Everyone has to aware of this by now but if not John Allison has picked up the pencil in exchange of the mouse for creating his comic. The acclaimed winner of the 2005 WCCA Best Comic has long been famous for creating a strip that is 100% computer generated while never using a scanner. After running for over 4 years that has all changed. For that past couple of weeks John has been drawing everything by hand and there doesn’t seem to be enough people who have taken noticed.
So how has the change impacted the script? Amazingly the style has changed very little. If you were to put the new work and place it next to the old you would think one was the unfinished product of the other. This is where I find John has taken a step backwards. The current work is superb with good line work that retains all the fantastic color work that is a hallmark of Scary Go Round. Despite all this I can’t help feel that it’s unfinshed and waiting for the lines to be removed so we once again see the inhumanly straight lines. All of this is probably a product of having read SGR for so long but I can’t help feel John needs to leave behind his old style or he’ll never get away from the impression he didn’t have time to remove the lines.
Perhaps it\’s because I was a reader since Bobbins, when it was hand=drawn, that I don\’t find the change jarring at all, and it\’s even welcome. While stylish, I found the all-computerish method a bit cold. It has more feeling in the hand-drawn version.
Maritza
CRFH.net
While both styles are great, part of me really misses the old Illustrator artwork. The old style gave the comic a unique visual style, whereas the new hand-drawn work blends in a little more with other styles that are already out there. Either way, though, it\’s an excellent-looking strip.
the only problem i can see is when making tshirts because he has some pretty nice ones now, I just wouldn\’t be as likely to get one that has the handdrawn style on it
I disagree with Daku on this one. I love the non-vector drawing style. Interestingly, everyone I\’ve talked to has been either loved it or hated it. It\’s a very polarizing issue! Allison\’s line work has a very distinct charm that is rare in webcomics. The British seem to pull it off though, because the only other comic that I can think of with a similar visual appeal is Beaver and Steve. I liked the vector style immensely, but I enjoy his hand drawing even more. Kudos to Allison, and I hope to shake his hand at SPX.
I would say the vector was better as his inking abilities leave a lot to be desired. You can call it a style, but it is really just poor inking. At least the vector made the poor anatomy feel artsy rather than just stand out. The bright colors offset by the black now looks like a jar of jellybeans. I think this is an example of being able to pass off anything to your fans when you reach a certain point.
i stopped drawing in Illustrator because I was tired of producing work that (to me) seemed sterile. It might take me months to get good at inking and take the work somewhere where it isn\’t just a less slick version of the Illustrator comics. But since I\’m a human and not an incredible robot, I couldn\’t just flick a switch and be immediately perfect at it.
\”Anonymous\”, everything I do is driven not by the desire to short-change my fans, but eventually give them more. But I have to do all my growing up in public. If you want comics that always look the same, I think you\’ll find that there are a lot of them!
i am impressed. who wudda thunk indy-rock had balls. you get praise/awards/money/mystique based on your style and you go ahead and dump it in exchange for what you want to do, and not what someone else expects…wow. that\’s a bob dylan move, right there. all the luck.