Actually, I did take more time to read the VCV ‘s side again and MAN!!! I LOVE THE SPICE GIRLS SO MUCH!!!! AMAZING TEAMWORK!!!!!🥳🥳🥳

Loved both sides!🥰🌸💕 such great comics!!!

I read both of these comics before reading any previous comics about the Valkyries and now that I have gone back to read previous comics I just want to say that both teams did a great job conveying the characters to even someone unfamiliar with them like me while still keeping the history of each character and the significance of how their pasts connect to Oleander.

VCV team: a word that basically covers all I feel about the comic you all 3 did is: professional-looking.
Loved the angles, the colors, the composition and story. It show that you poured a lot of love for this one.

Oleander team: what you achieved being a team of (mostly) 2 was excellent, it was a very interesting read and very good quality was showed in most parts of the comic!.

Thanks to everyone that voted and commented!

Oleander team: despite the set backs and unfortunate circumstances, I absolutely loved your take on our battle! The oasis in the desert being a trap for Oleander to lure in more people was a cool idea, I loved the dialogue you had for everyone and it's crazy scary the similar ideas we ended up having. I know you had a lot more planned and despite the cuts you made, you still made this story fun and intriguing to follow! Be happy with what you pumped out cuz I sure am!

AHHHH VCV Y'all did great!!!  Those fight scene panels were CRISP and I loved the consistent texture work throughout, especially with the plant motifs that Oleander came with. Page 22 especially was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous, you all really brought the fight and it was such a pleasure to be up against you guys. <3 Kudos again to everyone who was a part of this!!

Team VCV: You guys did such FANTASTIC work, I am in absolute AWE. Many of these pages I've legit saved into "inspo" folders on my desktop they were so good. You took this challenge and went off the RAILS and I feel SO honored.
I told Skulls, but we had some issues that kept us from working the way we initially intended when we took this battle.Theres a lot I wish we could have done better; we had more in our script, I had more I wanted to do with the colour; but we had to go with what was fastest. Still, theres a lot of things we did I AM proud of, and I hope we entertained you.
Fantastic work, a worthy battle, a worthy death for Oleander! Thank you for battling us!!

I honestly don't think I can add more to what everybody else below me has already said. I just want to say that this was a joy to read, especially seeing the VCV being reunited to fight off such a monstrous threat!

To the VCV, I can tell you really cut deep not just with the fight scenes, but how this battle would move your characters forward from this point on. It'll be exciting to see what will come for your characters from this point on.

As for Oliander's side, you all did well too. It's a bit more straightforward, but y'all should be proud of what you accomplished.

congrats on getting this out you guys it's a big achievement, great work both teams

Team VCV: I'll try to give a lil crit for each role, and these are high-level nitpicks because you guys have knocked it out of the park otherwise:

-Sketching/penciling: I think a little more work could be done to try and get Xia to mesh better with Raven and Swan, as there are many points where she stands out from having very different anatomical proportions that makes it seem sometimes like they are cartoons from different shows, if you get what I mean. Either stretch stylization harder for Swan and Raven, or pull Xia back to more of the realistic area that Swan and Raven occupy. This gets better the further the comic goes. I think a useful exercise to try could be drawing each other's characters in each other's styles to try and deconstruct them yourselves individually, that could help make it easier to translate each other's characters into your individual styles when you make future comics

-Inking: There's a lot of halo silhouetting (cutting characters out of backgrounds so there is a halo of space between them) which looks aesthetically nice when you're drawing something strictly in black and white or monochrome, but in a full color comic it kind of makes things look a little busier than necessary as you're now having to take into account colors that otherwise shouldn't be there (top right panels on page 7 nd page 12 are some examples on where it ends up making it harder for the characters to pop out cleanly from the background) I think this should be avoided in a future collab, and trust the colorist to make sure the characters pop out more than necessary. Using this halo for tryhing to get Raven's hair out of black BGs for example still works though.

-Coloring: the major suggestion is to read values of your colors more frequently to make sure your characters are popping out better without needing to rely on the inks or emptier backgrounds, there's some panels where things get a little muddy and values with characters and background are very similar (easy check for those who don't know is making the image grayscale to see if colors stand out from each other or if they mix into the same gray). Textures on backgrounds works fine but I think they can be reduced on characters as well as shading/strokes be smoothed up for characters, to help further pull them out of the background as they can get a little muddied sometimes as well

Some story bits:
-I was shocked that Pip Poodle didn't alert the VCV that Oleander was actively hunting/killing people when they dropped by to give coordinates
-page 17 and 18 it was only on my third read that I realized that was supposed to be young child Raven and not just really rushed drawing, I don't know if that happened for anyone else, I realize the dress is different after the fact but I don't know why didn't notice it at first, maybe because the main purple color remained there. This could really just be a me problem though
-There was one issue that the girls didn't address that left me wanting: their communication, in particular Xia's refusal to listen to her teammates. Her actions in round 1 of the fight led to separating Swan from Diego and Raven to kill and flooded Lithium. Afterwards, Swan and Raven rise from their darkness  and go through their arcs but it's never addressed how badly Xia messed up earlier, and the big apology she owes to them both for nearly killing them all via drowning.

hope these help and can't wait to see more from y'all

TEAM VALKYRIES: I am FLOORED! STUNNED! The immersion of this comic was phenomenal, I was so drawn in by every action, every word, every color. From the beginning setup, I was already super interested in what would go down, and I got hit with some amazing turns in the plots. When a comic literally makes me cry, I know its done its job to pull at my heartstrings and tell a story. This bad boy is ready to be sold on the shelves!! Well done, lovely ladies!!  

TEAM OLEANDER: Despite the challenges, you guys delivered a comic to be proud of! A bit of a critique would be just to work of facial shapes when you have the time to. I enjoyed Xia’s different face, but felt Swan and Raven looked a bit too similar. Other than that, everything was nice! Props to you~

Even though my gushing in the discord was rather nominal, I feel like I'd be repeating myself here by saying what I thought at the time. Both of these had very good colours and the overall visual quality was very high. Both very bittersweet in tone.

I will have to speak up and say that the ending and outcome of the Valkyries comic was upsetting. That was the intention of the narrative so this is merely a personal gripe. Though high bodycounts in comics are beginning to feel very exhausting. The silver lining is that it gives me a lot to think about when approaching death in a serious manner with gravity.

SKULLS, JCEE & RIVANA- WOW....JUST...I AM...COMPLETELY SPEECHLESS. Not only did you deliver an entire comic book, the quality was absolutely incredible! The writing was wonderful, the dialogue felt natural and super clever. Everything blew me away completely! Every single page looks gorgeous! The inking, the backgrounds, the expressions, the way the story flows... I was immediatelly invested since the first pages. The paneling was absolutely INSANE...ESPECIALLY the one with the water, it felt like the panels themselves were flowing along with the current!
I adore how we can see Raven and Swan's growth come to fruition on this comic regardless of the hard decisions and terrible circumstances they were placed in. AND DUDE...XIA'S PREDICAMENT AND STRUGGLE...Godd, my entire heart and ass goes to her.  Seeing her loose everything she had, her conflict with Greece, her budding relationship with Crikey, the way she at first rejected and to a certain degree, resented the responsibility of being looked up to... then embracing it as a decision just for it to be taken away from her in such a brutal way. I can't even begin how to express how incredible the writing is for all these characters. Goddamnnn.
THAT ANIMATION WITH THE TREE BLEW ME AWAY TOO. It is such a beautiful way of portraying how times change in ways we can't even begin to imagine.
Absolutely incredible job, this one is like...ready to be shipped out and sold dude.

OLEANDER TEAM- Big agree with Riv on using the Oasis as a spot for Oleander to do their thing! It shows how much care was put in the pages featuring Oleander-  the inking on page 7 & 8 was specially crisp!

Oleander Team - I know you've had some great challenges in the background working on this but despite that you still managed to do a near complete comic! It's such a treat to see you reimagine our characters in a post-Arma 2022 setting. The set up about Oleander using an oasis to trap people is very clever and Raven being able to sense the bloodbath that ensued there prior was such a good set up to trigger the fight. You captured Raven's personality perfectly too! From her teasing Xia with Crikey to her sass. The part where she doused Oleander with the water made me chuckle. I also love how you depicted her utilizing her portal powers!

Jay/Skulls - You know you're both superstars. I am very proud of the work we did and it's always a pleasure and an honor working with both of you!

I had such a blast working on this battle and thanks so much for the opportunity everyone!

AHHHHH IT'S HERE!!! PLEASE give all your praise to Mints and Shen as I contributed minimally to this project due to my own issues. These guys did AMAZING work and it was an honor to even be a part of the team. I'll be back to leave a response to the VCV team but I'm already absolutely in love with what I've already seen!!! <3

I need to read up on all of Oleander's comics before this comes out. I'm excited!

HYPEEE!!

Oooooh boy, here we go!

SMITE!

oh heck