Episode 452 - Storytelling styles change!
Nov 11, 2019
Storytelling styles change over time for various reasons: fashion, audience expectations, competition for audience attention due to increased choice and availability of media, technological limitations and abilities, and culture. We chat about the reasons for the changes and how styles have changed.
Topics and Show Notes
Technology is the easiest factor to point to: with the rise of Netflix offering binge watching more and more TV series turned to long story arcs and minimised the episodic aspects. This in turn influenced other media because audiences were primed to expect longer story arcs: comics, book series, games and even movies like the Marvel Universe have a focus on long story arcs over the course of several films.
For digital comics Scott McCloud talked about the idea of “infinite canvas” because comics on a screen are not limited by the area OF the screen but can move outside of it. No one really picked that up seriously, there were experiments made but nothing really took till Webtoons started to force creators to use their vertical scrolling format (for mobile phones), this in turn influenced a new style of storytelling: an entire chapter released as one continuous scroll made up of many connected single panels. You can listen to us chat about that on our Patreon only video :) - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck
Although I think the TRUE genesis of the continuous scrolling chapter release was actually the sites that pirate and release manga titles. These were massively popular well before Webtoons came about. They'd release full manga issues with every page in one scrolling stream rather than single panels. It worked very well, whether reading it on a phone or full computer, despite the need to zoom in when using smaller screens (a single panel column is a silly, arbitrary limitation).
Another huge influence for storytelling styles has been choice: there is now a huge range of easily accessible media available so stories need to be able to grab their audience quickly and keep them, or they just move on to the next thing. This goes for all formats (movies, books etc). This means that most stories start off rather fast now, often dropping you in the action and quickly introducing characters, as opposed to the much slower pace of older styles.
Listen to the full cast to find out more!
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The Jacket Comic: Wiry, punk, gritty, shiny and cool, this one jangles in on lyrical chords, sounding indie-rock with an almost Arabian flavour at times as the strings howl and echo up and down the scales. A rocky tune it for the coolest jacket in the world.
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Full House by Projectnutz - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/nov/06/featured-comic-full-house-by-projectnutz/
Featured music:
The Jacket Comic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Jacket_Comic/, by RTHaldeman, rated M.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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Episode 422 - Positive promotion and controversial characters
Apr 15, 2019
The entire gang comes together today for two topics that were taken from recent newsposts: Emma Clare's Positive self promotion, and Tantz Aerine's Handling Controversial Characters. First up we chat about why it's always a great idea to sell yourself positively, NOT be arrogant or douchey, but rather by talking enthusiastically about what you genuinely love about your work and using that REAL and SINCERE enthusiasm to infect others with your love of what you do. Emma was mainly talking about the way you introduce your comics to friends and family but it definitely applies more broadly to self promotion in general: Don't try and get sympathy through self depreciation (oh, it's not very good…), and don't be an arrogant ass (My stuff is AWESOME!), rather you should just be honest about what you love about it (This story was so FUN to write!).
Episode 416 - Making cuts
Mar 4, 2019
The entire team is here this time, no one was cut… So we're chatting about CUTTING, as in cutting out scenes to make a story cleaner, leaner and less flabby, but also NOT cutting because in a webcomic you don't have to, and when you cut badly you end up with a “D movie” effect where story scenes don't follow, don't make sense and plots seem to go nowhere or happen for no reason.
Episode 391 - personality mix group dynamics
Aug 19, 2018
This Quackcast was based on an idea from Banes. We chat about designing a group of characters with complementary temperaments. In Banes' own words: “I like the idea of the line between a logical, left brained person and a creative, right brained person, crossed with a spectrum of a more active, extroverted, action taking temperament and a more nurturing, introverted type.
Episode 375 - Categories, genres and rants
May 21, 2018
In this Quackcast we chat about the categorisation of work by specific genres and how it makes it easier to promote your work to people, while for fans it makes it easier to find what you're into, but it can also be a bad thing when people categorise too specifically and narrow their audience to nothing or just pointlessly confuse the crap out of people. I came to this topic because I saw a post on Facebook which was very badly explaining “Steampunk” and “Dieselpunk” while introducing the two utterly superfluous sub-genre names of “Ray-punk” and Atom-punk“.
Episode 370 - deadlines Vs taking time and the good the bad and grey
Apr 16, 2018
In today's Quackcast we talk about a couple of subjects: Doing things at the last minute VS doing them slowly, over time. Sometimes you get that wonderful last minute energy caused by a deadline, your work can be inspired, or at least fresh and full of vibrancy. Other times it's rough and unfinished looking, amateurish. Work done over a long time can be honed to a diamond edge, exquisitely put together like a Faberge egg, a work of art! Other times it can be like a warmed over mess, redone and redone till any spark of originality and freshness is washed out of the grey goop you're left with. We chat about Tantz's Saturday newspost subject of Black and White Vs Grey: bad guys can be totally bad without humanising them and good guys can be totally good, without stain or tarnish and yet both can be interesting and the story can be great. Grey isn't always better. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Empress Mother Earths Handmaiden: A dark, intense foreboding and forbidding intro leads you deep into a beautiful rose coloured cave of glowing wonder and joy. We finish up with a lovely lilt on a harp!
Episode 368 - the Blahcast!
Apr 2, 2018
Welcome to another Quackcast! in this “blahcast” we talk about a lot of different subjects. This Quackcast also sees the arival of a NEW feature! It's the Princess January Show, by VinoMas! Where all the hot gos about popularity on DD is covered. Pitface tells us that Fury is the greatest tank movie ever, I correctly state that Tankgirl owns that honour. We chat about mistaken criticism of a movie or webcomic based on what we WANTED it to be rather than what it was, Suckerpunch being a prime example, but also the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Bad promotion also sinks projects especially films like John Carter on Mars. We chat about Star Wars The Force Awakens AGAIN! Which leads us to badly written female characters: a strong character is a well defined character that drives a story, not characters that are physically strong, they CAN be, but it has nothing to do with being a “strong” character. It's like the famous “survival of the fittest”: “fittest” does not mean “strongest”, it means the best “fit” for a situation. So those are some of the pop-culture things we “blah” about. We have a university student doing a study on webcomics. Please consider filling out her survey, linked in our links section! This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Project Prince. The simple plucked wire chords introduce us to a dark future scene. Synthesised organ and gentle patter of brushes on cymbals tip us off to the action to come. Loud distorted electric guitars give us the feel of a late night 1980s SciFi action movie
Episode 366 - Spicy times with Albino Ginger
Mar 19, 2018
We have a very special Quackcast this week. We interview Albino Ginger, AKA Bo Knowles, creator of the hilarious and subversive Holy Bible The Albino Ginger Version! Bo gave a VERY generous donation to our Indigogo fund-raiser to help us pay for the a new comment notification and comment reply notification feature, and his reward was a Quackcast interview which we were more than pleased to give. After reading his Holy Bible you'll understand why, it's very funny and quite naughty. We look forward to more chapters! Bo was fun to chat to and we all had a great time ^_^ READ THE GINGER BIBLE! There is just so much hilarity in there and sneaky jokes on flat earth theory, young earth creationism, evolution denial and many more. Read to find out ;) This week Gunwallace has given us another theme to Cybertech! It's a slow panoramic introduction to a dark future, promising action and adventure across the dim blackness of space. You can listen to the first one on Quackcast 292.
