Grrl Power #105 – Superfluous semantics
Boy that center panel is a mess. The problem I’ve created for myself is that I have a scene with 7 people in it (8 as of next page really) and they’re on opposite sides of the room from each other and most of the conversations cross the room. So now in order to draw a conversation, I have to either have a dozen back and forth headshots of each person speaking their side of the conversation, or I have to draw multiple side-on long shots of the room with everyone in it and fill the space between with word balloons.
I’m almost tempted to try and sell my one big panel with the clockwise progression of the conversation as actually being a clever solution to the problem. On top of all that, this is the heavily edited version of what I had originally written, but I realized that if I hadn’t edited it, it would have been at least another page before I got back to our overcoated interloper, and that would probably be worse storytelling than making you guys slog through one messy panel. All the jokes I had to edit out get to ferment in the margins for a bit, I’ll find somewhere to stick them back in.
It’s not a bad page – Sydney acts nutty, we see a little back and forth between her and Dabbler / Dabbler and Max. It’s just a lot crammed into the available space. Sequential storytelling is an artform unto itself, and I’m still learning. Well the good news is I think this scene is going to wrap up soon. It’s gone on longer than the bank I think.
Oh and I guess Arianna fixed the drape. Also, assume Sydney is pacing around while she’s trying to remember stuff. Otherwise the blocking makes no sense. Gah. Still learning.
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The weird thing about this scene is it reminds me of some conversations I’ve had in real life.
You know someone who looks like an irritated cat? (Dabbler in panel 1) =)
Truesight. That’s way past only having telepresence. Sydney’s suite of powers really makes her a powerful jack-of-all-trades.
And the previously stealthed dude is supposed to be there, based on everyone’s (lack of) reaction to him.
I think only Sydney can see him.
Arg. You’re right. I’m looking at the center panel: he should already be there, but he’s not. He’s still cloaked.
We haven’t seen any reaction yet. Since it looks like he’s just being decloaced now (look at the blur at his head and his right hand), we might still get an “intruder alert” or something. ;-)
if you compare the blur to the panel, in wich syd saw through dabblers glamour it seems more like the area of truesight is limited to a circle right in front of syd. so i guess, no one else has detected that guy.
That would be my guess too. It’s very possible Syd is the only one who sees him and that’s why he is not reacting to being uncovered, because he thinks if he doesn’t drop his cloak the others will just assume Syd is nuts.
The joke will be on him though, Syd is nuts but she also is armed with a tentacle orb that could trap and hold him while she works on getting the others to hear her out.
She doesn’t need to grab him. She just needs to snatch the hat as proof.
Ha! I think the fedora would look better on Syd than Maxima’s hat.
And of course, donning said fedora would instantly throw Sydney into Private Investigator mode as she works to prove the existance of the strange invisible man. . .Okay honestly I just think it’d be funny to see Sydney try and be all “Super Sleuth” and stating the obvious as it wasn’t common sense. “Now, as you all can see, on the top of my head is a fedora. A fedora is a kind of hat. This particular hat was not visible a moment ago, and hats do not appear out of nowhere. No, hats go ON this, namely peoples HEADS! Barring VERY alarming circumstances, heads are usually attatched to necks which are in turn attatched to bodies. Thus, as I have managed to make this hat visible by pulling it away from a certain area, there must be a head with a body and therefore a person at that same location. And as he can’t be seen, he must be invi. . .”
“Um, Sydney? You had us convinced when you pulled a stylish fedora seemingly out of nowhere.”
Sydney “Oh…well…Right, guess that does make sense. kind of kills my fun though. Can I still keep the hat?”
Sorry “as IF it wasn’t common sense”. Aaaaaand once again I”ve gone and left a comment that was completely and unnesseccarily long. Sorry again.
Actually I got a good giggle out of Syd’s “P.I. Reveal”
Nothing wrong with long comments, particularly if they’re setting a scene as amusing as this one.
Yup. Notice that Sydney has to re-grab the telepresence orb before she can see the “ninja” again.
That’s why he wasn’t visible in panel 3.
Dabbler dropped her glamor after she realized it had been seen through anyways, which is why Dabbler looked like herself to everyone else too.
Well it does beg the question on how Dabbler’s glamor was anchored, if we are going by it was an advanced form of Beholder’s Beauty, based on what Sydney would expect to see as beauty and Dabbler then projected that for everyone to see; we have to ask if she can retain that projection if the host of the image (Sydney) can see through her disguise, or if Dabbler re-anchors the projection to herself when she projects it for others to see.
“He” ?
I think the gender (and even the species) of Mystery Person is still very much ‘Yet To Be Determined’. Full facemask, broad-brimmed hat and heavy trenchcoat – literally could be anyone or anything under all that.
Doesn’t seem bothered about getting “outed” bu Sydney, I note.
I think the “ninja” has not realized that Sydney is talking about him yet. (Assuming male from here on just to make the pronouns easier) Seeing nothing in front of him, he turns around to see what she is seeing and then realizes it is him. But that stealth suit was supposed to render him completely invisible! She can’t be pointing at him! So he quietly move to his right to get a better idea of what is going on and she keeps pointing at him as he moves. Oh, nuts! Covers blown, at least to her, so time to make an escape.
This gets followed by super-speed Max getting directions from Sydney and clobbering the mystery “man”. Once more with the Scooby-style reveal.
Ha ha! That would be funny as all hell! I can totaly see that happening. But then again he may quickly expect that possibilty given the reveal of Sydney’s “true sight”.
Masked guy: *jedi mind trick* “You do not see me”
Sydney: “I do so ^$%&^%&*^ see you now stop that shit or i’ll blast you”
I could see her saying: “Hey Doucheknuckle! Olly-Olly-all-in-free!”
Either that, or:
Mask: [Jedi Mind Trick] I am not the one you’re looking for.
[Sydney replicates Darth Vader’s Force Choke, with a bit of help from the Tentacle Orb]
“Your faith in your invisibility is yours.”
This page is hilarious!
Also, Zephan’s glasses have vanished. :)
He took them off to clan them in a “Did I see what I think I saw?” moment.
Dude, don’t make excuses when you should be giving the man credit for being the first to spot one of Dave’s easter eggs.
Not an excuse just humor which you missed. Not your fault my humor is a little odd not many get it but I amuse myself.
… Easter egg?… of course! xD That is exactely what happened! :) Good spot sir! *Disclaimer: I’m not saying they’re are not supposed to be there or not not supposed to be there… if that makes any sense to you, cause it doesn’t to me*
…& now the glasses are restored!
:)
Ah, The Inter-Sprockets…
…the World’s largest supply of FREE proofreaders!
:P
:)
Isn’t that why we all come here?
**Looks for adamas***
*Drops on Bismarck’s head* Heyo!! *Hands him a “Dabbler/Beholder” plushie and runs off*
So, time to place bets: Is the stealthed guy legit, like a bodyguard or something, a spy from some kind of rival (criminal?) organization – or just another nosy meta-human snooping where they don’t belong?
I’m going with the rival organization theory, though in that case it’s likely to remain a mystery for now…
My bet is spy for NSA.
They have the largest budget of all the spy agencies. five times that of the CIA last I recall. So can afford things like cloaking feilds that can hide from Dabbler’s, Zoeng’s, and probably quite a few others spellware.
NSA have field agents? I thought they just digested what the other agencies bring home? (\And they run a book-club too!)
Biggest Spy agency the US has, and you think they don’t have feild opratives?
NSA just knows how to REALY spy on people, unlike the CIA they operate on the concept of the best way to spy on someone is if they don’t even know your being watched.
To stop a bombing they don’t break down doors and arrest them, they change the explosives so they don’t blow up, and then snatch them. Like Profeshonal spies.
I’ll just repeat my guess from Pg.103:
What if Gwen is using “BLOPS”-tech to sneak back in & snoop on the new girl?
[Pg.82]: She was *really* hoping to be part of the interview, after all.
OK I see why the telapresence orb has a wavy line above it. It’s droping down so Sydney can grab it.
took me a minute too lol, kind of epic just the way she grabs it
General Faulk is probly going to give Maxima a dressing down once this interview is over.
So far she’s been acting pretty erratic, and not like an officer should in front of the troops and more importantly in front of civilians.
He might run a loose ship, but you have to show some disipline or they run right over you.
He’s no doubt searching for a way to make her understand:
“You’re ticked-off about their insubordinate lack of discipline, but you need to realize that you encourage this behavior by flying off the handle so easily. Dabbler in particular seems to enjoy playing the game of ‘Baiting-The-Bull’, because you seem so eager to play along. Harem acts like this is something YOU started, so perhaps this is something that the 2 of you might hash out in a private, non-heated conversation – instead of a juvenile prank-war. Just try to remember – an Authority that is respect-worthy is not imposed by brute force…
…especially not in a group of high-powered non-expendables who are fully aware of their own value. Brawling makes you one of them, whereas you need to set a better, higher standard to which they can aspire. Are we clear, Colonel?”
This is good. I don’t know that I want to hold up the story with a page of Maxima getting a speech like this though. We’ll see where it goes. I mean, I know where it’s going, but I don’t have every page written between here and there.
I’m honored, Good Sir.
I agree that it’s just too verbose for the comic itself, but it’s still good to try putting it out here, in the scrutiny of other fans. The resulting feedback helps me to gauge just how off-base my ‘read’ on the characters might-or-might-not be. Or at least how closely it aligns to the majority’s consensus.
Brainstorming idea: You could have Maxima getting dressed down in the next room from a different scene, and “leak out” tidbits (partial quotes) of the dressing down speech as background, then post the text as an extra; or even draw the scene as a book bonus or donation bonus.
I don’t know, just thought I’d throw that out.
So long at the speech does not end with: “Do I make myself clear, Major?” That would be a major (no pun intended) knock down for Max. It would also indicate that she has lost operational command of the group, along with functional control, and someone more level-headed was getting the job. Please no!
He could use it as a threat though. Col. Sherman T. Potter did that a couple times. ;)
There is a fair amount of genre evidence for supers in general having poor impulse control, with a rather large percentage who are obsessive-compulsive or otherwise totally insane, and nothing in this comic disagrees. If actually identified as a disorder, she would have the excuse of disability for her poor discipline.
Aha, the masked dude is finally outed! Of course, a better strategy (in my head) would’ve been to immobilize him BEFORE he realized his cover had been blown. For example:
Sydney: Truesight, huh? Hey, that reminds me! I forgot to show you guys one more orb power! *nonchalantly floats the tentacle orb towards the table*
Maxima: Oh? What power would that be?
Sydney: The power to do…THIS! *suddenly wraps up the masked guy with the tentacle orb*
…But of course, that wouldn’t have been as funny. XD
a couple problems with the grab before reveal idea is 1) you don’t know if the invisibility comes with intangibility so he might not be able to be touched while invisible and 2) I doubt it would be easy to grab someone based on a few seconds glimpse of them before flailing around and being moved around
Plus, Sydney is a spazz and doesn’t think things that far ahead.
She’ll have more than a few seconds’ glimpse if she holds an Orb in each hand (Truesight+Tentacle), but you raise a valid alternate point. If “SnoopySpyPerson” has their OWN version of “Clarisense”, then they’re not really in the room – just their untouchable projection.
Zhang’s glasses are missing.
Congradulations!! Your the first to spot a Grrl Power Mistake.
Second, actually. Gunsolo mentioned it up above.
My bad.
I love the big messy scene
Me too.
Dave, you don’t need to second guess yourself like you did, messy works.
That’s just in case the Eisner guys are looking, hah hah.
In “Real Life”, sometimes people just choose to “talk messy”, & let their conversations overlap. As long as each “thread” can be followed across the panel, it’s not a bad thing – in fact it helps here to highlight the disorder that follows when Dabbler “de-cloaks”, for reasons that nobody in the room knows about yet (except for herself & Sydney).
We’re trained by decades of Theatre & Cinema to expect non-overlapping talk, rather than risk having the audience miss a key point in the Script-writer’s story, & I don’t believe anyone seriously bucked this story-telling trend until Robert Altman’s films came along. I think my first exposure to this was in his film, “MASH”, with Donald Sutherland & Elliot Gould.
It’s not a story-telling tool that bears over-use, but neither is it something that must be “avoided at all cost”.
Yep. Add is a double edged sword.
My friend has it bad. When he is not on his meds, trying to have a conversation with him if you aren’t used to it will make you crazy. But one thing he does say is a downer when he is medicated, when he isn’t, he notices EVERYTHING down to the rain man level of counting dropped toothpicks. But he says it is hard to focus on any one thing.
He says that the meds allow him to focus, but he says he does notice a lot less.
Also, Dabbler seems to be as ADD as Sydney. At least emotionally. But then, she is an emotion basses being.
OMG!!! This Mondays strip is freakin hilarious. I love how everything has suddenly gone from being a (somewhat) smoothly run quasi-military operation to what could pass for a scene on the Terry Springfield show (replace chair tossing with Orb Bonkings) And all the while Sydney is having a spastic brain fart trying to remember the mystery guy in the mask.
I can hardly wait to find out what happens next week. LMAO!!!
Me-yow indeed, good one Maxima! And that little smirk in panel 4, she deserves that. And Dabbler looks cute in that panel as well.
With all those tongue studs, it looks like Dabbler is spitting in panel 1. Or is that just me?
I thought it was symptoms of Thrush (female yeast infection, but in the mouth this time), or something similar. Is it considered a bad for a succubus to has a sexually transmitted disease?
Yeah, they are tongue studs. Just, how does she get the ones in the back in there?
Very long tongue..like Gene Simmons long.
demons are well known for having long (and often prehensile) tongues.
especially succubi. there’s probably a whole chapter in the aforementioned Succubus Kama Sutra for how to use the tongue.
A chapter? I’d expect an entire volume!
That’s an upcoming supplement (sp?). It’s titled “Succubi-Sutra Tounge and Tail”
I never trust a succubus to use her shapeshifting tail or wings, sure the whole tentacle and tail between her legs seems kinky at first but when you’ve seen that tail decapitate a golem and those wing tentacles become chain blades that rip through armies of titanium based robots…just hard to get that out of the back of your mind when they are heading your way. Same reason I never ask for head from a girl with a unicorn horn (the forehead horn), I don’t think I need to emphasise those few who can form chain blades from that forehead horn *yikes*.
The pointy teeth, especially the prominent canines, might also cause some misgivings.
teeth in general are a point of concern, there is a reason our reproductive organs arn’t in our mouths after all. LoL.
Sydney just has to make a comment about how “mystery guy” is dressed! He looks like some character from the 1940’s! :)
I thought he looked like a cyber cobra commander myself.
I was thinking a cross between Cobra Commander and Carmen Sandiego. Actually Carmen’s hat is bigger.
A Cobra Commander AND Carmen Sandiego reference? Sir, I’t times like this that I wish that I could send people high-fives/fistbumps via internet!
That’s the first time I’ve seen the word “army” used as an adjective.
Is trench coat guy ‘always alone’?
What are you talking about? army? I looked over the page several times and the word army never showed up.
Panel 3, Syndeys first speech ballon. She’s using it to mean arm-y, refering to Dabbler (as far as she is concerned) suddenly sprouting an extra two furry purple arms.
OK, I see it now.
Next time refrence the pannel. We can’t read your mind.
I’m sure Dabbler and Gwen could :P
My first thought on seeing Dabber being army: She’s not wearing any insignia. How does Sydney know she is in the army? Wait, aren’t they with the Air Force? Oh she means “arm”y. Having two extra arms suddenly appear could be surprising.
“Arm-y” in this case she means Xuriel has too many arms. Lately people have been adding a “y” as a modifier to words. Another bit of character development for Sydney.
On the up side, the centre panel does give the impression of a babble of conversation, otherwise it would take you two pages to do all of this weeks scenes. I’m hoping that next week we find out of La Syd has penetrated another of Archon’s security measures, or revealed that Archon are being spied on! Either way, Sydney is demon-strating why Archon would need to keep tabs on her at least, even if they decided not to ask her to join.
DaveB, where is Dabblers lower left arm in the center pannel?
I just took a closer look, and finaly saw it.
Gotta keep tabs on those Lower Lefties…
Spinnerette’s lower-lefty has a special attitude that applies to all of Dabbler’s arms.
That’s actually Dabbler’s middle lefty. Her lower lefty is kept in a high-security vault under a permanent cold shower of liquid nitrogen.
Sad to say I have spotted MY first GP Mistake, and it’s possibly a pair. Where’s the cracked window Pane behind Arianna (or is her body just blocking it), and how did she reset the unhookedcurtain behind herself so fast? Talking from experience that takes a but to reset just right to match everything back up curtain wise.
Main Story, now we find out about Metal Masked Mr. Invisible. Sadly we have to wait a week with the cliffhanger.
Can’t speak for the window pane, but the curtain might have been fixed by the Mask while he thought himself unobserved in order not to break the subconscious assumption that the crack was due to the shock wave from Maxima hitting Sydney’s shield. A cracking window could just be due to a microstructure defect in that one pane, providing the weakness for a full crack. But a curtain unhooking involves far more macro-scale effects, so a one-off event would be far less likely – either all would be unhooked by a room-level event, or none.
A valid and not to mention very well thought out point, Sir!
The curtain behind Max is unhooked. I think that is the one that was borken.
Seems to be fixed now. The cracked glass is hidden behind the loose curtain behind General Faulk’s head. Arianna has shifted to her own left because Max has resumed her seat. It all looks good.
I know purple is your favorite color Dave, but trench coat mask guy does kinda look like Cobra Commander during his “pimp” phase. All he needs is a swanky cane.
And panel 3 really does work. It conveys space, flow, time, action and information. Sure it’s a lot in one panel, but it’s a full width panel and it’s not too crowded. Run with it.
Cobra Commander in his pimp phase… Sir, you have no idea how many hours of entertainment imagining that scenario is going to bring me. Although, that jacket is more dark blue than purple. Pimp Cobra Commander would have straight up purple with leopard-print fur for the hat and jacket, and Destro would probably be electroplated with gold (or iron pyrite, if he’s feelin’ ghetto) and the Barroness would be dressed in a much skimpier outfit assuming he could get away with it. Between Destro not wanting to look fruity, the Barroness’s objections to the costume change (definately not a woman you’d want to inccur the wrath of), and tha fact that no one noticed the poor Commanders “Solid Gold Grill” (all his teeth capped with gold) on account of his mask, we can all see why the pimp look is one idea the Commander became quickly discouraged with.
Zhang’s glasses are missing. Not a serious mistake. Oh… someone posted about that before me.
Okay, Dabbler’s finger count seems off. After checking previous pages, I think it’s the first time we see a 2-fingers-per-hand style. A medium sized mistake — except we’re not QUITE 100% CERTAIN the 3rd fingers can’t be behind, or suddenly swap articulation style and act like thumbs out of the blue, so then it would make sense (since Dabbler is an alien). HOWEVER before that kind of thing is introduced you’re supposed to make it look normal, OR so abnormal it hints in 10 meters letters of fire for an explanation later to people who noticed. Currently comes out as: 95% chance it’s just a mistake.
I must add 100% certainty of mistake would have NOT interrupted the read of the comic because I felt like figuring it out, and came out without a distinct foreshadowing making me feel clever for spotting it. But 95% chance? ADD at work style distraction. It ruined the otherwise excellent joke-flow.
And oh, you had dabbler eyes not completely right in that frame, too, but it’s a TINY mistake.
Plus shouldn’t Sydney spot the cyborg arm? I guess either it’s REALLY realistic, or the cast profile is out of date again. I guess you’ll have to write the story so it makes sense in retrospective and then it’s a non-mistake sort of like heatwave changing body style when she uses powers. It’s not an EVIL RETCON if you don’t have to delete canon bits.
LARGE ERROR: Dabbler in frame 1. Took me 2 full seconds to realize this is Dabbler — and another second to think it couldn’t have been dabbler — and 3 more seconds to see it as a ‘feels deeply wrong’ Dabbler art… a little hint I learned from reading so many comics: STICK WITH ONLY ONE CHIBI STYLE when using a chibi style along with a normal style. If you have 2 distinct chibi styles, or use a normal and a chibi and a semi-chibi, it causes confusion and is deeply unpleasant to some readers (while other readers will go: what’s wrong with those readers? And me at them, what’s wrong with you for not SEEING the problem even if we disagree?).
Frame 1 is really *memorably* unpleasant and flow-breaking distraction to me. Chibi away or don’t. No middle of the road plz.
No offence meant, but is there anything you liked about this page?
Everything else, of course. But I think the first panel sort of divided the cool factor by 5, and now the finger count thing is better for the NEXT reader for his first time reading, but I’ve lost momentum
It’ll be still horrible for me at the first panel if I do a reread in 10 years, but the rest is improved.
For what it’s worth I added a finger to the bottom left panel so it’s clear Dabbler has 3 fingers+thumb.
I guess you mean it looks like she has 2 fingers/hand in the bottom left panel. Drawing interlaced fingers like that is a little tricky so I got enough in there so you could tell what was going on and hoped you’d all assume the other fingers were covered up by the closer ones, but I guess I can go back and add the other fingers if it’s confusing people. (If you look really closely at Arianna’s interlaced fingers, she’s only got 4 fingers per hand including the thumb. You can probably only see 7 at this res but there’s a tiny pinky under there)
Also, I feel chibi exists on a spectrum. There are shades of it between rigidly accurate proportions and super deformed.
We agree to disagree sir, and I will always hate that first panel for that, but also for being weirdly done it more than one way on more than one level.
But it’s only one panel, this too shall pass.
“STICK WITH ONLY ONE CHIBI STYLE” You have no right to demand or dictate the direction or art of a FREE (See I can use all caps too!) web-comic (or even a paid comic for that matter), stop being so picky and enjoy the comic.
Eh, people always have a right to complain. We also have a right to ignore him. He even said, in his own post, that many people would wonder what’s wrong with him.
Let it go. He’s trying to be helpful.
You remind me of my Engineer brother. Somewhat intelligent but no empathy and highly critical of everyone else’s intellect and achievements. Needless to say.he lives alone.
Arianna agrees with Maxima, I guess that doesn’t happen that often.
I love that big central panel, for effect it could have been more chaotic :)
At first I thought the orbs were whizzing around in panel 2, but now I think it’s just the ceiling moulding.
You could help the blocking by horizontally flipping the bottom right panel. It would magically transport Sidney back to her side of the room. The nex smaller panel would need the actors arranged differently and the fix would be in.
Put Sidney on the right in that panel and nw Sidney’s pacing os in tiny circles that makes more sense for the environment.
Error senses, tingling!
Looking further back, i found dabbler has 4 fingers on upper hands, 3 on lower hands.
Looks to me here https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/621 that she pretty clearly has 3 fingers and a thumb on all four hands.
Syd, I’d also be grabbing the shield orb… stealth bad guys don’t react well to being outed.
I think that center panel worked fine. I found it easy to follow.
And the overcoat guy looks too much like Carmen Sandiego. I thought he was a woman because of that, was only when I read the comments that I realized…
Yup, no problems here, either.
You may want to change the first bubble in panel 3. It took me about a minute to figure out what the hell Sydney was saying. “Purple and military?” What the hell does that even mean? A hyphen would do the trick. “Arm-y.”
Yeah I probably should.
I got what “army” meant right away, and English isn’t even my first language. No complaints from me, either about that or the busy center panel.
Army actually gave me a chuckle and I got it first time but as I say my humor is sometimes odd.
I got it the first time too, just the kind of thing a character like Sydney would say.
Hmm.. i didn’t even think army as in military when i read it i guess me brain just made it fit.
Eh, center-panel-schmanel. I followed along without any real trouble, and the center panel definitely gets the tone of barely-controlled chaos down pretty well.
Also, wow, do we really need to make a thing about finding errors on the pages? Its not like you win a prize or anything.
Ohhh is that a hid of secondary shoulders on Dabbler’s back in the center panel? *Goes looking for a magnifying glass.*
Luckily people aren’t pointing out that Dabbler’s stripes change a little bit each panel. They’re supposed to be fixed, and there’s a few I try and get the same each time, like the dot on her shoulder and the ones that break up on her face, but since I hand draw them each time they’re pretty fluid.
I just figured it was part of her doppleganger nature.
Nice touch with the addition of insta-bandaids on Dabbler’s head in the first panel. :)
Perhaps just a (muted) version of the ever-shifting patterns on Rorshoch’s mask…?
It is hard to keep all those little details straight and the same in every panel. Hard enough keeping their faces correct. I try not to criticize just to point out any errors you’d like to correct for your own benefit. Otherwise every page has been fun and fulfilling for me. Keep on writing and illustrating!!!
No, you win a No-Prize™ (Thank you Stan Lee)
Only thing I could say not good/funny about the page is it took me a second to realize she grabbed the Illusion orb in the last panel. But that might be because I hadn’t had my coffee yet.
Zhang’ s glasses aren’t missing he took them off in astonishment at the goings on in front of his eyes. Can’t see the cracked glass pane behind him where the mystery man? was standing behind Zhang.
Now will this time be enough for them can see the intruder? It would be a problem if the camouflage field also can vary the atomic distance between atoms to phase through walls.
Hilarious action, I thought it works DaveB well all the different characters in one room. I think unless it is a close up you can fudge on the number of fingers being seen. The smaller they are the less detail is the best rule as you follow.
Phasing causes more problems than it solves. If you don’t also add levitation, say hello to the center of the Earth. Adding in a general immunity to gravity would just make things worse, as you would suddenly go whizzing off into space.
Depends on how the “Phasing” is accomplished wouldn’t it?
Well the two forms of phasing I rather like are the fixed relative height to gravity center,
and
Hyper-matter field.
in the first your position relative to the center of the earth becomes fixed, your altitude in other words allowing you to walk in a straight line over the curviture of the earth (so curved line really), this also allows for “air walking” as holes, ground texture, and all that don’t matter.
in Hyper-matter field, you basically change the matter of your body into “Hyper-matter” which has a reduced effect with gravity, allowing you to float about while phasing and with practice control your trajectory, while phasing through solid matter.
*this version does require the use of the whole four types of matter, Matter, Anti-Matter, Hyper-Matter, and Neutral-Matter formula.
there is a third, but I personally think its wanky, the whole out of phase dimensional approach where they can still interact with physical surfaces below their feet but not touch anything with their hands unless they focus or some combination of this (usually used for ghost movies with little to no explination how they are walking up stairs or over floors and yet have a hard time touching or picking up things).
Yes, there was a Batman Beyond about that. A tv personality found the prototype device and used it to scoop other networks. However the fatal flaw shows up when it stays on even when he hits the power futton and it increases to a point to where he sinks to the center of the earth. A horrible end.
He’s probably just using a small to medium NOP-field. If this is how archons usually react to eachother, he could stay in the building for moths on just a single battery!
I think this page is great! I was able to follow the jumbled panel pretty well with going left-right top-bottom. Also I like the reactions and the reveals. Thank you for making my Monday better than it was going so far.
“Also, assume Sydney is pacing around while she’s trying to remember stuff.”
Dave – I have no problem assuming that. But I don’t think I could ever stretch to assuming the opposite: Sydney staying still between panels would break my suspension of disbelief. :D
Wonderful comic as ever. Monday has become my favourite day of the week
Yup. Seeing what’s really there is a skill most of us lack. It’s so rare it’s a superpower. :)
And usually requires a focus to use it.
The middle panel is actually a very effective portrayal of half of the audience at a presentation being distracted by other concerns. What is wrong with it is that the committee seated at the table is drawn too large for proper perspective, but when you are working in this format, making them the proper size might make it too hard to see their expressions.
Hm. Don’t know how I would deal with that.
Oh wow, Dabbler’s heterochromatic eyes I hadn’t noticed before, but that pales in comparison with the fact her ears grow out from her eyebrows. She’s got a really complicated design!
I’m not sure how “she doesn’t have clearance to know about you” makes sense – so she has an appearance other than baseline-human, isn’t that also true of Maxima?
Maxima is still a human. Dabbler is not from Earth, proving not only life, but intelligent life, and not only that, highly intelligent life, civilizations, tech, etc. A whole slew of things that go far beyond an official revelation to the public that superheroes exist.
Heck the Alien bit is the least of it! She’s also a demon, which is a problem on SO many levels.
She is objective proof of the supernatural and metaphysical. Perhaps less of a problem in a world with people like Zephan running aroud practicing magic. She is a demon, and can you imagine the political falll out if you could literally prove the Federal gov’t was “in league with the devil”? Not to mention she can presumably give accurate information on which (if any) of the worlds religons got anything right. Her mere existence is 50 kinds of trouble in a halter top.
Depends on how you define “Demon” – In Robert Asprin’s Myth series, “Demon” is just short for “Dimension Traveller”
“Deamon” or “demon” originally meant “teacher.” Think about that for a bit.
It also was used for any supernatural being. Be it the guardian spirit of a house and hearth, or a deity.
yep, same deal as Faerie, Kami, and spirit.
Everyone likes to say “spirit” or “ghost” these days for things that thanks to my studying folklore clearly in other cultures, or just in the past would have been thought to be daemon, faeries, or land Kami.
Its like Destination Truth going to the Romanian forest and talking about ghosts and aliens, soon as I saw some of what was going on something in the back of my head was familiar with it, and bam, when the camera man was attacked in the circle at night by a wind like creature “Ieleh” semi-divine forest nymph beings of Romania, dance in circles in the forest, hate men entering their circles at night, create small candle sized lights, will lead men astray, cause illness, and make jiggling sounds (described in folklore has wearing ankle bells). In the folklore they dance in the circle but live in springs. Doubt Destination truth will go back a third time and look for the spring. I think Josh gates has issues with using terms related to faerie and elves and such.
I quit watching it after the second episode. I’ve seen and had enough “weird” stuff in my life that I don’t need to see a TV show about looking for it.
I had heard that it was “Messenger” — hmm may have to look up the origins of the word again. Or was it that both angel and daemon meant spirit being but angel was a messenger spirit so the church used that as the “good” spirits. Argh definitely having to look up the origins.
OK this is bugging me, how does the little bright green bit at the tip of dabbler’s nose work? is it just coloring on the septum? Is it like a little horn that changes the shape, or is her nose just oddly pointy? I know xenobiology makes either of those or something else entirely valid possibilities.
It’s just part of her stripes. I guess my underlighting pass makes it pop a little more than it should
Hey Maxima…I’ll have you know that not all of us succubi sleep around a lot and are quite so wanton as Dabbler….Some of us are perfectly happy being romantically inclined.
*Harumpf!*
Hm…my gravatar didn’t load. Odd.
Happened to me before because the email was 1 character off.
That’s what happened with me too :) No worries.
Like the t-shirt says “Always. Expect. Ninjas.”