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What happened???
The art is BORING and the writing SUCKS!!
The characters are super bland, ripoffs of the original story. There’s no friction between the characters, it’s as if they were forced into like a 1 dimensional version of their previous self.
The only cool idea so far was walking on rain.
Over the top monsters are nice if you have a decent buildup to lull us into thinking Jesus is kicking ass easily before a monster/robot comes up and almost ruins his shit.
I cant believe I was psyched for this shit.
Kaze – Grenade on the ground.
Thavirg – Glad you like it, Thavirg.
Simon – One of the things that has been really hard for me, writing the thing, is trying to balance out action versus adding more longterm plot to the story. I really don’t want to write Jesus forever, and at the same time, Ethan and I wrote the first book with the intention of making a complete story over several graphic novels. It really may be a failing of my own writing abilities to not match the level of intensity of the first book, but at the same time I have my own priority to lay the ground floor for an epic story that involves more than just what we saw in the first book. I mean, otherwise we would REALLY just repeat ourselves. I will tell you that these are reoccuring characters you’re seeing. Just as, personal opinion here, I feel the last 20 pages are better than the first 20 pages of Book 2– the next 20 pages tell a lot about the story and what exactly it is you are reading. Why the hell is there a werewolf Hitler? Why are things so different? Who is fucking up history for our man Jesus? These are things central to the longterm story, and as much as it may slow things down or change things abruptly at the beginning of this book– it’s a priority for me to try and get that stuff down. Wish I could do it better, and believe me, your comments about one dimensional characters really have me thinking. It’s good food for thought, and I appreciate that comment a lot more than some of the other “WTF SUX LAWLZ” troll comments that sometimes appear. Thanks for reading, and while I can’t change your mind, I would say that like Thavirg says, there are some more things coming along that make this a lot better read than a page-by-page story.
absolutely love this stuff. i have it come into my rss reader and always read it first (out of hundreds per morning) when there are new ones. keep up the great work! jesus is SO kick ass! f*** the archangels!
@simon & kazekoichi – when you read a comic one page at a time it’s admittedly hard to see what’s happening. wait until a larger collection of pages is done to read if that’d make you happy.
What’s NOT to love about this comic?!
Just look at this page. It’s amazing. Ryan Cody is an awesome artist… I feel like there’s almost a Bruce Timm type quality to the characters.
The page starts off with Jesus cradling the burnt corpse of Ernest Hemingway. Then, after being choked by an Archangel, Jesus Christ cries “Barbequed angle asshole coming right up.”
What more could someone possibly ever want? I cannot fathom a more awesome comic.
Keep up the good work, guys. I love it.
I’m pleasantly surprised you took my comment to heart. I didn’t expect a retort, often these websites have comment functions solely for praise, and criticism doesn’t get through unless you do it all yell-y.
So allow me to elaborate on my points:
I have not followed this page since the first issue ended, I knew there was a sequel in the making but I sort of forgot since recently.
The sudden change of art threw me off, I feel that earlier everything was grimier, filthier, in which Jesus walked around like a bitter SOB going to set the world straight.
Seeing the new stylized comic, a lot of the filth seems lost, cleaned up.
As for the story, its ok being flopped into a storyline like that, but starting with a battle against a giant monster is a bit hmmm, it takes the edge off, you know? Because the reader is thrown in at a part like that it makes us think that slaying queens that turn into monsters is an every day occurence.
Also, so far, I thought it was a bit talky, but I guess it was inevitable, dealing with time travel and the likes.
As for the character being one dimensional: I thought Jesus was spewing just a little too much bad movie one-liners. The idea I got from part one was that he doesnt really like what he’s doing, but it’s gotta be done. So he’d say some bitter shit and you’d believe it, now it seems like he says these things just to fill the void. Hemingway is kind of the same, it was nice being a surprise partner, but the part of faithful sidekick (also shouting one liners) was a bit awkward. Probably partially related to the fact that there were no visuals of them agreeing to go together (I’m reminded of Hemingway giving him the time traveling device as they part ways).
The cherub is another thing I noticed: whereas in part 1 the cherub was really uncomfortable with Christ’s actions, in this part he seems more like “Dont do these things! But if you do, yeah, whatever…” Not convincing for the part.
What did I love about part one? The unexpected brutality and the super over the top turns that were so stupid they were fun. It’s like you’ve set the tone for yourself and dont wanna stray from it. Surprise us!
I must say, when I think about it now, that I do like the turns you’re taking with the archangels and heavenly retribution. I appreciate how the plot thickens, building up towards explaining why all the unholy monsters are coming along. I can’t say I’m not curious to see how it goes on.
I glad you have appreciation for even not-so-constructive-criticism. Let’s see if this is more useful to you.
Cheers.
I did left a coment about hobbit cherub already on his first book 2 apearence. In book 1 he was simply annoying. In book 2 he became more complex character. Also I love the Angels.
About grenade I can say Jesus didn’t droped it because his hands was empty. Several pages in a row. So I am STILL confused. Waiting for tuesday.
Thanks for more feedback. I wish I could discuss a lot more, cuz I have a lot to say in response and there’s a ton I agree with– but unfortunately I have to sound like a louse unless I spoil stuff for everyone. I will say that the idea of the chummy sidekick worked for the first book, but I’m not a big fan of it longterm unless it’s done with more relation to the plot. Which is why you see more people getting involved, like Einstein. Other protagonists, to me, seem really important because otherwise we just follow around a curmudgeon as he talks to himself. He needs other people to bounce off of, especially to bring out his flaws and make him more three dimensional. He also needs a reason for being so grumpy to be more dimensional, which is what I’m trying to build in. There’s a LOT that had to be built in, and it’s hard to do because every single thing you build in requires a certain page-count to get across and you want to try and do that in as few pages as possible so people don’t get bored. Hence more talking. I do try to keep it down to like 5 pages at a time, like the Einstein scene, so that the plot doesn’t slow.
I dunno if this is interesting at all, but a lot of people don’t know that during 2009 and 2010 I “wrote” Book 2 about 17 different times. For about six months after Book 1 ended, and Ethan left, I really tried to overcome the big obstacle: Which is turning a one-shot story into a longterm story full of character weakness, irony, and antagonists that aren’t just outlandish but also further the plot and bring out a lot in the themes. Ethan and I actually worked on some of that together before he left, and even with both of us, it was really daunting. Really, the hardest part, the thing that made me re-approach it so many different times and ways, was how do I do that when the first book was so short-focused and quick to the punch. Jesus is grouchy- why? Doesn’t matter, people want action, move it on. Hitler is a werewolf- why? Doesn’t matter, they need to fight. Jesus needs to work to accomplish his goal- what does that mean exactly? Doesn’t matter, he needs to move move move. But it kind of does, to me, quite a bit. Otherwise we hit dead ends like we did at the end of Book 1. So that means making the story more serious and focused. AND still try to retain the current readership by keeping the outlandish badassery (which I do like, as well). I think I’ve kind of succeeded, but only by grabbing the wheel and throwing us in a new direction. Some people like it, others don’t, though I do still think some of those may like it more when they see where it’s going.
Why does Jesus fight a big monster in Spain? Because fighting the King and Queen in normal form sucks, and (my big spoiler here) the story structure I’m using for the rest of the story (all of the books going forward) are combined “Action” and “Myth” story beats. That means Jesus must continue fighting beasts almost on a mythological level while finding out new clues about himself and his journey along the way. That’s the closest structure I could really find that would make Book 1 still fall into the fold somehow because that’s exactly what happens in Book 1. JC tries to change history, finds a monster, and finds out some clues, which creates more questions. Now he must go deeper into the rabbit hole and find out why his simple task is all the more complicated. Honestly, I like it, but I’m also far far far from a great writer at this point in my career. I do envy people like Lawrence Kasdan (writer of Empire Strikes Back), who so seamlessly weave a sequel that paves new lore and structure while still respecting the first story so much. That’s something I’m just learning how to do– and that guy in the 80s did it so admirably with Empire. It’s one of my favorite scripts, I want to study more to figure out how he did that so well.
Anyways, I could write pages more about the process of what I do here, but I think it’s probably pretty boring and I do like letting the work speak for itself– better or worse. But, this is nice– I appreciate your feedback and the forum we have here to answer questions. I’ll answer any that are thrown at me, if people are curious. I will say, though, unfortunately I am a young writer. And I’ve never really spent as much time crafting stories as I’ve wanted to– though it’s something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. Jesus isn’t the best story I have in me, hopefully. But it is the best I can do right now; it is my training ground, and making it a webcomic really helps because I get feedback like the day after it hits the site. Not 3 months after it goes to print– 120 pages at a time. I am making this as 120 page chapters, btw, though my goal when doing layouts and scripting is trying to make every page count as a step in the story or action.
Anyways, thanks. Hopefully that’s not all just boring text above this and you find it interesting. If not, the next page has a building exploding and more rockets. So that’s good.
OH, for the record, the one-liners were something established in the first book, kind of an homage to what Ethan and I like which are older movies like the Rambo flicks. It’s cheesy, I know, but whatcha gonna do?
I like the Bruce Timm refrence, I view this UNFINISHED book as a Godfather 2. There will always be people that like the rush of the first one and can’t take the slower back story of the sequel. Personally I love where the character development is going. Can we please wait until more of the book has come out before we critize it?
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions and doubts, and sharing your point of view. Being on the consumer side of the comic, I didn’t take the artist’s troubles into account. I have a bigger appreciation of this comic now than before, and I’ll sit tight to see how the story develops. It was interesting to read what comes with this project that you have to take into account. Thanks for your patience!
I think it is pretty obvious that Jesus dropped a grenade in the fourth panel. When Googling for “Japanese hand grenade” you’ll see that they even did their research.
I can understand that people are disappointed with the change in graphical style and I personally also prefer the style from book 1, but remember that this is all available for free. Bitching about the comic is like receiving a piece of candy completely free of charge, and then complaining that it’s not your favourite taste.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:13 am
What happened???
The art is BORING and the writing SUCKS!!
The characters are super bland, ripoffs of the original story. There’s no friction between the characters, it’s as if they were forced into like a 1 dimensional version of their previous self.
The only cool idea so far was walking on rain.
Over the top monsters are nice if you have a decent buildup to lull us into thinking Jesus is kicking ass easily before a monster/robot comes up and almost ruins his shit.
I cant believe I was psyched for this shit.
Blegh
December 9th, 2010 at 8:54 am
What did just happened? I’m confused.
December 9th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Kaze – Grenade on the ground.
Thavirg – Glad you like it, Thavirg.
Simon – One of the things that has been really hard for me, writing the thing, is trying to balance out action versus adding more longterm plot to the story. I really don’t want to write Jesus forever, and at the same time, Ethan and I wrote the first book with the intention of making a complete story over several graphic novels. It really may be a failing of my own writing abilities to not match the level of intensity of the first book, but at the same time I have my own priority to lay the ground floor for an epic story that involves more than just what we saw in the first book. I mean, otherwise we would REALLY just repeat ourselves. I will tell you that these are reoccuring characters you’re seeing. Just as, personal opinion here, I feel the last 20 pages are better than the first 20 pages of Book 2– the next 20 pages tell a lot about the story and what exactly it is you are reading. Why the hell is there a werewolf Hitler? Why are things so different? Who is fucking up history for our man Jesus? These are things central to the longterm story, and as much as it may slow things down or change things abruptly at the beginning of this book– it’s a priority for me to try and get that stuff down. Wish I could do it better, and believe me, your comments about one dimensional characters really have me thinking. It’s good food for thought, and I appreciate that comment a lot more than some of the other “WTF SUX LAWLZ” troll comments that sometimes appear. Thanks for reading, and while I can’t change your mind, I would say that like Thavirg says, there are some more things coming along that make this a lot better read than a page-by-page story.
December 9th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
absolutely love this stuff. i have it come into my rss reader and always read it first (out of hundreds per morning) when there are new ones. keep up the great work! jesus is SO kick ass! f*** the archangels!
@simon & kazekoichi – when you read a comic one page at a time it’s admittedly hard to see what’s happening. wait until a larger collection of pages is done to read if that’d make you happy.
December 9th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
What’s NOT to love about this comic?!
Just look at this page. It’s amazing. Ryan Cody is an awesome artist… I feel like there’s almost a Bruce Timm type quality to the characters.
The page starts off with Jesus cradling the burnt corpse of Ernest Hemingway. Then, after being choked by an Archangel, Jesus Christ cries “Barbequed angle asshole coming right up.”
What more could someone possibly ever want? I cannot fathom a more awesome comic.
Keep up the good work, guys. I love it.
December 9th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
I’m pleasantly surprised you took my comment to heart. I didn’t expect a retort, often these websites have comment functions solely for praise, and criticism doesn’t get through unless you do it all yell-y.
So allow me to elaborate on my points:
I have not followed this page since the first issue ended, I knew there was a sequel in the making but I sort of forgot since recently.
The sudden change of art threw me off, I feel that earlier everything was grimier, filthier, in which Jesus walked around like a bitter SOB going to set the world straight.
Seeing the new stylized comic, a lot of the filth seems lost, cleaned up.
As for the story, its ok being flopped into a storyline like that, but starting with a battle against a giant monster is a bit hmmm, it takes the edge off, you know? Because the reader is thrown in at a part like that it makes us think that slaying queens that turn into monsters is an every day occurence.
Also, so far, I thought it was a bit talky, but I guess it was inevitable, dealing with time travel and the likes.
As for the character being one dimensional: I thought Jesus was spewing just a little too much bad movie one-liners. The idea I got from part one was that he doesnt really like what he’s doing, but it’s gotta be done. So he’d say some bitter shit and you’d believe it, now it seems like he says these things just to fill the void. Hemingway is kind of the same, it was nice being a surprise partner, but the part of faithful sidekick (also shouting one liners) was a bit awkward. Probably partially related to the fact that there were no visuals of them agreeing to go together (I’m reminded of Hemingway giving him the time traveling device as they part ways).
The cherub is another thing I noticed: whereas in part 1 the cherub was really uncomfortable with Christ’s actions, in this part he seems more like “Dont do these things! But if you do, yeah, whatever…” Not convincing for the part.
What did I love about part one? The unexpected brutality and the super over the top turns that were so stupid they were fun. It’s like you’ve set the tone for yourself and dont wanna stray from it. Surprise us!
I must say, when I think about it now, that I do like the turns you’re taking with the archangels and heavenly retribution. I appreciate how the plot thickens, building up towards explaining why all the unholy monsters are coming along. I can’t say I’m not curious to see how it goes on.
I glad you have appreciation for even not-so-constructive-criticism. Let’s see if this is more useful to you.
Cheers.
December 9th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I did left a coment about hobbit cherub already on his first book 2 apearence. In book 1 he was simply annoying. In book 2 he became more complex character. Also I love the Angels.
About grenade I can say Jesus didn’t droped it because his hands was empty. Several pages in a row. So I am STILL confused. Waiting for tuesday.
December 10th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Thanks for more feedback. I wish I could discuss a lot more, cuz I have a lot to say in response and there’s a ton I agree with– but unfortunately I have to sound like a louse unless I spoil stuff for everyone. I will say that the idea of the chummy sidekick worked for the first book, but I’m not a big fan of it longterm unless it’s done with more relation to the plot. Which is why you see more people getting involved, like Einstein. Other protagonists, to me, seem really important because otherwise we just follow around a curmudgeon as he talks to himself. He needs other people to bounce off of, especially to bring out his flaws and make him more three dimensional. He also needs a reason for being so grumpy to be more dimensional, which is what I’m trying to build in. There’s a LOT that had to be built in, and it’s hard to do because every single thing you build in requires a certain page-count to get across and you want to try and do that in as few pages as possible so people don’t get bored. Hence more talking. I do try to keep it down to like 5 pages at a time, like the Einstein scene, so that the plot doesn’t slow.
I dunno if this is interesting at all, but a lot of people don’t know that during 2009 and 2010 I “wrote” Book 2 about 17 different times. For about six months after Book 1 ended, and Ethan left, I really tried to overcome the big obstacle: Which is turning a one-shot story into a longterm story full of character weakness, irony, and antagonists that aren’t just outlandish but also further the plot and bring out a lot in the themes. Ethan and I actually worked on some of that together before he left, and even with both of us, it was really daunting. Really, the hardest part, the thing that made me re-approach it so many different times and ways, was how do I do that when the first book was so short-focused and quick to the punch. Jesus is grouchy- why? Doesn’t matter, people want action, move it on. Hitler is a werewolf- why? Doesn’t matter, they need to fight. Jesus needs to work to accomplish his goal- what does that mean exactly? Doesn’t matter, he needs to move move move. But it kind of does, to me, quite a bit. Otherwise we hit dead ends like we did at the end of Book 1. So that means making the story more serious and focused. AND still try to retain the current readership by keeping the outlandish badassery (which I do like, as well). I think I’ve kind of succeeded, but only by grabbing the wheel and throwing us in a new direction. Some people like it, others don’t, though I do still think some of those may like it more when they see where it’s going.
Why does Jesus fight a big monster in Spain? Because fighting the King and Queen in normal form sucks, and (my big spoiler here) the story structure I’m using for the rest of the story (all of the books going forward) are combined “Action” and “Myth” story beats. That means Jesus must continue fighting beasts almost on a mythological level while finding out new clues about himself and his journey along the way. That’s the closest structure I could really find that would make Book 1 still fall into the fold somehow because that’s exactly what happens in Book 1. JC tries to change history, finds a monster, and finds out some clues, which creates more questions. Now he must go deeper into the rabbit hole and find out why his simple task is all the more complicated. Honestly, I like it, but I’m also far far far from a great writer at this point in my career. I do envy people like Lawrence Kasdan (writer of Empire Strikes Back), who so seamlessly weave a sequel that paves new lore and structure while still respecting the first story so much. That’s something I’m just learning how to do– and that guy in the 80s did it so admirably with Empire. It’s one of my favorite scripts, I want to study more to figure out how he did that so well.
Anyways, I could write pages more about the process of what I do here, but I think it’s probably pretty boring and I do like letting the work speak for itself– better or worse. But, this is nice– I appreciate your feedback and the forum we have here to answer questions. I’ll answer any that are thrown at me, if people are curious. I will say, though, unfortunately I am a young writer. And I’ve never really spent as much time crafting stories as I’ve wanted to– though it’s something I’ve been doing since I was a kid. Jesus isn’t the best story I have in me, hopefully. But it is the best I can do right now; it is my training ground, and making it a webcomic really helps because I get feedback like the day after it hits the site. Not 3 months after it goes to print– 120 pages at a time. I am making this as 120 page chapters, btw, though my goal when doing layouts and scripting is trying to make every page count as a step in the story or action.
Anyways, thanks. Hopefully that’s not all just boring text above this and you find it interesting. If not, the next page has a building exploding and more rockets. So that’s good.
OH, for the record, the one-liners were something established in the first book, kind of an homage to what Ethan and I like which are older movies like the Rambo flicks. It’s cheesy, I know, but whatcha gonna do?
December 10th, 2010 at 2:21 am
I like the Bruce Timm refrence, I view this UNFINISHED book as a Godfather 2. There will always be people that like the rush of the first one and can’t take the slower back story of the sequel. Personally I love where the character development is going. Can we please wait until more of the book has come out before we critize it?
December 10th, 2010 at 4:30 am
Kaze Jesus probably pulled some judo-Jesus moves and grabed the grenade from inside his robe when the panel was in close up
December 10th, 2010 at 4:31 am
You don’t want to know where he keeps his grenades, trust me.
December 10th, 2010 at 7:12 am
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions and doubts, and sharing your point of view. Being on the consumer side of the comic, I didn’t take the artist’s troubles into account. I have a bigger appreciation of this comic now than before, and I’ll sit tight to see how the story develops. It was interesting to read what comes with this project that you have to take into account. Thanks for your patience!
December 10th, 2010 at 9:12 am
I think it is pretty obvious that Jesus dropped a grenade in the fourth panel. When Googling for “Japanese hand grenade” you’ll see that they even did their research.
I can understand that people are disappointed with the change in graphical style and I personally also prefer the style from book 1, but remember that this is all available for free. Bitching about the comic is like receiving a piece of candy completely free of charge, and then complaining that it’s not your favourite taste.
December 10th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I like the direction the story is taking, but I really liked the art style of the first book better. Jesus looks asian in this one.
February 16th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
The art style and writing are quite boring…