Comic Idol returns

[Digifiend]

Peter's gonna be really mad, lol - turns out Home Invasion is the runner-up, which means Uh Oh Si Co came last.

[Classic Comics]

Cheers Digi, but it's more of a "Congratulations Classic Comics" really, as he came up with the strip

Ta, Laura - we'll call it a joint effort and blag the champagne as we waltz up the red carpet to collect the humungous award... their *IS* an award ceremony isn't there? And a humungous prize? A slap-up feed? Sausage and mash with oodles of fizzy pop? Bag of jelly babies? Anything?

[Peter Gray]

I've cooled down.. well down Laura..
looks like Nigel's drawing a new strip now anyway without winning Comic Idol..The Bea Team..sneaky Nigel..

Has Hell ever been in The Beano...its now Beano Extreme..

Also Minnie was great..

The summer Fun issue should have had all the characters on holiday like a summer special..

[Digifiend]

Summer Fun is the next five issues as well as the current one.

And it was about time they brought Bea and Gnipper back in a regular strip. Their previous strips both ended when the TV series launched.

[RamblingSid]

I liked the Bea Team story. Glad to see Bea and Gnipper back. Pity it's Harley the pig instead of Rasher. Good to see it doesn't have that dull faded colour of the Dennis stories too.

[Digifiend]

From Beanotown.com:

These are the first sketches we saw of Meebo And Zuky from our artist. They made me laugh A LOT. Here's a little fact that even the artist doesn't know - unless she's reading this page, in which case, yes she does know... Meebo and Zuky were originally going to be called Elmo and Shifty. Now there's a useless fact for you!

http://www.beanotown.com/index.php?id=455
Meebo and Zuky is definitely a better name than Elmo and Shifty. Elmo just makes me think of Sesame Street.

[Jonny Whizz]

Yeah, Meebo and Zuky are definitely better names. Elmo and Shifty don't seem to fit the characters in my opinion, but Meebo and Zuky do - they sound more like cartoon characters, and the strip does owe a lot to wacky TV cartoon series - think Itchy and Scratchy from the Simpsons (mentioned earlier I think).

Mind you, I once heard that Billy Whizz came close to being called Flash Harry! I suppose that would have been okay from when his tracksuit was introduced, but again I think the correct name was chosen.

[James W]

Meebo And Zuky Wasn't the best comic because it wasn't as well drawn as it should be it didn't it wasn't shaded and designed very well. She could have made it a little bit better. But it is a very good job, So well done!

[skyromie]

Even I wouldn't be THAT harsh!

Could you go into a bit more detail, James, this time with improved grammar?

[James W]

Im not being harsh, Im just saying the story line is good and the pictures are amazing it just needs some more shading.

[skyromie]

So, you didn't say "it wasn't as well drawn as it should be" and "wasn't shaded and designed very well."

Two criticisms of a professional artist, and the third criticism about shading probably would've been done by the DCT colourists.

As a fine gentleman once said on this forum, get your own drawings out then. Or, like me, you'll probably just blow them away with awesome.

[Jonny Whizz]

Meebo and Zuky is brilliant - a deserved winner in my view. But not only is it very funny, but also the team behind it - the artist, writer and colourist - have all come together well. Sometimes these elements don't come together or aren't all present; a good artist can be let down by poor scripts or a good writer can produce a good script that is interpreted poorly by the artist and doesn't turn out as well as it should, but with Meebo and Zuky this is not the case.

Laura is very versatile, she's now drawn four different strips for the Beano, all of them in different styles - from Ratz, where she took on Hunt Emerson's style, the 'nursery book' style Johnny Bean, Beano Manga and now the wonderfully zany, TV cartoon-esque Meebo and Zuky.

With regards to criticism, I do not think it is appropriate of me to criticise comics artists, writers or colourists unless I think I could do a better job, and with Meebo and Zuky (and indeed the vast majority of comic strips) I certainly don't think I could. That's not to say that I haven't criticised artists in the past - I have done, usually when their interpretation of a character/story does not meet my expectations (for example, Graeme Hall on Billy Whizz).

I know this is a bit of a long and drawn out (bad pun!) post, but hopefully I've got my feelings across.

[LauraH]

Thanks for the various defences, guys, but I certainly don't want to be defensive on this point! Not many comic artists are daft enough to think that they can please everybody with everything they do, and I'm certainly not labouring under that illusion. A couple of my friends have said they're not keen on Meebo & Zuky because it doesn't look "Beanoey" enough, and I'm still speaking to them

I would echo syromie's point, though, that the best kind of criticism has actual reasoning behind it. James, if you can give an example of what you don't think is up to scratch design-wise, it might be very useful.

Incidentally, colouring so far has mostly (with the exception of the first one and last week's fishing one, which I did) been in-house, so I can't really respond to that one...

[AndyB]

Jonny, you forgot Minnie, which Laura has done two different ways - entirely her own style, and ghosting Ken!

[James W]

Thanks for the various defences, guys, but I certainly don't want to be defensive on this point! Not many comic artists are daft enough to think that they can please everybody with everything they do, and I'm certainly not labouring under that illusion. A couple of my friends have said they're not keen on Meebo & Zuky because it doesn't look "Beanoey" enough, and I'm still speaking to them

I would echo syromie's point, though, that the best kind of criticism has actual reasoning behind it. James, if you can give an example of what you don't think is up to scratch design-wise, it might be very useful.

Incidentally, colouring so far has mostly (with the exception of the first one and last week's fishing one, which I did) been in-house, so I can't really respond to that one...

I love the idea of the fighting and you draw them well but if you could like make one where the story carries on a few weeks.