When Superman returned to the big screen ten years ago or so in “Superman Returns”, the movie was intended to be a direct sequel to the two original movies with Christopher Reeve. I was surprised at how mopey and depressing the movie felt.

Which is to say, the movie felt ...

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 ...

LISTEN!

What makes bad guy intimidating? Tantz Aerine made a great newspost about the question, carefully outlining various key bad-guy properties like confidence, composure, efficiency, and amorality. Banes, Pitface, Tantz and I stomp ALL over that, traipsing about like drunken, muddy rugby players, as we blather on about our opinions ...

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 ...

LISTEN!

In this Quackcast we discuss the artistic coding used to represent males and females in comic art in a simple, minimal way. Pitface joins us, along with Banes and Tantz Aerine!
Much like an expert physicist is able to simplify enormously complex equations into something seemingly simple like E ...

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 Internet Fight Club
TransNeptunian


Lego Space
Life and Death


Chunky Skunk
Fluffy 500

Best Community Project
Only one comic rose above. Stay tuned to see the winner in the October ceremony.

Best Drama
Only one comic rose above. Stay tuned to see the winner in the October ceremony.


Dragonet
Electricity Is Her Element
Sword of Kings


Craters Edge
Demon Eater
Monster Soup


Fantasticbrick
Froggtree Comics
Life and Death
The KAMics


Awfully Decent Fellows
Kings Club
Used Books


All Unicorns to Battle Stations
Belle’s Best: the films of Belinda Brandon
Holy Bible: The Albino Ginger Version


Godstrands
Holy Bible: The Albino Ginger Version
Without Moonlight


Godstrands
Mars II
The Constellation Chronicle
TransNeptunian


Fred Peterson: The Mighty Warlord
Generation Bad
Godstrands
My Life as An American Hero 2


Craters Edge
Godstrands
Putrid Meat
Super Impact High School
The Last Sheriff
TransNeptunian


My Life as An American Hero 2
The Gloom


Kings Club
Putrid Meat
Riddick Q Loss Tales
TransNeptunian

2018 Finalists: Technical Awards


Cosmos Song
Craters Edge
Kings Club
Monster Soup
The Constellation Chronicle
Without Moonlight


Charby the Vampirate
Cosmos Song
Kings Club
Sword of Kings


Cosmos Song
Kings Club
Used Books


Godstrands
Simply Sarah
Sword of Kings
Used Books
Without Moonlight


Kings Club
Simply Sarah
Sword of Kings
TransNeptunian


Belle’s Best: the films of Belinda Brandon
Lego Space
Sword of Kings
TransNeptunian


Awfully Decent Fellows
Electricity Is Her Element


Godstrands
My Life as An American Hero 2
The Gloom
Used Books


2018 Finalists: Character Awards, User Awards, and The Big Ones


Bones from Putrid Meat
Cyrenna from Kings Club
Hitomi from The Gloom
Kimber Lee from Godstrands
Searsha from Sword of Kings


Andy from Kings Club
Eeve from Craters Edge
Osprey from TransNeptunian


Nascha from TransNeptunian
Salaster from Craters Edge


bravo1102
ozoneocean
Tantz_Aerine
vinomas


AmeliaP
bravo1102
El Cid
Jason Moon
KimLuster
rmccool


bravo1102
KimLuster
plymayer


AmeliaP
mks_monsters
RecklessHero


Hit Girlz
My Life as An American Hero
Putrid Meat



Fantasticbrick
Modest Medusa


Kings Club
Modest Medusa
TransNeptunian
Without Moonlight



—-


Congratulations to all ...

So there's a lot of talk and discussion on how to approach the creation of your webcomic (or novel, or short story) regarding planning out your plot, the degrees of planning out, and the option of flying by the seat of your pants.

I have done both, both in ...

The other day, I was discussing my creative process to a poor, unsuspecting soul, who, to their credit, seemed content to put up with a bit of a ramble. They had mentioned that they enjoyed the facial expressions of the characters in our comics, (I did mention they were super ...