Episode 231 - The importance of world building
Aug 9, 2015
You always do a bit of world building in fiction, in some types of stories like alternative histories, fantasy and Sci-Fi you have to do a bit more, in things set in the real world you don't have to do nearly as much - maybe only limited to a few rooms, character occupations and relationships etc, rather than planets and political systems, but the point is you're always doing it. There are good ways to do world building and bad ways i.e. work out as many details as you need to but have that all behind the scenes, not introduced as a wall of text or long explanations on how things work. World building should inform you story and make it work seamlessly, not prop it up like a rickety scaffold. The topic of the importance of World Building was previously touched on a few years ago by Skoolmunkee and Kroatz for Quackcast 39, but things happened at that recording was lost to history, so now we approach it again with all new contributions, strident opinions, and points of view on the subject. Gunwallace did a cool theme for Red Velvet Requiem!
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Awfully Decent Fellows - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Awfully_Decent_Fellows/
From the news post:
World Building - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/177032/?page=1
Contributions from:
Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean /
Abt_Nihil - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Abt_Nihil/
Special thanks to:
World music master, Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
Red Velvet Requiem - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Red_Velvet_Requiem/ by NekkoXIII rated M.
Episode 213 - What makes a good character? Part one
Apr 6, 2015
After several interesting discussions about Mary Sues, we'd like to talk about characters a little more. We asked people to let us know their thoughts on what makes a well written character VS a poorly written one. People talked about their favourite and least favourite characters in fiction and why they dug or don't dig them… as well as their own characters and how they put them together! Banes and I blather on a lot so this will be a multi-parter as we talk about what makes good characters. And as usual there's the great theme by Gunwallace! This time a classical number for the Adult comic Tina's Story.
Episode 209 - lurv triangles
Mar 9, 2015
Around about Valentine's day, HippieVan's mind turned to thoughts of love... and she conceived of a great newspost idea that was very popular with people! Love triangles are very good for generating drama in your writing without having to worry too much about forcing that through external events. And because they're primarily driven by you characters as well as affecting them it's a great way to build on your characterisation through the drama. In HippieVan's words we outline a few notable love triangles in fiction, both classic, and contemporary, then we include the contributions the DDers who were good enough to add their two cents to the subject.
Episode 197 - The sidekicks take over the QC
Dec 14, 2014
Carrying on from last weeks Quackcast inspired by Kawaiidaigakusei's Thoughtful newspost article "An Ode to Sidekicks", this time the DD community weighs in on the subject and they give us their wise, educated and highly considered expert opinions on the subject of the sidekick in stories! Again Kawaii joins Banes and I, but this time she practices her amazing talent for amusing voices, so for the first time since Skoolmunkee there's someone other than Banes and I doing a voice. Rachel Maddow drops in and even Matt Foley to tell us about his VAN down by the RIVER! All in all what people have to say about the different aspects of sidekicks in fiction is really quite interesting, have a listen and see! Oh, and Gunwallace's epic theme for Harkovast is fantastic, I can't wait for a Peter Jackson Movie adaptation!
Episode 179 - Token representation in comics
Aug 11, 2014
There's no question in my opinion as to whether representation of different kinds of people in fiction matters. Having spent my childhood poring over superhero comics in which the girl's job is usually to turn invisible and press a button or something, I remember being impressed and delighted by some of the badass female characters in The Spirit. Lady-people could be cool, too?! Is it insulting when comics add token characters to their line up, or does it really make a difference? And what makes a token character anyways? -HippieVan. Banes, HippieVan and I focus on the subject of token representation in media, mainly comics. This discussion was inspired by a newspost HippieVan made in response to a new character in the Archie comic, which got a lot of interesting responses.
Episode 160 - SciFi spectacular
Mar 31, 2014
While out on a routine survey mission in the Asimov Nebula, space-Captain Ozone and security officer second class Stanley Banes find themselves face to face with a drunken rampaging mutated alien duckmonster! Join our spacefaring heroes as they ramble about some of their favourite SciFi and discuss some of the best and worst features of the genre. But more importantly; will they get out of this predicament alive and will they ever get their booze back?
Episode 153 - The LurrrrvCast2, Lurv Harder!
Feb 10, 2014
Come on board for the luurrrvcast! It's shining and new! This is he second and final part of our lurvcast, where we asked contributors to give us their advice, wisdom and opinions on the treatment of love, romance and relationships in fiction within popular media. We had many great replies to Bane's interesting and insightful questions on the subject, which were: How do you approach love, romance and relationships in your comics? Do you find it difficult to write this stuff? Is it easy? What do you like to see, love and relationship-wise, in the comics you read? Do you like it realistic? Angsty? Or do you like it more fantasy-based? What do you NOT like to see? What are some of the fictional couples/relationships you really like? Were there any you thought didn't work at all? Why?
Episode 152 - The LurrrrvCast!
Feb 3, 2014
Romance. Love. L'amour. Ozone and I keep talking about getting the community engaged with our Quackcast topics - The ‘Casts that feature those community posts are always my favourite episodes by far! So we put these questions to our community to see how they'd respond: How do you approach love, romance and relationships in your comics? Do you find it difficult to write this stuff? Is it easy? What do you like to see, love and relationship-wise, in the comics you read? Do you like it realistic? Angsty? Or do you like it more fantasy-based? What do you NOT like to see? What are some of the fictional couples/relationships you really like? Were there any you thought didn't work at all? Why? The replies were interesting, engaging, and enlightening. So join us! All aboard for the LurrrrvCast!
