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kevinbolk — The Dark Allure of Copy and Paste
Published: 2011-11-28 05:45:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 73346; Favourites: 2485; Downloads: 331
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Description
So I prepared a couple of new slides for my "10 Things I Hate About Webcomics" presentation at Anime USA. The idea behind the whole thing was to poke fun at common webcomics tropes, cliches, and/or bad habits and to help new creators recognize them and then either avoid them or exploit them (because anything, even tropes, done well can still make for good entertainment). This stuff can be applied to a lot of other media as well and I think most creators (myself included) have been guilty of them at one point or another.This one illustrates copy & paste abuse. I often tell people that a little bit of C&P for background elements, certain gags, and tight deadlines is okay. However, repeated use of this will not only make your comics boring, but it can really handicap you as an artist. Learning to draw things consistently is an essential skill for anyone considering a serious career in cartooning and it's a skill you can only learn through MASSIVE amounts of practice. Remember, kids, you learn to draw by drawing!
Check out some of my previously posted art slides for the webcomics presentation below:
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Comments: 212
X'D Am I a bad person for thinking the last panel's dialogue is adorable?
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I know you're not trying to make fun of Tom Preston with these, but...
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People keep bringing him up as if he invented the bad webcomic. It can't possibly be that terrible. >_<
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No, the bad webcomic was invented in June of 1973 in Bayonne, New Jersey.
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it depends, if I want a new pose in the next panel other wise I don't bother drawing basically the same picture again only to alter a facial expression, in that case I C&P, doesn't really matter as much to me since its a hobby and not a profession
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I know what you mean, I always draw my comics by hand first and then scan them, even if I find a situation where I could copy-and-paste things to make it easier on myself, it still looks much better to draw it yourself. Don't you think?
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Hahaha, I don't care if I'm at school, I just laughed out loud.
Yes, I typed the whole thing. Did I just break a whole in the universe. Maybe, but I won't know unti-----
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See, this is why I watch you rather than Tom Preston.
Just sayin.
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Sadly I know several newspaper comics that do this as well. Every scene and line will be exactly the same save for their mouth and possibly their eyebrows.
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Haha, good point! I hate when an art piece looks so awesome, and I find that the items faded over each other are merely copied. Always a bummer.
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Kevin, you make my day so very often.
You know, I've even seen this abused in professional comics, I kid you not.
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Yeah, the 2008 "Flash Gordon" comic series from Ardden will make you weep for humanity.
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It was Ultimate X-Men I was reading, one page was just the same two frames of Nightcrawler and Professor X repeated with different speech bubbles.
I'll admit, I abused copy-paste on occasion for my earlier comics (although one time it was for an amnesia joke), but seeing it in professional print does make one despair, as you so rightly said.
Anyway, excellent portrayal of the common rookie blunder, I actually did laugh out loud at the last panel
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People have called you the Anti-Preston.
I can see why now.
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I love how the conversation becomes somewhat darker on third and fourth panels xDDD
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Dammit! Did the animation budget run out again?!
Lol, keep up the good work, Sir Bolk.
The General
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omg this drive me crazy! There was a manga I used to read, the artist was amazing! but every few pages you'd find the same image repeated a few times, which always struck me as lazy. It also really bothered me because I read it for the art as well as the story line, so I felt cheated of the art too!
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I guess some people are too lazy to draw another panel. I want to draw a webcomic, but I still need to learn some basics before I get started.
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This makes me think of Tom Preston and his abuse of copy+paste in certain comics:[link]
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It's so sad how many times I see this problem. D:
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Bwahahaha!!! xD "Perhaps on the inside." This is great!!
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don't suppose there is a vid of your presentation out there...is there?
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Troy? Are you dead? Cuz if you are I'm gonna take off.
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When I see this, I think of Tom Preston and his copy-pasta...
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I don't remember him abusing that too much. Can you give me an example? I'm really tired so there's probably good reason I'm not coming up with what you're talking about from memory....
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[link]
He has an entire article about his douchery towards others: [link]
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Wow, gotta love ED. And this one isn't as over-the-top as many of them so often are. Just calls him out. Fascinating info! Thanks.
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Heheh, aye no problem! His arrogance has been showing lately on dA with his weird obsession over Link's hair too >.>" But yeah, no problem again.
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Heh, actually I'm kind of on his side with the Link's hair issue. I grew up with the old cartoons and the original NES/SNES games and their artwork. So I have a certain childhood affection for their original iterations. That said, I think blond Link is fine, too. But I do wonder why they felt the need to *never make him a brunette again* after the first two, you know? It's kind of like the Sonic "Eggman" vs. "Robotnik" debate. Sega at least admits "Robotnik" is his "real" name, but always always calls him "Eggman." But there's a huge upswelling of Sonic fans that want "Robotnik" back. Personally, I always preferred "King Koopa" over "Bowser." Bowser is just kind of a dumb name. I can see where people might dislike "Koopa," too, but I just prefer the way "Koopa" sounds.
In short, "nostalgia" and "lol opinions"
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Heheh, the problem with Robotnik is it's hard for younger kids to spell and it's quite a complicated word for many foreigners xD I like how in Sonic Generations, the past 'Eggman' actually calls himself and is referred to as 'Doctor Robotnik'...he also questions his sanity when he gets to how Eggman is now x) I don't mind the name Bowser, but think of it as his full name and title would be King Bowser Koopa, so it's not that much different either. But yeah, I get your point, just saying what I assume is right 
Too true though x)
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Okay now TomPreston/Dobson's latest work is just lame.
Really? Some people love your work and others hate it? Go figure that!
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Heheh yeah, it's almost as if he's trying to taunt people with his 'I don't care because my ego is well inflated anyway'.
Oh wait, that's exactly what he's doing.
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Pretty weak attempt at a taunt, though. His latest comic is a nice ego-centric piece, too.
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Yeah indeed. You see what I mean now? All he is, is full of himself.
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