All language subtitles for Duckman - Designing Duckman-ing

You know, I get letters from
all over the world asking me,

"Everett, how do you draw
Duckman?"

Well, I'm gonna show you
right now.

[***]

Start with a straight line,
add the front of the head,

then the bill.

Eh--
I mean, the bill go-- Heh-heh!

Wait a minute.

[CLEARS THROAT]

Back of the neck, the hair...

[SIGHS]

Okay, I can do this.
Wait a minute, now.

Let me-- There's the hair,

front of the head,

bill...

[SIGHS]

[***]

I started doing actually
a series in the East Bay Express

which was kind of a, you know,
little free tabloid paper

up in the San Francisco area
based on Duckman.

And then I started
compiling some stories

and approached
Dark Horse Comics with it,

and they liked the idea.

So I began working
on the comic.

I started playing around
with this duck character,

and I've always liked kind of
animal-based characters.

I'm a waterfowl.

I'm not a TV show!

Really, he was a duck
only in design.

I mean, he's a guy
that just happens to be a duck.

I'm Duckman, private eye.

I'm here to investigate
the, uh--

You know, the, uh, thing
that needs investigating.

That was true with all of them.
We didn't really get into, uh,

the fact
that they were animals.

And-- And I intentionally
would do some characters

that were strictly animals,
some that were strictly humans,

and some that were sort of
hybrid characters

or combinations of both.

Uh, and that's the fun
of animation, you know.

You can have characters that
are completely unrealistic,

but if you treat them
in a realistic manner, you--

You buy that they're a--
You know, a real person.

Where was I?

Everett has this-- This
fantastic, you know, kind of

universe of "manimal"
characters.

And there were times
when it just behooved us

to have a human character
for a-- For a part, you know.

Whenever Duckman went after
a female,

it was always a female.

It was not a female bird
or dog or fox.

He's man first. Absolutely.
He's all Duckman.

Man first. Yeah.
He's all man. He's all man.

He does very few things
that are really duck-like.

You know, he's rarely
floating around a pond,

he's rarely flying.

We always thought of Duckman
really as an adult show

for adults, and--
And not really a kid's show.

[BOTH SCREAM]
Ow!

[***]

[DUCKMAN GRUNTING]

Whew! I would have scraped
my knee

if I hadn't landed
on this gun-wielding maniac.

We always tried to keep that
in mind

with our storylines
and the jokes.

And there's a lot of
double-entendres and things

that-- That, uh, you know,
were really designed

more for an adult audience.

I hate to prick your balloon.

Duckman, I believe the phrase
is "burst your bubble."

I know. I just like
to say "prick" whenever I can.

Prick.
Prick, prick, prick.

Prick, prick, prick, prick ,
prick.

He also was a big smoker
in the comic.

I mean, he always had
a cigarette in his mouth.

And we tried to maintain
a little bit of that in--

In the series, and we actually
have a few scenes.

But we always had a lot of
resistance against him smoking.

You've been smoking.
I can smell it on your breath.

I was not smoking.

You can't accuse me of something
I wasn't even doing.

Our thinking, of course--
'Cause in the comic he did.

Smoke cigarettes.
Cigarettes, I'm sorry.

--was that this was a show
that aired at 10:30 at night.

Hi, Dad. Whatcha doing?

Throwing my life away on an
overpriced marketing phenomenon

that'll leave me bedridden,
tumorous

and politically incorrect.

OSBORN:
You know,
kids seek out animation.

And, uh-- And we--
We definitely, uh,

took the cigarettes away
after the first season.

Right, like my cigarettes
are really hurting anyone.

When I began drawing him
originally,

he was a much taller, thinner,
kind of gangly character.

And when I began to kind of
refine him for animation,

I decided, since I had
to clean the line up,

uh, and I wouldn't have
the kind of fuzzy line,

I-- I could make him look
a little more interesting

by changing his-- His
proportions, his silhouettes.

So I, uh-- I squished him down
a bit more

and kept his head a little bit
bigger in relation to his body,

shortened his arms and legs,

and that's sort of
how he began.

The earlier version of him
had a little bit longer bill,

and as we realized,
well, this, you know--

The shorter bill works better.

I want a bill job!

Had to be.
The rest is perfect.

PECK:
Basically, he became squatter

and a little larger head,

smaller body, as we progressed.

Ahem. Fine-looking honker,
Duckman.

Oh, you noticed, huh?

We had a lot of dental work done
second season.

You know,
we had to work out things

like how his mouth would work
and how we could do, uh--

You know, make him look like
he's talking with a bill.

RENO:
We had to work out what
happened to the teeth.

And he'd pronounce
certain words with his bill.

There's some actual mouth
positions

where the teeth
actually disappear

and then pop on again.

Fellas, fact is
some of my best friends

are brain-dead,
bread and water-eating scumbags.

[MEN MURMURING AGREEABLY]

From the beginning,
how characters should look,

how they should move, how they
should look when they're angry

versus when they're happy.

I mean, all of that
was covered by Ian

and overseeing the artists
at Klasky Csupo.

Jerry Richardson was my main
character design guy

on the show
through all four seasons

and, uh, a personal friend.

And he was very helpful in
working with me to turn Duckman

from a kind of a
rough sketch-drawn character

into an animated character.

I used to teach illustration
and animation,

and Jerry was
a student of mine,

um, a long time ago at
Otis-Parsons School of Design

in Los Angeles.

And we remained friends.

And then when we started
the series,

he had been working
with Klasky Csupo

and jumped on board to help me
refine Duckman

into an animatable
kind of design.

And, uh, he was great
that way.

He put together a beautiful
series of do's and don'ts,

and as we got further into
the series,

we had a book this thick of--
Of all kinds of special poses

that he did
based on the characters.

Duckman, I feel like
a new woman.

Me too. Unfortunately,
I'm about 10 bucks short.

As we went into
the second season,

we learned a lot more about,
you know,

how the character
worked onscreen,

and some things
that worked well

and other things that didn't.

So we did, uh, a lot of, uh,
yes and no kind of drawings.

And so we would get a lot
together,

then ship it off overseas
to Korea.

And, you know, there'd be a
whole room full of-- Of people

working on this thing.

And in a month or two,
we'd get, uh, a bunch of--

Of finished film back.

PECK:
Jerry was great enough
to go over there

and spent at least a week
over there,

just showing people,
okay, do's and don'ts.

And I wanted it to be,
you know, richer,

with more, uh, modeling
and kind of rendering in it.

I gotta say that the overseas
studios did an amazing job

of, you know, following through
on all that stuff.

There's nothing special
about me, nothing unique.

I'm just one more duck detective
who works with a pig

and lives with the twin sister
of his dead wife,

three sons on two bodies,

and a comatose mother-in-law
who's got so much gas

she's a fire hazard.

It was visually amazing.

Very striking
right off the bat,

that was straight from
Everett's comic book.

And-- And, uh, really,
the colors,

it was so vibrant and so--

It was dark but--
But cool at the same time.

It was just really a--
A great look.

As we started talking about it,
we realized, you know,

there was this fantastic start
for a character.

He was kind of a bit more basic
than what you saw later.

He was an angry duck, basically.
He was angry. He had issues.

Well, it's time someone made it
work better, then.

Took on the system, stood his
ground, no matter what the cost.

And I'm just the duck to do it.

The comic, it's sort of
an organic process.

When I'm drawing, I just sort
of naturally write with it.

And so that-- That was--
That flowed out pretty easily.

It's-- It's, uh--
I'm fairly comfortable

writing for a comic,
but that's--

That's a very different kind of
dialogue for television.

That's, of course,
where Jeff and Ron came in.

On the tube, everyone's
a little bigger than life.

A little more glamorous.

They had had the experience.

But I learned a lot from them
over the four seasons.

Wait a minute. You're saying
that I'm a TV show?

Not that an adult series about a
certain verbal and rakish drake

wouldn't be fascinating viewing,
maybe even get well-reviewed

in papers like Newsday
and the Wall Street Journal,

then make a few top-10 lists

and get an Emmy nomination.

We rejiggered the family
a little bit.

In the comic,
Duckman was married to Bernice.

Help! Help!

Help!

We made that his sister-in-law.

The snarling behemoth
in the seat next to me

is not my wife.

A little back-story was
that Duckman was responsible

for his late wife's death,
accidentally.

Remember staking out that vendor
at the parade

the day you accidentally
caused my death?

One guilt at a time.

Which we thought was a little
more darkly funny,

but we could also have more dark
fun between Duckman and Bernice

if they weren't
husband and wife.

Terrific. I bust a tail feather
trying to protect this family,

and what do I get in return?

Exactly
what you deserve.

Also, you know,
he was very ???,

in our mind, and so it
allowed us to--

To not feel queasy when
he would come on to clients

who came in the office.

Watch a master
at the top of his game.

[DOOR OPENS]

I'm Fantine.

Hee-hee-hee!
And I'm Cosette.

[***]

We've been celibate for a year,

and we need you
to go out with us.

Everett just created
something so cool,

but I think--
I think he would agree

that it was--
It was rather two-dimensional.

He was pretty much an angry
duck who kind of swore a lot.

And what we needed to do
to bring him to life onscreen,

I think,
was find that underneath,

find the foundation,
why he acts the way he does.

Are you listening to me?!

I'm invisible, Corny.

I'm falling through the cracks.

What are his attitudes
toward any number of things?

What the hell
are you staring at?!

What about you? You seem
to have something to share.

From women to social
institutions to politics

to everything.

Yeah, I do have something
to share.

Duckman, didn't you schedule
a colonic this afternoon?

In fact,
I have a miracle to share.

It really was kind of
just figuring out a guy

from the ground up.

It's a miracle
you moon-eyed zombies

fall for this Mother Mirabelle.

She's a fake!
She's taking your money!

RENO:
He becomes not only visually
three-dimensional,

but-- But as a character,
becomes three-dimensional too.

We toned his anger down,
made him more verbal.

My past, my whole past
is in this attic.

What a pigsty.

Oh, uh, figure of speech.

We came up with a show
and a character in Duckman

that you could do almost
any kind of joke you wanted.

Everyone loves a little good,
clean, semi-legal pornography.

It was kind of
this amazing find,

and part of that was due to
the fact that it was animated.

This world's depressing enough
without a few insults, slurs

and good, honest laughs
at other people's expense.

You could go crazy
with language.

No inskie-outskie. Ha-ha!

No buffarina!

He could be as silly
or outrageous as we wanted

one minute--

Never nail the hammer
on the head.

Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Hee-hee-hee-hee!

--and we could do
intellectual parodies.

What's he doing
with that pink stuff?

That's Crisco.
He's our greatest wrap artist.

We found out we could kind of
go anywhere with this thing,

because the rules
for characters

are sort of different
in animation.

You're not stuck with
sort of the realities

of a live-action character that
you have to adhere to as much.

In fact, you look like
a million other duck detectives.

It's not like you stand out
or anything.

It's an honest mistake.
No hard feelings.

We are kind of the godparents
or the caretakers,

and it was our job
in realizing this, you know,

to still kind of remain true
to the soul of the characters.

I don't need
this kind of treatment

from some cheap jump-on-
the-reality-show-bandwagon

schlockumentary.

[***]

There you go. It's easy.