Oculama

Your style is very charming and polished, and this story is quite good, with a lot of spot on comedy and a core of sincerity. The reveal of what the other angels had been doing, the payoff on the death of God thing from earlier, all gold. And Sera just wanting to put together a prom after all this time. Tembel going down fighting felt very genuine and like a good continuation of his character, even if it is played for laughs a bit with the Dragon Ball pose.
Speaking of played for laughs, my only immediate critique is that the "Mass shooters enter through the front door" joke felt a bit uncomfortable. Other than that, the comedy was as solid as the pathos. The reveal of Bossbabiel's name especially gave me a sensible chuckle. Of course, this whole thing being the origin of the new demon Tembel design you were considering earlier feels like a lovely reveal, at least for people who were in the server when you dropped that originally.

Sera's desperation, both in general and to save Caz in particular is gripping.
The chocolate milk as alcohol thing is beautiful. Tembel going against God. Heaven being a night club. So many good ideas.
The end reveal I did find somewhat confusing. Sera was a mom in a coma the whole time?
I feel like there could have been more build up to that, and more explanation once it happened. It feels like it cheapens the story up to that point somewhat too.
That said, this is chock full of action and cool set pieces. The "Be not afraid" callback right before the heaven nightclub gets exploded is great.

I am so impressed with what you've done for Sera Dippty's story. She has been just such a fun character follow, and dang, what a way to bring her back.
I really liked how you did your page layouts for this one, everything really flowed easily. I also thought your backgrounds where really excellent in here as well.
The only critique I would have for this is just a few misspelled words. (Page 11, last panel, "Afriad".)
Overall impressive comic and really impressive tourney for you overall. Well done man!

oh, It is so so good to see Tembel back, and man what a fun run with him for this tourney!

Right off the bat I just wanna say I LOVE how you chose to color this comic! It was a really good simple palette. the screen tone and traditional brush texturing also worked very well in this.
Also I just love page 14, you nailed the composition and is just a really good looking transitional page.
I do feel like we could have used a little bit more information on what happened with the ending, I'm not fully sure what happened to Sera.
Otherwise, really solid comic, always enjoy seeing your work and looking forward to more.

What a great ride from start to finish! I'm particularly a fan of your rendering, and you have a good grasp of expressions. I think that with more time and practice with your line quality, plus keep working on your anatomy, that can bump up the work to look even better. An idea for the future can be to practice on shorter-page-count comics, stick to grayscale or just lineart, and put yourself in a position to really flex your lining muscles. In this finale I also enjoyed your interpretation of the angelic lair, and you balanced payoff and lingering future intrigue effectively with your last panels, there's good cohesion from the first to last round. Congrats on making it to the finale

Big round of applause cause despite the completion struggles in prior rounds you managed to go super saiyan here and end with a bang; This is such a pro-look for a comic and you used the grunge texturing and screentone templates extremely organically, it feels like a visual match to the story being told, everything just fits so well visually and I'd love to see a behind-the-scenes of the process to learn from it. The place with room for improvement in this format I would say is how you handle your blacks in some places (it's usually solid but there's a small dip in quality on page 9's blacks), a little more crushing/flattening of these blacks I think would do the trick. Congrats on reaching the finale and finishing in style

Wowee zowee, what a finale Ninja! Truly a banger comic you made, gotta shout out how great you created atmosphere such as the use of rain in this. Another thing I also have to big up is the expressions you draw and how well they capture the thoughts and feelings a character is having.

Great job on the story, the message of taking control of your own destiny is a neat one to explore and I like the agency you give Tembel in this. Also, know I can't be showing my bias but I did pog a little seeing my boy Mack and the call back to the first Black Diamond.

Oughhh, sweet baby Tembel! This was a great read, well done Didi! The art is super nice throughout, love seeing how you interpret your opponent's design into your style and some of those background details you include are incredible.

A very sweet story with the prom dance and cool seeing the lore explored such as with Heaven's whole situation. If I had to give a complaint, it would probably be that it's quite a sudden ending that makes it feel like things finished before they truly began to start.

Woot Woot! Very unique picking up right after last round I'm a sucker for straight continuations so hell the hell yeah. The art is looking absolutely fantastic as always and my god so many wonderful backgrounds that really create a phenominal MOOD capitals and all. Characterization is also very fun, the progression of Sera from her first appearance to now is crazy business and I also especially enjoy Tembel's fall from grace so to speak ('Chocolate Milk on the rocks, killed me). Bringing back each round to make this finale was super cool! I say that as unbiased as I can because har har more Caz that's me that's my character YAAAA.

Anyways, Happy endings all around yaaay!!! I quite enjoy Tembel's refusal of 'the powers that be' and the rigid "fact" of life and death, that pure goodness coming through to take a whole shit all over so called gods plan. Just a romp, a real big ol' romp hell the hell yeah. Final round babey!! Well deserved!!!!!!!!

AH!! This looks sooo goood! The colours and linework REALLY working together this round it's fuckin' fantastic. The writing in this flows pretty dang good, both tonally and plot wise, paced well and real fun to re-read! The culmination of Tembel's attempts to do good, and be a good guardian angel end real nice here. That line of "I can do good all on my own" got me jumping for joy so hard I hit my head on my roof and get a big cartoon bump YEEOOWCH. The ending here as well is solemn in a way a fuck with HEAVY and as said before the visuals all around FUCK but the ending sequence especially is just incredibly fantastic.

As a side note the bride of frankenstien hair and do for Sera is sick! Fantastic work! Heck yeah for making it to the end, a hard fought well earned battle!

One of your best comics when it comes to lighting and mood. The little gags like the choccie instead of hard liquor are great. My heart continues to ache for Sera and her situation, and I'm glad that she finally got some help and her own personal little win. Temble is fittingly a lil sweetie and it turns out so is Sera. You wrote a gripping and emotional story. I've rooted for her the whole time!

I greatly enjoyed how you wrote Sera trying to reclaim the moments she missed following her death. Your use of half-tones makes for a great classic comic book feel. The generally restricted color palette makes an overall unified visual presentation. The prom was an excellent angle for a story with your opponent. I also appreciate the lil Yamcha crater moment for Temble's "fall". The ending is nice and peaceful. It felt like a very quick, but efficient story.

I appreciate the large amount of establishing shots you have used in your comic. People (especially me) usually skimp on them because bar a few maniacs who love them, people sort of avoid them like the plague. But, also some of the panels are actually really empty, and the textures, are doing some heavy lifting to fill in some of the spaces between the lines, especially with the big walls and doors. Obviously time restrictions are there, but if you get more time, something could be done to make the spaces less flat. I additionally enjoy how you handled the state of Heaven over Didi's comic, the visuals, the style, the setting. Yours feels like a bigger picture over the somewhat rushed conclusion of your opponent. Additionally, do not treat this like a backhanded compliment, but I enjoy that you try to do angles regardless if you feel like you can do them or not, and I think some anatomy and perspective drills could do you good. Maybe do some compositional studies as well as you have some real odd crops of characters and backgrounds in a lot of the shots, and that does make it feel clunky. Overall though, I value story more than a lot of things, and I feel in combination of your run-up to this moment, the story felt stronger in general. Well done.

You did an excellent job cleaning what looks to be traditional inks, or a REALLY good digital mimic (But judging from prior comics these should be traditional.) to have a nice consistent retro comic book style. The hones help a ton as well, giving is a nice sense of clarity between details, and short of some awkward layouts, the compositions are quite strong. You are put on the backfoot in the sense of plot in the scope of the whole event though. Ninja had a tangible connection between the semis and not to steam ahead to make it all combine into a solid bad of a story, as much as I enjoyed the sweetness of your comic. The sudden heroic save at the end also pleasant, felt a bit quick and the conflict related to it and the angels sudden and a touch rushed. Regardless, visually, I like your comic more, but as a whole package I barely give the win to Ninja. Excellent comic though. I know this isn't something you can fix in hindsight, but your opponent having everything branch from the final round to now really gave them an edge. You did great.

This was one of your best comics yet to me, and I really felt for both Sera and Temble! Loved the textures you used and your attention to detail of the backgrounds so much. It was a good ending to this part of the story, and it felt complete despite not knowing about Caz but I’m glad Sera got a good ending. You did a wonderful job and be proud of what you put out~

This was such a cute read and I’m glad that Sera got a good ending here as well, though it felt only a touch incomplete to me because of the last few panels being so nondescript as to where and what Sera sees. Still a good story all though, don’t get me wrong! Your style is so cute and I love the old school tones you employed, it gave it that classic comic feel which I really enjoyed! All in all, wonderful work!

The way you tied together the connection with Tembel and Mackenzie Mackernally was very well done. That sort of character world-building and story connection made this a really stellar story. Presumably that ending had Sera revived in a "new body" or as if she survived Death Games? Not too sure if that interpretation was correct, but hopefully that was your intent. The art through this tournament was very good for you. There felt like real effort here for this entire tournament and while both of you deserve the win, you really did a stellar effort. If Sera manages to survive, we got to set up a rematch! Fantastic work! Be proud of yourself!

It is incredible how good you are with your traditional inks. This is actually a whole head above your digital stuff, which was already quite good! Either the practice of slowing down made the difference or some other element, but this was on a whole new level for you in terms of the art we have seen on this site. You should do more like this (and discover some pens to help translate those skills digitally as well).
In terms of the story, you did a good job picking up the plot threads from round one and continuing them into round three. Obviously, events happen that made the pacing of this have to go a little quick, but you did a great job with it! This one was a really tough one to judge on. Both of you deserve that win, but you did a terrific job with this comic. Be proud of yourself! Excellent job!

I think its really fascinating there seems to be a theme of forgiveness and self reflection evident in both of these comics, but you two took it in such different directions. Too often we come to finales and expect and all out drag out fight. But Sera ended up where she is because she kept fighting-ruthlessly even. The fact she's haunted by the possibility she's anything like her Father being the reason she stays her hand is HEAVY and I love it. I am likewise blown away by your environment work and dynamic angles for buildings once again- the heaven in junction took on such an imposing stance before we even get a chance to waltz in with the characters. To boast such a title and have the events result in trying to drown poor Sera is equal parts dark and heavy, and man. This poor girl (because she's still a highschool teenager) needs a guardian angel. It's great to see Tembel, despite the odds step up and be inspired by HER of all things. Despite being part of terrible systems that seem so big and unchangeable, you can still change your own destiny. It's great to see how different a route both of you took on the same theme.
There may be some who ask questions about the end. Why it isnt spelled out, how did the transition happened and where/how Sera was rescued, but I personally love the haze of not knowing. It feels very reflective of Sera herself not knowing what the heck is going on until she comes to. It's heattwarming to see her wake up to something genuinely good for once. This is a character who so keenly needs a dub that both you and your opponent felt that enough to make it both your endings.
Y'all pulled at my heartstrings and made a killer finale. Either of these characters are fully deserving of a second chance at life. I can't wait to see how it turns out

I gotta tell you, your traditional work has taken off. I'm not sure how much you're mixing digital alongside, but I think this tournament has really helped you find your style. There's such personality, fluidity and movement in what you're doing now that I don't think was properly captured with the super polish of all digital. I certainly hope you keep it up because its gorgeous to look at. To say nothing of your character designs. Your unique take and bit of tongue in cheek concepts for your angels still pull from the source material but are certainly your own. Boss Babiel is still a top notch character. The homage to Sera's finger necklace as inspiration over how to treat Tembel falling into her lap is such a charming nod to you not only doing your homework but being just as invested in your opponents narrative and marrying it with your own. I don't know if this was your intention or I'm just reading into subtle parallels, but I love that we have two characters who are trying to be good characters despite the origins or systems they were created for or born into. From Sera's abusive family and Frankenstein rebirth to Tembel's corrupted heavenly system. Both systems are so big and can't be changed by one person, but in Tembel's case it didn't stop them from still striving to do right by others.It's the thing I love about these tournaments that such unlikely characters can have such a capacity for parallel. I am gutted that such a wholesome character who only wished to do good, but couldn't even achieve that ended up succeeding just once only to be damned for it. I love the page break of black pages and the feathers before we see the heartbreaking aftermath of demon Tembel in a crater. That really hit me harder than I expected even with the tongue in cheek yamcha meme :<
Which speaking of, I have no idea if either of you coordinated this, but I love that both endings felt like the hopeful start to a new chapter we don't get to see. It leaves the reader longing to see where it is Sera was transported via Tembel's halo and who it was she managed to see. I certainly hope its Caz but the unknown allows the reader and even your opponent make their own determination of what would make Sera truly happy. <3

Great conclusion to your story! It's amazing how you keep the quality of your comics consistent throughout the tournament run it's really admirable! I liked the characterization you gave Tembel especially it was interesting. The ending felt a little rushed and confusing but it didn't take away from the story too much. Great work throughout the tournament and the whole year as well this was a great tournament comic to end the year on. I hope you'll be doing more comics on Oculama next year too!

I really liked the writing in this one. Like, Ninja's side the highlight for me was the characterization of the opponent. Poor, Sera just wants a normal life again. The art is a real treat to look at something about the way the line art is especially gives me joy. The ending in this one is also a little rushed but I think I understand where it's going. It's been so fun reading about Tembel throughout this tournament! Great work!

Tight and well made pacing, even with that 1 recycled page from the last comic. I like the extra effort in environment shots, tying in figures from the past of these characters, and the thematic throughline between Tembel and Sera. Even tying everything up in one last lightning blast(that can be interpreted as a defibrillator shock) is a nice spectacle to close things out.

I feel like the rain is a bit too thick, almost looks like milk at certain points. Probably remedied by messing with the transparency slightly?

I also notice what i think is a misplaced bit of text on panel 3 in page 15.

Wow, Sera really cleaned up the whole place for one last comfort prom? That's dedication.

i like the mild fakeout with Tembel's lines on page 3 turning out to be a genuine warning on page 8 rather than a case of stumbling on words.

Tembel knowing about the secret coup in heaven could have been slightly more elaborated on. What else would have happened to lead to them wanting to full-on exile tembel rather than recruiting/capturing? Connective tissue like that and detailing where Sera ended up might help tie things together.

For the smaller details i appreciate i like the small background gag lines, "bossbabiel", the concise callback to Tembel's previous comic, going out of the way to get the two prom outfits, aaand the presumably big fall through the abyss into hell.