Metroid Comics by Me.

2004-06-04 04:27:39 pm

Okay,I just made these comics in my spare time. They're at my Webshots page here.
NOTE: Parts 7 and 8 aren't up yet(8 is still in the works).
Enjoy.

PS-This wasn't made to compete with Maru Mari. :)

Thread title:

Electrometer Prime

2004-06-04 04:48:27 pm

Pretty good and pretty funny.

Dark_T_Zeratul

2004-06-06 04:08:35 am

No offense, but it kind of, well, sucks. The plot doesn't make any sense (if there even IS a plot), the JPEG compression is terrible, the spelling's not great, and it's really hard to figure out what's going on. Things just happen randomly out of nowhere, with no explanation whatsoever. The jokes fall flat almost all of the time, and the special effects are absolutely terrible. And no, MSPaint is NOT an excuse. Seriously, you need to do some MAJOR work to fix these. Actual backgrounds would be nice, even if it's just a floor and a wall.

=Prime Killer=

2004-06-06 06:20:00 am

^*Sigh*
I just made this in my spare time,OKAY? Rolling Eyes

Besides,DAMNED Webshots only allows JPEG. Photos,which suck to the max,like you said. And plus,the only art program I have IS Paint. Srry.. it's just that I make something,say it's not for professional uses,and someone screams at me that it's crappy. ( Twisted Evil

) You DIDN'T read the Intro,did you? :D I'm not in the mood right now to download Photoshop and fix them,so I'd errr...(how do I say this..)...umm...quiet down. Laughing

Dark_T_Zeratul

2004-06-06 04:32:12 pm

Quote from =Prime Killer=:

^*Sigh*
I just made this in my spare time,OKAY? Rolling Eyes

Besides,DAMNED Webshots only allows JPEG. Photos,which suck to the max,like you said. And plus,the only art program I have IS Paint. Srry.. it's just that I make something,say it's not for professional uses,and someone screams at me that it's crappy. ( Twisted Evil

) You DIDN'T read the Intro,did you? :D I'm not in the mood right now to download Photoshop and fix them,so I'd errr...(how do I say this..)...umm...quiet down. Laughing

Like I said, just having MSPaint is NOT an excuse. Fiddle around with things for a little while and you'll find that you can do some really nice stuff with Paint. You don't need Photoshop, you just need to spend some more time with them. I'm not asking for professional quality, but with just a little more effort these could look ten times as good. I'm going to be honest and say that I almost stopped reading after the third one, but went on to see if you'd improved and because I wanted to give a fair critique of your work. Just consider that while I'm almost certainly not the only one who was turned off by the sloppiness of things, I'm probably in the minority for having continued reading despite it. I'm going to link you to another good Metroid comic so you can look at it for reference. Things to notice:
1. Spelling and grammar. Kabutroid's is good. Yours is... Well, not always good. Don't use the excuse that you're not a good speller, because anyone can type it into Word and run Spellcheck.
2. The plot makes sense. Things don't just randomly happen out of nowhere. Seemingly random things that do happen are explained. And from the beginning of the comic, we know what is happening, why it is happening, and what led up to it happening. Who's Prime Killer? Where did he come from? Why is he helping Samus? What are these secret missions about? Who sent you on them? What exactly ARE the missions? Why are there two Torizos? Why is Nightmare back? You never explain any of this, and you brush over the events so quickly that I find it hard to even care that they're happening at all.
3. The special effects. A vast majority of these comics were made using nothing but Paint. A vast majority of MY comics were made using nothing but Paint. And I could link you to at least two dozen other good-looking ones made using nothing but Paint. See my point? Like I said earlier in this post, as well as in my last one, PAINT IS NO EXCUSE. Liberal use of the spray can generally doesn't look good if you're just randomly spraying it around. A lot of new comic makers think it's a good way to get special effects. It's not. In most cases, it just looks like shit. For the more complicated effects, explosions and lasers and such, it's very easy to just copy/paste them from actual game sprites, like you did in the case of Nightmare (my only nitpick would be that the explosions haven't changed at all in the next panel; you should do them again in each panel to make it look like it's exploding).
4. Backgrounds. Kabutroid uses screenshots from the Metroid games as backgrounds. While this looks nice, it is by no means necessary. Take [url=www.bobandgeorge.com]Bob and George[/url] for example. Most of the backgrounds are simply two shades of color: one for the floor, and one for the wall. This is simple yet still looks good. It's certainly a heck of a lot better than having the characters just float around the panel. Also, things don't just appear in the panel with no explanation when they're convenient. A simple bit of planning ahead to know when doors and ships are needed and making sure that either they're there from the start or that they're off-panel (and thus you need to move the characters away from the action and to the door/ship) will go a long way towards making your comic look better.

So, take these tips to heart. Don't give me any of this "I made it in my spare time" crap. So do I, and so do most other comic makers, and yet we still take the time to make sure they look good, even without Photoshop.

[quote="=Prime Killer="]^*Sigh*
I just made this in my spare time,OKAY? :roll: Besides,DAMNED Webshots only allows JPEG. Photos,which suck to the max,like you said.  And plus,the only art program I have IS Paint. Srry.. it's just that I make something,say it's not for professional uses,and someone screams at me that it's crappy. ( :twisted: ) You DIDN'T read the Intro,did you? :D I'm not in the mood right now to download Photoshop and fix them,so I'd errr...(how do I say this..)...umm...quiet down.  :lol:[/quote]
Like I said, just having MSPaint is NOT an excuse. Fiddle around with things for a little while and you'll find that you can do some really nice stuff with Paint.  You don't need Photoshop, you just need to spend some more time with them. I'm not asking for professional quality, but with just a little more effort these could look ten times as good. I'm going to be honest and say that I almost stopped reading after the third one, but went on to see if you'd improved and because I wanted to give a fair critique of your work.  Just consider that while I'm almost certainly not the only one who was turned off by the sloppiness of things, I'm probably in the minority for having continued reading despite it.  I'm going to link you to [url=http://www.kabutroid.com/planetzebeth/index.html]another[/url] good Metroid comic so you can look at it for reference.  Things to notice:
1. Spelling and grammar.  Kabutroid's is good. Yours is... Well, not always good. Don't use the excuse that you're not a good speller, because anyone can type it into Word and run Spellcheck.
2. The plot makes sense.  Things don't just randomly happen out of nowhere. Seemingly random things that do happen are explained. And from the beginning of the comic, we know what is happening, why it is happening, and what led up to it happening.  Who's Prime Killer? Where did he come from? Why is he helping Samus? What are these secret missions about? Who sent you on them? What exactly ARE the missions? Why are there two Torizos? Why is Nightmare back? You never explain any of this, and you brush over the events so quickly that I find it hard to even care that they're happening at all.
3. The special effects.  A vast majority of these comics were made using nothing but Paint. A vast majority of MY comics were made using nothing but Paint. And I could link you to at least two dozen other good-looking ones made using nothing but Paint.  See my point? Like I said earlier in this post, as well as in my last one, PAINT IS NO EXCUSE.  Liberal use of the spray can generally doesn't look good if you're just randomly spraying it around. A lot of new comic makers think  it's a good way to get special effects. It's not. In most cases, it just looks like shit.  For the more complicated effects, explosions and lasers and such, it's very easy to just copy/paste them from actual game sprites, like you did in the case of Nightmare (my only nitpick would be that the explosions haven't changed at all in the next panel; you should do them again in each panel to make it look like it's exploding).
4. Backgrounds. Kabutroid uses screenshots from the Metroid games as backgrounds. While this looks nice, it is by no means necessary. Take [url=www.bobandgeorge.com]Bob and George[/url] for example. Most of the backgrounds are simply two shades of color: one for the floor, and one for the wall. This is simple yet still looks good. It's certainly a heck of a lot better than having the characters just float around the panel.  Also, things don't just appear in the panel with no explanation when they're convenient. A simple bit of planning ahead to know when doors and ships are needed and making sure that either they're there from the start or that they're off-panel (and thus you need to move the characters away from the action and to the door/ship) will go a long way towards making your comic look better.

So, take these tips to heart. Don't give me any of this "I made it in my spare time" crap. So do I, and so do most other comic makers, and yet we still take the time to make sure they look good, even without Photoshop.

metroid fanatic

2004-06-20 02:31:25 pm

Urm, I only just read maru mari, and i wet myself! Its so funny! But how in hell do you do something like that, bcause i would like to give it a try! I would be ok but nothing amazing, and when im done ill probably just show my freinds and then forget about it. But id still like to try!

EDIT: Ignore everything i posted here, sorry for wasting you time but i dont know how to deleat it

Rox

2004-06-21 09:50:21 am

Hmmm.... no. There's still only one Metroid-related comic I like.

Planet Zebeth.

Yes, Maru-Mari fanboys, it's alright to kill me now.

Electrometer Prime

2004-06-21 12:04:17 pm

*Kills Rox*

Maru mari is a very good comic. I dont understand why SOMEONE ignores it.

MegaMyke

2004-06-21 04:53:04 pm

I really didn't like it either, I thought the subtle puns were funny such as you running away from the metroids saying I'm not supper suckers. But really, that's about it.

metroid fanatic

2004-06-25 07:11:26 pm

I have arose this topic from the nearby dead to ask if anyone would like to see my metroid spritecomic? I know it is nearly exactly the same idea as maru mari (the only differece is that its SM instead of the original) But nontheless i would still like to post it up. I have a freind who doesnt know a thing about metroid but i still made her giggle a little bit. Also if anyone does want me to show it, couls someone please tell me how to put up a picture in a post?

ADDED NOTE: The puns are different from maru mari (obviously) well atleast i think they are............mostly........

Wassup Dawgs

2004-06-25 10:15:24 pm

First you need to upload the picture onto some sort of website.

www.uploadit.org is a good place.

Then, you need to type the link to your picture and surround it with "[img]" and "/[img]"

(leave off the quotations)

I would like to see them.

green9090

2004-06-25 10:20:12 pm

i wanna see! theres this neat option in the bar with the bold and italic and stuff labled "Img" click it, type in ur address for the image, and then push the image button again.

Houston

2004-06-26 05:58:09 am

If it helps, i do specail effects on other programs then take screen shots and put it into paint.

Take a gander at this one...
http://www.metroid2002.com/maru_mari/047.html

It may not look it, but theres a fair bit of specail effects in there. Since MSpaint cant do transparacies, i took the picture of fonzie, put it as a sprite in The Games Factory, took the fireball picture, made it transparent, put it ontop of the fonz, took a screenie, and put it back into MSpaint. Like Dark_T_Zeratul said, "just having MSpaint is NOT an excuse."; There are ways to work around MSpaints limitations. You just gotta figure out how to do it with what you've got!

And furthermore, for-shame on you fiends who didnt mention/dislike maru mari. (Actually, i dont really care. Everyones entitled to their opinion. I dont like kabutroids comic, but you dont see me busting my chaps about it. I just dont find it funny, but i dont bash it. Its when people bash something without motives that gets to me.)

If it helps, i do specail effects on other programs then take screen shots and put it into paint.

Take a gander at this one...
http://www.metroid2002.com/maru_mari/047.html

It may not look it, but theres a fair bit of specail effects in there. Since MSpaint cant do transparacies, i took the picture of fonzie, put it as a sprite in The Games Factory, took the fireball picture, made it transparent, put it ontop of the fonz, took a screenie, and put it back into MSpaint. Like Dark_T_Zeratul said, "just having MSpaint is NOT an excuse."; There are ways to work around MSpaints limitations. You just gotta figure out how to do it with what you've got!

And furthermore, for-shame on you fiends who didnt mention/dislike maru mari.[size=7px] (Actually, i dont really care. Everyones entitled to their opinion. I dont like kabutroids comic, but you dont see me busting my chaps about it. I just dont find it funny, but i dont bash it. Its when people bash something without motives that gets to me.)[/size]

beach__master

2004-06-26 02:27:17 pm

Meh hee hah ha ha ha ha....

I found those comics quite amusing. The graphics are fine if you bump it into normal size, as is all the sprite work. I liked these comics.

metroid fanatic

2004-06-27 09:27:44 am

Argh Ive become a member (free acount) but it won let me upload any of them, it keeps on saying that its too big because the max file size= 200,000 :( :(

EDIT: ok i forgot to but [img] and all that , but when i did it said Only files ending on .jpg may be uploaded to a demo account! Have i done something wrong?

Wassup Dawgs

2004-06-27 12:37:35 pm

Open it up in MSpaint, then click Save As...

Then save it as "nameofcomic.jpg" Be sure to include the .jpg

And to decrease the file size, I don't know anything other than making it smaller.

metroid fanatic

2004-06-27 03:46:28 pm

No it still wont work, and the boxes are easily smaller than the ones used in maru mari! Its hopeless......

Bah! Bah i say! Im not too sure if my comic even funny, so seeming as only 2 people are willing to look at it, i wont bother putting it up. I would, but i cant shrink the filesize

Dark_T_Zeratul

2004-07-23 06:12:28 pm

Quote from Wassup Dawgs:

Open it up in MSpaint, then click Save As...

Then save it as "nameofcomic.jpg" Be sure to include the .jpg

And to decrease the file size, I don't know anything other than making it smaller.

NO. God no. Do NOT save sprite comics as JPEGs unless you want them to be blurred beyond recognition. Click [url=www.irfanview.com]here[/url], download the program, and save the files as PNGs. Small filesize, no reduction in quality.

Phoenix

2004-07-23 10:00:51 pm

What DTZ said.

And yes, I'm Phoenix from Antioch.