Oculama

I love every second of the comic and I thought you did such a great job with the dialog it really added a lot to the characters showing how cleaver and unique they are with little insights. I think if I had to pick one thing to say that really didnt work for me was the layout of page 4. On page 4 the panels are layered in such a way makes it confusing at first to know what order to read in since my eye wanted to read the smaller panels first and then the bigger one, and is a shame because that is one of my favorite scenes but the panels ruin the flow of what would have been a perfect comic in my opinion but overall great work!

This comic is very solid it does a good job at showing both characters in their elements and showing your opponent being more concerned with presentation was a fun interpretation of Clyde. I personally feel clyde was a bit undersold in how easy it was to job him and I guess Id have preferred if one page of Clydes set up with the bar keep was sacrificed for the attempt of an actual fight between characters, and perhaps it feels like Clyde is easily beaten because we spend about 2 pages with him at the start and only see your character for a brief moment. Overall a solid comic with a good setting good work!

You've done some tremendous scene-setting here, and I love how well your narrative explores the saloon space. The setup to the encounter feels completely organic, and you've done a great job getting both characters' personalities to peek through. My biggest gripe about the comic is that the conflict therein feels one-sided in a way that does a disservice to both characters. Clyde because he reads as just a goonish punching bag, and Netta because nothing happens in this comic to challenge her or give her an opportunity to do much interesting except shoot a guy a bunch. Beyond that, a very enjoyable and dynamic piece.

The action here is a treat, but the tense moments of dialogue between the characters here are just as delicious. Not only do you pack a lot of solid story and characterization into five pages. The characterization especially feels fantastic because you pull off a very fleshed-out presentation of Both Netta and Clyde in just a handful of lines apiece. The only real note of substance I have is that I feel a small bit of fat could still be trimmed from the dialogue, esp up front with Netta's first few lines, where the verbosity feels a touch out of place and makes her speech a little slower to parse for not a lot of added bang. There's so many little touches in here I adore, from the close-ups of Netta's tracking observations to the branch she balances on towards the end. REALLY fun, and VERY well done!

In W4R you were always the type of artist that had no weaknesses , turned in work, and played to your strengths. And we see that here. Admittedly I may have been a little outside of your target audience from time to time but that typically changes when you handle your opponent (and munitions) well. IN this instance it was an engaging read and for a 5 pager, the comic hints at bigger things.

Now since this is also a critique I suppose I should push you to loosen your gestures and practice posing yourself to get a feel for certain actions. The door kick panel was good but felt off. Other panels behaved in this way, especially if the action isn't very common or familiar. Don't sweat if certain things aren't realistic or stylish enough, but it does have to feel natural and I like my characters to feel like they fit in a space.

A neat drink, barkeep.

Your writing and actors have always felt very evocative of a bigger world at play but always we are easily couched in their deal like we've known them for a long time. In this story we're given a basic premise, The hunter and the hunted. It's messy, it's wild and westerny, something that always seem to fit Netta's theme. Then we introduce Clyde, he's clever but he's ultimately a Brute using his size and aggression to shrug off bullets while coming after you with good speech. This is easily a monster in a suit and I dig the hell out of it. As a casual read it hits above marks and looks like a fun warm up.

Your Facial expressions are looking real good but what got me is Clyde's lack of them. His dead bug eyes when he's going full bore is amazingly creepy. He does none of the things a monster in a suit does and I think that's because he's just a normal bug person with massive killing arms. The stark manga inks is consistent throughout so I never question when these lines whorl or bend , Im in it for the ride because your world has no gaps from start to end. (Oh but I guess there were some rushed panels. I don't notice it because your highlight panels are great)

Thanks for the comic !

I like the work you put into the backgrounds and the shading. I also like how you used the environment as part of the fight, Clyde falling into the table was fun!
I kind of feel like the fight was a little one sided? Like Netta gets roughed up, but that part is all off screen, and she has the upper hand in all the parts we do see.
I thought you did a good job with the dialogue and getting how the various characters speak. I also like how you do sound effects, all the bangs and door slams were really satisfying.

I like the attention to detail you put into Netta's sniping/tracking, like the set up where she's tracking her bounty down and the pose she's doing using her leg to brace the gun. Your art is great as always, really good action and really selling the impact of Clyde's punches.
I was kind of confused about Clyde getting behind Netta? It felt like she was supposed to be fairly far away and he got up there kind of instantly? I think one of Clyde's big charm points is the contrast between his polite professionalism and brutal violence and I would like to see more of that.
Big man holds very tiny object is an all time perennial bit. I think the tiny shovel works as a purely visual bit and you don't need to call attention to it in dialogue?
Midair gunshot is a cool moment too.

I really felt like I was in some Western movie while reading this. I love how you started with the extreme close up shots before panning out then Bam! Clyde bursts in. But Netta wasn't at the bar anymore like most of us probably expected. I liked that surprise. Netta and Clyde just seemed destined to meet each other with their line of work and everything. This is such a great match up. As for crits, I think just a general brushing up on anatomy in some parts and that alone will come with the more you do comics (Yes, I am lowkey asking you to make more comics and show us more of Netta. I am a sucker for badass women. I am invested!)

I am so STOKED to see Clyde so soon after his intro. What a beautiful linework you got in your comic. Even without the shading, everything is so easy to see. I'll never get tired of seeing Clyde try to deal with items that are too small for him hahaha. He's too frikkin adorable. Your deliberate use of spot blacks in parts that you want highlighted was very clever IMO. And this whole comic had me at the edge of my seat the entire time. I mentioned this in Redstalk's review as well but Clyde and Netta is such a rivalry that I would love to see beyond this comic for sure!

REDSTALK- Those opening shots on your first page are some nice mood panels. Glass of whiskey, plume of cigarette smoke; very atmospheric stuff. I knew we were in a bar long before we got to the third panel.

I'll admit I found myself a bit confused on page 3 with the gotcha moment where Netta gets the jump on Clyde. You have the panels already, just seems like your order to get those beats of action would be better served with tweaks. If I could offer a suggestion, starting with an over the shoulder panel looking INTO the room Clyde is in while he turns around to see Netta in the door frame would've gotten this moment across for what went down. I do however, dig that upshot view of Clyde looking out the window and down at the viewer in panel two.

Netta still maintains an air of mystery as, apart from the juicy details she offhandedly mentions about her life and the pursuers after her, we don't get much. I wanna know more! Also two comics with buggo headshots? Did you guys plan this? XD

SKWID-
I love how unexpected the outcome to this comic was. Too often, VS challenges in the OCT sphere usually fall into the expected "someone wins, someone loses" so to see two entirely capable characters pull off some baller final moves and end in a draw is rad. And in such a meager page count. That's no mean feat, and I think you handled it seamlessly.

I don't know if the choice of an arid desert was clever to save on deadline time, or reflective of the kind of bug Clyde is I'm not sure. Maybe both? Either way I think its a smart move. Netta's self monologue as she wonders after Clydes actions was nice too. It could've been thought, but a character as isolated as she is doing the job she does- I can totally see talking to themselves if only for the company.

I've never seen an instinctual fight or flight moment depicted in a comic quite like you have on the top of page three, but man, I love seeing artists depict aspects of human nature that have no physical form, but manage to put it to page. Really great stuff here.

A very solid comic! your anatomy and attention to shading and detail on Netta is great!I also loved the door kick from Clyde was very well drawn and I could hear smash mouth in the background as he did it lol. I also like the subtle way you showed Netta's echo off by her leaving just before clyde entered the room and reiterated her need for alcohol to dim down her ability all in one page which is very cool. Netta being clever is great and I enjoyed the comic scene of her shooting Clyde in the room and after she had knocked him back down the steps but I would have liked to see more of the confrontation rather than hear it so to speak. The dialogue was pretty great from the two but I was expecting a bit more back and forth between the two combatants.

Oh skwid you do some very fine work! the setup is great. You throughly introduce the two characters and their personality and mannerism very quickly and your attention to detail in both the background and anatomy/exaggeration of the characters just keeps getting better and better! I loved the Echo ability Panel with Netta's brain GOSH that is so good! and the following ground slam with Clyde is great and manages to put them both of equal footing in terms of a who to place bets on that I really loved(wasnt aware Clyde could move so fast lol). The two talking is short but very accurate as to how I would imagine the two mid fight talking. You made a great show of how Clyde can go from being pleasant and complimenting to being a whole ass menace with that part about her guardian angel keeping her far away from him(great writing there). The dual and how fast it happens worked really well and the double KO was an unexpected but respectful finish for two seasoned bounty hunters.

A very businesslike exchange with a little bit of violence on the side! The western vibe of the start works quite well for the classic scenario of the hunted gunslinger and I think you did quite well on making a quick exchange that gave both characters distinct "moments". Smart use of offscreen fighting on page 4 leading to a brutal headshot! There are a couple panels with some character proportions that could be balanced a bit better but the comic was still very readable throughout and lead the eye well from one moment to another. The headshot panel is probably my favorite as the silhouette really sells the impact.

I am consistently surprised how full your comics feel Skwid, even with these low page counts. I think it may be partially due to how efficient the writing often is. Netta's monologue at the beginning is great and sets up the tone of the comic, the setting and Netta as a character. Additionally, your compositions are top notch and in addition to constantly mixing up the panel layouts across the pages you find a way to make each page extremely "page turning" by setting up the last panel on a surprising or exciting moment. Of all the panels I would have to say Clyde's earth shattering punch on the third page is may favorite, between the action lines, expressions and feeling of dynamic motion it really sells how devastating strong this big bug man is.

A very strong comic. I quite enjoyed the way you wrote your opponent. I am always weak to the "Gentle Giant" trope and I felt that keeping the fight out of view was a strong narrative move. With the dialogue established in the first pages, it set up the punchline quite well for when he is thrown down onto the floor and trough a table, only to offer to help with it. Artwise, there are some shots, such as the door being kicked in that could have used a little more time, especially since its such a dramatic panel. Looking forward to more!

What a comic.

FIrst of all, your art is so clean and so expressive. Even with a creature so alien as yours, you make his expressions so vivid. The action in this is exellent. Its facepaced, easy to read, lots of impact and both give and take especially with that ending. I am already waiting with baited breath for what comes next. The story is well paced, with the trick of our giant bug handyman setting up a clever trap. The scene where he reacts and just shows up to try and punch the daylights of his poor target carries a immediate "Oh shit" feeling with it and really helped to take the comic from 0 to 100 in a believable manner.

Love a cool assassin lady. Former assassin in this case, I suppose.

This comic was a neat read.

Aesthetically I enjoy the greyscale; feels like a noir western with the mood you've set up. The establishing background of the bar was quite nice with the full shelves of liquor. The crowd shot towards the end felt a little sparse but the action made up for it.

There was an instance where the word bubbles didn't flow well at the top of page two, but that's my only real complaint, structurally. The rest was quite readable and flowed well from panel to panel.

Overall this was a solid comic with a simple but effective plot.

I love this large man.

This was a fun comic to read!

I particularly like the digging panel. And the ones where he's looming with his head as obscured shadow... He's just great to look at and looks like a lot of fun to draw! Aesthetically the lineart is full of detail and expression. The lineweight feels like it could be emphasised here and there to add more depth, since this is mostly lineart with a handfull of crosshatches and spot blacks throughout. It does convey a bright sunny and dry landscape though.

Story is cute; a fight between trained killers. Some good dialogue between the shovel bit and the "guardian angel - lucky break" exchange. The dialogue/banter is what really sells this comic, though the use of her target as bait is a fun spin on what is otherwise a pretty standard two fighters fight story.

Overall, while it didn't really stand out in terms of making laugh out lout or feel feelings much, it got a solid chuckle out of me and the lines were fun. I'm not the kind of person who gets a lot from elaborate fight scenes and I still really enjoyed this. Your art is a treat, your OC is amazing. Love it.