Last time I wrote about villains making amends, after they decide to change their ways, flip sides, or generally become support to the protagonist, rather than the antagonist.

But for them to get there, there has to first come the realization that they are the villain of their story. And ...

I've started a few webcomics at this point, and all of them are ongoing…well, at least in theory.

There's always the question of where to start. What's page one gonna be?

With my first comic, Typical Strange, I LABORED over that decision for years.

Kind of ...

Hello there fellow Quackateers! I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of comic making but life has been hectic! As I was sitting down to work on some panels I found myself becoming frustrated at how long it was taking which got me thinking. So I thought ...

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Panel by Panel, a periodic exploration of comic panels around The Duck. As we established last time, this week we'll be going over the community feedback on a webcomic page provided by a volunteer. I'll also share my thoughts as well.

As for ...

A tried and true story trope is the “forced together”.

I think it was the director Sidney Lumet who said that he really enjoyed the tension that came from
this kind of situation. Taking two people who would never choose to be together are stuck in
a bad situation. It ...

So your villain has just made a heel-face turn and is now one of the good guys. Yay!



…not so fast!

The moment where an antagonist turns on their own side and joins that of the protagonists is extremely powerful. But unless it is part of the overall story's ...

badum-tsss

I thought the first time I appreciated comedy that was “bad on purpose”, it was Fred Willard in Best in Show.
It's possible that some of his quips and comments were funny, or funny to some people…but the point of that character (a clueless commentator at a ...

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 ...

What do you do when you feel hate against you for no reason at all? When someone just feels wrathful, red evil anger, vicious intentions towards you and you can't gauge why that would be or any way around it, or any solution to it aside from a full ...

One story structure, that ozoneocean and I talked about many years ago on the Quackcast, was the Lone Protagonist as drifter.

In Pulp Fiction, Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) says talks about leaving the life of crime to walk the Earth. “Like Kane in Kung Fu. Help people, get in adventures ...