Grrl Power #170 – Serve and protect… eventually
… stunt at the bank… Is it just me or does Arianna look a little… dead shark-eyes in panel 4? I thought it was perfect for her though so I didn’t try and fix it.
Safety really does seem to be a bit of an afterthought here, though to be fair, it would have been harder for Sydney to shoot the tank while shielding everyone. So bonus points to people who surmised that the 3 rings on page 161 were from Max and Sydney testing her shield at different sizes. Obviously whatever Max is planning on doing to the tank, she expects shrapnel.
I have an announcement, but go comment first then come back up here and to read this so there’s at least some chat about the page. Ok, done that? Good.
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So currently I am finding myself sans-job. It’s not a huge deal – I’ve been at the same place for as long as I’ve been working on the comic and people change jobs all the time. So what does this mean for the comic? At worst, nothing will change. I’ll keep putting up a page a week like always while I go on the hunt. I have a little in the bank and can eke by for a month or two.
Of course it’s crossed my mind that this might be the crisatunity needed to make me take a stab at doing the comic full time, the problem being the amount I made at my job vs. the amount I make on the comic from ads is… really significant.
Randy Milholland who does Something*Positive once famously told his readers that if they could match his salary in donations he’d quit and do his comic full time. As it happens, they did it – of course he also has 10x my audience so lets not get our hopes up. But in the spirit of things, I have actually finally created a donation page here which some people have been asking about for some time.
So what’s the best case a more realistic outcome? I get a few bucks in donations, maybe enough so that I don’t have to scramble quite so fast to look for something new. If it extends by financial buffer out by a few months, then I might even be able to post two comics a week for a while. That would be awesome for everyone, but I don’t want to promise anything as I am going to be training myself to learn some new tools. It seems that trying to get a job as a 2D artist doesn’t cut it. These days you have to know 3DSMax or Maya or ZBrush to go along with it. It’s like trying to get a job creating web pages while only knowing HTML and CSS, but not PHP, ASP, and/or Javascript/AJAX. Sure those jobs exist but they’re mostly entry and intern level positions. So if you’ve enjoyed the comic and are so inclined, drop a buck or 5 in the tip jar, or buy something through the Amazon referral link and we’ll see where this goes. Who knows, maybe I will be able to do this full time, even if it’s just for a few months.
So with all that out of the way, I hope everyone stays tuned, there’s some really fun stuff coming up in the comic!
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.
We will cover how you salute (right hand, all fingers lining up, not chopping yourself in the forehead) during basic training.
At least she didn’t do the “Benny Hill Salute” :P
Which is actually based on the British army salute. Okay without the big dopey smile.
The British salute does not have the palm facing outwards like that
yes it does. I’ve watched enough BBC to know that’s how they do it.
I’m a Black Adder fan myself, but then that’s a great series with Rowan Atkins
actually it depends on whether your in the RAF, Navy or Army as there’s variations due to the cap styles.
so technically your both right.
I remember when I was playing soldier for the Canadian Army, some 25-30 years ago, working with some British personnel who saluted with the palm facing out. I am kind of glad my unit did not get called up for the first Gulf War. That was all done by the regular army types, not the reservists.
Hmmm, during ATC (Air Training Corps) they taught us to salute with the right hand, palm down (long way up, short way down), pretty sure it was that way, palm out just doesn’t feel right
Yes it does. British Forces, Front Static Salute. Raise right hand to temple in sweeping motion. Upper arm remains parallel to ground, while wrist should not bend. Palm of hand should face outwards, except for Navy (palm downwards).
•After 3 seconds hand is returned to side.
Same for all the Commonwealth Forces, including Indian Subcontinent in my experience. And all of the Commonwealth Forces are actually Saluting the Sovereign, not each other. Bless her, and keep Her safe, =]
Or the Rimmer ‘super-special’ salute…
no basic for halo yet so I was more expecting an anime salute moon girls or 801st airbats’
At least it wasn’t the one-finger salute.
Why would Sydney ever ‘flip the bird’ to Maxi? o_O
Suicide wish?
wait unless i’m mistaken did we just learn that one of Sid’s mystery orbs is a power booster?
nope. she’s holding the flight orb in the one hand and the shield one in the other. it looked like she pressed a specific sigil to make it larger…
It sure would have been nice to learn that from the author in the form of exposition, of which there was much anyway… At least a nod in the blog post or something.
It took me reading the comments to realize that the “embiggener” referred to one of the floaty sigils… I had thought Sydney was using the word to refer to the flight orb – as in, using it makes her (perspective) taller.
doesn’t this rune controls thing collide with what dabbler said in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/620 ?
Maybe the runes only show up as part of Sydney’s mental interaction
Not sure if it’s art error, but the runes are drawn in on ‘top’ of her hands. This makes me think their images may hover above the surface of the orb.
sydney hasent activated a ball yet in that comic if you jump back to this page https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/515
you can see runes in some of the orbs
Yes, and well remembered. Although even at that time the runes were visible in the art, when looking at the close-ups of certain of the orbs. My take on it being that she was referring to etched, or engraved runes. As opposed to swirly floating rune effects.
But if Sydney is pressing them, then that implies a physical presence. Not that Dabbler actually touched them.* Unless Sydney is just pushing them out of habit, rather than out of necessity. As I speculate in reply to one of the early remarks on the first comments page, the orb might be reading her mental intent, and the ‘pressing’ of the rune might be unnecessary. Or just be part of the training process that helps users learn the control of the orbs.
* Probably a very wise safety precaution on her part.
Like how one would control a prostetic limb. First you have to mentally think about moving your arm, but soon it would become like moving your actual arm. Without concious input
Looking at #90 which was just linked, it seems fairly clear that the runes actually float above the surface a fair distance, making them less likely to be touch activated. Looks rather like the visible runes are just a guide, and it’s the thought that counts. Thinking of the rune acting as a trigger.
Such an interface could be used to toggle, trigger, lock, deactivate, or even act as a slider for altering features. It’s entirely possible many of the runes are redundant, ie: the shield can actually be controlled without them, and they simply act as a learning tool.
It could even be a combination, in example: if the shield size could be completely controlled mentally, but focusing on the rune while doing so ‘locked’ it into that size until either the shield is dropped, or the rune is triggered again. If every function had to be constantly ‘held’ mentally by the user, any stray thought or distraction could be disastrous. Another possibility, some functions are simply too dangerous to allow to trigger too easily, and require the rune to be thought of as well as a safety feature.
Imagine runes for things like:
Size
Shape
Position
Opacity
Safety Override
Reflective
Phasing
i got to agree that there is an Opacity option as i stated somewhere on page one of the comments the opening few pages are an argument about exactly that
I get the feeling that Max was going to say something else in panel 2, but changed her mind when she realized that Sydney was there.
And for a second I was wondering if anyone cared about Sydney’s lost hat.
I’d wager that Max was about to say something like “after your stunt at the bank”. Sydney got her 15 minutes of fame from the bank-robbery newscast, which was why they rushed her into the press conference.
But AFAIK, Sydney still thinks the robbery was real. If Max implies that Arianna staged it, then Sydney’s likely to put 2+2 together and realize that she just joined a team with a man who FIRED A GUN at her, while acting under Arianna’s orders. It would be like throwing a lit match into a room full of dynamite.
I can’t believe nobody has yet made a reference to the original Simpson’s quote that Sydney’s pop-culture saturated mind is stealing from.
“A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man”
– Jebediah Springfield
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Embiggen
And I add: he was originally a European pirate named Hans Sprungfeld.
It’s a perfectly cromulent word.
Max is a good leader. Proper Military attitude of “the troops under you come first”. I’d still like to see her give Arianna a “fastball special” to put her in her place.
Dave, have you thought about the possibility of going back to school to increase your skill set? You might qualify for some interesting financial support.
Poor hat, although it might be a good way for Max to show her control of here power. Blow away the tank, while leaving the hat unharmed.
You should check out Patreon, it allows us to donate a set amount every time you post a new comic. I would willing to donate a couple bucks every time you update and I’m sure many others would as well.
https://www.patreon.com/
Wait, so did I just read that if 10% of your readers gave you a dollar a month, you’d be able to do this full time? Really?
Well… seems like if you drew a splash page about that, along with the patreon suggestion, you’d get everything you needed in about a week.
Well, getting 10% of your audience to actually buy into something is pretty incredible. When a company does advertising, getting a 1% response rate means you’re doing good. Of course there’s a big difference between Kroger sending you an email and a comic that you like, so who knows.
i would imagine that reading a comic to which you actively have to go read and do so because you enjoy to as opposed to a billboard you drive by everyday have a rather significant level of difference between them especially far as the effect on the audience is concerned.
What you could think of doing is some kind of sponsor system like Rooster Teeth uses as part of their business model.
One benefit of which is for sponsors to get access to the new comics a day or so early.
As well as other stuff like panels or scenes that you made that never made it into a comic.
I would love to see you do the comic full time! <3 Also, it would be amazing to see Grrl Power published and in stores. I know if I were in a store an saw it sitting on a shelf I would snatch it up SO quick.
I'm an avid webcomic reader, and have been for years. Your comic has quickly become one of my top five favorites with the beautiful art and witty charm. It's about time we saw something other than remakes of old superhero stereotypes and mismanaged drama lines. Grrl Power is something new and refreshing for me. (also being an avid comic book reader since a time ago that I don't want to say because that would be dating myself lol Let's just say I regret ever throwing away my original print x-men cards as a child.)
Perhaps it would be a good idea to plan a kickstarter, or donations event? Many web-comic artists do events where if they reach their goal they; give extra pages/a fan picked spin off mini comic, splash pages of fanservice, or even make it into a raffle contest where winners get original art work/requested work.
All I know is that when my paycheck comes in, I will definitely be donating. I would love to help support your comic and your dream, because you already work so hard as it is to give us free content made from your blood, sweat and tears. It's not easy to throw your work out to the world, in fact, it can be damn scary. On top of that, doing so with consistency is amazing. Thank you so much!
I think we all, (if we can) should throw a little something into the pot, if not for ourselves, or for the comic, but for Dave to have a Merry Christmas. <33 Also, spreading word of this amazing comic through twitter, facebook, and so on. Imma spam every one I know with the link. XD
I wish you the best of luck Dave, and as always I wait patiently (cough) for every update.
Cheers mates. <3 And happy holidays!
Thanks so much! I do plan on doing a kickstarter when I get ready to do a book. The hardest part about doing the kickstarter will be figuring out rewards that I can actually fulfill. Posters and postcards and that sort of stuff take time to make, but that’s all part of what it takes to try and do this full time eh?
I assume you have your art and comics stored on a good hard drive? Use those images and sign them. If you have a problem printing them there are plenty of places that would do it for you fairly cheaply. Any signed art is worth owning and your art is at least as good as some that have been hanging in art galleries. One of the biggest money makers for museums are prints of fine art. And numbering them makes them more valuable (at least the low numbers).
Even still, it is hard to get really excited for a print numbered 5 / 1 650 000. Some “limited edition.”
True but I highly doubt Dave B. will ever make that many especially if he personally signs each one.
Yeah there’s no physical originals unfortunately, except for a few pages that I never actually used. If I did signed prints, I’d limit them to 10 of each page or something.
Book marks, buttons or prints of some of the vote incentives would be good, too (granted we could potentially just print them from DA, but I consider that cheating). I’d love having a print of snorkeling Sydney holding the fly ball, and those images are already done, so (in theory) not a lot of work would be needed. :)
Well, I just tossed you the same size donation I gave Randy when he made his challenge to his readers. If _my_ financial situation improves I’ll add in a monthly donation, but I don’t want to do that if I’m not sure I can commit to it for a long term.
Thanks a lot! I appreciate the support. It’s definitely going to help. We’ll probably get a few extra comics in while I job hunt, but this will take some of the pressure off.
‘Which one of these things was the embiggener…’
So hum. I’m betting Sydney knows and or has tried other of the things…
Could also try a collection of the first bunches of pages in an issue format? Sell ’em like print comicbooks even? >.> Goodness knows it’d be one more expense on MY end. ^.^ This comic is such a guilty pleasure of mine.
So I just donated, however, I would totally buy a small one-off comic or ebook. Please?
Good luck, Dave! I wish I could afford to contribute, but I’m currently desperately trying to save up to publish my third novel, while also being unemployed and medically unable to work in my previous industry. If I ever break even, I’ll send something your way, because I love your comic.
I set up a PayPal account just to donate here. This webcomic is one of the few that deserves it.
Aw shucks y’all. Thanks so much. PayPal isn’t usually evil, except for when they are. :)
On the donate thingys:
I don’t live in America or have a credit card. So they are useless to me :(
I’m looking into setting up a Patreon account too. Not sure if that helps but it’ll be another option eventually.
I’ll put in another “Whoohoo!” for Patreon. It’s an amazing system. Give it a shot – it can’t hurt.
Oh wait. Are they going to have Max use her energy beam on the tank with Sidney using the force field on the other?
I think its more likely Max is going to go heavy on the tank, and this is to keep the press safe from debris and all.
If she’s using the Forcefield and the enlarger, how is she flying?
She can only use 2, not 3 at a time.
Continuity error.
Or is enlarge just a simple edit of the forcefield?
The sice increase of her force field is also a function of her force field orb. She is still using only wo orbs.
It seems she needs to press or concentrae on) a special symbol on the orb.
The orbs are collor coded, and explained in the who’s who. Just check that if you get confused next time. She’s pressing something on the purple ball, and the purple ball is the force field
Makes me wonder… they’ve tested the force field with things blasting to get in… what happens when something wants out?
Another thought…once the force field is up, it seems to move with Sydney. So if she’s using the flight orb and makes the big shield around all the reporters, including part of the ground beneath them, is the flight strong enough to take that hunk of earth and all the reporters with her if she flies?
See previous comic for example of sand+gravity. In other words, it can’t leave.
I was more interested in how strong her flight is…if it was filled with tons of rock, dirt, and reporters, could she gain altitude and fly around with them all inside?
I believe I know what one web cartoonist is getting for Christmas.
Point; Numbers 80/119/159/170 all show Rune/Glyph.
Point; People use visuals to help express ideas, read the letters WORD … Nothing you need to look at it as a group to get meaning.
You are all reaching a conclusion I had long ago, subconscious controls. She only uses 2 because she equates 2 hands to controlling something. As time goes on she will start to REALLY believe she can use them without touching them and that’s when she goes all OP on us.
My guess for the missing 2 are; Life Support Systems (Including no need for food/water) and Translation Device. With those the 7 of them make a great Scouting Package. Protection/Remote Viewing/Movement/Remote Manipulation/Life Support (Hostile Env.)/Translations/Last Resort — Attack
Maybe the owners of those spheres have more than two hands. Or they don’t even need to touch them. Maybe one day Sydney will be able to do that will all of them.
Arachnophobes should not click to reveal:
Seven orbs. Assume at least one limb must be used to hold a position. Meaning eight limbed orb creators. Probably hairy, with eight eyes, venomous fangs and bigger than Sydney.
I clicked on Ciopo’s link and noticed that the next buttons for those old comics were jumping forward by increments of at least 4. New readers are gonna be hella confused.
The numbering on the URLs jumps forward in odd increments but the actual “next” buttons send you to the next page. I’m not sure why wordpress does that, but it shouldn’t confuse anyone unless they’re trying to type in the URLs at random.
Hmm, bit of a continuity issue in this comic: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/572 Daphne mentions anvil fighting with math, and Sydney asks if SHE sucks at algebra. Problem is that from everything I’ve seen, Sydney hadn’t met Anvil yet, and Daphne doesn’t mention Anvils sex, so how could Sydney have known Anvil was a gal? Even Max would prolly say that Anvil isn’t a particularly feminine name.
and the fact that up until that point all the supers she had meat from arcon were femail (still being unawere that the bank robers were arcon) in fact she later asks if there are any guys
Since she’d only met two the assumption that they’re ALL female is a bit of a stretch.
then again anvil sounds like it has the name anne at the begining so maybe it was that
Yeah that’s on my fix list.
Nothing, imo, to fix: there is no ‘continuity error’ as, has been pointed out, Sydney had, so far, only encountered females (plus Faulke and Zeong), changing it to “he” would be just as presumptuous
changing it from “does she” to “do they” would work pretty well if she was thinking all PC at the time. But since Anvil sounds fairly masculine it would make sense for her to say “does he”. Alternatively DaveB could just have Daphne say Kenya instead of anvil, however now that I’ve thought that out Kenya isn’t a very gender descriptive name either. At least not to well…..white ppl I suppose. Tho Kenya does sound more feminine than Anvil.
Kenya might cause Sydney to ask how we got a foreign country to join ARCHON.
When has Sydney ever been PC in this comic so far?
‘Anvil’ doesn’t sound masculine to me, neither does it sound feminine, it sounds, to me, descriptive which implies a callsign/codename, and like said already, Sydney had only seen 2 males (apart from the secretary) by that stage
I don’t see a problem. I always assumed that, since Sydney hadn’t noticed any male supers yet, she assumed it was just females so far.
That, and Max stated later that she was happy Sydney might be a feminist, so I think this ties in perfectly.
No0o0o! Did Maxima accidentally mentioned Halo’s real name out-loud?
Arcswat names seem to be callsigns for tactical convenience and merchandising, not secret identities. So the use of real names isn’t such a big deal.
Arc doesn’t do secret identitys. Why do you think they’re not wearing masks?
arc dusent use secret identities for accountability concerns they are after all a government run police force
If they are going to do what I think they are going to do, then they better hope the embiggener doesn’t weaken the shields, say, to the point where maximia’s attacks go through it and kill everyone.
They already tested it
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1043
Watch the different radius of glass spikes around the block of metal
Yeah, I noticed the multiple rings back then but it took this page for it to make sense.
In panel 3, it looks like Arianna is looking at Maxes Chest.
But panel 3 comes after panels 1&2 and if you read them all together it’s clear that she’s looking over Max’s shoulder at Sydney.
Nah. Ari’s staring at Max’s pointy-finger.
That works too.
Who wouldn’t? Making sure Maxi doesn’t actually catch you doing it of course :P
I think part of the effect is the height differential between the two women. Max is 6’1″. Arriana is much shorter.
I wonder if any of the ones she doesn’t know how to use effect the abilities of the other orbs.
both of them do, in fact if she grabs both of the mystery balls the other orbs completely cease to function.
I love this comic, and this page is a great one. Syd is so cute/adorable in panel two and Ari is so not dead shark eyed in panel four. Those eyes are windows into the soul of a person I admire and yes, I think they look appropriate for her. Despite (or maybe because of) the sass in their somewhat adversarial relationship, I get the impression that Ari and Max really do respect each other. They’re both boss mares, bound to clash, but they have each others’ backs when it matters. I mean, Max always seems a bit pricklish and Ari always has that wry sense of humor (come on Max, fortess of golditude was funny), but here I see Max editing herself to cover for Ari anyway. I fully expect that Ari would do the same for Max. Syd too, if it ever came to that. Syd is clearly the new girl, but I think she’ll fit right in. That’s what I’m getting from the first six panels.
The last panel is full of goodness. Mainly, the sweet satisfying revelation that the orbs have options beyond the default settings we’ve seen so far. This is exciting news, to say the least. I have to agree with Pinky about Syd and her embiggened shield, and that last exchange between Max and Syd made me chuckle. Nice finish.
Thanks for another excellent page, DaveB. I’m sorry to hear about your unemployment, but I’m glad you set up a tip jar. I’m really hoping that your fans will suprise us all by reliably providing enough tips for you to work on the comic full time. Two or three pages a week would be infinitely awesome to the power of Chuck Norris, but I guess schooling yourself in the newfangled software takes precedence. Maybe do both, if us fans can chip in enough to cover school expenses. I hope we can. I like your work. ;)
Embiggener. From the Simpsons. “A noble spirit embiggens a man”.
Dave B. have you looked into Subbable? It’s the way my favorite Youtube series (Scishow) is being funded. You can subscribe monthly for any amount including $0.
I may be reading too much into a close up of the FF orb but it looks like she may be able to choose to bias the FF in one side compared to the other, heavy forward with lighter to the rear. Another icon seems to hint she could layer it with insulation between. To really push things she might be able to initiate the field to include a chunk of ground below and then initiate another inside that and expand it outward. Squash the ground up and around into a solid compacted material into a sphere. Instant camoflauged hiding space.
How about putting Strikeforce Morituri and it’s sequel Electric Undertow in Grrl Power.
I don’t remember one of them being an embiggener…..is this something where a combination of amaz-balls has a seperate, extra effect?
Oh wait, I get it. The embiggener is a specific marking on the shield orb.
I love it when you do the art like in panel 5. It’s perfect for expressions during punchlines. It also makes your characters positively adorable.
I enjoy the occasional cute panel. :)
Penal 6 makes me wonder what foreign language Sydney knows. One can never tell if someone actually speaks a language or just picked up a few phrases they use. n__n; XD
Generally if someone is using only a single word, especially one that’s well-known in English to the point of being memetic (like “Jawohl!”), it means they don’t speak the language (or, if they do speak it, it’s usually not the reason they’re using that word).