Oculama

Terrific artwork as always. Your shading is just right to make your characters feel alive and dynamic, and the colors are juuuuust right re: intensity. The only major tiff I have with the illustration is that the laser-shot on page 1 (and the accompanying "Pew!" could be a bit more pronounced; it took me a few seconds to understand exactly what it was that was destroying the droids. Writing-wise the story feels a little sparse, even for the five pages, and the dialogue is a little stilted, which feels fine for Kynsii, but when put into conversation with another character, starts to feel a bit awkward. Regardless, the WORLD you've built around Kynsii keeps teasing me with just enough that I want to see more, and I hope to in the next round!

As cartoon expressions go, yours have got to be some of the best I've come across in the OCTs I've perused. You match those expressions well with the character dialogue too, and that makes for great personalities bouncing off each other. Writing-wise, there were one or two minor typos in the text, but nothing that detracted from the reading experience. Good even hand with the humor as well; Venus' subversions of expectation were conservative enough they felt well-matched to Kynsii's more serious energy, and seeing her cunning side was a treat. Overall a fun piece, and another great chapter in the dragon family's adventures.

I really like the way across your two entries so far you've clearly positioned Kynsii within their own setting. The touches in the dialogue that hint at setting details are really well done and avoid being needlessly expository. For example, I like that you made Venus' powers and ghosty nature something that could be used to explain more about Kynsii's aversion to AI. One thing I would have liked to see was more of an interaction between Venus and Kynsii but I understand the setup was necessary to lead into the explanation as to why the machine was being accessed. Artwise, I continue to be impressed by the level of quality you're able to consistently put out in a single week, I wouldn't dream of going full colour but you make it work.

I appreciated the pacing and how much you were able to get done in the limited page count. Interesting setup with the two characters sharing the same goal while tying that into the intro for Scar. The short fight was great with some very dynamic panels for both characters. Page three panel one especially did really well in showing movement with some strong posing. Composition wise the paneling does a good job of directing the reader's eye however I will say it could have been nice to see some of the action panels extend out of the panel borders to really emphasize and add to your really strong poses. Ultimately an exemplary OCT comic with action, character interaction and a feeling of completeness that makes the 5 pages feel very full.

Your art keeps levelling up, I especially love that panel on page 4 with Venus pushing herself through the monitor, I think that's the standout shot of this comic. Panels like that make me feel that you should definitely experiment more with different light sources and different lighting conditions: I feel like I've mostly seen you use diffuse, soft white light in all your comics, and clearly you've become quite adept at it such that you can do a whole 5 page comic in a week with completely consistent paints. Personally, I'd like to see you bump the lamp and flex your rendering muscles in the future, make no mistake though, the art style on display here is rich enough that you could just coast on this. Great stuff.

Cute and funny. The expressions are really cartoony and fun, they give the characters lots of energy. I did notice that Venus's snout does appear to contract when viewed at head on or 3/4 view, for consistency it would be good to get the foreshortening down so she appears more "on-model". Venus' daughter appearing out of nowhere is a good gag and doesn't necessarily need explanation, but I think it would've been fun and revealing to describe how Scar feels about hanging out with her late mother's ghost, maybe in the future there could be some more characterization of her as well.

Artwork - Gorgeous once again! Really love your approach to colors. They are so soothing to the eye. I think my only crit is that the screen where Venus first appeared looked like an unfinished panel to me at first before realizing that it was intentional. Perhaps adding some 'tv lines' effect would've helped with that. I do love that perspective and effect on page 4 panel one though! I thought that was super cool! Oh and that banner! Made me wish we really see them perform together.

Story - This is very lowkey compared to your last round and that's not a bad thing! I love Dutka's dry humor and Venus' positive energy and vivaciousness is such a nice contrast against Kynsii's serious attitude. Nothing seems to crush her spirit and it's contagious. Love the slip of cat pun there. Also I do wonder if there's some deeper lore that we need to know about Kynsii's apparent reverence to ghosts. I thought that was interesting that he took a complete 180 upon finding out that Venus is one. Overall, I really like it!

Artwork - Oh I really love that you did not use a stark-white background this time. The screentones really added a lot of depth to your inks and complemented that newspaper vibe that I am getting from your pages! I love how you do the expressions and Kynsii looks absolutely adorable in your style.

Story - What a fun comic this was! I had to wonder about the significance of Venus being frozen initially though was just a ruse to get those slugs to come over I am guessing. The action scenes are pretty neat and well executed. Scar's introduction is pretty cool too. I hope we see her in more comics. Love the ending. What a great way to encapsulate everyone's personality in one panel.

This comic is very pretty and incredibly polished especially with just a week. Like damn that panel of her coming out of the tv, wow! Really cute, great colors, great backgrounds. I feel like in some parts the unlined backgrounds look a little weird in comparison to the lined characters? But that that also makes the characters pop out more and focuses attention on them so I'm not sure if changing things would be better. I also like how you do sound effect and little things like how Venus's computer self had a little bit of a glow.
The character interactions and dialogue is fun, I like Kynsii and Dutka's argument. However, a lot of the comic focuses on their views on AI and robots, and that all ends up being irrelevant to the ending and how things are resolved with Venus? The ending is pretty cute and I liked it.

This comic has a lot of good energy in the expressions and posing, the action and framing all feels really good? I think putting some more into the backgrounds would really help though. There's some panels where the characters are really well drawn but the background is sketchy (like the frozen in the past bit) and that feels kind of weird? The frozen Venus face was a good gag though.
I think the slug fight was a good way to clear up the misunderstanding between the two characters, it's much more interesting that them just talking it out. This is pretty minor but the "tasked by who?" dialogue was maybe a misstep? It feels like you're calling attention to a plot hole that would just be ignored otherwise and you probably shouldn't do that unless it's for a joke, or you're planning on having the anonymous quest giver be a thing later in the plot.
Don't take this as me telling you to not reuse characters if that's fun for you, but reusing characters in OCTs comes with some extra challenges to work around. You've got to be kind of careful with how you use your existing lore. Like, Scar showing up is kind of framed as a surprising thing? And people who are already familiar with your work already know all about her and expect her to show up at some point, so you lose a lot of surprise impact there. Meanwhile, new audience members don't know anything about her. I think to them Scar's appearance might feel kind of random and out of the blue?

What a fun comic! Your coloring style is both sleek *and* painterly which I think looks great with your line art and characters! Your comic has a great atmosphere throughout, from the cold arctic landscape to the bunker, it's all super well done! That panel with Venus coming out tits first is really great, it gave me a good chuckle. I'm not sure what to critique really, maybe try pushing your poses a bit more? Dutka does a lot of just standing there, but that's really just me looking for something to say.

I love the contrast of Kynsii's super serious demeanor and Venus's bombast. They seem like they'd be very disparate characters, but the way they play off each other is super fun. I also like getting to see more of Kynsii's community! Poor Dutka and his monitor. I also loved the ending, Venus rocking out in the cafeteria 24/7, she really is living her best life. Great work!

I could tell that this comic was made in a bit more of a hurry than last round, but you everything is still clear, fun, and kinetic! I love the way you rendered with the screen tones and spot blacks, it really helps make things a lot clearer! I think maybe it could have helped to have a bit more tone in the background, just since they were supposed to be in a place that lost power? Your action scenes are fun and dynamic, Venus's wiggly ghost body makes for some fun poses amid all the action!

Venus is such a fun character, boisterous and fun! I love how goofy she is, that ghost-cicle was a fun visual gag. I said it in my review for Cro too, but it's fun seeing these two interact, they're such different characters. You had a good set up with the misunderstanding and then the pest control! And like I said earlier your action is fun. It'll be interesting to see how Venus's daughter gets into the mix too! Good work all around, it was a fun read!

CRO- Your coloring has gotten buttery smooth, lemme tell ya. From the onset, from the bots to our first glimpse of Kynsii brandishing their weapon, I just find myself really chuffed by the leaps and bounds our artwork has taken since I last saw it.

If i had a note, it'd be to be more discerning with using your panels real estate by way of word bubbles. Best example I can think of is the second panel of page 2. You have this dialogue heavy panel in a warehouse with a high roof and a bunch of interesting elements on the ground floor of the space. Likely cool sci fi tech that'll help us get a first look at what kind of tech whiz Dutka is. Yet instead of utilizing the empty space of the roof, you decided to cover up all the interesting elements of the warehouse with your word bubbles.

And if I had another note- wow. The way you draw Venus is really good?? I'm accustomed to your handle on bots, creatures and generally male characters, but have noted that your female anatomy isn't as strong. I don't know where this glow up came from, but I am here for it. That dynamic angle on page 4 where she comes out of the screen? Very cool.

DRAKK- Too often with femme fatales or buxom beauties, there's a struggle to tell story, but also ensure they're still good looking. I like that when it comes to the gag, you aren't afraid to let your characters get 'ugly' for it. That frozen expression and payoff left me snorting.

It's interesting you're introducing other elements of your characters trio by intro-ing Scarlet, but I feel like for such a tight deadline and so few pages, the introduction of someone new may of kept you from forging more of a rapport with Kynsii or giving the pair of them opportunity to shine together. Also it seems rather non sequitur? If I was a new reader to your content without foreknowledge, Scarlet is just there for no rhyme or reason, chilling in artic gear behind magic door number one until Mom gives her the cue.