Grrl Power #464 – These books prefer to be judged by their covers
Ingsol asserting the member races are monsters on the inside isn’t really supported by their behavior so far. Even Grumpy Gus Azilus was making a fair point.
I’m not entirely sure if it will come up in the comic, at least in this scene, (I haven’t written this far ahead) but there are really strict rules about fighting of any kind in the Council chamber. They learned long ago in order to be productive that civility needs to be enforced, by force if necessary. Some groups with irreconcilable grievances boycott the meetings, but then of course they don’t get to participate in the decision making process. So it’s either show up (and behave) or shut up. Actually Maxima has been pushing the limits of acceptable behavior by growling at her subordinates, but since she’s limiting it to her own group and waving her fists at the Elves or something, it’s flying under the radar for now.
#MakeComics In the interest of tightening up the pages and doing some semblance of editing, I cut some stuff from this page. I also just didn’t have room on the page if there was any chance of making the art non-microscopic. I figured I’d include it here in a shameless attempt to eat my cake and have it too. :)
Ingsol (speaking in one of those yellow caption blocks): I won’t belabor this point, as we’ve all seen the projections on the loss of life, human and otherwise, should there be a catastrophic failure. Not to mention the extended social, religious, political and economic reverberations would change the course of world.
This dialog over a picture of a board room full of executives jumping out of their chairs in alarm while a Lamia in board room pointing at chart, unaware her snake butt hanging out of her skirt, saying “What? It’s not that bad guys we only missed goal by 4%”
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. (As soon as I get up. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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I know Max is strong enough to carry those aircraft guns but would the barrels be strong enough to hold them like that?
They could be mock-ups, which would make sense for a cover shoot. Not only would that avoid risking damage to real ones, but lessen security risks as well.
Alternatively, past author comments have made clear that the force Maxima exerts doesn’t damage things because her lifting is not physical strength, it’s a form of telekinisis she can only use when in physical contact with an object. That means that, despite her hand grabbing the barrel, the force could be applied anywhere.
Or uniformly over the entirety of the weapon.
Hunh…I wonder if she could be defeated by getting her to try to punch out Mr. Fantastic…
(! million geek points for anyone who gets that)
Ooh, he is from the Fantastic Four.
Whee! Geek points galore!
Meh…I can give you 100,000 for knowing Mr. Fantastic…I’m talking about the incident I described…8-P
Only if Mr. Fantastic was backed up by The Invisible Woman.
He might be glad he ate her.
Ate?
*blushes*
Actually, Mr fantastic can be streched out and loose control of his powers that way. So he would be streching and streching uncontrolably until his diferent bodyparts are no longer stic together and he dies.
An extreme tensil force like maxima’s is enough to kill Mr.Fantastic
And here’s the comic strip for reference. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/376
I used to work on aircraft weapons and I can assure you that they wouldn’t break from her holding them like that. it would take tremendous force to snap it or bend it.
I dont see why the guns couldnt be held like that, multiple tubes of weapon grade steel should have a fair amount of tensile stregnth. Even if the whole gun weighs half a ton, should be ok.
Incidentally, being bald for 1100 years, i would guess Azilus is reasonably close to the “1600 years old scary bedtime story” Crimson spoke of previously in: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2231
Good point. However I should point out that any mini-comic is technically not canon. This is important, in this case, as the larger the number the funnier the gag. So we should take that with a pinch of salt.
Which is not to say that we need pretend it did not happen. Just consider that Ingsol was exaggerating for his joke. This would be in character, given the age-related teasing he made with Mr Fluffy.
Unless, of course, we get some corroboration that Azilus is profoundly powerful.
Yes, yes, anything but canon at the moment, but thought it worth pointing out.
Also, re-reading this particular page i have noticed how Ingsol seems to be a little ambivalent about the “transylvanian accent”, coming and going on its use… :D
Dave made a recent comment about why that happens.
Ingsol likes his original accent, but is a shrewd seven hundred year old diplomat. He knows when to tone it down, or drop it completely, to avoid confusion.
Always felt it was more- even a seven year old Wampire can get flustered and ‘slip’ back into their original accent, not counting the moments of ‘playing to the audience’ so-to-speak, we have been lucky he hasn’t slipt entirely back into old Transylvanian, blah blah :P
HairClub For Men
Just sayin’.
*sigh* So much for Nagas…
It’s still open. Lamia are Greek, Naga are Indian. Not so sure about marilith since they originated in Dungeons and Dragons…
Greyhawkian. Given that was the official game world, using the Greyhawk supplement, when they were introduced. For those that have a world. The rest will have come from their home plane. As demons that would be various of the 666 planes of the Abyss.
“They had to count them all
Now they know many hells it takes to make a plane Abyssal!
I’d love to burn… you… allllll!
Ingsol’s monster comment made me immediately think of the Fae. They may appear as polite and at least reasonably attractive people, but even if they aren’t “evil” they most certainly don’t believe or usually follow the same rules a human would. Thank them out of habit for something minor, like passing the salt, and they may well believe you to be magically/honor bound to serve them eternally.
This is precisely why my best friend and I have a standing agreement that she will never bargain with the Fae, or even talk to them without me. Not that we believe in them, but it’s best to take zero chances with something like that. ;)
Same thing applies when using the “I w**h” phrase when around old brass lamps, or anyone with a hint of sulphur hanging around them.
Personally won’t use that phrase at any time, not even thinking it (or at least, not with anything attached to those two words that could be ever construed to mean a bargain of any sort)
Doesn’t have to be sulfur. even operating within a Zoroastiran good/evil dielectric some beings counted as good, like Angels, have members like Zamiel (aka the angel of death) who while not “Evil” are certainly alien and don’t operate by a mentality we would easily understand, and that’s before we talk about things like Enochian and some of the scary celestial critters John Dee used to work with. There’s a class of Angels in his writings called “Threshers” that basically are the ones supposed to harvest souls on judgement day. Note that these are the “Good guys”
It gets REALLY complicated when you get to polythiest traditions where the beings involved are much more gray than black and white, particularly the trickster deities. Even some “Good” Deities like Odin are severely dark and terrible characters, nobody’s all good or all bad but you’re expected to know the terms, and they will hold you to them.
So no, don’t deal with such beings lightly and make sure you understand their etiquette. When Ingsol’s talking about “monsters” these are beings who just do not think, act, behave or rationalize like humans and avoid them for the same reason a lot of animals avoid humans: it can only lead to trouble and they need to stay away or things get bloody.
the trope term (Orange and blue morality)
even the Seelie court might kill or maim out of a slight as humans are regarded as lesser beings and it comes across being back talked by a mouse.
demons, even by the ancient neutral form are essentially the same thing, angels, gods, elementals, kami, yokai, ect…what ever term one wants to use have different rules but these rules are never in a person’s favor in a bargain.
well to be fair its not like we humans havent had that kind of rules before, for example in feudal japan samurai had the right to kill any peasant that talked back to them if they didnt liked it, which caused many problems when the europeans and americans started to get more involved in japan in the 19 century specially when a english corporate trash talked a samurai and he killed him which caused as you can imagine an incident with the UK which ended with one of japan’s costal cities being bombarded by several gunships
i could see something like that happening because we humans arent the ignorant and impotent kind any more and i would bet that fae arent exactly invulnerable to bullets
So many comments in such a short time!
Is Sydney giving a ‘thumbs up’ in panel two, or the thumb-and-pinkie-extended ‘call-me’?
Oh, and Ingie isn’t blaming Maxi for the ‘accident’, just that he is including her and Archon in the “every available resources” bit about finding out the cause
Thumbs up given the context…
Except, we are talking about Sydney
Why is Sydney looking away in panel seven? Is she looking for the monster behind her that Inggie is talking about? Or is she looking away in embarrassment because she referred to them as ‘monsters’?
She’s looking in the general direction of her teammates who are seated there. Probably at Dabbler given the subject matter. (can assume pleasing forms [all of them] even without the veil)
Possibly contemplating the monster within? (The Sex Monster)
Originally she was supposed to glance at Scarlett, who is sitting between her and Ingsol, (but is lost on the last panel behind Sydney who is leaning forward and she’s leaning back) and then slowly scoot her chair away from her, as if someone else referring to the Council regulars somehow makes them scary all of a sudden, but there wasn’t enough room, so instead she’s glancing around the room, on “monster alert.”
Sydney-thought “Okay, so which of them are the ‘monsters’?”
Initially, I thought she was looking at the camera, ie: us, and the panel was a 4th wall joke.
Unfortunately, we just see the text and don’t get to hear the way Lethane is spoken. Would it rhyme with ‘methane’ or ‘Bethany’? (This stuff is all Greek to me).
Methane.
Just hope the only thing she shares is the pronounciation :P
I think it was Phineas and Ferb that pointed out —
If we aren’t supposed to judge books by their covers, why do people bother with cover art? The whole point of cover art is so you can judge a book without having to read about it.
Phineas and Ferb rocks!!
*Candace is looking at her mother’s books*
Candace: Boring, dull, stupid, lame, heavy-handed and derivative.
Mom: Oh, thank you for those insightful reviews of books you haven’t read.
Candace: Mom, that’s why books have covers; to judge them. I mean, why did you choose these books from the library?
Mom: They looked interesting.
Candace: So . . .
Mom: Point taken.
Not all books have covers, and not all that do have covers have cover art
But do agree that the covers (with or without art) helps others determine if it’s worth taking a closer look (and yes, that does work with not-books as well)
“The whole point of cover art is so you can judge a book without having to read about it.”
I don’t think so. Cover art intend to catch the eye, it aims to sell the book and could be as misleading as any salesman speech.
My guess is that the saying comes from a time when books were all hardcover. I think it uses a parallelism with the polishment of a cover, rather than to the art in it which was practically inexistent. Even nowadays hardcover books are usually plain, the art is actually on the jacket.
Personally I give little atention to the cover of a book, and not much more to the back cover review, none are too trustworthy in my opinion. In order to decide, if I had no other knowledge about the book, I just take it and read it.
Pretty much the same that with persons :) (yes, I know chiromancy, shut up)
“a time when books were all hardcover”
Just in case that means from about a century ago and back.
Ummm… I judge books by their cover ALL the time, and have for decades. The back cover, if a paperback, the inside flyleaf, if a hardback. Short of reading the book (or a review – which I seldom trust to reflect my tastes), there really ISN’T any other way to judge a book (unless it’s a series and you’ve read others in that series).
Zack Tilly!
This is another ‘saying’ that either doesn’t make any sense or has been ‘altered’ from it’s original meaning (like ‘Have my cake and eat it too’)
The way I have viewed this is that covers may often be misleading. Thus I think of the phrase as being an olden-times warning about their version of click-bait. One of my personal peeves, being misleading headlines in newspapers or online.
In the latter cases, many people may only see the headline, so will fail to find out that there were extenuating circumstances, or the entire headline was deliberately misleading. Thus rendering their ‘informed general knowledge’ to be invalid.
Found this on a webic about naughty faerie and thought it appropriate :D
Especially considering that’s how that comic started – with a fairy getting pissed ON!
Yups :D
There used to be an erotic comic called “Bondage Faeries”.
It was pretty much what you’d expect from the title
Oh, Insect Hunters, that one was very good, funny stories and it was amazing how the artist (Kondom) depicted all kind of animals with a perfect anatomy and managed to work the sexual scenes without make them antropomorphic or anything (leaving aside private parts that were all human-like). BTW, the actual title is in fact “Bondage Fairies“, plural of fairy.
Thank you for that memory :)
Yeah, “Bondage Fairies” was one of the first ‘series’ came across long long ago, ended up would just come across one or three pages in later years re-posted on other sites
Will there be a point in the comic when everything is revealed and we will see random supernatural people in the background?
The latter happened already, on September 17th, 2015. The former is rather NSFW, but it has been uncovered. And more than once.
Hey, check it out- I have the same power Dabbler does. Well, one of them.
Sydney may not have figured out her Mystery Orbs because they needed something, which was not present in her everyday environment, back when she was conducting her testing. For example if one can ‘detect magic’ she would never figure that out, unless she came across something magical.
Provided Halo can do it without provoking a hostile reaction, she should do some brief tests, before leaving this chamber. There will be a wealth of unusual things here, which, even in Archon, she might not come across again.
I don’t know about that. I mean, she noticed Dabbler’s true form and X’s existence right off when she held the Comm Ball. If she had “Detect Magic” I’m sure it would have activated at some point either in the presence of magic users or in the superfight, such as when Dabby whipped out her magic sword. Or when Gwen was casting her own detect spells at the orbs themselves.
That’s only because she had the appropriate Sphere active at the time, if you don’t have the ‘detect magic’ sphere for example active when the magic is around you’ll never know it can do that because you didn’t have it active at the right time. So her two unknowns whatever they do clearly to date haven’t been in conditions that would reveal what they do.
Indeed. In fact, if I remember correctly, the only times Sydney has held either of the mystery orbs is on occasions when she was saying “I do not know what these do”. So at no point in the super fight (as an example already raised) would she have activated their power.
Assuming that they need to be held to work, of course. And if they don’t then whatever they do is either working all the time already or needs some very specific circumstances to activate, given the wide variety of things Sydney has done since we met her.
There needs to be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
much more testing of powers of new recruits! Diane Castle Style! (the last good thing to come out of Whateley before I could take no more. If you are reading this – you are awesome!)
Its like one of the best parts and so far I have only gotten this teensy tiiiny taste of any kind of proper testing of that huge variety of “known” orbs (not really known since she is still constantly discovering new “modes” to their controls every time she is really forced to think about it [pretty sure the Truesight Orb would be the source of Detect Magic either now as a mode or later as a level up point spent]).
I think she better ASK someone if it constitutes a hostile act to activate a not always on power in that paranoid group! (especially if it involves testing balls she doesn’t know the powers of at all [what if its zero range telepathy {did I just make that term up for the first time?? Yay!} and she nudges somebody at a bad moment?! O.O’ Cause you know she wouldn’t be able to shut up right away about what she just “heard”]) But if it occurs to her she probably won’t ask to do it first…
Though I think she stopped thinking about those unknown orbs very often after she initially spent tons of time trying to get something out of them. She probably only even remembers they are in need of more discovery when she is specifically thinking of her powers in general. (like when she is leveling up)
Nope, fairly sure have heard (or read) about ‘Zero Range Telepathy’ (or ‘Touch TP’) before
Do you remember where? I recall Touch Telepathy, Touch Telekinesis and Zero Range Telekinesis. According Google “Zero Range Telepathy” doesn’t seems to be around.
“Zero Range Tele-whatever” makes me smile. Zero Range Teleporting should be one of the most common superpowers :)
It is funny one, but, in at least one system, fairly common. In GURPs all of the lowest level psionic powers only work by touch, like Spock’s mind-meld. As such they do have rules for zero-range teleportation. Basically it allows you to walk through walls. You can only teleport past the obstacle you are touching, and no further.
Likewise zero-range clairvoyance allows you to see inside things that are in your hand. Such as a sealed envelope. Whereas zero-range telekinesis , if enhanced to be used whilst intangible, could replicate the trick Patrick Swayze’s character pulled in Ghost, pushing the coin up the door. Or, if within the weight limits of the character’s power, and with the appropriate skill, they could levitate themselves.
“You can only teleport past the obstacle you are touching, and no further.”
Ah, that’s a good one, it didin’t occured to me.
Yeah, I was aware of the powers, it’s the terminology what I find funny because the contradiction (see my reply to Guesticus below). If something it could be Zero Range Kinesis, Touchpathy, and so.
No idea where read about it, but ‘Zero Range’ is basically just another way of saying ‘Touch’
I know, but “tele” (Greek) means “from afar”, and the original semantic of “telekinesis”, for instance, was actually: “to move without touching”. I meant that Touch (Zero Range) Telekinesis is in fact an oxymoron. Same with the others.
Okay, good point
Couldn’t find it in Google. And no “touch” allowed – was talking about those exact words…
I haz puppies!
Two of them, sitting on my lap, as I type this. Rescued a couple of weeks ago, when my Jack Russel, and I, found them, all covered in blood, in a lane. Not theirs, fortunately, and they were old enough to be weaned, so it was not from when they were born.
It has taken a couple of weeks of effort, but I have managed to find them a permanent home. Very hard here, as there are many abandoned pets. Further folks who take them in are already above their capacity. And I could not afford another couple of dogs in our household. But, for the next couple of weeks, they is mine!
*snuggles up with puppies, tail wagging*
Puppies are awesome! It is always sad that you can’t help them all. (its even worse when they are being neglected but are basically “owned” by someone and the authorities won’t do a thing…. )
Any ideas of what breeds they might be? Are they large breed? (had this big bruiser once that got so much nutrition in the womb [only 3 pups and a well fed mama] that he and his sis escaped the kennel and crossed the yard to fall asleep in a hidden spot during their SECOND DAY OF LIFE – still blind… Boy did he grow up big – bigger than either purebred parent by decent margin!)
I am pretty sure which type of dog they are, which is a beige one, that is the second most common in this area.* Slightly shorter than a Labrador, but much less bulky, and much narrower across the shoulder.
There are very few photos I could find, so these are the closest ones I could find, which give an impression of them, albeit not necessarily accurate nor representative.
One eating dog-bread. A similar but stockier type. And one of the right build (on the left of the photo), but with a face too much like greyhound-type dogs.
The good news is that I will get to see them more, when the family who are taking them on, visit. Plus they might become permanent residents here. So I will get to see how they turn out, and whether my assessment is right.
* The most numerous being the Karakachanka, which is used to guard both livestock and properties. The third most common, in this village, is now Jack Russel terrier-like dogs. Buffy has proven to be both very popular and a trend setter!
At least one dog in those pictures looked happy. Dog bread? (my dog thinks that means any bread with peanut butter on it [hold the bread])
Looks like a sturdy dog with an easy to maintain coat. What do they do? (hunting, cattle, Frisbee, basic pet… )
The Karakachanka (Karakachan?) looks like a great dog. (though my favorite cattle dog will have to be a Great Pyrenees ever since one walked into our lives as a cast off and showed us what awesome breeding can do [functioned great with local animals, including horses, with no training whatsoever, cause we aren’t cattle people, and didn’t have an mean bone in her body towards any living thing unless they absolutely needed a whooping and then she showed them the meaning of fear [some dogs learned that its wrong to torment the local mares])
I hope you get puppy visitation rights! That’s the best time. Don’t forget to feed them lots of vitamin/mineral tabs. Gotta start growing those bones and convincing their bodies that they should make their teeth diamond hard.
Stale bread is used as the staple food for most dogs here. I should not think any of them would have ever tasted peanut butter, nor jam for that matter. Although the latter might be possible amongst any scraps thrown to them.
A real treat I saw one getting was the fat cleaned off of a barbecue grill with dog bread, which was then thrown to it. None of that went to waste.
Hunting is quite popular here. There is a hunting lodge near to my house. Which uses a variety of breeds, although I do not specifically recall that type amongst them. Pretty much exclusively they are used to guard property, because the Karakachanka is viewed as the ideal livestock guard. Bearing in mind that the latter are significantly bigger than wolves (and have a perfect temperament for the role*). Whereas these ones would be of similar size.
Sadly that means being chained to a stake or barrel,** in their owner’s garden. For their entire lives. Horrible from our Western eyes, but not that unusual in the rest of the world, sadly.
I have never observed any being treated as domestic pets. But (as you saw in those pictures) there are quite a few strays of that type, in the cities. Which are treated as communal pets. They will readily approach anyone on the street and are often given hand-outs or petting.
One lesson reported by ex-pat children, who are educated locally, went as follows: “If you find you no longer want, or cannot afford to keep, a dog, the correct thing to do is to put it out in the street. There it will be tagged and vaccinated and looked after by the community.” ***
These puppies have been spared from all that though. They have been accepted by a family of dog-lovers, who will ensure they have the best lives that Western standards can provide!
* They will apparently even protect against bears. Although we do not have any in my corner of Bulgaria. But very importantly they treat the livestock like family. Even when very hungry and there are nice fluffy lambs nearby.
As such they have the same original role as the Great Pyrenees, both being mountain livestock guardian dogs. Therefore having convergent looks (such as the fluffy coats) even though they are not related (beyond the extent that any European dogs are).
** With the barrel on its side, and one end open, in lieu of a dog-house. Although there are a few who actually get proper dog houses. Whilst those who have nothing, get ex-pats here supplying them. The winters get down to -30, and invariably have snow, and sometimes very deep drifts.
*** Unspoken: Or eaten, by families in need of meat. Or put down when the population of strays gets too unruly.
Dog food is mostly grain but to get the most out of your dogs genes I wouldn’t recommend ordinary bread… I managed to feed and exercise our little terror to a 3rd again the bulk of the older sibling I saw when we picked her up and that elder sibling was being fed regularly and lived in the house.
If I got a hold of one of those guard dogs it as a pup it would be MUCH larger when grown and care much more about what its guarding! LOL (might have to get somebody else for the advanced obedience training though… I’ve never really needed much from my animals so I never really picked up more than how to get them not to do something that was annoying me and I learned that from them… [me = raised by dogs? LOL])
Guess I can understand needy families eating them if they have to. (and are hopefully not mean about how they kill them) Few things smarter, or with better senses, than a domestic pig but we eat the heck out of them. (my father got one from a friend to raise up once and by the time he was done he had learned all its favorite treats, where it liked to be scratched and its favorite kind of toys, etc… toughest kill ever…. [always amazed me how he could hunt considering how much he loved the deer but from his perspective ONLY people who cared and respected them that much should hunt them])
Sounds like they treat them there as we treat cats here except taking more responsibility maybe. Hard to get country folk to understand that if you are feeding it, keeping it in the area and helping it reproduce, then you should be responsible for it. To country folk cats just kind of are… (unless you are country and a dog person then they often are just kind of like rats or other vermin [they get in a building and they ruin it… smells so bad! and the fleas etc… ]) Nobody eats cats though. Not cause we all love them too much or anything. Most people here don’t like the taste of certain types of predators (maybe that’s why our ancestors turned them into domestic helpers in the first place? Trying to find a use for the seriously less tasty? Sounds like humans: thinking with our bellies! XD )
I have no idea what this “ex-pat” term means. Sounds like expatriot or something like that… *shrugs*
I can believe they would mess with bears if they are anything like the Great Pyrenees (who have been used as a deterrent to timber wolves messing with livestock around Yellowstone successfully [NOT a small wolf at all the Timber Wolf]) . The FEMALE we had (always smaller than the males) was so large that she would “help” my father work on his car by standing on her hind feet next to him with one leg braced on the edge of the car under the hood, just like him, and the other wrapped comfortably around his shoulders as she gazed down into the inner workings of the vehicle from a height higher than my father could manage! The most adorable thing ever. Looked just like a particularly friendly buddy helping out with car repairs. “what seems to be the trouble pops?” She was resting to the far side of the car when a neighbor’s relative showed up with two poorly trained medium to lesser large sized dogs who shot out of his trucks box and rushed across the yard looking like they might attack my father. She materialized on the far side of the car and made them try to turn back instantly causing skid outs then bit and otherwise educated the second one who didn’t even try to fight back or do anything other than attempt to flee such a monster.
She could do these fast and graceful spins and jumps. Never seen a large dog move like that before. Also fairly invincible to cold so the half barrel wouldn’t be a problem. Heat here though DID turn out to be a problem. She got heat stroke I think (we had a lot of dogs when she was given to us so she lived outside) one particularly hot summer. If my family ever comes by another one they are living in the basement or in the air conditioning… TT Our failure there is always a point of shame amongst us. What a waste of a great dog.
I should have said “expat”, which is short for expatriate. Only the locals use dog bread. The expats ensure that their dogs are well fed.
Buffy used to get 50/50 dog biscuits and tinned dog food. But nowadays is on just the tinned, given her age. Although recently we got put on a chicken and rice diet, to help with her failing liver, for quite a while. But she is doing OK back on a normal diet now. Currently the puppies are on liver and pasta. Although I will vary that, as the tub of that, supplied by their new family, is used up.
The first time I read your comment, I thought that you had a friendly bear, living with you. Until I got quite far in, and realised the error.
A real shame with the dog though, and very sad. It is important to acknowledge our mistakes though, so that we can learn from them. And it is decent to warn others, so that they do not make the same mistake. Which reflects very well on you.
The only advice I can offer to anyone, other than your own sensible comments, is that thick-furred dogs, somewhere really hot, can be helped by getting a summer haircut. Thinning the fur can dramatically improve quality of life, during the hot summer months, and reduce the risk of heatstroke.
Not that getting it done professionally is cheap. But there is always the option of getting a cheap pair of clippers and doing it yourself. It may not look great, but how the dog feels is more important than how it looks.
Hah, puppy pasta!
She did look a lot like a friendly miniature polar bear. (though the shape of her head and really her whole body looked more like a grey wolf with floppy ears, shaggy white coat and black lips/eyelids).
Eh, I was not forceful enough in my childhood days. Father was too wrapped up in work and tired when home. And some other family dynamic stuff I won’t go into but definitely we knew better (the hair cut had been discussed and needed special sheers found and purchased cause of her armor like fur but we dragged butt on it just a hair too long) and should have done better. Only hurt himself the most anyway. She was Father’s personal buddy for many an adventure.
Next fluffy big dog we got we had a professional trim them. They buzzed the tips of her nipples off!! So then we did it ourselves before they cut off an ear or something! (they used a room at the vets with their endorsement so…. )
It was kind of funny. She had reddish fur but apparently the red color was from it interacting with the sunlight or something so when we shaved her down her shorter fur was almost a light skin color. But we left the fur on her legs and head cause it wasn’t too long. She looked like she had a farmers tan! LOL (this is a strange way to pass the time on a Superheroine webcomic comment section…. )
Re your last. Fairly strange, but it still has relevance. Just think of ‘The Beast’ or Barkley and his daughter. They too will suffer badly in the summer. Likewise the general thread of how animals can be mistreated in society can serve as an analogy of how supers may be likewise.
There will be those who want to chain supers, outside of key installations, to protect them from dangerous creatures. But who would not want to invite one into their house. Let alone treat them like a member of the family.
Plus the whole super genre sprang out of the problems that people face in daily life, such as bullying or being mugged, and wishing that they had super-canine powers in order to overcome them.
Actually, I must correct myself. I just remembered one that is a pet. It is free to range in the garden or the street, and Buffy likes it. I am doubtful that it is allowed into the house though, but could not say for sure.
There are a few pet dogs in the village, such as the Jack Russel types. And even a couple of the little-yappy dog breeds. Some of whom do get to go indoors.
Oh, and thank you, most kindly Ignoble. I think any Western-minded person, with any empathy, would do the same mind. But there are those who do a lot more, including running dog rescue sanctuaries. One of whom is providing considerable assistance in this process. Helping to look after the puppies, when I will be unable to, and then shipping them to their new homes, once old enough to do so legally.
Not sure that Eastern-minded persons, with any empathy, wouldn’t do the same.
True. Western was just a simpler catch-all than listing a bunch of countries which have good traditions of animal care. It would incorporate some which did not, and exclude others which did. Mind you so would ‘Eastern’, given that some East Asian countries have dog on the menu and/or do not make provision for animal welfare. But there are certainly others which have better reputations.
Fair enough, although particulary to have them in the menu do not means too much, we Westerns eat animals too, intelligent ones, sympathetic ones, even sacred ones according some. Granted slaughter partices could be another matter.
Bacon double cheeseburger with at least one product containing cochineal (eg certain types of ketchup, marie rose sauces and cheddar cheeses). How to offend at least four religions with one bite.
They are SINFULLY goooood! :Q
:) You got me with “cochineal”, what religion it offends?
@Duende Sociopata
Probably a reference to all the “unclean things” you aren’t supposed to eat according to the Old Testament. Of which I think insects qualified as “unclean”. (swarming, many footed things that crawl on the earth as well as crawling winged things) So anybody still following those old rules. New Testament folks pretty much devour everything. (not sure how wise that is… ) Though I suppose any religion that requires vegetarian diet would also qualify. (for most of the sandwich really)
Jehovah’s Witnesses have a big issue with cochineal. As it is made from ground up bugs, and is therefore mostly blood. Some line in the Bible indicates that drinking blood is forbidden, which they take that to include that product. Thus meaning they have to avoid an awful lot of goods, as it is a very common food colourant.
They do have a somewhat easier time doing that now (in the USA at least), as some people turn out to have an allergy to it. So they can now check the food labels to see if it is listed.
I seem to recall you also recently had to deal with a badly injured cat, now your helping out some pups?!
And then there’s DaveB, who has been working so hard to find good homes for some kittens and now seems to have decided to take them into his own home!? This when he already has some cats living there already?!
Gentlemen, for gallantry above and beyond the call of duty, I hereby award you both the Critter Protection Medal.
For your efforts to save the helpless, I salute you!
::stands up tall, lowers one ear slowly and raises it again::
Small critters of most any of the fuzzy types are an amazing source of immediate feedback and gratification.
*HUG* You big sweetie.
*blushes*
Fanku.
No wonder Maxima looks pissed-off. She realises that she is not going to get to hang with Ingsol any more, this evening, as she will likely have to take the team to respond to the damaged sigil. And they had been getting along together so well!
It could also be because the teammate on her right is being silly and the one on her left is evidently puckering up to blow a kiss at someone across the table. Maybe she’s just putting on her “game face” to reassure everyone there that Archon wasn’t completely unprofessional.
No, she just figured out what the true elf was saying
Oo-mox?
Not sure what that means… o_O
Just ask your local Ferengi . . .
Never trust a ferengi…even if they’ll turn a profit by being honest.
Call me crazy but… “Damaged Sigil” and one of Halos Orbs damaged? I know correlation is not causation but, I wonder. (drags memory from head and stirs it into penseive) I wonder…
Wait, which one of Sydney’s balls is damaged? o_O
None of them that we know of. Though that would be a funny explanation for why two of them don’t work. Say those two are normally in charge of user bonding, account control (originally designed to be shut down and passed between multiple “recognized” users?), verification, and security (with extreme prejudice) and the only reason Sydney could bond with the orbs or even try without having her brain liquefied is cause those two were damaged when the last being was forcibly “unbonded” with them.
Then later some being related to the civilization they are from offers to fix what’s wrong with them to a distracted Sydney who says yes before she has fully understood them. Aaand the system boots her out of having control and further gives her so many hours to turn herself into the “proper authorities” (which no longer exist) or the original owner (dido) before it melts her brain! (good times! )
Yeah, that’s what was thinking (minus the brain-liquefying bit)
One of her balls looks like it may have a crack, but figured that that was just part of the design
I thought that was supposed to look like “crackling” energy to signify the PPO’s blasting potential. Just not moving, cause sadly this isn’t an anime, it looks like fissures in a crystal ball. Be cool if someone does do the orbs in animation and shows that ball with little lighting bits flickering inside as it rotates around Sydney.
Agreed.
Hello, Crazy Butt.
I am reminded of my conjecture for the validity of mythologies as viewed from a Christian belief system:
According to Christian Scriptures (Genesis 11), several generations of Noah’s descendants (Noah is the guy in the Great Flood story) lived 300 to 500 years or more. So that by the time of Abraham, Seth (one of Noah’s sons and Abraham’s great great great great great great grandfather) was old but still living, even after Abraham’s father died (illustrating a gap between these Ancients and the young … if you want to call over 100 “young”). This could possibly be part of the source of the myth of immortality.*
The myth of their divine nature could come from a mistranslation of the fact they were called sons of God. As for their powers, Jesus taught that if one has the faith of a mustard seed, one could move mountains by authority alone (Matthew 17:20). And Romans 13:1 declares that God ordains all powers, so both the abilities and authorities of the ancient “gods” would have been God-given… if you could accept the validity of such ideas.
Note, that I am not expecting either Christians or non-Christians to believe my conjecture; however, I would like to remind my fellow believers in the Christian Scriptures that faith is a fruit of the spirit and “against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) Other verses for those interested in struggling with this understanding are John 10:34 & Psalms 82:6.
* Alternately, Jesus’ declaration that God is the God of the living and not the dead (Matthew 22:31-32) could be the basis for a misunderstanding of immortality so that these faith-filled individuals’ immortality would have been misconstrued as life without dying instead of life eternal as a result of the resurrection of the dead…assuming the concept was taught by God to the sons of Seth and later misunderstood by mortal men.
A side benefit of the superheroes being outed, is that any supernatural or alien will likely be mistaken for them if the veil is pierced.
Since I’m colorblind in the red/green spectrum, I can’t for the life of me tell what the text on the magazine cover is saying. It just sort of dissolves in a bloody mess on the cover. Stroking or shadowing with a light color usually helps with that type of thing.
p.s. I am really enjoying this part of the story.
Something well worth DaveB taking note of.
The current vote incentive has the picture in large, and there is some degree of border on it, at that magnification. But, in case it is too faint to help, and for future readers (who would not have access to that, when it is next replaced), the test reads as follows:
Magazine title: TIME
In red: The Most Powerful Weapon in America’s article
In white (for completeness only): Hint it’s not the guns or the missiles
A slight correction to Yorp’s excellent and helpful post:
In red: The Most Powerful Weapon in America’s Arsenal
hey! would we be able to get a high quality version of that TIME Magazine cover? it looks so awesome!
Just click on the vote incentive button, and you will find it there. Up until the next incentive goes live, anyhow.
It is always worthwhile doing a vote mind, when you visit. Keeping the comic’s profile high brings in new readers, and therefore potential new patrons, to help keep the comic going.
“I appreciate how you present both sides of the argument and make it easy for readers to form their opinions.”
I enjoyed reading the comments section as well. It’s fascinating to see the diverse opinions and thoughts on this topic.