The old frenetic push to any creator to be ‘original’- especially, though not limited, in literature, in comics and the arts in general is nothing new. It pretty much is the first question anyone has when trying to assess a work of art: is it original?

Often, for the answer ...

I continue to be an occasional fan of true scary stories found online. The “realistic” ones are cautionary tales, and might even give an important reminder to be on guard and keep one's eyes open…and the more unusual/“unexplained” stories are pretty darned entertaining and addictive!

Anyway, I ...

A story can be strengthened by coordinating the first and final images in some way.

It's not a hard and fast rule; it's not a rule at all. But it can be worth trying out in your writing!

The movie Halloween (there it is! I had to start ...

It is sometimes unclear to recollect the exact moment that a comic idea comes to fruition. Sometimes a comic emerges out of ton of quickly drawn doodles over a span of time before any of the characters have names or the story has a title.

I can recall the exact ...

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Art by Ozoneocean

- Do you worry about offending specific people with your writing? Where's your line between honest expression and regard for other people's feelings? This was Bane's brilliant idea for a Quackcast. We touch a little on the idea of a “culture of offence”, where ...

Lobo! My, how you've grown!


This week on the Quackcast we discussed the evolution of main characters in a long running piece of work. We considered character changes, cultural changes in the real world, and artistic changes over time.

So many things evolve unconsciously, by design, or just because ...

Silver, the Sean Connery-like James Bond of foxes is last of the old guard in Canada's prime international espionage and intelligence agency. He's a dashing guy, good with a gun and popular with the ladies, but they just don't do things the same way they did back ...

Have you ever taken a walk with a young person?

Each morning when I get to work early, I walk down to the bus circle and wait for one little boy's bus to arrive at school. On the good mornings, he walks off the bus grinning from ear-to-ear with ...

I have been feeling inspired lately. It is not to be confused with the same wave of inspiration that usually happens when I listen to Bon Iver while driving down a highway at night (even though that also works). It is the type of inspiration where a story begins to ...

I'm not sure where I first heard of Li'l Abner. Maybe some bits and pieces in a Comic Review Magazine or something.

The Shmoo was a character on the old Flintstones cartoons I used to watch, and Lena Hyena had shown up on the movie Who Framed Roger ...