@Erunas - A story set in a fantasy-like setting? Well now that is something different! I really cannot critique seeing our old enemy, the deadline, sadly caught you, but hey! I can't wait to see your next battle, to see what you can do!

@Pitafish - Look, if you didn't misrepresent your opponents character out of spite, then I don't really see what is the problem here. Sure, it would have been interesting to have constructed the story around Plynir's quirks because 1 - it makes for a good challenge and 2 - if someone can pull it off, it is you! But for what we got? I personally adored it. I burst out laughing when we saw Plynir in a dress, like omg, I wasn't expecting that at all! And the last panel on page 3 was so cute! You did a great work, I hope to be able to battle you someday!

ERUNAS- Woof! Round one is in the can! Maybe its because she's a dragon, or maybe I just associate the vibe, but from the first page, I felt like I fell into a D&D campaign. You have alotta scene changes as well amidst the first three pages alone, with your backgrounds and details coming an going from panel to panel, but I'd chalk that up to deadline constraints. Happens to the best of us! Plynir certainly comes off as quite the capable fighter! I was dying to see some dynamic action panels or pages of how exactly she dispatches the figures that appear in the previous page. Not quite sure what exactly goes down, but I see you did your best to label things literally like the 'appear' font and 'darkness' to help us along. Win or lose, I certainly hope to see more.

PITAFISH- Grats on busting out your first void comic! I'm glad to see some wacky toon hijinks being added to the void universe. You got some great crit regarding your colors, which you already know about, so I wont harp on it. I will however echo the background kudos and keep going. Kudos for giving your story an environment and background, but definitely push it. That  first panel of Plynir at the door can totally be punched up to be a more eye catching establishing shot. I dunno why I didn't see this perfect gag coming, but you not only delivered, you turned it on its head. A dragon princess couldn't be more funny. Ooh, I did want to see ol' Softshoe go off the handle with more of a tantrum though.
Also, I know you're new and nerves run high when it comes to drawing other peoples characters, but definitely take what Neens has said to heart. You are gonna get into battles here with people who do art in their own way and draw your character how they like. Seeing your opponent take their story somewhere unexpected and new is half the fun of competing on void. Sometimes, it may just inspire you to keep or expand on things you find you like. I for one am rather glad you gave  Plynir a range of expressions. None of your gags would've worked if she had a smile plastered on her face throughout.

This is bad crit.
I would love if people here actually gave criticism about story telling, but this is not good. Dude missed one line from a description of a character. The characterisation made sense within the self contained story, and I think that matters more, and what you should be basing a critique on.
Crit for the story: It woulda been nice if the pacing at the beginning had been slower to build up the mystery around why she had been summoned, maybe build a bit of tension? I thought the reveal of the Plynir characteron the bed was pretty funny. If you had had more time it'd have been nice to establish that Merry was expecting an evil dragon gaurding the princess. That's a pretty minor nitpick though, since it worked as is. I think the ending was a little off, like you could have ended the comic a panel earlier, with Plynir being thanked for their time, since you see her reaction as the payoff. The last panel didn't add much. Either that or maybe have used that last panel to have Merry get some sort of comeuppance for being rude?

good first battles, guys! I feel like there's a big issue that needs to be addressed though. namely, character interpretation.

I think it's important to know (and expect) that not everyone is going to display your character 100% according to what you have written down. I myself have done this many times, on purpose. it made battling funner for me, and at the end of the day that's what void is about, imo. you are allowed to have fun with your characters as you see fit, but please do not get upset about others doing the same.

this has negatively affected scores in the past, and I would hate to see that happen here. interpreting characters differently is NOT a bad thing.

all that said, pita, you have a really cute first comic! I can't wait to see a finished one from you.

erunas, I also hope to see a finished comic from you! it looks like you simply bit off more than you time for, which is an easy thing to do.

That's exactly what happened.
I didn't set aside enough time to color everything, and while using the marker tool on SAI has been a blessing when it comes to sketching and lineart, it's not very good with coloring.

Unless I decide to make everything grey scale like here: http://fav.me/d87uoyz
Then it works pretty well.

Any further advice or critiques y'all can give would be very welcome.

@Erunas: The unfinished nature of your comic is obviously its biggest hinderance. Your drawings in the last couple pages are too unfinished to really make out what's happening. I'd really like to see some loving attention give to the violence and gore your character's obviously built for! Maybe mix up your panel layout a bit too, there's a lot of large horizontal panels in your comic and you could experiment with the size and shape a little!

@Pitafish: It really is a shame about the misinterpretation of the character, because I like the little story you came up with otherwise. Your body language is expressive, but I think you could push your facial expressions a little to really ham it up. The ending gag of having the song stuck in Plynir's head is super simple but funny none-the-less.

@Erunas: You had a really fun idea, and I loved the story in your comic! This pairing was really interesting, and you used the extreme differences between the characters to your advantage. Obviously, the sketchiness was an issue; I would recommend trying to cut down your story to as few pages as possible in the future so you can clean up your work and turn in something you're really proud of. Congrats on your first comic, and we'll see more from you, I hope!

@Pitafish: I am in LOVE with your character, and I can't wait to get my own toon submitted so we can fight!  You had a really cute story, and I love the way you drew both characters, even if Plynir wasn't exactly on character. I think the advice I'd give you is on your coloring. I don't know if you ran out of time or if the color choices were intentional, but either way they ended up looking kind of like someone found a coloring book and was about halfway through coloring it. I hope that makes sense. Next time, I would recommend either making sure to color everything enough that it looks complete and consistent, or if you're going to be selective with your colors on purpose, choose fewer colors and make sure to add enough darker colors to your backgrounds that they don't feel empty. You had some great backgrounds going, so just work on your coloring and time management if you need to, and you'll do great!

I'm looking forward for more from both of you! Awesome characters, and fun comics!

I'm gonna address the wrong characterization of Plynir real quick:

It was an honest mistake.  I re-read the character's description after seeing Erunas' comment, and they're right--I missed the smiling bit when I read it before.

I'm usually very good at portraying another artist's character, but this is a poor example of that, and there's no excuse.  Erunas' character deserves a good representation of who they are--I didn't do that, and I sincerely apologize.

@Erunas; From what I read below it seems like you had some rl troubles so I'm glad you were able to get something in. The high fantasy setting was unexpected but a nice change of pace from some of the other comics entered. However I will admit it was extremely hard for me to follow the comic, partly due to the sketchiness. The first two pages I roughly understood what was going on with Merry hiring Plynir to protect him on his journey. But after that it gets pretty muddy. Plynir sees a chest (which symbolizes trouble?) and runs off to fight goblins leaving Merry alone? But Merry appears in the last frame so maybe not? I also really would have loved to see a bit more of your opponent than you have, right now he feels very much like a scripted npc rather than his own person, unless thats what you were going for with the high fantasy vibe? Congratulations on your first comic and good luck making more in the future.

@Pitafish; Your comic is short but it still has a complete feel to it. From what Erunas said it seems like you didn't characterize them well. I'd defiantly keep that in mind in the future its one thing if you just misinterpreted the information but you really didn't have anything remotely close so a smile at any point on Plynir. I do quite like the fairytale plot you went with as well as some of the props you showed in your comic. There are several points in the comic that feel very empty and white.

now that i think about it, this is my first comic, yeah. i have storyboarded before, though, as i've done animations in the past. thanks for the comment!

Oh geez, it's the strangest matchup-- hyperviolent dragon/demon and toon lamb. Damn, let's see here.

@Erunas:
Eyyyy, you got it done! I know it seems like you've been dealing with some rough stuff RL on tumblr, so I'm proud of you for still managing to get this turned in (especially since this may well be your first time drawing a comic). It's nice to get to see more of Plynir, and I thought it was cool seeing your story put in a medieval context-- I'm pretty sure Void lets you put fights in any setting, any time period, but it's not something you see often since most people like to use the city!
I know the sketchiness is probably in large part time limitation, so don't stress too much-- you got something in, which means we still have a story to read! I think black and white with just a few spots of color is just fine as well. For your next fight, I'd say the biggest thing I'd work on is to tie in your opponent a bit more-- Merry's in there, and I know considering Plynir's, uh, affinity for violence means that it's a bit hard to have them go head to head without bloody murder being the end result, but it'd be nice to see a bit more of him!
All in all, good job on getting it done! I hope you had fun and look forward to seeing more!

@Pitafish:
Oh lord, I had expectations for another toon coming to the city and was not disappointed XD I really hope you plan on fighting some of the other toon characters on the site, it looks like Merry is A+ for that sort of matchup!
This was a very cute comic, and I love that you really embraced the fact you're fighting such a high-fantasy sort of character in figuring out how to pull that into your own setting. You have really nice movement in your work, and I appreciate that you could style shift for a distinctly non-toon character as well. Can't wait to see the scenarios you continue to come up with to deal with other characters!

Great job to you both on getting it done, and I hope you had fun! I can't wait to see more of these characters!

not trying to be rude or picky, but when i said they constantly smile (on the char sheet) i meant that that's basically their only expression.
in the roleplay i play as them in they have never not smiled so far.

i have no excuses, hopefully the sketchy-ness doesn't ruin the comic in entirety

It's 10:40PM at my place right now.  Just submitted my pages.

Next time, I should start earlier so these pages get more polish.
Enjoy!

Dragonness Black Magic User VS Tap-Dancing Toon Lamb?

This is gonna be an interesting comic for sure!

Merry is literally half as tall as Plynir... alrighty