Tue, 29 July 2025
Hey ho! We thought we'd address the topic of censorship again on the Quackcast! Next week we'll chat about how free speech and censorship works now on the internet the way it is now, but for now it's a bit of a rambling overview because it's a gigantic topic! With “free speech” and censorship people always imagine that it's something very basic and black and white but when you look into it the complexities and complications are pretty huge, not to mention there are NO universal global “free speech” rules and that is a big issue with the internet and instantaneous unregulated communication which bypasses national borders. Basically “free speech” usually means that governments aren't allowed to restrict the political expression of individuals because that is essential for preserving free democracies. We expand that to “free expression” in a more general sense because we don't want governments restricting what we can say or do (within certain limits). And that's just a taste of how complex it gets. Not to mention copyright issues, fair use, obscenity, ratings systems etc, it all factors in! On Drunk Duck we need to have a ratings system that comics fall under. Our Adult rated comics have restrictions on them, and we don't allow comics that depict underage characters in sexual situations, (that can be hard to police). Comics designed to defame others can also face restrictions. So censorship is everywhere! Though DD is more free than other comic hosts on the net and that has always been one of our main features from the very beginning! What have been your experiences with censorship? This week Gunwallace has given us a musical theme inspired by Mortify - A sepulchral, highly evocative, almost dreamlike reverie on the tenebrous existence of the penumbra between life and death, dark and light, where souls hang on the edge of oblivion. Topics and shownotes Links Info on freedom of expression https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/rights-and-freedoms/freedom-information-opinion-and-expression Forum post about censorship issues https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/180046/ Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 22 July 2025
This week our cast is about the folly of following fashion! It could be with clothes, hair, interior design, architecture, music, OR creation! Things like plot styles, story structure, art, lettering, fonts, jokes, twists etc, all are subject to fashions of the day. And we are driven to participate in it, not because we're fashionable creatures who want to be “in” with the latest trends, rather it's because at our core we're just simple social animals and following fashion is an instinctual way for us to fit in with our social groups and participate in the simple social hierarchies based on how closely we follow the current fashion and how cleverly we express it. It's herd behaviour. But why is it folly? There are a few very important reasons that you shouldn't follow fashion: Slang changes all the time. The very worst and most stupid thing you can ever do is try and unironically keep up with current slang, especially if you're trying to see “cool”. Why is that? Because the people most up with the latest slang are 12 to 14 years old, do you really want to be thought of as cool to a 12 year old? Aside from that the constant changes mean that using current slang dates you more than anything and gives the opposite of your intended meaning, instead of ever being cool you will look very stupid. If you must you can use it ironically and that will save you, you can also use it historically to date your stuff to a particular time, OR you can invent your own like A Clockwork Orange, the Simpsons, or The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now we come to the topic of “style vs fashion”. You can be stylish instead of fashionable, this means you pick styles from where and whenever you like (even current fashions), based on your passion for those things and you intelligently incorporate them into your own personal style. The difference is that you are not simply following a trend because it's the done thing, going along with it, doing your own poor version of it because you don't really understand it and it not fitting in any way with you what so ever. Style is making the best choices and picking the best examples of things that worked, while fashion is simply fitting in. So what have been your own worst fashion mistakes? This can be in creation, clothing, hair, whatever. Did you try and jump onboard with manga style when that first became the big fashion in Western comics? I know I tried and did a terrible version of the style! Did you do the whole non-linear story thing? The alternative world thing? The superhero in the “realistic” outfit and setting thing? The “webtoon format” vertical scrolling infinite canvas thing? There are many more fads and styles… It's NOT a bad thing to do any of those as long as you're not just don't it because it's the popular thing at the time. Gunwallace wasn't able to do a theme this week so instead we have a reprise of May the Rain Come, by Zimeta. It's a very beautiful piece. From Quackcast 177, 28th of July, 2014.
Links
Featured music: Special thanks to:
Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 15 July 2025
Tantz Aerine showcased LGBTQ+ comics and creators for Pride month in June with the help of Skyangel, Mainly on Bluesky. It went to so well that she came up with the amazing idea of doing more monthly features for other themes. She doesn't want to dictate to us what those theme should be though, she wants input into the idea so we can all come up with good themes together! The idea behind a month long showcase isn't to be socially conscious so much as having a reason to bring more promotion to creators- that's important to remember. This is marketing :) We have a forum thread discussion* where people have shared their own recommendations. InkyMoondrop, Bravo1102, Lothar, Dragonsong12, PaulEberhardt, Kawaiidaigakusei, and J_Scarbrough had some great suggestions already! PaulEberhardt: Bravo1102: Dragonsong12: Lothar: Ozoneocean (me): Kawaiidaigakusei: J_Scarbrough: All good suggestions but some of them can be joined into others I think? Something like “Hispanic Heritage” could go into a category like Kawaii's “Language Other than English Month”, and “Poverty” and “Drugs and alcohol” could be subsets of “Mental Health”? Also on the Quackcast Banes suggested February for “Romance” because of valentines day. Please give your opinions and suggestion! Tantz wants a popular vote of these.
Topics and shownotes Links *Let's design DD Month Events together! (forum thread) https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/180026/ Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 8 July 2025
Novels are basically long stories. They tend to have a lot of different plots and things all happening at once, unlike short stories. When writing a novel you have a lot of freedom to tell really BIG stories, stories that spanning worlds and centuries if you feel like it. In this Quackcast Banes chats to Tantz about the art of novel writing and what makes a novel Tantz is a good person to talk about that with since she's published a few novels in her fantasy Art of Veiling series. And Banes is a good person to ask about it because he's interested in writing a novel of his own! Have you ever had plans to write a novel? Do you prefer them over short stories or comics? How would YOU approach writing a novel of your own? This week Gunwallace was overwhelmed so as another best-off special treat we have a reprise of the theme to Ginger&Shadow - Lovely string music with the competing themes representing the two cats. From Quackcast 204, 3rd of February 2015.
Links The Art of Veiling - https://www.amazon.com.au/Art-Veiling-Awareness-Tantz-Aerine-ebook/dp/B00CRMM25K Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to:
Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 1 July 2025
There's always time to start learning something new! If you think you're bad at art and people told you you lacked talent back in the day and that if you didn't start as a child then you have no chance to be good, please know that all of that is false- you can become an amazing artist whenever you start. In-born magical “Talent” is absolutely not required! Practise is ALL you need. None of this “10,000 hours” bullsh*t either, that's another myth. Just keep working at it over and over and practising new things till you get the results you want. This cast was inspired by Gunwallace's newspost last week where he discusses this very thing. We go a bit deeper into the subject and Tantz lends her considerable academic and scientific weight as well as numerous anecdotes. It really is a persistent myth that you can only learn well as a child and then after that you may as well not even bother, but that's wrong for a lot of reasons. Like most myths it is based on grain of truth: children's brains are “empty” so they're predisposed to gather as much knowledge as fast as they can, copying from everything, so they can learn to survive and become functioning humans. Because of that they can seem to pick up the basics pretty fast. When you're an adult you don't have that need anymore so you pick things up slower. That's all it is, you can still learn at any age and in fact adults have the advantage: they're more dedicated to what they want to learn and they have the experience and intelligence to understand what they learn and make better use of it, so they can synthesise that knowledge, apply it to other things and sub in other knowledge and experience to augment their learning. In my own experience teaching digital animation to tertiary students, in which they were taught how to use media creation tools on their computers, the basics of animation and how to create a full animated project, the older students did so much better than the younger students that they were in another league. People of the ages 50 and 60+. They were more dedicated and more interested. The younger students 18 to early 20s had more trouble understanding what they were doing and staying focussed. And in my experience as an art student at university it was much the same, older students always did better, without exception. Why is this? When you're older you have more experience and can deal with distractions better. You have much more draws on your time so when you really want to do something you will be more dedicated to it because you have to make that time count. You have more money to put towards to what you're interested in. You care less about the positive or negative reinforcement of others; you don't do what you do for praise and you don't care as much about criticism. Your brain is fully formed so it's not being confudled with hormones or structural changes. Your social situation is more stable and less crucial so it doesn't interfere as much with things you want to do. Obviously there are things that make it harder too: Physically you're more prone to injury and slow healing. You're not as fast. Your eyes and ears might not be as sharp. You have much less free time and have to make moments count more. You haven't got the same dedicated support structure that most younger people have, and so on. But despite all of that the advantages still help older people win out. So learn to do art better, practise writing, learn other languages, learn to dance, play guitar, weld, code, whatever you feel like! Have you got any experience learning something when you're older vs learning as a kid? This week Gunwallace has given us a musical theme inspired by The Midnight Tea Party - Relaxing and exciting! A feathery, glittery explosion of laconic violin and electronica. We’re in heaven and we’re having a rave! Topics and shownotes Links Gunwallace's newspost about Starting Late https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jun/25/starting-late/ Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Direct download: Quackcast_746_-_Its_never_too_late.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PST
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The QuackCast features Ozoneocean, Banes, Tantz Aerine, and Pitface, talking about writing, movies, webcomics, art, politics, philosophy, sexuality, and everything else! We're the hosts of the oldest webcomic host on the net, Drunkduck.com, aka theduckwebcomics. 20 years this year!
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