Gaia, after First Look

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Landbark
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Gaia, after First Look

Post by Landbark »

In this Topic we shall / will / would or not present our first reactions about Gaia.
(Not about strips themselfs but after reading settings, cast and glossary).
Short or long, positive or negative.

Here goes mine.

After reading everything, cast, settings and glossary I said to myself.

We're not in typical fantasy world anymore.

In a short, the world of Gaia is well built, huge + for Novil.
Despite everything, we can't deny hard work put into it.
But then, in my oppinion, it's very narrow and limited.
I understand that making world too complicated also makes a lot of
trouble but Gaia falls into the other pit, of limitation.

Few examples: Exterminating dwarfes and no other fantasy races (except elves),
only two gods (of everything and nothing), biology and magic limitation.

But I won't criticise Gaia because of it. That's author choice and
it must be honoured. I just want to say that I expected something
more after hearing about a fantasy world of Gaia. After all, theres is
Sandra and Woo to back up this series in one way or another.

Still, no matter what, I will wait for it :)

(If someone say that's not the world but the story in it that matters, I realise that).
"It's better to die for Gaia than live for yourself"
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Novil
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Novil »

Landbark wrote:Few examples: Exterminating dwarfes and no other fantasy races (except elves)
I know that some readers will miss certain fantasy races, but they are not needed to make the story itself more interesting. Final Fantasy VIII and Harry Potter were also mostly human.
Landbark wrote:only two gods (of everything and nothing)
The Final Fantasy games usually have no gods at all.
Landbark wrote:and magic limitation.
Magic plays a very important role on Gaia, in fact it is much less limited than in most fantasy worlds.
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awbbie
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by awbbie »

I must say I really like Gaia so far. I don't mind if it's not the "standard fantasy" as it would be borring if everyone was like Tolkien. This makes the backstory interesting and imaginative. In the comics I find that I can identify with the main character and understand the others. All in all I'd give it a solid two thumbs up!
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Irili
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Irili »

I quite like Gaia too. What is most impressive to me is that the cast seems to realistic and human. They don't appear to be from the same sugar cookie cutter. You all know the formula: this cookie cutter is the hero, this cookie cutter is the antagonist, this cookie cutter is a damsel in distress!

PS. Sorry for the sugar cookie metaphor. As it nears the holidays I get increasingly more cookie obsessed. :)
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Landbark
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Landbark »

It's good, although we have seen not many strips. There is still a place for an epic failure.

I like this fantastic setting, magic used in everyday life (this living statue is the only example so far) and some kind of evil plot in the background.

The only thing I didn't like was the duel between Sandril and Ilias, fight itself was ok but the talk was... hard to understand because we have no evidence that Sandril is a bad man. There is no flashbacks and other stuff proving of his evil deeds. And words are just words.
I know that's just the beginning of the journey and there is place for everything but for now it feels incomplete.

Bu the heck with it in the end.
"It's better to die for Gaia than live for yourself"
Omega
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Omega »

I've really been enjoying Gaia... I can see the influence from other fictions across the board but originality doesn't concern me. Someone famous who I can't remember once said that there are no longer any original thoughts, just new combinations of them. Gaia is one of those new and interesting combinations. I enjoy the characters, I enjoy the setting and I like the developing story.

Really, for some reason, I would love to make a game out of it.
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Novil
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Novil »

Omega wrote:Really, for some reason, I would love to make a game out of it.
As Gaia was originally planned as a mod for an RPG game, it shouldn’t come as a too big surprise that the comic is almost asking for a conversion. ;)
Squire James
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Squire James »

Whoever planted all that evidence must have known that girl very well... I have my suspicions but I will keep them quiet for now. For now, let it suffice to say that I have some question about who is going to be rescuing who in this plot-line!
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Omugoshi »

My impressions of Gaia are so far amazing.
As to the case of different races and such I'd love to see some original ones because the standard elf, dwarf, orc and so on is getting a bid old imo as they are in almost every RPG and fantasy comic/book/movie. I love the elemental type creatures we've seen a bit of so far too.
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squirrl811
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I'll be visiting again!

Post by squirrl811 »

So i stumbled on Gaia in a very roundabout way. First, I'm a big fan of fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson and from his site I found a podcast called Writing Excuses. From there I followed to another member of the podcast, Howard Taylor and his webcomic Schlock Mercenary. And finally from there I saw an ad for Gaia and a mention of rainbow juice, so I clicked on through!

After reading through the series to this point, I have to say that overall I'm impressed although there are some areas I'd offer some suggestions as well.

First, the artwork is just stunning. It has a light, magical feel yet is detailed enough that I find myself pausing to just soak in the atmosphere of each image. I also enjoy the anime style of the characters without some of the over-the-top expressions that some anime includes.

The story is also intriguing and each character seems to have a history and mannerisms that make them feel very real. I'm particularly fascinated by Lili's character. She is practically a savant when it comes to all things magic, yet seems almost childlike in any other situation. It is charming and makes me very curious what is going to happen when you mix the apparent awesome powers of the magic of this world with a woman who is so innocent when things get intense.

As for the areas I'd like to offer advice (and this is just my opinion), I feel that there is quite a bit of cliche to be found. The names all tickle my memory as something I've heard before. One or two would be easy to overlook, but more than that feels a little stale. Either that or maybe this story is some offshoot of another work and it would make more sense had I read that other piece first.

Also, the story feels a little manic in it's pace. I can't decide if it is a good thing or not. It is very fast paced and keeps me interested in what is going to happen next, a very good thing! But you have so many characters and so many things happening at once that I feel a bit of an information overload. I feel I know enough about Lili and maybe Hel to care about what happens to them.

*SPOILER*



But in the big fight scene I found that when the griffin-creature was killed, I didn't really care. I feel like I was supposed to be shocked that this unique and gifted creature was killed despite his powers, but really I barely knew anything about him other than he was very gifted in magic, spoke about himself in the third person, and there (so far) is no one else around like him. I wanted to feel shock, but with so many characters being introduced so rapidly without learning much about them, I just couldn't feel much at all there.

Anyways, that's my impressions so far for what it is worth. Overall, I still like the story and the artwork is great! I intend to visit again and see what happens, so I'd count this comic as a success in my book. But I wanted to also offer some thoughts in the hope they'd be taken as constructive criticism. I applaud your work here and look forward to more!

:D
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Landbark
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Landbark »

I made a first look at the Gaia at http://www.mangamagazine.net/. I found out that there is page 83 and 84, so they are two pages ahead from the http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/.

My question is, will it stay that way and how often will it be updated?
"It's better to die for Gaia than live for yourself"
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Novil
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Re: Gaia, after First Look

Post by Novil »

If publishing on MangaMagazine is as financially successful as I’m looking forward to, new pages will be published significantly earlier there.
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PMark
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A minor quibble

Post by PMark »

I stumbled across your comic over at MangaMagazine. I read it straight through. To make a long story short, I like it very much. It's well drawn, well thought out, and well plotted. Count me as a regular reader.

I really like the character Viviana, but then I generally do like strong, smart, capable female characters. (What can I say? My early crushes were on Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and Truly Scrumptious from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.) My only concern is that she seems awfully young for her position as leader of the Shadowdancers. I hope you will take a future panel or two to expound upon her position, why she has it and how she keeps it.
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Re: A minor quibble

Post by Novil »

PMark wrote:My only concern is that she seems awfully young for her position as leader of the Shadowdancers. I hope you will take a future panel or two to expound upon her position, why she has it and how she keeps it.
Yes.
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