Grrl Power #532 – Monster hunting
You know, I think Doctor Chuckles may be misrepresenting their purpose there to Coot. Also, for as paranoid a person as Coot most likely is, his paranoidar seems to be a little on the fritz here.
I was trying to come up with the least offensive offensive term for Coot in panel 4. I didn’t want him to actually say anything gross, but I wanted to preserve the sentiment. “Ackbar types” seemed like a good compromise. Actually sounds kind of cool to me, but Coot obviously doesn’t mean it that way. He’s one of those culturally myopic types as you might guess. As I said Coot isn’t the charismatic type, but is he’s still fun to write.
Doctor Chuckles is the guy who put Sciona back together, in case you were wondering, so boy’s got some skills to say the least.
PS I know the vote incentive is stale, I’ve gotten a little behind with producing the comic, but I’ll try to get a Grrl Power related commission at A-kon next weekend. Which I’ll be at BTW. No table, just wandering around.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Love how Dave made Cooter a moron by racking his shotgun and ejecting a perfectly good round.
Aye. The guy needs a good slapping, in the face, with Halo’s tentacle!
Settle down kids and I’ll read you the story of “Cooter and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad introduction to tentacle pr0n.”
No you can’t see the pictures until you’re 18.
A well timed dramatic gun loading is worth a shell. Cooter needs to keep up his image as a stereotypical gun nut.
Taking bets on whether he slips on the ejected shell?
I like Doc’s hat-mask thing, but man that’s got to cut into your field of view.
Back-scabbards are really awkward.
What if… it’s not a ‘mask’
Back-scabbards are only awkward, if they are ‘normal’ scabbards, and even ‘normal’ scabbards are a pitn if it’s a long sword
Back scabbards are useful for transporting a very large blade, but need to have certain modifications if you want a prayer of drawing it in a fight. I generally go for the side being open just far enough down so I can swing the sword out of the scabbard and into my first slicing move. Not a comfortable move but I can’t wear the blade on my hip and the only alternative draw would involve throwing the scabbard off the blade that I always carried in my hand.
look up the shadiveristy back scabbard. it handles that scenario quite nicely.
He can pick it up.
I didn’t get the impression he was that smart. “Self described expert” can mean all sorts of things.
Yorp, I just saw a thing saying someone in your country is putting googly eyes on broken street objects. Is that you? Are you doing it?
He he. Not eye, no. Sounds fun though. If eye could afford to buy a packet full, eye would become a subtle guerrilla protester too.
I SEE what you did there. LOOKS like we have a punster here. I won’t BAT A EYE about it though. CORNEA puns are common around here.
Just throwing a question out, in case you spot it Pander. After a bit of legal advice and lack the finances to do it through any paying route. I know, from previous discussions we have had that, for example, the comic is protected for using copyright things because it is a satirical work.
Does the same apply if using a single image, for a satirical purpose, but within an otherwise serious work? Whilst that usage would not be money-making in itself, it would be part of something that (*claws crossed*) will be. The corporation owning the copyright is headquartered in California.
I have gone to lengths to otherwise only use public domain images, but this one fits both the humorous moment, and the underlying serious message. As I can’t think of an alternative (that would not have the same problem), I would be reluctant to drop it, unless it clearly failed to fall under the ‘fair use’ laws?
If by serious you mean educational, then yes, the fair use doctrine covers an exception to copyright protections for educational use in addition to satirical use. Sorry i cant type more. My computer decided to blow up and until I get another one I’m stuck on my smartphone and tablet except when I am at my office. :) and yes a work can be both serious and have parts that are meant as satire.
Oh thank you ever so much. And, yes, it would fall under the category of educational, albeit not just aimed at educational institutes.
*wags tail thankfully*
I’m conflicted. On one hand, Cooter is really funny. On the other, I’m really sick of nearly every southern character in media being an idiot gun nut Confederate apologist who hates all the coloreds and gays. It’s a misrepresentative stereotype, and it’s _everywhere._
Dave lives in Texas, so I think he will know a fair range of Southerners. But it is not his intent to replicate one of them. He is purposely using the stereotype, in its own right.
Just have a think about it, if he approached it the other way. Working from his private life he creates a perfect encapsulation of a modern Texan, and then made him the most vile, disgusting, depraved character….
I do not think that would go down very well, at his local bar.
Whereas here the negative associations are not made, with real people, in the South, because the stereotype is known to not be representative.
Zack Tilly! Most people here seem to know that that is not how most Southerners are, not now and not even back then
Yorp, you make a solid point for the stereotype, but imagine if Coot were instead a Muslim intent on killing monsters because they’re an offense against Allah. It would work exactly the same, but one would be considered much more offensive…and that’s the problem with using *any* stereotype. To me, it seems like an easy out and lets face it: using any stereotype perpetuates that stereotype.
I’m hoping DaveB pulls a serious twist and Coot winds up defeating the real Bad Guys. If monsters killed his family, is he justified in hunting monsters? Different views are possible, but I’d say yes. Does that make him a Bad Guy? No more than any vigilante we cheer on in movies, books, and comics. He can be rude, crude, socially unacceptable and *still* be a Good Guy. I’d find it hilarious and fitting if he wound up in Archon running their armory or firearms training…can you imagine the interaction between Max and Coot? “Well, hell, Goldie, ya’ll don’t want me staring at yer boobs, don’t put ’em out there on the stage like that! Ya’ll ain’t ashamed of ’em and neither am I!” “I am *much* more than a pair of breasts!” “Ain’t sayin different, Goldie, but thing is, yer boobs is the only part of you I like. Rest of you is kinda loud and obnoxious and judgmental.”
That’s the main problem with freedom of speech and freedom of expression: other people have it, too.
Which would be why he has not done that. Therefore it is inappropriate to berate him about it.
Just like a black guy is allowed to say the “N” word, Dave is a Southerner, so has leeway on using a Southern stereotype. Hopefully he knows enough rednecks to pull it off OK.
Either can misjudge it mind, so it comes with a risk of offending someone. And what offends some people would not offend others (in the relevant demographic).
Likewise he is a white male Christian employing a stereotype of the same demographic, for comical purposes.
An Arab male Muslim would have equal leeway for doing the same for the stereotype you proposed, all other things being equal.
Hollywood predominates world cinema, hence why we see a lot more of the white Christian stereotypes, in such circumstances.
So the disparity raised is actually down to Muslim cinema being underrepresented in world markets, by comparison, rather than a moral flaw in the writers.
Nope. Either stereotypes are always bad, or they’re always good. Nobody has special freedom to use them above others, and even if they did, you do not have the authority or the knowledge to determine who does and does not.
There are few things in life which are absolutely good or absolutely bad. Even killing someone, for example, if done in legitimate self-defence.
Yes, stereotypes are to be avoided. Mostly they are harmful. But, no, they are not exclusively so. And some can be useful, when used for a relevant purpose. Even the one under discussion.
Just to give you an example, I do have a habit of teasing Americans. Which my American friends take in good faith and do so in return. However, when staying with some of them, a friend made a point to tell me to avoid doing so, in a public place, such as a restaurant.
“Don’t be fooled by the fact that we are cosmopolitan Southerners. The redneck stereotype is a reality around these parts. Fail to realise that and you can end up either being beaten up or even killed!”
In this case the stereotype was being very usefully used, to rapidly provide important information, in a manner which could save my life! Indisputably this is a good use.
As a member of society I certainly do have the authority and knowledge to determine who is fit to use such. I am eligible for jury service and, as such, am one of the people who can be called upon to render judgement on issues such as racial discrimination, hate speech and the like.
Wrong again. Stereotypes are always okay and anyone can use them for whatever reason they want. You aren’t the arbiter of anything.
:-D
Sorry, Yorp, doesn’t fly. How do we *know* DaveB isn’t a black Muslim female? I don’t know him, never been to his house, don’t know anything beyond what is in the comic. He does *not* get a pass because “He’s Southern so it’s okay for him to do it!” Anyone looking at this page, whether by itself or as a part of years worth of archive diving, sees a blatant stereotype, period. I like to think DaveB, whether he’s a white male Southerner or a black Muslim female, is better than that.
I am not better than that. Some people are fun to make fun of. The terminally stupid for instance. Not mentally disabled, but people who eschew available education and live in echo chambers of willful ignorance. I mean, every sit com had the dumb guy or girl who realistically couldn’t function as an adult outside the confines of a TV show.
There are other groups who will never get my sympathy. Nazis are a perennial favorite. Klan members, terrorists, improv troupes, the gluten intolerant etc.
+1
I am gluten intolerant and I find it offensive to be compared to improv troupes!
Keep your wig on. Mind you, even if it does fly off, you can always improvise one, out of any handy gluten-free product packaging that you have lying around.
;-)
Is there even a line to be drawn between the genetically dull-witted and the acknowledged “mentally disabled” that marks one as deserving scorn and disgust but the other pity or protective tolerance?
Autistic person here, and speaking from experience… there really isn’t. In fact a lot of us would rather you treat us like you would any regular idiot. Because at least then you’d be treating us like a real person.
“because the stereotype is known to not be representative” Ridiculous. Absurd to a privileged degree. It is absolutely representative. There are people in the southern usa who are under-educated and scraping to survive, hustling and conniving to beat the local ordinances at doging a court date that will intentionally ruin their tenuous lives. And there are the equivalent to, if not the actual states of, rocket science ( looking at you Stennis ). But All of them, every one of them gets painted with the same hackneyed brush that appeared in this comic.
To say it is not representative is a statement to your insulation and privilege rather than education and worldly knowledge. While I am glad that you do not have to know what it is like having to exist in a land forever shunned and written into puppet status by the RNC., you should know that there are good and almost-good people there who have to bear the weight of your casual comedy.
Its funny to you but its their lives and it keeps them in pine slums instead of retail, indentured fast food service shoveling grease and lard to their neighbors rather than tech or higher vocational work.
I don’t think anyone is going to sue you. No one whose life you just made a little harder has the money to do that which is the beauty of this particular kind of prejudice.
This may be the first comic you have ever done that has actively harmed others. Welcome to being part of the problem. I’m sure you wont notice the difference, but certainly other’s will.
Disappointing.
I phrased that poorly. You are right to pick me up on it And you make a bunch of good points.
Plus it does not help that, even in this same thread, I have also used the same broader stereotype that you are applying. Namely the redneck. Which I should mention is not just a negative one. There are folks who are justifiably proud to be a redneck.
However Dave was using a caricature of a gun-toting racist subset with very exaggerated aspects. Most folks around the world realise that this is not representative. Which is the point I was trying to make.
Using stereotypes is fraught with danger though, because it is so easy for folks to extrapolate out from what is actually portrayed, to wider categories, which are not:
1) crazy gun toting* sexist racist maniac
2) redneck
3) all Southerners
If Dave has judged it right and fellow southerners (and self-identifying proud rednecks) are all having a laugh at this, then all is good. Personally I am not too concerned about the politically-correct, from elsewhere, getting their knickers in a twist, on their behalf.
If though he has misjudged it, and is causing offense to people that feel they are bound up by the stereotype, then that is something which DaveB should be made aware of, because that would be bad.
Mind you I hope we do not have too many readers who would identify as being 1) above. Because poking fun at such objectionable individuals is a good social use of comedy!
But if people falling under 2) or 3) are finding this offensive, and derogatory to themselves, then that is another matter.
If that is the case, then I would wish to apologise, unreservedly, for any offense that my support of such may likewise have caused.
* He is very pointedly being shown as having poor gun discipline, such as having his finger over the trigger. So he is clearly not a responsible gun owner, hence the ‘crazy gun-toting’. This should not be taken as a dig at gun ownership. I would hope that responsible gun owners would wish to distance themselves from being associated with him. Which we have seen a number of comments doing just that.
im gonna call this out because its fucking insidious;
“first comic you have ever done that has actively harmed others”
bullshit. offending people is not in any way equatable to causing them harm. trying to create equivalency there only serves to justify an excessive response.
yeah, so what? why should they be represented fairly? because it’ll give you nice warm fuzzy feelings? fuck off.
Dave makes fun of the stereotype, not actual southeners. As Guesticus said we in the audience get the joke if I’m not misstaken.
southerners deserve to be made fun of anyway.
Stereotypes exist because of large minorities that conform to the stereotype. There are equally large numbers that don’t conform to the stereotype. Like me, I’m a cyclist lobbying for protected bicycle infrastructure. But I’m also a member of ISCA and SCCA for car shows and sports cars respectively. My history is equal amounts of cyclist and car nut.
To be fair there are some good representations of southern characters in media. Daryl from the walking dead is one that comes to mind. Well at least in comparison to his brother at least. Tucker and Dale from Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil are another example.
Wouldn’t all Walking Dead characters before leaving the prison be representations of southern characters? The story begins around Atlanta, Georgia (later moving to Maryland I believe) and all of the original group (or at least most of them) come from the area. While Daryl and Meryl (or however you spell his name) have that thick southern drawl, they’re all southerners.
And even Merl isn’t this bad
It moved to west virginia, not maryland. Alexandria is in a suburb of Washington DC
I wonder, could Cthillia be a basilisk?
What with the unknown age and origins (chimera like creature born of an odd union) and the whole reptilian theme doesn’t match say a medusa, as well as the fact that we’ve seen her kill with a stare but not turn someone to stone?
Some kind of halfbreed between a human and a basilisk though. Maybe her killing stare is not as powerful as a basilisk’s, like it has to charge or something?
That was brought up, the last page
Life imitates Grrlpower…
https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/06/02/air-force-cadet-creates-bulletproof-breakthrough.html
Personally I would not opt for a bullet-proof vest that is one third the weight of the current ones. Rather I would want to have one the same weight, which is three times more effective!
“The slow finger penetrates the armour”
Kinky!
I would rather the lighter weight armor, and three times the ammunition!
You know, I’m really liking Cthilla. Too bad they’re a baddie.
Baddie? She killed a brutal dictator, and helped to bring the joys of capitalism to an oppressed nation! Plus is helping this God-fearing Christian to seek revenge, against monsters who murdered his family. Despite him being an otherwise totally objectionable person, who many would rather not help out.
Plus she does have killer fashion sense! And a drole sense of humour.
Nah. I’m cheering for Coot here-maybe not to win, but to have a good ending anyway. Assuming monsters killed his family, his reaction of going on a bloody rampage is perfectly justified. Hell, it’s literally the oldest saying in my family; “Michigan holds.”
Way to be racist/sexist/classist. Here’s a root for coot, just to be contrary. Let’s stop him from being the sacrifice to kick off this ritual.
Root for Coot, just because it rhymes. It could be a fun plot twist if Coot actualy saves the day and Maxima have to thank him for it.
“Big fan of Traps”
Assuming I’m thinking of the right kind of traps I’m liking Cthillia more and more.
Oh wait… I forgot about starwars… drat. Nevermind…
Still think she’s(?) pretty great.
Thank you! I could not make the connection. Been trying to figure out what the punchline was since the page went up.
Por que no los dos?
The irony of the Ackbar is that they warn of traps just as its about to spring or when they realize it is a trap, so Cthillia is basically denying that it will warn Coot of a trap… and maybe even its allies.
But Coot is just to dumb to realize that he was demanding if Cthillia was the type to warn of a trap to save him/them, he should have been asking if Cthillia was one of those Palpatine types…
I realize this is a huge flash-back to a time when Barack Oboma is President of the United States, but I get the feeling that Cooter is one of the people who ends up voting for Trump in the, then, upcoming election. That is if Coot survives the next few days, or maybe just hours.
If you go back to the first few pages of the comic, the parking sticker on Sydney’s car (in the windshield) designates the start of the story as May 2011. After that, The story flashes back “several months,” as Sydney’s thought balloon reveals. That would make this current part of the story in early 2011 or late 2010. Cooter would have to wait about 5 years before Trump would even announce his run for the President’s Office.
You get all kinds of shenanigans when IRL-time and comic time can’t match because drawing is slow.
Slow, but I think the quality of the illustrations and the story is really good.
I would really love to keep RL politics mostly out of reading this webcomic which I thoroughly enjoy.
THIS PLEASE
Dave is of much the same opinion, so I do not think you need fear that. Racism and sexism will be poked fun at, but I doubt that broader political issues will be dragged in.
Barack Obama only featured as a reminder that Dave is showing us ‘this world but with supers and other stuff as well’, rather than for a political purpose.
Should the story ever get five years on I would be interested to see who is sitting in the Oval Office mind. Simply because the emergence of supers, into the public eye, could very well change world dynamics. Let alone the actions of super-villains.
What if Deus has decided that being the leader-behind-the-throne, of a small country, is not enough, for example?
Yeah, despite my distaste for President Obama, I couldn’t fault DaveB for Sydney being impressed by being in the (tele)presence of the POTUS, regardless of her political affiliations. So I didn’t see that as particularly political. “It’s the President! The characters shall have a certain reverence!” is totally fine.
The telling thing would be whether the same reactions would occur or be considered “acceptable” if this comic were set when Trump is President.
That’s one opinion. I, on the other hand, would love to see Trump lampooned in any work of fiction.
I mean, it happens quite frequently on the news anyway, even when the newscasters aren’t trying to be funny (watch them trying to hide their contempt when Spicer tries to convince them that “The President and a small group of people know exactly what ‘covfefe’ means.”) but this president is just too funny and so very generous in providing material that it would be a shame to waste it.
Lol. Yea, I could see that there would be an angle that Dave could pull off successfully with this cast.
Not wisely mind. Dave has established that the comic is “pro girls in power” in the very name of the comic and its advertising. Likewise Anvil’s permanent position in the banner, plus her position as an officer and the presence of Jiggawatt, Ren and others, indicates that the comic will support that regardless of race.
Dave is managing to carry this narrowly-focused social commentary across the political divide, by being cautious to avoid the temptations you are dangling in front of him. We would not wish to get a negative readership covfefe, after all!
As soon as the supers are announced politics would diverge strongly from real life anyway.
i don’t know…
are the people portrayed by that stereotype smart enough to vote in their own best interest?
these are people that don’t think they use any social programs, and are against having them, while living on food stamps.
I am really not a fan of Dickens. But it is sad to see that the social attitudes, that he wrote against, are still alive and kicking today.
genuinely can’t tell if ur being critical of me or not… don’t want to admit to being an idiot…
so im just gona hang some bait, and hope someone else takes over. ;p
liberals voted trump.
free kekistan.
PEPE!!
So Cthillia is a starwars fan. So not all bad then.
Cooter is my spirit animal!
Cthilia is the best character in this comic by far.
Cthilla lies. She is quite tall and akbar (= big in arabic).
I was tracking that as a imperfect attempt at is great from “Allah(god) is great” in Arabic. Yes I would not get it right either as I don’t use the proper alphabet.
love those last two panels.