Big, big, Mary Sue-sized kudos and thanks to dpat57 and Ironscarf for their Mary Sue contributions! Both of these august individuals are very important to the Duck (even when it's only April!)

Head on over to the new Mary Sue - The Comic to see the full sized pages!
http ...

The Bestest Evar: Revisiting Mary Sues -
And a Contest!

Way back in the day our friend and my grizzled old mentor HippieVan did a post discussing Mary Sues - and we followed it up with a Mary Sue “contest”.

Many of us comic creator and reader types have probably known the ...

This might be a simple question, but I think it’s much deeper than most think.

Characters, whether they’re our own or not, have an origin, have traits, personalities, ideas, morals and goals. Each one is different and all of them share a similarity: their creator.

We can all ...

The father of behaviorism is B. F. Skinner. Yet another founding father of Psychology that one cannot bypass when talking about theories of personality.


The man himself, known for having said “give me a child, and I'll shape him into anything”


Skinner's theory was radical and groundbreaking in ...

When talking about personality, one must mention Freud.


pictured here with a small cigar.

Yes, even me. (Anyone who knows me knows I'm not a fan)

Despite my personal thoughts about his theory, mad props and respect has to be given to Sigmund Freud for being one of the ...

The physical space that a character inhabits often seems far more passive than it really is. Space is more than a matter of creating a backdrop, though. Why is it that some characters feel as if they’re moving against a wall paper background while others inhabit a far more ...

Dialogue is a very important element of writing. From novels to webcomics to movies, good dialogue will show things seamlessly, effortlessly, while at the same time they are unsaid.

What I mean to say is that good dialogue will have two levels. One level is going to be the overt ...

We're always advising people to give their characters flaws. But why? Is it just so they'll be relatable and not perfect/boring?

That is a good reason, for sure.

Is it so you'll know how they're supposed to react in certain situations?
“I wrote in my ...

The villain is a counter balance to the protagonist and it is their role to push the protagonist into action and, with any luck, do it in an entertaining way. If there is one type of character that knows how to hold an audience’s attention is a villain you ...

The Secret Santa Art Exchange Community Project has come to a close this year with ten total participants creating wonderful new pieces of gift art.

The requests were very innovative with gift suggestions ranging from a Ukrainian flowering bush all the way to depictions of the AI Battleground set to ...