better than ants

I/we love your comic btw <3

I'm glad this page has been a particular hit, it's one of my favorites... Hope this works. A smaller design's right under the cut.

"Gloria" is officially finished and setup to publish on 17/04/26 on Globalcomix!

[LINK]

I've been working on it for a year and a half and I'm very proud of the end result :)

Please consider sharing it once it's out!

And let me know what you thought <3 I'd love to hear it

Cheers!

We know vaccines painful, and by comparing horses at rest with horses getting vaccinated, we've been able to determine how they express pain visually. By looking at horses with disorders like colic, broken bones, wounds, and so on, we can determine their facial expressions during more severe pain.

At zookeeper school we were drilled through the pain faces of the most common lab animals and livestock. Nowadays I believe this has become a routine lesson in all animal related fields, but the general public still doesn't know that this is a thing that exists.

Here are all the pain face/grimace scales I've been able to find. Please study them if you interact with any of these animals on a regular basis:

With five strategically placed legs with three feet each, this specific creation animates as though it's flying above the ground and flapping its wings. It's pretty neat!

However, I've only ever seen these invisible legs used to make creatures float, and while I was working on another creature for an old request in my inbox, I wondered if invisible legs could also be used to manipulate the movement of regular legs.

Specifically, this creature I was working on is shaped a bit like a kangaroo. Kangaroos, of course, are known for hopping rather than walking--in fact, they can't walk, and are only able to move by hopping.

But, Spore isn't made for that kind of movement on two legs.

Looking back at the dragon, the two pairs of hind and wing legs are both synced up, and if you isolate that motion, it looks more like hopping. I figured that if I created a similar set up with invisible legs for this one, I could get the two hind legs to rise and fall in sync.

Success! It isn't perfect, but it gets the job done. Now, with the walk cycle sorted out, I can work on building the rest of the creature, adding more details and other parts. I decided I wasn't happy with the head, so I started playing around with that.

... Huh? I didn't touch the legs at all, and yet, the removal and addition of different parts has altered the walk cycle. Interesting! I decided to do some testing, hypothesizing that maybe it had to do with the number of parts--perhaps whether the number was even or odd affected it. I added another pair of horns, but the walk cycle didn't change. Out of curiosity, I added a third pair...

... and it's back to hopping! But, if you compare it to the original hop, it's different. The normal hind legs are now synced with the invisible middle legs. As a result, the overall motion is more extreme and exaggerated, and the tail now collides with the ground.

I added another pair of horns, and now it's back to walking, but it still has a slightly different gait than the other walk. The normal hind legs and invisible middle legs are less synced up. Each added part seemed to make a difference... so I added one more pair of horns.

And mysteriously, that addition made it return to the original desired hopping motion. Fascinating!

With the knowledge that adding and removing parts changes the walk cycle, I decided to strip the legs off, finalize the design and all the parts, and leave the invisible legs for last.

It got a bit complicated. In addition to the two normal legs, it has five invisible legs. The two rear pairs have two feet each, and the single front leg has three feet. It isn't quite perfect, but it suits this kangaroo-like creature much better than a regular two-legged walk.

How I Learned To Stop Doomscrolling And Touch Grass: An Origin Story

Proof of life comic I've been meaning to draw for awhile.

Below the jump are some of the resources I used to go back in time. Enjoy.

how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem

what common file types are

some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)

how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private

how to understand terms of service (hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)

what a cookie actually is

internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl

basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)

common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)

as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on

vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)

how to not get a virus while pirating something

what a temporary email is and when to use one

red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)

an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous

a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps

a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)

[large text: Navigation: Helpful Posts]

Complication of posts from CrippleCharacters, as well as other blogs providing advice on writing disabled characters.

This post covers the general topics - for posts on specific disabilities, please see our pinned post.

Last update: 05/12/2025

Basics and Ideas

[large text: Basics and Ideas]

- How to Start Doing Research When Writing a Disabled Character - Facial Differences that Would Be Cool to Actually See Represented - How to Do Historical Research - Our "Disabled Character Ideas" Tag - Our "Character Inspo" Tag - Am I a Bad Person for Not Knowing Something? - How to do Sensitivity Reading (as the reader)

How to Describe XYZ?

[large text: How to Describe XYZ?]

- Blindness Tropes: the "Blank Look" - Describing Characters with Facial Differences as Pretty - Difference between Fetishization and Being Seen as Beautiful - First Description: when to mention the Facial Difference - How Often Should You Mention Mobility Aids? - Dialogue and Speech Disorders - Sign Language in Dialogue - Words for Residual Limbs (stumps) - Describing a Limp - Words to Use instead of "Walk" for Wheelchair Users - How to not Describe Facial Differences as "Scary"

How to Draw XYZ?

[large text: How to Draw XYZ?]

- Tips for Drawing Characters with Facial Differences - Annoying Tropes in Art Re:Facial Differences - Drawing Blind Characters - Drawing Amputees - How to Draw (and not draw) Characters with Vitiligo - Drawing Cane Users - Drawing Characters with Down Syndrome - Drawing Characters with Cleft Lip - Drawing Burn Survivors

General

[large text: General]

- What's Off-Limits for Non-disabled Writers? - Writing a Newly Disabled Character - Writing a Visibly Different Character - The Accident - Including Disabled Communities - Disabled Characters in Historical Fiction - Coming up with Fictional Disabilities - Tokenism Discussion - Disability and Superpowers - Curing and "Fixing" Disabled Characters - Is It Realistic to Have Multiple Disabled Characters? - "Jaws Effect": how media affect the real world - Worldbuilding with Accessibility in Mind - Worldbuilding with Disability in Mind - How to Let Readers Figure Out the Character's Disability - Does the Disability Need to Have a "Purpose"? - Including Ableism in the Story - Casual Representation vs Fetishization (with albinism as an example) - Including Body Horror without doing an Ableism

General Tropes

[large text: General Tropes]

- "Super-Crip": Magic and Disability - Abled Characters Pretending to be Disabled - I Did a Trope but It's Too Late - What You Should Do - made with the mask trope in mind, but could be applied more widely - Magical Cure - made with blindness in mind - Including Healing Magic without Disability Erasure - Why is the Cure Trope Bad? - Disabled Character Recovering, but without Disability Erasure - Doing a Scary Disability Reveal without Doing an Ableism - Killing off a Disabled Character without Doing an Ableism - Writing a Disabled Villain without Doing an Ableism - What is Fetishization of Disability, and what Isn't - Not All Sign Language Users are Mute and American - Please Consider Making Your Signing Character Deaf - "Sad Disabled Person" - The Disability Backstory Reveal

Mobility Aids

[large text: Mobility Aids]

- General Overview - Overview, but with More Options - not writing advice, educational - More Detailed Look at Crutches and Canes - Magic Mobility Aids - Writing Wheelchair Users - Writing a New Cane User - "But Mobility Aids Wouldn't Exist in my Fantasy World" - Basic Information on Service Animals - Should My Non-Modern Wheelchair User use XYZ instead of a Wheelchair? - Fidgeting with Wheelchairs - Pet Peeves for Cane User Characters - Wheelchair user trying to navigate Inaccessibility - Walkers and Rollators

Other Disabilities

[large text: Other Disabilities]

- Writing Characters with Tourette's Syndrome - Introduction to Writing Characters with Speech Disorders - Writing Little People (characters with dwarfism) - Dwarfism and Fantasy Stories - Stereotypes around Characters with Dwarfism - Writing Characters with ASPD - Writing a Character with Russel-Silver Syndrome - Complex Dissociative Disorders Terminology: A Basic Primer - Portraying Psychosis + Review of Jinx from Arcane - Difference between "Nonverbal" and "Nonspeaking" - Stereotypes and Tropes around Characters with Gigantism - Writing Guide for Characters with Schizophrenia - Everything Except Hallucinations - Writing Guide for Characters with Psychosis - Hallucinations and Delusions - Stereotypes to Avoid for Characters with OCD

Making Your Content Accessible to Disabled Readers

[large text: Making Your Content Accessible to Disabled Readers]

- Why add alt text? - Image Descriptions Tutorial - Writing Image Descriptions for People Who Can't Write Them - "But how do blind people even use alt text" - How to Tag Your Posts (Tumblr) - ScreenReaders and Color Text (Tumblr) - FanFiction Accessibility

Recommended Blogs/Sources

[large text: Recommended Blogs/Sources]

Shall we see what happens next...?

The first eight pages (wip) are available below the jump.

CONTENT WARNING for Death, Disturbing Imagrey, and Gore. Mature readers only. Enjoy...!

I grew up in the days of early webcomics where mixed media was kind of the norm. Somehow, I never read Homestuck (okay I tried to read it but I didn't like it), but I did read a lot of mixed media webcomics inspired by Homestuck. All Night Laundry, one of my favorites, changed art styles every time the main charcaters time traveled. The art would go from gritty semi-realism to "Adventure Time" looking art, to B&W noir comic. And it was full of Flash animations. And then I really liked the mixed media story 17776, which featured music, videos, and lots of scrolling through Google maps.

But now the internet is a lot more centralized. Webtoon won, and most everything has that same scrolling static format. No hate to the format, I obviously like infinite scroll webcomics (I make one after all!) but it is a shame that nearly all webcomics look like that now. There's an alternate timeline where the Homestuck-style mixed media webcomics won and we have a bunch of stories told in weird and divergent ways hosted on their own websites. A timeline where static scrolling webtoons represent maybe 10% of what's out there instead of 95%.

I am delighted that I am your introduction to mixed media stories, but also a bit sad because that feels emblematic of the current state of webcomics—my story is scratching the surface of what can be done. There are people that have put whole playable videogame sections into their webcomics. There are people with interactive website elements.

For example, your travelers might know that they're near civilization when they start finding trees in the woods that have been tapped, for pitch or for sap. They might find a forester's trap line and trace it back to his hut to get medical care. Maybe they retrace the passage of a peasant and his pig out hunting for truffles. If they're coming along a coast, maybe your travelers come across the pools where sea water is dried down to salt, or the furnaces where bog iron ore is smelted.

Maybe they see a column of smoke and follow it to the house-sized kilns of a potter's yard where men work making bricks or roof tiles. From miles away they could smell the unmistakeable odor of pine sap being rendered down into pitch, and follow that to a village. Or they hear the flute playing of a shepherd boy whiling away the hours in the high pasture.

They could find the clearing where the charcoal burners recently broke down an earth kiln, and follow the hoof prints and drag marks of their horse and sledge as they hauled the charcoal back to civilization. Or follow the sound of metal on stone to a quarry or gravel pit. Maybe they know they're nearly to town when they come across a clay bank with signs of recent clay gathering.

Of course around every town and city there will be farms, more densely packed the closer you are. But don't just think of fields of grains or vegetables. Think of managed woodlands, like maybe trees coppiced-- cut and then regrown--to customize the shape or size of the branches. Cows being grazed in a communal green. Waiting as a huge flock of ducks is driven across the road. Orchards in bloom.

If they're approaching by road, there will be things best done out of town. The threshing floor where grain is beaten with flails or run through crushing wheels to separate the grain from its casing, and then winnowed, using the wind to carry away the chaff. Laundresses working in the river, their linens bleaching on the grass at the drying yard. The stench of the tanners, barred from town for stinking so badly. The rushing wheel-race and great creaking wheel of the flour mill.

If it's a larger town, there might be a livestock market outside the gates, with goats milling in woven willow pens or chickens in wooden cages. Or a line of horses for the wealthier buyer or your desperate travelers. There might be a red light district, escaping the regulations of the city proper, or plain old slums. More industrial yards, like the yards where fabric is dyed (these might also smell quite bad, like rotting plant material, or urine).

Tutorial for drawing characters with Down syndrome.

DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. It's more of an overview of features that are common in people with Down syndrome, not meaning to imply that every person with DS has all of them 👍 thanks.

If you draw any characters using this feel free to tag me.

Look, that thing you want to do? Stop being a weenie and just do it. 

When I originally made this dumb comic in 2013, I was a Graphic Designer for a Radio Station in Ohio. As of this writing in 2018, I am a Storyboard Artist at Warner Bros. Animation. I am now one of “””the professionals””” referenced in the third image. And let me tell you:

…I am still making things up as I go. 

…I still don’t have character turnarounds.

… I have… some worldbuilding done. Not all of it, though. That’s going to be a permanent work in progress. 

…Making the comic is the character study/studies.

…I am still convinced I’m not working hard enough.

…You will never, no matter what you do or how far you go, ever feel like you’re completely ready to do something until you actually do it.