Now that's a little TOO scary!

Horror is perfect for metaphor and allegory. In fact, a horror story is often allegorical by default, what with its bizarre landscapes and freaky beasties.

Here are some categories of horror and some thoughts on what they symbolize:

Reality Bites


psycho killer! Qu ...

Hit Girlz: “It's like ‘Mean Girls’ meets ‘Pulp Fiction’!!!”

This is Darryl Hughes aka “TheDeeMan” and I have some DD news. Coydog and I have started a kickstarter for our comic “Hit Girlz”. As you may recall “Hit Girlz” ran on DD until 2018 and won the “best mystery ...

There are many tropes and many archetypes that we use for character designs. I had a couple of years go (have I really been at it this long!?) done a series of articles on the standard character type/functionality archetypes.

I'm thinking it's high time to explore archetypes ...

Many stories feature some kind of underdog in the beginning. This is a standard approach to a Protagonist. They may be very capable and bright, but have a lower status or disadvantage of some kind. This helps make them relatable and helps people root for them to win. Most mainstream ...

Bad Dog has been a bad dog, he mauled the proprietor of a brothel and ended up in prison. He's been sentenced to be executed in the Arena for the entertainment of the king and queen of the gods. Myths is centered around Atlantis, a place where gods and ...

Whether we have free will or not is a philosophical, existential and psychological conundrum that will forever tease and challenge us. While I can't speak for philosophers, I can for psychologists:

Behaviorists will tell you it doesn't exist (look up Skinner); Cognitive behaviorists will tell you it's ...

We grin and support John Wick as he ploughs through dozens of people per minute in his revenge quest over his murdered dog and ruined car, but we gasp with shock when the Wicked Witch of the East pursues a single person to take revenge for killing her sister with ...

It's all fine and exciting when using lore and myth to create new stories. Especially when it comes to modern genres like urban fantasy, it can yield pretty alluring and impressive results! From ancient Greek mythology to all kinds of Asian myths and legends, to Norse mythology and Egyptian ...

Imagine a city where a group of seven high-powered “superheroes” (think the Avengers or Justice League) are corrupt and it is up to a lone-wolf vigilante and an audio/visual salesman to be the ones with a lawful moral compass.

At first, the plot twist is refreshing, it answers the ...

Greetings, citizens!

Superpowers coming from magical abilities or fantastic technology are essential to many stories in the fantasy and science fiction genres. They can show up in other genres, too, like horror and of course, superhero stories (are they science fiction stories? Science-Fantasy? Heroic Fantasy? Whatever - most of those folks ...