I was supposed to write the last post on my ‘toxic’ character design series, but I've been deep cleaning the house all day and I'm exhausted. My brain refuses to think so that post will need to wait till next time. Instead, I'd like to talk about ...

When I first started putting together my story idea for Typical Strange many years ago, I imagined it to be an animated series. With a lot of time and effort and learning Toon Boom software along the way, I had a pretty strong idea of the main characters, and a ...

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Arrogance is a fun subject. Related to cockiness, hubris, assertiveness, self confidence and pride.
It's a fantastic trait for a villain and it's really fun ...

Tough love is so cool, eh? It's going to magic the “whining” right out of you, won't it? You just need to stick out through the harshness, and then when you reap the benefits, you'll realize your tough loving benefactor had the right idea. You'll be ...

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This is when the writer leads you to think something big has happened in the story, like a character dying or falling in love or winning a ...

Photo: “Venus: Love and Beauty”. National Geographic Picture Atlas of Our Universe by Roy A. Gallant. (1980)

Love is the center of discussion in “The Speech of Pausanias” from Plato’s Symposium. Pausanias brings up the existence of two goddesses that both embodied love: an older deity, Urania, known as ...

So last time, in Part 1 of this discussion of …sunnier villains or antagonists, we had left off talking about how toxic positivity is all about the toxic person's comfort. And that this need to impose a certain behavior, dogma, and/or approach to reality in their environment leads ...

Shmuck Bait is the name, I think coined by one of the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul writers, where a cliffhanger or shocking ending leads the audience to believe something major has changed. For example, the appearance that a major character has died. But when the next episode/issue/book ...

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Toxic positivity can take all sorts of forms, but I think it's most easily recognised by someone telling you to be happy about something when you ...

With the ever expanding influence of Webtoons, more and more people are flocking to webcomic sites to read comics. I say read, but really it is “consume”. In this day and age where content is being inhaled at an unprecedented rate, creators are being pushed further to create more. Longer ...