Hey all, I'm your temporary cruel overseer until your normal cruel overseer gets back from wherever he's popped off to lately.

American007

Review away!

(PS The rules didn't say sprite comics aren't allowed so please let me know if I'm wrong about that)

Well I have never been a fan of sprite comics, so take that in mind when you read my review.

I understand the concept of sprite comics but I just don't like the feel of them because in general they feel so lifeless. American007 does do a fairly good job at battling that problem but still comes up a bit short. The main problem in my view is that American007 is an action based comic, which of course leads to action scenes. No matter how well one writes you can not coverup the short-comings of a character just standing there doing nothing when they are supposed to be doing something.

But with that being said I would like to say there are a few standout scenes that can only be created to the creators design. One that really stood out to me was from this page http://www.drunkduck.com/American007/index.php?p=210725 I love the setup of Shadow in this scene. It is, for lack of a better word, very epic. Really grabbed my eye.

At times the writing has way too many "witty" one-liners; to the point where conversations are just one-liners between characters. The biggest problem with this is that it takes away from the good one-liners that are in the strip because you get burntout of reading them. Good one-liners are a tool, I suggest using them like seasoning for your writing. Also, it can become a little hard to tell the difference between characters because they are all spitting snappy comebacks. I do like the tone and voice that Eggman has in this strip and think you can build characters well!

Even with my dislike of Sprite comics (and the fact that SEGA hasn't been the same in years) I found this comic to be overall pretty fun to read. If the conversations were cleaned up and the sprites could be made to perform action scenes, I think it would be a comic I would check out often.

3.5/5

Hmmm, well lets see.

Art: This is a sprite comic. I don't dislike sprite comics, in fact one of my favorite strips here on DD (Internet Supperbuddies) is a sprite comic, but there are definite limitations on what they can and can't do. The problem that afflicts most sprite comics are all here: the ugly and confusing close-ups, the lack of any expressiveness in faces, lack of any body language and limits on movement. I can see that you really make an effort to do the best he can with the medium, especially in the action sequences, which use motion blur and other effects to create have a sense of urgency and movement that is good for any comic, but stellar for a sprite comic. That said the action sequences are also extremely confusing. Although we get the sense of action, it is often really difficult to tell what exactly is going on, sprites lose their shape when you close-up on them and become less a figure than an abstract collection of colored blocks. Add in some similar looking characters (and a huge cast)and you've really got some confusion on your hands.

Story: The story didn't really catch my interest. So far its about this group, American 007, trying to save Sonic's girlfriend from Dr. Robotnic. It is for the most part a serious comic, but I really can't take any of these Sonic characters seriously. There are many other (non-sonic related) characters, so maybe that's not such a big problem. Maybe the real problem is you never really give us any reason to care about the protagonists, in fact, I don't think I could name a single one. So far, none of the protagonists seem to have any individual characteristics or personality. They are briefly introduced, then its right into the action, but the action won't be gripping if we're not rooting for anybody.

Also, I would recommend spacing out your expository information a little more. As it is its a bit dense for my tastes.

Overall: You put in a lot effort, but the sprite medium and some flawed story elements hurt it.

Art: 3/5
Story: 2/5
Overall: 2.5/5

Awesome, cool review guys, and thanks for checking it out. There are a few things i'd like to say, then i'll disappear.



The last five panels in the comic were what I considered my best work, so this was really cool of you to say that. Much appreciated.



That's a good point. Most of the time I get stuck in the void of wittiness when i'm trying to write, so it helps that you pointed that out and I will work on that. Thanks.



Thank you!



The problem with the closeups is that it's both a good and bad thing in the comic. Good in the fact that it adds for (imo) more variety and effect. But also bad in the way you described it, which are ugly and confusing. If I take out the closeups though, it becomes monotonous and loses some of it's flavor, though I do understand where you're coming from.



I'm not sure if this is meant to insult my comic, but it's not Sonic. You'll need to read the backstory for more info on that. It's more or less their lieutenant they're trying to rescue. It's important you read the comic all the way to understand what's going on, otherwise it will be confusing.

All these reviews (and future ones) are understood and taken into account. You all made some good points and I will implement them into my comic in order to make it better. Thanks everyone!

I totally agree. It's kind of a catch 22 of using sprites. It may have come off that I'm totally against using close-ups with sprites, but as far as I see it close ups are an inevitable necessity of drama and action, and I think you definitely made the right choice by using them, but they still look ugly/confusing.



Uhm, that wasn't meant to be an insult. Sorry. I assumed they were there to rescue this lady and assumed that the fiance being referred to was Sonic. I couldn't find her name so I just called her Sonic's girlfriend. Anywho, the point wasn't to make some unfair synopsis of your comic, but just to make the point that sonic characters are a central part of the comic, and that, to me (and I realize there is a net sub-culture that thinks otherwise), the Sonic characters seemed really out of place in a serious setting. So, my apologies if you read something insulting in that comment.

Toodles.

But keep in mind it is when you do build characters! Not just fire off the one-liners! So keep up the work of establishing personalities for your strip and the wittiness will come out on its own from the people that it should.

Oh no problem, I understand. Like I said, you just have to take time to sit down and read the story thoroughly, as it does add more then what you may see at first glance, that's up for you to decide though. I didn't mean to come off quite hostile, just confused.



I will, and thank you once again.

Quick question, how many reviews does a thread get before we move on to the next one?

I think it's in the range of 5-7.

Sprite comics carry the stigma of being terrible for several stereotypical reasons:

1: They're unoriginal.
2: They feature terrible writing which usually consists of poor spelling and 1337speak.
3: They're full of badly conceived jokes or ideas.
4: They're dull and stale in the visual department.

Fortunately, for American007, it only suffers from problem #1 which is inherent only because it uses sprites from other videogames. But even so, Valid Soul adds his own flare with custom backgrounds and sprite edits; a welcome addition to a generally stale genre that relies on pre-existing art. The only true downside to the graphics themselves are the backgrounds. Sometimes they're sharp and clear, but in some cases they're blurry or clash with the sound effects. Valid Soul, if you're reading this, the color wheel exists for a reason. It'd really help you to study it for a good 5 minutes :D

The best way to describe American007 is like a Hollywood blockbuster grab bag that appeals to the lowest common denominator. To put it simply, everything explodes. The comic is constant action and Valid Soul has a way of keeping the layout and dialog flowing at a smooth pace. There's never a shortage of sound effects, explosion, blood, or wacky powers. While the story is nothing special, the writing is genuinely decent and sometimes witty.

American007 will forever carry a negative shade simply because it's a sprite comic but that doesn't mean it's not worth a look. It's a clear cut above 99% of the sprite comics I've read, and there's definitely a lot of effort put into the visuals and design.

Final Opinion:Definitely worth five minutes of your time. You might get hooked.

Okay before my review of American007 I must post a disclaimer. A prelude if you will.

I loathe sprite comics. I don't really show it when I post comments on them but I do. There's about four I like and three of them are just plain funny. I could honestly go with out pictures and the pixels and be very happy just reading the text. The fourth one I enjoy is Amecian007.

Now don't get me wrong, American007 can be funny but the main agenda of it is to be an Action/Drama series. Which it pulls off well. It is honestly the only sprite comic that I can say pulls that off well. But not perfectly.

So here's the review.


I generally grade on Writing, and Art. I know there's more to a comic generally but I believe most of it can be summed up into those two categories.


So we'll start with Writing.


Writing:

From what's understood a series of different events took place that led eventually to a large battle (one can only assume) known as Crimson Thursday, in which many "heroes" died. These apparently include Cloud, (FFVII) Link, (Zelda series/Smash Bros/Soul Caliber II) and Sonic (...the hedgehog.) That alone makes the writing worth while in my opinion and was the immediate attention grabber. We have three of the most well known characters dead from page two.

So from here we're doing good right? Semi-original, interesting concept, attention grabber. Then we get into the "here and now" of the comic. It seems as though we have Shadow, Robotnik, Amy, and some other hedgehog guy (Raphael) mixed in with a bunch of sprites I can't recall ever seeing before. But that's erroneous. Apparently seven of them made a coalition to go kill some people and make things right. Amy is the leader and... she's captured. Right away. So they gotta go save her... Okay feeling a bit cliche'd now... what the hell?

Eventually a smack down ensues and people get bloody. Also cliche. Good, but cliche. And through all of this American007 basically show us three characters. Raphael, Shadow, and Amy. Everyone else is just background fodder. It never really goes into descriptions nor do they have their own personalities. They're just sorta throw aways for the rest of the comic.

So during the blood bath we find a love story (Not gonna spoil it for you guys) Crazy powers, lot of fightin' and some wit filled dialogue to carry it. The comic at this point has gone from great to average. Which is still amazing for a sprite comic in my book. But then right as I'm about to go to the next page I find something interesting. There's no more pages to look through. I ran through them all and didn't even notice. And it left me wanting more. There are some things in the story that I just have this unhealthy obsession with. Things about their past. "GUN", Jordan Williamson, and a few other things that are bugging me. So after all of this critiquing and prodding at every hole I could find I weighed it all out. where does this story really lie without including the fact it is a sprite comic?

Writing- 4.1/5

Above average but not quite top yet.


Art

What art? This is a sprite comic. The closest thing to art in Sprite Comics are visual effects. So we're changing this from "Art" to "Visual Effects"

Visual Effects

Okay by far the best I have EVER seen in a sprite comic. Bar none. That being said it is still a sprite comic (I hate to have to keep saying it because I really do love this comic) therefore it immediately suffers from a series of flaws.

1)Emotion. You just can't show it properly.
2)Bad close ups. When you try to do any type of close up on a sprite character the end result is a confusing distribution of pixels cluttered about in a nonsensical matter. Basically, it looks weird.
3)Movement. It's very constricted and restrained. You have hardly any choice in how your characters move at all.
4)Been there before. Every sprite comic has a downfall of being seen as the same old crap over and over and over again. Here however American007 does not fall into that trap so immediately it's a leg above the rest.
5)Side scrolling plainness. Again something American007 hurdles over. There's so many different angles and perspectives that you cannot help but see an immediate difference from any other sprite comic, also it has original backgrounds which again puts it another few steps ahead of the herd.

So what visual effects really set it off? Well the first thing to pop out for me was the text effects. They are awesome and vary so much that you never know what you're going to get. Every page is a little surprise in which something will explode and soon be followed by a thunderous text effect of some kind. This may sound like a bad thing but it really works here. Somehow this comic pulls it off. And when it comes to originality I must immediately point out is panel 13 on page 47. (I think.) That panel is a unique perspective with an awesome visual on the explosion. And panel six on "The Anatomy of Power" definitely blew my mind. I didn't think you could really put emotion into sprites. Little did I know huh?

So after all of this my score of the artwork is...

3.6/5 Again above average but because of the type of comic it is I can't really give it anything higher. Maybe if it could clean up the pixels on the close ups or something it could be different but as is this is about it.

So all together American007 comes out with an average of

3.9

(The best average I can possibly give to a sprite comic)

This can't be a proper review, because I haven't read A007. It's not my type of story. Writing seems okay, from what little I've gleamed while scanning over the pages.

I do have to say that, IMO, A007, while having it's roots solidly embedded in the generally despized Sprite genre, is, in truth, really an evolution of the genre. VS takes the basics of the medium & elevates them fairly substancially by actually applying varying POVs & often impressive SFX. He adds 3 dimensional space, & therefore character to what is typically a visually bland type of storytelling. The visuals are taken almost to the point of being actually rendered, & therefore "almost" to the point of *not* being a sprite comic. Actual brain cells are used when laying out this almost-not-a-sprite comic, instead of static, mindless POVs.

It's the only comic of it's genre that actually comes close to impressing me. Again, IMO, it is the zenith of what the genre can obtain, & other sprite books should reach for, but 99.99 times out of a hundred do not.

Later,
Chip

Although this comic does try a few unique things that most sprite comics do not even attempt, the close ups and combinations of characters from various games comes off convoluted and confusing to the eye. The pixelated characters are difficult to see when blown up into a close up, and many of the pixels are inconsistent between characters (example: last two panels of "Color Your World 3").

Although I'm not a fan of sprite comics, I have nothing against them. They're just not my thing - so I chose not to read them on a regular basis, but that doesn't stop me from checking them out.

I really like the banner designs for this comic, which is not reflective of a sprite comic at all. The artwork and production design of that banner can be misleading for readers expecting to see that style in the comic itself - and personally, I think the comic may be met with more favor if it actually looked like the banner.

The integration of sound effects do help to break up the pixels during close up shots of the characters, however they do not always create a sense of flow for the reader's eye. The integration of additional effects (special effects like explosions and smoke) are quite refreshing to the eye - especially when characters are blown up into a close up (exmaple: http://www.drunkduck.com/American007/index.php?p=250241). It helps to take the strain off the eye trying to understand what character they're looking at, as blown up pixels are not something that I find comfortable to look at.

Overall, if I were into sprite comics, I would read this. Although it confuses my eye, it does try to innovate the sprite comic medium, and does seem to have some good production design behind it (the banner and special effects, for example). Trying to work outside the box is what sets a comic like this apart from everyone else who simply try to maintain the status quo. The integration of sound effects is refreshing, but should be utilized in a way that helps the reader's eye flow through the page. The use of special effects that differentiate resolution from the characters can sometimes take away from the characters themselves, as the effects then become more impressive and take away from the character actions. The use of blurs can help create depth, but sometimes create an illusion that a character is just smaller than another.

Overall, I like the path I see this comic going down - but my eyes just don't understand pixels well enough to enjoy sprite comics.

I think Strong Bad has the review covered for me:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail181.html

I dislike sprite comics with good reason: you're ripping off someone else's artwork and characters. Even if you can parody the game mechanics or common player actions in a way that's funny, the sprites almost never give you enough material to work with to properly convey the joke. And never mind attempting a real story.

I'll try to be as constructive as possible...

Artwork
I'm going to go by the latest instalments, 'cause let's face it everyone's rough at the start. It gets a little cleaner with experience, but it's still a sprite comic. It could be done a lot worse, and I have seen much worse.

If you want to touch things up... within the limitations of sprites... try to collect your graphics from additional sources or learn to manipulate them more.

The biggest possible improvement? If you can't draw (and I noticed the artist who did the header doesn't get credited in until much, much later, when it should be in the header itself) then get someone who can. Of course, there's still the problem of...

Writing
After reading it I came to the startling conclusion that you're trying to write a mostly serious comic. With sprites.

Sprites can't really convey emotion. And since you've mixed sprites together from different games, the style differences stick out like a sore and further distract from any possible story-telling.

Now, ignoring the sprites: You basically state that the game universe has gone to pot and that it's up to these new heroes to save the day... except nobody's following how their own games work in particular. Oh wait, are you basing it off the backgrounds of the various games? In which case, you're not bothering to follow their lore at all, and let's not forget that they're not compatible with each other anyway.

You can get away with this in a humorous comic because it's not supposed to be taken seriously at all.

Put it in perspective: What if I took Darth Vader, Stalin, Gengis Khan and Dr. Doom and threw them all together? Oh, except I call Dr. Doom "Prof. Freak" and I also stole Arthas from Warcraft and made him a mercenary, as well as Wesker from Resident Evil and made him some other mercenary. Oh, and I said that they killed their respective heroes, so the only hope is a team of Bob (Abraham Lincon), Max (who is actually a recoloured "Thrall" from Warcraft), and King (MacKenzie King). And everyone fights with super powers, while sort of keeping the tech of their own timeline. Yes, Thrall blows apart Vader's advancing walkers by using his "Earthquake" magic.

And it's mostly a serious story. (Ironically... Thrall wouldn't stick out too badly on the ice world of Hoth riding a big furry wolf and using magic. Lincon however... might be a bit out of place. Please nobody start Warcraft Vs. Star Wars)

Now, if I strip away all the licensing and back story of the respective game worlds, the heart of the comic is a fairly typical action-story. The (first) Matrix was an action movie with an intriguing world setting, so the relatively simple plot (Neo realizes his gift and kicks butt) works very well as the intriguing world grabs you so well that a simple plot is all you can really take in while the story plays out.

To pull off an action story in a comic requires great artwork ('cause the plot isn't the draw) or like the Matrix, a unique and intriguing world to grip the reader's imagination.

Conclusion

American007 attempts to do an action story without enough humour thrown in, but being a sprite comic that also borrows from the games the sprites are from dooms it from the start. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.