Category: Uncategorized

I teach a couple of classes at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. One is a general Storytelling class, and the other uses TV shows to analyze story structure. The classes meet on Mondays, and they’re routinely a highlight of my week. They challenge me to think on my toes, and that’s an exciting, rewarding experience. On some days, a student will ask a question that forces me to rethink everything I thought I knew.

Last Monday was one of those days.

Earlier in the semester, I lectured my Storytelling students on the importance of conflict. Conflict is integral, I told them. Without conflict, a story becomes a grocery list. This led to an examination of how conflict is used to build narrative tension. One student raised his hand.

“But… does a story HAVE to have conflict?”

My gut reaction was to say that, indeed, it did. The student responded that sometimes he felt manipulated by stories that simply dumped conflict into a reader’s lap, expecting a Pavlovian response.

My response was that the student should follow his instinct and challenge himself to write a compelling story without using conflict. I suggested that a great deal could be learned about his concerns by doing precisely that.

As I moved back into my prepared remarks for the day, I felt like I had… failed a little bit. You can usually tell when you’ve connected with a young writer. It’s as if a light turns on behind their eyes. That didn’t happen.

Later, as luck would have it, one of the listeners to my weekly podcast, ComicLab, asked my co-host and me to discuss kishōtenketsu. A writing structure that originated in China — and was embraced enthusiastically by Japanese and Korean writers — kishōtenketsu is a four-act writing archetype that doesn’t place the focus on conflict.

Invigorated, I did a deep dive into kishōtenketsu, learning of its dominance in manga and anime. I saw how Studio Ghibli used it in many of its wonderful feature films. I even learned about Yonkama, a special type of four-panel comic strip built using kishōtenketsu principles. Before long, I had assembled the materials for an hour-long presentation on the subject, complete with video clips, examples, analysis, and suggestions for exploration.

On Monday, I presented that lecture. I opened by recalling that student’s question and admitting that I felt my initial answer wasn’t satisfactory — not to the student and not to me. The young writer expressed amazement that I had even remembered! Giddily, I launched into my lecture. I did a general introduction to the concept, explaining how each syllable of kishōtenketsu represented one of the four acts — ki, shō, ten, and ketsu.

• Introduction (ki) establishes the main characters and their setting.

• Development (shō) deepens the reader’s understanding / emotional attachment to characters.

• Twist (ten) introduces an unexpected and significant change to the setting and to the characters’ lives.

• Conclusion (ketsu) brings together and reconciles the first two acts with the changes of the third.

I showed video clips of manga artists explaining the concept and using visual examples of how it was implemented in their work. I introduced Yonkama and pulled some charming examples. I did a breakdown of “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and discussed how each plot point fit wonderfully into a kishōtenketsu story structure. Forty minutes, twenty-four slides, a half-dozen comics, and two videos later, I turned breathlessly to this young writer to ask if this time — at long last — this time, I had done a better job of slaking his thirst for knowledge.

He was fast asleep.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed learning about this writing structure. It became a very useful post in The Webcomics Handbook, and we’ll definitely discuss it on ComicLab. I have a lecture I can call upon whenever the subject comes up again. Heck, I might even make it part of the official syllabus next semester. Besides, I’ve fallen asleep in my fair share of classrooms (as a student, of course). And I know from personal experience that I was absorbing a lot more information than it might have seemed at the time — if only by osmosis. There’s still a small chance that some of that information found its way into my student’s psyche. Or maybe another student in the class found it to be a breath-through moment.

That’s the thing about teaching: You can rarely call your shots, you can’t force a student to pay attention, and you feel like some days, everybody would be much happier if you just let them go home. But no classroom experience is ever wasted. Somewhere in that room, a light turned on. Or will be.

And that’s my kishōtenketsu story. Literally and figuratively.

—–

Special Offer

When these things go ‘bump’ in the night, they mean business!

I combined the last round of Monster Romance bonus cartoons with some of the best monster mashes from EiAD and the commissions — culminating in a fantastic NSFW eComic for my Patreon backers!

• Existing patrons? If you’re at an NSFW tier, do nothing. You’ll get your download the first week of May.

• Free members? Upgrade to an NSFW level today! You’ll get instant access to over 1,400 NSFW comics and illustrations. Then, at the beginning of May, you’ll get the special eComic AND LEWDcrate, a 4½-gigabyte digital reward!

Smartphone edition!

This digital reward will be delivered in a special vertical-scroll format optimized for smartphones! This works best when you import it into an eBook app like Apple’s iBooks.

Inside

• Three EiAD storylines

• Ten Commissions

• 28 Bonus cartoons

This page brings the current chapter of Evil Inc to a close — very similar to the way it started…

We finally find out whether Wingman got over his nasty fangover.

Callback

Longtime readers will know this is a callback to an earlier scene.

“Where’s Wingman’s wings?”

Wingman has the ability to compress his wings very tightly and fold them against his back. (Long-longtime readers will remember that, pre-reboot, his wings were energy constructs that could be deactivated.)

When these things go ‘bump’ in the night, they mean business!

I combined the last round of Monster Romance bonus cartoons with some of the best monster mashes from EiAD and the commissions — culminating in a fantastic NSFW eComic for my Patreon backers!

• Existing patrons? If you’re at an NSFW tier, do nothing. You’ll get your download the first week of May.

• Free members? Upgrade to an NSFW level today! You’ll get instant access to over 1,400 NSFW comics and illustrations. Then, at the beginning of May, you’ll get the special eComic AND LEWDcrate, a 4½-gigabyte digital reward!

Smartphone edition!

This digital reward will be delivered in a special vertical-scroll format optimized for smartphones! This works best when you import it into an eBook app like Apple’s iBooks.

Inside

• Three EiAD storylines

• Ten Commissions

• 28 Bonus cartoons

Captain Heroic is back on the staff of Justice Ltd. — and he’s back in his classic costume.

Aunt Acid

The caustic criminal was first introduced waaaaaaay back at the very beginning of the Evil Inc reboot in 2016!

Miss Match has a new job at Evil Inc…

Here’s the full-page version of this week’s Evil Inc comics.

Here’s the moment we’ve been waiting for!

Here’s your final notice on the Kickstarter for the new Evil Inc books! They’re both available through the Kickstarter which is ending at 7 p.m. (EST) tonight! This is your last chance to get some very rare rewards! We’re easily within reach of our Stretch Goal…

We had our own March madness around here. There was so much going on, it’s hard to get it all into one post. However, the biggest news was this…

Nearly 500 backers helped drive the Kickstarter to fund the next Evil Inc graphic novel — which will be available in either SFW or NSFW versions. It topped out at $26,045, clearing the $26k Stretch Goal with under 35 seconds to spare! Pledges are being collected now, and I’m finalizing the pages to get them ready for printing! I’m super excited to get this book into everyone’s hands! Along with the usual rewards, Patreon backers got first dibs on the campaign — including exclusive access to free shipping tiers. Throughout the month, I also posted on special pages I’m working on for the book — like this one…

Evil Inc

In Evil Inc, a tumultuous storyline is drawing to a close. It will see Commander Heroic go off on a new adventure and clear the way for Captain Heroic and Miss Match to finally try to see if they can make their relationship work!

Evil Inc After Dark and NSFW commissions

I’ve been focused on wrapping up the EiAD storylines from the previous chapter so I can release the NSFW version of that eComic. So we spent a little time back in Wingman’s apartment. Meanwhile, commissions in March included a scorching scene between Miss Match and Akron baddie H-Bomber, another scintillating “Serpent-Sinner-Saint” scene, and another peek at our sapphic Elf and Orc.

Bonus cartoons

The bonus cartoons focused on Spring themes. We had a unique celebration of Pi Day and a little bee-rated fun with flowers.

Lady Valiant

I want to give a special thanks to my friends at Lady Valiant, who allowed me to share a fantastic 24-page NSFW comic with you. I’m hoping we can do another content exchange with them soon!

I’ll be delivering LEWDcrate in a couple of days. That’s a 4-gigabyte package that gives you access to the following outside of Patreon’s interface.

• Evil Inc archives in their full-page format

• Evil Inc After Dark

• NSFW commissions

• Courting Disaster

• Cape Carnival

• Cape Carnival After Dark

• Bonus cartoons

You can also use your Patreon log-in to access special NSFW areas on the Evil Inc website — including EiAD, Commissions and Courting Disaster.

If you’ve joined us at the Free Membership tier, this is an excellent time to treat yourself to a full membership. You’ll get instant access to over 1,400 NSFW posts, new content uploaded constantly, and a community of friendly comics lovers.