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Issue Ten


Artifaxis: Previous issue - Epilogue


[25th May] 10_09



Ok, I give in being stoic and holding back out of an odd sense of politeness.
Can anyone synopsis what the BUNNIES has been going on since about issue three?  Main characters escaped from a city and trekked towards another city - I got that part.  But then some random people hunted them (and we never found out who they were) some OTHER random people hunted them AND them (and now they have a spaceship?) and, in general, I am completely overloaded with loose ends.
So - anyone feel like explaining anything?  --Vitenka
You could try the [Synopses] - SunKitten, in London selling comics for the weekend.

[29th June] 10_19


Hurray, at last an explanation! --Tsunami
I have to admit to needing an explanation of the synopsis, so... --Vitenka (Also, penguins?  Muh?)
Why not penguins? As long as they're interesting and orange :) The synopses are too long to explain without you saying where you first get confused.. - SunKitten

[3rd July] 10_20


I find that Facebook is a lot like Pokemon but with people from your life instead of little monsters - I'm collecting the profiles of people I know/used to know, but other than that neither I nor they have had any other communication! Its strangely enthralling o.O; --Wikivic
That is... oddly quite explanatory ^^;; - SunKitten
Have you managed to get them to fight each other yet? --Tsunami

[10th July] 10_22


I love the moving card. :) --M-A
I kept wanting it to animate. But then I spotted it was a jpeg. --CH

[24th August] 10_35


On the whole I would prefer to read what you want to write, rather than have anything written that was swayed by my preferences, but here goes ^^
Personally I'm more of a fan of staying-in-one-place, slice-of-life style stories, but I also love stories where you get wo see some really cool new cities/worlds...I'm just not so much of a fan of stories that centre around a the actual travelling, as I find I'm always waiting for them to stop travelling lol!
I don't mind either short funny updates or story-driven ones, I find it just as easy to keep up with a webcomic that is a continuing story as I do with the funny ones
No real preferece as to real or new world, as long as if it is a new world it's interesting and not too cliched
Personally I my favourite media for comics is black and white, ink and tone (but not necessarily loads of tone, eg. Shirow's comics use tone, but only in quite a minimal way, I like that ^^)
I prefer character-driven stories to event-driven, whether that revolves around a smaller or larger cast would depend on how long the comic will run for I guess...or maybe how much the main characters are expected to grow and change over the story
I can't make up my mind about multiple arcs or one story...I don't think I have a preference, as long as you don't get crap filler arcs lol! --Wikivic
If the story is about travelling, make it clearer where the characters are and why they're there - don't be afraid to remind the reader periodically what's going on.  Less trailing off sentences - you know what they're trying to say, but the reader doesn't.  Aim to write in such a way that the reader can anticipate how the characters will react in particular circumstances, particularly once the plot is underway.
Short & funny vs. story-driven updates - aim to do both, possibly even at the same time.  Overall, go for a simpler plot, with plenty of background character- and world-building.  The background was part of the fun of PF - in Artifaxis, all of the background was part of the plot, and you had to remember *everything* to work out what the plot was doing at any point.
Major vs. minor characters - More importantly, keep the distinction.  If someone is a minor character, have them appear for a while, then exit from the plot again - don't have them turn up again if you want me to remember anything about them.  Introduce the reader to the major characters reasonably early on - if a new character appears once the plot is well underway, I'll assume they're a minor character and not pay them too much attention until it's too late.  Keep the characters addressing each other by name to remind the reader who's who.  Give them distinctive voices - turns of phrase, etc.
Story arcs - You need one overriding story arc (each character also needs their own arc) and a few pivotal moments - say, every few months of the webcomic.  Think of the pacing - compare it to TV pacing, where you get one episode per week (cf. 2 webcomics per week).  How long do you expect the audience to remember characters & plot points for?  A few weeks - not much more.  Don't split the main action across different simultaneous settings unless you have to, and when you do have to, weave them together; don't keep them too separate.  Make sure that the story arc is a progression of events, not just a series of events.  Bring the reader along with the development of the plot - e.g. don't just *show* a character reacting to something they've been told, but have them say something about why they're reacting, so that the reader knows too.
I hope some of that lot is useful!  --M-A
Hmm, interesting. I actually disagree with a couple of these points. Specifically, I love it when characters that were previously thought to be minor characters come back and turn out to have more significance than was evident before (although ideally it might have been hinted).
I don't disagree with that, but I don't like it when a character that I haven't seen for months and I've forgotten everything about (even their name) reappears and the storytelling assumes that you noticed and can recall every small detail of their previous appearance... :)  So, yes, some hints that I need to pay attention to the character first time around are good, particularly when there's a large cast in the first place. --M-A
As for the other points: I prefer stories not to have arcs that are completely separate from each other, but rather to all be building towards the overall plot arc. I don't mind either way on travelling vs staying in one place. I did enjoy the comedy in PF, but I also like the more straight style of LFTS, and likewise, I can appreciate either spoofs of the real world or entirely unrelated worlds. I like comics coloured, all else being equal, but it's not a very strong preference.
The one other mentioned point that I feel vaguely strongly about is "events of earth-shattering importance vs slice of life". If I'm reading a story (in any medium), I really want something to happen. It could be just the characters growing (on one level, it has to be); or it could be them saving the universe/world/town/club/garden/relationship, or forming a new one. But some people use "slice of life" to mean that the characters and world come out of a story just the same as they went in, and I find that extremely frustrating. --AlexChurchill

Thanks for the input - it's interesting to see what people like to read and what works and so on ^^ - SunKitten

[11th September] 10_41


The next two updates ought to go up as usual, but will not be accompanied by a wiki update unless another kind ToothyWikizen wishes to take care of it - we'll be short our normal internet access, and won't be able to manage the wiki, I'm afraid - SunKitten

[18th September] 10_42


Erm, the formatting has all gone a bit funny on 10_41 and https://www.toothycat.net/strip.html --M-A
Sorry - the whole thing needs a bit of setting to work, and I had set it in the to-be-updated folder, but when it got copied over to the main folder, that got reset. So it got screwed up - sorry ^^;; Fixed now - SunKitten

Also, I'm confused - 10_42 says "there are four parts to this update", but I can only see one! --Emperor
Each of those two panels is a double-page spread in print form. --CH

[21th September] 10_43


Huh?  Wha...?  The artifact falls through the air, "A miracle happens", we see the main 3 characters standing together, and that's the end?  What on earth was all that about? --M-A
Did I miss something blindingly obvious to everyone else? --Tsunami
No, I'm also a bit baffled. --CH

I figured that because Rain was in possession of the artifact, and completed it's maturity at that moment, that the miracle was restoring life to the others that had died. Though this was my very first read of Artifaxis, and I'm terrible for missing important information on the first read, so theres a good chance that I'm wrong ^^; which reminds me, Sun Kitten? I'm now officially in love with Artifaxis as well as Looking for the Sun :D I've a page full of sketches for you already! XD --Nattherat
Reasonably accurate, yes :) Thank you - I'm glad you like it ^^ - SunKitten

I also feel like I'm missing something... - and formatting is still ultra weird for me too - is this something you're aware of? -- Velvetsteph
The formatting is fixed. The bad storytelling is fixed by virtue of the story being over. Uh, sorry. Will try harder next time ^^;; - SunKitten



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