I like it from an aesthetic sense - you can compare newer pages to older pages, and see how the artwork has changed and grown: by committing yourself to the comic and frequent updates, you've improved your talents; like your background and panelling.


For example, you've got the first actual page of the comic:

http://www.taikiwebcomic.com/Chapter1/Ch1Pg2.html

Compared to the most recent:

http://www.taikiwebcomic.com/index.html

Using Character Taiki as an example, the eyes stand out the most; and proportions are better adjusted. Shading is better done in the more recent comics, and they seem to show more of their personality in facial expressions - in the most recent comic, for example, look at Taiki's face in the first panel. The narration box says "I'm really glad Haruka didn't mention it again during lunch" but you can look at her face, and see she's uncomfortable, shifty - she's feeling slightly awkward because her character is confused about her feelings for Alex.

Its little touches like that that made reading straight through the archives to the current chapter worthwhile!

As for whether or not you SHOULD redraw pages... maybe that could wait until you've finished the story.

A lot of webcomics seem to trail about without really getting to a conclusion, but this one feels as if its got a purpose - you're telling a SPECIFIC story, not just a bunch of "LOL SO SILLY!!! @_@" kind of comics. When you finish this story and decide to press/bind it, that would be the time for you to redraw pages to your liking.

I'm sorry, I know this is a lot of words for a simple question, and I'm not really sure I said anything, but I like your comic!

gappiee wrote:

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i think i agree with joe though i might have gotten the story wrong since my head is a bit fuzzy from reading all day

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Well, the thing I like about the Taiki comic is - unlike a lot of webcomics - there's a DEFINITIVE story, with a plot and everything. There is a natural beginning (Taiki going to middle school) and there's a definitive conflict (Taiki's coming to terms with her feelings for Alex and what other people would think of her because of it) and there will be a definitive resolution .

On the other side of the page, there'd be something like Penny Arcade, which can get away with random jokes every comic - its not plot driven, its joke driven.

Both work, but this comic is pretty obviously the plot-driven one.

gappiee wrote:

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Joe Snack Road wrote:

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gappiee wrote:

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i think i agree with joe though i might have gotten the story wrong since my head is a bit fuzzy from reading all day

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Well, the thing I like about the Taiki comic is - unlike a lot of webcomics - there's a DEFINITIVE story, with a plot and everything. There is a natural beginning (Taiki going to middle school) and there's a definitive conflict (Taiki's coming to terms with her feelings for Alex and what other people would think of her because of it) and there will be a definitive resolution .

On the other side of the page, there'd be something like Penny Arcade, which can get away with random jokes every comic - its not plot driven, its joke driven.

Both work, but this comic is pretty obviously the plot-driven one.

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that hasent anything to do with redrawind does it ??? or am i completely missing the point ?

 *Redrawing (i might hve more wierd things written in this post )

-- Edited by gappiee at 01:08, 2008-07-14

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No, you might've missed it because I took the long way around to get to the simple point.

TL;DR: Don't bother redrawing until you've brought this storyline to a close and you are happy with it, save it for a "Special Edition" bound book.

I can certainly understand that you are not fully satisfied with your earlier pages: You know that you could do them better now, and I suppose the places that could be improved niggle at you.

But I strongly urge you NOT to redraw them at this point, for two related reasons.

(1) Your earlier art is good.  Maybe not as good as you could do now, but certainly much better than the initial art of most webcomics.  Nor is there any great stylistic discontinuity.  While the difference may be obvious to you, it is much less so to me, and probably to most of your other readers.  We just see a great story with very good art.

(2) Perfectionism can be a trap that actually prevents you from accomplishing your goals, or at best greatly delays them: I have fallen into that trap more than once; I've found that it helps to tell myself that the time to revise a piece of writing is when the first version is complete and I can look at it as a whole.  (The others have been saying much the same thing.  Of course, if you were to produce a printed book version, the case for revision might be a bit stronger...)

I suppose that if you really can't stand the way the beginning looks, you may have no choice but to redraw it.  But I'm selfish: I really hope that you'll continue the story from where it is now, so I can find out what happens next.  I'm really enjoying it!

And please don't take my somewhat measured prose as a sign that I am less than enthusiastic about the webcomic: it is how I was taught to write when young, and the habit is too deeply engrained to change my writing style now...