Please take a moment out of your busy summer scheduals to fill out a review for this comic. Thank you.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Chimera/index.php

From the first, filler art thing which I saw when I first visited the comic page, I thought I was going to like this. Sadly this comic suffers from the same things that a whole other slew of 'web-mangas' do. The main one is that the artist has the ability to draw basically good looking faces (albeit they be in the anime style) but a tenuious grasp on human anatomy and hardly any knowledge of perspective or how to construct proper backgrounds. Web mangas like this also seem to skip over establishing shots, going straight to close-ups. They tend to minimize backgrounds whenever they can, substituting tones in place of them.

One looks at this page shows that you don't have a very good grasp on profile either. This is something I struggled with as well. Remeber however that the ear is in the middle of the skull, and that the human head is actually quite round. Manga tends to obscure this because the characters have SO MUCH damn hair, but it still remains true. Here's a good site that shows how to draw the head effectivley in profile.

Okay, another thing you struggle with is cliches. Please tell me I haven't seen someone like this is around a billion other anime shows before. Then there's the mysterious guy in the glasses (Oh my god! One of his eyes is white!) He babbles a lot of nonsense about planning. Something I don't understand is how these teenager people who seem to be such airheads can still have such a lot of 'planning power'. Weird.

Amnesia. Real original.

Anyway, I'll leave out more comments on the story, but it doesn't really appeal to me. You're art is getting better, but you really do need BACKGROUNDS. I do not know what this person's house looks like at all or anything like that. Don't avoid backgrounds just because you don't know perspective. There are books for that, and failing to find them, there's always the internet. Also get an anatomy book.

Most of the things that pop up in my mind when reading this comic is mentioned by "ccs1989" in the above post, but generally my impression is that this comic is something ive seen many times before.

ART:
The art isnt fantastic but its ok, and after some time im sure the artist will be great at emulating the manga style to the full. Personally i think that is a horrible thing, to work hard to make your art looking like someone elses. To fit into a manga mold. But thats the way it works i guess.

STORY:
The plot goes along nicely i think. I doesnt hold any surprises whatsoever. But it works for what it is. I have no idea why the pages has to be read right to left however, the author is from Texas as far as i understand. The whole making the comic as japanese as possible seems forced and not needed.

OVERALL:
Standard manga comic using rulebook #1 as far as story and jokes go. Nothing over the ordinary and everythings been done before a million times. That said, its all well done, if not very original.

Trying to put aside my general contempt for manga (and especially Westerners emulating manga), I have a couple comments that differ from the above.

One, I can definitely tell that your art has majorly improved over the course of working on the comic. I was happy to see the bad image quality of the early pages disappear, and a smoother, computer-enhanced approach looks a lot better. Your grasp of the features and anatomy has improved, too, but it looks more like the kind of improvement that comes from practice (though that is definitely a good thing!) instead of from absorbing additional sources. I'm definitely not any kind of expert, or even competent, at anatomy myself, so I think any more complaining about that would be out of line :p

As for the set up, it flows very well from page to page but from panel to panel it seems as if the right-to-left set up feels unnatural to -you-, and it translates into an awkward read. When one reads authentic manga, the right-to-left thing becomes second nature after a while, but I didn't get that from this.

I think it would do you a lot of good to have wide "establishing" shots at the start of scenes to develop backgrounds. That way you don't have to draw backrounds as consistently, but the reader has a better idea of where the story is happening.

Overall, I can tell you put a lot of passion into this comic, but I encourage you to start developing your own style and exploring things beyond the confines of popular manga/anime conventions. Good luck!

Well, thanks to you all for taking the time to review me! (I'm about to be going out of town for a week, so that's why I'm making my comments now.) Sorry that this reply is long, but there's a lot that I do want to say in regards to your comments as well as just general stuff.

I first started working on this comic over three years ago, and since that time I've improved a lot, although I'll wholeheartedly agree that there are a lot of things that I need to work on, most of which I was counting on you guys to point out. A lot of times I wish that I could get a time-traveling DeLorean so I could go back and slap my 14-year-old self silly, because there are a lot of things that would be different about the comic were I to just scratch everything and start it all over again. Take, for example, the right-to-left formatting. Were it not for the fact that the comic's just under 80 pages long, I'd change it to left-to-right in a heartbeat. But, alas, since it is almost 80 pages long, I feel that it'd just make my readers even more confused if I changed it. But if people don't think that it would be a big problem, then I'll gladly change it.

Also, back in the day when I started Chimera, sadly, practically the only thing that I knew how to draw (or, really, would draw) was manga-styled stuff. Now that I've broadened my horizons as far as what I draw, I do believe that the comic would a lot different (and better) if I'd start using the style that I've been developing.

css1989
From the first, filler art thing which I saw when I first visited the comic page, I thought I was going to like this. Sadly this comic suffers from the same things that a whole other slew of 'web-mangas' do.

Sorry that I disappointed you. :\

css1989
One looks at this page shows that you don't have a very good grasp on profile either. This is something I struggled with as well.

Honestly, I never try to look back at the art from the first chapter unless it's absolutely necessary, because it makes me cringe. I mean, seriously...I just hate to look at it. Hence, I'm in the middle of revamping the whole chapter.

css1989
Something I don't understand is how these teenager people who seem to be such airheads can still have such a lot of 'planning power'. Weird.

...Well, they're not teenagers, for one thing.

css1989
but you really do need BACKGROUNDS.

Do tell. ;_;

VegaX
The art isnt fantastic but its ok, and after some time im sure the artist will be great at emulating the manga style to the full. Personally i think that is a horrible thing, to work hard to make your art looking like someone elses. To fit into a manga mold.

If it makes you feel any better, I've been planning for a while to incorporate more of my own (and hopefully more original) art style in the comic.

VegaX
I have no idea why the pages has to be read right to left however, the author is from Texas as far as i understand.

Again, believe me, I'd change the format if I could, but then it'd just be another gripe for people to point out. -_-

qoute
Trying to put aside my general contempt for manga (and especially Westerners emulating manga), I have a couple comments that differ from the above.

After having read some reviews of other comics here, I could tell almost immediately that I was in enemy territory here. XD

suzi
I think it would do you a lot of good to have wide "establishing" shots at the start of scenes to develop backgrounds. That way you don't have to draw backrounds as consistently, but the reader has a better idea of where the story is happening.

I do try to do that, but, yes, the comic is in need of more backgrounds, so that's another thing that I'll work on.

suzi
Overall, I can tell you put a lot of passion into this comic, but I encourage you to start developing your own style and exploring things beyond the confines of popular manga/anime conventions.

I'm glad you can see that! I definitely am passionate about my work, so I'm always trying to get better. And, again, starting with the next chapter I'm planning on changing the style a little bit so that it looks more like my own style, instead of trying to hold on to the same style that I've had all these years.

You know, I wish EVERYONE would respond to our reviews. THAT way we would know if they actually read them or not. And Korosu, thanks for not overreacting.

You know, I wish EVERYONE would respond to our reviews. THAT way we would know if they actually read them or not. And Korosu, thanks for not overreacting.

Hear hear! A very mature response, especially given your age. That thick skin and honest self-knowledge will be a huge help to you in comics.

I'm very glad to hear that you are developing a more individual art style. I think that will go a long way towards helping her storytelling, as the characters in this are generic-looking enough to be annoying, especially at first. It should be said that the good Manga and Anime artists manage to make their work unique within the style, but that's hard for a beginning artist.

Regarding the formatting, changing it for all 80 pages might actually confuse your readers more, at least for a little while. It would also make things more readable for new readers. I think this decision depends a lot on how many people you might incidentally inconvenience either way.

You seem very aware of the weaknesses of this piece. To me, this says that your next work will be a lot stronger. I'll admit that I just scanned after Chapter 1-- between the artistic and storytelling cliches, it kinda wore me out-- but I should probably check out the later material for comparison. I can tell that the art is progressing in the more recent chapters.

Bernie Wrightson famously said that you need to draw 10,000 bad pages to get to your first good one. You've got a good head start on most of your contemporaries.

Does a nice job on pages no spelling errors as far as I can see so good comic over all