The Dead Seas
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Eons ago, an ancient civilization toiled in perpetual conflict. The long-fought war between undead mages known as The Necromancers and a legion of magic-users that stood in opposition to them called the Neverum finally ended with an extraordinarily noble, self-sacrificing act. The Neverum sealed all magic, both the Necromancers and their own, in a mystic box thus ending the war - and their lives! With the Neverum gone and the Necromancers locked away, the world finally knew peace. Centuries later, archaeologists discovered the box buried in a long forgotten city. Unaware of the dangers it held, they opened it, releasing the magic, and the dreaded Necromancers, back into the world. Renewing their war on all life, the Necromancers began to raise an army of the dead. Without the Neverum, humanity was brought to the brink of extinction. Meanwhile the mystic box was lost in the chaos, that is until a young pirate named Devin found it. Taking it to an old sage, Devin learned the history of the Neverum and the Necromancers. Presented with the task of traveling to the four corners of the world, braving harsh elements and legions of undead in order to confront the powerful, magic-wielding Necromancers and attempt to recapture them, Devin instead decided to sell the box. However, in looking for a buyer Devin met Luna - a beautiful, noble, young adventurer on a quest to rid the world of the Necromancer's evil. Smitten, Devin decides to join her quest.
I LOVE this!
Oh man. Hey - screens nine through the end have nothing to do with Pop's story. They're some of our test screens that were accidentally posted. If you're reading this and you don't see those screens it's because we fixed the problem. Sorry!
I agree with Cheddar42. Pathetic repetition of pointless fights with no relation to the dead seas whatsoever.
I read this first: 8 pages. I see it now: 60 fairly pathetic pages repeated over and over and over. WHY!?!?!
I looked at this first: 8 pages. I look now: 60 pages. MUST READ!!!!!
I don't know if Pop is still checking in here, but this is another comic I'd like to see comeback for the Zuda invite contest.
This was the first comic I read on Zuda. This should have carried on. It really should.
Absolutely amazing. Truly awesome.
I have a softspot for zombies. The magical aspect made it cooler.
Good work
Great art and storytelling. I'm very new here, today is my first out. I wish you well
fantastic art!
Unless I change my mind (not an unlikely event), this one gets the vote from me! And the reason? Well, it's just that despite the shortcomings of the actual story, this
creator actually manages to TELL a story in eight screens - beginning, middle, end, characters, conversation, action and Bob is as they say your mother's brother.
No mucking about I thought before Zuda launched they were all going to look like this - light on story and ideas but at least showing some understanding of layout and basic story telling. Anyway despite the sense that we've all been here before story-wise, the artwork generally works really well apart from that kinda goofy look the characters have when expressing extreme emotion. I actually think the creator could take that up a notch rather than down and use a different colour palette or just generally use a more extreme style, these exagerations look a bit half-hearted to me.
The panel count per screen impresses, but it's not that alone, rather the amount of information the panels still carry. There's a whole zombie slugfest going on, not just on the page, but within the panels. Not an easy thing to do when you consider some creators have struggled to get a fraction of the content from one of these panels into one of their pages.
Of course "(insert name here)! YOU'RE NOT DEAD..." is a phrase I never want to hear again in ANY comic thank you.
yo POP what's up, i love your style, bring the funk....
you've got my vote!!!!
cheers
-n8
very good!
The artwork isn't bad but a bit too manga influenced for my tastes. Also, tell the colorist to lay of the blue. The premise isn't bad but the execution didn't hold me.
This comic looks fantastic, but the story/characters left me a little cold. i'd like to see it continue somewhere else, though. i still haven't decided if i should put it on my "favs." the art definately warrants it, but like i said, the story....
This is by far the best art on Zuda right now. I don't care what anybody says. If this doesn't win I really hope he keeps it going somewhere else.
The synopsis seems more like a prologue to me rather than an overview of the story. Would've helped if I had a better idea of where the story was going (besides more undead to kill) than where it's been. Just food for thought.
Visually, this is the best of the choices. Great art. Great design. Great colors. Great action. Pace is excellent. Dialogue fair. But don't know if the story is enough to keep my attention. Definitely talented work. Good luck.
you got my vote.
The artwork is nice and gestural - looks a bit rough and simple at times, but it suits the style of the comic. I tend to agree that the artwork supercedes the visuals for the most part, but the style works for the RPG/Manga feel.
Thumbs up! I'll keep checking in on this one.
Story is just ok but the art is awesome I love the Japanime style too! keep the great job John.
Not exactly what I would call original but it was entertaining. The arts pretty good too. You got some talent.
Pop, your art has always been fun and tip-top quality. Nice action shots. DEAD SEAS is a concept that I could end up really enjoying. Best of luck.
Hi Guys! Thanks for all of the kind words and support about the strip. While I'm sorry that 'manga-ish' art isn't some of you guy's cup of tea, I thank you for checking it out and commenting all the same!
I can relate to the fantasy/role-playing/video-game slant from the comments posted since I am huge fan of all of those and the influence shows.
Thanks again for posting your thoughts and voting (if you did!)
Reminded me of playing D&D back in the summer of '80 with my 'cool' friends. Very painful memory. Although beautiful to look at, the story takes me to my 'bad place'.
I like the characters they mesh well, they don't seem like a team who will get tired of travel banter while they get to know each other.I'm not into manga much but this art is awesome and the story seems fun. Devlin seems like he's got some hidden power to be developed and Luna's got to have more tricks in the bag.look forward to reading more.
I liked it. its one of my top 3
dialogue is ok. story is ok though it smells like "The Mummy." art is sufficient to carry the story through. it is ok. not the best but just ok.
Really enjoyed this.
Two of the panels on page 7 lost a little bit in the faces (a little too much manga-shocked look), but the art was strong otherwise!
This comic is by far the best drawn comic of the lot people,damn the action is off the wall,the body design and motion are very animated and professional.If it were up to me this would be the winner hands down....Good luck.
I promised myself I'd wait and try to read this one last. But I caved in and read it kind of in the middle. The art's comfortable. The story reminds me a bit too much of Avatar the cartoon mixed with a really big side helping of the RPG Exalted. But I think the part that interests me most is that there's 59 of those bad-guys left, which hints that this story is going to go somewhere and go somewhere quickly. So while the bare bones of it didn't really click with me, I certainly like the fact that this 8-page preview sets up a solid direction and lets me know it plans to take me in that direction. If that makes any sense. Heh. I guess I've just been reading way too many "epic" fantasy novels lately that really only like to set up more and more sequels. So if this can deliver a beginning, middle and end, I'd be a very happy camper.
I like this one a lot. The story here is obvious, as in I know what's happening. The art is good. I wouldn't mind seeing more of these.
Nice work. One of my favorites.
Pop: I was a big Pirates of Dark Water fan, so of course I thought this was a great story. Lot's of panels, with a fair amount of words is not a problem for me. The Necromancher word balloons/ sfx: was nice effects, but the font in the text boxes was a little hard to read. If an comic artist can't draw a cool zombie he should be doing still-life's, and your zombie's are cool. The Necromancer character looks awesome! It is really interesting for me to see how the creator's use the synopsis. Some give you the back story and start off in the middle of things, other's give you what's going to happen and start off at the start. Your story seems to pick up just after the synopsis ends, but you go over the back-story again in the art. Good for those that skipped the synopsis, but it did eat up screen 4. I was wanting to see more zombie pic's. Really very good stuff.
One of the best. Mainly because you have pacing down. A lot the other comics have been 8 pages of premise the reader kind of left wondering whether or not it is any good.
But here I was thrust into the story given little pieces of what is going on while watch the story of the Lich hunting. I think you could have even saved the one panel of Luna's exposition for later, but it didn't really hurt the momentum of the story and was definitely more enjoyable to read once I was enthralled in the story rather than if it had been the first panel.
I'm normally not a huge fan of this art style, but the Lich looked great and the minimalist panel of the zombies crumbling worked really well.
Awesome job. I'll be back for more.
Was that a nod to Evil Dead?
Fun stuff! Definitely one of my favorites.
Great art!!!
pretty nifteh Pop! i'm digggin it.
Best art I've seen in in this site so far! That's it, except for the horrible animu faces the pirate makes in page 7, it really ruins the mood. The page layouts are great and every frame it's well used and exploded to their full potential. The action scenes are awesome! Strangely, the preview pic is really weak.
I can't say a lot about the story. It's not very original, but it has potential, though the "gotta-catch'em-all" angle it's not one of my favorites. I hope it will serve as a setup and context for something else.
I get that the sexualized clothes of the characters are standard in this kind of comics, but I hope they have at least one change.
I like the idea of the reluctant hero - who really only steps up because he wants to get the girl. I think the evolution of that guy into a true hero is something worth exploring.
i didn't care much for the story, but my god, the artwork ROCKED!!!! I'd like to see how this develops....
i really dig the artwork.
congrats....got my vote
This was probably the best art in the whole compitition. and I enjoyed the story a lot.
4 stars. good job
Looks good - panels are a little stilted/exposition heavy in the first couple pages but it's hard to get something up and running in such a short space. It really picks up near the end, so good job, and I'm looking forward to more.
Some people have commented on the panels being cramped but for me this is exactly the kind of density I've been hoping for from all the other strips. There's really a hell of a lot to look at, more to read, and a very natural flow of action. I like George Perez so I don't mind lots of panels. It reads exceptionally well. Now the bad news, I don't like what it's about, the subject, the dialogue, the characters, the western manga style art, or anything else at all. That sounds terrible but it's just not my thing. However, the pacing, layouts and density of incident are something all the other contestants could learn from. I must just have a bigger screen and a faster computer than all these other complainers - cuz all these comics load fast and look great from where I'm sitting - whether I like 'em or not is another matter!
This was a fun comic. I like the character interaction, and I look forward to see more of these two. The story sparked my interest, the art was good.. but the panels feel to cramped.
Good start, fairly easy to follow and get into. Some of the panels were a bit tight especially the ones that were on the borders, they appeared cut off. The coloring is very neutral almost to point of wondering if any coloring is needed at all. The writing is concise and pacing is perfect.
Enjoyed it thoroughly. managed to keep my interest through to the last page which is an important aspect for this contest. Only one other on here has done that and was a hard choice for me between the two. Good work and good luck, really like the strong showing.