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

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

huh hu hu hohohohohohohohohohohoh Merry Christmas!

Merry Xmas from everyone here at DD, but most especially Tantz, Banes and me, Ozoneocean! Pitzy is away for a while on family business, it's the time of year and family comes first. Tantz is at home with her pretty Christmas tree in cold Athens, Banes is snug and warm in his place in snowy Canada, and I'm sweating my bum off in Perth Western Australia as the temperature gets close to 44C (110.66F), but I dressed up like an exotic santa anyway hahaha! Which I tried to draw but lost confidence in my skills because it's SOOOO bloody hot and I can't concentrate so I posted screenshotted pics from our Patreon video instead. I AM MELTING!!!!!!
We have no particular topic this time, just a Christmas chat. It's mostly Tantz and I because Banes had to rush off to work, dedicated fellow he is.
How did you spend Christmas?
Was it hot there too? Cold? Did you actually get a white Christmas?
I would LOVE a winter Christmas.

This week Gunwallace gave us no theme, instead he suggested replaying The Rose Killer, a theme to a comic by Nicotine. This theme first apreared in Quackcast 199. It's noir, street, jazz, smokey bar music, VERY atmospheric.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Giovani Vigilanti - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/dec/21/featured-comic-giovani-vigilanti/

Featured music:
The Rose Killer - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Rose_Killer/ - by Nicotine, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

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

Merry Christmas and whatever you celebrate :)
Interesting topic from Banes! It's his idea that sometimes the literal elements of a story (the plot etc.) are simply too weak to properly support the theme. He gives the example of The Truman show, where the idea is that a person is living a fake life under constant surveillance as the star of one of the most popular real life TV shows ever and he doesn't know anything about it… The themes are the power of the media, commercialism, the American dream, obsession with reality TV etc. Banes felt that although these themes were very strong the practical setup of the world and story weren't quite strong enough to support it.
I remember feeling that way as well when I originally saw it. The universal obsession with the show and the practical challenges of setting up and maintaining that fraud for so long with all those people were all nonsensical. Good theme but they didn't think hard enough about the setting. This is an aspect we don't always think about!

That's distinct from stories with a more symbolic setting like The 7th Seal, or Mullholland Drive because we know they are are not meant to be literal, there are more than enough cues! But when the literal aspects of the story are key to conveying the theme then they need to work. It's a very simple but powerful idea and helps you realise whey a lot of stories with big themes just don't quite gel or sit right: it's not you, it's them.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to c h h t - Seriousness, sadness, blue strobes, faded scenes, isolation, concrete and plain facades. The lights are dim as twilight approaches. Night closes in and streetlights bloom with golden halos. Two strangers meet in the a circle of light glittering on the wet road.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Banes' newspost on themes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/dec/15/above-and-below-the-surface/

Featured comic:
Tiger Tea - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/dec/14/featured-comic-tiger-tea/

Featured music:
c h h t - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/c_h_h_t/ - by Princefishie Lover, 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/
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

We all know that fiction and reality are separate things, but fiction mirrors reality and we suspend disbelief to ignore the parts that are unrealistic so that we often treat fiction the same way AS reality. But there are many tropes and aspects of fiction that ONLY work in fiction and can't work in reality. I was inspired to examine this idea because of our Fetish-cast with Fallopian Crusader and his idea that certain fetishes can only exist in comics.

An obvious example of this is superheroes and their costumes. Of course there are many stories that try and make more “realistic” versions of superheroes (Kickass etc), but that's beside the point. The vast majority of superhero stories create their OWN reality that we just accept- amazing superpowers, magic, horrific acts, feats of amazing heroism, and super amazing costumes. It's possible to have heroic vigilantes in reality, without powers, but classic superhero costumes just never work, even though marvel has shown better than anyone else that they can work amazingly in live action movies.

A lot of fiction sets us up with unrealistic expectations- raunchy comedies about university life all gave us a very unreal idea of what goes on there (this was parodied in the Simpsons), and romantic comedies and romances give us a terrible idea of how to court a person! If we were to do a lot of these things in reality they'd be regarded as criminal acts; assault, stalking, theft, or just plain creepy, unethical, crazed and horrible.

What were some of the unrealistic expectations you had about reality from fiction? What are some of the things that only work in fiction but don't really exist in reality?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Ferda Boys - The sounds of the crowd ebbing and flowing, Ice hockey sticks clacking, a whistle blows and the action is on! Heavy piano, light drums and soaring distorted guitar burn through this 70s sports power ballad, singing the plays while the match progresses. The music fades and the crowd roars in appreciation as the puck strikes the back of the net!
The sound effects come from https://Zapsplat.com, a royalty free sound library.

Topics and shownotes

Links

FetishCast, Fallopian Crusader tells us about how some fetishes ONLY exist in comics - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/quackcast/episode-557-fetishes-in-comics

Featured comic:
Ferda Boys - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/30/featured-comic-ferda-boys/

Featured music:
Ferda Boys - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ferda_Boys/ - by Hockey Webcomics, 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/
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

This interesting Quackcast topic was influenced by a DDer who has been subsumed by anti-CoVid conspiracy. This inspired me to delve into the reasons for the massive growth in these types of conspiracy and how the current state of the internet contributes to it. I had some theories, but I thought I should do some reading on the subject to see what the real reasons are rather than using guesses to fill the gaps like conspiracy thinkers tend to do. I was quite shocked by what I found.

There are really three main parts to the problem: 1. Gate-keeping, personalisation and curation of our online communication and viewing by big tech companies. 2. This curation tends to have the effect of polarising us and making our views more extreme than they are 3. Groups use these factors to manipulate people through the use of bots (in the form of fake users), as well as paid users with several accounts.

Gate keeping:
The majority of our online interaction is through only a few large companies (Google, Facebook, Apple, TikTok, Twitter, Microsoft, Twitter, Amazon etc), they closely track every aspect of our online behavior and use it along with AI to customise and curate our online experience: the Facebook and Twitter feeds, suggested videos in YouTube, “personalised” Google search and so on, the same for the “friends” it suggests to us. None of that is nefarious or evil, it's just impersonal AI skewing what we see to keep us online longer and sell more ads. But this is also why their online services are free and often quite useful. It's actually quite crude and clunky, their AIs are terrible and obvious most of the time, suggested videos, news results, friends, product ads, and search results are just as often terrible as they can be useful.

Polarisation:
The friends, news stories, links, posts in Twitter and Facebook, videos on YouTube and TikTok that appear in our feeds are generally biased to what will get the most interaction and engagement from us; something that makes us angry like politics, or happy like celeb news for example. Researchers investigated this by creating neutral bots on Twitter. Beginning with “liking” the first random things suggested to them by Twitter, they then randomly “liked” subsequent things Twitter suggested to them. Each time Twitter would base what it suggested next on what had been liked, which meant that the neutral bots gradually had more and more extreme versions of whatever was initially randomly liked. If the initial thing had a slightly left leaning bent, in the end the suggestions were extreme and the same for right-wing and so on. In this way social media has a default tendency to radicalise us. This is part of the reason online debate is so polarised.

Manipulation:
The Problem is that it's very easy to manipulate this system and us as a consequence. It's very cheap to set up millions of bots as fake people and give them user accounts. I'm sure you've occasionally seen suspicious accounts that have tried to add you as a friend, people with names and preferences that don't fit their profile photos, these are generally poor people in West Africa and Pakistan who're paid to set up multiple profiles, basically the human version of bots, in an effort to circumvent anti-bot security measures.
The purpose of these fake accounts is manifold. They can be used to skew the kinds of news people see, spread fake rumours, sell products and scams, increase the profiles of certain people etc. This is done by having them all share the same phrases, hash tags, and links, and liking things, that in turn tricks the AIs that curate and personalise your feeds and searches into suggesting what the bots have promoted.

Researches have documented this activity from Russian and Chinese state controlled bot farms, it's also been the tactic of Islamic State (ISIL) to attract and radicalise people, spammers, scammers like Natural News and Mercola who sell fake health products and diet scams, multi level marketers, hackers, angry conspiracy theorists with agendas like the antivaxer crowd, and even just people out to make money from advertising with fake clickbait news stories about celebrities- You've all seen and clicked on those terrible ads at the bottom of news stories run by Zergnet, Taboola, and Outbrain. These always lead to low quality, often fake stories with lists that you click through. They're harmless but time wasting.

If you lacked scruples you could also use those tactics to increase the profile of your webcomic! In fact we can see it in the small scale in the way webcomic hosts like Taps and Webtoons manipulate their audiences: only recommending certain types of comic to them, promoting only those comics on their main page and elsewhere etc, this in turn forces creators to produce comics which look and feel the same way because it seems the only alternative available.

Online VS the real world
It's very important to remember that the online world Vs real world is a false dichotomy. There is ONLY the real-world. The internet is only a form of communication, but it is the dominant and most important form of communication which is why this stuff is so very important and dangerous. It has real world consequences, as seen with CoVid-19 conspiracies, Pizzagate and the invasion of the Capitol building, this idiocy results in mass deaths. Sites like Twitter, Youtube, Tiktok, and Facebook have been great sources of citizen journalism and alternative news, but unfortunately they're now very simple to manipulate and control. Where once they were a great alternative to polarising mainstream media, now that usefulness has been compromised.

Personally I'm all for neutrality and fact checking which is why I financially support the Web Archive, Skeptoid Media, Wikipedia, Snopes, and The Skeptics Guide to the Universe (I bought their book). None of these sites get it right all the time, but they actively try to and they provide valuable resources for the rest of us to try and help keep the world honest and agenda free.


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The Ham - a quiet country road… golden sun rays barely caress the shadowed trees through the cold morning mist. An old truck bounces and jounces along on stiff suspension, past brushing branches, roaring through the stillness. Beautifully evocative notes draw us in, then the tune excites with plucked banjo and burning, distorted electric guitar.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Sources:
In Defense of Truth - https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usdoepub/377/
Social Bots and Social Media Manipulation in 2020: The Year in Review - https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.08436
Fake Online News Spreads Through Social Echo Chambers - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fake-online-news-spreads-through-social-echo-chambers/
Artificial Intelligence and Echo Chambers - https://www.counterterrorismgroup.com/post/artificial-intelligence-and-echo-chambers
Neutral bots probe political bias on social media - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25738-6
Skeptoid Media - https://skeptoid.com

Featured comic:
Pep Squad - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/dec/07/featured-comic-pep-squad/

Featured music:
The Ham - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/the_ham/ - by Hansrickheit, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

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

Today we're chatting about the NEW news feature that we're doing every Friday: The DD Fashion Spotlight. This is a new way to promote comics without all the restrictions of the featured comic system. To be eligible for a normal Wednesday feature a comic has to have at least 15 pages, be currently updating, not in the top ten, have good writing and artwork, not be adult rated, and not have been featured before. That cuts down the playing field quite a lot but it's what we have to do to make it worth a feature.

The fashion spotlight is quite different! All that's required is that the comic has characters with outfits that are interesting enough to talk about, It could be a one page comic that stopped updating 11 years ago, it can be adult rated, it can be in the top ten, it can have had a feature before, it can even have had a fashion spotlight feature before, whatever, as long as there are clothes to talk about it's eligible. I've done two so far.

There were a few reasons behind this new feature… One was the featured comic from a couple of weeks ago about the Halloween Fashion show comic, one was Tantz's newspost about how character's hair styles can be used to convey emotion and things, there was the fact that Emm couldn't do Friday newsposts anymore for a while, and lastly my own love of clothing. I've always been a bit of a collector of clothes, especially antique items. I also do my own sewing, do cosplay, make my own Napoleonic military uniform gear, and I love designing outfits for the characters in m comic. Initially I approached Vino Mas with the idea of running the feature because he's run many fashion events on DD in the past, but he has too may commitments so I thought I'd tackle it myself. I future we may have other reviewers though!

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Tiger Tea - Bass notes lead us on a winding little path… to a vast winding staircase built by a relentless driving synthesised tune that takes us on mysterious journey, up, down, and around, disorienting and enchanting.

Topics and shownotes

Links

DD Fashion Spotlight 1 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/18/friday-fashion-spotlight/
DD Fashion Spotlight 2 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/25/friday-fashion-spotlight-the-intrepid-torpedo/

Featured comic:
Catch22 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/22/featured-comic-catch-22/

Featured music:
Tiger Tea - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Tiger_Tea/ - by PaddyWolfe, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
PitFace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/

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Interview with Dwight L Macpherson, creator of The surreal adventures of Edgar Allen Poo, now known as The imaginary voyages of Edgar Allen Poe! Dwight joined DD back in the old days, well over a decade ago. Back then he hosted his comic with us, about Edgar Allen Poe. From the very beginning I could see that both it and its author were destined for bigger and better things and I'm pleased to say that came to pass. Through a lot of hard work, with the efforts and both him and his wife working as a team, Dwight has found success as an independent published author with a number of projects under his belt and more ongoing ones in the pipeline.

I still remember the surreal moment years ago with I saw his Poe book in a bookshop here in Australia in my isolated city of Perth. I had this weird moment where I was taken out of reality and didn't know know where I'd seen it before and then worlds came crashing together! From all the way back in 2006 when I first saw it online on DD to years later when it's there in book form right in front of me, not in the USA somewhere or Europe where most DD stuff lives, but right in front of me at my little suburban bookshop in Perth Western Australia, in the most isolated capital city on the planet. It still seems like a false memory. And now Dwight is back with us on DD and happy to chat and tell us all how he got where he is today, happy to share the secrets of his success.

Dwight's story: It all started in Korea, stationed there as a sergeant, researching pirates for a story which became the comic Dead Men tell no Tails. It was eventually published in Arcana comics with Ben Templesmith as the cover artist (a fellow Perth peson who I've met). A TV producer in California was looking for works to option and picked up Dwight's book. It didn't go anywhere but Rebecca and dwight eventually met, married and became a powerhouse team working on Hocus Pocus Comics togther (HP comics). Dwight is a huge advocate for independant creators and alternative publishing modes, one of those of course being webcomics!

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to 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

About Dwight and Hocus Pocus Comics - https://www.hpcomics.net/our-story
More of Dwight's links - https://linktr.ee/Dwightlmacpherson
Dwight's comics on DD - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/edgarallanpoo/
The comic I first knew him for - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Surreal_Adventures_of_Edgar_Allan_Poo/
Pip's Monster House, the current project - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pips_Monster_House_/

Featured comic:
c h h t - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/16/featured-comic-c-h-h-t/

Featured music:
Miss Sisyphus - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Miss_Sisyphus/. - by SinisterDuck, 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/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

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Fallopiancrusader joined us as a very special guest to chat about fetishes in comics! It's really interesting and he brings his expertise with adult comics and his wide ranging knowledge of comics in general to bear on the subject. So what are fetishes? Well they're often things that people have sort of a sexual interest in but aren't always associated with sex themselves, they're peripheral to sex. Because of that they're often enjoyed and appreciated in their own right for their own sake! Think of things like body piercings, tight laced corsets, wearing fursuits, spanking, wearing S&M leather and PVC gear, shoe appreciation etc. all things associated with sex that people can also enjoy and appreciate outside of sex.

Comics have a long and surprising history of being associated with fetishism. One obvious thing is that superheroes wear skin-tight outfits that leave little to the imagination, they also often find themselves in perilous situations where they're tied up and gagged (or at least they USED to in the old days), and there are obviously people for who dressing up as superheroes IS a fetish (not cosplayers), but that's not really what we're talking about here so much, apart from two big exceptions: The mainstays of DC Comics Wonder Woman and Superman. Both have an association with fetishism.

Joe Shuster, cocreator of Superman, made money drawing comics where characters would be whipped, tied up and “tortured” in titillating ways. The creator of Wonder Woman was into bondage, which is the reason Wonder Woman has a magic lasso and why she always used to find herself tied up with it. He practiced bondage in his private life with his wife and her female partner. There are also people like Wally Wood who was a great comic artist, commonly credited with Power Girl's impressive bust, his sex comics are extensive and very well drawn!

Something very insightful that FallopianCrusader bought up was that there are various fetishes that can ONLY really be explored through the medium of comics! Things like giantism, miniature people, vore (where characters eat a lot), expansion, furies, Robot sex, horror body modification, giant boobs, huge genitals, Tentacles and more. In fact one of the most popular runaway hit comics on DD (NOT a sex comic) explored both expansion and vore fetishes at the same time, it was called “Craving Control”. In it a woman would be insatiably drawn to consume vast quantities of food and as a consequence her body would expand, her stomach and already big boobs would grow. But very soon she would magically shrink down again back to her old conventionally sexy proportions. People LOVED it, it had massively wide appeal outside of those fetish interests because it was funny and well drawn but it was only created because of fetishes and the fetishes in that from can't really exist in reality.

Some of the other things we chat about: Fritz the cat - Robert Crumb, Air Pirates and the secret Disney sex files, Virtual sex, Body modification, Vampirella, Greg Land, Fan-fiction, Witchblade, Adam Hughes, Richard Corbin big dick characters, Convention VS fetish, Pantsu upskirt, Opia, muscle women, dick women, kicking in the genitals…

This is a safe for work Quackcast and does not go into sexy details, so don't worry in that regard.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Creepy and beautiful synth scene-setting that creates space and volume and then fills it with a meat grinding steamroller of death that slashes and crushes all in its path like a huge armoured monster!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Our Special Guest, Fallopiancrusader - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/fallopiancrusader/

Featured comic:
Halloween Fashion Show - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/09/featured-comic-halloween-fashion-show/

Featured music:
Halloween Fashion Show - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Halloween_Fashion_Show/ - by Sleeping_gorilla, 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

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The other day Tantz Aerine wrote a newspost about an article critical of Squid Game. The crux of things was that the Squid Game creator had said their message was anti-capitalist, while this critic was saying that the author's message with the Squid Game was an anti communist critique and not a very good one at that.
The issue here is that isn't how you do criticism. At all. You can give an interesting reading of something and tell us why YOU think it's anti-Communist, or tell us how it looks through the lens of post-colonialism or new wave feminism etc, but you can't say that is what the author is saying or what the work means, especially if the author explicitly says WHAT they are saying.
This may seem like a small distinction but it's actually very, very important. Bad criticism often tells us what the creator is saying. Don't do that. Don't be that person.

When you have a creative work to look at, you can't tell us what it means or what the author means, only the creator can do that. You CAN tell us what it means to you though. You can tell us about the commonly agreed meanings of various tropes and symbols too as well as their meanings within different cultural frameworks and contexts, but not why the creator used them, that's up to the creator.

The Squid Game is based on the deathmatch trope from anime and manga using all the clichés from that form including poor ordinary people caught up in something dangerous that they don't fully understand, a callous attitude to life, normally innocuous games turned deadly, twists and turns with who's really behind the whole thing, betrayal and so on. We can say that for a certainty because it's provably true. Why did the author co-opt the deathmatch trope? We can't say, but we can theorise they used it because it's popular in Korea and Japan. We can also talk about the history of the deathmatch trope, different examples of it like Running Man, Deathrace 2000, Gantz, Btooom, Danganronpa, Deadman Wonderland, Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor, and many more which all follow the same pattern. We can use those examples to talk about why the elements of those tropes exist but we can NOT talk about their use in Squid Game in isolation. That would be like talking about the use of the word “and” in the English language without talking about the use of similar words in other languages and the origins of the word in German.

It's important to remember that things do not exist in a vacuum but also that intent is up to the creator to define, not the critic.

This week Gunwallace ha given us the theme to Secrets Of Uncrom - Secrets, hidden knowledge, secret cult meetings in guttering candlelight, murder most foul, and plots thickening! This atmospheric electronic tune has layer upon layer of interesting and disparate sounds, suggesting mystery, darkness and hidden things.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz's newspost on conflicting with the author intentions - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/22/flipping-off-the-author/

Featured comic:
Sapling - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/nov/02/featured-comic-sapling/

Featured music:
Secrets Of Uncrom - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Secrets_of_Uncrom_The_Balance_of_Life_and_Death_/ - by Secretsofuncrom, 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/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/

VIDEO exclusive!
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See our Halloween video on Patreon! It's free to everyone this week, just go here https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck and you can see us dressed up in costume for the cast! We always do these videos before each Quackcast but they're usually only available to Patreon subscribers. You get to see us and a much more candid version of the topic we're talking about.

This week we're talking about group shots and how cool they can be! I love drawing them, having all your characters together in the frame is so cool and fun- you can hint at character relationships, have them doing some sort of fantasy activity or just being awesome and posing together. We also chat about some of our fave group shots in film like the beginning of Reservoir Dogs, and the most prolific source of group images ever: album art!

In the cover of today's Quackcast I've added some of my fave group shots I've done from actual Quackcast covers. What are your fave group shots from film, album art, comics, posters, or your own art?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Superstar Sparky - happy, easy going old fashioned organ notes. Grooving along on a warm summer's day, not a care in the world. Synthesized trumpets step in and raise the level, promising big things, fun, sun, and good times!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Banes' newspost on horror group shots - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/24/the-horror-group-shot/

Featured comic:
Miss Sisyphus - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/25/featured-comic-miss-sisyphus/

Featured music:
Superstar Sparky - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Superstar_Sparky/ - by Jamanning7, 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/

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 year for Halloween we've decided to do another commentary! It's of the 1980s Zombie movie “Return of the Living Dead”. It's extremely 1980s in style. There are zombies, punks, yuppies, electronic music, toxic waste… It's quite an entertaining, quite comedic, nihilistic cold war zombie film with very good effects for the time that really hold up today. Even the gore is tasteful. I am NOT a fan of horror in any way, Banes and Pit lobbied hard for this movie… but even so it was not a bad film. The zombies are animated by a man made chemical contaminant, which is quite an 80s theme in of itself. They're not contagious like modern zombies, there's no infection or outbreak to contain. The problem here is that they're virtually indestructible because of the chemical that animates their flesh, they're also fully intelligent and fast moving, this makes the zombies far more menacing and scary than any modern shambling brainless decaying infected version.

If you can find the movie online (it's pretty easy) you can watch along with us as we do our commentary on the film!
Have you seen Return of the Living Dead? What did you think of it? How does it stack up today?

This week Gunwallace wasn't able to give us a theme so I'm replaying Scarred Eden: A million futuristic laser violins play a symphony of light and sound, weaving the landscapes of our dreams against the awesomely huge backdrop of a swirling, purple, star filled nebula. It's a very Jean-Michel Jare sounding piece of 80s style electronica so pairs well with this movie.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Rabbit and Corvid - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/19/featured-comic-rabbit-and-corvid/

Featured music:
Scarred Eden - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Scarred_Eden/ - Damehelsing, 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/
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!
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Last time we covered tropes we hated! This time we're talking about clichés we actually like. It's quite a bit trickier because clichés are clichés for a reason (overuse) so it's not easy to like them, except in some cases…
For me it's Isekai. That's a Japanese word for “another world”. This is a very old genre, it's basically a story where a person from our normal world goes to a magical world, we see this in ancient fairy stories, Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and many others. until the mid 20th century it was the default way of writing any fantasy story. It has always been around, the Japanese were just the first to come up with a popular name for it.

In the last few years this genre has exploded in Anime and Manga, with stories based on the idea of a person being physically transported to the world of a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role playing Game). Early on we had anime like Hack.Slash, which was pretty crap but no one else was really making that sort of story then. Now with the popularity of Sword Art Online (again, not a very good version of this trope), lots of other stories in this vein popped up, so much so that the trope has become a cliché. This means that there are a lot of good things made using it but a LOT of badly made trash as well and that people will get sick of it, as they do with clichés, meaning we will stop seeing anymore Isekai stories for a good long while.
I still love them though!

Pit and Banes like Slasher horror. This genre became such a tired cliché that it almost died out but was revived by the movies “Scream” and “I know what you did last Summer” which helped light the fire for this phoenix to be reborn. Retro is another big thing in horror now that's starting to become a cliché, the popularity of Stranger Things helped fuel that monster. The massive popularity of the Marvel Universe franchise has resulted in a huge over-population of superhero films and they're becoming a cliché people dislike, many still love them though.

What are some clichés that YOU love?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Amber Mage - Warm waves of amber light synth. Subtle tribal beat flowing under a beautiful orchestration of violins, blending with sharp, bouncy electronica pulses, creating a tasty melange with a sweet spicy cinnamon flavour

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Backwoods - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/05/featured-comic-backwoods/

Featured music:
Amber Mage - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Amber_Mage/ - by Wildcat Arren, 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/
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!
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Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

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Tantz explains why she really hates a bunch of tropes that are super commonly used in things, stuff like very obvious plot armour for the protagonist so that you KNOW nothing can seriously hurt them so you stop caring what happens to them and in the story in general, child-led stories where the adults are all useless and ineffectual because it takes away your suspension of disbelief, and amnesia where a huge bunch of the story is erased so the writers can just repeat stuff over and over. Banes and I join it to talk about stuff we hate too!

One of the tropes I hate is how assassins and great fighters are currently depicted as fighting with a mathematical precision, ala John Wick, Daniel Craig's James Bond, Jason Bourne, the Black Widow, Captain America etc. It's not that it's not realistic because of course it isn't and it's not meant to BE realistic, the problem is that the precise, choreographed, balletic, perfect kung-Fu style of gunfighting is a trope that's used as a shortcut to indicate that the person is a great fighter highly trained: It's a trope, and it's hugely overused and boring. No one ever fights like that, especially not with guns and it's not cool anymore because we've seen it a million times, Give it a rest and show us more natural fighting for a while. The same with wire effects, parkour: They've turned action heroes into anime characters. That's great the first few times but it's at saturation point now and useless.

What are your most hated tropes?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The War Below Us - A rhythm heavy relaxing piece. A tribal dance sound that sends you floating away on soft clouds lit by golden lights and joy with the faint smell of incense. Too much energy to meditate, but great for concentration!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz' newspost on hatable tropes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/01/tropes-i-hate/

Featured comic:
Secrets of Uncrom The Balance of Life and Death - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/sep/28/featured-comic-secrets-of-uncrom-the-balance-of-life-and-death/

Featured music:
The War Below Us - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_War_Below_Us/ - by PuddingLem0n98, 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/

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

We decided to chat about games. Video game and computer games. They're now a huge part of pop-culture entertainment and they've influenced us in many ways creatively throughout our lives. There are many different kinds of games out there, but one of the really cool things about them is that they're able to deliver a kind of interactive narrative experience that takes things further than Film or comics can easily do. Games were also instrumental in the early days of the first big popular wave of webcomics with gamer comics (PVP, Ctrl Alt Dlt, and Penny Arcade) and sprite comics (8 bit fantasy), being some of the most popular.

For me, the look of game characters like Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), was a big influence for my comics, and the play style of military games like Battlefield 2 helped me get a good look for my military based comic (Pinky TA). Just the imagery and visual of games these days is inspiring enough, but even back in the day with simple side scrolling platformers, 2D fighters and top down anime style JRPGs the interactive nature of the games could still suck you in and inspire you. I remember I did fan art of the characters from Golden Axe back in the day and I used to draw the weapon loadouts for the JRPGs that I'd play. I don't play games very much at all now because they're far too addictive and I end up wasting hours on them, but even though they're not that creative (well Minecraft is!), they're still a great form of escapism, a good way to deliver a complex story, and a great way to hang out with friends and meet people.

What are your fave games and why? What games were most inspiring to you?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to The Last Aviatrix: The first early morning rays of sun peek over the distant horizon, brightening the sky from grey to blue… The cold silence is shattered by an aeroplane swooping low overhead. Frenetic energy, speed, action, a whirlwind of active momentum and fury as the sounds carry us along at a great rate of knots and then fade away…

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Giant Bee and Friend - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/sep/21/featured-comic-giant-bee-and-friend/

Featured music:
The Last Aviatrix - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Last_Aviatrix/ - by BusterCagle, 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/
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

In today's cast we're chatting about LOVE stories! This isn't a subject we get into much but it's a huge genre so we thought we'd tackle it. We thought none of us even WORK in that genre till I belatedly realised that Banes and I sort of DO with Bottomless Waitress hahaha! There's all sorts of love in there… Sorry for the sound quality with this one I've no idea what went wrong.

I'm pretty sure we all know a good love story or at least KNOW love love stories and most of us like them to some small degree, from passionate drams to romantic comedies, it's a wide genre and it real does get in everywhere. Humans, like most animals reproduce sexually and we're a highly social and cultural species so of course we've developed a lot of stuff around the stories of relationships and the imperative to procreate. Love stories of al kinds have been around since people started writing, so it's worth having a little chat about.
Some of the thing we mention here (sorry, we blanked on webcomics): Pretty woman, Cinderella, Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones' Diary, Joe Vs the Volcano, You've got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and of course- Princess Bride.

We're in 2021 now though and we like to imagine we've expanded the definition of “love” and relationships to things like polyamory, same sex and non-binary etc… but the truth is that these things have always been around just by different names, whether it's free love, androgyny or something else. To that end I mention ne of my fave SciFi books: Drinking Sapphire Wine and Don't Bite the Sun, both by Tanith Lee. It's a couple of SciFi stories written back in the 1970s about a genderless character who lives in a future world where everyone's needs are catered for by automatic, robotic systems, leaving people free to stay as juveniles for as long as they like. People switch bodies, genders and personalities at will. drug taking in encouraged, as is sex, but only if you enter into a formal contract. People have little robots that follow them around, hovering after them with which the can update people on their movements and share their status with all their friends and the rest of the society, gaining or losing popularity as they do. It's a very modern couple of books! And includes relationships between androgynous people.

What are your fave love stories?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Max Jaw - Dark, mean streets. The sound echoes and roars in this dense, hard concrete jungle. It’s unforgiving, raw and cynical. It knows all your secrets and it doesn’t even care, it’s seen it all before… you’re just another anonymous face in the crowd. You won’t be remembered.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Max Jaw - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/sep/14/featured-comic-max-jaw/

Featured music:
Max Jaw - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Max_Jaw/ - by MaxJaw, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/

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Translating cultural concepts so they can be understood in a different country can be really tricky, most people never bother. Often the audience is just left to guess what's behind certain concepts and idioms.
As an Australian, growing up as a little kid we were bombarded by media from everywhere, but mainly Britain, the USA, Canada and New Zealand. There was so much about American media that was utterly alien to us and we were just left to puzzle it out, especially American high school concepts: The level of seriousness with which they regard team sports in schools, cheerleaders, jocks, jockstraps, school kids driving cars, homecoming, pep rallies, summer camp, proms, tick or treating, thanksgiving… We just had to make sense of those things ourselves. Some we could work out from context but others I never really understood and never really will.

Tantz tells us a bit about how she translates concepts from her Greek WW2 comic Without Moonlight to be understood by an English speaking audience and we all have a chatter about things we see in the media from other cultures that we just don't really get, but mainly from the USA since Tantz, Banes, are not from the US, only Pitface and she wasn't IN this Quackcast!

What are the cultural concepts in media from different countries that you don't get?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Speaking in Tongues - A lonely and delicate piano rises out of the shadows to paint an intricate and pretty picture with sound. Backed by gentle synthesised strings, it swirls and rises like a tiny new vine, weaving its way up towards the light.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
The Last Aviatrix - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/sep/07/featured-comic-the-last-aviatrix/

Featured music:
Speaking in Tongues - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Speaking_In_Tongues/ - by Quinn O Matic, 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
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
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There seemed to be a lull for a while after the 1990s and the massive sequel craze of the 80s, but nowadays we're back in full swing again with sequels, reboots and reinvisioning of film and TV franchises.
Banes noticed a distinct pattern of behaviour that occurred around bad or failed franchises: The makers would chose to go against what existing fans liked about the property in the fist place, usually in order to appeal to new fans. When both new fans and old ones dislike what they do, they attack the fans and blame the fans for failure of their version. Then they'll search and find a new franchise to mess up. It's rare that people own up to or admit to failures anymore, it's usually always the fault of the fans for being too “toxic”.

The 2016 Ghostbusters reboot is a great case in point: a film reboot of a hugely popular and successful franchise staring tried and tested popular comedy actors, it turned into a failure. One popular narrative was that it was caused by “toxic” fans and their sexist online campaigns… while those people certainly did exist, a simple viewing of the movie is enough to see the real reasons it failed: They weren't sure what audience it was intended for. The story and storytelling style, the costumes, the sets, effects, lighting, toy-like props, and many of the jokes were specifically aimed at young children, while many of the situations and most of the other jokes were extremely sexual and adult in nature. So what we got was a young kids movie that wasn't for kids- this means adults watching it feel bored or patronised and groan over the childish humour and the kids that could appreciate that content either aren't allowed to watch it, or if they do they're also bombarded with very problematic and gross adult sex jokes: none of this was the fault of the fans.

Compare that to the original 2 films:
They were never intended for a very young audience. Nothing in them was aimed at young children. These were bawdy, young adult comedy fantasy “horror” films. In keeping with the context of the time they had adult humour disguised with double entendres, or hidden with tropes and metaphor. They gained a following from young audiences anyway because the adult content was subtle enough to pass, and the story and style was broad enough that it didn't need to be dumbed down to be understood by younger audiences, in this way they appealed equally to all ages.

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Phantasos: Hot, dry desert. Orange sun. warm winds blowing. Shimmering mirages…. Electric arabesque. This is a gloriously distorted riff filled trip into an exotic world of sand and dunes, with beautiful minarets rising out of the distance, sparkling in the harsh light.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Bane's franchise fail newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/aug/18/franchise-follies/

Featured comic:
Follower - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/aug/31/featured-comic-follower/

Featured music:
Phantasos - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Phantasos/ - by Phantasos by Jslongstreet, 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/

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
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Why aren't there more prettyboy bad-ass characters? Pretty girl bad-asses too! This character type is often a hall-mark of Japanese and Korean fiction more than anything else though it DOES show up in Western media occasionally. There is no age-limit to the type, what distinguishes it is that the character is tough and a very good fighter while also being very obviously concerned about their appearance and looking good- they don't just look good and fashionable naturally, they actively work at it.

They're most usually shown as being villains but there are examples of them being heroic too. In Western Media James Bond is on the edge of the trope, The Saint (famously played by Roger Moore) is definitely a pretty boy bad-ass, as is Jason King. There's Vega from Street Fighter 2, Space Dandy, Spike from Cowboy Bebop… As for women, the ladies of Charly's Angles, especially the Cameron Diaz movies are a great example.

The popularity of the trope in Japan could come from a samurai tradition that emphasised a study of “softer” arts along with the more lethal ones, manifesting in flower arranging, poetry writing, painting, calligraphy etc. While many Samurai would look ultra masculine and shaggy, still others were exquisitely groomed, wearing hair ornaments, fine silks and makeup. In the west at times we've had something similar with dandy fencers in the 17th and 18th century, hussars dressed in extravagant uniforms covered in gold or silver braid, furs and rows of shiny buttons. There were the famous Landsknechts, German mercenaries who specialised in using gigantic greatswords and dressed in amazing outfits of slashed, puffy, brightly coloured silk and huge hats bedecked with feathers.

So prettyboy badarse characters are not alien to our culture, they're just not that popular right now. Let's bring them back! What are your fave pretty boy or pretty girl badasses?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to The Anaether - Running over the darkened plane, legs pumping, feet eating up the distance, dust flying, pounding on into the dimness, escaping, leaving everything behind… This electronic tune is scene-setting and atmospheric, suggesting speed and distance with its relentless rhythm.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz's prettyboy badass newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/aug/13/pretty-boy-badass/

Featured comic:
The War Below Us - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/aug/24/featured-comic-the-war-below-us/

Featured music:
The Anaether - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Anaether/ - by Lizbeth490021, 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/
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

VIDEO exclusive!
Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks!
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We're all fans of something, but when does that happen? When do we transition from just following and liking something into being full on fans and is there even a difference?
I think there definitely IS a difference. I became a fan of Star Wars after watching the first film but I'm not a fan of The Witcher even after watching the entire show. Henry Cavill as Geralt is super amazing but the show itself is just blah to me. I've seen about 200 or so episodes of One Piece but I don't think of myself as a fan. I became a fan of Ghost in the Shell after seeing a poster from the Manga. I became a fan of Farscape after watching reruns of the series over and over.

I think being a fan is about thinking deeper into the thing you enjoy, having it influence your life and creative choices, as well as making you want to enjoy it BEYOND what it is: making fan art, buying toys, posters, looking up trivia about it etc…
It can happen at any stage… when you first read the comic or see a promo pic for it or see a trailer for a TV show or movie or even just a cover picture. Or it can develop slowly over a lot of time and repeat viewings. But it's not a certain thing. I think most people are NOT fans of most things they consume, only certain things ever earn that honour.

Then there are things like being a fan of something but not liking the rest of the fandom, Rick and Morty is famous for that, with many fans being usually taken with the Rick character and wanting to be like him because he's an arsehole as well as a supergenius , and thinking they're also supergeniuses because they're arseholes. Admitting to being a fan of Rick and Morty can get you tarred with the same brush as those people, it can also scare people away of becoming a fan. Being a fan of something doesn't mean you like everything related to that thing, it just means that what you Do like, you really, really like.
There are different ways of being a fan too, my own fanship of Captain America is expressed in my cosplaying the WW2 movie version :)
What are you a fan off and when did that happen?


This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Conscripted - What’s it like to have your body and soul transformed and subsumed into the body of a huge, magical, invincible, giant encased in unbreakable metal armour? You have no free will of your own, no ability to communicate or even think. You are now just a serene slave in the form of a huge golem with awesome powers commanded by another. Gunwallace’s theme for conscripted puts me in the mind of poor Darius from Conscripted who was forced into exactly this situation. This music is a serene, clean surface, a smooth forest pond. Calm and clear, disturbed only by the nearest drops of thought rippling across it and then vanishing. Slowly these increase, the rings crossing and converging, until the serenity is no more.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Conscripted - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/aug/16/featured-comic-conscripted/

Featured music:
Conscripted - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Conscripted/ - by Dragonsong12, 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!
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Angela frowned in disappointment. Her boobs seemed to grimace in displeasure, nipples pulsing with abject fury. As she walked the heaviness of their bounce echoed her anger. She sat down at her desk, opened the document she had been working on and began to type.
She was halfway through her romance novel, “Pirates of pleasure”. Her boobs swelled and seemed to glow, echoing her happy mood as she worked. She typed…
“David admired his 6 foot 5 inch frame in the mirror, sweat glistened off the darkly tanned, well defined 10 pack rippling across his abdomen. Well-defined pectoral muscles bugled like fat watermelons. His perky brown nipples drew the eye like magnets. The huge bulge in his skin-tight white semi-transparent trousers pulsed with both threat and promise. Deep hazel eyes glowered beneath strong dark brows and a thick fringe of dark shaggy hair as he drank in this magnificent sight. He thought longingly of the wanton, headstrong, powerful pirate queen maiden waiting alone in his quarters…”
Angela's Boobs rose and fell excitedly with the quickness of her breath as she continued to type…

There's a fad at the moment for finding terrible examples of men writing about women. But this isn't a one way issue by any means. You can find ridiculous examples of women writing about men in any one of a billion romance novels, crappy examples of straight people writing gay people. bad versions of gay people writing straights, Binary writing non-binary, white writing black, and the reverse… Basically people writing about something they have limited personal experience with in a superficial manner and focussing on the aspects they fetishise. It generally produces silly results whoever does it.
This is what we chat about, with some side lines into things like ethnic stereotyping. Check out the weird manga samurai versions of national cultures done for the Japanese Olympic games.

This Quackcast was inspired by a newspost by our own Tantz Aerine. Maybe we should all have a go at some bad writing? The above version was great fun! I did a double layer: a man (me) writing badly about a woman writing badly about a man in a very silly, stereotypical way.


This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to The BirdBoys - creepy cyberpunk weirdness with a big, bouncy beat to move us along. Get lost in the hustle and bustle of a futuristic western crowd. Glowing lights, dark side allys, mysterious whisperings half heard from far away, chatterings in unfamiliar languages… A dry dusty techno future.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Men writing women badly - https://www.buzzfeed.com/farrahpenn/18-men-who-need-to-be-banned-from-writing-female-characters
Men AND women writing each other badly - https://medium.com/inspired-writer/men-women-writing-each-other-badly-9c0f46aeac5c
Woman writing men badly- https://www.thewriterscircus.com/articles/characters/5734/common-mistakes-female-writers-make-when-writing-male-characters/
Tantz post on the subject - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jul/30/writing-women-writing-men/
Countries as Samurai - https://world-flags.org/



Featured comic:
The BirdBoys - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/aug/02/featured-comic-the-birdboys/

Featured music:
The BirdBoys - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_BirdBoys/ - by J_vulture, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
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!

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Mal (aka Bluecuts), Alice (aka DameHelsing), and Pitface are all together in the Quackcast to chat about all the things involved in making the DD anthology! They get a bit kinky with their symbolism and analogies haha! So be warned. The language gets a little spicy… It makes a fun listen!

These three great people worked hard over a whole year to bring together the contributions of many creators to put them all into this amazing horror anthology so they could fund the design update for DD. So please help support it and buy a copy, it's only $15

DD Horror anthology link: https://drunkducksells.gumroad.com/l/EBCcv

They chat about the possibility of doing another anthology, maybe even an Adult anthology!? That would be an interesting thing to do.

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Freddy Reno Went Missing: A relaxing day in the warm sun at the beach. The smell of sunscreen on skin and salt air tinged with a pungent hint of seaweed. This music rolls in like a pleasant breeze, washing away negativity with its easy, jazzy, calming sounds. Sit back, sink into the warm white sands, let them cushion you as the heat of the sun melts away your worries.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Lullaby Tales - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jul/27/featured-comic-lullaby-tales/

Featured music:
Freddy Reno Went Missing - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Freddy_Reno_Went_Missing/ - by OrGiveMeDeath_Ind, rated M

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Bluecuts34 aka Mal - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bluecuts34/
Dame Helsing aka Alcie - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/damehelsing/
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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!

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No, not surgical masks, this is about the kind superheros wear, also gimps, masquerades, villains and robbers! Inspired by Pitface and her deep and abiding love of gimp masks. We talk about how common it is to find masks in comics and how comic characters probably wear masks more than in any other media. And most media where characters wear masks is based on comics anyway.
What are your fave masks?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Generation Bad: An epic entrance! Striding into a grand hall, cloak billowing wide, regal, grand, huge. Violins pacing out the rhythm, twin electric guitars, one threatening with a low, distant thunder growl as the other soars and wheels high above!

Topics and shownotes

Links


Featured comic:
Erin's Space - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jul/20/featured-comic-erins-space/

Featured music:
Generation Bad - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Generation_Bad/ - by TheRedDeath, 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
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

On Friday the 16th the site was down for a while. Nasty, but we fixed that and chatted to our programmer Alexey about starting the update program on DD. The DD Anthology is also out now too, so you can buy a copy and help support the upgrades! Pit and Banes were MIA today but as a special treat you can meet my Russian hatted Ex, Miss-Judged, who's with me and Tantz in this cast. And as a super extra special treat you can see us ALL in our pateron video which is free to ALL this week! In the links bellow.

Our Patreon vid is available to all! Watch:
Vid - https://www.patreon.com/posts/dd-patreon-video-53856108



We chat about the DD fall, maybe getting JustNoPoint to be our Sys Admin, code updates for DD, the design update, and the DD anthology. Then at about the 18 minute mark we dive into our main topic: “Test of character”. This was based on a newspost by Tantz Aerine. Some examples of things we mention that have a very prominent 'test of character" component are: horror stories, O-Henry stories, Fairytails, and Avatar the last airbender.


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Quantum Festival - Starting on the sub-atomic level we work our way up the energy levels. Mesons, baryons, quarks, hadrons, protons, neutrons, electrons, and photons vibrating, pulsing, combining, exploding. Energy is produced in strange and wonderful ways. The eerie synthesiser sounds illustrate this perfectly, beeping, bumping, clicking and wailing, helping you visualise the quantum weirdness!

Topics and shownotes

Buy the DD anthology and help us at the same time - https://drunkducksells.gumroad.com/l/EBCcv
Anthology update - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jul/17/the-duck-reanimated/
Crash report - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jul/17/annnd-were-back/
Tant's Test of Character newpost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jul/09/the-test-of-character/


Featured comic:
The Magister Records - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jul/13/featured-comic-the-magister-records/

Featured Music:
Quantum Festival - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Quantum_Festival/ - by Lokpolymorfa, 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
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Miss-judged


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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

We chat about the styles and trends in webcomics and what causes them, whether it's people copying stuff they like, working with the limitations of the technology they're using or other reasons.

In the early days of webcomics a few early birds got very popular simply because they were they were there first: 8 Bit Fantasy, Sluggy Freelance, PVP, Penny Arcade etc. They garnered imitators and so webcomic fashions and styles were born. We had a huge wave of sprite comics, slacker gamer comics, and slice of life comics. The “2 friends sitting on a couch playing video games and being dicks to each other while not understanding girls” was probably the most popular trend for years!

Webcomics have had a few explosions of popularity and trends diversified over the years. A significant one has been the so-called “webtoon format”, which is actually the Scott McCloud infinite canvas idea that was developed years before. That site encourages creators to use it because they prefer it for their mobile site and app. But it's created a larger trend of people making their comics in that way regardless of host.

Tapas and webtoon only promote certain styles of webcomics on their front page which in turn creates another style: manga influenced work with large eyes, flattish, muted colours, digital 2D art only etc with only a limited range of story types. People see that and start to imitate it, thinking that's how webcomics should be, or if they do work like that they can be popular, or just because they like it, or don't know any better…

The limitations of technology create styles when people use premade models in popular 3D programs. This happened in the early days of 3D with all the Counterstrike comics and people using 3DMax and poser models. It happens with in digital 2D art with an overuse of standard brushes in Photoshop, Gimp and now Procreate and Infinite painter. These things are influenced by limitations of the tech, which creates a new style and that gains imitators.

What popular tends and styles have you noticed in webcomics? And what casued them?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Patchwork and Lace - Darkness abounds, walking into a dark tomb, past shadows and demon parasites, into mysteries beyond light and human understanding. Deep underground where humans were never meant to venture, learning horrific truths about the universe and what lies beyond… The distorted bass line takes you down… deep down.

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
24Hour Cake - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jun/29/featured-comic-24hour-cake/

Featured Music:
Patchwork and Lace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Patchwork_and_Lace/. - by Itsasooz, rated T

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


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There was ALL sorts of kerfuffle on the internet centred around the phrase “Heroes don't do that”.
It began with an interview of two people involved in the production of the Harley Quinn TV animated series. According to them there was a sex scene between Batman and Cat Woman, including a scene of cunnalingus. They claim that a representative from DC told them to cut that scene, saying “Heroes don't do that”. But what is the real story?

The nerd-net exploded over that! It's super important to realise that it is NOT a direct quite from DC comics though, it's a 3rd hand paraphrased remark: originally second hand and paraphrased by the two interviewees, then delivered 3rd hand to us by the news blog that published it. Hence it CAN NOT be said to represent the editorial policy and exact words of DC.

Further, we don't know if the intent was “Heroes don't perform cunnalingus” or “We don't want to show our heroes performing oral sex on screen”. Most of the nerd-net automatically assumed the former, perhaps because people tend to think overly literally, or they like to go for the funnier, stupider, more bombastic interpretations. The latter seems the far more logical and obvious version to me though. It's silly to think there would be certain super common sex acts that DC would forbid their heroes participating in off screen.

With that in mind we're thinking about the idea of the "image" of characters, including our own: What WOULD they do onscreen and what would then NOT be shown doing?
#heroesdon'tdothat
#heroesDodothat

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to SweetGum - Hot summers day in the shade, looking out over the wide expanse of a fresh green sunlit valley where you can see to the limit of your dreams. Far mountains dissolve into the sky and the world goes on forever.


Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Staff and Steam - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jun/15/featured-comic-staff-and-steam/

Featured Music:
SweetGum - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/SweetGum/ - by BitterBadger, rated E.

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




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Webcomicers need to learn to draw and write in order to become webcomicers. There are many other skills and also different ways to make webcomics, BUT most of us draw and or write. Here Tantz and I talk about terrible teachers of these skills and better ways to learn :)
(Also, Jason from Friday the 13t is a big fat buttface)

When it comes to creativity it's a tricky thing to learn and teach, Mainly the most important thing is learning the raw skills you need in order to produce that creativity. A bad teacher will try and impose their own notion of creativity on you, use jargon, skip steps and basically not explain to you WHY you do certain things. Good teaching in creative feilds is about skills, techniques, tools, learning the terminology, and the reasoning behind things.

What were some of the worst and best expereinces YOU had when learning to draw or write? Who were the bad teachers, the good teachers, the bad lessons and the good ones?

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Necroblivion - The raw, bussing fuzz of distorted electric guitar over calm, almost celebratory rhythm driven music brings to mind the sounds of North African Tuareg band Tinariwen. This is quite a positive vibe and a very African sound.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Fatman - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jun/08/featured-comic-fatman/

Featured music:
Necroblivion - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Necroblivion/ - by Paneltastic, 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

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
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Taking on more than you can handle - i.e. James Cameron and JJ Abrams are good directors and writers but neither could handle the demands of a complex Sci-Fi project that needs full world building and internally consistent logic etc (Avatar and Star Wars). They're great with more simple SciFi that's based on 21st century earth and simpler stories, but epic SciFi was clearly a long way beyond the capabilities of either. We're talking about when WE have been caught taking on stuff we couldn't handle, how we dealt with that and also how other creators dealt with it too.

It's very easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task that you take on, whether the story style is too much for you, you can't get a good ending, the research is too much, the artwork is too hard, the schedule is too demanding etc. We've all been caught in some way or other, usually multiple ways! One strategy is to break stuff down into more manageable chunks, but sometimes that's just too hard anyway. It can be wroth it to battle on because it forces you out of your comfort zone and makes you learn new lessons and techniques. Sometimes you can still produce something great even if you didn't reach what you were originally aiming for. And sometimes it actually makes more sense to quit because you find yourself wasting too much time and energy on it when you could be spending that more profitably elsewhere. There are no single right answers here.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to COSMIC SAFARI: A trip through the wilderness of the vast galaxy, along beautifully coloured nebula filaments, past the rings encircling gas giants, and through the tails of comets! This is Jean-Michele Jarre meets a small remote controlled car!


Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
COSMIC SAFARI - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/jun/01/featured-comic-cosmic-safari

Featured Music:
COSMIC SAFARI - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/COSMIC_SAFARI/ - by Frenemy, rated E.

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

VIDEO exclusive!
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We've done a few Quackcasts about how terrible Mary Sues are… well this is the opposite! Tantz postulated that they can be likable and GOOD for a story and then won us over easily by telling us why during our Patreon video. In the Quackcast Banes and I join in, having been convinced of the idea. We talk about how if the Mary Sue is a likable, good person, genuinely humble or altruistic and helpful then that can mitigate their Mary Sueness. Whereas if they're selfish, take their status for granted, take advantage of others or are just there to be marvelled and worshiped by the astonished onlookers (re: Rey), they can be unpleasant.

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Erin’s Space: Racing on down to a slow, calm interlude at the seaside… Pulp fiction meets Café Del Mar. Gunwallce turned a balalaika into a surf guitar for the exciting intro. Then we relax to soft, smooth jazz

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Necroblivion - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/may/25/featured-comic-necroblivion/

Featured music:
Erin’s Space - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Erins_Space/ - by Pelta8d, 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/

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 famous film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa gave its name to the style of a story that has the same scenes told from different perspectives. Many comics and movies have done this, it's a really cool trick to try. Not only can it help you show a different perspective of a scene it can also show your story in a completely different style when you show things through the eyes of a particular character and how they “see” the world. It can even be a great trick for making a sequel- rather than a linear continuation of a story you show a story that happened in parallel to the sequences shown.

You get that with the “event comics” made by DC and Marvel where one large event takes place across multiple “titles” and that even made its way to the Marvel cinematic universe with a few stories happening at the same time, very notably the events of Black Panther and the Civil war. In fact this sort of thing was even part of the very first origins of my comic, Pinky TA, back in the late 90s: It started as a painting series depicting the events of a point in time. Some painting followed the story in a linear fashion (before and after), others depicted the same point in time from different angles and perspectives. It's a really cool way to help you look at your story differently.

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Trevor: A black line on the horizon of dense sound builds like a tidal wave, rising higher and higher as it comes closer. It never breaks, only swamps and envelopes you as it rushes past dragging everything with it with the enormous power of the ocean behind it, flooding like a rising tide from the sea, drenching you in sound.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Newspost on timeloops - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/28/when-i-come-around/

Featured comic:
Huckleberry- https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/may/11/featured-comic-huckleberry/

Featured music:
Trevor - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/TREVOR/ - by JCorrachComics, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

VIDEO exclusive!
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- 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

So what IS SciFi? Well it's a pretty wide umbrella term and contains a lot of different things. In some senses it's just an imaginative fiction story where science replaces magic. SciFi can simply be a sciencey setting where genre stories take place (romance, adventure, nior, horror). It can be a magical fantasy space opera with a futuristic skin (Star Wars), it can be “hard SciFi” where the story is set in the future but the science is completely plausible, it can be written with strong themes that examine philosophical questions and make interesting points about the nature of humanity, and it can be so many more things too. It's a broad church!

Where did SciFi begin? Basically it all started in the 1920s. The “pulp” magazines were super popular. People just couldn't get enough of them. Publisher Hugo Gernsback found a niche re-publishing old speculative fiction stories ( Jules Verne, HG Wells, Mary Shelly etc), in some of his publications, and single handedly created the “Science Fiction” genre as a way to sell them. Pretty soon a new crop of writers was producing new stories specially to be a part of this genre and to go in his magazines, these were the first SciFi writers… Among them EE Doc Smith, Isaac Asimov etc. And the genre was born.

It's currently popular to say that Mary Shelly was “the first SciFi writer”, I'd counter that and say not really… It was a big step on the road but what her Frankenstein character was most influential with was monster fiction, she created the “mad scientist” subgenre that has been hugely influential in horror fiction. But when you're talking about the “first” of something the problem is that you can ALWAYS come up with earlier examples, which is why I list Gernsback in the 1920s as the true creator of the genre.

For example, the stories of E. T. A. Hoffmann pre-date Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and out of them we have stories of a scientist creating a lifelike clockwork robot, becoming Operas and the famous ballet Coppélia. And if we want to go back to the earliest primordial SciFi origins what comes to my mind is many of the Greek myths: the famous Scientist Daedalus who created wearable flying wings, animated toys, the Labyrinth, even the ability for a woman to mate with a bull! Then there's Archimedes (a real person) with SciFi stories of his accomplishments like the creation of a sun-powered ray to destroy warships or a giant claw machine that plucked them out of the water… Or the stories of the ships built by the Phaeacians (in Homer's Odyssey), they're able to travel as fast as a falcon to any destination you can think of since they know all the cities of the world and can navigate automatically. SciFi has a LONG history for something that wasn't codified till the early 20th century.

———————————

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Starlights, Gunwallace says: “Had some time this morning. Here's a theme for Starlights. In my head I'm imagining you with your new guitar dressed in the white dandy costume playing the solo.”
My description: A dandy gent in bright white frock coat and tricorn hat festooned with giant ostrich feathers stands outlined against the stormy grey sky… He shoulders a cream coloured stratocaster, and shreds, ripping out a soaring solo against the growing winds of the coming storm -


Topics and shownotes

Kawaii's newspost on the Beauty of SciFi - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/may/02/the-beauty-of-science-fiction/

Featured comic:
Cupcake War Machine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/may/04/featured-comic-cupcake-war-machine/

Featured Music:
Starlights - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Starlights/ - by Kawaii Triangle, rated M.

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

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
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Time loops in stories are a lot of fun, they can be really complicated and interesting. Groundhog day is the most famous version of this trope. Banes tells me it's a “trope codifier”. In a time loop story characters are caught reliving the same events over and over with the main character being the only one who's really aware of it, Sometimes the loop happens only once or a couple of times, or many, many times as in Groundhog Day and Palm Springs. We chat about some of the different time loop stories, their characteristics and why we like them.

We also talk about the instance where you actually experience this in reality: re-watching and re-reading books, movies, TV shows etc. It's like WE are the main, aware character and the loop is the movie or the book. We get something different out of them each time, just like Bill Murray's character in Groundhog day. Videogames give us even more of a time loop experience, allowing us to follow different threads and make different choices to achieve different outcomes at the completion of the game. If you “die” you also “re-live” the game over and over till you manage to complete it in the way you want! Tantz brings up the example of the game Undertale that specifically recognises and draws attention to this.

This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Akacya the Bounty Hunter: Reverential awesomeness. Buzzing distorted beat pacing out the time and encouraging you to move, a slow, heavy, swaying, stomping dance. A wobbling, vibrating guitar weaves through and ties it all up like a bright satin ribbon around a present, topping the track off with a beautiful display of shibari.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Newspost on timeloops - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/28/when-i-come-around/

Featured comic:
Phantasos - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/26/featured-comic-phantasos/

Featured music:
Akacya the Bounty Hunter - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Akacya_The_Bounty_Hunter/, by Shinka, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

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
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Character height is not something we think about too much but it's actually a fairly big deal: in terms of what the height means, what it means contextually, how the character fits into their world, how they relate to others around them, and how it's like to draw them!
A character can loom, they can shrink down, they can appear bigger than they are due to force of personality or smaller due to being shy and retiring, Largeness can equal power and strength, stupid docility, threat, potential, or it can be used to highlight the strength of a much smaller character that beats them as in many animes.
It can be very tricky to get a good sense of the size of characters in relation to others and how they fit within the world, just using chairs for example can make a huge difference depending on the characters.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Lyza's Sandstorm - Softly, pacing, creeping, exploring the haunted vastness of the empty space. Abandoned, wind whistles through, distant creaking, the soul has left the building but something dark remains… waiting.

Topics and shownotes

Forum discussion on character height - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178679/

Featured comic:
Starlights - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/20/featured-comic-starlights/

Featured Music:
Lyzas Sandstorm - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lyzas_Sandstorm/ - by Simonitro, rated M.

Listen to the Pitface Interview! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiSOTrWQ1Jk&t=187s&ab_channel=SurgeryHead

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

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
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Evil superheroes are a stupid fad, that's my contention. My opinion. They've been around for a long time but now they're so popular it's becoming a bit of a fad and might turn into its own genre. I suppose Marvel and others have saturated the superhero market so to stay relevant other companies are doing “twists” on that traditional genre, hence the evil superheroes.
I think it's a stupid idea because: we already HAVE evil super characters, in the form of villains; it's an escapist fantasy medium of a world where heroes are actually good, unlike reality where they're more complex and often actually evil (i,e, police shootings) subverting that just takes us back to reality again rendering the superhero part of the equation pointless; a character being corrupted by power and becoming evil is not really that complex or interesting, it's actually very, very obvious, a character trying to remain good in spite of the power IS complex and interesting because that's far harder to do. And so on

The counter argument is that the superhero genre has been around for about 90 years or so now and can do with a little examination. I say fair enough, but it doesn't need to be a fad or a genre in its own right. Handle it correctly and make them the super villains. Some evil superheros in these things: Chronicle, Bightburn (horror in the style of The Omen, Case 39 but using a superman origin), The Boys, Invincible, Hancock, My super Ex-girlfriend, Venture Brothers.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Journey Through the Star Sea - In Gunwallace’s words: The brooding darkness of this seemed to fit the featured comic this week. On the brink of death’s door, the man seeks and seeks, search for succour, absolution of the sins of the body and mind, a cure for his disease. It’s a dark and dangerous universe, there’s no rest for him to be found…

Topics and shownotes

Links

Forum discussion about evil superheroes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178671/

Featured comic:
Journey Through the Star Sea - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/13/featured-comic-journey-through-the-star-sea/

Featured music:
Journey Through the Star Sea - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Journey_through_the_star_sea/, by Scribbloid, rated T.

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

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

Mary Sues are always a fun topic!
There are some misconceptions about them though… Mary Sues aren't all female, they can be any gender. Being super powerful or super popular or super pretty etc doesn't equal a Mary Sue, not even if your character super stands out next to all the others, those things ONLY indicate they might possibly be one. What equals a Mary Sue is a character that doesn't have to struggle very hard for anything, a character that is almost universally admired, and or loved (even by the enemy), a character that masters hard skills with ease and ends up teaching the teachers and beating the masters, a character that's destined to succeed and does in spite of internal story logic… All these things and more can add up to make a Mary Sue.

It's why Batman and Superman are NOT automatically Mary Sues even though they stand out and have super powers/abilities/skills. They have a million stories about how they face challenges, how they get people killed, how they lose powers, how people hate them etc. They could be Mary Sues only if they had bad writers.

Rei from the new Star Wars movies is a classic Mary Sue, although very well acted by the awesome Daisy Ridley, she doesn't face any serious struggles in her straight line trajectory to success, she defeats all enemies with ease, masters every skill better than all masters, and is destined to win. So even though she doesn't stand out aesthetically or physically, she qualifies. Similarly, Rick from Rick and Morty can be a bit of a Mary Sue in some stories in that he rarely faces real challenges because he's worked out everything beforehand. Whenever things seem to be going wrong for him you realise he's already engineered the situation so he can win, this makes him less compelling as a character, less immersive and believable.. You find out that even the social challenges he seems to face in some episodes were actually pre-engineered by him to reach exactly the conclusion they did.

The important point there is that it's only in SOME stories. Any character than be a Mary Sue if the writing fails them. but that doesn't mean that's what they always are! The classic story characters from the late 19th century Sherlock Holmes the super detective and Raffles the gentleman thief can be Mary Sues: over-powered and working to imbalance their story environments, but only at times.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Last Child of Gluttony: White lines flash past as your knee comes close to the road… your bike roars as you lean into the curve. The road is a blur of speedlines. Red lights flash bright in front of you, tailing off behind as you whip past them. You’re king of the road, no one can catch you. This music evokes speed, night, racing, roads and heat!

Topics and shownotes

Banes' Mary Sue newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/06/the-bestest-evar/

Our old Mary Sue Quackcast - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/quackcast/episode-211-how-mary-sure-are-you/

Featured comic:
Hierarchy - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/06/featured-comic-hierarchy/

Featured Music:
Last Child of Gluttony - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Last_Child_Of_Gluttony_/ - by Cdmalcolm1, rated M.

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

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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Image credit: There's Something About Mary, 20th Century Fox.

Empathy is like sympathy but you don't think about it. It's what happens when you see someone get hurt and you wince in pain watching them, it's when you see a really uncomfortable moment in a sitcom like The Office and you cringe, It's when you feel sad when the characters are sad about something.
Empathy is an important tool for audience immersion- if they're feeling that strongly for the characters then you've got them invested in your story!

Funny story… the topic of this Quackcast was inspired by us talking about the risks of “going commando” and the fact that it can happen to women as well as men. This led us to go looking for photographic and video proof, as you do… and what we saw gave us instant empathy for the poor unfortunate. Hence the Quackcast topic ;)

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to PleaseRewind: Quiet threat, creepy, seeping, strumming, thrumbing, coming CLOSER, inside, peering around, waiting to begin. This is a quiet track filled with an undertone of urgency suggested by the constant quick rhythm and lonely guitar.

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
PleaseRewind - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/mar/23/featured-comic-pleaserewind/

Featured Music:
PleaseRewind - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/PleaseRewind/ - by paneltastic, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Folk tales are the primordial ooze of culture. Nobody knows where these stories began, nobody owns them, They're added to and expanded by successive generations. They spread and grow because they have resonance to all sorts of different people across time, different languages, and ethnicities. We talk about that resonance and why these stories still have meaning for us today, why new ones are still being created, and why you're free to use Beauty and the Beast or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves for your own creative projects without worrying about copyright issues.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Lost in the Supermarket: Creepy, piano notes in a white room, stalking, creeping, watching, waiting, preparing to STRIKE, fading, hiding. Frenetic tangles of sound beat at your ears, startling, disorienting, disjointing…

Topics and shownotes

Links


Featured comic:
The God of the River - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/mar/15/featured-comic-the-god-of-the-river/

Featured music:
Lost in the Supermarket - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lost_in_the_Supermarket/, by TENSA1, rated E.

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

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

Today we chat about the disappearance of another Drunkducker. This fellow was a politician in his daily life and a furry in his downtime. On DD he was the author of the adult furry comic Tina's story, an exceptionally well written slice of life comedy comic with adult elements, staring an anthro poodle lady and her human partner.
This man had his online activity taken and used to destroy his political career. The comic which was his passion was used as ammunition to ruin him. We chat about this in our Quackcast! In light of what happened to Gina Carano for her silly words this is interesting.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Stickman And Cube - Slow, simple. Lo-Fi, like a careful stepping dance between two partners, competing with their moves. First one has a go, then the other, then they start complimenting each other’s movements with their own and eventually dancing together in a single unified performance.


Topics and shownotes

Tina's Story and Grey Muzzle - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178628/

Councilman Gray Muzzle - https://medium.com/@isaacforn/councilman-gray-muzzle-42fd2285401f

Featured comic:
Shu’Halo: The Balance Overture - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/mar/09/featured-comic-shuhalo-the-balance-overture/

Featured Music:
Stickman And Cube - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Stickman_and_Cube/ - by Pieguy259, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Today we're interviewing Bluecuts34 who is one of the crew assembling the DD horror anthology to raise money for Drunk Duck! She's the author of an adult comic (Castle of Joy), so she's on today to talk about adult comics in general! The discussion between Pit, Tantz and Bluefuts34/Mal was fascinating, tackling all different aspects of erotic and porn comics. Castle of Joy is a fantasy X comic with action happening between two lady characters.
Subscribe bellow to see bluecuts34 and hear her tell us what she thinks of Milo Manara and his erotic comics!

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Albion: Majestic and serene… Equally appropriate for a long sweeping view of a huge, brightly lit modern starship with clean lines, or a beautiful mountain tarn, filled with freezing, crystal clear waters reflecting heaven… Classical, awesome and inspiring!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Bluecuts34 comic (WARNING, comic rated A) - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Castle_of_Joy/

Featured comic:
Blake The Goblin Bilker - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/mar/01/featured-comic-blake-the-goblin-bilker/

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

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

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

Today we're talking fans! Isn't it great to have them? We're all fans of something, but as webcomicers having fans means they're a dedicated audience who care about your creative output and send their love and appreciation to you- this really helps you stay motivated and inspired to keep on creating and producing new work. Here we talk about our experiences with fans and of BEING fans.

It helps that we're fans of each other. But we also chat about some of the things we're fans off. What are your fan experiences and what are YOU a fan off?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Slow Burn: A Wildfire Journal - This music smoulders away like red glowing coals. Heat emanates from this thick, tasty bass line, the guitar singes away like fire, picking up volume and power till it’s hosing all and sundry with liquid flame!

Topics and shownotes

Webcomics in the year of your lord, 2020 and now - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178589/

Featured comic:
Golden Spiral - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/feb/23/featured-comic-golden-spiral//

Featured Music:
Slow Burn: A Wildfire Journal - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Slow_Burn_A_Wildfire_Journal/ - by Arborcides, rated E

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Gina Carano who plays Cara Dune in the excellent Star Wars franchise Mandalorian has been fired, as we all know by now… It's a great series, really one of the best incarnations of Star Wars since the original trilogy, and Cara's character was pretty cool. Though I personally didn't really like her lunk-head costume- Fully dressed characters in SciFi with bare biceps always look stupid to me for some reason. Doesn't matter if they're men, women, anthros etc, it's just ugly, especially when they're wearing armour. UGH! Be that as it may Gina said some pretty silly things on social media, and kept saying them after she got in trouble for it aaaaaand then Disney booted her.

So we're having a chat here about that mainly as well as some other subjects… but you'll have to listen to find out what those were! And if you want to find out our PERSONAL views on this state of affairs you'll have to subscribe to our Patreon so you can watch our vid on the subject ;)
Anyway, do you think they should recast her role, come up with a similar character played by someone else, bring one of the other characters back to fill her character's role or just leave the position free?

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Hungry Heart! A foreboding intro leads gradually along a dimly shaded garden path, the ground thick with rotting leaves and the air redolent with the smell of decay… and through into a hip, happening disco! Pink lights flashing, the dance floor is slick, black and reflective, everyone is jumping and the beat is pumping!

Topics and shownotes

Webcomics in the year of your lord, 2020 and now - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178589/

Featured comic:
The GodMode - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/feb/09/featured-comic-the-godmode/

Featured Music:
Hungry Heart - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Hungry_Heart/ - by Bildosola, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Happy 2021 everybody!!!!! For this fun first of year Quackcast We do a commentary and reaction to the Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta classic sword and sorcery animated movie from 1983, Fire and Ice! Tantz and Banes have never, ever seen it before so it was a new expereince to them and maybe to YOU as well?
Fire and Ice is a simple fantasy story about evil prince Necron who wants to rule over all the lands using his control of a huge glacier. Brave Princess Teegra, Larn (mullet head), and Darkwolf (the Deathdealer), team up to battle to stop him destroying the southern lands. It was done with rotoscoped animation which made the figures look quite realistic. Rotoscoping is basically filming real actors and then taking out the background and painting over their bodies and turning them into cartoons. It's an analogue old fashion way of doing motion capture, like they do in modern 3D CGI animation.

Our Commentary begins at the 16.40 minute mark! To watch along with us, go to https://youtube.com and search for “Fire and Ice”

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to O Sarilho: Exotic, Eastern, jazzy groove with a European flare. Lush green piano, bone dry desert winds of the jazz flute, hot sun of the bass shining down on the beautiful sands of the solid percussion below, warm, glittering and stable.

Topics and shownotes

Fire and Ice IMDB info - https://https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085542/
A smilar animated fantasy fim from the 1980s, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090065/

Featured comic:
Area 5 Point 1 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/dec/29/featured-comic-area-5-point-1/

Featured Music:
O Sarilho - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/O_Sarilho/ - by shizamura, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

This is the time of year you typically spend your money on other people… but we wanted to talk about what we spend our money on when we're spending on ourselves and indulging our own passions… just because this is the time of year we can digress and get a bit less serious about things.
I talk about my passion for collection unusual vintage hats and antique sabres from the Napoleonic era and on. Tantz talks about her vintage 1940s era newspapers and the history behind them. Pitface talks about her stainglass window skills and her warhammer figures. Banes gives us the lowdown on the amazing muppet band playsets and figures he collected!

Our Patreons all get to see us actually showing this stuff in a video because I made it availble to all patrons on every level. You won't get to see Banes though… Nobody sees Banes!

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Arindia No Densetsu: Sparse, creepy, intense. Bright notes of a piano, splashed against a background of a mix of unsettling electronic sounds to create a vivid, darkly contrasting spacescape of darkness and light in all colours.

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Growlution - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/dec/15/featured-comic-growlution/

Featured Music:
Arindia No Densetsu - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Arindia_No_Densetsu/ - by Freiha, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Escapist fiction Vs Gritty and real style fiction… Furwerk-Studio made an interesting post about this subject. They were annoyed at people who dismiss escapism as something lessor or inferior to more gritty and realistic work, so we decided to tackle both sides and take some extreme views on the subject, both for and against! A few years ago Simon Peg made some comments related to this very subject and got a bit of backlash (links in the notes). The idea is that escapist stuff keeps us infantile and malleable… It's actually a really old idea anything that isn't realistic is childish and bad for you while things that are heavier and more adult in tone (whether escapist or not), are far more worthy.

We tackle this in a somewhat less serious fashion, taking extreme points of view for both sides (because that's what you do in the 2000s), and have fun with it.

NEXT WEEK'S QUACKCAST: Stuff we we spend our money on.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Whispers of the Past - A beautiful, quiet, contemplative noodling, evocative of days gone by, sepia tones, golden afternoon sunshine, and remembrance. It reminds me of something from a late 1960s folk rock group.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Deconstructing Escapisim thread - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178562/

Simon Peg's controvesial statements on escapisim - https://www.indiewire.com/2015/05/simon-pegg-worries-that-adults-obsessed-with-comics-sci-fi-have-become-infantilized-by-our-own-taste-263869/
Simon Peg's deffence of his comments - http://simonpegg.net/2015/05/19/big-mouth-strikes-again/

Featured comic:
Spazient - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/dec/08/featured-comic-spazient/

Featured music:
Whispers of the Past - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Whispers_of_the_Past/, by Crona J, rated T.

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


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 Mandalorian on Disney Plus is a very popular series, it's particularly known at the moment because of the “fanservice”, i.e. fan rewards in the second series. a couple of Clone Wars characters are in it now… but we won't spoil that.

Tantz, Banes and I chat Fan Service! What IS Fan Service and why is it a thing? When did we first learn about it?
For me it was Neon Genesis Evangelion. At the end of each episode one of the characters would preview the NEXT episode and then finish by promising “more fan service”. It took me a wile to work out they meant shots of underpants and sideboobs and things… The meaning of fan service has come to be expanded a bit now though, bellow are the types we chat about. One thing they all have in common is that they're there to titillate, amuse, or excite fans but they're not essential to the story:

1. Things that have broad appeal; boobs, bums, bare chests etc. eg. Daniel Craig bare chested at the beach in Casino Royale. Could even be a cool shot of mecha or a car.
2. Things that are popular in the fandom being inserted  into the story as fan rewards, e.g. John McClane from Die Hard saying his “Yipee-Ki-Yay…” catchphrase in every film.
3. Rewarding diligent fans with callbacks and Easter eggs later on in the work or at the end of it, e.g. the sitcom Community did this all the way through, especially at the end.
4. Memes and in-jokes peripheral to the fandom being added into the story. This is the weakest of all the types of fan service and does most harm to the story. Star Wars The Last Jedi is full of it, e.g. Luke's “laser-sword” line, him pole-vaulting over to milk the boob aliens on the cliffs etc.


The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Heaven Hunters, Holy reverence in the sepulcher, voices soaring to the heavens, followed by a thunderblast of satanic guitar fire, burning hot with blue and orange flame running free in a cleansing chaos of rock!!

Topics and shownotes

Featured comic:
Heaven Hunters - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/dec/01/featured-comic-heaven-hunters/

Featured Music:
Heaven Hunters - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Heaven_Hunters/ - by TedGravesArt, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Coming up with character names isn't easy. It can actually be really, really hard! Tantz did a couple helpful Newsposts about it and we decided to spin that into a fun Quackcast about naming and names! The names behind stuff often has interesting stories, the Quackcast itself is no exception. When Wowio told us we had to do a podcast back in the day we tossed around a few names and the one they came up with was “Quackcast”, because of the whole “duck” theme we have going here. I protested because there was a highly regarded skeptical medical podcast with that name already run by Dr Mark Crislip, but I didn't have any real say and so the name stuck! When I DID have the power to change it, it was already way too entrenched.

We already did a Quackcast on names about 100 Quackcast ago actually but now we're being a bit more technical with the subject as well as having fun, Tantz has some good techniques and advice that we delve into!
Our Patreon video is better quality now too, for the $5 and up subscribers, we're using Google meet instead of hangouts 😚

So what techniques did YOU use to come up with YOUR names?


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Times Like This - Music for a time traveller! The regular, repeating, almost clock-like rhythm of the electronica synth theme is overlaid with the lyrical twiddling chaos of an electric guitar playing in a very high tone, soaring above and shooting around at its leisure.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Quackcast 410, Say my name! - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jan/20/quackcast-410-say-my-name/

The Significance of Names Part 1 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/nov/26/the-significance-of-names-part-1/
The Significance of Names Part 2 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/nov/27/the-significance-of-names-part-2/


Featured comic:
Adulting Amy - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/nov/23/featured-comic-adulting-amy/

Featured music:
Times Like This - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Times_Like_This/, by PyThomas, rated M.

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


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

Today we chat about fight scenes! This was spurred by a post in our forums about how bad fight choreography can spoil a film. Our Patron vid was mainly about fights in our comics, while the Quackcast is more about fights in movies. One of the things about REAL fights is that they're usually very fast, ugly, stupid looking, and not very exciting. It's important to remember that boxers and UFC fighters are entertainers and sports people, those people are performing for an audience - their fights are real but they're designed to be showy and exciting, whereas true fighting on the street or in war etc is very different, it's more deadly and more stupid looking.

Cinematic fighting HAS to be choreographed usually to avoid injury, that's just how it is. However, the degree of stylisation varies. If the fighting is too stylised compared to the rest of the film then there'll be a miss-match and the fight will seem silly and weaken the suspension of disbelief. Stylised, symbolic fighting was very common with Kung-Fu movies back in the day. In the late 90s the tricks with wires and other over the top moves started to be aped by Hollywood films with very silly results: That kind of fighting suits Kung-fu movies because they're obviously fantasy in style and not naturalistic, whereas the prevailing style for Hollywood films is naturalistic acting and realism so stylised fight scenes don't fit.

Fights in comics can be done in a few ways, the easiest is to show quick vignettes of different aspects and stages of the fight. The most tricky way is to show a fight from a linear perspective as it flows from one move to another in space and time. Fights are a marvelous way to quickly build drama and tension and to show catharsis in a very compressed way.

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Hitchhikers - Operatic depth vs the simple country sounds of a banjo! Reminiscent of Journey of the Sorcerer by the Eagles, which became the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme, which shares a part of its title with this comic… I don’t think that’s a coincidence! Gunwallace has given us a lovely homage to that famous tune. The contrast between the rustic simplicity of plucked strings and layered tonal depth!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Fight talk in the forums - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177412/?page=27

Featured comic:
Strike Pup - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/nov/17/featured-comic-strike-pup/

Featured Music:
Hitchhikers - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Hitchhikers/ - by Fraggle Rocksta, rated E.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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!

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Character trajectories are really interesting- in terms of character alignment, like a good guy that slowly turns into a bad guy through a whole bunch of bad decisions and incidents. A great example from popular media is Walter White from Breaking Bad. He starts out as an ordinary guy, but soon sets out on a path that takes him down the road to becoming a super-villian. Characters can start out bad and go good or even good, go bad and then redeem themselves...

Star Wars has a lot of character trajectories of varying quality depending on the movies... Characters do no need to have a trajectory, they can start of bad or good and stay that way, that's perfectly fine! But it's interesting to show how they go that way. Thanks to Tantz's newspost for inspiring the cast this week.

For our Patreon vid this week we celebrated the winners of a the DD Awards! Tantz got a swag and even Banes and I one some! So if you're a Patron at any level check out the vid :)

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Area 5 Point 1 - Quiet, subtle, grooving away as you trip down the city street, like a coool cat. Flicking your fingers, tilting your cap, looking fly! A thick, warm baseline, flows like warm caramel, twangy guitar and keyboard sparkles away on top and drum beats powerfully flavour the rest like chocolate chips.

Topics and shownotes

Links

The DD 2020 Awards! - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Drunk_Duck_Awards_2020/5645439/

Tantz's newspost on character trajectory - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/nov/13/the-highway-to-hell/

Featured comic:
Whispers of the Past - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/nov/10/featured-comic-whispers-of-the-past/

Featured music:
Area 5 Point 1 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Area_5_point_1/, - by Area 5 1, rated E.

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


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

What is the most definitive version of your character? Where does it pop up in your comic? What part of your work most defines your main character and why? What about TV, movie, comic, and story characters?

For example, Pinky from my OWN comic, Pinky TA, is best characterised by her version in Chapter 6. Looks-wise the prime Pinky is the orignal from the first couple of pages of Chapter 1, but the version in Chapter 6 is best defined in her thinking and attitude due to her direct interactions with other characters.
One of my fave characters in the media is Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, her first debut was her manga and then the excelent 1990s movie… but personally I feel the definitive version of her is in the TV series Stand Alone Complex. That best defined her look, taking the best from the manga and the film, as well as defining her as a thinking and feeling character and the leader of her team within section 9. If someone were to ask me how to get into Ghost in the Shell I'd direct them right to that series.

And THAT is what we're taking about in this Quackcast. :)
Please share your own prime versions of your characters or ones from TV and other sources.


The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Small Gods. It's classical, melenholly and stately. The cello sings us in and the rhythm guides us. The music layers and builds upon itself, crafting a stately pile. Hints of chaos flash through as the theme continues… then all of a sudden it comes crashing down with a clash of cymbals!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Tantz's newspost on cultural appropriation and Mulan - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/sep/25/cultural-significance/

Featured comic:
How Blade Got His Name - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/oct/20/featured-comic-how-blade-got-his-name/

Featured Music:
Small Gods - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Small_Gods/, by Boy Phaff, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

We are the Pretty Things That Live in the House!
We all dressed up for a Halloween themed cast today! You can see our weird looks in our Patreon video ($5 and up subscribers). Pitface was a yellowfaced corn vampire with amazing teeth (very midwest), Banes was an old, oooooold terrifying baldy vampire, Tantz was a beautiful, big eyed doctor vampire, and I was an 18th century Vamp (Lestat/Varny), with a face messy with the blood of my victims! And I had in rubber fangs held in by chewing gum, just like a REAL vampire, because the denture glue didn't hold in my good fangs… it just filled my mouth with disgusting glue that stuck all over my teeth XD

We had a loose discussion this week about the amazing tradition that is Halloween, and it being a very cool North American export. They say it has European roots and things, but that's not what Halloween really is, North America turned it into something amazing and that's how we all know it. People think of it as vaguely pagan or maybe demonic, but the truth is that it comes from an extremely Christian culture. It's a sort of transgressive, fun celebration in the vein of Carnival where people use it as an excuse to play on a darker side that they'd normally avoid as well as have fun and get into costumes. Ironically, only a very Christian, puritan culture could produce such a festival.

We also chat about our favourite horror movies, ones we've recently seen, what works in horror and what doesn't! For example, I think that the movie Hereditary is a wonderful unintentional laugh riot for so many reasons, while Pitface has a very different view. We talk about how clowns are related to trickster traditions and can be scary, nasty things in culture well before John Wayne Gacy and later IT. Our converstation wonders but we try and keep it focussed on horror and scary stuff! We even chat about 200AD comics, which have long included many horror elements. Indeed the horror film “Hardware” was plagiarised from a 2000AD comic called SHOK.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Space Pirates of the Black Quarter - Space techno future! Dinging pulses launch us into a star speckled hyperspace. We’re lulled by the gentle techno rhythm, till a glaring buzz comes along to disturb us, a warning of what’s the come… The lulling rhythm soothes us once more till we’re shocked by a sudden burst of acceleration and a return of the fuzzing buzz!

Topics and shownotes

Links
Quackcast 500 video from last week with a whole lot of DDers! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8dic_cB0mU

Featured comic:
Matriarch - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/oct/13/featured-comic-matriarch/

Featured music:
Space Pirates of the Black Quarter - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Space_Pirates_of_the_Black_Quarter/, dpat57, 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/


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

What is the worth of human life in your stories?
This isn't something people often consider, we just tend to have a fairly accurate guess based on our experience of the real world, but sometimes stories get it really wrong and that can harm suspension of disbelief.

A few prime examples are gritty SciFi stories, westerns, war stories, and hospital dramas.
The first three dramatically undervalue human life so it doesn't make logical sense within the world it depicts: In deep space human life would be extremely valuable because it's a rare and practically non-renewable resource. The only way that changes is when you run out of survival resources (air, water, food) or it's a life or death situation, a casual attitude to life though doesn't make sense. In the old west it was the same situation for other reasons, murderers would be tracked down for thousands of miles and across many decades, the only exception was native Americans who shamefully weren't considered people for all intents and purposes, even slaves had more value. In war stories, especially historical ones, typically soldiers have no real survival instinct or self worth, they're happy to always fight to the last and run headfirst to their deaths, which is silly since battles were usually won when one side broke and ran after only a few deaths. Full scale slaughter only happened rarely and that was usually when the fleeing side was caught or captured.

Finally, hospital dramas tend to overestimate the value of life, where all stops are pulled out to save people who society doesn't value and can't afford to pay for the expensive and experimental treatments (with hundreds of thousands dollars worth of care given to them), or people too sick or old are given care they'd never recover from.

There are a lot of complex factors that influence the value of life in a story actually (emotional attachment, status, class, caste, gender, religion, politics, scope etc), but it's important not to get it too badly wrong or your story won't work as well.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Era of Iridore - Come through the sweeping tapestry curtains of copper and silicone, into the vast techno hall, past lords and ladies bedecked in flashing LEDs of many colours, knights fencing with glowing plasma blades, jesters toying with antigrav balls, and watch the minstrels play their laser harps and electric lutes!

Topics and shownotes

Links
Life's worth thread - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178520

Featured comic:
Raising Cain - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/sep/29/featured-comic-raising-cain/

Featured music:
Era of Iridore - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Era_of_Iridore/, by Deno 85, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/



Remember to join us for Quackcast 500 on Saturday!!!
- https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/oct/04/quackcast-500-show-your-love-for-the-d/

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

Today we're talking about the idea that entertainment aimed at kids can only be enjoyed by kids and the reason that adults often don't like kids things is because adults just don't “get” them. I contend that everyone, of all ages should be able to enjoy General or kid rated media and the true reason we don't is not because it “isn't meant for us”, it's because it's simply badly written - specifically, it's not the content that's annoying, it's the structure.

The reason why some kid's shows are so boring and awful to an adult audience is mainly because the creators are lazy with their use of tropes, cliches, plotting etc, which they do because they're underestimating their audience. They don't think their audience is worth the time and trouble to write a decent story for so they reuse plots and take shortcuts. To some extent they can get away with it because children don't have the experience to spot a lot of that but it really doesn't take long till they do and then they quickly become bored.

I contend that producing such media for kids is criminal because the media we consume as children informs us creatively and culturally as adults as we remember back on our early influences. By foisting trash on kids we're doing them a horrible disservice.
How can we judge this stuff? Well, if a show aimed at kids can be enjoyed just as easily by an adult, then it's a success. Great examples are things like Bug's Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, Total Drama Island, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Cinderella, the Muppet Show, etc. These things are well written and have extra layers that can be enjoyed by different age groups simultaneously.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Filaments a Kerbop Story - The mysterious, dark shadowy reaches of space, glowing tendrils of a pink gassy nebula, dimly seen, distant stars, shadowy pockmarked asteroids turning lazily… a happily little junty turn plucked out on strings winds its way through the gloom, spreading cheer and light!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Featured comic:
Small Gods - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/sep/15/featured-comic-small-gods/

Featured music:
Filaments a Kerbop Story - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Filaments_a_KerBop_story/, by Caliway, 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/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/


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

Titles are surprisingly important for your comic! We don't often realise that when we first start them, but a title is one of the very first ways people come across your work. You have to sell it to them and give them an idea of what to expect in only a very few words. You can take a lot of different approaches to that, like teasing and intriguing them with a title that suggests something interesting or mysterious, character names are great for that. You can me completely literal and obvious. You can use a pun… you can take an existing popular title and alter it in a slight way… There are so many things you can do!

Ema Clare made a newspost on Friday that had a lot of clever tricks to use to come up with a story title and that's why we picked this topic to discuss. There's also this clever game that was going around on Twitter where you give your comic two alternative titles: one that's a serious title that represents your comic and one that represents it in a humorous way. Like my comic for example, the title is Pinky TA, which is the name of the character, the TA is her initials and can mean many things (T&A), but also helps the name in internet searches because it makes “Pinky” less generic, an alternative “serious” name for it that better explains the comic would be “War in the 1920s with Dieselpunk Mecha and Sexy Girls”, a funny title could be “Mecha Strippers” :D

What approach did you use for a title and have you tried coming up with two alternative titles, one serious and one funny? It really helps you to come up with better ways to sell your work!

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to the Lich Quing’s Tale. It's a slow march to the deep wooden voice of a cello, then we fall through the floor into something reminiscent of Quadrophenia and the break in Who Are You, classical strings and staccato electronica overlaying and weaving a colourful tapestry of light.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Em's newspost with tricks to make a good title - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/sep/10/insert-title-here-tips-for-titling-your-comic/
Cover image: UCB comedy skit about Titular Lines - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWxiTPQv0ME

Featured comic:
Good Words with Sako The Beautiful Heart of a Steggo Girl - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/sep/08/featured-comic-good-words-with-sako-the-beautiful-heart-of-a-steggo-girl/

Featured Music:

Lich Quing’s Tale - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lich_Quings_Tale/, by Wolva, rated T.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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 the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Fanfiction is a massive subject, there are so many aspects to it, from the bad stuff with the Mary Sues, rampant shipping, author inserts and wish fulfilment etc to homages and great works that extend the story and characters beyond what they were in the original and add interesting and fun aspects to fan favourites. There are many good reasons to do fanfiction: It's fun, you're inspired and want to use that inspiration, all the characteristics of the story are readymade so you don't have to do world building or character development, the work has a built in audience so you're going to have readers no matter what and hopefully some feedback, it can help make you more popular as a creator because of the fans of the original work, and you get to experiment because you can't sell the work or do anything serious with it so you may as well have fun and enjoy it!

Fanfiction has a bad name in many circles for the Mary Sues etc, because the format encourages writing sins more than others: you WANT to insert yourself or your prized character into the fiction that you enjoy, that's perfectly natural. It's also perfectly fine for you to do that, you should ship away with the character pairings you want, just do whatever. That said there are plenty of fan fictions that don't involve any of that by writers who take the work seriously and do a good job at creating extensions to the worlds they're interested in, so we should never think that fan-fiction is just about shipping, there's a lot more to it than that!

Years ago I found a great fan-fic of Robotech online, I didn't even know it WAS a fanfic, I had no idea what fanfiction was. I enjoyed it so much I when through it and edited all the mistakes and made fan art for it! -Not the art pictured, that was just my general fanart for Daria and Robotech… Have you ever done any yourself or read a really good one?


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Belle Starr - Relaxed rockets. Lift off into this “end credits” theme for Belle Starr. Gunwallace has already done a main theme so this will be the coda for that great comic. This is a cool, relaxing, chill out piece, Cafe Del Mar meets NASA.

Topics and shownotes

Links
Genejoke's newspost on the subject - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/sep/01/is-making-fan-comics-a-bad-idea/
Forum thread on fanfiction - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178494/


Featured comic:
Era of Iridore - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/sep/01/featured-comic-era-of-iridore/

Featured music:
Belle Starr - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Belle_Starr/, by Jeff Salty, 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/


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

First up… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TANTZ!
This Quackcast is about the topic of whether it's right to change an established character just to fit with the ideas and styles of a new creator or change them in accordance with an idea or political position you want to explore, OR should you instead create a whole new character or story to do that with? Bane's newspost gave the example of the ersatz justice league created for The Boys, where Homelander =/= Superman. The series was made to look at the dark side of superheros, but it doesn't ruin established and much loved heroes to do that…

Changing an established character or story to fit with what you want to do with them is tricky. Frank Miller did it well with Batman, going back to his dark, gritty noir beginnings and changing him from the campy, light character he'd evolved into. This was done poorly with Thundercats, the most recent adaption changing them into a stupid stylised cartoon. Another interesting example is James Bond Vs Austin Powers. Austin Powers is a James Bond spoof and it works, it makes fun of the character and the genre without ruining that character. Contrast that with the first Casino Royal film which was a spoof made using the character of James Bond, It's terrible and harms the IP.

I think the conclusion we came to is that generally when you want to go in another direction with things it's best to make a new character or story to do that with rather than piggyback on existing IP. You can use an existing IP to do it with but it's a lot more difficult to do a good job and most people fail at it.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Mousetrap - Bass leads the way, stomping through and leading this down-beat rock sound, Another bass guitar burrs in to take the mantle of the Melody and keyboards do their thing with a fun, driving sound, even the drums try and take over the rhythm, but no one can usurp the mighty bass! It’s a clash of the bass.


Topics and shownotes

Links
Banes' newspost on the subject - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/aug/19/expies-fandoms-disappointment-and-hope/

Featured comic:
Gumshoe - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/aug/18/featured-comic-gumshoe/

Featured music:
MouseTrap - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/MouseTrap/, by Onoi, 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/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/


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 the impermanence of online services and the lie that services are provided for fee and providers have no responsibility to the creators and viewers that use them. Hushicho posted in our forum about Tapas newly restricting nudity in comics which suddenly disenfranchises hundreds of creators who've built up followings on that site with comics that were well within the the Tapas content rules. With that one change these comics have been wiped out, destroying all the hard work by creators to build up their audiences over a long period of time. That can happen with ANY digital service, we are at the mercy of the corporations that provide them.

One might say that these things are “free” services and that the hosts have a right to do whatever they like, they provide it all for us and we just use it, but that's not actually true. ALL digital services are completely dependent on their users and content creators for their existence. Sites like YouTube would not exist if it wasn't for the users that content creators bring in through their own hard work and money. And those passive audiences themselves are also responsible for YouTube existing because it's them who bring in the ad revenue and use the services google sells through the site, as well as exploiting them by onselling statistics about their online viewing habits and information about their other online behaviors. Even us on DD, who make no money of off our users and collect zero information about people, we STILL rely on content creators and their audiences for out existence because if there were no people to post comics on our site and no one to read them then we'd have no point and we'd shut down.

What we chat about here is the fact that you can't rely on any one service, no matter how big the company (i.e. Facebook, Google, Apple) to respect your content and to always be around. Services aren't as free as they seem and they're more than happy to exploit you and then discard you. So the answer is to diversify and use as many different ones as possible! Don't be loyal to them because they're not loyal to you! I'd say the one exception is Drunk Duck because we really DO care about and respect our members but the the reality is that no online service is completely safe: even though we are one of the longest running comic sites (18 years and counting), there have been times in our distant past where our service was unreliable and we were even down for almost 3 months once. So mirror your work and do not become reliant on subscription services.

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Ingenimia Aus - The start reminds me a bit of Cowboy by Bon Jovi, It has an awesome mystical, exotic medieval guitar sound. This one really takes you away to another place and time with its atmospheric synths, hand drum percussion, and delicate guitar sounds. I love it when the rhythm is taken over by tapping on the guitar strings, it’s a very pretty sound.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Join the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS


Death-knell for Tapas, by Hushicho - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178480/

Featured comic:
Filaments a KerBop Story - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/aug/11/featured-comic-filaments-a-kerbop-story/

Featured music:
Ingenimia Aus - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ingenimia_Aus/, by DFlimbingo, rated T,

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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

  Aren't genres great? They're so useful for categorising what we like and selling our work. Today we're chatting about all the genres that are popular in webcomics now, that we know of. Back in the day webcomics were mainly defined by TWO genres: slice of life, and gaming. And out of those two gaming was king! Actually a lot of comics combined the two. The biggest were things like 8 Bit Fantasy, PVP, Penny Arcade, and Ctrl Alt Delete.

But things expanded pretty quickly. Now a lot of sites are specifically known for the genres that define them, like Webtoons and Tapas have a very specific “look” to the content that they like to promote and that encourages people want to join there to also work in that style. Smackjeves was known for its manga boy-love content, Furafinity was the home of furry comics etc. One of the best things about Drunk Duck is that we DON'T have a specific look to the comics on our site, we love to promote lots of different genres and styles. The idea of having a unified look is an anathema to us.

My own main genre for my Pinky TA comic is war/adventure, and that hasn't really expanded much over time. For Bottomless Waitress the genre there is Teasing sex-comedy/romance, and that again is NOT well represented in the world of webcomics. Tantz and Pit tell me that “Fairytail” is one of the big up and coming webcomics genres these days and I can definitely see that. What genre does your work best fit into and what do you think are the main webcomics genres now? Horror, romance, scifi, adventure, fantasy, western…?

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Bottomless Waitress II - Part two of the BW cannon! Revenge of the banjo! We start off with a tractor roaring into life and a banjo opening us up to the sounds of rural Midwest America- wide open corn fields, golden wheat, grain silos, quiet backroads, haystacks, big red barns, and a kinky little diner where the coffee is is bottomless and so are the staff! Ava’s diner is a welcoming place for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Buttered buns, glazed donuts, and creamy desserts are a house specialty! So swing on by. We prefer you to come in by the front door, rear entry is for staff only.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Join the Discord server to chat in real time with other DD comics people - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Tantz's post on genre - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jul/31/choosing-your-genre/

Featured comic:
Bottomless Waitress - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jul/28/featured-comic-bottomless-waitress/

Featured music:
Bottomless Waitress - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bottomless_Waitress/,by Ozoneocean and Banes, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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!

It's just Banes, Tantz and me today, chatting about the important topic of continuity! How do you maintain it, what continuity errors have you made, what continuity errors have you noticed in media? What's the difference between character continuity, story continuity and chronological continuity? - Something you notice when you watch or read a series in chronological order that was were NOT produced or meant to be viewed that way.

A good example of that is the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. If you read those in the series order, say all the Witch books, Wizard books, Guard books etc as concurrent series then the “Discworld” stops making any sense because Pratchett's writing and the character of the world changed radically over the time that he was writing it. The Discworld was a massively different place in his later books from the wild, chaotic, sexy sword and sorcery spoof it started out as… in later novels it becomes a far more serious and ordered, well defined place that's basically a fantasy steampunk version of Dickensian 19th century London, with a taste of Northern England, Greece, Italy and Egypt and other places thrown in for flavour. It covers serious topics in a philosophical and humorous way, a little left wing and a little righteous. In earlier stories the world leans more to spoofs of popular fantasy tropes from Fritz Leiber's famous Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books, Robert E Howard's Conan, Anne McCaffery's Pern, JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and so on.
So that if you read them in any order than which they were published the continuity of the world won't make sense.

Similarly if you watch the Star Wars Prequels before the original trilogy you run into the same sorts of issues… Then of course there are the continuity errors you make as a creator. Usually it's because you took too long to make a page and failed to read forward over the new scripted pages and back over what you'd already done. I run into that all the time! What are your worst continuity mistakes?
Special mention of Marvel's Mark Gruenwald who looked after continuity from them in a big way back in the day (Apparently).


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme entitled “How to Half Ass a Theme to How to Half Ass Porn Webcomics”
For: How to Half Ass Porn Webcomics the Tanza Late Way - This one is a slow started but as soon as it takes off it lets its full groovy glory show, dancing to the sounds of a wiry electric guitar dressed in a batik kaftan and brown corduroy fares, incense smoke swirling around, noxious and enveloping like the sounds of this cool little tune.


Topics and shownotes

Links

Banes Newspost on Continuity - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jul/22/continuity/

Featured comic:
Goddard and Grey - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jul/21/featured-comic-goddard-and-grey/

Featured music:
How to Half Ass Porn Webcomics the Tanza Late Way - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/How_to_Half_Ass_Porn_Webcomics_the_Tanza_Late_Way/, by Arspitzer, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/


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!

This week the brilliant Damehelsing (aka Agiebun), comes on to tell us the details of the DD anthology! Last week Boundbun gave us a general overview but now we're having a look at exactly HOW it's going to be done and how YOU can contribute to it. We'll have details and discussion on the DD Discord server as well as in our Twitter and on the forums. Currently there are 5 themes that we're deciding between: Urban fantasy, Noir, Community, Horror and Halloween. We'll have to decide which of those we like best to tie together the whole thing!

The anthology will hopefully have 15 to 30 contributors and should be a giant project: Full colour with many stories and pieces of artwork. Initially it will be a digital only thing (PDF) but then maybe print as well. There will be a NSFW option with more adult content too but that won't be in the main book! This is all to raise money for the site so that we can modernise and update our look.

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Hels Ferrywomen - A wall of dark noise assaults and takes over… sail into a vast cavern of heavy, heavy sound, falling in a raining torrent of leaden drops, soaking you deep and weighing you down more and more so that you gradually sink deeper and deeper and deeper… then all of a sudden it eases and the world is lighter.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Join the Discord server to sway the course of the anthology - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Damehelsing - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/damehelsing/

Featured comic:
Ask Andante - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jul/14/featured-comic-ask-andante/

Featured music:
Hels Ferrywomen - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Hels_Ferrywomen/, by Damehelsing, rated M.


Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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!

Today we chat with BoundBun, Damehelsing, and Bluecuts34. Who are they? Well they're 3 Drunk-Duckers and they manage our Discord server! Yes, we do have a Discord! You can visit it and chat with them in person! - or become a patron and see them on video ;)
Forums are a great way to interact but these days people like Discord a bit more. What IS Discord though? It's a bit like a cross between a form and a chatroom- real time chatting with voice and video capability plus a record of all the posts so you can read over them like a forum.
There's added stuff like adults only sections for NSFW art and discussions too. Discord is a pretty fun way to interact. You just need to sign up for an account and come on over, totally free to join and participate!

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Bofonce Mann - Take a walk into a smokey little den, over the thick shag carpet, through the beaded curtains and watch the lava lamp in its slow liquid dance to the sound of happy, happy snake charming sitar music… Then we launch on into the present with a chillwave cool synth piece.

Topics and shownotes

Links

Meet these guys from the cast on our Discord! - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

BoundBun - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BoundBun/
Damehelsing - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/damehelsing/
Bluecuts34 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bluecuts34/

Featured comic:
Ingenimia Aus - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jun/30/featured-comic-ingenimia-aus/

Featured music:
Bofonce Mann - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bofonce_Mann/, by Palouka, rated E.

Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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!

Do you make work that no one will ever see? Do you do that so you can mess around and experiment without consequences, for practice, for testing out an idea that you MIGHT show later, or just so you can have fun? This was inspired by a newspost from Banes who used to draw figures on chalkboard and erase them as the story progressed.
We chatted a lot about this and then moved on to talk about how we've each written or drawn porn that no one will ever see. Have you drawn or written secret porn in your free time for fun? :D

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Pious: Glide into white sepucheral stillness and venerate at the holy altar in the glowing light of purity as it shines down from the heavenly firmament high above… or worship in a far more Earthly fashion with an angel in red latex and leather wings…

Topics and shownotes

Links


Banes Newspost on the topic! - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jun/01/what-if-nobody-ever-sees-it/

DD on Discord! - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Moderated by Boundbun and Tallfroyo - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BoundBun/

Featured comic:
Plethora Island - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jun/22/featured-comic-plethora-island/

Featured music:
Pious - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pious/, by Hulder, rated A

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


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!

Backgrounds are part of a choice you make about to best show off your characters and how to present your comic. Plain white backgrounds aren't a very good choice for most comics but they are for some. Random, sketchy lines, pixel art tiles, fully drawn highly detailed landscapes, copy and pasted photos, halftone dots, speedlines etc, the choices are endless but it's important to know what works for you own particular comic! That's what we're talking about this week. Yes, an actual ART based subject on a webcomic site, who'd a guessed?

What kind of background do you have for YOUR webcomic and why did you choose that style? What background style do you like to see in comics? And would you like to hear me talk about perspective?

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Barkham Horror: plucking and strumming guitar sounds and echoing percussion suggest a creeping, sneaking, exploring investigator in a dark, dusty old house, sidling from room to room, peering into dark, spiderwebbed corners…


Topics and shownotes

Links

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!

Featured comic:
LWBiverse - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/jun/18/what-to-do-when-you-think-youve-outgrown-your-comic/

Featured music:
Barkham Horror - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Barkham_Horror/, by Scott D, 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/

Styles are a very individual thing. Emma Clare did a great newspost on them last week featuring a pic of Sailor Moon that she drew in her own style. The cover image here features my own version. Pit, Tantz, Banes and I had a good long chat about all the different aspects of style and how you develop them.

For myself, I sort of just fell into my style, it wasn't something I planned. It's just a sort of stylised realism, mostly made up of all the errors, mistakes and incorrect assumptions of how reality and the human body looks and it just comes out as my “style”.

How did you come up with your style and have you had a go at the Sailor Moon challenge?

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to the Mystic From Wanzerbe - Long, dry, dusty roads, desert adventure, hot winds, mirages and magic shimmering in the heat haze of the hot red sun above. This music is full of the fire and hot spice of far north Africa. It sounds like a techno Tinariwen!


Topics and shownotes

Links

Em's post about style - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/may/21/developing-a-style/

Featured comic:
The Daily Doodle - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/may/19/featured-comic-the-daily-doodle/

Featured music:
Mystic From Wanzerbe - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Mystic_From_Wanzerbe/, by Delcino, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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!

Today on this glorious date we chat about that part in stories where everything turns to crap for the protagonists, just before the run up to the climax where they find their inner strength again and regain their powers so that the climax is even more effective than it would normally be… just BEFORE that moment.
Everything is finally going well for our characters, their relationship is amazing, they have all the money they need to keep the clubhouse open, they're going to win the big game, they have the magic sword to kill the dragon with, they have the fastest car in the race, the bombs are all set to destroy the alien mother-ship, and the band is finally going to make it to the big time!

But.
Suddenly it ALL falls apart in the most tragic and disastrous fashion. They have an argument that breaks them up and the wedding is off for good, they have to give all their money to their sick grandfather who needs a kidney transplant so the clubhouse will close afteral, their best batter injures himself during practice and can't play so it looks like they'll lose the big game now, the magic sword is stolen by evil gnomes and now they have nothing to kill the dragon with, their car engine blows up and will take a week to fix but the big race is tomorrow, the fuses on the bombs on the alien mother-ship can only be set in person so one of the crew will have to sacrifice themselves, it turns out that the promoters only want the lead singer so the band breaks up right on the eve of their greatest success…
Yeah, THAT moment. ;)

You have to handle it right so it's not just forgettable or too much of a gut-punch to the audience, but the purpose of these moments is to juice the audience so that the climax has even more impact: You dig a ditch in front of that hill to make it look way bigger! Your protagonists win in SPITE of those difficulties, which is supposed to make that climax way more satisfying.


This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Click Track Lolita - Click, flick, tick, tick… slow groove, deliberate and plotted. This track steals upon you and takes over utterly, like a hidden cloud of contagion, before you realize it you’re deep in the midst of the sound.


Topics and shownotes

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!

Links

Banes' newspost about the lowest point - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/apr/29/all-is-lost/

DD on Discord! - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Moderated by Boundbun and Tallfroyo - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BoundBun/

Featured comic:
GeMiTo 2073 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/apr/27/featured-comic-gemito-2073/

Featured music:
Click Track Lolita - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Click_Track_Lolita/, by 0becomingX, rated T.

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

How does where you grew up influence your comicing?
This idea interested me, so I posted about it on the DD forums and asked other people. I didn't really know about it myself: how did my childhood environment influence my later comicing? The conclusion I came to was that since my childhood experience was so alien to the worlds depicted in the media I enjoyed so much most of my comicing and creation was based on imagination out of necessity: Historical fantasy set in mountainous, cold, hazy Europe, vs my own experience of a new country without much history, with sunny weather, clear skies and a beachy lifestyle in Australia.

A lot of the respondents to my thread (and Pitface in the Quackcast) seemed to have a similar view: their writing was quite different from the world they grew up in. Escapism is quite popular apparently! “Writing what you know” isn't always that fun or interesting. That said, a lot of people do write what they know and do it very, very well! That was also a popular result on the thread.

So what was the world like when you were a kid?


The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Crucial Corona Chronicles - Rhythmic pulsing, blood pumping through veins, platelets and white blood cells surging through vessels… nasty, globular corona cells and invading and populating, multiplying, spreading, echoing the sickness of society as they populate and change every corner…


Topics and shownotes


Links

Your childhood environment thread - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178408/

Featured comic:
Click Track Lolita - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/apr/21/featured-comic-click-track-lolita/

Featured music:
Crucial Corona Chronicles - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Crucial_Corona_Chronicles/, by GRKZTR, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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!

OMG we're all still stuck inside forever and ever. So what are the shows we're all watching? We all get together to have a bit of a chat about the great things that we're all into right now. Pitface Joins us once again! So cool to have her along :D
Tantz and Banes are are the stalwart members as usual ^_^

Shows keeping you sane and entertained… What's doing it for you right now?


The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to Hyperbolic Fabrications Presents: A journey of distortion and red jagged energy. This guitar driven rock sound hammers with red waves of violence and fury… A momentary break, a calm, waiting… Then we dive back into the chaos of raw sound!

Topics and shownotes


Links

The “What are you watching?” thread - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177412/?page=23/

Featured comic:
FCL55 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/apr/07/featured-comic-fcl55/

Featured music:
Hyperbolic Fabrications Presents - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Hyperbolic_Fabrications_Presents/, by HyperFabMag, rated M.

Special thanks to:
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
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!

In this Quackcast we talk about the differences between genre and setting and what genre really is. For instance: Fantasy and SciFi aren't genres, they're settings… Mostly. It's complicated but they both pretty much USED to be genres, now they're mainly just settings for genre stories to take place in. What does that mean?
Well, Fantasy wasn't even considered a genre back in the day, not really till after the success of Tolkien. Later on a lot of writers began using that same style and consumers really wanted it, so it became a “genre”. It was only later on when it graduated out of that to become a setting that has genre stories set within it.

Scifi was much the same. We backdate the “genre” to Mary Shelly, Jules Verne, HG Wells etc, but that's actually a little silly. SciFi was invented back in the 1920s by publisher Hugo Gernsback as a niche marketing term for his pulp magazines. He bundled together a whole bunch of futuristic stories and works of speculative fiction to sell under that name and created a market for it. That created the genre that people started to write within and to. Now however SciFi is really just a setting that has genre stories within it: detective fiction, nior, action, romance, Western, apocalypse, etc.

This happens when the genre becomes so diverse and ubiquitous that the commonality between stories within it becomes less important than the differences- i.e. the fact that a story is a romance is more significant than the fact it's set in the future, we really don't care too much about the future setting. While in the past it's that future setting which would have been the main selling point.

Think of it in terms of anime, if you have a good familiarity with it. Years ago people thought of anime as a monolithic “genre”, with all the cartoons roughly sharing a lot of themes and styles. This was mainly because only a small amount of it got exported to the west. Now however a massive amount is available and it's very easy to see how different it is. Now “Anime” really only indicates where the cartoon came from, not what kind of product you're going to get.

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Just wanna do porn webcomics - A dark room, the air is warm and close. Sweat, passion, heat… the only sound is heavy breathing… as the webcomicer furiously draws the latest issue of their racy webcomic! A lot of moans, vocal distortion and sexy synth music in this one.


Topics and shownotes

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!

Links

Banes Newspost, webcomics and genre - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/mar/31/webcomics-and-genre/
Trope talk - https://www.youtube.com/user/RedEyesTakeWarning/videos

DD on Discord! - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Moderated by Boundbun - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BoundBun/

Featured comic:
O Sarilho - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/mar/31/featured-comic-o-sarilho/

Featured music:
Just wanna do porn webcomics - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Just_Wanna_Do_Porn_Webcomics/, by Arspitzer, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/

In this strange time of global pandemic it'd be crazy NOT to acknowledge what we're all experiencing together, so that's what we're talking about today: How the virus stuff is affecting us. Pitface joins us once again so today the quartet is complete: Pitz, Banes, Oz, and Tantz!

This global pandemic is affecting all of the world, all humanity at the same time, wherever we are. It's a really unique experience for us all. We're lucky we had the internet when this struck us! Imagine if we got a pandemic on this scale 40 years ago? At this time in history we can communicate all around the world instantly, video chat, share photos, creations and artwork and we can also find out how each other is doing wherever we are at any given moment. As well as have enough webcomics and movies to entertain us while we're isolated at home…

It's certainly quieter in the streets in my part of the world. I'm on paid leave and might not have a job at the end of it because my office has shut down, but I'm getting to work on my comics a bit more…

https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/

DD is an amazing little global community! We hope everyone is safe, has enough toilet paper and will have a job at the end of this outbreak. Watch out for the economic chaos afterwards though.

How is CoVid-19 affecting you and your family?

The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is theme to The Feelings of a High School Girl - Initially awkward, after a few faltering steps it finds its rhythm and gets into a lovely groove, starting with a bit of an acoustic blues line then thrumming away into an electronic confection of joy and fun!

Topics and shownotes

Links

Forum topic, How are you dealing with CoVid-19? - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178375/

Banes' Great animation - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIcV8ug4CyY

Funny SNL sketch about Bidets - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQx-ZbSQSBM

Second link in case the 1st doesn't work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WapDDSQN0

Featured comic:

Oh Ok - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/mar/24/featured-comic-oh-ok/

Featured music:

The Feelings of a High School Girl - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Feelings_of_a_High_School_Girl/, by lokpolymorfa, rated M.

Special thanks to:

Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/

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/

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Today we're having a chat about fantasy fiction! Mainly books and the fantasy writing that inspired us and that we love! Faves like Tolkien, Fritz Leiber and Piers Anthony!

Just to define, we're talking swords, elves, armour, dragons etc, in a “medieval” context, generally European. As a subset there's native, Arabian, Asian, Mayan etc, also high fantasy, low fantasy, sword and sorcery, historical fantasy and even mythology….
And then techno fantasy, contemporary fantasy, steampunk, fantasy cyberpunk and so on… but we mainly stick to the mainstream stuff and only just touch on the weird little variations for now.

Fantasy is an old genre and a lot went into creating it: Fairy tales, folklore, mythology, legends, and history.
In the modern day the main influences for modern fantasy were writers like Tolkien with his high fantasy, Robert E Howard with his sword and sorcery, Fritz Leiber, Ursula K Leguin, Andre Norton. It was the massive popularity of Tolkien though in the 1960s and 70s that really created the market for fantasy and that is what really made the genre. As a result most fantasy from then was a copy of that style: small parties made of odd members including elves , dwarfs, wizards, knights, barbarians, and halflings or original equivalents of all of those things, guided by prophecies, fighting orcs or orc-like things, and ultimately facing a “dark lord” character.

Things have since broadened out and diversified again. We have many different kinds of fantasy styles now, but it's good to have a look at where it came from!
Some authors we mention:
Tolkien, Terry Books, Robert Jordan, Tantz Aerine, Robert E Howard, Lovecraft, August Derlith, ER Eddison, David Eddings, Raymon E Fiest, Anne McCaffery, Ursula K Leguin, Robert Aspirin, Mary Stewart and more :D

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to GALAXY ONE - Side scroller action adventure space platform game! This is pure 16 bit videogame nostalgia. Grab your extra life and beat the hard level and the mid-boss before gaining his powers and facing up against the final boss! You can practically hear the pixels forming, coalescing and mutating.


Topics and shownotes

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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!

Links
DD on Discord! - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Moderated by Boundbun - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BoundBun/

Featured comic:
My Magic Grandpa - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/mar/15/featured-comic-my-magic-grandpa/

Featured music:
GALAXY ONE - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/GALAXY_ONE/, by KPM1578, 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/

For this cast I'd thought we'd go through with our promise of last week and talk about things that have made us have a reaction as a creator. This expands on “The Cartoons that Date us” from last week. So today we're talking the creative media that gave you a reaction: Books, movies, comics, TV shows… Not what specifically inspired the comics you do now, but what drove you to create and why.

When I was young for me it was things like Ed-209 in Robocop, the design of the fighters in Robotech, and the mechanical design in Thundercats. That mecha was so awesome it inspired me to design interesting machines. Lord of the Rings (the books), inspired me to create fantasy art and think about fantasy stories. After watching Tank Girl I stayed up all night drawing a giant image of a tank with Tank Girl inspired women cavorting all over it. Banes talks about being inspired by the band from The Muppets, Tantz talks about the books and stories that inspired her to create alternative endings to them, like Harry Potter.

We'd love to hear about what were the things that stirred up YOUR creative loins back in the day! What were the things that drove you to create and make, write and play music? What was the grit in the oyster shell of your mind that cause you to create a pearl?


The musical feature this week that Gunwallace has given us is another theme to Sex Protectress! This was the original theme he created, he wasn't happy with it but I asked to hear it and loved it. Industrial, synth metal! Fast, burning, heavy, urgent, dark, black, acid, electronic… buzzing. This one seeps up from deep underground pipes, a viscous tarry substance, flaming up as soon as it touches the open air, super-heating and then evaporating.

Topics and shownotes


Links

Featured comic:
Chinese Diary - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/mar/10/featured-comic-chinese-diary

Featured music:
Sex Protectress - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Sex_Protectress/, by bmasson33, 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
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!

NEXT WEEK: Fantasy cast!

We're talking about the cartoons that made us! This was inspired by kawaiidaigakusei's newspost from last week about Daria. Daria was a really cool cartoon from the late 90s. It was influential to her, to me as well, and I thought it would be a great idea for a Quackcast to talk about the other cartoons that were influential to us at certain points in our lives.

There were a lot that were part of forming my ideas… Early on it was action stuff like Robotech, Starblazers, Kimba, AstroBoy, Inspector Gadget, Scooby Doo, Thundercats, battle of the planets, transformers, Galaxy Rangers, Centurions etc. Later on it was Bevis and Butthead, Daria, Mission Hill, Rugrats, Babar, Dexters Lab, Roko's Modern Life, Aeon Flux, The Maxx…
It's interesting how these things can influence you. I'd love to hear about your cartoon influences!

Also, one of our DD members, Boundbun, was keen to set up an official DD Discord server because that's the way of the future! People prefer to communicate in different ways from forums and Discord is the current big thing. We should have a link going up on the site soon, but for now you cn find it in the links bellow. It's really pretty similar to the old, old style Mirc chatrooms we used to have back in the day actually. We have quite a good talk about it on our Patreon only video

This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Sex Protectress: Creepy, gasping, magical, sexy synth. Vibrations of pleasure in this sophisticated, cool dance tune.


Topics and shownotes

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!

Links
Kawaii's Newspost about the Cartoons that made us - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/mar/01/the-cartoons-that-raised-us-daria-1997-2002/

DD on Discord! - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Moderated by Boundbun - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BoundBun/

Featured comic:
SillyCircle - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/mar/02/featured-comic-sillycircle/

Featured music:
Sex Protectress - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Sex_Protectress/, by bmasson33, 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
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/


Next cast: the first things that made us have reaction as creators.

The nature of online communities and making connections with people you meet in them is quite different from what happens with “social media”. The connections are deeper and longer lasting while social media is more about communication, staying in contact, and finding out what's popular at the time rather than sharing creations and forming strong bonds.

The topic of today's conversation was triggered by learning that one of our valued members, Lonnehart, had died two years ago. We always loved his contributions and considered him a friend. He stated commenting less and less and visiting less frequently, as people tend to after a while. But he would always return. We've all been waiting for him to come back… I was getting very worried though and decided to actively search him out, only to find he would never be returning…

Lonnehart was a valued member of our community who had been with us for many years. He was a friendly, gentle, funny, and generous person, an army veteran and a wonderful man. He would always come along and comment with one of his interesting and funny posts to let us know what was happening in his part of the world in tropical Guam, about his battles with snakes and dust bunnies, or game development.
We still have his amazing creations to remember him by. To that end I requested Gunwallace make a special theme for one of his comics.
Gunwallace chose Magiversity. It's a magical, happy introduction, floating through pink and white opalescent clouds of joy into the shining, warm yellow rays of a welcoming sun. Our arrival is played with a playful orchestra of violins as we marvel at the beauty that surrounds us.

Lonnehart died from complications to do with his diabetes as so many American people have been in the last few years. Diabetes should not be a death sentence for people in their 40s, it isn't in the rest of the world. We lost Tupapyon the same way.

This was not a sad Quackcast though, we remember Lonnehart but we're mainly celebrating the collaborative nature of online creative communities and their role in forming strong and enduring friendships, which is something rarely matched with mere social media. What have been your bonding experiences with online communities?


Topics and shownotes


Links

Featured comic:
Invasive Species - ttps://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/feb/25/featured-comic-invasive-species/

Featured music:
Magiversity for lonnehart - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Magiversity/, by Lonnehart, 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!

*Note- Lonnehart's age was 47. I got it wrong in the Quackcast. 1971-2018.