KG, good luck next time.

MERLINSBEARD:  Congrats on coloring it! Hugen's face looks different on each page, make sure to keep it consistent. Practice drawing over and over in different angles if it helps. I thin the backgrounds feel very vague, some to the point where you can barely tell where the ground hits the side of the wall (page 4/panel2). SOme of the sound effects seem to blend in too much with your colors, since they're red and Hugen's hair is red too, and it doesnt help that the yellow ochre actually complements the red in a way where the letters don't stand out as much. My advice is that you have a good enough handle to figure out how to draw characters on your own, and the next step is to work on making the environment more convincing. Rubble, backgrounds, flying dust, stuff on the floor, etc.  

Ditto on what everyone else said.  All things that come with practice.  Sometimes I wish there was a fourth category for effort, 'cause it's clear you put that forward.

@Merlin's Beard: This was a satisfying read! -Especially for 11 pages. Gee, what can I say? Your layout and composition are spot-on. The dynamic movement in your layout is great, which is aided by your knowledge of creating legible compositions within the panels. This is nitpicking but some aspects of your plot feel contrived in regards to how Hugen happens to meet the right stranger in the streets in order to take down the antagonist (but what can you do in 11 pages...)?
I would say work on your style more. Though your anatomy is good, sometimes the proportions of your faces can get wonky (examples: good amount of scenes feature Geeta's shrinking or growing eyeballs). Backgrounds could use a lot more work. I notice that you often avoid drawing the backgrounds in favor of close-ups of character's faces. When it comes to tone, it seems you're afraid to use darks, and simply stick to mid-tones and light. I would suggest experimenting more with chiaroscuro to get the right balance of lights and darks. Your use of textures as a digital technique is very weak at this point (example: the smoke in page 5, 2nd panel). The selection of textures requires a lot of trial-and-error to develop a decent sensibility of which textures to use in your digital palette.
Study this video for more info on textures:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftlqAgrdLt8
Keep up the good work!

@K.G: Lame.

I'll just echo some points; It's nice to look at but environments are lacking, it's fun to read, but it's a bit empty and and that romance was totes forced. Great effort though.

Wow!! I really really loved your story merlinsbeard !!
Still stunned by your colors and how you portrayed the characters!! Real pro!! It would be awesome to see Hugen on your story again! Geeta is an awesome character! I NEED to see more of your stuff!! You are doing very well! Again, I'm glad I had my character drawn by you! When I finish this freelance I'll post mine.. it's a matter of honor!!

(also points out lack of backgrounds) but, I think your stuff is just so fun to read! Everything is bright an exciting and it just makes me so happy. Great work, keep it up and I hope to see more from you soon!

Good quality comic, finished too well done!

Other then the pacing being a little weird. I don't buy the characters sudden romantic interest. We see no bonding or relationship development so it feels a little unnecessary at this stage. I'm not saying people don't hit it off in short periods of time but you don't really see them hitting it off at all so it just seemed a bit... Random? And didn't really add anything to the story.

Also

Backgrounds

MerlinsBeard          -

                        You kinda seem to be avoiding backgrounds alot.  Wherever we are in the second scene, you don't give us much more than a very vague establishing shot before you switch to differently coloured voids. Backgrounds can definitely be difficult and tedious, but they're incredibly important. They can make a scene more nuanced, adding entirely new feelings and undertones, and strengthen the action already present. And having a good setting in mind makes it easier to choose interesting camera angles. Your background is your context for the story, and without context lots of things lose their impact or strait up don't make sense. I actually think good settings are even more important in fight comics. All the best fight scenes are great because of how the setting impacts the fight, or how the characters interact with it.

                        I love your colour palette. So pretty. You use a wide spectrum but fit it all together perfectly. It feels kinda soft and rich. I think your shadows could be a little more interesting though. They're just darker versions of whatever the base value is, which means you're really just really shading with transparent black. Shadows can be so much more effective than that, they can be any colour in the spectrum. How you colour and use your shadows has a huge effect on how you're reader will feel when they look at a scene, and it can help you make you're lovely palette stronger. Right now, all these shadows do is tell us where the light is.

                     Amazing first comic , seriously!


KG - Dude noooooooooooo, I really hope you finish it and put it up dude! Don't let the work you've done go to waste, that'd be awful!

merlinsbeard: great stepup from your last battle! nice colour palette and i love the way you do the special ffx. it really flows well together with your artstyle
what annoyed me a bit was the forced in romance. i see that they might bond at very least a good friendshit base but running right into a kiss(to exchange the energy *cough)? I just dont see this reaction being authentic to the scenario. if you had just made clear how much geeta thanks hugen for his involvement and a more outgoing realisation when hugen reveals her daughter is still alive which then could later lead to a romance like relationship. that would have been great but this way i feel forced into a scene i would expect more in highschool cliche romance.
a major plus is the fight scene and the creativity you prooved in it with the stones and stuff. that was really cool.

overall a nice read except for that romance aspect.

HOLY MOLY.  Way to come out swinging Merlin!

I really liked the story you put up here, I think it flows pretty well.  It's one of those cases of "I know what's gonna happen and I don't care because it's great", so excellent job on that! The motion in your comic is pretty well executed also, though I think it could have been slightly better accentuated if you used a wider variety of line widths to really push and pull portions of the image into the background and foreground, creating depth and making it more dynamic.

One thing I felt was a little weird was only the partial use of texture, pages 1 and 2, no texture, pages 3-7, texture, and pages 8-11, no texture again. It's a little disjointed, especially because the grittyness seems to be applied to similar substances (like a concrete wall or floor), so I'm questioning why it wasn't in other areas (such as sidewalks or bricks), especially in pages including the indoor scenery.  Was it just a case of running out of time?

Overall a really good showing from you, very consistent work and it looks like you really put 110% into this thing.  I should also say that I feel like your opponent fit very well in the story and had good purpose, it meshed the two ideas really well.

K.G. Definitely upload it as a beyond battle if you can. good luck with your freelancer gig!

Ah, disappointed man. We'll have to do another soon then.

In the meanwhile, do you mind if I make a beyond with a little Hugen and Geeta romantic entanglement?

@merlinsbeard
I'm really, realy sorry, but I'll default this one... I got a freelance gig on the last weeks and have been unable to draw anything but a couple pages... When I have some time, I'll finish my comic and post as a beyond or solo here...

I'm very glad that you challenged me and I love your character but I'm really sorry that I won't be able to honor your commitment to the challenge now : /
(#verysad)

Oh whoa!  This battle fell under my radar, excellent!  Good to see two characters in the newest characters list going head to head.  Looking forward to this going up!

I'm done. Phew!
K.G. I had a blast doing your character in my style, it was fun incorporating magical elements into my totally non-magic character. Thanks for this opportunity! I hope to see our characters interact more.

awesome! Can't wait to see this! good luck you guys!