Category: Writer’s Blog

I’m not going to stand in front of you and claim that the McCartys are paragons of thought and wisdom. On the other hand, even though I was writing them with all the trappings of stereotype “stupid rednecks” for the […]
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Sometimes I am very happy to be wrong. I’m referring to a rather vitriolic post I made last year when I first heard about a movie in production titled “Warm Bodies“, which seemed to be my worst fears come to […]
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Any time I don’t quite meet a commitment I feel I’ve made, I do feel bad. Right now, though, I feel bad mostly because I’ve been sick, and Dawn’s even worse… I try not to get overly informative about our […]
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“Timing is everything” is a phrase you usually hear applied to comedy, but it’s equally applicable to tragedy. Maybe even more so. Consider the ending of Romeo & Juliet, if Romeo arrives 10 minutes later or Juliet awakens 10 minutes […]
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There’s a slang phrase you don’t really hear anymore, so much so I’m pretty sure most people have forgotten its meaning: “From hunger”. In fact the last time I can recall hearing it recently wasn’t technically recent, since it was […]
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Zombie Ranch is a comic where I constantly wrestle with issues of presentation, due to its “show-within-a-show” nature. For instance, should every image presented be considered something that was filmed? The revelation that there are hidden cameras about allows that to […]
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For those unfamiliar with the slangy term in the title, think of a dial such as you might have on a stove or an electric blanket. As you turn it the heat gets more and more intense, until it might […]
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So this last week, I addressed an odd quirk in my movie experiences regarding the Rambo franchise. Namely, that while I have over the years watched Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III, and even the more recent (just plain) Rambo, […]
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I decided to return back to physics Professor Peter Beckmann’s office … “ Can science fiction be used to teach science? ” I inquired. “Of course, ” he replied. “Good science fiction looks at all rules of reality, the rules […]
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Last week, courtesy of a Facebook acquaintance, I came across this image of someone’s Tumblr where some interesting conversation took place regarding humanity: http://imgur.com/gallery/hINj1xf Now because that happens to be a reposted image, I have no idea what the original […]
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Well, here we are, August 21st, and the storyline of Zombie Ranch is continuing as promised. I have to admit, it was nice to be able to take a breather after all the intensity of wrapping up the first arc. Oh sure, […]
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Last week I wrote about canon, the more or less “official doctrine” surrounding a fictional property. But since then, I’ve been thinking how even the most exhaustively detailed creations will leave holes that the author or authors have failed to […]
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No, the title isn’t a typo, just another of my puns. Ever heard the old joke “Hark! I hear the cannon’s roar!” ? There’s a version of it here if you want to look, but I think I first remember hearing […]
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A couple of weeks ago I penned a piece on what I felt were my basics in crafting a good character. But what exactly is a good character? Or a strong character? Aren’t these adjectives bringing connotations with them that […]
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If you’ve never heard the term “Con Crud” before this post, I shall educate you. If you’ve never experienced Con Crud, I shall envy you, because I am currently deep in its throes and very thankful we don’t have to […]
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This link may not work for you without an InkOutbreak account, but basically Savannah Houston-McIntyre, writer of the webcomic Amya, was opening a discussion on the forums about creating strong, iconic, and most of all relatable characters, and the techniques people […]
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This week’s comic page is very important to me. It represents not only the endpoint of Episode 7, but the end of our whole first trade collection (assuming, of course, we manage to put one together). It’s the close of the […]
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And here we have another egregious example of writer exaggeration in effect. This isn’t about bank robbery, or public nuisance, or even parking at an expired meter, I’m talking more about the nebulous laws of storytelling, especially one in particular: […]
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It’s a new century. A digital age. Thirteen years ago in his book Reinventing Comics, Scott McCloud looked to the future with shining eyes and pondered the possibilities of the “infinite canvas” that digital comics storytelling would enable. Thirteen years later, […]
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You know, I count myself amongst those who greeted the news of Microsoft’s plan for the future of its console gaming with… disappointment. Okay, more accurate to say that the “One” in “Xbox One” could be analogized to one finger. […]
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