Episode 205 - What about bodyshape?
Feb 9, 2015
This week Banes and I were inspired to talk about body shape in the depiction of figures in comics, inspired by some famous images from photographer Howard Schatz's 2002 book, Athlete. In it there are photos of many athletes who're at the peak of their sports and yet their bodyshapes are vastly different, subverting the idea of an "ideal" bodyshape or what it means to be a top athlete or even fit. too often bodyshapes in comics follow a very narrow range, not getting much past what we think of as the current popculture ideal. We all know that idealised model shape is a problem and yet we all still perpetuate it, most of the time you can only tell most "realistic" characters apart by their hairstyle or costume, especially in superhero comics. And that invents a second problem: the myth of the "normal" shaped body as opposed to the ideal- there IS no such thing as normal, and even the ideal is always changing throughout the ages. There's even a lot more to body shape than the famous categories: Mesomorph, Ectomorph, and Endomorph, or Skinny, Pear, Athletic, Hourglass and Apple. We also have a beif mention of how stylised characters (Sponge Bob, Calvin and Hobbes etc) are exaggerations of these shapes and differences.
Topics and Show Notes
Topics and Show Notes:
Featured comic:
Onward - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Onward/
Links:
Some of the athlete photos here - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2502477/Can-guess-sport-shape-Olympians-body.html
Bodyshape pics taken from here - http://bonytobombshell.com/the-scientific-reasons-why-some-women-are-naturally-skinny/
Typical DC superheros - http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/465215/5366925/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/dc.jpg
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace, guitar shaped musician - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
The theme song by Gunwallace this week was for:
YOUR CHOICE - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/YOUR_CHOICE/ - by VinoMas
Episode 138 - The Drunkcast, Part 2!
Oct 23, 2013
Tantz Aerine, Pit Face and Banes join Ozoneocean for the second part of the Drunkcast! The theme is the same as last week: four webcomicers getting drunk and chatting drunkenly about drinking, as a homage to our site's proud former moniker: Drunk Duck. Tantz from an atmospheric bar in Athens called "Comics". Very appropriate! We rambled and rambled and had a great time. Hooray for the Drunkcast!!! And a HAPPY Belated Birthday to Pit Face's older brother Dustin, who we wish to live old enough to have white hair and when people talk about him they'll say he's a wise person!
Episode 124 - 60 Challenges in 60 Minutes
May 6, 2013
With ozoneocean away having fun this week, it falls to Banes and skoolmunkee to pick up the slack! Our chosen topic is "Challenges" - those longer-term thematic projects you see around, meant to get you off your drawing/writing duff and doing stuff that makes you better. They can be fun though! From the simple DeviantArt meme sheet to the gruelling Pokemonathon, we mention all kinds (although I'm not sure we mention sixty different ones...) for drawing, writing, and even a few for comic-making. Some are more famous than others, and some you might even just make up on your own! We do agree it's more fun to do them with other people, though. Don't forget you can find lots/get good ideas by searching for a likely challenge and adding 'tumblr' to the search.
