Last night I had an interesting conversation with one of my favorite creators (you know who you are) about what makes a webcomic (or comic, or movie, or book, anything applies) preachy. Preachy as in trying to force an agenda, or ideology, or outlook down the audience's throat whether ...

Humans can be scary, fascinating, mysterious creatures. Humanity is capable of the most amazing feats of compassion and the most debased acts of cruelty. And not necessarily at opposing ends of the spectrum. The same person can be compassionate in one context and appallingly cruel in another. They may not ...

Today’s Character Deep Dive is about the amazing Khthonis from Tusk by the awesome Fallopian Crusader!

What can anyone say about Tusk that hasn’t already been said?? It’s a simply gorgeous fantasy action comic centering around the adventures of an orc warrior lady named Khthonis. The art ...

There's generally a tennet about character building for a villain in a story or webcomic that urges the creator to humanize them by giving them a backstory that “fleshes them out”. Often, “humanization” of a villain is taken to mean that they come across as more sympathetic or appealing ...

Last week I had the fortune of stumbling across Netflix's latest animated series, Blue Eye Samurai. I didn't expect much, but I was so bowled over by the sheer excellence of this show that I ended up binging the entire first season overnight. Like all shows, it's ...

Anyone that has written or read fanfiction knows that the AU is the Alternate Universe: the placement of a given set of characters that come from a specific IP or franchise or book or movie into a completely different setting, timeline, or even genre.

The LOTR cast might be thrown ...

You're watching the main character do their thing, and it's all smooth sailing, when another character comes in the room and sparks fly. You expect them to, and if written well, you look forward to each scene that has them both.

That other character is the foil.

The ...

It's finally done! We've gone through the basics of each psychology school of thought when it comes to personality theories. Each theory brings its own aspects of what makes human beings be the way they are. It could be described like each theory describes one facet of a ...

We have all talked of and considered character archetypes when designing and building characters.

There are many sets to pick from and it's not really a shocker that most of them, if not all, have their roots at psychology. (I'm looking at you, Carl Jung)

Far be it ...

Last time we talked about motivation in people, and its relationship to behavior. And I must say you all had great comments I feel deserve to be addressed, so instead of a four-part tour to the world of what makes people tick, I will add a fifth part where I ...