Episode 421 - Dreamcast
Apr 8, 2019
Today we're talking about all the ways nightmares can be used in stories. This is based on a newspost by our very own dreamboat Tantz Aerine. Nightmares are great for foreshadowing through premonitions, forcing characters to confront things and change their minds, ratcheting up tension in a story and all sorts of other useful things that you'd never consider.
Topics and Show Notes
You can use symbolism and heightened reality, surrealism, fantasy and lots of experimental techniques that you couldn't do in your normal comic. Nightmares are an excuse to cut loose artistically, but also for your character to act out and go crazy too if you want since things are occurring in a dream reality and not your proper story. Listen to us chat more about it in the Quackcast… or become a patron and see our video about it ;)
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme The Last Sheriff: Metallic tumbleweeds trundle by singing a tune of plucked wire and steely resonance in this one rocket-horse town… This is the sound of an old west future, fully charged plasma blaster six-shooters and robot cowboys in a world of red rusted steel and dust.
Topics and shownotes
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Featured comic:
EDENTIA - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/apr/02/featured-comic-edentia/
Links:
Tantz Aerine newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/mar/27/the-use-of-nightmares/
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Featured music:
The Last Sheriff - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Last_Sheriff/, by RecklessHero, rated E
Ozoneocean at 9:26AM, April 10, 2019
Yes, the "fooled you" moment IS a real duck move ^_^
usedbooks at 12:11AM, April 10, 2019
(Autocorrect chanced dick move to duck move. XD )
usedbooks at 12:10AM, April 10, 2019
@oz: Yeah. It is a natural dream to have when in a bad situation. Although if done poorly, it's a duck move to "fake out" readers. With dreams, I usually do what you mention in the quackcast and have that surreal, not quite real quality to them with clues from the start. So a keen reader knows immediately and less keen readers pick up on it as it goes along and is more obviously not real. (It feels more accurate to me that way too. That's how I manage lucid dreams myself. Often in a dream setting, the layout of a familiar place will be off or a cat will walk by that hasn't been around since I was a kid.) My characters usually pick up on it at some point of the dream too, so it's not a sudden and-then-they-wake-up-haha-fooled-you moment.
Ozoneocean at 7:45PM, April 9, 2019
@Usedbooks- Reminds me of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce where a hanged man dreams that he escapes...
Ozoneocean at 7:43PM, April 9, 2019
Glad you like it Chris!
usedbooks at 3:35PM, April 9, 2019
Also, thanks for the mention. I wasn't so sure about the sequence when I scripted it, and it is a bit long. I wanted to have the feel of hypothermia (whether dying from or recovering from -- it's long, and time dilates).
usedbooks at 2:48PM, April 9, 2019
I intend to use a dream sequence in my Used Books finale. But sort of to an opposite effect. -- The dream is a good situation imagined during a bad real life situation. (Sort of an escape from the trauma, at least emotionally/mentally.) I've done something similar before, with the same character actually.
RecklessHero at 1:17PM, April 9, 2019
Thanks for the feature and the music, cheers Chris