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 71 - Institutionalised Superheros, Screenwriting: Part 4
Apr 2, 2012
This is the 4th and last of Banes' screenwriting tutorials. We round up here with the final two story genres; "Superhero" and "Institutionalised", rounded out with some more useful time and tricks on writing in general! This series has been part of the Quackcast screenwriting month, beginning with Quackcast 68 and ending with Quackcast 71. Aaaaand we also have all the voice tryouts for the aspiring actors that want to be a part of the 2012 DD radio play! We'd love you to vote on your faves for each role- just write down the number you like for each and email your vote to drunkduck100@yahoo.com, or PQ them to http://www.drunkduck.com/quack/compose/?user=ayesinback or just write it here in the QC comments!
Episode 65 - Men and Women in Tights
Feb 20, 2012
Banes and Ozoneocean round off the topic of superheroes, beating that wonderhorse to death well and truly. There's a lot of reminiscing here about ancient superhero pop-culture and along the way we discuss silver age and golden age comics, supervillains, second stringer superheros and why the remain that way, the gender and culture appeal of some characters, evolution of superheroes towards realism and grit, then webcomic superheroes, especially those on DD, and then finish up with why we like superheroes. Sidekick Captain-Ozone continues to echo disturbingly from the void while the real hero, Ultra-Banes, continues to bring the humour. We decide that it all comes back to Superman and Batman, who are the ultimate prototypes for the two main types of superheros: super, good, and perfect Vs normal, flawed, and human.
Episode 64 - Of Gods and Superheroes
Feb 14, 2012
Superheros Banes and Ozoneocean have it out in a titanic, world-shaking battle complete with sparkly flying electricity vividly written sound FX and a laser light show to see who will be top-dog in the Gothic metropolis of Quackcast city. Ozoneocean attempts to lull the audience into a false sense of security by reciting everything he knows about superheroes and various gods and then comparing the two in his echoy, god-like voice. Meanwhile, banes counters with the rather unusual tactic of trying to entertain them with his hilarious wit and clever improvisations. We discus the origins of superheroes, superheroes movies and everything in between in the first of this two part Quackcast marathon. Re-issued episode 64! We discuss superheros
