When creating a story, either for comics or novels, the easiest parts to write are usually the beginnings and ends because hell ,they’re the fun bits right? You burst out of the gate, ready and raring to go, your gaze on that sweet, sweet finale but there’s a ...

CATHARSIS
from the Best of Banes Collection


A writing instructor once gave me brief advice on how to write a story, structurally speaking. It was 1/4 Act One setup, 1/2 Act Two complications and rising stakes (I think), and about 1/4 An Act Three “cathartic ending”.

I ...

Many years ago, a battle between two nations began and ended thanks to the leaders’ children. A star symbol called an elpis was created to symbolize the alliance between the two nations. However after the battle, a darkness emerged forcing the queen to make a sacrifice and use her last ...

Trauma is such a delicious thing in writing- it gives characters their backstories, their motivation, their special slant in a narrative wrok, from novels to webcomics.

However, it's usually considered in the context of how it has made a character ‘damaged goods’. Why they are grim, why they're ...

Throughout literature and modern media, many faults and drives for leads, damsels and villians have often been motivated by a tragic backstory so much so, that to employ one for your story may appear trite or cliche. There is, however, a way to use a tragic backstory effectively and can ...

This story centres around a group of highly fashionable ladies. They like to meet, compete and compare their stylish looks with each other but all that is about to change! Vicious animals are on the loose! Tigers, carnivorous giraffes, horses with tattoos! Whatever is the world comic to? Grab your ...

2018 marks the 80th birthday of the big guy himself - the OG superhero.

Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938.

Actually, there were precursors to Superman. But he popularized and defined the ‘Superhero’ character-type and genre. He was the template for countless characters who came later, with his ...

You’ve got your story, your drawn your buffers and you are ready to set your child free and loose in the world. But wait? What name do you put on it’s tag so people know who it ultimately belongs to? Naming a work can be incredibly frustrating and ...

LISTEN!

This week we talk about maintaining suspension of disbelief: the way you have to convince people of the world your story is set in and keep them there. Everything you do is done for that, to convince them your characters make sense and the world works. There's a ...

Balancing detail and speed is one hell of a trick for a webcomic creator. It is common pitfall for many of us starting our webcomic. Unfortunately one cannot always have both of these qualities in the work. We go ham on all the intricacies early on and then wonder why ...