This Quackcast expands on my newspost from Friday about forgotten abilities causing plot holes, but now bunny Banes and Lady Tantz wade in to lend their genius to my silly ideas and we chat about what the real issues are: bad writing and laziness!
This is when a character gains the ability to walk through walls or become bullet proof or go back in time and then forgets it for the rest of the story or in the sequel When basically 80% of the problems they encounter could be solved by it… And you're mentally screaming at them “Use your damn power that you got 20 pages ago… Remember that thing that would help you avoid all this trouble!?”
Using easy solutions to get out of problems causes plot-holes! And your audience will hate you for it.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Space Repair Garage The Comic: Groove into this easy-going, saucy space symphony of high tech bleep-blooping cool! You’ll be carried along on a flaming column of power as it slowly ramps up to epic proportions, and then be left alone, coasting in space as it suddenly cuts out.

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Featured comic:
Aikonia - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/feb/18/featured-comic-aikonia/

Newspost about causing plot holes by forgetting abilities - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/feb/21/forgotten-abilities-and-plot-holes/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean

Featured music:
Space Repair Garage The Comic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Space_Repair_Garage_The_Comic/, by Ninja_bait, rated E.

Hollywood has a tendency to simplify or completely alter stories to make them more mainstream and appealing to their idea of a popular audience.
In this Quackcast we thought it'd be fun to run with that idea and re-imagine our works for “Hollywood”.
Need examples? Take Carmen Sandiego: From a mysterious woman and master thief she has now been rebooted as a teen girl who only looks like a thief, she's really a good guy. Hollywood is replete with far worse examples though: “Run Lola Run”, a high action German movie about a woman desperately trying to get to a reality where she and her drug dealer criminal boyfriend stay alive after a routine drug deal spirals horribly out of control, all themed around her desperate run to be on time! Turned into “And Then Cam Lola”… Now a romance film and instead of a scruffy ner-do-well in love with a drug-dealer BF, Lola is now a talented photographer who's trying to make things right for her job and her girlfriend: Hollywood ;)
Ironically, the treatments we give our comics probably makes them more commercially saleable IPs XD

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to GRIND: Raw, slutty vocals and a slow sleazy tune… perfect for a burlesque show. This music evokes the acid colours and sensual, hardcore, comical imagery of Lothar’s GRIND perfectly!

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Featured comic:
Ursa Tale - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/feb/12/featured-comic-ursa-tale/

Link
Hollywood Treatments… - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178108/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean

Featured music:
Grind - WARNING NSFW - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/lothar/, by Lothar, rated A.

*the cover pic is me and the other winner of best costume at a masquerade ball on Saturday. No reason, I'm just happy with it :D

It's just Ozoneocean and bouncy Banes today. This time we're chatting about breaking and subverting structures, formulas and conventions in webcomics. Commercial creative projects need to use formulas and familiar structures because that's what audiences expect, it's also what studio executives, creative editors, publishers, producers and all the people that greenlight those projects need and expect as well. The Hero's Journey and other conventions and formulas aren't just used because they make good stories but because of the commercial realities and risk averse nature of the industry (there's a lot of money and jobs on the line). Webcomics don't have those pressures so we're talking about why webcomics shouldn't necessarily adhere to popular formulas and structures and why many don't.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to EscapeVelocity. Blinking readouts on screens and dials, blinking stars outside thick glass sealed against the vacuum… this is the future and the future is space. Deep in the cold, black void, in an isolated oasis of heat, light and breathable oxygen inside a space travelling vessel, the only place out here that survival is possible.

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Featured comic:
Scarred Eden - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/feb/04/featured-comic-scarred-eden/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean

Featured music:
EscapeVelocity - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/EscapeVelocity/, by TheJolle, rated M.

A huge thank you to the fantastic Amelius, creator of Charby the Vampirate! We mined her great newspost on the topic of the comic hiatus for this Quackcast. When you're reading a comic and it goes on Hiatus it's an awful thing… suddenly all progress stops and you don't know for how long it will be gone for. Some authors are great, they'll reach a point where they can't work anymore for some reason or they'll take a little break, but they will tell you they're going on a hiatus and when their comic will return- and Lo, it comes back exactly when they said it would. Crappy authors will say they're going on a hiatus and never return.

The sad fact is that all webcomics end eventually and most don't have a proper end, they just peter out. Sometimes they return from the dead, but if a comic hasn't updated for 3 years it's generally finished. It's a good courtesy gesture to your readers to give them closure in some way: don't end with an indefinite hiatus, rather you should tell people flat out that you're not doing anymore work on the comic and maybe post a link to any current projects you have instead.

This week our theme from Gunwallace is Mediocrity Simulator: Life in the big city is a slow, dull crawl… the gears of capitalism grind on inevitably regardless, crushing all that falls between their cold, uncaring mechanical teeth. Grow up, go to school, get a job and become a part of the machine. Days stretch to infinity.

Possible topic for next week: Stories that subvert expectations: Good or bad?

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Featured comic:
Space Repair Garage the Comic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jan/29/featured-comic-space-repair-garage-the-comic/

Links

Amelius's newspost and reader comments - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jan/27/the-dread-hiatus/

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean

Featured music:
Mediocrity Simulator - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Mediocrity_Simulator/, by FunctionCreep, rated A.