Anti-Criticism

[Steve]

I spent the better part of the afternoon composing a long message in response to the comment that we ought offer encouragement, rather than ridicule.  In fact, it was so long, the message "insisted" I post on the forum.  Well, here goes.

Normally I don't comment on comics, but I do enjoy them.  Given what you've stated at the beginning, I wanted to give my few cents.  Let me be clear and state I have no criticism; but much praise.  I hope that my words have a positive effect.

First, I want to say that I read about 20 - 30 comics daily.  I've dropped a few that after a while, failed to catch my interest and I decided it wasn't worth keeping the bookmark.  There are comics that I look at for the amusement and something to pass, and there are comics that I read and follow, looking forward to the next installment.  There are about 4 comics in the latter category, and yours is one of them.

I started reading this about 3 years ago, stumbling on it from a link on another web comic.  I can't remember what date exactly, but I know that it caught my interest quite well, being in the middle of a story.  I read the archives to that point, and enjoyed what I saw.  In fact, I've gone through the archives re-reading more than once; once again, that is not something I'll normally do.  Very few comics have the ability to pull me in, keep me waiting, and "reach out" to me as a reader, if you will; and further, still be interesting enough for me to look through the archives more than once.

The time and effort you put into the work is obvious.  I've written some short pieces, but certainly nothing as long as this story, and I hate to admit, not doing the amount of research you've done.  There are events you've mentioned in your comic that I've referenced and was happy and impressed to see the reference to an actual event (House of Lords Reform, for example) or actual legendary rules (rules for dealing with fey) that in my own works and thoughts, had not even thought to consider.  In other words, I've actually learned a few things from the story.  Frankly, I consider that to be going "above and beyond" in the realm of storytelling.  Well done.

The story line itself is quite solid.  I have found that the questions I've had about "what's going on here?" are answered, and I have yet to see a case of "Deus ex machina."  I find interesting and amusing that in spite of the power held by those who have what the story refers to as "the talent" that there's really not any "Deus ex magica;" that's actually quite impressive.  It does, as I say, pull the reader.  Even those parts that I thought would be a little less interesting, I have found to be interesting.  I don't say surprisingly so, since Darc has consistently demonstrated the ability to write an engaging and solid story.

Finally, the art.  There's art, and then there's, well, not so much.  What you do is art.  You do what works for you, for your purposes, and you do it well.  There is a lot of detail in your work, and I enjoy how you convey expressiveness.  There's a sense of realism to it, in that the expressions are not far from the limits of the form of the character.  Your mice, in other words, don't grin like people.  The textures and shading are done well enough that the viewer has a sense of what things are, and how they are related, and so on.

All in all, I have no complaints.  First off, as above: great story, great art, reflecting honest to goodness effort.  Second, paying the artist is appreciated, but voluntary.  The comic is out there for all to read, and those who pay are further ahead than those who do not (which I might add I believe is an excellent compromise to put a comic out, and provide incentive to fund the artist).  I can only echo what others have said: criticism ought be constructive.

I look forward to future installments.

Well thought out, well done.  Bravo.

Cheers.

[Darc_Sowers]

*blush* Thank you so much! I really don't know what to say. *blush*  I'm honored that you've been enjoying the comic and hope that I can continue to keep it interesting in the future. I've been working on learning various art essentials that I missed out on earlier which should start to improve the quality of the art. I'm still trying to figure out to to work on improving the writing.

I apologize for things being rocky this last year with the Supporters area having to close and the comic no longer going to print. With the economy being how it is, we just couldn't keep up. The nice thing is the comic can go back to being for everyone's enjoyment and not as a form of income. I was even able to remove that Project Wonderful ad finally. I'm so glad about that! I understand selling ad space on a comic site, but I never enjoyed doing it. I never wanted to require anyone to pay in order to read or make people feel pressured into supporting financially. I know I don't enjoy it when I see fellow comic creators doing so. There's only so much money to go around and all.

I'm glad you like the research that's gone into the comic. I'm a former librarian, so I still feel this desire to shuffle through and collect information. I've been worried that it would seem a little odd to add real world info to the comic, but it just kind of worked its way in and seemed right to leave in. Though most of the credit for the fey realm is due to Matt. He knows more about the old legends than I ever will.

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm babbling. I'm just not sure how to say thank you enough. *blush*

I apologize for the word limit on the site's comments section. We were getting some long comments that were sparking arguments last year and weren't sure what to do. Matt and I aren't always able to catch things before they get out of control. We didn't want to require each comment to be monitored before it could be posted so went with what seemed the lesser evil. I'm sorry for the trouble.

Thanks so much Steve!