Episode 255 - Drunk Duck Improvement Drive
Jan 25, 2016
We're trying to fix up Drunk Duck, adding the the comic statistics back in, fixing forums, adding notifications to PQs and MORE, but we need money to do it. In this Quackcast, Ozoneocean, Banes, and Pitface talk about the improvements we want to have on DD, and what YOU can do to help us out. Please consider donating to our Indiegogo fund-raising drive to help us pay our programmer: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/drunk-duck-webcomics-improvement-drive/x/4410947#/ There are a LOT of cool perks you can have including your own Quackcast interview all about YOU, original art from The creator of Modest Medusa, Charby the Vampirate and others, a 126 page Modest Medusa comic for only $10 and much more! If you can't spare any change, please consider spreading the word to your readers. Remember, these fixes are for everyone, by donating to DD you're helping yourself. :D
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and shownotes
Featured comic:
Mindfold - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Mindfold/
Links:
Please contribute to help DD - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/drunk-duck-webcomics-improvement-drive/x/4410947#/
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
Plymayer - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Plymayer/
6 … is this a theme for a comic? … no! It could be a theme for X Up, it does have some Wah Wah guitar (the sexiest guitar) after all, but it isn’t. This is a theme for the number 6. That number that a certain user, plymayer, gives to comics all when he feels they deserve it. A 6. A 6 out of 5. This is a theme for a concept. The concept of a supportive DD’er. To plymayer … and to every 6 he has handed out. (Okay, so it’s also a theme for X Up … but don’t tell anyone).
- See more at: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2016/jan/25/quackcast-255-drunk-duck-improvement-drive/
Episode 254 - Sexism in your OWN work?k
Jan 18, 2016
OMFG you sexist PIG! Heh… today we talk about trying to recognise sexism in your OWN work, what to do about it, and WHY. It turns out it can be very hard to do, and if you DO acknowledged it the instinct is to rationalise it away, justify it, or just try and brazen it out in some kind of old fashioned, largely embarrassing, display. I frequently do all three. How do we spot it? Well the Bechdel test isn't that useful, that's better for looking at broad trends not giving specific works a pass/fail - sexy outfits is one thing, if females are dressed minimally or in tight gear in CONTRAST to the males or vice versa - females ONLY having old stereotype roles (maiden/mother/whore archetypes, secretary, nurse, victim, maid etc), though this is context sensitive, i.e. it's more forgiveable if you're doing a historical story or something stylised like a fairytale or a noire story - Gender balance is another thing, it's context sensitive because certain stories will naturally have more of one gender (WW2 submarine crew, Girl's school, a prison story etc), and you don't have to have an exact balance anyway but it's definitely something to THINK about because there is no reason most stories should feature a majority of male characters and a minority of females. WHY should you think about it? Why should you care? Well the audience for almost ALL types of stories, be they action adventure, romance, Scifi, fantasy, historical, even porn, is getting close to 50/50 between men and women these days (maybe it always was?), it really doesn't make sense to alienate or belittle half your audience just because you like to cling to older ways of doing stuff. Gunwallace's theme this week reminds me of a cross between the Knightrider theme and Gunship- it's VERY retro-future. It's the theme to DDSR, a comic with cool custom “sprites”, AKA pixel-art.
Episode 234 - Climactic Climaxes!
Aug 31, 2015
What's best? One big climax, multiple small ones, early, or delayed? How much should you work UP to a climax? What about anticlmactic events, how important are they? Climaxes are really important in stories. Often you work up to them over the course of a whole series, but each episode or chapter can have them, maybe even every single page. I find writing “up” to climaxes a bit stressful because you have a lot of preasure and expectation there. And when it's over and you've actually achieved it, it can be a bit depressing: where do you go to from there? You can feel a little lost, at least I do. TALKING ABOUT WRITING HERE. My preference is for multiple climaxes. Do you always need climaxes in stories? I don't think you do personally… there are times when things work fine without one, but it does help better with endings. Sometimes climaxes can be TOO big. Way too much of a story can be invested in a climax, it subsumes everything, everything has to tie in with that specific story flow and that can be REALLY had to pull off. If it's not done right it can be massively disappointing. Anticlimactic. Pitface Joins Banes and Ozone to chat about climaxes in stories and read out the contributions from our climactic contributors. Gunwallace gave us a gorgeous theme for Just Another Day!
Episode 230 - Getting the formula RIGHT
Aug 3, 2015
We've talked about formulas before, but mostly in the context of escaping formulas and reinventing them. NOW however we're talking about using existing formulas to create a story, or creating new formulas and sticking to them to come up with your stories. Formulas can be a good tool to write with, along with their close sibling “the trope” they take elements that are proven to work and stick them on a solid framework for you to more easily create your story around. All you need to do is plug in your characters and situation and see how it all fits. Formulas are comfortable for people and make it easier for a writer to structure their story faster AND in a way they know should appeal to people. Enjoy Gunwallace's lovely theme for Rismo!
Episode 219 - Sexy and attractive characters, Part 3
May 10, 2015
And now for the last in our series of questioning just what makes characters sexy and/or attractive! We have more interesting contributions to read from and delve into but we thought we'd stop for now so we don't waste all our sexiness in one go. Banes and Ozoneocean are being attractive this time, while PitFace and Tantz Aerine are the sexy ones, a role which they approach with gusto. The subject of the essence of sexiness proved to be contentious and surprisingly complicated! The music we have by Gunwallace this week is the theme for Johnny Bullet- it's a sexy 1970s theme with lots of “chicka-wa” guitar.
Episode 218 - Sexy and attractive characters, Part 2
May 10, 2015
Once again we're chatting about just WHAT makes characters sexy and or attractive. The sexy Banes and Ozoneocean are joined by two attractive ladies, PitFace and Tantz Aerine, so now we have even more insight into the topic! We discuss the topic with humour and intelligence, with the help of the fantastic contributions for some very canny and sexually attractive Drunk Duckers. And of course we have some lovely music by Gunwallace, a secret agent theme for FOX Academy The New Breed!
Episode 217 - Sexy and attractive characters
May 4, 2015
For this Quackcast we thought we'd explore what makes characters sexy and/or attractive: Men or women, it doesn't matter, original characters, or from TV, comics, films, radio, games, whatever. How do you make a sexy character? What's a good example of a sexy character? What makes a character sexy? We had a LOT of people telling us what they thought and we had some pretty strong opinions ourselves! Also, you will LOVE the sexy Roxy Music sounding theme tune for The Flower and the Nose by Gunwallace.
Episode 196 - The Sidekick-cast
Nov 30, 2014
The topic of the Quackcast was inspired by Kawaiidaigakusei's Thoughtful newspost article "An Ode to Sidekicks" that examined the varied subject of The Sidekick. She was inspired by Geoff Peterson, the much loved animated skeleton on the Craig Ferguson show and she went on to examine some sidekick types using DD comics as examples. In our Sidekick-cast we cast the net a bit wider. We try and have a chat about all the different types of sidekicks we can think about (and there are a LOT); sidekicks in books, films, comics, talkshows... Heroic sidekicks, villain sidekicks, lackeys, lieutenants, backups, stand-ins, partners and all the various types in between and beyond! We mentions such obvious luminaries such as Dynomutt, Scoobydoo, Scrappy Doo, Dr Watson, Robin, a swathe of Dr Who Companions, and more! Banes is hilarious, Kawaii is insightful, Ozoneocean is opinionated ad boorish.
