In the latest episode of Star Trek Picard, a character talks about his efforts to prolong his own life in a way I won't spoil. He lets go of this idea, and in the message he leaves behind, he says "Evolution is not about preservation - it's about addition ...

Conflict!

It's the essential building block of drama. You don't have a story without the basics of “someone wants something, and something's in the way of getting it.”

Screenwriting books - books I really love and have given me a lot - will often say that amping up the ...

Photo: “TwistJam Page One”. Drawn by HawkandFloAdventures. (March 2023)

TwistJam, a collaborative comic involving many crossover interactions between original characters from TheDuck AND ComicFury started uploading new pages (*Patreon or *Ko-Fi only) two days ago.

TwistJam will feature a Basketball game with VERY special commentators (who have yet to be ...

I'm a big fan of story structure. It can be a big help to figuring out how to put a story together in a way that works. Not that structure needs to be followed in a slavish way, or that one structure applies to every story.
But it can ...

The term “Mary Sue” became a lot more mainstream a few years ago - but around comic book websites like ours, and circles that were into writing and deeper fandom have been well versed with this for much longer.

The Mary Sue is a character who has abilities or positive qualities ...

Photo: “NeverLore: Cover” by InkyMoondrop. (February 2023)

InkyMoondrop writes:

Hi!

NeverLore doesn't seem to have an especially great launch yet, but Chapter 2 is about 70% done, will dive into an actual fantasy environment and I think I'll let it return to a Weekly update schedule with publishing ...

The other day I saw a clip of Frank Frazetta explaining his artistic process and what made his style unique, I found it fascinating. It made me remember just how awesome he was and how little regard he has in the wider art world. There were a lot of great ...

I was reading a critique of a series, a successful series, of novels. I think it's an urban fantasy/horror thing where the main character has a specific paranormal ability, limited, but useful in her detective work. She had a love interest, who was maybe on and off, but ...

Photo: “Twistjam: Morgyn and Lacey”. Original characters from Alone is a Hard Thing Toby by David A Webcomic and Hawk and Flo Adventures Part 1 Ice Cream Truck of Doom by HawkandFloAdventures. (February 2023)

A nice round of milestones from four creators to celebrate the accomplishments on The Duck:

The ...

Hello everyone, and welcome to Panel by Panel, a periodic exploration of comic panels around The Duck. This week I wanted to try something different. I'd like to ask you all some questions. I have plenty more panel analysis articles, but I also want to mix things up.

I ...