Thanks all for all the reads and comments, it's always greatly appreciated.
This was a great round, thank you Barrel, as well!

Barrel: Dang, you slipped into Zee's world so smoothly at first I thought I forgot I was reading the entry where they had to lose. I guess each comic showcases different members of the team. Others are saying that you're handling too many characters, and I suppose you might be, but you're using your opponents very well. So, yeah, Population Control's comics are turning out to be more about other people... but isn't that what most horror movies are like?

Zee: Ah, of course they would be acquainted! Taking out a team in fitting ways, I suppose, would require that most of it happen offscreen like that, with one of them dying of cancer. You managed to make an interesting read out of something that could so easily be a cop out. Ah, and now we really get to see them being actively ferocious. Last comic was mostly self defense, but this one adds a little more to that "going to hell" them other than "well, it's a death tournament so probably."

Y'all are hitting visual peaks I can only dream of with these two entries, I can't think of any worthy critiques in that department

Barrel: There's great use of tension and visual storytelling here, but if I can find any fault it would be that this comic feels too much like the previous one; Population Control, unstoppable as they are, don't feel like characters who can change, and that's okay actually in my opinion; I feel like there's an unintended bias against antagonist characters who are designed for other characters to bounce off, not every character demands personal growth if they are being used as devices for the growth of a separate character. The problem here is that if Population Control is being used to reveal something new about Talbot/Scroop, that is lost here; we already know Talbot is a fierce lady and Scroop her hapless sidekick. Talbot's defiant speech at the end is notable but not any kind of new wrinkle to the character. The end result is this extermination incident between total strangers that doesn't really feel like it means anything for any of the characters. I have no sense of it building to anything bigger, nor did I see the opponent characters in any new light, so while visually stunning, the substance for me felt lacking. When it comes to making a great looking/paced comic of your guy beating the other guy, you've got this formula down pat, better even than many of us. This critique is as nitty-gritty as I can get considering because it's otherwise still a solid comic, I hope this helps you in the future

Zee: JFC I can't handle how good your comics are. This made me gasp, grin, wince, laugh, it made me crave more. You expanded on both sets of characters in ways I didn't imagine, bravo. Visually, I feel like there's maybe a bit too much black throughout, though.


The level of quality being pumped out of this tournament by artists like yourselves is admirable, inspiring. Keep up the great work you two

these were both so fun to read and both some of the best comics Ive read on the site it is hard to criticise them both! only thing I could say is Barrel I feel you missed a tiny bit of an opportunity by not having Daddy kill Talbot the Spider and the Fly Dynamic would have been absurd! these comics were evenly matched for me, I think the only difference was tone and down to personal taste! great job everyone haha! Also the Cousin line for Prendergast was great because I had planned a similar line if I had to fight you and those two interacting as Prendergast showed disappointment a cousin of his would have such an undignified job.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THESE ARE BOTH SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!

YOU BOTH DID SUCH CREATIVE THINGS HERE, THEY LOOK SO NEAT, THIS WAS SUCH A RAD MATCH UP!!!

Great job both of y’all on putting out so many completed pages in one week. You both made such rad comics. NOW THEN seeing as everyone so far has pretty much just said positive stuff, imma just skip all that. People have already said what makes your comics good, so scroll down for that. Im just going to make crits, so sorry if some of this comes off as a bit much

@Barrel
I’ll be real, I think you shot yourself in the foot with entering 4 characters. You don’t have enough time to develop them individually and in the case of this round, one character didn’t even show up. You focus on the same two characters as the last comic (the bomber, and assassin bug) the hawk bug makes a brief appearance but is overall insignificant and could have been replaced with anyone and not made a difference. Had you just had the bomber and assassin bug as team of two for the tournament I think it would have been much better. I understand that a lot of people enter teams on void and only do comics with some of them, but in a death tournament where your opponent HAS to use every character to kill them, I expect you to do the same and at least show each member of the team. The pacing at times grinds to a halt like the page that is dedicated to Talbolt deciding to leave (or fight i guess). And you have a bit of an issue reestablishing things that we already know for the sake of the cool factor. The gifs of the assassin bug shifting look cool, but overall add nothing to the story, We already know that he can do this, we saw it in the last comic, we then see it in the flashback. It looks cool, but when a character never makes an appearance in the comic I would have rather had the time put into the gif put into finding a way to use all of your characters. Final note, you decided to use very uniform thin lines for this comic, while it works sometimes other times the lines are so thin that the colors start to blur into each other. Super thin lines need very strong color choices and shading to back it up. I’d say add a little more line weight or get more exaggerated with your colors.
TL;DR your comic just kinda felt like more of the same as the last comic, so surprising twists, no clever plans from the characters, very straightforward

@Zee
Most of what imma say here is admittedly a nitpick so with that said.... The newspaper page could have been a bit more rendered to show what is on fire in the picture. The rain effect could have been drawn a bit better, kinda feels like little scratches on the page. But that's kinda it

Once again, good job on both of you for producing this level of quality in such a short time.

i barely even know what to critique these were both grade A battles, if either of you was my opponent I'd be terrified!

Barrel: great spooky animation effect! I love how you draw your opponents. I enjoy how terrifying the deaths looked in that they were basically just implied. A horrible silhouette, a splatter of blood. Thats some nice horror there. Great atmosphere, loved the colour shifts for changes in mood. Fantastic job!
zee: oh my god the assassin bug's death on page 5 though holy shit that was fantastically gruesome! I fucking loved talbot's monologue. "we were always right behind you. when you invite death, you invite us as well." thats is THE GOOD SHIT. An effective way to kill 4 opponents at once, excellent writing. Your art always slays me, you have the best gesture and silhouette and your colours are perfect.

no real crits from me i guess i loved these both!

Incredible work! I love all of these characters together, it was a really good matchup!!

Barrel: The animated panels are a really nice effect, and Population Control look so fantastically creepy! I'm also really loving how the colors shift on page 6, it looks amazing!

Zee: Your writing was really entertaining, the "cancer" part got me by surprise! I like the textured look on the backgrounds too, it adds a lot of life!

Time for some critical analysis on this one:

Barrel: Always glad to see these four at work. They seem to become this force of nature with a gain that is for the most part: unknown to us as the audience. As we see them going after these two with a strategy in mind. This works well as you can see how they work as a team. But I can't say I can root for them because I see them as mostly a chaotic evil now. Sure they go after these two with no remorse, but it's unclear how much of a threat they are. But I can understand if there is some danger to them because they are rather witty on how they handle their work. Perhaps we can see their motives in the future? Not much to say about the visuals and flow of the story except it's incredible. Really love the static effect when Talbot realizes something is up. And a good way to make gruesome scenes look spectacular. Nicely done; would like to see if you can go deeper into what they are, or if they really are a "Population Control" group they say they are.

Zee: These two always work well together, and it's good to see how they handle their opponent. I actually liked that you went to explain that they were one step ahead of each member. It shows what they are capable of against this force that they actually see is a threat. And there's an explanation behind their knowledge to the Population Control. Questioning whether this population control really is what it sets out to be. And how a group like this would attract unwanted attention. Also love how you gave one out four of these guys a natural death outside of their control, changed up the pace for a moment. Quality of the Visuals and narrative flow work really well here. I can say that both you and Barrell do incredibly well in these aspects. Really love seeing these two go at it, and can't wait to see more of their adventures in this death tournament.

@Barrel,

I really loved how you did things with your Assassin bug this time around, while things definitely could've been more clear on what was going on in your first comic, this one was a real triumph in terms of that. Your callbacks to prior rounds were also super fun to read into!

@Zee,

Ohmigosh, I burst into laughter, at the word Cancer. XD I did not expect that! I absolutely love what you've done with your end of this comic though, it's actually really fun seeing all those neat changes you made to your opponents's clothing. Oh man, and that end, was absolutely hilarious. It is pretty rude, to just tell people they're going to hell, tbh. Really liked your comic, and it was really well executed!

Congrats to both of you on getting so much amazing work done, in such a short time! I really enjoyed reading both your comics, and good luck to both of you in the voting!

Lolman, WELL NOW THIS IS GOING TO BE FULL OF DEATH

Good luck you guys! I can't wait to see all of these amazing bugs in battle, once again! >w</

There isn't room for two bug teams dealing with death.
Someone's going to the morgue permanently.

PLACE YER BETS

Aw hells to the yeah