Nothin to it but to do it.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Lost_Invisible/

Okay, I check up on this comic now and then. This person's got a book published on Lulu. I started reading the begining of this once. Here are my thoughts:

From the First page we can see that artist basically started this comic on nothing but a story. The perspective is messed up...and by that I mean even more messed up then the stuff I've done, and the characters are little chibi people. Not even sure how you could call that early stuff a 'style'.

Still, for a comic with this much in the early part that needs work, the presentation is really pretty decent. The lettering isn't professional comic font (blambot is god, people) but it works. A lot of comics with mediocre art also have nearly impossible to read text, and really badly compressed jepgs. This one doesn't.

The premise of this story is pretty interesting. I know if I were invisisble I'd do a lot of crazy stuff. The author kind of parodies that outlook on page 2. However the art really hinders it. Suicide is a pretty serious thing. This little chibi art stuff doesn't go well with it. And there's not enough fleshing out of this character to accuratly give her a reason to commit suicide for the reader. Proper planning of the plot and pacing especially would make this seem more natural to the reader. But on a whole that entire chapter just felt off. Reminds me of my early stuff though (before I knew how to post things on the web).

Speeding ahead the present, the early stuff doesn't approach me or pull me in to the story the way I would want a comic to. It just feels awkward and uninteresting. However your current art shows definite improvment. Characters look like they actually have definition, you're getting knowledge of perspective (I really shouldn't talk) and faces and hands look better. However you still could use a better font, and the weakness of the early story pulls this down and decreases your readership.

Keep it up though. You'll improve.

Whoa, combed through the entire archives. I don't agree with every one of the points made by ccs1989 so far - I guess that's the point of multiple reviews (duh :-D ) - so, here's what I think.

In terms of flow. The first few chapters rolled along very nicely, and everyone's backstories were handled very well, particularly Katy's. Around the point when Cody entered, the story began to drag, particularly because the characters seemed to have little to do with themselves. Now, Cody having been possessed (?) has really quickened up the space. Instead of it being a storytelling excursion gone nowhere you have plot development. Nice.

The art could be sharpened up a great deal, but there has been definite growth throughout the archives. Out of all the styles that you have utilized throughout the comic, I would say that I particularly enjoy the inked pages, simply because they were so sharply done and you didn't get that messy effect that's so often caused by a penciler lacking confidence, who goes over his lines repeatedly. Because you're telling character-driven stories, you've used a lot of intense character portraits, and that really helps pull the viewer through.

As well, character designs are reasonably diverse, but in the first few chapters, it was very hard for me to tell your villains apart, because of their similar hairdos and clothing choices. For future ref, there are ways of diversifying your characters while allowing the reader to recognize that they are all a part of the same league of evil. :-) Think of any shounen manga published today (Naruto and One Piece lend themselves easily to example).

The story itself strikes me as reminiscent of Shaman King, slightly, in that the characters dawdle a little in the beginning before proceeding on a slightly wacky adventure with a surprising amount of heartbreak. I love the flashbacks (and even the flashbacks within flashbacks, very difficult stunt to pull), but after nearly 200 pages, I would expect the characters to talk less and walk more.

Pros? The most critical selling point of Lost Invisible is your ability to write convincing, meaningful exchanges between interesting and involving characters. All of that is there. Heck, you've even strayed off the beaten path by writing Katy and Cody's backstories before establishing Redd's and I'm no less curious for it. Every once in a while, you've also captured very dramatic moments seemingly with ease. (Although I have to admit that I laughed at pg. 23 because, omigosh, THE LOST INVISIBLE REALM *crash* *boom*? Sorry... :lol: I mean well, really, I do.)

A very impressive body of work overall.

After going through the impressive archive base(compared to my diminutive 20 pages of "blah"), I have a few things to say here in terms of review.
First, the art started off...mediocre. If it was a manga, it wouldn't have wowed me or drawn me in much further, if I hadn't seen the "last updated page" beforehand. The story and concept was interesting and original, and as I read, the art improved(albeit VERY gradually).

Katy's story was very involved and interesting. Redd's reaction makes me want to see HIS story all the more. Cody seemed like an arbitrary character to toss in, and it's beginning to seem like he's a character plot device, and not a character. Otherwise, your characters are unique and have that "hero quality". Except the villians, who look alike and act alike.

One point I feel obligated to make, while hoping not to come across as mean, is that the dialogue is average and a little archtypal. The sudden relent of evil from Vaine, for instance, seemed...expected. The heroic speech given by Redd convinced him way too easily that "killing people was wrong". I mean, it seems like Vaine would've been converted by a bumper sticker.

Overall, though, I enjoy this comic. I laugh when it's funny, and I identify with the characters when they talk about their backgrounds and problems. I want to cheer on the hero, and am still very curious to find out more. I'm not the only one who feels this way. Your art has clearly improved and will continue to improve, and your writing is developing at the same rate as your art. Good job!

Wow, everyone's said so much... well, here I go.

Art: It's kinda basic at the beggining, but it improves. It's not great, but it's improving very nicely.

Writing: I enjoyed this a lot. The story drew me in from the beginning, and it was interesting enough to keep me engaged. Sometimes it seemed a little forced, but nobody's perfect.

All in all, I liked Lost Invisible. Countinue to work on art and dialogue, and it will form to be a very nice comic.

Yay ^_^ thanks for the reviews! It's really good to get input and opinion of different people.

Basically I knew that my art was *cough*crappy*cough* before. And i don't think its all that great now either (although its not as crappy anymore).

ccs1989
This little chibi art stuff doesn't go well with it.

You keep saying chibi chibi but i'll just say now- I had no intention of them being "chibi." It was just how I drew then. not purposeful, okay? u.u

The lettering isn't professional comic font (blambot is god, people) but it works.

I'll keep that in mind.

I never knew exactly who my intended audience was... er except that it was probably towards teens. ^^; I seem to get more female readers but... I tried to mix in different genres- comedy, action, drama, mystery,etc for different people. So like little girl shojo like Katy scene and action fighting (although i didn't thnk it was great) for GUY audiences like somebody...
Well, Ccs's review seemed kinda half-hearted, like you only read the first and last chapter. -.-

MagickLorelai
I mean, it seems like Vaine would've been converted by a bumper sticker.

lol you mean this?
oh man you should've seen the reactions i got. But now that I look at it, isn't it great? It's all semi-dramatic and then boom. Vaine's lame quote just makes things hilarious XD

But uh yeah, I kinda plan to redraw the comic once I finish the comic, hoping that by then (after several hundred pages more) my art would've improved.
Anyways thanks to reviewers for going through that crazy big archieve of mine. :-D

well, folks seem to have put their two cents in already, but I'll add mine anyway.

art: ...yeah, folks have already taken care of the art sritique, but I'd just like to add that, although the art isn't spectacular it is alot better than lots of other comics. its not going to draw me into the story, but its also not going to drive me away like some does. It also seems as if you are basing it off of a Yu-Gi-oh style of drawing (face shape, eyes, and especialy hair). If this is the case, taking into account the style that you're building off of, its not that bad.

dialogue: too often it seems that the dialouge falls into cliche patterns, especialy the sweet moments talking about smiles, laughter, etc. Sweet moments are nice, but some of yours seem like a repackaging of classic anime dialouges. most of this stems from problems in the next category:

characters: For me characters make the story. I like getting inside their heads and understanding why they do what they do. This caused me the most problems when reading your comic. I couldn't get into your characters heads. Many of them seem to be built off standard character models (for example "cute, perpetualy happy girl with tragic past"), and many of their actions seem to be governed more by what the plot requires than their personalities. You are developing the backgrounds of the main characters, so this will probably be fixed for them after a time, but at the moment I feel no connection to them.
The reason that this jumped out at me so much was because of the lack of motivation in the villans. Villans tend to be my favorite characters. they aren't governed by all the rules that heros have, and for my they are the most interesting. your villans seem to simply be villans, not characters. I understand their motivation for attacking the hero for his powers, but why do they attack invisibles in in general? They seem to have some sort of organization, but why? What binds them together or who could possible controll the loyalty of these guys? the first villan they encountered confused my to no end. first he's murderous, then he accepts defeat, then he's happy and reformed, then he pops in to give them nifty equipment. why? Everything he does seems just so they something like the swords, gear, or battle spheres can be explained. His story arc realy called attention to the flatness of the other characters.

Setting: this was by far the best part of the comic. the ideas are orriginal and have a lot of potential. the only real critique is some mundaneness in the naming of things, and little holes like "if they can't touch anything, where does the equipment come from?"

One last thing, the inventor? it seems like he's used for comic releif, but his scenes realy inturrupt the mood and flow of the story (also, after all the stress you put on the lonelyness of their existance, I'd expect their reactions to be like "OMG, someone can see us, yay!" not, "dude, what a dork)

So, yeah, alot of this was personal preferance, what I would like to see. I tend to be rather harsh with my critiques since I see them as a means of improvement rather than flattery, I will say this, I liked the comic and have it fav'ed to read in the future. Good Luck