There's nothing more intense than subverting the audience's expectations: The righteous character that always says the truth says a lie. The character that values all life ends up murdering someone. The bad sort, the punk that's always terrible ends up saving the day or doing something decent ...

STAKES

In a story, a Protagonist wants something, and some kind of obstacle is in the way. When the Protagonist makes a choice, good or bad, to take them to that goal, we're off and running!

But what happens if they don't get what they want? What happens ...

One of the toughest tropes in any kind of narrative work, from novels to comics to movies is the Sacrificial Lion - but not for what might be an obvious reason: having to axe a top tier character. It's because the trope is something that will affect and carry through ...

You’ve gone through the arduous process of fleshing out your world, the themes and the lore and you’re standing back looking at your shining new playground; but there is a blight standing right in the centre that you can no longer ignore. You hate your characters. Maybe it ...

Last week, we looked at killing off characters. So it seems only fitting to follow it up by talking about introducing new characters into your story! This is your quick cheat sheet to helping ease your readers into getting to know the new players in your world.

Try to introduce ...

At the end of Annie Hall, Woody Allen's character writes a play that recreates his breakup with Annie. But in the fictional version, they stay together and the romance continues. Woody is apologetic to the movie's audience and says “What can I say; it was my first play ...

There comes a time in any webcomic creator’s career where they have to be mean to their characters. And there is nothing meaner than letting the proverbial Sword of Damocles fall on a beloved (or equally unloved) character and watching their head roll to the chorus a shrill cries ...

There are lots of fantastic things about making webcomics. Many nice things it has over traditional printing and publishing.

The speed of publishing and presenting your work to the world, the lack of a barrier to entry so anybody with an internet connection can make and publish comics…

…and if ...

LISTEN!

In this Quackcast Tantz and I chat about the differences between working with historical settings and the different approaches we take. Tantz's comics (Without Moonlight and Brave Resistance), are both set in a real period of history: Nazi occupied Greece during WW2. Pinky TA is set in the ...

The nominees have been announced and current volunteers have been given assignments. 

We still need more volunteers. There are 12 unclaimed presentations and 25 judging slots still left over.


2018 Finalists: Genre/Style Awards


My Life as An American Hero 2
Kitty Kitty Bang Bang
Mindfold
Steel & Manitou


Jay’s ...