Oculama

Your take on the Death Game mascot continue to be the most abrasive and unnerving of the bunch. There's something so much worse about the absolutely hostile emcee that makes the death game setup feel very...real? Unpleasant in a believable way? Whatever it is, it's working.

(Visually, I loved the host's face on the barrel on page 5, it even gave the reflection of Sturka's face in the puddle an extra film of menace)

Great compositions all throughout here. The panel on page 6 with Sera desperately trying to wash the blood off while Sturka watches quietly from the doorway was esp striking on a second read-through. It's a more subtle detail, but I really dig the deep hues you're using on the walls - it's giving bloodstains, but the intensity adds to the sort of "losing grip on reality" that it feels like is happening to Sera over the rounds.

The absolute wreck Sera is becoming through being subjected to all this is one of the strongest parts of this comic, and the angle in your comics so far that I'm most drawn in by. Her reaction to the death game situation feels realer and rawer than most any other in this tournament; she's getting pushed to the brink and you're doing an absolute standout job of conveying that in her dialogue, her expressions, and how you fit her into the space of these panels.

The blue-shift once the attempted drowning starts was a GREAT idea. Serves as a visual cue not only to the shift in the action, but the shift in Sera's perspective on Sturka from uncertainty to hope to bleak betrayal. As with your round one, the visual bookends of Sturka's body really makes the ending hit, and gives the comic some serious re-read value.

Awesome stuff; you've got an undeniable knack for these Death Game comics, and it's been a treat so far!

After watching Sturka be so thoroughly creeped on and creeped out in the first round, it's really neat to see him in a situation where he feels so in control in the presence of the opponent OC. The visual departure from his bespectacled, clean-cut look is incredibly striking (and that's bearing in mind we also get a very clean-looking Sturka in glasses and turtleneck, yet looking absolutely cool as a cucumber, in the assassination flashback).

And despite feeling so in control of the situation, you show Sturka displaying a really convincing level of respect and sympathy for Sera that makes the reader almost forget the objective brutality that slitting her throat entails.

The exchange between Sera and Sturka, with all the small details like him picking up on her concussion, and commiserating over their shared link, and Sturka giving her comfort after her confession of remorse, was such a lovely touch - added real depth to the whole comic.

There's some incredibly powerful layouts here, both in-panel and for some of the overall panels. The hallway shot layout on page 2 is a terrific suspense builder; the lighting on the individual train interior shots on page 4 are absolutely gorgeous; the backlit Sturka on page 5 (and heck, 6) is somewhere right in between terrifying and glorious*; the father's screaming face sandwiched between his cruel tirade at Sera has so much awful energy I can practically hear him screaming in my head.

And of course, that final death shot, with blood trailing off the page, and Sera's bracelet fallen on it. Reallt striking stuff.

Very clean job here throughout, and a new side of Sturka that's letting him shine!

*The lighting genuinely is so good I could sink my teeth into it. BEAUTIFUL stuff, and really helps set the scene.

PS - one thought that nagged at me on the final read-through, but that I'm not totally sure of - was the one who killed Marybelle in r1 supposed to be Sturka himself? A bit of a random thought, but I couldn't help but wonder.

Ninja – I really love the way you color your comics. The painterly textures add so much depth and grit to the story’s atmosphere. Sera’s appearance after her recent ordeal was especially striking. It felt raw, real, and completely convincing. You really captured her vulnerability.

One thing that did feel a little abrupt was Sturka’s last-second decision to spare the kill. It might help to include a brief inner monologue or thought bubble to give readers a glimpse into what shifted in their mind at that moment. A little more insight there could elevate the emotional impact even further.

That said, this was a fantastic comic overall. I thoroughly enjoyed it—even while feeling genuinely bad for the characters!

Damn, Eric, I did not expect you to dive into a full-on backstory for these two, but I’m so glad you did. I absolutely loved it. Sturka being both a cold and caring assassin really amps up their charisma by a 1000%

I genuinely felt for Sera, her situation hit hard, and that final scene was absolutely heartbreaking. I especially appreciated the detail of Sturka covering her face at the end. It’s such a powerful, subtle touch, and the psychological weight behind it (guilt, maybe even denial) really stuck with me.

Your art is top-notch as always. Fantastic work!

Poor Sera can't catch a break. Another brutal comic with some great action and atmosphere. The sense of place in this comic was done really well, I'm a big fan of the ruined, overgrown building set piece. The story is a little convenient, Sturka effortlessly dispatches Sera, misjudges his timing, and then gets killed during a moment of distraction. It's definitely something I've seen done before, but it doesn't cross the threshold of being uninspired. In the future it would be nice to see Sera win by utilizing some of her own strengths (whatever they may be) rather than relying on pure dumb luck that the opponent will fuck up at the last minute.

On that note, the transition from page 9 to 10 is the only part that I find really iffy. The sense of time between the two pages isn't very clear and none of the answers are super satisfying. Sturka obviously held Sera's head under water until she stopped moving, and now he's daydreaming by a wall looking at her corpse, which is still standing on its own until it flops out of the basin for no real reason. I think it would have been stronger to just have Vera fall out of the sink as soon as Sturka stopped holding her in there and have her flop to the ground (seemingly) dead. We could have gotten a bit of a stronger demonstration on how good Sera is at acting like a drowned corpse while Sturka lazily checks to see if she's dead or something. All in all a really nice comic though.

This comic was utterly miserable, but that's clearly the intended reading experience so i gotta congratulate you on that. There's not really many other options available when you have to write a pretty unsympathetic professional assassin kill a defenseless teenage girl who can barely stop sobbing and pissing herself for 2 minutes, and then you threw in an abusive home life for good mix!

The art is still absolutely fantastic here, polished to a gleam. I noticed some clever reuse of illustrations here and there which I'll have to take note of myself if i make it any further. The quick aside that the entire death game is built around Sturka is quite a bombshell for how little attention it's given. Is this like, a normal thing that he runs into in his line of work? Someone clearly has an extreme bone to pick with him and near limitless power to abduct anyone remotely affiliated with his old jobs to put him through a game like this. Does this mean Marybelle was also connected to a previous hit of his? Neither of them seemed to recognize each other and the anonymous sniper who would also belong to that category chose to blow her head off instead of Sturka's. These are just minor nitpicks though, and truth be told this is right up there as one of the best comic runs in the tournament so far. Hoping to see more Sturka in the future.

Color choices are bangin', especially ESPECIALLY with the drowning segments near the end the swatch change between the intensity of the normal blown out colors and the more drowned out blues of the fight, my only wish and gripe personally is that, i personally dont like the mascot at all hahaha I think the overly crass and presence of the little mascot character took away from any comic it was apart of, i just didnt like when its a focus hahaha

thought the comic was pretty cool i liked the colors and the twist of both characters wanting to kill the same target at one point in their life, that was a cool addition to the game and having the comic centered on the inter-character dynamic felt good. This felt like a much better comic for it and the kill having actually been at Sturka's hand felt all the more satisfying. Keep that shit up!! definite step up in the writing and ending from the first one.

I like your psychedelic colors and the way they're used for mood, like the switch to blue during the drowning scene or red during the throat cut. And even when there's fewer details, the background and their props work well to orient the reader (like the pots and pans in the beginning). Committing to the grindhouse brutality of the murder-struggles is great.

The premise is simple and straightforward, which is fine, but I think linking into Sturka's last comic didn't actually work here. Rather than an implication that he patched himself up or something, it seems like he was rescued by the administration or something before turning up at this new location, which seems odd. The struggle in the bathroom works fine, but it was a bit unclear to me that Sturka had thought he'd killed her. The way he's on the ground in the next page and the way Sera falls back made me think I missed a panel of Sera knocking Sturka on his butt.

It's fun seeing a straight-up murder fest in this tourney in the classic Battle Royale sense.

The single color works so well for this and the slight change to blue helps break up the flashbacks really well. The art is all around fantastic as is the paneling and layouts. You use some clever tricks like reusing panels (for the flashback) and copying panels to change something minor like someone's head to get more bang for your buck and it works - it ain't cheap, it's smart. It helps the comic's pacing, too.

The writing was great all around. Recontextualizing the assassination later was a good move and led to a good, if weird, moment of bonding between the two. Sera may be a bit too naive, but she's also a kid with a concussion so it's nothing that causes any problems.

My only critiques are pretty minor quibbles. Bubbles with 3+ lines should usually have the first line be the smallest so the body of text is round and looks better in the bubble. You sometimes use too many qualifying words for your narration and the voice is passive because of it. It might've been good to show a panel of Sturka's hands shaking or some other physiological response given his phobia of/aversion to touching other people. These are all me scraping the bottom of the barrel and really minor.

Awesome comic!

I can't get enough of the acid palette you got going on for these rounds. It really lends itself to the grisly business that lies underneath as we get past your pretty amazing cover page. This is another great example of fellow contestants cherry picking from other opponents narratives and making it work for you in what you're trying to tell here. The creepy murder mouse compelling this guy to lay out a high schooler makes for great motivation. You had me with the conflict Sturka was feeling the moment he laid eyes on poor Sara and how busted up she was due to round one. You even had me sucking in a breath as he finally bites the bullet and dunks her head underwater. Where I stumbled and was left confused was why Sturka suddenly stopped and fell down. Did he faint? Is he tired? Why didn't he try again?
I wonder if you were trying to depict the guilt of the act at hand taking the wind out of his sails that he has to stop. Which if that was the case, I think closing in on his expressions or an exclamation of conflict would've driven that home more clearly. Though to be fair, with how dead to rights he had Sara, maybe this was constructed to give her an in, though the result feels kind of odd.
Outcomes aside, overall, you have been hitting these rounds ruthlessly with the amount of effort you've been putting in. Way to death game ;D

Sturka has seen better days. To go from his put together veneer to straight up soggy roughin it shambling into that train car is a nice visual means of showing disadvantage. Which again, feels like a nod to your opponents last round. Sara is no slouch- took a rock to the head and keeps on ticking. I DO love that instead of ramping up the violence (which I think Ninja really dominates) you took a more human approach to a pair of killers, and some semblance of mercy for all the grim business it ended up being. I think think this comic especially reminds us all, Sara Dippity is a highschooler. A girl dropped in a terrible situation IN Death Games and a terrible situation outside of it with what you cooked up regarding her family situation.
You're peeling the layers back for us to see why Sturka was plunked into this tournament. Color me intrigued on what new horrors we'll bring to light if you make it to the next round.

Thank you once again for fulfilling the blood quota on this fine death tournament. Your efforts are very much appreciated by me specifically. You got some good angles on this one keep up the good work on that. The atmosphere continues to be as uncomfortable as a place where you murder a bunch of people ought to be. As for crits your sound effects kind of fade into the background at points and I'm not entirely sure why. I think its mostly a color issue but the occasional placement behind the person (like the one on page six) rather than be in focus might have something to do with it as well. You did a good job making me have sympathy for Sera. I got a bad feeling she is not going to be okay mentally by the end of this ordeal.

Pretty dang good. I was a little concerned for your health after seeing how complete this was for just 8 days of drawing time, but after giving the comic a few read throughs I was able to notice the various ways you were able to streamline your drawing process to max efficiency. I feel like you must love drawing backgrounds because I was floored when I saw that full drawn study in the flashback that was some crazy level of detail. The only crit I can provide is that it felt like it could've been trimmed a little bit more but it's not like the current length was a problem. It's just something I noticed only because the rest of it was so tightly made. Overall great comic it got me to look at how I want to best utilize my own time and effort for future comics.

Fantastic detail of using Sturka's first round comic as a visual comeback for this one, that kind of attention to an opponent's comics does not go unnoticed. Your comics in this tournament have a phantasmagoric quality with the coloring and framing, very claustrophobic, very intense, it fits the fight-to-the-death. I am a bit confused, Sturka goes to drown Sera, and it cuts away and he's lying against the ground and she lives? I feel like that could've used a beat where Sturka was interrupted, its a bit odd that he didn't finish the job, but thats just my read.

Your clearly in this tournament to win, with the work you're putting in on these rounds - stellar art, great details, the values are on point, and you've got some sexy splash pages and a meaty page count. The story here builds Sturka's arc well, it's a bit over-the-top content wise, but that is fitting with the sorta pulp vibes you're working with so far. I guess so far, Sturka's two opponents have been written to be pretty hapless, it would be nice for him to be challenged in the next round.