Grrl Power #128 – Introducing…
I hope I haven’t misjudged the pacing here by not sticking to the conversation from the previous page, but 1) I felt I was getting a little too deep in the weeds. Even though it’s fair to levy that criticism at most of the comic so far, I think I need to start becoming a better self editor and try and take a step back every once in a while and think about the pacing. I don’t think omitting Sydney’s condition breaks anything, ’cause of course it will be brought up at some point in the future. 2) People basically guessed what it was in the comments on the previous page. 3) I have so much story and so many jokes I want to get to, but I still have a bunch of stuff that I need to fit into the first day, otherwise some of it starts to make less sense as time goes on. Or I just chalk it up to Sydney being unobservant until the correct time I guess.
I really need to introduce the two guys in the middle panel at some point soon.
Be sure to check the updated vote incentive, now in dazzling Technicolor, with soft colored ink lines. I really like the way that looks, but it just adds too much time to make doing it on the comic pages practical. I’ll post once the Valentines Day Sex Drive version is up)
In the meantime, I’ve been reading Juniper, which is a little hard to describe. My Little Pony meets Workaholics with a dash of Adventure Time? But staring a dragon and a unicorn. That’s actually a terrible description, but the comic amuses me. It’s just getting started so you should be able to get caught up over a lunchbreak. Get in on the ground floor!
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Dabbler looks especially laid back, and recently laid, in her demeanor. I’d expect her to be an exhibitionist to.
LAID (O,o) What! who, when…noooooooo!
Given the reaction of the guy behind her I’m wondering what that hidden hand of hers is doing!
tl;dr
What’s the joke about Leon’s new shirt?
I don’t have a way to read the bar code thing
There were comments on this on the first page, including suggestions. Although it is possible that the code might just be a self-referential joke!
Is Maxima a fan of ice-breakers?
you’re right to be terrified!!! lol that made my day
Ok, I got a question. None of these super power types have loved ones they’re concerned about when they go ‘public’? The purpose of a secret identity is just as much, if not more, to protect them than it is to protect your personal life. I’m not just refering to physical threats either, their parents/siblings/cousins etc… are also going to be bombarded first by reporters, then by agents and/or advertisers, then even less savory folks.
Would YOU want to mess with someone knowing that if you do there would be an ENTIRE BRANCH OF THE MILITARY ready,able and probably willing to leave you a greasy smear over half of the western hemisphere?
Just because you have threat of power doesn’t mean bad people still don’t do stupid stuff after all they are bad people and tend not to either care or at least think through what will happen to themselves. Threat of force only works with people that are willing to think through their actions and what will happen to them if they fail in those actions. But the punishment for such actions should merit the crime and be applies equally across the society.
Yup, to steal a quote from Alfred: “Some men just like to see the world burn.”
pyro….. fire, fire, fire fire firefirefire hehehe he.
I don’t think it’s typically all that easy to find specific information on people related to military personnel? I mean, that takes work, and if you’re in the market to blow someone up, I’m not sure you care who you’re blowing up beyond “military personnel”. Well, unless you hold a grudge, but don’t those guys usually only get the one shot at most, unless they’re arrested/die before that?
That assumes awful lot of restraint on the part of the super-humans; any who has an actual personality rather then being a caricature is going to respond in the same way every human would (lawyer speak calls it “temporary insanity” as while we recognize the right of the government to deal death we pretend private citizens do not have such a right and yet we cannot judge them for reacting in the same way almost every human would)
How often do crooks target family members of organized crime leaders or petty dictators?
Although this does raise a problem of genre savvy, a stupid crook who read up too many comics could very well make the mistake of assuming unrealistic behavior from the superhumans
‘ahem” Suicide bombers.
Ok. I guess I should amend it to anyone with a trace of sanity and not blinded by zealotry.
Good catch.
You’re still left all the newspeople, publicity seekers, groupies, agents, con-artists, etc… that are likely to make their (the relatives’) lives miserable.
All of those fall under the “CRAZY-stupid” catagory”
If I was a reporter? Definitely.
Exactly. Plenty of ways to be perfectly legal and still annoying as all hell.
It just occurred to me that all of the men do not have the chokers the women do.
Far left, panel 1
only one
perhaps math is not a man?
lol
That’s mostly to do with chokers looking weird on wide necks that are stubby looking because of monster traps. They’ll have something for when they’re in the field though.
Whatever they are going to be, I kinda imagine a cybernetic like ear covering that also incorporates a visor for projection of data/info/images/replay and can record audio/visual and transmit it back to HQ as well as other team members. (There’s gotta be a Techie-super that looks like a dweeb in that woodpile of a mil-HQ, probably stolen err borrowed from another Govt program on the QT. Maybe one of Dabbler’s first friends- say his tech noise is what brought him to her attention?) —
So Sydney gets to name those things as Ear Muffins and Bacon! (cause the ear covers – also protect from noise attacks, bangs, Sydney’s cussing (as long as the cpu has heard it before- subject to a lot of stress and replacements. The DI (drill instructor) and Coach’s handbook of known cursing (w/sailor language addendum) just isn’t up to it. :P ) The ladies get chokers and have issue cyber-specs too, but the guys they get the ear muffin – bacon strip across the eyes device- their logo goes on that?) — just a suggestion if you haven’t come up with anything yet. Biscuits and Bacon maybe? The implied BOWL OF GRITS would be the male brains between the ear covers… :D
Now I’m just hungry with all that Bacon and Muffin talk.
Looks like Anvil’s wearing one though.
Anvil’s neck is dainty and ladylike! And don’t you forget it!
I’m sure that’s what Anvil would say on the threat of physical violence. :p
awwww, Sydney looks like she might be a little shy in the last panel. That I imagine will clear up very quickly.
For some reason, the third panel makes me think Sydney is expecting there to be another bullet in Maxima’s hand XD
1) what website or info is displayed in scannable form on that asian guy’s shirt? Just curious
2) ewww, those are the guy’s necks in panel 2? Somehow it’s too pronounced. Not a major distraction, moving on…
3) Dabbler is adorable when talking with her ears, LOL. Also if she’s later found to have been pickpocketing that guy with the black hair for the sheer prankness of it, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. Or perhaps filling his pockets with condoms, LOL — I guess any of dabbler’s arms could do that, and with an illusion power she could hide one real arm only and go unnoticed…. so often i’m not going to mention it at every 3 strips, lol.
4) Humor is not as punchy as usual, but that’s kinda necessary in an intro like that. A lot of little stares keep it interesting, lol.
3) i think she’s groping him, lol
subtle package check in progress for sure… Spinnerette another web heroine comic the hero has eight arms (maybe six) and lefty wanders a lot…led her from lusting from males to trying out a fem-fem relationship with one of her co-heros. Megamaid…
Six arms. Eight limbs. I mentioned eight arms, in a comment over on Spinnerette, a while back, and was picked up on it. Bottom-lefty is a fun character in its own right.
Spinns has 8 limbs (2 feet and 6 arms), BL only tries to moleste Spinns or (preferably) MM, and it was BL that gave Spinns the confidence/boost to ask MM out in the first place (after getting blotto first)
…..is Anvil a floating head?…i can’t tell
She is sitting on the sofa with her arm over the back of the furniture, which is facing away from our view. It is how you can get someone who is 6’7″ to fit in the same frame as someone who is 5″0′: Have the big lady sit.
Holy shit, I didn’t even notice Anvil until someone mentioned her, lol.
No it was a perfect switch over. Just don’t go back to her condition immediately after this, perhaps bring it about in the next chapter or something. Like if you view your comic in books, place it in the next book.
Judging by Sydney’s face in that last paneI, I get the feeling the team is going to get to observe one of Sydneys lesser known weaknesses. After facing direct sunlight and copious amounts of abs, shyness was about due to rear it’s head once more. Gee, I sure hope Sydney doesn’t get nervous talking in front of a bunch of people she hardly knows at best after being put on the spotlight, not while holding and demonstrating orbs with highly destructive powers in a room full of highly breakable and flammable objects and people!
Several of those people are not quite so breakable nor flammable (Max, Heatwave, Achilles, maybe Anvil). May I recommend the demonstration of the PPO down at the Air Force bombing range? Might be a good way to clear undetonated ordinance.
Oops, the demonstration of the PPO be down at an Air Force bombing range?
And aim it at Achilles
Preferably at a bit he does not mind loosing! The orbs are of unknown origin and at least one does have multiple related powers. The telepresence orb’s makers could have gone for night vision or some other regular visual enhancement. But instead chose to max out at truesight.
A regular improvement on a PPO would be armour piercing. Max it and you get invulnerability piercing!
Ooh, very good point. Sydney may be the one thing known in existance that can hurt Achilies. I’ll repeat that: This is a guy who gets bored of driving jeeps off of cargo plains into ammo dumps, and the one thing he has to fear on this or possibly any world may well be a pissed off tom boy! Yeah, whether Dave has decided to go that route or not it’s still fun to imagine that scenario.
I’m not sure if I’ve posted before but I have to say that
A.) I love your art
B.) I love your story
C.) I love your characters
D.) I love your jokes
in this comic. It’s vibrant, fun, a little serious at times and maybe a little over dramatic, but it’s not nearly so dour as all the superheroes you see today. They’re people, as varied as you or I. They’re that fun group of friends you had in high school if you were lucky that might not have always gotten along but had your back and joked around with you. The art is great and getting better all the time. The pacing, I’ll admit, is a little off but to be honest I actually like it. You’ve given these characters time to breathe, to bounce off each other, to introduce themselves in natural ways. Most of these people we know now and we like them because of that time. We’re now invested in even the people that have appeared for maybe two scenes.
So, thanks for the story so far!
Thanks a lot! I think the pacing would be better if I could knock 3 of these out a week, but in the meantime, I’m trying to work towards a good archive dive. (Though to be honest I haven’t gone back and re-read it all from the beginning in a while, so maybe there are bits that drag a little. Glad you’re enjoying it!
Mmm, pacing does not necessarily have to be about quantity of issues. It can be a matter of cutting out everything that is not essential to move on to the next scene. In traditional Hollywood thinking, that is.
So, by way of example, if a character is in a restaurant in New York one scene, and the dialogue indicates that “you will need to meet X in Paris”, then all it takes is a single establishing shot of an aircraft landing at an airport, with the Eiffel Tower in the background (ignoring whether you could see it in reality), and the next scene can proceed. The audience takes for granted that a taxi had to be called, customs passed through, etc etc.
Of course, anytime you do that, you then get numerous reader’s questions. “Did she tip the waitress?” “Why is she wearing a different outfit now?” “Did she go home to get changed on the way?” “What happened to her luggage?” To which the Hollywood answer, if any, would be “stuff happened, but nothing that impacted the plot – probably”.
Of course, it does not hurt to explore the details. You have a knack for finding entertainment there. But once that has been plumbed, you can skip over anything that either does not advance the plot, or provide interesting character insights/comedic potential.
Your characters have depth and will be interesting, even on that plane journey to Paris. But, if you feel the urge to pick up the pace yourself, then you can skip a heck of a lot of mundane stuff and still not loose the readers. Modern audiences have been conditioned that you skip to the next bit of action.
And, once there, the same exploration of character and interactions can be undertaken. Just with the backdrop of something dynamic occurring.
Of course, it is lovely to have a comic that does not feel the need to follow the conventions. Take us where you find interesting yourself. You have a growing, dedicated, readership for a reason after all!
Honestly I could probably do another 50 pages of first day meet the team stuff, but I’ve been antsy for a while to get to the next thing.
Honestly I could probably do another 50 pages of first day meet the team stuff and keep it choked full of jokes and fun character moments, but even I’ve been antsy for a while to get to the next thing.
I thought Groundhog day was February 2nd, not 12th.
I could watch that movie over and over and over.
Is Heatwave glaring at Sydney because of what she did to Mr Amorphous in the Bank?
Nice to see Blonde Harem, we don’t see her often enough
Most likely.
After it was explained to her that *was* Mr. Amorphous (using small words and a lot of patience).
She seems the hair-trigger jealous/protective type. Not a good trait when dating a superhero.
Check out “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” for extremes on that theme.
It seems to me that Heatwave has basically one facial expression, and depending on the context it can mean either, “I’m angry at you” or “I think I should be offended but I didn’t understand what you said” :D
Or a 3rd meaning:
“I’m still processing that last piece of input you told me.”
—
This could very well be her default “Learning/Student”-expression.
Just can’t look at the vote incentive without thinking “It will take the mortician hours to get the smile off my corpse.”
I’ve got it!
Sydney’s one condition should be that Maxima joins her RPG group/goes with her to a geek con.
It is more likely it involves her shop.
I like the fact that there was a bit of a break in the story to keep us reading =)
On a side note….holy crap that vote incentive looks AMAZING.
I just realized it’s totally unfair to say that Dabbler is and ADHD Genius. Those kinds of standards are those for ‘normal’ humans and even then a LOT of people are unfairly diagnosed when they just have different learning styles.
That being said if she’s ADHD by Alien-Succubus standards: It’s a fair cop.
I just wanted to add how much I liked Sydney’s facial expressions in the last two panels.
Thanks, I struggle with the expressions sometimes. It doesn’t help that sometimes the exact expression I’m thinking of is hard to google references for. “cautiously optimistic expression from slightly above” doesn’t yield good results. Actually all search engines kind of suck at getting specific things out of image searches.
I don’t know my friend, you could have skipped a really good and quirky punch line if you continued that conversation, you are the only one at this point who knows what her one condition was, we know it was accepted though. Because of that your lengthening out when we find out what what the one condition is and can use it to drive your readers insane…
Short drive, for some.
I’m fairly confident I could write another 50 pages of “meet the team” and keep it funny and interesting. It’s not for a lack of content, but at this point, anything I can put off for later I think I should. Since I’ve established that the press conference is looming, I think it’s ok to push some stuff to day 2.
And all I can think of is, “Isn’t Joel freaking out by now about where Sydney is?”
you have a very relevant point there.
It has been a while. But, he seems a chilled out guy. And Sydney did tell him in their mobile phone conversation
that “I don’t know when I’ll be back” and that she was expecting to be debriefed by a golden super hero. *
There is a good chance that he also knows, from the news, that she got flown off by that same hero. I agree that he must be getting worried by now… for the hero!
* Funny how she ended up being the one de-shirting Leon.
You’ve got me picturing Joel doing a spit-take over his can of soda as he discovers Sydney on the TV-News interview…
…perhaps this will be in response to the mystery of why there are suddenly HORDES of people mobbing the comic-shop…
…asking for Sydney…
…& wanting his autograph…?
(…he -IS- a “Celeb-By-Association”, since he knows her, & is therefore fair game…)
…& O!_M!_G! — the ANECDOTES he can tell to the “gossip-rags” about Sydney’s early days!!!?!
FINALLY! I have been waiting for a full rundown of her abilities for so long I thought it would be just a running joke, but now, Hope is restored!
DAVE!
Do you know about Emerald City Comic Con? It looks like Krazy Krow is going there. What about you?
And I’ve got good(?) idea you might like: hidden advertisement of comics within this comic. At the very least Spiderman has been mentioned. But for example panels with Sydney’s comic store in them could show cover pages of actual real comics. Page 5 shows Sydney reading YOUNG SUPERHEROINES IN LOVE. I didn’t find any match with Google, so I assume you took that title out of your hat. Wouldn’t some real superhero(ine) comic, like Spinnerette, been better there? With author’s permission, of course.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about ECCC, but I can’t justify the expense of going until I have something to sell. Until then, the only comic con I frequent is A-kon in Dallas, cause it’s 20 minutes from my house.
Young Superheroines in Love is just something I came up with to give Sydney a running title I can stick in her hands whenever I want. I’m not opposed to having her read a trade of another comic though.
This comic has been running for three years and we haven’t yet gotten through the exposition.
I just realized… DABBLER HAS TWO BELLY BUTTONS. O_O
Stop that line of thought right now! Stop it I said! Hey, bad… very bad! You have a naughty mind!
Hmmm…Four arms, expressively long & floppy ears, two belly buttons…Yeah, I think I could have fun with that. :D
David, you just made my day. I kept telling Carrie that Juniper would take off sooner or later. I had to email her about it. I bet she’s nerding out with Sarah in the corner right now over your praise. Thanks so much.
I love webcomics and I enjoy pointing people to the stuff I find online that I enjoy. Presumably if you like my comic you might like some of the things I get a kick out of. I found them from their GWS guest strip and I’ve been reading ever since.
I was just admiring the effectiveness of the manga anime style Dave uses for Sydney in this. Whereas the other characters get “classic superhero good looks”, they cannot hope to match the +20 cuteness Sydney gets!
Which I find strange, as fairly often a comic which shows that style strongly can turn me off completely. Some are ok, but others I find the artificial cuteness to sickening to bear. Compounded by the fact that I have come to really dislike any that follow the “read from the right rule”.
This isn’t from a dislike of the way other societies do things. There are lots of oriental things I love. But, if you mainly read regular western comics, and only have a few “back to front” ones, combined with an absent-minded memory, conversations keep not making sense, because you are reading them out of order.
Which then (bare with me… convoluted line of thought but it gets interesting) inspired me for a potential super-villainess! A character who gets momentary, if erratic, glimpses into the future. By living parts of her life backwards!
How this works would be as follows. The cute manga villainess experiences everything from right to left, on the page layout. But only in those panels she is actually in (or between those she appears in). So, using the above page layout as an example and substituting the villain for Sydney. Panel 1 and 2 proceed normally for her. She only appears in the first panel, so she experiences it at the same time as everyone else. Her power being fickle at that moment and is not working.
Whereas in the next line down, she appears in panels 3 and 5. So at this point her timeline jumps to panel 5 and flows in reverse, so she gets to see what happens in panel 4 before everyone else does in panel 3.
So, if the beefcakes in panel 4 drew their weapons and tried to fire on her, she could anticipate the attack and shout a warning, activate her defences or initiate an attack of her own. Which would likely confuse everyone else, as they have not yet seen the weapons being drawn! Being a villain, she attacks, of course.
Add to which the confusion that by the time everyone else is experiencing panel 5 (perhaps with unconscious thugs on the floor), the villainess would be really surprised at that fact, and she would be wondering “why everyone is looking armed and aggressive?” She has not yet taken any offensive action, in her timeline, and has no memory of the events in panels 3 and 4!
By panels 6 and 7, however her time line jumps forwards (whilst everyone else just plods along sequentially to panel 6) and she starts by experiencing panel 7. She now remembers all the events of panels 1 to 5 (the way she experienced them, anyhow) and is probably experienced enough to realise the complications of appearing to be the aggressor, from everyone else’s viewpoint. So, being a villain, would run for the exit, before anyone else has a chance to react.
Meaning panel 6 would have to be a split panel, with the others being surprised at the apparent vanishing of the villain, with many cries of “where did she go?”. Whereas she is by that stage in the elevator heading out of the building!
So rules for reading that comic would be. If villainess appears in more than one panel, on a row, read her events from right to left first (this is her home ground, she knows how to use her weird perception of time better than others, so she gets the initiative). Then read from left to right for everyone else.
Jiggawatt?
“I know what you’re thinking”…
but I don’t. I’m STILL wondering what those 3 in panel 4 are thinking, after that snippet :-}
Love the completed Harem vote incentive. The Playboy interview on it being hilarious! I think you have incentivised us enough to keep you in the top 3 from now on.
Can’t view the topless version (registered once years ago, but something went wrong and now won’t let me log back in :()
Click on the “forgot your password?” link, and they will send an email to the address you signed up under. If you still have access to that. If not, they have a help desk you can contact, if you have stuff on your account you want to keep.
Failing both of those options, it is free to register, so just sign up under another name.
Have only ever had one email, it’s still active (hopefully), just haven’t accessed it for about 6-7 years
i know its not gonna happen. but i`m ready to bet 5$(imaginary) that when sidney shows her shield, every power house of the team is gonna want to have a go at it ^_^.
I’m hoping alot more that when she mentions the PPO, achilles is going to want a feel. As in, be the target
I can’t scan the nerds T-shirt, unfair.
Tell us what it says…..
See comments about that on the first page. Including suggestions.
a little slow… I already forgot Sydney had said “on one condition.” When I read “I don’t think omitting Sydney’s condition breaks anything” my first thought was: WTF? Sydney’s pregnant??.
Others have commented about Dabbler’s upper left arm. I just wanted to say, I appreciate how the artwork makes it look like her upper left hand is facing the same way as the others, palm back. I went for rubbin her hand up the front of the guy’s right leg, since we can see she doesn’t have it over his crotch.
But given the expression, picking the pocket could work.
We haven’t been introduced to Muscles-buzzcut behind Dabblers right shoulder yet have we?
not sure if anyone said this and this is going to make me look like a complete weeaboo but, Sidney’s face totally is like one of those “right,sempai?” faces.
But what was her condition?
Sydney:
Good negotiator – check.
Forward planner – check.
Thinks of others – check.
“Hi, my name’s Sydney, and I have magic balls.”
“No.”
“I mean, my balls are magical.”
“That was worse.”