Wrapping up this series of character designs for antagonists, villains, and even protagonists with toxicity as their flaw, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the toxicity of inactivity.

The motto is well known- all that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to ...

I was reading a critique of a series, a successful series, of novels. I think it's an urban fantasy/horror thing where the main character has a specific paranormal ability, limited, but useful in her detective work. She had a love interest, who was maybe on and off, but ...

Photo: “MEDV” or “I’m Evolving So I Can Walk on Land and Eat a Mediterranean Diet”. TWO PENNY VAUDVILLE. Drawn by CRYSTALPEN. (February 2023)

CRYSTALPEN, of Two Penny Vaudville—a comic described as, “GAG CARTOONS: MY LITTLE THEATER OF LAUGHS,” by its creator—wrote on the “Meet, Greet, Show ...

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 ...

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 ...

There's a weird hermit living at the edge of a street. Rumours fly about him and what he does all day, whether he's a criminal or a psychopath. People don't go near him or his property and any interaction is minimal. Until a young vagrant kid stumbles ...

Okay, this is a semi-rant and train of thought post, because I've had a couple whiskey and I'm Having Thoughts About Things. You have been warned.

There was one thing that always bothered me in villains that monologue in movies (I also see it in how social media ...

It's been said by…someone that a character WANTS something. It's one of the ingredients that makes a compelling character. It's also something that makes a character relatable, even one who's very different from the reader/audience.

Most of us aren't centuries-old robots, but we ...

I know we've talked about exposition before, but a couple examples popped into my head recently…even though the examples are not recent.

When I was a youngster I loved the Hulk character. Today I remembered a specific issue of that comic, from way back, where the Hulk was ...