The Spooktacular Sonic the Comic Hallowe’en Special!

[Michael]

www.stconline.co.uk/halloween2013/controlzone.html

Happy Hallowe'en!

[L. T. Dangerous]

Roight then.

I'm torn, honestly.

On the one hand, the script hits a lot of the right notes. There are plenty of bits that made me laugh and there's a good spooky feel to it. I'm not entirely sure about the ending but I think there may be a conveyance problem. The panel layout on at least two of the pages was confusing and called for a re-read more than once.

Amy is massively off-model. I mean, remember how much stick Marcus got for War of the Rose? Human proportions on Amy look bizarre to me, I'm afraid.

I love some of the characters here- the lizard person and the gargoyle look great!

I think the debuting Neil C. Tamstone did a remarkable job on the colours- I'm particularly intrigued by how his colouring style appears to have changed halfway through the script. Strangely enough it actually worked in the script's favour by occuring about the point at which we have a scene change. Would be thrilled to see either of these styles from Neil in future issues.

Grateful to see new STC-O so soon after the last issue, that's a major blessing. Looking forward to the next one.

[ShayMay]

Yeah, Neil worked his butt off. The linework is incredibly difficult though, so he asked us he could simplify his style halfway through in order to make it easier on himself.

[L. T. Dangerous]

Excellent

Ooh, also, as regarding KKM's cover, great to see the Decap gang again. Would be nice if they could make a Kodos & Kang-esque appearance in each Halloween issue, even if it's only a cameo or cover

Forgot to mention the wallpapers, love them all!

[Super Sonic]

Great art, though how tall/lanky is Amy??

Some of the layout made reading the story a little confusing at times. Other than that I have no complaints.

[Adamis]

Congrats to the colourist, it must have been HELL to colour those linearts.

I've already told that artist my concern with Amy's size, one thing I don't like in these pages. She just look like Barbie with an Amy Rose mask.
And there are quite some errors in the backgrounds (perspective, etc).
Story-wise, I'll read it later.

On the other hand, welcome to the new artists KKM, Modochi and Mambo. The wallpapers are delicious. "Hocus Purrcus" is just a great line, and I also love the KKM's picture. Curse you guys, I have two new wallpapers now

[Tanner / Ogilvie]

Always wonderful to get one of these special issues as a treat to tide me over between regular issues!

As has been said, my only issue was I had trouble following along to the panel layout... at one point I thought it had gone manga style since I had to read from right to left to get an idea what was going on.

Overall though, short yet sweet little story. Always a pleasure to read what the STCO team cooks up.

[Eleonora B.M]

Altough I did the drawings it really felt like reading the comic for the first time. There have been plenty changes since I delivered the work and I never got to see it compleated before. I my self see plenty mistakes after a year that I probably would not make now. Hope I'll get chances to redeem my self on certain points. The colour really highlighted some points I wished could be highlighted! Great, just what happens on page 5? Amy goes compleatly gray and the lizard woman's face in unedged.

I LIKED VERY VERY MUCH ALL THE WALLPAPERS. EXPECIALLY THE COVER

the only true thing that bugged me was THE COLOUR OF AMY'S PANTS! REALLY, MILITARY GREEN?! That aside really nice. Thanks for all.

[Matt]

Having given Neil a few tips when colouring the strip the green is my fault... well not fault more observation, Amy often wore pants of a dark olive green in the later STC strips and having Amy wearing such a different outfit from normal I suggested she wear Green as a hint at her old clothes to help readers see something familiar in the art.

As for Amy going Grey my guess, and it can't be much more than that. Is that it's an attempt to highlight other characters, almost taking Amy out of the focus so you pay attention to the important action in the panel. Personally I think Neil could have done a bit of a better job at using a limited pallet to sell these panels better, but that said I think his work one pages 2 and 3 in particular are really bold and he pulls them off well.

I think there are bit of this issue that are hard to follow, the end seems like it missing a little something and a couple of the jokes maybe are lacking a bit of visual punch, but you can see a lot of hard work and detail went into every page Eleonoras done. I would suggest working on perspective for your next comic, I don't want too judge to harshly as I know this is a year old and you'll have come on leaps and bounds since then.

perspective is something a lot of artist struggle with (myself included) and in a script that involved a lot of it I can imagine it was a pain. I know it's not a story I envy having to draw.

Shay I think it shows this is one or your earlier scripts, it nice and has an STC back up feel, but I think it lack the humour punch of your big strip or the mythos intrigue of skeletons. That doesn't mean it's bad by any means just that you've set the bar very high for yourself and this slightly older script while serviceable isn't the STC gut punch that say 'to the hero of Mobius' has

I always find it hard to comment on the newest issues, as a member of the team you don't want to be seen to be blowing your own trumpet, but you obviously do want to praise the work of others. So I want to say particular thanks to the new art humes and freelancers who are appearing in STC for the first time this issue and I hope to see more of all of you going forward. STC is a brilliant celebration not only of STC but of the ability of fans to continually keep something going. Few fan projects last 10 years and continue to regularly put out 5 issues a year.

I'm really excited going forward seeing a new group of Artists coming in to join up established talents of the current humes.

[Mambo's Here! Look Busy!]

Nov 1, 2013 15:22:03 GMT Eleonora B.M said:

I LIKED VERY VERY MUCH ALL THE WALLPAPERS. EXPECIALLY THE COVER

the only true thing that bugged me was THE COLOUR OF AMY'S PANTS! REALLY, MILITARY GREEN?! That aside really nice. Thanks for all.

This is STC Amy we're talking about here, I doubt she would ditch the military green that easily! heheh! Personally I think the purple and green go nicely together. As the line artist did you have something else in mind? More gothic-style colours?

Thankies for the yay to the wallpapers, though!


My thoughts are that the story is nice, but it needed a bit more to it. The threat of the gargoyles in the end didn't seem that scary, and I am a little confused; I thought once someone was put in a Badnik, they no longer had control or even consciousness? That's what made the Cyberniks special; they were Badniks but I was under the impression that the animal inside would be somewhat aware, and that was how Shorty could over-ride the Badnik program. What made the Gargoyle Badnik so bad that Skye could retain her free will? Hmm... *strokes chin*

[Badly-Drawn Manchild]

Yeah, I've gotta say I found this strip rather confusing. The whole Badnik revelation just made me scratch my head, for the reasons Mambo pointed out. There were definitely some odd technical issues with this story, including panel layout and the pacing moving too fast for its own good.

Also, I found the fact that Amy was so off-model very distracting, in spite of the art really being nice overall.

[Eleonora B.M]

Nov 1, 2013 17:57:41 GMT Mambo's Here! Look Busy! said:

Nov 1, 2013 15:22:03 GMT Eleonora B.M said:

I LIKED VERY VERY MUCH ALL THE WALLPAPERS. EXPECIALLY THE COVER

the only true thing that bugged me was THE COLOUR OF AMY'S PANTS! REALLY, MILITARY GREEN?! That aside really nice. Thanks for all.

This is STC Amy we're talking about here, I doubt she would ditch the military green that easily! heheh! Personally I think the purple and green go nicely together. As the line artist did you have something else in mind? More gothic-style colours?

Thankies for the yay to the wallpapers, though!

no, really a great BRAVO for them. And, yes. Actually I had different colours in mind but still not that much. I originally thought of Pervinca and white for the shirt, blu the medallion pin and a regular BROWN for the pants or otherwise a black or again blu.
But no trouble with Amy and military green, really. Like military green, good military green on Amy. Or little soldier. It's just........not under the colours of that shirt and an orange medallion!

And though I dislike the idea of Amy being portraited still like a little girl I do see I definetly went a bit over the borderline with Amy's design expecially in the first 3 pages and the last. But I can really see how poor my anatomical knowledges was back then. I would fix that, yes. But keep the eye-lids (it contributes a lot on expressions, really. and estetically it's a nice touch)

[ShayMay]

Yeah, there's a wee bit of a story behind the story, as it were. Not really making excuses, I agree that it doesn't have any teeth, but I feel like sharing this anyway.

So the basic idea of the story, the first idea I had with it, was that Amy found a character who was being absolutely hounded by a Badnik. She had been waiting for a date when it first happened, and eventually, it was revealed that it was her date inside the Badnik and that's why it was obsessed with her (whether this was by design or not I would have left ambiguous). The way I planned it, it would have been a three part story set in the Megalopolis Zone, but I think that was overestimating the story. I think a two-parter would have done it justice.
Anyway, I couldn't make it work so I shelved the idea for a while. It was only later when Elyon expressed interest about doing a Hallowe'en story (as we were talking about the Gothic at the time, I believe) that I thought about the story again, and, with a fresh pair of eyes and a new setting, I re-wrote it as a one-part Hallowe'en special. I felt I'd managed to simplify the story well, but looking at it again all I really did was homogenise it. It's a little disappointing as I would love to have done that concept justice, but ah well, c'est la vie.

That said, there are some details that I like in there and I don't think it's a complete disaster. I do like the old woman, and I like that it could go one way or the other as far as the gargoyle's intentions go. I do think the idea comes across, but it's got no room to breathe at all and I should have given myself a bit more room to play with it. I would have liked to have fleshed out Skye and Birtle more especially.

There are little niggles with the art that have already been mentioned, but honestly, my biggest one is with Skye and Birtle's designs. I imagined them a lot more as just being normal teenagers. In the script, Page 7, Panel 2 reads:

"Skye punches Birtle affectionately on the arm, as the crone looks crestfallen.

Skye: ...OKAY, AS FAR AS EXCUSES GO, THAT’S A PRETTY GOOD ONE.

Crone: SO... THERE ARE NO DEMONS?"

There was no hand-kissing either. As they are, I think they're perhaps a bit flowery for STC. Sorry Elyon.
That's the fun of collaborations though: I absolutely believe in room for interpretation, and I usually have a hands-off approach once the script is written as I don't want to cramp anyone's style. This was Elyon's style, so I'm not sore at all about it being different from how I pictured it in my head. Plus, she more than made up for what niggles I had with the liquorice kids, who were both adorable. <3

[Mambo's Here! Look Busy!]

Aww I'm sorry Shay, I wasn't just slamming it. I was pondering how the Badniks must work... being mass-produced for use in the war surely means they're not as sturdy, is what I was getting at. It still feels very STC, and tbh having Skye and Birtle in their more gothic gear works well for the style of the zone. Maybe that's just how teens there dress?!

The Crone is great. Her lines made me chuckle (a bit Blackaddery, which for this type of zone is just fine) and she was of use in the last few panels, she wasn't just for exposition. It's good, but as you say... if it were a two-parter it would have been better.

[ShayMay]

Oh, no, please never feel like you have to apologise for having problems with/disliking my stuff! It's cew!
I was originally kind of wary about responding to criticisms at all, actually. I've since decided I'm allowed to disagree with them, so long as I'm being honest with myself when I do so. Please slam it if that's how you feel!

[Hades]

Liked it.
Amy needs to be drawn lanky with baggy sleeves all the time, she looks cooler that way

[snowthefox]

hey! me again! this halloween special was okay I liked it a lot!

[Eleonora B.M]

Nov 6, 2013 7:42:20 GMT Hades said:

Liked it.
Amy needs to be drawn lanky with baggy sleeves all the time, she looks cooler that way

I think so too. Let alone my drawing, but I'd rather she'd look more lanky and adult like. After all, plotwise she's more close to beeing a grown up than a little girl. Shouldn't there actually be a difference since she and the gang fought with Chaos?