Strangle/Switch
Strangle/Switch is © Kevin Colden
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Geoffrey Blake is a guitar player, and a damn good one at that. But Geoff has a problem - his mind is deteriorating and he can’t do anything about it. On top of that, he has a crippling obsession with an adolescent pop star Lola Belle and he doesn’t know why. On one fateful night, a bizarre stranger points him towards a local specialty guitar shop. Then his estranged niece arrives to live with him, setting in motion a chain of events that pave his way to fame and fortune - and the discovery of unnatural powers that are controlled by a switch on his new guitar.
wow, i REALLY dig this! rad colors, hope it keeps going somewhere!
Ken, great stuff. Find this comic a home, now. I want to keep reading it.
--Gabe H.
I suspect the repeated dialogue has a purpose. It may have something to do with our protagonist's possible schizo personality, (who's that knock-knocking at his door?), but I could be wrong. At first it bothered me, but then began to strengthen and define the character, endearing him to me. Hopefully someday we'll find out.
A unique comic book as well as art. Will people buy so different of work? The book can do without the repeating of words "Me. Me." "Knock. Knock"
Very cool. The artwork and story both feel unique to me. Out of all the Zuda cmx I've read so far, this is the one that really leaves me wanting to know what happens next. Keep it up!
Thanks for the comments, everybody! New blog post up @
http://strangleswitch.blogspot.com/
Got my vote (and like 5 of my dorm mates)
keep it up
bring it on!
An amigo of mine sent this to me. I like what I see.
Makes me smile
Certainly the most craft and skill out of just about anything I've seen on Zuda. My vote!
Come on Zudites! This is obviously the best entry in the FEB competition. If you weigh the art and story of each entry, this one is the CLEAR winner.
Make this one your favorite and stop beating around the bush!
DShide and KColden,
From the past few competitions, it seems like most new zudites either think that votes become favorites, votes are favorites, or just don't bother with the favorites system at all. Plus, views are increased every time someone clicks on an entrant to read comments, and then again once they post another comment, so the viewcount of everyone is going to be a tad higher than what it actually should be.
I voted for you and gave you 5 stars.
Very weird...in a good way. Hypnotic art.
It's a shame you are only at #4. Th art quality, coloring, and story are better than the #1-3, it just goes to show you the deteriorating state of what people will accept.
Also - part 2 of an interview up at the Daily Crosshatch today:
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/02/18/interview-kevin-colden-pt-2-of-2/#more-965
Thanks again for the comments. I love to see what people are thinking.
DShide -
I've been wondering the same thing. Beyond me clicking in to check comments a few times a day, all of those views are legit to the best of my knowledge. I've gotten a number of emails from people having trouble registering, but I doubt there could be anywhere near that many. Could there?
Anyone else notice the huge difference between views and favorites? People must really be rereading this a lot. Or else there is a huge chunk of people reading but not voting or favoriting. What do you guys think?
This is quite unique in many ways, you guys got my vote.
i really like the graphic quality of the artwork, the two-tone look is great and the character design looks well thought out too, i'd hate to see the permutations the lil' toothed guy went through!
Not quite what I am used to, but I will give it a go.
I don't trust guys with teeth like that
Like it - you are obviously writing a longer piece than 8 pages, so it ends without satisfaction for the reader; but maybe that's a good thing.
I may have done something like this back in the day, guess I'm smarter than that now
I think I would have liked to have met the girl in the piece ... I understand the set up, very Rod Serling, but I would have liked to known more about her
New, texty blog post:
http://strangleswitch.blogspot.com/
Thanks! There's some tough competition here, but I certainly wouldn't count S/S out at all.
So with this past update, S/S and teachers both jumped back into the running for my vote. Nice job with the rank increase!
Gallagher turned me on to this. Vote given.
Reminds me of the bad-boy my mother always warned me about.
Thanks again for all the feedback!
There's a new installment of my serialized GN Fishtown at ACT-I-VATE today:
http://community.livejournal.com/act_i_vate/384462.html
Links to previous archives in post.
Hey,This is a lovely looking story. Love the colouring and the ben day style dots. Have to say I'm not as grabbed by the story as I am by the art. Good luck.
I have this love/hate relationship with the repetition of the dialogue... I really like the style, but it drives me crazy.
My friend at work asked me to come and vote for this. Looks nice.
New blog post:
http://strangleswitch.blogspot.com/
nicely done
oh those bad boiz
I've read through the recent comments, and a common complaint is lack of originality. Maybe I've been reading all the wrong books/comics, but could someone tell me how many there are out there featuring an insane guitarist as the protagonist?
Thanks for coming by! I do most of the artwork in ink on paper, scan it and color it all in the computer. All the lettering and dots are computer generated. Sometime next week I'll have a step-by-step artwork demo at the production blog - http://strangleswitch.blogspot.com
A link to this comic was sent to me by a co-worker. This reminds me of my wasted youth pretending to be the next Nirvana. I don't know a lot about comics, actually. But, this seems to be interesting with the half-tone dots. How much of this is done by computer? What sort of materials did you use to make it?
Hmmm. That's interesting. We to get those votes and favorites up to match the views!
While views are impressive they apparently don't count a lot in the zuda magic formula.
This has peole reading it, why is this not 1 or 2 place?
New Strangle/Switch production blog launched at:
http://strangleswitch.blogspot.com
Pics and such forthcoming.
Wow.
Thanks to everyone commenting and supporting - and most of all for reading (and reading, and reading...)! I'll be checking back again shortly with some stuff of interest.
Cheers!
The artwork isn't my thing but it has a unique style of its own so it's to be expected that some will love it and some hate it. For me it was a bit hard on the eyes. The shading effects and the colour jarred. However, it's the dialogue that let's it down for me. So much repetition - this might be deliberate but there are only so many times you can read the same thing repeated by both parties in a conversation before you start to yell "stop repeating what he says!". That area needs a large amount of work before it would be something I'd be interested in reading. As to the concept - yes it is far from original, but it is how you tell the story, not the originality of the concept that matters sometimes. Unfortunately in this case I felt the storytelling wasn't up to the job. Sorry.
"No matter how this month turns out this is racking up a very impressive amount of views."
And I hope my comments get people to read it again. Or at least once to see if a comment so foul could possibly be true.
Keep up the awesome work. I'm a huge fan of FISHTOWN and this is really fantastic.
No matter how this month turns out this is racking up a very impressive amount of views.
I think it helps that Kevin is an established talent and a member of the Act-I-Vate crew, where he does the acclaimed FISHTOWN, which will be collected by IDW later this year: http://community.livejournal.com/act_i_vate/