TWCL

[antleonardi01]

Okay, so I've pretty much always wanted to run a daily comic. However, it wasn't until my senior year of college that I decided I wanted to get really serious about it and get my artistic ability up to a professional level.

Subsequently, around the same time as I was creating the premise for a strip, I was undergoing a massive spiritual and philosophical transformation and all the pieces for a very unique strip fell into place.

So any and all feedback & criticism is greatly appreciated. Much love to the webcomic community.

http://fourthstate.byethost33.com

[antleonardi01]

nobody? It's pretty high quality if i do say so myself ... and I've committed to 3 strips a week. Pretty big part of my life

[Wonderdrome]

Hey man!

I like the art style you've picked & stuck to. It's mostly big pleasing blocks of color, with cool detail in the right places, but not so much to distract from the star of your comic, the words.

A few observations I wasn't able to string into a complete thought: I like how you're unafraid to address big topics, but I want to see it get pushed further! The characters don't have much of an opportunity to apply the concepts they discuss. Can they interact with anyone other than each other? You seem more passionate in your comic-accompanying-text than the characters do: might be interesting to see them get riled up over something. They're just both so damned good-spirited (pardon the pun)! The gags are usually limited to conversation-- are there other topics to explore??

Anyway, I like what you're doing. Good luck with it!
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[antleonardi01]

You've given me some great feedback thank-you so much!

[raines80]

Don't get discouraged from the lack of feedback from these forums. Most people just sign up here so they can post their link to their personal comic. They could careless about other comics.

I really like your style. It is very simple, but very effective. The shading fits your drawing style to the T and your panel layouts are very well thought out.

I am not a philosophy major so some a bit of the meat of the comics sometimes loses me. That is just me though... I wouldn't change it. I still don't understand half of what xkcd means, but it is one of the most popular comics out there.

I really like the style of your site. I am using wordpress as well, but I tried to use the comicpress theme and got severely lost in the process...so I am back to just a blog theme. I really dig the ghost holding the donate sign.

I say stick with it. I think you have a winning formula on your hands. I wouldn't change a thing about your site... except maybe adding some social apps to your page so people can share it.

[antleonardi01]

Really? I'm getting kind of a kick out of looking at other peoples stuff! I'm just starting out, and it's really awesome to see what other cartoonists are doing.

I wish i could take credit for well thought out panel design, but really I just draw the entire character every time and wind up cropping a lot out haha. It REALLY allows for me to play around with the panels and placement of the bubbles. It's extra work, but I work better with rearranging elements rather than making my rough sketches perfect.

You're like the 5th person to compare my strip to XKCD lol, but I think thats probably just because of how rare it is to see a daily gag strip focusing on intelligence.

Anyway, thanks a lot for all the praise! Good luck with your strip!

[antleonardi01]

I think I just wrote the funniest strip I've ever written today.... what do you guys think?

[smbhax.com]

Your word balloons look a little pixelated somehow--it kind of makes me not want to read them; they also stand out in contrast to the rest of the strip, which is very smooth. Hm also the balloon border sometimes swings in too close to the words, which doesn't help. And I suppose I'm not entirely crazy about the font--it's just a little too expressive for really easy reading.

I suggest putting your site URL in your TWCL "Profile" (there's a link at the top of the page), that way you'll get a little "www" link button to it under all your posts. Also, PM one of the mods, such as wendyw, if you have a graphic banner you'd like added to your forum signature.
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[antleonardi01]

The word bubbles are drawn exactly the same way as the the rest of the strip. I mean i see what you're saying, but if you stare hard enough at the rest of the lines you'll see some pixelation too. I'm assuming this is just what happens when it gets converted to a jpeg.

Basically I have no control over this unless you have an idea on how to fix it?

[antleonardi01]

The bubbles are bugging the crap out of me now that you said that lol, but I looked at professional comics like pvponline and such, and even their bubbles seem a little pixely. C'est la vie I suppose.

[perroloco]

Its interesting, I will be sure to follow it

[antleonardi01]

I just made a facebook page for Fourth State and added a "Like" button on the website for anybody interested in following my strip!

[antleonardi01]

Just threw a new comic up.

Feedback, support, and criticism all welcomed!

[Nils Balls]

Reading through your comics, I found myself far more interested in your writings below the comics than I did the cartoons themselves. I didn't find the comics bad, or distasteful, just wasn't sure what the point was sometimes.
You have a good sense of self and can write well, so I suggest that as you develop - put more of yourself into strips. Don't feel trapped by a formula.

[ewomack]

I appreciate anything that attempts to bring philosophy into a more mainstream genre. So keep it up! Combining philosophy and comics isn't easy. I've tried with varying degrees of success (so I've been told) in my own comic. It's not an easy thing to pull off without easily confusing or alienating people.

Also, having the word "philosophy" in your subtitle may turn some people away, but maybe you would rather turn them away anyway.

You can't please everyone, but if you please yourself you're most of the way there.
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Ed Womack