Critics, professional or not, identified a trend in many of the…lesser regarded manga and anime series.
It's the “everyman hero”.

This school of thought is that to make a lead character who is identifiable to everyone in the readership or audience. So the lead will be unremarkable, and ...

Characters and Backgrounds … and Compositing Different Styles


when I started putting my webcomic out I'd been drawing for most of my life already, and knew the characters and setting really well. The stories I would figure out as I went…and still do.

As far as the art goes ...

In the behind-the-scenes interviews about the show “Seinfeld”, Writer/Creator Larry David talks about the ending of an episode, I think it's “The Marine Biologist”.

To sum it up, the show is about fairly normal-yet-eccentric antics of the four characters, including George claiming to be a marine biologist to ...

Last December saw the return of iconic hero Luke Skywalker in the Mandalorian. It was a shockingly well-kept secret and I can tell you that I sure didn't see it coming. As a fandom-dweller, it was a beautiful moment that still brings a smile to my scraggly, wrinkled face ...

There are a couple of movies I've seen - only a couple that come to mind - with a very specific issue
that makes them not work for me.

It's when the THEME or below-the-surface meaning of the story holds together but the actual plot suffers for it.

Spoiler for ...

One common story formula involves a character receiving a magical gift…or magical ‘curse’…and being forced to deal with the chaos that the magic causes.

In Liar Liar, the slick, dishonest attorney is compelled to only speak the truth.
In Groundhog Day, the main character repeats the same day ...

“Get Back”, the new documentary about the Beatles has been released - I haven't seen the whole thing yet, and I'm a fairly casual fan of the Beatles, but I've seen the shorter version of these recording sessions that was released way back when. And I've seen ...

There has been a lot of online discussion in recent years about the idea of “strong female characters” - what makes a good one, a bad one, etc. All the accusations of sexism, either anti-woman or anti-man have gone along with these discussions, in the glorious, exaggerated way people argue online ...

Everybody lies.

Generally speaking.

I mean, there could be a few out there who don't. A few pure souls that never stray from the truth. Could be. But I doubt it.

Could a mute person lie? I suppose so…whether they're writing something down or using sign language ...

Snow changes everything. The entire environment is completely different, and the minute-to-minute operations of life become more complicated and troublesome.

In comics, snow can be a lot of fun. Flakes can fill up the pages and add to the grit and danger in comics like Sin City…

One of my ...