It may just be my impression, but usually when a story is set in a dystopian setting, the dystopia is played straight. However, when the characters encounter or start off in a utopian setting, they almost always will end up realizing that the utopia is actually a mirage, and in ...

It's Resurrection Saturday today! What better occasion then than this to talk about the resurrection trope?

Usually, cancelling out a character's death is not a good thing to do in a story. It undermines the weight of the stakes involved and/or the sacrifice or seriousness of the ...

Batman and Robin are fighting crime in the real world!



https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/11/police-deliver-vengeance-on-gamblers-while-disguised-as-batman-and-robin

Two police offers in London used Batman and Robin costumes to allow them to get close to illegal gambling operators plying their nefarious trade on Westminster Bridge.






Batman has a long ...

As creators of stories, be they novels or graphic novels or comics, we all have heard the adage “write what you know”. It's been drummed into our minds to the point that its cold fingers have our impostor syndrome in a deathgrip every time we venture our to write ...

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When love turns to hate… It's a common trope in fiction: partners split up and their once loving relationship turns to one of bitter acrimony! We see hate turning to love frequently too, that ...

Absolute Boyfriend: Volume 1

So, you’ve got this amazing story idea bouncing around in your head—yay, go you! But now comes the big question: how do you actually start the thing? You want that first page to blow your readers away, right? Let’s talk about one of ...

Ax, single father of two young children, spends his days navigating a space ship to sort through space debris. Janus and Callista, along with their babysitter, Julia, fear Ax’s line of work especially after the loss of their mother. One day, Ax receives a weak S.O.S. signal ...

Photo: “CH 1, Pg 11”. Legacy of the Elementals created by Anime Alpharie. (March 2025)

Anime Alpharie writes:

“Hi everyone!

My name is Alpharie, and I am sort of new! I had a comic on here years ago and I've since lost access to that account. Blighted, that's ...

There was a recent article in the Guardian about how playing Dungeons and Dragons had helped siblings bond and cope with the death of their father. It got me thinking about the role that role-playing has played (now there's a phrase) in my own life.

For me role-playing began ...

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I love those characters who bitch and moan and want to do things differently, although they don't usually take up the leadership role themselves, they just THINK they should be leader instead, but they ...