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!

Fowlie: thankyou for coming back, it's so nice to see your work again! I will boast that I was never confused about the word balloons. The first time they're introduced, it's clear the protagonist is following the sound of them, maybe to tell a neighbor to keep it down. The second time we see them, it looks like they're coming out of a tree. Crickets? No, she follows them to the street, so is it a party she hears and she wants to join in? no. It's a mystery all the way until the reveal that the voice she hears is the call of the ocean. hard to imagine what the ocean feels like, but I know what trying to use an area fan feels like, so the ocean must feel very cold, judging by this comic. page 3 is so richly textured with information, but I personally had no problem finding the action because the speech bubbles and figure are negative space. I am impressed with the technique used on page 2. it's got a real analogue feel to it, so I'm imagining you did it all in black ink on white paper, then lasso'd the spots you wanted to flip to black in your art program and inverted them. or maybe it's all digital! it's like a puzzle trying to figure out how you did it and it must have taken a lot of planning or just tons of experience! The switch from white being positive to white being negative feels so heavy. this is another entry that feels autobiographical. somewhere between pure vibes and having an obvious plot. like just under the aesthetic of walking into the ocean is also the symbiology of walking into the ocean.

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!

I liked this a lot! I got that the voices were calling her to the sea, but tbh I only got it on the last page. Until then I had thought they were hushed voices from the city.

My favorite page was page 3 it was nice scenery. I really enjoyed the details in the environment.

This comic has a neat vibe to it, nice work!

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 eerie and harrowing tone escaped me on my first read. Subsequently I am mesmerized by the white lineart on pure black backgrounds.

The horror mystery is cool!

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

Really enjoyed your inking style! I really felt that waking up at 3am energy

I like the look and feel of this. I'm guessing the empty speech bubbles are the cat mumbling to themself or they're so groggy at 3am that they can't make out what anyone is saying

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

Very chaotic, the inking is very fun too

It's almost like a fever dream in a rly good way

Liked the style a lot! But was a confused about the empty speech bubbles, what are they supposed to mean?

Wonderful style! all the detail packed into each page!

I love your style! The cat is very much a mood; and willfully walking into the water was 💔

HOLY SHIT???