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  • Quackcast 715 - Apocalypse

    Quackcast 715 - Apocalypse
    2024/11/26
    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
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    59 分
  • Quackcast 714 - Future Weapons

    Quackcast 714 - Future Weapons
    2024/11/19
    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 ...
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    46 分
  • Quackcast 713 - Gunwallace, Master Composer

    Quackcast 713 - Gunwallace, Master Composer
    2024/11/12
    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
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    1 時間 15 分
  • Quackcast 712 - Guncast

    Quackcast 712 - Guncast
    2024/11/05
    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!
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    1 時間 8 分
  • Quackcast 711 - Lost Boys

    Quackcast 711 - Lost Boys
    2024/10/29

    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
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    1 時間 18 分
  • Quackcast 710 - Ducks in in the wind

    Quackcast 710 - Ducks in in the wind
    2024/10/22
    -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
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    53 分
  • Quackcast 709 - Dragons!

    Quackcast 709 - Dragons!
    2024/10/15
    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
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    1 時間 13 分
  • Quackcast 708 - Cyberpunk

    Quackcast 708 - Cyberpunk
    2024/10/08

    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/


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