Tue, 24 February 2026
We're doing a cast on background colouring. There are a million was to do colour for your backgrounds, the only important thing is the finished result, it really doesn't matter how you get there, as long as it's not with AI, but learning how others do things can always be helpful. For myself I got where I did by looking at the great work of others and trying to get the same results, plus a LOT of trial and error. I'll outline here a very simplified version of what I do. I have two main comic styles: a flat cartoony cell shaded style for Bottomless Waitress and a more painterly pseudo realistic style for Pinky TA. These tips apply to both but mainly Pinky TA. First up I work digitally and my lineart is top layer in grey or black, set to “Multiply” so all the non-lines parts are transparent and can show through the colour of the bottom layers. I create about 2 to 4 background layers, depending how complex I want to be. The very bottom layer is my simple fill layer. Usually I decide on a simple gradient for each panel. The gradient is usually made up of no more that 3 colours. It's a good way to very quickly add a sense of depth and visual interest to an image. I usually pick a colour to represent the feeling of the emotional vibe of the scene or something that fits realistically with the image. On the layer above that I'll colour objects, buildings, and things in the background. I find It's very important to know that the colours of your backgrounds influence the colours of the things within it, especially your characters (if you're doing a more realistic style), and lighting is a massive part of that because without light there is no colour or vision, so know where your light is coming from and what kind of light it is: sunlight, lamps, windows, candles, spotlights, moonlight, universal light etc. That will also infleunce how hard, distinct and dark to make your shadows. On a layer above those two I'll colour my figures. I take cues from the main background colours on how to colour my characters so that they fit better with the scene, and I also light them the same way. They will still be coloured in their standard colours mostly but the panel colour influences how their shadow colours look. Finally in another layer above the line art I will have an “effects ”layer which will go over everything. This could be for bloom effects around bright lights or fire, it could be for smoke or fog, or often I use it for a trick to create “atmospheric perfective”: this is where things that are further away become dimmer or faded and it's a very easy way to add depth. To do this I just add a gradient of a single colour- usually white, and set its opacity to fade to zero, with the zero opacity part of the gradient over the foreground and the full white over the background in the distance, then I set the opacity of that layer to be quite low, maybe 15%. So that's one of my methods. I hope you are able to get something helpful from it! In the cast Tantz and Banes also outline some of their very different techniques. How do you work? This week we have another best off from Gunwallace and this time it's - Miss Sisyphus - Slow, faded monochrome ennui, colour bleeds in gradually, like a stain on paper, filing with life, danger, adventure, futuristic exploration, like a dull and dusty bud, blossoming into a gorgeous flower, full of colour and heady scent. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 17 February 2026
This Quackcast was recorded on the 14th of February so our cast was about Valentines day and romantic love stuff! A day named after a martyred Christian from the latter days of Rome who was beaten and then beheaded. Apparently he advocated for the right of Roman Legionaries to marry so that's where the love and romance association comes from… Which is interestingly ironic to me because the true meaning of “romance” and “romantic” isn't lovey dovey stuff, but rather it refers to things that are associated with ancient Rome, or are evocative of the idealised memory of it, hence people who're obsessed with ideals used to be called “romantics”. The concept of “romance” has since been simplified and bastardised to only mean lovehearts and Hallmark type commercial ideas of people courting - chocolates, flowers and all the rest. We chat about that and actual lovely dovey comics and movies and books and things. Out of the three of us much of Banes' work has more of a focus on love than anything else. He even has a comic called “Kaiju Valentine”, which has a fantastic love story at its centre between a giant woman and a normal sized man, you should really read it! But his other comics like Typical Strange and Bottomless Waitress that he works with me also feature significant love plots. Some of my fave love stories are the movie Joe Vs the Volcano, and the books Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, and The Rowan, all of them because although love is the focus they use it to explore other things: Destiny and self realisation of Joe Vs the Volcano, dangerous, nasty toxic passion in Wuthering Heights, class politics in Pride and Prejudice, and becoming a whole, accepted person in The Rowan. This week our best-off from Gunwallace is Kaiju Valentine - Stomp meets a big stomping monster woman as she bops and bounces heavily to this cool, percussive and yet somewhat ethereal sound. It’s party time here in Kaiju land! This is an infectious dance number! Topics and shownotes Tantz Valentines newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2026/feb/13/love-is-in-the-air/ Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 10 February 2026
Myths and legends are a massive part of our culture. We have the original versions of them that still stay with us, mostly intact, but because of how important and well known they are we're always getting new versions of them that are changed and added to to reflect our contemporary culture. Big stories like King Arthur, Robin Hood, Beowulf, the Odyssey, The Journey to the West and many other stories keep getting new versions in our modern world. The Greek myths beings quite old, very detailed, and well written get a LOT of different versions, which has been happening since antiquity. Even the Romans like Ovid revised them, his versions were made to reflect his own cultural and political realities. Most recently there's the Nolan version of the Odyssey coming out. Some are annoyed at the various non-white people in certain roles, but that's a trend that's been popular for about 30-40 years or so and simply reflects our modern diverse cultural and ethnic makeup. The only thing that irks me are the stupid costumes and reinterpretation of the armour, but also the silly commentary concerning it- on one hand you have supporters of the crude fantasy styles in the film and on the other supporters of ancient Mycenaean styles. Beowulf shows up in various ways, there are direct and indirect interpretations. One of the interesting aspects is that people use the monster, Grendel, for their indirect interpretations- Everything from Friday the 13th (the first one), to Frankenstein (at least as an inspiration to the various adaptations), Jaws, The 13th Warrior, Split Second (a monster in futuristic flooded London), you could even include Predator and Alien. Journey to the West is a very important story to many cultures in eastern Asia because it's tied closely with Buddhism and the spread of that religion on the continent. It was important to me when I grew up with endless TV repeats of the dubbed Japanese series Monkey Magic, starring Masaaki Sakai, Japanese pop sensation (The Spiders), and perennial charismatic TV personality. It featured comedy, endless fighting with demons and monsters, and the retelling of various stories. This version was so popular that people have remade it rather than just the myth itself, and it's inspired films and TV shows with the costumes it used for the characters. Many others now know the myth through the Dragon Ball anime and Manga, with Goku as the Monkey King. Disney's anthro version of Robin Hood had a gigantic impact on the creation of furry culture. The King Arthur myth, focussing on the heroic journey of a random, scruffy orphan into a prophesied king of a nation shows up everywhere in fantasy and Scifi, examples include Star Wars and the fantasy series The Belgariad and Malloreon by David Eddings and many others, including more direct versions like Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail, Disney's Sword in the Stone, and the fantastic Excalibur. The Jewish myth of David and the giant Goliath show up over and over in things too because of the focus on an underdog who triumphs despite huge odds and then goes on to become a famous ruler. What are your fave myths that keep on inspiring popular culture (directly and indirectly), and what is your fave version? This week we have another best off from Gunwallace and this time it's - Ripping off King Arthur - We’re all preparing for the big event here with this theme. It’s a weird mixture of a Rocky theme, fantasy epic, and 8 bit video game music… as if were were about to see a pixelated, medieval fantasy themed version of Mortal Kombat! The fight showdown to end all fight showdowns! - I chose this because it mentions King Arthur, a mythical figure. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Direct download: Quackcast_778_-_My_amazing_idea_Ha_ha_ha.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00pm PDT
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Tue, 3 February 2026
Today we're talking about bad feedback. This was inspired by Tantz's newspost about the webcomic management site Hivemind two weeks ago that used belittling tactics and bad feedback to break down and control the webcomic artists who were managed by the site. Bad feedback can be extremely harmful to a creator. We're not talking about harsh criticism, we're talking about useless criticism who's only purpose is to make a creator feel bad about their creation. The cover image here is from a picture by me. I had it up on the fantasy art site “Epilogue” back in the day. That site had started out as a cool place to post fantasy art and I had been invited to display my art there in the early 2000s, but by the time I posted that pic it had a weird system in place where they had people reviewing the art before it was allowed to be displayed. I remember that some entitled idiot gave me useless feedback that was something along the lines of “This isn't good enough for this site yet, it needs fixing…” -That's paraphrased. Basically it was pointless, unhelpful gatekeeping on a site that was there for creators, on which I'd been invited to participate with. Creators need to be supported and helped. That doesn't mean telling them extra-positive lies, just as it doesn't mean unhelpful pseudo-criticism It means praising them for what they did right, for the effort and the bravery of creation, and being genuinely helpful with advice and criticism in a way that they can use and be receptive. If you can't do that then learn HOW to. What's the most helpful or unhelpful criticism you have received? This week Gunwallace has given us a great little theme to Through the Window - Flamenco, Latin, fast stepping, toe tapping, heel stomping to this powerful rhythm that wants to get your body up and moving, swaying and spinning on the dance floor, shimmying with your partner, fast and intense!
Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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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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