Grrl Power #101 – What else would you do with two invisible arms?
It’s almost like Dabbler wants to get into a fight with Maxima – which probably says a lot of things about her.
This page shows the lingering effects of Dabbler’s “lust aura” enhanced entrance. It’s an innate succubus ability which she has leveled up considerably, but she wasn’t pushing it very hard when she came in. On a scale of “Girl Lookit that Body” to “Insta-Orgy” this was about “6 Jello Shots.”
You’d think that Zeph would have some talent for resisting spells like this, or an enchantment or something, but then, maybe he has no particular reason to want to resist it.
A wild goatee appears!
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/facepalm
Dabbler is so gonna get her ass kicked in her next sparring session with Maxima…
Hmmm…. Zephan is supposed to have a goatee, isn’t he?
CONGRADULATIONS! That was a fast first spotting of a Grrl Power mistake.
Let’s see what else we can find?
I credit the handy-dandy “Who’s Who” box, letting me compare Zephans as soon as I realized something somewhere wasn’t right.
He’s looking a little young in this page, if you ask me.
It’s the lack of a beard. IMO, beards add at least 10 years to a man’s face.
Only adds one or two to mine.
Damnit, I thought he looked too young.
side effect of Dabbler’s “lust aura” removes goatees
She age shifted him so he’d be less wary. lol :D
Zephan used the New and Improved(c) DaveB(T) PAGE INSTA-SHAVE KIT(R)!
Smooth to the touch and remarkably close to the skin (without removing said skin) shaving is just as easy as clicking “next page!” This yet to be patented shaving system drastically cuts morning clean up time virtually in half! This is NOT sold in stores nor anywhere else in this or any universe! Act now and the first 150 callers will receive the Magic Make-over Kit absolutely free*!
*Magic Make-over Kit didn’t sell all that well due to “adverse” side effects. The Page Insta-Shave Kit has not been proven that it won’t remove skin nor cause dermatitis, syphilis, razor burn, heart burn and untoward flatulence. Furthermore, the makers of the Insta-Shave Kit and Magic Makeover kit do not warranty either product against: being dumped, theft of property by inter-dimensional being, fire (both accidental or purposeful) rampant spelling errors, character regressions in age, alien abduction, anal probes or loss of fine motor skills. No refunds, exchanges, or law suits allowed.
The General had a quick shave as well.
He shaved while no one was looking.
His goatee isn’t missing, he just suddenly decided to shave in the middle of the meeting, off panel. Probably due to the effects of Dabbler’s entrance, and trying to impress her!
So THAT’S what the sixth orb does. Everyone in the room has been shaved; you just don’t notice it on the women (until the stripping orb is activated).
No. No. You all got it wrong. Dabbler’s “succubus effect” has basically caused all facial hair on the romm to go into FULL reverse, that’s all.
Awesome strip, Dave. Hard to see how Dabbler will get out of this without Max belting her though a wall or something.
Zeph’s hair has changed quite a bit, too – his part has migrated, or perhaps “departed”…
The goatee has regenerated magically!
Looks like Harem is the only girl in the room considering having sex with Dabbler.
Well she is an experience junkie afterall.
Well no, they are all considering it, they are just trying not to, hence “Not a lesbian”. If they weren’t purposefully stating it, they would probably have their clothes off by now….
I am thinking that Harem’s though bubble should have 4 more symbols linked in, for Harem’s other 4 bodies. Hmm, next page, we see the drool coming from the red head who we last saw trying to get out from under Anvil.
Anvil: Okay, what just happened? (Tapping Harem’s head).
Five pink symbols surounding a blue symbol with two dashes instead of one. =
This indicates that she has four arms.
I love how everyone here has a coping mechanism for Dabbler’s aura… and then Harem just embraces it!
And Maximas ass it seems.
Are you sure she’s the only one? We don’t get a bubble for Maxima, just because you’re uptight doesn’t mean you aren’t LGBT. She just may feel it’s inappropriate for the setting.
(Been there, done that: I once ripped into a (female) coworker that was behaving inappropriately at work… despite the fact that if neither of us had been married (and I hadn’t known that she was STD positive) I would’ve been there faster than Harem.)
Love both of their expresions in the last pannel. Expecialy Dabblers.
She knows Maxima can’t respond because it might reveal that she has four arms to Sydney.
Thanks, that was a tough angle to draw. I had to resort to photo references finally.
Hey, whatever works. You do what you can to make this a great comic and don’t let your ego get in the way of improving the art.
You have photo reffrences of alien v super booty groping?
it’s all part and parcel in super hero comic book drawing class.
that and tentacles and how to use them
No shame in using photo references. The shame is in not using them when they would be useful. Just one of the tools of the trade.
Photo references are fine as long as it doesn’t stand out when you use them. They must blend. So far it is working here just fine.
References, not tracings. Ugh… some of the “professional” comic artists that just trace well-known magazine covers for their poses…. SIGH.
A reference should never be noticeable, since your hand is drawing the result un-aided. The reference is for the mind.
Perhaps it’s just me, but in the first panel, is the floating orb supposed to look like an over-sized nipple? Of course, I could be projecting my own desires but….
I was thinking it was a bit of subliminal advertizing thrown in to emphasize the Orgy-Aura that Dabbler is tossing around. Make it seem more like she’s nude without her actually BEING nude.
Funny Thing Is I Would Mind Fuck Her The Same Way.XD
Err. . . I’ll be in my bunk.
Do you realize how many people are probably reading this from there bunk?
***Makes sure no one hears the key board sounds from bunk***
BISMARCK!!! What are you doing in my bunk..And WHAT are you doing with my Dabbler plushie!!!!
Heh. Professionalism is still very much a work-in-progress for the team.
I guess shenanigans like these are to be expected when you have a very limited talent pool to draw from…
I like the difference between Harem and Sydney’s reactions in panel 1. :)
Time to update Dabbler’s “Notable Appearances” on her profile page.
Yeah I need to spend a weekend updating the cast page. At least.
Oh man, I love General Faulk’s must-not-screw-Dabbler mantra. I hope she knows to run away, right now though, she’s to much fun to wind up as a bloody smear on Maxima’s boot.
Ah no, I bet that Dabbler could at least hold her own in a fight with Maxima, and that is if she ONLY uses hand to hand. Dabbler has MANY other tricks.
I was wondering how she was addressing the other arms, she’s just making them invisible. All the better to grope Maxima with.
Maxima’s face in the last panel is just GENIUS!
I said it before, but this comic just makes Mondays for me!
I just noticed something, everyone except General Faulk has a Spock eyebrow going.
The general has something else rising.
Maxima is also eyebrow neutral, well, except for REALLY mad eyebrows post-invisigroping.
DaveB two questions.
1. What part of Dabbler did Maxima grab to pull her towards Sydney?
2. What are those two gold things under Dabbler as she’s getting pulled?
question 2: those are pieces of foam from sidney’s tube,,, if you look carefully you can see the tube there
Oh, the packing foam. Thanks.
For #1, I bet she grabbed Dabbler by the horn, although those ears stick out enough to get a hold of, but that would REALLY smart.
She scruffed her basically. You can see Max’s fingers on her shoulder in the last panel. Which is a bad place to have her hand if you decide to grope her.
I’d say more like fingers on her throat, which is even WORSE of a place for Maxima’s if you try to grope her. However I am surprised that there was confusion about the location Maxima grabbed Dabbler since to me it seemed a fairly straightforward grabbing of the back of Dabbler’s neck or head and aiming her at what Maxima wanted her to look at. Sort of like my dad used do to me a lot. And it is never comfortable or fun.
She might of been grabbing her shoulder, or maby one of her horns.
Hey! I just spotted mistake #2.
In pannel 6 where Maxima is moving Dabbler around he forgot to put in Maximas leggs.
They could be hidden behind Dabbler though.
General Faulk ´s phrase is the best one of all : “Keep the pen out of the company well ” ha so funny
By the way Zephan is missin his goatee
That line is showing DaveB’s age…
…I’ve not heard anyone (either real or fictional) use the General’s line in at least a decade!
Doesn’t make it any less funny, tho…
…nor less true.
BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!
Was the color change on her face markings intentional?
She did “dial down” the spell a bit. Maybe that changed the marking colours to pink to balance the loss of enchantment effect?
I did the markings on her face on an overlay layer. The color is a light blue, but I may have sampled the wrong shade (off her corset) for this page. We’ll just say they’re iridescent.
In that last Panel Max is about 1 palette shift away from being the Grinch!
Also how does a demonologist who doesn’t have the sense to ward off Succubi avoid becoming an appetizer with a tombstone? We don’t know for sure how this world works but usually they are less fun loving and more soul destroying than Dabbler.
The fact that Zeph and Xeriel have probably consulted on such things before. And possibly more, for all we know Xeph is the only human alive that knows how to use the succubus g-spot. :P
There’s a difference between acknowledging the attraction and losing control so far as to act on it. I’d guess that someone with Zephan’s experience would be very much used to recognising and staying on the right side of that line, and would therefore be rather more comfortable ‘playing close to the edge’ than most people.
not sure that was such a good move from dabbler when it happen maxima has her hand on the back and side of her neck,,,
i know how i would react in max’s place,,,,i would use similar medecine,,, meaning i would slap her ass,,, but with superspeed and strenght make sure to leave a nice big handprint,,, or maybe just use superspeed to slap her a few hundred times in less then a second
She’s using her other set of arms, wich are invisable at the moment. So she’s giving Maximas ass a tight SQUEEZE.
I kinda like the first responce better, Dabbler may get off too quick on the second one though
One problem with that: even at the speed/strength you’re thinking, more than likely Dabbler would enjoy it. She’s part succubus so she probably likes a bit of rough stuff. God knows there are normal women out there who do like it that way.
Not the right thing to do when you have someone superstrong’s HAND AT YOUR THROAT.
Genius aside, she may have not thought this entirely through.
I wonder if the lust aura is even effecting Maxima.
Believe me, there is a world of difference between Intelligence and Wisdom. Having a lot of smarts doesn’t necessarily mean you have any kind of impulse control. It just means that you can process and store information better than average. Knowing what to do with that information is another animal entirely.
That and remember, Dabbler’s hundreds of years older then Max. Remember the saying about age and treachery beating youth and strength
“Old age and treachery will beat youth and enthusiasm every time.”
I think that’s it.
I’ve heard it both ways.
dodgey joke waiting to happen, right there.
not that i can think of one off the top of my head.
Whwn you think of it, let us know, We’re not a Puritanical bunch here. =)
Intelligence is what you know, wisdom is knowing how to use it to the optimum with little or no mistakes.
DaveB, compliments for bringing up the succubus side of Dabbler since the last page. You didn’t just bring it up last time then shut it down in the capacity of a lampshade; instead, you used it to further define not just Dabbler’s main set of powers but her personality (and everyone else’s sexual orientation) as well. To exploit opportunity that way is the mark of a good writer. :-)
—
I’d like to present a theory: Max was just like Sydney prior to her empowerment. Or at least somewhat (if not completely, which is unlikely) similar to her in appearance.
1: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/479: “I, uh… used to be a nerd.” Of course, it would be too stereotypical is really did look and act like Sydney.
2. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/320: “Stupid boobs.” Why use a shoulder holster, which holds its gun in an area that requires a drawing motion uncomfortable for her? I think Max is simply *unused* to being well endowed, even to the point of selecting the “wrong” kind of gun sheath.
2.1. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/82: It’s not definitive, but it would seem that people having superpowers is a rather recent phenomenon. If so, it’s safe to assume Max got her powers only a short time before. This may account for why she picked the wrong kind of holster; she’s still not used to her superhuman chest measurement.
Putting it together, I suspect that Max was originally smaller, less buff and probably more like Sydney in physique and height. Maybe not quite as short or young-looking, but definitely not having the bust size she has now. Or, maybe she was just like Sydney, although taller and buffed up by the rigors of military training and action; she’s been in the Air Force since graduating high school, after all.
Of course, this implies that her empowerment made her the really sexy woman she is now, in the same vein that almost every superheroic character (except Sydney) is really physically attractive. (This is also emphasized by the side effect of Heatwave using her powers.)
—
Also- very nice art development since then. :-)
That makes alot of sense. I’ll look forward to seeing if you’re right.
As a well-endowed lady, and a pistol-packing mama, let me just say that a shoulder holster is not the “wrong holster.” Boobs get in the way no matter what. I curse them when they knock into a wall or when my neckline gets caught on a shopping cart, but that doesn’t mean I have the wrong bra on. I use shoulder holsters and bra holsters and they’re much more comfortable than a hip holster. Re-holstering, however, is a pain and generally requires some basic mammary shifting techniques (and in the case of one of my bra holster, bra removal). However, even with re-holstering being a pain, I’ll take the comfort and ease-of-draw of a shoulder or bra holster over a hip holster any day.
How do you get your neckline caught on a shopping basket? Reach down into it and come up with a button snagged on something? I only ask for potential comedic edification.
Must of been a scoop neckline on her blouse.
I was putting a bag of water softener pellets under the cart and misaligned myself and caught the edge of my neckline with the corner of the cart on the way up. That time was only a bra-show. However, I was getting out of my car once, clipped the corner of the door just right and it managed to break my bra strap and pull down my shirt at the same time… right in front of a police officer who was busy arresting a shoplifter in front of the store.
O_O…I assume you weren’t carrying at that particular moment.
Wow that sounds like something that might happen in a comic. :3
Though I can’t say I recall ever getting the inside of my shirt caught on the edge of a door though. Granted I don’t wear scooped necklines or anything but it must have been a 1 in 10,000 event. I’ve nailed myself in the shoulder a few times, right on the point. That’s always fun.
O.o
My brain just cracked and the thought that pops out after thinking about what Messenger says about how Maxima might have been a smaller/skinner geekette is…. “No she used to be a guy.”
Well that isn’t with out precedence (seldom seriously though, and mostly can change gender)
DC has/had (not sure after the most recent retcon) that was a girl who was perfectly human except she could turn into a super-hero form that was also a male.
the male to female super-powered transformation is more an anime thing; can’t remember the name of it, but one I saw not to long ago involved some pointless complex tournament where girls were given magic bracelets of different colors and talking stuffed animals whose intestines were hanging out, and were supposed to fight to the death against the other color bracelet teams; but were never told any reason why beyond being each others enemies. The girls would undergo transformations (bigger, stronger, faster, magic powers, ect…) a guy was dragged into this whole mess and he turned into a girl when he transformed.
That would be “Kampfer.” The rules of engagement in that anime really did seem as if they’d been set up by some sort of perverted cabal of renegade Watchers or Guardians of the Universe or something whose main goal was to incite as many super-powered catfights as possible.
Yeah that’s the one, the story they were told for why they are fighting sounded like BS given everything that was happening; after it was revealed who was actually behind everything I started to get a (Groom Battles) feel from this; like she was some cosmic being or just an alien using advanced technology to set up potential “mates” to fight each other so she could determine who was most worthy of her. She ended up falling for a boy, but she likes girls so she turned him into a girl; and clearly started to favor him during the fights (but only as a girl). Wish the show had gone on longer to see if I was right or not.
Huh. I wonder if anyone ever immensely regretted saying to Harem, “Go f*** yourself.”
I’d bet she would say” Just did! “
I wish I had time to do mini comics of this sort of stuff. Hmm…
Just do some chibli cartoons every once in a while. It will make good filler whenever you decide to publish a book.
Man, this really needs to update more than once a week if you’re going to include a cliffhanger (or at least a joke with an extended punchline) every single week. It’s starting to get annoying. We get the punchline and then the setup for next week each week and it kills me.
Well DaveB has a full time job, and dosn’t have any merchandising or donation adds on this webpage. Plus his job is teck based so he gets a decent paycheck. In other words he dosn’t have the time to make more than one a week and still keep up the quality of art at the same time.
Occasionaly he will make a thursday page, but he hasn’t done that in almost a year.
I was going to say something in the comic post but I didn’t want to make too big a deal out of it, but now that I’ve hit 100 pages I think I’m going to start experimenting a little bit. Notice this page only has 8 panels on it – I’m going to try and cut down on the panels/page where it makes sense. It will suck a little initially because in a way you guys are getting 3/4 of the content that you used to per week, but on the up side, overall the art should take a bit of a step up and it will free up a little bit of time on my end. I continually lament that the cast page is out of date and that I don’t have any merch or anything else relating to the comic done, because doing the comic takes all the time I have.
As it stands right now I have page 102 partially inked. I’m usually starting the penciling on Monday evenings, so I’m a bit ahead right now. This week I’m jamming ahead because I won’t have Thursday-Saturday to work on the comic because of upcoming conventions, but in the future it should mean a little more time to either work ahead (which will eventually result in an extra page/week on occasion) or time to work on some of the side stuff associated with the comic.
Of course I say that, but for all I know 4 pages from now I’ll come up with a page that just won’t work without 13 panels on it, but we’ll see.
I’m all in favor of getting more comics quicker, just remember not to push yourself too hard. I’ve seen a lot of webcomic artists try to push themselves harder in terms of art quality and/or update frequency, and end up burning themselves out and going on hiatus instead. In some cases they end up abandoning the comic altogether. The updates here do feel slow, and I really do want them faster, but I also want to be sure that I will continue to get them at all.
Don’t push yourself into an update speed that leaves you feeling exhausted and gives you no time to relax. Whatever pace you set for yourself has to be something you can put up with for however many years you plan on the comic lasting. So make sure your workload is something you can tolerate for a long time.
Seconded.
Quality over quantity is ok by me.
And be sure to spend a night or two taking care of that lovely wife of yours! Remember old saying: To get a wife, give her a gift every day. To keep a wife, give two!
This is my first comment.
Perhaps it has already been mentioned before, but is General Faulk modeled after actor Dan Hedaya?
https://vatzhol.perso.neuf.fr/img3/alien007.jpg
Yes. If you read the comments on the page where he first appeared you will find out a lot of what we have had to say about him.
Great picture by the way.
Ah, never mind.
I just took a closer look at archive comic #73
Yeah, it was the beetle-brow and five o’clock shadow that just screamed out who it was. I think it’s a fine choice.
The arms my be invisible but not unbreakable.
well her syber-arm might be. Alien tech and all that.
Oh Zephan…he got so worked up that his soul patch had to go take a cold shower.
That’s the term I was looking for. I was going to point out that Zephan’s beard isn’t a goatee, but I couldn’t remember the proper name for it. I just remembered that it was something monumentally stupid.
So, wait, let me get this strait. The succubus walks into the room and he instantly looses his “Soul” patch?
That actually makes a lot of sense…
you know well Succubui are chotic hornie all the time, it must realy frustarie Dabblier that she cant get into Max’s pants, whel else would she try so hard, well Maxima is lawfull so it knda figuers, but still must frustarate her a lot so she has to keep trying to do so.
Nice to see the invisible arms referenced.
and heh, Maxima is so flusstered, so she’s one of those burn it out types.
The important thing that we need to take away from this is that while Maxima may be super strong, her butt is super pliant to gentle pressure.
No seriously, I’ve always been imagining her skin and subcutaneous fat/muscle to have the firmness of metal, but this puts things into a different light.
Also – so, are the rest of Harem now turned on too, or just Gothy-Har? Cause I think there’s still one in the restroom somewhere…
Scratch that, it’s Punky-Har, but still.
remember, what one sees, all know. So it’s possible a couple of her are already in her bunk. ;)
omg i laughed SO HARD at max’s face in the last panel, so fucking epic XD
Just an observation and a suggestion: Maxima’s hand, in the fifth frame, looks undersized and pudgy, plus it looks more like she’s about to pick up a glass of water instead of forcefully grabbing someone who is really ticking her off. The hand could look more aggressive and claw-like; fingers spread much wider and curling forward.
I freely admit that I need to improve on hands. Especially when it comes to their size. In most panels the women especially have huge hands. The one you’re referring to took a few iterations, and could definitely look more dramatic.
when you make a fist your pinky finger pushes into the palm of your hand pushing flesh to the side wich makes your hand from a angle look pudgier thanit realy is. So I think he drew that one spot on. The one in pannel six makes mer fingers look reaky long though.
Adding a pointing hand to the end of an arm throws off my sense of proportion. Her hand is too big in that panel, and her arm is too short, making it look like her shoulder is cocked back.
Love the way everyone is coping, or trying too, with Dabbler’s supreme power. One that is just an expansion of Dabbler’s own pansexuality which is part and parcel of what a succubus is and does. I wonder how many missions Dabbler has turned into an orgy? (The enemy that is upon itself.) Harem has taken auto eroticism to a new level. (We can just imagine and we’ll keep it that way.)
Most of the people on the team (not necessarily in this room) or really, in every superhero comic, have pretty solid defense against physical attack, but virtually no one has any defense against emotional warfare, which is a succubi’s forte.
How many fingers does Dabbler have?
Looks like four on each hand. Check the cast page.
We need an entire week just to talk this through. Can you imagine having more than one a week? Too much, our present arrangement is enough. I like that even with Dabbler having her succubus power on Maxima still asks the question about the Orbs. But Dabbler gets the best line in the last panel at Maxima’s expense. “Danger, danger Sydney, danger, danger!” A fight could break out at any minute.
Why did I just have a mental image of a robot waving it’s arms?
*Waves arms around* ‘Danger! Danger Sydney Scoville! Danger! Danger!
(Doctor Smith pops up) “Quiet you babbling bucket of bolts!”
Do you actually have the series on tape or something? That’s exactly what Smith would say. *Thumbs up*
careful, Your AGE is showing ;)
Actually we had an independent T.V station that showed mostly old reruns when I was a kid. :P
Hey I watched that show, it played right after Star Trek when I was a kid, in the 70s.
Actually I am old enough to remember seeing the show when it debuted. And I refuse to talk about my Gilligans Island obsession. Suffice to say my mom got so pissed at me and my siblings tv addiction she literally CUT THE CORD. And didn’t allow tv till Nixon resigned.
My grandmother’s favorite episode of Gilligan’s Island was the one where a native from another island washed up on their beach. The guy playing him was a Lakota actor and rather than speak the gibberish “islander language” they made up for him he spoke Lakota the whole episode. Since no one on the show staff knew what he was saying he was commenting on stuff happening off camera the whole time. Grandma would just loose it laughing every time she saw the episode. BTW, just so you guys know what I am talking about. Lakota is better known (if inaccurately) as Sioux.
A lot of TV stations that are just starting up indipendently play a lot of old shows to save $$$.
I for one love it, you get to see the great old shows that were out before you were born and would have never would of heard of unless the TV exeutives were trying to save money.
I remember when I was a kid one of the stations would play Speed Racer, and both versions of Voltron every weekday, and on Saturday would play old sixties and seventies anime from Japan because it was cheaper than American cartoons.
i just love how the general phrased it.
Dabbler’s remark about Max boobs size seems to indicated that Maxima had small breasts before her empowerment and that she did gloat at least once.
The invisible grope show the limitations of Dabbler glamour: like what you did while drawing DaveB, it is an illusory optical layer set upon the real form.
I like the fact that Dabbler conserve her fangs: it gives her a real predatory look. Hum… perhaps you should have one of the characters make a joke about eating?
I find also interesting that it is Dabbler who is called to analyze the orbs.
If Harem is looking at Dabbler and thinking lesbian thoughts shouldn’t the female/ female symbol look like a key chain?
Remember “5 bodies, one mind”.
And all of them perverts?
Depends on your definition of pervert. If it follows Christian teaching than any sexual act not involving strict reproduction, and not sanctioned by marriage makes it a perversion an that is a long list.
Comes from being founded by a group that thought the British were too free-wheeling. ;)
That was before the Victorian Era. Before that the British were very freewheeling. How do you think a good part of the world speeks English? They went everywhere there was to go freewheeling all over the place.
I think you might be mixing up the Brits with the Spaniards LoL
all that English has more to do with the British Empire and trade relations with Great Britain and North America. All the spanish speaking countries have alot to do with conquering and screwing all the locals LoL.
Or both, its why so many European languages are all over the Earth, conquer, trade, enslave, molest.
I think the reference was to the Pilgrims or Puritans who were probably the most uptight social group this country has ever seen.
“The Puritans. Our ancestors. People so uptight the English kicked them out!”- Robin Williams.
The Victorians weren’t nearly so uptight as the Puritans. Victorians had secret porno stashes and clothing designs definetly meant for their sexual appetites, but at the same time gave the illussion of being fully clothed and proper. The Victorians were repressed, the Puritans were downright hostile to their own genitals.
Now I want to see Dabbler and Math get together. :) Who would back down first?
…Back… down? I wonder if either would.
More like who would lay down first.
The way Dabbler is drawn in panel 4 reminded me of something about the art in this comic that’s been bugging me for a while.
In a nutshell, the artist tends to draw female characters opening their mouths unnaturally wide when they speak. It wouldn’t be particular obvious, except that he also consistently draws them as though they have a light shining directly into their mouths – their teeth and tongues are always fully and uniformly illuminated all the way to the backs of their mouths, often just as brightly as the rest of their faces. The overall effect is to make it look like female characters are frequently sticking their tongues out as the speak.
Once I noticed it, I couldn’t unsee it, and it’s downright distracting.
Comic Art is not representational Art reality is just a small part of the whole.
Actually the way I do the mouths is I flat color the tongue, then use a burn tool to darken up the back of the tongue, then flat color the inside of the mouth with a dark red, and use the same burn tool in the back. I guess I hadn’t thought about it, but I do sort of only have one mouth position for speaking, which is the slightly open but maybe too open position that it is in panel 4. I never considered drawing mouths to look like they’re mid “oo” or “ee” or something. I’ll have to play with that but I suspect it might be a bit distracting.
I’m not seeing what you’re pointing out. As a matter of fact, the only time any of the characters mouths are open wide is when they’re yelling, which is normal art style for a comic.
I’ve never really drawn characters in mid speaking and I would think it would be awkward no matter how you have done it. Look at freeze frames from any live action show or even cartoon. American and Canadian cartoons do the right kind of mouth movements so that if you could read lips you would know what they are saying with the sound muted. Don’t be so overly sensitive.
Which makes them a pain to dub in other languages with out looking funny. Other countries like Japan have started to do it too; but some dubbing companies will edit mouth movement frames to fit words better (not all, only some) its better than changing the script to try and match the mouth movements and still be dubbed (that never turns out right).
for a comic, generic mouth open, mouth closed, mouth wide or mouth partially opened, is best to help illustrate they are speaking giving all the text in a word balloon and save other facial expressions for extended noises and events.
Loved the internal dialog used here. Been following the progress of our dear Sydney for the last couple months. The archive was a great time. Thank you very much David for making such an awesome read.
Thanks! And you’re welcome.