Grrl Power #1347 – Schwinn…g?
So Flash Drive is supposed to be ridiculously hot. In the comic, he suffers from my artistic limitations, as well as the fact that I am a heterosexual male with a finite understanding of what women find attractive. The first panel with his face (don’t ask what happened to his helmet. He super speeded it off I guess. And… hid it behind his back?) But in that first panel, I think he’s probably kind of hot? Like in a “I am a conspicuously attractive male and you wouldn’t be surprised seeing my face doing a Blue Steel thing in an underwear ad but if you saw me at a bar, your defenses would go up because I look like I know I’m super hot and am therefore kind of a smug dick” way. In the next two panels, that 3/4 view… I think his comeliness drops about 6 points in those. I just couldn’t match the face. Or, maybe I could have, but this is two double pages in a row when I’m already pressed for time, so… Anyway, the gag is that he’s super hot and women (and a certain percentage of men) go gooey.
Oh, and I’m sure people who are super into cycling might have some opinion about Flash Drive’s bike. Look, I don’t know how to draw bikes. I found a 3D model of a reasonable looking bike, screen shotted it at different angles, and traced it. Not some titanium $20,000 Tour de France number, just a bike that didn’t look like a 60 pound Radio Flyer cruiser that rattles going down a sidewalk like a knight in full plate on a galloping horse.
I’m going to try something with this new vote incentive.
This month, I’m closing on a new house, selling my Mom’s house, finishing packing Mom’s house, moving city to city to the new house, forwarding mail, canceling utilities, all that. And after that’s done, I get to start the process of selling my old house, which needs a little work before it can realistically go on the market.
SO. I’m going to try and do this vote incentive in stages. Currently it’s just pencils. The TopWebcomics one will update with colors and detail until we get to the no clothes versions, then that will continue over at Patreon. Also there will be a comic or two in between each version to fill out the story.
I know it’s hard to tell from just the pencils, but this is Heatwave and Jiggawatt. The comics will explain why they’re doing what they’re doing. Although I feel like even saying that much makes it easy to guess, but hopefully the journey will still amuse.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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.
As a straight male with no artistic talent, natural or cultivated, I’m of the opinion that this looks like an incredibly attractive guy.
I would definitely agree that it’s an improvement over the last portrait of Hiro that you commented was supposed to be “generically hot”. Which when I read it back to myself that way sounds kind of like a diss but I swear its not- I’m being honest that I can see the improvement in your art.
Also, just as an aside, when I was trying to learn how to draw I thought guys where way harder. Girls were easy; they were just all curves. But boys are kinda blocky, so every dude I drew ended up either looking like a girl or like a robot wearing a t-shirt >_<
I dare say you speak for most of us straight males.
As a homosexual female with no artistic talent, natural or cultivated, I’m of the opinion that this looks like an incredibly attractive guy.
As a heterosexual female with medium artistic talent, I’m of the opinion that your opinion is correct.
As a mostly heterosexual male with my only artistic talent being the Art of Bullshit, I’m of the opinion that your opinion of her opinion is correct.
I’m also of the opinion that everyone has *some* Artistic Talent, they just need to figure out what it is.
I’m also also of the opinion that, if he were smiling, Flash Drive would look like Walton Goggins.
As a demisexual person who is too lazy to be considered artistically talented, I think he fits the societal standards for what determines male attractiveness but I’d rather play a boardgame with him first to check and make sure.
I am just picturing Henry Cavill in cyclist-spandex, and we’re there. Oh lord are we there…..
Or if you’re a lot older, that scene from Dallas of Patrick Duffy getting out of the shower.
As a pansexual male I can confirm his 2nd and 3rd face panels suffer from what I’ll here deem resting Deus face. Like you maybe tried to draw your own tiny resentment of hotness like it was a character trait that ensmuggened him.
It’s fair. Not awful. Not un-handsome. Just somewhat idk, creeper or smug rich guy vibes.
Maybe something to do with how his face… uh, genuinely looks a little flatter there? Like his cheek bones shrunk.
I’m not an expert artist or art critic. My wife draws and I can vaguely name some things better than most do I think. Hope this helps. Very good hotness first panel. If only he didn’t look super lip puckery in the next panels it might all be too subtle to notice.
Ah. Jaw more than cheekbones. Much flatter looking at the angle. angles are hard I’m not about to fault you that. Just trying to… name this nebulous… it’s oddness is all, oddness. Not bad just the first panel, SO GOOD, standards that were then not quite matched. Idk. Great as always. I hate critiquing awesome art it’s hard to say these things and also go WOW JEEZ, JEALOUS, GREAT, YES too. Because I do. And am. Saying that too.
*… Road runner noises and departure…*
To me, it seems like his mouth is too small for his face? Too narrow, anyway… and maybe a little too high? As you said, Deus is the same way, but on him it gives a suggestion of smugness that seems fitting.
I’m guessing maybe the problem is that, when Dave tries to draw an attractive person’s mouth, he ends up drawing a mouth similar to what he’d put on an attractive woman, but his attractive women have decidedly narrower jawlines than his attractive men.
I’m no artist either, so am probably not explaining it well, but hopefully Dave’ll find something useful somewhere in our two comments.
Just to add, in case it was ambiguous: that panel in which he says Elsbeth Manischewitz? Completely agree that he looks fine there. It’s just the following panels that look off.
I got hints of Pierce Brosnan as well, but yeah, he look good. I’m sure his package is delivered on time and it’s packed with care
Now that you mention…
Yeah, I can see it in the full frontal shot. It’s the pose.
i’m amazed that so few comments mention the size of the.. package, it’s very visible on the frontal shot indeed
Judging from her blurting choice of words, Ellie definitely noticed and is fantasizing on it.
I see some Brosnan in him now that you say it, but my first association was “a young Bruce Campbell”.
I had a crush on Bruce Campbell for most of my teenage years.
A little overdeveloped in the upper body, but as that’s the state of all male supers in your universe I’ll allow it. I have been waiting for years , I’m not going to make you redraw it to my vision of the character.
Superion channelers in this setting definitely embody that mix of athletic fitness and hunk/bombshell, sexually-dimorphic attractiveness ideal that the sexualized, fanservice-y part of the superhero genre has long cultivated. If you are longing for a different take on super characters with inherent, non-magical abilities you are OoL in the Grrlverse.
Even among the Thaumion users we got generous coverage of that beauty ideal on the female side thanks to succubi being one of the most successful and prominent subgroups. Can’t say I disapprove the tastes of Nth beings, ancient mages, and succubi matriarchs (and the author) one bit.
Good job on that reverse Akira slide.
I mean he kinda looks like Henry Cavill in that first frame… so I’d say good job on the hotness?
Can’t really imagine what use a speedster has for a bike helmet. If there’s any risk of a tumble or smash he or she is going to need a lot more structural protection to avoid being a long smear.
He might have a helmet for streamlining and to reduce drag.
It could even be to keep the bugs out of his hair, considering the speed he cycles at.
Maybe it’s just to set a good example to kids.
Or it’s a combination of reasons.
Would need a face shield on that helmet too to keep the bugs out of his face/eyes.
I agree. If he gets unseated, he would need something like a high-speed motorcycle helmet. He might be wearing a more traditional helmet to follow state/municipal laws.
Depends on how his powers work. If it’s something like a warp effect where from his perspective he’s mostly just going a normal speed, a tumble would be no worse than one for a cyclist going at a normal speed. If he’s actually physically strong enough to bring his bike up to those speeds (which would probably require a rather-resilient bike), he’s probably resistant enough to damage that a tumble isn’t going to hurt him anyway (which would make him a serious powerhouse, akin to Accelerando from Legion of Nothing). If he has that actual speed but no special resilience (aside from not tearing his own body apart moving Because Reasons), then he would indeed need a more substantial helmet, probably some motorcycle armor as well. My guess is it’s some variant of the first, probably with some of the resilience of the second (in which case, as you note, he may just be wearing a bicycle helmet for legal reasons – and possibly also because he wants non-Super kids who look up to him to be safe on their own bikes).
Love the LoN reference. I need to catch up on that.
From the warp perspective, (Which is how I always imagine speedsters myself.) he’s got an incredibly boring job that pays really badly in terms of dollars per subjective hour. Well, or his clientele consists entirely of people paying too much for deliveries in order to get some eye candy.
You’ve got to assume he’s got subsidiary powers such as immunity to boredom, and only aging according to regular time no matter how fast he’s going, (Wasn’t that part of the Flash’s canon powers?) or else being a delivery guy is a bad career choice, he’d be much better finding a job where extremely short bursts of superspeed were enough.
Serious bikers (and runners for that matter) generally don’t get bored while doing their thing, although of course crossing a good distance if they are experiencing time at a different rate is going to call for a great deal of stamina. Accelerated aging would be a much more serious concern, so hopefully that’s not in play here. But what I was thinking of with the warp comment wasn’t experiencing time at a different rate, but rather having the world go past you at a much greater speed than you’re truly moving (which is what warp drives do – they aren’t actually going faster than the speed of light within their bubble, they’re just going from point a to point b in less time than it takes light to travel there). Naturally, that would need to come with boosted mental speed as well for him to be able to react well enough to avoid getting into an accident (or have him become intangible, but then he’d still be causing accidents as people react to him, plus that doesn’t track with him making noise and leaving dust clouds in his wake), so boredom could still be a concern (but again, I don’t think that’s an issue if he’s that into biking).
You could try comparing a cheetah’s sensory processing speed to that of a human. The very best of us can run up to 40 km/h so we have evolved to handle things at that speed. Cheetahs run at 100 km/h or more, so their processing speed is more than twice ours.
I saw a zookeeper bringing some food into the cheetah compound and do some magic tricks with the blocks of meat to provide mental enrichment, but the cheetahs tracked the meat no matter what he did. The humans lost track of the food, but not the cheetahs.
His first panel looks as if his wiener might be hurting.
Although I doubt it is the case here, a poorly fitted bicycle seat can do that.
Just go with “Tom Cruise in his early 30s:
Nah, too tall. If he were Tom Cruise, panel 5 would be life-size.
Do you think he puts playing cards in his spokes for sound effects?
The bike looks fine, no issues.
~ a cyclist
Yes, he wouldn’t want one of fancy light weight bikes anyways. Most of those are fragile little flowers. And the light weight is so a normal human can push them faster. He’s a super, his biggest drag is probably going to be actual drag at the speeds he’s going.
Realistically he’s going to want a thick robust strong steel frame. That is going to stand up to the rigors of going insane speeds.
Yeah, looks like a functional bike, not one of those poncy Tour bikes :P
Overly muscular tends to be scary rather than sexy …
If you think Henry Cavill in the Witcher though …
Richard Armitage (like in his role of Thorin) …
Strangely enough David Bowie in The Labyrinth (in a very VERY 80s sense). Muscles aren’t everything. Athletic can be sexy too …
Super Cyclist have pants like the Goblin Kings.
As a cyclist, I question how he’s holding the handle bars in the third panel. Holding the drops or the (non-existent, because it’s a track bike with no brakes, not a street-legal road bike) hoods would be more comfortable, with better manoeuvrability and aerodynamics.
Brakes: Most likely a “fixie”, which is a fixed-gear bicycle; no freewheeling clutch so the pedals are turning if the wheels are turning. To slow/stop the bike you slow/stop pedaling. Depending on local laws, some of those don’t have brakes in the real world.
This actually makes sense for a super with a “super bubble”, where he would use his powers to stop instead of normal friction brakes. I’m assuming the skid was just to show off because if he skidded that much on stopping he would skid the same while starting or turning, making high speeds impossible.
Looks like the cross-bar (the part that holds the handle-bars in place), as shown in panel Skid-Mark
I assumed he’d (super-speedily) whipped off his “missing” helmet and is currently holding it and his handlebars (or whatever the technical term is these days) with his left hand, which is safely out of sight off-panel.
“So Flash Drive is supposed to be ridiculously hot. ” You succeeded. Wow, you succeeded.
When in doubt, go with the math. There are mathematical proportions to features that we’re hardwired to find appealing.
Super speed is impossible to make sense of if you think too much about it so he probably have a magic bike or something.
The OC has superspeed when he built the bike he rides, because his powers were granted by deities after he was injured in a wreck that angered them, and because I was building bikes when I created the character. The deities are also why he’s incredibly hot because they put him back together by their standards (and because I got more build points by making him so hot he has to hide his face in public). In canon he can change sexual orientation to wanting him regardless of what you are regularly, not because he wants to but because that’s just how hot he is. In-game his GF is blind but has known him since school, so he knows she wants him for him, not because she’s smitten by his looks.
Thanks for explaining. A demigod of cycling works for me.
Close. In canon he has super speed and invulnerability on any bike he builds himself. In case of a wreck that takes him off the bike invulnerability continues for several seconds after departing the bike. In game I just had him touching the bike in situations that might call for invulnerability, or he could use the bike as a weapon. In game he also had the shortcoming that his speed was fueled by his body reserves, so he had to carry around energy bars and protein bars and he was always eating between meals and meals were like Goku’s, ridiculously large portions and several portions per meal with lots of carbs and fats and normal person amounts of protein
Out of curiosity, does his invulnerability extend to the bike he’s touching? It seems like that would need to for him to be able to ride relatively-normal (but built-by-him) bikes without seriously damaging them.
Yes if he built it. He can’t just grab a bike out of the rack and go high subsonic speed on the roads. But he can build a bike in just a few hours, less than a day if he doesn’t care about painting it.
Seriously are you ever going to get back to the actual main story? Or is the “Three months later” for Corporal Scoville driving into Arc-Swat bit on your very first few pages not canon any more? It has been way more than 3 months even with her time skip and you are just adding more and more random filler stuff that adds zero to the story and not even the main character has been seen in weeks
Sydney was seen last week, when she tried to out E-Sci
You know what “actual main story” is? Pray do tell, oh Fake One
March 20th was a brief in the background, so not “Last week” and fully over a month and WTF is this fake one? Are you still crying about the fact I have a similar name to you yet explained I have had this handle for literally decades, grow up and crawl back to your safe space.
The actual main story is Sidney and the original part was going to explain how she became a corporal in 3 months from recruitment. There are loads of constant sub plots and suddenly a random bit about building a dungeon to harvest crap to make potions is now the central part.
‘Similar’ name? That’s literally the name was using up to about two or three years ago, go back to the start of this webic and ‘Guesticus’ was me
Now, now, you both have equally-retarded names, no need to get up in a fit over it.
(I’m joking, the names are actually kinda funny)
As for the main plot… have you (current Guesticus, not the poster formerly known as Guesticus) actually been reading the comic? While Sydney is largely the primary focus, the bulk of the entire comic has been subplots. Vehemence, the Ascensioners (I think that was their name, the ones abducting people and experimenting on them), Deus, Maxima’s history, Peggy’s story, Decollete’s protege, the Twilight Council, the aliens, Sciona (and the Alari, plus whoever was in charge of Nega-Squidward and co), Dabbler and Parfait… The Dungeon is just another subplot, albeit one linked with quite a bit of the above (Deus, the Twilight Council, Sciona, and Dabbler, certainly; I would be surprised if someone associated with the Ascensioners doesn’t have their fingers somewhere in the pie as well; it’s likely the aliens will take note as well).
Dude, you have got to get over the name similarity jealousy thing.
You don’t ‘own’ your online handle.
It is not a good look. In fact, it’s basically childish.
It’s like having the name ‘Franklin’ and being upset because another kid moved into town who is also named Franklin.
One of you happens to go by Franky, the other by Frank.
No offense, just hoping to shock you into seeing what you’re doing.
Also why would they change their handle? I never even interacted with them and they keep on about I have “stolen their name they used to have”…
Right because we all know what you used to be called several years ago and now you use another name for “unknown reasons” and we have to go back to the start of a 10+ year old comic and search through the comments to “look for them”. Really weird.
Tecnically speaking,the entire webcomic is about ‘day in the life’ of superheroes. So I’m not sure what ‘main story’ you mean. There are actually multiple story arcs going on constantly. The one we are currently in is partially about the building of a dungeon. There’s also the ‘Sciona is back’ storyline. But there’s no ‘single’ storyline in grrlpower, as far as I know.
The whole comic is basically “filler”. Not quite old live-action The Tick, where the action all basically occurred off-screen, but it’s deliberately about silly interstitial scenes.
If you’re still expecting a “main story” after being led on for more than a decade, that’s on you.
Straight Female here.
Yes, you hit the “ridiculously hot” button. Not many comics can make me sit up and say “OH HI!” like that first thing in the morning.
The commentors comparing him to Henry Cavil are right.
Adding my vote to this comment as a bi female. I also do not respond in such a way to most comics, even if I can acknowledge that the characters have been drawn as attractive…but this guy? Hoo boy!
should draw the bike chain/gear being glowing hot with sizzle effects
He has probably swapped out the bike chain with a high-speed motorcycle chain just to handle the forces needed. You do not want the chain to be glowing because that would mean it is heating up from friction and losing its strength; it would be much more likely to fail.
Panel 4 is Henry Cavill… the 5th panel is the guy who took 3rd place in Conan O’Brian’s ‘Audience famous look-alike contest’
Sciona is liking human men at this rate……
Ellie isn’t Sciona.
She is no longer nearby but might come back. The last with white hair is one of the wizards from the Council. Mind you, Sciona is probably being influenced by Scorpia’s naturally occurring (possibly enhanced) hormones. Her ovaries may not have died when she got shot.
We already got evidence that Sciona does not mind taking a break from supervillain business for quality sexy time even when she was in her original body. Since she got in Escorpia’s body and mellowed out somewhat she seems to have made that a regular part of her lifestyle, as per the ongoing affair with 6xguy shows. Being in a super body surely influences her.
Escorpia’s ovaries almost surely weren’t damaged when she died since she was shot in the upper chest and Sciona’s mind/soul reanimated the body mere moments after Escorpia died. And even if they had been, surely Sciona’s blood magic could repair them flawlessly.
It’s not Sciona – it’s Ellie/Elsbeth. She’s a mage apprentice to Master Gault of the Council who is ‘attached’ to a magical tome called the ‘Book of Holding’ (which she can use to conjure apparently almost anything by opening it to the correct page) by a chain around her waist. You can see the tome is currently strapped to her back with that leather corset thing in panels 6 and 7.
Not Sciona in this scene but we already got abundant evidence she does.
Somehow missed the last page, so I couldn’t comment on speedsters and bikes.
Those wheels need to be special or you are gonna have an awesome accident.
Those are designed (like all nowadays) to be optimiced for certain conditions, get out of those and they suffer.
The speed and heat would degrade those several times more than normal, plus anyone saw a board skate wheels at too much speed? They shatter. Not the case to bike wheels, but the inside pressure because the heat whould make them explode plus the degradation would create weak points to facilitate that. And that just focusing in the tires.
I mean sure, yeah, the guy is hot. But can we talk about how adorable Ellie looks in panel 6/7? Makes me wanna pet her on the head… Maybe because she looks about 10 years younger than usual?
I can confirm, Flash Drive is ridiculously hot.
Also his face looks sort of like Archer with a 5 o’clock shadow.
Archer with a 5 o’clock shadow AND NO HANGOVER.
Manischewitz ? Better check her label to see if she’s Kosher for Passover ;)
Real names have power among the magically empowered. “Manischewitz” may have been what she had to drink last night.
I kind of like the idea that a bike that can handle the superspeed legs does in fact look like a rattly old piece of crap. “Look, you can have a frame, tires, etc. that can hold up against superpowers, but it’s ugly as shit, *or* you can have a good-looking bike that bends like cooked spaghetti and bursts into flame.”
IMNSHO, it would have been funnier that way. Maybe his old rattly Schwinn with the banana seat and monkey hanger bars that he had when he was a kid is the only bike his powers work with.
If you want to make a male character look super hot, just draw him as Henry Cavill. Flash Drive looks like a cross between Cavill and Archer. Well done, sir.
I definitely thought a muscular Archer with a 5 o’clock shadow when I saw his face, so a Cavill/Archer mix sounds right on the money.
phrasing.
Funy?
Flash drive flash drive.
If you want to see an idea of what a woman artist would consider to be a hot guy, I would recommend looking up an artist named Tsuu, namely her work on Beware of Chicken. Hmm. I just realized that 99% of what I think you might want to see is paywalled behind a Patreon. But this one is available for free:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/beware-of-chicken/images/f/ff/Bi_de_ri_zu_human_form.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000
Also, a single payment of $15 would get you access to a ton of her art for a month, some of it posted on the linked discord server. And much of that being NSFW. The Patreon is for CasualFarmer, the author of Beware of Chicken, and he’s commissioned all of this art.
https://www.patreon.com/c/user/home?u=48733767
I can also pass on my wife’s opinion: Your first panel of Flash Drive’s face presents a guy who is certainly pretty enough to look at, but unless he is a specific woman’s type, that’s it. So many women would look just to enjoy the view, but a lot of them wouldn’t really want a piece of that unless his personality added a lot more.
She is also of the opinion that Tsuu does great art. And both of us happily throw out a recommendation to read Beware of Chicken as a fun read. :)
Oh, and I just realized that this might sound like a critique. I just want to be clear that this was just the best representation I could think of for your consideration because you were uncertain of how your art represented what you wanted it to.
What happened to his helmet? Well if he’s like every cyclist I’ve ever known, he left it hanging on his handlebars.
Its probably in his right hand which isnt in the panel
A good example of a super not doing hero work, but using their skill for a job. I’m sure with legs like his, he’d need a custom bike to handle the stress. Elsbeth reminds me of Sydney crushing on the delivery guy at the beginning of the strip, but Elsbeth is a few points higher on the hotness scale. I remember taking a cursed item while playing Baldor’s gate, it was a HUGE mistake. I had to start the character, it pretty much locked the old one in the level it was at. To add insult, a low one, I found out later if I had just stored it, it would have been VERY handy to have, but much later in the game.
There’s also the Barberian, who uses his superstrength for cutting and styling hair for invulnerable peopke (and presumably he styles normal person hair too)
Why does he look like the dad of the main character from Archer?
Wonder if he had trouble pronouncing “Manischewitz?” Bob Crosby always used to…
Hmmm… can a regular bike even achieve such speed? Wouldn’t it require a much larger front… star thing? (not sure on how it’s called in English) And/or super tiny back one. Wouldn’t it just top out at like 40 m/h or something no matter how strong his legs are? What sizes should they be for… what speed is he going anyway? But yeah I realize super powers kinda break logic, just curious and maybe someone who knows more can show me I’m wrong Xd
Professional cyclists following behind vehicles who break the wind for them have gotten up over 100 mph. If his power takes care of drag, he can go REALLY fast.
As the maker of the OC noted, he’s basically flying at ground level, so he doesn’t have to worry about bumps, and he reinforces his ride, so it is basically invulnerable to the stress of being used like it is.
Even more proof if we ever needed it that the Nth beings that designed Superion-channelers splurged on the Charisma, Constitution, and Strength stats for the template.
I wonder what means Flash Drive uses to stop the rest of the time when he does not have a running-track equivalent available like the smooth wall of the dungeon.
Despite showing less skin, this guy somehow feels just as risque as Dabbler.
Do we want to know where he was carrying the literal “package” he was delivering?
In his pouch, you can see part of it in panel five
Dabbler with mussed hair is really cute.
No one ever sees Flash Drive’s bike anyway, so why make it fancy?