Episode 475 - Tropeagedden! overuse of fashionable tropes...
Apr 20, 2020
Certain tropes or stylistic ways of telling a story can get really, really popular and trendy very quickly and it seems like they're everywhere! Suddenly many story are all told with the same sort of stylistic flourishes. The first few times it's done that way it's clever and meaningful but after that people just use the same thing without understanding it properly and consequently usually do a really crappy job!
Topics and Show Notes
My biggest bugbear currently is the stories that are split across multiple timelines: So we show concurrent storylines but one or a few of them are actually set in the past and they're interspersed with a storyline from the present as if all events are happening at the SAME time. The Witcher handled that very badly because it had no context clues about where you were at the “time”. The Medici series is another example. In that they DO give you context clues however because the characters actually look different but it's still annoying because they switch back and fourth far too regularly.
When this style of fast temporal storyline switching was first introduced in novels (in the 80s) it was reasonably clever and interesting because it was new at the time. But it is something that has to be handled carefully in order to work well. It doesn't lend itself to overuse! Unless there's a good reason and you REALLY know what you're doing, either tell your story in a linear fashion or give us extended scenes that take a full chapter/episode to complete
Banes made a post about love triangles. That's another trope that can be terrible if overused but great if used with a bit of tact and skill. Other examples are subverted character types (evil angels/good demons), subverted humanised villains (good Maleficent), bad heroes (rapist knight in shining armour)- these things are ONLY interesting because they're a twist on a standard trope and a variation from the norm, but when they BECOME the norm there's no reason for them to exist: they self invalidate.
What are some you've noticed?
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Space Daddy Adventures - A big dose of early 70s prog concept mixed with 1960s beat poetry. It reminds me of the music of the British prog band Jade Warrior from their eponymous 1971 album. Breathy flute, percussion, and a spare, jungle sound with creepy British vocals… Slip into your tight black polo-neck and black beret, sip on an espresso and flick your fingers in appreciation of this coooool retro piece!
Topics and shownotes
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Links
Banes' newspost about love triangles - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/apr/15/we-three/
DD on Discord! - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS
Moderated by Boundbun and Tallfroyo - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BoundBun/
Featured comic:
Cragwater - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/apr/14/featured-comic-cragwater/
Featured music:
Space Daddy Adventures - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Space_Daddy_Adventures/, by Hushicho, rated M.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Episode 473 - Genre vs Setting
Apr 5, 2020
In this Quackcast we talk about the differences between genre and setting and what genre really is. For instance: Fantasy and SciFi aren't genres, they're settings… Mostly. It's complicated but they both pretty much USED to be genres, now they're mainly just settings for genre stories to take place in. What does that mean? Well, Fantasy wasn't even considered a genre back in the day, not really till after the success of Tolkien. Later on a lot of writers began using that same style and consumers really wanted it, so it became a “genre”. It was only later on when it graduated out of that to become a setting that has genre stories set within it.
Episode 470 - What stirred your creative juices?
Mar 15, 2020
For this cast I'd thought we'd go through with our promise of last week and talk about things that have made us have a reaction as a creator. This expands on “The Cartoons that Date us” from last week. So today we're talking the creative media that gave you a reaction: Books, movies, comics, TV shows… Not what specifically inspired the comics you do now, but what drove you to create and why.
Episode 467 - Adaptions and Transmogrification!
Feb 23, 2020
The process of adaptation is quite interesting. Stories go through all sorts of changes when they're transferred from one medium to another. A lot of the time we bemoan that as “not staying true to the original” or “the book was better”, but there are many times where the adaption is really interesting in its own right, even though it's quite different from what it started out as.
Episode 461 - Top Comic making 5 tips!
Jan 13, 2020
Today Banes and I chat about our top tips for doing a great comic page: What is most important? I mainly focus on art and Banes is talking about page design and writing tips. Bellow are our top 5s for ways to make better comics! We expand on these and explain them in the Quackcast.
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.
Episode 452 - Storytelling styles change!
Nov 11, 2019
Storytelling styles change over time for various reasons: fashion, audience expectations, competition for audience attention due to increased choice and availability of media, technological limitations and abilities, and culture. We chat about the reasons for the changes and how styles have changed.
Episode 449 - Star Wars 2 the franchise strikes back
Oct 21, 2019
As promised we dive right into the second half of the Star Wars chat! We cover all the Star Wars stuff besides the original trilogy and the new trilogy. There's a lot to cover and we only touch on most on it: Solo, the Star Wars Christmas special, Droids, the Ewok films, Clone Wars, the games, the books, comics, Solo, Rogue One…
