I recently gave an in-depth critique to an old college friend of my wife's, and I though it might be beneficial to post here:

1. First off the storytelling stuff. Storytelling is probably more important than raw drawing talent. You could be a really fantastic artist, but If you can't sell the story to a reader then Marvel or DC isn't interested.

-You need a decent establishing shot. The reader would be a bit lost on these pages because you haven't sold them a well defined environment. Not every panel needs one, but you usually need a set up shot on every page

-I'm having trouble linking these images together. Except for one panel, the bad guys and the good guys never appear in the same panel at the same time. As a reader, it loses me. It looks like the characters are talking to the reader and not to the other characters. Sometimes that good, but only for moments where you need emphasis.

-There is a depth issue here as well. Many of the panels appear pretty flat. There needs to be a clearly defined foreground, middle-ground, and back ground on every panel except close-ups.

-I'm also not seeing a lot of variation on your camera angles. Pretty much everything is eye level with a pretty flat focal length. try experimenting with upshots and downshots and zooming in and out more dramatically. It will help hold the readers interest and help convey different emotions.

-The acting isn't too bad here. The characters seem to sell their emotions, though perhaps there is a little too much melodrama. Perhaps a more nuanced approach is better for modern comics.

-I would highly recommend finding any books you can on storytelling for comics or for cinema


2. Design/art stuff

-Design. It trumps anatomy in it's importance to the comic page. An artist has to convey many elements in a very small space in a very clear and interesting way

-you have a lot of wasted white space, while not necessarily bad, it is a bit awkward in it's placement for this particular page. There are times where you can use white space for emphasis, but it doesn't work here.

-perspective. This has to do with the depth issue I was talking about earlier. There doesn't seem to be a lot of structure in your panels. While you don't need to grid out every panel, an in depth knowledge of perspective couldn't hurt. Also, arial perspective is very important as well. Forced arial perspective with fog/smoke/haze can be a powerful storytelling tool when used correctly. Be conservative with it, though, and don't over-do it.


All that said, comics is a tough gig. It's tough to break in, and it's a tough gig to keep. There is a lot of competition out there, too. It took me about six years after college to break in, and I had been drawing comics since I was 12. It takes a very dedicated artist with a lot of drive. You you have that, then that's really half the battle. Just keep doing page after page after page and you will get better.