The first part of the finale will be them explaining their ideas to the creators.
The second part of the finale will be them picking topics (like the usual elimination challenges) and then writing a whole new strip with their existing characters and art styles. They'll get a bit longer, maybe 2 hours, to see if they can keep up the output to a high standard under pressure.
My predictioning is going great! Of course the two parts, explaining their comic and making the new comics based on their designs and stories, are combined, but that makes more sense because they are doing three strips and not just one.
Judging from their preview comics and character introductions I'm going to have to put Abby at the bottom of my winner rankings. Her art and humor is great in the short strips in her current webcomic, even though many of them are super long, and you have to scroll way down. But this long scenes-based long form story of a single night told over many months? I don't see it working. There's not enough room for her humor, and the art looks overdone. While some might read and enjoy it, it would be better suited to as a book, and I'm not sure it's going to appeal to Mike and Jerry.
I really liked Katie's idea of kids in peril. A few of her strips are laugh out loud funny, but require you to remember setups from previous long strips posted a week before. It could work. I'm super interested to see what she manages to get done in the second finale.
I think Maki's idea is more approachable, as it's about online dating among nerds. Maki also makes a few appearances in his own strip, which I really enjoy. It mixes in the science stuff from his existing comic, so it's not a complete departure. I like Katie's art better, but Maki's style is well suited to his material. I didn't laugh once with Abby's comic, a few times with Katie's, but many times with Maki's.
Also, while the others are aiming for "dark", Maki just throws the dark into the mix... and it feels even darker for it:
I just really hate his main logo. The skull and bottles don't put across what is actually in the comic. This is way better:
I agree with Luke. Abby's comic is probably the weakest. She won all those challenges with her powerful humor that appeals to a wide range of Internets from Mike&Jerry all the way down to Homestucks. You saw a little bit of it when they threw the money at the taco lady "PAYMENTS", but that's it.
Katies comic I think is the strongest concept. That shit is one step under Gravity Falls level. It fits into PA Megacorp right alongside the Lookouts.
Makis' comic I think is the second strongest concept, but his execution on the work handed in was the best. I was thinking he had made a bad move when he handed in a huge stack compared to the small piles of Abby & Katie, but I was very wrong. I would 100% read that web-comic, especially if he keeps having "Dick Bell" interlude strips.
I guess it's really going to come down to the pages they are making in the final challenge.
I was disappointing with Abby's comic. It has potential and there are good and interesting stuff in there, but she clearly was out of her natural habitat in that one. She could maybe have made a great stuff with that concept and characters, but those few pages we saw, wasn't it. I just hope that the actual elimination comic brings out her true talent.
Maki's comic got some actual laughs out of me, but on the other hand, there were some pages that got no reaction from me. Also, it's Slice of Life comic that's put next to two actually interesting concepts, which makes it seem weaker than it actually is.
Kati's comic was overall strongest. I liked how it looked and loved the concept. The jokes and humor wasn't really on laugh out loud level, but still amusing enough to keep me entertained.
I really can't make anything out off Abby's submission. 1) Why did she include character art and design for characters who don't even appear in the six strips she submitted? 2) Her characters aren't well represented. While you get to see the apparent main characters interact with each other, half of her strips have absolutely nothing to do with them, and the only interesting thing that even happens over the course of the six strips is a cliffhanger and has absolutely nothing to do with the main characters whatsoever. At this point the strip appears to be about the damn Taco shop rather than about the kids in the flying car. If she really has that much material, she has done a piss-poor job at actually introducing people to her world and her characters.
Maki's concept was better, but I don't get while the full text version of the character biographies was included in the material. The characters are decent and it is something I could see myself reading. It also reminds me a lot of Lucky Penny. However, it does not quite reach.
Katie definitely has the best final submission. You can tell what the characters are about, the characters get to do something interesting, and while I don't love the art style, it is interesting for its own reasons, and the backgrounds are also great. Definitely the best submission among the three.
I liked reading all 3. I honestly don't know how Mike & Jerry are going to choose. I do agree that Abby's was the weakest. I liked Maki's more than Katie's, even though Katie's comic has a better concept.
Regardless, I would easily subscribe to all 3 to read and find out more.
I'm still hoping Abby can pull out a win. I agree that Katie's looks to be ahead, even though I don't care about the summer camp setting. Maki's didn't do anything for me. Abby's selection was weird.
Abby has a very interesting story idea, and her webcomic execution would be unique. I can respect her usual art and style, and I like the idea of getting a long form, continuing story comic once a week. That being said, her selection to show off was very, very odd, and it doesn't play to her strengths. But the judges could be swayed by her natural creativity.
Maki's idea is good, but I've seen it a lot before. I currently read many comics like his (Questionable Content, Dumbing of Age, Shortpacked, etc.), and the continuing slice of life comic strip is a webcomic standard. Making one that stands out, however, is the tricky part. Nothing about his really stood out to me, though he had some good humor.
Katie is the strongest. A very unique idea with a simple style. Her strength of writing and art comes through. Her story appeals to me very much and fits with the kind of simple premise that a lot of PA Megacorp stuff has. She seems to fit in the most easily. I also feel, however, that she needs PA the least, and that may or may not hamper her.
All in all, I'd say Katie has the strongest argument out of the bag, but she might've hurt herself by switching to pencil and paper partway through. She may not pull off the elimination comic as well as the other two as a result. I feel Abby will, as usual, PROBABLY have the best elimination comic. It's her strength, could help her. But Maki always surprises me.
It's a big toss up, I'm interested to see how it concludes. No matter what, I'd assume all of these comics will be running online at some point.
Kay. It happened. Katie is the winner. On the one hand, out of all 12, at the very beginning, I would've guessed her, as she has the most experience. This kind of makes me happy, as it's just Penny Arcade soaking in the content. On the other hand, while their criticisms of Abby were sound, I also just felt like her comic sounds really interesting, and I want to see it...But, I suppose from a competitive standpoint, I understand picking Katie. I just really wanted Abby to win.
Ah well. Here's hoping after Katie's run is up, we get another season of Strip Search in a year or two.
I predict a Strip Search Kickstarter in the coming months. They've already said that having all those separate projects all in the same Kickstarter was a mistake and that they plan to put them in separate campaigns from now on - that's what the DLC Kickstarter was.
It was very good, all things considered, and the best strip of the final three won. The only thing I found weird is how little screentime Maki got in the Finale episodes. It was kind of telling that he was not going to win this and it almost seemed like he wasn't even really considered.
Also, WTF? Chicken? throught WTF? Cakeface! was hilarious.
Comments
http://penny-arcade.com/strip-search/news-post/elimination-home-edition-9-results
Judging from their preview comics and character introductions I'm going to have to put Abby at the bottom of my winner rankings. Her art and humor is great in the short strips in her current webcomic, even though many of them are super long, and you have to scroll way down. But this long scenes-based long form story of a single night told over many months? I don't see it working. There's not enough room for her humor, and the art looks overdone. While some might read and enjoy it, it would be better suited to as a book, and I'm not sure it's going to appeal to Mike and Jerry.
I really liked Katie's idea of kids in peril. A few of her strips are laugh out loud funny, but require you to remember setups from previous long strips posted a week before. It could work. I'm super interested to see what she manages to get done in the second finale.
I think Maki's idea is more approachable, as it's about online dating among nerds. Maki also makes a few appearances in his own strip, which I really enjoy. It mixes in the science stuff from his existing comic, so it's not a complete departure. I like Katie's art better, but Maki's style is well suited to his material. I didn't laugh once with Abby's comic, a few times with Katie's, but many times with Maki's.
Also, while the others are aiming for "dark", Maki just throws the dark into the mix... and it feels even darker for it:
I just really hate his main logo. The skull and bottles don't put across what is actually in the comic. This is way better:
Katies comic I think is the strongest concept. That shit is one step under Gravity Falls level. It fits into PA Megacorp right alongside the Lookouts.
Makis' comic I think is the second strongest concept, but his execution on the work handed in was the best. I was thinking he had made a bad move when he handed in a huge stack compared to the small piles of Abby & Katie, but I was very wrong. I would 100% read that web-comic, especially if he keeps having "Dick Bell" interlude strips.
I guess it's really going to come down to the pages they are making in the final challenge.
Maki's comic got some actual laughs out of me, but on the other hand, there were some pages that got no reaction from me. Also, it's Slice of Life comic that's put next to two actually interesting concepts, which makes it seem weaker than it actually is.
Kati's comic was overall strongest. I liked how it looked and loved the concept. The jokes and humor wasn't really on laugh out loud level, but still amusing enough to keep me entertained.
1) Why did she include character art and design for characters who don't even appear in the six strips she submitted?
2) Her characters aren't well represented. While you get to see the apparent main characters interact with each other, half of her strips have absolutely nothing to do with them, and the only interesting thing that even happens over the course of the six strips is a cliffhanger and has absolutely nothing to do with the main characters whatsoever. At this point the strip appears to be about the damn Taco shop rather than about the kids in the flying car. If she really has that much material, she has done a piss-poor job at actually introducing people to her world and her characters.
Maki's concept was better, but I don't get while the full text version of the character biographies was included in the material. The characters are decent and it is something I could see myself reading. It also reminds me a lot of Lucky Penny. However, it does not quite reach.
Katie definitely has the best final submission. You can tell what the characters are about, the characters get to do something interesting, and while I don't love the art style, it is interesting for its own reasons, and the backgrounds are also great. Definitely the best submission among the three.
Regardless, I would easily subscribe to all 3 to read and find out more.
Can't wait for Tuesday to be there live.
Abby has a very interesting story idea, and her webcomic execution would be unique. I can respect her usual art and style, and I like the idea of getting a long form, continuing story comic once a week. That being said, her selection to show off was very, very odd, and it doesn't play to her strengths. But the judges could be swayed by her natural creativity.
Maki's idea is good, but I've seen it a lot before. I currently read many comics like his (Questionable Content, Dumbing of Age, Shortpacked, etc.), and the continuing slice of life comic strip is a webcomic standard. Making one that stands out, however, is the tricky part. Nothing about his really stood out to me, though he had some good humor.
Katie is the strongest. A very unique idea with a simple style. Her strength of writing and art comes through. Her story appeals to me very much and fits with the kind of simple premise that a lot of PA Megacorp stuff has. She seems to fit in the most easily. I also feel, however, that she needs PA the least, and that may or may not hamper her.
All in all, I'd say Katie has the strongest argument out of the bag, but she might've hurt herself by switching to pencil and paper partway through. She may not pull off the elimination comic as well as the other two as a result. I feel Abby will, as usual, PROBABLY have the best elimination comic. It's her strength, could help her. But Maki always surprises me.
It's a big toss up, I'm interested to see how it concludes. No matter what, I'd assume all of these comics will be running online at some point.
Found it randomly cleaning out my desk last night.
Very excited today. It'll be so awesome to be around fans. I'm pretty sure I'll get a good number of Street Passes for mah Animal Crossings.
On the one hand, out of all 12, at the very beginning, I would've guessed her, as she has the most experience. This kind of makes me happy, as it's just Penny Arcade soaking in the content.
On the other hand, while their criticisms of Abby were sound, I also just felt like her comic sounds really interesting, and I want to see it...But, I suppose from a competitive standpoint, I understand picking Katie. I just really wanted Abby to win.
Ah well. Here's hoping after Katie's run is up, we get another season of Strip Search in a year or two.
Holy shit it was so cool and awesome.
The only thing I found weird is how little screentime Maki got in the Finale episodes. It was kind of telling that he was not going to win this and it almost seemed like he wasn't even really considered.
Also, WTF? Chicken? throught WTF? Cakeface! was hilarious.