SCBOTS Geeks, Robots, Gamers

[samacleod]

A buddy and I just started a new webcomic. Wanted to get the word out. Come visit! Let us know what you think. THANKS!

http://scbots.com/

Here's one to give you a taste!

[gau dog]

scbots is a cool concept. art's great and i love robots. glad your later work has neater lettering. Some of your gags are for gag's sake like blowing your head up with a soldering gun, or aren't clear like the guy who was camcordering the movie, but those are little things.

[matthewart]

way neato

I am a new scbots reader now

[StudioCATCH]

Hi Samacleod - love your webcomic, and your site. Very simple and and funny and full of character. Thanks for posting!

Ré

[samacleod]

Thanks for the feedback and compliments all. Means a lot.

[gau dog]

How do you design your robots? Where does that inspiration come from?

[RobPeters]

I love your art style and the strips are very funny. But the lettering bugs me somewhat. I know you're going for the handrawn look, but sometimes the words are a little too cramped in their balloons. It makes it harder to read.

[samacleod]

Thanks, I'm glad you like the robot design. They could definitely be better thought out, but one of the thoughts we had early on is that whatever they were they'd have to be simple enough to memorize and not need too much reference because we'd have to turn over comics so quickly.

The inspiration a lot of times comes from my sub-conscience and it's not until later that I realize I've ripped off someone else (like Metropolis and ironman). I'm also a huge fan of BPRD, which I'm sure I've ripped off several times in the past. I just put buttons, knobs, joints and rivets on 'em.

As far as the lettering goes, we'll try to do better. Still learning a lot and we are definitely not satisfied with it as it is right now. Do you have any suggestions for getting a nice hand lettered look but easier to read? I guess i can just keep working on my hand writing. Again, because of the speed issue, hand writing the text makes it easier for me to FIT it into the balloons. Whenever I use the text tool it gets tricky to find the right size and then it also makes the artwork look crappy if it isn't as crisp as the font, does that make sense? Anyways, we're still looking for a better solution...

[samacleod]

Here's another comic. There's loads more now. CHECK 'em out.

http://scbots.com/

[BradHeath]

This is way cool. I like your style! Lettering is the reason I don't pull out strips I did 20 years ago.The way I've started to do lettering now is to pencil in the dialog first, make my balloon next, and then draw the art to fit. Then I ink everything except the words, including the balloon. I erase all my pencil lines except for the dialog, which I(by I, I mainly mean my son, who does most of my coloring)remove in photoshop and replace with computer fonts. I use to do all the art and then put ballons in, but you can cram yourself. by penciling in the words first in pencil, you don't have to be perfect, and you have the correct space for the computer font. And there are a lot of good looking fonts out there. My hand lettering ain't great either. I hope this helps, cause thats the only weak point to your strip. Hope to see more soon.

[pH]

Love it! The loose line work is lacking little.

[samacleod]

That's very helpful BradHeath. I'll try typing in a font on the next one. I have to TRY it at least, right? Let you know how it goes.

Hey Thanks pH. Love your work! You have a great comic! I'm linking it!