Which version of strip #669 do you like better?
└ posted on Tuesday, 31 March 2015, by Novil
I have created an alternative version of strip #669 with just 4 panels instead of 6. It’s faster paced, but also lacks two nice panels. Which version do you prefer?
[poll id=”91″]
Click on the thumbnails to see the strips in their original size.
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I prefer to have the comedic pause, but I also think panels 4-5 of the 6-panel comic are better off combined.
In my opinion the pacing gets better with more frames. If more frames makes it take longer to produce the next strip because of increased production cost, I might prefer more less accurate paceings, than fewer more accurate paceings.
is paceings even a word?
I agree with Onihikage.
Panel 5 is unneeded but I like panel 3.
Onihikage wrote:
Exactly my thoughts.
Though given these two choices only, I’d go with 6 panels.
Not meaning to make you work more, but another option could be to join panels 4 and 5 of the original strip into a double-width panel with Sandra jumping towards Woo…
I read the 4 panel comic and immediately thought “What am I missing?” – I had to go back and see the interim panels to remind myself, even though I just saw them.
I prefer to not be told every little bit – my imagination can fill in the blanks.
I prefer the four panel variant. I like the pause that panel 3 of the 6-panel variant introduces, and I love Powree’s beautiful art there, but panel 5 seems really off to me:
After thinking for a bit, Woo rememberes another spoiler to blurp out. Other than that one being more novel than his previous spoilers, it isn’t special to him, so he has no reason to stretch out the sentance. But distributed over to panels, the sentence seems to be spoken very stretched out. And in panel 4, Sandra is still just right of him and already spinning around when hearing the name “Lilith”. So why is she so far from him when jumping towards him in the next panel? Also, why is she flying in from the top-right, as if she had been even farther (muuuuuuch farther, even) away when starting her leap?
So I guess a 5 panel version would have been perfect for me, even if that’d mess up the layout. (Hmm … I wonder what another beat panel before or after panel 3 of the 6-panel version would have done.)
I’m in the compromise camp. The four panel one is better paced, it’s tighter, the action of Sandra’s panic is better portrayed (because it is implied), but the beat panel is kind of needed to truly deliver Woo’s trollish-ness.
Definitely 6 panel. The slower pace doesn’t hurt the comics, quite the opposite. It helps to build up the… Tension? Maybe “punchline” would be a better word…
I’m torn, I like the flow of the 4 panels but there just seems to be something missing.
5 panels probably could’ve worked? I like to fill things in with my mind but it almost seemed like a page was ripped out of a book.
Definitely the shorter version: better pacing, and the two panels that were left out don’t real add anything.
For me, the first one because it provides more…. detail? 🙂
As shown, I prefer the 3-panel version, but if I could design it myself, I’d have a 5-panel row showing all panels except 5.
I prefer the 6-panel version. The extra panels “made” the joke. In the four-panel version, Woo is just spewing spoilers, and the idea that he is also mischievously pushing boundaries and seeing how far he can go is suppressed. In the long version that behaviour is highlighted.
The longer version also puts more emphasis on the aborted Gaia spoiler and draws it away from the spoiler-spewing, accentuating its importance. In the short version there is a chance some readers might miss that the joke has shifted from general pop-trivia to something specifically associated with these comics — there’s an infinitesimal chance a hurried reader might actually not think “who is Lilith?” and thus lose the joke.
While the four-panel version works, I feel the emphases in the longer version works better and is more nuanced.
I actually prefer the 6-panel. Perhaps the dialogue seems a little stretched between panels 4 and 5, yes; but I believe you’re losing something if you don’t have both Sandra’s panicked turn to face Woo AND the lunge. Also the original 3rd panel, with nothing but Woo’s pondering, proves his determination to make a statement.
The pauses are very much preferable
Second vote for this third option:
Javi wrote:
Am i the only one who actually likes how it seems as if woo pauses to see how far or even if sandra realized where woo wil l go with this, hence she is farther away in the jump since she thought as would the reader, that woo had stopped. This adds more to the does he dare do this more than just him say it almost in one breathe.
I think I agree with the consensus that the comedic pause was needed, but too long.
Given the choice I’d side with the 6 over 4, however if there was a way to combine panels 4&5 then stick another one at either end (maybe Sandra daring woo to come up with a spoiler or something).
But that’s just me.
6 panel version. Definitely. Woo brooding in panel 3 and sandra jumping at woo (for a change) in panel 5 are just to cute to miss ^^
+1 vote for a 5-panel version with panel 3 in but with panels 4 and 5 combined.
Another +1 for “join 4 and 5, but leave 3”.
Panel 3 is cool, the issue is only with the pacing of panel 5. I can see Sandra turning around and grabbing Woo, as in the 4-panel version. But Sandra’s shocked look and jump look like separate actions, which would take too long combined, given that Woo only gets to say two words.
Sorry to be the stupid one, but who or what is Lilith? As in Borderlands 2? Or am I just dumb.
Also, the 6 panel comic is much preferred; the pauses are hilarious.
I agree with those above who vote for saving panel three and losing panel five, leaving a 5-frame comic. I actually don’t mind losing the leap, even if it is nicely drawn – ya gotta be willing to cut out what doesn’t work even if you love it.
@ WaitWhat:
Lilith is the main character of Gaia, the other webcomic you can read on this website.
Many important things are unknown about her.