art by Sandy Jarrell


The Hated, Part One - Villain Heroes

I've picked up all the “new” versions of the Archie universe and enjoyed them to different degrees for the most part. Sometimes there are a few laughs. Or some nice artwork. Or just the fun of seeing the characters ...

Unfruity and Nonchalant is the product you would get if you mixed a Keith Haring painting in a bowl with absolute cuteness. The simple style tells a quick story in one, two, three, or four panels while only using a single color (now THAT is talent!). The text dialogue is ...

Just the name inspires awe, a level of attention and gravity. Because it was a name before it became a noun: she was the ancient Greek goddess of revenge and retribution against those who committed any kind of hubris.

In stories though, a character that takes the position of nemesis ...

My city had a massive snowfall on Boxing Day this year – the day after Christmas, for you non-Canadians. Nothing too unusual for a Canadian winter, but even so the city always seems to grind to a halt when it happens. After having a neighbour help him get his car unstuck ...

I was hanging out with my family over the holidays, explaining that I wasn't sad or sick, but had been rubbing my eye because there was some dust or a hair or something stuck behind the eyeball. It was quite uncomfortable.

As I remembered how tears can flush out ...

LISTEN!

Chekhov's gun is the principal (as I understand it), that if you have some item, fact or piece of information introduced into your story that you draw specific attention to, then you'd better use it some how later on in your story. The simplest example is a ...

Witch Natasha gathers her ingredients, makes all the right preparations, chants the dark magic words and… nothing. She tries again and then notices a perky young lady behind her. Young, happy-go-lucky, naive Giselle isn't quite the succubus Natasha had in mind when she decided to summon a demon! My ...

LISTEN!

What defines evil in fiction?
I say the simplest one is bad guys are selfish, good guys are selfless.
That is massively over simplistic but it's a good easy template for basic hero's and villains. Basic ones
I was just doing a quick thought experiment to work ...

The year 2016 was not as horrible as some people thought it to be. I did go through some personal changes that might not be seen as monumental in the wide scope of the world. I have always been a true romantic–a label given to me by an English ...

Happy New Year’s Eve!
Thinking about the new year that is just about to begin, I thought to talk about beginnings in stories, and especially in webcomics.

How a story begins, the very first pages of it, are key for catching the audience’s attention and keeping it. The ...