Grrl Power #299 – Old gnus is still gnus if it’s new gnus to you
A bit of and odd page. I know people were expecting a scene with the orbs coming out and everyone oohing and aahing, but I thought we’ve already seen that a few times in one form or another. Just assumed that happened, the press took lots of pictures and asked obnoxious questions. Eventually Sydney yelled and waved her hands like she does and shooed Joel into the back office to get up to speed.
It really only occurred to me as I was drawing panel 5 of this page that Sydney’s phone should have been going berserk all last night. She had it on her at the restaurant, and every news agency in the world would have been trying to get a hold of her to get quotes and set up interviews, not to mentions her friends. I guess she had all her calls going to voicemail, or more likely she just turned it off after she called her parents. Of course, any reporter looking for information on her would quickly discover that she has a business partner which is why Joel’s phone is loaded up now. I’m sure everyone she’s friends with on facebook has tons of messages from news agencies as well. She’s going to have some ‘splainin’ to do.
Oh and if you’re curious about my misspelling of “news” in the title, it’s a reference to Garry Gnu, from a old kid’s show called The Great Space Coaster. I remember nothing from the show at all, I even had to look up the name of the program, except for the news segment, which was hosted by Gary Gnu, a muppet gnu (wildabeast) and started with his catchphrase, “No gnews is good gnews with Garry Gnu.” The joke being that anything he said starting with an N got an added G sound in front of it which is of course the opposite of how you pronounce gnu. (Though I realize now my title should say “gnews” and not “gnus”. Oh well.)
Update: I’ve posted about a colorist position so if you’re interested, check it out here. (applications are closed now)
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Dave, I love you for Sydney’s Patreon banner quote about our fighting force of extraordinary magnitude.
“We forge our spirits in the tradition of our ancestors!”
Oh, I had to google this quote and now I feel much younger!
The one which caught my eye there was:
That movie was awesome. The kung-fu parody segment is almost a shot-for-shot remake of Enter the Dragon.
Odd tidbit. One of the few movie reviews I’ve ever watched was for Dragonslayer. It was a basically positive review, but ended with the comment that one of the best things about the movie was that the reviewer could not think of any possible way they could do sequel.
The next day I went by a movie theater, and out on the marquee it said Return of the Dragon.
[spoiler]Yeah, I know, totally unrelated movie, but still…[spoiler]
Thanks for reminding me of just how old I am with that title :D
You think that makes you feel old? I’d already graduated from high school before it came on TV…And I liked it.
I’m so old I never even heard of it…
I was merely denied much TV at the time. :p
I remember watching the Great Space Coaster – it came on right after the New Zoo Review, and before the Banana Splits Adventure Hour
singing, “H. R. Puff-N-Stuff! What you need when things get rough…”
The same guys did a show called “Lidsville the land of living hats”.
And yet they insisted they were not on drugs…
I find it more likely they were but if they really weren’t maybe they should have been.
Looks like the news in GP World is just as bad as it is in the real world :p
The GP world is the real world + super powers. So, yup.
Pretty sure sydney had her phone on since Leon asked for it at the restaurant :)
If (on some bizzaro alternate world, where I actually carried a mobile phone), I was doing a meet-and-greet on my first day in a new job, and then being in a news conference and finally in a social outing, with the new team, I would be sure to have my phone turned off. Except for when making an outgoing call to set my nearest and dearests’ minds at ease.
And, even if there was a stack of unanswered calls beside that, if my tummy was rumbling, and dinner was getting cold, they would just have to wait, until after it was full.
I hope she had a decent breakfast, before stepping foot outside, and being hounded by the media. Otherwise she must be ravenous by now!
Yes but all I’m saying is she had her phone and it was on because Leon asks for it then does some hacker stuff on it to prevent her from getting hacked and spammed and stuff like that, remember?
She said after that how she keeps feeling more and more like Batman after she got her phone back. Plus she used it to call her parents. So it must have been on since she didn’t know there was going to be a super fight halfway through dinner.
And you wouldn’t like Sydney’s tummy when it’s ravenous.
Sydney:
“Don’t make me hungry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m hungry”.
Well, we have seen what might happen when Sydney gets hungry…
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/547
Leon installed an app that automatically silences Sid’s phone when there is a super fight. ADHD and all.
i doubt she got breakfast. none of those media types had gas masks on.
Yeah….it is very typical that it is always the day/time when you decide to have a silent, away from everyone moment that everyone suddenly needs to get in contact with you. Poor Joel.
So this begs the question: Do flying supers have hidden GPS units they use to find out where they’re going? Or do they strap their smart phones to their wrists and it’s just never drawn in the comics?
Also – shout out to “Don’t camp my spawn!” quote! Lulz. I’ve shouted that sooooo many times!
I’m picturing the early days of Superman
“Crap. I have to be home in an hour. Now where was I…”
*scream*
“Oops sorry ma’am”
*zoom*
*SQUEAL* “Where did those pigs come from?”
*SCREECH* “There you go sir, got your car back on the road”
“Ah, there I…”
“EEEEEEE!”
“How did I land in a ladies locker room?”
GPS who needs GPS all I need is a compass, map, straight edge, a watch and time to do the math it isn’t hard and can save your life. GPS makes it to easy to get lost if it fails for some reason, this is why they still teach navigation to pilots, sailors and soldiers. Your brain is the back up to the machine and can actually navigate just fine without the machine. Sure you need a sexton for really long distances but for short hops all you need is a map.
If you have landmarks and know where they are relative to the location you are going to it becomes even easier to navigate. I can actually navigate by the terrain itself as the landmark if it is on the map. I understand why Sydney had issues with it but Max will get her up to speed.
Great example of this is in Hunt for Red October when they are running the canyon no GPS underwater just the map straight edge and a watch. Everything else is pure math which anyone can learn how to do.
Who are you… Ranger Smith?
Ps I don’t see Sydney using a sextant while flying…. Among many reasons – only one hand free. No hands free if she’s also shielded
Whereas Dabbler would be glad to utilize anything with the word “sex” in the name, at any moment in time, regardless of the number of hands free.
And would probably use a sextant the wrong way, resulting in hilarious mental imagery
Cavalry scout, former sea scout, so yeah navigation is second nature to me. I scoff at your technology though I never learned how to use a sextant would have needed to foot the bill myself at the time I needed it, and sight navigation in the Puget sound is easier. Only a few areas where you get out of the sight of land then it is minutes and seconds traveled and the speed of the ship.
Open water like on the ocean you should have one and should know how to use it isn’t that hard to learn the also used to use them in aircraft when crossing the ocean since flying over land is like sight navigation you know roughly where you are at by the terrain.
On the up swing I don’t get lost often where I live, stick me in a new area and it takes me months just to figure out where north is. So I carry a compass which is on my phone with the GPS if I really need it.
cav scout? so your rained to get lost on every route that doesn’t have a bar at the end of it.(just ribbing. former FO here.)
I can see her making a comment similar to the one Belkar made in Order of the Stick…
Dabbler: “Maxima, what is this Sex Taint you speak of? Of course, if you want me tainted…”
yeah but in the movies they DON’T tell you that those maps were made by a few years of painstaking sneaking around and taking passive sonar shot of the area, collating it back in Moscow, and then having to rely on a few millimeters in differences in a line on a piece of paper and a second or two in reaction times, to the reality of a mountain in your way that you THOUGHT you were going to miss…
Passive nothing to get those maps you active ping those canyons only way to get the resolution you want for the topography. But you can navigate like that totally bind if you know the times the Puget sound where I live you can’t bring a big ship in without a local pilot one that knows the waters like the back of their hand they can navigate through here without much issues and they bring all their own charts. They do it by hand than program it in and double check with the GPS.
but the active pinging would have given away their OWN position… NOT a thing to be done lightly back in those days… however, they probably used the active pings of all the OTHER ships in the area so that they didn’t have to use theirs…
oh, no, I’m not saying it CAN’T be done, it’s just that Hollywood never shows you the background work that made it possible… think about all the R&D that goes into just one of 007’s gizmos that Q “just happens” to have ready for James to just grab off a table before the mission starts…
as for the Sound, cool, that’s where I’m at too… Federal Way, about where do you call home?
Didn’t know that about Puget Sound, but that makes sense. I would imagine that that they would need special pilots especially when they bring a ship into the Bremerton Naval Base for decommissioning. But then again, I imagine that the same is true around all major sea ports.
Well that’s the point of 2 comics ago:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1646
Well, low enough they can likely take in notable landmarks, but they’re still limited by their memory/knowledge of the area and the directions they’ve gone.
Sydney looked to be flying pretty far up and may not know the city that well. Just because you live in the city, doesn’t mean you know it all.
I want to see that super slo-mo replay.
Happy #300 Dave!
Oh yes, tomorrow is a big day. We should hold a surprise party! Shhh. Nobody tell DaveB.
I miss that clock app. Stock with my htc evo, but the Galaxy S4s is just… lacking.
Check out Beautiful Widgets in the play store.
I used to love that show! “On the Great Space Coaster, here we go! On the Great Space Coaster, here we go!” Bittersweet memories.
“The FEAR Zone! How should REAL Americans feel about this? We tell you!”
Man, I WISH this was an exaggeration so I could laugh at it.
Chameleons are cool. I thought y’all might be interested in that article, if you are into creating your own characters for role-playing-games or other writing purposes. Previously we would most obviously be inspired by a chameleon’s ability to change colours.
Then we might go on to examine their other capabilities, for an inspiration for what powers we could give a chameleon themed hero. Perhaps the ability to look in more than one direction. Or their climbing ability. Or their phenomenal tongue might get our juices going.
But now we know that they can also adapt their thermal properties just as easily as they do their visual ones. Interestingly, whilst the scientists picked up that this is a good way of regulating their temperature, there was no mention made that it could be used to tweak their thermal image. Thus allowing their camouflage to extend to infra red detection too.
Some species of snake (for instance the rattlesnake) can hunt by infra red. I am sure a big snake would view a chameleon as a nice snack. Being able to reduce their thermal signature would be a big help, if they were trying to avoid the attention of such a predator. Even if it only worked temporarily (as heat would still build up and escape).
Whether they can or not though, we now have extra options for our chameleon heroes!
Another site did a summary of the article, but took a somewhat looser take on the text.
https://www.livescience.com/50094-photos-chameleons-change-color.html
“Chameleons, such as F. pardalis, have long projectile tongues, independently movable eyes and two toes that point forward and two that point backward, according to the researchers of a new study.”
I hope that is just sloppy editing and not the researchers trying to claim credit for ‘discovering’ those things. If so, I have a few announcements of my own.
“Fire is hot! Water is wet!” Thank you, I would now like my Nobel prize in physics for my discovery.
Another article that came out this week was about the Dawn space probe orbiting Ceres. It turns out the orbital speed is only about 1600 ft/sec. So you could theoretically fire a rifle standing on the surface of Ceres and wind up shooting yourself in the back of the head. (of course you would have to stand there for over an hour without moving)
Better just hope your aim is off…
Sydney (during a role-playing session where her character is fighting a new supervillain dubbed “Karma Chameleon”): You might as well just give up, as you’re trapped and there’s five of us and only one of you.
Gamemaster (as Karma Chameleon): Hah! I’ll just use my chameleon powers to blend… (noticing the game-lawyering gleam in Sydney’s eyes) into… my… surr…. (finally breaking character) Okay, okay, what is it now?
Sydney: You’ll use your chameleon powers to do what?
Gamemaster (after a brief pause to read article and then getting back into character and in a grumbling voice): Fine! I’ll just use my chameleon powers to turn red because I’m upset that I didn’t do more testing to see how they worked and being bitten by a radioactive chameleon isn’t quite the thrill I thought it would be. And then I’ll just surrender.
Yea, I have come across research like that too. They are obviously not testing the same variety I did. Because I remember my pet ones changing, when put on different colour surfaces. Ok, I was only a kid at the time, and memory can play tricks. But I am sure that it would have stood out if the colour changes were radically different to the backgrounds.
Unless the chameleons were green with envy at the green jumper I put them on. And then going red with rage, as I placed them on someone’s red shirt. Not to mention getting the blues…
Well, I won’t go into a sad song about it.
Thanks for the Secret Wars #1 cover. I wonder if the upcoming Secret Wars will be worthy of being in the same family.
Marvel already did Secret Wars II, quite some time before selling out to Disney. To avoid any spoilers for those who haven’t read about it, all I’ll say is that the Beyonder comes to Earth.
And asks to use Spidey’s bathroom….
Does this mean SPEED READER is a Team Member?
Have to post this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GEa0No8uX8
When does the next one post?
This is killing me.
About 1 1/2 hour from now.
so 11 gmt or 12 for me
*holding breath*
Nope, not gonna make it for another hour.
*breathes*
Breathe through your ears Yorp!……..Dabbler would like that as well :D
Is the third news reporter the news reporter from Ben 10 Alien Force?
I am not familiar with that. But the rest of us commentators consider her to be Suzzi Wen, aka Suzzi News.
Ouch! Right in the childhood! I haven’t heard that catch phrase in ages!
As another (ancient take) on your ‘g-news’ (pronouncing the g); when I was even younger than I am today, we took a family trip, stopped off at the Bronx Zoo (I think that was it). One of the latest exhibits was their Gnu pen. Outside it was a plaque that worked as many ‘(g)N’ words into as they could, ending in “Thanks to the efforts of organizations like the Gnu York Zoological Society, gnus are getting gnumerous again!”.
(If the recreational chemicals hadn’t worn off, I’d probably still be laughing today…)
That “typical”, in the last panel, got another LOL out of me today, even coming here to check out a new comment, rather than in a read through.
“Bitching shockwave” Is that Sydney’s Lighthook, or have the news teams created a new font that just looks like it so they can get away with off-color commentary? Either way, Halo has already enriched our lives.
That is indeed something added in the studio.
It is Channel 5 news, who ‘discovered’ Halo (interviewing her before she even joined Archon or got her public introduction), and got the exclusive on Maxima and the bank robbery.
Further they clearly capitalised on both Susie Wen being both one of the hostages involved in the robbery, as well as being on the ball enough to get a camera crew there in time to get that exclusive. Because they have promoted her, not just from intern to journalist, but have clearly also jumped her up to the top of the pyramid and made her an anchor!
Susie News is enthusiastically pro-hero. And the producer is quite obviously making the most of that. Their viewers will have loved this intern made good, and her refreshing openness and enthusiasm will have conveyed itself to their audience.
So anything that is cool about the heroes (even the stuff that other channels are griping about, like the bad language), is something that they would embrace, rather than distance themselves from. Their viewers will get a laugh from it, and forgive any normal qualms they have, as they get taken along on Susie New’s* emotional ride!
* Her new found professional name. Having fluffed her unpractised introduction, in her first broadcast, and combined her name with the program name. Changing “Susie Wen of Channel 5 News” into “Susie News”. Clearly it polled well, so she stuck with it!
“SUPER HEROES: THREAT OR MENACE?”
“BITCHING SHOCKWAVE”
I love the news stations in this comic. XD
I know I’m really late to this party, buuuuuuut, you did have the tech wizard at ARC do some wizardry to Sydney’s phone; he could’ve made her number unlisted when he went through all her passwords and whatnot.