Greetings fellow Inkscapers.

To make a long story short: having been more or less obsessed with comics and cartoons my entire life has made me a wannabe cartoon artist. Inkscape has given me a great tool to be able to actually make finished cartoons, as opposed to only making scetchy doodles in the past. Drawing is just a hobby of mine, but if I would one day find myself being able to make a living out of making comics (that's a BIG if by the way), I would be extatic.

Before I go on I should probably mention that I have a somewhat weird sense of humour. I believe that anything and everything can be made fun off, regardless of the topic. Basically, if you can joke about something, you can joke about everything, else why are you the one who decide what is fair game and not? Therefore, there will be comics in this thread that might offend people not sharing that view. If you feel that you might take heavy offense from jokes about things like racism or mental issues, you are better just to leave this thread alone. Despite joking about horrible things, I'm actually quite a nice guy, so if you have questions about my intentions regarding any of my comics, feel free to leave a comment and I'll give you my views.

As for the quality of my drawings, they will be quite simple since I never had any formal training, and complicating things without knowing how to will probably only lead to disaster. I do want people to comment on the way I draw, as long as you're nice about it. I would like to know if an angle looks weird, or if a shadow is too big or misplaced, or perhaps missing all together. Stuff like that. Some things that look weird might be intentional, but either way, I want feedback in order to make myself better.

I'll leave you now with my first four Inkscape produced comic strips. They are all the one frame style, but I will be doing multi frame comics as well.

nice work, i like it. funny topics and approach.

as for critique. i prefer the clouds on picture one over those on the Egobacophobia.
not really a fan of combo-ing gradient with vector shadows, in my opinion its hard to find/create a "harmonic" balance in pictures that combines gradient shadow and hard vector shadows. and if it is not in the right balance, can make it look cheap.

Thanks for the comments nesDk. I actually thought that the shading of the clouds would go unnoticed, but it's a great point you bring up. The reason I put a blur effect on their shadows in the egobacophobia comic was to give them a softer feel. Now that you mention it I'm not really sure how I feel, I'll have to give it some thought for the future.

On another note, how the heck does this forum resize images? When I first posted the pngs they were resized to a much more managable size, then they kind of popped up to their full size one by one. Is there a good way to make them smaller for forum use, but clickable in order to bring them up full size? I'm not comfortable with posting the svg files for various reasons, but having them all full size in the forum seems kind of overkill, as most aren't that detailed.

They're awesome! Great job. They made me crack up!

Oh, I love your drawing style -- bright solid/primary-ish colors, clean, bold lines, simple shapes and objects! I probably won't love all the jokes/topics, but that's just me. I'm not sure what nesDk means about "gradient shadow". Perhaps he/she(?) means the blur? I'm not well educated about art, but it doesn't take anything away from the image, to my eye. Maybe if it was the only blurred shadow while all the rest were sharp, it would stand out more. But you did use blur on some of the other shadows. So it all fits for me

This forum's software doesn't automatically thumbnail large images, like others do. Some image hosts will offer you the code to show a small thumbnail in the message, but link to the full size. I use ImageShack, so I know that's one host that does. And I know others do too, but I'm not sure which. I like ImageShack because you can have an account and a gallery to manage your stuff, without extra fees. I see you used photobucket. Maybe they offer a thumbnail? I thought they did, but I could be wrong.

Or you could draw them originally at the size you want, or scale them before you export (or change the DPI in the export dialog when you export the PNG).

@brynn ..what he means.
and yea the stoke blur, i have a habit of using gradient layers instead of blur if i can, as is usually messes up my system. shutdowns and whatnot
anyway just my opinion.
try browsing your favorite vector-artist and see how rarely they mixes (gradient/blur shadows) and (cleancut vector shadows)

its still nice work

Thanks for the kind comments guys, it's really appreciated.

The more I think about the shadows the more I'm on nesDk's side. I like the sharp look, and I don't think playing with blurs will make me happier about the results. As brynn states I did blur the fence's shadows ever so slightly too, but I don't think it's right for my work. I will try using lighter shades to shade soft objects like clouds, I think I will be more content that way. Now that I have gone over the drawing again I've noticed that I really need to redo the entire shadow for the fence. I think I rushed it, which made me miss a few details.

Turns out Photobucket does have a thumbnail code. I just hadn't been looking for it hard enough. However, it also seems that Photobucket has a maximum limit to how big images can be, which means I will most likely go over to using ImageShack where the images can be available in all their ridiculously high detailed glory (or perhaps I will actually come to my senses and export them smaller?.....nahh). I'll probably solve my problems of wanting to display a lower resolution image on the forums but still making the super enormously resoluted image available by simply uploading two versions, one small which I link directly to, and one thumbnail which goes to the high res version.

Nice cartoony style - and I love the God/Facebook joke

You might want to think about what licence you want to use for them, now that you're putting them on the web. Personally I think it's worth getting a domain name and hosting them somewhere yourself - that way you can put a URL on them and if someone stumbles across one of your comics and likes it, there's a clear route to finding others.

Beyond that, if you're happy to share them then perhaps take a look at the Creative Commons licences (it's what I use for my own comics) in order to make that explicit. Otherwise it might be worth adding a copyright line in the corner of the comics.

Thanks Xav! Admittedly I haven't thought much about licensing. If I'm not mistaken though, copyright rules still apply to my work, even if I don't add a specific license. It might be worth adding a CC license like you suggest, as I do want people to share my work, as long as they give me proper credit and don't edit it.

As far as creating my own domain goes, I'm not entirely sure about that yet. It would feel sort of weird having a domain for only 4 comics, and also I'd be in a lot of pain trying to come up with a decent name. I would like something rather unique, and it seems that more people than me have thought about the name Rejected Comics. Eventually I would like my own website, but I feel this whole project is just too young yet.

Yes, copyright still applies. I was thinking more about the possibility of people sharing your comics, and the recipient then having no idea where to find more of them. Whether it's copyright, or a URL, or just a "brand name", at least it would give people something to search for. It's why we use a consistent border design (which includes our URL) for all our comics.

It sounds like you probably want to use the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND licence for your strips. Personally I prefer to allow people to modify my comics, so long as I am properly attributed, so I use the BY-NC-SA licence. This has worked well for me and my co-creator, as it has allowed people to translate our comic strips (Italian, French, Indonesian, Spanish and Russian so far!) to let them reach a wider audience than they otherwise would. In fact we specifically make our SVG files available for download so that people are encouraged to dissect and modify our strips. It's not easy letting go of your creation, though - and you have to have a lot of grace and humility to suck it up when someone does something to them that you actively dislike (we found that out quite early on when someone decided to "improve" one of our strips with the semi-random addition of several penguins!).

I've also seen some good arguments for not including the "Non-commercial" clause, but that's a much more difficult choice. What I really want is the "don't be an arse" licence

I suppose I haven't really thought that much about the sharing bit yet. I will probably get to that part when I have produced some more comics. I know I would personally feel a little disappointed if I saw a comic with a link to a website, and that site only held another 3 comics. Until I have a larger collection, I will be satisfied with this thread.

Yeah, I suppose I'm kind of nit-picky about who uses my work for what, so that license does look like the most appealing to me. It's not like I wouldn't ever let anyone use my comics for other things than entertainment, it's just that I would like to know if they do. I don't think I would like my comics translated though. Even if it would reach a larger audience, I think there are too many nuances lost in translation. Especially when working with puns, which is something I intend to do (heavily).

Since the Creative Commons site is CC BY, that means I can make my own version of the icon, right?

I like the idea about the DBAA licence. It would be a nice world if people would actually be like that, but there are just too many people out there looking to make a quick selfish buck or even just steal someone elses work to claim ownership of it for nothing more than the false sense of creatorship. I suppose I'm a cynic that way.

we found that out quite early on when someone decided to "improve" one of our strips with the semi-random addition of several penguins!

Please tell me that you have a link to where I can find this strip! Penguins always improve EVERYTHING! Just like it seems that The Greys are the best whenever the cow is involved.

And since penguins are the best, I'll just leave this here...


High res:

Natural Reject wrote:Yeah, I suppose I'm kind of nit-picky about who uses my work for what, so that license does look like the most appealing to me. It's not like I wouldn't ever let anyone use my comics for other things than entertainment, it's just that I would like to know if they do.

I understand where you're coming from - it's not easy to let go of your creations. But trying to control them too tightly will stop them spreading freely to people who might otherwise enjoy them. You need to decide whether you want more people to see them - but with the risk that someone will use them in a way you don't like - or whether you want to control them with an iron fist but potentially get fewer readers.

Of course if you want to control them tightly, it makes even more sense to put some kind of explicit copyright or licence notice on them.

Natural Reject wrote:I don't think I would like my comics translated though. Even if it would reach a larger audience, I think there are too many nuances lost in translation. Especially when working with puns, which is something I intend to do (heavily).

It depends on the translator. Out Italian translators (from Inskcapeforum.it) tend to only translate comics which will work well in Italian, and just skip any that rely too strongly on puns or English idioms. Our French translator, on the other hand, has managed to translate some strips which I thought would be untranslatable; we've had many discussions over the fine points of my jokes and puns so that he can translate them into equivalent puns in French.

Of the five strips you've posted so far I would guess that three of them could easily be translated. The Egobacophobia gag might work, depending on the language. It's only Winnie The Mooh that might not work at all. But don't take my word for it - I only speak English

Natural Reject wrote:Since the Creative Commons site is CC BY, that means I can make my own version of the icon, right?

I'm not sure. The licence of the site doesn't necessarily reflect the licence of the icon. But I'm no lawyer.

But by definition they're pretty open people. If you licence your comics as CC and create a CC icon styled to match, then I doubt they'd complain. Certainly the versions we use on The Greys aren't the original kosher icons - although they stay fairly close to them.

Natural Reject wrote:

we found that out quite early on when someone decided to "improve" one of our strips with the semi-random addition of several penguins!

Please tell me that you have a link to where I can find this strip! Penguins always improve EVERYTHING! Just like it seems that The Greys are the best whenever the cow is involved.

Unfortunately the page in question is returning a "Bandwidth Exceeded" error, so I can't tell if the image is still there. I'll try again later in the month.

We do try to sneak Daisy in wherever we can (though she's become Marguerite in the French translations).

Natural Reject wrote:And since penguins are the best, I'll just leave this here...

I love that one! I've seen similar gags before, but the combination of a flying mammal with a flightless bird adds a bit more depth (and head scratching) to it. And for once the forum's tendency to cut off wide pictures has been an advantage, as I didn't see the last panel until I clicked through for the hi-res version.

Xav wrote:But trying to control them too tightly will stop them spreading freely to people who might otherwise enjoy them.

I totally see this point. As of now, I'm perfectly happy with the way it is.

Xav wrote:Of the five strips you've posted so far I would guess that three of them could easily be translated.

"so far" being the key to this sentence. I haven't quite opened up the can of worms yet, so to speak.

Xav wrote:I'm not sure. The licence of the site doesn't necessarily reflect the licence of the icon. But I'm no lawyer.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. I'll do some more reading before creating my own icon.

Xav wrote:I love that one! I've seen similar gags before, but the combination of a flying mammal with a flightless bird adds a bit more depth (and head scratching) to it. And for once the forum's tendency to cut off wide pictures has been an advantage, as I didn't see the last panel until I clicked through for the hi-res version.

I'm glad you liked it. In all honesty, the depth of the flying mammal - flightless bird wasn't really intentional. It seems I'm accidentally funny too, which is a good thing, of course.

I think the forum's cutting off pictures has to do with what resolution your screen is set to and how much your browser is zoomed in. I'm using Chrome on a 1920x1200 resolution with 100% zoom and I can see the whole strip. If I zoom to 125% the penguin disappears. I don't mind people seeing the whole strip at once, even though I can see the advantage of keeping the last frame hidden at first. I suppose I'm just so used to it having read comic books for all my life. No scrolling in those.

High res: