After last week's massive DD meetup (Next one is on the 18th, BE THERE!), we're back to the core group… me and my side characters, hahaha! Banes, Pitface, and Tantz Aerine join me to discuss the topic of promoting from within the ranks. I did a newspost about this last Thursday (linked bellow), the thrust of which was that when you need new main characters it's so much better and more fun to mine them from earlier in your stories rather than introducing them whole and new minted. This doesn't have to be an unplanned thing though- you can do like Banes or Amelius and have it all designed in advance. What they do is lightly introduce main characters AS side characters initially, knowing they'll be promoted to main status later on, either way it works the same- they fit better in the world of the story, the have more “history” and the audience finds them easier to accept, as we discuss in the Quackcast. Still though, when things aren't so planed, it can be so rewarding when creations grow and find their own voices.

This week's theme by Gunwallace is for XTIN , it's weirdly Indian and mournful in a beautiful way that is PERFECT for Xitin!

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
DELIA - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/DELIA/

From THIS Newspost - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/may/25/side-characters/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz Aerine/
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

Featured music:
XTIN - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/XTIN/, by Jeremy Ray M.

State your business!
Venerable Drunkducker Ayesinback suggested we have an open electronic meetup of DD people, so that's exactly what we did! We all met up in a long Skype session that lasted 10 hours- various DDers dropped in and out over that time and we chatted away about everything and nothing on videochat, meanwhile I tried on a never ending series of antique and novelty hats, one after another…
It was really lovely to see old and new DDers all together, to see their faces and hear their voices. A big thankyou to everyone who took part! It was a big success!
We will try it again and again in the coming months. The proposed date is the 3rd Saturday of every month, so the next one will be the 18th of June. The session starts at 11am New York time and runs for 10 hours until 9 pm New York time, so you can drop in any time during that!
You can get Skype for free here: www.skype.com. It works on all computers, phones and tablets. It can even work just in your web browser alone! You just sign up and install it. Then make sure you add “ozoneocean” as a friend.
Gunwallace's track this week was for Darklings. It's nice and long one with a good progressive rhythm.

Some of the genius things we discussed: The measure of distance is time. Inbreeding leads to contagious genetic deformity. Direct democracy VS Harkovast. We beet the sugar! Pineapple and artichoke, why eat them?

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Bruno Harm - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bruno_Harm/

DD meetup thread - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177504/

These are all the people who joined in in some form that I can recall:
*If you can think of more who took part, please leave a comment!

Niccea - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Niccea/
Skreem - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/skreem/
Kota - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Kota/
Black_Kitty - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Black_Kitty/
Rokulily - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/rokulily/
Coydog - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Coydog/
Alejkahn - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/alejkhan/
Harkovast - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/harkovast/
Ayesinback - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ayesinback/
Usedbooks - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/usedbooks/
Tupapayon - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/tupapayon/
Product Placement - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Product Placement/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz Aerine/
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

Featured music:
Darklings - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Darklings/, by Darklings, rated M.

- See more at: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/may/22/quackcast-272-dd-electric-people-community-meetup/

what makes the “meat” of a story? What makes you fall in love with it, keep coming back for more watches or reads or whatever? I contend it has nothing to do with conflict or culminations or climaxes, those are merely generic structural plottings that are pretty much the same format no matter what story you read- you know they're coming and you know what form they'll take and once they're over it's not really that significant anymore; “re-playability” is low, they're just too tied in with the story structure to have much life away from it in your mind. What keeps me coming back to a story and fall in love with it are the Characters, exploring the world in which they exist, and the development that occurs during the story.
Gunwallace provides us a theme to CTV Revamped, the new version of Charby the Vampirate! Good and creepy techno for Charbs!

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
The Magpie - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Magpie/

From THIS thread - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177504/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

Featured music:
CTV ReVamped - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/CTV_ReVamped/, by Amy Of Darkness, rated T.

Try and join us for the big DD electronic meetup on the 21st of this month, over Skype! Details here - https://www.facebook.com/events/1088004541241456/

We return to the topic of historical accuracy versus the needs the the story. This was Bravo's idea and we wanted to have him along but alas it was not to be! Tantz Aerine, Pitface, Banes and I discuss the topic, reading from a few of the many contributions in the form thread that Bravo started. Special congratulations to Pitface who's just graduated with honours with her BA in classics! -So you she really does KNOW what she's talking about… as does Tantz too of course. Banes and I are just along for the ride.
Gunwallace gave us a really pretty tune for the comic Torn Vines, a real action music, such a driving rhythm to it!

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Fading World - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Fading_World/

From THIS thread - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177492/

Contributions from:
Bravo1102 - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bravo1102/
HippieVan - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/HippieVan/
Genejoke - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Genejoke/
Usedbooks - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/usedbooks/
KimLuster - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/KimLuster/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz Aerine/
bravo1102 - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bravo1102/

Featured music:
Torn Vines http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Torn_Vines/, by Udyr, rated M.

Try and join us for the big DD electronic meetup on the 21st of this month, over Skype! Details here - https://www.facebook.com/events/1088004541241456/

Never let historical accuracy get in the way of a good story… at least that's what Bravo proposes. We stole his thought provoking forum post subject for the topic of this Quackcast. This is how Bravo goes on to explain it:
“So how do feel about that? Should exact adherence to the historical record be allowed to wreck your wonderful fiction? If so how much dramatic license is too much? What are your favorite examples of how they got it wrong and how they got it right? And what if just a touch more research would have revealed that the historical story was better than what the fiction writers concocted? How tragic is that? And what about the usage of known historical mythology/hoax as in the Da Vinci code?”
The frisson between story requirements and known historical record is pretty interesting. In Hollywood the former wins out EVERY single time and usually it doesn't result in a better story anyway, but as we discuss in the Quackcast there are OTHER reasons than simple bad writing choices for not sticking to the real story and trying to hammer everything into the Hero's Journey template.

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Ayla Speaker for the Dead - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ayla_Speaker_for_the_Dead/

From THIS thread - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177492/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz Aerine/
bravo1102 - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bravo1102/

Featured music:
Apothecary Supreme http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Apothecary_Supreme/, by wildcard, rated T.
- See more at: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/may/02/quackcast-269-historical-accuracy-vs-story-needs/