I remember way back in the day, hearing a writer on the cartoon ‘King of the Hill’, who'd been a writer on ‘The Simpsons’ saying that on the Simpsons, is was all about how many jokes you could get in a scene…in a page…and even how many ...

I Was Wrong - The Character Arc

Last time I was here I talked about “The Old Warrior”. It's one of my favorite character types and story elements.

This time I'm going to go into another trope/theme that almost always works for me: The realization of a character ...

So I watched Hacksaw Ridge the other day (okay it was yesterday) and it was impressive.

Not so much as a movie (though that was quite decent) but the story. The story was amazing.

It's about a man named Desmond Doss who enlists in the army during WWII to ...

Recently I saw a performance of the Muppets' band “The Electric Mayhem” from 2009. Pretty great!

It occurred to me how many years have passed since the heyday of the Muppet Show in the late 1970's. The fact that this young-ish audience was so excited about this show said ...

Metal Hurlant: The Craziest Comic Book Series You Probably Never Heard About.
Comic books and graphic novels are considered by many an inherently American form of publication. They became popular in the English-speaking parts of the world (the US and the UK) in the 1930s and conquered the world in ...

The Sleeping Satyr, the Barberini Faun

Last night, a distressed friend contacted me after a rather dreadful experience. She had just been on the most awkward dinner date with a man she thought was a gentleman based on his good looks and charm, but he turned out to be the ...

Mermaids have always been the half-human, half fish sea creatures that lure unsuspecting sailors with their beauty and charm until they show their teeth behind a wicked smile and drag them into the water. The mermaids in Ice Massacre are not very different, with a man at the start suffering ...

Lately more and more comics and animated features seem to consciously, and more importantly loudly, incorporate political messages in their stories. From feminism to social stratification and discrimination, to racism and xenophobia or even depression and psychological trauma.

This is by no means a new thing, to incorporate themes and ...

Noako is an unusual lady, slightly… draconic… but she looks human enough. She lives with her best friend Ebony, a vamp who also happens to be a vampire, a very slutty one. And then comes along young Holly, a red-headed lesbian, to be their lodger. Along the way they meet ...

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Inspired by Emma Clare's Friday newspost about supporting characters, today we're discussing sidekicks! Sidekicks are a useful character type that are used in so many ...