Now, the good Professor always follows up his “Good News, Everyone” with decidedly bad news. But for this week, that can wait. And I was going to spend the first part of this newspost looking at some of the more depressing stories about books from around the world, but end ...

There was a recent article in the Guardian about how playing Dungeons and Dragons had helped siblings bond and cope with the death of their father. It got me thinking about the role that role-playing has played (now there's a phrase) in my own life.

For me role-playing began ...

I'm having to write a short speech to give at a friend's memorial service next month, and I'm finding it difficult. It's not the words that I'm struggling with, it's more the entire concept of what I'm doing. So, as a distraction from ...

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Today we're going into another aspect of creating artwork for webcomics! This time it's painting skin, a topic that Tantz suggested. How do you render skin? It's a super common thing in ...

Diamond Comic Distributors has gone bankrupt. As someone who once worked in a comic book shop, back in the 80s and 90s, it was something of a shock. I came over all nostalgic for their blue logo. I still have a number of cardboard boxes crammed with comics that have ...

I was tempted to write about something easy and non-controversial this week, but then decided I would just keep being me. At least this post has something to do with comics, and current news. I'm genuinely interested in what people have to say on this topic, as it it ...

Picture credit: Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire

Today (Thursday 6th February) is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, although due to the nature of time zones you will probably be reading this after the day if over for us.

Waitangi is a place in NZ, the name meaning ...

Banes is taking a short break for the Thursday post, so I'll be filling in for a some unspecified number of posts. How many exactly? Well, how long is a piece of string? How long is the coastline of Britain? That was an academic paper ('How Long Is the ...

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Is there a culture of plutocratic classism in the USA? I'm inspired by Trump's America and how people think that people like Elon Musk and him are above the law because they're rich, while ...

Photo: “Mies Couch”. Drawn by Plymayer. (January 2025)

I rewatched two-thirds of Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy, skipping over the first film of the series to focus on the latter two. The trilogy consists of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight each film spaced roughly a decade apart. The ...