Thunder Punch Daily 133 – How is Transformer Babby Formed?

Inspired by a recent Twitter conversation I had with Kasey Van Hise, today I share a few thoughts about the difference between real world logic, internal story logic, and story idea logic. Focusing too much on the minute details of the logic of details in a story (such as wondering about the necessity of gender [...]

Art & Story 72 – The Big Approach

[private]There seems to be two major approaches we cartoonists take to building a comics story: • Starting with a group of characters and building a story around them, or • Starting with a premise and creating characters to suit it and the story. Having done both in our comics projects over the years, Mark and [...]

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Art & Story 62 – The Big Deconstruction

[private]We’ve been playing around with a method of deconstructing stories lately, and we thought it might be fun to share it with you, the listener. Here’s how we did it: 1) Determine the thesis, or theme of the story 2) Write out a brief synopsis of the story 3) Identify the “Character Crisis” for the [...]

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Art & Story 53 – The Big Open Source Character

[private]This week Mark and I turn on the mic while we build a character from the ground up. We start with a basic premise for a story and a name for a villain, and we go from there. The premise? A frustrated thirty-something would-be writer working in a book store. Suddenly he’s confronted by characters [...]

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Art & Story Alive! Episode 28

[private]This week we talk about ideas. How do we nurture and refine them into workable story? When should we put them down as a junk idea, and what signs can we look for in a more polished idea? From there we go into a brief discussion on “when to say ‘when’”–meaning, what are the warning [...]

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