Bill Paxton, 1955-2017

Bill Paxton was a regular presence in my prime movie-loving years. As the punk in The Terminator, the Marine having a meltdown in Aliens (“no way, mian!”), and the nasty older brother in Weird Science, he could be tough, scary, AND funny. He was always memorable, even ...

Failure is the stepping stone to success. That’s what I teach my students and my clients, and it is true, right up there with “whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”: If you learn why you failed, you won’t fail again the same way- and that brings ...

Welcome back, gang! Er, can I call y'all “gang”? Is that too informal or too assumptive about your willingness for complicity in my extra curricular activities? Eh, too bad. Once you're in the gang, there's only one way out. Now, while you're letting that sink in ...

Huh. You're still here? I'll be damned.

Well then. Let's just go ahead and pick up where we left off last week, which if I recollect, was the beginning. Or at least, that's where you stepped into my world. Now, how you think about beginnings has ...

I was actually asked some writing questions the other day. Who the deuce would ask ME for advice? But I happened to have a little.


Here are some thoughts on writing that smallest unit of a story: the scene (reprise):


First off, what is a scene? What defines it?

It ...

Deep in the forest lives a pale, white squirrel (that might not be a squirrel at all) and it instills fear in the hearts of the country folk who believe it to be an evil beast. The prince of the kingdom has vowed not to marry a bride until the ...

Time doesn't really exist in comics. Someone can blast through multiple pages in seconds, or linger on one panel for years. Well, that would be rare. But you see what I'm saying.

What if you want to make your readers slow down? To give your pages the pace ...

Art by Pit-Face and Tantz Aerine

Expressions are key when drawing characters in webcomics- it’s understandably the acting portion of the creative work, and it has to be done well to engage the reader.

In my opinion there are no easy or difficult expressions- only expressions you as a ...

LISTEN!

Patriotism, flags, nationalism, religion, politics, national symbols hijacked by racists! These are some of the unique aspects of our cultural identity and national differences we chat about on this quackcast. I was inspired by HippieVan's newspost on Friday (about Cultural identity and how it defines our writing), to ...

Each time I return from shopping with a bag full of a pile of board games, vinyl action figures, or video games, I feel like I fit into a demographic of adults that still collect toys. I have a small amount of bills, so the money I earn gets to ...