Episode 183 - Work Life balance
Aug 15, 2014
This Quackcast topic was inspired by a newspost by Kawaiidaigakusei who described a short autobiographical account of her own experiences managing the difficult work/life balance of doing webcomics online and at the same time having a normal life otherwise. How do you balance those? What do you sacrifice to keep a comic going? Is it worth it? In this Quackcast we discuss those aspects, as well as some saucy banter to begin with...
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and Show Notes:
Featured comic:
All Unicorns to Battle Stations - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/All_Unicorns_to_Battle_Stations/
Work life balance newspost:
Here - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2014/jul/21/the-balancing-act-of-the-real-world-and-creating-webcomics/
Special thanks to:
Kawaiidaigakusei, featurer, newsposter and supermom - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
The musical theme this time was for Dinnersaurus Rex - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Dinnersaurus_Rex/ by Bemirry.
Episode 175 - Endings, part 2
Jul 14, 2014
Arrrr, this be the second part of our discussion on writing ENDINGS in stories of all kinds, particularly for webcomics! But we discuss a few movie and TV endings here, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, No Country For Old Men, True Detective, and Dexter to name a few. Writings endings is the hardest part of the writing process, so it's lucky we had some wise contributions from people on how to do a good job of it! As well as giving examples of likes and dislikes... This is the second in our 3 part series on endings! I must apologise for the low quality of the recording here, there were very weird delay and repeating effects going on, Banes seems to be singing his own little madrigal at a couple of points. There are a a few parts I had to rerecord later; just a warning about the change of style.
Episode 173 - The Marvelous Tomorrowcast!
Jun 30, 2014
In the AMAZING world of webcomics tomorrow Chromium printing presses will print out up to 6 pages an hour!!!! In all 3 colours! Black, White AND yellow!!! For your viewing pleasure comics from many different creators are all able to be viewed AT THE SAME TIME, fully updated every day on our state of the art pin-boards! Comic pages are affixed to a state of the art cork backed board with only the finest drawing pins and tacks! Well, that's not actually what we were talking about... In this DD community webcomics podcast of the future we talk about all the possibilities that will happen down the road for webcomics: the mobile space, more money for creators, the professional and amateur worlds of comic making getting closer and closer together, net neutrality, and the possible pitfalls that may befall us. We had some great contributions from some wise guys.
Episode 172 - The QuackQuiz!
Jun 23, 2014
Come on down, it's Quiz time! For this week's Quackcast we had a quiz based on DD comics, as a friendly, fun way to try and promote them... there's even a bit of Drunk Duck history mixed up in the questions. Just a smidge. We had three contestants taking part for the honour of telling everyone else to suck it; Archaeologist Amazon Adventurer Artist Pitface, Psychologist Freedom Fighter Lawyer Comicer Tantz Aerine, and Scientist Philosopher Comic Group Leader and all around boob-fancier Abt Nihil. They all competed to the very limit of their abilities, striving for dominance against each other, employing every dirty trick in the book and even some new ones... So please listen to the first ever DD bottomless Quiz! Oh, and there's even some titbits about the totally mythical married life of Ozoneocean and Pitface.
Episode 168 - MechaWeaponcast 2
May 26, 2014
Finally the last part of our Mecha and weaponry Quackcast, where we opened to the thoughts of the community to see what they had to say on the idea of developing and using weaponry and mecha in comics and how they go about it. We had some good discussion on the subject and some very thought provoking and intelligent opinions from obviously very well informed people; our DD community! Kawaiidaigakusei joined Banes and I again to talk this one out and provide some great opinions and insight of her own. Here's a correction: Shinji's suit in Neon Genesis Evangelion is actually blue and white!
Episode 167 - Anatomy of a Villain
May 19, 2014
Today we talk about villians! Kawaiidaigakusei made a newspost about villains that generated quite a bit of interest so Banes and I had her on to chat about them and read out some of the things our community members had to say. Kawaii can introduce the topic in her own words: I used to take the side of the cheerful, positive, and heroic protagonist in films and comics when I was much younger. As I got older, I wised up to the idea that being a protagonist is relative to biases of the storyteller. Now I rewatch those same films with a renewed perspective of what constitutes “good” and “bad”. Lately, I have been finding that more and more, I am a fan of villains. I believe the reason we are seasoned to differentiate heroes and villains at a young age is to train our super-ego about rules and societal expectations. It teaches every Goffus that they should aspire to be more like Gallant. But living a hero's lifestyle by-the-book can be as boring as vanilla. For the record, I love vanilla, it is GOOD, but it does not make it any less boring. Emulating the characteristics of a supervillain feeds our id. It just feels good to break the rules. Give villains a chance. Afterall, without a villain, there would be no need for a hero.
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 163 - Hip to be shark!
Apr 21, 2014
HippieVan, one of our wonderful news admins, made a newspost about the latest Archie comic sales tactic/plot device, killing off Archie, in the context of "Jumping The Shark", and it was quite a popular topic of discussion. Jumping the Shark is the term we use for a TV Series (but it could be anything), that has reached a bit of a creative desert so the writers attempt a silly stun or the introduction of a new character or theme or something that breaks the narrative and the story dynamic, all in an attempt to re-energize the failing series. Sometimes it works, but often it's a sign that the thing is on its deathbed. And that's what Hippie joined us to talk about: Shark jumping! In the meantime, we find a shark of our own...
