I couldn't have been older than 11 when I read The Flaming Heart of Danko by Maxim Gorky. And boy, did it cut me with the finest of fine glass. Even now thinking about the short story hurts somewhere deep in my soul.

And yet, I love it so ...

Who doesn't love pirates?

Kids love to dress up as them in Halloween or during carnival season. There was whole a whole era of Hollywood where pirate movies were the blockbuster vein of gold. Pirates in fiction are charming, fun, dastardly, and the epitome of adventure.

Pirates in real ...

Now that's a little TOO scary!

Horror is perfect for metaphor and allegory. In fact, a horror story is often allegorical by default, what with its bizarre landscapes and freaky beasties.

Here are some categories of horror and some thoughts on what they symbolize:

Reality Bites


psycho killer! Qu ...

So the other day I watched a very interesting video about the new Mulan movie. It was by a Chinese person, explaining why several things were done in a way that is inherently alien to the Chinese culture.

I also recall that the original Mulan was not a hit in ...

They talk about ‘writing what you know’ and we've talked about it around here, too.

Does that mean the characters you write and draw have to match all the surface details of your identity, sharing your gender, race, and hobbies?

Of course not.

The characters and stories you create ...

I have been a fan of the writer Peter David for many years. After being away from comics for some years, I discovered his run on the Hulk, and also found his work on the Star Trek novels. He was the best writer for those, for my taste anyway. There ...

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Fanfiction is a massive subject, there are so many aspects to it, from the bad stuff with the Mary Sues, rampant shipping, author inserts and wish fulfilment ...

Though I am certainly no stranger to handling the horrific in my creations, horror as a genre is something I never dabbled in before.

Horror scares me the same way comedy does!

While I can crack jokes, I always feel I can never do it on demand, or consistently think ...

For better or for worse, we are creatures of categorizations. We love to label things, and to sort them into neat little boxes so that we are absolutely certain we know what to expect when dealing with each one. It is that sense of familiarity that we are looking for ...

classic tale of cause and effect!

Our very own Pickle-Face made a forum topic on the Duck, asking people to create a basic ‘cause and effect’ statement on their comic.

The structure goes something like this: Say what happens, and then what the effect is in the story. This is ...