In Quackcast 299 we expand on an idea from Tantz's Saturday newspost about inserting your personality into your characters when you write them. But not only that, we chat about how a work of fiction by a writer can be like a darkly faceted diamond with many aspects of themselves reflected in all their individual characters. And then we go even further and talk about how we insert ourselves into characters that we read about or see on the screen. What characters do you see yourself as in your favourite works?
Gunwallace' music this week was the theme to Girlsquadx! It's a fun, techno, bouncing, pop action tune!

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Jonathin Quackup of the Planet Weralt - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/nov/22/featured-comic-jonathin-quackup-of-the-planet-weralt/

Based on Tantz's newspost:
Your Self-Insert is Everywhere - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/nov/25/your-self-insert-is-everywhere/

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

Featured music:
Girlsquad X - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Girlsquad_X/ by fallopiancrusader, rated T.

This Quackcast was based on Tantz Aerine's newspost from two Saturday's ago: Death in comics.
We lightly expand t to death in all pop culture in the Quackcast. It's an interesting topic! Not the one we were originally going to do though… We were supposed to all have pizza and interview VinoMas's Princess January, but no one got pizza except me and I gave Vino the wrong time so he didn't show up, hahaha! So that idea… died.
Death in comics can be used a whole lot of ways; a promotional technique as in Superman, a way to get rid of superfluous characters, to show gore and a massive body count, to create tragedy and pathos, the create comedy and laughter, and more! We give examples from our own artwork as well as mainstream comics like Maus, Judge Dredd, Superman, When the Wind Blows, nd even great webcomics like Charby the Vampirate.
Banes could not show for this Quackcast. He is NOT dead… not yet.
Gunwallace is right there back in action and the theme he's given us this week is Ectopiary! It's darkly threatening and vaguely classical, a creeping, scary exploration of dark places.

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Grunk - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/nov/09/featured-comic-grunk/

Based on Tantz's newspost:
When Death Comes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/nov/10/when-death-comes/

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

Featured music:
Ectopiary - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/ECTOPIARY/ by hansrickheit, rated M.

In this Quackcast we tackle the topic of fandom. Fandoms can be interesting, fun, helpful, fascinating, inspiring, or even bizarre and disturbing. Fandoms are frequently great resources for information about their subject and can really enrich your experience of whatever you're into. Fandoms are also a hotbed of creative energy- some of our most iconic literature was written by people who started out as ardent fans- even the great H.P. Lovecraft was part of a fandom of Gothic horror fiction along with fellow writers Robert Bloch, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard. These highly influential writers were influenced by such greats as Arthur Machen, Robert W. Chambers, Edgar Allen Poe, and Lord Dunsany to name a few. And of course Lovecraft and his group went to to influence legions of fans who changed the face of 20th century pop culture.
Looking at fandoms gives a cultural roadmap so we can follow influences, where ideas originated, how they changed, how pop-culture was created, and more importantly: they give us great clues about what other stuff we might like to read!
No music this week I'm afraid. Mr Gunwallace is dealing with the fallout from a huge earthquake in his native New Zealand.

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Embrace the Pun! - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/nov/08/featured-comic-embrace-the-pun/

Some fandoms mentioned:
Deadworld, The Dead, Tank Girl, Judge Dredd, Peter Pan, Deadpool, The Crystal Cave (Merlin, king Arthur), The psychological.

Special thanks to:
Genejoke - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Genejoke/
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/

Tantz Aerine, Banes and Pitface join me, Ozoneocean, to talk about back stories, histories and all that extra knowledge you can come up with when creating your story. It can inform your comic story in a really clever way… but don't be tempted to vomit all that knowledge out on your unsuspecting audience! They'll hate you for it. It' a really great idea to come up with a detailed history and you can be really proud of it too, but you have to know how to present it to your audience, i.e. through your character interaction and the flow of your story.
Gunwallace's featured music for this week was… THE LAST PICK UP ARTIST! This has a nice dry, rock feel, heavy guitar. This is music for cruising in a muscle car.

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Grow up! - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/oct/05/featured-comic-grow-up/

Based on Banes' newspost - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/nov/02/before-the-beginning/

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/

Featured music:
THE LAST PICK UP ARTIST - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/THE_LAST_PICK_UP_ARTIST/ by DarioCOMICS, rated E.

This is the Awkardcast! Another take on the sexcast idea but this time we're looking at sex and sexual situations in strictly NON-adult comics. Sex performs a very different role in non-adult comics… You have a much wider audience with comics at the rating, but there are things you can not show, so of course you use sex for other reasons than the way you do in an adult rated comic. In an adult comic you can show all details of the entire act, all the genitalia in all their glistening, gory, gooey, hairy splendour, going in and out and around here and there and all over the place! Oh my!

In Mature comics and bellow though, you simply can't, though you CAN have some non-sexual full frontal nudity in Mature comics and you can show bottoms in Teen rated comics. The ratings are similar to what you have with film ratings. In adult comics, like adult film, sex acts are more of the focus, they can still have a story but the sex acts are supposed to be enjoyed in their own right. In non-adult comics the sex has other purposes- subtle titillation is a part of it, comedy, teasing the viewer, furthering the plot, a culmination of a relationship or the establishment of one, etc- there's generally always another purpose to it, unlike adult comics where there sometimes is but doesn't need to be.
And unlike adult film there's not much purpose to softcore non-adult rated porn in comics. That type of censored porn is done in film in order to get a wider audience on media that will otherwise not show porn, but on the net porn it's super easy to come by so there's not much reason to do softcore.

There are a lot of challenges entailed in depicting non-adult rated porn! Certain positions don't work in well with the limits on nudity (we talk about this in the cast), but there are tricks you can use; symbolism (popping champagne corks, trains going into tunnels etc), strategic positioning of sheets, clever camera angles, fading out before the act and fading in again after, characters with mussed hair and uneven clothing, using dialogue to refer to what they just did, “off-screen” shenanigans, or shenanigans in the dark etc, it can be a lot of fun! Have a listen to how Tantz, I and Banes tackle the idea.
The music by Gunwallace for his week was Firefly cross! A very mystical sound, with traditional, middle eastern style music mixed with dark techno fuzz, this one is intriguing!

Topics and shownotes

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

Daniel by Sarah M - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Daniel/
The faction by PeiPei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Faction/
Putrid meat by PitFace - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/PUTRID_MEAT/
Without moonlight by Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Without_Moonlight/
Pinky TA - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz%20Aerine
kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

Featured music:
Firefly cross - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Firefly_Cross/ by Dragonsong12, rated E.