>pretty sure he's playing hitball, actually
HITBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL
Thank you guys so much for your patience, here's the double update! I hope you're all excited for what happens next. Also, special thanks to Taylor for helping me out so much with these pages by flatting both of them, and to you guys for cheering me on! I dropped the ball a bit on this one, pun intended always and forever, but I'm happy with how the page came out despite the delays. I hope you remember what happens when someone catches the Golden Switch :^)
See you next time, on time!
is it finally fucking over?
I wonder how the broken arm is going to come into play later. Kinda hard to point/swing a magnet bat with a busted arm. Better start getting more powers.
>>77443795
I just noticed Max's magnet sweatbands
>>77443884
Yes.Hit/Hype/Hurt/Help/MurderBall is finally done. Now we wait for TentaJeff to possess someone else.
>>77443795
how this should have ended
>>77443914
Did fatty catch the ball?
>>77443884
Well Jeff's not out
>>77443884
No...
Now comes the splash page of everyone and their dog their dog throwing balls at him.
And he just broke Max's arm which will surely get him sent to the principles office. GOOD JOB MAX. WHAT A HERO.
>>77443946
no pls dont say that. he better be. i know the coach said "only thing" but i cant handle any more of this
Fucking yippee, now we can wait while the rest of the chapter takes another fucking year to end!
Paris is in smolders, but at least Hitball is fucking over.
>>77443946
>>77443960
HiJeff is now on team BurnHound, leaving the Shockodiles without any members.
Game over.
>>77443884
Catching the switch doesn't get the thrower out, it just brings back your whole team. Everyone's gonna get off the bleachers then someone's going to fuck up and throw the switch and Jeff will catch it and HITBALL will begin anew.
YOU CAN'T STOP HITBALL
>>77443966
When did this fucking game start anyway? I lost track a long time ago.
RIP Max's arms.
>>77443969
People change teams if you hit them.
If you catch the ball, your entire team comes back.
>>77443982
>When did this fucking game start anyway
It's seriously been 7 months, dude.
The chapter is even older, but the first hitball page is from April 7th.
And this isn't even the halfway point. We are nowhere close to catching up with the in media res opening scene.
>>77444065
>>77443982
Update: THE FIRST FUCKING PAGE IS FROM GODDAMNED DECEMBER
>>77444065
nah id say we could be past the halfway point. theres no telling how much is going to happen between now and the teachers lounge.
>>77443958
Yeah, what was the point of all this? I thought they were trying to keep anyone from getting hurt but if Max got fucked up anyway it doesn't matter. I guess better him than some normal kid, but this still doesn't feel like it justifies all the time spent on hitball. Switching over to some positivity, maybe some character development will come out of this. Max went from jumping around like a Kansas City faggot to facing the problem head on so maybe something worthwhile has happened. I just know that he and Johnny are going to get ALL the ass.
zack couldve at least cut hitball up with some switches to some isaac B plot at some point over the last fucking 7 months. what was isaac doing this whole time again??
>>77444105
>nah id say we could be past the halfway point
I think you're wrong.
We still need to learn the lore about Hijack; see his plan come into being; do whatever the bar thing is; confirm Dimitry and Johnny for spectrals, and foil Hijack.
We're looking at another eight months, easy.
>>77444149
being angsty because he thinks no one wants to be his friend
I lost track of this story so long ago why does the ghost possessing this kid want to win this anyways
>>77444149
Probably something even more anime than hitball, if that's possible.
>>77444149
Currently having his creativity repressed in art class
>>77444149
Seriously , not enough webcomic writers realize the importance of a solid B plot.
>>77444188
He doesn't want to win, he just wants to fuck someone up, but in the context of "playing too rough" not "attempted murder", so as to prevent Jeffrey from getting into too much trouble. No it doesn't make sense.
>>77444149
>zack couldve at least cut hitball up with some switches to some isaac B plot at some point over the last fucking 7 months
No, he should have cut to Ed.
You know, because Ed is supposed to be the fucking focus of this chapter like Isabelle was on the train.
This is the chapter where he stops being the LOLSORANDUMBXDDDD character, and we haven't seen in in literal months.
He could have snuck away to go get Spender and inform him about the shit going down.
Maybe we could have gotten some info on Hijack from him in those scenes, alongside some development for Ed, but instead we got nothing.
>>77444149
Zack posted this a while back when he missed an updatewhich missed update? dohohohohoho
>>77444230
He wants to fuck shit up to get Jeff in trouble, but since he hates bullies and Jeff was bullied, he intends to get him sent to the office instead of jail..
>>77443795
oh shit did max break his arms with that defense?
>>77443795
Some behind the scenes stuff.
>>77444363
zack really fuckin did the entirety of both of these pages today
>>77444363
Besides morbi, has anyone with "weight" on the "industry" (hue) told him that it's been way too fucking long with this hitball business?
Also, when did he disabled the site's comments? I just noticed.
>>77444503
around month 2 of Hitball, take that how you will.
Seriously, though, why is there so much shit shoved in this chapter?
>Hitball
>Ed's insecurity
>Jeff's bullying
>Johnny being a medium
>Dimitry being a Spectral
>Hitball
>Bus jumper mystery
Am I missing anything?
>>77444543
Isaac's lack of artistic ability
>>77444363
Does his gf get her shit done on time? I'd feel like a dick if a promise I made took my gf away from her business to help me just barely finish mine on time.
>>77444561
IT'S CALLED A GIJINKA!
>>77444503
Someone messed with the Disqus commenting system's coding, and everyone grabbed at the chance so they could be LE F1RST.
>>77444543
I get that /co/ isn't a hivemind bla bla bla but
>Nothing happens
> "Where happens?
>Happenings
> "Why so many happen?"
I believe webcomic readers are one of the most ungrateful consumers. Then again, the loudest of any group etc.
>>77444503
Talking about morbi, what was his deal with Aaron Diaz? He's been gloating about it on his tumblr, but since he likes to be a vague fuck, he ain't telling what happened.
>>77444597
The heated conversations weren't much of a deal to the Disqus community, they found those debates to be even interesting. At least, that's how I recall what some of the commenters said.
>>77444235
Fucking shit I miss Muse. I'd rather have Ed save the day instead of Max taking all the spotlight again
>>77444597
Wait, what happened with disqus?
>>77444543
At some point Zack realized that the pacing at the time would lead to the typical longform story webcomic scenario, ie not even halfway through the story a decade in. His strategy to combat this is to have the audience down plot shots so that he can get through the introductory stuff quickly. Problem is this lack of focus probably cost more time than it saved.
>>77444651
Nintendo revealed a female Link design yesterday.
Diaz was butthurt on twitter saying "it's not like I already designed a female link or anything".
Morbi replied "that's right you haven't".
Diaz blocked Morbi and Morbi screencapped it.
Anything that happened since then I've not heard about.
>>77444629
The thing about Hitball is that there is simultaneously so many dangling plot threads going on, and being totally ignored in favore of fucking nothing.
That's the problem.
It's crazy how long this chapter is already, and how little progress we've made into its story.
At least by this time last year, we were already on the fucking train.
>>77444592
Especially when it seems that Monsterkind has more popularity on Tumblr thn this comic despite the latter's seemingly alienating 2qtsy tone...Speaking of which, what does /co/ think of Taylor's work as a whole, may I kindly ask?
>>77444718
>it's not like I already designed a female link or anything
Wait, wait, Diaz designed a ZELDA who just happened to be Female Link.
We all called him on that shit, and now he's claiming it was actually Link all along?
What the fuck?
>>77444592
Doing flats is actually really easy, just time consuming. Her comic updates Tu+Fri as well, but her style and pacing is similar to CQ, very colorful but incredibly simple style and minimal panels. Zack is into heavy action stuff right now, which takes much more time to do.
>>77444688
Disqus was used to comment on Paranatural pages, but it has this flaw where you can go to "future pages" that aren't up yet and comment; so page uploads have spam comments on it already.
Essentially, plenty of commenters shit up the comments and ruined it for the majority, so Zach removed comments.
>>77444749
More specifically he said "It's not like I've designed Zelda characters or anything.", linking his redesigns. Morbi responded "You're right, you haven't."
>>77444790
He also tried that shit when the nu52 Flash was revealed and it had a slightly similar visor to his shitty redesigned JL.
>>77444725
I don't mean to alarm you about webcomic paces...
Either way, I do admit Zach takes way too many Hiatuses. Sure he technically can't help that, but the sucker barely tried buffers. I don't mind the story pacing itself though. Webcomics take a while, so I'm used to it.
>>77444790
Yeah, this. Sorry, I didn't save the screencaps and of course Diaz deleted fucking everything.
>>77444824
>I don't mean to alarm you about webcomic paces
No, Zach is worse than the average webcomicker in his stratum.
His is closer to Misfile tier than he is Gunnerkrigg tier.
It takes a fucking year to complete a chapter, and he still misses updates like crazy.
>>77444245
>Eraser is called GumGum
>>77444629
We're just pretty nostalgic for his earlier chapters. He's hanging out with all these other webcomic artists who expect to make their series long-term profits and dragging the fuck out of their stories.
>>77444688
Someone revealed how they could make the written comments look like they were written days with some source coding, even weeks away from when an update was supposed to be released. Everyone was already nuts wanting to make DA BEST PUN THREAD EVA to be site-famous.
Zack gave a stern warning, but it was powerless.
>>77444837
Oh, you mean THESE SCREENCAPS?
>>77444869
>>77444900
Webcomics go slow. That's life. This webcomic isn't all that he has, and he can't devote himself 100%. That's an okay thing. The pacing itself is fine, the skipped ones are inexcusable at this rate. But the thing is, he doesn't have to excuse himself. I know "bluh bluh free=/= zero criticism" but it IS free entertainment, and he's doing good enough. Just kinda shitty that he isn't doing his best, or at least better.
I'm not all for the guy, but I'm saying that even if coal isn't gold, it isn't a rock either.
>>77444950
To be fair, that was just Kimiko: The Zelda edition.
Remember his X-Men where everyone was a horrible monster, except Kitty, who's just Kim?
>>77444950
My hero.
The only post he left intact was someone ELSE tweeting about his dumb rule 63 zelda shit.
>>77444950
I get that that's a Got'em, but I don't understand the Got'em.
What does he mean by "that's right etc."?
>>77444960
>The pacing itself is fine
No, it isn't, especially not hitball.
Even disregarding his slow ass updating, Hitball itself is a 60 page deviation from the plot that could have been handled in 10, at most.
Even when the whole chapter is up, it will be too long.
I mean there's playing devil's advocate, and there's being a retard.
>>77444950
The fact that Morbi can now no longer get sick dunks on Diaz's twitter is a crying shame.
>>77444950
He should get a Goron Tunic to prevent burns like that.
>>77444972
And JLA where everyone was a horrible monster, except Green Lantern, who's just Kim?
>>77444993
Diaz comments on Linkle's design and ends with a sarcastic tune of speaking from experience.
Morbi cuts through the sarcasm and corroborates the truth: he actually has not designed Zelda characters, just made fanart. Yusuke Murata has legitimately designed Robot Masters, and that was as a child. Diaz just drew fanart.
Alright, /co/. What have we done this time?
>>77444993
Diaz was implying he did character design for an actual Zelda game, when all he really did was sperg out with fanart making Zelda a female Link and Link a useless aristocrat.
>>77445023
>who's just Kim
She wasn't actually Kim, she was Johnny Wander's artist.
I actually think Huntress was Kim in that series.
this hitball arc was really strange to someone who doesnt follow the comic
they're samey "sports" pages with somewhat mysterious rules in a comic it has little to do with
what significance does it have to the story? is the apparent villain's grand plot to play a game? what direction is it going in? you can't really take a game seriously, even if it ends in a broken arm.
>>77445056
Really? I don't remember him drawing a Huntress.
Probably for the best.
>>77445049
Zack's just being responsive towards his audience. He doesn't have acknowledge all the angry messages.
He's also saying he's happy that their frustration means they are just as invested in his webcomic as he himself is.
>>77445061
>somewhat mysterious rules
Literally everything was spelled out before the game began.
>>77445010
>This plot could've been shorter
>This meal could've been tastier
>This movie could've been better
I'm not praising the guy, but the term "good enough" still exists.
There's constructive criticism, and there's being a retard.
>>77445049
I dunno? That tweet is from two days ago, surely we're not the only ones who hassle him when he doesn't deliver.
>>77445056
>>77444972
>>77445023
perhaps his worldview is that everyone is some kind of deformed being besides himself and his waifu.
>>77445049
At this point, I am totally convinced that nobody gives a shit about the rest of the chapter.
Wanting this fucking kidney stone of a segment to pass is not the same as being anxious for the next one to come down the pipe.
I mean, you've teased your readers with Forge, Ed, Violet, and Dimitry, and you've given them 7 months of Hitball.
7
Literal
Months
>>77445081
I fucking nailed it.
Look at how Kim she is.
I didn't even remember her face.
>>77445049
>I am as anxious for the story progress as you are
That has to be the biggest fucking lie this man has ever told.
>>77444950
>>77444790
>>77444718
Oh nice! No wonder the smugness of that cloud fucker was almost palpable when he commented on the matter, motherfucker made the perfect rebuttal!
>>77445125
>i don't think you really tried at all.jpg
This man's ego, fuck.
>the entire team is back
>hitball confirmed for another three months
>>77444671
Zack deleted the more 'problematic' threads of unironic gender discussion.
or at least one of them that i noticed disappeared.
>>77445096
>this hitball arc was really strange to someone who doesnt follow the comic
you can't expect everybody to read the archives before reading about the comic.
looking at pages on /co/, it's like the story ground to a halt for a weird ball game.
>>77445096
Yeah, 7 fucking months and +30 pages ago, fuck I even forgot there was a cliffhanger at the beginning of the chapter...
>>77444747
I can't even start to read it, the art style is just so stereotypical.
>>77445120
aw fuck, I went back to read his justice league redesign descriptions and he made Green Lantern's power nanomachines
and his complaint when redesigning cyborg was that troubled teen in accident was played out
christ
>>77445217
>troubled teen in accident was played out
So is "four horsemen of the apocalypse" but apparently, the four classical elements were fair game! Same with the seven deadly sins.
He's a fucking moron.
>>77444906
Zack should have posted in the future-page disqus comments where his target audience, ie, Morons, would actually see it then.
I also find it repulsive that he retroactively removes the comments sections from all previous pages.
He could set those comments to even be CLOSED to future comments, so they're read-only. But he didn't do that either.
It's as disgusting as moving to fucking Disqus in the first place.
>>77444960
The free entertainment thing is 100% correct, but it's a two-way street. If you can't deliver when you promise to deliver, people are going to lose interest. I don't think Zack is in danger of totally losing his fans because he does eventually deliver, but I bet he's conditioned some people to not even check the site on Tuesdays anymore.
As far as pacing goes, it's not all that good. I'm saying this ignoring the number of pages and the length of irl time it's taken to tell this particular story. And pacing within the story isn't explained away by his other real life priorities. Why does it matter? It doesn't really. I just know what Zack is capable of and this isn't it.
>>77443795
Are we off Namek?
>>77445173
Here you go, from the Paranatural subreddit.
>>77445307
The one about calling someone a witch was one that did NOT get deleted, so entirely different.
But that person was so fucking obnoxious holy shit.
>>77445254
Technically, they're still available to be read if you had a Disqus account...it's just not as active anymore.
>>77445100
Give me a minute.
>>77443795
I think I'm getting used to Zack's new art. It looks good. I like this page.
Definitely loved the "Look up!" panel with a smile on Max's face, and then Johnny's reaction to it.
>>77443795
>snap
so the throw broke Max's arm?
>>77443795
Wasn't Hijacks goal to injure a student so he would get sent to the teachers lounge or some bullshit? All this hitball garbage, and all he had to do was punch someone.
>>77445585
Shit, maybe? I've completely forgotten fucking everything important about this stupid arc
>>77445100
1) What form will the chapter take?
We basically have three options after ghost train: one, we go full throttle into the plot of the story of paranatural and learn about what the hell is going on in Mayview; two, we have a nice, brisk, breather chapter where we blow off some collective steam after the heavier themes present on the Ghost train, or, three, we have some mixture of both.
Now, if he were me, I’d probably go with the full breather episode, which would basically be all Hitball in nature. I’d make it very similar to the second chapter of PNat, with there being one, relatively low level threat that the Activity Club need to take out discretely, which would be the gimmick of the chapter. Interspersed with this would be some tidbits of the story which we need to seed in order to keep interest, most likely hints to Johnny’s awakening and maybe Dimitri’s spectral past being brought into the forefront for the first time in the story. I’d probably have him congratulate Max on his progress, like an old, retired veteran watching a rookie from the sidelines would or something.
(Continued in Part Two)
![S06E10 Basic RV Repair and Palmistry.mp4_snapshot_06.51_[2015.08.30_02.32.52].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/3nGnmmJ.jpg "S06E10 Basic RV Repair and Palmistry.mp4_snapshot_06.51_[2015.08.30_02.32.52].jpg")
>Max's arms are apart in the 17th panel
>then back together in the 19th panel
BRAVO ZACK, BRAVO
>>77445585
no, his goal was to get someone to injure him because he felt bad for Jeff and didn't want to get him in trouble
>>77445585
Hey, he only wants to punch someone who has it coming. He's not evil.
>>77445585
Well, if he really did just break one or both of Max's arms, mission accomplished.
>>77445671
(Part Two)
I would actually probably avoid using Hijack, saving him for a second chapter which would probably play out like a Kiddie version of the Thing, having more to do with the overarching plot. The villain would instead be some kind of spirit using the confusion of Gym class to escape being captured easily, when the activity club could use their tools freely.
This would allow us to recuperate and better handle the longer, more plotting chapter that would follow.
But this isn’t about Anon’s pnat, it’s about Zack, and he wanted to do the third type, wherein levity and progression intermingle.
2) What should be in the Chapter?
Knowing that we want to have a chapter which has both elements, we need to decide what plot and character facets should be in the chapter in addition to the breather element, which probably would be Hitball. Here is a partial list of possibilities:
(Continued in Part three)
>>77443795
>Snap
do you guys think he broke his arm or something?
Thread 3, still waiting for drawfag to deliver...
I wonder if Max thought he had some durability super power after surviving being pitched off a train.
>>77445925
No, he just stopped running away.
He has a complex.
>>77445681
He was folding them down, you silly billy.
>>77445986
Golly remember when backgrounds existed
>>77446003
Yep. I remember when gradients existed, too.
>>77445805
(Part Three)
a) Max’s reluctance to hide shit from Isaac
b) Isabelle’s failure to cope with a new tool
c) Ed’s desire to be more than the random kid
d) Isaac’s reluctance to being shunned
e) Johnny’s awakening and induction into the activity Club
f) Johnny and Isaac being Medium buddies who band against the Activity Club (probably not good for this chapter, actually, but still going to say it)
g) Dimitri’s past as a spectral, either hinted or revealed.
h) Hijack’s plot involving the school
i) Is Max a tool user or a tool using Medium?!
j) Jeff’s bullying and Johnny learning that bullying is hella whack, Victoria
k) Spender’s role in the mayview conflict (more hints as to his questionable allegiance)
3) How do we put all this shit together without it being, “Good Enough”?
There’s lots of absolute garbage here, but it can be done, even with Hitball, with proper pacing, of course.
Firstly, you can’t go long stretches in between plot elements like Zack has done in this chapter. Take Ed, this chapter has been playing up his doggedness and his desire to do something more than be the team jester.
Having him take the unnecessary shot for Isabelle is good, very good; that removes him from Hitball and allows him to begin the B plot, which involves Spender and the Activity Club, as an institution, as Max and Isabelle are in Hitball and Isaac is being used to preach about drawing manga or whatever.
(continued in part 4)
>>77444543
The greatest scandal ever in Paranatural history.
>>77446127
>friends never owe favors
Max "Brutus" Puckett
>>77446176
only politicians treat favors as loans that people are obliged to repay
>>77446127
That was so long ago, I forgot it even happened this chapter.
>>77446176
It's a favor not a fucking mortgage you don't demand people to pay you back just because you did something nice for them.
>>77446176
Like, any good friend would gladly repay a favor, but Isaac was being a total cunt about it. You don't get to demand when where and how that favor gets repaid, ESPECIALLY when it goes against what your friend wants.
>>77446176
So if Johnny becomes a Spectral, he'll be treated like Isaac, right? Being Mediums and all.
>>77446360
Maybe, but it doesn't matter since JoJho already has friends.
>>77446127
I have a feeling they'll eventually reconcile somehow...or else, Johnny will reunite them both in their graves.
>>77446614
Zack has already told people not to be worried that
>"nothing will ever be the same again"
Because this is the equivalent of friends arguing at the beginning of a sitcom episode and making up by the end.
Except in sitcoms, the end is in, like, 20-45 minutes, not an entire fucking year or whenever this is gonna get done.
>>77444824
Instead of trying to do multiple pages Zack just needs to give us one each time and still do the extra work so he has a buffer. If he had just uploaded one page instead of that 3 page one we'd have a buffer and even though it would be a little slower it would pay off when he can't work on a page and would usually upload nothing.
>>77446677
Exactly, this is like New Student Starfish.
>>77444747
I don't know what else she does but I read Monsterkind up to the end like a year ago and it was interesting enough to keep my interest that far but I don't read it now. It's okay I guess.
>>77443795
>:^)
And so z/hack becomes a new form of cancer. Constantly growing and spreading isn't he?
>>77444950
Diaz just exists to get shit on by people better than him.
>>77446967
> becomes a new form of cancer
Are you new?
He's done caret smileys for ages. Possibly to portray his large Roman nose.
I actually dropped this shit because of the dodgeball arc
Like what the fuck was the author thinking
>>77447062
>new
Hardly. I haven't been here as regularly lately but I'd be willing to bet you got here after me f/a/m.
I suppose I just never noticed.
Not that it matters (other than some obvious, but perhaps small, correlation with taste) but I took interest in this back when threads struggled to push 100 posts.
>>77443943
No way, he was too dazzled by that sick move.
bump and file-name
>>77447896
If Max had noodle arms like Isaac's they wouldn't be broken right now.
Not that they're actually gonna be broken, he seems to be running just fine and I thought that was hard to do with busted arms.
>>77443795
>Not even a safe gamble is safe against an opponent like that!! He's not playing the odds like you are!
>He's playing CHESS, Jeff!!
Has anyone else really contemplated what Startled Snarky's plan entailed?
This plan wouldn't work unless he knew that Jeff would figure out the exact strategy that he then used: Get into Johnny's blind spot, and either Max will dodge like he did before, or else he'll be the injured party.
This plan wouldn't work if Jeff hurled the ball from literally any other position in the court, but Max knew he would do this, and relied on it.
He's playing the game one level higher than Hijack. He's gone full protagonist.
>>77448129
You left the best one.
This plan didn't work because now Max someone got hurt, just like Hijack wanted.
>>77444747
It's complete crap.
Artisticly and philophically.
>>77447959
Why was Dick Slapper in the surveillance room though?
I've never watched DBZ, only some clips of it.
I will however know what Namek means because of this comic. Forever.
>>77447959
I fucking forgot this entire thing was a flashback.
>>77448481
>philophically
Assuming you meant philosophically, what's crap about it philosophically?
Is Zack deliberately stringing this out as long as possible or does he really think this is gripping stuff?
>>77449954
He's been hanging around patreon leeches for too long. Now he believes that as long as he can drag this soap opera for literal years he's set for life.
>>77448200
Except the Burnhounds now are all back in the game and will bombard Hijack with balls.
Neither Hijack nor Max's plan worked. Max got badly injured and Hijack will now have a) smeared Jeff's name, and b) be on the receiving end of a serious ass-kicking and probably be forced to swap hosts and rethink his plan.
Hijack, however, has a chance to turn it around: all he has to do is leave Jeff and possess DuNacht. However, I wonder if he'll be smart enough to consider that a possibility; and even then - DuNacht was foreshadowed as a possible spectral.
>>77449500
FlashFORWARD, dingus
>>77449500
Oh hold on, you meant that the hitball game was a flashback.
And no. Flashforward cold opens don't make everything that happens before-plotwise-after-releasewise a flashback.
>>77446047
Where's part 4? Or is it a joke?
>>77450156
>The Principal of Vice changed names to be more puntastic
>>77450768
Doesn't naming people based on sentences (like Jeffavorite [not Jeffrey] Flavors = Your favorite flavors; Pleezdo = Please do) feel a bit...I dunno, redneck-y? TLC-level bizzare?
>>77444051
No, hitting them puts them out of the game.
Catching the ball either makes the thrower switch teams or brings back defeated members of your own team, depending on what rules they're playing by.
>>77450768
VP DuMont lied about being called DuMont
>>77450591
On hiatus
Why did they never use their powers though this is boring
>>77451213
They tried. The spirit energy doesn't work on Jeff's possessed body, and the tools are physical things that people can see.
Adding to that, Max can't use his tool without it looking like he's just beating the shit out of Jeff with a baseball bat, and Isabelle doesn't know what her new tool does yet.
There's lots of dumb shit in Hitball, but that's fairly justified.
>>77451213
Cause their powers don't work against Hijeff since he took over a human body.
There was a page a long while back where Isabel manifested a giant hammer with spectral energy, and attempted to smash him but it went right through.
That's what it's called, right? "Spectral energy"?
>>77445671
>>77445805
>>77446047
>continued in part 4
No, thats quite enough, Mc Hackymeal.
>>77451502
Really, the only real problem with Hitball is that it's too long and too sustained.
With the exception of one or two gag pages, every page has been about Hitball, and it's tedious.
The way to avoid your audience getting board by it would be to have a B-Plot going on that takes them away from it occasionally. One where we can learn a bit more about anything, instead of nothing.
Hitball has failed to do anything other than parcel out a few tibits here and there about Hijack, Jeff, Johnny, and Ed, while mostly just being a spoof of sports manga.
I mean, this kind of thing isn't terrible, but it shouldn't be this invasive, nor should it be in the middle of a chapter where we know what's going to happen and know that Hitball isn't the endgame.
It's like that Episode of Eureka Seven where they play soccer. That happened near the end of the series, and shit was ramping up.
Hitball should be like that, a silly game used to relieve the tension after the train chapter, but Zack wants us to be enthralled by it on some level, which is just impossible knowing what we know.
It would be like if they stopped the episode where Renton and Eureka go to Earth in the middle and decided to play soccer then, and Soccer was actually the key to getting back home.
>>77451246
>>77451260
I understand the in-universe reason. I guess I'm asking why Zack decided to write the arc like this, it's really boring and not very creative both visually and story-wise.
>>77451703
Zach wanted to do a fun chapter that spoofed sports manga, and, for some insane reason, inserted it into a chapter that had more plotting elements.
He also expected us to care about Hitbal as if it had any amount of tension in it at all, which is impossible.
Also, the bad guy of the chapter decided not to do his plan immediately, and instead decided to play dodgeball for seven months
>>77451747
>He also expected us to care about Hitbal as if it had any amount of tension in it at all, which is impossible.
>he doesn't get hype over imaginary stakes in fictional kids' games!
It's like the episodes of South Park where it's literally just the kids playing a game of pretend like Good Times With Weapons, or the Black Friday trilogy, or the Stick of Truth game.
Hitball was hype as shit when it was new and refreshing. As was just seeing the rest of the normals back at school.
Unfortunately a beach episode is much harder to pull off in webcomic form.
>>77451912
>It's like the episodes of South Park where it's literally just the kids playing a game of pretend like Good Times With Weapons
It should have been, yeah, but instead he actually tried to put in legitimate stakes and make us care.
It's like if good times with weapons actually turned into something that mattered halfway through, except South Park could even pull that off.
You can't do that kind of thing in a webcomic like this, one where there are legitimate plots.
I said it at the very beginning of Hitball, that it would be fun for a few pages, but it'd get old after a year.
>>77451681
>>77451703
>>77451747
>>77451912
>>77452007
Okay guys, I get what you mean here. But under that optic, there's very little you can do with a webcomic.
I mean, Paranatural is already riding the line between a comic that only reads good as a webcomic and a comic that can lend itself to print (which, we must remember, is part of the plan Zack has for Paranatural).
On print, the train arc and this Hitball arc will read wonderfully. Decently paced (if not slightly fast), good mix between goofball antics and stuff that matters with refreshing snippets of character building, and not too long to make it seem like a bore but not short enough to make you say "...that's it?". Don't believe me? Read the archive back-to-back. You might even call it fast!
However, when delivered serially on a page-by-page basis, this is definitely not good. Whatever careful consideration about pacing and sequence is thrown overboard; because it's really hard to separate upload rate from story pacing - I mean, aren't people here complaining that the hitball arc is 7 months long, when it's a) not even an arc but a small part of a chapter, and b) short enough to be read back-to-back in 25 minutes tops? But of course, it was delivered in a period of 7 months, complete with delays - and even without the delays, it still would've been more than half a year of kids throwing balls at each other like one of my japanese animes.
However, you can't really fix that without sacrificing archive reading. If every page was more condensed than they already are (and boy, are they condensed!) reading them back-to-back would make it look like a clusterfuck. The pacing illusion could be fixed with multi-page uploads - but that would make updates be fewer and further between, and the pacing illusion would be reduced rather than eliminated.
Guys, maybe making a webcomic is hard.
>>77452488
Hitball will not read wonderfully.
Even in print, it's a 60 page diversion from the main plot of the chapter that does noting for anything.
What part of that do you fail to understand?
>>77452488
You're fully of shit. If you want to see what a condensed chapter full of action and info looks like, chapter two is a perfect comparison. We get an explanation of ghosts and spirits, we get a shitload of creative and fun action, spectrals/ghosts using cool powers, and it's all told in a tight, concise manner. We don't have three fucking pages worth of internal monologue before a character does a thing, Zack actually keeps the pace of a frantic action scene by making his characters actually do multiple things on a single page. He doesn't fucking propose a million unanswered questions and then leave them unanswered, the villains' motivations are clear within the page of his introduction, and the chapter has fucking direction.
This chapter is fucking shit no matter how you look at it.
Remember when Pnat took the piss out of manga instead of being completely manga.
>>77452488
I kinda agree with you about the print thing, but Zack still has major pacing issues. The plot from this chapter has been anounced since it started, we know part of the end result from Hijack's plan, but since then Hitball gobbled up all the pages for months. Maybe in a couple of pages Hijack will get send to the office, the game will end and we'll resume. But we already know that it basically will go down like that, and that the club will run to the office cause they know one of the characters there is possessed without knowing really what to do about it. It's cool that Zack has a lots of ideas and little things he wants to put in the comic, but we're slowly drifting towards the end goal of the chapter while reading an action scene without much tension. The missed updates make it worse. This looks more like filler that was way better in Zack's head than in the actual comic.
That said maybe Zack has something up his sleeve to make it worthwhile and surprise his readers, maybe he's planning something really big for the end of the chapter ?
>>77452616
>it's a 60 page diversion from the main plot of the chapter
Did you mean: "It's not only the main plot of the chapter, but it also served to build up characters and set up future plots"?
What do you consider "the main plot of the chapter", to think that the hitball match is not it?
>>77452727
>>77452727
>He doesn't fucking propose a million unanswered questions and then leave them unanswered
>Chapter 2
What the fuck were you reading? Clearly not Paranatural. Chapter 2 on its own tells nothing, except repeat stuff from chapter 1 and leave stuff hanging to be answered in chapter 3.
Okay but who should have won Hitball. Ignoring the Jeffening.
Burnhounds or Shockodiles?
Now back in the game:
>Cody
>Johnny's two friends
>Dimitri
>Ed
Will Ed finally do something besides spill his spaghetti and have the sexiest spirit partner?
Also I guess all the cowards in the bleachers will stop pretending to be out now that Jeff has no balls but they don't matter.
>>77452951
>what's the difference between ghosts and spirits
>what was haunting Max in the first chapter
>how do tools get possessed?
>saw grumblings of Max's powers
>only 20 pages
Hitball has given us nothing of value
>>77452951
>>What do you consider "the main plot of the chapter", to think that the hitball match is not it?
A ghost is going to possess someone in the school, and the team will have to destroy it.
We've gotten 40 fucking pages of a declaration of action from the villain, and then the heroes playing FUCKING DODGEBALL. The villain has barely even set his plan in motion here, we're moving at a glacial pace for no reason. Why did we need like ten pages dedicated to a plan for taking out JUST Cody? He's a worthless side character that's consumed way to much of the reader's attention for absolutely no payoff. It's asinine. Imagine watching a hostage movie and they spend 25 minutes showing the police setting up "Do not cross tape" around a crime scene.
>>77452931
This is what I mean when I talk about "the pacing illusion". You mention that Hitball has gobbled up pages for months, but so far Chapter 5 has had 78 pages of which 51 have been Hitball.
51 pages.
The train segment was around 90 pages long, and so far the Hitball arc has set more stuff up.
>>77453061
>Suzy was exposed to the main plot, at last
>Listening device
>Ed realizes he's a sissy
>Muse. Need I say more?
>VP DuNacht might be a spectral - she's hinted to know what Hijack was talking about when he let slip that he was possessing Jeff
>Dimitri is DEFINITELY a spectral, and showed his power
>Max realized his folly and AMENDED IT, and JOHNNY HELPED
>Johnny finally graduates from foil to probable ally
>Speaking of Johnny, it's revealed he's one dangerous situation away from becoming a spectral - so now we know there doesn't need to be any time period from being possessed and blossoming
>Cody definitely can tell that ain't Jeff, even if it took him a while - Dimitri still thinks that's Jeff
>Student Council
I dunno man, this arc has had a lot of juice in it.
>>77453163
>Why did we need like ten pages dedicated to a plan for taking out JUST Cody? He's a worthless side character
>Cody, a worthless side character
>Cody, who is featured on the cast page, a worthless side character
>Cody, who has appeared in pretty much every chapter sans Chapter 2, and has had a lot of 'screentime', who's part of a cast composed largely of side characters that are named and have a definite character design but aren't part of the cast page
>A worthless side character
Say that about the chick covered in duct tape, but not Cody.
>>77453306
The train chapter had shitty pacing too
>>77450882
The Golden Switch is special. Catching it brings your whole team back, getting hit by it makes you switch teams. There's a fucking link to the page that says that in the description.
>>77445239
I'd say the Four Horsemen would be LESS played out than fire/water/air/earth and the sins.
>>77453965
Not many people do Conquest. He's too similar to War, instead they bring Cousin Pestilence onto the show.
>>77453306
So the only value Hitball has is stuff that isn't actually in it.
>>77454134
What the fuck?
Please explain.
>>77454134
..yes, like the only value to the activity club is the things that aren't in the activity club.
and the only value to a boring greeting mission to the new agent is all the things that go wrong along the way.
and the only value of max spending his second night at his house is someone who's not supposed to be there.
This is a really weird way of framing things. Several of this things are completely inextricable from Hitball, like
>Dimitri is DEFINITELY a spectral, and showed his power
>Max realized his folly and AMENDED IT, and JOHNNY HELPED
>Johnny finally graduates from foil to probable ally
>Ed realizes he's a sissy
https://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadded.html?m1=07&d1=06&y1=2014&type=add&ay=&am=&aw=20&ad=&rec=
>November 23, 2014
Over 70 weeks and nearly a hundred pages later, and still no sign of important teacher stuff or who's riding rick's morally ambiguous assbesides Isaac.
