Episode 306 - Culture club
Jan 16, 2017
Patriotism, flags, nationalism, religion, politics, national symbols hijacked by racists! These are some of the unique aspects of our cultural identity and national differences we chat about on this quackcast. I was inspired by HippieVan's newspost on Friday (about Cultural identity and how it defines our writing), to dive further into the subject of cultural differences. We all share the illusion of a single, global culture, but there are regional differences for all of us that mean we don't see things the same way, and often some of the stuff we mean in our comics is influenced by where we come from in a way that people from elsewhere would never quite get in the same way. We chatted about how the use and wearing of national flags is very different depending on what country you're in. For example, in the USA proudly displaying the national flag is seen as normal and mundane, while elsewhere displaying the national flag can be seen as a sign of extreme conservatism or militant nationalism. Wearing the US flag in most countries is seen as something of a fashion statement, a very commercial one; wearing the flag of the USSR is seen as a statement of ironic rebellion; wearing the Union Jack is punk; but wearing the flag of your own country in Australia, Greece, Canada, Cambodia etc (and many other places) is seen as a gauche statement of too-overt patriotism, even though wearing the flags of the USA, USSR or UK is perfectly acceptable. These and other interesting facets of culture are what we chatted about. Gunwallace's musical theme was for Ayla Speaker For The Dead, it's a sad, sepulchral, grieving dirge-like requiem, with an uncomfortable sting of evil jazzy trumpet.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Salamander - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/jan/10/featured-comic-salamander/
Links
Based on Hippy's newspost - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/jan/12/cultural-background-and-comicking/
Canadians in Spaaaaaaaace!
Dee Reluctant Space Tourist - Hippy's comic: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Dee_Reluctant_Space_Tourist/
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Featured music:
Ayla Speaker For The Dead - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ayla_Speaker_for_the_Dead/, by JohnH985, rated M.
Episode 269 - Historical Accuracy VS Story Needs
May 2, 2016
Never let historical accuracy get in the way of a good story… at least that's what Bravo proposes. We stole his thought provoking forum post subject for the topic of this Quackcast. This is how Bravo goes on to explain it: “So how do feel about that? Should exact adherence to the historical record be allowed to wreck your wonderful fiction? If so how much dramatic license is too much? What are your favorite examples of how they got it wrong and how they got it right? And what if just a touch more research would have revealed that the historical story was better than what the fiction writers concocted? How tragic is that? And what about the usage of known historical mythology/hoax as in the Da Vinci code?” The frisson between story requirements and known historical record is pretty interesting. In Hollywood the former wins out EVERY single time and usually it doesn't result in a better story anyway, but as we discuss in the Quackcast there are OTHER reasons than simple bad writing choices for not sticking to the real story and trying to hammer everything into the Hero's Journey template.
Episode 265 - Drunk Duck updates and the future
Apr 4, 2016
For Quackcast 265 I wanted to steer the direction toward the idea of future fixes and features for Drunk Duck! We talked a bit about the 2nd wave of fixes that will be happening now- HippieVan worked to gather people's suggestions for the most important bugs that needed fixing (with our limited funds), and features people want added, and then did a survey to find what people though were the highest priority. It was a lot of work and took a few weeks to come up with the results. Bellow is a summery of what she learned:
Episode 234 - Climactic Climaxes!
Aug 31, 2015
What's best? One big climax, multiple small ones, early, or delayed? How much should you work UP to a climax? What about anticlmactic events, how important are they? Climaxes are really important in stories. Often you work up to them over the course of a whole series, but each episode or chapter can have them, maybe even every single page. I find writing “up” to climaxes a bit stressful because you have a lot of preasure and expectation there. And when it's over and you've actually achieved it, it can be a bit depressing: where do you go to from there? You can feel a little lost, at least I do. TALKING ABOUT WRITING HERE. My preference is for multiple climaxes. Do you always need climaxes in stories? I don't think you do personally… there are times when things work fine without one, but it does help better with endings. Sometimes climaxes can be TOO big. Way too much of a story can be invested in a climax, it subsumes everything, everything has to tie in with that specific story flow and that can be REALLY had to pull off. If it's not done right it can be massively disappointing. Anticlimactic. Pitface Joins Banes and Ozone to chat about climaxes in stories and read out the contributions from our climactic contributors. Gunwallace gave us a gorgeous theme for Just Another Day!
Episode 147 - Merry Xmas! DD Radio Play Omnibus Edition
Dec 23, 2013
Summary: For the final Quackcast of 2013 we have an extra special treat for everyone: ALL three of the annual DD radio plays in a single quackcast! The first one produced by Ayesinback and written by Ally Haert, the second one again produced by Ayesinback but written this time by Gunwallace, and the third written again by Gunwallace and produced by Ozoneocean. Banes and I hope you enjoy the adventures of Maxwell McDuff, private eye, we'll be back in the new year for more Quackcasts. Merry Xmas!
Quackcast 119 - Kevin Kota's World Hayman
Apr 1, 2013
Owen Wilson. Owen Wilson. Owen Wilson: Kevin Hayman IS Owen Wilson, only better looking and twice as talented. Listen find out for yourself. Kevin is a really interesting guy, he's been doing webcomics since they were a thing. His Kota's World ran from 2000-2005 (and a bit before that), it was one of the first comics on the old days of Drunk Duck! He's since moved on from that, now drawing both the very popular Errant Apprentice and the new reinvented version of Kota's World "Mailbox Rocketship", as well as working hard as the co-host of the great pop-culture focussed podcast DTWC (drawing the wrong conclusions), which is the successor to The Gigcast, which was the old unofficial podcast for Drunk Duck back in the day. Lots of history here people. History and talent! Kevin is an amazing guy and hard to contain within a single broadcast so next week we'll have part two of our little chat, as soon as I edit out all the swearing an salacious gossip (I am not joking).
Episode 103 - Beginning a Collaboration, A Single Step
Nov 12, 2012
They say a long journey begins with a single step... Banes and I are undertaking just such a journey, undertaking a collaborative comic between the two of us! In this Quackcast we finally try and put all the theory into practise, remembering what we have learned from all our many previous Quackcasts on the subject of collaboration and attempting to find what out of all that is most useful to us in our stab at doing a collaborative web-comic.We undertook this Quackcast with no plan or structure, so please forgive us if it was a bit ropey, it was really just an attempt to document the beginning of our collaboration. Collaboration collaboration, collaboration, COLLABORATION!
Episode 67 - Journey to the centre of the story!
Mar 5, 2012
Today we have Kroatz with us; A highly intelligent writer from the Netherlands who explains the concept of the monomyth and how to use it to tighten and improve your story writing. He's so bright in fact that he makes Ozoneocean look rather dim, which is embarrassing for Ozone, but he gets over it. We give examples of how monomyth applies to great movies and books like Scott Pilgrim VS the world, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings, just to help you understand it better... totally NOT to confuse you even more. Totally. And yet again we have brave, loyal, and heroic Banes to thank for the clever editing, especially his fine work with the DD soap, which ironically breaks every single rule of the monomyth paradigm.
