For One of our upcomming Quackcasts we'd loke to hear about the songs that inspire you when you do your comics.
Also, which songs go with which parts of your comic?
What would be your ideal movie theme?
What songs or music get you in the MOOD to do your comic?
And finally, what do you think of Gunwallace's amazing comic themes he makes for the Quackcast?

When I'm drawing it's usually something I am very familar with so it doesn't distract me too much, or a film/game score. Ghosts by NIN is a good one, as are many of Clint mansells film scores. The score to dredd is a god one when I'm doing baso. There isn't specefic songs for parts i do, but i will often have soby artis whose lyrics are fitting for wa I'm writing and lettering.

I play reruns of favorite TV shows (mostly old adventure shows like MacGyver and Scarecrow and Mrs. King) while I work. They all have instrumental theme songs, so it puts me in the proper mindset, and I guess is inspiring in a way.


There are two songs in the rotation of my favorite morning commute radio station that put me in mind of my characters. “Every Breath You Take” by The Police is Raidon's unofficial theme song. And “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics puts me in mind of Kaida. I think I just hear them so often that the lyrics stick in my head and eventually, I think, “That sounds just like Kaida's life.” I kinda hope I can match songs to other characters, because the association makes me nostalgic and happy.


I appreciate music and scores for shows and movies. The best scores have character-specific themes. That was one of my favorite little touches in the original Star Wars trilogy. Every character had a theme. Most people recognize the Imperial March when Vader is on screen, but Luke had his own theme, Leia had hers, Han his, etc. My anime obsession Detective Conan has character-specific theme music in the score too. I don't think musically enough to envision a score for UB. It's just words and pictures to me, but if it was in a medium with sound, I would want there to be character themes in addition to “thinking music,” “chase music,” “upbeat/silly scene music,” etc.


Gunwallace's comic theme music is amazing. I'd totally hire him to do the score for my show/movie.

I have a playlist in my ipod dedicated to one of my comics, which consists of Deep Forest and a few songs from anime soundtracks. Often times I'll just play anything (video game osts, Pandora radio, etc.) for background noise while I draw and color. The two songs that really get me in the mood to draw up comics are “While the Earth Sleeps” by Deep Forest and “Parallels” by Yes.

I love great theme music from movies and TV. I grew up with them and still know the words to too many theme songs. I really don't listen to stuff as I work anymore but I do hum and sing. For most of Tales of SIG as it is a Star Trek tribute the various Star Trek music whirled around in my head. Mostly original series stuff. Right now I can't get the theme song from Girls und Panzer out of my head.

I think Gunwallace's themes are superb. They really capture the comic's essence and have led me to chekc out comics I owuldn't have otherwise read. Really he's the John Williams of Drunk Duck.

Anything by the people who used to do the ITC tv shows would be great for Bravo1102 originals.

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Pinky's theme is Buik Mckane by T-Rex; not the theme of the comic, just Pinky herself. WHen she walks on the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igOQclFxHAc
Listen to that sound and you SEE Pinky in all her awesomeness, Pink hair, groovy outfit, agressive attitude. It's HER. HELL YES!

The first scene of Pinky aproaching the battfleet is Rhapsody i Blue by George Gershwin.
This scene: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/4766795/
And this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynEOo28lsbc

These scene of Pinky's Tromper rising up on its legs for the first time and then grinding through the tunnels blowing away the troops with gory, unstoppable force is Ich Will by Rammstein
The part that starts here: http://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Pinky_TA/4778164/
This music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC8wxSBSDI0

Of course Gunwallace did an amazing job on the theme he did :)

Gah, this is one topic I just can't really contribute! I don't purposefully listen to music (or even imagine it) when working on my comic. Sometimes, when I start imagining about the movie that will eventually be made from my comic *chuckle* I'll imagine scores or montage-type music for various scenes… I wonder if music being another of my hobbies has anything to do with it - being a band nerd, music theory, playing instruments, choral singing, breaking apart every song I ever hear…. Nah, can't be!

I am music illiterate and never listen to it unless I'm in the car. I had to look up the titles and groups of the songs I mentioned. :P My background noise is TV.

ozoneocean wrote:
Anything by the people who used to do the ITC tv shows would be great for Bravo1102 originals.

That would be the work of Barry Gray who did the music for Thunderbirds, Space:1999 and UFO among other Gerry Anderson series. ( http://ufoseries.com/barry/)
I was actually watching the Tunderbirds episodes while doing the first bunch of pages of Tales of SIG

I usually have a playlist for each of my projects and for all of them, when I post the scene, I'll mention in the comments that a certain song inspired the scene. Lady Unlucky's list is generally a mix of classical/electronica blends and jazz/swing. A couple of the scenes/musical inspirations so far –
Bachelorette party montage // The Brian Setzer Orchestra, “Here Comes the Broad”
The bridge scene // Absinthe Junk, “White Nights”
I'm working on turning Lady Unlucky into an animation so I've already been considering what would be its “movie” theme. Right now I'm using this royalty-free song called “Open the Sky” (the instrumental version) and I really like it, but I'm hoping I can commission someone to make original music for the project. In theory I could make it myself as I've been doing for 20 Galaxies, but I'm not sure I can make the type of music I want.
I can't believe Gunwallace can make such nice themes so quickly!

Also, Gunwallace's comic themes in one word: Eargasmic!

For some reason I think the climatic fight scene in Tales of SIG should be read to Nancy Sinatra's “These Boots are Made for Walking” since it's all about ladies doing kicks with boots. With the villain's last wardrobe change into thigh high red boots and black fishnet it also works as her theme song. And it is from 1966 and goes with Star Trek:TOS.

Such great topic!… first, Gunwallace music, I think, is always right for the comic… he's got the skill… sometimes I think it may not be what the comic's author would've chosen… my comic (soon to be updated) usually comes to me with a song in my head… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S_u4kzJoEj4 … which basically tells the story of the self proclaimed ladies' man and hero… I start hearing that guitar in my head and is time to write something…

I really like gunwallaces themes, they usually hit the mark.
The new iron maiden album has been a great soundtrack for creating this evening. I've gotten loads done.

I don't listen to music when I work on my comic. I'm usually either watching/listening to something on TV or listening to a podcast… though I can't actually remember the last time I listened to the Quackcast. It's been a while! I really should tune in more often.

I don't know what my comic's theme music would be. But music did at least play some role in inspiring the comic in the first place. When I was between projects and not doing a comic, I found myself drawn to music like ‘Little Dipper’ by Hum, ‘Another Space Song’ by Failure, and ‘Battle’ by Blur. There was something transcendent about that kind of music that I wanted to somehow capture in my next project. That at least in part ended up steering me into trying to do a space opera.

Thanks for the comments about my themes. It's a bit risky putting together music for someone else's comic, not always knowing their tastes. But hopefully the themes give the comics a few extra clicks.
As for listening to music, I have a Spotify playlist called Instrumental Soup I listen to on Shuffle. It's a mix of instrumental tracks from Artrock to Zydeco, with a fair bit of funk in the mix. I find lyrics distract me too much when writing.
Baby Elephant Walk might be an appropiate theme tune for All Unicorns to Battle Stations.

The Robotech Battlestations theme is what All Unicorns to Battle Stations brings to mind for me- initially just because of the amusing mental image of unicorns rushing to rainbow coloured veretech fights and “manning” laser turrets firing sparkles, but the association stuck and metally that's my theme for the comic now.

The themes to the Ghost in the SHell TV series really get me pumped to do Pinky TA. :D

Since Gunwallace created his excellent theme for Awfully Decent Fellows, I'll tend to have that playing in my head and somtimes through my speakers when I sit down to draw. Prior to that, it would be the intro to Isaac Hayes' version of Walk On By, which has a Morricone inspired cinematic quality to it. I still sometimes use that one to tackle particularly tricky panels.

Individual scenes will generally suggest their own soundtrack. The current interiors of the Olde Ska Inn are an obvious choice for ska and rocksteady. If you went there for a pub lunch today you would undoubtedly hear something like this.

Banes and I did this Quackcast on SUnday morning (Saturday night for him).
It was good! :)

Pitface would have been there too, but selfishly had to go to her own birthday party instead. Can you beleive that???????????
Hahaha!:D

ozoneocean wrote:
Banes and I did this Quackcast on SUnday morning (Saturday night for him).
It was good! :)

Pitface would have been there too, but selfishly had to go to her own birthday party instead. Can you beleive that???????????
Hahaha!:D

Does that mean we're gonna have cake?!