second round Silver the Undefeated page 212

bravo1102 on Oct. 13, 2023

The Drunk Duck awards should be wrapping up soon. The comic will probably be just winning for Best Backgrounds. A category it doesn't really deserve to win but guess they had to give me something to shut me up with the whole “not allowed to win” running joke.

With careful reading of the judge's acclaim for the categories the comic was nominated for I have picked up some pointers because it seems in at least two a comparison appears to be made to an unnamed competing comic. And the comments seem applicable to this comic.

One favorite judge's remark was in the character design category. All the characters are so expressive that you could remove the word balloons and the comic could still be understood. If I had any characters that talked with their hands they'd be that expressive but it's not part of the setting. There aren't any New York/New Jersey Italians on the planet Ungol. 🤣 XD You live in New Jersey you learn all this. Hold the person's hands still and they can't talk. My characters don't act that way so they're not well designed? Always though character design had to do more with, well the design of the characters, not if they use their hands to talk.

Another one was that they didn't know where to look first. A simple primer for those who skipped first grade. You read a page starting at the Upper left, then across. Back to the left and across to the right again. I do test my pages with the “Z” scan pattern that is hard wired into human perception according to cognitive science. Oh well. XD

Just venting. Judging is very hard at times and sometimes things are so close you have to go outside the category a bit to make a decision. There are times when you have to look beyond the simple images and words on a page. For example, character design. The characters express themselves more broadly and the design of the characters reflects that so well that it is something to put that comic over one with more static figures, even if those figures are supposed to be static.

As for my page layouts, my pages are rather chaotic and not clear to read. I also know the posing for the figures can be very subtle. Difficult to exaggerate the gestures because of the supposed realism of the comic and the lack of characters that talk with their hands. Belle's Best has some characters that are more expressive with their poses because that's who they are, but Aordians and Diamorians don't. 🤣🤣 Maybe I should put a few that do just for variety. I have been trying to match William Shatner's body language as Kirk because he was very expressive.

I have to laugh about it all because I will probably be having the depression coming on because the days are getting shorter let alone my fears of not being any good being so vividly realized.

But that's me.