Grrl Power #138 – Superheroines in the locker room
I probably could have skipped some of the last few pages and gotten on with the press event already, but then we would have missed out on this page and I’m sure we can all agree it was absolutely necessary. Well, maybe half of us. :)
This page is a little interesting besides the world building hidden amongst the cheesecake is that this page is a redraw. When I was gearing up to do the comic, I started drawing scenes that I knew would eventually happen. Since I wildly underestimated how long it would take me to actually get to this scene, it didn’t occur to me how much my art would change in the interim. Also, some of the circumstances of the scene are different, like the eyepatch. You can see the (slightly more NSFW) old page here. (It has a few girls in the shower but you can’t actually see anything.) Look how skinny Heatwave’s (the redhead’s) hips are. Yuck.
For those interested, I have three other old pages like this that will need to be partially or entirely redrawn. Two of them are from Dabbler’s… well, not backstory, but “so what were you doing right before you came to Earth?” I decided to skip over them during her introduction around page 100, but they’ll eventually get used.
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.
First comment yeah
Steam for the win lol
I was actually beginning to wonder if you could use Steam to monitor webcomics for updates. LOL.
Think he meant Censor Steam.
I personally use the RSS feed to inform myself of updates. For this comic and the 60-80 others I read.
But we are not looking in the shower, so no steam clouds are visible. Maybe Harem has a couple of bodies in the shower, but we can not tell here.
apparently I’m not the only one to enjoy FF IX hehehe
I mean A-team for the win damn auto correct
I guess this is the start of a very long lasting joke, wich ends with Syndey or Peggy saying at some later point in a totally unrelated matter: “I love it when a plan comes togehter.”
uummm…. no. I think by Syd’s reaction she doesn’t like the “A” reference. She might be a double AA which is even smaller.
A Chine
A Chinese man walks into a lingerie store and starts looking around. A sales lady comes up and asks him if he needs help.
“I’m looking for something for my wife. Something really frilly. She doesn’t buy frilly for herself and I think she should be able to feel frilly under her work clothes if she wants.”
The sales lady leads him over to a selection of bras and panties and shows him the lacy unmentionables. “Do you happen to know what size she is?”
“She very small,” he replied. “She often complain that she can’t find size 0 shirts that look nice.”
“What about her cup size?”
“Cup?” He queried.
“Yes,” the lady replied. “How big is her chest area?”
The man looks totally lost.
“Her boobs,” the sales lady goes on to explain, cupping her hands in front of herself. “Is she a C, B?” The man still looks lost so she thinks of something else to guess at the size. “Are her breasts big as a grapefruit?”
The man now gets what she is doing, “AH! No, smaller.”
“An orange?”
The man shakes his head, “Smaller.”
“A lemon?”
Again he shakes his head, but a little more slowly. “Smaller I think.”
“An egg?”
“Yes!” he exclaims. “Fried!”
ese man walks into a lingera store
Ignore the first “A Chine” didn’t erase it properly.
A-TEAM??? LIES!! I’m… I’m at LEAST a B… LOOK A CONVENIENT DISTRACTION!
*two of her balls zip into her shirt*
Pretty impressive art evolution you’ve gone through, sir. :-)
I was under the impression that Heatwave, while a pretty enough girl in her “normal” state, isn’t really as drop-dead Tex Avery-wolf-eyes-bugging-out sexy with her powers turned off. This is stated in her character profile, but the particular image for her there (popping popcorn in #77) displays this pretty well.
She popped more popcorn?
Huh? Didn’t know that Heatwave ‘bulked-out’ when she used her powers
yeah. I’m assuming it has something to do with the whole “Matter expands when heated” thing.
If it’s heat expanding muscles, where have her freckles gone?
Uh! Wrong character, forget the freckles, my mistake!
Kinda hard to tell them apart when your eyes are fixated on something other than their faces, huh?
Not really – Harem’s freckles aren’t just on her face.
. . . touche.
Yeah, Heatwave’s still looking pretty good here though, even without using her powers. With any luck Dabbler will steal her towel while she’s in the shower and she’ll have to heat up to dry off (fingers crossed everybody). Although, I think Dave mentioned wanting to move on to the press conference, perhaps he’ll save that one for later when she’s getting out of a pool or something. Archon has a pool right? Heavily monitered by high definition video cameras for “security purposes” maybe?
One of the side benefits of inviting Heatwave over to a pool party, any pool can quickly be turned into a super-sized hot tub!
Shouldn’t heatwave be getting out of the shower? and didn’t Harem hint to Math she might join her?
given the timing (and lack of carmelized Spit-Take soda on Heatwave’s chest), maybe panel 1 is them getting dressed AFTER showering…
I think that time Heatwave made the can of soda explode because Harem put kiss marks on Amorphous as a prank on Maxima, but yes your theory is quite sound as they are the only one’s in a state of undress (whether getting closer to or farther from a state of full dress, however the later of those two options is more fun to imagine). Good thinking.
Yep, I agree, this page was absolutely necessary, yep.
Now that I’ve failed at first post, i’ll continue with more comment…
I love how the non supers consider Sydney one of them based on her body type, even if she does technically have super powers, well, magic objects which give her superpowers. Maybe Peggy feels that even if the orbs are pysionically/magnically/physically linked to Sydney, they are still essentially tools, just like the Osprey.
Also, amazing how much peggy has changed, she definatly looks better here, more real
Agree about Peggy: not saying there isn’t anything wrong with the old-er Peggy (does the current Peggy still have the tats? would love to have an image of the new style with the tats :D), and it’s not just because used to the current ‘model’, but there is just something more with how she is now (a little more ‘female’ looking, and little less ‘Flea’-like)
Yeah Peggy’s still tatted up, but I need to make tat “textures” for her cause it would take way too long to hand draw them each time. That’s why she’s been wearing a flight suit for the whole comic so far. Well, that and she was flying the Osprey earlier and that what she should have been wearing.
Cool to hear she still has the tats, can wait for the big ‘reveal’ ;)
I forsee a bullseye on her butt cheek that says “If you can kiss this, I will shoot you”
HAH! I love it! Seriously, that is just plain brilliant. Maybe have one in large print on her back that says “If You Can Read This, You Are Several Hundred Yards Within Firing Range”. Though I suppose tha’t be impracticle, all that lovely canvas wasted on only a half decent pun. Maybe someone should get her a tee-shirt with that for the next Chirstmass vote incentive. After all, if she had that tattood on her back, she would have to take off both her shirt and her bra to show it to anyone. Certainly we can’t have that >.>
I’m rooting for the A-team. Even if Sydney feels less than enthusiastic.
And the cool vote incentive is proof that your A-team line wasn’t influenced by our yammering about it last week :)
Is Anvil wearing a strapless bra? That must be an impressive piece of engineering as I figure she must be wearing something in the range of 48G. Of course, on somebody 6’7″ that would just look well-endowed, instead of huge.
It’s hard to tell if it’s shading or a separate strap, but it looks like there’s a dark gray bra strap running under her green tank.
On close inspection, yeah, I’m prety sure that’s a strap.
there is a strap, but it connects at an odd place – it seems to connect in the middle of the cup (i.e. directly above the nipple), instead of to the outside (Harem’s in frame 1 is a good example of a more standard configuration). This would probably provide good support, but wouldn’t show much, if any, cleavage.
It is possible it’s one of those bras that have the strap on inside rather than outside of the cleavage
There’s a strap there, it’s almost the same color as the shadow inside her shirt. The straps themselves are impressive feats of engineering, probably made of Kevlar webbing. :)
Durable & supportive for certain…But is it machine-washable?
Cold water, gentle cycle. Hang to dry.
I was thinking carbon nanotubes would be more appropriate of a woman of her… stature.
Perhaps they contracted Lydia (from Wapsi Square) for the ‘support equipment’ (Lydia did say she had an order from the military after she created Monica’s sports bra).
So ARC was who she did the bulk custom-order for? Makes sense (kinda shudder to imagine Sydney and the GGGs, with or without Mon, meeting up, shudder even more if they get along :P)
Also, again, I really don’t think that Syd needs to be or should be in uniform for the press conference since
a) they only discovered her that afternoon, and
b) putting her in a uniform is going to raise suspicions among news analysts and conspiracy theorists that she was planted at the bank robbery and that the whole thing was actually a publicity stunt- which it was, even if Sydney herself wasn’t a plant but an honest-to-goodness depositor caught up in a supposed crime. All they have to do is review the news and videos (which Archon itself put out through Leon) to see that Syd was there.
If Arianna, as a supposed PR maven, wants positive publicity for the team as they start their superheroic venture, then she should avoid a situation that arouses distrust- especially since this is the start of Archon’s relationship with the public.
That’s actually a pretty good point.
Yea, not something I had considered, but well thought out.
Might be Arianna’s plan to present Sydney’s joining as a sort of “Hey, check it out. We only met her a few hours ago, and we got her to join straight away.“.
They might also be sending a message of sorts to certain ‘independant’ supers out there (refer Panel #1 of https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/366 ).
Noting also that (IMO) Arianna’s judgement is thoroughly whacked anyhow (that entire “fake bank robbery” thing being the best, but not only, example). Kind of wondering now what would happen if she and Deus met.
Telling the public that Sydney was found and joined just that afternoon is given since Syd was on the news. It’s just that the small detail of having her wear a uniform so soon would make it suspicious.
Appearing in the same clothes that she wore at the bank, on the other hand, would actually support that announcement because, having joined just that afternoon, she doesn’t have a uniform ready.
When I joined the Reserves and was measured, some stuff fit off the shelf but some needed to be ordered and others I needed to take to a tailor to have adjusted. Took about a week all told. It may have been different if I wasn’t old and lumpy vs 18-20 and in young me shape.
And, yeah, definitely, using Sydney as an example to draw out other supers out there is one point of presenting her. As shown during the closed door meetings, one purpose of Archon is to keep supers from using their powers recklessly or even criminally by having them join a law enforcement organization. That’s besides giving Archon more metahuman muscle to draw on for their superhuman operations. Definitely sneaky but for the greater good for the most part.
they may be planning to present her with a uniform at the press comference,,, and its better if its fitting!
*That* is brilliant.
I would guess it might draw more suspicion if she did wear a uniform right away, but all she has to do is joke about how she had to borrow one and how well built the rest of the team are
If Arianna and Deus ever meet, i expect an evil laugh duel :P
It might have been better to have the neckband being given to Sydney during the PR event, as a “And we found a new Hero during the robbery and she is joining the team – Meet Halo!”
Say Halo to my little friend!
THE PUNS!!!! THEY BURN!!!!!
Good one! Perfect for a T shirt.
No dedicated comments page for the vote incentive this month DaveB? I was just wondering if you will put both pages up, side by side, in your DA gallery? For posterity. It is really interesting seeing how your art has changed. Although there are aspects of both pages that I like.
In particular Dabbler’s anatomy is interesting on the older one. Putting aside the nsfw aspect. It had me studying her shoulder and torso musculature and umm… counting arms. And the framing etc is interesting.
Love the differences in faces and expressions. Although I wonder how much of the difference is “art evolution” versus the way you pick different art styles to capture a mood or intent. I could easily see you inserting one or two of Sydney’s expressions seamlessly in other scenes.
Nah, I figure just fold them into the comments for this comic.
Sydney “A-team!?, I am an E-Cup!!”
Cue Sydney reveals hear secondary powers: Hammerspace bra .
but on a serious note, I merely had to make a reference to Excel Saga episode 26
“The A-Team needs to stick together.”
I can already her it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MVonyVSQoM
Hmmmm, so would Sydney be B. A. Baracus or Howling Mad Murdock? =P
Sidney=Murdock! For sure!! And Maxima would be B.A. Except she isn’t afraid to fly…:-))
so Syd would be “Face” Personally I’d say Anvil for B.A. and Max for Hannibal
*Harem would be face I mean
Hmmm, no, Heatwave would make a better Face (speaking of whom, seeing his reaction when that Cylon walked past still makes me giggle after all these years, that would have to be one of the first, if it wasn’t the first, of its kind :D)
That was the first season intro.
Yeah, Hannibal dressed in the Godzilla costume was in the pilot/first episode
Lord and Lady I’d forgotten that! Good thing it’s on Netflix, eh?
Problem with that.
Max, Anvil, and Harem are most definitely not A’s.
Neither was Mr. T =P
The “skinny fat” comment is totally true. I’m thin as a rail, built like Sydney but taller, and even I sometimes feel like there’s some kind of (actually nonexistent) belly on me when looking at some women out there. Or in comics.
Seriously, the A-Team? I wouldn’t willingly join a group named after my cup size, either. Turns out they come in handy during 12 mile obstacle courses, though. Army crawls and rolling through the mud? Nothin’ to get in the way!!
Makes me think that sometime in the future, Dave will create a scene were the “smaller” members of the team will have the advantage. Something like shimmying through an air vent.
True, there are several spaces that Sydney or Peggy can go that Anvil nor Max just would not fit, cup size notwithstanding. On another note, Mythbusters already busted climbing in the air ducts as a stealthy way to move through a building.
I once had the opportunity to ask a genuine ventilation duct maintenance guy if there was any possibility of people being able to sneak into buildings using them.
“Flatly impossible. If you have a duct big enough for people to get in then it will not be able to operate as a ventilation duct.”
To maintain reasonable air flows you need the diameter to be fairly small. And putting in cinematic big fans does not get around that issue. Although I will, wisely, save any more explanation for those with appropriate engineering or physics qualifications. Just in case a physics teacher or architect might spot any inaccuracies.
Re. the Mythbusters clip, I think that Torie’s balaclava (at 0:41) and the sentiment of the commentary shows why he is thought of as the adrenalin junkie action man. Justifying the super-powers he gained in last week’s comic comments :-D
Based on what I’ve learned about women from pop culture (and mostly that one scene in Azumanga Diaoh) there is always some point in middle or high school where girls group up and commiserate about breast size.
Ahh, and that now fills me in on a piece of pop culture that I had been missing. Thanks for keeping us abreast.
Azumanga Diaoh was created/written by woman, even though I’m sure most dialog involving breasts in most shows is written by guys whose idea of research is “I bet women have conversations like this.”
And I’m not normally a dubbing snob, but I originally saw Azumanga in Japanese, and it’s a very Japanese show, so those English voices just don’t sound right to me. :P
Azumanga Diaoh is awsome. Any way I am also on the A-team and know exactly how it feels to be skinny and fat at the same time. I have actually had trouble explaining it so maybe I will just have to show people that do not understand this comic.
I’ve seen women in real life talk about their cup sizes. It came up working at a Goodwill when a bra was donated that would have been huge on the largest woman there.
the cup size discussion falls into the female cast tropes, right there with that hollywood rule that if you have two or more female leads then at some point they have to have a discussion about past relationships.
Kiyohiko Azuma is a guy…and before he did Azumanga and Yotsuba&!…he drew porn…a lot of it. The breast-size gag is just ingrained into japanese comic culture.
Huh, I didn’t know that. I did the same thing and assumed the name ending with -ko was feminine.
yeah -ko is feminine and -hiko is masculine…Japanese is weird.
This actually has me wondering how far back the changing-room breast-size gag goes back…I think I remember it in Urusei Yatsura…so at least the 80’s
you’d be amazed how far back some stuff goes,
look for “Fisherman’s wife” to lean how far back the tentacle stuff goes.
didn’t they find a set of 700 year old wood-block paintings of girls getting molested by squid?
Seriously…Japan…sometimes…
They had internet porn before the internet was invented? Next you will be telling me that there were computers built before we had the silicon chip! ;-)
You are probably thinking of “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” (NSFW, so I won’t link it, but it has its own Wikipedia article), but it’s from 1814, so not exactly 700 year old.
@Yorp,
I can think of three machines that technically count as computers before there were even tubes.
One was a punchcard apperatus.
the other two predate electricity, and not counting the Rennassiance digital clock because that was a time keeper and not used for calculations or programming.
being able to be programmed was the criteria for a computer so there is the mystery one found on the sea floor, likely a wealthy man’s gizmo, and the one programmed by lengths of string.
it was a series of different “animations” for a puppet show, by using different lengths of strings in different parts of, when wound up it would play out different pre-set scenarios. Thus is counted as a computer.
Charlse Babbage invented a mechanical computer that had a number of funtions equivalent. To a modern computer, capable of being genuinly programed. A fully functioning model was only recently buit.
Or, if you want to go really old school, look up the Antikythera mechanism.
The old page is interesting to see, but I’m kinda glad your art is a bit less “Fred Perry” now.
Also I love Sandys comment, you can just hear the dry sarcasm. :D
That’s why I included her in this version of the page (she didn’t exist as a character when the original one was drawn) At the moment she’s the only regular character I have who isn’t either in fabulous shape or just skinny. That’s due more to the fact that I’m not good at drawing a heavier body type and it slows me down than it is that I have some bias toward drawing beautiful fit people. No wait, it’s actually both those things. But I thought it made sense to include a more average looking person in the group.
I do like how you drew Sandy in this one. You can tell she’s bit husky, but not to the point of having almost no neck like when we first saw her.
Also, if that’s a “Halo” choker Sandy is holding, I believe we are about to see a stark improvement in poor Sydney’s mood.
Can’t be a ‘Halo’ choker, they wouldn’t have time to determine what her ‘H’ would look like (but, possibly it’s a blank choker)
Ah, good point.
Well, they have already duplicated “H” ‘s with Harem and Heatwave. If they have an efficient nerd on team, with time to spare, and even a mild degree of OCD (almost a compulsory quirk for nerds), he has probably created a suitable font for the entire alphabet. Plus provided alternatives for the most frequently occurring initials. And, of course, replacing ones that have already been used.
Manufacturing one could be the greater delay. Although suitably planned out, it can be near enough instantaneous. I have had named photo ID cards, linked to building security, produced and handed to me for use, in less time than it took for my eyes to stop seeing spots from the flash!
Yeah, but those security cards would have been mostly generic, wouldn’t they?
But you are probably correct: there could be a number of backup Alpha-tags waiting to be assigned, just hope Sydney gets to pick her one
Individualised. Same sort of tech as with bank cards. It uniquely identified each person. Security could swipe the card themselves, to get info from the magnetic strip and check it against photos held on central records for that individual. If the photo did not match the one on the front of the card, then they knew it had been tampered with. If there was a fire or a bomb threat they could indicate the last security door each person had gone through.
It’s a generic/blank choker that Leon has modified with an electro-shock therapy function. That should help managing her.
Oooo, that would be fun to have, lets just hope Harem or Dabbles never get a hold of the controller
I second Andor’s comment, and add that your portrayal of Sandy has improved immensely – she really does look much more average (where before her proportions just seemed a bit off, with her oversized neck and wide face).
Speaking as a straight male here, but I personally don’t come for the cheesecake (I pretty much glance past it). The unique and fun humor, characters, and art style of this comic is what draws me. So half minus .000001% maybe? lol :P
well as a lesbian female,,, i compensate for you :)
No need to be an anon we welcome all who like the comic.
Lesbian female? Is there such a thing as a lesbian male?
It’s called a male? =P
Yes. Eddie Izard (Phew, remembered to delete the bold tag that I inadvertently brought in the last time I copied that code).
He often describes himself comically as “a lesbian trapped in a man’s body”. Although he plays on it for his stand up comedy, that is not an unique condition. I have even met one saving up for a gender-realignment operation. Although she already considers herself female, despite the way she was born. And so does her girlfriend.
Reminded of an especially funny (to me) bit from ‘Friends’, of all things. Yes, I have watched ‘Friends’ a few times – it was the 90s and everybody else was.
Anyhow, for some reason the group is talking about lesbians (something to do with Ross’s ex-wife, I think). There is a pause, then Chandler (who has been sitting quietly all through the conversation) muses out loud, “You know. Sometimes, I wish I was a lesbian…”
Everybody stops whatever they are doing and looks at him.
Chandler sort of twirches and suddenly looks around at the others, “Errrr, did I say that out loud?“.
Heck, I think it was funny.
Same here…Some comics & artwork, I view for the cheesecake, but comics like this have other great qualities that supercede the cheesecake. That attitude tends to change a bit when the cheescake is an intrinsic part of the dialogue or the plot though…
I wonder how long it’ll take for a “free boob-job after 5 consecutive missions without negative criticism from the public”-clause to come up… :)
I cannot concisely describe how happy I am to wake up this morning and see this page! Totaly compensates for having to go to work again. And the old version is nothing to turn one’s nose up at either, unless you have bi-focal glasses like me and you’re tilting your head back a little to see through the reading portion of the lenses. Also with respect to the old version of the page, I very much klike red-heads, so imagine my suprise when I found a page where I actually hated Heatwave’s hair. I also never thought I’d feel so much spite towards a shampoo bottle, but that little bastard of a hygene product container that Heatwave is holding has certainly invoked that spite! But of course my favorite part of this page is till the “A-team” comment, Funny as hell, Sir!
This goes to prove that locker room scenes are much better WITHOUT x-ray vision. All we would get for the trouble is “Well I see Harem 5’s rotator cuff injury is healing nicely.”
And did I miss an introduction? Who is the dark-haired woman? Going by the original character description: “lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony”, has Archon recruited Snow White?
She Arianne’s assistant. Also the one who was startled in the toilet when “Vogue” Harem starts laughing about Syd’s interview.
I’ve got to think that Sydney and Peggy may end up being more popular with a certain portion of the Girl Power public because they look more “normal”. And don’t think that Arianna hasn’t thought of that also.
A-TEAM
A-TEAM
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAH
Good one :U
No, seriously, it is.
I prefer the original picture.
The look on Sydney’s face looks better in the last panel.
Oh, this is nice! I just opened another window so that I can compare the old and new versions of this scene. Both make me laugh, but the new one looks more real and has way more sex appeal, to me. (Punk’s freckles are only one reason. Peggy’s eyes are one more.) The art just looks more refined, or mature, or whatever the proper term is for artists. Plus, the orbs add a lot to the new version.
I like way this comic meanders into scenes like this one. “The A Team”, she says. Funny, but she’s got a point. Not about them being less sexy (I’m sure DaveB could make Syd and Peg look sexy, if he wanted to), but about Sydney having more in common with support folks like Sandy, Peggy, and all the other normals out there in the world. She’d be a natural ambassador for Archon, if not for her infamous potty mouth. I’m very curious now to see just how good Arianna’s skills are, when it comes to managing Syd in public.
Yeah. I can just picture Syd calling Putin a..what was the term..”Floppy c0ck-flavored tatterdemalion a$$-nugget chowder diddling dolphin gargler”
She also might fly over there and free those girl-band members he imprisoned.
Well, she’s about to come out in public. She has to be careful, now. No prison breaks.
It’s always something new with her, invented in the moment. I’ve had USMC drill instructors who had it down to an art, and she’s right up there. It’s like jaxx, sort of. When it’s done wrong, it’s awful. When it’s done right, it’s awesome.
Jazz. I meant to say jazz, there. My bad.
Things that exist in the Grrlpower universe that don’t in ours…
* Firestone Tires has a bra division
* “Enhancement” surgery offers a small anti-gravity device for just pennies per pound!
* An MIT student got his doctorate in physics by researching “Probable Ricochet Trajectories Of Bullets Striking a Curved Resilient Surface”; he also got over a billion hits on the YouTube video of his presentation.
* Several super-heroines have been lost when they landed face-down on the ground after a long fall or super-strength villain slam… the resulting bounce having projected them into low-orbit.
* Silicon inserts are so passe! These days it’s all about plutonium! Makes the rods glow…
* Breast reduction surgery requires a diamond edged saw blade and a welding helmet.
* Mattel announced that their new Lawyer Barbie was initiating litigation against various super-heroines for “adversely influencing future generations of women with unrealistic body expectations”…
Ha ha! Gotta say, that was pretty funny. However, regarding a study into bullet trajectories richocheting off of resiliant and supple curved surfaces, I think Max is the only one with reliably bullet proof cleavage. If said grad student really did ask our favorite golden feminest super heroine to participate in such a test, he must have massive balls of brass himself! And I agree, I would totaly want to see the footage too.
Man, it seems like nearly all of my comments so far have been more of the raunchy persuasion, and I keep thinking of more that I’m not even posting. I suppose that’s a good sign of greatly effective fanservice, huh?
Rule 34?
It’s one of the things I’ve learned to ignore – the ridiculously large breasts with extremely thin waists and then either huge hips or no hips altogether – in most comics. I really like that you made it a sort of ongoing joke, especially the way it is handled.
Also, you should be rightfully proud of your improvement as an artist
One of the reasons I like Spinnerette is that she is a normal young woman though she seems to have more developed muscles now but here hips are still wide.. Heather is but not her roommate.
‘Normal’? What part of having 4 extra arms and being able to shoot sticky fluids out of your tailbone is ‘normal’? O_o
You mean you don’t?
Like how Harem looks more ‘realistic’ in this version than the original (the shape of her bewbs in particular, plus in the original, it looks like she had had her lower arm amputated {understand it’s just bent back behind her})
Took a little while (plus reading the comments) to understand the “A-Team” reference, but is the reason Sydney is so offended/horrified because she is so proud of her “B’s”?
She is a tom-boy so does not really define herself by breast size. But is obviously insecure about the matter (needlessly in my opinion). Especially right now.
There are a lot of subtle layers to it now though. We have seen Sydney psychologically shrinking at all the suggestions being called out about her hero name. Then the physical intimidation of Anvil introducing herself. Last week’s comic the X-ray scanner got her to thinking about guy’s checking out the girls. So the matter is playing on her mind already. And now she is thrust into this scene.
But, underneath all of that is what a massive day this is for her. Dave is showing it in full for a reason. Today her life changes forever! She woke up as the enterprising co-owner of a comic shop. Her first shock of the day being that she learns the business is going downhill and may fail. Then she gets caught up in a bank robbery where (it appeared) she might have been killed.
From there it has snowballed into her being outed as a hero (something she has dreaded since finding the orbs), then signed up into the armed forces. Now she has just been sorting out her military uniform. She can no longer define herself as just being a comic shop owner. Now she is some kind of soldier/police woman/super hero. And pretty much all of her new colleagues look like combination Olympic gold medallists and Miss World candidates.
Shortly she will be thrust in front of the cameras of the entire world’s media. And they will be focused on her. Comparing her to all these impossible women! And Peggy seems to want to form some club to celebrate or advertise their small size. Nope, that is not really appreciated. But, I think it is symptomatic of her processing just how ginormous a step she is taking.
Very probable, still, would have been cool if she ‘owned’ her size (
smallcompact as it may be, in all aspects :D)I am sure that will come. With time.
But, for now, everything is coming to a head. She might start to feel the world spinning. If the constantly spinning orbs have not made her immune to such sensations.
It’s also possible, that Sydney simply never liked the A-Team :P
Well, she’s not insecure normally, but she doesn’t like being called out on it. Also she’s never hung out with a bunch of women who look like playmates either.
Some comedic potential there, for sure.
This made my day. :D
It’s everyday one can summarize a hundred locker jokes into one complete strip. The A-team line cracked me up.
So funny and I love how it’s Dabbler that say’s the men are “similarly…equipped.” Anyway, You should gather all your old voting incentives and allow people new or newish to the site be able to see them here. Hell, I’m sure even the people who’ve been here since the beginning would appreciate going back and seeing them. This is something I’ve been meaning to say for a while, but only now managed to get the courage to write. Also, keep up the good work Dave! This web comic brightens up my Monday every week.
Thanks! And most of the prior vote incentives (plus some other stuff) is archived over at the DeviantArt page.
Well that’s why they call it The Most Common Superpower.
I love it when a plan comes together! All Peggy is missing is the cigar from out of nowhere.
Eventually, I suspect she will develop a superpower that does exactly one thing — summon cigars.
She could study General Faulk‘s Mother of God (C) glasses technique.
i barley found this last night and read them all, slightly disappointed that it took so many years to pass about a day, and she never did make that deposit for the store
The deposit was made, just the actual cash had to be tested as “evidence”.
Actually, the deposit was left on the bank floor. After the Hazmat team cleared the building (“It looks like someone just set off some pepper spray in there. Oh, and we cleaned up the puke.”), then the deposit bag would be inspected as possible evidence. Tomorrow Joel will get a phone call asking him to come to the police station to identify it and pick it up.
yes, that’s the one, that’s the bank deposit that molested me.
Not sure why that popped in my head, I know what you mean, but my brain is being silly right now.
i fail to see how this is silly, being molested by a money pouch is a serious thing
Now that was funny.
I’m with Dave, super narrow hips are Yuck. Despite meat in other places It looks more like anorexia or maybe PhotoShop, than health to me.
I think that their bras must be magic and/or use double-sided tape. Because anybody over a C-cup who wears a demi is just begging to fall out every time they lean over.
If they have no body fat then they should be dead. And zombies too since fat is so important to our brains. So I suspect the Colonel is exaggerating. And since breasts are made up of about 80%-90% fat. So unless they are corded muscle they would be fat.. Just the first observations I have DaveB.
Sorry my Mr. Spock pedantism comes out like that.
Funny how they match the comic book T and A so well. Though in this case the comics simply copied from the real supers. Just imagine one day people will be engineered to those unnatural body specifications.
Nice work too. Always makes my Mondays bright!
Well, I take your point, but Sandy wasn’t speaking at a medical doctor, more as someone who has struggled with her own weight and was being a little bitter. Obviously they have some body fat, or they’d be shredded like Bruce Lee, and that’s not an ideal look for women usually. But Sandy has seen Harem or Anvil literally each a whole chocolate cake for lunch before while she sat there eating a Weight Watchers TV Dinner. They just don’t store the excess as fat.
well that raises an interesting thought – most bodybuilders I’ve spent time with aren’t very pleasant to be around for just that reason – they eat, some significant portion of the food gets converted to cellular repair/construction, but then the rest gets… eliminated, and in a rather odiferous manner (and the additional gases usually escape with inevitably poor timing). We generally don’t like to think of attractive women in such terms, but just how bad must that locker room smell?
Why is it I am suddenly thinking of low-fat zombies?
Amazing the places a serious conversation can take one.
zombie jerky,
its good for your pet dragons and unspeakable horrors, really brings out the shine in their scales.
Just be sure you store it in a cool place and in an airtight container.
I just love Peggy, seriously that gal is awesome. I just hope that when she starts showing off her military hardware she makes a Dirty Harry reference when she draws her revolver.
Seriously i bet her favorite movies are Dirty Harry and G.I. Jane.
This idea is totally why I think Magneto was both right (Mutants are the inevitable way of the future) and needlessly overzealous (It’s gonna happen dude, no need to risk everything by trying for genocide).
These folks will clearly be out-breeding the homo sapiens ordinaris folks. I mean, look at them!
And that’s not taking into account the fact that the mutant gene is crazy dominant. For all possible pairs:
Mutant Dad + Mutant Mom = Mutant Kid
Mutant Dad + Normal Mom = Mutant Kid
Normal Dad + Mutant Mom = Mutant Kid
Normal Dad + Normal Mom = Normal Kid…usually.
You get that kind of genetic dominance and humanity’s got like 2 or 3 generations, max.
That’s assuming you’re starting with an equal number of mutants vs. normals. When you only have what looks like around 1 in 200,000 people being a super (in this universe) or 1 in 50,000 (Marvel rough guesstimate), it’s going to take far more than 2-3 generations. Also, this is assuming that in this universe, superpowers breed “true.” And by “true” I mean no guarantees that Heatwave’s kids are going to be able to pop popcorn between their palms; if mutancy is inherited along lineages according to this universe’s rules, then they will. But if mutancy is a random genetic variable…then some of those kids will be metal-benders, and some will be able to activate any equipment triggered by infrared remote controls, and some will be able to read thoughts…and some will be born with mutant deviations that aren’t nearly so useful. And that’s assuming these supers ARE fertile and thus capable of sharing their genetic material.
But since all the true supers in Dave’s universe are such spiffin’ examples of physical perfection…they’ll probably not have flawed genetic mutations (if they are fertile specimens) in their offspring.
…Personally, I’m hoping the story doesn’t go anywhere near “zomg babieeeess!” But I agree with you, it is a reasonable topic for (mild) conjecture.
*By mutant variations that aren’t nearly so useful, I mean, y’know, like, with congenital defects, or stillborn, or other unhappy thoughts.
Most mutations that occur in our universe are innocuous and do nothing of significance; they occur in our junk DNA and that is the end of it. Of the rest, the next most common type of mutation results in sudden death of the cell, as an essential protein gets corrupted, or a new toxic protein gets produced. The next most common seems to lock the cell into a reproduction loop, which many of us call cancer. The next most common is one that has a mild change, but imparts no recognizable benefit, such as a change in eye colour. Way, way down there are mutations that give a noticeable change that may or may not impact survivability or reproductive success.
True enough. Although it is probably best to avoid the term “Junk DNA” as the ratio of that to the active stuff that is vital for our biological function is actually vastly less than thought, when that phrase was originally coined.
“Redundant” or “Unknown” DNA would be closer to truth eh?
Just so.
Definately agree with the Magneto comment, but I think that Magneto’s deal was that thank’s to his persecution for being Jewish during WWII, he believed that people would act the same being unable to accept those different and that a war would eventually break out. Therefore, by his logic, it was genocide for one side or the other and his actions were a pre-emptive strike. Also, outside of the sci-fi universe, most mutations are highly recessive rather than dominant. But assuming a dominance of the Super gene, and considering the appearance of those who posses it, the awesome condition of Super Heroism is probably going to be one widespread pandemic. But a good one, like an epidemic of the giggles or people presenting with a sudden turrets-like urge to exclaim various compliments and give hugs.
I’m afraid I must respectfully disagree. You just described the same genetic issue with red hair, and blue eyes, and brittle bone disease, and albinism, and synesthesia, and any number of other genetic recessives, yet all those traits continue to express…
The level of detail in this page is frikkin’ amazing, and by that, I mean the BACKGROUND, people. The hat in particular caught my eye, since we see it from at least two different angles, repeated a couple times. The wood-grain is clearly hand drawn as it varies from page to page per locker door even when viewed from the same angle, so you didn’t use a stock background shot, either. That’s an impressive level of detail.
Also, I’m a hetero female, and even I’m enjoying the curvage on display. But it’s a wonderful piece of world-building, and I have to give props for Sydney’s comment of “I didn’t realize it was possible to feel skinny and fat at the same time,” and the all-too-accurate, beautifully sardonic reply of, “This place is just magic like that.”
So yes, this page was absolutely necessary. Now considering we have more panels of curvage on display here than we’ve had six-pack-age from the guys, let’s figure out an absolutely necessary reason to have a boys’ locker room scene, yes? I’m all for equality! 8D
Thanks! I wasn’t planning on doing a shot of the guys’ locker room, but an exchange on Twitter made me reconsider.
And not to disappoint, but the wood texture isn’t hand drawn, that would take too long. Instead, I have a wood texture that repeats and covers the entire page, then I select all the spots where it will be, invert that selection and delete, then multiply what remains onto the colors underneath. Still time consuming, but not quite as time consuming as hand drawing it. :)
That’ OK most locker room “wood” is just a printed laminate anyway, basically the same thing you have done with the texture done IRL on a piece of plastic glued to some compressed glued sawdust or MDF.
Yeah, Sydney has gone to “a whole ‘nother level.” Arcon is a place with people who experience the highly improbable on an everyday basis…Similarly to how Will Smith (as the character J) joined up in the MIB movies.
Hang in there, Sydney…It’s time to sink or swim!
Since it appears to be the topic of the day, maybe someone could refresh my mammary, er, memory, of the original vs. current Dabbler design. When did she go from four of a kind to a pair? He character bio even has the old quartet image. Was this explained in the story line, or just happen over time as a stylistic choice? Will it be ret-conned in as ‘oh that was just an illusion’?
I always drew her with 4 right up until I started drawing this comic. The problem was it was really difficult coming up with shirts for her that didn’t make her look weirdly top heavy. Basically the only way to make her look decent was to put her in some sort of bikini top so you could see what the lumps were. Or draw her nude, which explains why I haven’t used many old pictures of her for vote incentives. ¬.¬
If the guys are similarly equipped does that mean they have been binding their chests the whole time?
I’m thinking they have other gender-specific “equipment” that is similarly large.
That last frame makes me think Peggy is at least considering Sydney as more than “just a friend”.
I had the same thought with old version, but the new version has more of a silly comaradarie to it. Also, while Peggy is bi, she’s really more attracted to personality than looks. While Sydney’s may be funny and disarming, I’m not certain if Peggy would find it attractive. Could easily be wrong though.
Who knows? Maybe a story arc for a later time? They go on a few missions, hang out a couple times, have some fun, One day while Peggy’s having her morning beverage, Dabbler comes up and asks her “Hey, you boffing Sydney yet? Cause if you’re not going to…”
You made me giggle. I get the feeling that Sydney isn’t all that sophisticated, when it comes to carnal knowledge. Even though she’s obviously seen her share of hentai, seeing’s not the same as doing. The thought of Peggy or Dabbler hitting on Syd doesn’t seem likely, but I’m sure it’d be funny as hell. :D
Given her rank and specialty, I suspect Peggy has a long NCO background and excellent social skills for working with “special talents” personnel. Sidney’s an immature recruit in a totally new situation, Peggy knows that ARC needs to have recruits turn out well, and Max introduced Peggy to Sidney with “have a mission for you”;
Peggy knows that befriending and mentoring Sidney are part of her job. (And Dave knows that making that entertaining is part of his job:)
i do not like were this seems like it is going….
Aww, it’s just Peggy messing with Syd. I think.
some odd anatomy news:
breast saggage is affected by a muscle tension strength. Some experts believe that wearing a bra all one’s life actually adds to sagging breasts later in life as the support diminishes the strength of these muscles as they arn’t being used.
So a superheroine with that given muscle build may not even need a bra for support and be super perky regardless. Of course nature doesn’t naturally shove everything up for viewing either so that may be the one thing needed. But a little too tight and that better be a strong strap going across those shoulder blades in the back.
It is also strongly dependent on the ratio between the amount of the breasts being made up of fat versus connective tissue. If there is a greater amount of the later in super heroines rather than the former (a fair bet with this lot, all things condidered) then more perky (and yes, bouncy) breasts are achieved. Add the greater muscular support you mentioned and I’d say we have a recipe for success!
Awesome work as usual, love the A-team joke.
I also wanted to make a note that I saw your ad on another comic I regularly read (a couple, actually) and can’t help but wonder exactly what set up the scene it shows. For all I can guess Sydney might have been on her way to lunch and decided to taunt a passing grad student or such…still definitely awesome and hilarious.
Lemme guess, “Physics? Bitch, I’m a super hero!”. That one’s my favorite, at least.
Exactly, and I agree.
Also, she does appear to be holding the Flight Orb in her left hand in that scene while the other six float around her head (makes perfect sense since she’s flying). Were I her I’d be ready to grab the Shield Orb just in case. Even if some random punkass pulls a gun she could (with proper reflexes) switch to the shield and PPO (only if your hip) and land unharmed in the resulting crater. That’d be badass and hip (I submit this as my cred).
new version of HALO air-drop. Syd jumps (more likely thrown) out of a plane she activates her shield about 100ft up and BOOM!
Or, possibly, this.