Oculama

Your art style has SO much charm to it. I love your shapes and your action and the absolute rollicking creativity of all of it, and there's a cartoonish joy in the setup "hey there's a wanted sign with your face on it lmao." Having a tree in the middle of the junkyard was also really smart for giving us as a viewer to center around; that addition definitely helped us follow the action and characters' placement.

The only part that didn't quite hit as well as it could have was that there were a few typos around and honestly the story ended a little abruptly with Bela's death. I feel like there could've been more time dedicated to his brutal demise to really sell us on the fact that "oh he's DEAD dead". But I still had a great time and I always love seeing your comics dude.

Another Magi banger. It's kind of incredible how well you nail the pacing in just thirteen pages, where you just sell the fight, sell Bela's danger, sell how much of a THREAT Byron is, build the setup, even fit in some background jokes, all without going over thirteen pages of comic. You even give us a little peek into Bela's own personal life, show off what his siblings are doing off-screen and WHY he's so willing to just end lives.

Honestly it's really hard to find stuff to critique. Maybe I would've liked a little bit more of a connection between Byron and Bela but that's splitting hairs at this point because the interactions in this comic were enormously entertaining as they are.

The Peak of all Peak.
The fight coreography? Peak.
The characterization? Peak.
The drama and pathos? Peak
This was already an excellent comic, but when I got to the kill and there were 3 pages left, I was left wondering, what else is there? And god did you deliver on that "what else" the sheer heartbreaking drama of those last three pages would have elevated a mediocre fight with mediocre visuals to excellence.
And this was so much more than a mediocre fight.
If you keep this up, I bet you have more than just this round, I bet you have the whole tourney in the bag.

This was a really solid, fun, professionally done comic. It's a shame you're up against true peak.
Your artstyle is really fun, dynamic, unique and all around fun your expressions are excellent and your choreography is pretty good. Bhela is characterized well, as is Byron himself.
But it's not perfect, and your opponents' is damn near.
The one-sidedness of the fight only serves to dampen the comic, rather than provide hype or dramatic irony, and it lacks a core.

What an absolute treat of a comic, really well done man. Just a fantastic start to the tournament.
Well executed set up, really good use of your opponent, excellent pacing, action. Color palette suited the comic well.
How you have it all set up makes me already feel really invested in Bela and his siblings and I want to find out what happens next.

Honestly, I really don't have much feedback in regards to a critique for you. Thank you so much for the fun read and I'm looking forward to more!

Very fun action packed comic! It was a playful take on your opponent.
I really enjoy your line work and your design choices. The sound effects worked really well here too! Pacing was good over all and it was a nice, simple action plot and i think you executed that well.

Critique wise, I think with your action sequences, while the foundations were solid, I think if you pushed the form in some places,like, enhanced the exaggeration, they'd have a stronger feeling of impact.
Overall the paneling was good, but I think some of the composition in relation to the action of whats happening would have benefited you, biggest example of what i mean is in page 17, first panel with the hammer flying out of the flames. I think if you had made the hammer large and exaggerated the perspective on it from where it was flying out of the flames would have given a more dynamic feeling to the build up of the hammer hitting Bela in the second panel.

Overall though, really fun read and a solid entry! I really look forward to reading more comics from you!

Magnificent stuff. The characterization for Bela and his family was top-of-the-line, your choreography was excellent as always, Byron was appropriately terrifying as a boss battle. A great story on its own and one that also offers plenty of springboards to advance the story in later rounds.

Also, telling an Irishman you "only have to get lucky once" is just asking for it.

The only complaint that comes to mind is that you didn't make much use of Byron's adaptation; I got the impression that he'd adapted to stabbing, which was how he tanked the pick to the face and explained the pointy bits of his crown, but the orbs went back to normal afterwards.

Gotta say, I'm very impressed with your improvement. You've come a long way in a short period of time; your backgrounds, expressions, and kineticism were all several steps above your earlier work. You should be proud.

I particularly enjoyed how you visually conveyed how his adaptation works without needing to explain it.

You put together a great fight scene, but I think you were a bit short on payoff. We didn't really learn all that much about Byron or his goals outside of "get stronger;" if you made it to round two, you'd basically be starting with the same template as the first round. Great style, but needed some more narrative substance to make it truly satisfying.

I'm repeating myself! You also have impressive artwork and style! What a tough matchup! This one goes even harder on the fighting but doesn't have as much of the characterization as your opponent. If I had to voice a complaint it would be wanting to learn more about our meatman besides his joy for combat. The fighting itself is top notch though of course.

overall I would say my favourite part actually is the gag at the intro where he pulls the contract down and sees the boy. I am a fan of that particular gag in many of its iterations.

Artwork and style of yours is impressive as always. Not much to say besides it being extremely professional looking, between character designs, action shots, and backgrounds, it's all great.

Something that stands out to me is the car on page two where it says ICEMAN looks a little weirdly shaped. Like it's smaller than it should be? IDK if its just me though.

The story works as a classic vet versus youngin duel where the kid gets underestimated with some characterization at the beginning and end with the family to learn just who our boy is as a person. Solid.

My favourite part is the details in the shop on page 6.

Darn! And here I thought I'd be the only one creating my color scheme to the flag of my character's respective home country! This was insane for two weeks! You and your opponent went all out (I hope) and it's a pleasure to have read this battle from both sides. This premise is pretty straightforward and while a little more context would've been nice it was not necessary to understand the story. I don't think I often see an oct round hook a reader without a cliffhanger or massive reveal but that seems to be what's going on here. The story wrapped up pretty well with a few lingering questions I would like to see answered!

You've got quite a unique style I especially like how you incorporate sound effects/onomatopoeia into the negative space of your comic though at times it can come off as a little overwhelming. I'm surprised how many people went with the full blown action packed battle from near start to finish but I'm not complaining! The back and forth between these two characters was a blast to read (pun intentions pending). When I saw the character's bio I was a little confused as to how the power worked but after seeing it in action with your comic it made a little more sense. You did an excellent job making your character appear as a force to be reckoned with!

I cant get over how seamless you make your photobashing to fit your style and inkwork. I have to really be looking for it as it gels so well. Speaking of depictions, the way you showcase the communications between Bela and their sibling Toni. For those of us familiar with the character, its great to see the detail of the knives in the username lol. Speaking of detailing, I love that you've applied so much storytelling detail to the backgrounds. My peepers zeroed in on the background elements of Bela's room after the hit was complete that really give hints to how this little family have a healthy paranoia to support what Bela does as a 9 to 5
You action scenes are always on point and your inks are just thick and delicious. I think that's super evident on that car crash scene of Byrons epic entrance. For a setting as mundane as a gas station, you have SUCH a knack of not only making it interesting but including it in the clever improvisation Bela uses. outside of their very humble pick and hammer. Whatta chilly entrance. the people want more!

The meet cute is pretty classic. See guy, beat up guy. I do like the unintended parallels between your comic and your opponents with the improvisation of attacks and weapons and the fact meat man needs to be grilled apparently lol. Who knew you'd both pick gasoline to light Byron up?
While your action was fun and high paced, I would recommend with varying your panel layouts. A dynamic angle on a throw or leap would break up what appears to be a comfort zone of yours where the characters and posing is typically side by side and a bit stiff. You have such an imposing and impressive character, so I'm itching to see him presented in an epic light.

The clarity of this comic is on point. Your time management was excellent for this and while that's not a skill that often gets notice, should be definitely applauded for pulling it off. The parts of the comic that can be improved upon and made a bit stronger would be enhancing the difference between light and dark - such as adding more of a glow to the lights on page 2's background or even the window inside of the gas station. You obviously worked economy of the background, but perhaps having some hint of car going by in the background would be stronger. These are all nitpicks, you're excellent and you know you're excellent. Terrific work!

This was a fun read! The way you draw the interaction between Byron and Bela was a lot of fun. You gave a lot of character to the fight and it was really neat seeing the battle play out with using petrol and everything else. In terms of your art, your style looks nice and cartoony, but that being said Gaussian or Motion Blur doesn't exactly work with the chunky cartoony style you've cultivated. You'd probably be better served having some color used to imply motion or potentially more line art - which you do a bit of in page 4, but you should try pushing that more. It might actually have a stronger effect depending on what is being used. That blur effect extends towards backgrounds as well. Maybe play with lighter line art and colors or darker, depending on the situation in the future. On the whole, this was a fun read. Really can't wait to see you do more and watch you improve and tighten that style of yours. Excellent work!

HOLY COW these were both incredible tense comics with an amazing display of competence and tight writing! the choice of having them fight in a dark underground parking lot was a great choice for allow for some great action setups while keeping the main focus on both OCs and showcasing just how huge byron is from being in an enclosed space and only having the green hue light to focus him in a sea backdrop of shadow is chiefs kiss! Bela for one really comes across as a desperate but very competent and resourceful problem solver in this comic and I really love how he was able to keep matching all of Byrons answers to all his plans culminating is just putting the big man on ice all together! I cannot wait to see what either of you pull off next round

Again same as your opponent you did a phenomenal job showcasing your ability to show off a great fight on a tight page count and I LOVE Byrons expressions for being just a mouth with some eyeballs on his tongue lol! you did a great job giving Bela alot of time and smart moves to try to beat Byron while keeping him intimidating and funny throught all the damage Bela was putting him through. I think the only thing I can critique is the dialogue was a little less engaging for the two but still had me locked in the entire comic bravo to you and your great skill level !