Sometimes the arch villain of the story is the one pulling all the strings in the background, and the protagonists don't know about them until the endgame.

And other times, the arch villain gets to clash with a protagonist (or an opposing character) that is also a mastermind pulling ...

Designing memorable characters doesn’t just stop at their appearance. The manner in which they speak and use body language is integral to building a full picture of who they are as a character as well as how others react to them. Here are some tips on how to make ...

In the early parts of the story, it helps the quality of the thing and the experience of the audience to layer in the details that will come into play later.

These are little character and world details that will come into play later - the sword that falls off the ...

Who doesn't love a good intrigue, some scheming in the shadows, some low chuckling behind a curtain?

The author.

It's the author that doesn't love it. Or rather, the sheer background work that needs to go into writing a good scheming plot, counter plot, and the whole ...

Photo: Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter during a Cold Open for San Diego Comic-Con International (2016)

Seven years ago, on November 17, 2014, I wrote a Monday article on the Duck following the final taping of the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. It was around that time that ...

One of the latest twitter dramas seem to be around artistic shortcuts, and how consumers of comics and webcomics (often non-artists) tend to scoff at any artist that dares admit they use them.

Comic shortcuts could include pre-rendered backgrounds, using 3D programs to arrange spaces or make sure perspective is ...

There's nothing more satisfying than writing a twist villain. The person that everyone trusts or nobody suspects, who ends up being the mastermind for all the evil stuff that happened all along.

The person that everyone defers to for advice, that leans on for support, that is there to ...

It is a balancing act when it comes to the level of detail we comics artists like to include in each page and the speed at which we can complete said page. Sitting back and seeing a beautifully coloured render of your work may be satisfying, but is the level ...

You're watching the main character do their thing, and it's all smooth sailing, when another character comes in the room and sparks fly. You expect them to, and if written well, you look forward to each scene that has them both.

That other character is the foil.

The ...

I have many annoyances when it comes to webcomics, and literature in general but I’ll focus on comics for it’s far worse in comics than it is in books. The infamous talking head syndrome.

You know what I’m talking about. One panel has just one character talking ...