Oculama

My first thoughts on finishing this comic were "wow, I could watch these two crash-land their way through the galaxy forever and not get tired of it." Acknowledging that we're only in the second round of this comic, I am impressed by how you two are keeping the bit of these siblings inflicting violence on everyone they collide their ship with fresh and fun.

The character of the Gentleman, minor though he was, made a pleasantly surprising splash. The contrast between his agreeable politeness to Mietta and Corb. The colder politeness to the twins, while he still had his maid and bodyguard between them and himself, and his final, screaming demand for obedience when they failed, all served to help him stand out despite being more or less a bystander and casualty (albeit a plot-driving one) in this comic.

You also did a tidy job getting across the mildly belligerent work relationship between Mietta and Corb. Setting them up as co-workers was an inspired move, and the light-hearted tension it led to in the opening pages makes a nice contrast with the sudden, steep rise in stakes that the twin's arrival initiates.

If I can criticize anything in this comic, it's that Orth and South's dominance in the fight does not feel especially earned insofar as the comic explores the respective strengths/ weaknesses of the characters involved. They sort of arbitrarily succeed (grabbing the gentleman, ripping Corb and Mietta apart) and fail (South getting riddled) just to make story beats happen, and the consequence of which is that it feels like Corb and Mietta were dead the second the twins stepped onto the yacht, which robs the comic of extra potential dimensionality.

As someone with two sisters, I deeply enjoy the dynamic you've been cultivating between Orth and South. Having someone who, whether you actually like them at any given moment, you would bend over backwards to look out for. It feels very genuine and real as you've written it, for which I've gotta give you big kudos. (Of note, I legit almost teared up at the "don't kill me" line - excellently executed, between the POV angles you chose for that page, and the way that Orth approaches healing South with the same viciousness that the two of them fight with.

Which segues into another strength of this comic: the harsh but still pleasantly layered interplay of hideous violence and beautiful affection. The violent, unsoft affection between Orth and South, the arms-length affection between Mietta and Corb that simply cannot pull closer in those last few moments of life...both beautiful, and a bit sad in their own way.

(LOVE also how harsh the title of the comic hits once we see the manner in which Corb and Mietta die. It's playful, it's cruel, but it's unarguably impactful)

Tremendous bit of violence and heart in equal measures. I had a blast with this one from start to finish.

Y'all are still KILLING it with the scenery. The seedy bar-brawl makes great use of the space, and the objects in the bar add dimension to the fight and set up some effective foreshadowing for Corb's final cut. The desert setting is if anything, even better used, emphasizing the loneliness and frustration Corb feels in her conversation with Mietta, and the helpless hostility of being chased (and found) by Orth and South.

Corb gets some truly fantastic angles on the back end of this comic. Brandishing the pipe at the twins on the bottom of page 18? Badass. (I appreciate how much the pipe smoking from the slash looks like the barrel of a gun). The sequence of Corb pulling a sword out of Mietta while holding her like they're posing for Pieta, then leading into that splash of the twins getting bisected? Absolutely tremendous.

A lot of great emotional beats in this comic. They feel largely bogarted by Corb and, to a lesser degree, Mietta, but the twins get enough focus that I don't overly mind, and the beats Corb gets are so substantial the comic never feels lacking in pathos. After seeing her so relatively happy-go-lucky in the first round, this was a great somber bit of depth for her, without fully taking away that cocky, devil-may-care cowboy attitude.

One bit that wasn't exactly clear to me is *why* Orth and South were so desperate to kill Corb. at the beginning it just seems like they're scrapping with her on a lark, but then towards the end of page, South's line makes it feel like their is some larger objective to them needing to kill Corb. Backtracking a bit to the beginning of the comic, it did also seem like Orth and South make a shift from enjoying Corb's company to dripping absolute disdain for her. I don't mind the shift in theory - it feels very fitting for bully-type characters to shift from enjoying their victim to tormenting - but the comic might have been served by hinting at a bit of that disdain in the first few pages of interaction, where they all seem quite chummy. I'm honestly a bit undecided on it, as the way you've currently written the comic arguably makes a very pointed comment on the fluid and deceptive contrast between interaction and the history thereunder, so take all that with a bit of salt.

I expect most reviews will gush about this but the kiss at the end is SO. CUTE. Corb's teasing, their more serious conversation right before the end of the fight, and Mietta's growing embarrassment set the table very nicely. And putting the cowboy hat (in) front and center? A wonderful garnish.

Another knockout chapter for cowpokes and robots alike. LOVED reading this.

PD - And of course, as always, the 4-panels at the end continue to delight; Corb's mount is my personal vote for dark horse of the tournament.

I try not to get too effusive, but that's not exactly an easy task here. Horo and jg have churned out another absolute banger; the spot blacks are on point from everything to backgrounds to the genuinely haunting shot of Dox and Paw's silhouettes, the characterization of all parties is excellent, and the last two pages of the fight are going to stick with me for a while. On top of that, the ratio of humor and drama is as finely balanced as always, with just the right dollop of homo.

As for cons...well, Southpaw did aim that rocket launcher with an empty eye socket, but I can give that a pass.

You know, it's nice when a comic this good shows up. It means I won't have to think too hard about who should win, since it'll clearly be far superior to its opponent. Now to take a big sip of water and read the other comic.

...shit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: nobody does violence quite like Mick and Molo. Choreography, framing, impact, sheer gore; when it comes to characters giving other characters the worst days of their lives, these two are the ones to beat. The art here is terrific, readable and gritty and full of iconic moments like the Mietta choosing Corb over her employer and combination side-splitter.

That holds true here, and like the first comic, it's almost effortlessly funny. Corb's flawless Spantalian, the boxing glove, Dox freaking out after seeing her tail, and the final chomp all land perfectly.

Frankly, the only weakness here is their opponent. Deep Cut just has that little extra inch of characterization, depth, and stunning imagery. Someone had to lose here, and while it's a kick in the BAWLZ as a longstanding lover of gratuitous violence and catgirls, Going Halfsies comes up just barely short.

Fave comic of the round, easily. You guys did great! Every time i reread it (which i have... a fair few times now) i notice extra little details, like the spiderweb, or the twins insane speech balloon tails, or the front and center carabiner in That One Panel i am looking directly at you jg

The panelling in this is just stunning. Extra shoutout to some of the outside shots- both of you make it look so easy and im mad about it. the sound effects too- mietta's guns on page 16? what the fuck. The story is also as always solid and compact- really nice arc going on between the girls.

Possible improvements: the pages are large and there isn't a huge amount of line hierachy going on, so it can be a bit hard to read either with having to scroll a ton or zoom out. Lil more lineweight finagling or some shading would clear that up completely though, i think. There were also a couple lines that could have read as much more toxic yuri (i believe in the power of making everyone Worse) and a couple kinda unclear panels, but it doesn't effect the readability too much- overall just a really, really solid entry for you guys.

Now, i don't know exactly what to say here- this comic is good (of course- you're both amazing artists and writers on your own, let alone together) and you can blow most people out of the water on an off day. Which i get the sense that this was! Something came up, so i don't want to crit too hard.

the good: colour scheme is fab and love how it adds depth to the panels fairly easily. the expressions are great here too- every single panel of the twins is so emotive, and a special shoutout to the devestating "mornin' sunshine" expression from corb. The dynamic between the twins also continues to be incredibly funny; love those little fuckers!

the to be improved: some of the panel direction was a bit unclear (the tail cutting scene in particular goes in a couple different directions which made it a little hard to follow for me) and just a tooooouch more backgrounds to get some sense of space in the fight scenes would have been great. more of the bosses deal and where he ended up at the end would have been great too, but you know. deadline crunch gets us all.

I really enjoyed what ya’ll did this round!! I’ve really enjoyed these two’s dynamic and I think you guys made a really compelling comic! I was engaged the whole time.

I thought the paneling layout’s were really good and made reading and following a long really easy.

The action and fight scenes were really well done! The flow was good!

The only thing that comes to mind is a few panels that have action/Motion/speed lines could have a bit more clarity, as they took me a moment to realize exactly what was happening, but beyond that I feel like anything I have to offer critique wise is pretty nit picky. I really enjoyed what you guys did and you made my heart swoon.

I’ve got a new oculama ship!

Thank you both so much for the comic, I had a lovely time reading it.

Ya’ll make a fun a team! This was a nice comic!

I particularly liked the use of color you guys did this round, to help set mood in the last half. The action sequences were very fun and I liked the layouts. (I was particularly fond of how you guys did the slash in half on page 8! That looked good!) It was real dynamic!

The dialogue between southpaw and orthodox is pretty great, they are a fun pair!

Admittedly, the story this round didn’t feel as inspired or as strong as your first one. It had some pretty strong moments! I liked the tenderness ya’ll gave to your opponents in their death scene was very nice, but the ending felt a little flat or rushed to wrap up.

But I still enjoyed it and I really like seeing work from ya’ll! You guys are a fun team. Thank you so much for the comic!!

I'm astounded that you afforded so much space and time to not only let us follow your characters and expand upon them with their current conflict, but also give some limelight to your opponents, inspiring a backstory and means as to why this quartet knows one another (and even take credit for their facial scars!). Its a nice nod to how much you seem to love this format and want to formulate a fully realized world and story. Also as an ancient Revolutionary Girl Utena fan, I lost it at the build up to this futuristic electronic chest sword reveal. What a climactic final blow to such a breakneck fight! Truly fantastic work

The utter acid color palate for your cover pages fills me with so much joy. There is a Lisa Frank 90's cartoon psychotropic vibe to your comics that makes me wish the entire comic was afforded the time to see full color because it would no doubt be WILD. Also your action scenes do not disappoint. I love the progression of movement action panels on page 9 and Corb telling anyone to 'go on and git' is cowboycore as heck. XD
While I came for the hijinks and violence, I stayed for the unexpected romantic sentiment. A maid bucking her protocol to save her cowboy was not only touching, but pieces of Mietta and Corb professing their true feels to one another before the lights went out left me with an achey breaky heart. I'm so glad your knuckleheads were there to stave off the pain with one last petulant chomp to the hand.

Once again another certified banger from you guys!!!! SO much going on here that I wanna pick apart, really punchy work

I liked how wild the setting was and the premise was really fun (horse)-- it's been fascinating rereading with reviewing in mind, and seeing how well-worked over the pages are-- a standout one for me is 11, its really strong for me. Each panel feels really balanced throughout the whole thing, and there are some real stunners. I love the twins energy and the economical way you brought things to ahead (also the colour shift in the second half is super good at hard-shifting that tone/energy from the fight scene. inspired).

The two things I can think of regarding crit would be the initial setup (I love it!! Its great and funny, and I'd love it to be realised a tiny bit more, even just to understand the space they're in a bit better) and the flow of action in some places (the action itself fucks supremely, like as per usual its caving my skull in with how cool and real it feels-- I think it's a consequence of not understanding where the fighters are placed in the environment that makes it slightly harder to follow in places).

fr though, incredible work, really strong and bold and funny!! yeeaaahhhhhhhh KILL!!

im hollrin. im hootin. really good shit!!

Enjoyable, contained, clear and stylish. The whole thing feels really cohesive and the story is delivered very economically. I loved seeing more of the girls relationship, and seeing corb all beat up and heroic. I LOVED your panelling decisions throughout. Your action slaps my nuts off my body and into space. Idk what to say!!!!!! im yellin

Critting this comes from several close rereads -- I kept noticing really good details that felt like they were perhaps intended to have more narrative weight put on them that maybe had to be condensed for time or to highlight other parts of the plot (referring to the spiders and the fly escaping the web at the start, or mietta hooking herself up to the twins' transport as a power source like an EVA plug). I'd really have liked to see these things given a bit more space/highlighted because theyre good bits, and feel like they're worthy of more attention within the story.

fr tho You guys seriously smashed it, you should be really proud.

Ah the set design on this is so good, the world feels like a stage in a way that's heightened rather than artificial. The whole world revolves around what's going on right now, and you believe every bit of it. It's only possible with excellent character acting and well paced dialog, and this has it in spades. Absolutely fantastic, both the complicated emotional journey of your own characters but efficiently putting a ton of work into your opponents with every little bit of information. The sound effects are a special little touch, so many of them are visceral and affect the reading way more than expected.

Oh, this comic gets to the point right away, it's great. It spends its setup entirely on your opponents and why to care about them, with the absurdity of the situation playing itself out matter of factly. It's indulgent and weird without ever feeling silly or pointless, and manages to pack in a high amount of interesting characterization for the twins while still keeping them so manic. A lot of this is done with the color work, always keeping the tone and staging very tightly controlled. Little actions too really mean a lot here, and the focus on them is a strong choice.

You two continue to put out straight banger comics of super high quality and show no signs of slowing down! Of the jump you did a great job weaving your opponents into a situation that’s wholly believable and organic to how I imagine these 4 would now each other. I loved the rematch aspect of the twins vs corb and the amazing homage to utena got me right in the nostalgia that I smiled so hard at that panel. But you also gave great spotlight to ur opponents ability to both be crazy chaos agents but battle masters when they work together! I think the only critique I have is Mrs B didn’t get as much usage but that’s nothing to take point is off of since she was more the focus last comic( I just really love robo maids lol) absolutely can’t wait for the next round

Savage and chaotic as always from your murder twins that I have grown so much t love! I honestly can say. This march up is heart wrenching because you all did such an amazing job. You did great with corb and mrs B and the fight scene is great but I think it ended a little bit too soon for the lead up. But. Ever the less I do love that you showed the twins really do care about each other under all that bickering and even got to see that cool ass tag team attack! Looking forward to how u guys finish off the crazy ride with these teo

Oh My GODS!

This started out a little iffy for me with the in media res bar scene and some of the panels felt a little off (specifically page 4 those first two. It stood out to me as odd and a little confusing with the angle turn. They blend a little together in a weird way.

But then it ramped up and kept going and there are so many scenes I wanna point out! The art is a cool and mostly clear though sometimes some action gets a little too sketchy and can be hard to follow for me but otherwise its beautiful and rough just like the characters!

You stole my heart with the utena reference and stole my eyes with the killing blow. A beautiful romance story aaaaah!

I think if I had one issue with the story it would be that It needs more build up. But this is an OCT environment with only so many rounds and for how good it is with what's being worked with it's hardly a criticism.

I gotta preface this with saying that I think the story is a little bare bones and I think this stands out more because I have to compare it to your opponent's work. There's a bounty, its being collected. But it isn't being used as a framing device for a story, it just is the story.

That said, there is some excellent work using the conflict to give some insight into the character's emotions as we have our two catfolk's near death experience alongside the deaths of our lovely cowboy maid duo. Its touching and sad for the dead and gives growth to the living. The art is also quite pretty. The colour work does a great job of setting the mood and there are some fun action sequences to go with them.

Overall, it's an alright comic but doesn't do anything particularly extravagant. It's solid and functional.

Standout moment; the hard cut to the error screen as the two lay dying long after the fight is over.

well goodness gracious mee o' opponents of mine, what a fuck fest, 26 pages!??! are you INSANE?? Well if the arcs aint here then i dont know what is i dunno how you two manage to wrap up 4 characters so deliciously this already feels like the end of the tournament, i dont even know what the fuck is going on anymore what do i say.

Framing on point, characters are as delicious as ever, the lines are yolo and the writing is pretty swag, this is a chunk of comic that feels like twice the length in half the space, it flows and it fucking rips.

good lord the boot scootin is fucking INSANE in this one this is a hard match to fucking vote on, the kind of fray that makes everyone just a bit more on edge, i enjoyed so much about so so many different things in the comic, this lovely color usage and action scenes with panel splits i fucking LOVE love love.

These two are the fucking death tournament, they embody its vibe so well im not confidence in saying theres many teams that could fit the spirit of a death tourney as well as these two, and seeing the little bits of care they do have for each other splits me sideways

ooough, we got grudge backstories, we have character growth and a rematch spectacle on top. I had to think about if the backstory of the twins made sense given their artificial origins but i think it works.

as for the character growth i was expecting something like Corb learning to do those slices with her bare hands by believing in herself hard enough as soon as the sword stopped working but being passed random junk by your partner followed by a sword made from her "heart" is even better. Then there's Mietta opening up briefly in one of the last pages.

The panel compositions seems pretty darn masterful to me. A personal shoutout from me would be the top row on page 14 shows how time was slowly spent and suddenly picking up in speed with just 5 little panels.

If there's one thing i could wish for here is slightly more color. I was only expecting colorless so it didn't occur to me that page 23 had some orange in it on the first read.

Lets get this out of the way first: Love the horse panel.

A story about a good natured mistake colliding with selfish sibling rivals? Nothing fancy but i'm here for it. I've noticed the coloring matches the mood rather well.
The gigantic space vessel is a pretty looking set piece but i wish it was used more in the fight instead of primarily being a host to a fight on mostly flat ground with some debris laying around.

I think page 10 does a good job of showing they prioritize their respective partners first before actually finishing off their opponents which i consider to be one of the cornerstones of this comic.