Whew what a crazy ride this has been! I am super thankful for the feedback that we received from this project. The things I learned, the friends I gained! There is nothing but positive things! It was exhausting but in a very good way!
I am very proud of this comic and grateful to all of you here in Void.
Jay, Skulls, Hats and Goldie - you guys are such amazing women and I am so lucky to have been part of this. I'd collab with all of you over and over again if given the opportunity.
Needless to say, Void hasn't seen the last of the Valkyries yet. I know the story did not make them an official group (yet?) but we do intend to show this as a journey towards it or away from it. Frankly, we do not know at this point! The idea is to see how being labeled as a superhero group/garnering unsolicited fame (or infamy) would affect the lives of these characters in Void.
Once again, thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart <3 <3 <3
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
i'm a bit late to comment, but i really liked it! Arma is a big event with big consequence for the Void (not) Canon so It's cool to see what happens with other characters meanwhile, especially such an interesting mix Arma vets, Heavyweights candidates and relatively new characters.
(edit) The possible ramification of the 'valkyries' potentially getting more fame and recognition than the official defenders is funny and I wanna see some of that in the future
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
It was fantastic to read how all of these gals would get together and fight back the apocalypse, and I especially appreciated the small character moments that fleshed them all out. I don't really have anything deeper to say than what's already been said, but I'm glad to see such great art from all of you!
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
I just wanted to say how good this all was . I don't have much to comment on here that wasn't already covered since I took my sweet time reading this throughout the week. = w=) it's good. I like that everyone's story progressed a bit here.
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
NGL I don't feel qualified enough to critique or nitpick this comic, so I'll just stop by and say just how GOOD this was! It's very very clear this project was made with a lot of love for both the characters and storytelling. The art is GORGEOUS, your styles really work wonderfully together! Regardless of the switch between styles, it never felt out of place? I don't know how to explain it, but seeing the styles change was very enjoyable
LOVELY WORK, LADIES!!
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
Ayyyyy yet another good comic! I honestly don't have a lot to say art-wise, it was all really visually pleasing and the style jumps never felt like they were too jarring. It helped that even through all the style jumps, the characters are distinct enough that it was easy to tell who was who even through the style shifts.
Writing-wise, the overall story was pretty good, but honestly it left me feeling a little... disappointed? Though I think that was largely because y'all talked it up so much as being these five girls teaming up to keep the streets safe, and then the comic turned out to be... not that. I think if I didn't come into it with the expectation of seeing the five fighting demons together, it wouldn't have been so, for lack of a better word, disappointing. Not that the story was bad necessarily, just I came into it expecting one thing and then the big fight scene ended up being them fighting each other rather than demons. Also, I'm not sure the plot device of demon blood making Raven see people as demons made sense to me; it kind of brought me out of the story a little and I kept finding myself asking why demon blood would alter Raven's perception like that, which then made me feel like it was kind of just used as an excuse to have the Valkyries fight each other.
Maybe it would've worked better if, like, it wasn't Raven hallucinating but rather she encountered someone literally turn into a demon (Capgras style) in front of her, or multiple someones, so she starts mistrusting everyone she sees. And then maybe the demon blood has other effects, like making her give more in to the Vampiric Beast--would've been kinda neat to have seen her go just absolutely feral lol. Alternatively I think the hallucinogenic demon blood could have been sold better if it also made her hallucinate OTHER things alongside seeing people as demons--like it just generally corrupting all of her vision, not just people.
That aside, y'all should be proud of this! It's really gorgeous and really fun to see how y'alls styles mesh!
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
Thanks for the comments so far!
[Quote]PS A question for Rivana: how exactly do Raven’s powers work? They’re supposed to be illusions right? I know the idea was that if people believe the illusions are real, they’re as good as real, but it feels like they go above and beyond that and it really confuses me. Like for instance, Wizzie goes to break them. Surely since she approaches them with the idea of “I’m gonna break them” they’ll break? Since they’re illusions? Are the only ways to escape them simply telling yourself they’re not real? Bc rn they seem pretty indestructible and very real
I'm glad someone noticed. This is one of the intentional head scratching moments abt Raven's abilities that I integrated within the comic that is going to be explained in the future in bits and pieces. Without spoilering too much, Raven always held back on her abilities due to hunger. In this comic, you get a glimpse of what she could really do if her conscience (for instance) doesn't hamper her from feeding on the amount of blood her body actually requires. Plus, demon blood is more potent/acted like a steroid at the expense of her giving in to her urges (rage, bloodlust, etc). At least that's its effect on her.
Being a vampire from a diff dimension, blood depending on someone's unique physiology, species or origins have diff effect on Raven . Jerin, for instance, powered her up as well causing her to create a rift that led to Sandbox. Rocio's blood also has its own unique effect on Raven. Shifter blood gets her drunk.
TLDR: Raven calls them illusions...but are they really?
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
Chonky comment
Holy shit guys you weren’t kidding when you said this was longer than Arma. Or well, one side of it XD
The art was pretty damn good throughout, great action and colours on almost every page. Golden, pages 16 and 17 were absolutely gorgeous and probably my favourites here. Hats, you kicked off the comic with such a great start. Skulls, really dug your demon designs, they stood out to me amongst the more standard dragons and horned folk. Echo the comments about the credits page, I’ve never seen it done like that before but it’s a pretty smart way to go about it! And I love the epilogue page showing the video on Voidtube!
Overall though, and I’m sorry to say this because I saw you guys put so much effort into it but... this didn’t really gel for me. I feel like this collab was just, “Cool Girls of Void Get Together” without much thought to how they’d actually come to interact with one another? The story didn’t feel cohesive to me, with everybody just sort of stumbling across each other, and despite its length, each character’s individual conflict felt rushed or not addressed at all:
Xia gets a page to panic over Miller, and then it’s immediately brushed aside when Wizzie enters the picture. Crikey deals with her phantom pains once and then they never get brought up again. The question that started Raven off on a rampage, before she even drank the demon blood - where Rocio was - is forgotten as soon as she reverts to normal. Wizzie and Swan have this moment that’s supposed to be emotional, but there’s been no buildup beyond Wizzie calling her a French bitch earlier. It IS still a tender scene, but it could have been way more impactful if they’d started to build up a friendship before, or alternatively, been even MORE hostile to one another so the change of heart is more poignant. I think a good chunk of the fighting and exposition here could have been cut, or replaced with more in-depth interactions between the main characters (i.e. those actually in the collab instead of characters like Jiko). Either that or the more personal conflicts should have been shelved for later comics/brought up before this one, because their very brief inclusions make them feel like wasted potential at best, cheap emotional fodder at worst.
I have some more specific crits too that I’ll go into below.
Hats - Someone made a joke in the Discord that Wizzie was looking leathery, and I kind of agree. Her skin tone does not look natural, it is too pink-hued for a darker shade, unless you’re literally going for the “white but spent way too long in a tanning booth” look. I have some skin tone charts if you’d like to take a look. I don’t colour pick from them directly but I use them to kind of gauge whether my skin tones look right. Also Raven’s tits look like balloons in the last panel on page 38, which for me tipped the scene from drama to comedy.
Skulls - I know your stuff leans towards the stylised side, but the wings on page 4 were pretty formless. This is only emphasised by their large size combined with lack of detail.
Rivana - Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m gonna assume you mostly wrote those first few pages with Raven (5-6)? Because I saw similar flaws there that pop up in your other comics. Raven is telling herself information she’d already know, it’s just exposition for the reader, which isn’t even necessary because all the information she gives was summed up in the recap page! Page 24 also has some funky art. Raven’s body in the top panel has some really weird proportions, especially in the legs and hands, meanwhile in the final panel her face is in profile but her chest is pointing more towards the “camera” like a 3/4 view.
Golden - Page 15 I really thought that was a light-skinned Cairo for a second. The lips, the goatee, the hairstyle, the eyebrows, they’re all super similar. I wouldn’t call it sameface exactly but it was enough to make me double take, so keep an eye out for that I guess?
PS A question for Rivana: how exactly do Raven’s powers work? They’re supposed to be illusions right? I know the idea was that if people believe the illusions are real, they’re as good as real, but it feels like they go above and beyond that and it really confuses me. Like for instance, Wizzie goes to break them. Surely since she approaches them with the idea of “I’m gonna break them” they’ll break? Since they’re illusions? Are the only ways to escape them simply telling yourself they’re not real? Bc rn they seem pretty indestructible and very real.
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
This comic was a blast, and a monumental effort. A couple pages had wonky reading orders, but it hardly detracted from the overall experience. I also love the presentation with the cast page and how the credits page was formatted.
The girls are back in town.
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
Cracking Skulls:
Alternative titles to this wonderful collab included but were not limited to:
Beaks and Teeth
ArmaMaidens
ArmaGaiden
#Arma2020 VCV
Literally all the titles combined into one f*ck-you-title to break the character count
And more.
How dare you forget my title suggestion "escape from slut montain"
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
Alternative titles to this wonderful collab included but were not limited to:
Beaks and Teeth
ArmaMaidens
ArmaGaiden
#Arma2020 VCV
Literally all the titles combined into one f*ck-you-title to break the character count
And more.
Posted on Void City Valkyries: An Armageddon Side Storybattle
Comments (20)
Chonky comment
Holy shit guys you weren’t kidding when you said this was longer than Arma. Or well, one side of it XD The art was pretty damn good throughout, great action and colours on almost every page. Golden, pages 16 and 17 were absolutely gorgeous and probably my favourites here. Hats, you kicked off the comic with such a great start. Skulls, really dug your demon designs, they stood out to me amongst the more standard dragons and horned folk. Echo the comments about the credits page, I’ve never seen it done like that before but it’s a pretty smart way to go about it! And I love the epilogue page showing the video on Voidtube! Overall though, and I’m sorry to say this because I saw you guys put so much effort into it but... this didn’t really gel for me. I feel like this collab was just, “Cool Girls of Void Get Together” without much thought to how they’d actually come to interact with one another? The story didn’t feel cohesive to me, with everybody just sort of stumbling across each other, and despite its length, each character’s individual conflict felt rushed or not addressed at all: Xia gets a page to panic over Miller, and then it’s immediately brushed aside when Wizzie enters the picture. Crikey deals with her phantom pains once and then they never get brought up again. The question that started Raven off on a rampage, before she even drank the demon blood - where Rocio was - is forgotten as soon as she reverts to normal. Wizzie and Swan have this moment that’s supposed to be emotional, but there’s been no buildup beyond Wizzie calling her a French bitch earlier. It IS still a tender scene, but it could have been way more impactful if they’d started to build up a friendship before, or alternatively, been even MORE hostile to one another so the change of heart is more poignant. I think a good chunk of the fighting and exposition here could have been cut, or replaced with more in-depth interactions between the main characters (i.e. those actually in the collab instead of characters like Jiko). Either that or the more personal conflicts should have been shelved for later comics/brought up before this one, because their very brief inclusions make them feel like wasted potential at best, cheap emotional fodder at worst. I have some more specific crits too that I’ll go into below. Hats - Someone made a joke in the Discord that Wizzie was looking leathery, and I kind of agree. Her skin tone does not look natural, it is too pink-hued for a darker shade, unless you’re literally going for the “white but spent way too long in a tanning booth” look. I have some skin tone charts if you’d like to take a look. I don’t colour pick from them directly but I use them to kind of gauge whether my skin tones look right. Also Raven’s tits look like balloons in the last panel on page 38, which for me tipped the scene from drama to comedy. Skulls - I know your stuff leans towards the stylised side, but the wings on page 4 were pretty formless. This is only emphasised by their large size combined with lack of detail. Rivana - Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m gonna assume you mostly wrote those first few pages with Raven (5-6)? Because I saw similar flaws there that pop up in your other comics. Raven is telling herself information she’d already know, it’s just exposition for the reader, which isn’t even necessary because all the information she gives was summed up in the recap page! Page 24 also has some funky art. Raven’s body in the top panel has some really weird proportions, especially in the legs and hands, meanwhile in the final panel her face is in profile but her chest is pointing more towards the “camera” like a 3/4 view. Golden - Page 15 I really thought that was a light-skinned Cairo for a second. The lips, the goatee, the hairstyle, the eyebrows, they’re all super similar. I wouldn’t call it sameface exactly but it was enough to make me double take, so keep an eye out for that I guess? PS A question for Rivana: how exactly do Raven’s powers work? They’re supposed to be illusions right? I know the idea was that if people believe the illusions are real, they’re as good as real, but it feels like they go above and beyond that and it really confuses me. Like for instance, Wizzie goes to break them. Surely since she approaches them with the idea of “I’m gonna break them” they’ll break? Since they’re illusions? Are the only ways to escape them simply telling yourself they’re not real? Bc rn they seem pretty indestructible and very real.