Shades Of A 021
I’m off to Norway tomorrow so no page updates and livestreams until the 11th! I’ve got some filler art to put up for you guys instead of updates which I hope you’ll enjoy.
I’ve received the first ever shades fan art!
I need to sort out a fan art section, but if you want to send me anything I’ll post it up in the news in the meantime. My email address is Tab@khaoskomix.com.
I love Chris’s expression: “All my wildest dreams have come true but it’s a lot more awkward than I thought it would be.”
Well, I know many people might not like my opinion here, and I really don’t want to sound like a troll, but I think I should say that for the sake of seeing you, Tab, getting as good as Khaos showed you can.
Shades of A is on page 21 already and I must say I still didn’t get what the point of it is. In the beginning it looked like a very didactic textbook about kinky parties, and I confess I still have the same feeling.
Another thing is that many times I had to go back to the previous page thinking I had missed an update, because the scene changed so abruptly I got confused. Some of the pages really seem like they have almost no connection with the previous ones.
On top of that, I’m slightly afraid of where you are leading the ace character to. I have faith you are not actually going to blow it up somehow because of the great work you did with Khaos, but I can’t help feeling a bit worried.
Please understand I’m not saying these things to be cruel or to troll you or anything like that. I’m saying that because I believe you are able of doing a much better work than Shades of A is being so far.
Why can’t it just be a story about people?
It can, of course. The problem is that even being a story about people, I can’t see where it is going, what is the purpose of it so far. On top of that, there’s the theme. For not being something that everyone has contact with, it requires some background and explanation, and it has been sounding like a textbook about kinky parties for me. And, which is even more complicated, with an ace character. It can be a story about people, but even then it need a story, which I haven’t seen yet. =/
Thanks for voicing your concerns.
Fair point on the scene changing, without the help of a constant over running narrative it makes them more abrupt. I’ll keep that in mind for future pages.
This comic will be more slow than Khaos for a couple of reasons- I’m moving away from high drama for a little bit and focusing on character interactions. One thing I disliked about Khaos was how dark it got towards the end and how much I was trying to ram into pages. The standard for a Khaos page was 6 panels. Shades has a maximum of 4. This is so I can focus on colouring and improving backgrounds, something I also felt was lacking in Khaos. When it’s read as a whole thing I think the pacing will work out much better this way.
Lastly, while I don’t want to spoil you for the future, the story line with Anwar has been checked over by people who identify as asexual so I shouldn’t be making any hideous mistakes.
I’m ok with slow pacing, but I’m also wondering what direction this story will head in and how much room for growth it has, since we’re starting with three characters who seem to have themselves completely figured out from the start. I’m content to wait and see, though. One of the perks of being an established author is that you can use the trust you’ve gained from previous works to push your readers a bit. This allows you to position your pieces and prepare more intricate, surprising or powerful scenes (Andrew Hussie exploits this extremely well), whereas authors who haven’t yet gained the credibility need to distribute the steady stream of rewards expected by readers to keep them interested.
I can’t see why you would be worried that you can’t see where a story is going after 21 pages. If you look at any long-term, long-story webcomics, many of them are just as unclear in direction after just 21 pages.
It takes time to set a scene, to introduce characters in a way that shows us who they are and how they’ll interact, and at this point, we don’t *really* know any of the characters. Wherever the story is going to go, the odds are good that it’s going to be driven by the characters- and if we don’t know who they are, we won’t know why they’re driving the story in the directions they do.
Honestly, if I were reading these archives in, say, six months, by this page I wouldn’t be bored or wondering what the point was. I’d just hit “next” and happily keep reading.
I think most webcomics that have an actually good pace (like this one) seem slower only because pages come out once a week or so.
Give it time, let the pages build up, and then re-read it after that.
THEN the story starts to flow more easily and more exciting too! Some comics are just like that. I personally prefer those ones myself.
Oh god that last expression. That made my day, seriously!
I also kind of agree with Georgina up there – Sorry!
Not on the didactic qualities of your comics (Honestly, I like it. A lot of the stuff you shared with us, I used to help out other people. I’m still giving out the forms that Charlie and Jamie filled out in the last story to people to help them achieve inner peace about their own problems, and it works a lot of the time),
but the plot is going kind of slow and it’s a bit… Messily organized? I mean, I don’t see the point of the comic other than 50 Shades of Grey satire… Which I somehow doubt you’re only planning. You’re much too good to only be interested in parodying something.
Of course it’s your comic and we’re just in here for the ride no matter what you do because you’re awesome, but I figure you might like some reader input? I don’t know. I’ll shut up now.
You know what annoys me sometimes (besides my apparent inability to write a single sentence without having to re-spell the simplest words because my fingers hate me)? These persons reading webcomics. They sometimes seem to assume that they’re reading something that’ll make sense with only part of it, like a gag-strip comic. It’s not. Think of it as a graphic novel or as a book. If you only read the first chapter, you’re going to feel like you’re missing something, because you are! And do you REALLY need everything to happen at once? Just let it roll somewhat slowly, we’ll get more time for character-development and getting into the mood. This comic only has 21 pages so far, so of course we don’t know for sure what’s going to happen or how Tab is going to tell the story. For now, we’re just going to have to trust Tab, believing that he can pull this off, and we need to be patient. If you still feel confused and that this isn’t going to go anywhere in a year, then so be it. But it’s a tad too early to complain about the plot and how things are going.
…spoiled by action-movies, you are.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think that this is the point here. I read Khaos and much before the 21st page it had made me interested, so saying that it’s “too early” doesn’t really apply. I’m just keeping up with Shades of A so far because it’s Tab’s and I still believe he’ll rock it. And I agree with Koko up there, a bit of reader’s feedback can only help Tab.
Khaos was eight short stories which all interwove with each other.
Unless this is going to be as short as the individual stories in Khaos, you can’t expect as much packed in each page. Longer stories do take longer to unfold; and at a webcomic’s pace, that can seem like it takes forever.
When I’m finding it hard to keep going through a comic’s story at it’s upload speed, I favourite it, “forget” to check it, and come back in a couple of months to a nice chunk, so I don’t have to wait half a week (for example) just to get one page of progression. Just… A possibility.
And still using your comparison with books, if you only read a part of it it will probably not make sense, but if you read the beginning of it and by the 21st page it still doesn’t make sense, there’s something wrong.
I fail to see how it doesn’t make sense. So far it has a very clear plot, an asexual who has very little experience with any other forms of alt sexuality (Understandably.) meets someone who helps him see that while different it isn’t bad and they have a friendship despite their obvious differences they have much in common.
Along with this Tab is trying to break many of the very incorrect stereotypes that come along with the scene for a refreshing and real view of what it is like. I am VERY much enjoying this comic because it is real.
I’m liking the characters of Shades, as everyone else has practically unanimously said or implied. The problem is that unlike Khaos, which unfolded very quickly with a massively provocative start, there hasn’t been much in the way of events to grip viewers yet. Anwar’s life has been relatively ordinary. The interactions have been pleasant, the experiences mild. Now, we’re only 21 pages in, but some of us have been following these stories for several months now. It’s enough time for an attention span to wane. For example, there were about 4 pages just of Chris buying items in a supermarket.
It’s not the same as picking up a book and reading 21 pages because the timescale isn’t the same, and you can pack a lot more into a book than a webcomic.
Personally, I like the gentle pace, I think it’s good to slowly drift into a story. And I wouldn’t want to sound unappreciative – the colours are great, and I can see the threads of an intricate story beginning to unravel. But I don’t feel particularly compelled to check the next page, and a large part of my return here every week is due to author loyalty rather than anticipation of what’s to come.
Well, I like the pacing of the story. I like the slow unfolding of the characters, their personalities, and the calm, easy pacing. I didn’t read Khaos until after it was already done, but I read lots of different webcomics, and there is something to be said for a comic that isn’t high drama. And frankly, Tab doesn’t owe us anything. Tab’s gonna tell whatever story this is meant to be, and people who like it will stick around to read, while people who don’t, won’t.
And here I thought all of the comments would be focused on whether or not it was an obvious setup to get them alone while in their street clothes…
I like the pacing of this comic! I read it as being a slice of life sort of comic (at least at the moment). Given that the main character has a trait that few people in the general population will have actually encountered before, I think setting him up to be basically a regular guy is a good idea. I am sure there will be drama later, for into every life a little drama must fall. But for now, awkward meetings and better than average parties are a good way to show us who the characters are.
i hope i dont come off as some random troll, and i know my spelling can be bad. but i feel some of the subtler elements of this comic are being missed. setting this comic aside from khoas, this comic is pushing a lot of boundaries outside of the hetero-norm slash the binary gender scheme, more so than khoas did. i love both comics but even with charlie and tom they still fit a more typical male/female binary gender norm in terms of outward behavior. im not bitching because i think shades of A might be more the gender side of queerdom but i feel the “excitement” here again is more subtle pushing of boundaries.
I have to disagree with the pacing issues. You can’t look at the page count and talk comparisons between books and this comic. You have to pay attention to chapters. In this case, we are at most halfway through the first chapter, but probably not even that far. At this point in a novel, the characters would still be largely a mystery, the plot largely a non-issue, and the focus on character development and world-building.
This is exactly where Tab is. Yes, it’s not moving at the same pace as Khaos, but Khaos had single chapters that told an entire, nearly self-contained story. What Tab seems to be setting up here is not a series of short stories (which is, essentially, what Khaos was, keep in mind, so the comparison between Khaos and Shades is not viable) but a long story with an overarching, on-going plot.
I admit, the plot is not what keeps me coming back and looking for updates here. We still haven’t learned what the plot is going to be. What keeps me coming back, personally, are the characters. It helps that I identify as asexual, but I also feel like that’s only part of it. Chris and Anwar are both fascinating to me, and their character development is what is interesting at the moment.
The pacing is not what we are used to as webcomic readers. Most webcomics are based on the concept that you need to catch web readers within the first three or four pages, before they lose interest and wander off. It’s not that the pacing is bad, it’s that we’ve been trained to expect webcomics to grab us right away because of our own poor attention spans. Often, webcomic authors have only one work out there, so their loyal fanbase has never been asked to be patient when their second work has a slower pace. Tab /does/ have that loyal fanbase, and if Tab wants to unfold this story as character-driven plot rather than plot-driven characters, I think it’s up to us to either accept that and hang on, or walk away. Either choice is reasonable (not every person will like every pacing) but I don’t think it’s a fair crit to Tab.
(as far as scene changes go, that’s a fair point, though again, I think it’s because as webcomic readers go, we’re a bit spoiled. If it were all uploaded already, or if it were a published book, this would not be an issue. It’s a problem of the once/twice/thrice-a-week format, and most webcomics that aren’t gag comics encounter it several times during their run, because ultimately they’re telling a story that’s meant to be read all at once, and yet are only revealing a very small part of it at a time. I’ve had the same issue with TV shows that have overarching plotlines (as opposed to episodic shows, which have a new plot every week), which is why with most of my favorite plot-heavy shows I simply wait until the end of the season and marathon the whole thing. Some webcomics deal with this by uploading several pages at a time, and others just expect the reader to be smart enough to go back and catch on)
I think people aren’t liking it cause they are comparing it with Khaos. It is a completely different story, as well as a different style of story telling. Often folks will expect an author (or hey even musician for that matter) to not change their style.
Personally I’m quite liking it.
I’ve enjoyed the pacing, and we are getting to see the characters develop slowly… I like it. :) People should stop comparing this comic to other things and just enjoy it for its own merits!
I like the pacing so far. Discord so far seems a bit like the vikings to me, in the fact that there is a small and limited cast and the stories revolve around them. It’s nice having a big cast so if you don’t like someone, you can always focus on some other character, but small character studies are good too, especially if those characters are different enough. It’s probably good there aren’t any women on Discord, they had very limited characterization and seemed like the weakest part of Khaos so for this story it’s probably better to focus on what works. It’s nice to see people of different ages and types mixing together in this comic. I’m curious to see what happens next :)
I’m another one who hasn’t really minded the pacing of this in terms of waiting for the story to develop. However, there’s another aspect to the pacing that has been a little jarring. I keep feeling like there’s things I’m missing.
Example? “We can do coffee some other time.” and “in case it fucks up again”. Uh, what? Anwar brought tea. Is it normal to have tea then go out for coffee? And when did the computer fuck up the first time? So back a page I go just in case I missed something between Anwar’s “whoa” and nope.
This really could be how early on in the story we are. We don’t know how Anwar and JD normally interact. We don’t know if Anwar has met up with JD at the studio before to go for coffee or to bring tea. We don’t know a lot of things – things that are obvious to the main characters and the narrative.
I didn’t think of the tea and then coffee a couple of hours later thing as being unusual (it would have taken a while to complete the photo shoot). I’ve been assuming that this is based in the UK though, and having multiple hot drinks in a day is normal- particularly tea. Must be our miserable weather or something. ;)
I’m enjoying the interactions and character development so far. It’s a refreshing change to see people with more unusual identities portrayed so fairly.
I agree with Francis that the coffee/tea thing doesn’t seem that strange. As for the computer, JD was complaining about how slow it was and calling it names so I just assumed he was used to having problems with it. Maybe I’m just used to automatically filling in gaps with my own imagination but it didn’t even catch my attention.
Sign me up for the “I don’t mind the pacing” club! (I also really enjoy the tight focus on a small cast ). I’ve personally been fascinated by the style/pacing switch which is a daunting thing to undertake for any writer, so I’m willing to hang out, give Tab the benefit of the doubt, and enjoy the ride.
As a regular reader of “epic” serial fantasy novels that span 3 or more books , I often have to wait 20-30 pages to get from the prologue to the first “real” chapter, so it’s not that big a deal to me. Am I sometimes impatiently waiting for the next page? Yes. But that’s part of the fun for me.
I haven’t’ felt a need to comment earlier, but now I want to be on record as liking the story, liking the pace, liking the characters. Or, liking, I don’t know, maybe relating to is better, They’re not types, they’re people, the interaction is a little subtle, and doesn’t necessarily build up to high drama, but to showing ordinary life from an unusual perspective. And going out for coffee unrealistic after having a cuppa during the photo session? Totally different things, one’s utilistic, the other’s social.
Might sound weird but i like 50 shades of a slightly better than kaos so far. Maybe because the story is a different nature. I don’t know; I loved kaos as well, but character-wise i like these better. They’re older and have a more laid-back attitude, while the other comic was about nervous teenagers exploring life.