Episode 459 - 2019 Year in review!
Dec 30, 2019
It's been a great year! DD has continued to grow bit by bit, we've been stable and a great host for many many webcomics. DD is one of the only truly independent community focused webcomic hosting sites left. Most of the rest are commercial hubs that are not community centered. Part of our commitment to the community on DD is showcasing our best webcomics every week, which we've been doing for 17 years now, and I've personally been doing that for about 13.
Topics and Show Notes
Kawaii and I continually search for new high quality webcomics on DD to feature. We never look for standard art style or story type, we like the featured comics to be highly varied, reflecting many types of art style, format, media and story type. Featured comics can be long form stories, comic strips, stories for all ages, comics for kids, mature comics, action horror, fantasy, covering topics like politics, conspiracy, religion, or just be pure fun. Comics can have amazing art and story, or just one or the other. As long as the comic has over 15 pages and is updating regularly, is not a A rated work and has no borrowed copyright then it's fine to feature.
What matters more than anything is the commitment and passion of the creators and giving them the recognition that they deserve, so that we can hopefully showcase their varied and interesting work to a wider audience.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Feint: A raw thrumming violin importantly intones ringing chords over and over as it sets us up for a beautifully rocky crescendo that culminates in a tumultuous sonic climax!
Topics and shownotes
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Links
Start of the 2019 featured comics list - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/comics/featured/?page=3
2019 featured comics
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ripping_Off_King_Arthur/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Legend_of_Wind_Fist/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Molly_Lusc/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Barkham_Horror/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_St_Nickolas_Conspiracy/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Feint/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Inner_Enemy/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/FULL_HOUSE_by_ProjectNutz/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Jacket_Comic/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Risk_it_for_a_Biscuit/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Wild_Wolves/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Interstellar_Dust/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Out_of_the_Blue/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Speaking_In_Tongues/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Stunlock/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_True_Face/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Limbo_Road/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Shootin/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Adventures_of_Kevin_Kid/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Mystic_From_Wanzerbe/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Frolic/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Feelings_of_a_High_School_Girl/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Great_Khan/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Caraway_Crew/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Android_Blues/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Unprecedented_Cleanup/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Strange_Case_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ice_Massacre/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Monkey_Nukes/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/QUASI_and_PSUDO/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Completely_Unrelated/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Jetpack_Jill/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Way_of_the_Waifu/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Customer_Service/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Angels_of_the_Fallen/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Operation_Boom/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Void_The_Guide_to_a_Healthy_Relationship/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Generation_Y/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Sunstrike_and_Bluemist_An_Origin_Story/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bunni_and_Carot/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Aikonia/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ursa_Tale/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Breached/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Redneck/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/My_Cute_Wish/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Scarred_Eden/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Space_Repair_Garage_The_Comic/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Vagabonds_Waifs_and_Strays/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Cafe_on_Crepe_Island/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Percival_Pigeons_Perilous_Plan/
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Run_Stop_Go/
Featured comic:
Ripping Off King Arthur - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/dec/24/featured-comic-ripping-off-king-arthur/
Featured music:
Feint - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Feint/, by Stonedraccoon, rated M.
Special thanks to:
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Episode 453 - Lost in Translation
Nov 18, 2019
Where does your main audience come from? And how do you change your work to accommodate them? For a lot of us it's north Americans (mainly from the USA), which is interesting, especially for those of us outside of there because our cultures are slightly different. We THINK we totally understand each other but there ARE differences. So to make ourselves properly understood with the original intent of the story we often have to translate things slightly (much more in Tantz's case!). This goes doubly when a story is set in a different era. How much do you localise your story for the audience, how much SHOULD you?
Episode 429 - Bad ends, not bad fans
Jun 2, 2019
This Quackcast was inspired by the fan reaction to Game of Thrones, a series that I haven't watched but Tantz and Banes have! Specifically it's about poorly written endings and gas-lighting fans rather than admitting to faults.
Episode 428 - Expectations of Male and female audiences
May 27, 2019
What are the different expectations for female and male audiences? This almost entirely a culture based thing, it changes depending on where and WHEN you are from as well as your age and experience… but some obvious things are determined by our physiology: sex sells, but there are slight differences based on gender. I wasn't interested in the “why” (genetic predeterminisim or evolutionary psychology), just the “what”.
Episode 427 - Betrayal
May 20, 2019
Betrayal is an interesting thing to use in fiction. You can have betrayal of your nation, your organisation, friends, lovers, religion, beliefs, self. In stories it can be used to add a nasty twist or completely change the flow of events and alter the balance of power in a dramatic way! It can be devastating in relationships. The story of Judas betraying Christ for 30 pieces of silver is one of the most famous betrayal stories and became so iconic that the phrase “30 pieces of silver” or just the word “Judas” became synonymous with the act. Of course the inspiration for the best treachery and betrayal comes from real life and the names of the betrayers often echo down through history. IFrom Rome we have Brutus, in the USA the name “Benedict Arnold” has a similar meaning to “Judas”, the 20th century gave us the term “quisling” after the Norwegian political leader Vidkun Quisling who sold his country out to the Nazis.
Episode 426 - Sidekicking
May 13, 2019
Inspired by Emma Clare's Friday newspost about supporting characters, today we're discussing sidekicks! Sidekicks are a useful character type that are used in so many different ways. They can be a specialised type of supporting character that are also a main character or they can be the main protagonist in some cases. In comics sidekicks came in during the early days as a way of giving juvenile readers their own insert character who they could identify with… Bucky Barnes, Jimmy Olsen, Robin etc. They had other functions like giving the hero someone to save, providing commentary, reaction and exposition. Later when that kind of sidekick fell out of favour they became superheroes in their own right.
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?
Episode 423 - Fave weapons in fiction?
Apr 22, 2019
What's your favourite weapon in fiction? Mine are ridiculously giant swords, huge anti-tank rifles, and mecha. There are a lot of complex reasons for weapon choices in fiction, a Kalashnikov assault rifles for example signals certain things about the person carrying it: They're usually a bad guy for a start. This originated during the cold war, with certain types of bad guys using AKs. First it was Soviet Bloc soldiers, then it was Viet Con and rebels from South East Asia, then it became the “terrorist” weapon. The sub machine gun is the weapon of the bad guy. Terrorists used to use Uzis (before they turned to AKs), bank robbers used to use Mac 10s, now it's the HK MP5. Good guys carry an M-16 or AR-15 rifle. In historical fiction traditionally the bad guys carries curved swords while the good guys had straight swords, this came from crusades. Minor characters carry spears and heroes carry swords. Women, weaker characters and rebels carry bows. Giant swords and guns are often given to smaller characters in anime (usually female), as an obvious contrast with their small size. It's meant to emphasis the fact they're sort of a “mighty mouse”.