Episode 441 - Cooperation = cool
Aug 26, 2019
Cooperation Vs Competition. For decades the mantra was competition is good: it produces progress and makes things better… Well that's actually false. Competition is what you're forced into as a response to limited resources, so you do what you have to to win, which mainly involves losing everything that doesn't serve that specific objective. Competition is massively harmful to progress in general, it ONLY helps you excel in one small area to massive cost. Think of it in terms of an Olympic sprinter: they become the fastest runner in the world, but to what point? Only the artificial structure of a sporting event… they spend years training, exercising, eating right, wasting a huge portion of their lives, creative, and intellectual potential on that one meaningless goal, and IF they achieve it they might get a bit of fame and money and a footnote in history because someone else will inevitably take their spot. More likely though they won't achieve the goal and instead be forgotten.
Topics and Show Notes
Evolution is another process that is commonly misunderstood to be a competition to produce better, faster, smarter, stronger creatures… this is absolutely incorrect. Evolution is the name we give for the process of change over time. That change happens in response to all sorts of factors: changing environment, climate, availability of resources, sex selection, disease, mutation, predation, diet, etc. It doesn't produce “better” creatures, it produces creatures that better suit their circumstances (if they're lucky). They can be weaker, slower, smaller, and stupider and still be superior if they fit better with their environment.
The “goal” of life isn't to “evolve”, it's to exist in balance and stability. When organisms don't have to respond to change it's THEN that they thrive. Humans are a great example of this: we're a cooperative pack species that's created millennia spanning culture and civilisation precisely because of our drive to cooperate: Our response to the pressure of change is to adapt through cooperation so that we do not have to evolve.
So how does this apply to webcomics? Hahaha! Listen to the Quackcast! ^_^
But seriously, communities like Drunk Duck emphasise cooperation over competition, although we do not enforce it! We're a community that wants to bring everyone ahead with us. Cooperation encourages diversity of opinion, style and approach. Competition on the other hand has the opposite effect in webcomics: only a few can get ahead, but the very worst part is that it limits diversity and instead results in comics, stories, styles, thinking and opinions that are all very much the same- they HAVE to be in order to compete for what their audiences like or the rules and requirements of their webhost. Which is why when you look at more competitive comic hosts you won't see better comics, you'll mainly just see comics that all look the same.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Moonscapers: It’s back to the mid 80s with Beverly Hills Cop! Not really, but this bouncy electronica sound will make you think it is. It has a jaunty little sound, a nice fast rhythm and a little bit of reverb for that authentic feel. It puts you in mind of neon light effects and retro 1980s futurism -bright, angular, vast, and slightly unsettling.
Topics and shownotes
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Featured comic:
The Adventures Of Kevin Kid - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/aug/19/featured-comic-the-adventures-of-kevin-kid/
Featured music:
Moonscapers - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Moonscapers/, by Pencilz, rated T.
LINKS
Tantz's commie newspost XD - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/aug/23/cooperation-vs-competition-in-comics/
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Episode 439 - weather flavour enhancer!
Aug 12, 2019
Tantz's clever idea was that the weather isn't just a backdrop… it's an important prop in it's own right. Weather can be used to drive a plot: the wind snatches a hat and makes a person chase it, which causes them to meet another character. It can be an antagonist: people fighting a storm for example or running form a tornado. It can signal and enhance emotions: rain for a sad funeral or sun for happy for a happy event. Growing shadows can signal an ominous turn of events, wind billowing out a cloak signals a dramatic character! You can just use it for fancy visual effects if you like, snow and rain are great fun to draw, and stormy skies are the best! We chat about all things weather and give examples of how we've used it ourselves.
Episode 436 - Master of none?
Jul 22, 2019
To become truly successful at one thing you need to focus on that alone. Is it worth it? There are MANY calls on our time with all the side things we like to do, ESPECIALLY webcomics. One of the few ways to become a really successful superstar at any one thing is to start dropping all the other things that call on your time and devote all your energy to that one thing! Then you can push past all limitations and devote the effort and time needed to properly succeed.
Episode 435 - Spinoffs!
Jul 15, 2019
We're discussing spin-offs in this one. Why do them? There are many very different reasons for doing a spin-off as opposed to a sequel, prequel or a totally new story:
Episode 401 - Stan Lee, a stupid comedian, and the new prudes
Nov 19, 2018
This is Quackcast 401! Error, error! Pitface and Tantz were absent so Banes and myself were left to go quietly off the rails and expostulate all sorts of radical, half formed, badly articulated thoughts. This is an interesting one! We cover the death of the great Stan Lee, titan of the comics and superhero world. Then we sidestream into talking about comedians trying to be political commentators (re: Bill Maher)… I must apologise for my Ad Hominems. And lastly our focus is on a “new puritanism” in some aspects of pop-culture. It all ties together, if a little awkwardly.
Episode 394 - Nostalgia, creative fuel?
Oct 1, 2018
Nostalgia! - Where does it fit in the creative process? People are the product of their influences. For a lot of us the strongest influences happen when we're growing up and learning about the world and all the things IN it for the first time. As you get older the things you experience don't make as much impact, simply because your brain has already had most of its “first times” and it's already learned enough about the world to be fully functional and independent.
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 390 - Imprinting on your characters
Aug 15, 2018
We nicked the idea for this Quackcast from a newspost by Emma Clare. What we chat about is the unintentional process of giving your characters you own traits or even traits of people you know without realising it: Every time you draw an expression for your character you're not really creating a generic expression but basing it on yourself… when you character is being quizzical or irritated for example people may recognise that as you. It could be in other things too: their taste, the way they dress, what they like to eat, their furniture. things that annoy them, their hobbies etc. It's interesting how tied they are to us.
