Episode 471 - Fantasy
Mar 23, 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! 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.
Topics and Show Notes
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
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
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/
Episode 157 - A very modern Modest Medusa
Mar 11, 2014
Banes returns to the Quackcast to join me on another interview with Jake Richmond of the very popular Modest Medusa! This time we get to find out more about Jake's comic making technique, his writing style, character creation, colour technique, drawing materials, programs and his whole work flow. I had wanted to get into this last time as well on Quackcast 155 but we had a great chat about the things you can do to make money from your webcomics instead. So now we get a full picture of what goes into the making of Modest Medusa! For example; did you know it's all drawn on paper and scanned? Neither did I! This is part one, part two will come out next week. Stay tuned!