Here we are with page two of the "Eye of the Beholder" story that ran in Dark Horse's Strip Search anthology. Here we see the "demons" for the first time - angry little fellows who carry on the Hansel and Gretel metaphor by eating this poor old lady's house. The colors really stand out on this page, I think - it's something that this piece really had going for it. Even though this was being put together in 2003, when webcomics were much less prevalent, Ruben had a keen eye for what worked on the screen and how it was different than a printed comic book page.
I mentioned in my last entry that each submission to the Strip Search contest was voted on to see which ones would eventually get printed - that is, readers could choose which ones they liked best each month. I'm sure that nearly everyone did this, and even though it didn't matter in the end, I still have a little twinge of guilt when I think back to the dozens (and dozens) of times I voted for myself. It went against the democratic nature of the contest, but man! I saw this as a chance to break in to the industry and I couldn't resist temptation. I voted for myself every day when I got up, every day before dinner, and every day before I went to bed - multiple times.
Some time after the voting was complete, main editor Adam Gallardo (who later went on to write the title 100 Girls for Arcana Studio) explained that to calculate the winners of each round, only votes from unique I.P. addresses were tallied - meaning that although I probably spent hours of my life clicking "submit" on the Dark Horse website, only one of my votes actually counted. Part of me feels good that this story did apparently win on merit, and not just my obsession, but another part feels stupid for wasting all that time.
I'll post the next page on Tuesday or Wednesday. In the mean time, enjoy page two!
Yep, I remember voting endless times. I didn't feel good when we found out about the IP thing. I felt like they made that rule because of me. I voted a lot.
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