Autumn has officially arrived. It feels like a different season even though I do not live in an area of the world where the tree leaves are turning vibrant shades of yellow and orange. The scents of cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin spice, and all the warm cozy feelings are back. Yes ...

Banes is deathly ill with the canceraids today so I'm having a go at newsposting instead.
So I want to chat about developing a sketch idea… Sometimes it can be a long and twisty road, but it's worth it to see what you end up with. Sticking with ...

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 ...

Summary:
Amar the Barbarian mindlessly fights for his life is a barren snowy wasteland against viscous orkish foes, and he LOVES it. The trouble is, he doesn't even know he's caller “Amar” yet, that comes later… Something really big and strange is about to change in his life ...

LISTEN!

For Quackcast 237 we asked people about the songs that inspire them when they do their comics, which songs go with which parts of their comics, what would be the ideal comic movie theme, what songs or music get you in the MOOD to do your comic, and finally ...

I usually write comic scripts with a pretty specific idea of what each panel will look like when drawn: the setting, who’s doing what, facial expressions, and so on. What I almost never do is write any of that down. Except for specific actions that characters have to respond ...

image by Banes

Last Thursday I talked a little about writing a scene, in terms of the change that happens, what the character wants, and what obstacle is in the way of achieving that want.

But what about dialogue? Eh?

One way to help define what's going on in ...

Summer here is hot and dry, but it's so short that sometimes it feels more like a coffee break in an endless winter than a real season. People who live in the prairies know that each summer day has to be savoured - tucked away as a little memory for ...

Here are some thoughts on writing that smallest unit of a story: the scene.


First off, what is a scene? What defines it?

It's Change.

Something changes between the beginning and end of a scene.

Here's a way to write one if you're stuck. These are the ...

I'm not sure who the first fictional character was that I became attached to. The Cat in the Hat? Superman? Jason Voorhees, maybe?

In any case, Jughead Jones was somewhere in that early group of beloved characters. I liked Archie, and envied his dating life with Betty and Veronica ...