In this Quackcast Tantz Aerine, Banes, Pitface, and I (Ozoneocean) discuss the changes that we'd like to do to the look of Drunk Duck!
Contribute designs here: - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177679/
We want YOU to help us come up with different design concepts for ALL sections of drunk Duck, not just the front page. It has to look good, be modern, be usable, fit within the broad theme of drunk duck (colours, style etc), and the design has to be adaptable to different screen sizes. And that's what we chat about here, rather than functional changes and new features, which are something ELSE and will cost extra.
As soon as we HAVE our new designs then we can get a quote and raise money to have them applied to the site!
So the sooner we come up with some new designs the sooner we can get this stuff happening!
Our music theme by Gunwallace this week was A Simple Scribe. It's a very serene duet by guitar and piano, speaking of an older, simpler time. There’s almost a touch of a western sound in there.
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Kayn the Kourageous - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/may/30/featured-comic-kayn-the-kourageous/
LINKS:
Thread discussing redesigns - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177679/
Newspost on changes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/jun/02/spreading-the-word/
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/
Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Featured music:
A Simple Scribe - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/A_Simple_Scribe/, by DJMulcahy, rated M.
Tue, 26 December 2017
Merry Christmas! It's that time of year again… well, the end of the year. Banes was ill with the dreaded lurgi so Pit, Tantz and I were left to our own devices to chat about Christmas and our fave Christmas movies. What's yours?
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Tue, 19 December 2017
This is the Beautycast. We decided to have a chat about beauty. What IS beauty? is it universal? I would contend that it's not and that's what we tended to agree in the Quackcast. Beauty is a highly relative concept dependent on many factors like symmetry, rarity, ethnicity, time, geographical area, economic conditions, exoticism, what you're used to, aspiration, age, clothes, hair, health, fashion etc.
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Tue, 12 December 2017
In this Quackcast we cover a few different things! FIRST up is our latest campaign to give YOU comment and reply notifications so that you can see who has commented on your comic pages easily, you can respond to them right away, then they'll KNOW you replied and they can respond back and so on. But before we can do that we need to raise money via Indiegogo to pay for it. YOU will be helping to pay for a feature that you want. That's how the site works these days, it's our site: yours and mine.
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Tue, 5 December 2017
We asked for scripts and we got 'em! We have five different scripts in this Quackcast performed by the Quackcast players:
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Tue, 28 November 2017
In this Quackcast we're talking about writing scripts! But not just scripts in general, this Quackcast is about turning your webcomic into a script. As the creator of a webcomic, a story, what is your ultimate goal, your dream? Wouldn't it be marvellous if your characters and story came to life, played by real actors? Emmet, aka Surgeryhead came along to give us some pointers. He's written many scripts himself so he has a bit of experience. Ultimately we want to do performances on the Quackcast of short scripts written by DDers who've adapted parts of their comics, go to this newspost for details: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/nov/16/turn-your-comics-into-movie-scripts/
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Tue, 21 November 2017
This is the Quackcast where I get things wrong! Haha, I DO love to imagine that I know everything but fortunately Tantz and Pit are there to correct me! For this Quackcast I was thinking about the way we assign villains when there's a religious theme or anything influenced by mythology really. You know the way Hel in Thor Ragnarok and Hades in the Disney movie Hercules are cast as villains just because they're in charge of death, even though in the mythology they're not supposed to be bad guys at all. Perhaps it's our modern Christian influenced culture that makes us wrongly associate death with the bad guys…?
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Tue, 14 November 2017
Special treat at the start of this Quackcast, a Spang news announcement from the oooooold days of DD!
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Tue, 7 November 2017
A psychopomp is a physical manifestation of death. These are of course impossible in reality since death is a process, not a force or anything that can be personified, but culturally death has very different meanings and resonances! Most cultures have a psychopomp in one form of another, like Valkyries and Charon the boatman to name two, and there are even more in literature and movies. In this Quackcast we go back to Kawaii's great Halloween newspost where she asked people about their fave psychopomps and we talk about a few of our own. ^_^
Direct download: Quackcast_347_-_Psychopomps_and_Death_Personified.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 31 October 2017
It caaaammmmme from outerspace… An unimaginably gigantic multi-tentacled green horror, Banes'thulu'Ary'lth! We only caught a glimpse of his heaving, slimy, scaled bulk but our minds couldn't fully comprehend what we saw and we were all driven insane!
Direct download: Quackcast_346_-_Existential_horror.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 24 October 2017
Does a horror film without the horror still make sense? If it does then it's probably a really good film… that's what we're talking about in this Halloween themed month! The idea was based on a recent newspost by Banes. We also tapped the massive resource that is Banes for our cover image, which comes from a horror short by Bane's film director brother. Check it out, the link is down bellow. That film, Little Matthew, is a good example of the topic… I won't spoil it, but the scenario and the setup of the film could work just as well without the horror part. The characters are believable and you want to know more about them, this helps you start to care about them, which makes the advent of the horror scenes more effective. In the Quackcast we chat about that, examples that fit the model and possible exceptions.
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Tue, 17 October 2017
Some characters are active and others are reactive. Reactive characters mostly only react to things rather than make them happen so they can be very boring if not done right! Active characters are the ones that drive events by doing things and making stuff happen, these characters grab your interest. This idea was based on Tantz's fantastic newspost, we talk it out, coming up with some good examples of each character type. Our epiphany for this Quackcast was that if you want a “strong” female character what you REALLY want is an “active” female character. The mistake people made with the trope was that they thought the female character had to be either a main character or a kick-arse masculine style character, when in reality neither is required. Make your character “active”; making decisions, causing things to happen, having an impact, causing OTHER characters to react etc and they will be a “strong” character. She could be a minor character who never lifts a sword or fires a gun but still be the strongest character in the story if she's the most active. ;)
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Tue, 10 October 2017
How do YOU feel when drawing or writing about something sexy? That was the question put to the erotically charged ladies and guys of DD, who answered in a full frontal, frank and unashamed manner! It's a harrrrd question to answer but we were wiiiide open about it. ;)
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Tue, 3 October 2017
What is the best approach to make a scary story? To directly show the monster, the horror and the gore, or to hold off on that and let the audience fill in the blanks and guide them to imagine something far more awful and real than you could conceive of yourself? That's what Banes and I talked about in the Quackcast that comes out on the first day of the month of October, the scariest month… the month when my Tax return is due! OOooooooo nooooooo! o_O
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Tue, 26 September 2017
In this Quackcast we chat about how objectification can rob the humanity from a character and turn them into a meaningless object which can in turn alienate your audience by making your work less relatable, but with things like porn where character is less important than the on screen action objectification is more acceptable.
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Tue, 19 September 2017
In this Drunk Duck Quackcast we chat about the importance and the process of reviews! Good ones, bad ones, why they all matter, and also why they often don't! ;)
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Tue, 12 September 2017
Tantz Aerine did a great newspost the other day about how the clothing of comic characters can be used to communicate information and emotions just as much as any other element in your comic making arsenal. And that's what we discuss in this Quackcast! Clothing can communicate state of mind, occupation, status, personality, era, class and a host of other things. Have a listen to our Quackcast to learn more!
Direct download: Quackcast_339_-_Communicate_With_Clothes.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 5 September 2017
The saying goes that “Good artists copy, great artists steal”, it's
Direct download: Quackcast_338_-_Shared_DNA_of_ideas.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 29 August 2017
This week we interview the artist and creator of the comic Kings Club, AmeliaP! Her comic was featured and Gunwallace also gave it a theme tune that was featured in Quackcast 335. AmeliaP is a talented professional comic creator and game designer. We couldn't interview her directly because she's not confident enough in her spoken English, so what we've done instead is read out a written interview that I did with her especially for this Quackcast. Amelia has some surprising and valuable insights for comic creators. You can read the full text of her interview bellow.
Direct download: Quackcast_377_-_Interview_with_AmeliaP_of_Kings_Club.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 22 August 2017
Romances don't always have to be the main focus of a story, infact you can have richer, more interesting romances if they occur in support of a bigger plot issue. It can lend them and the story more weight if they're in a secondary position. Characters can form natural, less forced relationships with each other, and this can give the wider plot of the story more urgency or meaning because it has a direct bearing on the health of their union. You can reward fans with a wished for or unexpected blossoming of love between two favourite characters without having the same inevitability that a straight out romance has. Really, there are so many things you can do! :)
Direct download: Quackcast_336_-_A_romance_on_the_side.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 15 August 2017
Dialogue is one of the most important elements for storytelling in most webcomics (there are exceptions). But dialogue is often hard for beginners, writing out imaginary conversations to push stories forward, show characterisation, or expositions are skills that don't come naturally! Banes has given us a helpful newspost on the subject and many DDer's offered their own experiences. In this Quackcast we expand on all of that.
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Tue, 8 August 2017
Let's get physical! let me hear your body technique!
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Tue, 1 August 2017
Summary:
Direct download: Quackcast_Episode_65_Men_and_women_in_tights.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 25 July 2017
The thing with retcons is that the author tends to get an idea which makes them want to go back over their story and redo or tweak the whole thing again, that's what's happened here… well sort off. Banes had some more ideas on the subject that he wanted to share, so we dove into the whole thing again! We were helped by a Websnark article on the subject linked to us by Kam in a comment on the last retcon Quackcast. It's a useful guide, breaking down the different kinds of retcon into five types:
Direct download: Quackcast_333_-_retconning_the_retcon.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 18 July 2017
In this Quast we talk about immortality, which is a common trope in literature. Who seeks immortality in stories? It's usually bad guys, and it usually has some sort of extreme price,catch or dark side, so much so that people actually believe that if immortality WAS real that it would somehow be an evil thing. The fact is that most of the possible downsides are cultural constructions or justifications for our own mortality, if immortality WAS a real thing we don't really know what the down sides would be… But this means that the trope of immortality is not as limited as we've come to believe; it's wide open to be re-written and redefined.
Direct download: Quackcast_332_-_The_trouble_with_immortality.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 11 July 2017
Starwars, Ender's game, Captain America… All these are great examples (or bad ones) of “retcons”. But what IS a “retcon”?
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Tue, 4 July 2017
Following on from my newspost about features last week, now we have a whole Quackcast on the subject, tell you what features are and how we do them at DD.
Direct download: Quackcast_330_-_A_Feathure_on_Features.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 27 June 2017
Welcome to the the yungle
Direct download: Quackcast_329_-_Character_Archetypes_the_Jung_ones.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 20 June 2017
Today we're going to chat about how you go about getting more readers on Drunk Duck for your webcomic! Hyena hell did an amazing newspost about it for us, outlining all the ways you can increase your audience here on DD in her fantastic, colourful vernacular! Along with many great analogues from the real world. But I'll cover the basics again in quick point form here:
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Tue, 13 June 2017
FLASHbacks… you have to do them right or they will screw up the flow of your story. That's the theme of the newspost by Tantz Aerine that we stole this podcast topic from. :)
Direct download: Quackcast_327_-_Flashback_heartattack.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 6 June 2017
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Tue, 30 May 2017
In this Quackcast we cover the Importance of good linework in comics and different line techniques such as Herge's Ligne claire, the traditional thick line for characters and thin for everything else as exemplified in the work of Mucha, variable line widths as in Manga, solid blacks like in American comics, and complex lines like Durer or Hyena Hell. I really seriously thought I could get an entire Quackcast out of the concept and techniques of linework, but honestly I was struggling…
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Tue, 23 May 2017
In this Quackcast we discuss the interesting notion that censorship can actually be a positive force for creation. Sometimes working WITHIN restrictions of censorship can make you more creative and your work a lot more individual, special and more interesting. I came to this subject after reading a review of how Canadian standards forced very specific and particular changes on the TV show Reboot. Had it been made without the censorship restrictions then it would have been more of a generic show, because the methods they had to use to get around or appease the censors helped to differentiate it from similar children's shows.
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Tue, 16 May 2017
Drawing in public can be a pain! You really need to find somewhere comfortable, with lots of space, good lighting, and the right atmosphere to be able to settle down and work on your drawings… It can be tricky to find just the right posy. But it also depends on the types of materials you use and the atmosphere that you want to experience while you're working. In this Quackcast we talk about Hyena Hell's newspost on the subject and people's comments, as well as our own experiences with trying to draw in public places and the annoyances of public harassment.
Direct download: Quackcast_323_-_a_space_of_your_own.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 9 May 2017
Banes has been doing a series of very intelligent newsposts focusing on the mechanics of comedy over the past few weeks. Today in this Quackcast we go over the first three parts of these reports: Comedic Premise, Comedic Characters, and Good and Bad character traits! This one is just Banes and I… stripped down and simple, which is how people know us in these parts, which is embarrassing but we're used to it. If you want to get a better idea of the stuff we talk about then click on the links to Banes' newsposts bellow.
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Tue, 2 May 2017
We titled this one “Cafecast” on the suggestion of Pitface! Instead of chatting about a subject, we took ourselves off to a metaphorical cafe and all started drawing, working on sketches, our latest comic pages, and chatting as we did. We're all comic artists after all and we talk about doing comic all the time, it's only fair that we actually WORK on them from time to time! Gotta “walk the walk”, not just “talk the talk”. We were also inspired by the video Pitface made of herself drawing her latest page of Putrid Meat for the 10th anniversary (vid linked in the notes). Watch it while you listen to this!
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Tue, 25 April 2017
Direct download: Quackcast_320_-_Making_the_reader_believe.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 18 April 2017
Photocomics don't get nearly enough love. A while ago Banes did a great newspost on the subject where he did some great little promotional reviews of some prominent photocomics on DD. I thought that was a cool idea and I've been meaning to return to the subject for a while. In this Quackcast Pitface and I use funny voices to talk about photocomics. But what ARE photocomics? Well the artist sets up models, toys, artwork, or themselves, and shoots photos of them in certain scenes in order to create a narrative. Later on they'll edit those together in something like Photoshop, adding captions and word bubbles and basically turning them into a conventional comic.
Direct download: Quackcast_319_-_Roll_out_the_photocomics.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 11 April 2017
The most important thing when doing your comic is to maintain your enthusiasm- THIS is what helps you keep working. Not feedback, not praise, not fans, but your own internal passion. Feedback is great, but you can become addicted to it and when it's not there or there's' not enough not it your work can die. In order to be able to keep creating your passion for your work should be internal, not external, you need to be self sustaining:
Direct download: Quackcast_318_-_Maintaining_the_enthusiasm.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 4 April 2017
Today we interview Hannagrid Wright aka 5thezombie! She's the creator of the great Sci-Fi webcomic To The Galaxy And BACK! -featured by Kawaii last year. To the Galaxy and back features Kat and Zoey, two girls that have been drawn together by fate, across the universe, to have all sorts of adventures in outerspace. All Zoey really wants is to get back to her dad, but having a dashing adventurer alien companion is going to make the ride a little more fun.
Direct download: Quackcast_317_-_Hannagrid_Wright_Interview.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 28 March 2017
For this Quackcast we decided to chat about quirks- the things that stand out about a character, help you remember them, get interested in them, traits that pick them out as individuals and can ALSO be used to point at deeper character traits! These are so useful in so many ways and really help to define a character as well as giving them a handle for the audience to latch on to. The idea was nicked from a newspost where Tantz goes into it with a lot more depth, so check that out too if you can! the cover image is from the Nazi General sketch by Smith a Jones- it's all based on quirks. This was Tantz's fantastic idea for a newspost. Speaking of Tantz, this newspost was recorded around the time of Greek independence day! Happy independence day to Greece!
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Tue, 21 March 2017
This week we decided to all read out Creepypastas, just because! I's a popular thing on the net and people like that sort of thing… Well Banes and Pit do anyway. So what ARE Creepypastas? Well they're not the rotten spaghetti that had Banes blasting from both barrels just before the Quackcast, no, the name comes from “copy and paste”, simple as that. Creepypasta are just scary stories that writers have made up and copy and pasted to sites on the net, usually on things like Reddit. Often the writer pretends that it's a true story, but not many, if any at all, are based on real events. Today we're reading a few that we found at random. Hope you enjoy!
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Tue, 14 March 2017
When heroes fail… Hey, why would you ever want a hero to fail? Well there are a lot of reasons and listening to this Quackcast will tell you why, but the quick version is that you don't want your hero to be a perfect Mary-Sue sort of character. Having your hero fail in their goals means you have somewhere interesting to go with your story. Having your hero fail emotionally means you can give them character development and make them more interesting. If you want to learn more then either listen to us or have a look at Tantz's newspost where I took the idea from!
Direct download: Quackcast_314_-_the_failure_of_heros.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 7 March 2017
Carrying on from last week's Quackcast discussion on tips and tricks for drawing and artwork, we jump again into the topic and THIS time we have Tantz Aerine on board to lend her perspective and tell us about even MORE little techniques to use to draw better. It's an interesting, technical cast and bellow I've kisted some examples from our own work of what we talk about. Details discussed in this episode: Establishing shots, Facial lines, Scars, Wounds, Snow, Rain, Smoke, Fire, Explosions, Gold, Fur, Eyes
Direct download: Quackcast_313_-_Technical_Techniques.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 28 February 2017
In THIS particular Quackcast it's just Banes and I chatting about tips and tricks for artwork. Hopefully some of the stuff we mention is helpful to someone, I tried to illustrate some of that in the cover pic. Banes drew the image of Penny crashing through a scene which I've coloured and added trees, oceans, mountains, clouds, fire, smoke etc all with the use of simple custom brushes. The shading was all done just by painting grey over a layer set to “multiply”, which makes all light colours transparent and darker colours less so, so that you get a perfect tool for making shadows! Anyway, listen to the cast and maybe you'll get something out of it!
Direct download: Quackcast_312_-_happy_little_trees.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 21 February 2017
Myths and legends are often recycled and reused, but why would you adapt them to the modern day? This idea came to us from Tantz Aerine and her great news posts on the last two Saturdays. Read those if you want a good perspective on the idea! Ptface, Tantz, Banes, and I explore all the interesting TV shows and movies that have variations on the idea, everything from Cool Hand Luke to Ulysses 31!
Direct download: Quackcast_311_-_Myth_and_modernity.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Wed, 15 February 2017
Where to start; in the past, present, or future? Will you structure your story in a linear way or do something more complex? This was the topic of Hyena Hell's newspost on Friday and in this Quackcast Pitface, Banes, Tantz, and I discuss and mull over the ideas ourselves, along with the responses of the clever commenters.
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Tue, 7 February 2017
What makes an action scene boring? Action scenes should be exciting and fun, but often it's just the opposite!
Direct download: Quackcast_309_-_boring_action_scenes.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 31 January 2017
Today on the Quackcast we interview Hyena Hell!
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Tue, 24 January 2017
Jerky, jerk, jerks! Let's talk about this type of character…
Direct download: Quackcast_307_-_bring_in_the_jerks.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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Tue, 17 January 2017
Patriotism, flags, nationalism, religion, politics, national symbols hijacked by racists! These are some of the unique aspects of our cultural identity and national differences we chat about on this quackcast. I was inspired by HippieVan's newspost on Friday (about Cultural identity and how it defines our writing), to dive further into the subject of cultural differences. We all share the illusion of a single, global culture, but there are regional differences for all of us that mean we don't see things the same way, and often some of the stuff we mean in our comics is influenced by where we come from in a way that people from elsewhere would never quite get in the same way.
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Tue, 10 January 2017
Chekhov's gun is the principal (as I understand it), that if you have some item, fact or piece of information introduced into your story that you draw specific attention to, then you'd better use it some how later on in your story. The simplest example is a gun: if it appears as a prop lying around in your story AND you draw attention to it, then by the end of the tale it should have gone off.
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Tue, 3 January 2017
What defines evil in fiction?
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