When he created the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling was motivated by the desire to tell more meaningful stories. In his writing career up to then, his work had been heavily censored.
Serling realized that by setting his stories in fantastical situations, in alternate or futuristic versions of Earth, that he ...

A Dimension Not Only of Sight and Sound but of Mind
Banes at 12:00AM, Aug. 5, 2021ART: wrong time or wrong crowd?
damehelsing at 12:00AM, Aug. 1, 2021
Is there a specific age for a specific art style? Maybe an expiration date for some? Or is it just entirely dependent on the crowd?
Hey hi hello ducklings, it is I, the damehelsing.
So, as stated before, I’m here to talk about art, the “time periods” of art ...
Writing Women, Writing Men
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 31, 2021
We've all seen the cringy dialogue. The weirdly stereotypical and awkward situations. The sheer effort of the script writer, the novelist, or the comic book writer to write someone they don't know: a woman, or a man.
Too often the problem is very stark when comparing character designs ...
Speaking in tongues - Character voice
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, July 23, 2021
Designing memorable characters doesn’t just stop at their appearance. The manner in which they speak and use body language is integral to building a full picture of who they are as a character as well as how others react to them. Here are some tips on how to make ...
The Test of Character
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 10, 2021
If you are in a fairy tale and encounter an Old Woman… never take that meeting lightly. It's usually a test of character: the manner in which you respond to her will be a measure of how kind, decisive, clever, obliging, evil, rude, crass, abusive, or idiotic you are ...
Layers in Character
Banes at 12:00AM, July 8, 2021
Welcome to my Underground Layers
-Banes, your pop culture references are as on point as ever!
I've talked about story structure here many times, normally in similar ways.
A different approach to character and story, one I haven't used much personally, is what we could call the “onion ...
Comic Prep Work
damehelsing at 12:00AM, July 4, 2021
One of the things I love the most about comics, is the prep work, which may not be obvious by the countless amount of times that I’ve stated that I’m doing absolutely no prep work as of now for Scorned; but when I worked on Scarred Eden, that ...
Is it Luck?
damehelsing at 12:00AM, June 27, 2021
Have you seen ”The Road to El’Dorado”? If you pay attention to the movie, the whole thing is pretty much based on luck.
Spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched the movie!
We witness luck happening from the start of the movie when Miguel and Tulio have been using ...
On Using 'Shortcuts'
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 26, 2021
One of the latest twitter dramas seem to be around artistic shortcuts, and how consumers of comics and webcomics (often non-artists) tend to scoff at any artist that dares admit they use them.
Comic shortcuts could include pre-rendered backgrounds, using 3D programs to arrange spaces or make sure perspective is ...