Not quite the creative criticism they like to see posted here, Hmm?

I actually love Nova, he's a complete bastard, and in order to have good characters be good, there have to be bad characters being bad or else you just have happy happy garbage all the time and that makes for a boring read... Nova and the other evil characters out there are important to create conflict and move story lines.  And if they should have an occasional more human moment (like with Dr. Fab) then that makes them even more interesting a character.

Now on to the actual critiques...

Fowlie:  I love the way you have the backgrounds detailed, but subtle due to the color choices it really helped with his flashbacks. Sometimes I get lost in comics trying to pick out character parts from background especially on extreme closeups if the image isn't clear what part of the person or bg it is (mostly only happens during black and white comics). Nice job. That being said, some of the 'now' bar scenes the characters were a little blendy with the backgrounds, I'd have liked to see the chars stand out color wise just a wee bit more like they did in the flashbacks.  I also thought the even 9 panels in the flash backs versus the different shaped current time panels was brilliant, it and the colors really separated the flashback from the current time.  It was great to get to see his history and the 'freak out' of his first transformation.

Durdhel: I love the style you draw in, its definitely something I aspire to be able to get to one day.  (Truth be told I hope I can do half as good as most of the people on this site.)  Great choice to go to black and white for the flashbacks, but again that being said, I couldn't tell the difference between Anya and her friends in the flashbacks.  The part where Nova is looking in the window and messing his hair to look between Yuri and Nova was great... though over all I wish Nova looked more like Nova. It could have been any male character at all, nothing distinguished him to look like who he was supposed to be.  I understand how hard it is to change a character from being so stylized to looking more 'realistic' so you have my complete sympathy there. Perhaps if instead of the scarf he wore the collar with the bone tag on it it would have helped and he needed a much larger nose. True to keep it in your style it couldn't be the big pointy one Fowlie draws, but it needed to be larger and a bit turned up.  I love how you showed the conflict within in Nova in the end, his fighting with his own normal tenancies, his regret in the end. Ok ok I was actually hoping with the first panel with her holding his tentacle that they'd get together in the end... I admit it. I like to see the redemption of the evil person  As for Anya it was great to see her background as well and I can't wait to see more.

It was very hard to vote on this, especially since it's my first time voting! Good luck to you both.

I need cliff notes on my battles, apparently.

oh my God fowlie, i bearly just got your comic. Now I know why you were hella mad. And why you thought i was hella psycho.

Ok so, you guys kept saying "he lied to get in her pants" And i was like "lie? what are you guys talking about" So I went and read it again thinking "ok where does he lie". And I never noticed that the flashback ( in red ) was separate than the story he was telling Anya; i thought they were one story. So I ended up thinking the brother thing was real. and therefore i thought you were supposed to feel sorry and care for him, 'cause someone did him wrong. That's why I didn't see what was so horrible. but OH THAT WAS THE LIE. I GET IT NOW. OK, see, I see him different now. So NOW I get why you wanted us to hate him and now that I get it, I think you did it right. Maybe I just read it too fast or maybe there could have been a clearer way to show it. I think it was because you had some reds in the story he was telling Anya...Maybe you could have made the whole lie in one color like the flashback...? Or maybe I just read it too fast. Dunno.

so yeah, just wanted to clear that up :U

@Jong ajajajajajajja xDDDDD

i hate nova, you should kill him off already

You make a fairly believable character and you're upset that he isn't a one dimensional ass-hole? Sort it out.

I don't have much to say, good work all around yadda yadda so awesome with the execution of art and story...

The only thing I have to say is that Nova appeals to the serial rapist in me.  As he should appeal to the serial rapist within us all.

Fowlie I don't think it's quite that they're endeared/attracted/whatever to him, I think it's that they're just becoming more and more interested in where his story is going.

I'm so glad everyone feels so endeared to my lying, alcoholic, abusive, rapist character.  Sooooo Glaaad... ,:|

Fowlie - I found your tale sweet (it sounds odd to describe it as such but I mean it!), and heck I like ol' Nova a bit more now. The art was good, but it was the pacing and writing that won me over on this one.

Duredhel - Your colors are beautiful! Your presentation of Nova was a bit unconventional, but I think overall you got your story points across rather well.

I like how you called Dure by his name but called Fowlie by her character.

Okiedokie guys! INTENSE battle

Fowlie: As I'm tired of telling, the page order you chose he is masterful, really clever.
Your color is really nice here, and shows youre confident in your skills, I can tell that much. The Dots was annoying in some parts though, specially in the panel Nova starts talking about Stephanie, even if you erased it in some parts in that panel.
Nova is one huge bastard, and makes us be pity for a godammn succubus. As always, I love your expressions, specially in last page, with Nova getting happy with the opportunity of getting in Anya's pants.
One thing that is a major problem I see, is while it's everything very Fowlie-ish styled, some poses are VERY awkward, genrally occuring in full body shots, such as the pole dancing spots, and sometimes the panel shot could be different, such as when nova is chcking anya's butt out, where it cuts her leg right in the knee, and makes the anatomy look kind of wonky. Or maybe its the female kind of proportion youre using.
Still, a gold solid battle, and those problems are the only things I could spot.

Dur: Sick work! I kind WISH it had more spot to show the inks, since i've checked them as wips and they were amazing, while getting a bit with colors on their way now. Maybe with such an intrincate rendering, you dont really need a tough inkwork? Or then maybe its the full blacks (that imitate cellshading if you notice) with detailed realistic rendering?
Color wise (not rendering, just the color choices), as I told you in the chat, I didnt reeeeally like them. I mean, you have a ton of different color choices through all the comic and you can check it just by looking at the thumbs, with novas face getting yellow, then blue, than yellow and so on. BUT what I just said isnt helpful. What you could be doing now though, is like when coloring, at least me, if I have a color pallete and want to stick with it so that each single thing has their correct color, then I HAVE to bend the light and dark colors to the scenarios color hue - for example, if we ar ein a night scene, yo ucan have a yellow skin color, but then you need to bring that light color to approach the light source color, and the shadow to pproach the shadow color. In this case, perhaps the light color could be yellowish and shadow blue/purplish? And I take you could do it with the same scheme the whole comic too.
In the backgrounds, ive read that you like having them as detailed as possible both ink and colorwise, and thats ok, but maybe then start trying adding a distance fog or something? Yo ucan make stuff get more and less focused to the reader and yet blend in a nice way, witout making everything look bright and etc!
i hope it was helpful!
On last note, for some reason each time yo udrawed nova he looks somewhat different, but there are some that are really a NICE realistic portrayal of nova, which is in page 12, bottom portrait. That one was a perfect realistic nova imo.

i give it to Fowlie, but both were excellent reads.
I also liked that Fowlies was kind of a standalone too!

fowlie!!!!!!! you blew me away with how you directed your story. your style and coloring was awesome, But the way you presented it was calling to me. I couldn't breeze through....i was compelled to know what happens next. and i find that kinda rear in this community including myself. lol. So Bravo fowlie.....Bravo.

Duredhel!!!!!! My scope sighting has always been locked onto your work, homie. so watch out for me. Cause i'm coming for you. lol. I felt that your side artistically was briliant as usual. And although the story was good, i'm gonna admit that i was a little confused at the end. I guess i was expecting something a little more, like an M. Night Shyamalan movie. lol Over all though. you had an real awsome work. and i hope to battle you in the Future... after all.....THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fowlie: You always find a way to make the readers more attached to Nova. I thought I cared about him as much as it was possible to, but nope, I just care for him more now. It's like...you don't just lure us in and then half ass it. You lure us in and KEEP us there, and that's good writting. I love how natural and smooth this was, I don't think I've read much comics that sound this real. Real nice job with the drawings themselves, but most of this felt really choked and too up close. Back up the camera a little more often and it'll be fine. That redish tone you used for Stephanie's place was a nice choice; it was almost like it was foreshadowing something bad later. Those tones were nice too and I'm glad to see they weren't overdone. I still want to see how you end Nova's story! :3

Dure: Duuuuure I love where you took this. This was pretty natural sounding too, but I do have to agree with Phill. I thought Nova was a changed man or something 'cause he was so nice the whole time, so it was a suprise to see the reaction at the end. It was just a little awkard, but it didn't ruin it or anything. What I really loved about yours was that, I not only ended up caring for one character, but I ended up feeling for BOTH. I loved that a lot and that's where I think it went past Fowlie's. Double the emotion there haha. I liked how it ended, felt pretty much complete. A geez, and your colors. I can tell you're doing something a little different with them, or like you're getting better at them. They're looking real smooth now and I found myself looking at this like 3 times because I just loved the art. The adored the outside night mood. This comic pulled me in just a bit more with Anya's story. Make it epic, yeah? ;3; Yeah? YEAH? Ok good <3

Nice job you guys. I'm sure I'll go back to reading these both again just for fun.

lol @ phill

LOL always something,huh.....

I thought both were awesome, keep up the good work people.

Er... Fow has informed me that this was a 5 week battle, my bad.

Not bad you two.

Fowlie: I think you already know what I said in the chat, but I'm retyping it here. I really liked the colors here and it's awesome you put this together in such a short time span. The text needs just a bit more breathing room. I liked where you went with the story here showing a bit more of the past of Yuri. Overall I wish you had more time to work on this battle since if you can do this quality of work within a week, how much more can you add to it?


Dure: For quality alone you win. But unfortunately with the quirky storyline, I just couldn't get into the story here like I did Fowlie's entry. It would of been a nice approach to maybe have Nova start to slowly scare Anya since he is basically a violent criminal and she is unaware of this since he starts off as a nice guy, which kinda gets a bit skewed for me when he just suddenly snaps when she refuses a kiss, build up is the key to any plot and gets people interested in what you've got, even I suffer from this as you can see in the first act of my SBT entry. I can't help but feel that this story would of been better if it was shorter or had more of Anya's past surfacing up like in the first part of the story with Nova recalling his past instead.


Overall this was pretty good. But I'm siding with Fowlie on this one.

Uploaded :O!

I really can't wait for this- c'mon two days- hurry up and finish!

Tentacles!

Seven daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays......

interesting pair up....this might be good

this gun be good!

Here we go. :33

Whoooo! do your best guys~

Yay for more nova fun!!!

hoohweehwaaa here it comes!

YEEEEEEEAH! GET SOME.... EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT! RAWR! HARD COOOOOOORE!

RAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPE

It's time to get emotional! RARRGH!

yay! Finally!

OH BABY