Spoiler- we don't actually talk much about Yu-Gi-Oh! But I feel it's a good example of a pretty bad story- a so-bad-it's-good story, but bad nevertheless. The idea we're talking about here is that it's useful to look at bad stories and stick with them because they can really help you write better. They're a lot more useful than good stories because you'd rather just enjoy those and it's a bit harder to examine them for technical details, but with “bad” stories the faults stand out strongly. Instead of simply dismissing a bad story or making fun of it, it's more useful and valuable to try and “fix” it: try and work out why it seems bad and think about what would be needed to make it better, then think about how that applies to your own work. Maybe you're actually making many of the same mistakes?

Yu-Gi-Oh! is a little too much work to use as an example, but something like the Marvel movie Eternals is good because it only had a few flaws. Big ones, but also very good parts as well:

- Lots of telling rather than showing. A text dump at the beginning was just the start of that. It wasn't stylistic choice like in Star Wars, but rather something we need to understand what is happening. All through the film characters tell us about things rather than the story properly depicting them.

- Revealing the solution to mysteries too early and so it undercuts built up tension. Mysteries are really interesting and intriguing to the audience, even when they think they've solved them, it still feels very rewarding to have them revealed nearer to the end of the story. Revealing them far too early feels like you're being cheated and wastes a valuable resource. Eternals does this twice with very significant mysteries about halfway through.

- Having generic, cannon-fodder bad guys. This is true of many action stories especially from Marvel films, but it's particularly bad here. Saying any more would be a spoiler. But this is something that Yu-Gi-Oh! does far better.

- Leaving out information that would better make sense of story elements. We have the character Icarus refereed to frequently as “the Pilot” by another character who's never met him before, but we have no idea why. A deleted scene reveals why, but without that it makes no sense, you're just left to feel it's a pointless joke about the Icarus myth, which it's not.

- Not solving logic errors. The characters are supposed to be the basis for mythical figures in earth cultures but most are of different ethnicities to the cultures that worship them. This could have been easily solved in two ways: 1. the character “Sprite” could have been shown to have created illusions around them to make them seem like the characters of myth. 2. The character Druig could have been shown to manipulate people's minds to think they were seeing the mythical characters. The story does neither.

Despite all this and more there are many good points to this story and it would be possible to fix it through re-editing. I found it more rewarding and interesting to work out what exactly made this not such a good film and it helped to better highlight the good parts for me. It also helps me see what to avoid in my own writing and what I'm doing wrong. Try it yourself? Maybe you can tackle Yu-Gi-Oh! and let us know how that could be fixed?
I'm not brave enough.


This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to - Malefic Demonic Apocalypse - A creepy red garden filled with writhing demonic monstrosities and horror! This electronic piece grinds and roars, sounding like an acidic, burning harpsichord spewing fury and vitriol in a crimson torrent.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Our movie critique thread does this somewhat - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177412/?page=36

Featured comic:
Oni Streamer Builds a Mech - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/may/10/featured-comic-oni-streamer-builds-a-mech/

Featured music:
Malefic Demonic Apocalypse - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Malefic_Demonic_Apocalypse/ - by Genejoke, rated M.


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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Let's go forward in time to the past so we can get back to the future and kill our grandfather and be our own ancestor while we step on a bug and change the course of evolution 200 million years in the future and doom the Morlocks to a date with Doctor Who, while Bill and Ted drive a Delorean in the Old West and save Fry's dog as it waits out the front of the Pizza place… Time travel is fun to talk about, but it's easy to mess up because paradoxes in plots pop up all over the place as timelines intersect and cross over and over, getting tangled and logically prevent events that have already happened from happening!

Here we chat about some of that as well as our fave time travel stories, like Dr Who, Bill and Ted, The Tomorrow People, Playing Beati Bow, Back to the Future, The Time Machine, A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur, Army of Darkness, Outlander etc. Examples abound! Time travel stories can allow us as an audience to visit a distant time with ourselves looking at the future or past through the eyes of the time traveller, or their naive helper like Marty from Back to the Future or one of Dr Who's companions. They can give us outlandish adventures or bizarre and complex mysteries that make the most of the time paradoxes.

Time travel is fantasy fiction for us because we can only go forwards at the same rate… but it exists in physics as a logical theory and paradoxes can be overcome in specific ways, so it's a possibility, just one that no one can work out how to usefully achieve. Which is why we have stories! So what are YOUR fave time travel stories and why?

This week Gunwallace has given us something different! Rat Test Blues - Gunwallace doing his own thing here! The dangers and worries of CoVid-19 are universal, and New Zealand is no exception. Here Mr Gunwallace gives voice to his and all our apprehensions when faced with a malady when there’s a pandemic about… “Do I have Covid or just a cold?” Only the Rapid Antigen Test can say for sure. Awesome blues number, that guitar roars and sings and Gunwallace’s vocals are perfect.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Sad W - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/may/03/featured-comic-sad-w/

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

David's always right - Introducing Hpkomic! Hpkomic has been with DD since the earliest days, he's a comic artist, writer, English teacher, and podcaster. He even participated in the second comicbook challenge that Platinum held way back in the day when they controlled DD, and came second! He was part of many community events, like the Drunk Duck Civil War (the DD answer to the comic book Marvel Civil War) and DD VS Comic Genesis, which was the DC Vs Marvel of Webcomics! In fact he has the oldest post on this version of the DD forums! After the site was fully deleted at the end of 2005, he was the first person back who commented with an offer of help to get things back online again. Bonus points if you can find it.

He's spent some time away but he's resurfaced again to actively participate once more and lend his experience and help with a newspost every second Friday. I will continue to do the Fashion Spotlight, but Hpkomic will alternate newspost with me to lighten my workload and provide variety.
In his time away from DD, HP broadened his interests into podcasting, doing the Chucky based “Kid's Stuff”, the supernatural focused “Supernatural Selection”, and writing for “Haunted MTL”, a Canadian horror website. So have a listen to this amiable and intelligent fellow regale us with his brilliance!

This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to Ghost Network - Xylophone bones, tapping a happy tune on dried out ribs…grinding into a veil of deep red, steaming and chugging through into a cloud of mystery. This is a jaunty ditty crossed with a dark, heavy electronic piece for a very unusual mix.


Topics and shownotes

Links

HPKomic's links and links mentioned:
It came from the fridge - Hpkomic's start at drawing digitaly - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Warped_Archive/4889607/
Galactic Hub Serreven - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Galactic_Hub_Serreven/4958715/
Cosmic Dash -https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Cosmic_Dash/
RGBots - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/RGBots/
Supernatural selection - Supernaturalselectionpod.com
Dragoneers -hogan crossovers http://crossovers.dragoneers.com/

Featured comic:
Succubus - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/apr/25/featured-comic-succubus/

Featured music:
Ghost Network - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ghost_Network/ - by Ohnomelon, rated T.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

The full team is assembled yet again! Tantz came up with the idea of having a look at fantasy worlds in fiction that have strong ties with the “real world” and how they function together. Her main example was the world of Harry Potter which has many strong connections to the real world and yet manages to stay very well hidden, which stretches plausibility a bit. The World of Casandra Clare's Mortal Instruments is similar in that regard, it's deeply tied to the mundane world and yet it stays hidden from it to a degree that isn't really possible.

There are many other fantasy worlds where the connections with the real world are much more limited and that makes their hidden nature more plausible, i.e. Oz, Neverland, Narnia, Xanth, Wonderland… This was a fun topic to chat about! We covered a lot of ground. We even touched on the world of Hellraiser as a hidden fantasyland. To make your hidden world more believable, don't make it so that there are heaps of people who experience it all the time or have it constantly influence the real world because asking people to accept that no one knows about it is a bit silly.

This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to COLD-BLOODED - Coils and coils of slithering intrigue, smooth scales kletter over dry sands, a powerful, muscular form wriggles through the shimmering desert heat towards the nuclear furnace of the hot, yellow sun. Heavy, synth, rhythmic sounds.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz's newspost about Fantasy worlds - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/apr/22/the-problem-with-magic-worlds/


Featured comic:
Up the Pyramid - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/apr/19/featured-comic-up-the-pyramid/

Featured music:

COLD-BLOODED - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/COLD-BLOODED/ - by Perrys_Hotter, rated T.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

BANES RETURNS! …to talk about boobs with the rest of us. The topic of the discussion this week was brought to us by Tantz's newspost on the 2nd of April about bosoms and how their shape and size doesn't matter. In the crusade against “sexualisation” in comics people tend to focus too much on big or “unnaturally shaped” boobs, but the truth is that any type of boobs can be fetishized and by reacting against one type you just cause a new form of exclusion.

The problem isn't boobs, it's that people fetishize them in their art too much and often inappropriately. It's fine to do that in certain kinds of work but not every time you draw boobs on any character in any context. It's not the shape or size, it's how you draw them! The “how to draw” breast meme guide annoys me quite a lot- it has good advice on how to draw breasts but where it fails is in telling you what “not” to do. The breast shape and behaviors that it says are wrong are quite normal for people with implants and those are ubiquitous these days for many reasons, so let's not tell people there are the right kinds of boobs and the wrong kinds.

We were also going to chat about toys that inspired us as kids and also the Will Smith slap, hence the title that Banes came up with, but we decided just to go with breasts instead.

This week: The unholy return of Banes!
Next Week: the DD Awards

This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to Team 541 - A techno dance track that means business! It thumps out with a high speed futuristic military march, dancing in perfect stomping precision with a show of force and power.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz's newspost about boobs - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/apr/01/i-want-to-talk-about-boobs/


Featured comic:
Ghost Network - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/apr/05/featured-comic-ghost-network/

Featured music:
Team 541 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Team_541/ - by Mg78, rated E.

Cover image by PitFace from - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/PUTRID_MEAT/5432145/


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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Creation is a process with a lot of ups and downs: Agony and ecstasy! The easiest way to think of it is a simple inverted parabola- you start of feeling good about your idea and its potential. As you work though you feel worse and worse about it till you get to the nadir of the curve, then things turn around and you start feeling better and better about it as it finally comes together and you finally manage to finish it!

For most of us though the reality is more complicated and the longer you work on a piece the more ups and downs you have during it. This could occur during a single page, a single panel, an entire chapter or the whole comic. It takes me ages to do a page so I go through this process with every stage of the page creation- thumbnails, 3 different layers of line art, background drawing, and the colour process of every element of every panel.

The downs are pretty bad but the highs of creation are wonderful and that's what you're always chasing because creation feels good. Yes, drug addiction is an obvious analogue, but any experience that makes you feel good is similar; from surfing, to sex, to love, to watching a great TV show, or doing a lot of exercise. But creation is what we're doing here and I think it's superior to most activities because in the end you've midwived something that didn't exist before into reality and hopefully that will go on to inspire others.
How's your experience of the lows and highs during the creation process? Maybe for you it's all high, all lows or just neutral?


NEXT WEEK: The return of BANES!

This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to Lord of Seasons - This is a requiem for a lost empire. Mournful cello builds a soaring subterranean tomb that we as listeners observe as the music leads us inexorably on through the twisting caverns and galleries. We feel uneasy and uncomfortable as if the spirits of this lost place are restless and hateful. Throughout all there is an impending sense of dread.


Topics and shownotes

Links

The Agony and the Ecstasy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Agony_and_the_Ecstasy_%28novel%29

Featured comic:
The New Butler - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/mar/29/featured-comic-the-new-butler/

Featured music:
Lord of Seasons - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lord_of_Seasons/ - by ArmandoB, rated M.


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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Retro adventure heroes are an interesting and unique sort of hero. The trope was revived and crystallised by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with Indiana Jones, but it had existed long before then and continues to persist now in many forms. They're not without their problems But I like these characters. I love their outfits, their competency, intelligence, self sufficiency, and their penchant for exploration and discovery.

What is a retro adventure hero? Typically they're an adventurer, a member and representative of a powerful Western country, they like exploring, they're self sufficient, they can survive by themselves in the wild, they can fight, understand many languages, have arcane knowledge of and respect for native peoples and different exotic cultures, they tend to be very worldly and highly educated. This trope was inspired by real life examples, typically explorers from the 19th century, foremost among them was Sir Richard Francis Burton. He was highly educated, a soldier, an explorer, a swordsman and a shameless self promoter. With the explorations of Burton we have the romantic idea of a representative of the British Empire and Western civilisation delving into the hidden worlds of the Arab east and darkest Africa.

A partial influence for Indiana Jones was the story of GE Kinkaid and his 1909 find of the remains of a fabulous city accessed through a cave in the Grand Canyon… all sponsored by the Smithsonian institute. Of course nothing about the story was true and GE Kinkaid never existed, but it was quite inspiring nonetheless. My own character, Ace Kinkaid, from my comic Pinky TA was based on GE Kinkaid. Instead of going in the Indiana Jones direction of a “true hero” I decided to take a different tack- since the story was clearly made up and quite stupid (obviously designed to fool people), I made Ace Kinkaid someone who wanted to look like a hero but was in reality a con-man, only out for himself.

The most important fictional retro adventure hero is H. Rider Haggard's “Allan Quatermain” (I wrongly say he was Edgar Rice Burroughs' character in the Quackcast). He's another huge influence for Indiana Jones. There are many other popular fictional retro adventure heroes though: Brenden Frasier's character in The Mummy, Romancing the Stone, Lara Croft, El Borak, Steve Canyon, Biggles, Bulldog Drummond, John Carter, Dirk Pitt in Sahara, Flashman (though more of an antihero) and many more, even The Rock's character from the recent Jungle Cruise.

Why “retro” though and how can contemporary characters like Lara Croft and Dirk Pit be retro? Well there are a few reasons; number one is that they follow the clothing conventions of a lot of brown, leather, and straps; number two is that they have all the right competencies with fighting ability, self sufficiency, a penchant for adventure and exploration, visiting ruins etc, a good education…; number three is that they come from a retro world view of imperialism, so they can be a representative of the “enlightened modern world” going off to “discover” and explore exotic places - which of course aren't exotic or in need of discovery from the point of view of the locals.
This trope can still work just as well in a modern setting because we still continue to think like this, but it works best in the 1920s/30s for a couple of reasons: The aesthetic then is perfect, but this was also the end of the old imperial era. It marked the end of the time when we could still imagine representatives from “western civilisation” exploring unknown places, technology was at the highest point for characters of this trope (aeroplanes, machine guns, trains, steamships…), and many of the original adventure heroes were created in this period because we were romantisising the idea of adventure and empire while it was ending.

After the second world war scoured the entire globe and the last gasp of the dream of empire was shattered, the far reaches of the earth no longer seemed exotic anymore or to hold the same mystery. Retro adventure heroes had their hey-day in the transition from colonialism to post colonialism. We like them now for the romanticism of the image of what they were and the spirit of adventure and exploration, that's what we emulate rather than the distasteful idea of a colonialist imperial cultural ambassador, tourist, and thief.

Do you have a fave retro Adventure hero? If so, who? Do you even like the trope?


This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to Caveston - Authoritative violin pronounces and directs. A four stringed general deciding the course of action, laying out the battleplan. Electric guitar listens well and leads the squad on a furious audio assault! Storming forth and prevailing in a mighty show of shock and awe.


Topics and shownotes

Links


Featured comic:
Caveston - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/mar/22/featured-comic-caveston/

Featured music:
Caveston - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Caveston/ - by Caveston, rated T.


Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
PitFace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Fantasy creatures are cool and we're here to talk about our faves. One of mine is elves. I love them… Being quite elfy myself. Fantasy is pretty fun to play around with, you have the freedom to create anything but even so there are a few recognised and agreed on fantasy creatures that people stick with.

Tolkien is responsible for creating iconic versions of creatures like Dwarves and elves among many others but it was really the American students going to university in the 1960s and 70s that solidified things. These were RPG gamers. RPG games had always been popular with that crowd. In previous generations with the SciFi writers in the 30s and 40s it was naval based war games that they'd play on the floor with ship models. But in the 1960s fantasy was all the rage.

These RPG enthusiasts came up with detailed game systems like Dungeons and Dragons which created bibles of fantasy creatures of all kinds. This served to collate, define and refine fantasy creatures for pop-culture as a whole for the decades to come. This is why despite all the freedom, fantasy creatures across different stories and mediums don't changes very much.

So what are YOUR fave fantasy creatures? Here are some of ours, see if you can guess who's is who's: Naked, mysterious, secretive, powerful, necromancer witches; big veiny, musclebound, brutish, ragged trolls; Noble, brave, muscular, archer centaurs.
I also have to mention Tantz's fantasy book series The art of Veiling!

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Little q - An intriguing safari through the dark, misty, damp, green humid jungle of human emotion. Ringing bells of synth vibraphone tones shine like spots of sunlight through the dappled shadows of expectation and obligation. Warm and comforting.



Next week's Quackcast:
Retro Adventure heroes. You know the sort, dressed in khaki, loose shirts and leather, going to exotic places, quick with a gun or a whip, exploring, fighting, doing what's right and adventuring. So we'll be chatting about the likes of Indiana Jones, Brenden Frasier's character in The Mummy, Romancing the Stone, Ace Kinkaid in Pinky TA, Lara croft, El Borak, Alan Quartermaine, Steve Canyon, Biggles, Bulldog Drummond, John Carter and maybe more!

Topics and shownotes

Links


Featured comic:
Welcome to my House - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/mar/01/featured-comic-welcome-to-my-house/

Featured music:
Little q - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/little_q/ - by PaddyWolfe, rated E.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

I consider Drunk Duck (or the Duck Webcomics) to be the Heavy Metal of webcomic hosting sites, because like that excellent anthology comic publication we celebrate the oddballs. On DD we have comics of all different styles, many that would find it hard or even impossible to promote themselves anywhere else. We're open to all skill levels and all styles. We only promote things we consider to have high quality or high potential in our features, but we don't have a particular style prejudice, we don't only feature things that give us a homogeneous, unified look. We're proud of our variety! We don't gate keep or block anyone from access to our site and we feel that's one of our greatest strengths.

The inspiration for this cast was a thread Bravo1102 made about a mention in the “bad Webcomics Wiki”, about things that indicate a webcomic is “bad”. One of them was that it was hosted on a site like Drunk Duck. The commenters in the thread took exception to that, as you'd expect, coming together to rally against a common threat. I want to be clear that we in no way consider The Bad Webcomics Wiki a threat, it's just an entertainment site focusing on roasting webcomics, the mention of DD was probably made over a decade ago by people who've long forgotten about us now. However the community reaction was interesting and brought up many things worth talking about.

We're the granddaddy of hosting sites, and we're still fit as a bull. We've been around for 20 years (I never tire of mentioning that). Kids have started with us and come back to us as adults. Young adults have started with us and met partners through us. Members have had kids and now their kids have comics with us. Our older members have been with us right up to the end. DD members have gone one to have very successful money making webcomics, have careers in the gaming industry working for people like Rockstar, working in publishing, in Hollywood, working in professional comics for Marvel and DC, etc. Many started out with basic skills and were nurtured and supported by the community here till they developed their skills. And many professional comicers have hosted with us.

Hosting with us is far from being a sign that your webcomic is “bad”, rather it's a sign that you're an independent thinker; that you have something interesting to say that doesn't fit into the cookie-cutter mold of other places on the net. At DD you have a home for your creativity.


This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to A Lunatics Tale - Quick step and tap, tap, tap your foot into this funky conversion between Instruments! The light chatter of the electric guitar, the sensible burble of the bass, loud interjections of the trumpets, bombastic quips by the percussion, finishing with an intriguing conclusion from the synth.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Thread about Bad Webcomics Wiki - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/179010/


Featured comic:
Atom Man - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/mar/08/featured-comic-atom-man/

Featured music:
A Lunatics Tale - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/A_Lunatics_Tale/ - by BeckKeep, rated T.


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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Cults are weird. Unlike normal religions (from which many cults stem), cults are usually based more around charismatic individuals rather than simple doctrine. Which means the followers of cults can often get a little crazy because they're following the whims of an individual rather than boring old text from a book. And this is why religious groups with charismatic leaders (i.e evangelical Televangelists and hardline Imams), become crazy and cultish too.

Our lovely Andreas Helixfinger inspired this cast with an idea about how horrible cults can be in fiction. He made a newspost about that on the last Sunday of February. One of the interesting things I find about depictions of cults in fiction are the difference between how the right and left show cults. The rightwing version of what a cults is usually involves satanism, pentagrams, goats, human sacrifice, blood, knives etc. While the more leftwing version is of a creepily nice, ultra conservative, uptight group of people who live in perfect houses, dress very neatly, have their hair just right and are usually very rich, but under the surface they're all creepy murderers or sex fiends or demon worshipers or something.

Some of the fictional cults we mention in the cast are various cults in Warhammer 40k; the Chaos cultists, the Imperial cult, The machine cult, the genesteeler cults… It's funny how the Chaos Cultists mirror our real world cultish people: Slaneesh cultists are sex maniacs B&D, S&M people; Khorn followers are death metalheads; Tzeentch followers would be Q-Anon conspiracy theorists; And followers of Nurgle wold be antivaxers.
Some good fictional cults were shown in The Wickerman, Midsommer, Hot Fuzz, Randal and Hopkirk Deceased (the reboot series) has about 3 different cult episodes, Welcome to NHK has a brilliant depiction of a multi level marketing cult (Anime is FULL of cults), and Tantz mentioned a great Korean movie with a cult: Keuraim Peojeul.


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Remedial Magic - Puddles and ripples of light and dappled shadow spreading outward ever wider and wider. Beads of light glow within, sparkles glitter and burn. This is a pleasantly thrumming piece of electronica that gently steps from note to note.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Evil Cult Newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/feb/26/horrific-evil-cults/
Keuraim Peojeul - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15305982/

Featured comic:
ORIGIN by David Abiola Olukoga - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/mar/01/featured-comic-origin-by-david-abiola-olukoga/

Featured music:
Remedial Magic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Remedial_Magic/ - by Sameth, rated T.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Last week we did a thing of the persistent myths of fiction- fictional conventions that we all just accept, and are repeated over and over and even influence real life- for example: that people are blasted back in reaction to being shot. It started as a way of making shooting scenes more dramatic and obvious on film, but became a convention and we all believe it so much that it influences reality- it's part of the famous JFK conspiracy about a “second shooter” because people foolishly think JFK's head rocking “back and to the left” indicated the direction of a gunshot. The kinetic energy of a bullet is imparted to the medium it strikes, typically through heat and destruction when it hits a soft target like a human.

In that vein we cover a few gory myths, thanks to suggestions by Bravo1102 and Tantz's Red Cross experience. Everything from decapitation to period myths. Also some stiff about defibrillator paddles- they can't restart a heart that's stopped, rather there are two particular kinds of irregular rhythms that they are able to shock back to normal- I picked up that bit of info from my Ex, Amy- an excellent ER nurse. Uncredited in the Quackcast. We cover quite a few more. People's suggestions were great!

Lastly- We'd like to acknowledge the horrible invasion of Ukraine that has taken place. That is an awful thing for the world and particularly the civilian population of Ukraine itself. We mention that in the cast. I don't like propaganda or tales of heroic military action and defiance, it's ridiculous and stupid. We stand with the civilians who're suffering. War is a horrible thing and we hate it. Tantz and I both do war themed comics and our perspective is a bit different from the usual. We recommend the comic “The Second Crimean War” on DD for a good perspective on Ukraine.


This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to Eva of Asgard - Thunderclaps, followed by a slow, steady downpour that gradually increases in strength before collapsing into a furious, chaotic storm of electric guitar driven hard rock! An electric guitar strikes like lighting, illuminating the entire piece in sharp relief, till the metal tempest blows itself out and fades away.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Thread about persistent myths in fiction - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178988/

The Second Crimean War - a great comic about the issues with Ukraine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Second_Crimean_War/

Featured comic:
Cassie York in the Purple Nowhere Part I - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/feb/22/featured-comic-cassie-york-in-the-purple-nowhere-part-i/

Featured music:
Eva of Asgard - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/EVA_of_Asgard/ - by Synwells, rated T.


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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

There are so many really silly cliché myths from fiction that we all just tend to accept. They're objectively stupid but they get repeated so often that we don't bat an eye when we see them and we can even start to believe them in reality. I thought it'd be fun to dig into them in a Quackcast. I made a thread in the forum for people to contribute to. Unfortunately we didn't get to many in the Quackcast but there's always time to do another!

Just so you get an idea of what I mean, here are some bellow:
- That Indian burial grounds are magical and can cause spirits to come to the land of the living.
- that demons speak Latin, or Aramaic, or ancient Greek or any other bronze Age language.
- that guns can't harm demons or monsters.
- that dangerous animals and insects are evil and they want to kill you.
- that people get blasted through the air when shot by guns.
- that all native people can track stuff anywhere and live off the land and that they're also close to the spirit world etc…
- That security lasers are red beams and easy to avoid.
- That women in the 19th century always complained about tight corsets.
- that peasants were dirty and never washed.
- That back-flips are the best way to doge when in a fight.
- That using paired weapons in each hand is always better and means a person is super deadly and skilled.
- That wearing a sword on your back is a good idea.
- The Heimlich Maneuver is the standard medical and scientifically endorsed way to stop someone choking.

More fiction myths please!


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Untitled Brick Comic - Piano notes step back and forth, swaying, prevaricating, halting, hesitating, before taking the leap into action to dance, spin and twirl on the glowing dance floor to this 90s inspired dance track.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Myths of fiction thread -

Featured comic:
Team 541 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/feb/14/featured-comic-team-541/

Featured music:
Untitled Brick Comic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Untitled_Brick_Comic/ - by Ccznen, rated E.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Time to chat about character hairstyles. Tantz did a newspost about them a few weeks ago and I spun the topic off into a fashion subject for a Quackcast, but something really basic and simple like hair has a lot of potential in its own right. There are lots of things you can consider…

-What does the hair style mean for the story and the on screen action (messed up, neat etc)?
-What hair we like to draw on characters?
-HOW to draw different hairstyles?
-Characters with the best hairstyles?
-To manga or not to manga hair? Manga hair styles are pretty weird. Either clumpy and spiky or weirdly coloured and super glossy.
-Bald is beautiful? Pinky was going to be bald at one stage…
-What's up with beards?
-Body hair?

It's just endless ^_^


This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to Wrota Metro - It bounces along like the rythmic, mechanical pulsing of a complex machine, keeping to a time and purpose known only to itself and it's creator. Following its progress is lulling and mesmerising, one could get caught up in it and keep going for days!


Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz's newspost on hair - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/12/the-significance-of-hairstyle/

Featured comic:
Space Daddy Adventures - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/feb/08/featured-comic-space-daddy-adventures/

Featured music:
Wrota Metro- https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Wrota_Metro/ - by Byj561, rated M.


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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

He might not be in the Quackcast right now but he's in our hearts and in this topic! Banes did a newspost about Nostalgia the other day because so much popculture these days is openly recycled: from reboots and remakes, to stuff done in 80s styles etc. This sort of thing has always existed of course, nothing is new not even nostalgia ironically, but today there is more of it and less totally new stuff.

Oh! Special note. Today we were joined by Andreas Helixfinger! The brilliant Swede. So we have even more international flavour now. He will be doing newsposts on Sunday!

Instead of complaining about it we decided to talk about the nostalgia we loved! What are the best reboots and sequels? What are the things that you love that are being revisited?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to DNR - contemplative, cool, introspection. Electric guitar and synthesizers waft in blue and pink waves, vibing together and relaxing. They hit a couple of stressful bumps in along the way though, where the energy is ramped up too high. They play through that and go back to relaxing the first time, the second time it happens they're finished and flatlined.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Banes's newspost: Fountain of Nostalgia - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/feb/02/fountain-of-nostalgia/

Featured comic:
TWO PENNY VAUDVILLE - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/feb/01/featured-comic-two-penny-vaudville/

Featured music:
DNR - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/DNR/ - by Arborcides, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
PitFace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Andreas Helixfinger - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Andreas_Helixfinger

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

This Quackcast is about one of the cool things about being an adult: growing out of childhood prejudices and expanding your tastes to try new things. There's this rosy, idealistic idea that kids are culture sponges, open to everything, all experiences and tastes, but that's a fantasy unfortunately. Kids are only open to experiences for a relatively short time before their preferences solidify, but even THEN they have a very strict hierarchy of sources they'll accept those influences from- parents, friends, family etc. A lot of what they like is driven by peer pressure and the opinions of others.

Even as a teen and young adult you have pretty strong prejudices, you like a lot of things but you tend NOT to like many things in broad categories because you “know” that you don't like them. For example: “classical music is boring”, “modern art is pretentious”, “Romance movies are for wimps”, “Country music is for rednecks”, “Poetry is lame”. etc. These childish broad brush “I know what I like”, statements are things we all say at one time or another.
One of the wonderful things about adulthood is that we don't have to worry about the prejudices so much, especially those influenced by peer pressure and perceptions about what others will think about us for liking certain things. this means we can go back and check out all those wonderful things we missed out on and see if we really DO like them!

Try reading some classics, try some jazz, country and classical music, read some superman, try the genres you despised and see if that's really what you think.

TLDR: Being an adult- means losing prejudices so you can go back an enjoy what you missed


This week Gunwallace Gunwallace was busy busy getting older and having a birthday! Yup, he's growing up. So the classic Gunwallace theme I've picked this week is Feint (also for Quackcast 459) - A raw thrumming violin importantly intones ringing chords over and over as it sets us up for a beautifully rocky crescendo that culminates in a tumultuous sonic climax!


Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Wrota Metro - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jan/25/featured-comic-wrota-metro/

Featured music:
Feint - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Feint/ - by Stonedraccoon, rated M.


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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Pit and Tantz join me to talk about about fairies, fae, Faery, Fair folk, Yokai, and all that good stuff. They're like the dark-matter of the supernatural world: they're not really gods, demons, monsters, or ghosts (though sometimes they are al of those sort off…), they generally fill the spaces between. They exist in a lot of cultures all over the place. They can be naughty spirits, elemental creatures, or animalistic, but generally they're quite alien and unknowable. This discussion comes from Tantz's newspost on Saturday.

We talk about the pretty fairies from popculture and how those were quite popular in the latter half of the 19th century among the spiritualists and romantic naturalists. We talk about the “royal fae”, the sexy humanoid Fae like Titania, Puck and Oberon (mentioned in Shakespeare), and Herne the hunter. Fairy myth like changelings and kelpies and how they may have arisen as cautionary tales. We chat about how alien mythology simply directly replaces fairy myth in the modern world with things like abduction, mutilation of farm animals, lost time and other fantastical ideas. We also talk about the modern KING of the fairy image and myth: Brian Froud, who not only created a brilliant book with gathered myths and explanations about the seelie and unseelie court, but also single handedly created and influenced the very look of all modern illustrations of fae-folk with his particular stylings and his work on things like The Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal, the Story Teller and other things.
What are your fave fairies and fairy stories? What do you hate in fairy myth?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Ark Hunters - Notes cascading and calibrating, before committing and tumbling down and along in a continuous torrent, a cataract of notes, flowing and bursting outward. Acoustic and electronic, guitar, violin, piano and percussion vying continuously.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz's newspost: The Fae - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jan/21/the-fae/

Featured comic:
Dry Kings - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jan/16/featured-comic-dry-kings/

Featured music:
Ark Hunters - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ark_Hunters/ - by Tombag, rated T.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Listen on Stitcher ​​- https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/drunkduck-quackcast
Or TuneinRadio - https://tunein.com/podcasts/Books–Literature/Drunkduck-Quackcast-p1150194/

Let's talk about total immersion… When consuming media rather than creating it, if you're lucky you become immersed: the struggles and fears of the character become your own. You feel for them, you care, their pain, their hunger, even their shivers and sweats, you care about the world in which they live…
That can be an amazing feeling and it's pretty much WHY we really enjoy and keep consuming media. Themes, great visuals, intellectual explorations of ideas and concepts are all very well but nothing compels and excites you as much as when you really CARE what's happening.
So that's what we're chatting about!

Tantz and I talk about some of the times when we've felt really immersed in a story and what that felt like. It's amazing how comics, movies, games, radio plays etc can take you away from your present and plonk you into the world they're depicting. Personally I find the less visuals provided by the media the easier it is to be immersed (so books and radio plays), because most of the story has to be built in your head, but you can find immersion with any media. That's why when its over you feel so bereft and marooned: you've been bumped out of that world. It's also why we want sequels so much and are usually always disappointed by how they turn out: we don't really care about another story with the character starting over, what we want is to live in that world with them one more time, and when it's inevitably not the same (because most writers don't understand the real point of a sequel), we're unsatisfied.

This is also the main reason I don't like horror movies: I will become immersed in the story so I feel the pain and fear of the characters, I care about them too much so horror movies depress and sadden me if I let myself become immersed.
What are your experiences with story immersion? Are they good, bad, do you love it or just not care too much?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Dude in Distress - a classical, slow, dancing promenade… careful steps in satin slippers on mirror polished wood… At full speed we’re launched into relentless movement. Hydraulic, electric servos of enormous power push us ever on, altering the world in unimaginable and extreme ways.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
INTERSTELLAR BATTLE GIRLS LEAGUE of SUPER WARRIORS - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jan/11/featured-comic-interstellar-battle-girls-league-of-super-warriors/

Featured music:
Dude in Distress - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Dude_in_Distress/ - by EssayBee T, rated T.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

“The Girl Boss in the sausagefest”
Pitface and Tantz chat are here to chat with me about the subject or lady Barbarians: What they look like, where they originated, why they originated, what they mean, and the logic behind them. They're often overshadowed by their male counterparts (e.g. Conan), and often dismissed as simply an erotic male fantasy, but they've been around just as long and they've also had just as much of a role to play in the traditional “barbarian” mythos as the male versions. Sure, the sexy versions are abundant, iconic, and visually striking, but they're not the be all and end all!

This Quackcast was inspired by the topic of my 8th Fashion Spotlight and its focus on the barbarian woman Rose Red, I go into a lot of detail there and it's linked bellow if you're interested. for a little bit of a recap: lady barbarians go back at least as far as the Roman empire, even older possibly. In Rome they took the form of “gladiatrixes” (female gladiators), who were dressed as and promoted as barbarian fighters from exotic, uncivilised lands (Africa, all over Europe etc), as a way to excite the interest of the paying public to pay to see the fights, the same as we'd do today with wrestling and MMA. Many influences were behind this: the myth of the Amazons, the myth of Atalanta, red haired Celtic queen Boadicea, even early ideas for what was behind the myth of Medusa - she was thought to be based on the queen of a barbarian tribe rather than Ovid's much later idea that she was a virgin temple priestess.

But of course most of us know female barbarians because of their modern incarnations. They've always been around in the history of art but they had a spike in popularity with the Italian “Sword and Sandal” movies of the 1960s, then the art of fantasy art master Frank Frazetta in the 1970s. They found their way into things like Dungeons and Dragons and with the success of Conan the Barbarian and the Robert E Howard inspired Valeria in that film a whole host of lady barbarians got their own films, often exploitative and sexy. The most famous lady barbarian of the time was Red Sonja, loosely based on another Robert E Howard character called Red Sonya, but turned from an armoured fighter against the Ottoman Turks into a scale-mail bikini wearing comic book barbarian woman from prehistory.

The most famous lady barbarian to come after her was Xena, the warrior princess, played by statuesque New Zealand sketch comedian Lucy Lawless. Xena was simply a female spinoff from Hercules The Legendary journeys. The really cool thing about her is that not only did she achieve extreme popularity and her show totally eclipsed its originator, she was also an original character AND she got that popularity without leveraging the sexiness of the premise or character!

Some notable lady barbarians I can think off… Virginia Hey's Warrior Woman, Tina Turner's character, and Furiosa from the Mad Max 2, 3, and 4 respectively; Lady Death; Red Sonja; Grace Jone's character from Conan the Destroyer; Valeria (Sandal Bergman) from Conan the Barbarian; Queen Boadicea; Xena; Betty Paige's Cheetah woman (her look was probably an inspiration for Xena in some ways); Ygritte from Game of Thrones; Atalanta; Princess Merida of Brave; I even created my own version in a Barbarian Pinky TA!
Who are your faves from the this genre?


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Creeping through the desert ruins, not wearing overly much, heat hits like a wall, golden sun dazels and mystifies. From plucked strings to creepy atmospherics, the sound bursts in a bombastic wave of high energy multilayered noise and exotic sounds, with pounding percussion.

Topics and shownotes

Links

DD Fashion Spotlight 8: Rose Red - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jan/05/friday-fashion-spotlight-8-rose-red/

Featured comic:
Latitude Zero - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/jan/04/featured-comic-latitude-zero/

Featured music:
Hentai Action Theater - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Hentai_Action_Theater - by Bedlam Boy, rated A.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Happy New Year! It seems we've all decided to keep going on with the 20's so let's continue…

Did you know the year 2022 marks 20 years that Drunk Duck has been around? YUP! The site is actually THAT old THIS year!
No other comic host is as old and legit as us. They're all little babies. Even Facebook didn't exist when we stated, no iphones, no smartphones, tablets, no Youtube, Twitter, Tumblr, Pintrest, Instagram, Spotify, tiktok and so on. Jeeeeez man, we're freakin GRANDDADDIES of the internet. Even this podcast turns 12 years old this year.
Hopefully 2022 will be the year when we get our facelift, new looks, better features and keep being the cool, grown-up, mature and interesting alternative, to all the bland cooperate comic hosts out there.
At the end of the cast, we start getting arrogant and silly and describe ourselves as the gods of DD XD I can't believe we recorded that!

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Giovani Vigilanti - Catchy bass notes, strings echoing like percussion leading us up bouncing purple steps into an orange cloudy sunset lit sky. This tune moves ever onwards, always right, like a 16 bit sidescrolling fighter, towards inevitable confrontation with a level boss. We best him easily and keep rolling ever on.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Stick Figure Apocalypse - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/dec/28/featured-comic-stick-figure-apocalypse/

Featured music:
Giovani Vigilanti - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Giovani_Vigilanti/ - by Urekgp, rated E.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
- https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS