Speed Death Tournament 2018, Finals

I'd been going through alot recently and haven't been able to give this tournament as much attention as I had wanted, or the rest of my commenting policy for that matter so I'm sorry for late responses: Neens no sweat you've proven yourself time and again on this site and even though you're not here for the final round no one can deny you were and still are a force of nature with comics Golden and Monday you're among my favorite artists on the site, I envy you both tremendously with your visual style and talent, and it was great to see you guys make it all the way, real proof that you can never be too new or too old a member to still bring out the hits. Congratulations for getting this far, and congratulations Monday for breaking your streak (I hope to do so one day too)

Thank you everyone so much for the comments! I was ill this entire tourney and I never thought I'd make it to the finals. I'm so happy ya'll enjoyed Sukri & Aleyjah as characters and the world my friend created. It's thanks to her dedication & encouragement that I was motivated to go through with this until the point to where I was just in too much pain to continue. Goooood, Monday I really admire your tenacity! You and Neens both made me want to try my absolute best (still not to where I need to be, but getting there)! I am definitely gonna go back and finish this comic myself. Sukri & Aleyjah mean so much to me and I want to continue their story no matter what~

At last. The curse is broken. It would have been more than 10 years of failing at every tournament I entered to finally get to this point. I cannot put the meaning behind this into words. I am simply shook. Thank you for watching this through to the end everyone, and Golden - you were a worthy opponent that was capable of making me realize limits I have never before broken. I apologize for not having done your characters justice more Neens , though it was unfortunate that you were absent for witch school your sheer presence as one of my opponents scared me into overplanning my comic. You were that terrifying. With this I can go ahead and make a proper ending when I get back from my adventure :v

This was a great finale for both of you. I like how both of you adapted the other characters to fit into your story. Also both of you tied up previous stories and connected them well with some foreshadowing in them to this finale which is nice. Goldie: Those complete pages have such a lovely style to them, It would be cool to see a full complete version of this with all the pages when you get a chance. In terms of readability the incomplete sketches were a bit hard to read at times due to the dark colors and black lines, so it may be better to use lighter colors for the black line sketches. Also I’m not sure why some of those panels had different colors than others. In terms of story I don’t know why Ming’na was put in there. At first I was confused at who it was but I reread all the other comics and noticed you alluded to her in your previous one. However you alluded to Ming’na only as “her” so Rue could have easily taken that place and I think she should have. Ming’na just adds another name that we didn’t really have context for and made it another name we had to remember. If it was just Rue being evil it would have made her character much more impact and felt more like you were fighting Rue instead of a new third party we only know through a little bit of exposition. Besides that I like the twist of Aleyjah being a dragon thingy and if that weird black stuff at in the first comic was an allusion to that that’s really awesome and the relationship between your two characters is very good and interesting to follow. Monday: The amount of pages you have done in 1 week deadlines is insane. Also Usagi was great to follow and one of my favorite designs at the start of the SDT. This finale was pretty epic and a good finale that tied stuff up very well, though there were some issues with a bit of confusion. Most of the plot points I understood and could follow but the main thing that tripped me up was at page 8 with the new modern Usagi outfit. The new outfit and the fact he didn’t have his full ears made him look like a completely different character. I think it would have best to just use his outfit from the first battle, since we have seen him in that battle and that was when he did a massacre of robots and then proceeded to not remember it. It’s really cool how you tied the first comic into this last one explaining the fact that he was being drugged which is why he thought it was a dream. There was also some confusion with the fact the font color changed at seemingly random times, it sometimes makes it hard to tell who is talking or causing the reader to pause and stop for a moment to process the change. I think what you were trying to do with that is emphasize extreme emotions with them, however I don’t think color is the way to do that. With different font colors we tend to associate the different colors with the characters who use them, so when it changes suddenly it gives the reader a bit of confusion since they need to process who is saying that. A better way to show yelling would be by like making the text bold or underlining some stuff, both aren’t used to tell the reader who is talking like font color does. The biggest example of this is page 20 where surki’s font color goes from blue to yellow, after having previously been red on the page before, it makes me think that he has two personalities or two different people. It more so sounds like different characters instead of different emotions. However those confusions are minor and after reading through the comic a couple times I understood it and it was a good comic I’m happy to read through more than once.

Super excellent finale for the both of you!! Golden: The story here is very succinct and executed well, and the art is stunning as always! However, the unfinished panels sketches are so unfinished they're nigh unreadable, and they kinda undermine the rest of the comic. Just a bit more defined lining or some quick colors thrown over it would really have alleviated that. Also, I have a little peeve with Rue being explicitly a witch? Her just being a very witch-like girl who only makes potions and is otherwise nonmagical is a little detail I've really appreciated in her comics. Monday: Your art and composition is, as always, INCREDIBLE, with the amount of dynamicism you can portray, but—this more than any of your previous comics in this tournament—it suffers from the usual problem of the story being so finnicky and vague that what actually happens is very inscrutable, at least to me. I always feel bad wanting to mention this because I feel really deeply this is at least partially a fault on my end to interpret your comics, especially since you're kind of a grandmaster on this site, but I dunno, it's just such a consistent feeling. : ( I couldn't really enjoy this comic because I'm super insecure that I understand even the broad strokes of what happened to Usagi.

Man, this has been a fun tournament to observe! Goldie - Throughout this whole tournament your characters and their world have been incredibly interesting and your writing has really made it all feel immersive. Despite the unfinished pages I still felt invested and enjoyed reading this. You've done a fantastic job with these characters. Monday - Your ability to produce so many nice looking pages in such a short amount of time is truly formidable. I've really been enjoying your comics with the added color, it looks wonderful! I do however have to agree with others, and honestly I think you suffer from this often, in that the story/ events is/ are difficult to follow at times. Personally I would love to see you focus a little bit more on clarity for story-telling's sake as I think it would benefit you greatly. You have truly fantastic ideas and I'm totally a fan, so don't get me wrong! All that said, the amount of effort you've put in is absolutely noted, this is some great stuff. Thanks for the awesome comics you guys!

Monday and Golden: Goddamn, goddamn, goddaMN. What a way to end this tournament! I freaking loved the way you two drew one anothers characters in your comics. Not only in your own styles, but also really including your opponents characters within your own character's story. -------------- Golden. My heart. my freaking heart for your babes! + It was incredibly thoughtful to have a little dedication to all your previous opponents in your first page. You really gave this page some lovin' and by god does it show. A wonderfully strong start. + I'm not going to dwell on the WIP panels. All I'm going to say is that I hope somewhere down the line when you're willing and able to, that you revisit this and try finishing it up. I swear this would be an amazing portfolio piece when completed. + The characters are written well and are believable. My heart panged seeing Sukri hurt and seeing Aleyjah's reaction to it. I love these chars so much. The art? GREAT. The pacing? WONDERFUL. The feels? MAN. THEY'RE REAL AS FUCK. -------------- Monday: Just holy shit. I'm just staring, going "how?" That much quality, that many pages, in such a short amount of time. I'm beside myself with words. The first four pages of yours are my absolute favorite. I just really love the limited color palette you used for them. Y'know honestly. All pages utilizing a limited color palette are my favorite. You have a great eye for utilizing them. + I'm completely sympathetic for Usagi. (and it might not be because I own a few rabbits myself *coughcough*) I feel for this character and I greatly enjoyed his arch and how he triumphed over each of his battles. + I loved the way you did your paneling for this comic. Gosh those panel breaks of yours where absolutely wonderful. I love the layout for page 19, it all flows really well. + I'd say the only "problem" I had was it took me a few hard gazes sometimes to understand what was going on. Mainly in scenes that had a lot of action. Like the first panel on page 21 took a few hard looks to understand what Usagi was doing. -------------------- All in all, I really enjoyed both of your comics! I'm sad to see one side go. But I hope it's not the complete end for these characters. I'd love to see them around Void.

Goldie: youve made such a beautiful world and such charismatic, interesting characters! I want to know so much more about them, I want to know all about what Aleyjah is and i want to seem them being ridiculously happy and in love forever! The amount of effort you put into this in a week is incredible. im sorry you couldnt finish, i know how things get, its really too bad because you finished pages are so beautiful, I love this colouring style! Monday: Damn dude! one week you did all this! And even in colour! Its been a treat to see you experimenting in colour comics, i really enjoy your palettes! I do worry such an ambitious comic may have worked against you in some ways though- theres places where the art starts to look a bit hurried, and like Jelly said, the story was a bit hard to follow at times. Theres so many plot threads and time travelling and memories and i started to get lost Im actually not always sure which character is who or who is talking. But they worldbuilding is fantastic, i love all your layouts and the way you drew your opponents!

Goldie: Another good comic, but there is one thing in particular I take issue with. I get that making comics on a time period is hard and I have never minded your previous entries having unfinished sketches, but on pages 5 and 6 putting black sketches on a mostly dark blue background just doesn't work. It's too hard to see what's going on. Beyond that I feel like the pacing in the last few pages felt to rushed. Other than those points though, a solid work. Monday: Holy shit, man, 24 pages. You did not hold back. My main issue is that this story is a bit confusing to me. I feel like there needs to be more clarity in some of the events going on. There's a lot of switching between time periods and it felt a bit difficult to keep track of. In addition some of the artwork in this one, particularly near the ending becomes really hard to read. I'm having trouble figuring out just what action is happening in some of these panels and I have to more infer it than actually see it.

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Good luck neens and monday!!

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

I'm looking forward to some sick ass comics y'all! Such a varied set of characters; I think it'll be extra cool to see how you all interpret each others' characters in your own stories!

3 Way Finale! Good luck to everyone! Make this an awesome finale!