

Episode 699 - Greek Myths!
Aug 5, 2024
We're chatting about our fave Greek myths! Greek myths are foundational to a lot of Western culture, they're what superheroes are based on as well as all sorts of epic stories. Lots of scientific concepts and ideas are based on things from mythology. The stories resonate down through the millennia because they're so relatable and human- rather than being about stodgy perfect beings who live in a magical realm and guide their mortal charges like children, the Greek gods of myth have the same emotional drives, lusts, jealousies, and personal problems of any modern person living today.
Topics and Show Notes
Many of us find our own way into the myths. For me it was the astronomy books I loved as a child because I adored the images of the planets, stars, and nebulae. They had names from Greek and Roman myth and there were stories explaining where the names came from. Aspects of Greek myth would pop up all through culture; the naiads, dryads, and fauns in CS Lewis's Narnia books, the plays and music based on the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice… Hercules was always everywhere, and one of my favourite cartoons as a child was Ulysses 31, a French Scifi show based on the Odyssey. Then there are all the classic sword and sandal movie epics like Clash of the Titans! The Greek gods even show up in the musical Xanadu, a childhood fave of mine.
These days people have have many animes, video games like God of War and Assassins Creed, movie and book series like Percy Jackson, the 300 and even Wonder Woman. I'm sure the 90s Kevin Sorbo series Hercules the Legendary journeys and its sister series Xena Warrior Princess were big inspirations for many! Even the Disney cartoon about Hercules. Not to mention all the secondary and tertiary influences like He-man who has more than his share of Hercules in him, even carrying a sword inspired by Greek weapons (though he's also based on Conan, who has Hercules in him too).
It's funny where Greek myth references pop up- a lot of them in the names for technology and technical computer things because the scientists and engineers who created them were a little pretentious and wanted to show their classical learning. One of my faves is the name for the days of the week- In English most of them are the names of Germanic gods- Tuesday = Tir, god of war: Wednesday = Odin, Wodan, Wotan, god of wisdom: Thursday = Thor, god of thunder: Friday = Frigg and or Freyja, one a mother god he other a goddess of fertility. They were named that as a translation of the original Latin names because of course those days were named for Roman Gods: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus… which were of course translations of Greek gods: Aries, Hermes, Zeus, and Aphrodite.
So what are your fave characters from Greek myth, fave Greek myths or fave pop-culture things with Greek mythic influence? How did you come to learn of the Greek myths?
(Every culture has ancient, important, and highly influential myths but we're not talking about those here, just the Greek ones).
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by On the Edge - Borg showtunes!!! You WILL be assimilated, resistance is futile. Fazing, fading mechanical vocals with a suspiciously New Zealand lilt. You've never heard his classic in THIS form.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
Cork and Blotto - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/jul/30/featured-comic-cork-and-blotto/
Featured music:
On the Edge - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/On_The_Edge/ - by Gunwallace, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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Episode 698 - the Haircast
Jul 29, 2024
Hair is a weird thing isn't it? It's just a bunch of thin filaments that stand out and hang from the body, most visibly from the head. Everyone is bald as an egg underneath this coating of head-fur, but the floof on top takes on a life, body, and shape of its own even though the truth is that it's just thin threads all buffed up with a lot of air. Hairstyles can indicate class, status, wealth, occupation, style, coolness, lack of cool, age, date, and any number of other factors about a person and where and when they fit in society. We also have strong reactions to hair: love, hate, revulsion, or disgust. It can indicate whether a person belongs to a community, a society, a religion or a sect.

Episode 697 - The DD Anthology comic
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We present to you our latest Drunk Duck anthology comic: A Flock Of Dreams! This is an amazing collection of high quality comics by the members of our site, all connected by the theme theme of dreams. *It has a mature rating and is definitely not for kids! There is some nudity, violence and dark subjects.

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Episode 694 - Consistency
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Episode 693 - Betray!
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Episode 689 - One Big Passion and Influence
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What was one significant inspiring piece of pop-culture that a massive influence over your creative endeavours? All of us have had many, many different influences over the years but that's certainly NOT what we're interested in here, what we're talking about is that one thing you can remember that had a huge effect on you, why, how, and when.

Episode 688 - Artistic Evolution
May 20, 2024
How and why does your creativity change over time? It “evolves”. Evolution is often wrongly thought of as a process that leads to a goal, like the idea that humans are the pinnacle of evolution, or that we will “evolve” into something better and “more superior”, or that there is a “next level” of evolution… All of that is just silly comic-book nonsense and terrible sci-fi. Evolution has no goal or direction, it's simply how we describe change that occurs over time. Creatures don't get “better” due to evolution, rather environmental pressures influence changes that make creatures fit in and cope with those specific pressures better. And many factors influence evolution, not just environmental pressures.