IDW Comics - Meta Discussion

@The Smiling Pony  
As I’ve commented before, I used to buy the comics until the Equestria Girls references made me stop supporting them. Then Reflections, Fosgitt and lots of crappy stories happened, and so I really had no real reason to spend my money on them until Pencils got the job and marked a difference that was definitely worth supporting.
 
And that’s it. For what’s worth, despite my current atitude regarding the comic, I do not regret buying the issues I bought back then.

Nightmare Knights is pretty awesome actually

 
 
Much of the design of Cosmos, is epic.

@Olquifo  
The cobra hood is a really interesting choice. Can’t wait to see the rest of her. If she is another draconequus, she seems to be bilaterally symmetrical, unlike Discord.

@Olquifo  
She certainly looks impressive. Does she look vaguely draconic to anyone else?

@Ardashir  
Depends on how many dragons you’ve seen.

December’s sales numbers are up.
 
MLP: FiM #73 (Animal-possesed Fluttershy, drawn by Pencils) sold 8,157 copies.  
Nightmare Knights #3 sold 6,488 copies.
 
That’s all.

I don’t know if she’s a new artist, but while I’m not one to really complain about the comic artists- I really don’t like Kate Sherron’s art style. Seeing more of it today, I honestly think she’s the first comic artist that I personally felt wasn’t good enough for it.
 
To put it straight, there are times where her art looks decent enough. My favorite works in particular include the cover, one of the panels with Zephyr and Fluttershy hugging it out, and the 6th and 7th panels on the last image.  
 
 

 
However, for all I can see what she does well kinda ends there… The way she draws the characters is a big turn off for me. They feel very off model, some of the drawn character interactions don’t make a lot of sense, and the anatomy at times is just horrendous. Some of the most damning examples would have to be some of Sandbar’s forward facing moments, characters with quarter or odd angles, and this scene here where Fluttershy is calling out to her brother but… she isn’t even looking in his direction.
 
 
 
 

 
I’m not trying to say that she’s horrible, like I said she does have her better moments here. However, I feel like she needs to practice more and try to improve vastly if she is to work on more comics. I know a lot of other comic artists have their own flaws as well, but there’s just something about Sherron’s work that at worst is very amateurish for an official comic that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m hoping that in the future she does try to improve.

I have a distinct feeling the final issue will be 78, 83, or 85…

January’s sales numbers are up.
 
MLP: FiM #74 sold 7,981 copies.  
Nightmare Knights #4 sold 6,101 copies.
 
That’s it.

@Anonycat  
Those aren’t very good numbers, are they?

@Ardashir  
The comics aren’t very good either, so it’s fitting I suppose.

I’m expecting 78 to be the final issue. Falling sales, show ending, 78 will end the arc featuring an ultimate villain…

@Wiimeiser  
Quite sad to see the comics ending not with a bang, but with a muffled neigh instead, especially since back then the comics were quite good and promising.

@Anonycat  
It’s not impossible to rule out a 79th issue, but all the pieces are in place for 78 to be the final issue. It’s a grand “ultimate villain” arc, no follow-up to Nightmare Knights has been announced, Nightmare Knights is itself a grand “ultimate villain” arc, the show itself is ending, sales are falling, and there are only four announced issues left while they tend to be announced months in advance. For the last point, if nothing new is announced by the time March rolls around, 78 is the finale.

@Wiimeiser  
From what I’ve seen, Nightmare Knights hasn’t been well received among the readers.

@Anonycat  
The odds I’d give for 78 being the comics finale is 89.323%.

@Anonycat
 
It just reeks of a last-ditch “Market Research” arc, like they had a brainstorm and came up with as many themes that could rack in the viewers to show off how much they can achieve, writing be damned.
 
Movie crossover! Ex-villains! Ex-villains from the movie! LUNAAAA! BUY OUR COMIC PLEAAAASE!

@Wiimeiser  

 
 
Wrong. Bobby Curnow said they would continue to do issues of the comic quite some time after the show ended. They deff want to get to issue #100 at the very least.

@Anonycat  

 
Most people have enjoyed it actually.

@Poison Trail  
The comic was full of possibilities to write all kind of fun arcs, but the writers had this annoying habit of writing stories about their own characters rather than using the show’s cast.
 
If anything, I would have liked a story where Twilight’s (stupid) school receives some Abyssinian Cats and Diamond Dogs as students and she’s driven nuts by trying to keep them from killing each other, or by the unexplainable fact that cats and dogs are genuinely friendly, polite and open minded to all other races except to each other’s.

Silly question, how would everyone react if IDW tried to pull a ‘Final Crisis’ with the last few issues of the comic? I.e., they have G4 Equestria and the characters be destroyed until it’s only the Mane Six left to basically turn out the lights and thank us for reading before the end?

@Ardashir  
Only slightly miffed because I was already thinking of it.

@Ardashir  
The short answer is no.  
The long answer is hell no.

@Ardashir  
The comic staff has proved over and over again to be completely unable to make any kind of serious arc, so I suppose it would receive the usual reaction from the readers.  
They can make SoL stories reasonably well though.