Heeeey. Remember how this went in the first Review Thread?

Yeah. Yeeeeeah.

http://www.vermillionworks.com/vp

Eh heh...last time everyone reviewed the first version of Vampire Phantasm...and then I restarted. :lol:
Anyway, yeah...don't click the "Old VP Comic" link, just don't want everyone to review the wrong comic.

I'm sorry, I would review this, but I have an aversion to manga. Nothing personal, it's purely related to a prejudice I've had since Pokemon became popular.

You know, my comic is not that "manga" (or at least I never felt it was), save for the influence in style. Okay, so I have put in small sweatdrops out of habbit...and nosebleeds...but I haven't done that in a while. I only use my own thing when it comes to the story.

I don't mind if you like manga or not, I just think that even if my characters were in a more realistic or whatever style...the story and setup would've been about the same. I sometimes almost kind of regret making it manga-esk, because some people who hate it automatically assume my comic is crap (well, they could still hate it)...when I want it to be for everyone....but it just feels so RIGHT with VP!! :?

...you could at least ignore the style and try the story. :lol:
...or not. *shrug*

Vampire Phantasm

I only started getting into VP during its latest iteration; the previous version being too well advanced for me to want to make a start on it. Huge archive,

VP really benefits from all the re-starts it’s had. I found the character forms, the storylines and the plot to be nice and tight and very well refined. Sarah knows her characters intimately now, that really helps when it comes to crafting a good story, as well as a good looking story.
Her use of colour is subtle, well chosen, and quite advanced. The way she uses it to highlight mood and move the story along is something to be admired.
And many a time I’ve found the writing to be very effective in getting an emotional response.

Negatives:
Well, it’s always helpful to nitpick a little and find a few faults.
Sarah has a tendency to feel the need to cease working on VP and re-start everything from the beginning. That helps the story and the art, but it loses readers while not seeming to show much commitment to seeing things through to an end and then using the experience gained to either move on and apply to a new project or help the current one to evolve into something different. There seems to be to be a danger of being caught in a mobius strip, a never ending cycle of re-work.
Another factor is the art style; although well refined and tight, much of it retains a distinct manga influence. There’s nothing wrong with that in of itself, all work has a particular style, trouble occurs when the style works as a limiting factor on proper figure drawing and anatomy. -Something to be careful of.
The other problem with a distinct manga influence is offcourse that the comic will often be dismissed out of hand by the more superficial reader.
-I believe that will become less of a problem the more popular and entrenched manga style becomes in western comics.

The negatives I mention are more perceived than real, VP really is a great comic and I hope it continues the full way to the end this time. The animated experiment shows the amazing potential for what it could eventually evolve into.

Heh, sorry, I'm reading it now... I'll get a review up in a second... I just tend to judge things unfairly. My laptop's having a few issues...

The reason I said that was because manga/anime just kinda freaks me out. There's some really good variations out there, I'm sure, but I've just stayed away from them for time issues. I know, I should be more flexible, but unfortunately I'm just not. It's kinda rude, actually. But still, I'll get this... if my laptop is functioning properly tomorrow.

Alright, let's see...I don't really count this story as manga-ish at all. Yeah the art sorta looks like it, but the story is incredibly different. And with comics, as long as the art is pretty good it's the story that decides if you're gonna read it or not. And I like reading this comic.

First Impressions- Very nice site design. The colors are what you would expect from this kind of comic, and it's very easy to manuver through the archives. I'm happy with this.

Art- Overall it's very good. The characters aren't still at all, the backgrounds are drawn very well, and the black, greys, and occassional reds look very cool. Every so often there's a color page which looks really nice. The paneling is good, and there are some dramatic camera angles. Okay! So I like this.

Story- I like it! While the vampires don't have as many awesome-as-hell powers as I hoped they would (or haven't shown us yet) the characterization makes the story very human. Almost like The Walking Dead with what the world has become, except instead of zombies there are vampires (and the story focus is on the vampires more than the humans). I can't help thinking that Jill's character is a bit reminicent of Sereas Victorias' character from Hellsing, only this story doesn't spiral into mad war and confusion. The pacing is rather slow....Jack is a pretty cool character despite his slight cliche attitude. Overall it's a really good story.

I'm kind of in a rush right now so I can't write closing notes, but this is a good comic. Read it!

Whoops. Yeah, I read a few pages, it's good! But I only read three pages... because my backlight went out!

I know I'm late for this review but I like your story.
It has a lot of potential.
I would only suggest one thing. Your anatomy needs a little work. Referance is key and I know Borders book store has a ton of books on how to draw just check them out it will help a lot.
I have tons of how to books and I'm always learning.

I'm really late with this review. lol.

I think the character developement and interaction are really strong.
They all have a good amount of depth.
The story is pretty good so far though it doesn't seem like there is an overall clear goal (for example, save the princess, defeat the badguy to free the universe, etc.) This may be another reason I continue to read it. I want to know exactly where everything is going in this story.
The art, though not the best, is quality work and conveys each scene well.
Overall, I'm a fan! :P

Lucky enough for me that I read this comic before you renewed it again.

The begining of the story pulled me in with Emily and Jack all happy then you killed off emily and the baby.But it would be pretty borning if the comic was all happy all the time.Now vampires very popular in my book.I really wish once and awhile you would have a page colored.You do pretty nice at picking what the sound effect words look like.Then I thought "SWEET!" when you had that girl who reminded jack of emily.There was abunch of blood but meh what would you expect from a vampire comic.To sum this all up I love your comic

Normaly I am not much of a fan of manga, but this comic is EXCELENT!!!


Good Qualities: Likable Chacters. I love Jack, he has a painfull back story, a bad ass attitude and strangely, a kind heart. He is a well though of character and he fit well with his supporting cast. I liked the other characters just as well, but he sticks out the most in my mind. Great Art. The art is clean and easy to understand. Mad props to the artist! Great Story! I could not stop reading this comic, infact I finished it in 2 afternoons (I only stopped reading it because I have a job to work and I am a father)!

Bad Qualities: Weak background. They need a little improvement, but I can't talk too much I don't even make my backgrounds.

I give this comic a 5 out of 5!!


I can honestly say that I am a fan of this comic! FAVED!!!!

First-time reviewer here so bear with me ;)
Alas, I've not had the pleasure of seeing the 'Old VP comic' so I'm just going on that there prologue:


Overall this is a good start to a promising story though at only 10 pages I can't comment too much on how the plot is progressing. There's a lot of vampire stories out there so it will be interesting to see if/how Sarah takes the vampire 'legend' and makes it VP's own to stand out from the rest.

So far the characters are engaging and likeable ('cept for that nasty ol' vampire there, of course) and, importantly, 'sound' different in their dialogue. I'm hoping that trend will continue with the story. (It can be really offputting when you can't tell characters apart except by looks but that's not the case here!).

The artwork carries the story well and the coherent layout makes for an understandable, easy read. Sarah's got the storytelling down, though her anatomy could stand some improvement (Burne Hogarth's books're a Godsend ;) ).



um, hope that was helpful! In short this is looking good so far!

Sarah, your comic is perhaps one of the best comic stories that I've ever read with vampires. even thought the vampire themed comic and story is extremely overused, I'm totally in love with this comic!

Jack is priceless. Jill is strong and the image most girls would want to be. Orlock is the kind of dude I can relate with. >3

Art: The style is wonderful. I love the affect that the gray's, blacks, whites, and few color set the mood of every page! It's hard to capture that sort of sense without overuse or loss of interest but you're doing wonders with it! The character designs are simple but twistingly beautiful. :D I like the background effects you use. (Like the raining page and sorts.) Two thumbs up!

Story: The story, even in the first one, has had me hooked! I can't wait to read more!

Keep this distrubingly good sweet up! XD I hope one day you can get it published so I can get my greedy, comic reader hands on it. *drooool*