Episode 613 - 1930
Dec 12, 2022
The 1930s were quite a uniquely influential time for a number of reasons. The 1930s were the very last days of the old world before the new one was born in the apocalypse of the 1940s. Old empires, kings, colonialism- forces that had shaped the planet for decades were about to be shattered for the good, thankfully. New technologies were on a rapid rise as things were spiraling closer and closer to global war, Air travel was becoming a reality even as the old ocean liners were still the main means of transportation connecting the continents, people were building cites around the realities of car travel. Cinema had changed drastically with the advent of the talkies. and so much more!
Topics and Show Notes
I grew up during the 1980's when the aesthetics of 1930s were being revived in fashion, film, and architecture: pastels, art deco, modernism, shoulder-pads… some of the most influential movies had a very strong a 1930s influence: The Star Wars trilogy with its scenes inspired by Triumph of the Will, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon film reals and old cowboy films, the remake of 1932's Scarface, the Indiana Jones movies, Batman, Superman, Dick Tracy, the Conan films that made a star out of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The influence was all over the British New Romantic pop music movement, the style of Michael Jackson and Madonna, and on TV with noir detective shows. All these things continue to have a legacy today.
People might not realise that the modern idea of the “gangsta” comes from the 1930s. Jamaican youth gangs idolised the style typified by the gangster movies of the 1930s and emulated it, giving rise to the “rudeboys”. They were a big part of the music culture and that eventually came to the USA. Local gangs and local music culture adopted the gangster name from the Jamaicans without really knowing the history or why they used it.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to She used to be fractal - A quiet, chillout, relaxing track to spaceout to and go zen… A slow cruise into nothingness, white on white. It’s as clean as new glass and as smooth as a polished stone. Gunwallace says of it “Channelling my inner shoegaze spirit”.
Topics and shownotes
Forum post about the role of the 1930s - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/179231/
Featured comic:
Nocturne 21 Volume One - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/dec/06/featured-comic-nocturne-21-volume-one/
Featured music:
She used to be fractal - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/She_Used_To_Be_Fractal/ - by CartoonAdventurer, rated E.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
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Episode 610 - Beauty!
Nov 21, 2022
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, so the saying goes but it's absolutely true. There is a layered subjectivity to it based on personal preference, the cultural standards of your community, the ethnic traits of you and your peers, prevailing global fashions in appearance, the dominant archetypes in the media and so on. All these things combine to form our personal subjective ideas of beauty. You can see this yourself if you look at paintings, statues, masks, frescoes and other artifacts that have been produced by all the diverse cultures on earth over thousands of years: there IS no standard, eternal, objective of beauty.
Episode 609 - The Cringe
Nov 14, 2022
So how do you like comedy that makes you cringe? You know that really awkward humour where you feel embarrassed for those involved and almost in physical pain for them? You feel really bad for them… It could be cruel pranks, or jokes based on lies or misunderstandings that are just carried way too far. Personally I find them hard to take. It CAN be great like in the original version of The Office, but even that was REALLY hard to watch at times. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Stick Figure Apocalypse - Relaxing, cool funk groove that cruises along dreamily, hitting turbulent waters hallway through, with a wildly discordant patch of sonic confusion, startling us out of our revere, before slipping back into the same quiet groove again and fading to silence.
Episode 606 - Scary writing!
Oct 24, 2022
How do you write scary scenes for comics? Banes loves horror so he come up with this subject, plus we're coming up to Halloween! Listen to find out what we come up with. How do YOU write scary scenes though, what are your tips and tricks?
Episode 601 - /rant
Sep 19, 2022
If something affects or disturbs you so much that you want to respond to it through a story that you write, that can be a pretty powerful form of inspiration! But it depends on how you handle it. For example, Stephan King's acclaimed novel Misery was inspired by nasty interactions he had with fans after he published a fantasy novel. This story was very well received and even turned into a popular movie. And then there are other ways to handle it…
Episode 597 - Revelations!
Aug 21, 2022
Today we're talking about a technique in storytelling that we're calling the “revelation”. Inspired by Banes doing an article on the weird trope in movies of having a character discover newspaper stories about the villain that suddenly reveal the true stakes of the story and kick things into high gear. There are other types of revelation in stories though and they're used in different ways.
Episode 595 - Oversold to the Moon!
Aug 8, 2022
How do you describe your work to sell it to people? Writing blurbs is a real skill! You generally have to avoid doing these four things: Underselling, Overselling, Selling the wrong story, or Revealing too much. It's quite a tricky balance to master. I've been writing feature blurbs for comics here on DD for many years now (about 16), so I've developed a technique but even I haven't mastered it!
Episode 592 - Back in MY day!
Jul 18, 2022
History is happening faster now. With the growth of universal high speed communication and cheap world travel, culture and technology move at unprecedented speeds. Because of these factors the rate of change is different to what it was at any time in the past. This is an objective and verifiable truth rather than subjective perception: the current speed and quality of global communication has never been possible before and that has ramifications for how the world changes.
