In designing a good villain character there's a wide range of paths one can follow. From the grandiose villains that want to take over the world and live in volcano islands, waiting for the hero to fall into their elaborate death trap to humanized villains with complex backstories that ...

There is a poem by one of the most interationally famous Greek poets, Konstantinos Kavafis, called Waiting for the Barbarians. I invite you to give it a read (I've linked its translation) but here's the gist in a nutshell: It's about the Romans waiting for the Barbarians ...

There's nothing more frustrating when a character dies from a situation that had no reason occuring except perhaps that the writers wanted to be edgy and make the story have more gravitas with a random death that's forced into the plot.

I've talked often over the years ...

Hello everyone, I recently found a blast from the past in the early days of the Duck and wanted to reach out to the oldheads, while also laying out something fun for newer members who may be interested. First of all, take a look at the bear icon above. Do ...

I was watching The Dead Zone again the other week, and thought that Johnny Smith might be the perfect horror Protagonist.

This movie, and the Stephen King book it's based on, might be a little bit under the radar; I'm not sure how well known it is in ...

I was rewatching “Sleeping With the Enemy” recently - it's a thriller from back in the early 90's. It's got Julia Roberts JUST before she became a superstar, a tense scene involving bath towels, an iconic use of the song ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ - and a moustache of evil ...

The Anti Continuity

Last time I brought up the ‘standalone episode series’ and the ‘serialized episodes’ approach.

Used Books mentioned Anthologies, which is (kind of) the anti-continuity approach. I love anthologies, and have contributed to a few over the years.

Nothing but respect to The Twilight Zone, one of the ...

Photo: “You Are Invited to the Drunk Duck Awards 2024”. Drunk Duck Awards 2024 by Niccea. (April 2024)

Niccea writes:

“Welcome to the 2024 Drunk Duck Awards, a Drunk Duck satire of the Oscars featuring the creators and comics of The Duck Webcomics. I am your Master of Ceremonies, Niccea ...

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Panel by Panel, a periodic exploration of comic panels around The Duck. This week I want to look at the work of one of the most recently prolific creators on the Duck. I wanted to look at the growth of creator HawkAndFlowAventures, by looking at ...

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Panel by Panel, a periodic exploration of comic panels around The Duck.

Last time we had a look back at the work of the great Akira Toriyama, as a sort of a breaking/emergency version of the column. This week I wish to return to ...