Sexual tension between characters is a great way to augment the conflict that drives a story. The audience really wants that to resolve into a relationship or at least an assignation of some sort… The longer it goes on though, the bigger they want the coming together to be, which can be dangerous for the creator because it's so easy to disappoint. it's usually better to resolve the tension earlier than later, OR keep it going forever but keep it interesting and don't ever sour it or make it turn stale.
Some noted and classic examples: Moonlighting was famous for its great sexual tension and the terrible way they flubbed it, The X-files did the same sort of thing, basically they both left it too long before getting a resolution to it and ended up disappointing viewers. Tenchi Muyo is one of the originators of the classic “harem” anime genre, but unlike later copies it generally handles the concept well, not favouring a pairing between any of the characters over much. Cheers and Friends are classic American sitcom versions of this style of story telling. The cover image is from the music video for Genghis Khan by Miike Snow where a James Bond and supervillian style characters are depicted as suffering the throws of sexual tension in a beautiful piece of comic story telling.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Golden Spiral: This reminds me of the start of Forever autumn from Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds. It has the same sort of energy… a beautiful melancholy tune with a slightly threatening, unsettling feeling… maybe a use of tritones?
Topics and shownotes
Links
Genghis Khan by Miike Snow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_SlAzsXa7E
Featured comic:
Hungry Heart - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/mar/29/featured-comic-hungry-heart/
Featured music:
Golden Spiral - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Golden_Spiral/, by Kumako, 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/
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Tue, 13 April 2021
Mary Sues are always a fun topic!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_526_-_A_return_to_Mary_Sue.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 6 April 2021
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Tue, 30 March 2021
Image credit: There's Something About Mary, 20th Century Fox.
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Tue, 23 March 2021
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_523_-_The_Resonance_of_Folk_tales.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 16 March 2021
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_522_-_The_fall_of_a_politician_and_a_furry_The_ballad_of_greymuzzle.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 9 March 2021
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_521_-_bluecuts34_on_porn_comics.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 2 March 2021
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.
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Tue, 23 February 2021
In the year 2020, the world had been devastated by a global pandemic, life had changed forever… It's 2021 and our 4 unlikely heroes have banded together, a topic borrowed from the wise and gracious Emma Clare…
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Tue, 16 February 2021
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_518_-_Gina_Carano_no_more_right_to_bare_arms.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 9 February 2021
Weird one this week! A monneyless system in a working Scifi utopia. This was based on an idea Banes came up with talking about Star Trek and how the federation has “evolved beyond money”, We discuss if this is possible, why it is and how it is. That means no need for money substitutes like credit or barter either. It's a really interesting topic and a brave choice for a world setting. The most common type of scifi world by FAR is a dystopia so the fact that Star Trek is a working utopia (at least in the original and 1990s series) is a very brave and unique choice and the idea that it functions without money is even more clever and interesting.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_517_-_money_in_Scifi_Utopia.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 2 February 2021
Pitface asked people how doing webcomics has helped to shore up your teetering mental state this past year. We got some responses to that and we also added our own thoughts to it. It's an interesting question though isn't it? This is a webcomic focused site, we're all creative people so webcomics tend to be a big outlet for us. How does having personal control over something YOU create and that YOU are responsible for, help you stay stable and centered when the rest of the world has seems pretty chaotic, with the crazy virus and the even madder, childish politics coming from the top leadership of the world's biggest superpower?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_516_-_comics_and_your_mental_state.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 26 January 2021
This Quackcast was inspired by Pitface, who is concerned out the mental health of her fellow webcomicers. She even started a thread about it in the forums. The cover image is a reference to the cover of “Metal Health” by Quiet Riot. Tantz is a qualified psychologist, so she's uniquely qualified to talk about this subject! People are having difficult times coping in this time of isolation and global pandemic so we thought we'd address that and mental health in general. Tantz is extremely wise on this subject!
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Tue, 19 January 2021
When our jobs are shown in fiction they usually get it wrong. We talk about HOW they get it wrong here… Pit tells us all how she's basically Indiana Jones and Lara Croft rolled into one LOL! …or the opposite of that, I can't remember. How does YOUR job differ from what they show in movies and TV?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_514_-_how_fiction_gets_your_job_wrong.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 12 January 2021
The Mandalorian is pretty unique in that he keeps his face hidden almost the whole time. This is very rare in TV and movies, the rule is that we HAVE to see the actor's face, so they rarely even keep on hats let alone remain fully masked! Yes, there are examples of it but they're few and far between. It's very cool that they've allowed the character to remain hidden for most of the show and he's much cooler for it because it allows the audience to fill in what he really looks like or just imagine him as a cool faceless avatar of awesome.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_513_-_Mask_of_the_Mandalorian.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 5 January 2021
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?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_512_-_Fire_and_Ice_Commentary.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 29 December 2020
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
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Tue, 22 December 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_510_-_STUFF_WE_SPEND_OUT_MONEY_ON.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 15 December 2020
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.
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Tue, 8 December 2020
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.
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Tue, 1 December 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_507_-__Say_my_name_again.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 24 November 2020
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.
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Tue, 17 November 2020
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
Direct download: QUACKCAST_505_-_Character_Tragectory.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 10 November 2020
For our Patreon video I decided to dress as the WW2 Captain America (from the movie, Captain American the First Avenger). That and the very de-compressed nature of the US election led us to chat about what was going to happen! It wasn't till JUST after the video that we heard that the US officially had a new president! So you can see me pictured bellow in my costume or become a Patreon and see the vid :)
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Tue, 3 November 2020
Direct download: QUACKCAST_503_-__Changing_attitudes.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 27 October 2020
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?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_502_-_Definitive_character_moments.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 20 October 2020
We are the Pretty Things That Live in the House!
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Tue, 13 October 2020
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Tue, 6 October 2020
What is the worth of human life in your stories?
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Tue, 29 September 2020
This week we're talking about cultural appropriation, cultural adaption and adoption, also stereotypes and all sorts of related stuff. It was inspired by a newspost from Tantz discussing the recent live action Mulan movie by Disney. Cultural appropriation is when you take an aspect that is sacred or important to one culture and own it yourself: decontextualising it, stripping it off it's meaning, making a cartoon version of it, commodifying it, commercialising or cheapening it in some other way.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_498_-_Your_culture_is_MINE_now.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 22 September 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_497_-_Its_just_kids_stuff.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 15 September 2020
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! Lich Quing’s Tale - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lich_Quings_Tale/, by Wolva, rated T.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_496_-_titular_titularity.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 8 September 2020
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!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_495_-_A_fan_of_fan_fiction.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 1 September 2020
Does a story always need an antagonist embodied in the form of an active character? I don't think they do! We chat about examples of stories without antagonistic characters that work just as well, if not better than the reverse! This is based on Bane's newspost from last Thursday (link in the notes). Tantz and I have a long argument about what the main antagonist in Wall-E was! I think that a lot of the better Pixar movies don't have their main antagonising force embodied in characters- Inside Out, Moana, Coco, Wall-E etc, and we they do they're not quite as strong or as touching. Even in Up the villain in that only plays the main antagonist for a short time. What d you think?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_494_-_No_antagonist_is_the_best_antagonist.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 25 August 2020
First up… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TANTZ!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_493_-_Use_existing_IP_to_explore_new_things.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 11 August 2020
DD member Furwerk Studios posted in our forum about how annoying it was that movies try and do an 80s retro thing often get things totally wrong and end up looking dumb because of it: Not just superficial looks-wise but stylistically too in terms of the kinds of shots they do, lighting and story structure. I thought that'd make an interesting topic for a cast!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_491_-_Getting_retro_right.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 11 August 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_492_-_impermanence_of_the_new_digital_age.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 4 August 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_490_-_Genres_of_webcomics.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 28 July 2020
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.
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Tue, 21 July 2020
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!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_488_-_DD_Anthology_details.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 14 July 2020
Boundbun joins us to talk about the plans for the upcoming Drunk Duck Anthology that the proud people of the DD Discord (Aggie and Mel), are talking about. It hopes to be a true mammoth of a project at something like 130 pages! So if you'd like to get in on this and have your work actually published then join the Discord and navigate to the correct chat. You can have your say on what form the anthology takes.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_487_-_DD_Anthology_introduction.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 7 July 2020
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 ;)
Direct download: QUACKCAST_486_-_Discordia_Chatting_real_time.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 30 June 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_485_-_For_your_eyes_only.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 23 June 2020
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?
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Tue, 16 June 2020
Emma Clare posted about avoiding burnout on Friday and we thought we'd steal that subject to chat about it. Burnout is something that can affect all of us, most especially when you're stuck at home with lots of time to create, funnily enough. When there's a lot of pressure on you to create it often makes you STOP creating. But there are a lot of ways to void burn out and when it actually does happen to you there are a lot of ways to come back from it and rekindle those exhausted flames of creation. How do YOU come back after being burnt out? What was your longest burnout?
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Tue, 9 June 2020
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Tue, 2 June 2020
Today we're chatting about using historical stuff in your story and knowing how to use it right! Sometimes it's good to change stuff and sometimes it's not. The thing is that you should ONLY change it if you know what you're doing and why you're doing it. A good example is A Knight's Tale- It has a historical setting and there are a lot of deliberate historical anachronisms in it, and they're all very obvious, they do not pretend to be anything but what they are.
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Tue, 26 May 2020
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.
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Tue, 19 May 2020
My original idea for this Quackcast was: “Genre fiction is the best place to explore ideas, straight fiction doesn't do it as well”
Direct download: QUACKCAST_479_-_Big_ideas_in_fiction.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 12 May 2020
Fools are an iconic character trope and I wanted to explore them. They're a lot more varied and interesting than is readily apparent. There's a LOT more too a fool than what something like TV tropes suggests, unless you get into the subtypes… And that's what we explored in this free-form discussion. I introduced the idea in the Patreon only video where Tantz, Banes, Pt and I try and get a handle on the idea for the first time, so that's a good behind the scenes insight into what goes on!
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Tue, 5 May 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_477_-_Darkest_before_dawn.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 28 April 2020
How does where you grew up influence your comicing?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_476_-_Tell_me_abut_your_childhood.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 21 April 2020
Direct download: QUACKCAST_475_-_Tropeagedden_overuse_of_fashionable_tropes..mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 14 April 2020
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
Direct download: QUACKCAST_474_-_What_shows_during_Quarantine.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 7 April 2020
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?
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Tue, 31 March 2020
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/
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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Tue, 24 March 2020
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!
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Tue, 17 March 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_470_-_What_stirred_your_creative_juices.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 10 March 2020
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.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_469_-_The_cartoons_that_date_us.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 3 March 2020
Direct download: QUACKCAST_468_-_Online_communities.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 25 February 2020
The process of adaptation is quite interesting. Stories go through all sorts of changes when they're transferred from one medium to another. A lot of the time we bemoan that as “not staying true to the original” or “the book was better”, but there are many times where the adaption is really interesting in its own right, even though it's quite different from what it started out as.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_467_-_Adaptions_and_Transmogrifications.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 18 February 2020
What happens to characters after the big action scene or climactic moment? This could be anywhere in the story but it's usually close to the end. Do they process any of the things that have happened to them to lead them up to that point or do they just forget about everything and simply act as if nothing except the last 4 seconds matter?
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Tue, 11 February 2020
There are a couple of approaches when it comes to making a big creative project: planing it all out or working things out as you go i.e. flying by the seat of your pants. Well in reality it's a spectrum and those are the two extremes. Most of us work somewhere between those two, sometimes with more or less planning etc… I've tried a lot of different mixtures myself!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_465_-_Planning_Vs_pantsing.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 4 February 2020
I recently had to upgrade my main computer because Windows isn't supporting Windows 7 any longer and I don't want to install Windows 10 on the perfectly functioning old one in case it ruins it and my main programs can't run any longer… SO I had to get a new PC. This got me thinking though: The barrier to getting into digital art is lower now than ever!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_464_-_The_current_digital_art_landscape.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 28 January 2020
Sexpostion is sex plus exposition, it's exposition with sex on the screen. Tantz Aerine addressed the topic of sexposition in an article last year, but what we're doing here is talking about the reason it even exists, why it isn't a new trend, and why it probably won't last.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_463_-_Sexposition_is_not_a_new_thing.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 21 January 2020
Today we have a special guest! Jessica Schab. Jessica works for Mainframe entertainment in Canada, one of THE premier digital animation companies! Before things like Pixar they were THE CGI animation people! Behind the Video for Dire Straights' Money for Nothing video back in the 80s, Transformers Beastwars, Octonaughts, Babrie, and my personal fave: Reboot!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_462_-_Hollywood_animation_with_Jessica_Schab.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 14 January 2020
Today Banes and I chat about our top tips for doing a great comic page: What is most important? I mainly focus on art and Banes is talking about page design and writing tips. Bellow are our top 5s for ways to make better comics! We expand on these and explain them in the Quackcast.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_461_-_Top_Comic_making_5_tips.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:40am PDT
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Tue, 7 January 2020
Happy 2020 all you lovely people who listen to us!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_460_-_Enough_trope_to_hang_yourself_with.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 31 December 2019
It's been a great year! DD has continued to grow bit by bit, we've been stable and a great host for many many webcomics. DD is one of the only truly independent community focused webcomic hosting sites left. Most of the rest are commercial hubs that are not community centered.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_459_-_2019_Year_in_review.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 24 December 2019
Direct download: QUACKCAST_458_-__fave_Christmas_stuff.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 17 December 2019
2 weeks ago we discussed the topic of religion in fiction: basicaly how we use real world religions to inform the perspectives of our characters and make the worlds more real, how we use religion in fiction, and how we make up religions for our worlds.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_457_-_Religion_in_fiction_2.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 10 December 2019
Smack Jeeves has been sold out from under its community to a Korean mobile content provider company NHN. The same company approached us last year but the deal didn't go through because we were too strict on retaining control of the site and protecting our community, SJ apparently didn't have those same concerns for the people that made the site so special and that is a huge shame. What's happened now is that NHN is streamlining the site, minimising the creative members who host their comics there and turning it into a content delivery site for its hand-picked pro work, turning it into another souless clone corporate of Webtoons or Tapas.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_456_-__Smackdown_on_Quackjeeves.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 3 December 2019
We're talking about how religion is portrayed in fiction and a bit about WHY. This was a surprisingly fascinating topic. I came up with the idea while watching the old 2000s SciFi series Andromeda: one of the alien characters there is sort of a space Buddhist, and I felt like that was a pretty common thing in American TV Scifi, so I wondered about what other kinds of religious tropes exist in contemporary fiction, fantasy and other SciFi worlds.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_455_-_Religion_in_fiction.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 26 November 2019
This week we look at the famous quote by respected film director Martin Scorsese that “Marvel movies aren't Cinema” and also the quote by fellow director Francis Ford Coppola that Marvel films are “despicable”. We try and look at the proper context of these remarks outside of the twitter garbage and social media outrage to see if either had any point or whether they're way off the mark and deserving of criticism.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_454_-__Are_Marvel_movies_despicable.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 19 November 2019
Where does your main audience come from? And how do you change your work to accommodate them?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_453_-_Lost_in_Translation.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 12 November 2019
Storytelling styles change over time for various reasons: fashion, audience expectations, competition for audience attention due to increased choice and availability of media, technological limitations and abilities, and culture. We chat about the reasons for the changes and how styles have changed.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_452_-_Storytelling_styles_change.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 5 November 2019
“Toxic fans” is a bit of a catch cry now and that has seemed to turn into the idea that any fan who is critical of something or doesn't like it isn't a “true fan”, fans must should love everything. I find this a dangerously silly notion and one clearly driven by business interests with only a limited relationship to reality. It's quite similar to the idea that you're “either for us or against us”, the twisted idea of “patriotism” that says you must agree with and love everything your country and your leader does no matter what or you're a traitor.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_451_-_Fans_who_criticise_are_are_good_fans.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 29 October 2019
Tantz is dressed fabulously as a queen and I'm a skull faced monstrosity… I'm also wearing a costume, hahaha! Which you can see in our Patreon video ;)
Direct download: QUACKCAST_450_-_happy_Halloween_horror_franchises.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 22 October 2019
As promised we dive right into the second half of the Star Wars chat! We cover all the Star Wars stuff besides the original trilogy and the new trilogy. There's a lot to cover and we only touch on most on it: Solo, the Star Wars Christmas special, Droids, the Ewok films, Clone Wars, the games, the books, comics, Solo, Rogue One…
Direct download: QUACKCAST_449_-_Star_Wars_2_the_franchise_strikes_back.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 15 October 2019
Direct download: QUACKCAST_448_-_King_of_franchises_Star_Wars.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 8 October 2019
For the month of October we've decided to look at a different movie franchise each week, starting with Indiana Jones! Banes and Tantz have way more knowledge about the films than I, having watched them much more, but we all have a fondness for the character.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_447_-_Indiana_Jones_and_the_temple_of_Duck.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 1 October 2019
Today we're getting all META and interviewing the creator of another webcomics podcast! Jamais Jochim is the host of Webcomics Reviews and Interviews! It's a podcast that covers much the same ground as we do, but with more research and less winging it, also more interviews with experts and webcomicers, so he's really worth checking out.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_446_-_Interview_with_Jamais_Jochim_of_Webcomics_Reviews_and_Interviews.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 24 September 2019
Copyright is a complicated thing and something that all creators should have a little bit of a working understanding off! Checkout my newspost lined bellow for more info! you need to know this stuff.
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Tue, 17 September 2019
Endings… getting them right is SO very hard. We've chatted about this before but this time Tantz has a number of good methods to make them happen right!
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Tue, 10 September 2019
Based on Banes' newspost about the latest Dave Chappelle comedy special, this Quackcast talks about the way audience reception to it has been somewhat divided based on the topics covered verses current prevailing attitudes and the so-called “outrage culture”
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Tue, 3 September 2019
How about having it so anyone in your story can die?
Direct download: QUACKCAST_442_-_Death_comes_to_all.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 27 August 2019
Cooperation Vs Competition. For decades the mantra was competition is good: it produces progress and makes things better… Well that's actually false. Competition is what you're forced into as a response to limited resources, so you do what you have to to win, which mainly involves losing everything that doesn't serve that specific objective. Competition is massively harmful to progress in general, it ONLY helps you excel in one small area to massive cost. Think of it in terms of an Olympic sprinter: they become the fastest runner in the world, but to what point? Only the artificial structure of a sporting event… they spend years training, exercising, eating right, wasting a huge portion of their lives, creative, and intellectual potential on that one meaningless goal, and IF they achieve it they might get a bit of fame and money and a footnote in history because someone else will inevitably take their spot. More likely though they won't achieve the goal and instead be forgotten.
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Tue, 20 August 2019
Direct download: QUACKCAST_440_-_Character_tropes_VS_characterisation.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 13 August 2019
Tantz's clever idea was that the weather isn't just a backdrop… it's an important prop in it's own right.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_439_-_weather_flavour_enhancer.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 6 August 2019
Sometimes your audience just doesn't pick up on the clever symbolism, the hints, the metaphor, the underlying themes and all the artistic cleverness in writing and art that you've filled your work up with!
Direct download: QUACKCAST_438_-_You_just_dont_get_it.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 30 July 2019
Today we cover the interesting trope of the “old warrior”. This was based upon a newspost Banes came up with last week. He was thinking of Captain Picard in the latest Star Trek series and he also brought up Luke Skywalker from the latest Star Wars movie. The “Old Warrior” makes a really cool protagonist, in this Quackcast we try and discover why that is…
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Tue, 23 July 2019
To become truly successful at one thing you need to focus on that alone. Is it worth it?
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Tue, 16 July 2019
We're discussing spin-offs in this one.
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Tue, 9 July 2019
This time we're chatting about settings and where your characters exist in space… where does all the action happen in your comics and WHY does it happen there? Bane's had the really novel idea of thinking of story settings as action playsets, which are toy settings made based on a TV show or movie where you can play with action figures and act out key moments FROM the TV show or movie:
Direct download: QUACKCAST_434_-_Where_do_your_characters_exist.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 2 July 2019
Today we chat about a furore on Twitter focussing on a artist who made a tutorial about the differences between the line work of beginners and advanced artists. Many people identified their art style with the work described as “beginner” and took extreme offence at that characterisation. It's the contention of Tantz that “beginner” is not a dirty word. We're all beginners at something. We can all stand to learn things.
Direct download: QUACKCAST_433_-_everyone_is_a_beginer.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 25 June 2019
Just Banes and I for this one! Today we have 3 topics:
Direct download: QUACKCAST_432_-_How_to_get_more_readers.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 18 June 2019
*Cover-art from the movie poster for METROPOLIS, not Atlas shrugged :)
Direct download: QUACKCAST_431_-_Political_messages_in_you_work.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 11 June 2019
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Tue, 4 June 2019
This Quackcast was inspired by the fan reaction to Game of Thrones, a series that I haven't watched but Tantz and Banes have! Specifically it's about poorly written endings and gas-lighting fans rather than admitting to faults.
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Tue, 28 May 2019
What are the different expectations for female and male audiences? This almost entirely a culture based thing, it changes depending on where and WHEN you are from as well as your age and experience… but some obvious things are determined by our physiology: sex sells, but there are slight differences based on gender. I wasn't interested in the “why” (genetic predeterminisim or evolutionary psychology), just the “what”
Direct download: QUACKCAST_428_-_Expectations_of_Male_and_female_audiences.mp3
Category:Webcomics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT
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Tue, 21 May 2019
Betrayal is an interesting thing to use in fiction. You can have betrayal of your nation, your organisation, friends, lovers, religion, beliefs, self. In stories it can be used to add a nasty twist or completely change the flow of events and alter the balance of power in a dramatic way! It can be devastating in relationships. The story of Judas betraying Christ for 30 pieces of silver is one of the most famous betrayal stories and became so iconic that the phrase “30 pieces of silver” or just the word “Judas” became synonymous with the act. Of course the inspiration for the best treachery and betrayal comes from real life and the names of the betrayers often echo down through history. IFrom Rome we have Brutus, in the USA the name “Benedict Arnold” has a similar meaning to “Judas”, the 20th century gave us the term “quisling” after the Norwegian political leader Vidkun Quisling who sold his country out to the Nazis.
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