A ton of things have been written about “strong female characters”- how we need them in narratives, and what it means to have them in a creative work's cast. Tons of discussions and social media wars have been waged on what it is that makes a female character strong ...
Strong Women, Strong Men
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 8, 2018When the middle of your story sucks
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Dec. 7, 2018
When creating a story, either for comics or novels, the easiest parts to write are usually the beginnings and ends because hell ,they’re the fun bits right? You burst out of the gate, ready and raring to go, your gaze on that sweet, sweet finale but there’s a ...
One Bad Apple, part 2
Amelius at 12:09PM, Dec. 2, 2018
So if vampires are a hot mess and haters are at the gates what can YOU learn from vampires? Well, a lot, vampires are not the only over extended sub-genre out there. Let's explore another genre that is trying to avoid ending up in a similar space, superheroes, specifically ...
Serialized vs Episodic Storytelling
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 1, 2018
There is a general trend in mainstream media and sequential art to generally value serialized works (in shows, series, comics, etc) over episodic ones. They are considered to be more elegant, more dynamic and more interesting than episodic ones. While this might definitely hold true, is it so as a ...
Playing favourites
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Nov. 30, 2018
I have favourite characters. There, I said it.
Although I would love to think that I love them equally, and on some level there is truth to that, there are a few I continually come back to and just want to get into them more. Now, just because they are ...
One Bad Apple
Amelius at 6:52PM, Nov. 25, 2018
It's a vampire, break out your torches and pitch forks! The geek have inherited the earth, but far from it being an accepting utopia, the acceptable targets have just changed and the haters run free. There are a lot of things that people like to crap on, but few ...
The Double Edged Sword of Stereotyping
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 24, 2018
Stereotypes permeate our every day lives. Whether we like it or not, our brains are wired for making quick estimations and judgments based on patterns and pattern recognition.
This very pattern we're looking for to identify at a glance is what a stereotype is. And it's very useful ...
Amanda Palmer and the Fraud Police
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2018
In my quest to improve myself by reading more than one book this year, I made a point to try and finish one that was given to me last Christmas, (I think anyway). Namely, Amanda Palmer’s, The Art of Asking. There was a passage in there that really jumped ...
Recycling Ideas From The Trash
Amelius at 12:04PM, Nov. 18, 2018
There are no bad ideas, just poor execution…..terrible, awful execution.
You may have seen those games that go around on social media, such as “Describe a classic movie/video game/novel in the worst way possible”, it shows how easy it is to make any concept seem like the ...
The Need To Denigrate
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Nov. 17, 2018
Lately there has been this pattern that I've noticed in both social media and mainstream comics/cartoons outlets that is very saddening: the use of denigration and belittlement as a promotional tactic, or as an argument.
More and more I seem to notice that new series, reboots, retellings or ...