Podcasts about Banes

  Watching, reading, and listening to things a second, third or even a million times can offer you a whole new experience. Why do we pick up the same thing to enjoy again? It could be nostalgia, it could be the need for comfort in the familiar, maybe it's research, or maybe you're rewatching the early episodes of a series so you can get more enjoyment out of new, later episodes that you haven't seen before?  Whatever the reason it can be an interesting experience, especially when you notice a whole bunch of things you never thought about before! You can see it through new eyes. And because you know how things ended up you can focus more on details, aesthetics, and character development rather than mainly on the plot. Since I've got lots of streaming services now I'm rewatching heaps of faves. I haven't seen the later seasons of Archer so I'm rewatching that at the moment. It's my 3rd time on these early episodes and I'm noticing new things as well as seeing things in a new light. I noticed Jessica Walter (Mallory Archer), Jeffrey Tambor (Len Trexlor), Judy Greer (Cheryl Tunt), were all in Arrested Development together. I had previously believed that Archer was an irredeemable arsehole from the get-go, and all the other characters were basically good but became arseholes as a reaction to Archer, but a rewatch shows that they were always ALL aresholes exactly as bad as him! I'm also shocked by how brutal and violent the show is and how often they don't even fully resole endings. When you revisit things often they're not how you remember them. Usually that's just because your memory is faulty and you have an interesting experience seeing something how it REALLY is. But it's awful when things actually HAVE changed; an old fave that's been retconned and edited... witness the stupid stormtroopers riding badly animated dinosaurs in Starwars! In comics like Asterix you can drink in the art and the historical and political references, find yourself noticing little side stories in panels and all sorts of character relationships going on. What are your fave things to revisit? And why do you do it? Or maybe you never revisit things?   This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Misfits of Fandom - no need for Redbull, coffee, or Monster energy drink, the tune has all the get up and go you need! Feel that thrum in your veins! This techno blast will drag you up and get you moving. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Perennial Print - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/mar/25/featured-comic-perennial-print/ Featured music: Misfits of Fandom - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Misfits_of_Fandom/ - by Mattgasser, rated E 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 Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

This week, we're catching up on movies and TV. Daffy Duck! Daisy Ridley! Daredevil! The Severance season finale! Deli Boys! Also, EJ's doing a Mission: Impossible rewatch and the Jason Statham Film Festival nears its end with Expend4bles, a movie that does not live up to its tagline.  But that tagline is "They'll Die When They're Dead", and no movie lives up to that.

Parody and satire are a certain kind of humour. They're VERY easy to do because you just base them off real, already existing things, then you twist it a bit to add humour and make it ridiculous. But that's where it gets tricky! Satire is a parody of a real situation rather than fictional, it tends to have a harder edge. Where it usually goes wrong is that people mistake it for something straight, i.e. NOT satire, not comedy, not exaggeration or ridicule. The two main approaches to parody are a broad satire of a genre, like Princess Bride on fairytale fantasy, or a more targeted approach like Spaceballs which satirised Star Wars, and things in between like Airplane, which made fun of the film Zero Hour but also used it as a chance to parody the disaster movie genre and include a shotgun approach to pop-cultural jokes, making fun of everything happening in the 1970s. When I was growing up Mad Magazine movie parody comics were always a fave of mine, I'd prefer them to the actual movies they made fun off. The art was amazing with great caricatures and the humour was always very cheeky. Asterix was another comic series I enjoyed, which involved a lot of historical satirical humour. One big issue with that kind of targeted humour though is that it's often very dependent on its references for the jokes to fully work, so if you lack familiarity with them it won't bite as hard or sometimes not at all. The trick is to include enough of the context for context dependant jokes so that they can work regardless. If you do your job well enough people will not even remember the original and your satire or parody will completely stand on its own! In our Quackcast we even covered things that become self parodies like the Deadpool Marvel Movies, some of the Roger More James Bond films, the late horror franchise films like Nightmare on Elm street, Friday the 13th and so on. What are some of your fave parodies or satires? I think Princess Bride, the Life of Brian, Blazing Saddles, and Spaceballs are real standouts. But things like Lego Batman, Not Another Teen Movie, and even The Toxic Avenger have their own place. On that last one: Lloyd Kaufman is like a B-movie parody version of Mel Brooks, Mel does the A-list parodies and satires and Lloyd handles the crazier, gross and kinky low budget ones Mel wouldn't touch LOL! Of course Meet The Spartans is the best parody ever, so much better than The 300. This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by Occult by lux - A heavy, heavy, distorted, fuzzy, rocking, and yet magical take on the Arabian Nights, with the brutally metal revere of chaos, and beautiful oriental groove! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Excavator - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/mar/18/featured-comic-excavator/ Featured music: Occult by lux - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Occult_by_lux/ - by Lux_occult, rated A. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Today we have on a super special guest, The Doodler! This is another on our technical series about art making and this time we're talking about lighting. Tantz suggested we interview The Doodler for this because she's Tantz's go-to person for lighting issues in scenes. It was great to chat with The Doodler about her lighting techniques and the different challenges presented by different scenes. The Doodler was much better at explaining the concepts than I could have been so it was a pleasure to have her on the cast! You might know the Doodler for her long running comic The Second Crimean war, about an alternate history of the Russian takeover of the Crimean region after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 90s- this comic was created in 2010, before the modern takeover of Crimea in 2014. It's a popular and well drawn comic with top level artwork. It's mostly black and white with some limited use of colour. It's over 800 pages so it's a sizable chunk of comic to get into and I highly recommend it! Lighting is the most fundamental thing there is to visual art because it allows all things to be seen: a radiating body sheds light rays in straight lines around itself and these are absorbed or reflected off the objects they hit, in turn we see those objects because of the photons that are reflected into our eyes… It's MUCH more complex than that though. As comic artists we usually do things backwards: we draw line art, which would mean the default is that EVERYTHING is fully lit and visible, then we work out where the light comes from and what's in shadow. The simplest way to handle lighting in a comic is just to draw stuff as if there ware spotlights illuminating it all from the viewer perspective, like a stage play or TV sitcom- no shadows, full lighting. A more advanced, realistic approach suggested by The Doodler is to treat the image like a 3D space and work out where the light comes from (the sun, a flashlight, an overhead light etc), then ray trace from that point to work out what's in shadow and what's lit up. Listen to the interview to get a much better discussion on it than what I can write here! Gunwallace wasn't able to give us a theme this week so we're replaying his theme to The Second Crimean war - Heavy, grey winter skies, pregnant with snow and sadness. Cold snaps the brittle air, crystal daggers hang in the forest, a whistling breeze sings of desolation and loneliness. A thaw will be long in coming to this blighted world of war and suffering… Synth violins and cellos set the scene beautifully, touches of quiet bass and piano round out the landscape of the Second Crimean war. (Originally part of Quackcast 494) Topics and shownotes Links Our guest The Doodler! - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/The%20doodler/ Featured comic: Black Tiger - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/mar/04/featured-comic-black-tiger/ Featured music: The Second Crimean war - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Second_Crimean_War/ - by The doodler, 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Pastor Joe & Kirsten welcome the month of March with some nostalgia! Then, they jump into Part 2 of Robert & Jennifer Banes' testimony. Just when they thought their race was over, it was really just beginning. Jesus is radically transforming them into a new creation, and their transparency and authenticity will bless all who have ears to hear. Let's pop the hood! Email: underthehood@newlifenwa.com Show Notes: https://www.newlifenwa.com/underthehood/

The 3rd in our technical art-making series, we're talking hair, feathers, and fur today. How do you draw those highly complicated, textured things? Well the complicated, difficult way is to draw every single strand of hair, every follicle of fur, and every filament of feather… But that has a lot of disadvantages! So how else do you approach it? The simplest way is to draw the overall shape that the full thing makes up and just do an outline of the rough edges. So for a hair style that would be the full shape with some hairs sticking out at the edges, with fur that's sort of the same thing though it's a lot less smooth than hair, with feathers just draw the whole wing with a few edge feathers and for the feathers themselves draw some parting in the filaments. Then what you do is add some texture within the shape, but only enough to suggest the rest, the viewer's brain will fill in everything else. If you want to get more advanced and painterly then you use the colours of the thing (feathers, fur, or hair), to create impressions of texture, shape, shadow, and highlights within it. The straighter hair is the more shine it will have, and conversely the curlier it is the less it can have, the same goes for fur, unless the hairs are facing you end on, in which case it has no shine. How do you approach these things? This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Grapeshot - A charmingly, whimsical, sea themed folky tune, promising adventure, action, booty, and freely flowing grog. Dance a little jig to the joyous violin! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Pos Adventure - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/feb/24/featured-comic-pos-adventure/ Featured music: Grapeshot - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Grapeshot/ - by Mercuryviruscomic, 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 Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Pastor Joe & Kirsten explain the big gap in the recording schedule for the Under the Hood podcast. It wasn't intentional, we promise! Next, they introduce a special couple in our NewLife family, Robert & Jennifer Banes. The Banes share a powerful testimony of the radical transformation God is orchestrating in their lives right now. They share how the Lord rescued them both from the brink of destruction despite their trauma-filled early years, and how He has helped them to fully surrender to His will for their lives, both individually and together. Part 2 of their inspiring testimony will be out next week! Let's pop the hood! Email: underthehood@newlifenwa.com Show Notes: https://www.newlifenwa.com/underthehood/

Today we're going into another aspect of creating artwork for webcomics! This time it's painting skin, a topic that Tantz suggested. How do you render skin? It's a super common thing in comics and there are many, many ways to do it! We're not experts on all the methods so we just cover what WE do. We all have different approaches and you'll have to listen to the cast to see what Tantz and Banes say. I'll chat quickly about how I do it here. I have 3 main methods but first up it's important to know some things: There are NO such things as different skin colours, that's a dumb socially constructed myth, skin is all shades of brown from very dark to very light, this is because ALL skin is made up of just four main pigments mixed in different amounts, which you can use to mix any skin tone. There are black, Yellow, red, and white. Melanin is the black tone but can be yellowy and reddish, yellow carotenoids from diet, red from blood, and white from the colour of the skin alone. Mix those colours in varying proportions and you'll get exactly the right brown pigment you need for any skin tone. My first main way of painting skin is the simplest. I just do cell-shading in two colours. I pick a colour for the person which will be the main tone, then I select a slightly darker version of that same colour, dark enough that you can see the difference but not that it's too different. Then I do their whole bod in the main tone and use the second tone for shadows with a hard edge between them, no fading. It works super well! The next type is the fake painterly approach. I pick three tones. There's a light tone, a darker tone that is reddish or orangish in colour, and a third tone that is muted purple or blue- this is because it's a generic contrasting colour to the yellow and orange tones in skin. The lighter parts of the skin are all painted in the light colour, the reddish tone fills the shadow and the purple tone is just used as a line between the two tones; a penumbra, which is the separation between light and dark, that can often help shadows look darker and more striking than they are. Fade them a bit at the edges so the separation isn't so harsh. This method can work just as well for much darker skin tones too. My last method is the real painterly approach where colours on the skin are influenced by environmental colours and coloured light sources. You can use a 3 colour approach like the last method but take the colours from the environment. It could be blue, greens, reds etc. This is great for making your figures a part of the image instead of sanding out unnaturally from it. Some special notes: Not everyone has the same skin tone even if they're the same ethnicity, there's a large amount or variation between people even if they're related, although then there will be less. I like to vary my skin tones as much as the hair colours. People also don't have an even skin tone across their whole body, there are lighter patches and darker parts all over the place, whether the person is dark or light, unless they're artificially coloured like models in a magazine or people using filters on social media. commercial comics have their own weird way of colouring skin involving gradients, white highlights and black shadows. its a very standardised method and widely used but I find it a bit dull. How do you do skin? One single tone, shadows, gradients or something more complex? Gunwallace was kind enough to give us a theme inspired The Inheritors - An interesting mix! It starts off with a slow, stepped drumbeat, that sounds a bit like the intro to “slave” by the Rolling Stones, then crashes to a dubstep and rayguns and scifi blasters, before moving into a classical music inspired race of synth violins, flutes, cellos and other sneaky instruments, ten arrives at its destination: an electrified barrier where yellow and black diagonal lines bar the way! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: History - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/feb/18/featured-comic-history/ Featured music: The Inheritors - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Inheritors/ - by RymanNoodles, 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

We haven't done anything about actual art-making for a while so we thought we'd start a series on technical stuff. Starting out we tackle painting sea and sky! These are key general background elements, they're the two biggest simple background features you can get, you don't always need them but it's good to understand these big features for outdoor scenes and how they work. Sky and sea can be super simple features in art, in the most basic version all you need is a horizon line and pretty much nothing else, but they can also be super complicated and advanced if you want to go the other way. Skies can vary massively based on the time of day and what's in them, like clouds or pollution, and it's the same with the ocean. There are also basic physical principals that drive how they look: The sky is blue because it scatters and deflects blue light, it's darker towards the top of the sky (as long as the sun isn't there), because the top of the dome of atmosphere is thinner and less light is reflected, while towards the horizon the sky usually gets lighter because the atmosphere is thicker, the angle is different and so it's more reflective of sunlight. The sea is made up of water which is transparent, filled with stuff, and also somewhat reflective- so it looks various shades of blue in the deeper parts because it's a dark reflection of the sky. In the shallower parts the colour gets lighter because the sea bottom is more visible and helps reflect more light, the sea can also have a lot of green weed or algae in it which also affects the colour, as does the colour of the sea floor. So in the middle of the day the sky will be dark blue at the top and fade to light blue at the horizon while the sea does the opposite, starting with dark blue at the horizon and fading to lighter blue and then even green when it gets close to the viewer. Colours change at dawn and dusk when the angle of the sunlight is very low and being scattered and reflected in different ways: You get reds, yellows, oranges, and pinks usually. The low angle of the light on the water means that much more is reflected and so the colour is very different! Clouds, night, sun, and moonlight change that again! It gets very tricky and interesting and we cover all that in the cast! How are you with sea and sky rendering? Do you go simple or complex? This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Continuity Falls - Down-home, where the grass is blue, the moon is shining and fiery, the hills are billy and the apa is lachin… Banjo, guitar, drums, and standup bass give us a nice little energetic mountain dancing tune! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Grapeshot - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/feb/10/featured-comic-grapeshot/ Featured music: Continuity Falls - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/?search=continuityfalls - by Banes, rated E. 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 Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Show No. 1 is a Roundtable Edition featuring Todd Zola, from Mastersball, ESPN, Rotowire and SiriusXM and Ray Murphy of BaseballHQ... in Part 1 (1:40), the panel discusses park changes and rule changes in the game that might affect projections... and in Part 2 (32:15), the panel talks about spring training position battles, draft theory and practice, player pockets and Boons and Banes for 2025... Runs 1:22:50

Do you have a big ego? Do you know someone who has? This Quackcast is about utilising egos for comic characters for comedic purposes, to humanise character, or to make villains more unlikeable and or funny. Big egos are a sign of poor self esteem, people inflate their egos to cope with feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. For examples of that we have a certain prominent politician and also a tech billionaire as perfect representations of every facet of that concept. :) Personally I LOVE a protagonist with a big, inflated ego, especially if it's also illustrated that it's undeserved, and often shown punctured. It's pretty uncommon for protagonists to have big egos though unfortunately because people see that as weakness in their character and status rather than making them more interesting. Big egos are far more common in villains, mostly because it's seen as a negative trait, but also because it's an easy way to show how weak and pathetic they are, they're also a goldmine for easy laughs. The latter is the reason that the characters with the biggest egos in fiction are often not the main villain but the villain's lieutenant. My favourite protagonists with big egos are Tank Girl, George Costanza from Seinfeld, Duckman (played by the same actor as George. Jason Alexander), Flashman from the books by George MacDonald Fraser, Space Dandy, Basil Faulty from Faulty Towers, Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping up Appearances, and Meg from the series Drifters. I'd love to name more but it's not a common trait, though you can point out a million villains with massive egos. In the Quackcast I examine Conan the Barbarian as a story about ego: Conan acquires a massive ego as a reaction to being kidnapped as a child and living as a slave, then being trained as a gladiator and lauded with praise and women. That only increases when he gets his freedom, joins his friends and becomes a successful thief. He's then tasked with rescuing a princess from a cult and returning her to her father. His ego is so big he eschews the help of his friends and tries to do it alone. He's captured by the villain, Thulsa Doom, the same man who killed his mother and enslaved him. Thulsa lectures him on the strength of ego and manipulation before crucifying Conan on a tree. As he dies, Conan's ego dies with him. His friends find his body and take him back, reviving him without ego. In then end Conan defeats Thulsa Doom, Thulsa expects his ego to dominate Conan and save himself but Conan kills him the same way Thulsa killed his mother, and does it totally without ego. As a last gesture he burns down Thulsa's temple and his cult disbands: the last two symbols of Thulsa Doom's over inflated ego. Do you agree with my take on Conan the Barbarian? Do you like characters to have a big ego? If so, what are your fave examples? Gunwallace was kind enough to give us a theme inspired Therion Inside of Me - Rocky, raw, groove with a godly chorus of cool backup singers. Let this one burn into your consciousness and enjoy! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Midcard - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/feb/04/featured-comic-midcard/ Featured music: Therion Inside of Me - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Therion_Inside_of_Me_/ - by Denverjem, rated A. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

We're chatting about the comics you liked as a little kiddo this week! The topic was inspired by a thread in the DD forums. This is always a fun topic and I always have to mention Asterix because it was so amazing. This week Tantz had to bow out but we have Gunwallace to replace her, and Banes is back! Gunwallace is a fellow Antipodean, that means he and I share many of the same cultural touch stones, particularity the comic Footrot Flats. (Tantz is still on the Patreon only video) Footrot Flats is a newspaper comic by the New Zealand creator Murry Ball. It's about a working sheepdog called “Dog” who lives on a farm owned by Wal, a single guy who works hard, drinks beer, and loves rugby. It's a comic that Australians saw as very “Australian” because it played into the mythological rural, working class image that we invented for ourselves, New Zealanders who have a similar history and felt the same, hence the shared popularity of this amazing very classically Kiwi comic from New Zealand. Footroot flats comics be seen in many great collected works as well as an awesome animated film from the 1980s called “Footrot flats: The Dog's tale”. I fondly remember it for the hit theme song sung by New Zealand singer Dave Dobbin, “Slice of Heaven” which is one of my favourite ever songs. Gunwallace has even designed a cocktail inspired by it. I will list the recipe here and I urge to try it while listening to that song! Cocktail recipe! Slice of Heaven — Dave Dobbyn & Herbs 50 ml Beerenburg jenever herbal gin 20 ml Drambuie 2 dashes bitters Half-fill an Old Fashioned Glass with ice, pour ingredients into glass. Add dashes of bitters. Stir gently. Garnish with a slice of orange. We used : Sonnema Berenburg, Drambuie, Peychaud's Bitters -New Zealand Music Cocktails by David Tulloch & Michael Sutorius The comics you enjoyed as a kid are determined by what was available to you at the time. For me what I recall most are the newspaper strips like Modesty Blaise, Mandrake the Magician, Wizard of Id, Crock, B.C., Footrot Flats, Hagar the Horrible, Peanuts, Blondie, Denis the Menace (British version), Andy Cap, Torkan,The Far Side, Garfield… The comics I actually bought were the Commando war comics, Scrooge McDuck, Mad Magazine, and The Phantom, which was very popular in British Commonwealth countries. I loved Asterix but would only get those from the library. Looking back a lot of those comics were quite influential on my art style and even my outlook on the world in some cases. My character Pinky has a LOT of modesty Blaise in her look, and I can see that I thought of myself as Torkan! Which comics did YOU like as a kid, which can you say STILL influence you now?   This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Snake in the Office - Chaotic, sexy, rocking, snake charming to layers of groovy electric guitar and a piano tiptoeing around with a charming little tune tying it all together like a fine Persian rug! A sinuous synth clarinet impersonates a snake charming flute while giving us a lovely 1920s feel. Topics and shownotes Links Slice of Heaven, theme song to Footrot Flats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0pWejAnLUQ Forum Thread - What comics did you grow up on? - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/179874/ Featured comic: Rebellion the monster inside us - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jan/28/featured-comic-rebellion-the-monster-inside-us/ Featured music: Snake in the Office - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Snake_in_the_office/ - by Athorist, rated T. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Is there a culture of plutocratic classism in the USA? I'm inspired by Trump's America and how people think that people like Elon Musk and him are above the law because they're rich, while conversely the lowest rank in society are the homeless and the poor. But what do I mean by “Plutocratic classism”? A plutocracy is a society where people's position is determined by their wealth, classism is our tendency to discriminate based on social class, put that together and you have people determining social value by how much money a person seems to have. Gunwallace joins us for this Quackcast, replacing Banes while he has a sabbatical, he along with Tantz Aerine and myself examine this idea from an outsider's perspective. Gunwallace like me comes from an extremely egalitarian society where the idea of obvious classism is frowned upon. Australia and New Zealand were countries created by people leaving the classist aristocratic society of Great Brittain so that they could make something of themselves outside of that rigid system where class was determined by family name, accent, where you grew up, where you went to school etc. In our countries any sort of obvious classism is seen as extremely vulgar and worthy of social attack. Of course aspects of it still exist but it's bellow the surface. Tantz Aerine's Greece has been through a number of changes, coming from aristocratic origins as well as modern communist influences. It means we all have an external view on this subject Plutocratic classism is a vision of the world that shows up all over American media, classically with something like Trading Places with Dan Akroyd and Eddy Murphy, even another Eddy Murphy film, Coming to America, Illustrates that beautifully. In the former a homeless black person and a wealthy white stock trader and made to switch places in society (mainly their level of wealth swaps), and they're subsequently treated extremely differently. In Coming to America an African prince comes to the USA and disguises himself as a poor person, the way he's treated changes dramatically. As the story progresses he meets various people at different social economic levels: the well-off middle-class small business owner father of his girlfriend in particular, as well as her rich ex, and all these people are treated as being on different rungs of the social class ladder depending on heir wealth. It's seen in very common tropes like the “dead hooker” jokes, the way homeless people are constantly shown as expendable trash, and the way people who live in trailer parks are looked down upon in American media, it's pure plutocratic classism. This shows up in American pop-culture media constantly. While the wealthy are seen as ersatz aristocracy and their children are viewed as scions, princes and princesses. Have you noticed this trend in American pop-culture media? Do you agree that it exists both in fiction and reality or is this all just communist bulsh1t that I'm blathering on about? Gunwallace was kind enough to give us a theme inspired by Ghats - A hypnotically relaxing track that builds up the pizzazz level with a synth trumpet band. From a quiet spa retreat to a full on Vegas show! Get a lot of those sexy showgirls! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Ghats - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jan/21/featured-comic-ghats/ Featured music: Ghats - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ghats/ - by Flumpy Tripod, rated E. 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 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

We're talking about how technology and design changes so much over the years and how that can change things with plot in story and it can also help pinpoint the date of something sometimes better than other things like fashion. The biggest one we talked about were phones, which have changed so much over the last few decades. Universally connected smartphones mean huge story changes- characters can all look up whatever they need at any time, communicate with people instantly, entertain themselves, take photos and videos etc. That can massively affect plots! But the look as well as the use is very distinct too. Early phones were the famous candlestick design with the separate speaking tube and you couldn't dial directly, you needed to ask an operator to connect you. Eventually we got rotary telephones with a heavy symmetrical hand-piece on a cradle, they started off with a rotary dial but later versions had buttons, they also featured the classic curly cord between the hand-piece and the unit. The next big change were phones that didn't have a cord, they were connected to the base unit by radio, those were very popular in the 90s and are still in use today, although much sleeker and smaller. Then came mobile phones, handys or cellphones… The early versions had to be large units because there were almost no phone towers so their batteries and radios had to be very powerful and large to compensate, so initially they were only in cars and a sign of wealth because they were very expensive. They shrunk down but you still needed to carry around a large “brick” with a handle to boost their power due to limited tower infrastructure. When we got more towers that allowed for much smaller phones, although still pretty large, but they could fit on a belt. The next big change was smaller phones with digital screens for texting and they could actually fit inside your pocket! This was dominated by the famous Nokia phones from Finland. Then came along folding “flip-phones” that could be smaller and status and wealth was shown by how small your phone was, Motorola and Samsung dominated there. We got phones with cameras, this required larger coloured screens and phones increased in size again. The all metal Motorola Razar flip-phone was one of the stand-out designs, but there were many form factors and brands. After that the next big change were the first smartphones, which were dominated by Palm and Blackberry. People could use the internet and full email on them and they were a status symbol for celebs and businesspeople. After that of course the touchscreen smartphones came along, Prada had a famous model but it was the iphone by Apple that kicked off the trend and democratised smartphones for everyone. Google followed with the Android operating system and democratised the concept even further, becoming the “Windows” of phones, with Android being on phones from many makers and creating phones of different price-points and capabilities from basic cheap models to incredibly high end creations. Things are still changing but the next big change were big size smartphones, lead by Samsung and their “phablet” Note phones that even included Wacom stylus tech, making them mini portable Cintiq tablets. That was initially laughed at by Apple and others but of course everyone eventually followed the new trend. Now we have folding phones with flexible screens, smart watches, smart-rings etc, but none are really taking off yet. “AI” seems to be the next big change but no one really knows what to do with it besides photo editing and writing phone messages for us. I didn't cover beepers, pagers, tablets, computers and so on but they're significant as well. All this tech has changed a lot, changed us and changes how stories are made. When I did my first big trip over to the USA in 2010 I got my first smartphone, an HTC Desire, the best Android phone at the time, because I didn't like Apple and Android allowed me more freedom. I got a local sim when I went to the states and it was an essential device to me. I justified the purchase because I knew I could have my music on there, it would be my camera, computer, email device, phone, map, newspaper, and everything else I needed. I've had many smartphones since but remember it fondly. How has tech changed things for you, in your stories, or reality? Does it help you date stuff you watch and read?   This week we're doing another Best-off! Gunwallace did these themes inspired by Bottomless Waitress a few years ago. He was So inspired he gave us TWO! Bottomless Waitress I - This is such a happy sounding, Southern, joyful track, filled with banjo and layers of guitar, twanging away… bringing notes of sunshine, natural wood, the light glinting softly through tree leaves and making dappled shadows on the ground… Perfect for an advertising jingle!: Slip into a comfy booth, get your butt comfortable on our soft cushions, and enjoy a plate of down-home cook'n in this fine establishment, filled with a cast of friendly ladies. Try a plate of our famous bottomless fries, a cup of our delicious bottomless coffee, and the sight of our lovely bottomless waitresses! 490 - Bottomless Waitress II - Part two of the BW cannon! Revenge of the banjo! We start off with a tractor roaring into life and a banjo opening us up to the sounds of rural Midwest America- wide open corn fields, golden wheat, grain silos, quiet back-roads, haystacks, big red barns, and a kinky little diner where the coffee is bottomless and so are the staff! Ava's diner is a welcoming place for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Buttered buns, glazed donuts, and creamy desserts are a house speciality! So swing on by. No entry at the rear, we prefer you to come in by the front door. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: TEMPERAMENTAL - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jan/12/featured-comic-temperamental/ Featured music: Bottomless Waitress - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bottomless_Waitress/ - by Banes and Ozoneocean, rated M. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Main characters with main character syndrome? What is main character syndrome? Well the way we're dealing with it here it's normally a snide criticism you level and someone who seems to think the world revolves around them, like social media “influencers”, selfish self centred people, that sort of thing. Popular figures like Elon Musk and Donald Trump are great examples: they imagine the world should bend to their whim, and normal rules don't apply, like a main character in a fictional story. The funny thing is that not many main characters think or act like that. Some do but they're the exceptions. Generally it's comic-relief side characters, villains, or antagonists who have main character syndrome. It's especially true for villains because behaving that way is easily seen as a negative and being selfish like that harms other characters in their world, being a great example of “evil”. Other characters typically notable for it include Queen bees in a highschool setting, also dominant “jocks”, and the love interests in harem anime- each of them think they're the main character, while the actual main character is a characterless blob. Main character syndrome isn't always a negative thing though! It can be fun or funny, or it can make you more invested in the world. Exceptions where main characters have MCS are the protagonists of noir detective stories. Every main character in Seinfeld had MCS, not initially but that's how the show developed. Cher in Clueless starts off that way but graduates out of it. In superhero comics MCS is definitely something you often see, I think Batman can have it depending on the writer, Deadpool is a good candidate… A fave example of mine is TankGirl, she has it 100% and it works in her favour, she moulds her world to her will. Do you have a fave example of a fictional character with Main Character Syndrome? Gunwallace was busy this week so we have a reissue of Gamma Blue Smoldering of Creel - Heavy rocking fire. This is a hammer forging red hot steel on an anvil, rhythmically pounding it into shape, slamming into it with thunderous blows, drawing out the metal into a brutal sword of pure rock! from Quackcast 680, 26th of March 2024 Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Imparting Quietus - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2025/jan/07/featured-comic-imparting-quietus/ Featured music: Gamma Blue Smoldering of Creel - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Gamma_Blue_Smoldering_of_Creel/ - by Odebear, rated E. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Batman has been put through the works by Banes master plan to break his spirit, mind and body! The end of this episode is the end of the road that leads to the big showdown with Bane!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A standard thing in stories is to have multiple plot lines. In short stories or when you're just starting out as a writer you tend to have a single line, the A plot, but as soon as you get a bit more experience and write longer stories you'll find the plots tend to branch and multiply, even if you don't always fully intend it. The usual is to have the A and B plots: the A is the main one that drives the story and the B is where you put other interesting junk like character development, villain stuff, comic relief, love interests etc. But it can get a LOT more advanced than that and you can have far more than simply A and B. The genesis of this cast was that I was moaning and groaning about long-form TV series that are intended for binge watching these days. Instead of being reasonably contained episodes you're actually watching a 16 hour long movie and I find that fatiguing and stressful because with those plot structures you feel compelled to watch and finish it (not all in one sitting, but finish it regardless). My complaint was that these things tend to have the A plot as the overarching story plot that connects all the episodes while the B and C plots etc are reserved for the episode itself, and that is NOT how it should be done, at least in my opinion. When series started this trend it would be a C or D line that connected the episodes, just minor developments and a continuing lore. Then it moved up to a B, major story stuff but the main storyline was still episodic, but now it's the A line and that is not cool.. according to me. In the Quackcast we chatted about interesting structures and variations, like twin A plots that complete for attention. One of my personal faves are the A and B plot lines that constantly switch: An A shifts down to be the B and vice versa over and over so you're not sure which is the main line. That's very organic and keeps you on your toes. One of the most boring versions are strict A and B plot structures where it's all pure formula and things just don't break out of that so you know that one line is always less important to the other and things become too predictable. Do you play with A, B, C, D etc storylines or just not bother and let things develop into that on their own, or do you just stick with only an A? And what do you LIKE in stories you consume? This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by AlfiesWorld - Exciting electronica salsa, shimmying and shimmering across the glittering dance floor, shaking the hips, grinding, and sliding to this cool, sophisticated Latin sound! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Auguste Fighter - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/30/featured-comic-auguste-fighter/ Featured music: AlfiesWorld - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/AlfiesWorld/ - by RealityJockey, rated M. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Welcome to the first episode of series 79! In this series, we are going to be going over a different solo RPG every episode, and in today's episode, Ryan is all by themself to explore the game Ironsworn, a dark fantasy RPG about vows and perilous quests! Character Creation Cast Patreon https://patreon.com/charactercreationcast Announcements: Bluesky Starter Pack! https://go.bsky.app/RBJ971x Join our Discord! https://discord.charactercreationcast.com Leave us reviews in any, or all, of these places: Character Creation Cast on Apple Podcasts (The best place to leave reviews for us) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/character-creation-cast/id1363822066?mt=2&ls=1 Character Creation Cast on Podchaser https://podchaser.com/CharacterCreationCast Games/Tools discussed this episode: Ironsworn: Free PDF: https://tomkinpress.com/collections/products-for-ironsworn/products/ironsworn-digital-edition Website: https://ironswornrpg.com Timestamps: (00:00:00) - Announcements (00:02:08) - Introductions (00:02:53) - What's in a game? - Core Concepts of Ironsworn (00:04:37) - Setting - Ironlands (00:08:31) - Materials needed to play (00:10:05) - What stories and themes is this game meant to explore? (00:12:10) - What do characters do in this game? (00:14:30) - What is unique about Ironsworn? (00:16:04) - History of Ironsworn (00:18:04) - Basic terms and concepts - Assets (00:22:29) - Vows (00:24:14) - World Building Truths (00:25:03) - Let's make some people! - Concept and Name (00:27:17) - Stats and Momentum (00:34:52) - Vows, Bonds, Dibilities, Conditions, Banes and Burdens (00:37:19) - Asset Selection (00:47:34) - Equipment and other notes (00:52:14) - World Building Truths (01:06:21) - Second Vow and Background Bonds (01:10:51) - Discussion - How were the character sheets? (01:12:06) - How did character creation stack up to other games? (01:13:15) - Fanfic? (01:14:22) - Take it up a level! (01:16:53) - Episode Closer (01:17:42) - Call to Action (01:22:50) - Credits Music: Opening: Meditation Impromptu 03 (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Calming/Meditation_Impromptu_03) by Kevin MacLeod Clip 1: Hero (Remix) (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Steve_Combs/Principal_Photography_1493/11_Hero_Remix) by Steve Combs Clip 2: Strike Iron by Third Age On Soundstripe: https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/7564 Main Theme: Hero (Remix) (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Steve_Combs/Principal_Photography_1493/11_Hero_Remix) by Steve Combs Our Podcast: Character Creation Cast: Website: https://www.charactercreationcast.com Contact Us: https://contact.charactercreationcast.com BlueSky: @CreationCast.net (https://bsky.app/profile/creationcast.net) Discord: https://discord.charactercreationcast.com/ TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@charactercreationcast Amelia Antrim: BlueSky: @gingerreckoning.bsky.social (https://bsky.app/profile/gingerreckoning.bsky.social) Ryan Boelter: BlueSky: @lordneptune.com (https://bsky.app/profile/lordneptune.com) Our Network: https://oneshotpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's not the new year yet but this is the final Quackcast of 2024 and it's coming out on New Year's Eve! In this Quackcast we do a bit of a year in review. A bit happened this year… DD reached its 22nd year online being one of the oldest sites on the internet and definitely one of the very oldest free comic hosts next to Keenspace which doesn't really exist now. We released another DD anthology comic collection, A Flock of Dreams (linked bellow), in which your Quackcast hosts collaborated on a comic together! We were really proud of that, Key of Dreams, our story was a real work of love, and you can read that in the anthology. Another big point was that our programmer, Alexey, finally left us. That was very sad but he didn't feel he could keep up the work anymore. So we will be looking for another programmer or programming team with Python of UI capabilities to pick up on his work. The test site with the unfinished updates is linked bellow. Banes started Continuity Falls, replacing HPKomic's Panel by Panel feature, which was a much loved deep-dive into comics on DD and the web in general by the learned and experienced HPKomic (linked bellow). HPKomic wound up his segment to move it to his own website. While Continuity Falls is the first front page comic DD has had for almost 20 years, since Duck and Quail, it's slated to be a collab comic though it's just Banes for now, it will be an interesting ride! It has a very retro 1930s feel and I love it! We had another successful DD awards AND a Secret Santa recently too, which are marvelous little community projects by Drunk Duckers and really bring people together. The awards recognises people's great work on the site with their comics and the Secret Santa is a way to have fun, gift some art to someone and get gift art in return! All linked bellow. What were your biggest moments of 2024? Did anything cool happen with your comic? This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by Imago Nebraska - Like a super-dooper slow and chilled out Oxygene 4 from Jene Michelle Jare, this is thoughtful, sleepy, spacey, relaxed and otherworldly. Topics and shownotes Links A Flock of Dreams - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/jul/20/quackcast-697-the-dd-anthology-comic/ DD test site - https://next.theduckwebcomics.com/ Continuity Falls - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/?search=continuityfalls Panel by Panel - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/?search=panelbypanel Drunk Duck Awards 2024 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Drunk_Duck_Awards_2024/ Secret Santa - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/forum/topic/179849/ Featured comic: A Yuletide Story - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/24/featured-comic-a-yuletide-story/ Featured music: Imago Nebraska - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Imago_Nebraska/ - by InkyMoondrop, rated M. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Happy Christmas eve! In this penultimate Quackcast of the year we decided to have a free day and just chat about any subject that interested us at the time. Next week will be our final cast of the year when we'll do a year in review. We even went back to our roots and did some silly accents, mine were of course A-mazing! (they were pretty crap TBH) We touched on many subjects from the Adams family and Wednesday, even the Munsters (which I mistook for the Adams Family at one point… OMG what a dumbarse), the new Superman movie, Asterix, Corto Maltise, Chinese anime, Lower Decks, Shangri-La Frontier, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, and a host of other silly things. Happy Christmas to all who celebrate it! As a present I'm making this week's Patreon vid freely available here - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Hyacinth Webcomic - Heavy bass introduces the cast of usual suspects in this theme that beautifully echoes the intro of an 80s action TV show, blended with something more arty and eerie! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Tweezen - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/16/featured-comic-tweezen/ Featured music: Hyacinth Webcomic - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Hyacinth_Webcomic/ - by OllyPolly, rated M. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

This Quackcast was inspired by world renowned idiot Robert F Kennedy Jnr. We decided to talk about writing dumb characters. I keep calling him John F Kennedy Jnr because I am also an idiot. Some context: he wants to remove approval for the life saving Polio vaccine and allow dangerous unpasteurised milk to be widely sold, among other things. He's a classic idiot. This put us in mind of fictional idiots. Some classic fictional idiots: Lil' Abner, Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies, Breckinridge Elkins, Mr Bean, Baldric, Biff Tanner, Dark Helmet, Homer Simpson etc. Idiots as protagonists are often rather innocent while idiots as antagonists are usually comic relief sidekicks (like Bebop and Rocksteady from TMNT), or comic relief villains. We don't usually get a serious villain who is also a fool,except in reality unfortunately. Who is your fave fictional moron or do you have any tips for writing an idiot? This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by The Side Characters - A solid piano groove that bounces and judders along before being joined by a snake charming synth bass that takes us on short exotic side-trip to the middle east and back! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Hyacinth - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/10/featured-comic-hyacinth/ Featured music: The Side Characters - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Side_Characters/ - by DanG, rated E. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Non-linear stories are a different way of telling a tale. There are many famous examples (Pulp fiction, Mulholland Drive etc), where the sequence of events isn't in strict chronological order. This style has gained a false reputation of being superior or more advanced or challenging to an audience than linear stories. That is of course false, the nonlinear style as been around since storytelling existed are more closely mirrors the way we think about stories and tell them to each other : We often tell people about the end of a story first and then back track (“I had a terrible day today”, “I broke my leg”, “I won a thousand dollars!” etc) , we also jump to important parts , introduce other figures and give them back stories (“Then I saw Gene! You remember Gene? The lady with the sleepy eye, she used to look after you when you were a baby…”), and so on and on. Pure Linear story-stelling is actually much harder to do because it isn't natural to us, though a lot of non-linear stories are made by people constructing liner stories first and then going back and rearranging them. Life and time are linear but our thinking and awareness is not. I would posit that the reason we sometimes seem to find non-liner stories a bit more difficult isn't because of the style, rather it's because those examples are not well constructed. When they are, you don't even notice the form! Neither linear nor non-linear is a more advanced form, they're both simply different ways to tell a story. Have you made a non-linear story? What is you fave example of the style? This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Secret Agent British Intelligence II - A cross between classic Spanish guitar by Rodrigo, and those cool wiry guitar riffs from James Bond Dr No, all mixed up into a little hacienda party melange! Topics and shownotes Links Inspired by Banes's newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/04/im-out-of-order-youre-out-of-order/ Featured comic: Saga of the Wide Winged World - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/dec/02/featured-comic-saga-of-the-wide-winged-world/ Featured music: Secret Agent British Intelligence II - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Secret_Agent_British_Intelligence_II/ - by Dpat57, rated M. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Is it important to Identify with characters? This question occurred to me as I was watching a rather banal sitcom, Rules of Engagement. I love two of the stars, David Spade and Patrick Warburton, but it's not really that engaging a show, the humour is anodyne and a lot of it is based around traditional gender roles and expectations, but I forced myself to watch it anyway just to see more of the aforementioned stars. The only way I was able to get into it was because I somewhat identified with David Spade's character- being a small blonde guy with long hair and a bit of a perv, haha! We discussed the idea long and hard in this Quackcast and came to some interesting conclusions. One of the ideas floated was that you don't have to identify with any of the characters at all as long as the story is good enough. Another idea is that there are ways to make the audience identify with ANY character regardless of who they are; first person writing is the easiest, making them the main POV character can work, making them an underdog, or giving characters a relatable feeling, experience or situation works too. The classic way of doing it is to make the character somehow similar to the audience it's intended for. This is a banal, amateurish, and basic way of doing things, but it makes up for basic writing. It's why most action films have traditionally have average, bland male stars, usually white and looking between 20-40, and “chick-flicks have the same thing but with a woman. It's why animes often have an extremely bland male star as the main character, especially for harem anime. And this is also the reason for the current fad of gender-swapping and ”race-swapping“ in everything, though through that they're attempting to broaden appeal. I think representation is a related factor (But NOT the same thing),  and that IS important: to be able to see that people like you are ”seen" by the rest of the world and represented in the stories you consume is essential for a sense of self and how you fit into the world. It's something that's needed: people who look like you, talk like you, with lives like you, the same sexuality, gender etc. being represented positively in the stories you consume. That will never not be important! But main character doesn't need that unless the writing is super thin. I rationalise this because even though I'm a straight, white, middle-aged, Australian man I easily identify with any main character regardless of age, gender, sexuality, nationality or ethnicity when the writing is good. But when it's not you cling to what you know: Anything familiar. What do you think? Should main characters always be made to be audience proxies? And if so how should that be done? Can you name things where you identify with none of the characters but still enjoy it anyway? This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by the Railroad of the Wallachian Library - Creepily atmospheric… grey twilit mists swirl and eddy, tensions build, electricity crackles the air as your hackles rise… a ghostly locomotive charges out of the billowing fog only to disappear into the darkness. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: the Railroad of the Wallachian Library - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/nov/26/featured-comic-the-railroad-of-the-wallachian-library/ Featured music: the Railroad of the Wallachian Library - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Railroad_of_the_Wallachian_Library/ - by thehereticlocomotive, rated M 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

This is the third in our weapons trilogy and it's about what happens AFTER the ultimate weapons have done their work: Apocalypse! The end of all things… This term comes from the bible, with the Book of Revelations which talks about what happens during the end of the world, but aside from the myth it's a pretty real concept- there are a LOT of ways the world can end and has indeed ended for various civilisations throughout history. If you want to go riiiiight back there were the different mass extinction events that ended almost all life a few times on this planet. In the history of humanity we have the fall of Rome, an event that was felt for almost 1000 years in Western Europe! It ended technological development, scientific research, the progress of culture, communication, trade, and production were shut down. Development atrophied and technology reversed and reverted. Meanwhile in Northern Africa, the middle east, South America and China advanced empires flourished, but that didn't stem the rot in Europe because there was little contact, communication or trade. There are other examples of this but that's the main one that comes to mind. Modern fiction is replete with a lot of different apocalypse and post apocalypse stories in many different forms (both natural, man made, and mythological). After the second world war the major influence was the idea of nuclear annihilation. A famous early example was On The Beach, a chilling film about American sailors on a submarine who survive the initial Apocalypse. They come to Australia in the Southern hemisphere and try and rally because life seems almost normal there, but when they travel back to the US to find survivors they learn everyone is dead that and the nuclear fallout will eventually even kill the people in the southern hemisphere down in Australia. The whole planet has an inescapable death sentence so all that's left is to choose how and when they will die. 20 years later 1979 famously gave us Mad Max! Which was a beginning of a whole genre of crazy low budget ultra violent deiselpunk post-apocalypse SciFi with muscle cars and torn leather. In this first movie it's pretty tame, we assume that society is slowly breaking down after an apocalypse but people are still keeping things going nevertheless. Max is a leather-clad highway policeman with a wife and child. Pretty soon though a road gang ends his little slice of normalcy and the Road Warrior is born. After that the world of the Mad Max films becomes more and more chaotic and alien, totally divorced from any connection to our present day society. This spawned many imitators, usually terrible but sometimes strangely amazing. What are some of your fave stories in the genre? The cover of this Quackcast is inspired by the 1985 Canadian film Defcon 4 (an image originally created in 1976 by Angus McKie). A Canticle for Lebowitz is a seminal story in the genre, about the preservation of culture and technology after an Apocalypse and how that can help rebuild things and that humans will inevitably repeat the same mistakes… Hell comes to Frogtown is an amazing and fun take on the dieselpunk post-apocalypse genre and definitely a fave of mine. But I think my faves would have to be The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham. Often thought of as “cozy catastrophes” because even though the world as we know it ends and the characters have to re-adapt they do it in a very level-headed way and they find a new normal- that is actually one of the very few absolutely accurate and realistic takes on what happens during and after a real Apocalypse which is why I appreciate it so much: life goes on, it's not the same but you do what you can to make it that way. What do you think? A fan of Waterworld, Fallout, Terminator 2, The Walking Dead, The End, Radioactive dreams, Don't look up, something more fun or more depressing? This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by The KAMics - Relaxed, the coolest of the cool. Kick back and let go to this breezy, slow track with a killer, bopping beat! You could listen to this forever, it's so soothing and calming. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Plague Rat - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/nov/18/featured-comic-plague-rat/ Featured music: The KAMics - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/KAMics_Kast/ - by Kam, rated T. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Get your copy of One Suite Deal from Harlequin's website here. Get your copy of One Suite Deal from Banes & Noble here. Click here to find Author Michele Dunaway's website.   ♡ ♡If you enjoyed today's episode and listen via Apple Podcast, please consider rating and leaving the podcast a review. This is the easiest way to support us and will help other Category Romance readers find us ♡ For a list of all the places where you can find the podcast along with where you can find us on social media, click here for our linktree! Our Email is thecategoricallyromancepod@gmail.com ♡ This podcast is engineered by Sincere Alexander and contains music from Lukrembo  

Last week we had an overview of weapons throughout history and how it's a constant game of balance and oneupmanship. Now we're looking at future weapons and Scifi stuff! There's a lot of potential and a lot of interesting ideas you can use in comics and stories. We talk about a few of these and some of our faves, as well as our own inventions. Future weapons can take all different forms, many kinds of directed energy weapons, energy propelled projectiles, satellite based weapons, drone and robot technology, autonomous weapons systems etc. Biological and chemical weapons are super scary but generally pretty useless in reality, even as terrorist weapons because they're so imprecise and uncontrollable and take a lot of work to set up and deploy. This means they will hit people who aren't your target and they also have an excellent chance of not even working at all despite all the preparation and cost, so we're not even bothering with these in the discussion. One future Scifi weapon concept that always comes up are “plasma” weapons. These are super undefined and no one really knows what they are because they can be so many things. When it comes to weapons what we mean by “plasma” is the very hot gas that has free ions so that it's electrically conductive like metal. We know dangerous plasma mostly from its use as a cutting torch in welding and also the gigantic planet sized solar flares that seem to erupt from the surface of the sun are plasma that's following the huge loop of a magnetic field projecting from the sun, because it can be controlled by magnetic fields. Given this it can be used in a few different ways as a weapon: you can use it like an explosive chemical propellant for firing bullets, you can use it as a sort of flame thrower (especially effective if you can direct it with a magnetic field), you can contain balls of plasma with magnetic fields and throw them like canon shells, or you can use the plasma as an electrically conductive medium to direct lightning bolts. Directed energy weapons are very traditionally SciFi but have only ever seen limited practical usage despite the old popularity of the “Death Ray” and lasers as weapons. They're attractive because the only limiting factor is your energy source, you don't need to carry ammunition so theoretically you can have unlimited shots, they travel at the speed of light so you can't miss, they're not affected by friction or gravity so there are no ballistics to work out either, there's also no loss in energy like there is with traditional guns where the propulsive explosion badly transfers energy to the projectile. The trouble is that they don't work very well as weapons because you need to put in a LOT of energy to do any damage over a distance because they don't work well in an atmosphere, you also have to hold it on a target for a long time. This category includes the aforementioned lasers, microwave weapons, electron beams, particle beams etc They have a lot more potential as space weapons where atmosphere isn't an issue and their lack of recoil is a huge advantage. Electrically accelerated projective weapons known as “mass drivers” are another category. They are capable to much higher speeds than traditional guns or missiles because they're not limited by the compression of gasses. In this group we have Gauss guns aka coil guns, rail guns and some other variations. They use magnetic or electrical fields to accelerate projectiles. The main advantage is speed, increased safety because they don't need dangerous propellant, and shots only limited by your electrical capacity. The disadvantages of these systems is that they're very complicated, they can't use explosive projectiles, and they have a high failure rate- Railguns are the most promising system but each time they fire they produce clouds of burning fire, which is caused by layers of metal being stripped from the rails inside them, which means they degrade very quickly and the rails have to be replaced constantly. We all know the potential of drones, but the use of autonomous self directed weapons where the drones can pick their own targets is where they become scary. Autonomous weapons are already a reality in large defence turrets on ships, around army bases, and important buildings (like the Whitehouse). They can be set to radar directed target acquisition, which they need for defence against fast moving missiles. Machine gun turrets on the defences along the DMZ between North and South Korea also work like this. Even cruise missiles are somewhat autonomous in that they can find their own way to their targets. What we're really worried about though are things like predator drones or tracked bomb disposal robots coming after us with weapons like mounted machine guns, both are possible and have been tested. Satellites have limited weapon capability, none have enough power onboard to carry useful energy weapons, while mass drivers and traditional projectile weapons introduce the problem of recoil which is extremely hard to cope with for a satellite in orbit. They can carry missiles like nuclear weapons be they're extremely vulnerable to attack for such an expensive weapon. successful experiments have been made using traditional guns against other satellites but they're very messy and dangerous to everything in orbit. A stupid idea that was proposed were the “rods of god”: giant tungsten poles which the satellite could drop as destructive gravity driven bombs, The trouble is that would be super expensive to get into space, the accuracy is extremely bad and the energy needed to aim them would be too costly. It would only be useful as a “sword of Damocles” if you had them always hanging over specific targets, but even then they'd be very easy to disable. We came up with our own future weapons. Mine was a marshmallow gun that would spray masses of harmless sugary marshmallow fluff all over your enemies, then use a microwave emitter to massively expand the marshmallow and heat it to debilitating levels. This would envelop people in masses of injurious, burning gooey muck, which would then harden on them and any surface it touched. It would also be terrible for the insides of electronics and machinery. I could talk about a LOT more but let's leave it for now. Listen to the cast! What are YOUR fave future weapons and how do they work? This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by Kaiju Valentine - Stomp meets a big stomping monster woman as she bops and bounces heavily to this cool, percussive and yet somewhat ethereal sound. It's party time here is Kaiju land! This is an infectious dance number! A comic by our very own Banes! Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Hell Monkey - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/nov/12/featured-comic-hell-monkey/ Featured music: Kaiju Valentine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Kaiju_Valentine/ - by Banes, rated M. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS Next Week - Post Apocalyptic stuff.

Today we have onboard with us our resident theme maker, our classic composer and musical genius! He does all the DD comic inspired themes that regularly appear on the Quackcast and has done so for the last 10 years! In that time he's done almost 600 musical themes. At the moment Gunwallace is the games-master of a Star Trek roleplay thing that Tantz, Banes, and I all do after the cast. He's based an illustrated story on it called “On the Edge” with art by Banes and Genejoke, and some by Tantz and me, Ozoneocean. Gunwallace is a multi-talented creator, artist, writer, musician, composer, author, cook, and mixologist! This hale and hearty, towering example of a New Zealander has been posting comics here forever, notably the author of the very popular Playmobile art comic “Character Development” and the popular one panel strip “All Unicorns to Battle Stations”, among many others. He was a zine writer from way back in the day and he's STILL in the Zine-Scene now, having met many popular creators in that field as well and being one himself, he was even in talks to work with the world famous Lord of The Rings Director Peter Jackson at one point! In his free time he has written cookbooks based on bizarre old recipes, and books of cocktail recipes based on drinks he's devised himself and with friends. In this cast we have a long meandering chat with him about a whole bunch of things and by the by we also include many of the themes he's composed over the years. In order of appearance they are: Bruno harm, Life and death, Clint, Joe pop, Pinky TA, Typical Strange, Without Moonlight, Ginger and shadow, God's Revelation, and Super Temps. If you would like a copy of a theme Gunwallace has done he's more than happy to send it to you! Just contact him and ask! Our Patreon members ($5 and up) get to see us talking to Gunwallace on video. A message from Tantz: Join the fun, get more people to know you, and interact with more artists on Blue Sky! Follow us on - https://bsky.app/profile/theduckwebcomics.bsky.social (@theduckwebcomics.bsky.social) where the Quackchat continues every Sunday! This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by A SuperActionGirl - This starts off with a weird stuttering electronica synth sound that echoes and vibrates as it stammers its repeating yet evolving chorus of notes in way evocative of fractal patterns or blooming flowers, finally ending with a phrase that seems to reference a similar sound from the start of Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who Topics and shownotes Links Gunwallce's latest project, On The Edge - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/On_The_Edge/ Featured comic: Echo And Boltz Halloween Special - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/nov/04/featured-comic-echo-and-boltz-halloween-special/ Featured music: A SuperActionGirl - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/A_SuperActionGirl/ - by Loststartraveler0, rated T. The comics with themes played in the cast: Bruno harm - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bruno_Harm/ Life and death - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Life_and_Death/ Clint - not on the site now. Joe pop - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Joe_Pop/ Pinky TA - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/ Typical Strange - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Typical_Strange/ Without Moonlight - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Without_Moonlight/ Ginger and Shadow - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Ginger_and_Shadow/ God's Revelation - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Gods_Revelation/ Super Temps - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Super_Temps/ THRUD Goddess Of Thunder - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/THRUD_Goddess_Of_Thunder/ Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

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. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS Futurecast - Post Apocalyptic stuff. Next Week - Interview with Gunwallace!

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. The Lost Boys is an interesting comedy horror vampire film, it distils a LOT of really big 1980s style trends and yet it doesn't seem old fashioned or twee because it takes the viewer to the era and accepts you rather than keeping you at a distance as an outsider. You see punks, the surfer beach culture, metal-heads, new romantics and more. It's just a great showcase and super exaggeration of the styles. The movie starts off with the awesome Cry Little Sister theme by Gerard McMann which is 80s but also has a timeless creepy gothic feel, it's the perfect intro to the movie, setting the slightly edgy, creepy tone and coolness factor at the same time. But it also contains the perfect summary of the theme of film to come. McMann wrote the song after reading the script rather than seeing the film so he was able to get at the central things that are easy to miss with all the cool visuals: it's a film about families and loyalty. Two families compete for survival, one are the Emersons who have just moved to Santa Clara to be with their grandpa, the patriarch, the other is the vampire clan led by its patriarch. The vampire clan wants to absorb the Emersons, starting with the oldest son Michael, but youngest Sam doesn't want that to happen! Cry Little Sister is from the perspective of the Vamps alone though while the film is from the perspective of the Emersons. This is a fun, stylish movie and we had a lot of fun watching it all over again and doing this reaction cast! Comics even have a prominent place in the film with the vampire slaying Frog brothers working at a comic shop and using comics as a way of bonding with Sam as well as finding out how to deal with the vampires. Have a listen and maybe go and watch the movie again. We made this week's Patreon video free to all Patreons, so go on over there and join for free to watch it! - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck This week Gunwallace has given us a Halloween sounding theme inspired by The Deadlys ReVamped - Haunting, hollow, creepy intro into a rather more friendly and charming old house with a lovely friendly, ghostly party going on… till you find out that everybody there is dead and you're all alone amongst these fleeting apparitions who fade away, leaving the house dark and desolate once more! Topics and shownotes Links Great music from Lost Boys: Cry Little Sister - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrMLMV6E4CM I Still Believe Tim Capello - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzXuuxnp08o Featured comic: The Side Characters - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/oct/22/featured-comic-the-side-characters/ Featured music: The Deadlys ReVamped - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Deadlys_ReVamped/ - by Paneltastic, rated T.. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

-Cover image: female Sagittarius silhouette pic by Tantz that only took a moment to create but its impact was way larger! 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. This goes into all aspects of life and creation because it's how the brain of most adult neurotypical people works: we don't experience the world as a real time 24 hour, 86400 second long drag, taking in every instant as it happens, rather we phase all that out and only focus on a highlight real of interesting moments- those get expanded in importance and we think they take up more time and space than they actually do, this is why you constantly forget routine things that you do during the day (did I put sugar in my tea? What did I come in here for?), because your brain is on autopilot for the unimportant routine things. And this is why we think time slows down when something scary happens: because our brains actually start taking in awareness in real time and noticing everything! In reality any fight only lasts a few seconds or a minute or two at most, most things in sex are like that too, and the old adage with war is that it's a few minutes of action and many hours of boredom… And yet when we depict those things in stories for comics or film or whatever we always massively stretch out those moments of action far longer than they could ever last because that is the only way to make them realistically relatable to the viewer: Because when you experience those things your awareness is extremely focussed and so they seem to last much, much longer. It's not always like that- When you're a child your brain (for a neurotypical) still needs experience in order to understand how things work so it has to be constantly taking in everything, which is why it's so easy for children to get painfully bored and why time seems to last SO much longer. There are also unfortunate people who's brains are always stuck in that mode so all life and experience to them is absolutely interminable. I feel like I have the opposite issue where I have very little awarenesses of anything specific and time zips past at a breakneck pace, like the Rolling Stones song Rock Off “I'm zipping through the days at lightning speed” but change “days” to “decades”. To get back to the point of this- Things that take hours, days, or years to create but only a few seconds to enjoy and experience, can STILL create an impact that lasts forever. Even a movie which can go for 2 hours or more is usually only enjoyed as a few import but very short scenes that we increase in importance in our own brains - Which is why we often remember things differently to how they really were. I think it's extremely important for creator to understand this: how people take things in and consume media and reality as a “best off” compilation of important moments, but also that even though something might take forever to make and most people will only take a few a seconds to experience it, its impact can be huge and last much longer. This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by Nose Bleed - A fiery raw blast of hot rocky goodness spewed forth like a cloud of burning super hot plasma, excited electrons contained by a powerful magnetic field as they race far and wide, spreading hellish red illumination and destruction. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Geist Gears - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/oct/15/featured-comic-geist-gears/ Featured music: Nose Bleed - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Nose_Bleed_/ - by Skudsink M. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Sam and Dean go help Max and Alicia Banes after their mom went on a hunting trip and hasn't been home in a few days. Elsewhere, Mary carries the mytharc as the B plot. We discuss how Tasha looks very young to have adult children (and do some math), how it's impossible to think like Cas, and have questions about the shifter's accent. Patreon Bluesky Instagram Tumblr Facebook

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. There's this old idea that there are “Western” and “Eastern” dragons in myth, that is simply nonsense and just a relic of an older way of looking at the world. The truth is that dragons are present in most cultures in some form. Famous dragons in myth are the ancient Germanic creatures like Jörmungand, Níðhöggr, or the dragons fought by Beowulf and Siegfried. There's the famous dragon that was slain by Saint George, the godly Celtic dragon that adorns the Welsh flag, there are many wise demigod Greek dragons, as well as the more animalistic Hydra. There's Tiamat from Mesopotamia, a more godly creature, and speaking of gods there's the Rainbow serpent from the Australian indigenous cultures who created all the world! The Mayans had Quetzalcoatl with its rainbow body and beautiful feathered wings. Then we have all the dragons from East Asia and Southeast Asia who can be outright godly and imperial or simply associated with elemental aspects of the landscape but this is barely scratching the surface. Dragons in culture are FAR richer than “East Vs West”. What from do they take though, what defines are dragon? Well most dragons are serpentine and reptilian in form, with scales, large teeth, and an elongated body. they often have four limbs with claws, a pointed tail, and sometimes even wings, usually bat style but sometimes feathered. Those are not needed for a creature to BE a dragon though, the long serpentine form is enough. Dragons in modern pop-culture fantasy tend to have a long tail long neck, scales, a head covered in horns and or fins, a big body with four limbs, and a large pair of bat wings. They can be anything from cat sized to the size of a continent but are usually the size of a big house. Fantasy gave us many notable dragons and fantasy art really lit my young brain aflame, with the wonderful imagery by the likes of Michael Whelen, David Roe, and so many more. As a child I was captivated by an image of “Smaug” on the cover of an ‘80s printing of Lord of the Rings. Later I was fascinated by the dragons in the stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Anne McCaffery, Katherine Kerr, Terry Patchett, Gordon R Dickson and more. I'm sure many have fond memories of Dungeons and Dragons and the book series Dragonlance. Not to mention the great movies like Dragonslayer, How to train your Dragon, Dragonheart, A flight of Dragons, Raya the Last Dragon, The Hobbit, Reign of Fire, Jabberwocky, Game of Thrones and more. Then of course there are human dragons! There were some dragons in myth that could take human form. Draco, who we get the name of “draconian” laws from was a Greek fellow with a draconian name. Vlad the Impaler's dad is supposed to have earned the title of “Dragon”, which is why we call him Dracula (son of the dragon) and where we get the fantasy horror vampire creature's name “Count Dracula”. A “dragon” in modern Greece is a particularly evil type of criminal (which I won't discuss here). A Dragon in US business language is a powerful investor. And a dragon-lady is usually a very intimidating and powerful Chinese woman. But my favourite human dragon is Haku from Spirited Away. What is YOUR fave dragon? Is it from myth or fantasy? Do you even like dragons at all? This week we have another best off from Gunwallace. Due to the dragon topic I selected Gunwallace's them to Dragonet from Quackcast 251! - It's best described as “Royal, commanding, and bleak”. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: GUZ - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/oct/07/featured-comic-guz/ Featured music: Dragonet - http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Dragonet/ - by Willgun, rated E. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

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. Punks plus computers signalled a more universal use of the new technology of computers in the near future world especially as imagined by Willian Gibson with his novel Neuromancer. There were other influential cyberpunk writers like Neal Stephenson with SnowCrash and many more. My fave was Manga creator Masamune Shirow with his books like Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed and more which tackle subjects like trans-humanisim as humans evolve with technology and then INTO technology itself. In the late 80s and early 90s cyberpunk was very influential in anime with the likes of the Ghost in the Shell movie, Bubblegum crisis, AD police, and the amazing milestone that is Akira! A very formative game in the world of cyberpunk was the RPG Shadowrun, which was near future urban fantasy plus cyberpunk in all its pure glory. These days we have the computer game Cyberpunk 2020, but it's an extremely derivative and pale shadow of what had gone before it, it functions as a sort of a retro “greatest hits” of the genre, but it's a good intro into it and that goes for the Netflix anime of the same name. There were various unrelated genres inspired by cyberpunk- Steampunk, Dieselpunk, and the later dubious genres raypunk and atompunk which are just rebranded early standard SciFi. What is your fave example of cyberpunk? Do you know what cyberpunk is? When did you first come to cyberpunk? This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by The Return of Jake Sunrise - A desolate red dirt desert, a wind whistles through and carries with it a torrent of sound and energy, flooding in like a sudden rainstorm, bringing with it life, colour, and revitalisation! The desert blooms. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: The Books of Avo - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/oct/01/featured-comic-the-books-of-avo/ Featured music: The Return of Jake Sunrise - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_Return_of_Jake_Sunrise/ - by Picture_Books, rated E. 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/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

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. There are 3 main types of fights: duels, brawls, and battles, though there are a million combos and variations between those. Duel: one against one. Brawl: everyone against everyone. Battle: a big group against another big group. Fights usually involve a character that wants something and another trying to prevent them from getting it so the narrative of your fight has to include that dynamic, not simply action for its own sake. I've worked at drawing a few fight scenes myself for my comics and I think I do a pretty decent job at it. I visualise the fight progress in my mind, work out the beginning, middle and end of it (treating it like a mini story), and then visualise cool images that depict parts of the progress and action in the most dynamic and sexily interesting way possible. That works well for duels. Battles are more chaotic and it helps just to focus on a few key parts while leaving the main fighting in the background. Trying to show the overall clash on a larger scale is very easy to mess up: look at the stupid battles in the later Lord of the Rings movies, the troop moments make no sense at all, they're just running from here to there to everywhere pretty pointlessly, but when things focus down on individuals at a smaller scale it works much better! What are your fave fight scenes? And how do you go about choreographing a fight in your comic? One of my faves is the duel between Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride and the first fight in the movie the Duellists. This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Cork and Blotto - Hill street bluesish 80s sounding TV drama action theme mixed with a holly reverential choir. Tasty, spiky red hot lashings of electric guitar splashed thoroughly through it, counterbalancing the more thoughtful and staid piano. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Shiortsighted - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/sep/24/featured-comic-shiortsighted/ Featured music: Cork and Blotto - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Cork_and_Blotto/ - by Stever_Blotto, rated M. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

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. Being right in relationships is a much older thing than the internet and a far harder and more destructive issue. There's an old meme that goes along the lines of “if you're a man you're always wrong”, so the idea is that you say something like “yes dear, you're right” every time there's a disagreement and that's the key to a happy relationship… which is of course harmful meaningless nonsense which infantilises both people. THAT is NOT admitting you're wrong, it's literally just pretending, it's insincere and doesn't help anyone. The approach you should take is to understand WHY something is wrong. Among my many favourite films is Scott Pilgrim Vs the world. In it he has many cartoonish, exciting, and exaggerated battles with the exes of his new girlfriend Ramona Flowers, but underneath and besides that, more powerfully and interestingly he resolves with his own exes and it's only when he does that, that he can truly move forward. Instead of a flashy, crazy battles like with Ramona's exes, Scott simply realises what he did wrong and owns up to it with each of them. That makes you respect the character far more and really helped tidy up the resolution of the story. Villains coming to a self realisation and admitting they're wrong can make for a very powerful ending. How do you go with this, do you remember a story where a character admits they're wrong or have you been able able to come to the realisation that you're wrong about something and accept the correction? This week Gunwallace gave us a theme inspired by Somewhere in the Universe - Driving beat taking us on a road trip to hot and heavy, fiery groovetown in a muscle car under the bright sun on burning vinyl seats, windows wound down and blasting us with oven air but we don't care because we're rocking all the way. Topics and shownotes Links Featured comic: Imago, Nebraska - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/sep/17/featured-comic-imago-nebraska/ Featured music: Somewhere in the Universe - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Somewhere_In_The_Universe/ - by Marchy_D, rated T. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

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? Movie directors are a good thing to follow because it's a related art form. We mention the compositions of Spielberg, Sergio Leone, Wes Anderson and more. I came from a fine art background so I used to often try to emulate the compositions of classical art. Banes recommends reading “Framed Ink” by Marcos Mateu-Mestre. What inspires you with your art direction? Do you think deeply about it or do you just depict the characters in the most efficient way possible to tell the story? This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by It's my turn to save the world - High energy, purposeful, cute and full of stars, twinkles, and lines as straight as glowing laser beams, burning through with fearsome power and heat! Topics and shownotes Links The cover image is from a Banes choreographed panel from our sexy horror comic Key of Dreams that was part of the DD anthology!  Get a copy here for $25 - https://www.patreon.com/DrunkDuck/shop/drunk-duck-anthology-flock-of-dreams-276787?source=storefront  Featured comic: Pigeons - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/sep/09/featured-comic-pigeons/ Featured music: It's my turn to save the world - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Its_My_Turn_to_Save_the_World/ - by Nanji, rated E. Special thanks to: Gunwallace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Gunwallace/ Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/ Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/ 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! Join us on Discord - https://discordapp.com/invite/7NpJ8GS

Show No. 35 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Paul Sporer, from Rotographs, and the Sleeper and the Bust podcast... in Part 1 (2:35), Paul and PD discuss dropping Adley Rutschman, how the move to Sacramento will affect A's players' fantasy values, and more player observations from that real 2025 draft that started in August... and in Part 2 (1:27:45), Paul tells PD about pitchers for the stretch run and his Boons and Banes for 2025... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (47:40) and the NL (1:05:00)... In the Frequent Flyer (1:57:25), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at BOS 2B Kristian Campbell... And in Extra Innings (2:00:30), PD looks at a wrapup of our 2024 podcast season... Runs 2:09:15

Show No. 34 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Mike Gianella, from Baseball Prospectus... in Part 1 (2:40), Mike and PD discuss assessing 2024 player projections and the greatness of Aaron Judge... and in Part 2 (1:29:00), Mike tells PD about the 'mushy middle' of starting pitchers, FAAB bidding in experts' leagues and his Boons and Banes for 2025 drafts... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (34:20) and the NL (1:08:00)... In the Minor League Minute (2:00:10), BHQ Minor Leagues analyst Rob Gordon updates top prospects, including TEX RHP Kumar Rocker, SF 1B Bryce Eldridge and BOS INF/OF Kristian Campbell... In the Frequent Flyer (2:04:15), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at PHI RHSP Seth Johnson... Runs 2:10:25

Show No. 33 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Jeff Zimmerman, from Rotographs, the Launch Angle podcast, and The Process fantasy baseball manual... in Part 1 (2:40), Jeff and PD discuss his background in baseball research and his yearly fantasy manual The Process... and in Part 2 (1:12:35), Jeff tells PD about a Bizarro fantasy baseball format, and player discussions including Jake McCarthy vs Victor Robles, Junior Caminero, Zebby Matthews, Bubba Chandler, Grant Holmes, Tanner Houck and Paul Skenes, plus his Boons and Banes for the RoS... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Joe Orrico discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (36:55) and the NL (0:56:15)... In the Frequent Flyer (2:00:40), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at LA RHRP Edgardo Henriquez... And in Extra Innings (2:04:05), PD looks at Joey Votto's Hall of Fame candidacy... Runs 2:13:15

Show No. 32 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Fred Zinkie, from Yahoo! Sports... in Part 1 (2:40), Fred and PD discuss which stats and metrics he uses in player valuation... and in Part 2 (1:18:40), Fred tells PD about evaluating two-start pitchers, trading for category help, and his Boons and Banes for the RoS... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Joe Orrico discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (43:50) and the NL (57:25)... In the Frequent Flyer (2:01:05), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at HOU SS Shay Whitcomb... And in Extra Innings (2:04:25), PD looks at Canadian MLB award winners... Runs 2:11:45

Show No. 31 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Doug Dennis, from bullpens columnist at BHQ.com... in Part 1 (2:30), Doug and PD discuss the poor performance of Doug's no-starters strategy in Tout-AL, the value of non-closer relievers, and some bits and pieces from the trade deadline... and in Part 2 (1:09:25), Doug tells PD about bullpens of five teams, including KC and PHI, and his Boons & Banes for the RoS... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (24:20) and the NL (:48:47)... In the Minor League Minute (1:44:05), BHQ Minor Leagues analyst Rob Gordon updates nine prospects, including LAA RHP Caden Dana and PHI OF Justin Crawford... And in the Frequent Flyer (1:50:45), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at OAK RHP RP Grant Holman... Runs 1:56:40

Show No. 30 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Jason Collette, from Rotowire, the Rotowire podcast and the Sleeper and the Bust podcast... in Part 1 (2:25), Jason and PD discuss how the Rays did at in deadline trades and non-closer relievers ... and in Part 2 (1:25:15), Jason tells PD about using players' Unrestricted Free Agent status in draft planning and roster management, and his Boons and Banes (also smokers and sous vide cooking tips)... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (40:35) and the NL (1:05:55)... In the Minor League Minute (1:58:45), BHQ Minor Leagues analyst Rob Gordon updates six prospects, including top prospects traded at the deadline, including MIA RHP Robby Snelling and DET C Thayron Liranzo... In the Frequent Flyer (2:04:15), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at ATL C Drake Baldwin... Runs 2:10:05

Show No. 28 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Derek Carty, from The Bat and TheBatX projections systems and the EV Analytics website... in Part 1 (3:05), Derek and PD discuss projections theory, including prospect weighting, confidence levels through the season, and incorporating Statcast metrics... and in Part 2 (1:27:05), Derek discusses variances between this year's projections and actuals, plus his Boons and Banes... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (33:10) and the NL (1:03:40)... In the Minor League Minute (1:48:20), BHQ Minor Leagues analyst Rob Gordon updates seven prospects who might be on the move at the trade deadline or are just playing well lately, including DET OF Max Clark, DET SS Kevin McGonigle, TEX RHP Kumar Rocker and MIA RHP Max Meyer... In the Frequent Flyer (1:52:50), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at MIN RHSP Zebby Matthews... And in Extra Innings (1:56:10), PD looks at pitch-mix changes from 2023 to 2024... Runs 2:03:20

Show No. 27 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Ariel Cohen, from the ATC projection/valuation systems, the Beat the Shift podcast and Rotoballers... in Part 1 (3:45), Ariel and PD discuss the pros and cons of injured lists in fantasy leagues and other league, drafting top pitchers in 2025, and using ADPs in draft planning... and in Part 2 (1:24:50), Ariel and PD follow up on our Tuesday Special Roundtable edition, as Ariel has his Part 1 awards and some Boons and Banes for the RoS... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (47:10) and the NL (1:08:05)... In the Frequent Flyer (1:48:40), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at LAD RHSP River Ryan... And in Extra Innings (1:52:00), PD has another Extra Innings quiz, using Statcast data from Part 1 of the season... Runs 2:03:30

Show No. 25 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Sara Sanchez, a PTTomorrow analyst at BaseballHQ.com, co-host of the PitcherList.com podcast Fantasy Feud, and a contributor to the Cubs fan site Bleed Cubbie Blue... in Part 1 (2:35), Sara and PD discuss her start in fantasy baseball and the business, and managing shortfalls in saves and steals, ... and in Part 2 (1:19:05), Sara tells PD about NL East players including Eddie Rosario, Edward Cabrera, Edmundo Sosa and Edwin Diaz, and some whose first names don't start with "Ed"... plus her Boons and Banes for the RoS... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (30:50) and the NL (52:50)... In the Minor League Minute (1:45:20), BHQ Minor Leagues analyst Rob Gordon discusses the draft and futures game this weekend, and four prospects including OAK SS Jacob Wilson and COL RHP Chase Dollander... In the Frequent Flyer (1:50:25), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at TAM 1B Xavier Isaac... And in Extra Innings (1:53:55), PD looks at the big mistake we make with flyballs in pitcher assessment... Runs 2:02:55

Show No. 24 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Nick Pollack, founder, podcaster, livestreamer and analyst of PitcherList.com... in Part 1 (2:15), Nick and PD discuss his weekly starting pitcher Top-100 list, starting with newly listed starters like PIT RHP Paul Skenes and CLE RHP Gavin Williams ... and in Part 2 (1:17:50), Nick and PD continue with the Top-100 SPs, including big risers like CHW LHP Garret Crochet and KC RHP Seth Lugo, and big fallers like Kevin Gausman and Zack Eflin... plus Nick has some RoS SP Boons and Banes... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (39:10) and the NL (1:01:05)... In the Frequent Flyer (1:50:50), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at WAS OF Dylan Crews... And in Extra Innings (1:54:10), PD looks at having fun with Statcast pitch-count data... Runs 2:01:50

Show No. 23 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Joe Orrico, from the 90 Feet From Home Patreon and podcast... in Part 1 (2:55), Joe and PD discuss hitters including Cedric Mullins, Richie Palacios and Colt Keith... and in Part 2 (1:13:15), Joe tells PD about pitchers including CLE RHP Tanner Bibee, HOU RHP Hunter Brown, the TOR bullpen, whether Paul Skenes will be the first SP off the board in 2025, and his Boons and Banes... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (39:40) and the NL (57:30)... In the Minor League Minute (1:54:25), BHQ Minor Leagues analyst Rob Gordon updates four top prospects, including CHW LHP Noah Schultz and TAM 3B Brayden Taylor... In the Frequent Flyer (1:58:35), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at MIN SS Brooks Lee... And in Extra Innings (2:01:55), PD looks at arbitraging at the halfway point... Runs 2:08:15

Show No. 22 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Mike Kurland, from MLBplayingtime.com... in Part 1 (2:50), Mike and PD discuss playing time for ATL, what happens in BOS PT with David Hamilton out of the lineup, PT questions in KC about Kyle Isbel and Michael Massey, and Jonny DeLuca's PT in TAM... and in Part 2 (1:36:30), Mike tells PD about how he maintains the PT for all 30 teams at MLBPlayingTime.com, why he was the only manager in the NFBC Main Event to drop Ryan Jeffers, players finding the home run stroke, and his Boons and Banes... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (51:05) and the NL (1:18:05)... In the Minor League Minute (2:19:35), BHQ Minor Leagues analyst Rob Gordon updates six prospects, including BOS C Kyle Teel and CHC C Moises Ballesteros... In the Frequent Flyer (2:24:00), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at HOU RHSP Jake Bloss... And in Extra Innings (2:20:35), PD looks at building the super-hybrid platoon player... Runs 2:36:10

Show No. 20 is a Friday Full Edition featuring a two-part interview with Todd Zola, from Mastersball, ESPN, Rotowire and SiriusXM... in Part 1 (2:55), Todd and PD discuss the addition of Negro Leagues players to the official MLB stats, and a new draft to get those players and other alltime greats onto fantasy teams, plus a look at the early drop in run-scoring... and in Part 2 (1:52:10), Todd tells PD about the return of the knuckleball, some hitter would-you-rathers, and pitcher pickup Boons and Banes... In the Market Watch player news report, PD and Ray Murphy discuss hitter and pitcher news from the AL (49:10) and the NL (1:25:45)... In the Minor League Minute (2:17:00), BHQ minor leagues analyst/scouting team member Rob Gordon updates six prospects MIA RHP Max Meyer and CHW RHP Drew Thorpe, plus a quick NCAA Regional update... In the Frequent Flyer (2:20:55), BaseballHQ analyst Alex Beckey looks at MIN RHSP David Festa... Runs 2:27:15