Grrl Power #108 – The Passion of the PR Lady
Download attachment fortheloveofgodpleasesperatethesetwo.jpg <– This is a link now.
Having Arianna reading youtube comments amused me but in comic form it’s admittedly a little wall-of-texty. At least we know that she really enjoys her work.
I didn’t get a chance to color the vote incentive, I was rushing a bit to get this page done faster cause I spent most of Saturday at Gearbox’s Borderlands 2 release party. And both BL2 and Torchlight 2 come out this week… so… we’ll see what happens there.
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.
“Too obvious to be fake”
Oh?
well, the Bank Robbery was fake.
everything else?
not so much.
Ariana: Yes! Pull my finger… I Mean.
Director: Cut! Who changed her lines again?
Gwen: Sorry, it was me. It was just too easy when i saw the script.
Ah-ha, a mistake! Slashdot is a .org, not a .com!
That sir was the most nerdish thing I have ever read. My congradulations.
Well read today, anyway..
Rats. It’s fixed.
‘Nother mistake — there’s no way Slashdot would have picked up on this within only a few hours. :)
The YouTube comments strike about the right level of horrible chauvinism, but are impressively grammatical. I think that’s something you just let slide for the sake of readability though.
Yeah I didn’t want the comments to be… too awful to Max, but the internet is unfiltered humanity at it’s worst. Assume there’s a “I’d do that gold slut then make her fix me a sandwich” comment just offscreen. And that sort of thing is exactly what makes Max so irascible.
As for Slashdot, 5-6 years ago you’d hear every other week how /. would inadvertently take down some site that wasn’t ready for the influx of traffic coming from them if they linked them, but I can’t recall the last time I even heard about /. I don’t know how big or relevant they are in a post reddit/twitter/etc world.
They’re still big enough to take things down by accident. I think the last Slashdotting was only a couple months ago
Part of the loss of ‘the /. effect’ is probably just due to Moore’s Law improvements: A computer running a basic semi-current-gen processor with a couple of gigs of ram will be able to handle thousands more hits than one a few years ago, which would have had a much slower processor and probably a quarter of the ram. (RAM is important for this as it reduces the amount of disk access: If the server can pull the entire page out of the cache, it doesn’t have to wait to send it back to the viewer. Which then means the connection can be closed, freeing up more space and processor cycles…)
Add in that most low-end sites are now hosted virtually at some hosting service (who will have lots of bandwidth, and can often switch resources to busy sites automatically), and you’ve removed most of the reason why the /. effect occurred.
Or to put it more simply: A few hundred thousand hits was an effective DDOS six years ago for many hobby sites. It isn’t anymore.
nowadays things like that tend to be neil gaimans fault. #neilwebfail is the tag used whenever his fans bring down another website by accident. have a look, there’s a lot of them!
All hail our mighty rodent overlords! They’re always there when you need to fix something ’cause they chewed it.
Heh! Clever response, I have to admit. Well said, good Sir.
You got to go to Gearbox’s release party? Gah, the jealousy… I’m not sure if it should smolder or rage, but either way, it burns within me!
Max, Max, Max. . . sending your ace sniper a picture of Sydney & Dabbler – what are you planning?
I guess they have a version of instagram, hopefully with military grade encryption. That would be a bad picture to leak out.
Um, since when is Max a *LIEUTENANT* Colonel?
Also, Peggy finally makes her debut! New characters FTW!
Since Dave updated the cast page. Dabbler was also “demoted” to civilian specialist instead of 2nd lieutenant, for example.
Insignia need an update to match the new ranks posted on the cast page….
Wikipedia link failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force#Commissioned_officers
The images of the ranks on the cast page are definitely wrong. But since I was inventing a new branch of the military, I thought I’d “fix” the issue where a Major is a brass leaf and a LtCol is a silver one. That just makes no sense to me, so in Archon a Lt. Col is a Brass bird, and the full Col. is silver. I’m sure that will aggravate military readers a little but aaarg! It just doesn’t make any sense.
I’ll probably have to relent eventually cause the military wouldn’t just change it like that but it’s not like any other branch has a brass bird, so she wouldn’t get confused with another rank.
Lots of things about the military don’t make sense.
You could probably make the case that they’re either not strictly a US organization or that they aren’t Department of Defense and they really fall under the Department of Justice.
That doesn’t explain why Peggy is a 1st Lt, yet has a butterbar.
The branches of the US Military have different nomenclature for what is which level of rank, but the insignia are pretty well standardized.
Do what you want, but I’d either be faithfully accurate to reality or wildly different from it, otherwise, you’re going to get a dozen comments every week about how so-and-so’s rank is “wrong”.
Yeah, that’s a good point.
If you want a clear, logical insignia system no one is using, check out Confederate officer’s collars. It actually makes far better sense than most systems in use, and it’s lying there unclaimed.
From the little googling I did it looks like it’s reminiscent of Star Trek TNG with the pips on the collar.
Don’t worry about upsetting the military, those ranks were made when most people were eating with there fingers.
interesting/entertaining things about the origin of military ranks:
General: originally Captain General, from when armies were at least partly made up of various mercenary units (called companies, which is fitting given that their existence as a cohesive unit was entire based around who got payed what when), each lead by a captain. the captain general was the guy who got to be the leader (captain) of the entire thing (well, all of said mercenary companies, at least).
Major General: originally Sergeant Major General, for pretty much the same reason.
A Lieutenant was pretty much anyone someone of high rank appointed to act in their stead because they couldn’t be everywhere at once (hence lieutenant governors, for example). in military rank origin terms, you could label them Lieutenant Captains… basically the captain’s underlings he sends out to run stuff. A Lieutenant General, by extension, is basically just a Captain General’s Lieutenant, at least originally (though he could also be the Lieutenant of a Field Marshal, for similar reasons).
Field Marshal: from memory, the guy in charge of organizing the troops and making sure they show up on the field of battle in the right place in the right groupings and such. while not necessarily the guy making the decisions, that Does put him in charge of the whole force, which may or may not rank him higher than a captain general, depending on what troops are and aren’t present.
brigadier general. a general in charge of a brigade, quite obvious really… though fun fact: brigands come in brigades, to my understanding. that’s right, this guy’s in charge of all the highwaymen and assorted bandits :P
Major: i actually don’t remember where this one comes from, but i do know it wasn’t originally the entire rank.
likewise, i’m not sure about colonels.
though battalions started out as ‘battles’ and were basically a group of men organized into a fighting formation, often consisting of several companies to make the number/shape/types come out right (though, on the flip side, a large enough company may have included several battles.)
I’m not quite sure where ‘private’ come from. i mean, yeah, it’s ‘private soldier’ but… as opposed to what?
Sergeant… something to do with keeping lines straight and troops organized and such, but i honestly don’t remember.
corporals… well, i’m not sure about that word, but they were also known as ‘chosen men’ in the british army… they were basically the elite within a company in the Napoleonic era their job was to fight. regular soldiers got drafted for manual labour and who knows what else all the time. a chosen man? if it wasn’t combat duty (including being a guard and the like) or maintaining his own gear, he didn’t do it (in the normal course of events, at least.)
i’ve probably missed one or two and/or got a detail wrong here and there, but… yeah, fun times.
If we go by Spike Milligan’s definition, “Privates” are called thus because they are small, pale and sensitive to cold – with a tendency to shrink and hide when frightened. ;)
Majors, in all forms (Sergeant Major, Major, Major General) comes from “Mayor” and indicates responsibility to administrate an entire grouping; and even today, those 3 ranks typically fill administrative positions, with only a few filling true leadership positions.
actually, US Military iconic rank is VERY specific, and reflect traditions that go all the way back to biblical times. to wit:
– the 2nd Lieutenant (or ensign if you’re one of those boat-people) is a single gold bar, sometimes called a butterbar, because it’s of great value, but still malleable and easily shaped.
– the 1st Lieutenant is a single silver bar – still of great value, but somewhat more solid and useful to work with
– a Captain wears 2 silver bars connected at both ends – twice the value of a 1Lt, and much more mechanically stable – truly the foundation of the officer corps
– a Colonel wears eagles – sees all, from a high perspective and offers great wisdom
– a General is a star – s/he offers game-changing understanding and the highest perspective
oh, and Majors/Lieutenant Colonels? that’s where the biblical traditions come in – all the way back to the garden of eden, when Adam covered his nuts with a fig leaf…
Quite old, but sums it up well and seems more than appropriate here:
Rank Has Its Limitations
General:
Leaps over tall buildings in a single bound, is more powerful than a locomotive, is faster than a speeding bullet, walks on water, and gives policy to God.
Colonel:
Leaps over short buildings in a single bound, is more powerful than a switch engine, is just as fast as a speeding bullet, walks on water if sea is calm, and talks to God.
Lieutenant Colonel:
Leaps over short buildings with a running start and a favorable wind, is almost as powerful as a switch engine, is as fast as a speeding b-b, walks on water in an indoor pool, and talks to God if special request is approved.
Major:
Barely clears Quonset huts, loses tug-of-war with locomotives, can fire a speeding bullet, swims well, and is occasionally addressed by God.
Captain:
Makes high marks when trying to leap off buildings, is run over by locomotives, can sometimes handle a weapon without inflicting self-injury, can doggie-paddle, and talks to animals.
First Lieutenant:
Runs into buildings, recognizes locomotives two out of three times, is not issued ammunition, can stay afloat if properly instructed, and talks to water.
Second Lieutenant:
Falls over door sills when trying to enter buildings, says “look at the choo-choo,” wets himself with a water pistol, and mumbles to himself.
Seregant Major:
Lifts building and then walks under them, kicks locomotives off the track, catches speeding bullets in his teeth (and chews them), and freezes water in a speeding glance. He IS God.
I’m gonna borrow this if you don’t mind.
No worries. There are numerous versions – just grabbed this more or less at random via Google for here, and there are a few typos and omissions I have now noticed.
So how come there’s 2 grades of Lieutenant, 2 Colonels and 5 Generals but only one Captain and one Major?
https://www.xenograg.com/101/excerpts/origins-of-european-army-ranks
This explains most I think.
You’re right, as a former military type reading this comic, I was about to go all “RAAAAGH WRONG RANK INSIGNIA WHARGARBL!!!!11!!1!one!!” I make no promises that I won’t in the future, and I’ll try to bear in mind that Archon is not DoD, but… no promises. (And I’ll try to ignore the voice in my head that’s trying to get me to point out that even local police departments use DoD-style rank insignia, so it’d probably be easier for Archon units to use the same insignia when they have to work with anyone else and… uh, oops, sorry about that…)
Also, side note: While the DoD does issue Blackberries to unit commanders and staff officers these days (and a lot of them have smartphones of various varieties from civilian providers), no classified computer network, last I checked the regs, could have wireless access – it’s considered too insecure, as someone could intercept even encrypted data and take it off and decrypt it. That doesn’t even consider the precautions that are taken for compartmentalized data, but that’s a whole other ballgame.
That said, at this point… I’d figure that Archon would be in a sort of grey area right now. Their existence is out there, even if they’re not publically acknowledging anything. If they were trying to maintain themselves as a completely “black” organization… well, Maxima wouldn’t be allowed to leave the building, much less allow herself to appear on a news program, unless she was covered in makeup or paint or something. So I guess IMing a picture of Dabbler and Sydney wouldn’t be that big a deal, after all that’s already happened (and that it looks like they’re heading towards operating openly, anyway.)
Yeah I guess I need to drop the idea of customized ranks insignias and go make updates to all the pages where Max has her jacket on. That or publish the insignias I’ve designed…
Also I assume they have some customized phones that don’t have wireless access but use military bands. At this point they’re trying to socialize the idea of Archon, but keep Dabbler’s origin under wraps, so it’d be bad if that picture got out.
you have a demon alien cyborg and folks who mix magic with science (at least that’s what I got with the whole black ops disguises), no need to worry about mundane weaknesses in technology.
Basically diguise advanced magitech as mundane tech. Or just higher tech than is commercially available with a commercial casing on it.
For example, quantum entanglement communication devices synched up only with units distributed to personel (a signal couldn’t be intercepted) of course use a varying particle assemble per phone otherwise every phone would pick up every call. Of course the bigwigs could also have a master server with all pre-set patterns so that picks up every call as well.
-naturally make this an extra feature of the phones (secure channels) so normal calls can also be made.
There is also the old sci-fi forms of sub-space transmissions (which really just means using dimension waves as a signal, so translating a physical waveform into a dimension wave form which can be picked up by a dimenisonal imprint reciever and translated back into radiowave form).
Or utilize a Neutrino based form of communication “fast” and secure so long as no one else has developed it yet.
I would say psionic layer transmissions, but in a world of supers that is less secure than anything above on this list.
Unless they’ve changed it in recent years, isn’t there a law that any depiction of the US-military has to make at least (one) thing depicted incorrect?
This would be why the rank insignia in some old movies would be wrong, who was in charge given the wrong title, uniforms having the wrong number of pockets, call names wrong, or something as simple as helmet straps being left undone.
Never heard that one before. Can’t say it ISN’T true, but seems very odd that, if true, it isn’t more well-known or mentioned more often.
Personally, I think the things you mention are more to do wiith basic mistakes and ‘continuity errors’. Lots of TV show and movies have them, and they provide lots of exercise for their fans as they run flamewars in searches for explanations / justifications.
I was told about by a Military Intellegence officer, it was pointed out during a movie where I pointed out how odd it was the soldier’s didn’t have their helmets and gear strapped properly. He stated that military liasons for movies and films have been required since WWII to make sure films and shows make some off. It was apparently part of some old bit so foreign powers wouldn’t be able to dress up and pretend to be American officers based on these shows and films and pass themselves off to anyone who knows what to look for.
Like what all of you are doing, you know what the insignia and jackets and such are supposed to look like. So if somebody tried to use this comic to pass off as Airforce to sneak around where they didn’t belong you’d spot them in a heartbeat. But it doesn’t detract at all from the quality of the entertainment as civies usually can’t tell or pay attention to those little details.
You know, that actualy makes sense.
OK, but it’s not just the cast page that needs updating. Up to this point, every single time that Max has introduced herself, she’s done so using the rank of “Colonel”. Likewise, anyone who’s ever addressed her by rank, or referred to her by rank, has ALSO used “Colonel”. If you’re suddenly going to “demote” her to Lt. Colonel, then you’ve got a whooooole lot of ret-conning to do.
If my memory serves, a Lieutenant Colonel is also addressed as “Colonel” in common usage. Same for Generals, Admirals and so forth. The “Lieutenant” would mainly be used when you had to differentiate between the two. Usually when there’s officers of both ranks in the same room.
i vaguely recall that the US perhaps doesn’t have this rank, but i believe a ‘brigadier general’ is referred to as a ‘brigadier’ not a ‘general’, but otherwise, yeah. (and from what i remember, even having people of different ranks in the room doesn’t change how the people are addressed unless there’s some reason to emphasis the rank difference, and they’re always Introduced by the correct full rank.)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps the lowest level General Officer (i. e. One Star) is indeed referred to as a Brigadier General. Also, a Lt. Colonel is indeed usually simply referred to as “Colonel” in common conversation. Only in official ceremony or documentation is the full rank usage required.
You’re correct, that Brigadiers are not referred to as Generals, if you’re in Britain, Canada or Australia (possibly others), but in the US military, they’re called “General”
Canada calls them Brigadier-General as well. However, you are correct that England, Australia, India, and several others do use the term Brigadier.
Britain used to call them Brigadier-General, but in the re-organisation after World War I, the rank was abolished – along with the formal Brigades that the rank commanded. Brigadier was established in the late 1920’s to fill the gap between Colonel and General.
This is what I’ve been going on, basically what adamas said, that unless there’s a need to make a distinction, you can abbreviate a rank like that. Granted, the majority of my military experience comes from Stargate SG-1 and NCIS, but you usually don’t hear someone say “Brigadier General” unless they’re in a room full of generals. If that turns out to be incorrect I’ll change her back to a Colonel, but I think she’s probably a little young for a full bird. Even given a battlefield promotion or something, she’s also done stuff that should have hung up her career more (if not worse). It’s only because she’s about as valuable to the military as a well armed Aircraft Carrier that she’s avoided a lot of repercussions that she should have been hit with.
For what it’s worth, after the first couple of seasons (i.e. when they got a regular Air Force liaison assigned to the show) Stargate actually gets pretty realistic in most respects when it comes to the military bits, and NCIS actually has a former NCIS agent as a technical advisor, so of all the shows you could have picked to base the military off of, those aren’t a bad pair at all.
In some circles, a brigadier general is can be referred to as a brigadier or a general. Think of Doctor Who’s Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Now there is a show that took liberties with military institutions.
Dabbler and Sydney have already devolved into acting like sisters.
“She stole my glasses!”
“Did not!”
“Quit it!’
“You quit it!”
“Don’t make me pull this Osprey over!”
I’m afraid mommy. Make the scary lady stop.
I love the last panel. Dabbler putting on Sydney’s glasses and making funny faces is priceless. To quote a Buggs Bunny cartoon, “I like her, she’s silly.” I’d say the two of them are already well on the way to being great friends.
Yup, great friends … Like Daffy and Bugs ….. oh wait, the duck doesn’t do so well most of the time does he?
now the question is who is bugs and who is dafgfy
Then I guess Peggy would be Elmer Fudd, since Elmer tends to shoot Daffy alot.
Until “Elmer Season” comes around.
Yeah, except Peggy’s proficiency with a high quality sniper rifle illedgedly borders on the unreal, and Elmer Fudd has a worse shot than Dick Chayney. In contrast, Peggy would likely respond to the whole “Duck season” and “rabbit season” thing by saying “Duck season, rabbit season, I’m the girl with the gun!” and then shoot them both. At least she would if she had watched Army of Darkness. Regardless, she’d probably be eating duck a l’orange and rabbit stew that night.
Haha, Arianna is turning into Dr. Evil.
*Searches for “Easter eggs”*
Shouldn’t there be a teal dot between the stripes on Dabbler’s shoulder in panel 5? :)
No, it’s on her left shoulder.
I thought it was on both of them?
You’d think it should be right? But no, if you go back through a few pages you see that it isn’t.
Oh, and buy the way, Welcome Peggy!
Oh Dear will Peggy ever forgive her best friend for making her babysit Dabbler and Sydney during the press conference? ( the one that is next on the agenda, that one. Sheesh, DaveB did say he was moving on. — BTW wonder what’s on that phone that fell in the toilet (Data wise) if it didn’t get flushed down all the way? would harem check that “Plop…DAMN!” noise/statement too closely?
WOnder where harem went in all this chaos? (prob snuck or ported out when the Sydney and Dabbler got silly. I know I would.
The 5th panel. I gotta say it: The evil laugh coming from an alien/demon/sorceress would not scare me half as much as it does when coming from a PR manager.
I mean really those people just can’t be trusted!
Thats why even demons avoid them. No soul to speak of, and they make the demons feel like they need to step up their game to just keep up with the evil quotent.
Total agreement. Arianna’s reaction is ….. worrying.
I keep coming back to a favourite line from ‘The Big Bang Theory’, where Sheldon is referred to as being only one lab accident away from becoming a super-villain. Arianna is in pretty much the same state, I reckon.
Per Sheldon: Which one?
??? Didn’t know BBT had more than one Sheldon.
I think he/she wants to know which line you’re referring to. :p
I believe the episode was about penny having 3 strikes, than the 2 of them going in a war, and Leonard warning her that Sheldon is 1 lab accident away from being a supervillain
I thought that might be referring to Sheldon’s answer {ie which lab accident]
No, I just wanted to know which super-villain you think he should be. For some reason I think that if it was Leonard who had a lab accident he’d become Doc Ock. ;)
I picture Leonard more as Peter Parker and Sheldon as Doc Oct.
Nice job refrencing Kevin Smith in the blog by the way.
Yeah but Dave missed out on a golden opportunity to put OUR handles in the blog.
.
.
Somehow I see you answering KevinSmithsTinyDick and me answering MarshaX3.
I was considering doing that but I had wanted to scan back over the comments where Arianna’s little grey op was revealed and I ran out of time.
Oh well, maybe you could do it later – when her plot is uncovered.
I have to wonder how may members of Arcswat have that pic on their phone for Maxima’s contact.
I’ts possibly the only one that existed.
Now they could ask Leo for some shots out of the video feeds.
Hehe suddenly the comment section Here looks a whole lot tamer. Perfect time for any Kick Ass fanboys to show up at the conference too as that one started up similar to this.
Panel 5 was a laugh out loud moment. Nice maniacal laugh Arianna.
And apparently Sandy is (justly) scared by Arianna. :D
You know, Sydney hasn’t been cursing much lately.
thats due to her being distracted by the purple alien/demon/whats it not? with an attention span shorter than hers
Not just that. I don’t think she’s used an expletive in the entire interview.
Well she was very excited about telling her story than, that probably plays a big role
three questions all about panel 5,
1) why has Arianna got her little finger (pinky) on her right hand sticking up, is it an American thing?
2) shouldn’t that be mwahahaha, muwhahaha, muahahaha, buahahaha?
3) where’s the white cat? (prerequisite for a evil master mind is a white cat on you lap which you stroke whilst taunting the hero or to quote Auric Goldfinger “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die”)
1) little pinky thing is meaning she has them wrapped around her little finger. basically she controls them easily and repeatedly. hope that made sense
2) to each their own i guess
3) there only so much evil a cat can stand before it gets the f#@! out of there.
The little pinky thing is a ref to Dr Evil from “Austin Powers – international man of mystery.”
Response #3 made my day. Thank you.
As for #3) ….. The answer would be more along the lines of not putting up with anyone more evil than it is since cats are the polar opposite of dogs right?
She was saying “twist on my finger” and apparently… offering a finger for them to twist on.
Goldfinger didn’t have the white cat…that was Blofeld. (Man, I’m such a nerd!)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld, if you please. Iconic, trendsetting evil masterminds should be given the respect their opponent has earned.
You. Say. That. With. Pride!
Well at least you are one of those cooler “James-Bond” type nerds, as opposed to the nerds who talk about superheros every Monday. Errr….ummm…hehe…<:-}
wow,,, peggy looks so much better now tyhen in her old cast picture,,,i wonder if she is into girls,,, cause she sure is my type of girls ,,but she probably is into golden skin,, wich i dont have :)
Don’t worry body paint does wonders
and then i coould cosplay as a mini max :),,, cause i am abrely over 5 feets,,, but for my size i have a similar shape,,, well except for the chest area,,,,, but thats what padded bra are for
isn’t that how gold finger killed girls?
Mythbusters did a redo of that. Turns out its not healthy when using regular paint. Body paint though has a different make-up. (not a pun)
Ok they revisited the Myth and it’s busted. But as a painter (shipyard) i have to say paint has some of the most toxic things on earth in it. Lead, benzene, acetone, butyl alcohol, etc, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78tyO0QpGgY
I don’t think he painted them to kill them, it’s a very slow way to kill someone (too slow to be an effective murder weapon). I think the fact the girl died was just a consequence of being painted. If you remember that movie you’ll know the girl was found not just painted gold but also naked, in a large bed, that showed signs of recent use.
Goldfinger loved gold, really loved gold, so much so he painted the girl gold so he could have sex with his gold. He didn’t want the girl dead but also thought nothing of her as a person and didn’t care if she died.
Err… ah… oh: forget all that. I just checked the plot in wiki, and I was wrong.
In my defence I can only say it was a long time ago that I saw the movie and I was really young, so young in fact I wasn’t allowed to watch the “good bits” like the sex scene at the beginning. So most of what I “remember” about the plot is actually logical deduction.
Yeah her cast picture is from a comic that I finished before I ever put the comic online, so the art’s a little old. I’ll replace that old one with something better as I continue making updates to the cast page.
I never published that old page. It’s got a good joke on it but I’m not sure if it quite fits in the continuity anymore. In any case if I do use it I’ll have to redo most of the art.
I smell bonus art
voting incentive!
Yay, progression.
Peggy’s new look is cool btw. I like the scar.
The laptop/tablet turns into a piece of paper in panel 5 though…
No symbol and its white instead of grey.
Chibification of the laptop, is my guess.
Yep.
Yeah, Sydney and Xuriel are hitting it off right away.
Of course, (and I know I should have mentioned this last week) I like how Sydney went up to X and introduced herself last week. I can totally see that line of thinking: “Hey, we’re on the same side, so we should at least get to know each other!”
I thought it was more she was fishing for intel on Xuriel (“hey – can she be trusted?”)
Liking Peggy’s updated look. She’s pretty in her own way and blends in with the team.
Well we know it’s been three hours since the robbery.
Joel muns be pretty hungry by now, because he has to watch the store on his own all this time. Oh, well hello Dominos.
dabbler is just asking for another smack on the head in the last panel.
Those YouTube comments are pretty realistic in terms of content… but there’s no way they’d all be spelled that well in real life. :P
Also, “OMG I knew super heroes were real”? I got the impression that was common knowledge from the way Sydney discussed them at the comic shop in the beginning.
My impression also. But there could be a few people who insist that superbeings are all just an elaborate hoax by The Evil Gubbinment, Kind of like the morons who loudly maintain that the Earth is flat and/or that the Apollo moon landings were faked.
or that there’s a “Scientific Consensus” that human activity can change the climate.
A few modest examples of what were, at the time, instances of “Scientific Consensus”
“Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” — Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.
“Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” — William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899.
“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.” — Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads.
“That Professor Goddard with his ‘chair’ in Clark College and the countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution does not know the relation of action to reaction, and of the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react–to say that would be absurd. Of course, he only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.” — 1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard’s revolutionary rocket work.(retracted July 17, 1969)
“The Earth has a fever!” – Al Gore
Don’t get me started.
My thought also.
that when I was three years old I told my dad that birds looked like dinosaurs,
that in the fourth grade or so in science class when discussing Atoms I came up with on the spot the idea of vaccuum energy (I swear I must have channeled someone for that one LoL) as I said to the teacher that I bet that between the sub-atomic particles there was this power, that was greater than any energy we know. He kind of ranted back about nothingness having zero power and power coming from electrons only or something.
(I wish I could find him and throw vaccuum energy in his face and the theory that just a 3Cubic centimeters of pure empty space has enough power to boil all the Earth’s oceans)
Heh, never underestimate the observation skills of a kid with ADD LoL
https://www.fang.ece.ufl.edu/reject.html
Sorry for a (nearly) link only comment.
The whole “people unsure about the existence of superheroes” thing will be explained (quite a ways down the road unfortunately) but it’s less of a small demographic conspiracy nut thing like with bigfoot fanatics and more of a “Apple Rumormill” thing, like with the iPhone 5, everyone basically new it existed and even most of the specific rumors about the phone turned out to be right, most people were kind of non-committal about the whole thing until they saw it themselves. Supers are the same way, many people acknowledge they exist but virtually no one has personal experience with them. Some people take that as a conspiracy, some people take that as a call to action to believe.
Hmm, given how observant some your fans here are, and given my experiences on the internet especially with people who rewatch the same vids ALOT (just check out the My Little Pony Mistakes are Forever vids, they point out missing pixils from a shot less than a second long) I’d say someone watching the security footage is bound to notice the moving poster tube like they did.
and given the whole, those two bank robbers were hauled off because they are supers gets out. Along with Maxima being a super, and if/when Sydney is revealed to also be a super-hero type then that means someone is bound to think it extra odd that not only was there a daytime armed bank robbery foiled by a super-hero, but one in which both the robbers, and two patrons in the bank happened to also be supers.
Either someone will think set-up, or conspiracy note wise start the think Supers are ALOT more common than the media and authorities are letting on. I think (Random guy that can kick a werewolf’s ass) only goes so far.
Wanna think conspiracy? Certainly, some people will wonder about the fate of those “bankrobbers”. At the very least, I foresee assorted lawyer-types who think taking on their defense would be a career-maker, however the trial goes.
….. B-U-T, those bankrobbers are both carted off (after the scary Gold Chick has a quiet word with them AND states that they are also supers), Apparently, these guys are never ever seen again. They aren’t brought to trial or anything, they are simply … gone. Conspiracy industries have grown out of a lot less than this.
Actually that hole was already filled. Ariana set it up so that the bank had hired a private security firm to stage a bank robbery to test their employees and local authorities reaction time. The story is a super just happened to be in the bank when it happened and didn’t know it was a test.
super beings are real. super heroes seem to be rare, not get much coverage or not believed when they do. Didn’t Max say to the reporter “there have been a few instances”?
You nailed it with that first paragraph.
As for the second paragraph, well, as you pointed out, YouTube commenters are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.
I had considered filling them full of spelling errors like most youtube comments are but I didn’t want that to be a distraction while people were reading them, as it’s kind of a big block of text in the first place. I should have just typed them in without the inline spell checker I normally use and let my own awful spelling take over.
Gotta say i deffanitly like the way Peggy looks here alot better than in the original pic. Annd it looks like Sydney and Dabbler are going to get along just fine lol
Thanks, it’s been a long time between the old picture and this one.
Your art ha improved a LOT!!
Keep it up, your one of the best webcomic artist out there.
Reddit noticing something BEFORE 4chan? I thought this was suposted to be slightly realistc.
Well, Leon was the one distributing the links in the first place, then the normal chaos of the internet ran off with them.
I hadn’t considered this until now, but Peggy must have super-level skill in piloting. Operating a fixed-wing aircraft while shy one leg is… challenging, but can be managed; a helicopter or V-22 is nearly impossible, since all 4 limbs are actively used to control vector & accelleration in each of 3 dimensions (as opposed to fixed-wing, which controls vector and accelleration in 2 dimensions (pitch and roll) with the upper body and only one factor (yaw) in 1 dimension using the lower body)…
It’s entirely possible that Peggy has a prosthetic that she’s mastered well enough to still be qualified to fly. Military pilots with prosthetics go back to before jet aircraft, after all.
Yeah I was a little worried about that. I’ve never seen the floorboard of the cockpit of either of those machines but it makes sense they’d be littered with controls. Peggy should be able to work a brake pedal just fine, but the finesse you lose from missing a calf muscle would make working a gas pedal or clutch difficult. I don’t know what foot controls there are in those machines but I assume she’s figured out some way to compensate.
Also it should be noted that she’s capable of piloting those craft, but she usually only does so for milk runs. They’re not going to tie their sniper up with piloting if they’re deploying.
No big deal piloting modern day aircraft. Go to an event where model helicopters are flown.
You’ll notice those pilots use two thumbs and there is no control feedback from the aircraft other than visual.
I’m 64 years old and I enjoy your work.
Thanks! Also I assume that with an aircraft as modern as an Osprey, there’s a lot of computer control on top of everything else.
I just assumed if Dabbler was running around with a cybernetic arm, a leg with a functional ankle wouldn’t be too hard produce.
Or Dabbler replaced Peggy’s regular prosthetic with a souped-up one as a practical joke.
Dabbler’d probably make one that transforms into a sex toy one minute and a rocket launcher the next.
I remember this anime I used to watch in the eighties where they had this huge mecha with boobs that were rockets. Forgot what the anime was called. It was aired on a new TV staton that played stuff like that and Speed Racer, both versions of Voltron and other Japanese stuff. Early eighties.
Might’ve been Tranzor Z. (Can’t remember the Japanese name) If so the robot in question was Aphrodite A, the mech belonging to the Scientist’s Daughter/Hero’s Girlfriend.
Nah, at the same time.
Great, now I’m picturing Peggy taking her leg off and it starts firing penis-shaped missiles…Thank you Cthulhuearrng, you’ll be getting my brain’s drycleaning bill. :P
Until they’re ‘target-seeking’ penis-shaped missiles, your brain can be considered clean. How unclean it is afterwards depends entirely on what you consider a ‘target’ – or rather, what you think our resident Succubus would consider a ‘target’.
And on that savoury note, I leave you at your psyche’s mercy. I would say “insert evil laugh here”, but there doesn’t seem to be anywhere free to do so.
I’m picturing her with a machine gun attatched to her leg like that one in the zombie movie they made about six years ago.
The one QuintonT. made. Forgot the name, it wasn’t that good.
Actually it is possible to operate a WW2 British fighter with 2 prosthetic legs. The first time English Ace Douglas Bader was shot down over France the German POW Hospital shipped him back to England gratis in the belief he was a helpless cripple. They figured it out the second time tho.
The pedals for yaw are just position sensitive, so they should be easy with a prosthetic. My grandfather has no problems working the gas & brake in a car with a prosthetic foot. Oddly the toe brakes in normal aircraft would likely be more difficult, but even then she’d just have to move her foot up the pedal 1st.
I have more issues with the secretary with a HUGE neck. I have a huge neck, and it’s very rare. My neck is as wide as my head, and I have to buy dress shirts that I could wear as a muumuu then get them tailored down to just a shirt. Necks proportionally as big as mine are even more rare on women, though that might be more due to the lack of women football teams.
The secretary’s neck needs to be re-drawn, shaded, or something. It didn’t look so bad last week. That or she’s a mutant of some sort, not necessarily with useful powers.
Yeah I’m having trouble drawing someone who doesn’t have a razor sharp jawline. I may be overdoing it with her neck a little. Sandy’s not supposed to be hugely overweight, just… you know, average person looking.
That’s the problem with doing a comic with all the awesome little details like her pinky, it means we notice. Something like that in Schlock mercenary I wouldn’t unnoticed… or I’d think it’s an alien.
I was thinking a shadow from her hair would make it look better in panel 1, but now I’m not so sure.
Anyway I like the comic, as an ADHD veteran.
Maybe she’s an obsessive weightlifter? You know, in building full of the beautiful brawny people, a girl could get self-conscious enough to do that.
That was my first thought. She might be into Judo or wresling also. They practice neck bridges and things like that so they don’t get their necks broken when they fight.
Regarding Ariannas mad laughter, to give her the benefit of doubts, it is entirely possible that she uses wicked humour as a defence-mechanism to cope with the fact that the people she work with could, at a moments notice turn her into: 1) A squashed puddle of ground meat. 2) A statue of charbroiled flesh. 3) Something so horrible she hasn’t even dared imagine it yet.
Or she could be a fan of Dr Horribles Sing-along-blog.
I don’t see Arianna as a Dr. Horrible fan, but she does seem like the type to sit through every Bond movie ever.
rooting for the ‘villains’?
man, i don’t know why, but at first i thought you said “vanilians” and i was “huh? WTF?” what does the flavor have to do with Bond bad guys?… then i thought of one of the “races” in an RPG miniature line that just got funded on kickstarter… the race was evolved from our snack cakes… the “creamfillians”… they tend to be kinda P.O’d that we ate their ancestors…
Nothing like a well devised trick working as planned. Everyone should evil laugh from time to time, very therapeutic. <3 Arianna
Heheh. I can see Peggy, halfway through her babysitting detail with Sydney and Dabbler, sending Max a message containing a single word:
“WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?”
The text message is going to be: “Dinner is going to be really good, after this!”
Or she will end up two bullets lighter.
Save for the weight of the shells, assumeing Peggy policed her brass. But of course, it’s not like snipers are in the habit of doing things to cover themselves like picking up their bullet casings
two words –caseless ammo– and I don’t doubt arcfire (amunition explosives and ordinance section) has access to and the willingness to such rounds for “trigger tango” peggy
Caseless is hardly military standard yet. It probably will be soon. (For all we don’t know it has been used for Special Forces right now in the 150+ countries the 60,000 or so are in right now.)
I assume there’s a reason caseless ammo isn’t just the standard across the board other than it’s probably more expensive. Less reliable? Less accurate? I’m sure there are a lot of opinions about it, but not having to deal with the torrent of casings some guns can output would be a significant advantage in some cases I’d imagine.
basicly it is the price with minor secondary reasons of propelant stability in transit and firing chamber tolerance specifications (both size/clearance and ignition forces)
Something tells me that when we flash forward to a later date Sydney and Dabbler are going to be good friends, if they aren’t out right acting like a married couple around their cohorts and in public. I f the last frame is anything to go on.
ADHD sisters (BFF?) without sibling rivalry. Everybody else makes a Wisdom check at -2 when encountering the pair, or get confused and lose a turn. Just make a normal Wisdom check when encountering only one of them or lose initiative.
That reminds me ov my favorite GM’s saying….
“Jesus saves, everyone else roll for half damage”
One time he did that, he forgot that one person named his character ‘Jesus’ Olivera.
So when Dabbler talks about twisting little fingers, it is incredibly inappropriate, but when Ariana says it, it is only highly inappropriate. Sure Leon, show Ariana’s reaction at the beginning of the press conference; that will go over well.
It’s separate, not sperate. Sorry.
I am becoming more and more of a fan of Ariana, and I liked her from the get go. Now though I wonder if Maxima will get the addresses of everyone who commented on youtube and beat them to a pulp.
This is the second cell phone pic she’s tried to block. What do you want to bet Math’s photo of her is a shot of her breasts?
The Dangerously Unofficial version:
Math tried it. Against all expectations, he did actually manage to get the photo (tranquillisers are rumoured to have been involved). However, he was later forced to delete the picture and all copies by the unanimous order of every other member of ARC, after Max’s attempts to catch him caused severe structural damage to the building.
This incident may or may not be related to the construction activity observed as Sydney and Max flew in.
Oh, that is awesome.
For some reason, Math seems to be very easy to abuse with this sort of off-topic scenario.
Rank mistake… isn’t Max a full colonel? then why abreviate her rank as Lieutenant Colonel (one grade lower, while still using the bird-colonel insignia), or have you ret-conned this?
Lt. Col. is silver oakleaves, btw…. in ALL services that have the rank
Love the accuracy of the YT comments :)
Makes it seem like an actual screen cap from a vid XD
btw Dave – excellent detail with Peggy’s throat mike – curious though that it’s unlabeled
She doesn’t have a handle. Yet.
…I just went back to the cast page. I had assumed that “Peggy” WAS her callsign [hangs head in shame]
Well seeing as she has a prosthetic leg, “Peggy” wouldn’t be a bad handel for her. Although, it would be a rather mean thing to call an amputee and I’m sure her artificial leg is notably more advanced than a peg leg. At any rate, don’t beat yourself up over it.
Hawkeye! [no that’s been taken] ^_~
How about Artemis though? Goddess of the hunt, and a round about tribute to the movie sniper his team called “god.”
Well “Deadeye” comes to mind or go the alliteration route with “Pistol Packing Peg” .
Deadeye has been used.
https://www.comicvine.com/deadeye/29-42648/
And when of course there was the Dead-Eye Westerns.
https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=1094
And others.
I would have to vote against Bullseye because of the awful DD villain. Kept wishing he’d die off.
If Sydney finds out she has a artificial leg she will immediately call her a Pirate. So maybe the call-sign should reflect that. No one ever called a Pirate Handicapped or crippled. Not and lived to brag about it.
Well, “Flyswatter” would imply she can shoot a fly at long range, or just plain “Swatter”…
“Peg” could be a double-meaning, being both short for “Peggy” and a reference to taking the target down a Peg.
…my vote is for ‘Overwatch’ because that is what she does…
I vote for the TT “trigger tango” with outline of pistols making the Ts
Not sure. “Overwatch” to me implies more of an all-encompassing but largely passive observation role, similar to the ‘baseline’ military’s AWACS planes – either that, or the legal team back at base making sure the field team don’t go too far.
…or a reference to her ability to always “peg” her target…?
Isn’t she missing a leg? As in Peg-Leg? (I will now apply for a 3000m restraining order.)