Grrl Power #509 – Pink streak
Action pages don’t usually give me a whole lot to comment on. It’s mostly a lot of Swoosh, Wham… and whoops I forgot the sound effects on the first two panels. It’s just… Swoosh and Wham. I’d love to draw crazy action scenes like Onepunch Man, or Black God (even if it relies a little too heavily on speedlines) or anything by Masahiko Nakahira. An extended fight between Pixel and the SuperHusk wasn’t the point of this scene, but I would eventually like to do a few really good action pages just to flex that muscle. Really just to see if I can. It’s a skill like anything else.
I think if I was trying to really punch up the action on this page, I’d make the panels bigger, moving the last one to the next page and add more speed lines. Not Black God levels, just to emphasize the motion, then on the second page I’d do a reverse shot with Pixel smashing into the room she hit, rubble and shattered stuff everywhere. Well, ideally my theoretical assistant would do all the rubble and stuff.
Sydney’s usually actually pretty focused during fights. The constant motion and flashes and bangs don’t give her ADHD time to pull her focus. In this instance she is indeed rubbernecking the battle, but watching a bright pink were jaguar battle a tentacle robot would be pretty distracting.
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Hmm…
The “WOOSH” effect shows that something moved from over on the left to the right, or vice-versa, correct?
Well, if that was the mecha or whatever it is swinging it’s fist from the left side of the panel to the right, it should have sent Pixel flying backwards.
So, I theorize that the attack hit Sydney as well, and the attack was right-to-left, not left-to-right.
Yes, it did move from right-to-left, MegaMecha has its back to Sydney, what we did see was the panel between panel underboob and panel SPLAT! where MegaMecha was winding up its arm across it’s body
The ‘something’ is still visible in the final, ‘WOOSH’ panel. Just follow the blue streak to the left, and you can see the construct’s tentacle tip at the end of that arc. To confirm, look to the construct and you can see the other end of its tentacle, where it meets the shoulder.
If you compare this to the previous panel, you can see the tentacle was holding Pixel by her ankle. So, in the final panel, it has swung her round from its right, and released her to fly across (as shown by the pink streak) and hit the abandoned Mars warehouse building opposite. Its tentacle then continued to the point where we see it.
I must admit that I had to puzzle over that panel, myself. Although once I had associated the pink streak with Pixel, and inferred that she had been slammed into the wall, it made it easier to track down the other elements.
No, more speed lines are not necessary.
I’m just imagining Dave reading these comments and being like “that is a really good idea! Why didn’t I come up with it? And now I can’t use that idea because they’d be all ‘called it!'”
Why would that be a problem? I think I speak for most of us when I say that it would be flattering if I could inspire Dave. Mr Barrack should grab anything he likes in these comments and use it while laughing like Deus.
Speaking of Mr Barrack, why is it that everyone with the name ‘Barrack’ is cool and good at their job, regardless of how many ‘r’s they have?
Perhaps they are actualy all the same guy!
Not every one, some actually work at it, others just get handed awards
Take Baraka from Mortal Kombat for example. He have work hard everyday getting his ass handed to him by the heroes and no one gives him any award for it. Then again he is evil so he doesn’t deserve it anyway.
B.A. Barakas
I pity da fool…
Still all bitter about the Nobel Peace Prize, aren’t you?
Well it did take a heck of a lot of hard work defeating Saruman and Sauron. Without that there would have been no chance for peace in New Zealand or the rest of Middle Earth!
So apparently that solve the mystery of where does a were jaguar land, inside a wall.
Painfully so. ow.
What does “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” mean? Is it an error on my part?
That only very rarely kicks in. Usually it is when making too many links on a single post. Three used to be enough, but it may have been relaxed as I think I have exceeded that a couple of times recently, without the post being sent to moderation.
It is nothing to be concerned about, whether it is for that reason or something else I have not come across before. It just means that it has to be checked to ensure that it is not a spam or mass-marketing post. Sadly there will be somewhat of a delay, before it shows, as Dave does all his own technical work, including site administration. As tomorrow is update day, he will be tied up either making the comic or sleeping after that.
But, given that you would not be making this query if your post were not innocuous, rest assured, it will appear in due course.
Thanks, I’ve been out of practice with using the tags. My first comment of today kept linking back to this page, so when I resubmitted, I got the same “awaiting moderation” message. If iit’s nothing to worry about then all is right with the world. Once again, thank you.
I check the comments a few times a day, but it can take a few hours before I notice one in the queue sometimes. It should be approved by now.
I am normally loathe to be so crass… but Pixel’s boobs in that throw panel were oddly distracting.
Hmmmmm… Oh, uh, what was that again?
I also found them distracting. Just not ‘oddly’ so. More ‘naturally’ so, as I suspect was the intention of the artist all along.
Normally someone else notices these things before me, but i think the horn on the robot/monster is missing in the second panel. I did not see a comment about it and thought it should be mentioned.
You are right.
Always thought that that was some sort of weird tentacle
Speaking of panel two: are those claw marks on the tentacle arm? Don’t recall Pixel Panther hitting that arm, so does that mean she tangled with it in the time-that-did-not-happen? If so, does that mean that the TTDNH actually did happen? o_O
TTDNH… for some reason my brain came up with ‘Teenage Turtle Demolition Ninja Horde’ … until it noticed you’d already supplied the acronymical solution
:D
Would actually want to see that movie, rather than “Young Adult Alien Martial Artist Saviours”
It looks to be. Possibly it is old damage, from previous engagements, but the claw pattern is distinctive. So I think we can dismiss that as unlikely, given the more obvious option to paw..
Then it becomes a matter of when that occurred. It may have happened in-between frames or comics, but that feels both unsatisfying and has no real purpose to it.
Which means that there is a good chance that Pixel does not remember inflicting the damage, either, as the alternative is that it occurred pre-reset. Which would support one of our clever speculative readers who suggested that this construct may well have been involved in the initial capture of Pixel, the first time round.
If so, congratulations to them for suggesting it, and yourself for spotting that evidence!
Running with this line of reasoning, the obvious paradox that, if time had reset, then so should the damage!
This does provide strong support for the proposal that only those present at the reset were affected, as opposed to the rest of the world. With very bad implications for Sciona’s knowledge of the situation, and the possibility that she has blood samples of both Pixel and Sydney!
This uses the logic that if damage Pixel inflicted is still on the construct, then possibly blood which was separated from them might not have been included in the reset either. Although I consider the latter less likely, as Pixel had been drained of blood for a while and has not exhibited any signs of light-hotheadedness or other possible symptoms of that, such as fatigue or a craving for a cup of tea.
It is more likely that the blood got reset, along with the rest of them. But, if not, it does mean that we do have the potential, from now on, for a clone Pixel or evil twin Sydney to later make an appearance! Or for some voodoo magic to be performed, using blood to bind either or both of them to voodoo dolls!
Although I do spot one other alternative. Golems are traditionally magic resistant to an extreme. It is possible that there was a local reset,* but that the golem was simply immune to the effect. So the damage on it remained, but it remembered the incident. In which case Sciona would still be unaware of the incident. Although she would be behaving differently if she is in the vicinity of the golem and it is behaving differently.
Given that golems have programmed orders, it would still be following its previous ones. If that had included “guard this prisoner and bring her back, if she escapes” then it would simply be carrying that out. And doing a good job of it!
* Excluding Maxima, and any distant teams, but including the Mars warehouse and Sciona.
It is possible that only those initially covered by the checkpoint were reset, but the damage (and anything else) they did, did not, which means Sci-fright is wondering what the hael happened to her arm and why the vision in her right eye is a little ‘fuzzy’
Remember, Sydney and co ended up back on the roof in the same state, but apparently time had still continued as normal, implying, again, that they, and they alone, were reset
All of the possibilities I listed were constructed with that in mind. We know that whatever happened Maxima was not affected by it, and time did progress ‘outside of the loop’, as you say. So it was limited in some form or other.
That is one possibility, but the only one we know for certain was not was Maxima. Although we have a strong indicator that between one and four Harems were not either. Plus of course we can now add the construct as potentially having been unaffected too.
Consider a sphere the size of this warehouse district. Everything inside gets reset. Nothing outside does. The one anomaly that indicates the bad guys were not affected is the construct being here. That could have been because Sciona was in contact with allies outside the sphere, and got tipped off by them. Although she caught on damned fast, if that is the case.
Alternatively, taking one of the examples above, the golem was also unaffected, and so came searching for Pixel Probably aided by the the glowing circle of orbs lighting up this rooftop (even if it may not be able to see the level-up screen).
Agreed.
Although your logic breaks down beyond that point, as, if the line just quoted is true, then Sciona was not affected by the reset. So her memories should not be. Memories are laid down by physical changes in the brain. Hence using the argument you present then if the golem is injured (a physical change which persisted) then so should Sciona’s memories of them interacting with her (also due to the physical changes their presence made on her brain).
So I would modify your conclusion to that line, by saying “Sci-fright is wondering where the hell her two prisoners suddenly vanished to”. She would however recall that they were the ones who injured her.
My love/hate relationship with this comic continues. I really enjoy the story for the most part (WareHare.. eh.) but continue to heartily detest Sydney as a character. I mean even in real life I cant stomach extroverted wackiness, which will always strike me as desperate attention seeking befitting a child or an american teen when in front of a camera. This personal dislike aside it does seem Sydney enjoys the the obvious protection of deus ex mechana within this narrative.
I mean the groundwork has been down for a fairly gritty reality that accommodates supers, trained to military standards and beyond. Maxima, the most experienced, level headed and highest ranking super is protective of Sydney and yet still sends this green recruit who has been with their organisation five minutes on a potentially deadly recon mission? Recon?! Sydney is an ADHD nightmare on a good day – Literally could not keep quiet for ten minutes in an important meeting on THIS day, even while her commanding officer was standing right next to her… I honestly dont understand this thread of the story.
Sydney freezing up here is the most realistic thing yet for me, a seriously nice character development… and yet I just want to see her squished. (There’s lots of new characters now! :D Someone else could inherit the orbs! Seriously. Anyone.)
An interesting perspective. I do take issue with one point though, namely:
Whilst Sydney did get rescued by Krona’s ‘time reset’ this was not an act of deus ex mechana, as Dave had carefully laid the groundwork for that earlier. To the extent that a number of readers predicted that Krona had ‘saved the game’ or ‘set a checkpoint’. Nor can I think of any prior instance where Sydney has been saved by an element that was not already in the story.
Not that she is a shrinking violet who needs saving all the time mind. Maxima let her rescue herself when she fell, after dropping the flyball. Plus she faced Shadow Boxer manno-a-girlo. Not to mention being the one saving everyone else by sacrificing her protection from the shield, in order to free them from the aggro aura.
Possibly Sydney might need rescuing at the moment, granted, if she does not snap out of her tunnel vision. However even that need not be an ‘act of god’ to rescue her. Pixel is a were, so may well survive the impact above and return. Harem need only take so long to save Krona. And, of course, once she can get back to the roof, or otherwise gain an angle on the bad guys, Krona can bring her significant powers to bear.
And it has already been telegraphed that both Maxima and Peggy are on their way.
However I remain hopeful that Sydney will have finished her planning and be ready to counter this construct. She has managed to do well, despite dire predictions by various folks to the contrary, in the past. Such as when she saw the ‘strange SWAT team’. Had she not given Maxima the warning, then lots of Council members would likely have died.
Another example of it being Halo making the difference. Even though it was Maxima who took centre stage for the fight. Sydney does enjoy wacky behaviour in everyday life, but when the chips are down she does come through. Although she does have to constantly battle her ADHD and (at the moment) her extreme sleep deprivation, in the process.
one thing that often goes along with adhd is impulse control problems. I have adhd and social interaction difficulties (slow to process verbal language) and have difficulty keeping up with complex verbal interaction. If I’m in high spirits, low adderalled and caffeine/adrenaline overloaded, I can wind up acting a bit frantic/ manic like Sydney does – even while my brain is telling my mouth to shut up and my body to sit down. Yeah, I don’t like me like that either, and I’m at least twice Sydney’s age and it can still happen.
Thank you for sharing that. ADD and ADHD are extremely common in society, to the extent that every classroom probably contains pupils with one or the other. And bigger classes will have more. Yet the general public have quite a low level of awareness of the problems from the point of view of those with the conditions.
So I am grateful to both the author and commentators, such as yourself, for helping to give the rest of us some insight into what it is like to live with these issues.
From that point of view, I hope that the comic does get much wider exposure in society. Perhaps through a blockbuster film deal. That will help lessen the prejudice shown to people, when they exhibit such atypical behaviour.
While I have been relatively narky about Sydney before outside of how shes been recently(She was a COLLOSSAL jerkass during the highly delicate council meeting-truth told the manikillers were a huge stroke of luck for her and Archon in general cause it gave the council a reason to forgive being continuously insulted by Syd in general and showed spazzy as she is shes sometimes worth putting up with) I dont think shes all that bad.
For the most part she doesnt need plotarmour because shes still an unknown to most people so her having a shield that even Maxima likely cant crack combined with the ability to do several actions while hidden away in it means she can be a tard as much as she likes aslong as she tapes the shield orb to her hand first.That said in this part of the story shes been nothing but a liability and only an idiot would send a walking Mardigras parade with added fireworks like Halo on a mission that involves discretion and stealth.
Now later on if theres any smart villains out there she might be in serious trouble especially if someone realises an unexpected sniper round to the face would render her powerlesslol.
In our mundane world this is a weakness which everyone shares. In the Grrl Power universe this is still true of most people.
And so pointing it out is just a little bit redundant.
As a rebuttal I must point out that most people who know she has shields better than the starship enterprise would assume that they could be up 24-7 so shooting Halo is the epitome of pointless.A smart person however would realise that given the mechanics of her powers she can only consciously work her powers so whenever the orbs are spinning her weakness to bullets are the same as any other non armoured human.Also while a weakness to bullets is true of most people when dealing with supers would you honestly want to take that gamble when their counterstroke might turn you into a airbourne cloud of mush?
Maxi did not send Sydney on a deadly recon mission, she was sent to this location on the express belief it would be a routine mission and they would find nothing. Remember what Maxi said when she found out they had found Sci-fright?
Any and all hopes of Sydney dying (or worse) are going to be laughably dashed (/cue Nelson Muntz)because we know she survives for the next four months or so
Lol.
People commenting (negatively) about why the hael Sydney is even there, need to understand one simply fact: Maxi and Archon can’t just ask the villains of the world (and Deus) to hold off on their world conquering plans until they get the newest potentially most powerful super fully trained
Also, every time Sydney has ended up in the middle of a huge fustercluck it has been either ‘after hours’ introducing her to the rest of the team (in what use to be a restaurant), or attempting to find out what the hael her balls are and where they came from (meeting with the Council) or now, when her team was sent to what was supposed to be the least likely to contain someone they were informed was (mostly) headless and out of the picture. They may have suspected to have them run in to something or someone, but low level that Team X-Ray could handle things, not an Alpha Level Boss
…in what use to be a restaurant…
Sydney (ala Bart Simpson) : “It wasn’t me!”
And for once, she would be correct :D
More likely: “Did I do that?“
“Stop rubbernecking!
Snap out of it!”
“WHOOSH
BAM”
He he.
Ah, the sound effects in printed form!
Antagonist: Your last words?
Protagonist: Only one. Boom.
Cue next panel with Secret Evil Lair exploding with WHOOM!!
Protagonist: …”Boom”, “whoom” – like there’s a difference, really…
Well a womb boom occurs when a mad scientist’s cloning program gets running. The reverse would be ungrammatical. Other meanings would be too icky to contemplate in a nice comic.
I believe Sydney’s mid-combat freeze / inability to make a rational decision is due in part to the massive amount of underboob Pixel flashes her in panel 4.
Make them blue instead of speed lines. IN this kind of artwork you can be more cinematic. Hell, they make animated forms blur now too so blur it!!!! (It goes back to *Jim Danforth* and his blurring of certain segments of the stop-motion animated work to strobe less. Go motion was born from it then CGI.) Here to blur or wash it can do much the same even though it is static. We are in the business of fooling the eye, aren’t we? Faking depth is the first thing one learns when having a horizon. Good stuff here DaveB but then I have been reading your work since you started this excursion.
Epic Pixel Underboob.
Noice.