Episode 685 - mantle
Apr 29, 2024
“Passing the mantle” is an interesting phrase. Many claim it comes from a biblical origin; the prophet Elijah was said to have passed his mantle to Elisha when he ascended to heaven, thereby symbolically transferring his authority… but honestly that seems a little silly and elaborate of an origin story, the sort of thing bad bible scholars in America loved to come up with in the 19th century. Mantles of office were commonly worn by kings, statesmen and even lord mayors today and the passing of those symbolises them gaining office and authority. It's a very ordinary, commonplace secular tradition.
Topics and Show Notes
But why am I even talking about it at all? Well it's a way of transitioning to a new protagonist, often with the same role and traits as the previous one, but not always. It's a great way to retire an older character and reinvigorate things with a younger successor. The greatest example I can think of in comics is The Phantom. He's one of the oldest superheroes, predating batman and superman… The Phantom (in the story), comes from an unbroken lineage of heroes dating back to the golden age of piracy when his ancestor was betrayed and shipwrecked on an African coast. He was taken in by the local people, nursed back to health and taught their secret ways, becoming “the ghost who walks”. Ever since then the sons have taken that role from their farther.
You can see a similar theme in a lot of older stories or stories set in the past, like Zorro, the pirate Doctor Syn, even The Dread Pirate Roberts from the Princess Bride. These people don the disguise of their forebear and BECOME the same character. Modern superheroes play a little with that too, though they usually revert back to the old characters again and just use the mantle passing as a sneaky way of introducing a new character. But it's been popularly done with characters like Antman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Spiderman, and many others.
In the Quackcast we have a discussion about how this method would have been a better way of introducing Rey in the Star Wars sequels and maybe a good way to fix Indiana Jones (though I disagree).
Do you have any fave examples of a passed mantle? The Phantom still wins for me.
This week Gunwallace made up a theme inspired by Old Dogs - The burning of an old fire, glowing red hot amongst the black coals and charred, ashen, grey wood. This is a gritty ode to grizzled, aged, experience and time. It’s prickly, with a taste of rock and bourbon, like a good BBQ sauce.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Banes' mantle newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/apr/25/the-mantle-theory/
Featured comic:
The Outbreak - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/apr/22/featured-comic-the-outbreak/
Featured music:
Old Dogs - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Old_Dogs/ - by JCorrachComics, rated A.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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Episode 682 - Exposition!
Apr 8, 2024
Tantz came up with this week's topic: Exposition! It's because she's well on her way into starting her latest comic, Verdant, and working out ways to introduce the story, the world, characters, culture, magic systems, religion etc without doing a massive text dump, which people generally don't like too much. So how do you exposit in a good way?
Episode 680 - Intelligence in Fiction
Mar 25, 2024
Today we're talking about the depiction of “intelligence” in fiction! There are a lot of ways this shows up: the genius detective who can understand any clue and uncover any lie, the amazing doctor who can understand any disease, the computer nerd who can do ANYTHING with computers, the genius savant with Asperger's, the crafty serial killer with plans within plans…
Episode 677 - You can't spell "Fail" without "AI"
Mar 4, 2024
I remembered that a promised Quackcast was AI: slavery for artists and creators. This is an important subject to cover especially from this angle.
Episode 673 - By their deeds you shall know them
Feb 5, 2024
Here we're fulfilling the promise of Quackcast 671 and examining what the art can tell us about the artist! Can certain themes, an art style, choice of imagery, jokes, humour, character opinions, colour choices or anything else tell us anything about the artist?
Episode 669 - sexelant
Jan 8, 2024
The number of the Quackcast is 669 so that means it's time for sexy stuff again! But despite the topic this isn't an adult cast and we keep things to a respectful tone.
Episode 666 - Evil
Dec 18, 2023
We're up to number 666 Quackcasts so our topic this time is evil! Evil is a complicated subject, we all think we know what it is but we really don't, there are just so many aspects to it so it's very hard to fully encompass. Broadly “evil” can be something very subjective: anything that runs counter to our own well-being as individuals- people, things and situations that do us harm. You can expand that to your property, your family, friends, acquaintances, pets etc. As that definition gets bigger though to encompass your neighbours, street, suburb, city, state, and country it becomes more objective bit by bit, till we come to the idea that “evil” is something that runs counter to human rights, or the existence of life in general, or the right to self determination etc. A more objective view of evil.
Episode 661 - Steaks... stakes
Nov 13, 2023
Stakes are a part of a story. What does a character want? What means the most to the character? What are they after, what do they care about? Stakes can be really subjective like that and they can also be objective and more universal like death, debt, a threat to a home, nation, planet or even the universe. The most important thing though is that you can communicate the value of those stakes to the audience! It doesn't actually matter WHAT the stakes are as long as the audience understands that they're important.
