Anyone that has written or read fanfiction knows that the AU is the Alternate Universe: the placement of a given set of characters that come from a specific IP or franchise or book or movie into a completely different setting, timeline, or even genre.
The LOTR cast might be thrown ...

The AU
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, May 21, 2022Panel by Panel: 'Ghastley Heights' and Framing
hpkomic at 12:00AM, May 20, 2022
Hello and welcome to Panel by Panel, an analysis of panels from comics right here on The Duck and exploring what they do, how they work, and what we can learn from them.
This week's panel comes from the Ghastley Heights strip “Pamphlets.” This comic is by IronScarf. Let ...
Fantastic Bestiary 6: The Oni
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:00AM, May 15, 2022
And we’re back with Fantastic Bestiary number 6. Being the number 6 in this series of articles I thought I’d bring up a mythic creature of a particularly devilish kind of aestethic. And as this week’s featured comic, featured by our beloved Ozoneocean, happened to be about ...
Pets in Comics
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, May 14, 2022
Pets are intimate companions that get us through the day. Cats, dogs, rabbits, rats, snakes, fish, you name it- they help us in their own way. And yet not many characters in fiction or comics tend to have them. I for one don't include animals at all in my ...
Language
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:00AM, May 8, 2022
As a compulsive - and rather obsessive – writer I often find myself tinkering around with language. And I’ve always found the creativity and imagination that can go into the language within a fictional world to be similar to that of an illustrator. When done well it can bring color and ...
The Art That Made Us
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, May 7, 2022
A million things have already been said and talked about regarding an artist's inspiration. A million more will be. From debates on what constitutes inspiration vs. poaching or plagiarism to what makes an artist inspired by other artists' work.
But what I want to talk about is not exactly ...
Panel by Panel: 'Goldstar' and the Power of the Establishing Shot
hpkomic at 12:00AM, May 6, 2022
Hello and welcome to Panel by Panel, an analysis of panels from comics right here on The Duck and exploring what they do, how they work, and what we can learn from them.
Let's start with our panel in question this week. This one comes from the webcomic of ...
Inspiration/Plagiarism
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:00AM, May 1, 2022
I’m taking a pause from the Fantastic Bestiary this week as I haven’t been my best healthwise lately. Also lately I’ve been distracted by something that has left me with this question poppin’ into my mind, And so this sunday I'm posting this question that perhaps ...
The Unicorn
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, April 30, 2022
No, this article isn't about the mythological beings. I wouldn't want to steal any single one from Andreas Helixfinger's awesome Sunday article series.
What I want to talk about is the metaphorical unicorn: a character that is too good to be true, too unlikely to be found ...