Grrl Power #140 – Open mouth, insert foot to just below the knee
Poor Sydney, it’s hard to make friends when your mouth tries to sabotage it. Peggy’s pretty resilient though, she’s probably had to deal with a lot worse, and from people actually trying to be mean about it.
Up until I drew this page, I hadn’t decided if it was her right or left leg, and I just drew it without really thinking about it, so now I guess it’s her right. Let’s hope I don’t forget that too often.
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Let’s see if we can do one last push for Rebecca Cohen’s bid at the Netroots Scholarship, which basically means she can attend an otherwise expensive conference and hobknob with other feminists and bloggers. Rebecca’s comic GynoStar is something I’ve linked before, so stop by and give it a read and if you’re so inclined, throw her a vote.
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Instead of recommending a webcomic for you, I thought I’d suggest some books I’ve been reading. Superhero novels specifically. Unfortunately there doesn’t really seem to be a ton of them – it seems like an underserved genre, unless Amazon just has terrible recommendations for that subcategory, in which case I’m happy to hear your suggestions.
The Wearing the Cape series by Marion G. Harmon is the first one I read, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Coming off a bunch of very dense novels like Dan Abnett Warhammer 40K stuff, Wearing the Cape was an easy read with good characters and a somewhat more realistic take on superheroes than most comic books. The series consists of Wearing the Cape, Villains Inc., and Bite Me: Big Easy Nights. Bite Me is an extension of the universe with one of the characters from the first two novels, and doesn’t have as much superheroey stuff in it. It’s not as good, but I still enjoyed reading it. There’s also a short digital novella called Omega Night. It’s like a stand alone chapter, but after investing myself in the universe I was eager to read more.
After that I read Soon I Will be Invincible by Austin Grossman which is from the bad guy’s point of view. Then there’s Nobody Gets the Girl by James Maxey which strays the furthest from the typical superhero setup. I recommend Playing For Keeps by Mur Lafferty, it’s a great read about a bunch of “Third Wave” heroes with lame powers drawn into a conflict between the Thors and Magnetos of their world.
Lastly there’s Confessions of a D-List Supervillain by Jim Bernheimer, which is one of my favorites. I’d put it up there with the first two Wearing the Cape books. It’s another one from the villain’s point of view as you might have guessed from the title, but it’s also set in a world with characters complex enough that behind the scenes, it’s sometimes tough to differentiate between the good guys and the bad. It made me think I need to work on the back stories, motivations and complexities of my own characters more. In fact I enjoyed it enough that I looked for more work by Bernheimer and wound up reading a book about 13 year old girls riding unicorns. So yeah. Rider: Spirals of Destiny was quite good too. Fortunately Bernheimer is planning more books in both series.
If you have recommendations for me and everyone else in the comments, I have a few things on my wish list, primarily Ex-Heroes: A Novel, and Worm, which is a long running story in blog form. I think I would enjoy it but it would be a lot easier to read if I could figure out how to do it on my kindle. A long time ago I read some of the Wildcard books, but I’m don’t really enjoy anthologies that much. I prefer a single author’s vision.
Hmm, I don’t think anybody guessed that’s what caught Sydney’s attention in the previous comic.
Actually, there were a couple ideas about the prothetic (at least one involved a joke played on Sydney with Dabbles and Peg making a cyborg woman from scratch, or something like that)
Alvin called it. Seemed pretty obvious, once he mentioned it.
Oh yeah. D’oh.
GJ Alvin.
Using that time machine again Alvan.
Now that he was correct, We will not me able to shut him up for a week after this one.
***POKE POKE***
Gloating isn’t my style, so you have my word that the only thing I will say on this issue is that you misspelled my name.
Double “When you” in Sydney’s bubble in third panel
I think it was meant as a nervous stutter.
Whoops! It’s fixed. Might need to clear your cache to see it.
Ah! so that’s why you called her Peggy.
Second panel: “What were you doing when you when you…”
Also, go read Digital Divide by KB Spangler. Blind Cyborg + Nerd Cop. Fun read.
Really believe Sydney likes Peg, she is kinda freaking out about offender her more than she has with anyone else (and she even realises she might be offending without anyone telling her)
Wait, someone mentioned how that choker might be used to control Sydney’s “Sydney-ness”, might they be right? O_o
You might be on to something, there. Not the choker thing (that’s too insidious), but the anxiety thing over her “foot in mouth” disease.
That would be me (and a few others). Have they installed the “virtual electric fence” or “electroshock therapy” functions? Also I would not be adverse to adding some air bladders on the inside to allow a “force choke” maneuver. Actually that might be overkill. Be glad a watch battery can’t deliver that much current.
Efficient preparation of standard issue items, with personalised monograms, makes sense. Being able to whip together a swear word* detection and sound nullification system in a couple of hours would take the skills of Inscrutable Imahara of the Mythbuster Superhero Prodigies TM!
* It is also probably impossible for even the best of today’s super computers to cope with Sydney’s truly heroic swearing. The AI capabilities are simply not advanced enough to interpret her colourful adaptation of the language. Not in a meaningful time-frame, anyhow.
Although, if they happened to have an off-the shelf sound nullification device small enough to clip into the choker, I guess they could link that up for manual censoring via the communicator. Quite a stretch though, without someone of Reed Richard’s or Tony Stark’s level of gadgeteering skills.
I wonder how much of a tinkerer Leon is.
For all future public appearances, Sydney will be seen via video conference with a mandatory 5 second delay and someone with a finger hovering over the mute button.
AND that somebody had better be DAMN good at DIABLO!
Make it Dabbler. This way when one arm gets tired, she can switch to another one. Also she might enjoy learning all sorts of new words. She has been trying to figure out how to explain these complex concept to humans, and now Syndey gives her the words.
I wonder if Sydney is really, really hoping for a buddy. After a cursory archive dive, I noticed that the only friends of hers we know about are “Ilumina” (the sister of the guy who is not her boyfriend) and Joel (her business partner). Joel has obviously known her long enough to know about her stabbiness, but she’d only known “Ilumina” for a few months when the flashback started. I couldn’t find anything at all about her family. Why is that, I wonder? Have I missed something?
People like Sydney (and me) don’t make friends very easily: in Sydneys case, it’s largely her mouth (and her ADHD), with me, it’s not being comfortable around people in person
Well, she’s making an effort with Peggy. Makes me wonder, is all.
Yeah, makes me think she really likes Peg, or at least, respects her opinion and wants to make as favourable an impression as she can with her
Some conditions that have ADHD symptoms, like mine, limit social skills as well. We just can not tell when we are going to far or not far enough. It makes it difficult to make real, lasting friendships. So we either retreat from people or (like me and Sydney) blunder ahead, interacting with anybody, and hope that others can put up with us. Meeting and really connecting with someone can be particularly rare.
Well, we have seen that (in the future) she attends what is presumably a regular gaming session. So it is pretty safe to assume that is one of her current hobbies and she will have a group she plays with once a week or whenever.
Other than that though, the comic started with her at work, and she has not gone home yet. She could be still living at home, with 10 siblings. Or, more likely, she lives on her own somewhere. But she could have a healthy social life. As all this is going on in working hours, the only person who would be concerned about her absence, yet, is Joel. And she has already had that call with him.
We do know she is on the look out for a boyfriend though. It is just a matter of waiting to see more of her private life revealed.
Yeah, her family and friends are probably all normal, but what if they’re not? Maybe I’ve been traumatized by reading Unsounded, but… what if there’s a whole griefy backstory in there? Makes me worry, not knowing.
Does Syd seem like a middle child?
established sid scoville jr is an only child so sorry nope
Established where? I tried to check her bio, but it’s obscured for some reason. Did I miss a comment in the strip or in the comments?
Mmm, yea, when you click on any of the characters on the top row of the cast list, they have their details appear off the top of the page, obscured by the page navigation bar etc.
I’ve fixed it. Was trying to solve one issue and wound up introducing another I guess. Now to fix the actual contents.
Yup. I joked about a V-chip and such, but I’m betting on more of a “handler” to privately advise Halo via the chokecom (probably not the official name of the communications device, but the people who wear them come up with the better names, if not appropriate).
Might be a good idea to have somebody’s finger on a mute button, at least. I’m not sure she’ll remember Sandy telling her about the throat mic.
Still crying with laughter.
This is another of DaveB‘s pages that I cannot re-read without laughing every time.
Me too.
And me. Every time I look at this page, or think of the punchline, I start laughing. ^_^
It’s nice to see that Peggy has a pretty good head on her shoulders (and I suspect a good heart as well) to be that understanding and mellow about it. She and Syd are going to get along with each other just fine (well, they already are).
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When it comes to superhero literature, I can’t help but recommend Aaron Williams’ PS238. Yes, I’ve made this recommendation before but I just have to do it again. The superhero genre deconstructed without ruining the thing in an entertaining, even child-friendly manner. Mostly laughs and excitement, but Williams knows how to sucker punch his reader with some good drama too.
Oh, good call! PS238 is one of my Top Five favorites.
As far as “superhero literature” is concerned, I would recommend a little-known (because TokyoPop didn’t bother advertising it) trilogy of short novels by Dan Jolley: “Alex, Unlimited”. I devoured them. But then I’m a total sucker for strong, principled, complex female protagonists.
Sydney:
Strong? Physically, not so much; Max and Anvil are much stronger. Emotionally, not so much; she has distinct anger management issues. Mentally, not so much; her ADHD sends her mind going everywhere. She sometimes makes the Joker look mentally stable.
Principled? Actually, yes. Not just that she want to be a superhero, but her principles are what keep this agent of chaos on the side of the good guys. Her popularity is in part because of principles. Without her principles, she would likely already be in jail.
Complex? Actually quite good. Speaking as one with ADHD, her ADHD is portrayed realistically, even if played for laughs many times.
Oh, yeah, PS238 is generally excellent. When it misses, it only ever degrades to very good.
Love the Mythbusters reference in panel 4. Or did they grab it from somewhere themselves?
Nowhere specific that I know of. I had always pre-Mythbusters, associated it as a general stock phrase, typically uttered by car mechanics and builders.
Nope, that’s pure Adam Savage ripping on Jamie Hyneman. I watch way to much mythbusters not to get that on the first glimpse. And poor Sydney, she’s having my usual day.
Her hands by her face indicating Adam’s mocking of Jamie’s mustache was a dead givaway.
Yes PS238 is a good superhero comic.
Also “Black and White” and “Shades of Gray” (the sequel) by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge are good novels.
I’ll second what you said about Black and White. Best superhero novel I’ve ever read. I haven’t had a chance to read Shades of Gray yet though. (To be honest, I’d completely forgotten there was a sequel to Black and White)
In retrospect, Shades of Gray has kind of an unfortunate title, given the massive but undeserved popularity of a similarly-titled book…
A comment about your comment about superhero books:
Unless they’re late to the supering, I think you mean ‘third tier’ heroes with lame powers.
About today’s comic…
So you won’t be changing which one is Peg’s artificial foot from time to time to see if anyone notices?
Oh He Will! Just to keep us on our toes. ;p
***GRINS***
Oh dear. It seems to be contagious! I better step up and link this classic comedy sketch.
Thought he meant, like ‘third generation’ Supers
No, the book calls them waves. I wasn’t quite sure how it broke down, but first wave were the first people to get powers, and they got all the good ones, third wave were, I think, anyone after that first wave, and second wave was reserved for the children of the first wavers?
Ok, can understand that, kinda like calling ‘dibs’ on Powers (first comers get all the cool shit, and being total dicks swipe the next best for their kids, everyone else gets the totally lame powers that only someone desperate to be any kind of a Super would want {like the ‘ability’ to make polka dots appear on anything, and it’s permanant})
Hey, if good looks, physique and health come with the package, sign me up to become Polkadot Man! Not that I do too badly for any of those, but I would not class myself in the heroic league. And I realise I am mixing superhero worlds, but you get the drift.
And trust me, you do not want to mess with Polkadot Man. The thought of trying to pull off a good look at parties, when you are eternally festooned with orange and purple polkadots should be more than enough deterrent!
And cue the referral for, “Mystery Men”.
It’s only awkward if you point it out by making the associations obvious. One of the better moments in a horrible childhood happened at a summer camp when a young female counselor invited a shy introverted boy to dance during a social event. Because this counselor had only one leg he felt refusing would be wrong and he danced with her. Best use of a handicap ever!
Aww.
Wish there were more people like that.
Nice blade foot for running. I should’ve known she’s a runner.
But does that work with just 1 leg?
Of course but you would need practice.
And the prosthetic has to be “balanced’ to the “meat” leg. I did a lot of research into prosthetics when my bad leg started to do the “shut down” bit after my wreck. I finally decided I would rather have the malfunctioning “meat” over the limitations of even the best prosthetics available at the time.
Oh Sydney… Always the most offensive when you’re try not to be.
Also, love the Mythbusters nod. Though I’d think Sydney is more of an Adam than Jamie, minus the masochism, or maybe not.
She could do with a lot more of Jamie, but then she would not be Sydney anymore. Sydney often makes Adam look calm and stoic by comparison.
You are spot on about the Adam vs Jamie, given that she is the whackey rather than level-headed one. In fact, what she is actually doing in panel 4 is an impersonation of Adam doing his impersonation of Jamie. ;-)
Poor Sydney, she’s trying SO hard. Maybe she needs to do another ‘reset’. :D
I have read most of that list myself. Waiting oh-so-patiently for the third book in the Ex- series, anything by Marion Harmon, and Bernheimers new stuff. I just finished reading the newest installment of Worm before coming here lol. If you have a Kindle Fire you can go to the website and read it there, a little annoying finding the right zoom but otherwise good. If you have a regular kindle you can use copy/paste to send yourself a few chapters to the kindle email and read from there. Very worth it, especially enjoying the newest arc.
A good suggestion is How to Succeed in Evil, by Patrick E. McLean. Evil efficiency expert for stupid supervillians.
I can mention only a couple of books and both are in Spanish, not in English.
First one: “Mundo de héroes” by Rafael Marin. Overall good, but it misses a bit at the end.
And the second one: “La máscara del héroe” by Jose Luis Zarate. This one is a compilation of short novels. Only the first one is about a super, but after reading it, I guess you wont be looking at the big S guy again in the same way.
Sorry, my memory is not what it was… the title of the first one was “mundo de dioses” not “de heroes”…
Is that prosthetic the reason why she is called “Peggy”?
Badum-Tshh…
Was going to ask that.
Either it’s her nickname, due to her missing leg, or, by sheer coincidence, her name is really Margaret.
I feel bad about this, but actually yeah. I thought I was being clever, like I was the first person to ever think of calling a one legged girl Peggy. I mean, I had heard “Ileen” before but not Peggy. Fortunately she’s obviously much more of a well rounded character than a one joke throwaway.
So, what’s her middle name? I can easily imagine Syd, in her usual busy-body fashion, seeing Peg scrawling her initials on something and asking what the “I” stands for. Ohh, the faces. Two or three panels worth, I should think. :)
I was trying to think up another bad joke to add to the list, but frankly I’m stumped.
I just power read through your archive and I want to say you’re doing a super job. Ow don’t throw tomatos at me.
Naa, we appreciate heroic level puns. Welcome to the community.
Thanks! Now enjoy the agonizing wait between updates like the rest of us. :)
I’ve been waiting 2 months for an update from another comic, so I can wait.
Miss Ultimate hasn’t updated since February, and The Meek since November. Does Not Play Well With Others went on hiatus in the middle of an arc when the artist was hospitalized for kidney failure and since then has posted just an April Fool gag strip. I can handle once a week no problem.
Well although not as awesome as this Grrl Power, my comic updates once a week. So If I can make others wait, so I too can wait.
Just read your comic, it was… interesting, but it has good potential :D
Not exactly comic superheros but try the “Secret Histories” and “Nightsider” series by Simon Green. Warning they are a bit “Dark” John Taylor describes himself as a monster and you will like his best friend Shotgun Suzi (better known as “Oh God It’s HER!). Both series involve occult themes at times.
The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell was surprisingly good. They characters are well done and likeable, and the dialogue is excellent. The story is a little lacking in some place, but overall it’s pretty good. It’s very interesting how the Hero/Villain dynamic works, they treat it as genetic, and powers are exclusive to one side or the other, like super-strength and flight are Hero powers, while things like Laser Vision and Super Intelligence is generally passed from Villain to Villain in a family tree. Definitely worth a look.
Flavor text:
“Sixteen-year-old Damien Locke has a plan: major in messing with people at the local supervillain university and become a professional evil genius, just like his supervillain mom. But when he discovers the shameful secret she’s been hiding all these years, everything gets messed up.”
Sounds good, I just grabbed it for kindle (cause the only other option was a $30 hardback. :P )
Dark Magic by Larry Correia (Baen Books) Noir feel and magic superpowers.
I believe the first one is called “Hard Magic.”
Yep yer right, Dark Magic was the Angus Wells fantasy I just finished…
Grimoire Chronicles I believe is Larry’s series. Baen Books (He’s a great guy. A Great BIG guy at that. :D )
Also from days past WILD CARDS series ACES and Jokers and Black Queens… mainly short stories set in a world where aliens dumped a virus on Earth creating both superheroes, jokers (really F’d up mutants) and black queens (may look normal, but their powers and presence may/will kill. ) — Think of a Thieve’s World put together using Superheroes – many reluctant.
I know the feeling only too well Sydney >_>. Example when chatting about some excavations on site during lunch, one of the person involved being the head of IT (slightly chubby man, not majorly just well built)
Head of IT: They’re going to bury us all in shallow graves
Me: But you’re too fat for a shallow one!
*room bursts out laughing while I try to work out where to put my face*
Sydney you just locked in your win for the annual Foot-In-Mouth award this year. No contest.
I seem to have recurrent chronic Foot-In-Mouth disease.
Wish i could get an idea i have about superheroes out of my head onto paper, but i can’t draw it as i see it. It all starts with the premise that all super powers have side effects, and a ‘what if’…what if the powers WERE side effects? like, say, a fire-based hero like johnny storm, but with the innate ability of perfectly spicing their victim to perfection, her name’d be Barbie Q. …. etc.
Just do what I’ve bean doing for 20 years, Fiction, my Art lies in the Word not the Image.
My “Guardians” stories (written for my own consumption) are starting up again, in the “off page” Prolog I’ve just killed off a marquee character and changed the social rules of what “Supers” will and will not do.
If you don’t want to just do prose/novel-ly stories, you could advertise (probably somewhere else, unless you get Big Dave’s permission) for an artist, either an established (but they might already be busy/be set in their ways {stylistically}) or up-an-coming artist (might be slightly easier: less chance of them being busy and you could even work together to fully ‘flesh out’ your characters)
I still can’t draw my comic as I see it, but I get closer with each page. :)
Seriously, if you have something you really want to try and produce, start organizing it, create an outline, and do writeups of the major characters. Then you can shop it shop it around for an artist (you’re welcome to ask here) if you want to make it a webcomic, but save the big reveals for when you’re showing you ideas to an prospective artist, don’t want to have all the best stuff out there to spoil the fun later on. Also, what you posted above is a decent “elevator pitch” but if I was an artist looking for a project, I’d want to make sure the writer has more than just the ideas the threw out initially, so maybe try writing one whole arc of the story, and think about what is established in the scene, what it sets up for later, and what is implied about the events that led up to that scene, etc., to show the artist you’ve got a wealth of ideas and potential content.
Or, take a shot at actually turning it into a novel. You may find once you start getting everything organized and start writing that you don’t want to stop and wait for an artist. I hear Scrivner is a great piece of software for writing novels.
Lolled at insensitive title. Is that on purpose?
Naaaah…just because “Peg” was once “De-Feeted” and poor Syd is a victim of her own apparent inability to let an opporunity for a tasteless joke to pass?
Yup. Coming up with the titles to each page is sometimes the hardest part. :/
I have known more than one novelist to say the same thing, for those who had customised chapter titles or other material they inserted at the beginning of each chapter. Most quietly reverted to plain numbering after the first few books. Simply for their own quality of life. Funny though they are, a plain, descriptive title would actually help more for anyone looking back through the archives, for a specific scene to quote.
Yeah I’ve had that problem too. I’m sure it’s more aggravating for people who can’t work out why a certain page has a particular title.
well, if all else fails, just look for golf balls.
after all, one brand is a Titleist
You could leave those difficult pages untitled and just let your readers suggest titles, and the one you like best becomes the title of the page.
Can we get a GIF of Sydney huffing in her paper bag under the desk (with her orbs orbiting)!
It’s not about the other person being mad, Peggy–it’s the burning shame and the attempt to find that happy place where you’ve miraculously regained control of your mouth. I’ve been there. (Under the table, not in the happy place. NEVER the happy place. OH GOD WHY)
Mostly for me it’s the wishing for a rewind button so I can unsay it.
“Up until I drew this page, I hadn’t decided if it was her right or left leg, and I just drew it without really thinking about it, so now I guess it’s her right. Let’s hope I don’t forget that too often.”
That’s okay. It could be like Igor’s hump in Young Frankenstein.
Naa, funny enough movie. But slightly the wrong side of taste. Not enough to bother me, but I do not think DaveB would make a deliberate gag like that. You will note that the jokes above are ultimately are aimed at Sydney’s foot-in-mouth embarrassment, rather than at Peggy. Who just comes across as a stronger character, with a good sense of humour. If more subdued with it than Sydney.
I totally approve, by the way. Many writers would skirt away from politically incorrect areas, for fear of causing offence. As a result of which, the whole entertainment industry ends up excluding people with disabilities (and other minority or sensitive group categories) from proportionate representation.
Sydney turns to humour to deal with any awkward situations. And, if you have never met someone with prosthetics before, you are bound to feel uncomfortable until you get familiar with the thought. Especially if you are caught by surprise, like this. Subconsciously Sydney’s mind is still rapidly flipping between issues like “oh my god that must have been awful loosing it, if it was in an accident” and “how the heck would I cope if I lost an arm or a leg?”
Sydney needs to learn to work through such chains of thought without having her mouth in drive.
One of the guys who used to work at my office had a prosthetic leg and used to go out with friends drinking. On one occasion he was (over)indulging himself and one of the people in his group said ‘You drink like you have a hollow leg’. He replied ‘As a matter of fact..’ and proceeded to remove it and set it on the table.
Rebecca got my vote last week. I was pleased to find out that they had no prejudice for non-U.S.A.ians *, in that they accepted my vote from continental Europe.
* Somehow that does not trip off the tongue quite as easily as “non-Americans”, but I guess I must not propagate the verbal implication that Canada is part of the U.S.A. ;-)
non-North American ??
Little more wordy, but still accurate and includes the Canadians.
If you liked the Bernheimer books, you might be interested to know that originally he started out writing Harry Potter fan fiction under the pen name jbern. It’s all just as good as his original work — it’s been a long time since I read them but Bungle in the Jungle, its sequel and The Lie I’ve Lived are well worth a look.
Interesting, but my only exposure to Harry Potter was the first movie. I should probably rectify that.
Meh… don’t bother going beyond another one. or maybe two. Like the books, they go downhill.
Agreement. The first 3-4 Harry Potter books are OK. But then they start seriously bloating out, trading off quality for sheer quantity, and this shows in the movies.
“Up until I drew this page, I hadn’t decided if it was her right or left leg, and I just drew it without really thinking about it, so now I guess it’s her right. Let’s hope I don’t forget that too often.”
…I’m good with this; though I have vague recollection of the Christmas incentive showing her with her left leg as a stump… then again maybe I’m just remembering wrong.
You already hit the top books on my superhero reading list but i can think of a few more you might like. I’d recommend you check out Subject 12 by S W Douglas and Blackjack Villain by Ben Bequer. Both of those are (IMO) really good reads. Another book that’s good but not in the same class is Paranormals by Christopher Andrews.
Thanks, added them to my wishlist.
There’s also The Secret World Chronicles, a braided novel written by Mercedes Lackey and four other authors. It’s an interesting example of a fairly stable world with supers – until the inevitable Big Damn Epic Thing happens. The first book in the series is titled Invasion, one more has been published and hopefully there will be at least one more.
If people are interested in the secret world the link to the free baen cd is located
I can’t recommend Christopher Wright’s “Curveball” enough, the author calls it a “prose comic” about superheroes.
The guy also does the “Help Desk”, “Kernel Panic”, and “PCTown” webcomics, as well as a science-fiction novel, “Pay Me, Bug”
I hate him.
(jk)
Thanks, I’ll check it out.
Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday by Elliot Maggin if you can find them. They were originally printed in the late 70’s and still hold up extremely well in my opinon. I have read my copies to death several times.
I second ‘Last Son Of Krypton’..
I agree, also Miracle Monday is the actual first appearance of the character Kristen Wells, historian from the 28th century, descendant of Jimmy Olsen and H.G. Wells, later in the comics she became “Superwoman”. The author E. Maggin is actually her creator and he was writing for DC on the Superman comics as well during the same time period.
I have also gone through 4 or 5 copies of each.
finally managed to start breathing normally again, good job. Hyperventilating Syd is what tipped my laughter over the edge ito the land of asthma
If you’re looking for massive quantities of excellent Superhero fiction, might I recommend the Whateley Academy webnovel series? It’s got about a dozen authors, and a good home-library’s worth of material- enough to keep you with something to read for a few months, at least; all of it top notch. And the fanfiction and forum community are awesome as well.
I’ve had Whatley Academy recommended to me several times, but reading it presents the same problem as Worm. I do 95% of my reading when I’m on the recumbent bike or elliptical at the gym, so I need it either as a physical book or something I can put on my Kindle, or even iPad if I have to, but I don’t have active WiFi were I usually work out, so reading off a webpage is problematic.
It’s nice to hear that Whateley is getting recommended. As one of the authors, I was *not* going to do so. But… given your constraints, I’ll just mention that a couple readers have already turned most of the stories into ePub and other formats (without permission of the authors) and this has been discussed in the forums. Also, a lot of the protagonists have transgender origins (although this isn’t relevant in most of the stories), which freaks plenty of people out.
Has anyone recommended the webcomic “Magellan” yet?
I got into reading it through recommendations here. Lovely to see that more than a few writers and artists have been drawn here.
I was quite surprised, when playing City of Heroes, to gradually find that about one in three of the people who I had become friends with had some strong artistic side. Be it literal artist, writer or musician. Less surprising here, given the online interrelationships with the webcomic community. But it does still make me wonder if an unusually high ratio of artistic types get attracted to the superhero genre.
Yea i have the same problem when talking to people, I’m always putting my “foot in my mouth”.
Oops there i go again.
I can say how adorable it is that Adderal-enhanced Sydney actually cares about the feelings of another person she just met, right? Because the last panel is just really heart-warming after the rest of the comic.
It doesn’t occur to Sydney to suck up to people she would normally want to impress, (as we saw with her and Max at the bank) and is not mindful of first impressions and things like that, but she usually isn’t out to insult anyone unless they give her a reason, and Peggy’s been pretty level with her, even if she did dis her powers a little, she was really just grounding her after her “I have superpowers” high.
Uhm… Concerning foot in mouth disease… You’ve decided that Peggys right foot is prostethic? Or the left? As she knocks on her right lower leg. But in the first panel is a left foot, right next to the running-foot.
Or is it just a spare for the day when she inevitably looses the other foot too?
Or maybe there was a sale on prosthetic left legs.
Maybe it’s both feet, and Peg’s plotting to mess with Syd about it later on?
Wait. That’s a right foot. Unless DaveB already fixed it?
Nope, it was always a right leg (the big toe was always on the left)
Me silly and you’re right, of course. Mea Culpa. All I can say in my defence is that I was tired when I made the post. As I got the impression she was knocking on the ‘inside’ of her left leg, and there was a right foot in the panel… and then I got left and right switched around in my head, without considering the posibility that she was knocking on the outside of the leg. Preconception is the momma of all fuckups.
Still, great comic. :)
Really like this chapter, and REALLY looking forward to this press conference coming up. Also another one you might like that is similar to Wearing the Cape in the aspect of Supers in the real world, could be “After the Golden Age” by Carrie Vaughn. It follows the daughter of the worlds greatest Super Hero couple, who didn’t get any powers.
Sounds like a decent setup, I’ll check it out.
Another good supervillain (rather than superhero) novel is “They Tell Me I’m the Bad Guy” by R. D. Harless. The style reminds me of “Catcher in the Rye” for its somewhat stream of consciousness feel with quite a few vulgarities and of “Slaughterhouse Five” for its somewhat surrealist feel at times. Very good read with an interesting twist in the background on incorporating superheros into law enforcement. Focuses on an ex-villain who just wants to stay out of the game.
Generally not a fan of surrealism but I’ll stick it in my wishlist.
I would love to see Sydney pull a … well… a Sydney… and go full speed in the opposite direction. Not just accepting the idea of a prosthetic leg but EMBRACING it. Starting to suggest every possible hi-tech advance possible that could be crammed into it for the super hero schtick…
* Nuclear Powered Pogo Stick
* Karate Kick Katana Surprise
* Go-Go-Gadget Skates! … er… Skate…
* Helicopter… with optional barf bag for flying while hanging upside down…
* Espresso Machine
* GPS… for when the Nuclear Powered Pogo Stick “malfunctions”
* Loudspeakers and beat track… for theme and entrance music
It’s probably already got a bottle opener built in. Military types. I know them.
Bottle Opener built into the shin, hammer built into the heel (or better yet, into the toe (CWIDT?)), ALICE-Clip-mounts built into the side of the calf, and a small compartment to hold a shotglass, lighter, and pack of cigarettes.
Pius the requisite shotgun built in so she’s never unarmed (sky marshal’s badge for commercial flights).
NTW, Dave, nice orb illumination in the last panel.
Damn typo, That was meant to be BTW.
Don’t stress man, you were only 2cm off.
Or less if using non-standard keyboard (like a tablet).
He he. You beat me to it. Having been taken out for walkies, I was just doing my re-read for missing details, and spotted the orbs quite clearly glowing in the dark. Nicely resolving an issue questioned last week. Although probably having been drawn before then, knowing DaveB is usually at least a week ahead with his buffer.