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.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and Show Notes:
Featured comic:
Sweets and Giggles - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Sweets_and_giggles/
Character template:
Point of view
Exaggeration of the point of view
Faults
Relatability / Humanity.
Mary Sue - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue
Bechdel test:
It has to have at least two named women in it,
who talk to each other,
about something besides a man
More info - http://bechdeltest.com/
Wiki definition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace Costansa, musician - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
DeadFingers - Music: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/DeadFingers/ by Peipei.
Episode 204 - Talisman returns from exile
Feb 2, 2015
Way back in 2012 Ozone interviewed the marvellously talented and professional Barb Myers about her art and her fantastic comics. Well it's 2015 now and Barb has finally been able to put out the whole of her comic "Talisman: Return of the Exile" for sale on Amazon! So of course now was the perfect time to catch up for another chat. I first came across her lovely comic on Drunk Duck years and years ago when it was called "Return to Donelly", it was a beautiful looking piece of work and it rightly brought her to the attention of the pros. It was picked up for Keen spot and then a publisher wanted to sell it in bookshops everywhere. Well things went screwy after that and it never really reached its full potential unfortunately. It disappeared from radar totally. Well now it's BACK! You can buy this great 108 full colour fantasy comic book story for only $10 US dollars. Mine should get to me on about the 10th of February. ^_^
Episode 202 - The Lady is a Stranger
Jan 19, 2015
Howdy Pardner, is you ready fer a western adventure? For Quackcast 202 we decided to build on the experiment we started in Quackcast 201. We constructed a play quickly with four people all working together. It took us all 3 hours to write, collaborating on a Google doc and over skype to make a half hour play, and it seems to have turned out pretty nicely! This is the last for now in our writing exercises. We only really show the play here and not the 3 hours of umming and ah-ing as we worked on it, because that was too much to edit down, but if it's something people would like to hear maybe we'll make a condensed version available some time in the future. For now please enjoy our little Western romance, train and bank heist adventure! And Bane's great piano playing! Oh, and the great intro music by Gunwallace called "Solosteel"!
Episode 197 - The sidekicks take over the QC
Dec 14, 2014
Carrying on from last weeks Quackcast inspired by Kawaiidaigakusei's Thoughtful newspost article "An Ode to Sidekicks", this time the DD community weighs in on the subject and they give us their wise, educated and highly considered expert opinions on the subject of the sidekick in stories! Again Kawaii joins Banes and I, but this time she practices her amazing talent for amusing voices, so for the first time since Skoolmunkee there's someone other than Banes and I doing a voice. Rachel Maddow drops in and even Matt Foley to tell us about his VAN down by the RIVER! All in all what people have to say about the different aspects of sidekicks in fiction is really quite interesting, have a listen and see! Oh, and Gunwallace's epic theme for Harkovast is fantastic, I can't wait for a Peter Jackson Movie adaptation!
Episode 179 - Token representation in comics
Aug 11, 2014
There's no question in my opinion as to whether representation of different kinds of people in fiction matters. Having spent my childhood poring over superhero comics in which the girl's job is usually to turn invisible and press a button or something, I remember being impressed and delighted by some of the badass female characters in The Spirit. Lady-people could be cool, too?! Is it insulting when comics add token characters to their line up, or does it really make a difference? And what makes a token character anyways? -HippieVan. Banes, HippieVan and I focus on the subject of token representation in media, mainly comics. This discussion was inspired by a newspost HippieVan made in response to a new character in the Archie comic, which got a lot of interesting responses.
Episode 169 - The Chatcast!
Jun 2, 2014
In this fake Chatcast, Ozoneocean and Banes receive calls from their versions of various duckers who ask many interesting questions such as "Where do you get your ideas from?", and "Where do you get your ideas from?", and the always popular and thought provoking enigma of our time; "Where do you get your ideas from?". Our fake callers include Bravo1102, Skulbie, Lonnehart, Skoolmunkee, Ironscarf, Genejoke, and Pitface who called especially to tell us about her epic shoe buying expedition. We really had a marvellous time talking to all these totally counterfeit versions of these wonderful people!
Episode 165 - Mecha Madness!
May 5, 2014
Today Banes and I have a little talk about weaponry and mecha in webcomic- how do you come up with it? How much research do you do? Should it actually work? Is coolness the only factor to consider? How detailed do you go when you design it? how far away from reality and cartoony is appropriate? We consider most of those questions and a few more, there's a LOT to get into on a topic like this and we really only just barely scratch the surface! In my own webcomic Pinky TA I've done a LOT of research and design work to get my mecha and weaponry looking right, so this is a subject dear to me. But we all have our own opinions on this, not just in webcomics but in games, movies, anime, and manga. I would love it if people could contribute their ideas in the comments here or on the DD forum here: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/176137/
Episode 153 - The LurrrrvCast2, Lurv Harder!
Feb 10, 2014
Come on board for the luurrrvcast! It's shining and new! This is he second and final part of our lurvcast, where we asked contributors to give us their advice, wisdom and opinions on the treatment of love, romance and relationships in fiction within popular media. We had many great replies to Bane's interesting and insightful questions on the subject, which were: How do you approach love, romance and relationships in your comics? Do you find it difficult to write this stuff? Is it easy? What do you like to see, love and relationship-wise, in the comics you read? Do you like it realistic? Angsty? Or do you like it more fantasy-based? What do you NOT like to see? What are some of the fictional couples/relationships you really like? Were there any you thought didn't work at all? Why?
