Grrl Power #180 – Seek the lee of the damage magnet
I suppose if I had left off the previous page a little differently, I could have had the reveal today, but I wanted that to be posted on a Monday which is when most people come by the page. Also this page shows of one of the significant differences between how Maxima’s and Achilles’s invulnerability works. Max’s protects her hair/clothes/etc to a significant degree, whereas Achilles’s doesn’t. Well, it probably does a little bit, otherwise his clothes would have completely burned off, but that’s more to do with it not being that kind of comic that an actual artifact of how his powers work. Also to show that even when panicking, Sydney’s ADHD can sort of be an asset. In the few seconds she’s been running around, her mind has run through a dozen scenarios and she decided that if something bad is happening to the orbs, which she can’t escape from incidentally, seeking refuge on the leeward side of Achilles is the best bet.
So the other big news in case you haven’t seen is that I’m going to be posting on Mondays and Thursdays for the foreseeable future, certainly at least while I am looking for a job. Of course ideally the comic would become my job. Personally I think it’s premature to try and do so since I don’t have a book to sell yet, but I’m certainly willing to take a stab at it as I’d much rather create and entertain with something that only I can do than go back to being a corporate cog. To that end I’ve set up a Patreon account which definitely has a promising start, and I deeply appreciate everyone that’s become a patron so far. Please check it out and remember if you can’t contribute directly to the comic (or aren’t quite that committed to it (understandable, there are lot of comics I read but don’t support financially even when I could)) but still want to help, sharing it on facebook, twitter, reddit and whatever else you like is a great way to help build support.
Be sure to check back on Monday for the reveal. I think you guys will like it. :)
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.
Haha, love the curled over text on panel 3. Nice touch, Dave.
+1.
Zip lines and speech bubble all in one.
I LOVE the look on Achilles’s face.
Poor guy
I can’t tell you how many backless jackets I’ve ruined with melted marshmallows.
I wonder if he even notices that his uniform is missing some fabric
if he didn’t know before he got groped, I would think that he’d twig afterwards…
THEY’RE NOT FOLLOWING HER!
It looks like they are just in front of Achilles.
Definitely, there is even a slight light blue sheen on Sydney / archilles from that direction. There is no discernible reflection on her puppy eyes or glasses though. So it is still unclear what exactly the orbs are doing – they definitel are still glowing relatively bright and are located somewhere in front of Archilles though.
They have to follow her, but; estimating from some of the previous comics; they have a range of something like 5 to 10 feet so they don’t have to be right by her head
You know when she was talking to the tube and I think the bank robbery. Yeah well, I kind of figured that what was in the tube did the deciding on how far she could get from it. Sometimes it didn’t seem to matter and other times it wanted to be humping her leg.
DaveB said about the 90 degree note (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/201) that they could get about twice as far from her, and that he just was learning to draw it. Based on her height, they can therefore get about 10 feet away from her.
If I may pick some nits, the railgun damage in panels one and three doesn’t persist through panels five and six.
“camera angle change”
calls bull damage extends to midshirt
You are right, his shirt looks perfectly fine in the last pannels
My first thought was that when he let go of the jacket, it fell back in line and hid the damage, but now that you mention it and I look at the panels again, I agree. I think DaveB forgot to draw the damage in the later panels.
Whoops, dangit, I’ll fix that.
Didn’t the railbow bolt hit him in the center of his chest? If it had hit him on the right nipple, he would have been spun around (many many many times) rather than just get blown back like he did
Wouldn’t that depend in what direction he was facing if the bullet was “centered”? If it hit his right nipple in the curve of his pectoral dead on (and seeing as his flesh doesn’t give or flex that’s an option though an unlikely one) he would still fly back?
I don’t actually know but I most definitely speculate.
That has never stopped me either. :-D
I am wondering where Brooke and Azarin went after their shows…
Jiggawatt and Heatwave are standing off to the side with the other Archon members. When the big boom happened, they were in the crowd under the shield with everybody else. They are around here somewhere.
Silly me.
whered the orbs/halo go
I think that’s what she’s staring at.
Agreed, Dave pays very close attention to the orbs. If they are not visible, there is a reason for it. A reason that alternatively terrifies then gives Halo puppy-dog eyes. How adorifying!
No, it was the naked male tush that terrified Sydney (after she groped it)
I am referring to the final panel of the ongoing cliffhanger, as opposed to the surprised hissing in panel 5 above.
Currently there are two (presumably different) things that Sydney has observed which are causing her to react in diametrically different manners. Things which seem to involve the orbs in one way or another.
No, the ‘HISSSSS!’ was because of the naked male tush (note where her eyes are looking in panel 5)
Granted, regarding the ‘HISSSS!’ panel. I stand by my comment regarding the final panel though.
“Will you be my boy f- toy?”
Love the hissing. I notice myself doing that a lot these days when surprised.
Achilles must be used to being fondled. He didn’t even jump when Sydney patted his buttocks.
Or he can’t feel the touch. You know even if he was invulnerable if he could feel pain that railgun and inferno would be enough to make him pass out so my guess is his touch reception is almost nill and only able to feel touch when he focuses on. Though considering his girlgriend is heatwave I maybe wrong too :P
OK I meant his best friends girlfriend is heatwave but for some reason either finger didn’t type, keyboard didn’t input or internet ate my words (probably last one) Also there is Harem factor in Arch :P
No, he felt the ‘pats’, just look at his eyes in panel 3
Pain and normal touch senses are different nerves.
The inability to feel pain is an existing medical condition, and those people can still feel touch. Just not pain.
For normal people this is very dangerous, cause you get no warning if you are about to break something, and thus keep on going breaking it. Or you don’t notice that you are touching something extremely hot, and walk away with 3th degree burns.
For Achilles, since he can’t be damaged, it’s only good that he won’t feel pain
If he’s totally invulnerable, why would he even feel pain? Since Pain is the body telling the brain it is receiving damage, No Damage/no Pain.
Sometimes the pain receptors can be triggered when the body isn’t being significantly damaged. He might be able to feel, but have such a high pain threshold that it’s impossible for him to become incapacitated due to physical stimuli. Still able to feel, but nothing registers high enough for him to think of it as painful.
The capsaisin in hot peppers comes to mind. This chemically triggers that same mechanism in the nerve cells that tells the cell we are getting burned. The body tries to react the same way too.
Sydney: Here, Achilles. This time I made a full-strength version of my lunch for you to try. Everybody else around here are such wimps.
Achilles: So yesterday was half-strength, right? Oh, by the way, you should go apologize to Harem.
Sydney: Look, it was an accident. I didn’t mean for my lunch to drip on her sandwich, okay? I already went to the infirmary and told her I was sorry.
Achilles: Ahh, so is she coherent yet?
Sydney: Pretty much. The one that ate the sandwich is still not talking but the other 4 are okay. Man, it is weird seeing the same face in every bed in the infirmary.
BHAHAHAHAHA! Oh man, if that were made canon, that would be AWESOME!
Mr. Amorphes is Heatwave’s boyfriend, not Achilles.
Achilles is, as far as we know, single
player gotta play jus say
He says it all with his eyes.
I used “Hisssss” because I couldn’t figure out how to spell that noise people make when they’re screaming while inhaling.
Might I suggest “EEEEP!” or “HRRREEET!” ?
(Of course, everyone in the office thinks I’m nucking futs for repeatedly making that noise now).
A simple “Gasp!” is pretty traditional. Also “Yeep!”
‘Hriss’ could have worked
“Yip!”
“Yorp!” (yes I’ve actually heard a person make that sound when surprised)
“Son of a Mickey Mouse fellating dolphin blowhole molester!”
I really like that last one and it fits so well with her swearing.
considering it’s part of one of her Inventive Invective when she was beating the tube on the ground?
I seem to remember that middle one from somewhere.
I agree. Dave missed a prime opportunity to utilize Sydney’s foul mouth.
I was thinking something along the li es of BWARGH!, but maybe I’m rong.
Of course the fabric of the uniforms could be some form of advanced protective fabric, like a blend of Nomex and Kevlar on steroids, just nor up to Achilles’ standards of resistance.
Looks like I am the first to say it – WoooHOOO!
Thanks for going two updates a week for now, and good luck on being able to make a living from it.
What he said. Thank you, Dave B
Achilles definitely needs to get his hands on a pair of Bruce Banner’s Superpants.
Looks like Les used to wear boxers rather than briefs (in case anyone was wondering ;))
You mean he’s wearing More Boxers and Les Briefs?
Is that how Sidney reacts to a full moon?
The press is still there. Let’s hope that Achilles has the presence of mind to keep the PG rated side of his uniform towards the cameras.
Having another read through of today’s comic, the line “…this jacket is ruined now” made me laugh. I think the sticky pocket is the least of the jacket’s problems.
Exactly what I was going to say but you beat me to it. That jacket is ruined with or without melted marshmallow in the pockets.
Yeah, a wonderful line. I found especially funny the way Killianti phrased it there above.
Hmm… Just for a play with the idea: What if Achilles was decently clothed including his rear side?
Would Sydney have also patted his buttocks through his uniform in such a way?
And if not – imagining that Sydney just bumped her (fully clothed) back on his back, seemimgly without looking: How did she notice that there were bare buttocks to pat?
I would presume that when she bumped up against him, she noticed on her hands or forearms that “that doesn’t feel like cloth ….”, and then she had to check to be sure. You know, like when you notice the milk is way out of date, but you have to sniff it to see if it’s really gone bad …
Forget simple ‘sniffing’ the milk, the real test is ‘taste’
But if you look at panel 3, her arms are down, so presumedly her bare hand/forearm brushed against bare skin
Woohoo! Thursday comic! \o/
Though we still don’t know what her balls are doing! Longest, cliffhanger, EVER! :P
Heh… perhaps one should stick to refering to them as orbs, not balls… Since they’re not made of solid brass, I mean.
But neither are beach balls or tennis balls. The only common property to the variety of objects called balls is that they are spherical (and even then various sports failed to grasp that basic principle).
This means, my friend, that if Sydney were to have balls they would, without doubt, be of the brass variety.
I shall now give an example of this coming up in conversation.
“Holiest of flying ferret balls fellating a dolphin’s bottle-nosed intestines filled with cock-munching personified condoms! She’s outside in the sun with no shade. She must truly have brass balls.”
Just to make clear “brass balls” is being used here to refer to testicles of brass, indicative of extraordinary toughness, bravery, or stupidity.
It’s Manga Eyes Sydney! I want one. Hehe.
I just realized Sidney probably ran behind him so if her orbs exploded she would be shielded by his invulnerability, which is also why she is surprised when she lens against him like a wall and feels what is definitely not cloth.
Wait…whoa…when did we start getting two of these a week? Late Xmas present commence! :)
Some people really never even bother to read the text under the comic do they?
Some people never bother to read the comments :P
I enjoy reading the comments here. There is a really decent group of people here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any trolls or haters. I especially enjoy the debates stirred up by people using real world physics to try to explain comic world super powers.
Agree, agree and strongly agree, so nice folks around, one of the best forums I ever see.
I think it worth to make an effort to read both the text and the comments.
Likewise. City of Heroes used to provide a like-minded group of decent folks who were fun to chat with. Which attracted a lot of artistic types who were open to a broad range of concepts. This community has done likewise. I cannot offer better praise than that.
I think we had one troll…or was he just drunk that day…either way it didn’t last long.
After the eye bulge in panel four, is Achilles giving Sydney a “Why did you touch my bum?” side glance or a “What’s wrong with my bum?” side glance in panel five? I find both equally probable :P
I think pannel 4 is a ‘what the hell is happening behind me’ look, and pannel 5 abit of both your things
I wonder how much force the spin of Sydney’s orbs could generate for a melee attack when spinning at their top velocity…
considering the normal spin was enough to ring Math’s bell?
Ah, that awkward moment when you accidentally touch some one cutes bare butt. :)
Did her orbs fuse?
I don’t think that the orbs are going to fuse. The reason I say that is earlier on in the comic, page 4, she is shown with the poster tube walking into Archon headquarters.
Ok, question about Achilles here. Why does he look so different from the early pictures? It doesn’t really look like the same person anymore. Compare how he looks on this page to the Who’s Who picture on the right.
And I forgot to ask, when did Sydney’s orbs stop following her? In Monday’s comic they were, and now they aren’t near her at all.
That’s probably part of the cliffhanger
Mostly cause it’s been about 2 years since I last drew him. I should update his Who’s Who banner with more current art.
He also was in disguise the first time we saw him (the “Who’s Who” pic was before he de-cloaked), when we saw him again in the “Halo Introduction” arc, DaveB had decided to use a photo reference (can’t remember who he chose, but now he kinda looks like Starbuck Prime, back when Starbuck was a full male, not a female who wanted to be ‘one of the guys’)
I wouldn’t say Starbuck (sorry but he’s no Dirk Benedict I’m straight and he looks damn good for his age)
More like Apollo.
Hurray for the Battlestar Galactica references!!!
Which Apollo though? Original Flavour (Richard Whatshislastname?Hatch?)? Or Flavour For The New Generation (Jaimie Bamber)?
For me, Les looks closer to Dirk (well, maybe not this page, this page his ‘Face’ looks a little ‘off’)
Hatch-Apollo. (And now for some reason I’m picturing the guy Faulk reports too looking like Lorne Greene.)
MmmNahh, his jaw is more Dirk than Hatch (not to mention the nose), but it’s silly to argue about a comic character when the artist is the one who really knows
Hmm true, but Dirk’s face is just a little narrower than Achilles, just enough to be noticable
Okay, now we know Achilles can survive a Maxima impressing blast without as much as a shrug.
But, on the other hand…
NOW I wanna know if he can survive her actually trying to hurt him, aka maxxing out her blast.
Or do we need to make him catch a Spirit Bomb with the face?
If you read the cast page, you’d know this.
It’s pritty easy to look up
I quote:
“He has shrugged off attacks that would destroy matter on the subatomic level.”
“Achilles can’t be poisoned, suffocated, starved, irradiated, crushed, cut, pierced, burned, frozen or injured by any method yet discovered.”
We don’t yet know Max FULL power, that’s why I was musing about it.
If it’s in the cast pages, I’m just missing the tree for the wood.
His body appears to be locked into it’s current Quantum state. A star going Nova might take him out…
Where did they say he can’t be suffocated?
“…or injured by any method yet discovered” pretty much covers that.
That quote is from the cast page….
well mutilated seems to be out, but one wonders about folded or spindled?
two panels per week? YESSSSSSSSSSSSS
Wait… he survived that outside the shield no problem? WOW.
Well, he IS invincible…
“That word, it does not mean what you think it does!”
Not ‘invincible’, ‘invulnerabubble‘
Invurnerabubble needs to be a nickname for the Forcefield orb.
+1
Yes, yes it does.
Invincible
Impossible to defeat, destroy or kill.
However near enough, but I agree with you.
Just for the trollers who know the favorite question, concerning a certain undead horse:
Invincible: can’t be defeated
Invulnerable: can’t be hurt
Invisible: can’t be seen.
Indescribable: writer is too lazy or unimaginative.
Ha :D
Based on that logic: Inflammable = can’t be set on fire.
(sorry, I guess I’m just incorrigible)
incorrigible: can’t be encouraged
/me pulls out the crop….
in·cor·ri·gi·ble – (of a person or their tendencies) not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed.
They don’t need encouraging, They’ll just do it anyway.
The wonders of having prefixes with different origins.
Inconceivable: (from the Latin meaning “not”)
Inflammable: (from the Germanic, meaning “on”, like “on fire”)
Incombustible: (back to the Latin, “can not burn”)
You’re right.
Though Dave also calls him invincible. Might be something to change.
I think there are quite alot of people that don’t actually know the difference between the 2. Myself included
For most purposes they are synonymous. But under specific circumstances the distinction is important. Coming into play only when offensive capability lags vastly behind defensive. In which cases the subject cannot be hurt, but equally cannot overcome an opponent.
Ironclads were both invincible and invulnerable, in particular circumstances. Yet highly vulnerable in others.
An ironclad against any wooden ship was invincible. It could sink a fleet of such ships with no risk to itself. Yet going up against another ironclad, neither ship was invincible. But both would be invulnerable. Using the weapons of the day they could fire at each other for hours, until their ammo ran out, and not penetrate their armour.
Then take them out to sea, into choppy waters, however, and their big vulnerability would be revealed. Sinking.
IIRC the old Ironclads tended to use a lot of Chain and Grape shot for that reason. They had trouble penetrating the other’s armor, so they’d try to take out the masts and/or the crew.
I would think that Maxima’s blast was about equal to the cruise missile that they were talking about him taking in the face on page 68.
Hmm, it now seems that the orbs have eaten Sydney’s wrist communicator as well.
As for Achilles reaction to her pats, I think he wasn’t aware of the backside issue until she bumped against him and he thought about what was behind him –and realized it was a “not much” except Sydney. Also, if Achilles changes slightly when he is all exploded it may not be damage –he may just lose some body fat that gets converted to energy to power the protection. So he is still a manly man, but needs to eat a snack to feel back to par (hence the marshmallows).
Whoops, I’ve totally forgotten about that thing. Geeze.
If it makes you feel better, I never remember that thing until someone else brings it up.
No, the marshmallows were a call back to an under-comic where Maxi threatened to drop him into a live active volcano, and he said he would bring the marshmallows
I guess we can therefore compare Max’ little demonstration to equal your average volcano.
More direct, it’s a callback to the minicomic under this one
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1142
And that one is a callback to the vulcano thing
A thought for Achilles though would be to have an extremely compressed down thong and tie it into (under the outer layer) of his hair. That way he would never be doing a full monty after the super nuking point blank blast for more than the time it took to pull it out of his hair, shake it out and slip it on…
He is a PG hero, not PG13
That made me thing that Achilles could make a fabric out of his own hair. That way he could ware that thong you said and be ok all the time.
Maybe he could even start some business around that: Endurable Undies for Supers, fill in your order and wait a year.
Problem there.
Nothing in the known universe seems to be able to actually CUT his hair.
Else he’d probably been done with that mullet ages ago.
Hair fall out on their own after they reach a certain lenght, that’s why you dont see people with rapuntzel hairdos
Quoting from the cast page
‘his invincible hairstyle notwithstanding’
Seeing as the general theroy about Achilles’s power is that he is quantum locked in his current physical state (he’s also over 50 years old, but apears in 20s). That probably includes his hair.
Meaning it doesn’t grow, or can be cut
I was thinking about it falling out too, but I had forgotten about that statement on the profile. Pity :)
Panel six: Zoolander’s Blue Steel.
Took me a while to realize why she ran towards him, orbs recording a power maybe?
If you think something is going to explode, hide behind the invulnarable person
WHAT JUST HAPPENED.
Tune in on Monday to find out.
Smart money says the cameras are still following her lol.
Except for the really astute cameraman who is filming what she is looking at.
Sydney’s interested with ‘oohhh’ and puppy-dog/manga eyes…
I’m really, really scared.
I know what you mean. I don’t know whether it be anxious or scared and if I was one of those reporters I might start running about now. Just to get a safe distance away.
Welp, that’s not the “reveal” I was expecting.
A bit of unsolicited marketing advice for you DaveB, bearing in mind the following. You have a lot of hits on Mondays. Plus we know that quite a few people do not read the comments under the comic. You are taking your first steps at going pro. Your savings will only hold out so long.
So the sooner you can top them up with Patron earnings, and the greater take-up rate you can achieve, the more likely you are to be able to work on GrrlPower full-time, rather than having to fall back to a day job.
As such, I suggest that, together with the cliff-hanger reveal comic, you do a one page notice to appear in-comic. Rather than just in the text below. However, I would also suggest keeping it short. A wall of text might get skipped over by folks impatient to get to the big reveal. But a few key points will get read for sure. Especially if presented via one of the characters.
The most pertinent points, in my mind, being: if you can get sufficient support you will be able to go professional; how folks can contribute; and that the comic is going to also be updating on Thursdays for the time being.
Seconded. One phrase news voiced in-comic could catch way more readers.
Yeah I need to take some time out of getting the next page done and draw a mini comic that promotes the Patreon campaign. I just have a hard time putting the comic itself aside to work on things that will support the comic.
Doubleplusgood to Yorp’s marketing advice. It could even go under the main comic as one of the little quickly drawn “mini panels”.
Drawn with Halo’s energy tentacle, like at the press conference.
Patreon’s hit $500!
I love how Achilles looks more concerned about Sydney than anything else in panel 5. Syd’s such a prude… :3
I know I’d be concerned if Sydney was standing behind me
Specially if the Orbs are not with her