I'm a bit obsessed with “before” versions of characters. Where they start. The damaged dude or dudette who shows up at the beginning of a story REALLY needing a change in their lives, and usually not knowing it.

Even when the plot kicks off, these folks often don't ...

Thursdays with Banes - The Murky Middle

A good way to put together a story is to figure out some essentials, first - Elements of Character, Plot and Theme, and Building some World and all that. We've talked about these things around here a lot, and we'll prolly continue to ...

Hello again!

I'm gonna continue for the next two or three weeks about “The Comedy Toolbox” approach to comedy structure.

There is quite a bit of crossover between this method and other methods you've heard of. But that's probably a good thing; there should be some similarity ...

Howdy!

I was going to go over the structure of a comedy story, based on the fine book “The Comic Toolbox” by Jason Voorhees.

If you have the interest, I can go into the structure outlined by Jason; he lays out a few different options that you may find useful ...

Last week I looked at a theory of the “comedy premise” that has to do with crossing the mundane with the unusual.

Here's that post:

http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/apr/12/comedy-part-one-the-premise/

This week: Creating Comedic Characters!

Using the same principle as the “premise” creation, we can ...

From the Best of Banes Collection…

CHARACTER SHAPES

I've never consciously designed characters this way, but I recently remembered hearing about this notion some time ago, on the dvd special features for an animated movie or show. I don't remember which one.
Characters derived from basic shapes can ...

But and Therefore

I'm a fan of user-friendly, practical advice on things, especially writing. It's why I dig the Banes Method (it's not my method; it's just named after me).

Anyway, I came upon some dandy advice from Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park ...

A Meme is a comic, really. Pictures and words put together to get some kind of point across.

It's a fascinating phenomenon. I'm tempted to try to explain what they are, but the meme up top has reminded me not to attempt that.

Seeing them, whether I understand ...

Time doesn't really exist in comics. Someone can blast through multiple pages in seconds, or linger on one panel for years. Well, that would be rare. But you see what I'm saying.

What if you want to make your readers slow down? To give your pages the pace ...

The Hated, part two: Heroes we hate

Last week I blathered on a bit about villain Protagonists. These are evil, or “bad” characters who get to be Protagonists!

But what about more traditional heroes, or supporting characters are written to be the “moral compass” or “voice of reason”, or just ...