So about Kazei 5…

Firstly, the cons of the series. Let me tell you that my favorite part was the first shot of the Puma Squad; I know how hard it is to do full body shots of the characters all the time, especially when you have like 10 people standing on screen, but more perspective would really compliment the series. It's good practice when you can't do super high quality all the time (because you don't want to have 10 pages in 5 years finished) to have 1 perspective shot every 2-3 pages. One of the parts I thought could really use it was when the limo was first pulling into the corperate headquarters.


perspective shots here and there that are underneath, birds-eye, etc etc… would make it really amazing

The pros I have to say are all within the anatomy of the production, the storys progression, and how characters are presented and built. The part I have to leave a special note about was the fight with the Puma Squad at pages 30-50 or so. One grappling shot I just found amazing. x_x It would take me way too long and does to create these kinds of things. ;p The action within this part is clear enough to understand thanks to attention spent to anatomy.

The lighting is great, although the first memory is a bit blurry it's understandable and everything gets better as it progresses. I actually started to enjoy it around the limo section where there were a few funny parts. (comedy builds characters like no other)

I really liked the Chibi page, also, where it explains what Lynxs are and I've added a picture of it as a screenshot to the profile on The Webmanga Library.

Bottom Line: This reminds me of older styles of anime, the eyes being like Magic Knight Rayearth or Clamp manga; but I can tell if you carry on with it over a long period of time you'll have a story that's like a magical-dark city manga like Read or Die, Ghost in the Shell, etc etc… It'd just be nice to see some perspective shots here and there. This is a project that will get more enjoyable as it goes.

I'll give it a 5 out of 5, more people should give a read.


My questions to you are

1) What is your process of creation? What programs do you use as well as physical utencils?
2) How long have you been working on this project?
3) Is comic genesis your home site for this project?

I've been looking all over for this review since you first mentioned it. Never thought to look on my own forums. ^_^;;;

re: perspective shots. It's sometimes hard to remember to do more than a full on head shot. The easy (read: most practiced) establishing shots just seem to come naturally, and you have to make yourself remember the other views like bird's eye, worm's eye, inside-out eye, and whatnot. Like anything it comes with practice. I often go through my comic collections to get ideas for layouts, perspective shots, and even poses, so that helps some.

re: anatomy. I'm glad you liked the poses. Sometimes I have to really rack my brains to come up with something, and I'm happy to say that some of them are really doozeys. ^_^ The grappling shot was one of those, but I think needed a little more time spent getting the look down just right. I think if I had spent just another hour or two on it, it would have been alot better.

re: first memory. I had made it intentionally blurry on purpose. It was my intent to show the fuzziness of her early memories. If I had it to do over again, I think I'd go back and do it over again in crayon. Sort of like a child's rendering of her first memories. It would still be in my usual style and not crayon stick figures, but it would help to convey the first person perspective a bit more.

re: chibi page. You can look forward to more of these as the story progresses. I'll be using them to explain the vagaries of the setting that the people there would already be aware of, but aren't immediately obvious to the audience.

re: bottome line. CLAMP… <3 <3 <3 I love their stuff, and loved Read or Die. But GitS… how do I properly convey how much I adore Shirow's works? He is my biggest influence, story-wise, and if I could be 1/1,000,000,000 the writer he is, I'd die happy. The man is genius, pure and simple. And then of course, his art… ::drools::

I humbly thank you for your review and hope to improve as I go along. Now to your questions.

1. My physical utensils include inkjet paper (I know, I know, ‘tis sacrilige), a .05mm mechanical pencil (the smaller point stays sharp longer than a regular pencil), and when I do non-flashback or non-combat pages, a .02mm Sakura pen. Once that is done, I scan in them in to the computer, assemble the page, and add in the screentone and/or colors. For software, I use Photoshop 5 (pretty old, but when you consider the cost for a new copy ($600), it becomes golden), and the screentone filter add-on came from a how-to-manga book called Computones. I intend to get the whole series, but so far only have to mecha volume.

2. I first went online in early September last year, but have been building up to it for about a year beforehand. Most of that was me getting up the courage to actually do this. An interesting note: This manga is based on Samantha’s backstory, who was a character for a tabletop RPG. The original story was 98 pages long, but so far, we've reached page 9 of the story. So as you can see, we've a ways to go to reach the end. I may continue making this comic after that, but haven't decided yet.

3. It used to be. I had signed up for CG before finding DD. But since I can program in html about as well as pig can balance a checkbook, I switched over to DD. DD has the templates and allows me to blog and make artist's comments without the hassle of learning that stuff.

Sorry for posting so late back x_x

first memory. I had made it intentionally blurry on purpose. It was my intent to show the fuzziness of her early memories. If I had it to do over again, I think I'd go back and do it over again in crayon. Sort of like a child's rendering of her first memories. It would still be in my usual style and not crayon stick figures, but it would help to convey the first person perspective a bit more.

Oh ok. Then that part is just fine, just fine indeed. ;p If it were in a first person perspective, it might actually remind me of the beginning of Halo 1.

But GitS… how do I properly convey how much I adore Shirow's works? He is my biggest influence, story-wise, and if I could be 1/1,000,000,000 the writer he is, I'd die happy. The man is genius, pure and simple. And then of course, his art… ::drools::

Your making me want to watch Ghost In The Shell. x_x I havn't watched the series in japanese yet and in order (I kind of…don't…like to watch series in american dubbing).

My physical utensils include inkjet paper (I know, I know, 'tis sacrilige)

What does this mean? Actually; I should ask beforehand ‘what kinds of paper are there to use?’

I first went online in early September last year, but have been building up to it for about a year beforehand. Most of that was me getting up the courage to actually do this.

Wow, this is definitely my kind of project. ;-) My situation on my own project is about the EXACT same thing. Most projects that go for that long, too, change throughout the course. For example, a setting that would take place in a city turns into a setting in a rural or suburban area.

It used to be. I had signed up for CG before finding DD. But since I can program in html about as well as pig can balance a checkbook, I switched over to DD. DD has the templates and allows me to blog and make artist's comments without the hassle of learning that stuff.

I actually hated Drunk Duck throughout the first draft or two of adding Webmanga to my website. (it's form now is finalized, but it's last form didn't have pictures and I added through onlinecomics.net) Every time I'd come across Drunkduck it would take longer to load; but now that I'm moving over to Drunkduck I realize their's more of a manga community. The sites like The Webcomic List seem biased.

james_the_composer
Sorry for posting so late back x_x

No problemo. ^_^

james_the_composer
Oh ok. Then that part is just fine, just fine indeed. ;p If it were in a first person perspective, it might actually remind me of the beginning of Halo 1.

Heh. Believe it or not, I've never played the game. :P

james_the_composer
Your making me want to watch Ghost In The Shell. x_x I havn't watched the series in japanese yet and in order (I kind of…don't…like to watch series in american dubbing).

I tend to be a subbed purist as well. I sometimes find the casting of the voiceactors to be lacking most times. Especially in large productions like Spirited Away and the like. They tend to get big Hollywood names to try to bring in more people, but they just don't seem to fit to me.

james_the_composer
What does this mean? Actually; I should ask beforehand ‘what kinds of paper are there to use?’

Most serious artists tend to use bristol board or “official” comic work pages. But unless you're planning on selling them later, I see little point in spending money that way. That stuff is just too expensive, so I tend to use several pages of inkjet paper and assemble them together in the computer.

james_the_composer
Wow, this is definitely my kind of project. ;-) My situation on my own project is about the EXACT same thing. Most projects that go for that long, too, change throughout the course. For example, a setting that would take place in a city turns into a setting in a rural or suburban area.

Believe me, you're going to see a drastic change in backgrounds. ;p

james_the_composer
I actually hated Drunk Duck throughout the first draft or two of adding Webmanga to my website. (it's form now is finalized, but it's last form didn't have pictures and I added through onlinecomics.net) Every time I'd come across Drunkduck it would take longer to load; but now that I'm moving over to Drunkduck I realize their's more of a manga community. The sites like The Webcomic List seem biased.

I wouldn't know. How you see DD now is how I first experienced it. As for sites like TWL, there does seem to be an almost anti-manga webcomic movement. I can understand the tired of the oversaturation of the market, but that doesn't equate to all manga=bad. And then of course, there's the people who believe not Japanese=not manga. >_<