Mazes, Elves, Angels, Goblins, lots of fun.

[BTimony]

Hey everybody!

I've got this weekly webcomic that I think you might all enjoy. It's got all the things listed in the thread title, and more. I think you might enjoy it.

LINK to "Minion Maze". (http://www.twincomics.com/minionmaze/)

I invite you to check it out. Any comments you might have will be greatly appreciated.

[Ghastly Epigram]

The artwork is great, I love it! Colourful, expressive, detailed...it does its job very well, and fits with the tone of the comic.

Aside from that, it's hard to know right now as it's not very far in, but first impressions are fairly good. The dialogue is amusing (The knights in particular), and the characters have potential.

A concern is the amount of groups you're introducing so early on (Goblins, Knights, Angels, Faeries, Dragons...). It's tricky to sustain interest when you have a lot of things going on, and have to keep switching between them. Right now it's not so bad, but I could see that becoming a problem. So if you intend to have a large number of active parties, you'll have to be very careful balancing them.

My other concern is the apparent recurring theme of having "maze comics." I understand mazes are sort of a central theme, and once in a while those types of comics are fine, but too often and I fear it may grow old. Your comic only updates once a week; you have to make sure there's enough content in each strip to keep people satisfied and coming back for more.

Those are just my initial thoughts. In any case, first impressions are pretty good, so I'll keep reading it and see where it goes. Good luck! :smallsmile:

[BTimony]

Ghastly,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful critique! I do understand your concerns, and hopefully they won't prove to be too much of a problem. Although there will be a lot of switching focus at first, eventually we'll settle on a smaller group of core characters and focus on their journey.
I hope you stick around!

Thanks again,

Bobby

[Johnny Blade]

Well, that looks very promising. The art is great, and the characters are fun.

Anyway, I agree with Ghastly Epigram, mostly.

The little mazes are, well, I only solved the first one. I don't know how often you plan to do this in the future, but I'd reduce it a bit. Of course, I read through it all in one sit, but you're updating weekly, and while the comic is light-hearted enough to carry the concept in general, I'd become somewhat annoyed to see one of those too often when I expect a strip.

I don't see the shifting between characters as a problem, though. I mean, you say yourself that you'll reduce it as the comic goes on. Also, looking at some of the characters, I'd actually encourage it. There's a reason why, for example, the Linear Guild doesn't appear in OotS all too often - they're all fairly funny characters, but they're mainly just goofy, so having them around too often would mean risking that they get old really soon. That's what I can see happening with some of your characters as well. I mean, I love the lizard pimp, and the slugs and knights* are funny, but zany characters like that just go on your nerves if they take up too much time. So some (although less) switching around would, in my opinion, be the best for the comic.


*: Although I found Groont a little overdone. I always read his line in the third panel here (http://www.twincomics.com/minionmaze/?p=183) as "I LIKE HAM!". :smalltongue:

[BTimony]

Johnny,

Thanks for reading and taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it.

I suppose I'll address the maze concerns. The project was originally intended as a print graphic novel running around 200 or so pages with about 8 mazes included. (I think mazes in general work better in print where you can trace the path more easily, but I didn't feel like losing them for the web.) We've already seen 3 of them, and I think it helped to establish that concept to have a few right up front in the first 20 pages.
Hopefully they'll be more spread out in the future, so that when they do appear, the reaction will be more like "Oh, a maze! I missed those", and not like "Oh, another maze. Rats."

That's the hope, anyway.

I will try to supplement splash pages and maze pages with extra content though. A splash page especially can feel like a little underwhelming in the context of a weekly update, so when that or a maze happens, I usually post extra features like character bios and sketches and maybe even (hopefully in the future) fan art!

If anyone is coming to Baltimore ComicCon in October, I'll have some space in the Kids Love Comics section and I'll have some Minion Maze activity books (if I can get them finished in time!) Stop by and say hello.

[PhantomFox]

Well, the difference between a print comic and a webcomic, is that you have to wait (in this case a week) to turn the page to a new comic. In a print comic, if you don't feel like doing a maze, you can turn the page and get back to the story. Here, you have to wait an extra week to get back to the story.

I'd suggest doing a double update if on days when you're posting a maze, or else find a way to incorporate enough plot into a maze comic that it doesn't feel 'wasted'.

[Ghastly Epigram]

Ah yes, like Phantom said, finding a way to include some plot/humour in the maze comics could be a good idea, like in the Malatar's Maze one (Topless Pit :smalltongue:). Including little things like that makes them feel more like strips in their own right. Making them visually pleasing like the Forest one helps too of course.

[BTimony]

Just wanted to say, you guys are great. I really love that I posted my link and actually got some constructive feeback from you. Thank you!

[zerombr]

I've bookmarked the comic, I love the artwork, and style of it, the mazes are an interesting touch, it'd be fun to have some sort of actual prize, like hidden artwork or whatnot for solving it properly, if that's possible.

All in all, it's pretty darn sweet, I look forward to waiting angstfully for a once a week update...

[BTimony]

Thank you!

Sometimes when I'm working, I wonder if anyone out there even cares. Comments like that make it all worthwhile!

PS, there's a new page up for your enjoyment.

[BTimony]

New Page is up! (http://www.twincomics.com/minionmaze/?p=229)
That's 20 pages so far. A page a week isn't alot, but it does tend to add up pretty quickly.

[t_catt11]

The art is superb. I kind of like the mazes... but I agree that, since you are doing one update per week, a double update would be in order for "maze days".

I am reading the archives!

edit: I have read the archives. We needs more, precious!

[Johnny Blade]

Yeah, they look humble alright. :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, I look forward to see more of Smoov Red.

[Lord Seth]

I'd suggest trying to update more frequently, if possible. Unless the updates are pretty big each week, once a week updates are a bit too slow.

[BTimony]

I'd like to update more often, but I have a lot on my plate.
I've got my first print book coming out in March (Night Owls) (http://www.amazon.com/Night-Owls-v-1/dp/1848566425/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265075321&sr=8-2) as well as another comics project that I can't talk about yet. My "Real Job" is drawing storyboards, so I spend alot of time at the drawing desk.

One page a week may be slow, but it'll have to do for now.