Episode 712 - Guncast
Nov 4, 2024
This week we're talking the development of weapons, tactics and armour over the millennia. This is a fun little overview of everything from ancient stone weapons, to bronze, to iron, steel, guns, tanks, and jet-fighters and all the interesting stuff in between. Comic stories often involve literal conflict whether set in the past, the present, future, or fantasy and Scifi, so overviews are always good.
Topics and Show Notes
There are a LOT of misconceptions when it comes to this stuff, we tried to address a few and correct them in the cast. Like people didn't go from bronze to iron because iron was a better material. People had to move to using iron because bronze is made of tin and copper and those two materials are not found in the same place, changes in empires and wars disrupted trade routes so badly that supplies of the raw materials were no longer viable. Iron was a substitute because it's common and doesn't need any other components, though it's inferior because it's more difficult to work, not as hard so it doesn't make as good blades or armour, and it rusts easily. It wasn't till people finally discovered steel that iron became better than bronze.
Some other misconceptions:
-The idea that major military development only happened in Europe is false, all societies had it all over the planet but in different ways according to their needs and the materials available to them.
-Full plate armour was available to the ancient Greeks, it's not just a mediaeval thing.
-Gunpowder did not spell the end of the fully armoured knight, no, fully plate armoured “knights” fought it out with hand guns on horseback and people still wore armour and fought with swords as well as guns even in WW1!
-The German army still mainly used horses for transport even in WW2.
-Aeroplanes did not spell the end of the battleship, rather it was the torpedo that eventually took the toll (anything can deliver one, boats, planes, subs, even other battleships).
-The nuclear weapons dropped on Japan were not horrifying because of the people they killed or the damage they did (far more death and destruction had been committed in many other bombing raids), they were so scary because the death and destruction they did cause was only with single bombs from single planes rather than fleets with tons of ordinance.
-Rotary “gatling” guns have extremely limited use and only have something like less than a minute of total fire time, they're only meant to be used in very quick bursts.
-Lasers are not a “unlimited amo” weapons and they don't make visible beams of light usually or make zapping noises, the shots are very limited by power output, chemical lasers might only have 3 or four shots, and electrical lasers need to wait on capacitor charges after each shot, a battery power weapon grade laser would be out of charge in about 5 to 10 shots…
-Drones and autonomous weapons systems don't spell the end for modern warships and tanks, newer weapons systems will evolve to counter and exceed them.
There has never ever been an “ultimate weapon”, rather it's always a balancing game. As one thing starts to help people dominate in a particular field other things develop to counter them and so on forever into the future. Do you know any misconceptions? How do you think weaponry will evolve to counter drones?
This week Gunwallace wasn't able to give us a them so we're doing another best of! So I picked Kitty Kitty Bang Bang - Multilayered Chinese video-game war anthem with a modern twist! That’s how I’d describe this complex little piece. It’s the final boss battle, you’ve got no spare lives, you’re down to your last powerup and time is running out!
Topics and shownotes
Links
Featured comic:
Alfie’s World - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/oct/29/featured-comic-alfies-world/
Featured music:
Kitty Kitty Bang Bang - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Kitty_Kitty_Bang_Bang/ - by MoeAlmighty, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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Futurecast - Post Apocalyptic stuff.
Next Week - Interview with Gunwallace!
Episode 711 - Lost Boys
Oct 28, 2024
Halloween is on the way and we always do something different for it. This time we're doing a commentary for the 1987 vampire movie The Lost Boys! We even dressed in Lost Boys themed outfits for the Patreon vid which we will make available to ALL Patrons (even free ones), as a treat.
Episode 710 - Ducks in in the wind
Oct 21, 2024
The fleeting greatness ducks of in the wind! This is a weird one based on a notion I had: Life and experience isn't typically based on long moments, rather it's all based on very short, lightning quick highlights: a song that lasts 3 minutes is massively striking and important and its impact can reverberate down through the decades, despite only lasting such a short amount of time. Things like comics can take days, weeks or years to make and yet each page is consumed in no more than seconds! But even so, it can have a huge effect.
Episode 709 - Dragons!
Oct 14, 2024
Dragons are cool, aren't they? That's our subject for today, specifically the giant, monstrous beasties of myth, fantasy, and legend. They can be evil, they can be clever, they can be animalistic and wild, they can be friendly, they can be wise and all knowing, there's absolutely no common personality to dragons at all.
Episode 708 - Cyberpunk
Oct 7, 2024
Cyberpunk is a cool genre we have never covered exclusively on a Quackcast before. But what IS cyberpunk? It's a subset of SciFi, it's usually near future, involves body modifications, grittiness, street level computer use, techno body modification, and hacking. At least that's the way it started. Formative influences on the cyberpunk genre were the first Tron movie, Bladerunner, and Escape from New York. Tron showed us what cyberspace was, while Bladerunner and Escape from New York gave us gritty near future dystopias with cool tech, modified humans, and most importantly the punk aesthetic which was the gritty street youth fashion of the late 70s and early 80s.
Episode 707 - Fight Choreography
Sep 30, 2024
Fight choreography is tricky. We have it in comics, plays, movies and TV. When it's in full motion the trick is that you cant usually show things connecting so you have to work around the safety aspects in various ways. In comics you can show things connecting but how do you make the movement and the narrative believable and exciting just by using still images? It takes a lot of skill! Animation has to be the easiest way to depict fights because you can show the results of hits AND you can easily make moment believable but there are always challenges.
Episode 706 - wrong
Sep 23, 2024
Being right on the internet is Sooo important… Being right in life and at all times is essential too! At least that's how a lot of us tend to think. Being told we're wrong, especially on the internet, can be so embarrassing and shameful that we try and avoid it at all costs. But realising you're wrong and being able to admit it and to learn from your mistakes is actually more empowering, powerful, and fulfilling than any amount of rightness can ever be.
Episode 705 - Choreocast
Sep 16, 2024
Today we're talking about setting the scene and communication through the art on the panel. It's a simple yet complex subject- how do you compose the scene to better communicate all the stuff like which character is more important, who's to be feared, if a person is coming or going, fight scenes etc. How do you compose stuff?