There's generally a tennet about character building for a villain in a story or webcomic that urges the creator to humanize them by giving them a backstory that “fleshes them out”. Often, “humanization” of a villain is taken to mean that they come across as more sympathetic or appealing ...

Book of Desolation

This is not actually a comic but more of a sourcebook. I've always loved source books, ever since I got the starwars sourcebook way back before the prequals. It's great to see worlds get expanded outside of the original movie, comic, book , whatever. This one ...

I've only read three books in my life.

Okay, that's not true - over the years I've read nearly a dozen.

But the first art-instruction book I used (at least, the earliest one I can remember) was this book
about using basic shapes to draw animals.

It was ...

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We're up to number 666 Quackcasts so our topic this time is evil! Evil is a complicated subject, we all think we know what it is but we really don't, there are just so many ...

I am taking a break from the regularly scheduled Panel By Panel this week to share some news about a project I am putting together, and I am inviting you all to participate. While not affiliated with The Duck, I hope to involve as many of you as possible in ...

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This week our talk is an art one: eyes! We talk about how to draw them, adding meaning and expression, the way different cultures use them, different styles for doing eyes, reflection, shadow, focus and a million ...

Last week I had the fortune of stumbling across Netflix's latest animated series, Blue Eye Samurai. I didn't expect much, but I was so bowled over by the sheer excellence of this show that I ended up binging the entire first season overnight. Like all shows, it's ...

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We're talking about parody and its evil twin satire. There are good parodies and bad ones but we feel the better parodies are the indirect ones that make fun of and exaggerate the theme or the ...

Photo: “Part 11”. Original characters and story created by GrapeApe. Nocturne 21. (November 2023)

Anniversary Milestone

Here is a message from GrapeApe, creator of Nocturne 21:

Hi!

November 22nd marked the 20th anniversary of my comic Nocturne 21! Twenty years ago my angsty teenage self picked up a crappy composition ...

Zines were in the news recently
(https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/nov/28/zines-exhibition-brooklyn-museum-art)

What’s a zine you might ask? It’s a small print run, usually small sized, amateur magazine. Often using photocopied pages, hand stapled, and it can be very unpolished in terms of content, but ...