So you've got your maniacs, masked or otherwise. Scary! Or how about savage animals from, whether realistic or altered in some way? Or maybe monsters like vampires, zombies, were-folk and…er…mummies are your jam? Or what about ghosts, spirits and alien beasties?

When it comes to horror fiction ...

One of the greatest comic book stories ever written, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are known as the main architects of the Marvel Universe. But there was a third originator of that landmark creation:

Steve Ditko was an artist who originally worked as a ...

One of the great things about the original Star Wars movies was the strong sense of a grand, adventurous, and terrible history before the movie started. So much is hinted at through Obi Wan Kenobi about the Jedi Knights, Anakin Skywalker, great friendships, laser swords, and terrible war and loss ...

SINGLE PAGES vs. The GREATER WHOLE

I'm at a nice place in my webcomic right now. Well, it's nice as the writer, at least.
The characters have a nice history now, with some adventures behind them, some established relationships, and a stable of supporting characters who can be ...

I was a big fan of all the Indiana Jones movies back in the day. When the fourth one, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, finally came out, it was exciting times! Harrison Ford only seemed to get cooler with age, and what a treat it would be to see ...

I'm a bit obsessed with “before” versions of characters. Where they start. The damaged dude or dudette who shows up at the beginning of a story REALLY needing a change in their lives, and usually not knowing it.

Even when the plot kicks off, these folks often don't ...

Thursdays with Banes - The Murky Middle

A good way to put together a story is to figure out some essentials, first - Elements of Character, Plot and Theme, and Building some World and all that. We've talked about these things around here a lot, and we'll prolly continue to ...

Hello again!

I'm gonna continue for the next two or three weeks about “The Comedy Toolbox” approach to comedy structure.

There is quite a bit of crossover between this method and other methods you've heard of. But that's probably a good thing; there should be some similarity ...

Howdy!

I was going to go over the structure of a comedy story, based on the fine book “The Comic Toolbox” by Jason Voorhees.

If you have the interest, I can go into the structure outlined by Jason; he lays out a few different options that you may find useful ...

Last week I looked at a theory of the “comedy premise” that has to do with crossing the mundane with the unusual.

Here's that post:

http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/apr/12/comedy-part-one-the-premise/

This week: Creating Comedic Characters!

Using the same principle as the “premise” creation, we can ...