Episode 347 - Psychopomps and Death Personified
Nov 6, 2017
A psychopomp is a physical manifestation of death. These are of course impossible in reality since death is a process, not a force or anything that can be personified, but culturally death has very different meanings and resonances! Most cultures have a psychopomp in one form of another, like Valkyries and Charon the boatman to name two, and there are even more in literature and movies. In this Quackcast we go back to Kawaii's great Halloween newspost where she asked people about their fave psychopomps and we talk about a few of our own. ^_^ This week Gunwallce has given us the theme to The Constellation Chronicle - In the cold, blackness of space, suddenly a twinkle appears, bright light shoots out, supercharged particles race on their path into the void at the speed of light, travelling through glowing, spidery filaments as thick as a sun that make up the frozen explosion of a giant nebula, bending their course towards the radioactive chaos of an event horizon, to take a deep dive into eternity, towards the mysterious singularity within.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
My Life as An American Hero - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/oct/31/featured-comic-my-life-as-an-american-hero/
Kawaii's newspost on incarnations of death - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2017/oct/29/happy-halloween-2017/
Death Parade - https://myanimelist.net/anime/28223/Death_Parade
Korean drama “Black” - http://myasiantv.se/drama/black/
Korean drama “Goblin” - http://asianwiki.com/Goblin_(Korean_Drama)
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
PitFace - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Featured music:
The Constellation Chronicle - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Constellation_Chronicle/, by Emevsa, rated M.
Episode 336 - Side romance
Aug 21, 2017
Romances don't always have to be the main focus of a story, infact you can have richer, more interesting romances if they occur in support of a bigger plot issue. It can lend them and the story more weight if they're in a secondary position. Characters can form natural, less forced relationships with each other, and this can give the wider plot of the story more urgency or meaning because it has a direct bearing on the health of their union. You can reward fans with a wished for or unexpected blossoming of love between two favourite characters without having the same inevitability that a straight out romance has. Really, there are so many things you can do! This was inspired by Tantz's Saturday newspost. Gunwallace's theme for the week was for Mindfold: A tune that fits very well with its title! You can feel your mind folding with this gorgeous, echoing, evocative multicultural influenced sound, featuring all manner of crystalline ringing synths, soaring violins, drums and so much more. This would fit well with a high concept cyberpunk anime.
Episode 324 - The *Bleeping*cast!
May 22, 2017
In this Quackcast we discuss the interesting notion that censorship can actually be a positive force for creation. Sometimes working WITHIN restrictions of censorship can make you more creative and your work a lot more individual, special and more interesting. I came to this subject after reading a review of how Canadian standards forced very specific and particular changes on the TV show Reboot. Had it been made without the censorship restrictions then it would have been more of a generic show, because the methods they had to use to get around or appease the censors helped to differentiate it from similar children's shows. We also discuss how metaphor in song lyrics and symbolism in art and movies are used to talk about restricted subjects like sex, drugs, politics, and religion and how this is another example of how censorship has given rise to interesting creations. Great examples of obvious coded messages about sex are the song lyrics of AC/DC, Led Zeppelin. We also talk about howl ove songs with secret political messages were used in Greece to foment political revolution. And lastly we mention Heintai and ecchi in Japanese comics and anime and the Drunkduck ratings standards. The music for this week by Gunwallace is for Silly Sweetie, it's a dreamlike tour through clouds and wide heavenly vistas, this in turn leaves you feeling warm and refreshed!
Episode 253 - narrative order and the flashback
Jan 11, 2016
Doing stories that start with the climax, then flash back, tell what happened to get there: the old narrative style of switching the first few chapters around to make a more interesting story. Sometimes it works GREAT because it throws you right into the middle of things and you have to work your way back to that point… It works very nicely in The Hangover for example! Often it's used very badly- in anime particularly, where they use it for foreshadowing and a tease to try and get you interested in the rest of the story- but anime story structure is so formulaic that all it really does is give you a cheap spoiler. Other times it doesn't work well is when the writer isn't very good so the viewer loses their way in the plot… If the writer is GOOD though you end up with Pulp Fiction. You'll love Gunwallace's theme here- a super funky jazz track for the comic Nothing Important Happened Today. Enjoy!
Episode 241 - The Vampcast - Costumecast - Part 2
Oct 19, 2015
I vant to suck yer blud… Well Tantz Aerine does anyway. This is the second part of our Vampcast, talking about vampires in comics, lore, movies and popculture in general. We were STILL in costume, watching each other on vid at the time, getting distracted and Ozone was getting drunker and drunker on some very RED wine. Tantz was of course the vamp, Pit was a deathknight fairy princess, Banes was the scary polar werewolf, and Ozone fieldmarshal bigpants! You can see the vids of our exploits I uploaded last week. There exists an elusive 3rd vid, but we were all too drunk and tried by that stage… at least Ozone was. Gunwallace provided us the lovely Alt rock '90s style theme to the SciFi anime comic Throviria!
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 148 - Welcome back for 2014
Jan 6, 2014
What I did on my holidays... Banes and Ozoneocean are back for the new year! Happy new year everybody! Banes and Ozone chat about all the non-comic stuff they did over the new years break, just a lot of general banter, jokes, and back and forth, talking about stuff we felt was cool and fun over that time. The kind of stuff you do over the holidays!
Episode 140 - Ducks of future past, episode ZERO
Nov 4, 2013
Big changes are coming! In this Quackcast we talk about what happened to the duck, what's happening now and what we're trying to make happen in the future. Banes and I chat about all this stuff. Some the most important aspects we mention are the new current domain name for the site http://www.theduckwebcomics.com, a possible name change for the Quackcast, the help from JustNoPoint and ComicRocket in getting us online again, new helpers coming along to do things like features (kawaiidaigakusei replaces Skool in doing features), and all sorts of bug fixes and new features for the site now a real possibility. Then we get onto a lighter note with a discussion about some Superhero movies and cool Anime series.
