Oculama

Hoo boy! You continue to impress. Cassidy losing every game since her first two is a great set up to continue her underdog desperation, and setting up Maggie as a similar underdog champ was a good choice.
There was no betrayal this time, but it stung just as much to see Maggie have died off screen.
And leaving the final game as a cliffhanger was something else.
Their cooperation and their showing off each other's strengths made for a strangely wholesome section amid the chaos and death.

This was a tough one to vote on!
You both put out pretty good rounds, and there's more in common with them then I would have assumed. You both went a slightly more comedic route then previous rounds, you both had the two forge a partnership, and you both had it fall apart at the last moment. (That can be expected of a game with only one winner, though.)
Also, Marybelle cameo!
Having them both press fail was a gut wrenching twist. And the addition of more surrealist elements, like the clown slide, made the whole thing feel even more off balance.

Your comics for this tournament feel like they are getting better and better every round, which is impressive given how polished and entertaining the r1 entry was. It's been hit after genuine hit so far.

The many faces of Maggie continue to be a highlight, imho. The "pondering weapons" face is probably my favorite of the round, but there's a lot of other great panels of our favorite fast-food-phenomenon close on its heels. And it's not just the funny ones. The shot of her eyes on page 16, combined with her internal dialogue thereon, was utterly devastating in combination.

(The double "pick" on page seven might be the funniest panel re-use I've seen in an OCT, and feels like a contender for my favorite instance of panel re-use ever after Invincible)

I love the random-game turn for what has otherwise been a much more saw-esque death game for Maggie so far. For one, it lets her and Cassidy rack up some genuine wins to help us feel better about them as a team; even though the rockiness of their meeting still hangs over the pages that follow, you do genuinely forget for at least a page (the discussion about aliens for me), that they'll have to kill each other at some point. I also love the more casual games as the contests b/c of the implication that Maggie was just railroaded into an ESPECIALLY more miserable iteration of the game than everyone else and only got to switch back over on a technicality and the whim of the host.

(Also lotsa kudos for working in pretty much the rest of the cast up to this point in the games. Great stuff)

The bonding you weave into those action pages, and in the brief break they get, seems like just well-written banter at first blush, but when we arrive at the climax, and on every subsequent re-read. It's apparent what wonderfully vital emotional glue it is to tie this whole comic together. While you execute wonderfully a LOT of elements unrelated to the closeness they attain, it's the friendship you build between Maggie and Cassidy that give the final portion it's awful, wonderful weight.

GREAT execution (hehehe) on the slow-burn to the button-choice reveal. You hit a ton of high points in your storytelling that add up to a really great sequence - the really genuine-feeling (and probably actually genuine, in the moment) vocalization by Maggie of her intention to press "pass." The sequence showing how their past opponents to date have ruined their ability to fully trust (really nice job de-contextualizing Cassidy's previous rounds while retaining the mental/ emotional impact they had).

And the WAITING page. Ooof. The shadowed faces? The multiple angles of them with their backs to each other? Terrific.

And the "Bitch?" - SUCH a funny payoff and catharsis for a legitimately tense set-up (I was literally leaned forward in my seat at this point on my first read-through).

Because I really did think it was going to end there. I was enjoying the comic so much I hadn't given even a moment's thought to the remaining pages.

But it was a treat to be wrong! Like with the earlier sequences, the stand-off and struggle for the gun is a great mix of humor and action. Maggie fumbling for the gun. Forgetting the safety (totally in character but also GIRL). Realizing it was unloaded after the fact. Peak stuff. It is amusing, but also underscores the absolute arbitrariness with which death can be dispensed in this genre, and leave those of us rooting for Maggie quite worried for her going into the final round (perhaps~) on a pure competency level.

Lastly I just want to sing the praises of your work on page 16. The composition of Maggie's kill-swing - with the low angle and her face hidden, is borderline beautiful, and should be a statue. and Maggie's dialogue is pretty heartbreaking, not only because we see the further breaking of the OC (delicious in its own way, even when it's tragic), but we get a confirmation that she really did think of Cassidy as her friend at this point, and new low for her in what has been a (VERY well written) parade of miseries.

(also quick aside -the host attains sofar unattained levels of unmixed creepiness in this round. Great job on those doorway clowns)

Absolute home-run stuff for r3. Maggie's misadventures have been a hoot, and you've shown the results of your many hours making comics, and your mastery of the medium, over these last three rounds.

Another excellent installment here; very excited about this newest chapter in the Game Death Game (if you will), and for Cassidy to actually get a friend for once.

The setup of Maggie "investing" in Cassidy was a clever writing choice - something the setup you've curated over the previous two rounds would obviously allow, and about as convincing a means of communicating to the reader that Maggie backstabbing Cassidy isn't on the table (Cassidy backstabbing Maggie, by contrast, feels unlikely at this point as the previous to rounds have pretty effectively established her as not that sort of person).

That setup serves the storytelling quite a bit, insofar as it pretty thoroughly scrubs any concerns that either of our protags has ulterior motives in teaming up with the other, and thus lets the reader focus entirely on investing emotionally in Maggie and Cassidy as a team, and genuinely freak out when the challenger breaks them up out of nowhere towards the end.

It's a great story you're telling here - conceptually simple but executed to keep interest in the details. The team-up, again, feels genuine and about as touching a moment as we've seen in the Death Games so far. The run of wins Cassidy and Maggie get is cathartic not just because it's two characters who feel like they've been dumped on even before the tournament started getting some well-earned victories, but because of the work you put it setting the stage for each win, showing off Cassidy's strategic insight over a series of very plausible explanations, and then showing us Maggie scoring off those insights.

(Side thought, absolutely brilliant job making the reader absolutely DESPISE the dude who comes in and breaks their team-up apart just as they were about to settle into a final-hour stall. If you make it to the final round I sincerely hope that dude gets gutted with a spoon.)

I'm also DEEPLY intrigued by the sponsors/ spectators, for a couple reasons. They seem to be setting up something quite cool for the final round, and they themselves seem like an interesting array of characters with their own stakes in the tournament. I especially liked "sugar tits" and the one desperate-seeming spectator - always intriguing when the folks behind the curtain seem to be in some sort of dire straits themselves. (Emilio's boss was an unexpected but welcome cameo that helped push the world of this death game further into richness)

One other thought on the storytelling: I greatly appreciate the decision to re-tell Maggie and Eckert's round within the confines of your own set-up. Letting Eckert go out on that sort of game feels like everything he would have wanted, and you went all-in on giving him a bombastic personality to EXCELLENT effect.

(Actually scratch that, one more thing - I love and am deeply fascinated by the background contestant who's reaction to learning about the 2 million dollar bonus is to scream in despair; ostensibly they're a long distance from getting to claim that prize, but I find the reaction to a technically no-downside rule change to be pretty funny)

You've gotten a lot of mileage out of the high-light gaming room, re: not needing to spend too much time on the backdrops while still keeping a consistent feeling to the setting. That said, I do want to give a quick kudos to the amount of detail that went into the bathroom scenes. You could have certainly gotten away with restricting the backdrop detail to the sinks and mirror, but the entire bathroom getting detailed is a nice grounding for the rest of the round.

A lot of good facial work here too, especially with Maggie. She's sort of the emotional core for at least the first half of the comic, imho, and her excellent game-face is a big part of that, giving the reader and Cassidy that dangerous, dangerous hope. That look of confidence being the last proper panel we get (not counting the sinking splash panel) of her before we see her headless corpse is thus all the more gutting.

(random last-second thought - I really enjoyed the illustration of Cassidy and Mammon on page 1; Cassidy being served up on a platter feels like an apt bit of imagery for your vein in the death comic tourney)

Solid work, once again. The Game Death Game setup is easily the best-defined continuity within this tournament so far, and Cassidy's journey therein one of my favorites.

Maggie's further descent into the violent arts continues! Once again, you keep ramping up the art and the dynamism each round, now by adding a grayscale pass to every page, this delayed gratification style is paying off in spades. The pages of Maggie pointing a gun to Cassidy's head were simaltenously funny and also chilling, seeing how much more coldly she calculates her survival than she did when she got into this mess. My only complaint is that there shouldve been far more blood on that final shot, but maybe thats just me.

Your consistent art and storytelling have gone beyond Kaiji-pastiche into some more your own, and this entry was the best example of that. Subverting the "dog-eat-dog" mentality of this game by having maggie actually choose teamwork over mercenary individualism, and still being tossed off and thrown into a black bag like nothing, is the perfect final escalation leading into the finale if you can clinch victory. And man some of these facial expressions made me giggle, great work.

An excellent comic. Maggie is spectacular and I've really enjoyed her each round as she's coming into her own as a killer. The blacks are so gorgeous looking and this line art is looking phenomenal. Your final conflict was really strong and I was a tremendous fan of how you had these two interacting. Almost an opposite interaction to the positivity in shamedisplay's, I love how cynicism and desperation won out here and had the two of them so paranoid and rundown from the tournament that they had no choice but to kill them. Honestly, everything is just on point and it was excellent. From the art to the story, you've been on fire these last couple of comics. Fantastic job.

You continually impress and these comics are some of the best we've had on the site. I really like that we have a Sword of Damocles hanging over Cassidy's head with her still at risk of losing some of that organ meat even if she wins. The Eckert cameo at the beginning was a great way to show off the character and get us used to your take on Maggie. The character interaction between her and Maggie was handled very well, it felt very naturalistic. It was great how between the two of them, hope and optimism won through, at least until they were separated. I do wish we had got more information regarding Maggie's death, but perhaps the final round will reveal that in greater detail? Your art is absolutely fabulous when it comes to economy of page and draftsmanship. Despite the appealing simple nature of your shapes and characters, you really sell it and have such a terrific handle on it.
This was a terrific comic. Awesome job.

AAAAA THIS IS SO FUCKING PEAK IT HURRTSSS IT BURRNNSSS I FUCKING LOVE IT I LOVE IT ALL

THIS IS THE HARDEST YOU'VE EVER FUCKING LOCKED IN YOU MADLAD FUUUCKKK

Okay ill try and be measured, i truly adore how each and every single moment is filled to the brim with engaging, interesting character interactions. Not a single moment in this comic is wasted and its something that feels so complete, the narrative has their own fucking arcs for each character and they intersect so fucking wonderfully and play off each other across some of the most memorable pages of the tournament AAAAA I HATE YOU

THIS ROUND IS SO FCUKKKKEEDD AAAA THESE ROUNDS ARE SO FUN I LOVE THE DYNAMIC SO MUCH

YOU HAVE BEEN ON SUCH A ROLL AND HAVING THIS COMIC MADE IN SUCH SHORT NOTICE GHOD.

I love the way you play with each characters motivations and suprisingly not having our main two turn on each other by the end!! I really would not have expected that, and the indirect way each of them fuel each others growth and grow into this team IT FUCKING ROCKS Man even the recap of Maggie getting to the tournament in their little chess game against Eckerd AAAH Its such clean comic making!!

First of all, I don't know if its intentional or not, but that first panel, i sure hope its a reference to Dani Moonstar new mutants. it's one of my favourite covers of all time, loosk fantastic here. Art wise I think this is easily your best round I didn't realize you could get crisper on those line but god damn does it look nice. Personally for me there was alot of tone shifting that happened really fast that I don't think worked that well, and middle was a bit too long for my liking. The ending though, where we get the face off and the double betrayal of the two girls was really really well done and was a highlight of the comic. I just think you didn't need all that set up to get there, I get that it was to show them getting closer and all that but I think it went on for a few pages too long. On top of that I think the font choice for the clown wasn't a great choice. It was hard to read and I think it took away from the scene. I really enjoyed this comic though, was fantastic work. Maggie is going through a lot and I am very interested in seeing what might happens in that final round if she ends up moving forward. Great work on this!

This was really good, I forgot that this was 17 pages long cause of how easily it flows as a comic. The conflict and the setting grabs me as a reader and it works amazingly here. I have noticed that you use a lot of very similar shots the back half of the comic has a lot of panels that are just expressions head on and not alot of variety. The first half you get alot more body shots or interaction with the background such as in the bathroom scene you just lose that the further it goes on and I'm left looking that extra variety in your panels. The relationship between the two girls is great here as it was in Skids comic but i reallllly wanted to see what happened to maggie at the end there. I understand that the choice was to have the reader learn with cassidy but for me I was more interested in what was going on with Maggie and getting the end where shes just dead and theres no real idea as to what happened kind of hurts the ending for me for a very well written comic. And same with Skwid,I'm excited to see what you do in the finale if you make it there. Great job!

Skwid - Oh my gosh, what a spectacular entry! The artwork and pacing are so masterfully done! Your writing kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. You've put so much details in this comic including the cameos from the other contestants. Using Maggie and Cassidy’s past encounters to shape their decisions is brilliant, and their surprising choices kept me hooked. The climactic fight is flawlessly choreographed, and the resolution’s twist is incredibly satisfying. Bravo!

Shamefuldisplay - you’ve delivered another stellar entry! Your bold inks, as always, pack a visual punch. I appreciate the refresher on the rules at the beginning since I would've forgotten all about it coming into reading your comic. Maggie and Cassidy’s teamwork is a highlight, and though I kept anticipating a betrayal with every page turn, their genuine camaraderie in this grim tournament feels refreshing and earned. The heartbreaking ending left me yearning to see Maggie’s side of the fallout but then again that would ruin the surprise at the end. The cliffhanger ending only made me want to see more! Amazing job!

Dude the TENSION in these PAGES!!! You do it so well, the last few pages had me on the edge of my seat and biting my nails! The intensity of the last ditch struggle was insane and I applaud you for all your efforts because they definitely paid off. I love how Maggie is slowly coming to terms with the hand she's been given and just rolling with it to survive. She's jam packed full of gumption, that's for sure! Keep up the wonderful work~

Utterly loved your take on this battle and how both girls remained good to each other the entire time of being acquainted. Your stylization continues to enamor and delight me to no end, and your characterization is spot on in your writing. Lemme tell you, I've been enjoying every battle you've put out and always can't wait to read more like a kid in a comic shop looking for the next issue. I just get so hyped for Cassidy and I can't help but root for her. Keep on rockin it!~

Man, and I thought the other match up was a tough vote. There is so much that is similar between these two comics, while also couldn't be more different. You two are such powerhouse comic artists in your own rights that you have made this vote nigh impossible, but we do our best. LOVE OF THE DEATH GAME BABY. I think you're going to get similar critiques (which, is it really a crit? this was great), but it was lovely to see the parallels between you and your opponents comic without either of you collaborating on it. It goes to show how well you knew your own characters and really resonated with the potential chemistry that could be had between them- for ill or good. This is such an aside, but I can't tell you how much I enjoy how you build up stakes. You could've made Maggie's death blow simply bad ass for her win, but the fact there was a stumble, a dodge, and a struggle really left me forgetting whose comic I was reading and kinda wondering who was going to win out!

The bond being made between these women was unexpected but really hit harder than I thought it would by the end. You go into these tournaments expecting to see these women at each others throats, but it was really refreshing to see them teaming up into a fail girl squad. Their dynamic on how they got through game to game was really clever and I think was a much needed swell of hope that was needed to make the ending scene land.
Speaking of that ending scene! I love that there wasn't some big montage or narrative on how Maggie was doing during the games- the stark reveal of her headless body not even being given its moment, JUST passing by poor Cassidy to glance at was ROUGH and really added an impact in a way I really appreciated

It's incredibly scary how much you can get done in such a short time. While I do like the way you've been doing your death game it feels held back a little bit. The way the montage is presented it feels more like a normal game show than an actual death game. The clown mascot is my favorite part of the atmosphere, by far my favorite of the death game mascot for this tournament. For the more surreal and absurdist approach to the premise, I figured the deaths would be a little more showy too, but it's not that big a deal as the kills so far have worked well for the story you're telling and I like how each one escalates Maggie's involvement with murdering the opponent.

Three rounds in and the premise is still going strong. I've been having fun guessing what will happen next in this one. Each of these chapters has worked for the two week release dates they have in between them, but I can't help but feel like the pace is a bit off when read all at once. This didn't affect the score at all I just wanted to point something out since everything else worked so well to me. Cliffhangers can be annoying but I feel like yours was very well done.