Zines were in the news recently
(https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/nov/28/zines-exhibition-brooklyn-museum-art)

What’s a zine you might ask? It’s a small print run, usually small sized, amateur magazine. Often using photocopied pages, hand stapled, and it can be very unpolished in terms of content, but ...

The Rule of Thirds


When most people take a picture or draw a picture, the natural thing to do is to photograph or draw the subject in the center of the frame.

But one of the big tenets of visual composition is the RULE of THIRDS.

So pretty much, the ...

Time doesn't really exist in comics. Someone can blast through multiple pages in seconds, or linger on one panel for years. Well, that would be rare. But you see what I'm saying.

What if you want to make your readers slow down? To give your pages the pace ...

Today’s deep dive is with Polly, from Bottomless Waitress! Bottomless Waitress is the joint creation of Banes and Ozoneocean, with Banes writing the script and Ozoneocean doing the artwork.

It's a teasing, raunchy and somewhat absurd slice-of-life comedy. It’s a masterful balancing act, dancing carefree on the ...

Photo: “A Mutant Trying to Read”. The Uncanny X-Men by Marvel Comics. Animal Farm by George Orwell. Photographed by kawaiidaigakusei. (October 2023)
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Rogue: I figured you read this one already. But the cover looked pretty good.

Beast: Thomas Wolfe. An old favorite. I thank you.

Gambit: Beastie is easy to ...

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 tackling a reader request! I was pleased to find a message in my inbox here on the Duck from J_Scarbrough asking me to look at and share some thoughts ...

HELLO—
It's summer in the northern hemisphere! …. So hot

Here's some stories about anthropomorphic dudes

Here are the 3:

FIRST one here is a story from 2013 called Grim Dog by Saikiyo




Grim Dog
It's a short story about a couple of cat-like creatures living in a ...

There are many areas where the “rule of three” comes into play. There are plenty of them in storytelling.

Fairy Tales and Fables are full of threes, of course, with Three Little Pigs, Three Bears, Three Wishes, and on and on - the first unit sets things up, the second reinforces ...

It’s been quite a bit since I last made a character deep dive, but since I got a bit more time on my hands, here we are! Today’s Character Analysis is about Levana from Vampire Girl by Marie Kerns and J_Scarbrough!

So, first things first! Vampire Girl is ...