A lovely illustration from The Pirate Balthasar.

Initially, I had planned this week’s newspost to feature a selection of my favourite women characters on DD. But I realized as I was composing my list for this newspost that I was essentially just making a list of protagonists from my ...

I read that a great ending should be “surprising but inevitable”. That's a tall order! To have the whole story leading to that inevitable conclusion, but not be predictable. Wow!

However, I've seen (and read…ah, let's be honest; mostly it's “seen”) several great endings that ...

Last time, solo heroes, teams of two, and trios were the order of the day. Today let's talk quartets, quintets, sextets, septuplets, octets, and…uh…neuf-tets…?
More possibilities for self-contained drama/comedy/conflict exist with groups of four or five. There are several ways to begin building such a ...

Cast of an obscure 1970's science fiction flick. Current whereabouts unknown

One of the challenges…and maybe one of the greatest pleasures…of creating a series is populating it with a cast of heroes. I know I spend many weeks or months tinkering with characters and deciding who they ...

In the movie Annie Hall, the main character writes a play and uses it to give his failed relationship a happy ending.
There are countless stories where awkward, nervous protagonists…perhaps courtesy of awkward, nervous writers…win the battle, defeat the villains and get the gorgeous girl.

An unknown number ...

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 ...

“The greatest animated film you get to help make.”

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hullabaloo-steampunk-animated-film

You may or may not have heard of the Hullabaloo Steampunk 2D (hand-drawn) animated film by a team of former Disney and Dreamworks animators. The indiegogo crowdfunded project was spearheaded by James Lopez, an alumni ...

Hear ye, Hear ye!

After the long and arduous journey of seeking voting nominations for the annual Drunk Duck Awards, the official list of finalists has been released just in time for the judges to deliberate over the final outcome of the awards. This is also a reminder for everyone ...

LISTEN!

Summary:
What are the Do's and Do Not Do's when it comes to creating protagonists and antagonists??? For Quackcast 87 we asked for people's opinions on making heroes and villains, we asked who are some of your fave heroes and villains? What makes your own characters ...

B.A.S.O. is a big-ass space opera. It has heroes and villains, space marines and other worlds, high tech and low morals. Each piece of the story is presented in 6-page chapters following specific protagonists: Stavlov, stranded on a hostile water planet; Margery, who'll do anything for ...