I(vy) do comics too

The Ivy · Fri 07/04/2006 02:58:50

Hey all, haven't posted in a while and kinda felt like sharing something I "actually" do.

These are some comics I did for a humour newspaper, and it was my first time trying anything with serial plot and characters.Ã,Â I got to 10 episodes, which was pretty exciting.Ã,Â It's called "Casa," and it's about student life in the same way that Terminator II was about a boy looking for a father figure.

Don't worry, the art gets better as you go.Ã,Â Enjoy!Ã,Â

I introduced the prospector ghost for some spunk.Ã,Â It quickly escalated.

Wanton destruction, when used properly, is comedic "gold."

A personal favourite for some reason.

This is the last appearance of the ghost.Ã,Â Don't mourn him too much, he was already dead to me.

Check out the viagra ad in panel 5.

Inspired by a true story.Ã,Â Kind of.

Now look back at what Steve says in the first panel.Ã,Â Oddly prophetic, eh? :-,

Aww, Steve's so cute when he's bitter, i.e. always.

No idea where this one came from.Ã,Â Maybe because my family was visiting that week.

A good solid finish.Ã,Â I kinda like how the last words of the series are "I hate you."

I hope some of you managed to read through all those...you've just been exposed to a whole lot of awesome.Ã,Â Uh, actually...you might want to get tested for awesome, just in case.Ã,Â Play it safe, kids!

Scummbuddy · Fri 07/04/2006 04:14:24

Hey, I really liked them. If they continued, I would look forward to them and I'm sure enjoy them as well. I may be a sucker for college aged college newspaper comics.

Nice work. If it continued, I would suggest bringing back the prospector randomly, but rarely. It would be a cool throwback to your originals, and your old fans would love it.

LGM · Fri 07/04/2006 05:07:12

You definitely have a talent. I would read more.

Gregjazz · Fri 07/04/2006 05:33:59

Nice!!

I'll buy your comic book when you finish it.

MashPotato · Fri 07/04/2006 05:37:39

Fun... my favourite one was "Anti-thesis", but I loved the facial expressions in "Technical Difficulties"

magintz · Fri 07/04/2006 10:04:40

very nice, funny and good artwork. I also have a webcomic thats been going since November last year (comic 30 went up today), although the art sin't as good and most of them are very much private jokes between me and my friends. I think the death link below should take you there.

Anghellic · Fri 07/04/2006 15:59:15

You make such good stuff

you must be rich

Haddas · Fri 07/04/2006 16:09:46

So this is how you finance those fancy green costumes, Ivy. I will foil your plans. MARK. MY. WORDS.

ManicMatt · Fri 07/04/2006 18:59:50

I'm liking them! Especially 'that's cold'. You make me feel like drawing myself! Indeed, your style looks a bit like my own! However I haven't drawn much for years so I haven't improved much, and yours basically looks like what mine would if I had drawn cartoons solidly for five years! (There's a compliment in there somewhere..)

HillBilly · Fri 07/04/2006 20:10:57

Quote from: Haddas on Fri 07/04/2006 16:09:46
~~So this is how you finance those fancy green costumes, Ivy. I will foil your plans. MARK. MY. WORDS.~~

I kill myself.

I'm sorry, please continue the thread.

Gord10 · Fri 07/04/2006 20:18:32

They are hilarious, The Ivy

My favourites were the episodes 1 and 4.

Domino · Sat 08/04/2006 01:39:52

These are great!! I have only read one of them, but i love the drawings. They are alot better than some of the crap i see in my local newspaper everyday.

You've got talent. Keep up the good work!!

Shawn

Kinoko · Sat 08/04/2006 04:27:25

Okay, I just read the lot. The humour is -great-, you're really actually trying to be funny as opposed to a lot of those awful web comics that just try to emulate conversations people have had with their friends that they think are funny to other people but aren't. You're are ACTUALLY funny and I like the humour a lot ^_^ As far as the art, I think it's okay but could definitely do with some cleaning up. Just working on peoples' bodies and stances and making them seem a little less stiff will make a huge difference I think. Sorry, I know this isn't C&C but I would have given you an empty compliment if I thought it was just okay, but I really thought your writing was awesome so I'd like to see you keep going and improve! I promise I'm not trying to be patronising :/

Renal Shutdown · Sat 08/04/2006 16:20:25

I'm probably going to regret this, but, here goes..
Personally, I wasn't keen.

Art-wise, it's much the same as a lot of other comics I've seen. It's not the greatest thing in the world, sure, but it could've been a hell of a lot worse. It does seem a little cramped, tho. It looks like there's too much going on in each strip. The actual drawings themselves, it's a simplistic style that fits with the genre well. It's just a little rough around the edges, but fixing that just comes from practice and patience.

As Kinky mentioned.. Stances. They do look a bit stiff at times, however, this is something that might come from the way it needed to be for printing, so I won't go into it much. I'm sure with some shading, it'd be easily fixed.

Now, as for the humor..

I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend you or anything, but I just didn't find any of it funny. It seemed really forced. Humor's a difficult thing to do, and whilst I appreciate your effort, I think you should work on the plot and jokes a lot more before doing the art. I read thru the whole thing the first time round, and didn't even crack a smile, let alone laugh. The second time (now), I re-read the whole thing again, and the only panel I found remotely humorous was the "Did you use Steve's ketchup, too?". That panel stood out from the rest of the post, as it seemed genuinely humorous, not just trying to be funny and not succeeding.

Sure, newspaper comics I've read in the past are rarely funny. More often than not, they're drawn really badly (worse than yours), however, the makers of those are having to churn out comics on a large scale. One a day, with over a month in advance. It's hard to be funny if it's to a deadline.

I do see potential, but it needs work. A lot of work on the humor side. I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm not going to patronise you like some other people would, thinking "Oh, it's a chick trying to be funny, points for effort and whatnot", or "I'll say it's good because, I'm horny and Ivy's pretty".

For now, I'll just wish you good luck with it. I'd be interested in seeing what else you come up with in the future.

ManicMatt · Sat 08/04/2006 18:39:20

Quote from: Spleen on Sat 08/04/2006 16:20:25
the makers of those are having to churn out comics on a large scale.Ã,Â One a day, with over a month in advance.Ã,Â It's hard to be funny if it's to a deadline.

So she had all the time in the world, did she?

"These are some comics I did for a humour newspaper"

Dude, get a sense of humour!

Yeah okay her cartoons are not perfect, and they can be a little cluttered in places, but they ARE humourous! Look at how well she has portrayed the expressions on their faces.

The Ivy · Sat 08/04/2006 19:28:58

Thanks to all of you for your comments.Ã,Â I basically wanted to share them with you guys, and I'm glad so many ofÃ,Â you found them amusing.Ã,Â It really makes my day

.Ã,Â Ã,Â Ã,Â

I hear what a lot of you are saying about the rigid character stances...one of these days I'll learn how to draw a real human being.Ã,Â For now, I'm happy with the progress I made this year and look forward to improvements.Ã,Â

At the paper, our photoshop people add the colour/grayscale, so shading options are limited.Ã,Â I'll have to learn to use photoshop eventually, too.Ã,Â Speaking of the paper, check out this award I got last night:

Well, I was proud of that, anyway.Ã,Â Where was I?

Oh yeah, Spleen!Ã,Â Thanks for being the voice of dissent, I'm sure there's a bunch of people who read these and just thought "meh."Ã,Â I'm fine with that, I don't expect my sense of humour to agree with everyone.Ã,Â I do these because our paper reaches thousands of tired, cranky students during the week, and if I can help lighten up their day for them or make class a little more tolerable, cool.Ã,Â

And, despite what some of you might be thinking, I'm not just putting these here to have my ego stroked...I've got someone in real life who does that

.Ã,Â And hey, I really hope that no one out there thinks that as a "chick" I need "points for effort."Ã,Â If I did, I think getting shot down by my editors would have stopped me by now.Ã,Â I can have SmootH vouch for me on that one.

Cheers!

Renal Shutdown · Sat 08/04/2006 20:45:40

Quote from: ManicMatt
Quote from: Spleen
the makers of those are having to churn out comics on a large scale.Ã,Â One a day, with over a month in advance.Ã,Â It's hard to be funny if it's to a deadline.
So she had all the time in the world, did she?

How often did this "humor newspaper" come out? Most people I've spoke to on school/college/uni news-rags worked per week, not per day.

As for you, Ivy..

It might be that I don't get your humor, that's a definite possibilty, but for someone in your shoes (at the time) you need to cater for those bottom of the barrel pond scum, otherwise you'll be seen as either too high-brow or too artsy or too "eh?*".Ã,Â Once you have something that works without fail, then you can alienate readers.

Quote from: TheIvy
I'm not just putting these here to have my ego stroked...I've got someone in real life who does that..

Damn it..Ã,Â And damn you for posting a pic that didn't make you look like the ass-end of a horse's ass-wart.

Quote from: TheIvy
..I'm fine with that, I don't expect my sense of humour to agree with everyone.Ã,Â I do these because our paper reaches thousands of tired, cranky students during the week, and if I can help lighten up their day for them or make class a little more tolerable, cool.

I'm not your target audience, and will most likely never claim to be.Ã,Â If it did achieve these goals, then I'm honestly pleased for you.Ã,Â But, as for myself, I didn't get the feeling for it.Ã,Â Maybe if I'd attended a college or university, I might feel different.

As for being the voice of dissent, I'm not just trying to put you down, without reason.Ã,Â Hopefully, you'll improve what you have already, and I genuinely would like to see the results.

And on a third read thru..

I really do think the strips seem really cluttered.Ã,Â There's too much chat.Ã,Â It's like War and Peace crammed into the pages of a book by Roahl Dahl.Ã,Â That's a critiscism in general, not a humor one.Ã,Â Any mention of humor in the future might make it seem like that I'm attacking you personally, which I'm definitely not trying to do.Ã,Â (For all those out there that might think I am).

Congratulations on the Diorama award.Ã,Â As far as I know, a diorama is a table-based center-piece in thanksgiving celebrations, but I'd be intrigued to see where you could take that accolade.

EDIT:
"Eh?": for some reason, I've taken the up assumption that you're a Canuck. I'm not sure why.

SmootH · Wed 12/04/2006 00:44:55

I can vouch for Ivy, the editors are hard but fair on cartoonists. Most of her first drafts are just stick figures saying "Ack! I'm a student!". So the final strips seem like a huge improvement. (Just kidding Ivy, you know I love you!). Also, don't let her catch you giving her points for effort she's got a mean streak a mile wide and some big, punk-stomping boots.

The humour that goes into the paper very broad, but also rather restricted. These stories revolve around occurences at our University so I can understand why some or even most people don't see the humour. I've had alot of my stuff shot down and I regret even publishing most of the "good" stuff. Well, maybe I don't regret getting things published, I regret not rewriting them. Jedi Monkeys? What was I on that day? But my written content was slightly more highbrow than that. For those who don't know, my primary job at the paper was to generate either Top Ten Lists or Humourous movie reviews. Then the staffers got some better and funnier people than me and I lost my job. So I became an accountant for the paper.

Unlike Ivy, I'm posting this to get my ego stroked. So lay it on thick, fellas. Please note the spelling errors in the Valentines Day list are not my fault - "casted" should be "cast", "Internet" should be "internet", "some" doesn't need to be there in the scorpion one - I blame that error on the faulty english that the copy editor obviously learned in a Guatamalan forced labour camp.

p.s Ivy, keep your chin up, publishing stuff in the paper is like canadian politics, 45% of the readers like it, 33% of readers don't care, 20% of readers hate it and 2% of the readers can't read and are faking it. Also, Where can I get someone to stroke my ego IRL? I'm stuck doing it myself and it's getting me no where!

MillsJROSS · Wed 12/04/2006 08:09:50

They we're okay comics. Some of the humor appealed to me as a student, but some of it didn't work for me. But what do I know...most of my humor stems from puns.

-MillsJROSS

buloght · Wed 12/04/2006 09:13:55

Great stuff Ivy, I wish our student newspaper had such comics, not like the stuff the put in ours. That reminds me, I should have a word with them about that ...