I have a lot to say about this comic, but it`s late (for me at least) so I`ll try to be brief:
This comic was very late (Saturday`s comic posted on Tuesday), so at first I was in a real rush to finish. But, the more I looked at the comic, the more I went back, making changes and filling in little details. First, I really like the action split across the first two panels, with the wall as the divider. I used the horizontal lines on the walls in the second panel to draw the eye there. That, when contrasted with the vertical lines dripping from the word bubble in the third panel and the dark colors (one with color, one without) dmake those panels “heavy” but also distinguish them. The border of the third panel is also a heavier line (it`s true, look closely), giving it a darker feel and enforcing this heaviness in the middle. I wish, in retrospect, I hadn`t leaned so heavily on that so the first panel was easier to get to visually, but frankly, I`m learning this stuff as I go along. It`s kind of hard to predict effects you don`t know about.
There`s a few fonts here, too. Some bold, some italics, a few sizes…all mixed together to try and draw attention to not only specific words but to pacing and flow. I was afraid I overdid it at first, but I think it`s pretty good.
Speaking of drawing attention to things, I hope you noticed that the door is smacking the female main character as the guy enters. Again, in retrospect, people will probably draw some weird sexual thing from this. Nothing of the sort was intended — It`s simple slapstick. Haha, someone got hit with something. I used the bottom action line to draw attention to that, as between the two action lines it has far more weight. The *smack* seems to totally be lost in the line-heavy second panel, though. So much for that.
I also tried to use size in the third panel — The guy being small and the girl filling the foreground. They each get half of the panel, but the empty space around the guy is supposed to make things a bit more dramatic…but I still wanted that comedy, so the guy`s shaking. Frankly, I`m not quite sure if it worked yet…I`ll have to re-evaluate tomorrow.
And, of course, in the last panel the lobster is in time-out. For attempting to drop a bag of flour on the guy as he came home. The panel is really sparse, no shading, and the lobster is on the right of center — This is supposed to separate the lobster from everything else and drive that time-out thing home. It is the only panel not tied together with the others using some technique, and I think it stands off pretty well, but I`d like it to stand off more or have the first panel tie in better.
All in all, I tried to shove a lot in to this comic, because the more I looked at it the more I said I really need to do this. Perhaps there`s too much going on, but I really wanted it to be engaging. Comics take a few hours each to do. This one was way more than average. Hours of work for fifteen seconds of enjoyment. I hope this one was worth it. As I`m looking at it right now, I`m still chuckling, but I`d better like my own work, right?