way. Just about every panel is a joy to see. The plot. It started out interesting, Mimi and TLbot\'s child I presume? I found it rather odd that while the new arrival seemed like it would have some pertinence to the story, it did not. It was more like \"Oh wait, yeah, there\'s a baby. . . back to rape!\" Maybe that was your intention but I still find it off-putting. Along with the rather unsatisfactory ending. Wile escaping rape is a win for Mimi, it just was. . . unsatisfying. I was left an \"ah, well\" feeling. Reading the other comments, I don\'t see why people have a problem with your first page. I thought it was interesting way to use layout to make our eyes travel down, into lobby then climb the page along with the staircase. It was almost cinematic in that way and I found it quite appropriate for mimi\'s world.

Fowlie: Hot damn XD What a comic! Shame some bits were incomplete. . . My biggest problem I have are your lines. I really had a hard time at some places distinguishing what was going on, especially in the smaller panels. It was only when I read the comic twice over did I fully comprehend what was going on in each and every panel. Well, some of it /was/ incomplete, the pencil lines behind the inks did do a number on me. I felt that the entire comic was very in character for both Nova and Mimi overall, but maybe too much so.  At the end of the comic, when Nova got his, I thought it was kind of weird that Mimi just bounced back from being raped to her old self, no trauma, no drama, no change in Mimi\'s overall character. Is it the impeccable nature of \"Toons\" that lets her brush this off like so much lint? I don\'t know, but when I saw the rape, I was hoping for some character development. However, Nova was still an asshole (bless him) and Mimi was still the same Gal she always was as far as I can tell. Anywho, I still liked the comic.

Well played, both of you!

Kozi: I really enjoy your art and, like everyone else\'s pointed out, your expressions are superb. I found myself snickering at the end of 9 and the beginning of 10-- the expressions amused me so!

But the story seemed fine to me up until near the end. You were going fine with your jolly little story while still showing Nova to be a scumbag asshole and not breaking the atmosphere. Then all of a sudden SERIOUS BUSINESS and I was thrown off. It seemed to contrast sharply, and not in a good way, either. And I think you must\'ve been rushing near the end since it seemed to me you use a deus ex machina to rap up the plot quickly and get Mimi\'s butt outta there for a conclusion.

Fowlie: I love your lines. I especially love the heavy black panels and your white highlights/outlines. They were delicious. Just like everyone\'s pointed out, though, start playing around with linewidth to give your work s\'more clarity. I got myself lost in complex character posing. Also, incomplete, blah blah blah, you know the drill.

I was very perplexed after reading your comic. The plot was easy to follow, I just didn\'t know what to take from it. The rape wasn\'t offending or shocking to me, I just reacted with a \"Oh, wow, ok.\" I mean, you\'re featuring someone being /raped/ here, I was expecting some emotion to be tugged at. All I got was snickering when there were cartoon gags in the middle of it, like the mousetrap. The comic in total seemed almost self indulgent, like little heed was paid to the audience or story. It almost seemed like a safety zone, like when I read Megatokyo to see what the hype was about all I felt was that the comic was in the little sheltered mind of the artist, and we had somehow overturned a rock and peered into a little private world I had no need to see. Which I guess is just redundantly saying that I got a self indulgent feeling from this.

I mean, hell, I liked the scene in Berserk where they start ripping apart, murdering, and torturing half the cast because the entire time I was going \"OHSHITOHSHITOHSHITNOOO\". This was just \"That guy is raping a cartoon character. Hm.\" I left the comic feeling like I SHOULD have had some emotion conjured, but didn\'t, and was left pondering it for long days and nights and roaming hills in contemplation.

I have no idea how much I\'ve written at this point, oh well.

Either way, points go to Kozi. I think raping a cartoon character and making it HILARIOUS and DREADFUL at the same time is a difficult subject, so kudos for tackling it kinda.

And before anyone rants at me for that comment I made, what I meant was that I\'m not really into that kind of extreme content like that, yet I read both of them anyways, and they\'re both good.

Wow, fowlie............just..................wow...... ............O_O

Getting afraid to enter a female character next time...

Kozi: The only thing I\'m going to say about the art is observe a distinct lack of \"beeps\" and \"boops\".  The story on the other hand is hard for me to pin down, I get it, but the ending kind of petered off in a way that made me think this would be a two-parter with fowlie.  Still good work of course.

Fowlie: I don\'t mind the unfinished parts so much, though I think you should have scarf iced an earlier scene to finish the last page, so overall it was a good fight. I

point: kozi for the art.

Kozispoon: The only problem I ever encounter in any of your work (because the rest of it is just so damn awesome) is panel flow. The first page totally threw me, I tried to read it like a normal left to right and down scheme until I noticed the arrows. But your character expressions! The oh so hilarious poses! These save the day.

fowlie: I have no idea what is going on in like 80% of all your panels. D: More finished, less scribblies! And more backgrounds! Your character work is strong, but you obviously ran out of time to finish any of this up.

3.2.1.RAEP TIME!

Kozi: I love the way you do your \"colors\", like either just gray scale, or then, gray toned. They have an awesome feel. I dunno much to add, because I enjooyed most bits of your part, so I\'ll enter in details! In page 8 (written 7), the diagonal could be reversed, as the artistic diagonal is top left to bottom right, making an easier read (that\'s why western comics way of reading is like that). For a picky reason, I found a bit strange to have panels without outlines, but it was ok for the background being black.
Nice job on the scenary backgrounds, btw, and for being a perspective loverrr

Fowlie: I love your details and amount of lines, I really dig. I wish you had dedicated more time on your BG\'s though. While some are awesome, others really looked like notebooks pages. I also think that, given your detailed, lots of lines style, you could benefit from using line weights. That would make the drawings a lot more clearer, and maintaining your style.
Nice job though.

I voted quite equally here. While Fowlies was artwise incomplete, Kozi\'s looked like the development wasnt complete. Also, I liked fowlie\'s storyline a bit better, but kozi\'s art was in  better shape, so, it\'s an awesome battle! Good luck to ya\'ll!

gonna keep these short, since I\'m lazy as hell.

Kozi: Good job, Panel placement was a little off, but your art was still good. I really enjoyed it!

(p.s.   thank you for putting Beatrix and Aimee in there <3  )

Fowlie: Yours would have been really spectacular if it was finished, though, just like Kozi, in my opinion, you had some panel layout problems yourself. But, fuck, what do I know? I probably get the most crap from not being able to do crap with panels, haha.

Kozi-your style is so lovely and I\'m extremely envious of your ability to do such fluid and dynamic poses. I do however feel your panels were a little confusing in some areas. On the first page it really wasn\'t necessary to have the page laid out like that and no one should ever have to use arrows to point where stuff is going. And in the peep hole panel I initially had no idea what was going on and had to stare at it a second to figure it out. I was a little confused about where the baby came from unless she and TL Bot had a little fun XD. Other than that I enjoyed it, I love your expressive poses and facial expressions. I also liked how you took a very different approach with depicting rape.

Fowlie-I really wish you could have finished, your\'s had so much potential, the style really did suit the subject matter. You\'re still struggling a bit with line widths which can make areas difficult to read. I\'m glad that you gave Mimi a lot of credit, you were creative with how she fought back most the time.  Your panel layout also got a bit confusing on page 10. Just really work on line widths the most in the future, you have so much potential dude

oh God, i loved thses both hella much!! XDDD

kozispoon: i love your style, it\'s always so full of life and i love how you make Mimi communicate with others, it\'s just love <3

fowlie: your stuff is awesome!! i love your style and all your crazy angles and there\'s always some movement in every panel <3 i would hella love to battle Nova one day! 8D

great on both sides =]

Kozi: You know, I adore how damn expressive your art is. The expressions and actions are just so perfect, esp for the character, it\'s love. And I have to admit, I nearly died when that stork showed up. XD That was just... priceless. Nova creeped me out and the thought that he was like \'Oh sure, I\'ll rape you in front of the baby, no PROB!\' was just... D: D: D: Over all, very good.

Fow: Aaaah, I\'m sad you didn\'t finish. I\'ve always had to read yours carefully because of your inking style(it\'s more cluttered than I\'m used to, but that\'s the style and it\'s fun) but with the WIP nature of this one, I had to read the pages several times to get things. And then half the time I was like D: when I got them. XD Which was the point, so it worked. I am STILL traumatized that by the Nova-Wang that I didn\'t notice until my second read-through of that page. I was like \'hmmm... is that... omg... D:\' XD I\'m amused that Nova ASSUMES that Koko boinked the two... since he, technically, would have no idea. But the way his mind works, that\'s totally believable. Heheh. All in all, you might have fully gotten what you wanted across had you been able to finish. I\'ll look forward to/dread the finished version.

And is that a challenge? >:} You know I would have no problem with a Nova vs Koko. >

UH AH UGH DX
AAAAAAAAAH.

I was scared for that baby to death! Kozi, that was really good! Even if both had a little more to go to be completed, it was damned fun to read. I also doubted. \"should I clich here. Should I not? I might get scarred for a lifetime. But in a good way! Noooo, Nova is bad... bad... *twitch*\" But well, enough of my pussietry, Kozi I ADORE how expressive your toon can be <3 it\'s so cute, and sad, I don\'t know, I\'m just trying to say I love how you get the character\'s emotion to be contagious. And there are some details that I\'m still missing, like the baphomet in page 5 that stole my heart (satan shouldn\'t be able to do that XD;) Cool art, and great story <3

Fow fow... XD canon Nova scares me so. You know, but I think I should say it now, that I challenged you to make him look ridiculous because he makes me feel unprotected and fragil. And I\'m glad I still can laugh at all the shit that happens to him X3 I\'m in love of your version of Mimi, cause it really feels like the original version. Good flowing, and effect of movement, there where he\'s on a leash <3

Heehee \"two sets of junk\"

Sorry boys and girls, I suck SO bad, I couldn\'t finish this thing in 5 weeks... ^^;

So here\'s what I\'m doing.  I\'ve uploaded the unfinished comic, and I will later upload the completed comic as a Beyond Battle.  It\'s not too far from being done; I just have to finish up the inks. I just don\'t want to default on Kozispoon. <3

YEAAAUUUUUUUGHHHHSSSS!!!!! >8|

YOU CAN DO IT!

oh YES YES YES! 8D

here it coooomes

This battle is going is treading some heavy territory; what rapes holes better, tentacles or balloons?

 bad ass!! Im lookin forward to this one!

i\'ll definitly be anticipating this one

haha awesome! can\'t wait to read this when it comes up. : D

Mm, hopefully my half of the battle will help communicate Nova\'s motives towards sexual assault and violence a bit more.  I\'ve noticed a few people are a bit confused.

Also, I wanna see Kozi\'s kick ass pages and read her awesome story!!

This is going to be an undertaking. @_@ Lets do this thang~!

IM SO EXCITED <3

oh dear GOD yes.  

OOOOH YEEES