Curse

Etaoin Shrdlu · Oct 14, 2009, 11:17 AM // 11:17

Hello all,

For those of you semi-keeping-up with my GW comic, or for potential new readers, I have moved the comic from Blogspot to Drunk Duck with the hope of getting more readers from the already established comic community there.

The new site is:

http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Life_an...Etaoin_Shrdlu/

As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated, although the comic is going to be in reruns for the next few weeks to give me more time to keep Chapter 2 building up (I already have pages done, I swear!).

Particularly, if anyone has experience with DD, I would love to get some feedback on how to improve my site design.

Thanks, and enjoy!

Hantex Brinx · Oct 14, 2009, 04:20 PM // 16:20

Nice work!
Keep them coming!

Etaoin Shrdlu · Oct 16, 2009, 11:29 AM // 11:29

Thanks, Hantex. You had better believe I will keep the pages coming.

Right now, I am still looking to update in the old Monday-Wednesday-Friday format. If I get a lot of new pages done, I may increase the frequency of updates. With grad school applications to work on, however, that probably will not happen.

ALSO: I am planning to add a few pages to Chapter One, seeing as some of the material I cover has actually been addressed by ANet since its posting (ex-Xunlai Pollster). Keep reading and you may just find some new material yet!

Etaoin Shrdlu · Oct 21, 2009, 09:59 AM // 09:59

I am pleased to announce that my first *new* comic is up over at Drunk Duck. It ties up some loose ends from a previous comic. Please check it out!

Etaoin Shrdlu · Oct 23, 2009, 01:09 PM // 13:09

Good news, everyone! Another brand new page is up at Drunk Duck! Please check it out and enjoy it

Arghore · Oct 23, 2009, 01:47 PM // 13:47

Some better then others

1. Might want to considder using [shift] + [PrintScn] to avoid getting the UI in your shots ... (if you find you dont want them in the shot)
2. Might want to considder using the 'unsharpen'/blur tool in Photoshop around the edges of your toon when you stick him on another photo, this will make him more part of said picture and soften the cutout mistakes ..
3. Might want to considder adding a 20-40% transparant black layer over your pictures to further integrate your toon into the picture..
4. Might try and make sure the text fits in the baloons, i know the toon is to be somewhat goofy, that doesnt mean your edits should look sloppy, making them fit decently will make it look better...
5. If you make a short story, you might want to concidder putting multiple frames on one page, to make it conform more to the comic layout, you dont have to do this ofcourse, but it will make it look more like a comic because the format will look familiar to the reader. (Try and experiment with it a bit, because it will also mean you will need multiple pictures as you will find that not all the tekst will fit on one frame, size wise)
6. Reduce the release to 1x or 2x a week, this will give you more time to make stories and thus will gurantee continuity and quality ... less releases but continuous on those days is more appealing, then "maybe 3x a week if i have the time..."

Good luck on the progress

ambergris · Oct 24, 2009, 01:24 AM // 01:24

Enjoyed your comic and your blog.

Etaoin Shrdlu · Oct 26, 2009, 01:49 AM // 01:49

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I have some interesting new ideas for where to take the comic, and I think it may end up deviating significantly from my original plan. The good news is that artistically, and content-wise, this will probably be a very good thing.

As some of you may know, I am a philosopher (yes, we do exist). What I want to try to do with my new approach to the comic is to incorporate my philosophies into it. I think this will make for better character development, and will also develop a more robust storyline.

You may ask: Will this detract from the humor? I respond: Maybe. The comic will take a more serious tone from here on out, but that does not mean I will do away with humor altogether. There is an appropriate time and place for it, and I will try to work that in. From here on out, though, the comic is just going to be a bit more "real" and less over-the-top comical. Fear not, I will try not to lose my cynical wit (if I even have that).

In good faith, here is a three page preview of what I have so far. I am taking this next arc pretty seriously, so I really need strong feedback here. Please provide whatever you can.

Thank you very much,

Etaoin Shrdlu

hoodiestarfish · Oct 26, 2009, 07:21 AM // 07:21

nice work Etaoin, altho the text is abit hard to read for me. that particular font doesnt scale so well. maybe you could try using comics sans instead, it was designed for readability and increase the contrast of the bg between the text and text boxes.

Etaoin Shrdlu · Oct 26, 2009, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Thanks for the feedback, hoodie. I really hope this takes the style in a direction that more people will appreciate, and it definitely looks cleaner to me. I thought the translucent text boxes might also help, but I will await more feedback on those.

As far as font goes: Could not agree more. I know we already talked about this, but now you can see the issues I am having. I like experimenting with fonts, but I do need to pick fonts that are readable. Comic Sans might just be the way to go in this case, so I will give it a shot.

I also just noticed that a lot of those bubbles should be thought boxes. I will go back and correct those as well.

In the meantime, I am still posting from the stock of comics I already have made, plus a few new ones I recently made to pass the time. I have one up today giving my review of the Codex Arena, if anyone is curious about that.

Now, back to my day job...

*EDIT: Okay, attached a revision with comic sans font. Please let me know if it helps.