About the Swords art style

General Chat
#1

So, I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but recently, we have seen a change in the art style of the Swords comic. Obviously, the quality of the art has improved over the course of the series. Just compare Episode I to Episode DCCXVIII (the most recent one as of my writing this).

However, there was a more subtle shift of the art style around Episode DCLVII. The borders around objects became thinner, and everything took on a bit of a “cleaner” feel. I’m writing this because I personally like the older, thicker bordered style. It felt a little more fun, and helped the old episodes feel like the same comic even though the detailing on the new episodes became more complex.

Now, I want to clarify, I’m not calling on Matthew to change anything. I’m not going to stop reading the comic for this. As the artist, Matthew has complete and total jurisdiction over how he produces and styles his art, and I can’t, nor do I want to, change that. I’m just writing this because it was something I’ve noticed, and I’m wondering if anyone feels the same way.

Edit: As @InolienKiki pointed out, the epsiode I referenced was a guest episode. The actual shift in Matthew’s art seemingly occurred gradually around episode 500. So I guess this has been going on for a while, and I just noticed it.

#2

Hah, I didn’t even notice, but I do see the change in art style now that you mention it. The comic you linked was by a guest artist, but the ones afterward are definitely cleaner than before. And yeah, I’m right there with you.

To be honest though I’m surprised to hear someone talking about the artstyle and not the plot. In the last nineteen episodes, which have lasted us almost two months now, we have had exactly one plot episode and it continues to go unexplained. I know Matthew doesn’t like to write the story sequentially; I think that’s a big part of Swords, and I respect that. But I do sincerely wish that he would stop roping in new plots and focus on all the ones he’s yet to fulfil. I would really like an explanation for why Eternal Slumber exploded during that fight, and beyond that, there’s stuff he could do with Pandemonium, Endless Chaos, any of the other demons, the travel goblin, the fungeon clown, Castir and Durengal, the orcs’ demon sword prototype, the wars between elves, humans, and lionmen, the assassin actually bothering to fight Rapier Tapir, the infinity sword… the list goes on and on and on. His jokes are funny, but I absolutely think he could find a way to tie them into interesting story material instead of this continuous stream of one-offs.

Yeah sorry I guess this is just a complaint thread now?

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#3

Same, I love the plot episodes, but this is pretty consistent for Matthew. He usually takes a break from plot episodes after a big plot point (I think Eternal Slumber exploding counts as big), so I suspect we will see a return to plot episodes as well.

Honestly, I feel like, as the comic has reached a wider audience, the appeal of writing plot (especially with it being as complicated as it is) has probably decreased, because newer readers engage more with the one-off jokes. It’s a little unfortunate for people who read the comic for the plot, but I’m glad Matthew is seing success out of this. We’ll just have to wait a little bit longer than we’re used to to see what we want to see.

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#4

…Oh. Well then… never mind… :seedling:

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#5

Yeah. . . this was kind of poorly timed :joy:

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