Episode 205 - What about bodyshape?
Feb 9, 2015
This week Banes and I were inspired to talk about body shape in the depiction of figures in comics, inspired by some famous images from photographer Howard Schatz's 2002 book, Athlete. In it there are photos of many athletes who're at the peak of their sports and yet their bodyshapes are vastly different, subverting the idea of an "ideal" bodyshape or what it means to be a top athlete or even fit. too often bodyshapes in comics follow a very narrow range, not getting much past what we think of as the current popculture ideal. We all know that idealised model shape is a problem and yet we all still perpetuate it, most of the time you can only tell most "realistic" characters apart by their hairstyle or costume, especially in superhero comics. And that invents a second problem: the myth of the "normal" shaped body as opposed to the ideal- there IS no such thing as normal, and even the ideal is always changing throughout the ages. There's even a lot more to body shape than the famous categories: Mesomorph, Ectomorph, and Endomorph, or Skinny, Pear, Athletic, Hourglass and Apple. We also have a beif mention of how stylised characters (Sponge Bob, Calvin and Hobbes etc) are exaggerations of these shapes and differences.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and Show Notes:
Featured comic:
Onward - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Onward/
Links:
Some of the athlete photos here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2502477/Can-guess-sport-shape-Olympians-body.html
Bodyshape pics taken from here - http://bonytobombshell.com/the-scientific-reasons-why-some-women-are-naturally-skinny/
Typical DC superheros - http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/465215/5366925/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/dc.jpg
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace, guitar shaped musician - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
YOUR CHOICE - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/YOUR_CHOICE/ - by VinoMas
Episode 202 - The Lady is a Stranger
Jan 19, 2015
Howdy Pardner, is you ready fer a western adventure? For Quackcast 202 we decided to build on the experiment we started in Quackcast 201. We constructed a play quickly with four people all working together. It took us all 3 hours to write, collaborating on a Google doc and over skype to make a half hour play, and it seems to have turned out pretty nicely! This is the last for now in our writing exercises. We only really show the play here and not the 3 hours of umming and ah-ing as we worked on it, because that was too much to edit down, but if it's something people would like to hear maybe we'll make a condensed version available some time in the future. For now please enjoy our little Western romance, train and bank heist adventure! And Bane's great piano playing! Oh, and the great intro music by Gunwallace called "Solosteel"!
Episode 184 - The Trevor Mueller Hour
Aug 18, 2014
Trevor A Meuller, author of many astounding comics including Albert The Alien, @$$hole and Temple of a Thousand Tears came on to tell us about some of the different projects he's working. Banes and I were highly impressed by his professional approach and his amazing radio voice! Trevor is a Drunk Duck graduate who you might remember working on @$$hole and Temple of a Thousand Tears in the early days, he's since moved on to bigger and better things, working with the award winning artist and colourist artist Gabriel Bautista Jr on the gorgeous all ages comic Albert The Alien. He's also involved in the great comics based educational reading initiative readingwithpctures.com as well as may other joint projects. he's definitely worth listing to for his exciting motivated approach and the advice he has to offer beginners in the field.
Episode 173 - The Marvelous Tomorrowcast!
Jun 30, 2014
In the AMAZING world of webcomics tomorrow Chromium printing presses will print out up to 6 pages an hour!!!! In all 3 colours! Black, White AND yellow!!! For your viewing pleasure comics from many different creators are all able to be viewed AT THE SAME TIME, fully updated every day on our state of the art pin-boards! Comic pages are affixed to a state of the art cork backed board with only the finest drawing pins and tacks! Well, that's not actually what we were talking about... In this DD community webcomics podcast of the future we talk about all the possibilities that will happen down the road for webcomics: the mobile space, more money for creators, the professional and amateur worlds of comic making getting closer and closer together, net neutrality, and the possible pitfalls that may befall us. We had some great contributions from some wise guys.
Episode 130 - The Art of Comicbook Movies
Jun 24, 2013
Banes and I talk about some of our fave comic book movies! That is, comics that have made the creative transition to the medium of film. We missed out a LOT but what can you do? It's a popular field. We discuss many modern superhero comicbook films like Watchmen, Batman, The Phantom etc, as well as non-superhero comicbook films like Brenda Starr, Modesty Blaise, Ghost in The Shell, Tank Girl, Asterix, Conan the Barbarian and so on. We talk about the different approaches they take to represent a vast comicbook cannon in the short space of 1 and a half or two and a half hours that a film goes for: sometimes they go for the origin story approach, sometimes they'll spoor the character, sometimes they'll depict a normal everyday representative adventure to show, and sometimes they'll show a condensed version of the entire story.
Episode 113 - Never Been Better 23
Feb 19, 2013
Banes and I interview TheJimmy! TheJimmy is the Authour of the very popular and very long standing autobiographical comic Been Better! This is our second try at Quackcast 113, the first try didn't record so we came back another day to try again and it worked, hooray!!!! TheJimmy gives us a deep inside look on what it's like and also what it means to be the writer of a long standing autobiographical comics strip, where you can look back on pages and see significant events of your life rendered in a comedy fashion. Been Better has been witness to his many relationships, old friends, numerous valentines, career changes and a lot of growing up. But he also tells us about how he uses real life events as jumping off points to surreally humorous flights of fancy. It's an interesting chat! Also, the number 23 is watching you.
Episode 104: Call Me 24 Hour Tom
Nov 30, 2012
24 hour comics day was on the 20th of October! Buuuut, we dodn't cover that for the Quackcast because we were too into our halloweeeenie plans, I think... or maybe we were just being lazy, I fergit. Anyway, in this week's Quackcast we speak to someone who actually participated in the great and fabled rituals surrounding the legendary event to get an inside perspective on just exactly how things work. To that end Dr Banes and I packed up our carpetbags, shucked on our greatcoats and top hats and did up each other's gaiters in order to travel to merry Ye'olde Engal-land to speak to one of its inhabitants who was rumoured to be a man of great knowledge on this subject. There we encountered a fellow by the name of Tom, or Call Me Tom to be exact, a fine figure of a man, raw boned and massive, standing well nigh over nine feet tall and a million inches, bald as a coot on top, with red sidewhiskers down to his knees. He was good enough to let us into the secret lore of 24 hour comics day! - Halfway through our learned discourse we were attacked by Geth and replaced by simulants. :(
Episode 91: The Quack Always Casts Twice, 2012 DD Radio Play
Aug 20, 2012
Banes introduces the 2012 DD radio play! Maxwell McDuff must face his most diabolical trial yet in... THE DUCK ALWAYS QUACKS TWICE! He's joined by many other notable and fiendish characters in this new and epic adventure involving anvils, Maltese quails, crocodiles, and terrifying torture! This fine story was written by Gunwallace, organised heroically by Ayesinback and edited together by Banes. This story of the amazing Maxwell McDuff and many other characters was the product of many hours work and organisation by many different participants. Before the play there are some great interviews with members of the cast, but if you’d like to jump to the play, that starts at 38.41 minutes.
