The Drunk Duck Quackcast

2 weeks ago we discussed the topic of religion in fiction: basicaly how we use real world religions to inform the perspectives of our characters and make the worlds more real, how we use religion in fiction, and how we make up religions for our worlds. We had so many great responses to this in the forum and about the Quackcast that we thought it'd be great to feature and chat about them! DD is a community after all and we love our community members to be a part of the Quackcast! This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Vagabonds Waifs and Strays. It's wonderfully serious introduction. View a vast panoramic wasteland, civilisation utterly destroyed, an end to all your hopes, dreams, and fears… The piano beautifully leads you in, step by step, as guitar soars high above, giving you a perfect bird’s eye view of the destruction spread out in all directions for thousands of kilometres far below. Topics and shownotes VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts! Links First religion in fiction Quackcast - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/nov/30/quackcast-455-religion-in-fiction/ First religion in fiction thread - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/178325/ Contributors Mks Monsters - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/mks_monsters Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes Usedbooks- https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/usedbooks EssayBee - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/EssayBee Kou the Mad - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Kou%20the%20Mad ShaRose49 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ShaRose49 Genejoke - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Genejoke/ BearinOz - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/BearinOz/ Bravo1102 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bravo1102/ El Cid - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/El%20Cid/ Eickrudge - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/rickrudge/ Featured comic: Molly Lusc - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/dec/10/featured-comic-molly-lusc/ Featured music: Vagabonds Waifs and Strays - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Vagabonds_Waifs_and_Strays/, by Artisto Escondido, rated E. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/

Smack Jeeves has been sold out from under its community to a Korean mobile content provider company NHN. The same company approached us last year but the deal didn't go through because we were too strict on retaining control of the site and protecting our community, SJ apparently didn't have those same concerns for the people that made the site so special and that is a huge shame. What's happened now is that NHN is streamlining the site, minimising the creative members who host their comics there and turning it into a content delivery site for its hand-picked pro work, turning it into another souless clone corporate of Webtoons or Tapas. This is a travesty. It's the creative people who host comics on our sites that MAKE the sites what they are. Hosts like us put in a lot of time and money to build these webcomic hosts, but cumulatively the creators that host with us put in a hell of a lot more and it's only down to them that any of us have the profile we do. It's THAT which NHN wanted to by out: the internet traffic and site presence that has been built up over a decade by those site members and they've all been betrayed. Now there are precious few independent egalitarian webcomic hosts left… just us and Comic Fury I think? It's a shame because in its day Smack Jeeves was awesome with many amazing features that were ahead of their time. We go into this much deeper as well as our own experience with corporate take overs in the Quackcast. Give it a listen. It's a bit ranty but there's some interesting stuff there. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to “Banes’ theme” - Welcome to the rockin’ church of Gunwallace! Come on it and say your prayers with all due reverence and an attitude beatific joy for your lord has risen and his name is BANES! (based on Bane's musical intro for last week's Quackcast). Topics and shownotes Links My Newspost (much more detail) - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/dec/08/sad-day-for-smack-jeeves/ Corporate Smack Jeeves :( - https://www.smackjeeves.com/ Religion in Fiction cast from last week - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/nov/30/quackcast-455-religion-in-fiction/ Featured comic: Barkham Horror - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/dec/03/featured-comic-barkham-horror/ Featured music: Banes' Theme - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/, by Gunwallace, rated X Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/ VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

We're talking about how religion is portrayed in fiction and a bit about WHY. This was a surprisingly fascinating topic. I came up with the idea while watching the old 2000s SciFi series Andromeda: one of the alien characters there is sort of a space Buddhist, and I felt like that was a pretty common thing in American TV Scifi, so I wondered about what other kinds of religious tropes exist in contemporary fiction, fantasy and other SciFi worlds. It turns out that there are many approaches, from fully developing a carefully constructed set of religions like in Dune to the typical anime fantasy approach which is just to steal some superficial imagery from Catholicism and remix it, and everything in between! We had a really fun and interesting chat about all the different approaches to religions in fiction! Give it a listen :) What are some of the best examples you've seen? This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Animal Town Confidential - A very fun track. Come on down to the country, mind the chickens! The one makes you feel happy, positive and welcome. Acoustic guitars and analogue sounds bring in a flood of warm sunshine and light. Topics and shownotes VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts! Featured comic: The St Nickolas Conspiracy - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/nov/25/featured-comic-the-st-nickolas-conspiracy/ Featured music: Animal Town Confidential - - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Animal_Town_Confidential/, by Justinlapoint, rated T. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/

This week we look at the famous quote by respected film director Martin Scorsese that “Marvel movies aren't Cinema” and also the quote by fellow director Francis Ford Coppola that Marvel films are “despicable”. We try and look at the proper context of these remarks outside of the twitter garbage and social media outrage to see if either had any point or whether they're way off the mark and deserving of criticism. We've linked to the video where you can hear the full quote from Scorsese in its proper context. It was an industry focused discussion about his latest project “The Irishman” and the challenges involved in getting it produced and promoted. He was asked about the future of movie-making and the platforms for movies and narrative cinematic storytelling. In the conversation, as an aside he mentioned what he thought of as “cinema”: something that is a defined, encapsulated, curated narrative experience is what he seemed to mean, as opposed to a long form TV series where the audience chooses how many episodes they watch at a time (his example), so the experience of the overall story isn't as fully guided by the creator. It was in exactly THIS context that he mentioned Marvel films, thinking of them more as an experience, like a “theme park”- NOT that they are facile and lessor things than a traditional movie, more that it's not really a contained story that's offered but more of an immersive world that you visit. I don't entirely agree but I can see his viewpoint and it's valid. We are all emotionally connected and invested in the Marvel films so we mistakenly took his remarks too personally and out of context, turning it into a very stupid old vs young argument that it never was. It seems it was in the spirit of this that Francis Ford Coppola waded in and offered his rhetorical firebrand defence to his good friend, using a value judgement and actually calling Marvel films “despicable”. This was again blown up into something huge and headline grabbing. It really was a stupid thing to say, but in the context of defending a friend that was wrongly attacked it becomes more forgiveable, especially since its obviously just rhetoric and not a considered, thought out, personal viewpoint. We can't forget that both men know cinema inside and out and helped create the modern blockbuster film industry of which Marvel is a part. They started out with Lucas and Spielberg. They don't deserve to be ignored, the targets of childish Ad hominems, or casually dismissed because they're not big fans of the same things we are. We on the Quackcast are huge fans of the Marvel films and all forms of storytelling. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Inner Enemy: Time races ever onward. As the piano keys play note after note, step by inevitable step we move closer and closer to uncovering the mystery at the heart of this world… it teases at the edges like the disturbing, haunting background melodies in this track. Topics and shownotes Links Martin Scorsese quote - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyZcEZsFXkk Francis Ford Coppola quote - https://www.indiewire.com/2019/10/francis-ford-coppola-marvel-1202183238/ Featured comic: Feint - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/nov/19/featured-comic-feint/ Featured music: Inner Enemy - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Inner_Enemy/, by Sabin, rated T. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/ VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts!

Where does your main audience come from? And how do you change your work to accommodate them? For a lot of us it's north Americans (mainly from the USA), which is interesting, especially for those of us outside of there because our cultures are slightly different. We THINK we totally understand each other but there ARE differences. So to make ourselves properly understood with the original intent of the story we often have to translate things slightly (much more in Tantz's case!). This goes doubly when a story is set in a different era. How much do you localise your story for the audience, how much SHOULD you? This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The Caraway Crew - What’s behind that corner? What’s out there lurking in the dark shadows? Why it’s demon breakdancing robots of course! A mystery tale setting beginning gives way to a marching, mechanically robotic stomping rhythm! Topics and shownotes VIDEO exclusive! Become a subscriber on the $5 level and up to see our weekly Patreon video and get our advertising perks! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck Even at $1 you get your name with a link on the front page and a mention in the weekend newsposts! Featured comic: Inner Enemy - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2019/nov/12/featured-comic-inner-enemy/ Featured music: The Caraway Crew - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Caraway_Crew/, by Pencilz, rated T. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/