Grrl Power #757 – ET’s (Extra Terran)
I didn’t mean to make Suzie seem like she’s a closet furry. It would turn the running gag I have going with Sydney into a running theme for the comic. And it’s not really that kind of a comic. Unless Frix and Kat the were-hare join the team and Pixel starts hanging out with them a lot more, then… we’ll see.
Fun fact, that guy in the first panel has actually appeared in the comic before. (Enjoy rereading one of the most text heavy pages of the comic there.) I was trying to set up an aliens reveal joke in the first press conference but it obviously never panned out. I had a vague notion that the reveal would cause his ponytail to pop out, making his hair poof out all weird. I guess he only has that one suit. Given the topic of this page, I thought he ought to reemerge.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
I recommend again the “Deathworlders” series of stories for an interesting take on humans and aliens encountering each other: https://deathworlders.com/books/deathworlders/
This is such a great series, but there’s more to it than that site. There are a ton of great works that are related to that story universe (canon and not canon) that are not on that site, but on reddit wiki page.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/essential_reading_order
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/chronological_reading_order
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/authors
That one has all of the stories, canon or otherwise… some are crap, but that’s okay. This whole universe is great.
This is true, and I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s out there, but I figured I’d link to a main page that has a great description of the universe. Also I think it has most of the links to the rest of the stories.
It a while for me to read it all and that was last year. I’m thinking about doing it again. It’s so cool reading and watching others help build a whole universe together. I wish some stories had become canon, but oh well.
I just want to add THE best story out of that sub, for those who don’t know about it. Chrysalis
My favorite from the series is Waters of Babylon. But, yes, there’s lots of fun adventure, there, and beef bros … or beefcake … enough for anybody.
I’d counter that with [Humanitys Debt.](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/2b1vqr/oc_humanitys_debt/)
Thanks Ziggrrauglurr for making 2 days of my life disappear. Reminds me favorably of the Bobiverse.
Honestly I’ve given up on keeping up on the entire Jenkinsverse. I think at this point someone new to the series who actually has anything like a life would be doing good to catch up with just the essential reading order within a year. Just the main story line blew past War And Peace in terms of word count like 2 years ago and Hambone is still putting out another novella every month.
And his writing has gotten really good too. Chapter 0 is a bit amateurish, but at some point he achieved a level of writing on par with a lot of professional authors and currently – at least in my opinion – he actually surpasses quite a few popular authors.
This is such a great series, but there’s more to it than that site. There are a ton of great works that are related to that story universe (canon and not canon) that are not on that site, but on reddit wiki page.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/essential_reading_order
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/chronological_reading_order
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/authors
That one has all of the stories, canon or otherwise… some are crap, but that’s okay.
I didn’t mean to spam, I’m sorry! I don’t know how to delete the extra comments.
No deleting. No editing. No voting system. This forum runs on hard mode – which amusingly is totally appropriate for your post.
Heh. Yar.
The semi-recent change (well, the last change at least) also removed the handy markup references.
I’d recommed The Dammed Trilogy by Allen Foster.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Damned_Trilogy
The Damned Trilogy is a lot like Deathworlders in a lot of ways. The big difference is that rather than being physical supermen compared to the rest of the galaxy humans are simply psychologically capable of handling violence in a way that most aliens aren’t. Seriously, they find jazz music to be extremely violent.
Anyway, yeah, long-winded second to that. If you like Deathworlders you’ll probably like The Damned Trilogy.
Humans are also immune to most telepathic attacks we tend to be hyper violent up stairs or that is what Foster implied when the main character was begin examined. Makes for a great defense when no one can actually look at or push your mind around. Downside we don’t have telepaths makes us nearly prefect for fighting the big bad guy which uses psionics as a weapons take over the forces and turn them against themselves.
They did breed a bunch of humans that were low level telepathic, it didn’t go well for them they just created a group more powerful then they were before that could fight them on equal ground. Legacy of the Aldenata is a really good series if you are okay with him leaving a series hanging without an end for decades. It’s up to the end just two more books he needs to get off his duff and right them be for he pulls a Jordan. Hear that John get to writing Heinlein could do a book every three months stop reading online comics and get to work. Worth a shot apparently he and I have similar taste in comics.
Eh, that “he needs to get off his duff” comment reeks of the kind of sentiment that was being thrown at Jim Butcher for several years when he wasn’t finishing Peace Talks because his personal life was imploding. It irritated me then and it irritates me now.
Appreciate what the author has done and remember that he doesn’t actually owe you another book just because the series isn’t finished yet. Though, I suppose, a lot of them actually do owe their publishers another book. Contracts, you know.
Omg omg, is this thread just going to list all the greatest science fiction out there? My personal collection is over 6,000 books, and that was reduced down (at least halving) several times during my life. Yet those are two of the most memorable. With Alan Dean Foster being my all time favourite Sci Fi author.
Contrast that to fantasy where I have a list of favourites.
Sure, but now that Flinx wiped out the Great Void, what do we have to look forward to? The Adventure of Maybeso, perhaps?
Legacy of the Aldenata
Humans as one of 3 war-able species with allied technogenius non war-able, and war-able pacifists due to genetic violence killswitch, stemming the tide of a semi-sentient horde race.
I’ve read some of those novels, and a couple of them have been decent. Unfortunately in too many of them Ringo allows his predilections for sado-masochism and female characters with huge tits to stomp on any hint of a plot or other literary value.
As an example: He has a frequently featured female character who ‘went undercover’ via body mods to pick up the huge tits that her espionage ‘mark’ conveniently (for Ringo) had a weakness for. And then equally conveniently her agency lost access to the technology needed to reverse the process.
I have no idea if this changed later in the series (but I’d be surprised since it plays right into Ringo’s personal jerk off fantasies), because I’ve long since placed Ringo on my incredibly brief ‘do not read’ list of hack authors.
Sadly, I agree with you on Ringo these days. He wrote some interesting books that could lead into interesting series (low-tech logic vs. high tech wizardy in the Hot Gate, for example), but over time he seems to have become rather more extreme in his views, or in simply including them in his works. Examples include such things as diplomats almost always being cowardly traitors who try to sell out humans for profit, Europe being soft and therefore deserving of being wiped out, the ICC and the UN being the enemy and traitors to mankind (the Polseen war books in particular became quite hard reading in this regard).
Sounds like Tanya Huff’s Confederation of Valor series.
Just a fair warning to anyone who hasn’t read this month’s Deathworlder’s update yet. It’s a tearjerker for a longtime follower of the story. And not for the reasons that last month’s cliffhanger might lead you to suspect. No, it’s far worse. I’m reading it over my lunch and regretting eating at my desk where my coworkers can see the impact. I’m here because I need a few minutes before I pick it back up.
Suuuurrrrrre that guys been in the comic before. You TOTALLY didn’t make him look like that one guys on History Channel… nope…
This is such a great series, but there’s more to it than that site. There are a ton of great works that are related to that story universe (canon and not canon) that are not on that site, but on reddit wiki page.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/essential_reading_order
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/chronological_reading_order
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/authors
That one has all of the stories, canon or otherwise… some are crap, but that’s okay.
Crap. Sorry for that! Damn mobile. Damn fingers. Now I’ve spammed the same comment three times and once the wrong person and I can’t delete them! I’m sorry!
On behalf of the universe, you are forgiven.
Make the most of your absolution, you will not experience it again.
Don’t fret. We aren’t bothered about accidental stuff like that here.
Maybe he was always meant to look like the history channel guy.
I didn’t recognize him at first with his hair combed.
I seriously doubt he would complain about the appearance for one thing and another he likely would have an entire episode stating that this comic is a clear indication of warming up the population to the fact aliens are here and why he hasn’t been probed yet. Fully and totally, he will even state there is no time for lubricant and to get on with the probing now just to prove they exist!
“THERE’S ALWAYS TIME FOR LUBRICANT!”
I’m not saying it’s space-migrating humans… but it’s space-migrating humans.
Well according to my cats fur isn’t hot if you’re wearing the right kind for the season.
Panel 1: Looks like Georgio Tsukalos finally got his hair under control.
Is it only me who thinks the guy in the first panel looks like Rob Schneider?
I was thinking Wil Wheaton, but we’re all wrong.
Microsoft says it’s either Steve Aoki, José Carreras, or Luciano Pavarotti.
Pictriev says Joey Fatone.
I’m not sure whether I’m more impressed that Dave can draw a face that recognition algorithms will accept, or amused that all these people apparently look like cartoon characters. It can be both.
He looks like Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, specifically his “Aliens Guy” meme incarnation.
Well he did create the internet. So it makes sense that he could get it to recognise other people instead of him, when he wants some privacy.
Wasn’t it Al Gorrrre who invented the internet? When he was in DARPA or something in the 60’s?
The Goracle fantasizes a lot, when it isn’t trying to force one masseuse or another into releasing his chakra.
On the other hand, back in the nineteen sixties he really was the “Senator’s son” who was the inspiration for the line in a Credence Clearwater Revival song.
The Goracle is at it’s best when it guest stars on South Park.
Al Gore was the author of the High-Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991, which allocated money for computer education in schools, and helped create the National Research and Education Network and the National Information Infrastructure (a.k.a. the “Information Superhighway.” The NII is the backbone that allowed Internet Service Providers to come into existence by connecting to the existing national networks and providing access to the Internet to the general public (as opposed to just colleges associated with government projects, government agencies, etc.).
Al Gore didn’t invent the Internet (and never said he did), but he did do what he did say he did: he helped create the Internet.
You can usually tell the difference between facts and idiotic right-wing nonsense attempts to throw shade on him by whether the person says create (fact) or invent (distortion). Ironically, he’s a big part of the reason they have a forum here on the Internet to spew nonsense. Don’t try to tell them that, though. They often have a severe allergic reaction to facts.
That’s not limited to the conservatives – you’d have a hard time convincing most liberals that Palin said you could see Russia from islands in Alaska (which is true) rather than “from her house” which was from a Saturday Night Live skit. Bias knows no political boundaries.
Thank you, that’s what meant: helped create (he certainly didn’t do it on his like), butt was sure had read somewhere that it started earlier as a means for the military to connect and communicate (hence the ‘DARPA’ reference… which may be wrong, butt that has something to do with the military “Think Tank(s)”, isn’t it?)
Will often get words mixed up :(
Appreciate when someone corrects with the proper information (doesn’t mean will always remember it, butt do appreciate the polite courtesy)
Just had a little look, and DARPA is Military (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), and ARPAnet started in 1969
Gore didn’t get involved until, as you said, 1991 (a year after ARPANET was shut down), after hearing the 1988 concept for a National Research Network submitted to Congress by a group chaired by Leonard Kleinrock.
Gore may have coined the term ‘information superhighway’, butt he didn’t come up with the concept
Yea, that was my first thought as well.
DaveB, your art style has evolved since that guy first appeared. He’s much more recognizable with the 3D style coloring going on!
A who hairdo?
Jack Burton! Me!
Wbat immediately camd to mind at the comment at the bottom of the comic.
What the hell.
Shut up Mr Burton! You were not brought upon this world to ‘get it.’
I’m not sure how the comments section works here, but I think I just accidently spammed it because I thought it wasn’t working. Does it take a bit for things to post? Are they moderated? Crap, if I screwed up my very first posting, I’ll be sad. I’m sorry for the repeated comments, if they do go through. I was replying to Cpt Nerd about the “Deathworlders” series and how the website doesn’t have all of the canon stories. I also posted the reddit links to all of the canon and non canon stories. If this comment gets posted and even one of the replies don’t, at least people will know how to find them:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref/universes/jenkinsverse/authors
Sorry for the trouble.
“I’m not sure how the comments section works here”
I believe that the correct answer is “intermittently.”
Not a single one of my comments appeared and then they suddenly did and I can’t delete any of the accidental spam ones or the apology ones (if the accidental spam ones got deleted, that is). It’s very embarrassing. And, this has to happen on my first ever comment on a webcomic. Typical. Is this common or is it just because I’m on mobile?
The site had a software migration a few months ago.
It’s been like this since then, although it was even worse the first week or so after.
Sometimes posts take a while to appear. On the plus side they are very rarely ever lost (which used to be an issue on the website, if running on a slow system or connection). So you can just trust that they will appear later.
There is moderation, but the automatic detection is very limited (basically if you put in 3 or more links it will be referred to moderation). Which doubtless happened to your post (or the usual delayed appearance that can happen to any post here).
Beyond that Dave does read every post (when he gets time), but he very very rarely ever chooses to intervene (other than with the usual advertising spam that we expect to be cleaned up). Basically our community does a good job of policing it when folks get out of paw.
It takes some really extreme behaviour for Dave to step in, and even then he will usually post a clear warning or two.
So sometimes we have to put up with some poor behaviour which would be stomped on in other forums. But the plus side is that we develop ways to keep the community friendly through good example and other techniques. So it is an interesting place to hang around in.
Really don’t worry about the duplicate post though, it happens to all of us sometimes. And your contribution is most welcome, in any event.
If your comment posted you will be taken to it after a few seconds of processing. If it didn’t post, but will be because to the best of my knowledge there is no moderation, you’ll be parked at the top of the comic instead.
If you make another post, the prior one will ‘appear’ for you. If you go do other things and come back some unspecific amount of time later, your post will ‘appear’ if you refresh the page.
I have gotten the page to show a missing post by doing a force reload (a reload without drawing from the browser cache): CTRL+F5
But this does not always work.
I haven’t tried clearing the Firefox cache entirely, because I’m not interested in doing that.
At least these are the symptoms of this disease which I see.
It could happen to anyone.
And the reparations crowd has new targets for lawsuits!
“with great power comes great responsibility” how come I never noticed that seal before?
You were too busy looking at the ball on its nose?
How much y’all wanna bet Cora’s Grandma was Amelia Earhart?
No, the last crew recruitment was “before the industrial age” according to Cora.
So that would be when, mid eighteenth century?
A long time ago.
Industrial Age, circa 1760 to 1840
The last one that she (a random starship captain) knows about.
The last official mass crew recruitment
With all the ‘Sex Tourism’ going on, does anyone really believe none of the tourists took home a local to meet the parental units?
Earth is a pre-FTL world, so officially its hands off.
All of the Shanghaiing was clandestine.
Earth is hands off for tech transfer, but we know that there are a fairly significant number of aliens visiting at any given time. At least, the number is significant enough for there to be at least one alien at a random nightclub that Sydney and some of the Archon folks were invited to attend.
That could be simple numbers, or authorial use of incredible coincidence, or it might be explained/handwaved away by the exclusivity of the nightclub, since it’s not terribly likely that alien tourists are going to be visiting dive bars as opposed to more expensive venues.
I think Frix just has a knack that transcends furry. Or it’s just that he’s a doctor. I mean, that scores points right there.
You don’t have to be into S&M to find the dominatrix look sexy, or even dress up as it.
You don’t have to be into clowns to find Harley Quinn sexy.
A common problem faced with “furry” is people not able to separate the aesthetic from the various life styles.
Sydney did become much less inhibited in his presence. Uncharacteristically so. OK still remaining plausible because she had gone through a life threatening and life changing situation. But Dave has said that Suzie News is not a furry. Yet she does seem to have been drawn to Frix.
Perhaps Frix has really powerful pheromones that even affect humans? Normally they should not work on other species mind (unless very closely related), but he does live in a society which provides mods. So perhaps he modded his pheromones to work on Cora (or some other human he knew) and we are seeing the results of that?
Because the only other crew member they have met looks like the devil? Tall, red, horny
Four pages of this press conference (and it doesn’t seem like it’s done yet) kind of feels like a lot. That is a huge amount of page real estate to devote to it.
Sydney previously spent five pages at a food court.
They spent 12 pages in a meeting after the big brawl with Vehemence, starting here: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-358-fair-trade-photography/
Sometimes that’s how it goes.
The fact that the author has had vastly worse examples of bad pacing in the past doesn’t change the fact that this is still bad pacing. He just really, really, really, really wants to tell every single possible detail of how his universe works and how his characters think, instead of telling a story.
[authoritative citation needed – please post the link to your own 9+ year literary efforts, available for free online, that have allowed you to become a full-time creator paying bills and putting food on the table.]
No. Stop saying stupid things that just make you look stupid.
A person doesn’t need to be a chef to critique a meal. They don’t need to be a director to critique a movie. They don’t need to be a clothing designer to critique your crappy outfit. And no one needs to be a web comic writer/artist to critique a web comic.
That’s why we have Oberon: the largest tic on the web
You don’t need to, but having some general knowledge in the area helps. It means more when a professional movie critic says a movie is bad than it does when some random person on the street who just watches the occasional flick says the movie sucked.
Yes, you can critique whatever you want, you’re free to do that. By the same token, no one has to take your critique seriously unless you can back up your OPINION with some meaningful facts.
And yet neither Matthew nor LockeZ made a post which just said “This shit sucks!” Both of them provided exactly the context you say makes a critique more credible.
What facts did they provide to back up their opinion? o_O
I’d ask you to stop embarrassing yourself, but you’ve proven that you are incapable of learning or even of following a train of thought.
So I’ll just say “fuck off” and will hope that you fuck off with your constant idiocy. I know it won’t work, but since it brings me pleasure I will do it anyway.
Fuck off.
Yeah, and why don’t you just ‘tic off’, seeing how you spend more time here attacking people then anything else
what “facts” can a reader provide that would satisfy you? he feels the pacing is poor, and the amount of panels devoted to the press conference is large. you can either agree with the statement or not; there is nothing to argue.
I’m not suggesting anyone has to be an expert before they can provide valid criticism (although it helps).
Comics are their own literary category with a long and varied history, and what works in other fields (short stories, video, graphic novels) doesn’t work for them. It’s hard to say what does actually; comics (especially on the web) are notoriously hard to make a living off of, keep updated regularly, or produce at anything near the rate that ‘typical’ pacing requires in other mediums. Look at Shlock (longest-running webcomic with 0 misses, arcs taking months, even years in spite of daily updates) or even the acclaimed Calvin & Hobbes (story arcs lasting a couple weeks at most; years to develop character depth).
What I was trying to get across succinctly was a) appropriate pacing for web doesn’t conform to any specific norm, b) authors can pick their storytelling style, and if the audience keeps showing up and expanding it must be working.
Anyone who wants to tell a successful niche author otherwise better have some direct counter examples, not just say “I prefer this other thing that does [x] differently.” Great, go read that other thing and quit complaining, don’t try and bend this thing-that-is-not-other-thing into conformity, or convince the audience it’s not good because it’s different. Maybe it’s just not for you.
Yeah, specially seeing how DaveB has stated from the start, that he is going to focus on the ‘boring crap’ in between the ‘action-y excitement’ as seen in other ‘super-hero’ webics
If you want action in your super-hero comic and none of the downtime, then go read something else
I would argue that you did exactly that thing you are denying here that you didn’t do when you asked a person who criticized the pacing to provide evidence that they themselves have produced the exact sort of works that DaveB has produced. You didn’t even stop at the sort of broad comparison that might be expected, such as “show us your best selling novel.” No, you went into exacting detail on how the person making the critique needed to have produced an exactly similar product before they were qualified to provide an “authoritative citation” of their opinion.
I mean, it’s fine if you want to say you were wrong. We’re all wrong from time to time, and Guesticus is wrong almost all the time. But don’t claim that you’re not saying exactly what you said. That’s just hypocritical.
Sorry, all out of troll food for this week, you’ll have to go find another topic to feed on.
he is correct, your post further up directly stated that you believe he cannot engage in criticism until he produces a literary work. this wasn’t ironic or sarcastic or hyperbole. you were wrong and you concede the argument.
you know what doesn’t work in a comic? dozens of panels devoted to telling the reader directly what characters are thinking, instead of showing them.
this is true of all genres of fiction, in every medium.
no citation is needed. if a reader thinks a work is bad, it is.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110222050012/http://plover.net/~bonds/stupidresponses.html
If Marvel / DC comics are example of telling a story I will prefer this one.
This comic’s mandate is to explore the interesting stuff in between all the action that super heroes see. And those four pages have had some very interesting reveals. If you were watching that on the news, and finding out that there were millions of humans already living in space it would be a life changing moment for you. Far more profound than watching a super punch a baddie. Again.
But we, the audience, are not finding that out. It’s not a life changing moment for us. It’s fiction. We’re not here for profoundness or explanations, we’re here for the author to tell a story.
I’d infinitely rather read another ten pages of interesting alien press conference than another endless shower scene.
And you knew before hand that there was a couple million hyu-mons already in space?
Yes, we are here for the author to tell a story, and part of that story is ten pages of news conference, as Invisible Yorp said: the mandate for this series is the everyday stuff in between the ‘action’
THIS is the story. Its a story about the slice of life and what happens in a semi-realistic setting when supers, aliens, and the supernatural are revealed piece by piece and how it affects the protagonist and the world.
That is how it has been since day one. World building, and doing so in a manner that works in-universe is always fascinating to watch; especially for me; who loves world building; but has been profoundly bad at making it work in story. Dave here has done an excellent job at world building and introducing it to the audience naturally; hell we’ve only had ONE fourth wall breaking Dabbler science corner bit and that was pretty early on; since then it has happened naturally.
For the first two hundred pages or so, it was actually an action comic about superheroes. Then the author gradually slowed down more and more about actually telling the story, and focused more and more on explaining things rather than doing things.
Worldbuilding is purely a masturbatory effort unless it feeds into the story you are telling. Nobody cares about an explanation unless it’s explaining something that you actually care about.
Saying it’s been like this for a long time doesn’t change the fact that it’s bad. If we stop talking about the bad things in the comic just because they’ve been going on for so long, the author will start to think they’re okay now. That would be doing a huge disservice to both the artist and the comic, since they deserve to receive criticism.
Wait, what, no it wasn’t, it was always about the bits in between the action
There were a few pages of action in the bank, then it was several hundred pages of introducing Sydney and her balls
Explaining things actually is the story
Two years for one day.
This was always about the bits in between with action popping up like a divider; there was ONE prolonged battle; the first battle. But over all this is a slice of life super hero story; which is what drew me to it in the first place.
“””””interesting”””””””
I, for one, am very happy that the author is devoting time to explaining the “aliens look inexplicably human” trope. It’s been vaguely referenced once in a background panel, and I’ve been waiting for a proper explanation since then.
As if it needed explaining. It’s a narrative convenience and nothing more. No justification is required. Spending so much time on something so trivial just makes the author look like an oblivious blowhard. The kind of person who spends ten minutes explaining why the premise of someone else’s joke wouldn’t happen, and misses every social cue (mainly indifferent silence) that no one cares. The kind of dullard who thinks xkcd is clever.
I love Worm, but it could really do with less words. /s
This comic is mostly about the stuff that happens between the action.
Nothing in this sentence implies a need for poorly written and poorly paced walls of text.
You can communicate ideas to your audience without treating them like idiots.
Get an editor.
gotta love the big trouble in little china callout in the bottom text
Don’t ever get into a knife contest with Frix.
conscription, shanghaied sailors, ect…
unless she wants to reveal the Twilight Council the (why) humans would be on anyone’s radar to shanghai in the first place should probably be circumvented.
So who seeded the galaxy with humanoids?
3rd tier civilization that ascended and wanted their descendants to no be lonely (Star Trek)
3rd tier civilization that ascended and left behind descendants as well as experiments in genetic hybrids (Star Gate)
-seriously its implied the Ancients are responsible for all humanoid life including the Wraith; but believe being glowy squids now exempts them from responsibility.
Nth tier civilization (or individuals) with a kink, experiment, or just for funsies.
Frix is clearly thinking “What does she mean, looks like?!”
you know what she meant, she meant from an human point of view, he is hot, so to her, his look is hot, which seems unlikely from a completely different specie
I’d have thought a big question would be “Are the Alari human?” (I’d have after the possession and grey skin growing over wound areas of a transformed host by a parasitic race scenario…but we’ve seen Alari children). So what look almost exactly like humans only grey and some with laser wings should raise the eyebrows after this press conference.
Tattoo on blue fur. Explain please. Brain can’t right now.
A tattoo is just a dye underneath the skin. What Frix has is probably just dyed fur. If we dye hair, the fact that it is long and moves around a lot means that we cannot make intricate patterns, like most tattoos feature. Some furred creatures (like Chewbacca) will have the same problem. Others though (like my late Jack Russell Terrier dog) have lovely short fur, which could potentially hold a tattoo-like pattern (but which would lack permanence, if they molted or the hair falls out etc).
But shave hair short andyou can see lots of exotic patterns.
Or, Frix simply shaves his arms, which makes sense since he is not only the medic for the living crew, he is also the medic for the ship, and (one of) the last things he wants is for his fur to get caught (or shed) while tinkering inside either patient :P
I Don’t think it’s shaven blue skin. It’s looks like colored fur, as left arm, but it also has hard edge lines. Maybe in universe thing (hologram), maybe art goof. Pick all the nits. ;)
Shaving skin off is a method of execution or a nasty medical experiment, not a way of creating pretty patterns. It is definitely dyed fur. Most of the example photos I referenced combined that with shaving, to emphasise the pattern, but not all.
Although it is possible that such emphasis could alternatively be added by having a tattooed layer underneath the dyed layer. So shave off all the fur (or hair for humans) tattoo the pattern, then (once the fur/hair grows back) dye the fur/hair to match.
And Frix is an alien, so it is possible that his skin and/or fur holds dyes in a different way. Maybe his fur follicle producing organ can have dye injected into it, to ensure that it comes out the set colour? No need to periodically redo it, as the dye grows out.
Or maybe he is like a cuttlefish (naturally or via a mod) and the tattoo (/dye job) effect is actually created by his body?
Pretty sure they were talking about shaving exposing the skin, not shaving the skin off.
Or gene mod so the fur turns into a different color in patterns.
Like an ocelot’s rings. I assume that if you’re doing it deliberately then you can do fairly complicated patterns.
So Suzie News has gone from trading Klingon kisses with Arianna to hitting on the Furry. I wonder if Arianna feels a bit miffed about that?
Yes! I think the next scene might feature a very flustered Arianna, trying to steer the subject well away or perhaps even ending the conference quickly.
With a ‘what’s a furry’ to go along with the ‘what’s hentai’ gag we saw long ago.
If DaveB does decide to do a “what’s a furry” gag, I really hope he models it after this classic video of Christopher Judge’s reaction to getting first the child-friendly and then the full version in front of a live audience.
ROFL. That literally brought tears to my eyes.
Just as well this is a late-night oriented household, or my laughing would have woken everyone up!
Who would have thought that Teal’c had such a sheltered life?
Already mentioned on the first page about Ari getting upset her girlfriend is flirting with the space Woof
Then again, she may view that as an opportunity for a threesome ;)
Lint rollers on standby. I repeat, lint rollers on standby!
For them? Or him? :P
I’m not going to expand all the comments to see if this was mentioned today.
I do know it has been mentioned before.
You are putting the US flag in the wrong orientation here. When hanging on a wall, the union (the stars) goes on the left, not the right. You don’t simply rotate the flag 90° from the horizontal.
Not so much mentioned this page, as numerous times last page when it first appeared
Well, since we don’t have super-powered people or were-bunnies or vampires in our world, the world presented in the comic is clearly *not* our world (perhaps an alternate reality? or maybe… fictional?), and in that universe, maybe flags are hung with the stars to the right.
Never change, Suzie. :)
Well, since the author asserts that she isn’t a furry, it does appear that Suzie is looking for a change.
You don’t become a furry, you discover that you are one! :)
frix confusion expression could also be the translation error like it not translating Hot as attractive but exact translation so its like reading broken English or other mistranslation.
The Ancient Aliens guy just doesn’t look right without the crazy hair.
Oh come on!……
When has he EVER looked right, crazy hair or not?
It goes like that when you stand near to a flying saucer for too long.
this guy https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/Ancient-Aliens
I’m pretty sure that the guy in the first panel is the “I’m not saying it was aliens” guy from the History Channel.
Yup, it seems his likeness has been very widely recognised.
Except for those of us who do not watch the History Channel, or programs referencing it or him.
“Aliens!” explanation guy in the first panel is WAY more recognizable here than he was in his previous appearance. Just goes to show how far your drawing skills have evolved. Congrats! I wouldn’t have realized they were the same guy if you hadn’t said something… but the moment I saw him here with that expression, I laughed.
Have to admit I miss the more whimsical older stuff. Like Sydney’s mouth on overdrive. Pacing has been stagnant for over a year now imo. Less over-explaining and more funny / action pretty please!! :)
okay but seriously wouldn’t cora find the fact that she’s visiting the home of her ancestors significant in any way? i mean i doubt she’d be freaking out or anything given her character but that the very least she seems like she might be interested and less nonchalant about the fact that she essentially came from this planet. she’s been acting it’s not a but deal, what the florp
It was at least two centuries ago. Possibly many times that long.
And she has probably been here before.
You are saying that this is the first time she has been ‘home’
She is the captain of her own FTL ship, one of the first things who would have done was visit Dirt
People stop caring about stuff like that, it depends on the person though and how much a heritage is cared about.
I mean how many Americans know off hand which country their ancestors came from before America (voluntarily and involuntarily) and how many those can trace it vs how many of those want to or even care about it?
heck give it enough generations of separation and cultural intermingling and you could have such low connection that it doesn’t phase you at all other than a “huh, neat like 1/15th of my ancestry is from this area*; vs (I grew up here and my great grandparents are from here).
It is such an eyeroll in some series where this or that alien race is gaga over a world their ancestors lived on 10,000 years ago, or some ancient city; and I have to think (Raise your hand if you know where your ancestors from 10,000 years ago lived specifically or care or even talk about it).
I like it when (Earth isn’t the center of the universe) like; huh…yeah I guess we came from here; but we don’t live here now and are a distinct culture from anything here now.
“I mean how many Americans know off hand which country their ancestors came from before America (voluntarily and involuntarily) ”
I do France, Scotland, and first Americans. American Indian – Hodenonsaunee/Iroquois!
and so do I, its an off hand general statement.
whose point is hard to describe properly.
Now you know those ancestries, good, now go back further, like 500 years further, 1000 years, 10,000 years. Sci-fi has a bad habit of having Earth be treated as a holy grail by its human descendants who logically could have more connection with the world and nations there of they grew up on; simply due to being able to trace back their lineage there more so than Earth.
Like yes, you will have people who will go visit said countries and be like (wow, my ancestors came from here), but others who will know that information but not really be THAT enthralled about visiting or have any big pride. So much sci-fi likes to think people whose ancestry is Earth but are like 5000 years descended or something will show up on Earth and be like *WE are home! Oh praise Earth, center of the universe!* rather than have no real connection; and when the vacation where your five times great grandparents came from factor wears off be ready to back home to where you consider home.
It is harder to describe for the real world as most only go back a century or two on genealogies and such; and the culture has carried around. *as well as stayed on the same planet with only humans around* But in sci-fi its longer times and further distances and people who grew up not in a variation of a previous culture but an alien one entirely.
Yes, not ALL will be *eh*, but doubtful a large number would be all that WOWED by the prospect of visiting just because (SOME) of their ancestors lived here.
If you don’t have the”right”perspective. :) BTW, my ancestors, some of them have been here for over 13,000 years!
And you are aware that they were originally from Asia, right?
The ocean actually, and doubtless some will have been on the seafloor which is now part of North America. And that will have been well over 13,000 years ago.
Meant crossing the land-bridge via Alaska
Man, I can not WAIT for this news conference to be over. Not because anything going on isn’t interesting, it is. But that US flag hanging wrong on the wall is driving me bonkers.
Just pretend you are one of the other six billion Dirt Monkeys who aren’t as anal about their flag worship (cereally? a booklet on how and when to hang it? plus on it’s proper storage?)
Maybe it is a clue that it is not actually the American Flag, but a Veil induced illusion hiding something more disturbing.
Oh no! Dave, Dave! Why, why, why did you have to draw Georgio Tsukalos!?!
Because, aliens!
So, how long until Suzie puts two and two together and gets “Dabbler’s an Alien”?
given the direction this press conference is going I suspect someone is going to conclude Sydney’s special training where no one could contact her was spending 50 days in space as a member of Cora’s crew.
It would at this point be an effective cover; granted one that raises a few more questions but puts one mystery to rest as far as the public is concerned (better they believe Sydney was on Cora’s crew the last 50 days then know she traveled forward through time via magic blood portal and they never did tell anyone the what and where of Sydney’s “special training” cover story.
The Excalibur Alternative
Explain please?
Likely referring to The Last Star Fighter. Earth despite not being part of some federation was still protected behind some giant space wall and protected; so one of the star fighters put a space invaders arcade game on Earth and beating the game signaled them to conscript the kid who beat it into their space forces.
Thank you, remember seeing The Last Star Fighter when it came out, haven’t really seen it since
Nope, Book by David Weber, Similar to the 1960 High Crusade by Paul Anderson.
In Short the galactic prime directive is limited to using the level of technology native to the planet you are on. So you can mine a planet, but you can’t use any weapons more advanced than the natives.
So a group of aliens observing earth kidnap a regiment of earth soldiers from the 1400’s to act as a goon squad since they are too reliant on their tech.
These humans discover that the rulemakers have grown corrupt.
Membership in the galactic council is dependent on the development of the FTL Drive, But for the last few thousand years the current members have been suppressing tech development among the other races (as they can legally exploit “protectorate” races essentially turning whole planets into “reservations”. Humans are approached by a group because their innovation rate is roughly 5 times faster than any other species (like if it take most species 1000 years to go from knights and swords to gunpowder legions, it only took humans 200.
Long story short, the human mercenaries faked their own deaths stole a space ship and founded a hidden colony in space. 800 years later humanity is fighting the galactics (who didn’t think humans would develop so fast and want to squash them on trumped up charges to prevent them from joining the council) They are saved by the arrival of a group of super ships (piloted by the descendants of the soldiers.) Whose ships are far advanced over the councils, ending on an alliance between humanity and the “avalonians” vs the 1-2k worlds of the federation.
High Crusade was a similar plot, where the scout ship were taken for a french plot during the 100 year war and an angry mob storms the ship only to be trapped when the last survivor triggers the autopilot to go to another colony. Having just been founded eventually the angry mob takes control of the colony, Lost with no way home (the navigation info destroyed), they decide to Found a new catholic church and take over the aliens empire in the name of god by freeing the enslave races in revolt. 1000 years later an earth scout discoveres and is welcomed by the “holy galactic empire”
And thank you for the correct information :D
Not saying that what Rhuen said was false, just not the correct information
I am not familiar with the series he said,
In Last Star Fighter the game was called an Excalibur Test, and it resulted in a planet that otherwise wouldn’t be asked to have a fighter in their military have one. So it is what first came to mind. I did say likely; given my experience.
It’s nice to see how she can’t keep her story straight for more than two questions: don’t be afraid, alien won’t interfere with you. By the way, some of you may or may not have been abducted and probed, both in the past and foreseeable future, but it’s all fine since you did worse in the past… I would like to see someone call her out on all her bullshit…
Well, context is important. “[D]on’t be afraid, alien won’t interfere with you” was in the context of: Aliens aren’t going to conquer your planet, topple governments, steal your water/women/whatever, or even give you superweapons or FTL drives.
Some of you were [not may have been] abducted is contextually a much smaller scale thing, only impacting individuals and not cultures/nations.
People can still be afraid, but then some people are going to be afraid no matter what the truth is or is not. Fox viewers, for example, will always be afraid because they are fed fear all day long.
Not being able to ‘keep her story straight’ is a reasonable sign that she is telling the truth. Because if speaking about real circumstances (especially when ranging over wide areas, cultures and historical eras) there will always be differences in attitudes and how things can appear.
When you hear such disparate things being cited which all consistently and neatly support a pre-stated stance then you are probably listening to someone who is choosing to omit known inconsistencies, in order to paint a standard picture. So likely politicians, clergy, corporate executives or spin doctors.
Whereas a normal person, talking about things they have observed over their life, who does not have a particular axe to grind, will end up giving a more mosaique-like impression of their culture.
Suzy’s got a knack for innocently sticking her foot in her mouth – and sticking her mouth where it gets her into the middle of a big story. Suppose she manages to attract Frix’s attention. Then the odds that she’ll get to go on Cora’s ship for a year, come back, and write the best selling book of all time go way higher than the odds for anybody else in that crowd, don’t they?
And, hey…. if she thinks Frix looks like a hot guy, and she’s single (or has a very understanding partner), that’s some nice, if fuzzy, icing on the cake, isn’t it?
Er… sorry, bad visual there. When the icing on actual cakes starts to get fuzzy, it’s time to throw them out.
I think it important to remember the recreation and recreational facilities aboard Cora’s ship. If Suzie is not now a furry, after a year on Cora’s crew she’ll own every label, starting with pan- and/or omni-curious. I hope she doesn’t become addicted to the tentacle closet.
But but … how could you imagine Suzie being parted from Arianna for a year? Under what tragic circumstances could their budding relationship be torn asunder like that?
Simple: send Ari with her, Archon members would even pay for her ticket (one-way of course :P)
Hmm, between sex tourisim and humans being taken offworld before, I wonder if that has anything to do with Sidney’s unusual eye color. After all, I have not seen anyone with wolf-yellow eyes IRL
hmm, double-checking, I looked up her character link after I posted and it says her eyes are brown. Guess something’s not translating right on my screen.
Balls. Err, which is to say that it is the orbs which are causing that effect, at least in the panel you most likely referenced, that being the most recent appearance of the Mightay Halo.
However if you look at the page prior to the one linked, you will see Sydney’s eyes are the brown we normally see.
The explanation is that all of the orbs cast light, on anything near to them. In the panel in question that was Sydney’s eyes, which were close to the yellow truesight orb. But pick any other page, at random, and if there is anything near to the orbs (usually Sydney’s hair, or another character’s shoulder) then it will be tinted by whatever colour orb is nearest (or sometimes a blend if two are similar distances from the object).
Remember back in the ’80s when Jimmy Hoffa disappeared and no one could find a trace of him anywhere?
I am starting to think that he may have just hitchhiked a ride on a space freighter headed for Orion.
I have the more mundane notion that he was completely disolved in acid and then flushed down the sewers in the same manner which pedophiles and the old New York mafia used.
Come to think of it, some recent crime blogs show evidence of the South and Central American cartels using that method.
Or Hoffa could be hanging out with Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison.
so his body was bought by corrupt rich weirdoes who ground up his corpse, mixed it with cocaine and snorted it up?
It would take a fairly expensive acid or base to dissolve a human body. There’s a reason that people with plenty of resources still resort to bone saws for carving up reporters they have issues with. If you could simply dissolve a body and flush it down a toilet, the Saudi government would be just one organization which could do this fairly trivially, given their extreme wealth.
“how to spot one into furries/animals in general in crowd”
So it’s more like “Ranks of Bronze” and less like “The Algebraist”, where ancient tribes were taken from Earth to be adopted into galactic civilization order to prevent human expansion.
Panel 5 should have been him saying “Just to be clear. What you are saying is, it was Aliens?”
this guy https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/Ancient-Aliens
Admittedly my knowledge of impressment is mostly from the British, and that is mostly from the Napoleonic wars.
Impressment was a military thing, it was of British citizens, it was supposed to be of those “who knew the sea” i.e. already had experience sailing, and was supposed to be a wartime thing only.
The Napoleonic wars and the American revolution changed things somewhat. The wars required huge numbers of sailors, so recruiting standards slipped. They ended up pressing British men who weren’t really sailors.
Americans ended up being pressed because there were British sailors who deserted to American merchant ships (the pay was generally better) and attempted to pass as American. British ships low on men would stop merchant ships and press any who were British. Some naval captains would just call the Americans British anyway, depending on how desperate for men they were.
Since the US didn’t start out with a navy, this was a fairly low risk method of getting more sailors. It did turn into one of the stated causes of the 1812 war though, so it did bite them back after a while.
There was a different reason for sailors on any given ship to end up as a mixed lot after a while. This was not impressment though.
Most ships tended to lose people as they were moderately dangerous to work on, between falling from the masts while adjusting sails, washed overboard in a storm, run over or shot by guns, disease or scurvy or dying of alcohol overdose (usually on shore but not always). So the captain would recruit in foreign ports. This did depend on pretty much anyone being able to learn what to do at least simple jobs within weeks (hauling on a rope with a bunch of others while walking on the deck for example).
So I guess the alien ships from centuries ago did have a lot of grunt jobs, so humans could learn fast enough to be worth recruiting. Apparently they also were dangerous enough for crews to get thinned out, and for this to happen often enough that the alien captains were generally okay with doing it.
“Damn, I hate making Risa – so many desert and they won’t hand them back. Let’s see, this next planetfall, they call it ‘Dirt’ or something. These guys look strong enough to grak the blaz okay, and it’s not hard to figure out. I mean that was Flogbuz’s job, before he tried to down a keg of pure alcohol on a bet. Let’s try them.”