I don't really have much to say when it comes to balloon placement, except that it's a balancing act: speech balloons must be looked at but not really be ‘seen’. In the sense that the balloons shouldn't obstruct the reader of the webcomic from easily reading the ...

As creators of stories, be they novels or graphic novels or comics, we all have heard the adage “write what you know”. It's been drummed into our minds to the point that its cold fingers have our impostor syndrome in a deathgrip every time we venture our to write ...

Herbivores are the predators of the plant
Smokes rising to make the sun burn up
Demagogues are the creditors of the cant
Scopes rising to make the sun blow up
Everdreams are the janitors of the grant
Slopes rising to make the sun roll down.


NaaN (Now, always and Never)

Photo: Life-Sized, Modern Sculpture Adaptation based on the Oil Painting “Yellow Hat Woman” by Edward Hopper. Created by Mr. Brainwash. Mr. Brainwash Museum. Beverly Hills, California. (August 2023)

Nestled in a non-descript corner where Santa Monica Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard intersect, steps away from Rodeo Drive in the city of ...

Herbivores are the predators of the plant
Smokes rising to make the sun burn up
Demagogues are the creditors of the cant
Scopes rising to make the sun blow up
Everdreams are the janitors of the grant
Slopes rising to make the sun roll down.


NaaN (Now, always and Never)

Hello and welcome to Panel by Panel, an analysis of panels from comics right here on The Duck and exploring what they do, how they work, and what we can learn from them.

This week we will check out a panel from the webcomic Redneck by user Metsuke. This is ...

I don't wanna be remembered; I wanna be forgotten


MEMORY and MEMORY LOSS in FICTION

Playing with memory and memory loss is a handy device for fiction writers, from soap opera-type melodrama to exciting-but-thought-provoking stories like The Matrix, and in all kinds of stories betwixt and beyond.

Like any ...

So, ladies and gents, friends and furries, yes, 13 Ghosts is the movie that haunted me as a child and to a point, still haunts me. I’ll never look at bathtubs the same.

BUT BEFORE I GET INTO THE MOVIE REVIEW, if you are reading this, and I kind ...

Silencing unpopular ideas, famous individuals with a large platform, and entire thought processes has been on the rise. Last week, forty-two episodes went missing from a well-known podcast’s archive leaving several listeners wondering why the episodes were removed.

Popular podcasts are a media form that carry a lot of ...

Last week I talked about what kind of stuff to stick in the middle section of stories.

Here's a tangent I found myself on, about the actual halfway mark:

Well, the middle bit almost always contains the actual halfway point of the story. In many stories this is a ...