Alone
Genre:
Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Views:
22316
Favorite:
107
Login to Add a Favorite
Mankind’s evolution seems to be near its end. The shining citadels and massive aqua ducts that marked his past genius now lie in ruins. His once endless numbers now reduced to tribes of struggling slaves staying one step ahead of the next rung of the evolutionary food chain... The Kangral. These are lizard like men of rare cunning and piercing intellect, who tirelessly hunt man. Humanity nears extinction at an alarming rate, stalked and lobotomized tribe by tribe. But hope is not yet lost. From the gloomy mountains of the north comes a man, Carof, carrying with him a lineage older than civilization, older than religion... He brings the force of magic. A weapon he uses to contort reality, bending time and space to form doorways in which he communes with those of dread and shadow that walk outside of time. Searching, ever searching for a solution to the death of his people... And on this day, as our story opens, he meets one with answers. The female of many faces... The demon, Nesune...
The art is amazing, it sets the mood really well. The only problem is the extremely anti-climactic lines give off a totally diferent mood. If you can match the vocal mood with the scenic mood, you're really gonna be unstopable.
The writing isn't quite there yet, but it's still very good. I thoroughly enjoyed this piece and hope to read more in the future. I really mean that. The artwork is superb, and I think that printing it wouldn't be a problem whatsoever. Plenty of comics are printed directly from painted/drawn sources. Please continue to write, I want more :)
I can see you have tried very hard with the painted artwork, but pages 3, 4 and 5 are a sin. I doubt you can keep up the quality without going insane and I don't think this is going to print very well. When you have a 75% dark it just prints as black.
I honestly recommend you try simplifying everything. Your composition skills are there, you just need to manage everything better. Your style is going to be very difficult to manage.
I like the artwork and storyline. Would like to have seen more attention to grammar and links to chapters 2 and 3 by now. Very nice use of colors.
I like this. Helluva lot of work involved but it has great atmosphere. Cheers!
Um... are you going to actually do any more? It's been awhile, is all I'm sayin'.
I love it. I envy you for having the time it takes to paint it. My time constriction only allows for line work and simple color. This must have taken you forever to do.
amazing drawings....
Beautiful Drawings. Well done.
This type of artwork takes forever. Looks engorging though. Any new scans coming soon!?
The artwork is pretty good, but the dialouge doesn't draw me in...Though the synapios is interesting!
Well, I was disappointed that it was only 8 screens!:( And why wansnm't there much dialogue between the characters?
pretty cool to me. lots of good feedback you got there too. :D
I love the art. The problem is its not sequential enough to tell the story. The reader should be able to flip through and know this ugly broad just turned into the hot chick. I really like the story so far and would really like to see more. I think the dialog may need a little work but it's hard to say because there wasn't a lot of exchange so maybe maybe not.
Very interesting stuff. Unique art and intricate attention to landscape. However, this seems more of a rousing introduction than a captivating sale. As RKB said, it can be hard but I know you can do it. I really want you to do well because your style seems to call my attention, lol. Keep up the GOOD work but strive for GREAT work!
If the Writing/story part doesn't interest you have you ever thought of brining in a writer? Seems quite the challenge to shape a story and text around images conceived with out a story. As for silent comic check out the works of Lynd Ward or Frans Masereel both did novels in woodcuts, not exactly comics but book length works told in pictures. There is a collection of 4 souch books called Graphic Witness.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me, gave me stars or a favorite rating. I hope I see you all again in a competition down the road :)
I actualy like the message here.
What with our defence systems
feeding the enemy what it often
has no choice but to become involved
with. Technology and Industrialization
pundering, and ravaging what was once
simple, and true...
The majick is in you...keep it close,
keep it safe...and the World will
embrace it, and again become Majick.
The Native Americans new something of this.
To them it whas something known as Clout.
I don't like to say what everyone else has already said, so I'll say this: The art isn't as great as everyone is making it out to be. It's muddy and boring, with no sense of composition. The story is boring, too, but the biggest problem is the storyTELLING. There isn't any. You've just put a bunch of static images next to each other with no real connection. You didn't spend enough time with any of the characters (what happened to that witch in the pond?), and instead just gave us page after page of blurry forrest scenes. And for future reference, "Who summons, Nesune?" does NOT require a comma, because that would seem to imply that the man's name is Nesune, instead of the lady/creature...
I agree- love the art... nice blending and selective detail. However, the story lacks.
Hmmm another comic with amazingly original art. Yo guys are making it hard for me to vote. 5/5 stars, a fav, and maybe a vote.
Art is majic... scenery was mesmerizing. Story is brilliant, want more. Like to see part II. Good Luck !
first things first, your comic got 3/5 stars from me, but mostly for the art. Yes the art's that good, yes the story didn't really grab me.
**************************************************************
First off -and this isn't just for you, it's for anyone who does a fantasy story- you need a different if not new twist to get past the whole yet another elves, wizards, trolls, save the world epic, here we go again thing that runs through peoples heads when they read something like this, same thing happens with superheros. It's hard to show what makes your story different and special than all the other fantasy/action/adventure stories that came before it in 8 screens, but you need to at least try. Kick ass art is a good place to start, but what can you do to make the words better???
*********************************************************
If you have a text box thought balloon, without the box, is it still a text box thought balloon??? Yes, to my horror. I like heavy metal, I don't think you have to have the boxes it does cramp the art, but too many thought balloons makes the story too passive a read for me. It's more engaging to this reader when you have character's talking. You know what makes it even more of a passive, less engaging, and worse -for me- read narration. It's not even really a thought balloon of what's going on inside the character's heads, it's 3rd person narration. It's not a novel it's a comic, I don't understand or like, the recent rise in narration in your and other comics on Zuda these past few months, why not at least go with text box thought balloons for your characters that let's us at least see inside their heads, it's a little more engaging. Maybe, your trying to build up mystery about these people/ things in your world, but it's only 8 screens -real easy to have too much damn mystery.
**********************************************************
The art reminds me of an old B&W comic called Iron Saga anthology, esp. a story in that called heartwood, -that's a good thing.
**********************************************************
SCREEN 1 Very nice landscape's here and throughout, could put bob ross to shame. I liked the big feel of the story, but it took you 3 screens to get to the adventure and point of the story. You established the world well, but only 8 screens I was looking for character interaction sooner. The narration makes sense here, but later on (in screen 3), once you get actual characters on the screen, why push the reader away with all the 3rd person stuff???
************************************************************
SCREEN 2 This should have been your first screen. You want to set up the look of the world, and it's a strong suite of your's, but you only have 8 screens, and this was a full page shot. I know you set things up with a quite open, then bam hit them with the vista, but it sort of means your going to have to really compress your character interactions later on, or nothing much is going to happen.
*********************************************************
again great art.
***********************************************************
SCREEN 3 we are almost half way in before we met a character, not a good indicator -pace-wise. The panel breakdown was fine, words not so fine, but I liked you giving the reader a reason to go to the next screen, with the what's in the pond question.
************************************************************
Again the 3rd person approach to a comic, all the narration here, 1st person thought balloons, or even better the guy talking to himself would have been better. leaving out the text boxes and word balloons to not get in the way of the art -good call. it probably also saved time?
***********************************************************
SCREEN 4 One of the best -if not the best- screens in the comic. You actually did a great job with the words in this panel. I liked the little rhyme, and calling her old goat.
*************************************************************
I also really enjoyed the panel layout for this screen. The images in panel 1 and 4 were very, very, well done. I liked the emotion in his eyes/ he looked like a young man old before his time, and the monster/demon design.
************************************************************
SCREEN 5 nice panel design, and good interactions between the characters, I really like the custom made insults (old goat/ thrower of bones), they slang at each other.
**********************************************************
SCREEN 6 Nice job on the waterfall. You also impressed me here with the words. Good landscape's here but, don't you think once your world is established (by screen 4, IMO), you should make the background, more background -and not standout so much. Or your character's a little more cartoony so it doesn't all run together when we are reading a screen, the character's don't really pop out at you. it seems like if you have the style choice between drawing a landscape, and drawing character's you go with landscape.
**********************************************************
SCREEN 7 A character pop's nensune with the back lighting in panel 3 nice job on her. A lot of words here, but you pulled it off okay. No matter how kick ass a landscape is, a character will always have more impact with me it's a person vs. thing kind of deal. Is the story about carof's journey, or snow covered mountains, tall trees, and waterfalls in fantasy land???
***********************************************************
SCREEN 8 i liked the only option left magic part, but ending on environment shots instead of carof really lessened the impact of the story, which brought you down to 3/5 stars.
Nope, sorry- I agree with people like julio and markus25. The images are beautiful and time-stakingly done. I would kill to have that sort of artisitc talent. But the story...falls flat. The people do not have kinetic poses- it's all scenery. That may be what you're going for, but if it is, you should question why. The simple text with its severe lack of adjectives leaves me wanting a lot more. It's elegant art with minimalist storytelling- and that awkwardness shows.
Looking at your synopis...I missed the part where the cloaked figure was male. He has feminine features, and the way the lettering is done, it looks like his name is Carol.
Dear Zuda Competitors/Creators,
I’m the creator of the Zuda fan blog, and I would love to interview all of this month’s creators. If you would be willing to answer 5-10 questions, to be posted on the Zudafan blog, please contact me at: zudafan@gmail.com.
Feel free to check out the blog: zudafan.blogspot.com
Thanks!
~Liz
lovely artwork, although it comes across a bit stiff.
Great Art, love the palette. Like how it reads. Enjoyed the lack of text boxes. Innovation is part of this competition. I enjoyed yours, and the whole look and feel. Great Work, keep it up!
Hi julio,
not being familiar w/ my other work I can see how you would look at the imagery as static instead of a styled approach and assume I did not understand story flow. Luckily the people who pick the competitors understood what I was doing.
"and a good letterer if you ever want to win a competition in Zuda"
Nice pep talk.
You have what it takes to make great painted comic covers but you need to keep growing as an artist in the aspect of storytelling, and give more action in your panels which are too static. And get an editor (someone to correct the wording and suggest changes in the story) and a good letterer if you ever want to win a competition in Zuda.
From what I see here, all this comic lacks is a letterer or a better font to put the presentation up to professional quality. The artwork is alread way above that level. If you have trouble writing text, you can get a "wordsmith" (editor) to help you polish it up. The person writing the words doesn't always have to be the person who's telling the story. Intriguing idea about doing a comic with no text. It'd be tricky to pull off, but if done right it could be amazingly subtle and powerful storytelling. Good luck!
Hi witchfinder,
well 'bad press is better than no press', eh? Thanks for taking the time to look even if you were not that into it. The next submission is all b+w line work, no color, which probubly will be a check against me if I make the cut in December or January but in my view its sink or swim with no tonal values or bright distracting colors. You either know what you are doing or you don't and it is obvious. Will be looking forward to your opinion...
cheers
Hi Ian,
I focus completely on the art and fill in the words afterwords... try to let the story unfold w/out any real thought, organic I guess. Everyone seems to think its the wrong way to go but I enjoy it so I do it.
Cheers
Well the paintings are really wonderful. You said you did this in the Marvel style. So how do you do it? Is this a story you imagined/dreamed/felt in images and let that vision sort of dictate the story; or is it part of a larger set of ideas you've already had for the characters that you're letting fall into place?
The Webcomic Witchfinder speaks (alright he writes, but you can hear him in your head): http://www.mpd57.blogspot.com/
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand this is good too! damn damn damn damn damn....
Absolutely beautiful artwork! Much luck to you.
You look older than 31. Perhaps you shouldn't paint too fast - you're wearing yourself out!
Excellent work. The paintings are wonderfully done.
A few answers:
1.) I will be hiring a letterer and have bought a pro font if people want series to continue. If not the next submission is ready to go.
2.) Yes, again, I really am fast enough to do a 60 page book in this style (easily). I have been making a living doing paintings for 4 years. I know my limitations :)
3. Cuervoscuro, that is exactly what I was shooting for, thanks for noticing :)
4. Glad for the most part everyone likes the art. I had fun doing this comic, will have to take it all a bit more seriously if the series continues. I work in the old Marvel style. I sit down and make it and then add lettering/story which I do not have as much interest in. Maybe a silent comic in the future.
I agree with everyone who has praised the artwork. The lettering isn't an issue for me; I viewed the strip in the full screen mode and it was legible enough. I am not moved by fantasy stories, unfortunately. I will, however, look again because the art is wonderful.
great art!!!!! verry good!
Intros are tricky, set a tone and try grab the reader.Where
this goes?I am intrigued.The artists this month....Holy S#*t!!! Beautiful!!!
This is a pretty solid offering. I reckon I'll either go for this or for Chi - Looks like a different kind of comic. You reckon you can really churn these beautiful pages out on a regular basis? Got to agree with everyone about the lettering, but you could get someone else to do it if you don't have the time... Yeah, nice work.
Hmm a good lot too much blur for my taste
O_O The art it's simply awesome, the landscape more a character than a plane... Really amazing!
Ridiculous art. Man. I agree, the lettering does seem as though it was an afterthought, but I can't really blame you with badass art like that.
Good foundations for hopefully more to come. Some of the grammer & spelling a bit dodgey though.
OK I gave you a favorite and a nice chunk fo stars, but you will understand if I don't give you my vote ;) The artwork here is beautiful. Really, Really amazing landscapes - especially on page 6 - first panel. I felt like I was there and that's what it's all about. I agree with the font issues most have mentioned though from the feedback I've gotten I can't really talk myself ;)
Man, this month's competition is just stuffed with amazing artists. This is, as many have said, beautiful work. There is a bit of Brian Froud and NC Wyeth in your work. I am gonna to have a heluva time picking my vote this month.