image from The Art of Veiling, by yours truly

There have been posts before (I think) about how to go about creating a world, especially when it comes to fantasy settings. You’re supposed, if you want to do it right, to build everything that makes up the world in ...

We've all been there: all of the sudden, the trajectory of your own life seems to thwart you from your ambitions! Maybe it's obligations to schoolwork or your day job; maybe your partner or family; maybe you wind up homeless or awkwardly crashing on a series of couches ...

From the Best of Banes Collection…

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 movie or show. I don't remember which one.
Characters derived from basic shapes can ...

There are some comics where shadows don’t really exist- like Tintin where nothing casts a shadow at all. In other comics, shadows play a huge part, like Sin City. And yet in others they are just part of the natural environment of the comic and nothing more.

All are ...

Every now and again, an acquaintance or friend who ain't as deep in comics culture and creation as I am (which is to say they ain't really got much of an idea about comics but have seen the Sunday funnies page and know that Batman is a thing ...

But and Therefore

I'm a fan of user-friendly, practical advice on things, especially writing. It's why I dig the Banes Method (it's not my method; it's just named after me).

Anyway, I came upon some dandy advice from Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park ...

Aight y'all, go ahead and fasten yer proverbial seat belts, on account of we got a lot of ground to cover with this one! Actually come to think of it there ain't really too many proverbs about seat belts; more like I'm stretching out a turn of ...

The Businessman, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

I have a certain level of disdain for people who believe that comics and art in general are merely hobbies. When I was much younger and on the receiving end of advice from many well-meaning grown-ups, the word “practical” and the phrase ...

So last week we started off talkin' about rules and why we might need em, right? But what exactly do these rules apply to, ya might wonder. Ya might not wonder, actually, but too bad, I'ma tell ya anyway. We'll start where any comic starts: with your basic ...

Image by Gunwallace, from Utterly Rucked, found here on the Utterly Drunk Duck!

Photocomics

My somewhat undisciplined, regularly wandering mind went, awhile back, to the possibility of doing photocomics instead of drawn ones.

Of course, my fanciful thoughts hit a wall after realizing the amount of WORK that goes into ...