Oculama

This was quite entertaining! Never doubt yourself for working really hard on anything, because that Fairy page was really nice looking! You managed to pull this together very nicely despite your scheduling working against you. Your simplified shapes in the lines here, especially Music's hair, makes everything look really good. Your colors turned out super solid here. I would say next time, save yourself the hand strain and just type and manipulate text for signage and everything else. The story was surprisingly funny, the idea of an evil organization just not accounting for someone remaining passed out and missing the whole point is a funny idea. I don't know whether you plan to continue it each round and have everyone die incidentally, but it's a great idea. Great work!

Shen, you've delivered an impressive first entry! The setup and premise hooked me right away. Seeing a full-color comic from you is a treat, and the hallucination sequences were striking and beautifully done.

I’m a huge fan of how Music’s dumb luck might just be her saving grace—it’s a clever twist. The way you’ve written her as completely oblivious to the (deadly) danger she’s in adds such an intriguing layer to the story. Looking forward to seeing what you do for Round 2. I can't wait to see where this goes!

Haha, this is some Looney tunes caliber premise and I love it. PLEASE have Music prance through this death games tourney not knowing she's in one. XD I never thought of a staggering lack of self awareness being a compelling plot point for a tourney of this caliber, but it totally works. It's made Music instantly endearing and successful by way of dispatching your opponent. Poor Scuffy, seems it was a bad trip afterall- literally and figuratively! Now I'm wondering if that play on words/event was intentional on your part?
I also really enjoyed the portrayal of Scuffy tripping absolute balls. The flowery motif and 'fairy vision' difference in style was really captivating. Your acid/Lisa Frank palette is doing wonders for this story. I'm curious if you'll keep it up next round or try for something different. In any case, looking forward to more Music!

Framing this as a bad trip gone wrong is absolutely lovely, the death was one that i could only imagine befitting a character like Scuffy. You incorporate both of their deals and it feels great, this is a satisfying ass comic!! Music getting by in this fucked up scenario by being a pretty girl in the right place at the right time is wonderfully ironic and actually fits with the scenario at hand, btw i adored the flowery pretty abstract representations of the trip and hoe Scruffy sees her! I WANNA FEEL THE MUSIC !!!

OOF - this is far and away the comic this round that made me feel the sorriest for the OCs involved, both for what happens and is implied to have happened to them. That there's absolutely no hostility between the two, or indeed in the comic at all, save for on the part of who put them here, somehow makes the death hit even harsher.

You hit the nail on the head with the inherent tragedy of a character like Scuffy - there's no ill will in the fella, and his taking the drugs that lead to his death is in itself an understandable stress/ fear response to the situation he finds himself in. Absolute kudos to you for the sequence of his trip from the halfway point of page three to the halfway point of page 5 - you really just want to give the poor dude a reassuring hug, and even as he gets up to fall to his death you do a masterful job capturing the desperate hope on his face that came from seeing Music, and the fear that she - the only bright point of his whole fucked-up situation, might leave him behind.

(The actual illustrations in the trip sequence are beautiful as well, and aside from being lovely to look at feel like a nice thing for Scuffy to see in his final moments).

Music, for her part, is well written here as the classic sort of "oh, honey" character you can't help but worry about. From the horrifically casual mention of having been drugged "again," to her desire to help Scuffy out, the reader can't help but feel these are the two characters who least deserve to be stuck in something as inherently cruel and brutal as a death game.

It's a good setup though, at the end of the day, and the tragically pointless/ avoidable death is a tried and true staple of the death games genre (I think first and foremost of Red Raven's death in Avenger's Academy). A win is a win in these sorts of things, even a win that the winner is equal parts comically and tragically unaware of.

Great stuff, and looking forward to seeing what's ahead for Music!

Music, Honey, Noooooooooooo! Girl, what are you doing?! Get it together, Please!

Ha! What a derpy character! I love her so much! This comic was short and sweet. The writing captured both characters despite the short length of the comic, but the true highlight was the art and your stunning use of colors. Perfect for a comic where one of the characters is high off of shrooms! All in all, this was a solid reading experience!

Always fun to see a comic from you Shen!

Music is such a delightful character, and a really fun one to see in this tourney concept.What an adorable ditz. I also really enjoyed the Fairy panel, that was nicely rendered and very fun.
Solid set up for the comic! Nice interaction between the characters.

The death and ending for the comic felt a little anti-climactic and felt like it could have used one more page with how it was laid out.
Otherwise, very nice start and I am looking forward to see what you do next in the tourney!

I'm impressed at the story you were able to tell in just 5 pages it makes me kind of jealous lol. From the pacing to the dialogue not a moment was wasted and the comic flows really well because of it. While things worked out for you in this round I do think you'll need to step up your game just a little more if you want to keep Music alive. I really am curious just how long Music is going to remain ignorant of her situation it'll be quite the rude awakening if she ever gets a clue!

Unfortunate to see that you didn't get a comic this round, but at least I'm happy to know that we'll definitely be seeing more of Music in the future. This is an excellent comic in terms of art, writing, pacing, the whole works. You deserve big congrats. The style shift between Scruffy's drug-addled hallucinations and the real world was really nice and the disturbing "i guess a bought a necklace!" joke took me out. Perfect delivery.

Lovely to see from you as always! I think the backgrounds could have used a little more TLC (i.e. some of the doors and walls are free-handed while others are not so they stick out a bit more), but they do get the job done of conveying the environment well. I really enjoyed the panels where Scuffy was tripping out, especially the Fairy Music one. Can’t wait to see more from you in this tourney!

Very fun comic! Her pulling a Mr. Magoo through her first round is entertaining and could be a great gimmick for the rest of the tourney, but it also gives you room to change it up later. I also really like the colors on this and the slight texture helps with how saturated they are.

I only have a handful of smaller critiques for this:
- The panel gutters could be a bit more consistent to help with flow. If you want to widen any of them, widening them between rows would be good.
- The swapping between free-handed backgrounds and ones using line or ruler tools was a little distracting.
- For the flashback to her taking a shady deal in an alley, I'd recommend airbrushing some black or something behind the flashback panels to make it distinct from the other panels and visually clear it's a flashback.