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.
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.
Sydney is definitely ADHD, I do that shit too, get’s annoying, specially when the other person refuses to understand you can’t control it all the time, they just want to throttle you.
Useful to know that it can be that intrusive into daily life for regular sufferers. As opposed to just being Sydney needing to work harder on ways to compensate for it. Personally I have a condition that very often makes me unable to recall names. Even people that I have known for years and deal with on a day to day basis. Sometimes even close family members (just to show that it passes beyond the average person’s brain-fart).
In such circumstances, I have to rebuild the word(s) that compose their name by word/picture association. Although with family members, I can shorthand the process, so it is just irritating that the wrong name pops out when I am not concentrating. But otherwise, it can take a few seconds to go through the rebuilding process. And it can be annoying when someone cant be patient enough for me to do that, and starts guessing who I am trying to refer to (if they keep getting the wrong one and interfering with me concentrating, at least).
A few people just don’t get it that something goes wrong in my brain (the way it does with everyone, whenever you have a “name on the tip of your tongue”, but just chronically, in my case). One of my inner circle in particular had a superb memory for everything, and simply never forgot a name. So had difficulty believing me.
Very sadly, he had a serious car crash (involving fatalities). One of the many legacies being that his memory was slightly impaired. Although, I would estimate, still being above that of an average person. But it did mean that he once commented “now I understand more where you come from with your memory problem”.
What you’re saying is you wish all aspects of life came with a Who’s Who widget.
Yes! One bloke locally has his name tattooed on his arm (along with his late son’s). I have made suggestions to other people around here to get similar aid memoires done. But there has been a poor uptake, for some reason.
Could you post the name of your condition, please? Also, can it be hereditary?
I have always had a very poor memory for names, even family, friends and co-workers. Either I completely forget the name and have to rebuilt (as you described an example being a girl I have worked with for five years was identified last week when I was talking about her as “pregnant girl”) or get names of several people mixed up (my boss and her boss – my fiancee, sister and ex-girlfriend – seriously embarassing).
My father has mixed up names for as long as I can remember (most commonly my uncle, my brother and me), which is why I was wondering if it can be hereditary.
I’ve never thought that is could be more than just poor memory, but it has caused me problems in the past, particularly with my boss and uberboss, who were quite offended when I called them by the others name.
My thanks for your help.
I have no idea if it is even a medically recognised condition. Because I can work around it, I have never bothered getting it diagnosed. Possibly I could get treatment for one side of it, which I guess is psychological. In that if I do make a slip up, it gets a lot worse. Which I attribute to what I think of as stage fright or a panic attack (although not to be confused with a regular panic attack, as I have no other problems such as palpitations and can still think clearly, calmly and rationally).
Barring some fluke co-incidence, I think it is hereditary, in that my mum is very similar. In a typical conversation calling me by every other family member’s name, before eventually settling on mine (if she even notices she got it wrong at all).
Once, when she came to visit and spent the evening with local friends of mine, one of them was most concerned. “Your mum has gotten your name wrong every time she has referred to you this evening! You must be devastated.” This from another of the lucky folks who never forgets a name. “Nope, she has never been any different. Nor have I, if I say a name without thinking.” Typically I will substitute the name of someone else in a similar mental category. So female friend for female friend, for example.
Draw your own conclusions for how well that goes down at times.
I guess it is one of the reasons I have an interest in neurology. Not that I have specifically researched that side. But I do pay close attention to any talks or articles relating to causes of mental conditions, brain development and the like. And, trying to be objective, it is my opinion that the underlying reason is neurological (hardware) rather than psychological (software).
Partly from the hereditary argument, which is a clue. Partly from archaeological conclusions about how Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens brains developed and the arguments from neurology used to support them. Which showed that parts of the human brain are specialised in dealing with abstracts. Which may have been an area that Neanderthals were lacking in.
Hence I find it plausible that one area of the abstract handling part of my brain, specifically that part most needed for recalling names, is faulty, or using a recessive gene that pre-dates the more successful version.
As regards your problems at work, they are identical to ones I faced. To the extent that, in the end, I found it best to mention it up front to people looking to employ me. I would let them know that I have the problem, and it is chronic. But that I have ways of dealing with it. In an office environment, I always used to have a list of the names of everyone I dealt with front and centre on my desk. So at a glance I could bypass the problem.
Likewise in any meetings. And, by being candid with my co-workers, I found that they would act as verbal prompters in situations, like parties, where handy lists would be intrusive. That and, habitually, simply avoiding using names unless essential.
“I am off to a meeting with the head of accounts”, rather than using a name and then getting the awkward gap when it failed to arrive on demand. As to why my brain does not have a problem with “accounts” when it does with “George”, is harder to explain. But the brain does have systems to link facial (and voice) recognition to a mental impression of a specific person.
One example being damage to a specific area can render a person unable to recognise their loved ones. “I know that looks and sounds like my dad, but it must be an imposter, because he is not my dad”. For that sufferer, the link between the emotional attachment to the concept of “dad” and the sensory input has been broken.
Similarly, I think that there is a bit of the brain that links the abstract of a name to our mental image of that person. And in our case it (or the means of recalling the name) is faulty.
Do you have difficulties in recalling the proper names of objects, or is it limited to just humans? How about pets? There are various types of aphasia, and you might have a very minor form of it. Basically if something can go wrong with the brain, it will happen to some poor schmuck at least once!
If you want a bit of light reading, I recommend something by Oliver Sachs. He writes about neuroscience/ cognitive neuroscience in ways that most laypeople can appreciate!
I have no problem with nouns, it seems to be exclusively restricted to pronouns. Further, as a child I used to be multi-lingual. Fluent enough to often pass as a native speaker. So no general language difficulties.
I cannot recall having a problem with pet’s names. Probably because my childhood pets are all long dead, and mixing up or forgetting a pet’s name would not really stick in the mind over years. Especially when able to simply say “the cat” or “the dog” if the name did not come to mind. Only ever having those two and, later, a hamster. Plus, given his name was “Hammy”, that would really not have been a problem.
Likewise not much chance of mixing up the other names as they would not fit into the same mental category, dogs and cats being very different. However, I do currently have one dog, who adopted me a couple of years ago. A Jack Russell Terrier named “Buffy.” After the vampire slayer, of course, but not by me, despite being a fan. Which would also be a significant aid in near-instantly rebuilding her name if it did not come directly.
That said, I have not noticed a problem with recalling her name. So possibly the condition may be limited to people. But equally there is little chance of mixing her up with any other pet name, as the only other ones are the long-dead childhood pets. Buffy is my constant companion, taking me for long walkies every day, and people constantly talk about her as she is very cute and is extremely sociable. So her name crops up continuously.
Although highly noticeable when it does happen, the more frequently I use a name, the less I am likely to forget it (not to be confused with how familiar the subject is, just how often I have spoken the name in the last few days).
The error rate goes up dramatically, though, if I am alternating use of names of people in the same category. So if asked “what did the guy’s do at the barbecue”, I could expect to make half a dozen slip-ups if paying more attention to the content than the names. Or, if the other way around, get a few long pauses, when I am grasping for a name that is not coming. That problem would not occur with Buffy, of course.
It looks like anomic aphasia is a clear candidate. Thanks for the heads-up on the term. I did have encephalitis as a baby, so brain damage is a possibility in my case. If so, my mum having a similar condition would be just a co-incidence. Though rather long odds. Both having damage to the same, very specific, location in the brain. So I would still consider a genetic cause, even though there is no mention of such in the Wikipedia entry.
Remember, environment & genetics aren’t isolated; environmental stimuli often act on genetic predisposition. My brother & I had the name problem crop up from several family members (our names start with the same letter), & then even friends. My sister-in-law, despite having a rather large vocabulary, often loses words, becoming frustrated when someone suggests the wrong word. Has nothing to do with intellect (she’s a writer & an English major) & everything to do with memory pathways in the brain.
Thans for the detailed response and also to everyone else who offered their suggestions. The whole topic of how brains function (or don’t function) is fascinating and personal stories make dry medical desriptions of conditions come to life.
I agree that it is probably a hardware issue rather than a software one, though genetic, developmental or caused by damage is an open question. I recall seeing a documentary a few years ago about brain injuries and there was a woman on there who, following a car crash, lost the ability to recall the names of vegetables. That was the only aspect of her functioning that she lost; people, plants, animals, learned facts and even fruit she was still OK with.
There was also a man in the documentary whose injury damaged his ability to lay down new memories, so he could clearly recall his life up to his accident, but nothing beyond. He could not hold a conversation because he could not follow a thread for longer than a few seconds.
On a slightly different aspect, my father had a mini-stroke a couple of years ago and the only thing he lost was his mental map of the world, by which he drove. He used to be a planning officer and knew his city (Bristol, England) like the back of his hand, but after the stroke needed step-by-step directions to get anywhere outside his house (we effectively became his human sat-navs). He has recovered a bit since then, but still has problems if he goes beyond the routes he has relearned since his mini-stroke and still cannot recall anything of what he lost. He knows how much he used to know but the information itself is now lost/inaccessable to him
I remember a quote that was applied to engineers but works equally well with medical matters, “We learn more about how something works when it is not working properly than when it is” (I paraphrase, but that is the gist of it).
I’m sure there must be many forums and websites devoted to the subject.
Thanks again for all comments.
I wonder if he’ll see this.
Anomic aphasia.
Have the same problem, not just with peoples’ names (one reason tend to come up with nicknames based on their appearance, but even then, if not used often enough they end up with a new appearance-based nickname :P) but with any word in general. It’s one reason that makes me uncomfortable talking to people, even family members (have no real friends in the same country, closest would be the comic-store guy)
Totally understand what you mean about someone trying to help ‘fill in the blanks’ (mum does that), but when it turns out the word you were blanking on was ‘the’, getting distracted by helpful suggestions doesn’t help
Envy the people who can cover up instances like that with ‘umm’ or ‘whatchamacallits’ or ‘thinga-mes’, but they are usually not blanking on the ‘little’ words :(
If you do not mind me giving advice, it may be best to avoid appearance-based nick names. That can often alienate people if they are sensitive about their appearance. And, usually, if someone has a noticeable feature, that is what they would be concerned about.
“Comic-store-guy” would not be likely to offend in that manner. Although people can be concerned about being pigeon-holed. But I find that being frank about a condition (not just the one in question, but generally speaking) makes people you are dealing with more understanding. Now that we can put a name to the condition, it is much easier, too. People will hopefully stop thinking “he is just being mentally lazy” and think “ahh, the guy has a medical condition”.
Of course, rarely, someone might be freaked out by the thought of any mental problem, even a mild one. But I would rather not become friends with someone so narrow-minded anyhow, so that really does not bother me. You imply that you have other difficulties too, so you would have to use your own judgement on what might be helpful to reveal and what not. Though I suspect that openness is likely better than secrecy, for most things which might impede socialising.
I think there is another tactic that would be of use. Although it would take longer to implement than the above suggestions. A huge chunk of our brain is devoted to facial recognition. Recently it has been shown that part of the process is to store a mental template of a face and then compare it with the one you are looking at, in a simplified cartoon-like fashion.
It is why caricatures are so successful. If we see Prince Charles, compared to our mental template of “average white guy”, it is immediately apparent that his ears are more prominent than normal. Hence the caricaturist will emphasise them even more than in real life. Likewise picking up on a few other features to further distinguish him from other jug-eared individuals. Combined, anyone in the world, who is familiar with his face, will immediately recognise him from what is, in actuality, no more than a few inked lines.
Your nick-naming scheme is successful because it accesses this area of the brain. The one dealing with facial recognition. Rather than the one which links a name to our concept of a particular person. A technique that you can make use of, in which case, is to build a link between a mental caricature of a face and the name.
The area of care being to avoid your mind using the part of the brain devoted to linking names with people. Instead try to directly link the visual image of the cartoon face with the name you want to recall. Perhaps by incorporating objects into the caricature.
So a neighbour of mine is called Tony. I can mentally manipulate a caricature of his face to incorporate a pair of feet below them composed of just one giant toe each, connected by oversized knees. The image is hilarious, especially if I get him to wiggle his toes. So it stays in the mind easily. Anytime I want to bring up his name, I visualise that and can just name the exaggerated features I can see “Toe-nee”.
Whereas I use a completely different technique for his wife’s name. As a couple they perform country and western music. I am a bit of a film buff and can usually remember names of films (with the usual chance of forgetting that anyone has). The film “Thelma and Louise” being one that I can bring up easily in association with “country and western” (whether the film has that style of music is irrelevant, it is an American road movie, so for me the link is easy to make). Her name is Louise.
It is also an alternate way that I can call up Tony’s name. As “Thelma and Louise” are girls, whereas the name of the couple in question is “Tony and Louise” a simple mental morph.
The reason why it is a longer term solution though, is because it requires re-structuring how you speak to people. Given that it can take a few moments to achieve. Especially for more complex names. If you want to avoid awkward gaps whilst speaking (and clearly dislike “umming” and “arrring”, which is natural enough), it is best to do the mental gymnastics in advance.
So whilst holding a conversation, if I want to reply using a name, I do my exercise whilst the other person is still talking. And just hope that their point is not distracting enough that I forget the name once I have in mind. If they talk too long, it can vanish again. Of course, being able to hold a funny mental caricature in mind makes that a lot less of a problem.
Same deal here. When it comes to things that make people say “How do you forget that/mess that up, people don’t seem to realize that they do the same thing themselves. It’s like you said, it’s the same issue that other people have, but with some of us it happens with greater frequency. I’m bad with memorizing names and numbers, but do well with ideas and concepts. I once tried to figure out what my limit for alcohal was and ended up crawling out of the bathroom too drunk to walk, and a friend decided to be a wise-ass and say “Hey, say somethin’ smart!” Much to his surprise, I started explaining concepts of radiation physics! The funny part (to me at least) was that I was still dumb enough to drink that much in the first place, a mistake that I do not intend to repeat. So yeah, it realy just depends on how your brain works and what you’re good with.
When not prepared I will blurt things out like a 7 year old. That kind of candor isn’t appreciated when you over 50. Sydney is still learning. Give her some time and she may curb it by the time she is 50.
It would make sense if one of her orbs she doesn’t yet know its function can keep her from dying. Heal her. Once she does she can heal others. A great power drain though if one of the mystery orbs can do that. A logical compliment if the orbs are a kind of survival gear for an advanced species.
Henry, YORP(and others) …
The worst part about ADHD is sometimes its just a symptom of something even more serious. By itself, it can be enough trouble, but when ADHD is just a symptom … it becomes a lot harder to deal with. Often such problems can FEED on each other, escalating just HOW bad it actually is.
Not knocking how Dave uses it as part of a character, ADHD can be very interesting as a plot device. It also gives them the logical excuse to hold the Idiot Ball.
My comments above are food for thought for those who want to know more about ADHD.
I am always keen to learn. The more I know about a condition, the better I am able to try and appreciate the difficulties suffered and/or to make allowances for them, if need be. I find the closer you can visualise the world from someone else’s point of view, the better you can connect with them. Which is harder if they have gone through emotional or life experiences which you have not. And way harder if they literally think in a different way to yourself.
We all project our own mindset on others when trying to see things from their point of view. Hopefully adjusting them for known differences. So doubtless my projections onto Sydney will be flawed at times, not being intimate with the subtitles of ADHD (well or anything not mentioned by fellow commenters, short of the odd snippet in the news over the years).
One childhood friend who I gradually lost contact with turned out (many years later) to have had undiagnosed manic depressive disorder (a.k.a. bi-polar disorder for those who are up to date with the politically correct re-definition of it). Had I known he suffered from that, I would have known to take account of his mood swings. Without which knowledge, there are only so many times that you will put up with invitations to hang out going ignored, before loosing interest yourself.
The reason I know about how ADHD can be a “symptom” as well as “feeding” off other problems is because that describes ME.
It’s also why I can appreciate Dave’s writing because while he takes advantage of the comical side of things, he’s not neglecting to mention that it IS an issue she’s dealing with. Medication being mentioned already in the strip some time ago. With her implied level of ADHD, she probably also has to see a therapist (even if she IS semi-functional) every so often.
So Dave … if you see this …. you’re doing a good job of presenting matters, and that comes from a guy who has to LIVE with it (thankfully my ADHD is nowhere near as severe as hers).
I have pretty significant ADD as well. Heck, this whole comic is a testament to how entertaining my own daydreams are. Unfortunately they tend to happen while people are talking to me, not just when I’m commuting or otherwise zoning out.
Ah, I’ve read “Soon I Will Be Invincible.” Great stuff.
I actually picked it up the night of a midnight release of one of the Harry Potter books. Had to wait around for the clock to strike twelve, and I needed to kill the time somehow. “So why not buy a book?” I thought to myself. I stayed up all night to finish it, the wizards would have to wait.
Way to OMIF Sydney.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot
I read most on the list and enjoyed them, I can also recomend:
West Pacific Super series by K.M. Johnson-Weider
In Hero Years I’m Dead by Michael Stackpole
and ‘The Infected’ series by P.S. Power
Ah yes, In Hero Years, I’m Dead was pretty great. I even put up with my wife’s Kindle, in order to be able to read it right away. I was first drawn to it because I noticed that the protagonist shared a code name with a mentor character from PS238; turns out that’s because he’s the same guy – the author has lent the character to a number of ‘verses, including a tabletop RPG.
I’ve done that with some characters of mine. I like the idea of lending out my characters to see what people do with them. US copyright law can make that a little problematic at times but I think the world would be a better place if people could make fan websites or write fan fiction or do fan comic books like they can in Japan and the Dōjinshi scene.
Thanks I’ll check those out.
Try watching the No Arms, no Legs, No Worries youtube video some day.
One part of it the guy talked about how whenever he comes down a slide, people at the bottom tend to freak out.
He said he was tempted to look at himself and yell “What happened?”
Aww, I was already grinning in expectation of watching Sydney DELIBERATELY getting it out of her system. Guess she’s not actually that self-/socially-confident when she’s gotta think about it.
Glad to hear that people liked Soon I Will Be Invincible; I was basically sold on it based on the TVTropes page, but live confirmation makes me happier to buy it.
My own recommendation for hero fic is one I actually received myself in these very comments – a great “hard fantasy” story about real people and realistic consequences of superpowers called The Fall of Doc Future. It’s currently being posted, chapter-by-chapter, as a WIP, and is about 30 chapters in.
I’ll keep an eye on that and maybe wait and see if it will be published as a proper book.
aiui, the intent is to publish as a “regular book”. I couldn’t wait, though; the prologue hooked me immediately. If it hadn’t, the “Phone Tag” chapter would have. Excellent (imo) exploration of real-world real-physics[1] implications of super-abilities. Superman’s “I feel like the world is made of cardboard” got *nothing* on Flicker (for her it’s “I feel like the world is made of thin vapor”) (Closer to Acacia Budur’s “you people are soap bubbles to me”. And the depiction of how *careful* Flicker has to be to avoid killing or injuring people.
[1] By “real physics” I don’t mean *really*-real-physics, but real physics augmented by well defined super abilities. How they’d have to interact. That sort of thing. Something Harry Dresden does upon occasion, noting that magic-schmagic, he’s still got to deal with momentum and energy and such.
And… hm, I didn’t see anybody comment on the fifth panel, but … shouldn’t she be doing Adam Savage instead of Jamie Hyneman? Isn’t that Adam’s tagline? Or am I just seeing something that isn’t there? On the other hand… Jamie is much easier to do in a visual medium. How *would* she do Adam anyways?
When Adam says that, it’s him riffing on Jamie as it was his catchphrase originally.
It’s great to learn, ’cause knowledge is POWER! Mwahahahah!
Um. I mean… “I did not know that”. Nifty.
“knowledge is power, power corrupts… study hard, be evil!”
As the author, I can’t say yet whether there will ever be a ‘proper book’, depending on the definition. I will complete it for sure, and make it available as an ebook in one form or another, but a paper version of a first novel by an unknown author is kind of a dicey proposition.
The kind words here are very gratifying. It’s good to know people are enjoying my story.
DocFuture, creator of Flicker, Doc, Stella, Donner and the rest
Well, if Amazon is any indication, it’s probably not too challenging to get listed as a kindle only eBook. In my hunt for other superhero novels, I stumbled into what apparently is the Mos Eisley section of Amazon, the digital only section. Lots of short novels, many of which with atrocious cover art… like, stuff that was knocked out after an afternoon of learning Poser. Still some interesting stories. I didn’t mention them in the comic comment cause it was already incredibly long, but I checked out The Machinist Part One: Malevolence by Alexander Maisey and The Imposter #1: Half a Hero by Richard Lee Byers. Both were quite good, I was just disappointed they weren’t longer. I imagine the barrier to entry is lower than it’s ever been. I would think getting something listed on Amazon for $3.99 wouldn’t be prohibitively difficult.
My issue is that reading off a web page is tough because with the time demands of the comic, really the only reading time I have is if I’m on the bike at the gym or laying in bed late at night, so the kindle makes it more convenient. I have read some stuff on the iPad but it’s not ideal usually.
A fair point on the difficulty of reading in bed or on a bike. I think Amazon’s terms are pretty restrictive – I don’t want my book to be Kindle only. But I haven’t spent a lot of time looking, maybe after I finish it. Can you read rtf format format files on a kindle? That’s the format I write in (in wordpad–yes, I know, I know 8-)) and I’ve considered putting together the chapter files I’ve done so far into one big rtf for others who wanted to read it offline.
I’ve seen self published authors have the DRM left off. So it can be read on anything, not just kindle.
Oh and ps, kindles can read pdf. Or plain ascii text iirc. But it eems it’d probably be simplest to convert to mobi and/or epub formats. If not those, text, since with pdf the pages won’t reformat automagically. But even if there were only rtf, I could convert to the formats kindle supports, and report back which work best.
All right I put together a teaser file of the prologue and first chapter in rtf format. If you want to see how it converts that would be cool. Send me an email, I’m at riderius (at) cableone (dot) net, and I’ll send it to you. Then maybe we can see how the various formats work on the Kindle.
Yeah you can sideload stuff like PDFs. I’m sure there are loads of tutorials out there on what the best formats are.
Don’t forget Ed Gedeon’s “Everyday Heroes” and “Supernormal Step”, by Michael Lee Lunsford.
Started reading Supernormal Step a couple weeks ago, it’s quite interesting
Yea, Supernormal Step is one of the comics that I have avidly followed for a long time. And one of a handful that I never fail to check out every update, no matter how busy I otherwise am.
My favourite in the cast is one of the heroine’s friends is a four armed alien. A really cute one. Even cuter than Spinnerette! For those who have the hots for multi-armed girls.
Yups, liking her more, and glad that she became maybe not core-cast but at least recuring secondary-character
also ‘after the golden age’ by carrie vaughn
And realism catches up to you when you least expect it — it’s like seeing a jumping, mostly dodging bullets hero trying to bounce bullets off his wonder woman like bracelets, and suddenly he/she is all dead ’cause it didn’t work… quite the unexpected bit of realism.
A good superhero novel that I would recommend in After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn
Strip 130, first panel… Harem left her communicator/GPS choker right on Mr Deus’ desk!!!
Any takers on whether this is a massive dumb blunder or a double mole genius tactic?
No, she left her tracker device on her desk, so ARCHON wouldn’t know she was with Deus instead of in the shower
yeah, I can see that the book selection implies that the desk belongs to a teleporter.
Now the question is… wouldn’t Aryana prepare for something so obvious? Does she have a contingency? Or is she already three steps ahead of Deus on this one?
Arianna is pretty sharp. I’m eager to see her in action.
So wait. The girl missing a leg is named Peggy?
Shh. DaveB feels guilty about that.
Her middle name is Ileen. I’m pretty sure.
Is her last name Onwall?
Her surname is actually Kessler.
Like the whiskey.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HERE TOO BTW HEHE
Thanks, I spent the day drawing. :)
Ooh, belated many happy returns!
Happy Birthday! :)
Panel 5… Is she making a mock-beard with her hands?
It’s a Myth Busters reference, aparantly
More a mock walrus mustache.
(and dagnabbit, I missed this comment thread when I said I hadn’t seen anybody comment on panel 5… it’s still true I hadn’t seen it, but … well, dagnabbit.)
That’s what I was thinking, but it was vague enough to be construed as something else.
Adam frequently does his impression of Jamie’s walrus moustache. Combine that with what has pretty much become a catch phrase “well there’s your problem”, and the connection is clear. Although easy enough to miss. I did on my first read through.
You can also check out “Grant Imahara does his Jamie Hyneman impersonation” on YouTube, to see that it is not just Adam who has mastered the art.
Hopefully Sydney gets over herself soon, and becomes more comfortable with Peggy’s situation. Most of my fellow vets, that have obvious disabilities, get more annoyed at people who stress out over insulting them with casual conversation bits, then direct shots at the disabilities. When a fellow gamer was seriously injured in a car accident, I made a special effort to ensure that he could attend our RPG sessions in comfort, then I hung a sign over his chair naming it “Cripple Corner”. Interestingly enough, this was mostly to keep the more selfish players from taking the obviously more comfortable and accessible seat. It worked, nobody was insulted, and my friend was happy to be able to game with the rest of us, and it gave us a small chuckle. PLUS, it came in really handy a few months later when another of the RPG group had to go in for surgery. Her way of informing me that she was healed enough to rejoin our game, was to inquire as to the status of the “Cripple Corner”. So, over-sensitivity is annoying, but awareness and courtesy make things go smoother.
Sydney being aware that she might be insulting/offending/whatever Peg is a huge step, it wasn’t that many pages ago where she wouldn’t have noticed even if Peg was mad and had punched her lights out
People tend to overeact lesss if you just put things out there, I’m blind in my left eye, so when I have friends over for drinks and games, I always call the seat in the left corner of my lounge room “The Blind Spot” and they got used to it in no time at all. One of them even offered to make a special plaque to use as a seat reserver.
Yeah I didn’t want the humor on this page to come across like I was making fun of Peggy, more of a case of Sydney’s mouth running just ahead of her brain. She’ll quickly adapt.
…Aaaaaand I JUST got the fact that her name is Peggy.
Actually I mentioned the wearing the cape series myself, but I have another for you I just recently started which seems pretty good so far. This is totally from the villain side of things though. Take a look at the series for Blackjack. a super strong nearly invulnerable villain with a thing for bows and a high IQ. So far I’m halfway through the first book and it’s starting to get pretty intense.
I know it isn’t a book, but Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog is a great “super-hero” movie.
Worm is awesome. Read worm!
I spotted the Myth Busters reference all on my own! :D
Highly recommended superhero pastiche: El Sombra, Gods of Manahattan, and Pax Omega, all by Al Ewing in Abaddon Books.
Also, if you can find a copy (it’s long out of print) How To Be A Superhero, by Mark Leigh, Mike Lepine, and Steve Dillon (yeah, that Steve Dillon, co-creator of Preacher and begetter of Dogwelder).
Thank you SO MUCH for posting the link to vote for me. I need literally HUNDREDS more votes to have a chance to win, and voting ends tomorrow!
I can’t thank you enough for your support.
And a million thanks to all the Grrl Power readers who take the time to vote. It means everything to me!
-Rebecca
Voted for ya, for what it’s worth.
I’ll bet Maxima would love to make an appearance on Gyno-Star. It’s perfect for her.
Don’t tell anyone, but I’m doing some guest strips for GynoStar. She didn’t even ask. I just thought of a bunch of jokes that would fit better in her comic. There won’t be any Grrl Power cameos in it though. I’m working on those in between vote incentives and StripSearch elimination challenges, so it will be a little while before they’re finished.
Squeee!
Er, mum’s the word.
Fingers crossed for you getting the votes. This is certainly the day of the week most likely to bring in the Grrl Power votership too.
Years ago, I had a professor who was in a wheel chair, due to strokes. VERY first thing he said, rolling into class on a chilly December day in Tucson, “I hear it’s really cold outside, but then again, I can only feel half the cold. But seriously, I’m going to tell you something that’ll make you want to run out into the parking lot and kick your own ass. Of course, I have to contract that work out now…”
It went on from there till the end of the course. We learned that if the person with a disability isn’t taking things said about it seriously, you shouldn’t either. And a really bright and resilient person can beat you to the jokes about it 9 times out of 10.
Loving the comic so far. It’s a much needed laugh at the start of the week. Shouldn’t Sydney’s choker design be in her ‘Who’s Who’ description now, or would that be a spoiler for people who haven’t read this far?
Maybe it might get added in an updated “Who’s Who” after the official ‘Conference of Dread’ (Anvil’s, and Maxis, current “Who’s Who” is not the same as it was when they were first introduced, so it is possible to update the “WW” without spoiling things)
Yeah the Who’s Who is spoiler free. It’s tied to the tags for each individual page, so there’s a syndey01, syndey02, etc that update appropriately as you’re reading the archive. I’ll probably update Sydney’s to say “Halo” at the start of the press conference.
I grew up in a family full of nurses and healers…dark, self effacing humor is very common among us. It’s amazing how some of the people who have disabilities are among the ones who find it funniest.
Well sure, they’re allowed to laugh at it without getting incredulous stares from anyone.
Hey DaveB! Voracious reader here and always willing to share and suggest some of my favorites.
Sci-Fi:
Two series by David Webber. First is the Honor Harrington series (or sometimes the Honorverse series). It’s military sci-fi but the characters are great and he can really write some great battle scenes between ships. The first 5 or so are my favorite, the next few are still pretty good, but then my interest peters out after that as the books become more about politics than the things that got me into the series. Second is the Safehold series. Sci-fi books with wooden ship cannon battles! (Not kidding!) It’d take too long to explain the premise here so hopefully that little bit will hook you to at least check it out on Amazon.
Fantasy:
Again, two series by one author, Ilona Andrews. First is the Kate Daniels series. Guess best way to describe is it semi-post-apocalyptic. Set in Atlanta, GA, magic is coming back and destroying tech in waves and people are learning to live and adjust. Again, great characters, love the interaction between Kate and Curan. ;) Second one by her is the Edge series. A normal world and a magically powered version of it lie side-by-side, with just this sliver of a split dimension between them and the hard-scrabble life that comes from living there.
I’ve got tons of others I could suggest (My Life as a White Trash Zombie just for the name alone!) but that should hold you for a while.
You should know that she didn’t originate this scenario. It was done by both Poul Anderson and Piers Anthony. One was the adept series, and the other was the Mode series. Then there was Phase Doubt, but I can’t remember which of them wrote it.
Actually, Piers Anthony wrote both the Adept series and the Mode series, and Phaze Doubt is book 5 or 6 in the Adept Series. His Incarnations of Immortality series also had magic and science coexisting in one world.
Never claimed she originated the idea of magic and reality living side by side. However, out of everything I’ve read, the Kate Daniels series is the only one that’s done the concept of ‘man pushed magic too far, tech started taking over. Now man’s pushed tech too far and the pendulum is swinging back the other way’. Closest I’ve ever seen is the concept of cyclical magic presented in the Shadowrun RPG.
Also, I’ve read Piers Anthony, including all the books you listed there. My opinion: no contest. Andrews is *much* better.
To list my favourite authors and recommended reads would take even longer than my usual rambling posts. So I shall limit it to my all time favourite author. Who covers both sci-fi and fantasy genres. Alan Dean Foster.
Particularly his Flinx stories. About a young psionic slave and his venomous minidrag pet/companion. Many of his sci-fi stories are set in the same setting as Flinx, being the Humanx Commonwealth.
DaveB recently made a comment about how aliens can often be portrayed so similarly to humans as to be indistinguishable from any distance. In TV that can often be down to budget constraints (and sometimes not wishing to loose the performance of actors by putting them in a rubber suit). But no excuses can apply if the same is done in writing.
Which made me think of the non-Humanx stories Alan Dean Foster has written. His aliens often have very different mindsets. Plus he quite rightly does not start from the assumption that humans are the intellectual equals of alien races. The normal logic being that the only difference is that the aliens have had extra time to develop more advanced technology, so once we have caught up, we will be their peers (Stargate being one obvious example).
In one of his stories, humans were pretty much at the bottom of the intellectual pile. Every other race being superb at at least one major area that humans had no chance to match. Be it co-ordination of vast complex projects, scientific research, philosophical and pure thought exercises or even artistic endeavours.
The only race even in the same ball park, mentally speaking, as humans were specialists at dealing with waste management and the other jobs that everyone else would rather not get their hands dirty with. So even that niche was unavailable to enterprising humans. Rather a blow to the collective human psyche!
If not for one area that humans excelled at. Warfare. The rest of the galactic civilisations finding the concept barbaric and hard to even contemplate, let alone imagine practising! Humans the soldiers of the galaxy.
As a bit of interesting trivia, he is (to the best of my knowledge) unique in being a pivotal writer in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises.
AH! i read that series “The Damned” series… really good, and i like the progression with the main character. in the first book he’s a pacifist, but by the end of the 3rd book, he goes with the flow and becomes a soldier along with the rest of the human race…
It will be a while before I get into aliens in my comic, but Dabbler being one means they exist in the DaveVerse… Daverse? ug, that’s a terrible portmanteau. But I have a similar idea about aliens in that unlike Star Trek, not every race is within 30 years of each other technologically.
In all fairness, considering storytelling constraints (especially within a movie or TV episode) it can be exceptionally difficult for non-humanoid aliens to be portrayed as characters the audience can engage with.
For example, an alien species that displays emotion (including several that humans don’t even have words for) by changing colour or broadcasting in different radio frequencies – how the heck does one shoehorn THAT into a one hour epidode without losing the plot? Not easily, to put it mildly.
The classic TOS episode ‘The Devil In The Dark’ managed this problem admirably, but only by having the Horta mind-meld with Spock so we could understand what was going on.
The same as with any other story where there is something central to the plot, but which does not have human characteristics. Say a vehicle. Assuming you avoid the temptation to anthropomorphise it, as in the movie Herbie, then you could ensure that there are humans in the story and focus on them and their reactions to the things of interest.
With the difference to the car story, being that aliens and humans can gradually learn to understand each other better. So even getting aliens to understand something of how humans think (such as with the frequently used emotions idea) can be a story-significant breakthrough. Of course, dealing with it the other way is more interesting, as the writer can come up with something very different about the aliens.
Example redacted. It was turning out to be interesting enough for me to add to my “future plots” list. :-D
How about “Halopocalypse”? Or something along that line
Honor Harrington has long been on my to do list, but I’ve never quite gotten around to it. I almost started it once, but got sucked in to the WH40K universe for about 2 dozen novels and now I’m on the superhero kick, but I’ll read Honor eventually.
Also by David Weber (and with fewer books) is the Dahak trilogy – ‘Mutineer’s Moon’, ‘The Armageddon Inheritance’ and ‘Heirs Of Empire’. Also available in one volume as ‘Empire From The Ashes’.
It is BIG budget space opera, and the technological implants that most humans get as the books progress give them capabilities comparable with low-end superpowers. In all SF, this series is my all-time favourite.
If talking specific books, rather than the general works of an author, my personal favourite is The True Game (and its sequel) by Sheri S Tepper. Similarly to yours, everybody in the story has powers, which appear magical, but are actually closer to super-powers.
There are eight known abilities, and every other power is purely some combination of two or more of the others. Plus there are outsiders who have anti-magic (/power suppressing) abilities. Which, obviously, can’t be merged with the others.
So you get the interesting feature of children not knowing what powers they will inherit. Following the normal genetics rules, they may get the abilities of their parents, or something that has not appeared since their grandparents day. Or possibly a combination power. Some of which are feared, especially if an ancestor was a necromancer.
I should say though, that it is a lot more in-depth than just that. One of the fascinating aspects is the unique society that has evolved because of this state of affairs. Kind of a combination of rules of warfare, with highly formalised conduct. Such as being required to wear a mask/uniform, in public, indicating your profession/powers. To give fair warning to guard your thoughts, for example, if facing a mind-reader.
Oh man, I had forgotten about those. The ‘True Game’ series made me a Tepper fan, way back when.
Yay! I guess this means I can dig them out of storage and read them again!
There is also a prequel series about a supporting character: The Chronicles of Mavin Many-shaped.
but while I heartily concur in recommending them, I can’t say I would consider them, or the Xanth novels, or a few other series mentioned elsewhere in the comments, to be superhero novels, despite the fact that everyone has powers. I guess it is mostly mindset, if the characters think of their abilities as magic, then so do I, even if there is a SF rationale in the backstory…
hey Dave B, first time comenter, all time reader i….really…really need your help, there was once a comic reference you made to another comic and i cannot for the life of me find it……it was about the many adventures that occurred with a cat-woman, and a troll, who needed a new person in their apartment because they needed more money to pay to their dragon landlord, they found a person, one of the ex’s of the troll, an elf who is quite literally insane…..ringing any bells??
Sounds like you’re thinking of Flaky Pastry.
As Aesin says, unmistakeably Flaky Pastry. Although I contest the insanity charge. Zintiel is simply a being who embraces Chaos. Ok, admittedly when she is fighting nuns or burning down churches, the distinction is rather a fine line. But, well, even the best heroines can slip up and destroy at least one place of worship. In her case it was probably because she figured the nun would have more fun chasing after her than doing boring nun stuff in a church.
You may want to check out a previous vote incentive DaveB created featuring her and Dabbler.
Oh, and love your Buffyverse name :)
inb4 one of the unknown power orbs regenerates her leg.
This is why Maxima says so little.
Regarding books in the superhero genre, I have a couple of recommendations from the supervillain side.
How to Succeed in Evil which is about a consultant to supervillains who tries to make their schemes less self-defeating. It is a good example of how smart evil is so much scarier than powerful evil.
Also The Mad Scientists Guide to World Domination which is a short story collection about mad scientists and super villains, which has a good number of “super” focused stories and lots of interesting takes on the genre.
re: superhero (or I may broaden into superhero-like) novels
I’d recommend the Grimnoir Chronicles. It’s althist; in the 1800’s or so, people started getting superpowers for no known reason. So the timeline diverged from ours, and we pick up the Chronicles in the 1920s and 1930s, with the world having just gone through a World War where the Kaiser raised a vast army of zombies…
I like it because the set of possible superpowers has a coherence to it, and ultimately, a rationale that people start working out. This is sort of like what Sanderson did with Mistings and Mistborn. But here there is only *one* person who has all superpowers… and sadly, he’s trying to start the next world war.
Series starts with “Hard Magic”, continues on with “Spellbound”, and there’s a soon-to-be-released “Warbound”.
And of course, Sanderson often has systems of “magic” that end up with people in a very superhero-like role. I’d say, the Mistborn series, and “Warbreaker” are well worth checking out if you haven’t, for this very reason.
Oh why, Lord, did you see fit to give that accursed
Stonewall Jackson the strength of ten?
— Abraham Lincoln, Document discovered
in the Smithsonian Archives, date unknown
( Grimnoir setting )
Regarding books in the superhero genre, I have a couple of recommendations from the supervillain side.
How to Succeed in Evil which is about a consultant to supervillains who tries to make their schemes less self-defeating. It is a good example of how smart evil is so much scarier than powerful evil.
Also The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination which is a short story collection about mad scientists and super villains, which has a good number of “super” focused stories and lots of interesting takes on the genre.
I’m surprised Sydney hasn’t been in pirate mode more while she’s had that eye patch on! :)
Now to see how she embarrasses Arianna at the press conference!
This will most likely endear her to the team! :)
The worst thing is, once you start the joke-train, it’s hard to stop.
Even worser when you don’t know how, or when, you got on it in the first place
I just had a disturbing ghostbusters/grrl power crossover picture pop into my head. Sydney’s definitely a don’t think of pink elephants type of person, and then I’m glad Ray picked Stay Puff.
Apparently there aren’t that many good superhero novels. I’ve read every one of the those. When I saw you were listing them I was hoping for a new one.
The only one that I can remember being good that isn’t on your list is Other Peoples Heroes.
Heres a list of them though.
https://superheronovels.com/
Oooooo!
A list. Just spent an hour or so reading reviews there.
If only I had more time!
Strange she didn’t launch a “Golden Idol” blunder with Maxima.
An older novel about superheroes is Superfolks, by Robert Meyer, from 1977.
I see it was reprinted in 2005, and Amazon has it fairly cheaply.
I agree with the recommendation of After the Golden Age. One of the best superhero novels I’ve read.
Other People’s Heroes by Blake Petit is also good. Brave Men Run, by Matt Selznick, is not bad either. You can get both of those, and Playing for Keeps, as free audio from Podiobooks.com.
Didn’t Sydney have safety pins in that borrowed jacket in the last page?
Indeed. Smallest team member, smallest boobs. Alas, Sydney is not part of the A-team.
I must defend Syd’s boobs. If you scaled her up to Harem’s size, it’s true that she’s not as generously endowed, but she’s not flat chested either. I’m thinking of how J-Lo started flaunting her supposedly non-existent sweater puppets to shut critics up. Kinda funny at the time, but it worked. “Oh, those are nice”, it turned out. Of course, J-Lo’s not a bit shy. Even if Syd were convinced that she had the cutest bewbies in the universe, I can’t picture her flaunting them to prove it. She’s still too tomboy to defend her femininity confidantly. Hence, my defense. And that’s very gallant of me. Not pervy at all.
As for the safety pins, I can’t tell if they’re missing or not. Not a good angle.