Episode 213 - What makes a good character? Part one
Apr 6, 2015
After several interesting discussions about Mary Sues, we'd like to talk about characters a little more. We asked people to let us know their thoughts on what makes a well written character VS a poorly written one. People talked about their favourite and least favourite characters in fiction and why they dug or don't dig them… as well as their own characters and how they put them together! Banes and I blather on a lot so this will be a multi-parter as we talk about what makes good characters. And as usual there's the great theme by Gunwallace! This time a classical number for the Adult comic Tina's Story.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and Show Notes:
Featured comic:
Mechanaflux - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Mechanaflux/
Links:
Based on Banes' forum post - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/176844/
Contributions from:
Genejoke - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Genejoke/
Special thanks to:
Music by Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
Tina's Story - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Tinas_Story/ by Zenia. Rated A 18+ (NSFW)
Episode 209 - lurv triangles
Mar 9, 2015
Around about Valentine's day, HippieVan's mind turned to thoughts of love... and she conceived of a great newspost idea that was very popular with people! Love triangles are very good for generating drama in your writing without having to worry too much about forcing that through external events. And because they're primarily driven by you characters as well as affecting them it's a great way to build on your characterisation through the drama. In HippieVan's words we outline a few notable love triangles in fiction, both classic, and contemporary, then we include the contributions the DDers who were good enough to add their two cents to the subject.
Episode 208 - Testing Your Writing
Mar 1, 2015
In this Quackcast Banes and I discuss some methods for testing your writing, well mainly your characters, to see how well you really know them. We use a comedic character creation template that we have found is perfect for testing and learning more about your established characters, no matter how serious they are. It consists of four interrelated elements: Point of view; Exaggeration of the point of view; Faults; Relatability / Humanity. We also talk a little about the dreaded dangers of the Mary Sue... you never want your writing to fall in that putrid, cancerous hole of smelly excrement where your main character is perfect and all the others worship them. And lastly the very useful Bechdel test for seeing how rounded your female characters are. There are 3 rules: You have to have at least two named women; They who talk to each other; It's about something besides a man. We were both a bit sad about the death of Leonard Nimoy. R.I.P. Mister Spock.
Episode 207 - A question of bodyshape part 2
Feb 22, 2015
In Quackcast 207 we talk about bodyshapes in comics again; as a follow up from the chat we had about it in Quackcast 205 we thought we'd let the community weigh in with their thoughts... so Banes and I could get the chance to practice our voices. We wanted to know what others thought about the subject of about bodyshape in comics; Ones that they draw, read, or have just seen and think that it needs commenting upon. These Quackcasts were inspired of course by the images of athletes from the 2002 book "Athlete" by Howard Schatz. The photos show various athletes who're at the top level of their respective sports, it also shows that they have wildly different physical attributes: there IS no one ideal, and there IS no “normal”. This got us to thinking how body shape can define a character as much as facial features, hairstyle, clothing etc. Anyway, people had their say and it was enlightening! Also, Gunwallace's music this week was for FUNK! And funky it was, give it a listen.
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.
Episode 203 - The clothescast
Jan 26, 2015
Clothes maketh the man! If that man is a scarecrow... This Quackcast is about drawing clothing. Two esteemed gents from the Drunk Duck repertoire of experts offer their advice on methods for drawing bodies sheathed in garments. Bravo1102 and Ironscarf are two very worldly and experienced men, as they lounged deep in the dark wood panelled cosy confines of the DD private members club, they discussed the tricky subject of convincingly rendering character costumes. Ironscarf traced circles in the air with his custom made talbot pipe, illustrating his descriptions in smoke. Bravo, a fat cigar in one hand, brandy tumbler in the other, chortled into his voluminous beard as he offered counterpoints. It was a lively chat, but for the purposes of this Quackcast Banes and Ozoneocean have re-voiced their parts to protect their privacy: As you're no doubt overly aware, both men are the targets of numerous legions of female stalkers.
Episode 201 - The Improvisationcast
Jan 13, 2015
Pitface joins the duo of Banes and Ozoneocean once again, this time for the Improvisationcast! Pitface and Tantz Aerine do a lot of writing together when they work jointly on their script for Brave Resistance, but in order to further exercise their creative and collaborative muscles they also practise a turn by turn writing style where they improvise a story as they go. They start off with their own comic characters, one writes an intro and a bit with their character and the next one carries on after with their own character and also weaving the first person's character into the story with them, and so on. In the end you can produce a startling organic story that has forced you to examine the way your character would react to totally unfamiliar situations and stimuli. In this Quackcast we all experiment with this by doing an improvised play with characters we make up on the spot, to very mixed results....
Episode 198 - Fallopian Crusader to the rescue!
Dec 22, 2014
Merry XXX-mas! For Quackcast 198 Banes and I interview our second ever adult comic creator, the venerable Fallopiancrusader, on the anniversary of his comic being hosted on DD no less! His comic, "Rimjob" is as hard-core as they come. It's a spoof of the story in the videogame Skyrim: Khthonis, an orc woman is set for execution along with some other prisoners, the way she escapes though is quite a lot different to the events of the game! Fallopiancrusader is an amazingly talented and experienced artist, as you can see from the amazing realism and artistry of his artwork on Rimjob, in fact it's very difficult to find more artistic porn. A graphic designer by trade and skilled at many styles, one of Fallopiancrusader's reasons for creating Rimjob was simply to experiment with a new style! I think you'll agree that he succeeded admirably. If you haven't read Rimjob yet it'll be a rare treat for you. Rimjob is a NSFW adults only 18+ comic so if you're not singed up with the site and you're not 18+ you won't be able to view it. If that's the case though I've included links to two images Fallopiancrusader made for the DD awards so you can see his artistry at depicting his character Khthonis. Also: enjoy the brilliant Bladerunner style theme Gunwallace made for Holon!
