The Drunk Duck Quackcast

In this Quackcast Tantz and I chat about the differences between working with historical settings and the different approaches we take. Tantz's comics (Without Moonlight and Brave Resistance), are both set in a real period of history: Nazi occupied Greece during WW2. Pinky TA is set in the 1920s in an alternative version of history, with Pinky coming from the fictional “Crimean Empire”. Tantz has to keep times, places, and details close to real history while with Pinky TA I can pick and choose the things from history I like the best and create my own idealised pastiche. The advantage of Tantz's approach is that everything is there, nothing has to be invented, just researched and reproduced, whereas my approach involves a lot of creation which slows things down and makes it harder. On the upside Pinky TA is much more flexible, I can easily fit whatever I want into the story, whereas Tantz's comics are bound by the rules of the history she's presenting. Tantz mentions a story by Alki Zei called Peter's Long Walk, a story by a Greek author depicting a fictional account of WW2 in occupied Greece. It shows the value of using the historical fiction approach. I mention Tanya of the Evil, an alternative history anime set in WW1, which shows the fun entertainment value of alternative histories. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to It's Permanent. This is Old school southern rock, laconic, melodic, hard drinkin’, late night, whisky, beer and cigarettes. Play your cards right and you’ll be going home with the prettiest cowgirl… Topics and shownotes Featured comic: Quixote Coyote - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jul/24/featured-comic-quixote-coyote/ Links: Pinky TA - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/ Without Moonlight - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Without_Moonlight/ Peter's long walk - http://www.alkizei.com/en/works/108-petros-war Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Featured music: It's Permanent - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Its_Permanent/, by UltimateZ, rated M.

In this Quackcast Tantz, Banes and I have a chat about the novels that influenced us when we were growing up. Each of us barely even touch on them but we do bring up some interesting titles… for Tantz it was the sexy comic Storm and the novel The gods of Foxcroft, for me it was the high fantasy of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, and later on SciFi by writer like Tanith Lee and her Don't bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine- both of which were very prophetic novels in the way they deal with hedonistic youth culture and the modern phenomenon of adults having extended childhoods while outsourcing more and more adult tasks to technology. What were some of your most influential novels when growing up? This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Cataclysm 2: Welcome to a mysterious, exotic, magical place of dim shadows, deeply filtered sunlight, hanging bells, shimmering silks and the rich smell of spices… Topics and shownotes Featured comic: One Heart - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jul/31/featured-comic-one-heart/ Links: The cover of “Storm” - https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ52AtfB87QPGiNJ24xrSiKsRUd3McVeveOpU4rhcBOR6yh1KT9 Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/ Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Featured music: Cataclysm 2 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Cataclysm_2/, by ArmandoB, rated M.

In this Quackcast we talk about where the line is for YOU in your work about what subjects and imagery are too far for you. What is too horrible, too controversial, too extreme for you to approach? Is it blood and gore, something controversial and political, swearing, religious, sexual? Maybe you have other borders… perhaps something is too cute, sickly sweet and saccharine? We used Tantz's newspost for inspiration and read out all the comments of the fantastic DDers who told us about their own personal limits. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Ink LaRue. Oooooh yeeeaah, melodic vocals tied with a gentle pop funk sound. This is a sexy track that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It just wants to have a bit of fun. Topics and shownotes Featured comic: Savannah Cat Adventures - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Savannah_Cat_Adventue Links: Tantz's newspost, Drawing The Line - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jul/13/drawing-the-line/ Contributors Usedbooks - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/usedbooks PaulEberhardts - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PaulEberhardts Bravo - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/bravo1102 Mindcat- https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/mindcat Genejoke - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Genejoke Ironscarf - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Ironscarf KimLuster - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/KimLuster Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/ Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/ Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Featured music: Ink LaRue - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ink_LaRue/, by Unka John M.

You may have read about how a conspiracy theorist dug up some 10 year old tweeted jokes by director James Gunn and got him fired from Disney… Well that incident inspired this Quackcast, which is a re-take on the whole personal brand idea that we discussed in Quackcast 289. We all increasingly live our lives exposing a good portion of ourselves to the internet: through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google, Apple, accounts on forums, blogs and all sorts of websites all over the place! Most of us do it mainly under one or two names so it's not too hard for people to connect all sorts of activity to us, especially thanks to the policies of Facebook and YouTube to force (or strongly encourage) you to use your real name. We webcomic artists we are all especially vulnerable to this: we have to manage our online brand (ourselves) more carefully than ever before. Your work IS you and your ARE your work. It can work both ways, your comic could reflect poorly on you depending on the subject matter you deal with so you have to be careful to separate that from the everyday “you”, or like James Gunn YOU could reflect poorly on your work so you have to keep your everyday self separate from IT! It doesn't really matter if you take your work seriously or not, it can still affect you. This reminds me of George Orwell's famous book “1984” and the quote “Big Brother is Watching”. People think “Big Brother” is the government but that's not the case: “Big Brother” is your friends and neighbours. That's who did the watching and informing in communist countries with totalitarian systems. One idea is that we should behave online as we do offline and there will be no issues… Unfortunately that idea is a North Korean fantasy. No one behaves like perfect, polite, innocent angels offline all the time so it's ridiculous to expect them to behave in that way online. The big problem though is that things online are more public and will likely be remembered and visible for decades to come or even forever, so you HAVE to be more careful. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Electricity is her element. You’ll get a buzz out of this shocking soundrack! The sound of spacewhales, distant quasars and pulsars, coronal mass ejections of highly charged plasma suspended in a magnetic flux, photons shooting out into the distance… this music with set off flashes of light in the darkness of your mind. Topics and shownotes Featured comic: Stop Watchers - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jul/17/featured-comic-stop-watchers/ Links: Quackcast on managing your personal brand https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/quackcast/episode-289-managing-your-personal-brand/ Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ kawaiidaigakusei - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/ Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/ Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Featured music: Electricity is her Element - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Electricity_Is_Her_Element/, by Caliway, rated E.

The idea for this Quackcast came from a rant by the irascible PitFace. She was talking about how there's a trend in modern SciFi and horror movies to bash you over the head with constant action and it doesn't allow you time to relax and take in the story, you're just bounced from one relentless scene to the next. In the biggest classics of the genre like Alien, Ghost in the Shell (animated 90's version) or Blade Runner they DO allow the viewer slow moments of reflection and it helps to make the action feel more intense by contrast as well as allowing the viewer time to assimilate and understand all the ideas and themes they've been presented with so far. This applies to comics of course! We call it a “decompressed” storyline. Banes asserts that's a negative term but I see it as neutral, “slow burn” is another term (The more compressed a story is the faster the action happens). If you take things too far and extend out your “slow moments” then you'll just make your audience bored as they wait around for something to happen, so be careful of that! Don't drown them in action, but don't bore them to tears either. One of my favourite things about slow moments in films and comics is that it allows you to look down side-paths and to get to know the characters and their world a bit better, which helps with immersion (suspension of disbelief). In a lot of TV and movie DVD commentaries you'll hear directors talk about how they cut out this or that scene because it didn't help “advance the plot” while you as a viewer internally scream because you realise that it would have filled out the story so much better and help you understand the characters more. Basically, a story should NOT always be beholden to the plot as the main driving force. Characters are what people generally fall in love with, this is especially important with long form webcomics! Don't be afraid of having slow moments. Gunwallace gave us a lovely theme to Stop Watchers. It’s tiiiime to go! No time to great ready, just head straight for the door, you’ve dilly-dallied around enough already. It’s down to the crunch now. Get going. Now, now, now, now NOW!!! Topics and shownotes Featured comic: Children Of The Gods - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/jul/10/featured-comic-children-of-the-gods/ Special thanks to: Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com Tantz Aerine - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ Pitface - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/ Ozoneocean - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Featured music: Stop Watchers - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Stop_Watchers/, by StopWatchers, rated E.