the good/bad/ugly of harkovast, what works, what doesn't?

[Tiberius]

title says it all, except for what it doesn't, so I'll say it here.

What about Harkovast is good, what is bad, what is ugly?

I think the coloring is one of the strongest parts of the art.
I also think perspective could use some work. the best example of this is the last panel of this page. it looks very awkward, and misshapen, like her arms are each 6 feet long.

I like the action scenes, they don't seem too awkward and flow nicely.

your opinions on what are the good/bad/ugly?

[Canuovea]

I agree with the perspective, sometimes.

And the action sequences are well thought out and possibly the best drawn of the entire thing. This is particularly true of the more recent ones. I can actually follow what is going on, and if I pay enough attention, sometimes guess what is coming next. And not only when it is obvious, like with the death of Tau Feng.

For instance, when we got that aerial view of the battle of the caravan, I noticed that Kouldie (I think) was aiming her pistol at Muir, I could see the shot coming and even thought it would bounce off. It was gratifying to see it happen the next page.

The pencil colouring is amazing.

Now, what don't I like? There have been a couple of cases where the eyes have confused me. Not just Muir, I know he has a lazy eye, but others too. I think this stems from the fact that the heads are not generally shaped in a human fashion, so the perspective can seem... strange. This one seemed to bug me. Ki seems like he has his far eye with his iris against the corner of the eye... but... it confuses me. Maybe there isn't anything wrong with it. I'm just bad at art.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to say at the moment. For bad. There is plenty of good stuff. For instance, movement has gotten better. And the blank part behind certain scenes has disappeared mostly. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that but it is good at first glance.

[Harkovast]

Its the crappy art that gets on my nerves.
It's got better since the early pages, where looking back it really was incredibly ugly, but I think its still pretty rough and ready.
Perspective hasn't so much got better as started to actually exist!

The action has got a lot better, as its not as stiff and lifeless as it used to be. I actually went back to some older pages and changed a few of them to make it seem more lively in line with the newer ones. It's amazing how often I edit old stuff without anyone noticing. I've totally rewritten early pages, removed huge sections of text and reordered panels but no one seems to pick up on it (ooops! Just gave away my secrets!)

The painfully slow update speed is another big bug bear. One a week? Seriously? That's just rubbish! I wish I could get about 3 a week out there and get the damn story moving. They've been fighting the Heretic for forever!

I am never totally happy that when I scan and photo shop the pages that the colours come out entirely consistantly, I think sometimes something is lost in translation.

Good stuff- I like the colouring (thus saving my marriage) as I think it lends the comic a nice unique look. There isn't really anything else that looks like Harkovast.
I like the world and the setting and the way more and more information about it gets revealed over time, especially the fun little details about how they all live and see the world.

[Renard]

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and say that the art could be better, but like everyone else I think that the coloring, story, and the world in general more than makes up for it.

[Tiberius]

so far everyone has agreed that the coloring Mrs. Vast does is awesome, which makes it all the more baffling when critics complain about it.

[Harkovast]

You would think my myriad mess ups would give them enough ammunition without having to lay into the good bits!

I think people just sometimes object to things that are different, and the colouring is something they haven't seen before and it just doesn't click for everyone.

[exodus500]

I think everyone else has so far got all the good complaints out so i'll go ahead and just lay some other point out.

I personally really like the eyes, they're is quite expressive or at least i think so.

The only real complaint i have is that the comic updates about as fast as a sloth who's not particularly feeling up to doing anything today moves, but that can't really be helped.

It would be nice though if the heretic would just die already so the angry panda man can get back to systematically genociding the ano-chee one neck at a time (please don't take that seriously).

[Frostwolf18]

not enough chicks.....


now for seriousness
i like how the story in the world is set up, i like how the cultures are based on cultures of the real world

i like playing a little guessing game to see what race is what nationality (i do it with wow alot, night elves are japanese)

the characters in my opinion don't seem to generic, though i don't think ihave read enough fantasy, then again and old guy as a badass that is a part of the main cast and not a secondary character is interesting

like how they are not all young teenagers, i can read that but not all the time

the artwork has improved

still needs more chicks (haha, sorry my ADD meds wore off a while ago, i say stupid crap when that happens)

[Renard]

We have one that can crush skulls with her bare hands, one that has (according to Hark) come back from the dead, one that nearly fought a nameless warrior with a stool, one that kills shit using several swords, and another that makes her money (I'd imagine a considerable sum) by selling her skills as a bomb maker, gunsmith, and sharpshooter.

We already know that there is a badger somewhere in the world who leads what is essentially a special forces border guard unit, and another who wears armor that she cobbled together from armor she torn from the corpses of her enemies.

Are you not satisfied?

[Frostwolf18]

but most of those are secondary characters!

god i cannot pay attention today
i am much more fun with my meds off haha

hahahaahahahahahahahaahaahaha

[Renard]

I'm pretty sure that Chen Chen is a main character, she's the one who can bust skulls like melons.

[Frostwolf18]

"most" not all renard
most

[Canuovea]

There are going to be a lot of characters in Harkovast. I'm not even sure I'd classify Shogun and Ki as "main characters".

And did you mention Dayla the Witch Finder General? She might be a half-caste Darsai-Golta because she runs about with a pistol.

[Frostwolf18]

crap
will chen chen stay after the heretic is dead? i hope so, i like her

[Canuovea]

I don't know.

Maybe I don't see Shogun as a main character because I think Shogun is an annoying ass. He probably is.

But I don't know what is going to happen next, I'm not even sure that the story is going to follow the same group or characters around. We might jump to a new group with a different story that is intertwined with this one in some degree or another. Or we might follow Muir about. I know nothing. All I've got is guessing.