In my newspost last week about the “No Hugging, No Learning” mantra, I mentioned that I was basing a throwaway character – a loveable misanthrope – on a real-life friend of mine. It’s something I’m tempted to do fairly frequently; I spend most of my time in an academic environment ...

The Underdog is a staple of fiction. Protagonists, by and large, are Underdogs.

It probably makes them more relatable; how are we supposed to root for someone who either has, or easily gets whatever they want? Where is a character supposed to go unless they start out low?

Even the ...

I think most of us who live in or near big cities have been to comic conventions. But despite having such a huge concentration of artists here, we seldom seem to talk about broader arts communities. I’ve always been a casual patron of local art galleries, but the curatorial ...

If you want to decent job of it, creating and using weapons in fiction can be quite tricky. There are a lot of pitfalls that newbies and even long time veterans of creating fiction fall into.

1. Number one is simply copying what others have done without understanding it yourself ...

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-Cover art by Ozoneocean
Last week Tantz Aerine and Pitface told us about how they came up with a visual look for their comic worlds. THIS week members of the community weigh in and give us THEIR perspective on their perspective… views of their comic environments. We have very ...

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-Cover art by Tantz Aerine

We had a Quackcast about creating your world a while ago, but that was mainly in terms of writing. Some people touched on the visual aspects, Falopian Crusader among them, and Usedbooks showed us her city map.
For this Quackcast we discussed creating the ...

You know that idea about a frog in a pot of water getting cooked before realising that the water had been gradually increasing in temperature until it was rapidly boiling? Well last week, I was the frog and my room was that pot of water.

September has been the hottest ...

Recently I had the pleasure of spending a few day's in my country's capital city, Ottawa. Among museum trips, walks along the canal, and an awesome sound and light show at our parliament building, I managed to coerce my best friend into visiting a couple of comic book ...

-LA Union Station taken by kawaiidaigakusei

“The next and final stop on this line is Los Angeles. Please collect all personal belongings and use the handrail when using the stairs. Please keep all hands and arms away from the automatic train doors.”

It had been a while. I needed a ...

I have this travel journal that I carry around with me for inspiration and one of the suggested activities it to take time to stare out the window, whether in an airplane, bus, or subway car. I realised that too much of my day is spent staring at the gorilla ...