Recently I saw a performance of the Muppets' band “The Electric Mayhem” from 2009. Pretty great!

It occurred to me how many years have passed since the heyday of the Muppet Show in the late 1970's. The fact that this young-ish audience was so excited about this show said ...

The Mysterious Stranger


This is about ‘the mysterious stranger’ in fiction. Well, one of the variations of that, at least. I'm not talking about the mysterious stranger who becomes the MC's lover in a romance novel, or the mysterious stranger who knocks on the door or gets into ...

While rambling through youtube I saw some reviews of these playsets that caught my eye. They were for the old classic The Muppet Show.

I'm not sure how well known this show is these days; it's been a LONG time since it was popular (of course, I know ...

what? we're over?


The show Supernatural is ending its run at season 15, which starts up sometime this year.

It's a really impressive length of time for a live action TV show - but when I heard about the finale, I had the same sort of vague surprise - the ...

I'm not generally a fan of ‘spoofs’ or parodies. There are a few greats of course, like Young Frankenstein, but even the well-regarded ones like the Naked Gun series back in the day aren't ones I was ever crazy about. There are some funny jokes and good performances ...

“Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

The school year ended last Thursday and I have already ...

Writing Timeclocks


Timeclocks are one of those elements of fiction that usually shows up in the middle or just before the final act, to give things a little boost in the adrenaline department, and make the drama more urgent. Not only are your characters facing big problems, but suddenly their ...

When do you bail on a series, movie or story?

We had a pretty fine conversation on the Quackcast last week that wandered into the category of “endings” and when they're set up well vs badly and such. I had a similar convo today with someone about various series ...

Didn't Do Nothin'

During the making of the movie Cast Away, Tom Hanks and the screenwriter were developing the story, and
it was going well - other than the ending. In the end, the character was rescued.

Robert Zemeckis, the eventual director of the movie told them that the character ...

I think John Byrne once said he did about two or three pages a day (I believe it was an eight hour workday).

Of course, the length of time a page will require depends a lot on what KIND of comic you're doing! A stick figure comic or sprite ...