It was great to read about the various influences on people's comics last week. I don't know if this topic called for a second part, er, so here it is!

Once again, these are the major influences I've identified for my current comic, Typical Strange. They stretch ...

After spending three hours reading Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman in a public library on Friday afternoon, I ran into the most marvelous sculpture on display while taking a stroll through West Hollywood Park. The shiny, white sculpture was based on two popular and beloved comic book superheroes, Batman and ...

Niccea would like to remind everyone that she will be accepting 2015 Drunk Duck Awards Extras and Speeches until Halloween (Saturday, October 31st). There is also a ballot for readers to vote for their FAVORITE PRESENTER below:

Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1n_P-UD5c9BKblLW3A3n1CIWNTeDJ24hbCYn3aiNT0Vs/

The above link will take ...

Since comic characters usually aren't too concerned with Halloween costumes, let's talk about how you dress your characters normally!

A character's outfit can convey the character's personality as well as the world they live in, and even their occupation in some cases. As a bare minimum ...

(Pizza Rat Costume)

Halloween was once thought of as a holiday made for children because it involved carved pumpkins, festive costumes, and copious amounts of candy. However, as the years passed, the more I observed how adults have a firm hold on the holiday because of its outrageous nature. One ...

CHARACTER SHAPES
I've never consciously designed characters this way, but I recently remembered hearing about this notion some time ago, on the dvd special features for an animated something-or-other.
Characters derived from basic shapes can give a very strong impression of their basic personality type. This can help the ...

After a long comic-making hiatus, I’ve had several ideas for comics in the last little while. Working on the first one, though, I’ve realized that unless I get a heck of a lot faster at drawing it's unlikely that all of my ideas will ever come to ...

Summary:
There's a bit of exposition to get through here, but it's going to be an interesting and fun story so stick with it, ok? Michelle “Mike” Vinson is a Pandora AND a Faust, she accidentally frees some demons and they offer a deal she finds too good ...

I'm not sure who the first fictional character was that I became attached to. The Cat in the Hat? Superman? Jason Voorhees, maybe?

In any case, Jughead Jones was somewhere in that early group of beloved characters. I liked Archie, and envied his dating life with Betty and Veronica ...

LISTEN!

We've talked about formulas before, but mostly in the context of escaping formulas and reinventing them.
NOW however we're talking about using existing formulas to create a story, or creating new formulas and sticking to them to come up with your stories.
Formulas can be a good ...