I legit cried a bit.
I love the back and forth, I love the hard shadows and light color highlights. The different character voices. Really fantastic all around.
It suffered somewhat from being an exposition dump, but that's also the nature of the beast, and hard to really mitigate without a lot more room to play in. For its confines it still flows very well.
I love the way your skills came together. The look really fits the theme: Life giving color in the face of stark bleakness. This was a really nice glimpse into the characters, very poignant.
Why y'all gotta make me feel the feels!? ;3;
These two couldn't be more different, but I never realized these two had more in common than initially thought.
I did like that for the uninitiated we got a primer on what Lily is dealing within the comic (the contract), but we don't get much about what Tsumi is going through at all. I suppose 'you're dying' is enough to get the point across, but dying of what? I mean, I know because I'm invested in the character, but I wish we'd gotten a flashback or some creative means to relay equal exposition as to her condition. PYras' helping out by breaking it down for those curious in the comments is helpful, but that should really BE in the comic.
I love love LOVE these heavy shadows and intense highlights. I think it really reflects the stark reality of what these two are dealing with in a visual way. It makes what is essentially two ladies chilling in an apt feel more...I dunno. Dark? Tense? There's a bleakness here that goes beyond what they're talking about and I think really enhances this narrative. If anything, the scenes like the dishes overflowing in the sink and the general disarray of the apartment really added to the things Tsumi was saying of whats the point. Honestly, that was my favorite bit as it was really sobering.
I will echo that there are some wibbly wobbly anatomy mistakes- which considering the match up involving Taylor, surprises me. Anatomy is like your *thing*- why weren't some of these anatomy things addressed/tweaked?
Thanks so much for all the comments guys~ This was a bit of an emotional comic but I'm glad it doesn't feel too hard on the sappy feelings. Probably should have reiterated what they were suffering from somehow in the comic though, heh. been a while since it was expressly mentioned in comic.
Also, this is technically the introduction of Hairball, Tsumi's new kitten. Mentioning that got cut for time/feelings of the comic but he's seen playing with Mr. Pants throughout.
This was so well written! I was super engaged the entire time and I really felt for Lily and Tsumi. Their dialogue helped me understand their feelings without being heavy-handed. The lineart is a bit wobbly and would have benefitted from the use of rulers (or digital rulers) on the environments to clean things up. I liked the use of just the blue and pink (I love that they end up accidentally covered in the hairdye XD ), but the color is so sparse that it makes the pages feel kind of empty, so maybe incorporating some of the blue and pink into background elements as well would have rounded out the compositions.
And also: OMG!!! Tsumi's maybe gonna be in Wulf?!!! Say yes, gurl, SAY YES!!! <3
a very mature comic, with a twist of existancial metaphore on Hair dye??? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY THIS INSTANT !!!
Lily is really growing as a character.
Tsumi... i wanna hug those pure and unsullied muscle ;_;
How dare you make something so simultaneously sad and yet adorable in the end. My heart. Ouch.
I really like this, it's emotionally convincing and I can feel for the characters. I also like how you handled the limited colors in this, it was a cool idea!
Great job you guys!!
Friendly catchup for the uninitiated: Lilyfeather is cursed via demon contract to be dragged to Hell by a demon groom on her 18th birthday, and Tsumi's unique gigantism will one day destroy her internals
Shen+otakutaylor: Great job on the comic! Obviously the story is touching and it makes good use of the limited palette especially with the themes of the comic. I feel like the linework needed more time to cook, though; there are some panels where they seem rushed, with segmented lining vs full lines in some areas. The proportions for Tsumi kinda teeter, and they trip hardest on the last panel of Page 5, and on the last page, where Tsumi's head is far too big for the kind of gigantism that she has. The issue becomes more glaring when you look at the first page cover's Tsumi compared to how she's illustrated in the rest.
I don't know how much you applied this but I'm gonna talk about it for others who want to collab in the future anyway: When you have the situation of one person sketching/penciling and the other inking, it's definitely the duty of the inker to take a hard look at the penciler's anatomy and proportions and fix it when/where they can, this makes everyone look good in the end
All in all this was a great read and further proof that more folks need to collab together
I'll have to catch up on Lily and Tsumi's latest issues to fully grasp what's going on here, because I had no idea they were both terminal???
Besides that, this was a great little somber character scene, with a wonderful message. Even if the "dying" pun got a little on -the-nose.
Again, I'm behind on her comics ( I'm ashamed to admit I might not have read a Lilyfeather comic since Holden Shark), but this is the first time I've seen her in street clothes. It's a very good look for her.
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