07-03-2016, 05:14 PM
Yeah Jonny, I gotta pipe up here too.
We all basically picked yours out for honourable mention because of how ambitious and how well executed it was, but forgot to actually say this outloud in the stream. We did think it deserved highlighting.
What we didn't talk about was why it didn't get into the top spots. For one reason or another it didn't connect with us on a visceral level. Remember that ultimately judging is a very subjective thing, especially when it comes to comics. It is so hard to do. If we had it our way, everyone would win, but that takes out too much of the element of reward which we think is important to increasing participation in the challenge. But ultimately that isn't the point. It is about what YOU learned that matters.
I'd like to say that yours was probably the best planned, was the most ambitious, really nailed all the elements of readability, and definitely straddled the line incredibly well between the narrative and the technical. The story was poignant and smart, and dark (I love dark) and I totally relate, having family members that have addiction problems, and being on the risk scale myself.
So why didn't we pick it? I honestly couldn't tell you for certain, but I get this sense that you perhaps didn't give us enough for us to empathize with Max. It was a string of life moments seen very much from outside, and the time frame was so great between panels that perhaps the gravity of the nature of the change from one to the other didn't impact as much as it could have? Note this is just me wondering...I truly can't fault your execution, directly. By the second to last panel, I still felt a little underwhelmed by the payoff, in that I knew it was horrifying and I should have felt awful, but in reality I simply didn't. In truth it surprised me a bit that I had that reaction. Maybe that is more my issue with empathy than yours in showing the situation. Or perhaps, because the story arc itself is a very well known one to us all it didn't really surprise or show us anything new that we haven't seen many times before. The trope of "drugs and addiction are horrible" are pretty much all around us, so in order to engage us with a well trodden trope, there really has to be an original and unique twist to things with the story. You did really well with the use of cute dogs, and the really clever use of the donut device, but the story itself while executed brilliantly, was ultimately a little underwhelming for me personally. Again you tried to cover and nail all those challenges in ONE page. Talk about ambitious. There is nothing I would take away from this, than absolute pride in how much you actually nailed. The only thing you didn't nail was a meaningless spot in the "top three"
Note this is just my own subjective opinion! There will be others that are hit hard by your story, no doubt. That's the nature of the game :)
What I do know is that out of all the entries, you put in the most work and are probably the most passionate about comics, and that passion will take you far. You told a story that was deeply personal and used the medium for more than just a good laugh. If you keep that up, I predict you will be producing some great stuff in the future!
Hope to see you back sooner, once you've had some time to process!
We all basically picked yours out for honourable mention because of how ambitious and how well executed it was, but forgot to actually say this outloud in the stream. We did think it deserved highlighting.
What we didn't talk about was why it didn't get into the top spots. For one reason or another it didn't connect with us on a visceral level. Remember that ultimately judging is a very subjective thing, especially when it comes to comics. It is so hard to do. If we had it our way, everyone would win, but that takes out too much of the element of reward which we think is important to increasing participation in the challenge. But ultimately that isn't the point. It is about what YOU learned that matters.
I'd like to say that yours was probably the best planned, was the most ambitious, really nailed all the elements of readability, and definitely straddled the line incredibly well between the narrative and the technical. The story was poignant and smart, and dark (I love dark) and I totally relate, having family members that have addiction problems, and being on the risk scale myself.
So why didn't we pick it? I honestly couldn't tell you for certain, but I get this sense that you perhaps didn't give us enough for us to empathize with Max. It was a string of life moments seen very much from outside, and the time frame was so great between panels that perhaps the gravity of the nature of the change from one to the other didn't impact as much as it could have? Note this is just me wondering...I truly can't fault your execution, directly. By the second to last panel, I still felt a little underwhelmed by the payoff, in that I knew it was horrifying and I should have felt awful, but in reality I simply didn't. In truth it surprised me a bit that I had that reaction. Maybe that is more my issue with empathy than yours in showing the situation. Or perhaps, because the story arc itself is a very well known one to us all it didn't really surprise or show us anything new that we haven't seen many times before. The trope of "drugs and addiction are horrible" are pretty much all around us, so in order to engage us with a well trodden trope, there really has to be an original and unique twist to things with the story. You did really well with the use of cute dogs, and the really clever use of the donut device, but the story itself while executed brilliantly, was ultimately a little underwhelming for me personally. Again you tried to cover and nail all those challenges in ONE page. Talk about ambitious. There is nothing I would take away from this, than absolute pride in how much you actually nailed. The only thing you didn't nail was a meaningless spot in the "top three"
Note this is just my own subjective opinion! There will be others that are hit hard by your story, no doubt. That's the nature of the game :)
What I do know is that out of all the entries, you put in the most work and are probably the most passionate about comics, and that passion will take you far. You told a story that was deeply personal and used the medium for more than just a good laugh. If you keep that up, I predict you will be producing some great stuff in the future!
Hope to see you back sooner, once you've had some time to process!