Episode 640 - Aliens
Jun 19, 2023
We base our images of aliens in comics on aliens in TV shows and movies mostly, because those are the ones we all know. But movie aliens have been generally based on humans because it's less expensive, easier to come up with a costume and makeup for an actor, and it's also easier to make those aliens relatable. “Aliens” even THINK the same as we do, have the same motivations, wants, needs, prejudices, opinions… Almost 100% of the time aliens in media are US, just a weird version of us: distorted reflection.
Topics and Show Notes
As comic makers we're not restricted by makeup budgets, prosthetics, CG issues, or actor comfort levels. We have a HUGE advantage. We can actually explore TRULY alien creatures in a way that is only really done in novels.
Consider- all the assumptions that we have for aliens in TV and movies are wrong:
1. scale- There's no reason at all that aliens should be our size or even slightly taller or slightly smaller. They could be MUCH tinier or MUCH bigger (as large as a house or a building or a planet)
2. Bilateral symmetry is an earth based genetic thing that evolved specifically only to animal life on this planet and not even all animals have it. Plants, fungi, viruses, bacteria and all other forms of life (which are all related to us) don't have it.
3. Four limbs, one head, and a few main sensory organs ON the head is something that only certain forms of earth animal life has, the rest evolved differently in various ways. So it's pretty much absolutely impossible that any alien life will ever have that structure.
4. All forms of life on earth are related and all developed from the same DNA, a process that took 100's of millions of years of weird false starts, accidents, specific adaptations to all sorts of different strange circumstances, and all those things were just added up on top of each other to create the life that's here. Without all of those things being exactly the same there's no possible way that any alien life will ever resemble any earth creature in any way, be it human, insect, cephalopod, pine tree, sea slug, or slime-mold. Even “convergent evolution” which produces the same features in unrelated things isn't as unrelated as it often seems since those creatures often share earlier precursors to develop the same thing: like eyes in cephalopods and eyes in other creatures.
5. Why would aliens think like us or even think to talk to us? To a truly alien creature there wouldn't be much difference between us and a housecat, to them we're both earthlings Even a tree and us would be much the same to them in a lot of ways. We have everything in common with a cat or a dog in the way we think VS what an alien would think about.
6. Alien motivations could not be the same as ours, They'd have to be based on the aliens themselves and how you chose to structure them. But they couldn't be anything resembling our needs unless it was very basic and elemental- the need for sustenance, survival, fuel, supplies etc. Things like lust, love, hate, ambition, competition, religion shouldn't really factor in because they're too human-centric.
It's a complex and interesting topic! If you want to continue to make human type aliens though go ahead.It's more fun to do and the audience will have less trouble relating to them that a truly alien creature like The Thing. Special mention to one of the most truly alien aliens: the planet in Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem. Special mention to the least aliens ever: the native American blue cat-humans from Avatar. What are your fave aliens?
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to THE SQUIRREL MACHINE - Slow to develop, creepy, atmospheric, and unsettling… This will keep you on edge, uneven and unbalanced. Dark, hideous monsters wait just around the corner, lurking at the edges of your vision, ready to drag you deep into a dirty, shadow filled, earthy crevice.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
Drunk Duck Awards 2023 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2023/jun/13/featured-comic-drunk-duck-awards-2023/
Featured music:
THE SQUIRREL MACHINE - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/THE_SQUIRREL_MACHINE/ - by Hansrickheit, rated M.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
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Episode 614 - Super groups!
Dec 19, 2022
Inspired by Banes we did a Quackcast on SUPER TEAMS! You know those groups like the Justice League, the Avengers, the Suicide Squad, or even Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy from The Journey to the West (Monkey Magic is my fave version). These are super powerful characters on their own but together they're even more awesome because their strengths and weakness complement each other in interesting ways. DD had its very own super team in the form of the Heroes Alliance, where a lot of DD creators got together to work on a shared universe. And back in the 2000s DD had a “Civil War” even with Keen Space (AKA Comic Genesis), where a huge number of our creators and theirs participated in something like a DC Vs Marvel crossover battle.
Episode 595 - Oversold to the Moon!
Aug 8, 2022
How do you describe your work to sell it to people? Writing blurbs is a real skill! You generally have to avoid doing these four things: Underselling, Overselling, Selling the wrong story, or Revealing too much. It's quite a tricky balance to master. I've been writing feature blurbs for comics here on DD for many years now (about 16), so I've developed a technique but even I haven't mastered it!
Episode 586 - Working with disability
Jun 6, 2022
How do you keep on with your creative output when something happens to you? When you lose function or are impaired in some way, how do you adapt or relearn so you can keep on as you were before? Maybe you can't and have to change to another medium that's a better fit for your abilities? Comic creator Bravo1102 once talked about how he moved from drawing to using action figures to make his comics partially because of his eyesight. My own eyesight has suddenly started to go bad and I'm having to adapt to that, and Tantz tells us how her deteriorating eyesight forced her to work digitally.
Episode 576 - Retro Adventure heroes
Mar 28, 2022
Retro adventure heroes are an interesting and unique sort of hero. The trope was revived and crystallised by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg with Indiana Jones, but it had existed long before then and continues to persist now in many forms. They're not without their problems But I like these characters. I love their outfits, their competency, intelligence, self sufficiency, and their penchant for exploration and discovery.
Episode 475 - Tropeagedden! overuse of fashionable tropes...
Apr 20, 2020
Certain tropes or stylistic ways of telling a story can get really, really popular and trendy very quickly and it seems like they're everywhere! Suddenly many story are all told with the same sort of stylistic flourishes. The first few times it's done that way it's clever and meaningful but after that people just use the same thing without understanding it properly and consequently usually do a really crappy job!
Episode 437 - Old Warhorse
Jul 29, 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…
Episode 419 - The Rating Game
Mar 25, 2019
It's the rating game! Yeah! This Quackcast was inspired by Emma Clare's newspost on Friday about rating levels. On Drunk Duck we have 4 rating levels so they're nice and simple: “E” for everyone, “T+” for teens, “M” for mature, and “A” for Adult! We talk about why ratings exist and how to use them.
