Paranatural

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And below:

>Hey guys! I have a new sketchbook for sale on Gumroad! It's full of creature and character designs from Paranatural and a bunch of other projects. I'm proud of it! Purchases support me and this comic, so please consider picking it up if it sounds like something you'd be interested in! (I have some other digital stuff for sale too if you haven't seen those yet.) Thank you for reading and for your support!

>>93403699
Wait a minute: is the "new sketchbook" thing like an official part of this page? What the hell is he thinking?

>>93403741
That he'll never do a print version?

He probably took those two weeks off to finish that sketchbook

>>93403699
>doesn't even bother doing bland pastel bucket-fills for half the panels
Is this a new low?

can these multiple scenes please end already

and the entire chapter too i guess, it's been 2 and a half years and it's going nowhere

>>93403699
Somehow too much action has managed to kill my interest faster than no action at all ever did. I think because the comedic tone kind of hurts the action scenes and makes everything feel awkward, at least when there was no action we could somewhat enjoy the comedic tone with no issues, but this right now, is a mess.

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>>93403699
WACKY FACE
WACKY FACE
WHO NEEDS JOKES
WHO NEEDS PACE

still salty that we didn't get to see those forge comics

>>93408091
I don't understand why he can't post what he thought he had qued up. They're still around somewhere right?

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>>93408405
Yeah I got them right here, just need to click this button to upload th-

AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH

Sorry guys, no updates next week!

>>93403699
>Adding a PLS BUY FROM ME GUYS into the fucking page

I honestly can't believe it

>>93406491
>WHO NEEDS JOKES
to be fair "I learned this... FROM YOU!" and the get the bat exchange were both jokes

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>>93403699
I am unable to accurately put my feelings about this page to words.

>>93403699
This arc is going to end with them all being expelled/fired isn't it?

>>93409909
>This arc is going to end

Sorry, what?

>>93409985
I didn't say any of us would be alive to see it.

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>>93403699
>dat corny flashback
I feel like Ed's too young for his grade just as Isaac is (certainly) too young for his, because of the attitude.

>>93404513
It's alright, current plot structure and progression don't really help PNAT's readibility worth of getting printed anyway. That, and the possible censorship of the anime references...because Nippon's very protective of its IPs.

(Pic unrelated, 'tis just a little present for you guys.)

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Two years ago.

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>>93410036
This 4 year old promise is the only thing that keeps me reading anymore.

>>93410151
>Namekball was already going on two years ago

Jesus fucking Christ, what has he been doing? What have we been doing?

>>93403699
>those floors
>no backgrounds
>everything takes forever

i've cracked the code, guys.
paranatural takes place in the hyperbolic time chamber.

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>comfiest comic in existence becomes most boring comic in existence
what a shame

i remember when i was still excited to see new paranatural updates, now it's something i regularly forget to check

>>93411557
I remember checking every week and falling in love with it, because it had that "small town with a terrible secret" vibe, especially whenever Max ran into Magnetsnake, it had this creepy mystery air about it. Plus the jokes were fucking aces. Then it started to dip, and drip and then drop hard, jokes fell flat and he resorted to funny faces, the lush, colorful backgrounds and surroundings faded into floors and pastels, character designs got less angular and pleasant and became more cartoonish (like Lisa becoming some weird creep rather than just a cute but eccentric girl) and the tension of the plot just kind of went out the window in exchange for "comedy", the old chapters had comedy mixed in, but it felt more natural and organic and not forced, not to mention the jokes were funnier.

Combine all that with the multiple hiatuses, not sticking to his schedule and the extremely sluggish pace of story arcs, and characters quickly becoming very one-dimensional and I just stopped caring.

>>93411906
Yup. I'm not gonna give Zack the pageviews, not when he's becoming more and more like Diaz. Abbadon and Tom both do yuri better than him and can stick to a schedule. At least when Abbadon delays a page, he's usually prepping a where's waldo landscape splash page background instead of a shitty pastel gradient.

>>93410606
Gravity's still normal, so that can't be it

>>93403723
I guess Hiveworks doesn't pay like it used to.

>>93410151
Is it bad that I'm starting to miss the hitball arc/art.

Just compare this to the stuff we're getting now. Jesus I feel like it's downhill from here on out.

>>93411906
shit man I used to roll out of bed on mondays with a smile on my face ready for fresh Pnat, it was just that fun. rip in pepperonis

>>93405878
He's seeing how lazy he can get while still having his fanbase throw him money.

>>93413036
Well hey, Unsounded manages to deliver 3 times a week, making it bearable!

>>93408530
kek

>>93406120
The combined scenes don't really work, but I'll put up with any amount of compression if it means we don't have to go through another 50 fucking pages of hitball.

>>93403699
At least things are starting to progress, we should only be one or two pages away from finding Hijack.

>>93409319
"""jokes"""

>>93410151
I sincerely hope this was a joke or typo. That was meant to be :one: year ago right?

>>93417430
Remember when we had chapters that were under 100 pages?
Good times.

>>93417534
No, such sinful thoughts have been cleansed from my mind. Thank you [z/H]ack, I finally see the light. You and GiGi will lead us forward into unending, unchanging, entertainment.

>>93417534
>AND THAT'S THE END OF CHAPTER 4!!! I hope you all enjoyed what will most likely be Paranatural's longest chapter.
>proceeds to make an even longer chapter

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>>93417340
>we should only be one or two pages away from finding Hijack.

I wonder if the serious dip in art quality happened because of the complication with his wrist. Like he slowing losing the ability to draw better quality art because his wrist hurts.

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>>93403699
>Literally plugging shit IN the comic page itself
Reading this comic is like watching an elderly person with progressing dementia.

>>93409630
I need a source you ass.

There are entire comic series shorter than this chapter of Paranatural.

>>93423007
Even if there's no quality still there's the quantity.

>>93410151
>Two years ago.

fuck I started this webcomic about a month ago? and its still sucks in pacing

>>93411557
>i remember when i was still excited to see new paranatural updates, now it's something i regularly forget to check

my thoughts exactly. Would rather to read KillSixBillionDemons

>>93423035
Oh, I feel so bad for you than. Reading it all in one go Zack's new pacing is almost bearable. Having to wait a week between pages is awful.

>>93423035
>missing when Zach was good
>when he would interact with the fan base
>when he wasn't trying to impress his sanctimonious faggot friend Gigi and including lesbian muslims
Why are you even here. If I hadn't started in chapter one I'd be so disinterested in this complete shit show.

>>93423060

although atleast the art is more appealing to look at. I'm going to not comment on that horrible fucking "anime" style it had in the beginning

>>93423093

well i'm still here bitch cause maybe i like the fucking story.

>>93423147
>shit pacing
>1 million tangents
>no direction
Again, saying you 'like the story' makes sense if you started in chapter 1-2 but since mid three it's been clear Zack is losing the plot

>>93423136
>anime style
>soft lines
>limited muted colours
>amazing backgrounds
>unique character design
>actual emotion in faces not 'reaction image' fuel
You have the worst taste in the world.

>>93423136
Well 2~3 updates a week with backgrounds would be a trade I might make.

>>93423136
>he thinks the garbage in the OP is more appealing to look at than the first two story arcs

Get the fuck off of this board and don't come back, you horrific animal.

>>93408530
>next week
>implying he won't be off for 2 weeks from wrist injury and need to take another month of to visit family
See you in August; but don't worry I'll have one of my hack fraud friends work on an unrelated property with me during and I'll release shilling updates so that you know where to buy it!

Compare this trash to when Isabella fought a ghost bat in chapter one. He is so much worse at art now. Did this dude legitimately suffer a head injury? Is the lesbian coven of tumblr drugging his food?

>>93423167

its called being optimistic

>>93423242

ok thanks mate

>>93423297
He is just following Andrew Hussie's footsteps, anon

>>93423320
No problem, anon.

>>93423320
He's 100% right though.

>>93423330
Hussie might still have some talent left in him if he recovers from his depression. Unlike Zack he got fucked up from his dad dying, stop caring about the comic (which he did on a day by day basis for a reason if you read interviews) and handed the reigns over behind the scenes. Yes, he's shit now but that's 70% chalked up to just not giving a single solitary fuck anymore.
Zack thinks he's actually an artist and that all this terrible colour work is 'improvement'. That meme faces are talent. That a shit hackneyed plot is virtue.

>>93408530
accurate

>>93423341

in reality I tend to go for the art style honestly

>>93423386
Maybe you should develop a more nuanced perspective on what makes something good or bad than "if the eyes look like anime then I don't like it".

>>93423386
Not sure exactly what that non-sentence is supposed to mean. Not even trying to be an ass here, I don't get what you're trying to say.

>>93423432

(shrugged shoulders) alright

>>93423432

For webcomics, I tend to admire the comic style/art instead of the storyline

>>93406491
First of all the page has two separate jokes that aren't just funny faces.

Second, it's not a gag-a-day comic, so not every single page needs to have a joke.

Please go back to Garfield or something.

>>93423625
Older chapters constantly had both jokes and plot progression in a single page. This has neither.

>>93423625
>Second, it's not a gag-a-day comic, so not every single page needs to have a joke.
Maybe not but the gags were generally good enough that they helped with the flow and were pretty funny.

it's ok guys, while this shit might totally not be going anywhere at all, at least we got a completely unnecessary, week-long explanation of what a nonbinary person is and 2 interracial lesbian chicks which was also super plot relevant

why did zack decide to give paranatural a deeper plot and then proceed to show nothing relevant to that plot?

>>93424339
The Serial Treadmill.

He's been figuring things out as he goes along, but he can't stop, so he just stalls. The longer you go, the harder it is to continue without stalling. You've been on the treadmill for so long, you're exhausted and barely keeping up.

>>93410151
> Jeff's not possessed
But he was. Why didn't that work on HiJack?

I remember seeing a chart before. How long before this chapter officially totals up to 50% of the comics content?

>>93424566

99 more pages.

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>>93424566
>>93424664

>>93424664
101, learn to math.

>>93424802

this graph was made when ch5 had 203 pages, i was talking about ch5 now which has 205 pages

>>93424846
Fug

>>93424846
>>93424883
Yeah sorry. I probably should have updated it when I posted, but I just woke up and couldn't be bothered.

man, i'm rereading chapter 2 and it's truly depressing to compare action scenes from then to action scenes from now

>>93424534
Perhaps "possesed" is something very specific in paranatural and hijack does something different

Shouldn't really matter tho since it has already been established that hijack travels with the thing he controls, so he should be there

>>93424991
That is in fact the truth, possession is something very specific.

>>93424731
What would it take to get Zack to realise how much damage he's done to the comic and motivate him get it back on track?

>>93426449
I think he needs to be alone and miserable again.

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You know I've seen people blame Gigi for the shift a few different times now but I wonder why? Like she's got pacing issues too but her comic isn't exactly a paragon of representation, hackneyed or otherwise.

Zack's girlfriend has a nonbinary and several queer characters in her comic too but the "reveal" was FAR less awkward and forced than the scene with RJ. Also, her art has suffered the same bubble-and-pastel mutation as his over time, so I don't think it was her that infected him with that either.

I feel like rather than being any particular person's fault, it's more that Zack can't balance the story he wants to tell with the story the audience wants. I think he's had a lot of these characters in mind since he was in high school or earlier, but since most of his audience (and money) seems to come from tumblr/twitter he's facing more and more pressure to change things to appeal to them and bat off criticism for a majority FUCKING CISHET WHITE MALE main cast. He's someone whose natural liberal leanings are being pushed to the growing and performative extreme expected of content creators, especially in webcomics.

So you get this perfect storm of pushing poorly thought out diversity and more and more wacky faces (both to cheaply appeal to the audience rather than to service his original ideas), stylistic changes, loss of detail and scheduling issues due to his wrist problems, and struggling to pace a complex split-path plot amidst joke and exposition vehicle pages. I don't think there would be nearly as much frustration with the comic if it were just one or two or these things, but all of them together are why there's so little sympathy or patience left for him in places like this.

>>93426545
This

>>93426983
Gigi helped Zack embrace slow pacing.
The problem is that, while crazy, Gigi paced her story to be about 200 pages per chapter. Zack, on the other hand, is winging it.

You can blame Gigi for influencing his pacing, but he's to blame for the shit execution.

>>93426983
I do wonder how much of everything he could improve by taking the periodic hiatus and building a buffer.

At the very least, I wish he'd drop down to one page a week. I'd rather have a consistent, shorter schedule than the erratic mess he has now.