Tue, 31 March 2026
Tantz developed an idea to promote DD creators by doing themed months. DDers were asked to come up with themes that fit various months and when those came around we DDers were asked to nominate creators and their comics to be promoted as part of that themed month. March was chosen to be the Women in Comics month to coincide with Women's History Month. So in this Quackcast we're celebrating our female creators and recapping the success of the themed month. DD has been around for well over 20 years now and in that time our site has tried to stay as egalitarian as possible across all fronts. We have always had prominent women creators on the site producing amazing comics and our staff managing DD has always had a fairly equal split between women and men. So why the need for a women in comics month if this is the case? It's because despite all this many women don't feel comfortable having their gender known in case their work is judged and assumptions made because of that and also to avoid certain types of unfavourable attention. The purpose of our women in comics month is to help all of us and comics in general because more equality of representation gives us a diversity of points of views and experiences and that massively enriches our community and the comics available to us to read. Who are your fave women comic creators here on DD? Or if you're a woman creator, what has your experience been like here? When I first started posting my own comic here in 2004 Creators like Amelius, Coydog, Skoolmunkee and Blackitty really welcomed me and I was in awe of their work and talent as well as their roles in the community. This week our best-off from Gunwallace is: Demon Eater - Jillyfoo's demonic horror comic. This has a gritty, grungy, red sound of rending and tearing, pulsating, and the chittering of unholy insectile monsters! Topics and shownotes Women in comics Newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2026/mar/06/march-dd-theme-female-creators/ Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to:
Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 24 March 2026
This topic is about manipulation and manipulators. This is a super broad topic because manipulation is everywhere: not just unscrupulous people but in normal communication, advertising, story writing, art etc. for good, evil, and purely neutral objectives. But for the purposes of this cast we got Tantz to use her expertise to limit it down to mainly focus on people. So what IS manipulation? It's getting others to do things or change their thinking, often against their interests. They think it's their own decision based on their own wants and reasoning but in reality they're behaving in the way that the manipulator wants them to, using triggers, deception, and other clever methods. As children most of us learn how to easily manipulate others through behaviours and actions: things like tantrums, fake tears, being cute etc. Basically big obvious stuff that easily gets a reaction. Thankfully most of us also grow OUT of such crude behaviour, though some silly adults never do, or if they do they go back to it. The behaviour of master manipulators is driven by a perception of weakness: they see manipulation as their main available option to exert power because they don't feel they're able to in any other way. They can make great villains. A memorable manipulator villain is the mother in The Sopranos. A great example of the power of nasty manipulators is shown in the 1988 film The Chocolate War (also a great use of Kate Bush's “Running up that Hill”), where one boy's act of rebellion at the school causes him to be the target of a bullying campaign by a master manipulator. Sometimes manipulation is unintentional: certain things trip triggers we have and we change our behavior despite our better interests. The whole “sex sells” is based on that. People knowingly take advantage of that but it's ripe for comedy when they don't realise they're doing it. The character Francis in the comic Bottomless Waitress by Banes and I is one such example. The film Something about Mary is an entire story based on this premise because characters romantically fall for Mary, and do whatever they can for her and then they even deliberately manipulate others in their competition for her affections! Do you have a character that uses manipulation to get their way or can you think of an example of a noted manipulative character in fiction? This week we have another best off from Gunwallace and this time it's - Firefly cross - A very mystical sound, with traditional, middle eastern style music mixed with dark techno fuzz, this one is intriguing!
Links Thread about manipulation - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/180225/ Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
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Tue, 17 March 2026
Many times in your writing you reach a point where things just peter out and you can't seem to move beyond. We're not really talking about a traditional writer's block here though, it's more like running out of puff, “out of steam” so to speak… You get your story and or characters to a point and then “what now?”. Maybe it's because the content of the current story no longer fits with the script you were working on because too many interesting things got added in as you were creating the pages, but now it's all falling apart because the story as it is now is too different from the planned one. Maybe it's because you lose enthusiasm for the current story. It could be that you've seen new trends and styles and fun things you want to include but can't fit them into your current story so you get tired of it. Maybe you don't have a script and can't really work out what to do next. It could be that you find a plot hole and know you'll need a rewrite to move any further. Or maybe you're starting a new chapter but can't work out how to do that. There are many reasons to run out of puff and we chatted about some ways around that in the cast. Again, this is NOT about blocks which are not really related to the writing and are more just psychological. One of the ways was to limit your scope right down: just focus on a few characters in a much more limited set of circumstances or maybe even the point of view of a single character and proceed from what interests and concerns them, what they like, need, and care about, what they experience etc. That means there are less things to worry about, it's easier to crystallise in your mind where you should go with things, and it's also way easier to get your audience to relate to and identify with what you're doing. Another key method is to rely on structure if you can. If you have an old script and old thumbnails and all that stuff, try and see if you can hammer your way back to it. You might not be able to because of later story changes or you may not even have a script, but if you do and you CAN go back to it, it's worth it even if you feel it's a bit old and boring, because it's all planned out already and when you move past the dull stuff you can write more interesting stuff into your script later. Finally another trick is to just jump to another scene completely. It could be a time jump, like two days later or earlier, or even a flashback. You can use dreams, visions, or a recounted story by a character. You can also jump to parallel scenes with other characters in other places, or simply a different character point of view… What are some run-out-off-steam moments you've had and how do you get beyond them?
Topics and shownotes Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Direct download: Quackcast_783_-_Where_do_we_go_from_here.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 10 March 2026
This Quackcast was inspired by a remark about a certain character trait in fiction and not meeting anyone like that in reality. It stuck a chord with me because people often complain on the internet about fictional tropes that “don't exist in reality”, and yet in my lifetime I've frequently met representatives of most tropes in the real world. So I thought we'd chat about popular character tropes and their real life versions. One of the biggest “fiction only” character tropes that the internet loved to deride was “the magical pixie dreamgirl”, which was explained away as a mythical creature invented by horny middle-aged male screenwriters who want to recapture their youth by having a dalliance with this fantasy female stereotype. In my life I've met many real life women AND men that commonly match this trope precisely: people who behave and speak whimsically, have an “alternative appearance” with dyed hair and a whimsical fashion style, a childish sense of humour, act chaotically, don't fit in with normal societal rules, go on adventures, are arty and poetic etc. Many people find it fun to live like that for a while, it's performative, and if their situation means they have less responsibility (because they're a student for example), it's much easier sustain that way of life. I think the real reason why people think that certain tropes are mythical is because they're unsustainable in the long term so real people can only behave that way for a limited period, which limits the chance that you'll encounter a person like that; the manic pixie is a great example. Also certain tropes only exist from specific points of view so unless you have the POV you won't see them: the sexy, suave male seducer, or the inappropriate sexual harasser guy for example- they target their behaviour specifically towards certain women, so that to most men those character types seem fictional, because they simply don't encounter the full brunt of it, and conversely the sexy femme fatale seductress can seem like a fictional product of the “male gaze” to many women because it's not behaviour typically aimed at them. As a young person I learned about many character tropes through the media, especially American TV and movies, where certain traits were dominant: Nerds, dorks, jocks, preppies, the popular kids, etc. And yet where I was growing up, in Australia in the 80s we didn't quite have those types of people in reality. I began to think of them as a strange fictional American invention. Even when I went to the USA for the first time in 2010 and went to San Diego Comic Con, which according to American media is ground zero for “nerds”, I found it full of actors, porn stars, MMA fighters, weirdos, and families. I encountered one true, genuine nerd stereotype there and it was the most precious and interesting experience to have finally seen one after all these years. One last thing: outdated tropes. Tropes that existed at one time in reality but are now extinct so that then we see them in fiction we interpret them incorrectly or just don't understand them. Sam and Frodo in The Lord of the Rings are a great example of this, their relationship is the typical officer and his batman, the upper-class man and his devoted rural working class servant. A relationship where people are connected through a formal working arrangement and separated by class, education, and social convention but nevertheless manage bridge that through shared experience and become friends anyway. This was something that would happen particularly during WW1. The social and class situation that caused that to exist has utterly changed now so people can't understand it anymore and instead misinterpret it in their own ways. What are some “fictional” tropes you've seen in reality, or even some that you've never seen outside of fiction? In recent times I've been shocked at the rise of the bad cartoon villains in the USA and now I WISH they had remained in fiction.
Links Featured comic: Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Direct download: Quackcast_782_-_fictional_tropes_in_reality.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 3 March 2026
Our Quackcast this week was inspired by a post I made in the DD forums asking about songs that had a big impact on people in their formative teen years. This sort of thing is such a pertinent subject in 2026 when stupid people are thinking they can replace creativity with the soulless pastiches created by AI- Real humans are the sum of their creative influences, jumbled into a gooey mental soup as their brains were forming, getting all mixed up and mis-remembered and joined with other stuff based on emotional resonance and the context of what was going on at the time. Ai on the other hand is a machine created by a corporation that's fed stollen IP from illegal sources, which then regurgitates simplistic, meaningless mashups based on nothing but the superficial similarities of aspects of the stollen source material - it has absolutely NONE of that soulful creative depth. It's a world “learned from books” as opposed to one experienced in reality, but even worse because even a person learning things from nothing but books has emotional connections with aspects of what they read based on past experience. When I can see that sort of depth of inspiration and history in people's creations I LOVE it. With this in mind we chatted about songs that had made an impact on us as teens and how they still influence us. What songs influenced you as a teen and why? This week our best-off from Gunwallace is It's Permanent - Old school southern rock, laconic, melodic, hard drinkin’, late night, whisky, beer and cigarettes. Play your cards right and you’ll be going home with the prettiest cowgirl… Topics and shownotes Song thread - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/180214/?page=1#latest Influential music for us:
Featured music: Special thanks to: VIDEO exclusive! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Direct download: Quackcast_781_-_The_tracks_that_made_you.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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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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