Helm's FILL IN THE COMIC compo!

[SmootH]

I don't think anyone has done this yet....



Wow, I'll be about 3-4 people truly get this one.

[Las Naranjas]

Special prize for biothlebop for his (or her or it's) cornucopia of entries.

[Helm]

Especially the last one is genius. The way it depends on meta-knowledge of what's going on. Very impressed. But although this last entry is almost my favourite, it cannot win for depending on the other entries.

[Grapefruitologist]

I hope I'm not too late, but here's my entry. I call this one "Paranoid Tom":

[Haddas]

I demand there be no winners! I see this more as an activity, rather than a competition. Who's with me?

[nihilyst]

I agree. There were so many good entries, that it would be hard to decide a winner, anyway. I demand that all entries are winners.

[Helm]

If nobody complains, that's totally fine with me.

[Ishmael]

Being a competition it would be a bit unfair for those who have only submitted one entry against those who have submitted several, wouldn't it?

[Ubel]

My thoughts exactly, Haddas. Damn, this was fun. Please start another one some day, Helm.

[biothlebop]

I just want to see Helm's 1 1/2 page post where he comments every entry.

[Helm]

I fully intend to. Although as I said, having been comic strip doctored, I'm not sure how much use my critique will be and I might deteriorate to ARGH ARGH THIS IS GREAT I LOVE YOU or whatnot.

[Andail]

I think you're being unfair to yourself by saying that many entries were better than your own version.
Sure, as a one-page piece of comedy, probably all of them were, but as a part of a longer plot the text of one single page can be necessary but still, isolated like this, not very meaningful.

[Helm]

My version isn't one page from a longer ongoing narrative. It's a single story page. It starts, progresses and ends as it does.

[biothlebop]

[Helm]

[biothlebop]

Part 2 of Helm's strip.

[Helm]

No more entries will be accepted.

[Helm]

biothlebop: I liked your first entry very much when I first saw it because I had doubts anyone would do anything interesting with the page, originally. It was nice how this started out with a daring entry. The last panel made me laugh out loud too.

Haddas: This was one of the literal uses of the knife setup, where a twist in attempted at the end, and for what it is, it works pretty well. You did better later on.

voh: the "<3" panel put me off, and the O RLY thing also, I don't mind the nonsensical approach generally but those things kinda ruined this one for me.

eric: besides stealing gore's opening lines, I enjoyed your comic. I think you're the only one besides voh to have the roach talk?

gore: I laugh every time I see the +10 XP!! panel. This is easily one of my favourites. Great use of the expression. Somehow seeing the woman say 'noobs' amuses me a lot.

Unilin: this is probably the best 'straight' setup of the lot, better written than Esseb's cult entry, and uses the last three panel twist the best. Easily in my top three, and besides it and Pete's below the probable winners if we were still doing the winning thing.

Farlander: this is I guess some inside joke referring to you staying at Grunds? As such, I can't really comment.

Pete: this is one of the best, the panel centered on her butt accompanied by 'ASS!' 'BUT!' is brilliant, and the dialogue is very natural generally. The woman is a bitch in this which is very fitting to my original idea about the whole situation, and the end setup where he proves he can kill by killing a little bug is excellent. Probably the best entry in my opinion, and I'm really jealous I didn't think of this to put it in the paper.

Grund: it's pretty clear you changed the approach midway, but I like how you're the first ot capitalize on the -unintentionally freudian, on my part- placement of the knife in the first of the last three panels.

Becky: pawsies! This comic irritates me because she basically blames him for everything and I want to punch her. I understand the guy's frustration on the end, but it kinda falls apart when you think he gave her a knife with which she would kill herself. She's obviously not the suicidal type. Bitch.

Fuzz: this was so 'obvious' that at first I didn't get it. The writing's great, great pace too, I just had a little 'huh, what? so he bought the knife to kill the roach? um' thing going on, probably my own problem. One of the better entries.

Corey:

Zooty: this was quite witty. Some of the text strains to go with the pictures which I guess was the whole challenge of the compo. The running joke is good, but the end is uneventful, not capitalizing on the kill-roach scenario.

Chrille: another great entry. The whole 'too slow' thing was great, the most limp attempt at assassination ever put to comics. The usage of the roach death was great too.

Ishmael: a competent usage of the end twist, the writing suffers a bit, overall pretty good. 'what kind of wildreness is out there' doesn't work at all, though.

Esseb: one of the best of this compo. The writing's pretty sparse, but it's ok. The twist is handled beautifully, him killing the bug both out of frustration and in the whole reincarnation theme. Beautiful, and another I wish I could go back in time and steal. boy, wouldn't you look stupid posting my own entry then, huh!

biothlebop again: This was weaker than the other one, good writing, though. Absurdity is good.

Visti: the end punchline is too much text I think... some of the writing could be refined a lot, as could the pacing.

Tuomas: this was actually pretty competent aside from the problem of the overexposition in the last three panels. We can figure this stuff out on our own without them being outlined to us, that's the fun with comics.

SSH: friendship bracelet

SpacePirateCaine: one of my favourite entries too. You make cycling sound like such an omnious, cutthroat affair. I find the setup both absurd and believable at the same time, which is an awesome thing to pull off. Great writing, the twist at the end hangs, but this is almost good enough for me to not care.

progz: as I don't get the quote at all, your entry doesn't do anything for me. I don't see the point of using a whole comic to make a pop culture reference.

chicky: this was fun. Besides the annoying font, the writing is ellyptical enough to suggest realistic speech which was good. The end alteration is both horrifying and hilarious. great. This marks the point where everybody starts to experiment with the format more than just the text (besides Las' entry which was very hardcore for reasons discussed further below).

Ivy: this was a contender to win as well, great writing, good and original usage of the dude's small speech bubbles, the twist is good, I really like this on the whole. Subtle but funny, nothing dramatic, a lot of stuff implied and left to the reader's imagination.

Haddas again: I loved this. Experiemental silent film style, nothing happens! This is great because when you have so little to go on, small things like the girl closing her eyes find new and 'heavy' significance. I was expecting someone to do a silent comic, but this was worked enough to not be just that. Great.

CJ: I find it awesome you did one of those. But I also realize why you never made an adventure game using AGS now!

biothlebop once more: I laughed at the gimmick when I first saw it. So I guess this entry did it's job.

Tiki: the facial hair was funny, not much else going on.

Limping: if this was one of the first entries it would rate better in my head than it does on page 3. It's a pretty straightforward setup, the twist in the end kinda works. Too understated for it's own good, probably. But then, who am I to talk? my punchline was "ok"...

biothlebop returns: This is brilliant. If only the helmet matched the art style more, this would easily be my favourite of the art-manipulation versions. Still, the last panel makes me laugh every time.

rharpe: oh oh I get it. debug! Only one question remains!

oranges: this is great for three reasons. First it's written very well, second, it's HOTT. Third, because it's page 3 and almost nobody is doing non-art-manipulation entries, most think the jokes have been made. This was smart and funny, works every angle the comic has going for it, and is original without changing the art. Easily one of my late favourites.

Skurwy: the thing I like the most about your entry is the font and text placement

nihilyst: I found this good overall, kinda strained to make the setup work. Somehow everybody that made the girl philosophise kinda lose me because I find the woman in the comic very annoying and quite unlike the person to have deep insightful things to say. Pete and oranges captured her best in that sense. Unilin gets away with the drama queen I'm going to kill myself thing exactly because she's still annoying about it and we can't sympathize.

Abisso: I don't have much to say. This one was pretty far-fetched for a straight scenario. The nice thing is that the end twist is ignored, and a new one is introduced basically at the panel where he hands him the knife back.

Pablo: oh you made the roach talk too! I saw this one coming, but still I found it funny, and generally well-written. Nice.

Helm: there's such a thing as doing too little in a comic, helm. Don't hide behind the claims of understatement. The characterization works, but the whole premise is kinda marred by just being too... little of anything, I guess. Your entry matches the expressions and the art generally the best, however. I wonder why.

iamus: some of your text is obscured by the head of the dude on one panel, is this intentional? I don't know if the text there changes the comic much significantly. I found the writing a bit tiresome on this one, and besides her being clearly insane I don't see what else your entry is supposed to be doing.

biothlebop and robin: my spoon is too big

gore unlimited: this was excellent again. One of the more inventive art-manip entries, still depends on good writing. I liked this a lot. If you're gonna force someone to read downwards though, mark the connectors better than you did.

steve: double whammy! For a straight-text entry, this is suprizingly good this late in the compo. I liked this a lot.

biothlebop begins: this was probably my least favourite of yours. The end gag is ok, but it isn't foreshadowed in any way. Absurd shifts are cool, but I'm sure you could have done more with this.

biothlebop and the masters of the universe: wonderfully metacontextual. The beginning of the end for this compo. I adore how he just steps up and leaves. This couldn't win on it's own, but if say, the entries were collected and published in a fanzine or something, this entry would be the cherry on top, really. We took it a bit further on the end, but it ends here, really.

SmootH: I am not one of the 3-4 people.

Grape: this is a variation of a lot of themes in this compo, as such, it would only rise above if it was written very well. It's not, but it's not bad. You suffer from telling too much with the 'the hitman!' thing at the end too. It's not needed, we can infer as much on our own.

biothlebop: this surprised me for how well it worked and how subtle the art manip was. If only the eye panel matched the art style of the rest of this. Funny and smartass-y, very good.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

progz: as I don't get the quote at all, your entry doesn't do anything for me. I don't see the point of using a whole comic to make a pop culture reference.

I didn't put it in there as a pop culture reference, those lines from Full Metal Jacket just seemed to fit that sequence of the comic.  Watch the movie, you oaf! 

[Sam.]

you shoulf win,

EDIT: Never mind.