Episode 435 - Spinoffs!
Jul 15, 2019
We're discussing spin-offs in this one. Why do them? There are many very different reasons for doing a spin-off as opposed to a sequel, prequel or a totally new story:
Topics and Show Notes
- Spin-offs make promotion and marketing of the work easier because it has an existing audience who are invested in its world.
- It gives you as a creator more freedom because you're not as strongly constrained by the existing cannon of the parent stories, unlike sequels etc. and you don't have to do any new world building!
- For big commercial comic publishers it makes it easier to keep their universes fresh and their audiences connected by spinning side characters off into their own stories .
Indeed, because of their long-running nature, the investment involved and the shifting structures of their creative teams there's a VERY strong commercial imperative to keep birthing new stories through spin-offs rather than create totally new ones.
Webcomics have very different pressures so spin-offs are a lot more rare, but they Do happen. Do you know of any webcomic spin-offs?
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The Great Khan: Happy, fun, jollity! This one bounces through your door with glee and excitement, happy to see you and wanting no more than a snack and a belly rub! A happy little dance number.
Topics and shownotes
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Featured comic:
Android Blues - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/jul/08/featured-comic-android-blues/
Featured music:
The Great Khan - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Great_Khan/, by Gr8k4an , rated E.
LINKS
Tantz Aerine's fantasy novel spin-off from her Art of Veiling series:
Becoming a Healer - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D0UJ8SM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Spin of story in Pinky TA - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/5044382/
Epic of Blitzov, spin-off from Putrid Meat - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Epic_of_Blitzov/
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Episode 433 - everyone is a beginner
Jul 1, 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.
Episode 428 - Expectations of Male and female audiences
May 27, 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”.
Episode 424 - Selling your creative dish
Apr 29, 2019
On one side we have creators of content and on the other we have the consumers. The consumers number in their billions and they're voraciously hungry for constant stimulation! Pretty much all creators are consumers too… So why don't they want the beautifully made, clever, spicy, artisanal dish you're selling? Why do they prefer the nice, bland, familiar mass-market high in fat, sugar and salt fast-food of the mainstream instead?
Episode 420 - Substance abuse and use
Apr 1, 2019
The entire gang is here this time again. This marks number 420 of the Quackcasts we've done. 420 is code among some for smoking dope, so going with that theme we're talking about the influence of substances on creative endeavours. People try and use substances to facilitate their creativity, we chat about why they do it, how it works, why it fails, the benefits and the issues. We DO NOT advocate taking illegal things in any way at all. This includes ANY substance, from dope, to coffee, to redbull, tea, wine, beer, cold and flu medication, headache pills, opium, adderall, ANYTHING at all, as long as it produces some mental or physiological change, it counts!
Episode 417 - Can we be better?
Mar 11, 2019
What is Social Marketing? Basically its word-of-mouth and viral marketing smashed together and weaponised: Marketing companies hijack hot-button social issues and hitch their client's brand to them in clever campaigns (“We can be better”, etc). The purpose isn't really to make a brand seem progressive, modern or new, rather it's another way of getting it trending on social media that's guaranteed to work, unlike the legion of hit or miss but mostly failed “Viral” campaigns. Whether people say negative or positive things about this issue is irrelevant to the marketer, as long as people are talking about the brand is all that matters. Free advertising is the goal, but it has a social cost.
Episode 416 - Making cuts
Mar 4, 2019
The entire team is here this time, no one was cut… So we're chatting about CUTTING, as in cutting out scenes to make a story cleaner, leaner and less flabby, but also NOT cutting because in a webcomic you don't have to, and when you cut badly you end up with a “D movie” effect where story scenes don't follow, don't make sense and plots seem to go nowhere or happen for no reason.
Episode 414 - Bad Hollywood
Feb 18, 2019
Hollywood has a tendency to simplify or completely alter stories to make them more mainstream and appealing to their idea of a popular audience. In this Quackcast we thought it'd be fun to run with that idea and re-imagine our works for “Hollywood”.
