Grrl Power #137 – I hear shampoo works better if you writhe
Since coming up with the superheroes on the bathroom signs gag, I’ve been informed that was also used in City of Heroes, so call it an unintentional post hoc homage I guess.
I originally started writing another page that extended the previous scene in the den, but like you I’m antsy to move on, so I cut it and will fit the jokes and whatever else was on that page elsewhere. This page could have been a little tighter, but I wanted to get the X-ray sign in and start the conversation about how the supers are actually physically different than regular people. It’s been alluded to previously, but mostly it’s been discussed in the comments, so I wanted to be sure it was actually said in the comic.
I didn’t get a chance to update the vote incentive, but I haven’t forgotten about Dabbler’s Science Corner. There are still several questions to be answered about Harem and her powers, plus I have an Anvil pinup in mind, plus several others. Just need to find time to draw ’em. :P
Since I haven’t recommended another webcomic lately, here’s a cute one. It’s… I think it’s semi-autobio, or probably just “inspired by life.” It’s called Curtailed, and yes, it has anthropomorphic characters in it, which I know some people get bent out of shape about, but it’s the Sabrina Online / Freefall / Sequential Art sort, (all of which are great comics as well) not… the other sort.
Edit: Fixed Sydney’s blue eyes. Also fixed the X-ray girl’s ribs so it looks more like she’s leaning forward.
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.
An Anvil pinup? I’m going to need a taller wall.
Hmmm, what sort of Pinup? A regular pinup or one like Harems Playboy pinup? (still sad wasn’t able to see the uncensored version, but one day will get back into email and reactivate the Parental approval for dA… one day /sigh)
G, create a new account, or do ya have like alot of stuff in your collection?
Don’t have anything in/on dA, just no access to email (it’s still a valid one, just a Eudora one and not used the external HD it was loaded on in going on 7 years now :P)
For your sake then, I hope it’s not restricted. If she’s got that Beyonce grin, I’ll be happy.
No super-tailors or meta-seamstresses in Archon? Bummer.
…I would recommend Edna Mode…
Dangit, where’s the “Like” button around here?
They don’t need a tailor to resize one of the uniforms for Syndney. Just take one over to Deus Industries. He’s a villain. They always have a shrink-ray lying around somewhere.
“Honey! I shrunk the skiv’s!”
*Michael Jackson voice* Gee…You THINK?!
“My bad! Umm, uh, nope. I’m not gonna ask. I’ll get the scissors, you do the snippin’.”
Hey Dave you need to use this in a joke.
get Judith Counter. she has the world record for sewing a 8 by 11 foot quilt in just 1 hour!!!
Nice use of the X-ray sign. Perfect use and area to put it in. Normally Military issue is Large and Tent size for the tiniest members.
Wondering who in ARC had the poster idea to begin with? Max, perhaps.
We know that her skin is not normal gold but something “classified”. That said though, if it shares some properties with gold, then x-rays might not go through her skin. Like lead, gold is dense enough that a reasonable thickness of it can block them.
The IDEA, not the model or the pose. The text sounds a lot like what Max might say on the subject.
Ahh, I missed that bit. In which case, yea, sounds likely. :)
maybe… or Anvil… or any of the super women
I appreciate that superheroines on bathroom signs don’t have a freaking skirt. The X-ray vision gag is hilarious!
Although… since when does Sidney have blue eyes?
I only know Sequential Art of the anthro webcomics but I like that you quote it as the “implied-non-pornographic” kind of anthro. Still, you do know the artist makes money drawing anthro porn right? (Not that I hold it against him, SA is brilliant).
what is strange about that,, i have,,, ok not sure of exact english term,,, but i have color changing eyes,,, they are either green,, grey or blue,,, depending of lighting,, mood or clothes i wear
I myself have ‘blue-grey’ eyes according to my driver’s license, but, i can’t see the colour of my own eyes when i look, and when i’ve asked others, i always (always) get a different answer
I have the same kind of eyes. The only constant is a kind of “sunburst” of hazel centred on the pupil.
I myself have Hazel eyes but have been told they were green or brown on different occasions and have seen some change but don’t know why.
My mom’s eyes are the same way, while I get “Mississippi Mud” brown eyes.
I’ve got hazel eye’s as well. Mine turn gold in sunlight.
What’s really weird is they glow a bit under florescent lights.
Oddly enough, some of my friends have told me my eyes get a green-gold starburst when my temper starts to fray. They tend to see it as the sign to defuse the situation before someone gets hurt.
Ditto, except my eyes aren’t a cool color like hazel,they’re brown. But, apperently its a warning sign to my friends when they turn black.
My brother has it cooler, his eyes are light brown and when he’s pissed they turn orange.
Black is scarier though. As for mine, the only variation in their appearance is in ambiant colors and lighting. Essentialy they don’t change (as far as I’m aware) but they can appear a different color and shade as a trick of perception, due to haveing multiple colors mixed in. Short version is I’m becoming quite envious of all the people with the cool eyes.
Marissa my eyes are a dark enough brown that it’s hard see my pupils, and makes the occasional starburst rather startling.
I have been told that my eyes go an icy grey almost white colour when I lose my temper. My younger brother calls it “The Pissed-Off Byakugan”
My eyes vary from slate grey to sky blue to blue green.
From what I’ve seen in the mirror anyway. People have told me my eyes get even greener.
salut anon. francais right? le terme que tu cherche est “hazel“
yeah dave your comic is so good even french people love to read it ^_^
There’s a version of the comic in Spanish, now I need French, Japanese, Russian, Korean, German, and Zulu.
I used to be reasonably fluent in Zulu. But it has atrophied over many years of non-use. Along with half a dozen other languages. Sadly, I could not even string together a basic greeting now.
Wow Dave, your becoming world famous!
I have blue eyes that change to silver or green or blue-green, it’s just an interpation of the Tyndall Effect, yes that is a real thing look it up if you want.
Whoops! How the hell did I do that? Well, that’s something to fix this afternoon. :P
It looks like you transposed Sydney’s and Peggy’s eye colours. In her bio pic Peg’s are blue.
I think Peggy’s bio is wrong. She’s had hazel eyes as long as I can remember. Let me check. In #108, we see her talking to Max. Hazel eyes. In #109 thru 112, she has hazel eyes. In #116 thru 120, hazel. In this one, #137, hazel. Her eyes have never been blue.
Geeze. You would think I’d be better at referencing my own reference material when I draw a character for what is essentially the first time.
Well, that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? I don’t want to speak for everyone on these pages, but I’ll bet most of us posters are trying to help. I sure as hell can’t draw like you do, or invent plot lines, or jokes, or sight-gags, or any of that stuff. At all. But I can tell you where I think you missed a spot (without being too pompous about it, I hope). If I don’t, someone else will. Since you never seem to get butt-hurt whenever someone spots an oopsy, we’ve sort of become your proof-readers. Gladly, in my case. :)
Yup, even the greats need spotters, and so far, haven’t really seen anyone be nasty about errors (or even too overly picky about percieved errors, and even then, they tend to be polite when they themselves have been corrected)
I only get butt-hurt if people try and point out errors via suppository. Not sure how that would work exactly, but you get the point.
I guess us making a bit of a game of it doesn’t apply ;)
I sometimes wonder if the Easter eggs are, well, I don’t want to say deliberate. Let’s say condoned. I’m sure Dave has noticed how much fun people have with them. If so, I think that’s nice.
Can kinda understand: people making up stuff from background information, and then telling you where you made a ‘mistake’ with a character that you haven’t even fully introduced yet (or something like that :P)
I think the spotting goes both ways. I’ve noticed people telling each other that they are mistaken, where appropriate. No drama, or not much. It’s usually something everyone can see for themselves.
I don’t want to know how that works, and I’m a little nervous, now. It just occured to me that you could easily illustrate an example, using a “volunteer” from the audience. Ahem. I’ll be nice. I promise. :)
Quite right. Looking again her eyes are not blue anywhere else but the cast page bio-pic.
Yeah well when you get to panel 6 you might want to also fix the colour of Syd’s ear. I don’t think it matches the glow of any orb that might still be on that side of her head.
Actually, if you check the order of the orbs in panel 5, the purple orb should be just off-screen by her ear in panel 6
Well, I guess we have discovered the powers of one of the mystery orbs. It changes the eye color of the owner at random times. (maybe based on emotions, like a mood ring)
Official designation: the eye-ball.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Maybe one of the orbs turned her eyes blue to protect her against x-ray vision? Maybe it’s some sort of anti scrying orb? She’d never know if it was working cause she wouldn’t see the effects. The person doing the scrying would have the effect of not being able to. After all, Gwen couldn’t see what was in the tube with her magic. She said it actually seemed too empty. Dabbler’s magical attempt to analyze the orbs didn’t work either.
DaveB, the term is “slice of life”. ;-)
So disabled guys can use the girls changing rooms?
The answer is probably no, but you just know SOMEONE is going to tempt luck, fate, and a super-heroine smack-down to try.
Err, no. The sign just shows that there are appropriate facilities in both the gents and ladies. Rather than there just being a separate unisex one.
The signs are just indicating that the bathrooms are set up to accommodate people who are using wheelchairs and other similar mobility aids. When Professor Xavier visits, he will be asked to use the room on the left.
Does it make me a loser to want that sign for my house? Or that I would totally feel insecure being the short girl on the team, too?
BTW: Sydney’s eyes miraculously turned blue, at some time. Didn’t know if that was on purpose.
No, you’re an appreciator of fine art. And an underdog. Everyone roots for underdogs, if that’s any consolation. ;)
Ahh… City of Heroes… >sniffles< Yeah… now we all know what the CoH in my name stands for. Alas, I miss thee still my sweet super-simulator…
Yea, now there is nowhere to go when you get the urge to slip on the spandex and leap over tall buildings in a single bound.
Let’s hope the open source version gets up and running sometime.
Champions Online (closest), DC online – both free to play, and they definitely scratch the ‘I need to wear tights and smash villains’ vibe. :)
or the “wanna wear spandex and screw with the Heroes” itch
Believe they make a cream for that now :P
It’s on the pharmacy shelves, in between the Vaseline & the KY Jelly…It’s called Cream of Hero.
Cream of Hero? Thought that’s what they called a Super-porn money-shot.
Oops! My mistake…Cream of Hero is in the aisle with canned soups…
also in the dairy isle; with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry flavors either smooth (low fat) or rich spread. it’s a brand not a product.
Alas, those programs do not like my obsolete graphics card. Although CoH was fine with it. It is on my extensive list of things to buy or repair when I can divert something from the “reserve this for dying avoidance” fund.
Had a slightly similar problem with DCUO not working properly: turned out it simply didn’t like the external HD going through a Belkin 4-way USB-hub :P
Steelclaw of the Forum Lists and the absurd spreadsheets playstyle? Or am I thinking of another dude?
Yep, that’s me.
Creator of such random idiocies as “City of Oz”, “The Great Pun Riot of ’04” and more top 10 lists than David Letterman.
And, of course, Spreadsheets… lots of pretty, pretty Spreadsheets… Excel… My Precioussssss….
I notice they specified that none of the “guys” have x-ray vision. That doesn’t mean none of the girls do. I wouldn’t put it past Dabbler to have a spell that let’s her see through clothes.
But as Peggy said, they wouldn’t have to wait for them to get into the shower to use it (and would still look like the image)
actually, it would depend on the type of x-ray vision. if it works more like a backscatter X-ray system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backscatter_X-ray) like the TSA uses, it would be capable of seeing through clothing but not flesh, so you’d see a monochrome image of the persons naked body. which could actually cause some problems of its own. there is no real way to assume that special vision can be selectively turned off (snakes with IR sensing pits always sense using it, animals with UV vision range can’t turn it off, etc), so a person with backscatter xray vision would always see the ‘naked’ image overlayed over his/her regular vision. now consider how non-sexy the examples in that wikipedia article are.. and how out of shape so many people are in the world today. yeah. that person would have issues…
if they can see xray light, it would be similar to the poster.. they’d see bones beneath their regular vision. similar issues there as with the backscatter type.. not as embarrassing, but certainly more creepy for the person in question. many mental health issues would arise.
There are probably people with x-ray vision, just not here. They all have jobs with the TSA doing screenings at the airport. Which means they could probably check each person in line in matter of seconds, but like bureaucrats everywhere, they just like making people wait.
It’s better to have selective clairvoyance than x-ray vision.
….. Or just a decent internet connection, if all one does with it is look at naked bodies.
Heh heh. A pretty common question, yeah. :P
yeah for more peggy!!
and sidney,,, i can relate,, beeing on the barely there side of five feet and on rather small built it can be tough getting clothes outside kiddy section,,,, except for my feet,,, i have huge feets for my size,, wearing size 9-10 depending on model!
I kinda know where you’re coming from on the matter of foot size, however, consider this, if you halve your foot size, you almost always get pretty close to your actual height (or , rather, the height you ‘should’ be)
according to some makes, tho, that means I should be at least 7 foot tall.
(I’m 4 foot and 23 inches tall)
4’23” = 5’11” is not that unusual. Right around average height for men in North America/Europe (5’10” – don’t have stats for other parts of the world). Well above average, but not freakishly so, for women (5’3″ is average). So you are taller than 99% of the women around you.
Have you considered that you might have Hobbits in your family tree? :)
I don’t have large feet but I do have slightly hairy toes and can be quite stealthy when I want.
At least you can find shoes that fit sigh I’m a 10/3E if I could find a shoe in my actual size it would be an 8 4 possible 5 e now. They just don’t make shoes wide enough for me even the 10/3E is hard to find. In the Army they shoved my foot into an 8/3E broke both my little toes in basic, so I am really picky about what I put on my feet. As I told my Drill Sargent I don’t have feet I’m from Washington state we have flippers.
My brother had size 13 feet and at one time fungus so bad the dog would leave the room when he took his shoes off. My mom banned them to his room. He went through sneakers so fast I used to joke that they rotted off. Later I started to do the same because my toes spread when I walk and eventually split the seams.
My prob with shoes is my toes curl up when I lift my feet as I walk and then back down as I touch ground, I tend to cut slits in the sides and top of the toes of my shoes because of it.
that’s why you trim and blunt your claws before donning coverings shoes or gloves
I do. The fact I have monkey-toes makes it almost useless though =P
*designs you swim flippers with treads and arch support*
Goldbond live it if I get foot rot. Fastest I ever wore out a pair of shoes was three days but when I was a kid I was hell on foot ware. I split out the side of my shoes normally after about six months, Only recently needed to get orthopedic inserts sigh Super Feet for the win.
Totally reminds me of the Smallville episode where Clark gets his X-ray vision.
Sydney could have gone geek and pointed out that you’d just have to focus on what exactly you’d be trying to see through (excluded here: the femaly body).
And If somebody had, would they really be dopey enough to tell?
Besides, who could actually notice that somebody used x-ray vision?
Yeah, forgot about fine tuning how far deep the x-ray can go
How would someone know? By the goofy look on their face (and the erection/puddle of drool)
given densities, and how X-rays work, chances are if you can see through clothes then you are also seeing through several layers of skin.
Now heat sense might be different but with body heat trapped by clothes a bit blurry, and still a ghostly silhoutte.
(and yes I know I spelled that wrong)
you would need a reality filtering vision, like biomass only (so still screwed if wearing cotton), unless its living biomass only, in which case top skin layer and hair is missing.
but a Biomass filter vision is a great tool for locating enemies hiding in warehouses and whatnot.
hmm… assuming the individual could do so, I see two possibilities: 1) MRI-like “slices” of visuals (seeing to specific depths) – not sexy, possibly a little icky; and 2) specific materials become transparent, and others less so, resulting in a naked body, “squished” by the transparent clothes… also not particularly sexy, unless what they were wearing was sufficiently loose and non-supporting that you really don’t need much imagination to know what they look like anyway
In my mind, “X-ray vision” means you can see the xray spectrum, so everything you look at would be overlaid with a ghostly image of whatever’s inside it. Really it would just be another color to you. Of course in the world of superheroes, anything is possible.
Well think of the walkthrough scanners in airports that show skin surfaces.
that actually is what I had been thinking of – the pics people got so up in arms about… looking at the pics, with the body parts pushed in at odd angles in some places and squeezed out in others (e.g. muffintop effect) just made them look odd, once you got past the internal 4th grader voice in your head (hee hee – she’s naked)… not appealing
Well, the military uses infared and heat mix to see at night and they can look into buildings with that technology.
Imagine what a super with that kind of vision powers could look through if they could fine tune it.
Have a Troll Illusionist in EQ2 with both Heat and UV(Purple Haze) vision, sometimes will activate both at once (specially in dungeons) and it looks better than either on their own (considering how with heat, anything other than living warm-blooded critters just didn’t really show up)
‘Real’ X-ray vision amounts to ‘wow, everything is so very dark’; there aren’t a lot of background X-rays. You need an X-ray source behind the target to see much of anything.
Comic book X-ray vision is more like being able to turn layers transparent in imaging software.
Exactly. What we think of as x-ray vision would need to be some sort of esper power to see through thin objects, not an ability to see x-rays. Essentially, you get the mutant ‘Peeper’.
yeah that’s what I was thinking. A psychic perception mass layering reality filter. Basically filter out certain substances and such intentionally to percieve things under or behind them.
it would definetly have to be something way more wanky in the physics than mere X-rays.
That should probably be “wonky”… then again, given the subject matter, maybe not.
“I Need your clothes, your rifle, and your osprey.”
What model Terminator would Sydney be?
T-650, Skynet rejected the design because of random explosive glitches.
That was the spin but really it was control issues. They kept burning out the command functions and going solo. One was heard saying to Skynet “You ain’t the boss of me!”..
I think it was the random destruction of production plants that made “prettier” units that triggered that manufacturer recall, before skynet took the idea to deal with stolen t-800 and produced the twich from the t3 movie.
Basic military uniforms come in two sizes. Sack and way too big. You have to get them altered to fit. Comes from buying in bulk. ;)
Also the kickbacks on Govt. contracts mean quality/comfort is not part of the equation.
Kinda figured Sydney and Peggy would hit it off great :D
Regarding the signs: what are the diamonds on the Supers? Are they ties (big ones on a female? o_O) or chesticle-windows (on a guy? O_o)
Loving how Peggy implies that she poses like that (speaking of which, who was ordered to pose for the x-ray? doubt many if any would volunteer, and Dabbles wouldn’t have a human bone structure {what with being a extra-dimensional alien with an extra set of arms})
Really can’t imagine Sydney being able to pull off that look so well in the final panel without the patch :D
Oh, didn’t mean to make this post so big, but had so many different questions/comments and didn’t want to make new posts for each one
Logos, I think. Even if ARC doesn’t put logos on their heroes’ chests, it’s still sufficiently cliché that it would be used to indicate superheroes.
Yeah, they had capes originally too, but in order to give them that bathroom stencil look, the capes looked weird, so I kept a generic chest logo looking thing on them.
clearly, that was Harem posing for the x-ray
Being radically on the other end of the scale from Sydney at 6’8″, I can testify that the Army has trouble sizing on the large end too. Uniform and boots they did fine – but it was discovered to be physically impossible for me to wear a helmet liner (the thing that sits inside the ‘steel pot’ helmet) so long as it had the support webbing in it (they put padding over the anchor points and made me wear that).
Sydney in a rare introspective mood. The eye of a hurricane.
BTW – Bathrooms specifically built for supers… cue endless bad jokes here.
But seriously, folks. Given the likelihood of supers being physically larger and heavier than normals I can understand. Special bracing and extra-large stalls.
….. And probably special plumbing to cope with those supers who have ….. unusual …. biochemistries and by-products thereof.
If Superman can make diamonds just by squeezing a lump of coal, then there is no telling just what he leaves behind when exiting the can.
There are gigs of art(?) on that subject.
I always wondered about people who are super strong having to use the restroom.
Since knowing you have to go is the bodies feeling pressure. How would they know when it was time to go? I can just imagine the Hulk having to use the restroom and filling up the toilet.
Did you see the Saturday Night Live skit about supers? Hilarious!
There was a joke born from images of the Hulk eating massive amounts of food and then shrinking down to Banner. Its either his body enforces staying big to prevent him exploding when he shrinks, or he shoots out out a toothpaste tube.
of course I think Marvel actually explained it away as his body is defying conservation of mass anyway that the extra food goes interdimensional like his extra mass.
Marvel really abuses the extra dimensional mass and energy thing.
Just because Superman CAN eat just about anything in the known universe (particularly excepted is Kryptonite, of course) doesn’t mean that he DOES. The only time Superman has been known in the comics to eat anything other than normal, human-type foodstuffs is when he just wanted to make a specific impression…such as when he was (foolishly) attacked by a soldier & Superman ate his rifle.
It may very well be that if a super can eat something in particular, their digestive system is likely capable to reducing it to a form that’s relatively harmless. It would be interesting for a particularly tragic hero(?) if they had the ability to eat anything, but couldn’t digest it…That would make for a very short career.
Have you heard of this DC character: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter-Eater_Lad ?
The residents of their planet could eat any matter without ill effects.The inside joke was that his home planet was named Bismol. (Hey it was the 60’s. The heroes were weird.) His moment of glory came when his team was faced by imminent destruction by a doomsday device. He simply ate it. I don’t know if it was ever revealed what happened to the material after being consumed.
On Futurama, Nibbler’s species compresses their excrement into dark matter, valuable as space ship fuel.
you under-estimate how dangerous super compressed fecal matter is, its quite volitile.
Sorta lends a whole new level to the concept of “explosive diarrhea,” doesn’t it?…
As long as he’s eating earth food, the outcome should be nothing special. Except a bit more compressed than average, maybe. Now if he starts eating coal, that’s an entirely different story.
*woops posted it above to the wrong person, this was meant for you*
you under-estimate how dangerous super compressed fecal matter is, its quite volitile.
Is posting super-compressed faecal matter to the wrong person a federal offence?
it can’t be legally mailed LoL.
Introduction to chemistry 101 –
Coal is mostly carbon and a mixture of mineral elements.
“Normal” food is mostly carbon, water (hydrogen oxide) and a mixture of mineral elements.
So he would produce some truly solid waste matter if he was constipated.
Thinking about it now, if his digestive system is pretty much on par to ours but his strength is way up but sensitivity is in the opposite direction to compensate, I envision the following scenario.
– Water is normally removed as part of the digestion process and what little water is left is under high pressure and temperature flashes into steam – pretty much how they make all those puffy cereals you guys snack on.
[yikes, the urinals will have to be stainless steel for the man of steel)
– Uhm, anyhow,
– on extrusion of the finished product the facilities would have to deal with the release of steam but also a puffy crispy solid not conducive to easy flushing or dissolution in water.
[science – I used it today – can you? ]
Poop-based Humour = Funny for some.
Superpoop-based Humour = Funny
Superpoop-based Humour + Science = Awesomely Funny.
Superpoop-based Humor + Science Fiction = Lethal Levels of Laughter
How much impact will the byproducts of Sydney’s lunches have on the treatment facilities? That might require more “special handling” than anything the super-strong might produce.
Guess we’ll find out.
The blue eyes happened once before, when Sydney was rising from the ocean, having just discovered the orbs. And they were changed back to her normal colour, when it was pointed out.
a shame he changed them back, it could have been an interesting little thing to work around, like a subtle foreshadowing to something we could only guess at. Why are her eyes suddenly blue sometimes?
DaveB: are they? well isn’t that interesting.
and leave it at that. Honestly I’m jelous of the visual medium for things like this. I have characters who are supposed to have subtle quirks like eye color shifts and a character eyeing another, that works much better visually as a subtle nod at things to come; but in writing you have to point it out, making it upfront.
Zintel of Flaky Pastry uses a permanent spell to change appearance. Including making her hair a distinctive purple and orange. However that also gives it mind of it’s own!
Now that Sydney’s there a New sign has to go up. especiallay with her Doppleganger orb.
Well, this explains Sydney’s appearance in the cast photos. Maybe that is Peggy’s spare jacket she is wearing.
Could it be that after all this time Dave is finally going to show us the page he got that picture from? Yea!
I actually drew that picture just for the cast page, but I the next page is one I redrew from before I put the comic online, I’ll show you the old one for comparison.
So are we going to see a notable difference in uniforms for Sydney? Then again, wearing the uniform seems optional for now.
Uniforms in the field, civvies in the base/off duty.
I like the idea of Sydney in a slightly different uniform. It’s like saying “I’m one of you, but not”.
When Sydney is standing on the wall complaining “Physics? I’m a Superhero!” (I don’t have a link to this vertical banner ad), she seems to be wearing a properly fitting uniform. I guess we get this uniform size snafu figured out eventually.
Maybe the orbs are starting to change Sydney’s eye color? Why? I dunno; because they can? >.>
Hrm…. Maybe I’m mis-reading it, but in panel 2 it looks like Sydney was about to take off her wonder woman shirt, leaving behind the yellow undershirt, in order to change into a uniform. Did she change her mind?
I also like that, and how, Sydney asks that question about what guys think. People can argue all day whether or not all guys think that way, but if she has to ask it shows she hasn’t even had enough experience with guys to make her own decision on that. Should be interesting to see her fumble around when some sort of romantic interest is introduced for her. I guess there’s Joel, but I get a friends for life and nothing more vibe from their relationship, but then I guess romantic comedies often start off that way.
Speaking of Joel, I’m wondering what’s going on back at the shop.
My guess is that he’s busy fielding several dozen phone calls, texts, e-mails and actual visits from assorted friends, acquaintances and regular customers who just saw Sydney on the news.
She started to, then remembered where she was and, after meeting Math, had to ask if it was safe (even in a military facility like ARC, you would still get creepy perps, just like in real military), after that she got distracted and next page will either have her in the shower (not showing anything of course) or after (either still in a towel or changed into one of Peggys spare uniforms)
Thanks for the image of Sydney wrapped in a towel and blushing at the thought of peepers. At least she’s not a stick like Peggy. ;)
You think Peggy is a stick? O_o
Oh, yeah. She’s a bonely girl. Or she was, when she was pictured on that DeviantArt page. Maybe she’s put some meat on, since then. That would be good, but I can’t tell.
… Isn’t 5’4″ on the low end of Military service? As in “You’re really too small but you’re too damn good a sniper to not have you?”
5’2″, waivable for special skillsets and needs
I don’t think the armed forces have a height requirement, though it’d be funny if Sydney was technically too short to serve. Anyway, Peggy was in the USAF, and short pilots can withstand more G’s – not that she was ever a fighter pilot.
They did in 1968 for helicopter pilots. There was a too short and a too tall somewhere between 4’10” (women)/5’0” (men) and 6’8” (both)
IIRC over 6’6″ was too tall without a waiver
Well, yeah. all branches in the US military do have height requirements. When accepting placements for specific “jobs,” there may even be a *maximum* height requirement…Such as the submarine crews in the Navy.
there are maxes and mins for flying, along with additional measurements (sitting height, and leg length) that also have maxes and mins… Very much like the Etruscan bed
Yeah, I lost out on a full ride scholarship and guaranteed job after graduation because my head would be taller than the canopy breaker bar in the rear ejection seat of an F-4, and I was only 5’8″ at the time, but long in the torso…
And that’s a Procrustean bed, from the myth about the innkeeper Procrustes, who had a bed that fit everyone perfectly.
A couple of years back the centre of my city (Christchurch, NZ) was wrecked in an earthquake. They put a cordon around the whole area, which I had to go through to rescue my stuff.
It was manned by a mixture of cops and soldiers. It was interesting to note that the cops were way taller than the soldiers. The soldiers didn’t need to be physically intimidating: they had guns!
(Well, not when manning a cordon in peacetime. If they did, there’d have been a lot fewer looters.)
Back in 2004. after Hurricane Charley had passed through my town, I went up to the local mall where the National Guard had set up an ice and water distribution station. I just needed to get ice, since I had enough water for the next several days, but they didn’t ask what I needed, just told me to pop the trunk and loaded me up, and since they had M-16s, I didn’t argue.
Hold on. Does Sydney need to be in uniform already? She was discovered just that afternoon in a bank heist covered by local media. Her subsequent recruited is thus coincidentally the same day as the press conference announcing the existence of a government superhero agency. Wouldn’t it be more honest* to just tell the public that she was discovered that day hence the lack of uniform? It IS the truth.
* – Yes, I know Arianna wasn’t exactly being honest in STAGING that fake robbery using their own members, but that’s kinda beside the point in this case. In fact, as far as Mr. Amorphous and Achilles were in disguise and got away, it would raise suspicion if the obscenity motor mouth from the afternoon’s local news suddenly appeared *in uniform* alongside the superhero who saved her and stopped said robbery.
that is a good point, its one thing for one superhero to just be there already when a daytime bank robbery happens; but two, who apparently didn’t know each other, and then show up together later.
granted the conference will just say they discovered her there.
but you can expect all the conspiracy nuts to come out. Likely there would be some who would accuse the government of staging events like that bank robbery to flush out would be superheroes.
After all, every would be superhero might just be waiting for that right oppertunity to reveal themselves that likely doesn’t happen on a day to day everyday basis, especially as it requires being in the right place at the right time.
super awesome amazing destructive and yet helpful powers doesn’t mean you know what houses are being broken into, know when a car accident is about to happen, or detect lost hikers or what not. Even a police radio usually reports AFTER the crime has already occured. *statistically this means Gotham city must just be full of muggers for Bat-man to run into them so easily*.
Lets say I had crazy magical godlike powers. the city I live in has never had a single bank robbery in the six years I’ve lived here, very few car accidents, which you don’t learn about till later, and most are minor anyways (like hitting deer), the most police activity is catching speedsters and redlight jumpers. Some houses do get broken into, but seriously if you patrolled the sky what are the chances you’d be in the right spot to see those two teens sneaking in the back window of a church to rob pocket change and some candles (really happened).
the biggest “murder” here was due to some drunk twenty somethings dumping an oldman from their car in the winter on a front lawn and he froze to death. another in the right place at the right time, and noticing the guy before the snow covered him up.
its a situation of the right powers at the right time, unless you want to go all stalker superhero, or be like the normal people who put on costumes and drive around all day looking for drug users and dealers and labs.
Basically the world has little use for superheroes unless there are super villains (minus military use).
Remember, Batman is a detective and does a hell of a lot of research to know where things are likely to happen.
He also patrols the city to catch the smaller stuff.
no amount of research is going to tell you that on X-day at Y-location there will be a purse snatcher or a mugging. Which are usually “crimes of convienence” in which the criminal decides there and then to attack because a possible victim is there and they think they can get away with it.
so unless he has Nightman’s evil thoughts power he isn’t zooming in on these random crimes in a large city via detective work.
Conspiracy nuts don’t need anything to get started (that’s why they are nuts)
As others have said, if she actually changes into a uniform for the conference, Ari could just say that after discovering Sydney she was extended an invitation to join (pretty much the same thing that will happen even if she doesn’t change)
why is she changing now? probably because there is a news announcement soon, and ArcSWAT wants to be ready to introduce her as a ‘recently recruited’ team member?
or it could just be typical first day stuff. assigning uniforms, if any, tends to be a major part of that. especially in a military or paramilitary organization, where you need to find out what kinds of adjustments need done to make them fit right and meet regs.
The press conference should be attended by the most impressive and stable members of the team. New recruits, especially with outside ties to the event, should be excluded, for now. If the reporters recognize Max from the bank video, then the questions could be quite pointed. Having the Scoville psychopath there would just make things even more challenging.
Ariana (without Sydney): Yes, indeed. Lt. Col. Leander was instrumental in dealing with the bank robbery with no loss of life and minimal injuries. I am sure you will agree that this could have been a lot worse without her timely intervention.
Reporter 1: What about the crazy chick on the video? Is there anything you can tell us about her?
Ariana: The crazy chick, as you call her, is a local business owner who happened to be in the back to do her business, just as our agent Maxima was. It just worked out to be bad timing for the bank robbers to be met those two women. We have interviewed this woman and have determined that she had nothing to do with the planning nor execution of the robbery, just in its outcome.
Reporter 2: Do you know how this little woman was able to apply enough force to a man’s tongue to effectively flip him over her shoulder?
Ariana: We are still investigating that, but we are leaning to an adrenalin surge in a high-stress environment. Next question?
Reporter 3: What happened to the bank robbers?
Ariana: Maxima determined at the scene that the two individuals in question had super-powers so we took custody of them, as we have facilities for containing these kinds of criminals, which the police do not have.
Reporter 2: No, I mean were they hospitalized? It looked like Maxima threw the one guy right across the room. And the other guy, uh, uh, well she kicked him, uh, uh…
Ariana: Yes I know where he got hit. Due to their powers, each man received only minor injuries. They are not currently a threat.
Mr. Amorphous: <giggle>
Sydney (in the back of the room in full, mis-fitting uniform): Yeah, I @#^#% kicked the @$#^@$ in right in the 8@11$! Then I reached up and @#^T@$#^ grabbed his tongue! Can you believe it? His !@#^@^ tongue! I then pulled forward and down the the @$&^*# flipped right over my shoulder and he $&@%^!@% hit the !#%$#^@ floor so $^&@$&@# hard.
Ariana (very quiet aside to Max): Get her out of here!
Reporter 1: Why is she in uniform?
Reporter 2: Is she part of the team?
Reporter 3: What are those things circling your head?
[ All sorts of simultaneous questions and comments blend together into an indecipherable mess. ]
Any Ariana loses any illusion of control.
Yeah, I know I have used some of these ideas before.
Yes, there are risks in having Halo present at the press conference. But, I think a PR expert would advise against excluding her from it. Think of it from the point of view of the press. She was the main focus of the impromptu interview earlier in the day. There was a superhero involved in foiling a bank robbery, so that alone will have brought a lot of media attention. Combine that with Sydney’s epic bleeping and there will be a press feeding frenzy going on!
Yes, they will want to hear all about the new organisation. But they will also be wanting to know what happened to the girl last seen being whisked off by the golden heroine. So questions will have to be answered about her. And it will seem decidedly odd if she cannot be contacted for an interview. Plus, if it is revealed she has been recruited, the press will definitely want to see her!
With a limited supply of heroes in the world, recruitment is critical. If Arianna is competent enough to keep Sydney under reasonable control, then they can make huge capital from having her there. It could make the difference between recruiting the next talented super that becomes available, or loosing them to industry or some other faction.
And if they keep the recruitment under wraps (until they have her house trained), it poses the problem that it will take no time for the press to spot her in and about Arc in uniform. Which will get a lot of questions asked. At which point, Arc would be having to behave defensively in explaining their actions. Which is a bad PR technique.
If Arianna is smart she can turn Sydney’s language and behaviour from a problem into an asset.
“Arc likes to encourage freedom of expression in its employees. As such, we would like to introduce you to our… extroverted… new recruit. Obviously opinions she may express should be considered to be her own and not representative of Arc itself.”
In fields that have a need for uniquely gifted individuals, employers need to be flexible. And must, importantly, show that to the world. Or else they will have a hard time attracting applicants.
I almost don’t want to say anything, but I’m really looking forward to the press conference, where I fully expect Arianna to dazzle me. I also hope she’s “three steps ahead” of whatever the mysterious Mr. D might try to mess up her project.
It might be better if she appears in a uniform that’s 2-3 sizes too big. That would show people it wasn’t planned.
Green orb’s ‘power’ chroma switching lol
I LOVE THE X-RAY SIGN!!!
Thanks. :) Too bad it’s not really marketable as a poster. I mean, out of the context of a superhero world, what would you do with it?
It would still be a neat poster, along with the Super toilet signs
If you market it, I guarantee there are people reading this comic that will buy it.
not marketable as a poster? not marketable as a poster? omg! Have you not SEEN Motifake.com?
I had not. They have some terrible posters.
Culturally now the superhero world is reasonably mainstream in terms of public awareness. And, thanks to Superman being one of the early heroes, x-ray vision is pretty broadly understood. Contextually, the poster is of niche appeal (though marketable, especially if the text is tweaked for use in a domestic environment).
But the image, now that is another matter. Stick that on a t-shirt design (or other marketable merchandise like coffee mugs) and you have a winner.
There are a wealth of possible captions. Which could be customised depending on whether you are pitching a particular product for use by guys or girls. Some examples:
“I wish I could get back the $30 I spent on these x-ray glasses!”
“Stop looking at me like that!”
“Look higher if you want to meet my eyes.”
“Bet you wish you had bought the deluxe x-ray glasses, now?”
For use in Valentines day cards, Brother (or other male relative) Birthday cards and similar gag product:
Exterior captions (picture only being revealed only after opening card, of course):
“Have you ever wanted to take a peek at me, when I am showering?”
“I bought a pair of x-ray glasses for you. Have a look inside the girls shower with them!”
“You always wanted x-ray vision. I have managed to take a photo into the women’s shower just for you!”
And, my personal favourite, in the Valentine’s gag theme:
External picture of Superman *
“Here is an x-rated photo for my very own Superman!”
* Replace with suitable alternative if copyright is not obtained. Perhaps a generic superhero image (Incredibles style) with “man of steel” replacing the name. Although I have no idea if the phrase itself is copyright too.
“Superman” and “Man of Steel” are trademarks of DC Comics, a division of Time-Warner Inc. Trademarks are used for names, logos and other distinctive images that are used to describe a product. You have to be pretty aggressive about pursuing trademark and service-mark infringement for it to stick, and DC tends to be. Copyright is protection for a creative work not covered under trademark, such as an actual story, illustrations for the story, etc. A single image can be covered by copyright, but copyright can not be used to protect all variations on a image; trademark can, but its use is then more restrictive as it must be an image of a product or its logo.
DaveB, in the comment at the page did you mean black flightsuit?
Sorry, I ment to say bottom of the page.
No, “Say, that’s a nice bike” is a line from Terminator 2, when the T-1000 kills a cop for his ride. Only, they don’t show it, the scene ends with that line, which is great since we basically know what’s going to happen anyway, better to leave it to the imagination.
Good luck with the fitting, Syd. Heh. I had it really bad in the army. Being built like Wolverine makes things especially difficult (short and thick). Then you throw in extra wide feet (7E), and the drill sergeant becomes really happy because they have to special order your footwear. Once I became an officer it wasn’t so bad as I had the uniform allowance to pay for the alterations. A good tailor could put in quite a few useful, but not necessarily regulation, alterations that would be all but unnoticeable.
Hey, great minds think alike and even if it has been done before, I haven’t seen it. I think it’s a great sight gag within the genre. I get a bit annoyed when someone gets an ‘original’, great idea and then some clown come along and says “Yah, meh Meatsnark did that back in 93′ in issue blablabla…”
That said, Grrlpower is in my top five webcomics out of over a hundred that I monitor and one of the few that I vote for. ‘Cause of it’s ‘originality’ and creativity, art’s prettty darn good too. The only downside is that it’s not posted more often but that’s an observation and NOT a criticism.
Thanks. :) I’m with ya on the rate of the updates. I want to post so much faster.
Quality over quantity. Of course when you eventually get to the point where you have BOTH, well the skies will echo with the singing of your fans. ;)
Remember, “Fans” is just a derivation of ‘Fanatic’.
After you look up derivation, you ALL would agree. ;)
Are you implying that we perform unreasonable acts in our enjoyment of this comic? *Hides his life-sized Dabbler plushie*
Define ‘unreasonable’ :P
*points at the 350lb man painted purple with green stripes, wearing a rig for extra arms and wearing peach top and short-shorts*
checks schedual of cons times and locations for the guys excuse purposes. points out full size 5 body harem cheese cake cutout behind adamas.
When I first started following Grrlpowercomic (around page 30 or so), I had the same sentiment. Over time I’ve come to change my mind…
You’ve established a consistent pattern of updating once per week, which you’ve stuck with (with 2 exceptions: one mid-week update, and a vacation in which you posted guest art at your usual update time). At this point, I know I can expect an update every Monday, and have incorporated that into my schedule.
Several webcomics I’ve followed claim a semi-weekly, or MWF update schedule, then don’t follow through (and NONE of them maintains the quality of artwork or storytelling that you do), so it ends up being a weekly update anyway (or with some burnt-out guys, monthly or worse).
So I say keep them coming on your metronome-esque pace. Bravo-Zulu!
Besides once a week means we have a whole week to chat about the latest strip and anticipate the next one which is (for me) half the fun.
There’s something horrible wrong with that poster lady’s ribs.
I was disappointed I was unable to find an x-ray of a woman already doing a sexy pose, so I had to make it up. I’m sure she has nearly the right number of ribs.
Just remember, guys have 1 rib less (or do women have one rib extra?)
From wikipedia: The number of ribs (24; twelve on each side) was noted by the Flemish anatomist Vesalius in his key work of anatomy De humani corporis fabrica in 1543, setting off a wave of controversy, as it was traditionally assumed from the Biblical story of Adam and Eve that men’s ribs would number one less than women’s. Variations in the number of ribs occur. About 1 in 200-500 people have an additional cervical rib, and there is a female predominance. Intrathoracic supernumerary ribs are extremely rare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gray112.png
Men and women generally have the same number of ribs, along with most other mammals (as in I can’t think of any that don’t, but I want to cover myself): 12 pair, unless there are less due to injury or malformation or mutation; much more rarely are there any extra ribs, but it does happen. The rib removed by God to create Eve would only have been missing on Adam, not his male descendants. The “rib” may even have been spiritual, instead of physical, thus there would be no physical evidence of the change.
The science teacher has spoken!
I made almost this exact same post earlier today, but for some reason it didn’t show.
Tangent: I remember being told at some point that the Ancient Greek word for “rib” was the same as their word for “side” – this brought a new perspective to the Adam & Eve story for me, as the implications change from “Eve is a subset of Adam” to “Adam & Eve are 2 halves of a union.” Such would probably still be considered offensive by today’s PC crowd, but it made the whole story much more romantic and impacting to me, much like Mark Twain’s short story about Adam & Eve’s life together…
How about these?
https://www.heavy.com/comedy/2011/11/the-sexiest-x-ray-photos/
Heh…Interesting link you put there.
So interesting, in fact, that I took pic 7, captioned it with: Rule 34
No Exceptions!
Then submitted it for voting for the front page at cheezburger.com.
I have a feeling the “front page” of cheezburger.com is no longer the front page. Got a better way of showing us your work?
Strangely enough, I went to the cheezburger site & can’t find the pic, not even when I log into my account there. I’ve been having problems of the lag-until-full-fledged-hangup variety for days there. I think I’ll have to re-submit it & see if it shows up.
At any rate, the x-ray pic is at https://www.heavy.com/comedy/2011/11/the-sexiest-x-ray-photos/7/
Just imagine it in the style of a Demotivational Poster captioned like I already mentioned & you’ll get the idea anyway.
Oh, isn’t that interesting? Looks like Mister B got it right on the money. It’s uncanny, is what it is.
Though improperly termed as X-Ray vision, there should be real concern for people who can see through walls.
And yes, waiting until they are in the shower is a real concern. People always imagine absurd amounts of control with some super powers. If you can see through objects, how are you going to see through clothes, just millimeters deep, across a very curvy and bending pattern? You’d see into their body, not just their clothes.
Dave, I noticed that Maxima’s power level in the bios is described as “Penumbrate.” I tried to look up the word, but it doesn’t seem to exist. “Penumbral,” however, seems to have something to do with the anatomy of a shadow. I desperately want to be able to use this word, so can you tell me how you came to decide to use it for your highest power?
Please?
As has been said, I made the word up. It’s basically a mutation of the world “penultimate” which means second best. I wanted something unique that could be used to describe a hero that was staggeringly powerful while leaving room above them on the scale.
Peninfinite? – Second to infinite?
This was discussed briefly way back in the early pages – basically Dave made the word up
Actually, “umbra” & “penumbra” are words with definitions. It describes the moon’s shadow on the Earth as the moon eclipses the Sun. The central area of the shadow is the direct shadow, while around the outer areas, the shadow is a bit fuzzier & less dark because of the lighting effects from around the outer edges of the moon. The darkest part of the moon’s shadow is the “umbra” & the lesser shadow-effect is the “penumbra.”
My guess is that you can apply the dictionary definition, as one definition is a shadowy, indefinite, or marginal area. meaning her power level cannot quite be classified.
You’d think ARCHON would have heard of backscatter x-rays
I don’t deliberately pose like that X-ray picture, but I might end up in that position rinsing shampoo/conditioner out of my hair.
Ever upturn a bottle of shampoo or conditioner and the cap pops off for whatever reason, leaving you wearing a quart of the stuff, and then you think “Bukake!” I have. I’m not ashamed to admit it.
I was waiting for Peggy!
Yeah, Peggy seems to be a fan favourite :D
She makes a great “straight man”. (Probably a good “wingman” and “sidekick” too.)
So far definitely in a supporting role. But I think she has the potential to be a strong character in her own right. Talking personality that is. Plus, without superpowers or mysterious martial arts, she has to be capable in order to play with the big girls.
Although I do take your point about the straightman. But, next to Sydney, just about everyone has to fill that role!
They also have to know how to put up with Sydney :P
She’s a sensible person in a world of hyperbole. She’s a match shooter, so she must have learned the trick of letting emotional chemicals do their thing without affecting her sight picture and sight alignment too much. That’s a good trick to know, for dealing with supers in general and Sydney in particular.
None of the guys are above average height for a male and the bathroom sign shows the same heights with “norms”, so is the added height only for female supers?
“All supers, guys and gals included, are four to five inches taller than the average person”.
Average adult male in Canada and the United States is about 5’10” with a 2″ standard deviation. 6’2″ is not tall, but tall enough.
Aw, they’re gonna be BFFs and borrow each others’ clothes.
Judging from the last two panels I’d say borrowing Peg’s Jacket for the Press meeting is exactly what Syd is thinking of doing.
For Greco-Roman demigods they all seemed to be a few inches larger and taller. Certainly Heracles/Hercules was a head taller than every one around him and his eyes seemed to shine.
I’m 5′ 7.5″ which puts me at Bruce Lee height and half an inch taller than James T. West himself Robert Conrad of Wild Wild West fame.
Poor Sydney, so short. She’ll need clothes made for her size. At least she doesn’t mind taking showers. In HS few boys would take a shower with other naked boys in there. Just the way it is. Feel so much better after PE to have showered.
Yeah, I remember that from HS. Then I went to college and one whole wing of my dorm had what we called “buddy” showers, just like the locker rooms back in HS. Fortunately, I wasn’t on that wing, but even still, given that in our wing the individual showers just opened up onto the men’s room, the guys had to lose a lot of that modesty.
Of course, then there were the guys who tried to see how many guys could fit naked into the buddy showers…
That was their excuse at the time, anyhow.