mcDuff's reviewalicious thread

[Warofwinds]

*admits to stalking this thread and waiting anxiously*

Thank you very much for the time and attention, Mcduffies. It is invaluable to have a second pair of eyes on such things.

Yes, the beginning is quite horrible, and cliche, and horrible. Did I mention bad?

Oh yes did [do?] I have horrible art phases. I've never been able to take a figure drawing class, so I'm learning as I go (and since getting my degree, I don't think I'll get the chance). I do hope the art has improved substantially over the course of years even if you're not a fan of the coloring.

Pacing/narration/dialogue has always been a challenge for me. Prince Valiant is one of my favorite print comics; I admit to liking narration as much as dialogue, and to liking slow, cliche, fantasy stories. But believe me when I say I am steadfastly trying to improve. Critique like this helps immensely.

I really only have one thing to say in disagreement really, and I guess it's not even disagreeing, but perhaps an innocent misuse of words on your part (and an unrelenting soreness on mine): there are NO drow in this comic. Or elves.

Again, thank you!

[McDuffies]

I would be honored to have my humble webcomic reviewed by the legendary McDuffies.
I've gotten alot of compliments from people about my comic, so I would like assistance with deflating my head.
Tear it apart, McDuff.http://dreamaniaccomic.comicgenesis.com/

"Dreamaniac" is a very new comic, and by a novice author. While it's obvious that author has been drawing before, there's a long way to go in developing his approach, his style, even in figuring out what he wants to do in comics. Usually I base my reviews on assumption of what author tries to make, and in this case I think that author still has to figure that out. There's very little to critique because very little is shown.
So I think that a series of advices would be more appropriate than a standard review:

Well first of all, you should change that green background. Any saturated colour is bad choice actually, since they all make reader's eyes tired after a while.

Try not to copy other comics. Like, if you see one type of joke in webcomics, it is very likely that this joke is repeated in webcomics so often that people are sick of it. The very beginning of your comic, what with breaking the fourth wall, referencing the author and announcing that the comic has started - is a sum of things that people don't like very much because they're all overused. Other webcomics are the worst place to look for inspiration.

Don't rely on comments below the comic to explain the comic. Everything reader needs to know, he should find out from the comic itself - preferably from context.

Characters, who seem to be based on you and your family, are introduced, but bear in mind that, while you already know these characters, we don't, so it'll take some effort on your side to get us to know these characters and be interested in them. At this point we aren't. Good way to start is to make them do interesting things - as oposed to, say, sitting in front of tv and commenting. Monsters in the closet are a nice idea, but only if you do something with it.

Check out some online colouring tutorials if you consider continuing to colour. What you had so far suffers from nasty anti-aliasing, which is those rough edges around lineart, and is a result of colouring in digital medium which can be solved relatively easy.

What else - eat up every piece of advice you can find, be it tutorials or forum discussions. Try to continue improving in both art and writing. Check out good comics and try to figure out what makes them good. Don't stress too much over whether people will read you or not, regardless of whether they do or don't, just by drawing comics you'll be improving.

[McDuffies]

*admits to stalking this thread and waiting anxiously*

that was fast.

Pacing/narration/dialogue has always been a challenge for me. Prince Valiant is one of my favorite print comics; I admit to liking narration as much as dialogue, and to liking slow, cliche, fantasy stories. But believe me when I say I am steadfastly trying to improve. Critique like this helps immensely.

Prince Valiant indeed is one of those comics that defy rules but somehow still remain within certain limits. I think that you'll notice that even if you look at his panels, without text, you can figure out basics of the story, and text is there only to fill in gaps, add details and personal touches. Foster tampered a lot with timing and pacing of the story to make all of that work, and when he started "Valiant", he was a master with years of experience, impeccable timing, and who knew all the rules by heart, so he was so confident when breaking them.

there are NO drow in this comic. Or elves.

Oh. 'Kay, my mistake.

[Moder]

Hey ! My "comic" could always use some harsh words! Banner below!

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Review mine if you feel like it — I have many people that tell me what they like and don't like about my comic, so another opinion is always helpful.

[RobertBlake]

You can do mine if you like. I could use some good, honest critique.

http://fergoandenrique.comicgenesis.com

[Dreamaniaccomic]

review

Thanks for the advice., McDuffies. All of the comments I've gotten before now have been from my friends and family, who think my comic is awesome, so I needed a reality check. Like you've said, I only recently started it and am still trying to figure out where I'm going to go with it. That process will take a while, since I'm still in school and thus have very little time for anything else besides trying to make sure I update three times a week. Most of the jokes are, in fact, based off of conversations between me and my friends, although considering where we spend most of our time, I wouldn't be surprised to find the same jokes in other internet comics. I'll work on improving my art,thinking up some more original material, possibly learning how to properly use a computer image editor, and eventually find someone to help me make my site prettier. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to look at it !

[McDuffies]

I return with new reviews:

you're free to read my comix. reviewing is optional.

Synthetic life is a curious mix of manga and western sensibility. While themes are unmistakably in manga reign, storytelling style and various plot solutions are western, even specifically European. But, since most of manga influence comes from that most generic and cliche type of manga, comic seems strongest when there's little in terms of direct influence.

Take the plot: sometimes it seems like half of stories basically feature an unlikely young hero being faced with some unearthly creature in female form. This is bare bones of Synthetic Life too, but western sensibility seems to dictate some deviations: main character is an accomplished scinetist and not some oblivious nerdboy; female being a robot rather than alien, vampire, therefore not so unearthly; most importantly, girl didn't just fall into his lap, he created it with a purpose, which makes their whole relation different. I'll admit that these changes don't exactly make it the most original story ever.
But to underline manga influences, other reckognizable mothives are strategically placed: antagonist who is of same origin as the girl, also female, and symbollically (and predictably) has contrasting hair colour and fashion sence. Then there's also a cute comical-relief tiny robot, another familiar mothive.


I think that it would be of value to consider why this mothive of an alien, blank-slate creature is so attractive to writers and readers. One would say that a girl who is totally reliant on her guy saviour is a nerdboy fantasy, but I wouldn't be that cynical. On one hand, this is basically a survival story, not a survival in, say, jungle, but rather in society. So it's a story that inevitably tells of society in, perhaps, satirical way.
The other element is self-examination: there's a process of person unspoiled by human conventions who gradually grows into an ordinary person, and I think that we like to see how this person develops, hoping to learn how we became persons we are. No doubt, authors often use comics as a vehicle for that too.

Problem is, this is a very big bite, very ambicious concept, to pull it off properly you'd have to have some knowledge of psychology at least. Portraying a person developing and learning in a manner that seems logical and convincing is very difficult. That's why many authors retreat to deus ex machina to jump big steps in this development - it's like when an alien learns english well from just one night of watching cable tv (and inevitably reffers to "sex" as "mating", sigh).

Other authors do a different thing: they make their character know as much as plot requires at the moment - this inevitably leads to inconsistencies. Synthetic Life in this kind of comic, and it's not imune to inconsistencies either: Michelle, the robot, can be made ultimate warrior in a matter of hours by installing a proper program, but she doesn't understand basic terms like "family" or "food", which Sean, the scientist, decides to clumsily explain to her instead of just installing this knowledge.
From my knowledge of artificial intelligence, it's not just a matter of filling it with enough dictionary definitions: one knowledge builds up on another, and these terms would appear in her memory if nothing then as sideeffects of learning other things. See, she knows what a robot and a human are, but she doesn't know what differences between these two are (like ingesting food). She knows of humans, but she doesn't know of relations between them (like family).
There are other things that didn't ring quite truthful to me: Sean could program her as anything, but he seems to choose stereotypical female characteristics (like love of shopping). It is possible that he programmed her as stereotype because he doesn't know much of female character, but he could have as likely given her a lot of male characteristics.
In short, this comic isn't nearly the worst case, but it is a case of bitting more than you can chew.


Another complaint I'd like to make about the comic is that there's a difference between how I percieve character and what I'm told they are supposed to be.
It is implied that Sean is a good guy, loyal to his father, caring, etc etc. But from his actions, he appears different: reckless and selfish, obsessed with "avenging" his father and continuing his work so much that he'd put other people's wellbeing aside. Practically first thing he does after activating Michelle is making her commit a crime; comic would have us think that crime is justified, but we cannot justify involving a being as innocent as Michelle is in beginning of her life. Further, he lies to her about her robotic nature; comic would have us think that he didn't have choice/was clumsy/didn't want to hurt her, but we aren't convinced. To us, he simply seems manipulative.
Similarly, we are told that Michelle is special person, that electronic heart gives some new kind of humanity, but we fail to see anything special about her: she seems perpetually confused, simpleminded, overly fragile - I don't see anything of what I'm told in this page.

Note about that heart mothive - heart is the organ that pumps blood, and brain is the organ that thinks and feels. In a realistic sci-fi setup, this is an unjustified excursion into symbolism - again, manga has a lot of this.


Also I'd like to adress something that's more a warning than a complaint: Stories similar to this often flirt with two genres: brainless action and brainless romance. These genres often distract from the main plot, dramatic and psychological in nature.
Synthetic life had it's flirt with action when Michelle was turned into an action robot, and we crossed our fingers that this doesn't became prevailing genre.
As for romance? Well, let's put it this way: when I'm told of great achievements in artificial intelligence, I think of laboratory enviroment, and meticulous work observed by teams of scientists; not very romantic idea, but that's how it's done. The whole setup with a lonesome scientist creating a girl and then having her into his own house - it just smells of a setup for a romance too much. Again, we cross our fingers that it doesn't turn that way, because romance genre has it's conventions, and in the end you'd have characters just act along these conventions.

Finally, here's my biggest complain about the comic: a plot with the striptease club from 7th and 8th chapter, which is awfully contrieved, overdramatized, a kind of story that we see often in bad manga;
It's a kind of story where ordinary sexual predator in expensive car turns out to be no less than a white slave trader (overstatement) who collects his victims by simply strolling up and down the street and hoping that he'll manage to pick a girl up (no knowledge of how this "business" really works), and our character runs into such creature almost as she walks out of the street (rather unlikely case of bad luck - as if you can run into slave traders on every corner). She is then forced to work in a strip club where other strippers actually work at their own free will (plot hole), and I won't even go into how she's saved.

Not a single moment of this storyline is convincing. This kind of bad writing is set in worlds where predators lurk around every corner with the sole purpose of involving our characters into a new 20-something page story. It's a setting where a girl gets attacked as soon as she steps into a dark alley on one day, and strolls freely through the same dark alley on other - depending on how plot requires.
This comic doesn't need this. It deserves better plots. Occasionally, it has better plots. I liked the sequence of (FBI?) agents capturing Sean's father - I thought that the idea to simply turn of the air-conditioning sounded logical and truthful to the given situation.


Art is nice: colouring is ok, inking too, there is a good sence of backgrounds, as well as of character's expressions. Artist flawlessly manages angles that aren't in usual scope of webcomic artist. There are definite skills at work.
Inking is weakest link - it is flat and thin, while it should be confident and dominating. Sometimes it makes pages look sloppy, weakening rather good pencils. I've seen this artist do much better.


I really wanted to like Synthetic Life from the beginning.
I generally the art, and I think that the mix of these particular eastern and western influences has potential. Storytelling sometimes appears less than smooth, but layouts are good and sometimes even impressive: you'll have a page based on different angle of middle page and contrast with the rest of panels - and this is drawn rather flawlessly; other times, distorted frames that illustrate the mood; or just generally creative angles and layouts.
I also felt that I could eventually like these characters and get interested into the story.

But I felt like, in my attempts to like the comic, I was constantly stumbling and tripping over writing problems, some of them inconsistencies in Michelle's development or other kind of plot holes due to vague knowledge of subjects touched; mainly that last plotline which I've already discussed.
These are all problems that, I think, may be overcome by gaining writing experience, training, less casual approach to writing and less bad influence in comics you read. Sometimes turning to your old work and finding out all them problems in it can teach you more than all advice in the world.

[Eve Z.]

Thanks alot for the review.

Finally, here's my biggest complain about the comic: a plot with the striptease club from 7th and 8th chapter, which is awfully contrieved, overdramatized, a kind of story that we see often in bad manga;
It's a kind of story where ordinary sexual predator in expensive car turns out to be no less than a white slave trader (overstatement) who collects his victims by simply strolling up and down the street and hoping that he'll manage to pick a girl up (no knowledge of how this "business" really works), and our character runs into such creature almost as she walks out of the street (rather unlikely case of bad luck - as if you can run into slave traders on every corner). She is then forced to work in a strip club where other strippers actually work at their own free will (plot hole), and I won't even go into how she's saved.


.

It wasn't quite a strip club... It was a pub where girls dance at night to impress the clients. Not with very hight ranks, though.
The shy and naive girls like Michelle are treatened with superiority, to gain a little sense of fear and be driven easily.
And Ivy(the redhead) got there by her own desire and with the hope to take that mistress's place later.
either methods are used.

it's not like slave traders are everywhere. it just happened and my character was there.

and the heart generates feelings although you didn't see it..

if you didn't like my comic, I'm not desperate. most people, do.

[McDuffies]

if you didn't like my comic, I'm not desperate. most people, do.

Not being desperate is a good thing. However, I still suggest that you take my words into consideration. You want to improve, don't you? And telling yourself that "most people" like your comic the way it is when a criticism arises, won't get you there.

[Eve Z.]

And also I'm telling myself that criticism is one person's opinion.
I do get back every now and then to correct disambiguities and grammar issues. And yeah, I improved from the beginning until now.
I never read a manga about girls in a striptease club, but you made me curious....

have you heard of "Crowfeathers"? the author says she's embarassed by her first 11 chapters and over time it grew into a nice comic.at chapter 28 now.
So I have hopes in my 40 chapter long plan.

so, you reaaaaaally didn't like it? there must be something aside from the art you did like...

[McDuffies]

so, you reaaaaaally didn't like it? there must be something aside from the art you did like...

I mentioned several things that I liked in last few paragraphs. When I said "I wanted to like it" I meant that there were a lot of elements that could have made a very good comic, but there were also many things that were spoiling reading experience. I'd really like to see you fix those things eventually, because, simply, I like having good comics to read.

And also I'm telling myself that criticism is one person's opinion.

I try speaking in arguements and not in opinions. I don't just say "I liked it" or "I didn't like it" or "It sucks" or "It's awesome". I always try to explain in details why it's awesome or why it sucks, I try to back it up with arguements. I try to be analytic, and many things I write are a result of analyzing and not just a vague impression. And to try to be objective, disregarding my personal preferations of genre or theme or style, and to just concentrate on what makes a good comic. It's not just some tagboard comment.
But ultimately it's your choice.

[McDuffies]

Wow! Seriously in-depth reviews! I'd appreciate a critique of Dewback Wing if you've got the time.

Dewback Wing (or as I repeatedly missread it, "Darkwing Duck") is a comic set in Star Wars universe, a kind of comic not quite fanfiction, but not exactly independent work either.

A few things that were concluded about this kind of comic bare repeating: by setting a comic within the trademarked universe, author willingly gives up on the part of rights on his own comic, on comic's self-sufficience, and finally on a number of potential fans who just aren't interested in this universe.
Problem is when the comic turns out to be good: author doesn't have full rights to something he's put a lot of work in, he can't "cash it", and as lucrative as niche audience of fans of "star wars" is, author will eventually inevitably want to expand beyond that niche.
Bottom line is that author can put as much effort as in creating a completely independent comic, but get a lot less reward.
But that's something authors are willing to accept, I guess, for love of their favourite franchise.

Sometimes, Star-wars-set comic may end up using too many cross-references with other Star Wars stuff, that the comic turns out hard to follow to anyone but avid fans. At times, I felt a barrage of unfamiliar terms being poured at me from "Dewback Wing", but those turned out to be minor things not neccesary for understanding the story. One still has to know the plot of three original films, otherwise he's gonna be rather confused.

One moment stood out wrong is, I felt that appearance of Han Solo was totally uncalled for. In scenes where he appears or where Luk Skywalker is reffered to, there's too much of fanboy vibe, a sort of worship of those characters, urge to relate this comic to them - and they don't serve any real purpose.

Asides from that, Dewback Wing turns out to be a fine read. Like much of of Star Wars body of work, it tries to alternate between huge tactical movements and epic battles between Empire and rebels, and personal issues of individual rebels, love interests and personal grudges. Dewback Wing so far puts an accent to the first, although there is a hint that we'll see more of characters.
Well, to tell the truth, I don't find grand-scale action too interesting. I don't think it gives much oportunity for variations. The plot so far, with Empire tricking the rebel unit, after which the battle ensues, seems kind of generic.
However, comic is carried out on strength of dialogues, which are, I think, managing to sound natural and spontaneous, there's no sence that the scene is staged specifically for us, and we don't feel like dialogues are there with the sole purpose to deliver us information or characterisation, or to further the story.

DW doesn't have large archive, but it's read slowly. I find this pacing to be ok, passages with a lot of dialogue are alternated with near-silent, action-based scenes.
Some of characters even manage to tackle our interest in a short time that is dedicated to their personalities, though there are a lot of characters (it's sort of ensemble cast rather than concentrating on a few main heroes) so it might take some time to get to know them all.

Art has a sort of underground charm. While characters are drawn in an amateurish manner, what makes it work is the meticulous drawing of ships (both interior and exterior) weapons and other technical stuff. Being that technology is, besides the characters, the thing we see the more often, I think that drawing styles of these two make a contrast that works.
Colouring was the lowest point of the art for most of archieves though. Colours were too saturated and compression artefacts were too visible, with some aliasing to top. That has been fixed in recent pages, and that's the most important improvement in the comic so far.

In the end I'm not sure if Dewback Wing outgrows the Star Wars fanbase after all, if anything it's a kind of story that will appeal to Star War fans with or without connection with the franchise.

P.S. You should make a better looking site. The current one, with white background and those large buttons, suggests a rather poor comic, and you don't want to lose readers who won't stay enough to realise that DW isn't that.

[Guyford]

Would you be able to take a look at my comic as well? I'd appreciate the feedback if you've got time for a critique.

[Td501]

Wow! Thanks for the review – the first one I’ve had for my first comic! It turned out far more positive than I expected, so I’m floating on clouds right now.

Yeah, I knew getting into this that I could never make a cent off Dewback Wing. Fortunately I’ll never have to fear a Cease and Desist from Lucasfilm for using their material so long as I make no profit – they’re very supportive of their fanbase that way. I love drawing and I love Star Wars – I’m doing this just for fun. Of course, I still want to do it well, and I’m constantly learning.

Something new is tried on almost every page. While this started as just a fun side-project, every now and then I realize a little extra something can go a long way – like varied skin tones. I’ve also only scratched the surface of what Photoshop can do – looking forward to discovering more of its capabilities.

This ‘first mission’ basically sets up the story and introduces the cast. It really is still in Introduction Mode. No, Han wasn’t necessary, but I wanted to show that Dewback Wing really is part of a larger and consistent universe – it doesn’t exist in its own bubble. Plus I’m having fun with it. But other movie character appearances will be rare and brief – done through communications.

As with all your others, this critique was thoughtful, thorough, and insightful. I highly value this take on my comic.

[Eve Z.]

so, you reaaaaaally didn't like it? there must be something aside from the art you did like...

I mentioned several things that I liked in last few paragraphs. When I said "I wanted to like it" I meant that there were a lot of elements that could have made a very good comic, but there were also many things that were spoiling reading experience. I'd really like to see you fix those things eventually, because, simply, I like having good comics to read.

.

I will go back and fix those abnormal sentences and formulation. I do this each time I gain an English skill point.
as for the 'bad' plots and the misplaced humour, I can't change them. what's done it's done.

[Dr Legostar]

as for the 'bad' plots and the misplaced humour, I can't change them. what's done it's done.

i don't think he's asking you to change them, he's suggesting you look at them, notice the problems, and learn from it, so that in the future it will be better.

[McDuffies]

Yeah, the point is in not making the same mistakes in future.

[McDuffies]

i know you've done a review of my comic before, McD but if you have the time I'd love a very critical review of my comic, I know I need to improve it, but I'm struggling a bit with where and how.

I returned to my blog to see my old review of "Legostar Galactica" (and instantly wished that I had edited it better) to remind myself what I wrote back than and how much of it Lego used, but also because I wouldn't want to repeat myself.

Lego will remember that back then I incouraged him to approach to dynamic layouts more in a manner of classic comics, but also that, because it's a photo comic, cinematic camera could be one of it's greatest appeals. Pages like this convinced me that it's possible to render dramatic and compelling scenes with Lego cubes. With it's slightly blurry camera, the scene practically has a cinema-verite effect in it.
Comic contains several of similarly striking sequences, and often it will add a punch to more static, dialogue scenes, by treating them more like standard comic scenes and less like a stage that is to be shot from outside (note the increased "empty space" here, placed for purposes of emotional impact). Unfortunately, this approach isn't very consistent, so sometimes comic returns to showing entire sequences from the usual, ortogonal view of entire scenography with all characters in it. I have an impression that this coincided with approaching of his hiatus, so maybe this can be attributed to Lego's real-life obligations that left him less time to work on a comic, forcing him to return to the simpler way of making a comic. Otherwise I applauded that he got the camera in general closer to his characters.

Incidentally, one of main problems with dynamic scenes seem to be that lego characters, in order to stand, always have to have one leg firmly on the ground. A few scenes where this was escaped, look very effective.
Sometimes, clarity of pages is endangered due to unhappy choice of angle. Behold how in the last scene Skip overlaps Tag, which shouldn't happen being as Tag is the main participant in the conversation. In this example it doesn't disrupt the story (though it doesn't look pretty) but I've noticed other examples where it wasn't clear what was going on in this scene for similar reasons.


The reason why Lego asked me to do this review, apparently, is that since the last one, he tried out more serious storylines, so he's interested in how well they work, or whether he's fall into celerberbus syndrome.
Though it was quite a challenge, given the nature of lego cubes, I think that these "epic" stories work well, primarily because they're plot-based and plots themselves are fairly good. It is obvious that with characters who never change facial expression don't lend themselves to character-based drama. Lego instead puts plots in front and lets character's feeling be driven by and apparent from the plot. When Jasper, for instance, turns to the dark side, Lego can't rely that the "acting" will make this change convincing - he had to do that through the plot, with the help of the large backstory.
Another thing that works in Lego's favour is that at this point we are so used to Lego characters, that we are ready to accept larger stretches of imagination than in the beginning.
Of course, Lego is aware that the greatest strengths of his writing is ironic humor, which is maintained through. In earlier chapters it was parody of myths, in later ones it's closer to reexamination and revision of those myths, but even when there is no punchline at the end of the strip, humor is present in characters, plots and situations. The Jedi council, for instance, was funny in itself, without the need for punchlines.
Humor is not mutually exclusive to serious writing, which not many webwriters realise.

There is one thing that I favour about longer storylines: with gag-based Legostar Galactica, one can read only so many comics after which gags get repetitive and humor blunts it's edge. Particularly it starts to bother that large part of punchlines basically boils down to someone's sarcastic remark. So a break from constant presence of punchlines is welcomed.

[Dr Legostar]

i know you've done a review of my comic before, McD but if you have the time I'd love a very critical review of my comic, I know I need to improve it, but I'm struggling a bit with where and how.

I returned to my blog to see my old review of "Legostar Galactica" (and instantly wished that I had edited it better) to remind myself what I wrote back than and how much of it Lego used, but also because I wouldn't want to repeat myself.

Lego will remember that back then I incouraged him to approach to dynamic layouts more in a manner of classic comics, but also that, because it's a photo comic, cinematic camera could be one of it's greatest appeals. Pages like this convinced me that it's possible to render dramatic and compelling scenes with Lego cubes. With it's slightly blurry camera, the scene practically has a cinema-verite effect in it.
Comic contains several of similarly striking sequences, and often it will add a punch to more static, dialogue scenes, by treating them more like standard comic scenes and less like a stage that is to be shot from outside (note the increased "empty space" here, placed for purposes of emotional impact). Unfortunately, this approach isn't very consistent, so sometimes comic returns to showing entire sequences from the usual, ortogonal view of entire scenography with all characters in it. I have an impression that this coincided with approaching of his hiatus, so maybe this can be attributed to Lego's real-life obligations that left him less time to work on a comic, forcing him to return to the simpler way of making a comic. Otherwise I applauded that he got the camera in general closer to his characters.

Incidentally, one of main problems with dynamic scenes seem to be that lego characters, in order to stand, always have to have one leg firmly on the ground. A few scenes where this was escaped, look very effective.
Sometimes, clarity of pages is endangered due to unhappy choice of angle. Behold how in the last scene Skip overlaps Tag, which shouldn't happen being as Tag is the main participant in the conversation. In this example it doesn't disrupt the story (though it doesn't look pretty) but I've noticed other examples where it wasn't clear what was going on in this scene for similar reasons.


The reason why Lego asked me to do this review, apparently, is that since the last one, he tried out more serious storylines, so he's interested in how well they work, or whether he's fall into celerberbus syndrome.
Though it was quite a challenge, given the nature of lego cubes, I think that these "epic" stories work well, primarily because they're plot-based and plots themselves are fairly good. It is obvious that with characters who never change facial expression don't lend themselves to character-based drama. Lego instead puts plots in front and lets character's feeling be driven by and apparent from the plot. When Jasper, for instance, turns to the dark side, Lego can't rely that the "acting" will make this change convincing - he had to do that through the plot, with the help of the large backstory.
Another thing that works in Lego's favour is that at this point we are so used to Lego characters, that we are ready to accept larger stretches of imagination than in the beginning.
Of course, Lego is aware that the greatest strengths of his writing is ironic humor, which is maintained through. In earlier chapters it was parody of myths, in later ones it's closer to reexamination and revision of those myths, but even when there is no punchline at the end of the strip, humor is present in characters, plots and situations. The Jedi council, for instance, was funny in itself, without the need for punchlines.
Humor is not mutually exclusive to serious writing, which not many webwriters realise.

There is one thing that I favour about longer storylines: with gag-based Legostar Galactica, one can read only so many comics after which gags get repetitive and humor blunts it's edge. Particularly it starts to bother that large part of punchlines basically boils down to someone's sarcastic remark. So a break from constant presence of punchlines is welcomed.

thank you, I will look into working on improving some of the angles and continue trying to arrange shots better. Also really thank you for the comments on my storytelling, sometimes I wonder if people would rather I just stick to doing my gag and day things and forget the story, it's nice to hear that at least someone is enjoying the plot.