Comic Dish Webcomics Hosting :: View topic - Mad-gic Science Do-over

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:57 am

If you read Mad-gic Science and do not follow my twitter, I am restarting my comic from scratch. Due to bad planning on my part, I have strayed from the plotline I was aiming for, and the only way I have though of to fix this mess is to restart the comic.

I am sorry for any inconvenience, and hope I don't bum all of you out enough to quit reading it.

And if you don't read the comic/didn't like the first try, maybe this redo will interest you more than the original.

thank you for ya'lls patience.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:06 am

Interested in any feedback before you do the big re-start?

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:13 am

Anything that can improve the new story is welcome. That is one of the reasons why I made this thread. ^_^

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:40 am

Totally understand the urge to begin anew -- not so long since I did just that either (and am much more satisfied with the second take so far, so it was definitely worth it). Hope you manage to get things straightened out to your satisfaction!

In any case, since you're taking suggestions, I think I'd like to see you try a different font for your speech bubbles/captions -- possibly a slightly more "traditional comics" one. I haven't really been crazy about the fonts you've used in the comic up to now... Cool

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:28 pm

Here are a few suggestions:

- It's usually best to avoid beginning your comic with the 4th-wall-breaking where your cast introduces the comic.

- When I last read through the comic, I remember it beginning with the plot point of a boy being unwillingly experimented on and receiving certain powers, but then the story seemingly went for chapters without addressing that, or him ever using the powers. If magic and mad science are a central topic in the story, it's best to never stray too far from that topic. It just takes a little reminder now and then. "Oh, that's right. That guy has powers".

- At least in what I read, I was a bit unclear on why the girl wanted to experiment on the guy. It might be fun if this time you let readers in on her motives. Maybe you did already and I just didn't read that far.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:43 pm

Alright, I figured reading through it would be fine...

...Alright first things first. While it isn't with the comic itself, I would LOVE to see you re-vamp the archives. I click on a chapter, then I get parts of a chapter, but there are no links to the comics themselves. I click on a part and read through, and there's no way of telling where I am in that part or if I've even made it to the next one. It's really confusing.

Also, when I click on Part 1 of Chapter 1, It brings me to what I would assume to be the first page in which one of the characters says "And now you know our story." What story? I decided to click on the previous button and to my amazement, I found cover art for Chapter 1. Shouldn't that be where Chapter 1 begins. I went back further, and there's even more comics before it, I'm guessing it's a prelude, one that isn't even listed in the archives. You REALLY want to fix that, because I read on not knowing their story because of it.

probably more to come, but like Hawk said, You should ditch the 4th wall breaking intro.

Also, you might want to use spellcheck. Try typing the duologue in word so you can check your spelling, and look out for errors. I had similar (if not worse) trouble with spelling back in my previous series. You should catch it as soon as possible. When I see a typo, it takes me out of the story and makes me go "What?." It doesn't help the flow of a comic when I see "throughing" instead of "throwing" or when I see a sentance like "Are you telling me that telling me that you have no powers?" with the word bubbles expanded to include the error. I'd tell you what page these errors are on, but the archive problem kinda puts a kink in that idea.

Also, no chapter recaps please. and you might want to have some better closure to the chapter, because it seemed like you just ended it right at the climax. I guess the recap served as the closure, but it still seemed rather lame.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:06 pm

Thanks for the advice everyone.

@Roo I agree, the font has been changing throughout the comic, and I have finally given in and will start using Comic Sans *gasp* It seems to be the only font that fits the mood of the comic I plan.

@Hawk I agree, the 4th wall bit was because I didn't really know what I was doing, and wanted to just start the comic. I realized it was not a good idea after my first read through of the comic.
Thank you for asking for more of the magic/mad science, I though I was good on that, but your right, there seems to be not enough right now. Lets start off with fireballs flying! ^_^
And last, the true explanation of why she wanted to experiment on him was about to be hinted at on the current plot line, so everyone will need to be patient a little longer. Sorry.

@ Mario Thank you for reading through the comic. The archives have been a problem since I started trying to make it. It is still on the trial and error part, so please be patient with me.
Spelling errors will be corrected in the second version. This problem has been pointed out on multiple forums I have posted on, and I think the solution has been found.
And the Chapter Recap... it was a bad idea after a 3 month slump... It shall be like the 4th wall and disappear.

Thanks for the current reviews and suggestions.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:39 pm

Mad Scientist wrote:

@Roo I agree, the font has been changing throughout the comic, and I have finally given in and will start using Comic Sans *gasp* It seems to be the only font that fits the mood of the comic I plan.

Comic Sans doesn't fit any comic. It's a terribly-overused and unprofessional font. I would strongly advise against using it. Blambot and 1001 Free Fonts should have something with a similar style that doesn't have the same issues (and stigma) that Comic Sans has.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:43 pm

Do you have any recommendations?

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:46 pm

Mad Scientist wrote:

Do you have any recommendations?

My comic uses Digital Strip, but I'm noticing that it's becoming overused as well. Let me look through some fonts and get back to you.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:47 pm

not a problem, take your time

When I looked through Blambot, Anime Ace 2 and Comicgeek stood out the most...

eww, nevermind, it costs money there... now to go to 1001 free fonts...

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:58 pm

Blambot always has a certain amount of fonts available for free.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:15 pm

I just get all my fonts at Dafont. Everything is free there, including all the aforementioned fonts. :p

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:23 pm

The Ban Comic Sans website has a section specifically for alternatives to Comic Sans. (Many of which I believe are also on Blambot) I also stumbled across this list, which appears to be another list of Comic Sans alternatives. I don't think any of them are free though, but I didn't check any of the links so I can't say for sure.

This font looks similar to Comic Sans, but may be different enough. Hard to say from the limited sample characters, but it could be worth testing.

Third from the top on this page is a font that's actually called I Hate Comic Sans. I've heard of that font, but I've never used it or seen it used, so you might want to test it out.

Mad Scientist wrote:

When I looked through Blambot, Anime Ace 2 and Comicgeek stood out the most...

I used to use Anime Ace in my comic. I don't remember why I switched to Digital Strip, but I don't recall having any problems with Anime Ace. Anime Ace is free, by the way. On Blambot, the fonts with a dot next to them are the ones that cost money. They release a new free font and a new "pro" (costs money) font each month.

If you're done looking at Blambot, have a scroll through 1001 Free Fonts and see if anything stands out there. (That linked text goes straight to their "comic" section.) You might actually find it to be quite fun. I do, but I'm a total nerd about that kind of thing.

You may also want to have a look at this thread about fonts if you haven't already. And this episode of Webcomic Beacon (which I haven't listened to) is about fonts and lettering. It might give you an idea of what to look for.

When I was digging up news for this week's Dish, I came across this post by John Allison of Scary Go Round. A few of the replies mention ways of creating your own font, if you wanted to go that route.

As for fonts to avoid besides Comic Sans, I have to mention Comic Book Commando. I used it in my earlier pages, and I find that it becomes very annoying to read after awhile. I intend to re-letter those pages some day.

I realize that you asked for suggestions, and I didn't really come up with many of them, but hopefully some of the above resources will help you come to your own decision.

Just don't use Comic Sans.

Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:47 pm

Thanks, these are pretty good. I was looking at some of these already, so this justifies changing away from Comic Sans (I don't really like it either).

Thanks ya'll for the help. If you think of any more issues that would need fixed, just post here. I will post the comic as soon as I have enough pages to get started.