In designing a good villain character there's a wide range of paths one can follow. From the grandiose villains that want to take over the world and live in volcano islands, waiting for the hero to fall into their elaborate death trap to humanized villains with complex backstories that ...

Resentment
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 15, 2025Character Deep Dive: Khthonis from Tusk
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 13, 2024
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 ...
Everyone Was Innocent Once
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 23, 2023
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 ...
The Unicorn
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, April 30, 2022
No, this article isn't about the mythological beings. I wouldn't want to steal any single one from Andreas Helixfinger's awesome Sunday article series.
What I want to talk about is the metaphorical unicorn: a character that is too good to be true, too unlikely to be found ...
Fantastic Bestiary 1: The Jinn
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:00AM, March 27, 2022
Well, look! It’s Sunday again! And for this here Sunday, Sunday, Sunday article I thought I’d start this new little series of articles that the awesome Quackcast 575 inspired me to do. I shall call it the Fantastic Bestiary series, which will be a series of articles where ...
Mind Games
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, July 24, 2021
Sometimes the arch villain of the story is the one pulling all the strings in the background, and the protagonists don't know about them until the endgame.
And other times, the arch villain gets to clash with a protagonist (or an opposing character) that is also a mastermind pulling ...
Danko's Flaming Heart
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 5, 2020
I couldn't have been older than 11 when I read The Flaming Heart of Danko by Maxim Gorky. And boy, did it cut me with the finest of fine glass. Even now thinking about the short story hurts somewhere deep in my soul.
And yet, I love it so ...