Grrl Power #151 – Cutting an interview short is easy when you can fly
Just a bit of montage here, which I don’t like doing since it doesn’t leave you guys quite as much to chat about. I wrote an introduction for Anvil, but it turned into a whole page of material. I feel bad for cutting it because Anvil hasn’t had enough screen time yet in my estimation, but while it was stuff that helped flesh her out, it’s not like I can’t sprinkle it in later.
That press pit would look a lot more convincing if I had the time to sprinkle in a bunch of press vans all over the lawn there but you know what they say, there’s perfect, and there’s done.
Oh, and after I had finished coloring Max’s hair in panel 2, my wife pointed out to me that keeping your hair in a bun that tight requires about a thousand bobby pins, which would be doubly the case for Max as her hair is a bit slipperier than regular hair, but… oh well, maybe Dabbler gave her a magic scrunchy.
I also had a longer interview for Maxima originally as well, but this is one of the times where I think the rule of funny wouldn’t have worked. Basically some “National Enquirer” type journalist stands up and asks Max what her measurements are, and her response was to ask what his are, which devolves into a “Whip it out, let’s all have a look.” taunting and in one version of the scene she even wades out into the reporters and tears the guy’s pants off, sending him flipping into the air. In my head that’s totally in character for her, but… probably not the sort of thing that you get away with if you’re active duty and in your dress… aubergines (what did we decide was the coolest name for dark purple?) and on camera. Really the whole press conference was a lot more rowdy, but that was before I had thought through the consequences of them being a military organization. I know any of you guys reading who were actually in the military probably think Archon is laughably undisciplined, but believe me some of the stuff that’s getting left on the cutting room floor made them look like a WWE match gone off script.
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That reminds me, I need to find my Kilt. Highland Festival coming up soon. The McLaws Clan Doesn’t have their own tartan, But we use the Campbell Clan’s one, since our clan were serfs of the Campbell’s for quite a while.
As grampa used to say: ” Never laugh at guys in skirts… It could get you kilt.“
The pun! It hurts!
He could almost kilt you with that one.
Hmmm…Now I’m hungry for fish & tartan sauce.
I think this joke is well and truly plaid out.
Never underestimate the tartan, of the plaid side.
Irish you wouldn’t be so negative, because I scots more of ’em!
owwww, oh gods I don’t know if I’m gonna bust a gut or die from how bad these puns are
I’m impressed. You’ve really raised the bar with that.
As a military person, I think you did an excellent job conveying what I would expect a professional to do (either male or female). Max is a professional, she has her beliefs, but she also knows the proper forum to debate them in. She is currently the representative of an organization which is lobbying for respect and acceptance. She knows that no matter her personal feelings, she is part of a larger body and is responsible for its image. Bravo, I am extremely pleased with your decision. Also, your wife is definitely correct, add in about a half-can of super hairspray and you can make yourself a hair helmet.
Thanks! I generally live by the rule of funny, but of course if it’s a circus all the time then the funny can start to feel like white noise.
That dictum works the same with action and weirdness. You want to have stretches of other stuff going on and to keep everything else normal and natural.
need to make alternate comic strips for adding the impulse gags.
even if they are left without colour, at least they will be seen.
what is cannon and not will allow this comic to continue unhindered while we get good humour and better insight into the characters…
i will stop this turning into a monologue here.
Well if you’ve already drawn them, they’d be fine for vote incentives.
And a hair-net when the hairspray won’t stick/hold to your hair. Which is when short haircuts become infinitely more likely. My hair used to be so bad we’d glue it in place with 3 parts elmers glue and a part of conditioner in place of the 2 tubs of expensive hair cement just to keep it neatly in the bun. After that stopped working alone we started stretching the foot of nylons over it and gluing that to the scrunchie. And that was just for the one year of cadets I went through.
I had to put that much work into my hair I’d probably just cut it.
New on Botchamania, it’s Grrl Power!
Iron Sheik: “Facking bullshit!”
Man, I thought I was the only one left alive who remembers the Iron Sheik! XD
He was the best “Man you love to hate” in all of wrestling.
I would so buy an audio book about his life if he reads it. Yes I will. I won’t understand a word of it, but I would enjoy the whole thing all the same.
I remember AWA Wrestling so there! =P
Most of these people are civilians that signed on. I would expect a little lack of discipline. Keep the military side disciplined and strict, but don’t be afraid to have the civilians be silly.
FYI, I’ve been spreading this comic left and right to anyone I think might be even remotely interested, simply because of how hilarious it is. When I first saw its ranking on topwebcomics, I was, initially, rather dubious.
Me: “A comic with that name being that popular? Hrm… Oh what the hell. I’ll trying almost anything once. I’ll probably end up dropping it after a few pages/chapters though…”
*gets 5 pages into it*
“…Holy crap this is actually awesome!”
I therefore feel I must impress the following adage into all the disbelievers — NEVER judge a comic by its name.
Thanks! I know the name can be a little off putting, I’m sure some people who see it think it might be full of characters being obnoxious using words like “manocracy” and “herstory” and basically being unironic versions of the Futurama Feministas – but you know, Superheroines / Girls with powers. Makes sense to me and you gotta call it something. :)
I felt the same way too to be honest. “Grrl Power? Oh no. Probably written by a feminist that’s confused Equal Rights with Putting Men in their Place.” But I gave it a chance. After seeing that RPG session that didn’t break down into a rant against men, I kept going, happy to see a super hero character that isn’t stacked so much she’s her own flotation device.
Ladies, don’t get me wrong, I believe in equal rights. You should be paid just as much as us, and you deserve full equal standing. I feel the same way about all minorities. But it get’s disconcerting to be told you’re a man, you don’t matter. I was just glad the comic went the way it did and even the feminist character is 3D, actually likable, and not ranting about men all the time. You know, like an actual even keeled feminist!
That should be read as I feel that way about all minorities as well. Not all minorities period. Women are not the minority by a long shot. :P
As awful as it is to think about, I believe that with India and China’s female infanticide rates, women are actually a minority globally now, which is crazy considering that it’s mostly men that get killed in wars.
Actually, whether or not the bobby pins are a requirement depends on how thick your hair is and whether or not you have bangs, along with a few other factors. I have super-fine blond hair, and wore my hair in that bun nearly every day for over four years, without bobby pins or hair-spray. It looks fine as long as it was pulled back recently – as Max would have done right before the press conference – but it can start to get a bit wispy and fly-away after a while.
I doubt she would have pulled her hair out of the while leaving the press conference, though,* and I would expect her to have hair bands capable of keeping most of it in check while flying in uniform. (*At least until she was out of sight – I assume you’re changing her uniform for the live fire demo?)
Yeah, those dress uniform may look nice but all the stuff on the front is a pain to draw. I finally just cut out the ribbon board from some images I googled and pasted them on if the panel is small enough.
Personally, I find that a couple of plastic hairpins hold hair in place better than a dozen metal ones. I haven’t really tried bobby pins on a bun. I mostly use ’em to secure loose ends of yarn.
Interesting sidefactoid: the guy who put those wavy bits into bobby-pins was a local* guy, sad bit is that the City Council is letting his beautiful old house fall to ruins because it’s an official Heritage House (they won’t even let the owners do repairs)
*By local, meaning he came from little ole’ Invercargill (that’s in Southland, New Zealand), same place as the World’s Fastest Indian :D
I thought the point of preservation is to keep it standing. Seems they want it to fall to ruin by not maintaining it.
The City Council likes pulling down the old buildings in the name of ‘Earthquake Risk Prevention’, and then replacing them with buildings that can’t handle a minor earthquake hundreds of kilometres away, or letting Historic Buildings rot away because of ‘preserving the heritage’
Frankly if it is indeed a heritage house and their doing that their violating country rules for historical landmarks and leaving themselves open for lawsuits and other such situation, but then nobody claimed that government figures were actually intelligent
Probably answered already but, Why is Harem not in uniform?
It is an official press event, the First time out even. She could have worn the uniform at least one time for this event, even if she never did again. Is that too much to ask Harem? Just this one time at the very least.
I though she IS in uniform – at least one-fifth of her.
Yes, somewhere Max mentions that the deal was that only one of her *had* to stay in uniform when on duty. And it looks a bit more impressive if the one that teleports in is wearing something different.
She’s in uniform in panel 7
Notice is is a regular shirt too, no navel showing as she likes to dress like Maxima in uniform.
Maxi probably threaten to use a staple gun if she ever saw a navel when in uniform :P (it’s also why she never eats oranges while in uniform ;))
I can see where you were going with it, but the last three panels seem like they are from a different page and were added by mistake, the joke isn’t very funny without any prompt or lead in, especially with the largely random panel of anvil. Great work on the conference so far otherwise, just odd page end.
Yeah it’s kind of the first montage I’ve done. There’s probably a way to do it better, but it let me skip at least a page, probably two, and I’m eager to move on to other stuff, once I get a little bit more of this out of the way.
Maybe you could have left out the frame with Anvil and added a frame with Suzi not paying attention because she’s watching Hiro. That way the joke is obvious that Harem is picking on her for cheap laughs, and maybe a bit of jealousy.
Why would Harem show jealousy because some total random reporter liked looking at Hiro?
Because Hiro is getting all the attention.
Just been looking at the page again, seeing details I missed before. Love the fright-spikes on Pinky’s shoulders. And what are those swirly effects around Hiro?
Oh wait, they’re visible in other panels too. Must be just stucco flaking off the wall. Damn, I thought I’d picked up a hint of Hiro’s powers.
Yup, it is clearer in previous pages, where the edge of the wall is visible.
The talk about Achilles made me think of another way he could be useful. If there was a hostage situation that went on for hours and the bad guys request food, Achilles could be the one picked to deliver it. He would say ‘Just to prove it is safe, will test it”. He downs a cup-full of the drugs/poison, has no reaction, and passes it on to the bad guys.
Also, in the demonstration I want to see a fastball special with Max throwing him THROUGH a tank.
Agreed.
Although just to make it fun, you could have a tank and then he gets his arse bounced back through it by Sydney’s shield
Have to commend Pinkey and Suzy in the last panels: both of their sets of eyes are on Punks’ face :D
Oops! No, not Punk, Goth (Punk is the one in proper uniform peeking out from under Goth’s left arm {no, your other left})
I have a question for you Dave: it just stroke me, but isn’t Math actually the Grrl version of Joukyuu? It kinda struck me when I read somewhere that you were reading Aiki…
Kinda yeah. I had been reading AIKI when he debuted, so he probably borrows a little too heavily from Joukyuu. He’ll distinguish himself eventually though. Actually, he had always been a character of mine, and was primarily influenced by a character in the Appleseed manga, who I don’t think made it into either of the movies. He looked rather a lot like Guile with white spiky hair as I recall. I don’t even remember his name, he just showed up once or twice and was a stone cold badass.
I’m the one who made the most criticism of your comic overall — I’m still reading. Notice how silent I am these days? It’s not because I’m not reading — the comic keeps getting better. (-;
I for one see criticism as a good thing. The “don’t like it don’t read it” argument just fails in so many ways. Constructive criticism is one of the best things to happen to a creator as long as it’s constructive. An outsider’s view of what works and what doesn’t is a great way to sharpen one’s skills. A person that thinks they’re above criticism should just find something else to do because they’ll never grow more.
here we get the drooling from the female reporters over Hiro… wait till Dabbler shows up for her introduction… i’m sure that she won’t be able to resist showing off (showing up every else’s intro) that EVERYONE will definitely be paying attention to her even AFTER her intro is over… so much so, I’ll bet nobody even pays attention to Sydney after that!…
Hmm.. maybe that’s Ariana’s plan after all? distract the public away from the possible conspiracy/ploy during the bank robbery? (even though “we” know it wasn’t, at least concerning Sydney, anyway…) and what better way to do that, than have the media totally ignore Sydney? i’ll bet the camera guys, and all the reporters will be staring/filming Dabbler until she walks off stage and just bypassing the fact there is one more member of the team up there doing her intro…
Yeah, and you think Sydney won’t make some overthetop attempt at having attention turned back to her? Do you want the Censor Person to have a nervous breakdown/terminal Repetitive Strain Injury? O_o
Now there’s a question – will Dabbler’s glamour survive being caught on camera? I assume it will have to be and that she wouldn’t make such a rookie mistake, but I got the impression it’s a mental trick not actually about manipulating the light around her. Otherwise how could Sydney see through it without everyone else seeing it too? (Other than “because magic”).
Maybe succubi are so good at it they can trick CCDs into recording the wrong image just as they trick the eye into seeing something different? Just a thought.
Succubus illusions are really powerful. The cameras are recording a purple four armed alien. But they are also capturing the subliminal message which says “this is just a perfectly normal, if very pretty, human woman”. Anyone replaying a recorded version will be subjected to the subliminal message too, and just see her human image. Any computer analysis of the footage though will produce some very strange results.
Starts to get tricky when you think too hard about it. I can’t think of a better way than for Dabbler to have adapted her glamour to also trick digital cameras into recording her ‘human’ shape. Anything else seems like it would fall apart all too easily. I wonder if she bothered to make it work with film cameras too, given how few of them there are around these days. Maybe they’d show the true image like the comm-ball did.
Illusions could work lots of different ways. Fooling the mind, the eye, memory, manipulating light itself or various combinations. I am pretty sure whichever one(s) Dabbler is opting for at the moment she will have her bases covered.
I don’t think we’ve ever seen the colonel with her hair up before, but are her ears supposed to be pointed, or is it just a trick of the perspective? She kind of looks like she has elf ears.
No, she has had the elf-ears for as long as she has been the Golden One
The problem with having elf ears is that elves will often stop at nothing to get them back.
Hey, got these ears fair and square (well, bloody and messy if you want to get technical)
I think that Halo is pretty.
+1 thumbs up.
Uff. Silky hair. Maxima has my empathy. I inherited the fine, silky hair from my Scandinavian side, and it tends to be rather annoying. Plastic barrettes tend to slide right out, as do bobby pins. Don’t get me wrong, it feels wonderful (especially right after brushing it), it’s just hard to style. These days, if I want my hair in a bun, I tend to use a snood. :)
meh. I can do bun-hair with one hair tie. I have somewhat slippery hair.
It lasts about half a day and then it falls out but….