We live in a world that can be exceedingly beautiful or appallingly harsh, and everything in between. And as art reflects one's experiences, emotions and questions about this world, it's unavoidable that both the themes of amazing beauty and the themes of absolute terror, disgust and horror will ...
Drawing the Line
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 14, 2018What's in a theme
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, July 6, 2018
A narrative theme is, in essence, the meaning behind your story. It also serves to tell your audience what your story is about. Establishing it’s core early on enables you to keep it grounded and focused as you begin to unfold your characters and plots.
Despite a longer piece ...
On Being Militant
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, June 9, 2018
Anyone that knows me even a little is aware that I have strong involvement in common affairs, activism and maintain strong political views. My comic also has a lot of social and political commentary woven into the story and I strive to make my case through my art, be it ...
The Javert Effect
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, May 26, 2018
Javert is such a stellar and powerful character in Les Miserables that he has his very own trope.
He's the skilled, dogged, unwavering locomotive of a chaser that in the name of the law, the church, the state, the cause pursues and persecutes the hero of a story, and ...
The Incredibly Long List of Drunk Duck Award Categories
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, April 30, 2018If you have checked out the Drunk Duck Award Forum thread that is being moderated by Niccea, then you would have seen the list of award categories posted. This is a useful list if you want to see if your comic qualifies for any of the categories before creating a ...
CHARACTER ARCS IN SERIES and SEQUELS
Banes at 12:00AM, April 19, 2018
Today we'll talk sequel and series character arcs
Last Week we talked about character arcs. They're an important element of fiction writing…although a lot of the time, there is no arc! But a strong, unpredictable character arc can be a great help in driving a story from ...
Character Arcs Revisited
Banes at 12:00AM, April 12, 2018
A character starts in one state of being, and ends in a very different state of being.
The Character Arc in a nutshell!
Every time the subject of character arcs comes up around the site or on the Quackcast, one of the first examples that comes to my mind is ...
The Beautiful Bishies Collection
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, April 6, 2018
A few weeks back, Tantz, Pitface and I exposed our inner fangirls to the world on the Quackcast and divulged our past bishie crushes, Tantz revealing that her first love had been Rurouni Kenshin. This recently came into mind as Kenshin is now streaming on Australian Netflix so I thought ...
Showing and Telling
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 10, 2018
Anyone who ever dabbled in creative writing or any sort of narrative work, had the phrase “show, don't tell” hammered into them. The sheer anxiety of being caught ‘telling’ rather than ‘showing’ made us all think in terms I assume only exhibitionists do.
The truth though is, that sometimes ...
The Dance Scene
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Feb. 24, 2018
Just like the table scene, the dance scene can be an invaluable story telling tool: a way to showcase where your characters stand without having to force them to speak about it or have someone else infodump about it.
This stance can be on the characters that dance (i.e ...