I generally avoid using current events in my articles about webcomics, but this time I can't help it. Signalgate has been living rent free in my mind ever since the editor in chief of the Atlantic broke the story.

There are many reasons for that, most of them not ...

No matter what the characters in your story might be doing–fighting crime, resisting alien invasion, surviving in a harsh radioactive wasteland, or just working in an office–sometimes it's fun to remove them from their ‘regular’ activities and place them somewhere different and out of their social comfort ...

Exploding.miracle of past unloading
Enrolling fabric of the primal tolling
Feeling through your ratchet as you color your stones red
Imploding destruction of scales decoding
Controlling panic of the final poling.
Falling through your hatchet as you holler your wars dead

There was a recent article in the Guardian about how playing Dungeons and Dragons had helped siblings bond and cope with the death of their father. It got me thinking about the role that role-playing has played (now there's a phrase) in my own life.

For me role-playing began ...

Lights cresting fallen heavens
As I still spin in dead-end meditations
Mind is questing, never resting
Grasping for more unspent levitations
“It is hopeless, a waste of time” I tell mind.
Again and again as I still spin in dead-end meditations

I am the mucky footed bullfrog that leapt out of the well of dreams
A place to be killed in what I leave behind
You’re beautiful and you’re growing up. but I am getting sick and I am getting old.
Am I your master or am I your ...

So you might have a character that's generally very calm or stoic. They may appear weak, or just not intimidating. They may be the right gender, class, age, or any other parameter for their peers to assume they are easy pickings and thus a great target for harassment. Initially ...

Every year our family are gifted a very nice calendar from one of our relatives. However, it often arrives a couple of months into the year. So, I'm usually tasked with whipping up a temporary couple of months to pin to the door to use until it arrives.

This ...

Watch. It advances. A blended eye to the one true contact.
Delicate, pristine night of visible disguise
Hear. It enlightens. A stuttered word to the one true conduct
Eloquent, redeemed might of audible delight
Feel. It entices. A torpid touch to the one true contract
Adequate, esteemed rite of physical ...

I'm having to write a short speech to give at a friend's memorial service next month, and I'm finding it difficult. It's not the words that I'm struggling with, it's more the entire concept of what I'm doing. So, as a distraction from ...