Hiemie/Tinman - I really enjoyed the storyline above all. I'd really look forward to seeing this epic saga continue for weeks to come--great use of cameos and characterization for both Hiemie and Toro Joe. The art was phenomenal. Tinman, your cityscapes were frequently gorgeous.
gregly/bobo - So cute! The backgrounds get a little less defined as the comic gos on, but they start out really strong. I enjoyed your characters, and how you depicted your opponents. It was cool to see the sound effects like SPEW and SQUELCH. Great job!
Hiemie/Tinman: I love what Murphy's Law is trying to do, and there's a cool freshness in watching the heroes be beaten by Hiemie and Toro's battle of wit and words as opposed to being planet-breaking juggernauts, and a guilty pleasure in watching them succeed. I am very much in love with Toro Joe, this comic makes me want to learn more and read the previous comics I've missed in my long, long hiatus from void. It would be great to see what you guys would cook up against Arena and P2. Tinman, I think your art is one of the best here bar none. Hiemie, I remember there was a time where you had quit void and it made me sad. It's great to see you in full form again.
gregly/bobo: This is a cute story. You try hard to fill up the pages and that is appreciated, but every now and then we still get these empty walls full of nothing. You don't have to fill everything with posters or brick texture, sometimes just some cracks or dust or dirt splattered here and there can make all the difference to filling up those walls.
Hiemie/Tinman: There's no doubt you two are one of the biggest threats in this tournament. The switches in style and color feel very deliberate and how much of that is planned, who knows? But considering the characters involved, it made a lot of sense. Even when the pages lacked color, the gradual return to color had a great deal of impact and probably saved you guys from having a mess of colors from all the cameos. And that's another thing, the sheer amount of cameos adds to how epic the whole thing is meant to be. If I have to nitpick, Hiemie's one instance of Toro Joe is not great anatomically.
Otherwise, I can see how Tinman's style can really only be complemented by handdrawn bubbles but I can understand how difficult that would be under the circumstances. That being said, the word bubbles were the weakest part of this entry as the words were ill fitting and the font was not a match for Tinman's style.
Gregly Bobo: You guys put up a great fight against such intimidating opponents. I have no problems with the coloring, it was all very pleasant to look at. The linework though was not always as clean as it could have been and there were some dips in quality. A lot of times you have lines crossing through each other and lines that are a wee bit too squiggly. I don't feel a need to point out each instance but you can see it. There were also a few cases where the colors went outside the lines and could have used a few touch ups.
But really this was a great entry, I enjoyed the writing as it felt very natural to the characters and the Xia cameo was my favorite.
Everyone should be proud of the great work they've done here.
For both of you, the dialogue in the comics were superb. I can't say spot-on, because I am unfamiliar with all the characters, but just from reading both sides, it's obvious from how they speak in the comic that I am not confused about their personality.
Hiemie/Tinman: I see there's a bunch of different styles of drawings laid here and there, but with other artists in TTT, you don't really notice it at first glance, that was really nicely done. I can't talk much about the colors because there were so many different kinds of use in it: you've got watercolors, some that had bumped up contrasts, something that looked like markers, I can't talk about something I don't know. All individual drawings are nice, but when you connect them into the comic, suddenly all the images have to react. I feel like in a lot of the line work, the characters' faces are looking to the side, or the eye contact isn't pointing at someone specifically (example: page 9, and page 18 panel 6 are the most obvious). When two characters interact, they don't just move their neck at someone, they usually bend their body, their eyeballs move a certain way, and their hands often point/lean at the person they're talking to. As an example, when you talk to someone, notice that when you raise your inner-palms (like when you shrug your shoulders), they almost always point at the person you're speaking to. I think just the minor thing about moving where their eyeballs are can change someone's expressions and intentions so much too.
gregly/bobo: The choice of story and art combined was perfect. Without those cartoony expressions, I don't think the humor would shine as much. And despite the simple shapes and angles, it's great you paid so much attention to the background (setting of the mall was a great idea). Considering color palate, Hiemie's shirt and Toro's tie are very bright red. I know it's bright red, but what makes it pop out so much more is because the other colors are slightly less saturated. Hiemie's bright red shirt never stood out so much to me before was because in the original watercolor drawings by Hiemie, the contrast and intensity of the colors were bumped up together (so not only was his shirt bright red, but so was his face, and everything else in the panels). I find the sound effects a little tricky to catch at first glance--they look more like very well done shapes than actual letters (example, page 6 'plop!' and page 10 'smack!'). I don't think you should really change the shape, but it's more that the color choice of those sound effects make it hard to read (especially the coffee ones, i didn't pick it up at first read).
congrats on finishing TTT round one!
Thanks, Ben!
I also wanted to thank Evi for letting us use her portrait for our thumbnails. She needs her credit, because that was such a beautiful picture!
HiemMAN: (new nickname)
I fucking love the atmosphere set up in this comic from the get go. The whole speech did remind me of Bane though, a lot, I'm sorry...
I did the music thing and it was brilliant, everyone who reads this comic should do it. I think this calls for a music player being built into Void.
I thought it was great how you split the action between Regi and Hiemie, pages 12 and 15, and Gwen, Ancelin and Toro, pages 13 and 14 between the two artists. I don't know whether you guys did it intentionally but it made that section of the comic that much more easy to follow, a thing that I did not really think about being an advantage in a tag team battle. I think you should implement that technique again in the future if you have more than one narrative running through your comic.
Toro Joe's like marmite. He is a great character, the dialogue you guys have written for him is wicked but it makes me wanna fight him so bad if I myself were character in Void.
It would be nice if you guys had an overall consistent type of colouring or lack thereof throughout as the pages felt a bit disjointed at times, but I understand a big focus for you guys is an epic story and I commend that and you pulled it off with aplomb. But push yourselves that much further if you can. ;)
BoblyBoGreg: (new nickname)
Sorry but I just HAVE to draw everybody's attention to page 4 panel 1, Gwen's face in that panel is the best face I have ever seen drawn on Void ever. Just been cracking up for ages. :D
A quick question to Gregly out of interest, what is Regi's eye region, is it a screen or visor or something? I just find it a bit sad how his range of facial expressions seems to be quite limited by it.
I think that seeing as your character designs are quite simple, in a good clean way that I really like, to differentiate them from the backgrounds a bit more I'd make the backgrounds more detailed as they seem quite sparse really. Just fill them up with more stuff I guess. If you actually have a look at a shopping mall there would be tonnes of little details like plug sockets, different light fittings, WAY more people. All sorts of stuff. I just want to be more immersed into the world basically.
I really liked how you guys really worked together on this and created a comic you can both be proud of.
To both sides, well done!
You feel violated? It's a character.. Come on, man. And, you were in the Cock Rockers.. you should know how Hiemie, and everyone else who is in it, rolls.
Bobo, that remains to be seen. Left up to the wills of the good audiences of Void. And don't sell yourselves short, you've crafted a witty, adorable, prettily colored comic that so narrowly focuses on the characters and the infighting between them- the history between all these characters really creates the conflict and the history between you two as creators shows a great amount of cooperation and fun was had. Bravissimo!
As for our treatment of dear Ancelin, its stated a sexy pillow fight is all that occurred, not any particular violation. Suffice it to say, there will come an explanation in the course of our story arc to explain the seeming corruption of so many characters. You'll just have to wait and see.
Hopefully, everyone can push forth towards more inclusivity in the Void Verse from here on out. We share this thing, time to start acting like it- what better time than a Tag Team Tournament right?!
*speechless*
It was an honor losing to you, Hiemie and TINMAN. Honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to win against such a fine team as yourselves. My only beef is that I feel violated--there's no way that Toro Joe would get Ancelin to sleep with him. Or at least, it would take a lot more than this comic showed.
I cannot wait for the next round, guys! I loved this so much. I hope this has a bigger impact on the way people participate in VOID from now on!
Y'all ready fo dis? 18 pages of co-op hybridized multimedia glory! So many sleepless nights, hardcore drawing days, personal records broken and all for the sake of this little ditty we'd like to call THE MESSAGE. In hopes you get it, carry it forth and jump in on thee meta plot fun! I hope you lot have as much fun reading our pages, as we did making them for you!
Can't wait to read your rendition Gregly and Bobo!
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