Grrl Power #454 – Monster shock
Sydney might not be quite so haranguey if Maxima wasn’t standing there. Yes, she’s essentially firing spitballs from over Superman’s shoulder, but hey, they’re all friends, right? Friends can tease each other about fatal weaknesses and allergies, right?
Harangue in a good word. It’s one of those words where if the first time you encounter it is in a novel and you’ve never heard it spoken it out loud, you might not quite guess how it’s pronounced right then and there, so you come up with a ‘close enough’ version in your head and make sure you don’t say it outloud until you have a chance to look it up. The same thing happened with me and ‘macabre’ though my ‘close enough’ version was ‘mac-a-bare.’ Fantasy novels are especially bad about this since they have so many made up words. I’m pretty sure I have a handle on how to pronounce Menzoberranzan, but still basically no idea on Drizzt’s cat, Guenhwyvar. In my head it’s ‘GWEN-e-var’ or ‘GWEN-hwy-var.’ Please tell me other people do this.
Well Sydney’s starting to ask a significant question there, but, well you know how she is. To be fair I’d probably stumble too if something that looked like Chorius started talking like Frasier.
Chorius is the representative for the Miscellaneous category, the races that don’t have enough of a significant population to have their own seat. In some ways his job is the hardest one on the council because he’s usually speaking for the most diverse bunch. Chorius is considered a “Monster,” but not in a pejorative sense. Monsters are themselves a diverse group, and can be hard to define. Usually when describing one, people tend to start with a movie reference. “It was like the thing from that movie The Relic / Outlander / Hellboy / any of those things in Pacific Rim / etc.” They tend to be darkly colored, but sometimes have glowey bits, chitinous or otherwise armored, claws, spikes, fangs. Basically if you throw a blanked over them while they’re sleeping, they’re sure to ruin it in short order. There is debate as to whether Kaiju and Monsters are the same thing. Monsters are “large” which is to say the size of a large human up to the size of a large horse, maybe even a large horse with a fat, lizardy tail on it (which you can bet probably has spikes) but they’re not “enormous.” They just look similar, but the debate may be pointless because there certainly aren’t any Kaiju on council and in fact, giant sea monsters are almost unknown, even to some of the longest lived council members.
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You’ve totally got a fair point about fantasy novels being full of made up words, but Guenhwyvar is actually a real name. It’s the Welsh version of Guinevere (admittedly the spelling’s a little off from the norm, usually spelt -far rather than -var but that’s far from unusual for a medieval name.), and should be pronounced Gwen-ee-veer.
So says the Nihtgenga.
Go on, look it up!
I was pretty sure someone would have beaten me to this info. I should add that this would have been the actual spelling of Queen Guinivere’s name originally.
Which, these days, is now spelled Jennifer. It was a top-ten girl’s name for well over a decade, but despite there being over a million women who were given the name as babies currently in the US, I have yet to meet one that uses the original spelling/pronunciation. Kind of disappointing, that.
So… Who else would totally hug Chorius because they find him oddly adorable? No one? Just me? Okay, I’ll go back to my corner now and continue my rereading of The Wheel of Time series, specifically The Great Hunt.
Now that you mention it it’s not like Sydney to let him go unhugged.
Well maybe he would have gotten that hug if he hadn’t distracted her with big and confusing words!
I say larger words are more deserving of hugging, obviously.
That’s why I use “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”[1] every chance I get.
[1] Even though the sound of it something quite atrocious.
Why how utterly suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus. Just say it loud enough to sound quite precocious.
Inventing new words sounds realy stupid, especialy if said words are long. Therefore we should do it as often as we can. It’s superfantabolous.
What does Mr Superfantabolous, age 23, of Nairobi, Kenya, have to do with it?
It’s actually ‘fantabulicious’
@Ro Jaws
actually supercalafragilisticexpialadocious is a word the existed before now. He didn’t make it up himself. Look up the movie “Mary Poppins”. If that is too much work for you and you only want the pronunciation then it is super-cala-fragile-istic-expy-ala-docious.
I think he was referring to Yorp’s “suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus”
Which is simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocious spelled backward, so not really a new word.
There’s actually a line in the song where Mary says “You know, you can say it backwards, which is docious-ali-expi-listic-fragi-cali-rupus, but that’s going a bit too far, don’t you think?” To which Bert replies, “Indubitably.”
I love that series of books, I need to re read them and finish the series
Yes. Yes you do. It’s such a good series. Long, but good. <3
In short, if you read them, you can have a wheely good time.
Yea, so long that the author died before the series was finished. Quite rude of him really.
How many series are there that they’re so long the author died before finishing them? We have Dune, One Piece, Wheel of Time… anyone care to add to the list?
Roborat: Not as rude as the fact he also stopped publishing. Being dead itself wouldn’t be that bad.
Realsmart987: Silmarillion. It’s not so obvious, as Tolkien was not writing it in order, but it was supposed to be MUCH longer.
I suppose George rr Martin could be going the same way. He’s already eschewed finishing the series by milking it for a prequel like Jordan did. Looking at him he’s hardly the picture of health either.
Now don’t be going in the corner i’d hugger weirder. (looks at own name)case in point. but yeah corius is officially in my top 5 characters for this comic now.
Oh, don’t mind me. I’m going to the corner to read. I read in corners often because I’m slightly paranoid and don’t like it when people walk around behind me. XD
Ahh, that will be a problem then. Wheels don’t have corners. Segments of them do, but not the wheels themselves.
Apparently some copies were released in a square form mind. But those were just concealing transmission aerials, for the bugging devices…
i would.
How would you actually pronounce Chorius, by the way? I mean, it could be “Core-E-Us,” but then again it could also be “Cho-Rye-Us” or something else entirely. Over here in my head, such as it is, I’ve been splitting the difference and calling him “Chore-E-Us.”
It’s pronounced “Fred.”
Considering how many variations of “Alias” have personally heard, not even going to start guessing
The audio button, seen at the top of the google search results * is close enough to the way I say it.
* Sorry, I have no idea whether it displays the same way, or at all, to others, on different search engines.
Yups, that’s the correct way, no idea why people continue to pronounce it “Uh-LIE-is” :confused:
I pronounce it as “ale-ee-us” as in for a murder court case. You only need to get into weird pronunciations if you’re in a fantasy world which Grrl Power technically isn’t in.
I think you may have meant “exemplification” rather than “exemplarification”, which I assume is an attempt to transform an adjective, “exemplary” into a noun, but does not seem to exist in the dictionary. If I am correct, I think the sentence would have to be “I am axiomatically quite accustomed to being the subject of exemplification”. Sorry, I normally wouldn’t comment on this type of thing, but it seems like you’re going for dichotomous character whose exterior seems at odds with their erudite nature. In which case, I doubt that he would, necessarily, be in the habit of nominalization.
No, this English lesson has been mentioned several times (and in detail) on the previous two pages of comments (and it is supposed to be “Exemplar-ification”, and, under the “Rules of English” makes it a valid word)
The accepted translation of what Chori said was, that he is used to being used as an example
Indeed, as confirmed by the author himself, in reply on the first page of comments.
Alternative, valid, definitions being: ‘an ideal example’ or ‘one worthy of imitation’.
Just because I might have missed the link, glasses might be an option ;)
https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/31/health/superman-glasses-disguise-facial-recognition/?iid=ob_homepage_deskrecommended_pool
I agree with this completely since I have a hard time recognizing myself without my glasses. Then again, I have a hard enough time just seeing myself without my glasses.
Just use your hands. If it feels horny, it is probably you.
Or a cow. Or maybe even Dabbler. Either way it’s probably best to run away.
hmm. I think she’s trolling the vampire rather than harranging it… i tend to see harranging as something closer to nagging, but more aggressive, but maybe i’m wrong :P
Loosely speaking, yea. Do bear in mind where they are though. Maxima may have avoided using the word “troll” as a pejorative, for good reason. Not wishing to give offence to the troll ambassador, for instance!
Out of interest some countries do respect the ancient ways, even to the present day.
Do be mindful, of your language, when in the presence of folk from different cultures. Picking a similar, less controversial, word can be most politic.
If i lived on a vulcanic island i would do that also no reason too piss of powerfull mytical creature that most likely do not exist. Becuse if they do exist they have a big gun it called a vulcano and its pointing at you.
Trust sciense do not piss of mythical being you nevernknow
Why do you think Hawaiians still pay respect to Pele (the Polynesian goddess of fire and volcanoes)? Never hurts to stay on the good side of a god/dess, especially one who’s as notoriously hot-tempered as she is.
Nice to see that some people still respect the Fair Folk.
Of course, as a Fae-American, I am ever-so-slightly biased, but still…
I was thinking much the same, except to me it feels more like she is teasing than trolling.
A harangue I always thought of as a scolding.
I would not bother looking up the correct pronunciations – my family made fun of my attempt at “innocent” for years, and I still have trouble with Poly-Ticks (politics) and “politicians”. My version just makes more sense when you think about all the blood-suckers in office,..
I always just pronounced it Jennifer on my head. Whatever pronunciation it has, that’s the name it shifted into.
Jennifer may be related to it, like Ivan is to John and Jean and Juan and Johan and Evan and Jeanne and Jeannette and Jon and Giannis
Anayone else notice the Contra cheat code in the last panel
Yup. It has appeared in several pages before too. So has received quite a few comments and intense debate. Use the key word “konami” to search, if it interests you enough to check that out.
“DUR-in-ee.”
“No, Dare-YEN-ee.”
“DUR-in-ee!”
“Dare-YEN-ee!!”
“DUR-in-ee!!!”
It was never resolved. (spelled “Deryni” in the books)
Was that ‘debate’ IRL or on the show?
Officially it’s dur-EE-nee.
That’s how Katherine Kurtz herself pronounces it. I attended a convention where she was one of the guest speakers.
Wait – you mean my in-my-head pronunciation was right?
Pack your survival gear and head for the hills, folks. This is a dangerous precedent.
Hey, one of the few times my made up pronunciation of a made up word was correct!
Guenhwyvar will always be one of those names that you read perfectly fine, but never find the right way to say it.
I pronounce it PUH DEE TAT.
So you thought you saw a Puh Dee Tat?
Just the once.
Don’t be alarmed though. We only shared a bite to eat.
In my dying little village I learned too many words from a book only so I couldn’t even say things like scythe right for a decade or so after I learned its meaning and spelling.
He’s just lucky she doesn’t eat garlic the way she eats, stores, and occasionally weaponizes chili peppers (and other mystery spicy elements in special canisters… )
Fairly sure garlic would be an ingredient in most of what she eats ☺
Along with many other things. I meant she doesn’t seek out dishes that specialize in concentrated amounts of garlic (like where the cook has to go to a special storage area and pick up a shielded spice container with tongs and protective gear) which she can build up in her system and then weaponize when she gets agitated in a burning burp cloud.
Aaa pickled garlic. And garlic in chili oil. O jea dont forget raw garlic on bread with sallad or salami.
and i am not joking i eat garlic almost like candy.
Be wary about holidaying in Italy then. They have a bylaw* prohibiting the use of public transport, within a certain number of hours of having consumed garlic!
* Albeit this may now be out of date, as I do not follow European law closely enough to spot such a change. Plus there is too much clutter, with articles mentioning both “garlic” and “public transport” independently, to verify if this was actually apocryphal, when I originally heard it.
Apparently, they have a similar law in Indiana . Then again, anyone can claim anything on the internet, so I would have to have a more reliable source before I fully believed it.
In Port Arthur, Texas, it is illegal to emit obnoxious odors while in an elevator. So if you must cut the cheese, cut it somewhere else.
There are stupid laws in every state (and almost every country), some of them more stupid than others. For example, in Seattle, you may not carry a concealed weapon that is more than 6 feet (1.83 meters) long. (How do you conceal a 6 foot weapon? Very carefully, I guess.)
You have to be careful, though. Some of the “stupid laws” you can find on the Internet are wholly made up and not fact-checked. So you have to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
I thought one couldn’t be prosecuted for breaking the law through an involuntary action unless negligence was involved. So unless the prosecutor could prove the defendant voluntarily emitted obnoxious odors or had reason to believe he or she would do so before getting on the elevator, I don’t see how it would be prosecutable. For example, I remember a case on People’s Court where one girl was suing another for damage caused by the second girl vomiting on the first girl’s coat. After the second girl answered “no” when the judge asked her first whether she had done so deliberately and, second, whether she had any reason to believe that she was going to do so (e.g., earlier feelings of nausea), the judge decided the case in her favor and told the first girl “Sorry, but that’s the way life is sometimes” (not an exact quote).
In which case the bylaw could be used, where one could prove intent. Some noxious smells are emitted voluntarily.
SCENE: Elevator. With two richly dressed and made-up young women, and a plain-looking old lady.
POSH GIRL #1: Caron’s Poivre: $1,000 per ounce (sprays herself with perfume)
POSH GIRL #2: Chanel Grand Extrait: $4,200 per ounce (sprays herself with perfume)
(elevator door opens, and OLD LADY starts to exit, but pauses)
OLD LADY: Brussel Sprouts: $4 per pound (farts loudly, just before stepping clear of elevator)
(doors shut, with choking and gagging noises coming from within)
If I’m correct, there’s still a bylaw in Florida that prohibits the eating of oranges in your bathtub
What if you first deed the bathtub over to someone else and then eat oranges in it?
No worry i eat my garlic candy at eavning after work while reading a book or surfing like right now. I have a pickled garlic, green olive, chees, a bit of salami amd beer in front of me. Rigth i also have a cup of tea.
i always have tea nearby….. always.
It’s interesting to me that when Maxima wants our heroine to leave the vampire alone, she calls her Halo rather than Sydney. It’s kinda like an officer reminding a soldier of who is in charge here by addressing them by their rank.
Glowering General: What did you just say, Private?!
Or perhaps a better comparison would be a mom using her child’s middle name as a warning!
Mom: Edgar Allan Poe, I don’t care what your sister just did! You quit telling tales about Heart!”
Sydney does know when she has pushed it too far though. When Maxima calls her Scoville.
Since nobody has yet mentioned it, I’m gonna assume I managed to sneak an admittedly vague reference through the gauntlet of DaveB and my fellow posters without being caught.
Edgar Allan Poe?
Telling tales about Heart?
Ha-Ha! Victory is mine!! 😲
What was vague about it? o_O
Probably nothing. The phrase I expect I should have used was, “very slightly obscure.” Many people may well recognize Edgar’s name, after all, but far fewer would recognize the titles of his stories – except The Raven, I guess.
Especially because the Wilson Sisters don’t take very kindly to that kind of malicious gossip. How did you think the song “Barracuda” came about? -_^
Using her codename may also have to do with the fact of where they are
As a sort of formal title at the Monster UN? That may be, I guess. 🙃
*tilts head sideways, looking at smiley*
*leans further*
*falls over*
Sorry, Yorp. Hope you weren’t hurt. 😓
Been playing around with the Alt-Code Smileys I found. 😏
😇
Oh, my God! I’ve killed Yorp!
Kyle from South Park: “You bastard!”
Good point! And it’s also a reminder to the vampire.
Actually, when Ingsol said that most of them walked in through the front door reminded me of the movie R.I.P.D., where the entrance to the entire Boston chapter of the R.I.P.D. (Rest In Peace Department) was also on a busy street. The sign above the door: “VCR Repair”.
Nick: “You ever think about hiding this place a little better?”
Roy: “When was the last time you got a VCR repaired?”
Nick: “Point taken.”
(The few people who would take a VCR to be repaired are probably expected to be a little strange, and nobody else has a reason to go in there, so their secret entrance is safe.)
I once took a VCR to be repaired, you know. ☺
Admittedly, it was way back when they were still sort of new and before I discovered that it was cheaper just to buy a whole new one than to try to get the one I had fixed.
I remember when a top-loading VCR cost $600, and the remote was not wireless… you had a six-foot cord connecting the remote to the unit. THAT was “way back when”. xD
My family didn’t buy a VCR until a couple years after that, so we never had one of those, but back then, getting a VCR repaired probably was a cheaper option.
Wait, wasn’t the top-loading machines, BETA-Max? Basically they were the Industry Standard Quality (used in Newsrooms) with VCR being the General Public model
Both VHS and Betamax were originally top-loaders.
Even though this image is from the Betamax Collectors’ website, take a look at the front panel. “Panasonic Video Cassette Recorder VHS.” Not “Betamax”… it’s a VHS VCR.
https://vintageelectronics.betamaxcollectors.com/images/panasonicomnivisionvhsvcrmodelpv-1770_1.jpg
Correct. When originally offered, all VCRs, VHS, Betamax, and U-Matic (when was the last time you heard THAT format mentioned?!) all used top-loading carriages. Of course, the very first VCR format ever, AVCO’s short-lived/ill-fated Cartrivision system, technically *was* a front-loader, but it still worked like a top-loader (slide tape vertically into slot on the front of the deck, and then push the carriage in).
https://www.angelfire.com/alt/cartrivision/ (Warning: ads ahoy! Also, Angelfire is still around?!)
The first VCR I remember us having was a Quasar VHS deck, circa 1980, and it was a top-loader. It also had two big knobs on the front for the tuner. Of course, top-loading mechanisms extend well before the advent of video tape cartridges, though out of sheer necessity, since there was no way you’d be able to load something like this from the front:
https://www.electronixandmore.com/adam/temp/rtrvtr/nv3160.jpg
Yep, it’s mine. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work at the moment. Maybe someday……….
Reminds me of the “good” ol’ days when one actually had to get up and walk across the room to… well, basically do anything with the TV. And one had three- count’ em, three- whole networks (four, if one included PBS) from which to choose.
I remember when there were none. Such tranquil days.
*wags tail ludditistically*
Yeah, I can remember that.
And how you could turn your TV on, but then had to wait for it to “warm up” before it would start working.
We didn’t get a third channel until around 1989
Ahh, Shire Radio. With Easy Elevenses, the casual listening show, having tips such as “how to human-proof your house, if big-folk come visiting”. Plus, as a station, a recipe or serving suggestion every hour. Not to mention “Pipe Smoker’s Corner”, for the lonely smoker, who wants to listen to someone striking up a good pipe, and enjoy it in quiet company.
Not quite :P
Prior to 1989, we had just the State Television which had Television One and Channel 2, in 1989 we got MediaWorks which broadcast the TV3 channel (about 10 years later they started broadcasting on C4, no, not the explosives, that was the name of the fourth channel)
Yeah, we are not a very imaginative nation when it comes to naming our TV Channels :(
3 channels. Luxury most of my childhood we had kanal 1 and kanal 2 . And thats it first in me teen we got tv3 and comersails short followed by tv4, then tv5 and tv6.
Good old days and a reason i like books.
The comic for the past few months has been on the level of an unboxing video … let’s watch them pull more shit out of a box, talk about it briefly, put it on a shelf, and do nothing with it. In some cases, the box is more interesting than the contents, but in all cases, the presenter just drones the fuck on and doesn’t know when to stop.
That’s all you’re doing, Dave, just introducing new stuff, then walking away from it, and dragging it on in a droning nasal tone. This could have been done as a side-note encyclopedia entry for the same level of boredom. I could have missed the last three months and not missed anything important. You have fifty dangling plot hooks from the diner fight alone, yet you just go ahead and introduce more plot hooks that you’re probably not ever going to address.
Right now, the art is the only thing keeping me around. It seems to be the only thing you’re focused on, though … story and pacing? Eh, who gives a fuck about those.
Or, in the immortal words of Monty Pyhton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEtm_Q2LK9g
Life is like an unboxing video: You never know what you’re gonna get.
Less vitriol and more patience. When read as an archived run-through, these panels whiz by like a movie and this is a distracting, yet important, aside that presents the first glimpse of how big the iceberg of her career truly is.
I understand that waiting months for a story to go by is excruciating. I feel the same way, but have learned through other webcomics I follow that these aren’t three-five panel weekly cartoons in the paper. Dan Shive just spent over a year on one day in the character world. Complaints? Yeah, some. Good story? I would say yes. It certainly answered a lot about the prior thirteen years.
If Dave Barrack wants to hop around a bit right now and sew it up a bit later, I’m willing to give him that breathing space because so far, every page has been worth reading. There are some where I just about peed myself laughing, as if this person, many miles away, has my sense of humor totally dialed in and we share all the same pop culture experiences (which makes it that much easier).
Your post, Ruzho, is meant to be constructive, I’m sure. The tone is chiding, when this is the first time I’ve seen you bring up your concerns. When you say something nicely, it shows respect. Try seasoning your criticism with some of that.
He isn’t the only one. Mark Stanley, author of Freefall, even leaned on the fourth wall a bit:
https://freefall.purrsia.com/ff500/fv00405.htm
The reason one day felt to Florence as if it took a year and 37 weeks to get through is because it DID! (And that’s posting three strips a week, every week, though to be fair, it’s presented comic strip style, usually just three panels per posting.) The entire first chapter took 18 years, as Mark admits here:
https://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2900/fc02835.htm
Another one that takes a long time is Skin Deep, by Kory Bing. She only posts one page per week, and takes a month long (or longer) break between each chapter, so 12 chapters have taken more than 10 years (and some of those chapters are far shorter than others, though the average is 25-30 pages).
Both of these webcomics are among my favorites, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve binged on an archive dive of one or the other (or both).
Not to forget, Mansion of E took around 10 years with 6 pages a day (with a bonus page on Sunday) to get through just one day
Doh! Meant “6 pages a week” :(
I was about to say. Six pages a day? If that’s the case, someone needs to nominate Robert Cook for some sort of Guiness World Record!
Well, he still managed to put out a page a day for, what, over 10 years? And not missed a day
Which is not an inconsiderable feat, I concur.
::stares in wide eyed wonder at the works of Robert Cook::
… most impressive.
Crap, how did I miss a webcomic that has been running for 13 years?
I thought life was like a box of chocolates, except for the same reason. Only, wouldn’t it be likely that you would know what you were going to get if you were the one who packed the box?
Ooh, any ‘crunchy frog’ ones left?
Nope, just the Lark’s Vomit ones.
DaveB is still ‘world building’, and some of us appreciate learning it alongside Sydney
I agree with Guesticus. I enjoy the world-building too. (Perhaps a bit too much. Most of my computer games that I haven’t given away are either RPGs or city-builders, with just a handful of action games thrown in). If you don’t like it, Ruzho, the door’s thataway. Nobody’s making you stay.
As for the dangling plot hooks… well, if you want more of those, there’s always El Goonish Shive. Dan Shive himself admits he’s forgotten a number of his plot hooks.
Better yet, he can write his own to demonstrate to DaveB how it’s done right.
My apologies to Ruzho if he’s actually a she.
Go forth and watch car chases and explosions. Some day, you may tire of them. If that day comes, congratulations, you will have matured. At that point come back to us, and we will welcome you, with paws stretched wide.
You will, at that time, find the comic still progressing at its own steady pace. But then you will be able to appreciate the depth of story, and the merits of enjoying the journey itself, rather than peeing your pants, because it has not reached a destination.
A car chase in this universe could be rather entertaining though. Or a airchase, that works too. Imagine Maxima, Halo and Peggy chasing some villain in awesome places like canyons, ports or skyscraper cities.
Car chase would be fairly short: all Maxi has to do is stand in front of the tank and it will crunch around her (anything less than a tank will result in more metal cocooning Maxi)
But what if said tank can fly faster than Maxima and shoot something that can harm her? Then it would be more challenging and entertaining.
A tank, that can fly faster than sound? And can fire gold-piercing rounds? o_O
In this universe anything that makes a good story is possible. I think real life tank ammo can easily piercce something as soft as gold. Luckily Maxima is made of stronger, but still shiny, stuff.
I am not unsympathetic to your point. Sometimes setting the stage and sliding the scenery is very time consuming. And the focus of late does seems to be more or the “joke” rather than the “plot”.
As a Game Master, I’ve struggled with this very issue a lot – how much detail is appropriate when describing the setting? Knowing that PC’s operate on the premise of “The GM mentioned it, it must be important”, do I want them to be distracted by the Shiny (TM) or will the investigation of the Shiny (TM) bog down the game? Is it important that the “local color” be mentioned up front, or can it wait a while? Do I want to risk this plot point being forgotten, or is it something that will come up often enough that I can drop it in two or three times in the course of the plot? Is it reasonable that the PCs would miss noticing this thing in the melange of sensory input, or is this something that should rightfully stand out (“Oh, and there is a rather purple door off to the left on the north side of the street. It kinda stands out.” [and yes – it was just a purple door. The owner of the house liked purple])?
It would be nice if DaveB’s output could be increased in some way (say, hiring a stenographer/letterer to deal with the write-y bits and bolts, having a full time colorist who knows how to do what DaveB does, and so on). But getting it right always takes time. Time dilation has always been a major problem with sequential art; the medium lends itself very nicely to focusing on picayune detail.
It’s a known hazard – when you feel like you’re wasting time returning, I recommend taking a deliberate month-long break. For me at least, it seems to provide a sense of wonder-renewal.
Of course, on the down side, you’d have to read through all of this wonderful forum posting. And who would want to miss out on that. :D
::does an elaborate tap dance and catches the fancy top hat flung from stage left on his head::
The speed and getting to another scene are not the issues though. Look at the above comic. You have a battle going on! With not one, but two instances where the protagonists life could have been lost. First Sydney taunts, and provokes an angry response from, the most powerful ancient monster, which we have come across! Then she looses, in the battle of wits, to a monstrous being, who is linguistically cleverer than her.
Yes, Halo does have one heck of a safety net, in having Maxima there. Yet we see that Maxima’s sympathies are aligned with the monster’s in this scene.
What is keeping everything in check, and feeling safe, is the reader’s assumptions that the social norms will be maintained. However that is an assumption predicated on things being normal. Look again: vampire, unknown thingy with claws and fangs, plus a gallery of even stranger beyond!
Yet, during this exchange, Halo has managed to gain a vital piece of intelligence, which could save her life if a battle, with vampires, were to break out. Plus everything she is doing in this room is furthering her tactical and strategic knowledge. Figuring out whether the ‘social norms’ apply to this hidden world, is vital to co-existing with the Council. And knowing where the boundaries lie between talk and war is something we have yet to discover!
Move on? This is fascinating stuff, and far more profound than the stupid fist-fights that comic book super-heroes usually fill their day with!
I’ll just point out that the ocean depths are less well known than the stars at this point, so Kaiju could still exist in the grrl power universe.
Theoretically.
That’s why, in the next couple days, Sydney is going to come across one ☺
Shh! Don’t tell her where I live.
and it’ll just be something like a midget wrestler with tentacles
Mm, kind of wish you hadn’t gone with the “burst into flame” thing with sunlight… although that begs the question as to why Stoker had Dracula depicted as walking in daylight, albeit weakened, in this universe where Vampires do burst into flame…
He may or may not be talking figuratively, or simply over-reacting and being a drah-mah queen!
As with every player, who has a character with a fatal weakness, do you not think that real-life monsters, with such, would not seek a way of mitigating their condition? And might not an immortal, with access to powerful magics, actually find such a means?
Please allow me to give you a clue how he might have done that.
Or outright lying about them…
“Yes, I’m terribly allergic to rutabagas. Gives me the collywobbles something awful.”
“Only please, Brer Fox, please don’t throw me into the briar patch.”
Actually meant ‘exaggerating’ :(
And the answer is because the Council is doing a good job keeping them hidden from humans. To this universe’s Stoker vampires are as fictional as to our counterpart, so he made them up the same.
I think Sydney is good for Ingsol. Without her to stimulate him, his tendency is to be far too deadpan.
I have the mental image of a kraken sleeping deep beneath the sea when a cable drapes across his still form. The tingle of faint fields tickle his electroreceptive cells, slowly his dreams become filled with a generations communicarion, what mind has he. When he wakes once more?
Dr. Calder: I’m Dr. Calder. You’ve been charged with one count of murder and found incompetent to stand trial.
Pete: She had a demon in her for a while. My neighbour, Mrs. Karsh.
Dr. Calder: Mm-hmm.
Pete: It would come and go. Nobody saw it… except me.
Dr. Calder: What did it look like, the demon?
Pete: Um… Did you ever see “Alien” with Sigourney Weaver?
Dr. Calder: It looked like a giant insect?
Pete: It looked like Sigourney Weaver.
Instinct (1999)
Good movie. Good cover.
So apparently every kind of creature imaginable exists in Sydney’s world, though maybe not exactly as folklore, tradition and Hollywood would have us believe. It occurs to me that we are missing an important group there at the Monster UN, then.
Where’s the ghosts? 😕
Final panel, top right. As the most likely spot amongst the banners we have seen so far. Each of the undead categories clearly have their own representatives, on the ‘back benches’, as we have seen the vampires with their own one, in addition to the one above.
So possibly the non-corporeal undead may have their own, separate banner, that we have not seen yet. Or, possibly they either do not exist or are unrepresented. If ghosts are indeed tied to the location of their death, then they would either be unable to participate in this council, or would have to nominate someone else to speak for them. Perhaps a medium, such as the character Whoopie Goldberg played in Ghost. Or Ingsol, or some other undead or necromancer that they trusted.
Some types though, such as poltergeist, are associated with people, rather than locations. Usually young girls. So if you can see any girls, with pigtails, sitting on their own…
but she might be cheating. ;-)
Talking to an eloquent umber hulk could throw anybody’s train of thought.
Not mine because… what were talking about again?
Ladies and Gentlemen – put your hands together for…
ELOQUENT UMBER HULK! Yeah!
::listens to the opening bars of an amazing cover of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”.::
That would make a great band name.
They thought so too.
*assumes a straight face*
Still too many curves on that face to call it “straight”.
I
I
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On a completely unrelated note, is there a way to make your refferal work on Amazon.co.uk? I don’t really have money to throw at the comic and, while I do use Amazon semi-regularly, your current link seems to be US exclusive.
Just use the button you already found, and scroll down to the bottom of the page. The full range of countries Amazon serves is listed there. Just click on the one you want. So clicking “United Kingdom” will switch you to amazon.co.uk, instead of the American one.
Importantly though it will still give the referral commission to the comic account, as that was your point of entry. Your patronage is appreciated, as is anyone else who makes use of this feature.
Please tell me that this is just one presenter’s way of pronouncing “Versailles“, and that it is not actually widespread?
Well, I’ve certainly never heard anybody use that way before.
Shouldn’t it be pronounced “Ver-Say-Lees?” ☺
Almost sounded like one of them voice-processors, like they had on the olde Amiga: you typed in words and it repeated them (was great coming up with new alien names for characters: just mash the keys and, if it could be pronounced, it was a valid name ☺)
You mean, it’s not “Ver-SIGH”? o_O
Hey, remember when they had a rotating barrel mini gun with bayonets on all the barrels? Remember when there were 3 predators listed as kills? Methinks it wasn’t as much of a joke as it was intended to be…
Uh-oh! That would mean the alien xenomorph and the facehuggers might be real too!
Somebody call Ripley!
My artillery unit had an officer who thought it would be funny to order us to fix bayonets. It took us a few minutes, but we did it.
On your rifles, or your artillery pieces?
As a feedback I should say that I don’t like Syd’s new look. Not the “imprisoned bangs”, that’s ok, I’m talking about the olive shaped face used in the last few pages, specially this one. Compare it with the Patreon’s ad or this: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1787
While on it I will add that out of all the art styles used along the years the present one, althought great as technique, is my least favorite. Considering inking, colouring, shading and rendition of the characters, the art I like the most is the one used at the time of the press conference, “exemplarificationated” for “The joy of flight”: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1034
Of course, just a personal preference.
Her exposed forehead does appear to be a sticky point for some readers, largely because, POO, the magic-headband should not do that, simply compare the forehead on this page with her mugshot on the right: the amount of skin between her eyebrows and the hairline has almost tripled
My biggest concern (not present on this page) is when her looks go too far into young-girl territory, and I start feeling like a paedophile, for fancying her!
The trouble being that DaveB‘s current style puts her so close, to the borderline, that she only looks adult when frowning, or having some other serious expression. Panels 1 & 2 above, because she has cheeky looks, she does come across as young. Just, fortunately, not too young.
But I do like it when Sydney has pitiable, or innocent, looks. However such would very much make her look like jail-bait, when used with the present style.
:-(
Eh, I just find it sort of ugly and (as a separate issue) somehow very much not her. Rather see it all back into the pony tail
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2010
than this weird do. I’d like a link to this anime character Dave saw like this so I could at least see if I can stand the look of it on them and, if so, figure out why I can.
She still has the pony-tail, you can see it in panels seven and eight
Don’t believe DaveB had a particular character in mind for Sydney’s muse, just Anime-style in general (particularly the he-yuge eyes, and possibly the gravity {and nature} defying hair)
“Rather see it >>all<< back into the pony tail" and then a link to where she had all her hair going back. (either it was tied back or maybe it was just slicked back with sweat? cause it wasn't all going back in every panel of that one) Not supper in love with that either just like it better, consider it more natural looking, than this.
I was talking about the anime character that Dave was talking about having gotten the hair band hair bang style we are currently seeing from. (I think he said it was an anime anyway… )
Yeah, that’s the major drawback to having Sydney in the Anime-style
Wait a moment… That last panel.
The BEES have a seat on the council?!
Bees? Which Bees? o_O
We may think of it as Konami code, but the bees were doing that kind of pattern long before computers were invented. It is actually the “Waggle Dance” banner, and the pig-tailed girl is their queen!
Anyone else here think that the demon thing has this deep british accent?
So far most of the suggestions have been for American accents, such as Kelsey Grammer (a.k.a. Frasier Crane) and James Earl Jones.
Did you have anyone in mind? If not, how about Anthony Hopkins? I think he can pull off freaking Sydney out.
Oh sure, and I suppose they don’t go: “blah, blah blah” either.
So, is “Guenhwyvar” said like “Guinevere” spoken with a heavy Cockney accent?
Fun fact: ‘Kaiju’ just means “strange beast” and can range in size from a small lizard to those we know from monster movies like Godzilla or Gamera.
The definition of ‘Kaiju’, like the definition of the word ‘Mecha’, was reinvented when it became a trope. They’re both powerful enough tropes that the literal meanings of the terms have been swallowed up by connotations to the tropes. When Japanese use the word ‘kaiju’ now, they mean more than just strange beasts.
Still waiting for mor of Choirus
I feel that way about A Practical Guide To Evil sometimes. Awesome story, but I have no idea how to pronounce most of the place names. Especially Helike. I assume Hel-i-KAY, but I have no real idea.
totally feel you on the mispronouncing words you’ve only read, bit. I actually never got so far in the thought process as “wait to say it until yo look it up.” That could actually have helped, but wouldn’t have provided hilarity to my fam.
Some of my fun mispronunciations I’ll never live down:
debacle – said the A like ‘uh’ rather than “ah”
vinyl – did a short I rather than long I so sounded rather redneck (vittles esque)
encompass – over pronounced all bits of the word: en-come-pass. Apparently it’s said quicker.
infrared – never made the infra-red connection so inf-rared lol
All I can think of at the moment, of course I don’t have as much time to read now as I did before the kiddos lol
It’s been a lot of years, but if I remember correctly a few of mine were:
trilogy – try-AWL-oh-gee (apparently I tend to add extra syllables to words)
biology – BI-oh-LODGE-ee (not sure how I pronounced this wrong considering how I pronounced trilogy)
hors d’oeuvres – hoarz-dee-VOHRZ, while also wondering how to spell “or-dervz”.
hummus – hyoo-MOSS
That’s all I remember at the moment.
I started reading when I was three, and began acquiring a lot of vocabulary that no one around me spoke. Too often I had my conversation shut down due to lack of eloquence by an adult who misconstrued my meaning (sometimes intentionally, the bitches.) I was so thrilled to have this trove of nuanced and pretty cool-sounding words that I didn’t want to hold back, and got a quick enough handle on phonics to confidently try to pronounce them. Since no around me knew these words, they couldn’t even tell if I was inventing them on the spot, much less whether I was using or saying them correctly.
By college I had most my pronunciations sorted out, more of them fixed while in school, but there’s still many I mispronounce out of long habit. Decades later, I still pronounce the ‘w’ in “sword”.
to be honest, Chorius is quite attractive, even if is around 3m tall bulky monster… but i kinda have a thing or two for monsters like him.
Based on the way he speaks, I’m definitely hearing Chorius speak in Tony Jay’s voice.
Is Clifford a kaiju?
I don’t like the Grinch Mouth on Sydney. Just doesn’t work for me.