S.Type
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The world of S.Type - populated both by the living and the undead - operates according to movie clichés and stereotypes. Characters find themselves in situations where the greatest danger is not the creatures wandering the streets but falling into a negative stereotype. Along their branching paths Beth and Craig come into contact with other S.typers as well as civilian Z.E.P. ‘s (zombie encounter participant) and attempt to surmount their obstacles by playing off good “types” while avoiding the pitfalls and dead ends of the bad “types”. When a string of events suddenly occurs that shatters their confidence in these rules, they are thrown into confusion, doubt, and great fear as to how they can ensure their own safety. In a world where knowing the types is key, the million-dollar question becomes: what happens when someone changes them?
The writing seems off to me. My sincere advice is to find a copy editor. But I really like that you portray the female body in a different way than most comic books do. Kudos.
cool style.
Vote rigging! Shurely Schome Mishtake?
I have made a serious accusation against DUAL, go to its comments and read it! It is important!
Greetings, my friend! I predict you will remain in this position until the end of the competition! Your nice artwork but meandering dialogues will confuse the readers! I can also view in your future a car crash involving a bus full of albinos! Farewell!
like the colors: blue characters and red backgrounds, then green/brown ghoulies
Pretty good.
I really like the idea of this though 8 pages doesn't seem to be enough to suck readers in. I find myself reading it and thinking of the possibilities and getting excited rather than getting excited about what I read. I imagine that if I had a whole issue to read, I'd probably be hooked enough by the end of the first to buy the second and completely hooked by issue 3. Interesting idea and great art.
i dug the art but the dialogue and... i dunno, just something about the conversing in it. i think i'm supposed to assume the woman's british, but her diction was just CHOCK FULL of sayings that don't usually come up when speaking (not all at the same time), no matter where you're from. plus, if we're gonna take the zombie route, let's do it in a more original way? oh, and i didn't feel the synopsis was conveyed at all... it just seemed like some bickering mercenaries then a zombie attack. sorry to be harsh, i just didn't really get it.
Very good art and i like the premise, but if you rewrote the dialouge so the reader could understand it better it would be perfect. And i kinda had a feeling it was Zombies at the beginning so nice job.
Good premise, but I don't really get a feel for it in the story. Still, I'd like to see where it goes.
Nice art and interestingly complex dialogue, but what the **** is this supposed to be about, again? Living in a world of stereotypes? What the **** does that mean? Your synopsis is the most meaningless piece of garbage ever.
Dear Zuda Competitors/Creators,
I recently started a Zuda fan blog, and I would love to interview all of this month’s creators. If you would be willing to answer 5-10 questions, to be posted on the Zudafan blog, please contact me at: zudafan@gmail.com . I’ll try not to repeat any of Rob Berry’s questions. :)
Feel free to check out the blog: zudafan.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Very unique and original! I've never seen a comic or webcomic that looks like this! Your choice of colors are just lovly!
yeah I think I got it, but the twist of the rules changing, kept me asking who changes the rules, besides the god in the machine of course. I know that's the mystery hook, but still it would have had more impact if someone was following the old rules and got killed off anyway.
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It was cool based on movie cliche's they could predict when the next zombie attack was coming, I'll bump you up a star for that -4/5.
Thx for the wordy response Stpl... Nah it wasn't necessarily the zombies that did it for me. It was the way you introduced them (which was your intent), that sparked me to do the re-read. On the second time around I picked up the in-profession jargon between the two. And then after reading RKB's comments, I went back a third time and picked up the stereotypes. So I feel you on the vibe where you want the zombies to serve as a backdrop more than a focal point... But damn that was some tough reading the first time around. But now, I feel'ya, Brother.
I really enjoyed this strip because I think it went beyond the realm of the "norm." I know in most strips it’s about the artwork and layouts and using that medium to move the story along. Here, much like a one act play, I feel it was all about the dialogue and interaction between the characters that moves the story. I think many average readers are scared of that, frankly. I enjoyed the change and I think you succeeded with something really new. Bravo!!
I think it's admirable, and shows thoughtfulness, that you are trying to resist the traditional methods of exposition and storytelling. However, I think you resisted so many different "tricks of the trade" that the clarity of the piece, and hooking your audience was sacrificed to a certain degree.
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If you wanted to avoid the exposition conversation (the two doctors example you gave), perhaps using "normal" speech would illuminate the subtle hints you were giving us. (Which were lost due to the jargon.)
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Switching to talking heads, as opposed to an action packed eight pages, didn't make me feel off kilter. But choosing to do talking heads when there is so much jargon, makes it difficult to translate as any context we would have had for the conversation is almost non-existant. For example "Bloom this fud!" while shooting an alien in the head makes it obvious bloom is kill, destroy, etc., while fud is alien, enemy, bad guy, etc. Now, saying "Bloom this fud!" in talking heads, not nearly as easy to figure out what it means.
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Trying to do the "war genre" talking shop thing truly works when the audience is being told something they need to know, and it's obvious then, or it is an "AHA" moment later, after they dismissed the conversation as meaningless, yet it comes back to play a big part in the story. The problem is here, that with eight pages, we never get to have that AHA moment. And with this competition, we need the payoff in those eight pages. The time for long setups for AHA moments is once you win the competition. People are invested, and will be coming back for more.
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I think if you had chosen the jargon with lots of action, for context, or done the talking heads with normal words and subtle exposition, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I think this work just suffered from too many "mysterious/subtle" storytelling methods, that it was difficult to become invested in the story and characters.
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There's nothing wrong with assuming your audience is smart. But we're not mind readers, ya know? Ya gotta throw us a bone every once in awhile. ;)
Alright this is gonna be LOOOOOONNNNGGGG so lock in, or just scroll to find what your interested in :D
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GPH: Well for this I don’t really have a exact timeline I was doing it between other work so I was just throwing free time at it when I could. But genrally I can get pencils done at a rate of 2 pages a day, inking (which I suck at and get really bored doing) about a page to a page and a half a day) , colouring and texting another few days. So that is generally the workflow I follow depending of course on deadlines and other work.
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Mpd: Thanks, I was trina do something that had a very different feel or at least a different feel to the stereotypical zombie comics. There would be more zombies in the future but they would be intended to work as..well like the jungle in a Vietnam war story. A source of danger and something that shapes the story path but not the focus of the overall meta story.
I didn’t have a lexicon in the back of my copy of Clockwork Orange either, but that may be the reason that my barometer for a “tough read” seems to be so far off :S :D I had no idea that chav was the word of the year in 2004 :O :D
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Matt: That’s cool man no offence taken, if your not into this brand of wordy comic or this one just isn’t done well enough to grab ya then saying so is just a fact not an insult :D For me wordy stuff like (one of my favs) Untrue Tales totally turn my crank so that type of thing is something that I like to try and achieve when I get to work for myself on stuff :D
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Oogie: Thanks you seem to be in the vast majority on the opinion in ref to the accent :D
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Pti: That’s a good idea I will write up a quick one and get it here soon. I am a really big fan of the unique or unusual lexicons that pop up in things too.
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RKB: Well in this instance the stuff you seem to have questions about are the questions I wanted people to ask, with the hope that that would leave them interested in what exactly is going on and want to see further information on that but presented withing the framework of the story rather than through a narration or that type of thing. I think if I had spent the 8 pages on those questions it would just come off as the same old zombie story and for how burnt out everyone is on zombies I wanted to try and showcase the things I thought would make this story less of a stereotypical zombie story. As for why the universe is as it is, is a suspension of disbelief type of thing. Like in Dragonball you don’t question why the earths environment is uniformly one type of look, or why there is walking talking animals among regular humans, in high moon you don’t require that there is an explanation of why there are werewolves, you accept that this is the world you are being presented and suspend your disbelief in these supernatural things. But that is of course a matter of opinion.
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Helix: It is funny because I specifically kept the zombies in the background because I wanted the discussion of stereotypes and way the characters deal with those as the fore front. I was hoping that even if someone wasn’t a fan of zombies they could get into the conundrum of trying to navigate stereotypes rather than just how to kill zombies. But it seems that the moment you put zombies in something they become the focus of the story. Which may be a product of all the zombie stuff out there, or the expected stereotypes involved in the genre (or perhaps I just did it badly :S ). To be completely honest I got a kick out of laying out the ground work to make the reader think they were going into an action oriented 8 pages (all guns to begin with) then changed it up and made it talking heads. I suspected people would feel off kilter and might just dislike it because they didn’t receive what they were set up for but I like curve balls like that so I couldn’t resist. It has defiantly been a learning experience and a fun experiment :D
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Frequeuent: Thanks, and come on “Your synopsis is the most meaningless piece of garbage ever.” I mean I think it could be in the top 500 maybe even top 200 but I think if I really tried I could do worse :D
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Blaque: Thanks :D I doubt it, but I hope there is a next session :D
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Andre: Thanks I appreciate it :D
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King: I am glad ya liked it even if the meta story wasn’t your flavour :D
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Pen: First off thanks for the well thought out reply you seem to have encompassed a lot of peoples troubles with the story and that is pretty good :D The jargon I have already gone into but all that slang became part of my vocabulary when I was living in Japan and was hanging out with people from all over the world (few English, few irish, some fellow Canadians, Americans and even a couple really cool guys from the ivory isle’s) so for me they fall into the common knowledge but if that isn’t other peoples experience then it is a valid complaint and something I will have to watch out for in the future. The question of how there conversation goes that is very interesting to me because it is basically a widely accepted
“war story” genre style of information being presented in the terms of 2 professional “soldiers” being all business in the field but talking shop behind closed doors. But it does seem that moving it over to a zombie attack seems to make people think that type of interaction is meaningless, or the information is meaningless because it isn’t entirely explained. Or I just did it badly, which is always a possibility. For stuff like this I hate when 2 “professionals” explain things that they would know. Like a rocket scientist explaining to another one that the m-25 is the newest model of rocket being produced. I always feel like I want the second scientist to say “ I Know jackass! I am a rocket scientist too” So at this point I am trying to work from the point of view where stuff is explained as the story moves on in an organic way. That may well be an unpopular or just too difficult for me at this point but I would rather try to do it then feel like I am over explaining, or like I am undervaluing the intelligence of the reader because I have to explain it like I would to a six year old. I like when story’s assume I am smart :D Now I may be being over sensitive to that, and it may be that I simply have not found a really good way to do it, or that I am assuming far too much and creating plot points that Harvard phd holders would find entirely confusing, but comments like yours are helping me to re-evaluate and learn from what I have done before so thanks I always like when people help me make me better :D
How long would you say it takes to complete the art for a single page (from pncils all the way to colored and lettered)?
-gabe
... whatever. This is sufficiently lifted over most of the current raft of crappy zombie titles in the mainstream by the fact that it doesn't have that many zombies! In fact it's kind of a shame ...
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Want to know more? http://mpd57.blogspot.com/ and be quick about it - the dead are after your brains!
I like what you said Pen Gwen! Prezactly what I think! No offense intended there Stplmstr, but by page 4, I was thinking "screw this, I'm hungry".
I really liked this.Lots of promise. I could have done without her English accent though.
Clockwork Orange has a lexicon in the back? I had to write the damn thing myself and glue it in the back! You kids sure have it easy these days. Grumble grumble. BTW: Chav's Dshide are lower class yoofs with a certain uniform consisting mainly of a burberry check! I think!
You know, I like it when books have a little lexicon in the back for it's unique jargon. "Watership Down" and "Clockwork Orange" spring to mind. Maybe you guys could post a lexicon on your blog, or something? I think it would be cool. And, if you already did, where is it?
Peter
You mind telling us what a "chav" is then MPD?
Yay! We have Chavs here in Britain. Word of the year 2004 according to the OED. Maybe that's not what you meant though?
I didn't mind trying to decode the jargon, the synopsis was a help in that, but for a weird little world your setting up in this story the synopsis should have been longer. 7 screens of conversation is a few screens too much. I know you got to do the set-up, I really do get that, and I think I even followed it -sort of. You needed more action, less talking heads.
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Burned out on Zombies too by the way.
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I get movie rules (i.e. girls runing around dark corners, and folks falling love are doomed to die etc,) apply here, but why??? Who changes the survivor types that survive??? Are this characters in the real world, or is it The world's most dangerous game/ meets west world??? i.e. is this a real zombie outbreak, or some rich guy got a bunch of people together for a live action resident evil game???
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You don't know how big the stage is from the story, too much mystery here, and why are these type's things true anyway???
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The art, colors, letters are all great, so no problems there.
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I always thought it would be fun to do a story where movie cliches are true, call it area code 555 or something, so the horror movie angle brought me in, but tell us this story in talking head format, just didn't pay it off well at all.
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You have a fairly cool resume though, and I liked to see you try again, but i don't think your going to win.
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3/5 stars but I'll read it some more and see how it goes, don't mind characters talking in comics, but not enough happened or was revealed here.
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The zombies at the end looked nice and scary, but I stopped buying walking dead for a reason -tired of them.
Okay I liked the art style...but you can basically copy and paste what Pen Gwen said for what I thought about the dialogue. To add to it, there was a lot of jargon that I didn't get until after I saw the ending and reread the pages. And then you have an acronym (Z.E.P), which you spell out in the synopsis but have no reference as a footnote in the story or even in the comic's intro. This makes the first time read a bit muddle...it was the artwork that kept me driving through. And I think a large part of my confusion also contributed to your intro. When I started getting lost in the dialogue, I deferred back to thinking that stereotypes were playing a bigger part than it actually did. I like the cliff hanger at the end-and it was because of that, that I went back to do a re-read. But hell, I think a you would be SOL if a reader didn't particularly like zombies too much. But oddly enough, if I trashed what the intro and synopsis led me to believe, I do want to see what happened from the cliffhanger. G'luck Brother.
I liked it. Its distinct, both in art & style, as well as dialogue. I look forward to the next session...
Really loving the art here Alex! Your art is perfect for this format too. You got my vote mister!
I love the dialouge here. These characters are both relaxed and confident, and know what they're talking about. They also both have distinctive voices. Its reallly superbly done in such a shord period of time. The character design is solid, but you seem to have some problems drawing the facial expressions from some of the more awkward angles. I think what kills this for me is the synopsis. It doesn't seem like a gripping concept. Your work is so good, its a shame you didn't have a better one.
Love your at style. Reach out to me. burns.viper@gmail.com
Jason M. Burns
Assistant Publisher
Viper Comics
www.jasonmburns.com
Okay. Last of the general copy/paste questions and then we'll do some that are specific to each of this month's comics.
5) Where did you first hear about Zuda and it's competition? Through comic fans, other industry professionals, ads or news features? On-line, word-of-mouth or in print? Exactly how do you think the news about the Zuda comp is traveling these days to readers and future contributors?
-Rob
For me, I was doing okay trying to unravel the jargon. I will say though, it was a LOT of effort I put in trying to decode the slang. But when I hit page 4, it was just SO much jargon, and SO much dialogue, with very little "normal" speak, that I just stopped trying. It was an overwhelming page, that left me not really caring about anything as I finished the final four pages.
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In short, my experience was this. Two people meet, in a battle, they talk about a bunch of stuff I don't understand, and thusly, don't care about, for about 6 pages, then zombies come. But I don't care about the zombies because I don't care about the characters.
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I think, when you use a different language in print form, it doesn't translate as well as, say, movies or tv. When a real human is speaking the words, there is inflection, facial expressions, volume, intention, body language, and all sort of visual and audio cues that we intuitively use to help us determine the words meaning. I don't think this method translates as well to the written word. At least, not with the high percentage of slang vs. "normal" speech that you chose.
Heyo seems that I am ass late to the party but I arrived eventually anyway. I appreciate all the positive comments and support and all the crits I am really jazzed that almost all of them have been well thought out and constructive crits rather than the “your dumb” the internet is so well know for :D
As for the crits, the major ones I have I have heard is about the “jargon” and about not getting enough information causing a bit of confusion. So before I jump in neck deep I am just gonna disclaim here that what follows is just a reason of why I did it, not a proof that other people are wrong.
Firstly for the jargon, I didn’t think in the context of the conversation it was that cryptic. I thought at the very least it would pass along the jist of what was going on. Eg. The Snatch pi-keys are virtually incomprehensible for the most part but because the jist of what they say gets across. But I am interested to know which ones really threw people off so let me know.
As for the confusion on terms like Z.E.P and otherwise, I am a big fan of things that explain themselves in an organic fashion. I really hate when the fourth wall gets broken to overly explain a term that the characters in the story would need no explanation to understand. I would rather not know and have that be something I have the minor “oooohhhhhh that’s what that means” later in a story when it can be worked in more smoothly.
As I have also been a lame duck on Robbs questions I will try and answer a few here (as if this hasn’t gone on long enough)
As for other work I have worked in a few design houses and got to da a hallmark mothers day commercial which you can see hmya
http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/publish/consumer/home/shows/tell_us_your_story.html it’s the one called “ring bear” (only got a week and a half to do that one so it isn’t polished as I would like)
I have worked with some textbook publishers and some toy companies but I don’t have that online.
The 2 coolest (at least from fun standpoints) had to be getting to draw a bunch of the tattoos for the ending of the Cronenburg flick “Eastern Promises”
And doing a few of the designs for the scream awards stopmotion bumpers. Both the flick credits and the scream awards you can catch at www.cuppacoffee.com So check em out :D
I found the dialogue a little hard to follow, I don't think it was just the jargon, it lacks flow and I found it very hard to "hear" it spoken outloud (maybe some emphasis in the lettering would help). But that's a minor crit. I liked the comic, especially the colors and the way the female lead was drawn. Its a nice piece of work with a lot of potential. Haven't read all of them yet, but I hope this one does well.
So on to the next question;
4)Zuda's eight page pitch and 4X3 format is relatively for putting work into the hands of editors, producers and readers. Was the comic you've submitted packaged into or first proposed in any earlier form (short story, graphic novel, animated short, etc...)? If so, what were some of the challenges of adapting it to this format?
-Rob
'...though I suppose a chav wouldn't think they were one so who knows'
Quality!
I dig the jargon. I know it can be hit and miss, but for me, it's definitely a hit.
A nice modest twist! Well...twist because I didn't read the synopsis before the comic. I was tryin' to figure it out...hitmen or Sp.Ops? Seemed to drag a little but the build up was still nicely delivered. Nice artwork, too!
So, next question.
There are quite a few returning competitors in this month's contest, so I thought this might be appropriate for another general question;
3)What other professional work or experiences have any of you had that precedes this comic? Anything serialized? Any links readers might see your other work on? Basically, how many people are 'new-comers' in this month's contest?
-Rob
I love the artwork in this, and although it takes a little time to build up, I like that in a book.
So next question.
There's a really good balance of single artists and creative teams in this month's contest, so this one's intended to give everyone on a team a chance to respond. The answers should be limited to five responses from each team member because, well, three too short and ten gets boring.
Contestant Number Eight;
2)Please list five influences, without any particular order, in comics (or whatever media) that you think best inform the things you wanted to see happen in this project. Where's this coming from for you?
-Rob
Gotta say kudos for the coloring style, it stands out :) I personally don't have a problem with lots of lead-in to the main story as I like that kind of thing, but I can see how it will harm you in this contest as with only 8 pages to grab a viewer, you didn't quite get it done. There are others that made much better use of the format.
So, as mentioned on the message boards, I'm going to ask some questions on talkback this month and see where it takes us. Some of them are general and the same from comic to comic, while later ones are project specific.
Kinda' like The Dating Game.
So, Contestant Number Eight (John);
1)What do you think the work out-put is of your creative team per month and how do you think your comic works in updates? Will you follow a "scene-based" update method like BAYOU, a "page-based" rhythm like HIGH MOON, or a twice-weekly system like NIGHT OWLS?
-Rob
The art is really great!!!I love it!
I'm still reading my way through all the submissions but so far I'm liking this one. Love the art, as far as 'jargon' goes, do you ask for a glossary to a hiphop song? These characters are 'stereotypes' so jargon filled, slightly stilted dialogue seems to fit them. I'd like to see more of this to see how the basic premise of playing off types is developed.
Zombies are cool itself but is it me or too much salt can ruin a great ham dinner?
I'm really sorry, but this is just bad. And everything else this month is really good... Art's kinda kooky in an okay way, though.
I do want to say, I thought the writing and art were both good quality. Neither were poor. They just weren't my cup of tea.