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 172 - The QuackQuiz!
Jun 23, 2014
Come on down, it's Quiz time! For this week's Quackcast we had a quiz based on DD comics, as a friendly, fun way to try and promote them... there's even a bit of Drunk Duck history mixed up in the questions. Just a smidge. We had three contestants taking part for the honour of telling everyone else to suck it; Archaeologist Amazon Adventurer Artist Pitface, Psychologist Freedom Fighter Lawyer Comicer Tantz Aerine, and Scientist Philosopher Comic Group Leader and all around boob-fancier Abt Nihil. They all competed to the very limit of their abilities, striving for dominance against each other, employing every dirty trick in the book and even some new ones... So please listen to the first ever DD bottomless Quiz! Oh, and there's even some titbits about the totally mythical married life of Ozoneocean and Pitface.
Episode 123 - Happy Birthday Mr Abt Nihil
Apr 29, 2013
This week we interview Leonardo Da Abt Nihil, The Duck's very own renaissance man: Philosopher, scientist, self taught artist and writer, he is a man of many talents and lucky for us he posts the fruits of his labour on our site, many of which have been featured! Abt kindly agreed to be interviewed on his birthday, so Banes and I were finally have to do an in-depth talk with him and find out some of what makes him tick and at the same time celebrate that special day with him. So please listen and enjoy the melefluent tones of Abt's amazing voice and then GO and read some of his comics, especially Bombshell and Holon!
Episode 63 - Working for a living
Feb 7, 2012
Dressed in a long, tight fitting sparkly black evening gown and elbow length opera gloves, the lovely Skoolmunkee dashes from the scene of the murder of poor Banes to arrive breathless on the Quackcast set and establish her alibi! This week we talk about what us amateur webcomic artists do to support ourselves, or just in those few brief moments when we're not actually making webcomics, and how that affects, influences and changes our webcomic work. We have many interesting contributions from interesting people! I must once again apologise for the sound quality though, major computer trouble I'm afraid. Episode 63 re-issued! How working life affects webcomicing.
