writing

Tell The Damn Story

This podcast is a treasure for creative people (that’s all of us, by the way). Even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, Alex and Chris have something to offer you. Their wisdom and reflections don’t just apply to writing artfully, they’re helpful to live artfully.

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A Button Labeled “Surprise” – Alan Watts

I was charmed by this talk by Alan Watts. First, there’s the intuition that we’d eventually have phones that can bring us anything we want, but then he steers right into a consequence of abundance. Reminded me of the Twilight Zone episode where a thief dies and goes to what he believes is heaven. Every desire he’s ever had is instantly available to him. But is that heaven, or the other place?

You can listen to Watts’ whole talk here.

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From Instagram: December 07, 2019 at 10:55AM

Waaay back in 2001 I was working on a science fiction graphic novel that I described in my youthful arrogance as “Tolkien in space.” Of course that meant I had to design my own space alphabet. To my credit, I *did* try to design letter forms that visualized what I thought the sounds would look like (vowels are round, hard sounds are angular, etc). But otherwise it was just plain unexamined mimicry. (background photo from images.nasa.gov) #comics #writing #design #graphicnovels #oldwip
I post lots of nice pictures on Instagram

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Thunder Punch Daily 145 – Thumbs of Terror

Today I share some of my experiences in thumbnailing the new Front story I hope to start updating on Sugary Serials in February. I borrow some wisdom from J.M. DeMatteis to help make my points more lucid, but the big idea is that there’s no escape from the terror of thumbnailing a story.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Music for this show is by Eliott Drozd.

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

Voiceover by Tara Platt

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Thunder Punch Daily 142 – 3 Roads to Character

Today I follow up on a discussion started in Comics Are Great! episode 30 with some thoughts on character design from a writing standpoint. I share three different aspects that I oscillate between when creating characters.

Music for this show is by Eliott Drozd.

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

Voiceover by Tara Platt

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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 in The Transformers franchise), can distract you from what the story is meant to convey. I suspect that it can also influence your writing, which could be good or bad, depending on what you want to achieve in your work.

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Thunder Punch Daily 132 – Knitting Scenes Together

I was asked an interesting question in my Comic Book Academy class about how to figure out an order or sequence of scenes for a comics story. Today I share the answer I gave in class.

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Thunder Punch Daily 119 – Justice Heroes

Inspired by the rage I felt when I read about a new Zorro film (shared by Jon David Guerra), I rant a little bit about the value of the Justice Hero, or better yet, the Smiling Justice Hero. A revisiting of topics first explored in A&S 112 – The Big Good Guy.

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Thunder Punch Daily 117 – The Art of Conversation

Today I share an exercise I’ve used in my classrooms to teach some vital comics storytelling skills. By drawing a conversation sequence, we explore moment choices, scenery, emotional context, acting moments, and best of all, word balloon placement!

Also mentioned some great lettering tutorials over at Balloon Tales.

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