Oculama

I'm REALLY into the mood you both have cultivated in these pages. Minhea, I think I've said this before but the darker lighting of your renderings has a tremendous aura of menace to it that makes even this political debate feel like there's some sort of eldritch undercurrent to it all, and I'm only seeing the tip of a terrifying glacier. The switch to 2-D on the latter half of the comic bolsters this, and the compositions/ use of shadow carry on the feeling of menace that really lifts the appeal of your comic.

My main critique of the comic would be, after three read-throughs of it, I feel like I only have a vague grasp on what is happening in the first half of it, and then no idea of what is happening on the back half, nor how the two sections relate. Could absolutely be a reading comprehension issue on my part, but the obtuseness did impact my enjoyment of the comic itself.

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing part of this comic's appeal to me is similar to why I enjoy ARGs - the sense that there is something big and scary below the surface of something that is uncanny/ unsettling. So I've got to double-down on my praise for your mood cultivation, because it's truly unique in this OCT.

This comic does a solid job of rolling right into the premise and getting all the players involved mentioned up-front. I get a strong sense of who everyone is in relation to each other without a lot of words being shed on explicitly stating anything, which I think speaks very highly of how you've scripted the dialogue on these pages.

One thing I think the comic could benefit from is more focused establishing shots/ intros for characters - I can sort of suss out who is who, and of course I recognize certain names by virtue of knowing who all the characters submitted are from the Oculama site, but your opponent's characters don't appear to be important presences in the comic at all other than having slightly unique character designs.

The period costumes/ outfits you've drawn are REALLY nice touches, and I love how all of the main characters look individually and as a group in their victorian/ clockwork/ steampunk threads. Intentionally or otherwise, your color choices really compliment this vibe, and really sell the setting of a cloudy day (those clouds in the background are very interesting, also - they almost look like maps in the sky, which I kind of like)

With the last pages and story being unfinished ill have to ding this comic for points as it was very clear there was supposed to be more to this, but from what was there i enjoyed thoroughly and all the way through!

Mihnea comics are always cranked, and seeing the first ever comic contribution from Mania is a great first showing! love the text effect on Muse's speech to show their general anxieties and little-guy-ness, and every showing with Heartwell's esoteric speeches is always a joy, fun to see him in three dimensions!

KEEP RUNNING FOR MAYOR OF JUNCTION, HEARTWELL, YOU GOT ONE VOTE!!

uhhhhh, meow? So about the comic the two opponents you guys had did not really do stuff in there. i will say i am quite disappointed at that, as the interaction and telling of a story, although from what was there it was a fair showing and you two clearly flow together with your respective art stylezords. But overall that one bit about the story was what really set this comic back in my heart.

ALSO, YOU FORGOT ONE CRUCIAL THING-- about Heartwell, which was supposed to be pretty obvious, the SCAR!!! Silly!!! Minhea's scar was from a previous battle and its a pretty big part of his character and the whole characterization in his ref sheet, some of Heartwell's most important part, the eyes are missing!

I think the initial premise that you both came up with was an interesting angle! I would not have thought to have done an election plot! That being said, right off the bat I'm not exactly sure what the overall story was meant to be if im being perfectly honest.. Or how these elements are related to one another.

I also would have liked to see a little more consistency in art, sizing and layout in the overall comic. It kinda ended up feeling like I was reading two comics instead of one complete work.

I still enjoyed going through it and I look forward to seeing more comics from you both!

Im glad to hear you both had a good time working on your first comic together! It looks overall very consistent looking throughout the whole piece! I think the more muted overall color palette with a splash of more saturated color worked well and I think you've improved on your paneling and your lettering + speech bubbles are also improving!

That being said the story felt like it was thrown in head first without a lot of set up, which I think would have helped a little more, and the ending felt somewhat abrupt.

That being said! Solid work you guys! Looking forward to more!

The electoral debate format and splitting up the pairs into onstage and backstage was neat, but felt a little bit disjointed, and the ending was a bit abrupt, as was the transition from Heartwell holding up a picture of Zircon(?) to the backstage section. Neat use of textures in 3D for that Darkest Dungeon style wrinkles and stuff, and I liked the colours on the first panel where Muse shows up. Dope spot blacks too. Abrupt ending was pretty funny though like damn Tock you can't just rip up someone's election poster, Muse worked hard on that. Blood splatter for you.

Basic plot nice and easy to follow, although opponents seem to show up for only exposition. Feels more like an episode of Tick's story that they happen to be in rather than a match. Do like the full colours comic not counting greyscale for the flashback. Especially love the sorta scratchy texture-shape-y clouds. The "can't wait to run into Dr. Who" speech bubble on the first page is a bit confusing when positioned so low plus overlapping the panel border, could've swapped heights with the second speech bubble for a more natural flow. Happy for the boyfriend reunion though, I see no difference love is love.

I didn't expect a debate as a framework for a four way battle, but its really fun to see these match ups and the very definition of this tournament interpreted in such different and creative ways. A spar of debate and wordplay is just as valid as throwing a punch :D Not to mention the tone of it felt really ominous. Not so much with what was said, but more so enhanced by the angles, lighting and general mood you two cultivated here.
I do wish there was a better way to compliment and meld your respective styles together as there was a stark divide between minhea and mania's pages, but that's just my personal preference as opposed to an actual failing. All in all good showing for round 1

You definitely have a handle and clear enjoyment of drawing characters. It seems to be familiar ground. You have good dialogue, but I find that you fall into what most of us do in that we have ppanel to panel just static talking characters. There seems to be such a missed opportunity for Muse to paint the events that happened and for Heartwell to explain them for more dynamic images page to page. It would've made for a really creative visual take on recounting events.

If there is one aspect I'd recommend focusing on, it'd be your backgrounds. Give them as much personality as you give the figures inhabiting it. That spooky house especially could've been a great stage to visually tell us what Zircon may of had to struggle with before being discovered. When Tick enters the building, following slash marks, or foot prints or even ruined aspects of the architecture in their tracking of Zircon would've been a great method to show off the space they're all working in.

Really great start for a comic!! - but perhaps overly ambitious? The setup of an election is pretty fascinating, but in the interest of time/length I think you may need to tighten some screws in your script, cause while the debate is well-done it seems like you ran out of time before you were able to get into the meat of the character interactions. Honestly I have a really hard time with script bloat and time management too, so I understand the struggle haha.
But otherwise such a cool setup - I like the way Zircon and Heartwell are positioned as philosophically opposed extremes plus the mystery of what's going on with tick + tock and Muse's poster.
Also your art styles are both super lovely and interesting, and I'd be really interested to see them merge in some way, if you can manage it! I'd love to see more collabs from you two!

Wonderful adventure comic with a sweet ending!! The art is great, it flows well and it's never hard to tell what's going on, really nice to see so much improvement so quickly from Tick + Tock's intro comic!!
I think you're understandably having trouble juggling so many characters, but it'd be nice to see you spotlight a bit more of your opponents' characters, as they don't really get much to do here. You don't need to change that much, just having them come back at the end and play a part in the conclusion would go a long way to feeling like they're an integral part of the story.
That said, I like the development of your own characters, their relationships feel like they have so much potential for exploration. Plus it sounds like you had fun with this which is so awesome!! Keep at it!

Haven't seen a 3D comic yet, great use of angles! The intro into 2D with color and into black and white wasn't too sudden, but I was a bit confused by the change in setting at first. The set up of a political debate is HILARIOUS and a great way to get some characterization. The one thing I'd comment on is the dialogue text itself, although I think it works without bubbles, I think in the first couple pages it could stand to be smaller, and centered rather than left or right aligned. I also think you don't need to explain SFX, since we see what happens afterwards. Compared to Zircon and Heartwell, I felt like Muse and Tick had less of a presence in the comic. There's a lot of intrigue in your characters built up from the comic, I'm very excited to see their next encounters!!

Some nice differing emotions throughout the comic, we get a good sense of the relationships between Tick + Tock & Zircon, along with Muse and Heartwell, though Tick + Tock & Zircon are the core of the comic and conflict. I would love to see the both opponents and the home team have a hand in resolving the conflict. The use of gray for the past and the use of red lines on black for impact are both great techniques. The gray helps the reader understand the flow, and the red lines create a sense of dread that really sells that conflict and danger. There's a strong setup and great care put into character interaction and personalities, and I'm interested in seeing where these characters end up!