Last time I'd written about gender toxicity and what a trap it can be for creators seeking to write powerful characters. It is not something that only plagues the “strong female character” attempt, but also the “strong male character” and definitely the “strong LGBTQ+ character”.

Too many of these ...

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Panel by Panel, a periodic exploration of comic panels around The Duck. This week I am going to be looking at a panel from the webcomic FCL55 that I think does a great job developing an aesthetic through balancing details within the design. FCL55 is ...

A long time ago I read something, I think an interview with a respected screenwriter or something, where he brought up the movie “Rain Man”.

If you haven't seen it, it's about a struggling wheeler-dealer type guy, played by Tom Cruise, who goes on a road trip with ...

The Forest is home to a community of woodland creatures who have taken on the qualities of personified human beings while still resembling animals in outward appearance. Three librarians—Milly the Mouse, Martha the Weasel, and Sylvia the Cat—work at the Forest Public Library where they help select the ...

Hey everyone!

This will be the first installment of what I call Crisis Post. Desperate situations, like facing eviction, is becoming a pressing reality for more people - which should come as no surprise in the economic situation we are all facing today - and when that happens you naturally reach out ...

The debate on what constitutes a “strong female character”, whether having “strong female leads” or “feminism” is tanking “woke” films these past few years, is ongoing. There's accusations of toxicity on both sides. Misogyny, misandry, wokeness and brokeness, all of these terms and hot takes are fired and take ...

Herbivores are the predators of the plant
Smokes rising to make the sun burn up
Demagogues are the creditors of the cant
Scopes rising to make the sun blow up
Everdreams are the janitors of the grant
Slopes rising to make the sun roll down.


NaaN (Now, always and Never)

In this month’s installment of Character Deep Dive, we’re looking at Grenadine Luncher from the comic Ripping Off King Arthur by Arthur Spitzer!

Before I do any dive, I have to say that due to the unique concept and approach of this comic, I had to really think ...

We often talk about breaks in comics when referencing hiatuses. Sometimes they are planned, most often they aren’t. However, as I have been catching up on the backlog of webcomics I had saved up, it occurred to me that many of the long running series I enjoyed reading had ...

I think many of us who make comics or write stories or are interested in writing can agree that mistake number one in writing is to front-load a story with a long-winded backstory. We've talked about it here on the site plenty of times.

There is an opposite mistake ...