So we love our clever villains, our smooth criminals, the conniving sly characters that use their brains to thwart the heroes and be a real menace. Like the riskiest game of chess, the hero has to match that kind of villain in strategy and smarts as well as determination, prowess ...

Hello everyone, and welcome to Panel by Panel, a periodic exploration of comic panels around The Duck. This week I am tackling a reader request! I was pleased to find a message in my inbox here on the Duck from J_Scarbrough asking me to look at and share some thoughts ...

One of my favorite tropes (at least I think it's a trope. Not sure how common it is) is the “unknown hero”.

It's when a character who's known to us, the audience, maybe very well, and is at least somewhat important to us.

The character dies and ...

Set in a time of Feudal Japan, there are two competing clans: the Oni Clan (represented as an ogre or troll in Japanese folklore) and the Fox Clan (a woodland creature). Kisago is assigned to Midori, both members of the Fox Clan, to be her personal escort because he shows ...

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With the release of the new Indiana Jones film comes some questions… We haven't seen it yet but we hear a lot of people don't like it and it's already being called a flop ...

Photo: “Growlution is Returning in Two Weeks”. Drawn by Xade. May 2023.

MILESTONE

Growlution by Xade

Xade writes:

“Okay! The 50 is uploaded and ready to air on July 12, plus we are live and ben live for a few weeks. I look forward to the spotlight.”

Growlution Synopsis

Follow ...

Starry violence shot across the skies
Void it defies, or so it says.
Gravity cries, or so it bets
Humanity aligns, or so it heads
Violent stars crossing demise
Skies complies, shots say their byes
The human race is ready to live when the old world dies…
… Or so it ...

Ok yes. Plot armor in general is considered a mistake. With good reason. Enough plot armor and there are no stakes left in your plot, and the audience isn't worried your plot-armored characters may not make it. And if there's no suspense, there's no engagement or the ...

HELLO—
It's summer in the northern hemisphere! …. So hot

Here's some stories about anthropomorphic dudes

Here are the 3:

FIRST one here is a story from 2013 called Grim Dog by Saikiyo




Grim Dog
It's a short story about a couple of cat-like creatures living in a ...

This year is the 30th anniversary of The Fugitive - that is, the Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones movie. It's a phenomenal movie, and maybe the high bar for the…I guess, the “mature thriller”, we could call it.

Funny enough, it's a remake. In the conversation about ...