Snager: I fun little comic! It feels like a saturday morning cartoon that I would've watched growing up :] The concept of a kaiju school sounds very fun, lol.

Snowy: I know that it can be difficult to make something more personal like this. It came out fantastic and like a proper glimpse into a life. The usage of textured brushes here is interesting - it brings to mind stained glass for me.

Pizza: Great work! You managed to get that old comic PSA look down pat. The switch to a more modern setting was an interesting choice, and it all feels like a setup to an episode of a show.

Dr. Salt: Such an interesting and gut wrenching comic, especially for one this short. I was honestly expecting a horror comic at first, so having it be something so bittersweet instead caught me off guard. The heavy texture added so much to the atmosphere as well.

Fowlie: I absolutely ADORE your work here! The way that you manage to combine such a simple and cute character design so smoothly with such detailed backgrounds absolutely blows me away. It makes this an absolute visual treat to flip through!

dr salt: wow, this was amazing. thankyou for sharing how you got the speckle effect, I couldn't figure it out! The art is doing numbers and compliments the story so so well. I'm inclined to think this really happened to you, but that would mean ghosts are real. so did the protagonists' feelings about gaining a new family member melt into his feelings about having lost a friend? It's hard for me to imagine how something like that would feel. This comic is probably going to haunt me for years to come.

to all y'all: Hey, OP. are you ok?

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone! I'm glad it resonated with people so much.

For those curious on how I made the tones, I first coloured the page in greyscale, then randomly distributed dots using geometry nodes in Blender, with more dots distributed on darker areas of the image. The dots themselves have some variations in shape to make them look a tiny bit more organic.

Thanks for the battle!

The texture throughout sells the serious tone of this one. It was an interesting story too.

Good job!

Fowlie - This is so cool! I love how you stylize your pages! Your knowledge of panel composition is something I aspire to have someday. The only crit I can think of is that page three is a little overwhelming. I think it has to do with the speech bubble tails not leading the eye down the page but it’s still a fantastic page to look at once I got my bearings. My favorite page is the fourth one. It’s so sudden and bizarre I wonder if it was inspired by an art piece in real life.

Dr. Salt - That's a really awesome effect! I have some guesses but I'd love to know how you did it. It does feel like there's something missing about it but I can't for the life of me figure it out. I do wonder what this comic would look like with color, muted, mono or otherwise. There's a good chance it wouldn't make any positive difference but it could be worth experimenting. The story was gripping and somber, a perfect representation of a good fever dream which are incredibly rare.

Snowy: I like the personification of 3 AM being a set of hands that slowly suffocates the page that was a neat touch! I definitely get a similar feeling at 3AM when I'm drawing for a morning deadline or a 24 hour battle. The only thing that’s worked for me is going to bed before 3AM or telling myself that I don’t think this way 90% of the day and I should see how I feel about it in the morning. It IS weird that the feeling usually goes away after 4AM hits at least for me.

snager: Glad to finally see this comic pilot from you! I'm sorry I didn't see the Ed Edd n Eddy inspiration right away. It took me a little bit to understand this word was created with both humans and kaiju in mind. Really crack down on the world building of your story in the backgrounds it'll give your story a big boost! As it is I still love the concept and it was fun seeing the monster designs and expressive characters.

I know you’re not 100% set on the main character you have currently (who really reminds me of Ada now that I’m seeing it) I’d recommend trying changing around the gender, race, height and hair color first and seeing if it makes you feel any different. Maybe give them an outfit that makes them stand out more since they’re a normal guy in a monster school. You could make them a real monster nerd and have them gush over each monster they see regardless of if the monster wants to beat them up or not. Or you could go the opposite and make them originally afraid of monsters and have them slowly learn that most kaiju don’t intend to destroy property, they just emerged in a world that was too small for them. Either way, establishing your character's opinions on kaiju will also really give your story’s world a huge boost!

Wow, I needed that. I’m working on a pilot myself with a missing protagonist and I think I just answered some questions about it for myself lmao

The horror mystery is cool!

This comic has haunted me in the best way all week. I wouldn’t be surprised if this comic stays with me for longer than that, given how hard it hit me. Every visual choice you make only helps convey the hazy feeling of being up so late at night with a fever. Amazing job!

Y'all did amazing work here! these were such a joy to read and I really like all the different stories that were told here

I teared up some, and the fact you could do that in such a short comic speaks wonders. This was really well made and I enjoyed your inks

This one gave me feels. I like the grainy look to it as well.

The artwork on this goes crazy. It looks like a hazy dream or like the pins and needles sensation. I think the length of this was perfect and it hits really hard.

i hope you do more artist comics!

Dang, what a treat from all of you. This was really difficult to vote on because each of you had some great work.

This is the one that hits the hardest. The darkness being 'noisy' regardless of it being dead in the night is such a good touch. Not to mention the whole event that transpires. One would think it would be terrifying but instead it's melancholic

This is gorgeous, Dr. Salt. Very hard-hitting and lovely

What a beautiful story Dr. Salt, got me remembering about friends and loved ones.

Reading this one while drunk was a mistake because it destroyed me emotionally.

This round of comics has been so somber. I really enjoyed this one.

This one was so somber and bittersweet. Though the answer given may have been a comfort, something so heartbreaking has lasting effects on those involved. Thank you for the wonderful comic!

HOLY SHIT???