Episode 424 - Selling your creative dish
Apr 29, 2019
On one side we have creators of content and on the other we have the consumers. The consumers number in their billions and they're voraciously hungry for constant stimulation! Pretty much all creators are consumers too… So why don't they want the beautifully made, clever, spicy, artisanal dish you're selling? Why do they prefer the nice, bland, familiar mass-market high in fat, sugar and salt fast-food of the mainstream instead?
Topics and Show Notes
One approach people typically take is just to ape the mainstream and hope that works, sell their own counterfeit McDonald's so to speak. This isn't fun for anyone. You'll get only limited success this way… One of the real reasons popular mainstream things become so popular is because they make us feel more connected to each other and they connect with all of us on some level. They make dishes around things that are tasty and fun to most of us: Pizza, tacos, fruit, tomatoes etc.
Basically we can get more of an audience for our stuff if we create it and sell it more in terms of the things that are universally relatable, are connected to the bigger cultural experience, or that make as feel bigger and more connected to others somehow: like religion for example, patriotism, love, fear for our lives, death, childhood, whatever. The more universal something is the more people it will strike a chord with.
We do NOT have to change our work to include universal themes. What I'm saying is that we should either find those themes already IN our work and turn up the level on them slightly, or simply promote and sell our work in terms of those themes.
Read more in my newspost on the subject linked bellow.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Super Temps: Sounding a lot like someone drumming on the open tops of a lot of PVC piping, this is a slow, creeping beat that builds and layers: a real construction zone. Stacking that scaffolding higher and higher into the dark sky, lit up by bright, piercing arc lamps that star, blur and streak though the dark skeleton of the unfolding structure.
Topics and shownotes
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Featured comic:
Void The Guide to a Healthy Relationship - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/apr/24/featured-comic-void-the-guide-to-a-healthy-relationship/
Featured music:
Super Temps - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Super_Temps/, by Smkinoshita, rated T.
LINKS
The Creative Divide newspost by Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/apr/27/the-creative-divide/
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pit Face - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Episode 420 - Substance abuse and use
Apr 1, 2019
The entire gang is here this time again. This marks number 420 of the Quackcasts we've done. 420 is code among some for smoking dope, so going with that theme we're talking about the influence of substances on creative endeavours. People try and use substances to facilitate their creativity, we chat about why they do it, how it works, why it fails, the benefits and the issues. We DO NOT advocate taking illegal things in any way at all. This includes ANY substance, from dope, to coffee, to redbull, tea, wine, beer, cold and flu medication, headache pills, opium, adderall, ANYTHING at all, as long as it produces some mental or physiological change, it counts!
Episode 417 - Can we be better?
Mar 11, 2019
What is Social Marketing? Basically its word-of-mouth and viral marketing smashed together and weaponised: Marketing companies hijack hot-button social issues and hitch their client's brand to them in clever campaigns (“We can be better”, etc). The purpose isn't really to make a brand seem progressive, modern or new, rather it's another way of getting it trending on social media that's guaranteed to work, unlike the legion of hit or miss but mostly failed “Viral” campaigns. Whether people say negative or positive things about this issue is irrelevant to the marketer, as long as people are talking about the brand is all that matters. Free advertising is the goal, but it has a social cost.
Episode 285 - Ride the wave of the Anti-heroes
Aug 22, 2016
Comedy anti-heroes are a great deal of fun. My faves are characters like Tankgirl and Flashman; they can be selfish, greedy, violent, lustful, out for their own needs first but they still manage to do the “right” thing and vanquish the bad guy along the way regardless, or a character like George Costanza from Seinfeld who's jealous, pathetic, cowardly and greedy but we still love him anyway because identify with him and root for him against the unloving forces of the universe. To be a GOOD comedy anti-hero you have to keep the audience on their side though and that can be a tricky balancing act, you have to surf a number of factors (especially in a long running project), since to actually BE an anti-hero they need to have things about them that an audience would normally despise, these need to be counteracted by things like sympathy and pathos, traits we strongly identify with, intelligence, luck, charm, humour, sexiness, coolness, allowing them to win sometimes, or even redeeming some of their anti-hero behaviours occasionally. Get that balance wrong and they can so easily completely lose audience favour and sour the rest of the story/show/film. Pitface, Tantz, and Banes weigh in on this with me. And there are more opinions in the forum thread from which this evolved. Gunwallace's musical theme this week was for Pestilent. It's thoughtful, haunting, reminds me a little of a classic horror film soundtrack. Pretty scary!
Episode 277 - The great DD meet-up number 2!
Jun 27, 2016
Well this was the SECOND big electronic DD meet up! And we had many people joining us and coming in and out over the cause of the ten our time that we were on. We started at 11am New York time (which is 11PM my time) and went till 9pm New York time (9am my time), and let me tell you I was buggered by the end of it. This time we had some new people on and some returnees from last time. It was a good long, party, with much drinking, friendly swearing, and eating. We'd be ecstatic if you joined us for next time! I'm thinking we'll do the next one on the 23rd of July, so sign up for Skype and add Ozoneocean as a contact. We MAY try Google Hangouts but we'll need to experiment with it first. ANYWAY, give this a listen to hear some of the madness… This Quackcast has just a bit over an hour from close to the beginning of the meetup. There is a LOT of swearing so sensitive ears should be prepared… There were two Aussies this time so that's what you get. Gunwallace's theme music this week was COCHLEA and EUSTACHIA - creepy as hell, pretty, intricate, striking, panoramic.
Episode 261 - D.U.C.K. Radio2
Mar 7, 2016
Radio D.U.C.K. has come again for part number TWO! Bringing you ALL of Gunwallace's lovely tunes, one after another. This time we get to meet Evangelist for DD Reverend Carlton Crackers, SciFi Hour with Kurt and Steve, Woman 1 and Woman 2, a return of DJ and Rhett Blanket, and introducing BILLY-BOB Banes and JETHRO Ozoneocean! All these fantastic personalities are the mind children of scriptwriter and musician Gunwallace, and played by Gunwallace, Banes, Ozoneocean, and Pitface. Enjoy the music and remember the name of Gunwallace!
Episode 255 - Drunk Duck Improvement Drive
Jan 25, 2016
We're trying to fix up Drunk Duck, adding the the comic statistics back in, fixing forums, adding notifications to PQs and MORE, but we need money to do it. In this Quackcast, Ozoneocean, Banes, and Pitface talk about the improvements we want to have on DD, and what YOU can do to help us out. Please consider donating to our Indiegogo fund-raising drive to help us pay our programmer: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/drunk-duck-webcomics-improvement-drive/x/4410947#/ There are a LOT of cool perks you can have including your own Quackcast interview all about YOU, original art from The creator of Modest Medusa, Charby the Vampirate and others, a 126 page Modest Medusa comic for only $10 and much more! If you can't spare any change, please consider spreading the word to your readers. Remember, these fixes are for everyone, by donating to DD you're helping yourself. :D
Episode 224 - Finding your own voice as a writer
Jun 22, 2015
For Quackcast 224 I've asked Kevin Hayman back again (KOTA's world, Mailbox Rocketship, Erant Apprentice), to regale us with his Owen Wilson stylings... But seriously, the topic is "finding your own voice in writing", i.e. learning not to imitate your hero's, move beyond that and write in your own style. Kevin is a really funny and interesting guy who's been doing webcomics for many many years since the very earliest days of Drunk Duck and he has some great insights to impart on "finding your own voice". You can also catch KOTA at the Mississippi comic con this weekend! -Enjoy Gunwallace's lovely, creepy musical take on our featured comic, Restless.
