Paranatural: now with BACKGROUNDS (sometimes)

Aaaand another few pages of wortless interaction with some third-rate support char.
Couldn't he keep his build-up for the aftermath of this arc? Please?

We know, it's PJ. It's obvious to everybody.

>>91267548
School Council plot incoming as promised. May God have mercy on our souls.

>>91267548
That's racist, Max.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sbb4EL0ybs

>how to act like Sasuke

>>91267548
Ah, the illusive background

Oh boy another wacky character tangent
I wonder what his anime gimmick or sexual dysfunction is
Agender asexual panromantic homorobotic?

why the fuck are you faggots still discussing this garbage of a comic after the fucking bullshit that is the page before this one?

stop peddling this agenda-pushing disappointment what the fuck seriously

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>>91268810
Ithink I'm addicted to frustration at this point.

>>91268810
Because it used to be so fucking good and each day we lose hope just a little

>>91268788
He's black you big baby

>>91268831
Didn't stop Day from being a blind lesbian sportive despite being obese moeblob.

>>91268831
So that means he's going to be either a Jojo or a Cowboy Bebop

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>>91268810
>>91268817
>>91268821
Just give it a re-read. Your hope for Zack to do better will either rise or completely fade away.

The problem in recent arcs hasn't just been the choice of new characterization. It's the introducing of it.

It's all been dropped on us in a reall drawn out dump that never fucking stops and bogs all sense of action and drive.

And of course it comes hot on the heels of name-I mean dodgeball. It all screams of poor planning on Zack's part.

Bump. No reason for this thread to die yet.

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OH DEAR FUCK GET ON WITH IT

ENOUGH WITH THESE "QUIRKY" INTERACTIONS THAT GO NOWHERE

SOMETHING NEEDS TO HAPPEN

THROW IN A FIGHT, HAVE SOMETHING MEANINGFUL HAPPEN

JUST END MY MISERY

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Hey guys remember when she was an actuallu intriguing character

>>91270922
Shit, this was back in 2014? That means I stopped reading around the time I enlisted. Anything good happen in the past 3 years?

>>91270922
>this was less than 24 hours ago in comic time
>it's been 3 years
kill me

Hey, remember hijack and the main plot of this fucking chapter? Of Course not! cause we keep adding new fucking side plots! Would be nice to get back to it this year...

>>91271070
We have been stuck in side plot limbo for a good 2 years now I think.

>Parantural threads used to hit bump limit back during the secret shortcut arc
>now they barely get 20 posts before getting to page 10
I made myself sad

So we all agree that pacing is the issue. Is having assistance with other artists to push out more worth it? I don't want this to end up like Homestuck.

>>91267548
Does Zack even do layouts for his pages? I feel like he could've taken up a lot less space with this page, and the interaction could've just been 1/3 or 1/4th of the page.

>>91272662
Depends if the page is Tumblr-tier preaching or not. The "I know you are gay" and "non-binary" pages both reached bump limit and got mini threads after them.

>>91273044
In this case, I don't think it would help. If Zack plans ahead at all it certainly doesn't seem like it, and no amount of help producing the art faster will help with the pacing issues. If anything, an editor would work wonders.

What he needs to do is just bite the bullet and end the chapter. Even the previous page would have been a good stopping point.

The moment he wrote the line "What now?" he should have realized it was time to fucking end it and save it for next chapter. This would have been a great(?) start to the next chapter, even-- Max is feeling lost, confused, and listless, just like the whole audience. Then Zack can start in with whatever this new tangent is, and start hopping between characters again as they advance their leads.

Do you think his girlfriend realizes how poor his pacing is? Monsterkind hasn't really managed to hold my attention story-wise but christ at least she can keep her character interactions fairly concise and knows when to move scenes along.

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>>91268810
We just wanna get to the firew-I mean-lightning generator power plant, only then we scramble.

>>91273044
I would have to agree, It's killing this comic. Also I feel like it's clear Zack is not going into these chapters with a coherent plot progression/arch laid out. Or he has a base line, but then during the drawing/plot creation he gets a random idea like "gee, I wonder what *insert side character here* is doing..." and then stops what he's doing and makes a 10-15 page side plot to show it, no matter where we are in the main plot. It just slows things down to ridiculous levels.

>>91276729
Oh right Isaac is still in the woods alone with Garcia. He's currently the only MC still investigating Hijack right?

>>91277114
>Hijack
Who?

>>91277236
Wait, that guy from Worm?

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>>91277114
>>91277236
Here's the kicker, is Hijack even relevant to the plot? He mentions something about this being his job, like he was sent by somebody. Is this the case? Or is he literally just a fucking monster of the week that turned into a "monster of the two years".

>>91277436
My vague guess from only half paying attention since Hitball is that Zack is going to let her poses the principal , so that along with the vice-principal and the school council the whole school Admin is compromised and evil, and that will be the actual story we've spent going on 3 years building towards.

Or fuck it maybe it's just a random series of events I can never tell with Zack.

>>91277595
>and that will be the actual story we've spent going on 3 years building towards.
I really, REALLY don't think the school is as relevant as that. I mean, I thought it was all about Doorman, Forge, their unnamed "Master", the Cousinhood, and all of that.

>>91267548
Cann someone give me the deal behind the comic? He seem kinda obnoxious on Twitter but that's all I know about him.

>>91277703
It was a promising new webcomic about spirits and ghosts and shit. The first three or so chapters were solid, and had action and plot development. Then it spiraled downhill into irrelevant derails and pointless filler.

You'll hear a lot of bitching about Zack's needless pushing of ideology. The reality of the situation is that his Tumblr pandering is the LEAST of this comic's problems, even if it is obnoxious. The writing itself has suffered a rapid decline, and we've been mired in this stupid filler chapter for two or so years now, and the arc villain seems to have completely vanished, leaving us with pointless character antics that lead nowhere.

I honestly dropped this before the gender identity panel was posted. I was just bored. The idiotic stagnation was too much for me.

>>91277869
I get ya. He acts like a writing expert from what I've seen so I was just wondering.

I was mainly annoyed because he acted as though he was too good for 4chan. (which can be an annoying site but I think it was the tone that got me)

>>91277666
I could be wrong. It's just a lot of villains introduced in this chapter are explicitly tied to the school, or at least trying to take over it for whatever reason. I hope I'm wrong actually once this arc finishes in the 2020s I'll probably never want to see the inside of Mayview again.

>>91277869
>the arc villain seems to have completely vanished
You mean after possessing Johnny? Who's a major player this chapter?

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Does anybody else want to fuck Lisa

Because I want to fuck Lisa

I just remembered this existed a couple hours where did all the cis scum bullshit come from

>>91278181
Hijack is the arc villain, not Forge.

>>91276729

Ah the days when this was the couple of choice. I'm not going to lie, I prefer Johnny/Max but I wouldn't have wanted that over the comic quality suffering, which it has been like crazy.

As far as actual plot shit I'm pretty sure Issac will eventually go bad and Johnny will probably take his place in your classic rival/enemy switch scenario.

Holy shit the fucking blue-haired blackface character is terrible who writes this drivel

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>>91278463
I only started reading this for Isaac, becusethe walk to school chapter was the Only part of Paranatural I enjoyed from beginning to end. He turns evil and I can finally just stop caring.

>>91278534
He could still be salvaged

The author is probably setting up a character development where he realizes it's just a fad, a crowd to fit in, and accepts himself and moves on

>>91270922
>"You seduced the train?"

>>91268901
It's blatantly obvious that Zack jumped the gun on Chapter 5. He wanted to do a Dodgeball Anime chapter, he wanted to do an Introduction to Mayview Pt. 2 ft. Student Council chapter, he wanted to do a Train Aftermath chapter, and he wanted to do a Brain Hijacker chapter.

So he did them all at once.

>>91277961
>acted as though
>when he plainly stated as much

"goals: become unpalpable to 4chan"

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>>91279551
Too bad for him, I want to spec shot most of his lolis if ya know what I mean

>>91267548
Zach is genuinely failing as an artist and storyteller. The story is spinning its wheels, the "art" is abysmal, humor is hit or miss. I mean its ok for your webcomic to be shitty in one respect if its decent in another. What is even left for him to make a mockery of?

>>91268839
Maybe he's autistic.

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>>91278311
Even the new pillhead design?

>>91279877
I hate this chibi-fication.

>>91279877
Yes. The eyes are what get me senpai.

>>91279913
>>91279877
a lot of characters are just starting to look the same. or at least, lose a lot of distinct features. you only see colin's eyes half the time since zack just defaults to drawing them in that same "two ovals and tiny dots" fashion that was usually reserved for the occasional gag/undetailed shot. but now those moments are way too many

same with rj

>>91267548
I'd rather he not update for a month and then dump several pages at a time than this drivel.

>>91268843
This looks too fun to be in the current comic but I'm not gonna give Zack a page view by checking.

>>91281082
wait, what looks too fun?

>>91281132
That image

>>91281151
are you kidding me? "le wacky faces" is a defining trait of newer paranatural, as an alternative to actually funny jokes

>>91281181
But it has always had wacky faces

>>91281181
I mean, his style has gotten so bland i dont really follow the comic anymore and they're definitely not exclusive of neo PN

>>91281254
reading comprehension, please practice it. zack relies on it much more as a crutch.

>>91281181
Wacky faces have always been a core tenant of Paranatural

>>91268810
W-we just wanna see if it ever returns to its former glory

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Oh look, another subplot. Yaaaaay.

Post yfw the next two pages with nine panels each consist of Max bantering with and then running away from Domino Morpheus or whatever the fuck his name is and we don't see him again for the next six months

>>91267548
At least the two panels with backgrounds have really good backgrounds.

>>91270922
He really dropped the ball here.

We didn't need every aspect of her QUIRKINESS laboriously explored. She could have been gradually revealed to us more and more as she becomes more relevant.

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>>91284536

>>91284209
It's not a new one though, it's a resolution to an existing one.

Finally.

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>>91284209
>>91279738
>>91279349
>>91278056
>>91277869
>>91277043
>>91273044
>>91272028
>>91271918
>>91271180
>>91268901
>>91267811
>>91267710

Webcomics...is pain.

>>91289558

The solution is clear for any webcomic artist struggling with pacing in a story based comic, it's just not the answer they want to hear or deal
with.

If you have a story based webcomic you either have to update at least three times a week(and that's the bare MINIMUM) on a regular schedule
without ANY breaks or do actual batch chapter updates.

Or failing that, you have to tailor the story to fit the medium so condense/manage the shit out of it so we don't have a billion plots going on at
once.

But of course nobody wants to face that, they want to pretend they can pull off some epic story line like actual published authors without
putting in an equal amount of time into it.

>>91289558
>It's just webcomics

Bullshit. Plenty of great webcomics know how to tell an interesting story with a pace that doesn't feel like the plot has been going around in circles for years.

So has anything happened since the end of Hitball?

>>91290371

Personally I'd ask if anything even happened DURING hitball, everything that's happened since Forge has been a god damn waste of time.

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>>91278463
>As far as actual plot shit
>5 days in-comic so far of what's basically the establishing Act 1
SIX GODDAMN YEARS.

>>91290240
>If you have a story based webcomic you either have to update at least three times a week(and that's the bare MINIMUM) on a regular schedule
without ANY breaks or do actual batch chapter updates.

Paranatural was pretty well paced in the early chapters, even when it was only updating once a week. Even if Parantural switched to a 5 page/week update schedule it would still be terrible paced because it's not the release rate that's the issue, but the content of the pages. So many pages could have been cut out, or condensed, so many scenes could have been shortened or removed entirely. Even when I read chapter 5 in one sitting the pacing was still terrible because hitball takes so damn long.

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>>91267548
>stopped reading this a long-ass fucking time ago
>expect the plot to have moved a good distance ahead
>page 189 of chapter 5, nothing at all has happened or changed in actual years
>has still had regular updates, no months-long hiatuses
ho lee FUCK

>>91290791
Pacingnatural.

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>>91268810
I used to read this shit because I genuinely liked it. Now I read it for the same reason people read webcomics like Dumbing of Age.

>>91289558
>>91290301
Indeed. A 200+ pages chapter is just retarded no matter how much you look at it.

>>91290240
Or both.

2 updates a week gives you 2-3 years to tell a story the length of Watchmen. If you can't keep your story under 300 pages, that's your own damn fault.