Oculama

I love the overall conceit of this comic; the sly gravity with which Driftwood suggests the sea-scheme makes for a terrific mini-cliffhanger at the halfway point, and ending the comic on the claw-thrust has an interesting feel to it that I quite dig. One issue that is less with the comic and more with how the oculama comic viewer works is that some of the impact of the last two pages is lost when the viewer has to scroll down through to see some of the more dramatic pages in full, and viewing them piecemeal doesn't always communicate the "wow" factor they might otherwise have.

As ever, your art is like a dream; landscapes that look unique even among the rich diversity of art styles and OCT showcases. The storytelling here starts out strong, but I feel like I am unable to really track the events of the story past the halfway point. For one, Driftwood seems to disappear from the narrative quite abruptly, which is not inherently negative, but in the way it's done makes me think they were forgotten entirely. For another, I don't fully understand the beat-by-beat action going on at the end; the fight against the bugs on the boat(?), and I definitely am not sure what Bug Killer is doing in the final page, or why. That said, I think the actual art on the pages remains terrific, and I love how you stylized both the bugs and bug killer.

This is visually your most consistent and striking comic yet. The blood-red, sunken city environment is very creepy and cool, very ominous. Full flat colors for the characters definitely looks better than the paper-cutout style of your last round, and on panels when you dropped the background, the more stylistic coloring looks good. Although there were more CG backgrounds in your last comic, things look better here despite there being less, it definitely shows that you're getting better at this style and at budgeting your art labor. Story wise, i found it a bit hard to follow, but not too terribly. I really enjoy the final panel on page 4.

It's cool to finally see the bugs in action, they definitely feel like a formidable force. Driftwood and Bug Killer's personalities really shine here, that Amelia Earhart line came out of nowhere and gave me a laugh. The final page looks like it got the least love, which is a shame because that was the one that needed the most for it to really pop. If you could have sapped some of the work from the other pages, and put it towards that, the comic would've ended with more a punch, but that's the kind of thing that's easier to say in hindsight.

Vitic - I LOVE your beautiful and bold colors. Your polygonal backgrounds is where you truly shine and I adore them to bits. It's kind of a double edged sword though as the quality of your figures/characters seem to suffer as a result. Though the way you drew them in the first page wasn't bad at all so I am thinking this might be a time constraint issue overall. Still, I think a bit of TLC with your characters would give your comics a more cohesive look IMO. This is also a great continuation from Bug Killer's last round and I kinda feel for Driftwood randomly entangling themselves with such a vast array of characters. Quite impressive that they remained so sweet and seemingly innocent all this time and always willing to help! I honestly can't wait for the day when they encounter someone truly nefarious. I am so curious about how Driftwood is going to handle that kind of situation.

Myeth - Oh wow, it's so good to see Bug Killer without her costume. She looks just as cool and it's actually nice to see her facial expressions which you did really well. This one's a little shorter than your previous rounds but you still managed to give us such a great encounter between Bug Killer and Driftwood. I am very invested in Bug Killer's story now as well and I really really can't wait to see more of her journey. Driftwood's characterization is just as good! Nice play on their contrasting personalities and make that work with the overall narrative. I am glad Bug Killer is safe (for now) and I hope she makes a new friend with Driftwood! She seems to really need it.

I really like your first page with the more fully rendered characters! Good use of color to make them fit into the 3d background more. The less fully colored art is a bit harder to read/understand but I think it looks kinda cool? Overall there's a lot of elements I like, but they don't really blend together in some places because your style jumps around a lot. Also I think you accidentally left the guidelines on the second page? But overall I thought it was artistically interesting and it's nice to see you experimenting. Your speech bubbles are really nice as well. One thing I would like to see you do more is try different camera angles with your characters.
Storywise I like how you give so much attention to your opponent! You've got a solid beginning, middle and end. I was kind of confused on one or two things, however. I wasn't sure why Bug Killer needed the talisman, or what they were doing with it at the end? Good efficient dialogue, fun interactions between the two, BIG EXPLOSION YEAH

"ain't that th' cunt that ate amelia earhart" is the funniest line in the tournament holy fuck
Absolutely beautiful art all around! You have a talent for using limited color palettes and simple backgrounds and making them sparkle with expert use of textures. I thought the action was a little hard to follow on page 3 with the ship, it took me a little while to figure out it was 1 ship portrayed with creative paneling. Also some of your panels have half erased lines and it is a little distracting in some places, especially on the first page. The sense of scale with the giant crab is really well done. Crab punch is a super funny ending and looks great. The talk between Driftwood and Bug Killer is really satisfying too.

VITIC-
I think what you experimented here was really fun. Your backgrounds and colors took a nod from your opponent and went really acid. Sharp ominous reds and sickly greens. It's neat that you can vary your style from the warm tones I'm used to you using. To say noting of what you modeled. The sunken city I think marries Driftwood and Bug Killers thematic styles in a clever way.

While I will always laud someone for going the extra mile for environments and backgrounds, I feel your characters and action suffered for it. This definitely feels like the deadline was a factor as it got more rudimentary as the pages progressed. I will say if all of your pages held the same character quality and TLC as your page one, this would've been really stellar. That's the thrill and bane of working on a deadline, isnt it?

Still all in all great showing. It's such a treat to see what you come up with for this tournament.

MYETH-
I had no idea how Driftwood was going to be interpreted in your style, but utter cherub was not what I expected. That page one angel face left me like =0

I love that this was simply just a passing encounter. Utterly coincidental. Felt organic and didn't overstay its welcome as we join these two while Killer hunkers down to hide out.

The little details, the 'read too fast and you'll miss it' bits of your comic leave me smiling. Like the reflection of the mousquito lackeys in the eyballs of the giant crab? you didn't have to add that there, likely not many noticed it the first read through, but its those TLC 'I love making comics' moments that I super dig seeing in tournaments. Great job.

BUG LORE BUG LORE

GIANT ENEMY CRAB!

Not a lot goes on here, but I'm hoping bug killer made a friend in the continuing adventures of them running away from the bug queen. Maybe she's finally got a moment to catch her breath (ha...)

Aesthetically this is fine work as always; the colours and stylization are really pretty!

I did have a little trouble with the dialogue and where it was coming from, particularly on the bottom of page 2. That's mostly where any of my issues come from though.

Overall, this was a nice little vignette in the advancing story of Bug Killer's escape from the bug queen and I am curious as to how it might end up!

Bug shave a family....

This gets a bit abstract as it goes through and I've kinda lost the plot.

I think it's got a cool setup; I love the lore surrounding bug killer that's being played with here, but I'm a little confused as to what's being done in that world of it's barren of anything of value and abandoned. Where are these other bugs coming from to kill if that's the case? I admit, while the setup is intriguing I do not actually understand what's going on beyond it.

Aesthetically this is pretty, even if it becomes rather difficult to follow.

Overall, I find it a bit of a shame that I struggled to understand it cause I liked where it was going at first!

Oooh Vitic the color palette of this one looks great! I like the contrast of the environment's red to BK's bright green. It did make it a little confusing in the first panel of page 3, where Driftwood's boat looks more green, I wasn't sure it was in the same place at first. You did a good job of expressing BK's cranky badass personality, and I'm glad Driftwood made sure any innocents were safe, they're so precious. I liked the rip and tear reference with BK, but it wasn't immediately clear she was on top of the train, maybe showing her sneak along top of it could have been cool to see!

I still think it's rad how well you integrate the 3d backgrounds with your 2d art, but I do think it could be nice to add in some more personality or detail into them? Before it's been mostly just seascapes so it wasn't as noticible, and I do love the added touches with the train car and the sunken buildings, but I wonder if maybe you could go in and add some hand drawn touches to marry the two a bit more? Signs or some dudes hanging out in the distance or something so it seems more full of life. Or maybe killer sea vultures or bugs or something since this place isn't supposed to be full of life I just realized XD It seems you ran out of time working on this one though (and I have no clue how long it takes making 3d assets, you're braver than i), so those are just some thoughts for the future!

I do love your style and I'm excited to see how you develop it in more comics, Driftwood is such a cutie ♥

First off, I love your Driftwood! They're so cuuuute! And BK makes a hilarious entrance, I love her attitude, it's just great. Your paneling and dynamic compositions make me SO jealous, they're slick and cool but still easy to read, you're great at making your pages flow nicely. I especially love the transitions on page 3, I feel like I should be more confused with how they overlap, but it all worked great. I also love that the boat was named the Mayfly, it really tickled me. I think maybe my only gripe would be that I wish we got *more* giant crab, but that was a solid and funny ending as is! Great work, especially knowing you were doing another OCT while drawing this, wowowow ♥

The first thing I can say for this one is I really enjoyed the pacing. You started strong in medias res with your characters quickly establishing their goals and motivations. I will say it seems like the 2D part of your entry suffers a little bit from lack of detail around the last couple pages but you used the coloured lines to really stylize the panels in a way that gives them a a great feeling of intentionality. The 3D is once again an absolute highlight and you consistently do a great job with the water textures across all your comics!

Short and too the point in a really clever way! The way you establish the conclusion to your comic (crab), the dynamic between the two characters (I wanna help dialogue) and the situation all within so few panels really boggles my mind. The only thing I think it's really missing would be maybe a short conclusion with the characters but I understand you were under a bit of a time crunch with multiple deadlines. Additionally, the colours are amazing as usual with BK coming off as this green foreign element as opposed to Driftwood smoothly fitting into the environment of their world.

Wow I think this is a really nice comic and an improvement over what you submitted in the last round. You have a pretty cool and unique style there including your use of the 3D backgrounds! They work well in setting up the atomsphere of the comic. It seems though that we don't see much of Driftwood after page 3 or so. It's mostly ust Bug Killer doing her thing so it would've been nice to see what Driftwood is doing or feeling along side the other character. But still it is a solid comic and you did a goodjob on it!

Wow Myeth your style is so lovely and I really like the sketchy and lose quality of it that is still clear and coherent. The little crab is so cute even when he emerges from the water and delivers that awesome blow to the ship. But I would have liked to see a bit more interactions between the two main characters here. They're only present in two of the four pages and then it shifts to the bug guys. Maybe an extra page would have helped here. I think I read you were dropping out which is a shame but if you do any more comics I would love to read them!

I really like your color sense in your comics, and you do an overall nice job placing your 2d characters with your 3D backgrounds, and I like the hatching technique that you do. The Biggest thing of note I can think of, is example, page 4. I think lowering the value or saturation in your background would have helped make the characters in the foreground pop more, and help with clarity, it gets a little chaotic and I felt like I missed a few details on the first read through due to elements (such as the 12345 in panel two) blending in with each other. Otherwise a real solid job!

I really enjoy your color sense and how you use texture in your comics, and they really add to the shimmery, underwater cave feeling. You did a really good job showing off that environment. Im also a big fan of your text, Is that a font that you created your self? It has a really nice Hand done feel that compliments your line work well. Overall I feel this a very solid entry and I enjoyed the ending quite a bit.
The only thing of note is the ship set up on page 3, took me a moment to kind orient and figure out was going on, perhaps flipping their positions and making the deck scene a little smaller so the first establishing ship scene reads first. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future!

I've really enjoyed the 3D graphic backgrounds you've played with for this tournament so far. They're kind of a fun star of the show. I don't think they'd nearly hold as much charm for me if they didn't have the low-poly aesthetic which compliments your work quite nicely. It's a shame that you weren't able to finish this entirely but even then I liked this story and the content within was a lot more exciting then previous rounds which were a little more humorous in a slice of life way mostly. That being said, I'm excited to see more of Driftwood. She's growing on me! Good work!

This limited color scheme turned out really nice! The story gives a nice additional layer to BUG KILLER's personality and I like seeing her enemies talking about her. It really helps put into context what she means to them as well, showing she's not a freak incident but an actual concern for them. A very nice elaboration on her plot. The simpler art style for this fight makes for a nice time saving measure. I think the story was concluded a little too quickly but the build-up to it was very nice. The character interaction here was really solid. Great work!