Endling's Endzone OC Battle!

[Odango]

If you're on DeviantArt and active there at all, you most likely know Endling and his series Everafter, or at least his friend Bleedman's fancomics. What you may not know is that Endling is hosting an OC (original character) battle called Endzone!

The info and rules are here: endling.deviantart.com/journal/13251694/#journal

I'm definitely entering! Anyone with me? =D

[Odango]

Since Lali asked to see my finished comic for the contest, here's a link for you all! Let me know what you think, especially about the backgrounds and panel and dialogue layouts. That's what I need to work the most on. =)

www.deviantart.com/deviation/58244728/

[Lali]

Wow. Alright, first of all that's so much better than anything I could do I'm automatically biased in your favour, see?

Panel and dialogue layouts seem to work well for me - I love the speech bubbles for the wolf. ;D (And I just adore that last panel. That's really fantastic.)

The backgrounds seem to be consistent and serviceable - you can see where it's meant to be, and they're not so bland that it looks like you haven't bothered, and not so ridiculously detailed that it looks like you spent days writing in the small print of the Staff Wanted sign in the shop window. For example. XD When things get that detailed it can distract your readers from the actual comic, after all.

I'm not quite sure how to improve it (being no kind of artist at all) but if anything, the only bit that doesn't quite seem right is the road and traffic lights in the panel with the girl and her mother in the background. Something about the colouring of the road and the spacing of the yellow lines seems a little more amateurish than the rest. And I think the middle traffic light is a little wonky, which might be what's putting me off that.

Eheh. Be that as it may, I am filled with awe and admiration of your skill. Much good luck on getting into the battle! Tell us how that goes, hai? ^_^

Hope that helps a bit.

[Odango]

I completely agree with you about that one panel--it's the worst drawn in the entire comic. It's because one of my coworkers was looking at it and she had a wet hand, and it smudged the Sharpie from the panel above it into that one. There was this huge purplish-black smudge in the panel. It was only penciled at the time, so I had to go back and mess with the background and the angles and the colors to try to cover it up and fix it. I did the best I could, but since there was a huge smudge to cover up, some of the things are weird shapes and sizes. The road is also way too thick in the background--it should start much thinner, but I had to cover up that stupid smudge. The color is inconsistent for the same reason. It was the only thing I could do to cover at least most of it up. I hate the mom and the daughter, too, and Dexter's face, and the shapes of the dialogue bubbles ...I hate everything about it, actually, except the dialogue itself. xD I actually probably see way more problems in it than you do, come to think of it, but I'm very critical of my own art. =P

I'm glad you like the backgrounds. I'm really annoyed by them, because there are so many problems and mistakes from panel to panel. There are a few panels where I messed up and did the backgrounds from the wrong angle ...for example, in some panels, the concrete wall is on Dexter's left, in some others, it's on his right. I'm glad it's not so glaring as to be very noticeable. The backgrounds look mostly consistent panel to panel ...things are just occasionally on the wrong sides. xD

It was the first time I'd done serious backgrounds in five years, though, and the the first time I'd done backgrounds for a comic in seven, so I think I did pretty well, considering. =) I'm happy to hear you think so, too.

Thanks for all your feedback!

[Lali]

If you hadn't told me about the smudge, I would never have known. And I went back and had another look at the walls and angles etc, and it seems to work. (As long as you pretend Dexter turned around at certain points. ;D)

I've also been and gone and had a look at the entries flagged up on Endling's battle page bit, and I do think your entry is every bit as worthy of success.

I'll be keeping an eye on this from now on, with my fingers crossed for you. ^_^

[Odango]

Well, they put up the roster today ...and I didn't make it. =/

It's okay, though, I don't mind. I'm just glad I tried! It was a lot of fun and good practice. I also found out that I love making comics. =D

Speaking of making comics.

When (there is no 'if', only 'when'!) we really get into The Minor Plagiarism Problem thread ...would you guys be willing to let me try my hand at comic-ifying it? Of course, Lali will get credit for coming up with the whole idea and everyone's characters and dialogue will be properly credited, and I'll put up links to everyone's lj/deviantart/fpc site/whatever (if they want me to) as well as one to the thread itself. I don't know if I'd post it on deviantart or just in my livejournal, or even at all ...but if I put it in my livejournal I will leave those posts unlocked so anyone here who doesn't have one can read them.

If you don't want me to, that's fine. I just thought it might be fun, as I think the whole idea is just very cool and original, and I'm a very visual person so I would like to see it in pictures, too! =)

[Lali]

Pah. You should've been in.

And, for my part, you are most extremely welcome to draw Plagiarism as it progresses! I'd love that!

Eheh. Should check with the others as well, though.

[Odango]

I was looking at all of the ref sheets and auditions for everyone who did make it in, and I'm pretty sure I know why Dexter didn't make it.

He's normal. He has no superhuman powers, he isn't a demon/vampire/whatever, and he doesn't use any weapons but his own body and whatever he can pick up off the ground or find in his pockets. He's just a normal human teenager--he has all sorts of idiosyncrasies and quirks and he's been declared legally insane, but he can't do anything special. (He can break someone's neck, arm, or leg with his bare hands from many different positions and stop someone's heart by hitting them in just the right way in the neck or chest, but I'm talking superhuman and supernatural--shape-shifting, elemental control, magic powers, stuff like that.)

I wasn't sad before, but I am now, because it looks like he didn't even have a chance to begin with. =(

But yay, thank you, Lali, I would really love to make a comic of it and I'm glad I've got at least your permission. =D Now we just have to wrangle Shira and Rie into it ...and get people posting to get the story moving!

[Shira]

Now we just have to wrangle Shira and Rie into it ...and get people posting to get the story moving!

I say yes, definably yes, totally 100% yes.

Getting Rie to get online and say yes.... that might take a while. But I promise to try and get her online (or, at least, get her to pick up her phone so I can go over to her house and pick something up) as soon as possible.