Grrl Power #333 – My (golden) angel (of destruction) is the centerfold
Trying something out with the panel layout here. Trying fit a lot of dialog in (also known as “my usual amount of dialog”) with fewer panels. Usually I prefer having more back and forth panels so you can see people’s expressions as they talk, but this obviously takes less time to draw and it helps to mix it up the layouts as well.
Maxima’s rejection of Candace’s offer was initially a bit more curt, but as I was drawing the page I was thinking about what her actual position would be on the subject. She’s not a fan of skanky stuff and it doesn’t help her opinion of you if you are, but she’s not against artistic nudes. Her qualm is people viewing her that way first and foremost. She understands there will be or already are a lot of really bad nude photoshops of her (or other nude models with some lazily applied filters) online, and even a few really good ones, but she’d rather not provide a primary source if she can avoid it.
In case Candace’s Everest reference isn’t clear, especially for the English as a second or third language readers, “(blank) is my Everest” is an idiom meaning that (blank) represents a singular and personal challenge for someone. So “Running a Triathalon is my Everest.” or “Eating the 3 pound burger at Crazy Ray’s is my Everest.” Candace is implying that getting to shoot Maxima in the buff would be something of a highlight in a photographer’s career.
Joe Manganiello for those of you who don’t know is the lumberjack looking werewolfy love interest for the main character in True Blood, and more recently he shows up in Magic Mike XXL. He’s basically the male equivalent of a slutty nurse, sexy librarian and enemy spy lady in the PVC catsuit all rolled into one. I mean, I assume. I’m not a straight lady or a gay guy, but he seems pretty ok looking to me. I could have gone with any of a number of hot actor guys, but he just seems like the sort ladies might have on their freebie list of guys they can nail and not get in trouble with their boyfriend. As soon as he showed up in True Blood my first thought was “no doubt about it, this is definitely written either by an earnest woman or a cynical guy.” I know the novels were written by a woman though I have no idea how closely the show followed them.
Thanks for all the vote incentive votes! I know those pencils are a little light, I will try and get that colored the first chance I have, and will attempt to stream it while I do.
This page colored by Keith.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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.
Dave that new Anvil incentive is awesome! Can’t wait for the colour!
Yea, this does seem to be the best spot to comment on it, here. The current link only goes to May’s Deadpool comments page, rather than a new one for Anvil. Without the comment that DaveB puts up on such, we do not know if there is colour to follow on this.
In the absence of such though, it is usually safer to assume a vote incentive is just posted ‘as is’, in this case just being a sketch. Dave will have a heck of a lot to do in gradually converting existing web pages to a form suitable for book publishing. And, even before starting that, we know he crams more hours into his working week than is probably good for his health.
So , although there is no harm in keeping your fingers crossed for colour, it is probably best not to get your hopes up.
When I was in college there was a “Candace Cane” in the student directory. I never found out if she was for real or if that was a fake entry placed by the administration to catch people misusing the student directory for sales or ROTC appeals.
I worked for one company which had a number of test accounts set up, with comedic client names. But the weird thing was, rather than have them on a separate test system, they were mixed in with the live accounts.
And, not only that, but they had accounting entries set up. That is natural enough, if you are checking to see that program updates are working correctly. The surprising thing was that they did not have nominal amounts, each entry was in the tens of thousands of pounds! Meaning any given account was in the hundreds of thousands ‘value’.
Which always had me wondering about the legality of it, as they were not flagged, in any way, as test accounts. The entries would appear mixed in with any reporting, and had to be manually removed. I guessed that it was not illegal, just stupid.
The one sensible thing they did though was to put our own company address on them. That way if somebody failed to spot the error, and included them in a mail shot, they would come straight back to us.
The most dangerous aspect being that at least a couple of them were similar to real world companies, which had been set up with comedic names. A less serious one was that it would be easy for someone to set up a fake company, and sent out payments to them.
The latter was the lesser risk, as it would be picked up in an audit, and those amounts would not be a significant loss (in company terms, rather than from the point of view of an individual member of staff). Whereas the former carried with it a risk to the reputation of the company, if the error reached the press.
I used to hope that, like you say, it was just bait, to draw out any dishonest staff. Albeit that left a bad taste in the mouth. But, nope, when I checked into it, they just gave no thought to those possibilities. Not only were there no traps set up to catch illicit activity,they did not even have any of the regular checks, as they had no (actual) account handler!
Anyone, who did not mind having to hide from Interpol, for the rest of their lives, could have cleaned out half a dozen accounts and walked out with a considerable retirement fund. And, had they done that, they might have gotten clean away with it, if the company hushed it up, to avoid the bad publicity, due to their own incompetence.
It sounds like a pretty standard test setup, though one would normally expect this to be on a test server rather than a production environment. Perhaps the company was strapped for computing resources, or wanted to make absolutely certain that things functioned properly in production. Regardless, one would hope that the employees working for the company were trustworthy. There are far more subtle ways of committing the crimes of which you speak.
I almost wonder if it was set up to pull this stunt off in mind
Not the person who wrote them in
But someone paid or “joked” and it happend so a. Buddy could
I wonder why would Maxima even need clothes, other than for item storage – she looks like someone that can walk in the nude on the Ice Pole. She also doesn’t look like someone particularly shy.
BTW, in terms of being “everest”, how sexy are the girls in this comic are supposed to be? On a scale of 1 to 10 (though Dabbler under full seduction illusion is at least 11).
short answer: principals. i don’t really feel like giving a long version, so here’s the cliff notes: while it hasn’t come up very often, Maxima is a rational feminist. she despises the objectification of anyone, and sees herself, as a unique and quite probably pleasing-to-the-eye example, as a particular target for it. discrediting someone in her position is as good, if not better than, outright killing or crippling her.
so, while she could go all Dr. Manhattan on us, she won’t. until people are socially capable of seeing a random nude female and not reacting with a knee-jerk outburst of lust/outrage/whathaveyou, the golden goddess remains clothed.
yet again, prudish and social mores have gotten in the way of a good time. wah wah.
Sydney is a 10. The others are variable. As they say beauty is in the eye of the levitating-aberration-monster-with-multiple-eyes.
Hmm… now I’m all curious if you could truly capture Dabbler under a seduction illusion in a photo. I’m sure you could get the look of it, but what about the hypnotic boobs, or the seduction aura?
Technology is mostly driven by porn after all.
Reminds me of the beginning of that Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie Skit. :)
https://youtu.be/-9R-2X9Bl5w
did anyone else notice the name of the studio?
Seems like a little ester egg from earlier in the comic.
“What if Peter Parker found out that his true calling was photojournalism?”
The only thing I don’t like about this strip is the tattoos. I find tattoos to be idiotic and ugly. They make me question the sanity of people who have them.
What are you talking about? Maxima does not have any tattoos? I don’t think she can even get them. Oh, you’re talking about the photographer. Never mind.
When I was young I used to be wary of people with tattoos. But part of that was growing up in quite a repressive society, where there was not much evidence of ‘counter-culture’. It was there, but it kept a low profile. As such, the lack of familiarity alienated me somewhat.
Plus, of course, I realised that a tattoo was permanent, and that it could cause problems for life. Including harming job prospects. And even when they could be removed it is an expensive operation and can leave scarring. Even today I would not say that I have gotten completely over the hang up. For instance, I find Candace’s look to be pushed into intimidating, by her tattoo.
But, I get over the first impressions fast, even for ones like that. And for others, I really like smaller, or more discreet tattoos. And love major ones, which are a work of art in their own right.
Peggy’s are a combination of both intimidating (number, some strong dark designs and sheer prominence) and loving the art of them. But the latter wins over the former. I could see myself happily living with a girl who had tattoos, even as extensive as that. Provided they were good ones. A large quantity of dark, monotone tattoos would need to be very artistic in order to not to detract from the appearance.
Once I have the money, and find a good enough tattoo artist (I do make active enquiries, from time to time) I want to get a dragon tattoo across my back. But I want it to look like it is climbing up my back, with the claws extending over my shoulders.
Originally I wanted the left hand claw, to go over the scars on that shoulder. However I learnt that tattoos and major scarring do not mix. So, instead I would want it to look like it was reaching to, or had perhaps caused the scarring (if the artist could modify the obvious surgical nature of them, through camouflaging the non-scarred surrounding skin).
Mind you I would want to dip my toe into the water first and try a small tattoo and see if the prospect of weeks worth of tattooing would be viable. Needles have long since stopped bothering me. And pain, up to and including root canal treatment, is no biggie for me any more.
But prolonged pain, that might wear thin. Some folls say it is nothing. Others that it is painful. So I would need to get a feel for it first, before committing to the big one.
But, I do have that handy excuse of being as poor as a church mouse, so I do not need to actually do any toe dipping just yet. And, even if I get that sorted, someday, I suspect that, whilst i was not able to see it, the artist might put another kind of worm on my back, with the legend “Mid-life crisis“.
My sanity? Mmm, that is debatable.
Porn certainly follows technology. Be it the film both still and motion picture to LASER disc to DVD to Blu-Ray etc porn was close behind. The first porn film was made just 2 years after the first motion picture was made.
This is a very late comment but, for those of you who may pick it up, I think it is worthy of drawing attention to this.
But, before I detail it, please note that I think this is something that one or two people were mixing up with sexism. It has nothing to do with it, and is a completely separate issue. You can randomise the genders of everyone involved and it makes no difference on the following point.
Maxima may need to make a command level decision about whether to proceed with the rest of the team’s photo shoos here. There is a reasonable argument about allowing each team member to decide whether to go for the risque photo-shoot options. Maxima has proceeded without going for it. Hiro may have taken up the photographer on it.
However the point that Maxima raised is a valid one. If the risqué options are taken up, then there is the potential for blackmail by thieving super villains.
I suspect that Maxima will realise her conflict of interest, in making this call, and will bow to the expertise of Arianna. I think they will have a conversation about this. But, unless DaveB sees something funny about it, I imagine it will take place in between comics.
One valid technique, for countering such blackmail is that, for those team members who want to, allowing them to do as daring a photo shoot as they want. And allow it to be published, if they choose. If the individuals are comfortable with it, and it will not harm the reputation of the unit, then progressive is a valid option.
Which is where Arianna’s PR expertise would come into play. She would be best positioned to judge whether such would be more beneficial or less. Given that she chose to send the unit to a studio which does offer the full range of shoots, including ‘boudoir’, we can anticipate which way her advise will go.
IF they choose to block any from going for nude options, then they would need to consider shifting the contract to a studio which does not support nude photography at all. There would be no need to put up with any ‘did they take the “special offer”?’ gossip, if everyone is banned from doing it. Denying it does not stop gossip. Not using the studio (beyond the sessions already undertaken) will reduce it.
Whereas, if they are going to mix and match, and allow each person to make their own choice, then this is the right place to remain.
Either way this is not a judgement on whether the photographer is sleazy. The offer was professionally handled, so was not untoward. They simply advise what services they provide, and the customer chooses whether it fits their needs. If Archon decides that being prudish is the way to go, then a glamour studio, which offers nude or boudoir shoots, is not the best choice for them.
Is it sad that i’m now curious what color Maxima’s nipples are if all of her body is not colored like a normal human
Sad or not, you have me interested now too.
Probably the same colour as her lips.
Max: I swear if a guy wants me to loosen my clothes in front of this camera I’ll legitimately murder him.
Female Photographer: Oh man yeah, no skeevy guys here.
Five seconds later?
Female Photographer: Yeah, so if you want you can totally lose as much clothing as you want, take some more risque pictures.
Max: /seriously considering it
Sydney?
What?
???