Regular Guy

I gotta say, "Regular guy" is a hard comic to follow, for a lot of reasons. The artwork is not that great and the story goes all over the place, starting with sci-fi and ending in a school drama.

STORY:
It starts out kinda random and wacky with a space adventure and planet earth under attack by aliens. Chapter one reminds me of "Hitchhikers guide" in some degree, with a very dry style of humor. Not laugh out loud funny, but the jokes are there.
The story never really gets exciting or thrilling and jumps between situations quickly and solves problems easily. With that the comic never gets boring but it also never feels engaging or relevant. It does however keep you somewhat interested in what will happen next.

With chapter two it all gets better, the characters start to come to life as speech balloons are used and people begins to show emotions and have feelings. Unfortunately the story now gears into a full school setting with bullies, dating and all that stuff which is rather odd.

ARTWORK:
The artwork is stated as being "intentionally rough" something that feels more like a bad excuse for lack of drawing skill. For yes, the artwork really is kinda crappy and the pages are scanned badly, something that makes you reluctant to read the comic. Unfortunately.

OVERALL:
This comic has some nice writing but is all over the place and doesn't seem to have any real structure or plan. The art is it's biggest weakness and something that is bound to turn a lot of readers away.

I really enjoy the story. I was catching a kinda'... Scott Pilgrim nature to the story, with random bits and moments of insanity being passed off as common place.

The art *is* a touch rough, but it's getting much better as it ages. I was listening to a podcast about web comics recently, and the point was made that before, when the only way to get your strips out into the world was through a syndicate, you had to arrive polished. And now, you can start posting on the internet *before* you're polished, and work from there, improving your skill as you create. In that sense, I think this is a great start, and I look forward to where this project goes in the future.

Well now let's see, Regular Guy. A webcomic which is apparently written and drawn by a regular guy. Your fellow Canadian Jon Lajoie would be proud of you.

Okay Mr. Williams, let's get to your review shall we :D?

ART: C- (B for effort)
You know, saying that your art is "deliberately rough" and then offering what appears to be a sympathetitc monologue of excuses for it in almost every page of your author's notes is pretty lame. I read your last page where you talked about giving some bad reviews in other forums. I mean, seriously, what would you say to another person who does what you're doing?

My thought was, you were trying to use the "regular guy" theme as a scheme for creating your comic. Yet as I read your author's notes, it told me a bit more about you as a creator: this is somewhat auto-biographical. So then, why keep making excuses for the art when clearly the art in itself is also a character in your comic. Sure, it's not stylish or defined. Maybe it never will be by the way you go on and on about it, but it's still your art. Since you're not going to find a real artist to draw your stories, take some pride in your work and let the readers decide.

WRITING/LAYOUT: B-
You have a wonderful handle on the English language plus you can string together witty dialogue; Emphasis on witty. I thought the initial hot dog/relish page pages and Nolan's "ballsy" debate with a spear in his face were pretty amusing. Plus, I enjoy your use of well-placed pop culture references.

However in my opinion, your storylines lack consitency. For a person who can write such seemingly intelligent dialogue, even for a regular guy, you seem pretty disorganized as a storyteller. It's almost as if you're placing elements of deus ex machina in certain places to write yourself out of a corner (i.e.: The aliens got to Earth the first time because they were speeding, but couldn't do it a second time because it's "illegal and dangerous". Yet they call Earthllings immoral?) And again, making excuses for it on some of your pages (like Nolan suddenly sleeping over Reg's house for the sake of having a gag for that page).

It just seems like you're making up the pages as you go along, which make for a string of fallacies in your storytelling and throws off your readers. Then again, maybe this comic isn't for everyone and some people like that kind of rollercoaster ride. Still, since this comic doesn't have stand along pages, some having some kind of structure in your stories couldn't hurt.

Speaking of structure, you need to improve your typesetting and work on your layouts. There are plenty of artistic ways to do this if you look at several of your contemporaries here at Drunk Duck (Even the ones with little means in their use of scanning or software find a way). Don't let poor placement of panels, dialogue bubbles or narration boxes turn your readers off to the great dialogue.

OVERALL: C+
This comic has potential if and only if you are seeking that. If you're going to keep making claims that this is suppose to be a "deliberately rough" comic while making excuses for it, then either you're fishing for compassion or you're being pretentious about your skills.

Right now, you sound like a thin girl who goes around telling people how fat she looks in a dress or bikini. From a female stand point, that couldn't be more annoying.

So then Mr. Williams, work on the layouts, figure out your creative direction, be consistent with Regular Guy's "regular guy" status and limit your author notes to what inspires you to create this comic. Are you seeking readers? Some faithful followers? Or are you doing this comic because you're bored? If so, make the concessions for yourself as you create the pages. If not, your comic and reviews for it will remain just like your title character. Regular.

Best of luck to you XD.

All, right, lets get reviewing!

STORY:
Well, I have to say that I like the dialog, it's smart and well written. The humor in it isn't side-splitting hilarious, but it's witty and enjoyable. Although the story isn't entirely interesting to me. I find the title of the story to be misleading when you get into the actual story. And to tell the truth, I was hoping I was nearing the end of the comic near the beginning.

ART:
As you have said, your art is rough, or lazy, but sometimes, art can really help a comic, especially to a new reader like me. When I first saw it, I was immediately turned away from the lack of attention to the art and all around layout of the comic. It's said that a great story-line can make up for what isn't in the art, but as I said before, the story-line scarcely piqued my interest at all.

OVERALL:
It is an okay comic, but not one that I would recommend to others if they want to be entertained. The comic also doesn't start out that strong, either. Like books or essays, or anything of the sort, the first lines (or in this case, panels) have to grab the reader and have them begging for more. Sadly, your comic didn't do that for me.

I'm terribly sorry if I came off rude or anything of the sort! I'm not exactly a beat-around-the-bush kind of person. I do hope that it helped you, though.

Regular Guy:



STORY:

The story currently can be broken up into two arcs: Part one is a random ridiculous space adventure, and part two is a much more interesting "character piece" I guess, about the main characters return to high school. I found the non-sensible rambling story of part 1 hard to get into, and hard to care about, but once the character gets back to earth I found it to be much more interesting. I'd say he'd do best to basically forget all about any space related adventures and stick solely to the character being in HS, which is what he seems to be doing. I'll agree with the earlier comments about part 1 seeming far to much like H-H-T-T-G-G (as a side note, I didnt' realize hitch hiker did double letters like that...crazy)

ART:

It's been said before so I don't really feel like I need to get to into it. He says the art is bad on purpose...so I guess we have to credit him for that. I'd really rather see him slow down and take his time. With the -current- direction of the story, if he just upped the art work I'd say it'd be much more enjoyable. One thing that can be noted, if he's saying "I do the art badly on purpose" he's saying "I don't really care about this story" which leads me to ask "If you don't care about your story, why should we?"

OVERALL:

I did enjoy it, the second part. I wouldn't go so far as saying I hated the first part...ok. Wait yes I did, I hated it. The second part I like, but I want to see effort into it. Until then I really don't see myself bothering to follow the story because he's not bothering to put forth any time or care. I would basically advice forget everything that happened in part 1, NEVER EVER EVER BRING IT BACK! For him to solve this problem the answer should on Earth, if he solves it at all. No more "OMG HERE'S A THING!!" moments, make it real world, and make it good.

Regular Guy starts out as a very random space adventure that develops into a high school drama. Whereas high school dramas definitely doesn't top my must-read-list, in this case it's a quite pleasant read. The comic definitely benefits from it's at times 3rd person perspective, reporting the events rather than being in the midst of them. The silliness of the episodes becomes much more fun this way.
The transition between the space part and the high school part of the story is pretty abrupt. Whereas the events in space focuses more on randomness the high school part is very different as the tone of it is quite realistic.

The artwork is plain lineart. From the beginning the artwork appears to simply be scanned pages and the comic benefits greatly from the gradual improvement, such as cleanup of the pages.

Although regular guy is quite humorous, it does not benefit from changing the tone for the second part of the story. This may be down to artistic development, but should have been kept separate from the other part of the story. It does not make me feel I want to read more as the main attractor, the silly randomness of the comic, drastically decreased with the high school part.

I have to say that I was pretty disappointed. I found many things wrong with this comic.

STORY:
It's not the worst thing, but it wasn't special to me. Very random, especially with the whole aliens thing, but not in a good way. More like "random" as in something that's confusing and all over the place...
Later in the pages, though, it cleared up a little. I could understand it a little more, especially with the neater and bolder font. The plot also made a little more of a "real life" sense, much better than in the beginning. Though better, it still really wasn't that great, witty, or special. Things that make a comic great. Overall... The story was pretty average. I give it a C-.

ARTWORK:
Bad artwork can really turn readers off, you know. To be honest, this one turned me off completely. Messy, poorly drawn, poorly scanned, a little blurry in some parts, lacking color, lacking dimension and perspective, all of these things make this comic's art a thumbs-down in my opinion.
The style is nothing original, either. I've seen it drawn many many times. And I'm open to "intentionally rough" styles, but this isn't what I call "rough". I just call it "messy". Maybe if there was some cross-hatched shading to give the drawings a little more life? Maybe some different shaded parts here and there? Little things can be done to improve the look of this comic. Not entirely, but a little. Overall, the artwork is an F.

OVERALL:
Overall, it's not my pick. It doesn't have much thought put into it, nothing pops out for me or is very original, nothing gives it a personality. It's very bland, blah, and seems effortless. In both the writing and art, it's lacking a sense of creativity and purpose, and simple things could be done to improve both.
"Regular Guy" is just a regular comic. No surprises, no effort, nothing that will wow a reader. It is simply unattractive, messy, and lacks a point.

Overall... I give this comic a D.