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I have to admit I'm excited about David Willis's new comic Dumbing of Age. I was first introduced to his work by accident, given the huge crossover appeal between fans of It's Walky and Avalon. I had never read It's Walky or Roomies, and the archive was intimidatingly large, so I never did get around to it. However, I thought David was a pretty funny and skilled guy, so I followed him on Livejournal and generally kept up with what he was doing. When he started Shortpacked! I started reading at the beginning and kept up with it, despite going through a few years there where I read literally no other webcomics.
Now, Willis is rebooting his Roomies/It's Walky universe, putting his characters together in new ways and making them all 18 again, but set in the present day as students in the same college. There's a big risk involved in doing something like that, and the college genre is a tired one, but if anyone can pull it off, I think he can.
Now, for the technical aspects, which I've come to realize I've been drawing inspiration from for some time:
There are a lot of neat things going on here. The borderless panel is a classic and appealing technique, but he's taken it to another level here by going transparent. It's an interesting idea and I'll be keeping an eye on how it works out. In this example, it looks pretty sharp against the background on the site.
His background technique for DoA appears to have shaped up, as well. Using colored outlines for background objects is a nice step up from outline-free shapes, but still allows the characters to really pop out. It's a step I seem to have missed in my own background progression, but it's definitely worth revisiting.
Lastly, he did something very smart in the planning stages of DoA: creating specific clothing items for the characters. I tend to vary my characters' clothing fairly often, but it has definitely been a seat-of-the-pants kind of thing. It makes a lot more sense to have an arsenal of pre-vetted outfits on hand so you don't have to spend time looking at fashions when you're trying to move your comic along.
Dumbing of Age has the potential to be a really great comic, and it has just the right appeal for fans of Shortpacked! like myself who have been too lazy to read all the old stuff. Plus, you have to admire the balls it takes to open on a poop joke.
Now, Willis is rebooting his Roomies/It's Walky universe, putting his characters together in new ways and making them all 18 again, but set in the present day as students in the same college. There's a big risk involved in doing something like that, and the college genre is a tired one, but if anyone can pull it off, I think he can.
Now, for the technical aspects, which I've come to realize I've been drawing inspiration from for some time:
There are a lot of neat things going on here. The borderless panel is a classic and appealing technique, but he's taken it to another level here by going transparent. It's an interesting idea and I'll be keeping an eye on how it works out. In this example, it looks pretty sharp against the background on the site.
His background technique for DoA appears to have shaped up, as well. Using colored outlines for background objects is a nice step up from outline-free shapes, but still allows the characters to really pop out. It's a step I seem to have missed in my own background progression, but it's definitely worth revisiting.
Lastly, he did something very smart in the planning stages of DoA: creating specific clothing items for the characters. I tend to vary my characters' clothing fairly often, but it has definitely been a seat-of-the-pants kind of thing. It makes a lot more sense to have an arsenal of pre-vetted outfits on hand so you don't have to spend time looking at fashions when you're trying to move your comic along.
Dumbing of Age has the potential to be a really great comic, and it has just the right appeal for fans of Shortpacked! like myself who have been too lazy to read all the old stuff. Plus, you have to admire the balls it takes to open on a poop joke.