Yeah - I was ABSURDLY flattered by that.
I liked the “branch manager” resume bit. Fun comic- I’ll be following it. I like the way it’s drawn and the expressions on the characters’ faces.
Nice job, Cheffie.
Zette
What’s the deal with your characters having five fingers on each hand? That’s kinda freakish! 
I love it! And am bookmarking it!
Congrats!
I find that when a character has five fingers on each hand, it looks more natural when they flip somebody off. grin
By the way, everyone, I have created a LiveJournal community for “Scandal Sheet!” - it’s here.
Thanks!
See, I personally get a bigger laugh out of the J.D. Salinger joke than the branch manager one. I hope it isn’t too highbrow…
Okay, unofficial straw poll: How many of you find Max’s hairstyle annoying? I’m thinking of changing it.
Naah, I got the J.D. Salinger joke. It’s funny. And I’m a guy whose brows are so low I have to roll down my socks to comb my hair. 
But the "branch manager thing is funny too.
Zap!
aka Matt Neffer, Boy Spotwelder
You suck. Your cartoon is dumb and stupid and dumb. You should draw something more like “Family Circus” or “Cathy” that is actually funny and not just dumb and stupid like your dumb, stupid comic. Or “Beetle Bailey.” Or “Henry.” Now THAT’S funny stuff.
:D:D:D:D:D:D;):D:D:D:D:D:D
FINALLY, some criticism I can BELIEVE. 'cuz, you know, no one who says something COMPLIMENTARY could be sincere, but the insults are unquestionable.
(By the way, Hama, you sounded just like Mojo Jojo from "The Powerpuff Girls.)
Cheffie - I thought I’d answer your question about backgrounds from your live journal here, because this thread is easier to get to. 
I think you do need some backgrounds to give a sense of place; however, IMO, the background should be approached like a stage setting in a play. Specifically, I think that you don’t want to have much more in the way of inanimate objects than what is needed to convey your setting. And I think you should probably leave out other figures altogether if they don’t have anything to do with the action (think of two characters in a play conversing, and a third actor walking across the stage behind them).
BTW, I (still) think you are doing an amazing job! Do me a favor though - next time we talk, don’t give away the punch lines for the next three weeks. 
I like it.
Thanks for sharing.
Oh, come on, I didn’t do that.
Did I do that?
Sorry. I was just suffused with New Project Energy and my enthusiasm bubbled over.
I’m now at the stage of being Frustratingly Mysterious about upcoming plot developments.
Oooo - I know that feeling. At least your projects are word-oriented anyway. You should see how people’s eyes glaze over when I’m describing a dance I’m going to do soon.
Eh. Keenspace. Feh.
You should also get some arrow buttons for your forward and back links. The current links are really small compared to the comic. As for the actual comic, it seems good so far. I’m not a big fan of breaking the fourth wall, though.
You should post this in the Hype forum at zwol.org, you’ll get some comments from other webcartoonists.
Not bad. Not bad at all. It still has that “settling down” feeling to it, but I strongly suspect that once you get your situation in place and your characters introduced, it’ll be excellent.
Frankly, I’m more impressed by your ability to leap into the webcomic field at all. Pete Abrams has set the bar pretty damn high in his four-plus years on Sluggy Freelance, and it must be intimidating to be in the same field. OTOH, he had a “settling down” period too. You’ll be fine. More than fine, even. Well done, CT.
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Great lettering! Very neat and consistent, just like in the comics. I prefer lettering that’s easy-to-read; it becomes invisible and doesn’t get in the way of experiencing the strip. (Exception: “Pogo” did great things with lettering, especially with the one character who talked like a circus poster.)
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Trim the fat from the text.
“Man, I sure miss hanging around with you like this, Max ol’ pal.”
can be cut to
“I miss hanging with you like this, Max.”
Do seriously say “ol’ pal”?
Removing just one or two words could smooth the sentence flow. In “Hey, I’m serious. How is Boca Raton any worse than living here at the ‘Rancho Cucaracha’ apartments?” it’s possible to cut “Hey” and “here” without losing the meaning.
Fewer words draw more attention to the words you want the reader to remember.
Three sentences to deliver a punchline is too long. “Man, I used to live here. The exterminators would only come in pairs.” 13 words versus 25.
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Jump ahead with Foster getting the tabloid job. We know what he thinks about it. Is his bitching going to be funny over another five strips? Good fiction starts the story in the middle of the action. Readers will stay with you as they try to understand this new world. Don’t go from A to B to C to D. Start at C, hint at what happened at A, and reveal the rest along the way.
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Liked the “freakish disembodied voice has a point” line.
Apart from those few things, I like it.
Still glad you asked? :smack:
Correction:
Do **people ** seriously say “ol’ pal”?
Sometimes, you can cut too much. :smack:
Congratulations!
Your comic strip is quite funny. I have to admit that some of the jokes go way over my head though.
I’m actually in the planning stages of a little web comic of my own, but I have a serious case of writers block. I can’t come up with anything even remotely funny.
Anyways keep up the good work and best of luck!
I liked the comic a lot, Troy - the only problem was that I started from the latest one, and it didn’t click because I hadn’t read it from the beginning. Once I knew the characters, I really cared about what was going on, but without that context I didn’t care one way or the other.
I don’t know if there’s a way around that - it’s a problem with a format like comic strips when people can come in half way or at the end. And it gets even harder when you’ve got a couple of hundred strips behind you which newcomers need to make their way through. Maybe a ‘the story so far …’ thing, done in an unusual or humorous way?
I don’t have a problem with longer set-ups, so long as there are jokes in there as well as character/plot information (which Scandal Sheet has).
My only other comment is to put a vote in for minimalist backgrounds - I think strips that don’t usually have something in the background make the times, when there is something either funny or important there, stand out more. (Take that as visual advice from someone with no visual arts ability whatsoever ;)).
Seriously? I’ve spent a lot of time talking with webcartoonists and I’ve never heard that sentiment. There are hundreds of really good webcomics, and thousands of decent ones.
No matter what you’re doing someone is probably better at it, so I don’t think that’s ever a reason to not do something.