Grrl Power #297 – Morning errant
This page is exists almost entirely due to the fact that when I’m descending in an airplane, I have enormous trouble telling where I am. Mind you this is on the return trip – when I’m coming home to the city I’ve lived in for ~20 years. Obviously I know I’m near and/or heading toward the airport, and sometime I can pick out a massive landmark like a huge mall, but if I’m high enough and can’t read the store names, I’m not positive which mall it is. Also, you’d think one of those big mix masters on the highway would clue you in to which road you’re above, but a sufficiently large city has one every 5-10 miles, so you can guess but you still might be off by quite a bit.
This is mostly my own fault. I mean besides the fact that everything looks different from above when you’re used to seeing it from 6 feet off the ground, but for all the time I’ve spent living in Dallas, I really don’t know it very well. 90% of my haunts are probably within 10 miles of where I live. Once every 3-4 months I’ll wander down into Dallas proper for one reason or another but considering the size of the DFW metroplex I really don’t go exploring a lot. That’s why when I spot a mall from the air “near the airport” I still rarely have any idea where I really am. Sydney’s probably the same way, most of her regular destinations are ~10 miles from where she lives, with the odd trip out further to the specialty game store or a small comic convention in a satellite city. If she wanders too far off her beaten path without a working GPS she can get lost real quick.
That top panel took like six hours. :…..( While I have a functional understanding of perspective, a city scape like that is more or less beyond me, at least making it look convincing. So my solution was to take several photos and stitch them together, then use that as a base to paint from. That’s harder to do than it sounds cause finding aerial photos taken at roughly the same altitude can be tedious, plus most of the pictures I found were either taken smack in the middle of the downtown area, were suburbs with nothing but residential housing, or they were countryside and farmland. Maybe I’m bad at Google but industrial urban sprawl aerial shots all in the right perspective were few and far between. Once I have the reference pictures melded together I wind up fudging a lot of details anyway, but it’s useful to have the base to work from. I do that partially cause I don’t want to just plop a photo in there, even with attribution and permission I’d still want to paint over it, and partially because I want to be vague about what city they’re based in, at least until I decide it’s relevant to the story to establish it. The point is the characters may fly over this exact spot a lot. :)
It occurs to me that I didn’t draw Sydney with a purse. I gave her a little blue one in some of the early pages when she was at the bank but then I completely forgot about it for the next 250 pages. Even though she doesn’t carry cosmetics around with her, it seems unlikely she’d be able to get by with just a phone and wallet in one pocket and keys in the other. (And The List in her back pocket) Yes, if she was only running to a grocery store and back maybe, but she’s leaving her apartment for the day. Very few women are so minimalist. I don’t blame them. If I could carry around a purse like thing that was acceptable for a man, I would fill it with all kinds of garbage. The perfect example is a shoulder bag I bought for carrying stuff around conventions. It’s exactly the right height and width to fit an iPad, but obviously it’s deeper than that with three separate zippable compartments. Now it has, in addition to a small sketchpad, some pencils, a phone charger with 4 separate USB outlets on it and the appropriate cables attached, and a small stack of the postcards I use to pimp the comic (perfect for a convention naturally), it has every adapter known to mankind so I can hook the iPad up to any video display, with the possible exception of UHF. The bag is now weighs 18 pounds. Oh, also one of those very small screwdrivers with all the interchangeable heads stored in the handle. Because I’m a guy.
March snuck the hell up on me. :P I seriously thought there was like a week left in February. :/ Edit: The vote incentive is finished finally!
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What you’ve never seen a flying girl before? You live in a world where super heroes are real!
Yea but they’ve only been publicly real for a day.
And they are SUPER RARE
You’re lucky you have people like RobK on your side dog walk lady and Grizzy Barry.
Sydney doesn’t realize it yet – but she just Grizzly Barry free drinks at the pub for at least a week.
‘Cause there is no way he is not going to tell people about this… “No crap, there I was, about three hundred feet above Hickory and Wescott, when this flying SUPERHERO taps on the canopy, asking for directions!’
If he’s smart, he gets her autograph. :)
You realize this is Sydney. The autograph attempt will go something like:
Barry: Wow, I saw you on the news last night. Can I get your autograph?
Sydney: Sure. You got a pen? I seem to have forgotten my purse today.
Barry: Here you go.
Sydney: Thanks. (Sydney forgets and grabs the pen with the hand previously holding the flight orb)
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
You forgot the inevitable chain of profanities.
Hmm, srsly, I wonder whether the orbs have a protection against such an incident.
Yea, they do. They are clearly highly robust, and will probably survive the fall, unscathed. Halo, however, may be scathed.
>_< That's not what I meant!
of course there is a protection against it. they stay with Sydney, and come to her hand at will….
By sheer coincidence, this skydiving mishap is all over the news tonight. Thankfully, there is a happy ending…
Now I picture Sydney sitting next to Barry in the helicopter looking quite frazzeled and clutching the flight ball fanaticly while he takes her to where she needs to go.
The biggest barrier to an autograph would be the fact that helicopters do not have functioning windows.
Autograph the helicopter? After all, it is part of the story.
There is a small sliding panel with handle running through the middle of the doors glass window. Why would they decorate a helicopter with that unless it slides open?
Of course, the part of the story he won’t tell is how a Grizzly Barry $#}+ his pants in a helicpoter, instead of in the woods…
well she asked directions :)
To the helicopter pilot it looks like she’s standing on the side of the helicopter. I would be freaked out a bit if I looked out of a plane window and there was superman asking for directions.
And she chose an excellent source. The nice lady walking the doggy, would have been one option. But she may not have noticed her. Personally, I opt for taxi drivers. Obviously I apologise for not needing a lift, but they are the experts at finding their way around a city. And they usually are bored waiting for a customer, so often enjoy having a bit of a chat.
But, if a traffic helicopter happened to be parked nearby, clearly they would be just as capable of giving the directions. Either option being well qualified to advise on best route or current trouble spots to avoid. And for arial directions, Sydney really could not have found better.
The nice lady walking the doggy most definitely noticed her. Remember Joel’s comment that a flying person was a traffic hazard because they’re more distracting than a smoking hot…
Anyway look at her eyes and tell me she didn’t notice.
I think what Yorp means is that Sydney didn’t notice the woman with the dog rather than vice versa.
Well, imagine the distraction if the flying person *is* a smoking hot… :-)
Frankly, Sydney can be distracting enough in her own right.
Just ask the nuns that Sydney misdirected (at the bank) so she could make her getaway…
So, Heatwave will be causing the most accidents then?
And a vegan on a new fad diet.
And the Bear sites in the air.
Just do not look too closely, when he is in the woods.
And pity the poor rabbit that happened to be close at paw for the bear…
If there’s a bear in the air, does that mean there’s a convoy happening somewhere?
+ 10-4
Six convoys? Wow, they must be coming from miles around! There must be some sad tale behind that.
Actually, the only one who might have gotten sad over this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnJEeHND_lQ) would have been the toll booth attendant.
Yep, I listened through that entire song, hoping it would have the phrase “coming from miles around”, or a similar twist I could spin. But it failed to spark the imagination. So I had to cast my memory’s net wider.
Let me see, there’s Classic Convoy, Fire Convoy, Super God Ginrai, Beast Wars Convoy, Shadow Convoy…
*sigh*
American youth can no longer read a map, therefore they have no concept of how the world around them looks like from above any more
I can read a map just fine, but there are no gigantic names on the roads in real life.
Also, knowing how to read a map is not the same as having one memorized
+1
Just so. And one, very handy tip, that you will find invaluable in certain parts of the world. Here I am talking those parts which do not use the Latin alphabet. If travelling around them, be certain to purchase a map which shows road names and locations in the local script. Have a separate one in English, if that helps, but if you are limited to one always go for the indigenous one.
Why? Because although many countries will provide bilingual signs on major routes, if you stray off them you will likely find that only the local alphabet is supported. And, if you have ever tried finding your way around with an English map, under those circumstances, you will realise that it is of very limited use.
Even going up to a local, and asking them to point out your location on the map will have much reduced success. If you are in a nondescript area (say inner city blocks, or suburban areas), with no distinguishing landmarks, you need to be able to read the street names to figure out your location. Even with the help of locals, as they are used to orienting themselves without a map.
Extremely sound advice for pretty much anywhere “foreign”. Thank you.
…it sounds so weird for me to realize that /I/ am a local with a non-Latin alphabet and bilingual signs only in like, major city centers LOL
*imagines herself in Japan instead* yeah imma stay to cyrillic and latin-writing countries for a while
Heh. I ironically, I learnt my lesson in an old-quarter street, with Cyrillic sign posts all around. But a near-useless English map. The kindly old dear who wanted to help me could not read my map, and I could not compare the characters on the street names to the ones on my near-useless piece of paper.
That prompted me to prioritise learning the alphabet real fast. At least Bulgarian is a mostly phonetic language. So I can help out lost tourists, who want me to point out their location, on their poorly-chosen navigational aids. As you say, it is no problem, for someone who is bilingual.
Check out XKCD #1472 to see that Randal agrees with you. And I do too.
there is a difference between maps and looking at a city from above i can read a map but it takes me ages to find where i am on Google satellite images. :P
Yes, but then again, that river is one great big landmark,
And river sections are fairly distinctive from above.
Although I don’t live there, I could quite easily narrow down my location in London or Paris etc just by seeing an overview of the river in my area.
Lessons #1 & #2 of Basic Map-Reading skills: Ground-to-Map & Map-to-Ground referencing.
There’s no shame in not being able to immediately recognise known objects from an unfamiliar attitude.
I remember when I was at school, there was this tall tower, which was a local landmark. Easily visible from the school, so you’d think from the tower the school would also be easily visible. It was. I was looking at it for about five minutes before I ‘saw’ it. The unfamiliar viewpoint, plus the crowdedness of nearby buildings meant the buildings weren’t in the shapes that I was looking for. It was like Where’s Wally, but with buildings.
But if you were flying around and see a landmark – tall tower, river, stadium, it gives you an idea of where you are – and once you see something familiar, such as your tower, you can easilly go to that, and then progress from there as you would normally – even if you fly above the road instead of walk down it.
Very true. But, a suggestion made from the male part of our genetic heritage. One with a potential flaw. If the “flying around” takes you further away from your familiar territory, without actually coming across a landmark that your recognise!
DaveB has shown a channel to the female side of the gene pool though,* in favouring asking earlier. Rather than only resorting to that, when completely lost, and despairing of getting to the destination, on time.
* Be it from within, or elsewhere, such as Mrs DaveB.
I couldn’t read a map before the publicly available internet went beyond 28.8 modem much less before gps.
*sigh*
Another elderly person who thinks someone is going to always have a map handy if they are lost…
Being at a higher altitude does not give you the same perspective of looking at a map…
We grew up in an age where having a GPS is standard… You grew up with maps…
People at one point… DID NOT NEED MAPS… why can you not locate where you are without a map?
Because you had a map that is why… we just happen to have something that gives turn by turn directions… Don’t knock us for our better tech bro and we wont knock you for your out dated methods…
And what happens when your tech fails? Or you forget to charge it? That’s why we STILL use maps as well as GPS in the service. Advances in technology should not be an excuse to dumb down your skills and become dependent on your pocket leash. Learn to unplug occasionally.
“And what happens when your tech fails?”
What happens when your map fails?
You get soaked because it it raining. ;)
And just a point: A clear an accurate map does not fail so long as you are within the mapped area. (Given that what you need is on there, like roads or mountains)
Anything after that is user error.
Thing is, clear and (in particular) ‘accurate’ is something that paper maps fail on on a regular basis–because road layouts, buildings and so forth change. Electronic mapping systems are continually improving in the ‘up-to-the-minute’ adjustments to routes and the like (particularly large construction projects that produce detours). I’m fully capable of navigating by map (and, being a bit of a curmudgeon, often better at it than I am at using a smartphone/tablet with GPS), but I see no advantage to dismissing folks who prefer electronic systems, either.
+1 to both sides of the argument
I only have one contribution to add.
Use the force Freemage, use the force!
For that to happen: all gas stations, all random convenience stores which may not necessarily have gas pumps hence the separation, all rest stops with map kiosks, and a few bookstores. Would have to simultaneously vaporize
Since, *gasp* all those mentioned have state, and u.s. maps. Some in handy book form.
Now mind. I wouldn’t notice if they disappeared. I’ve had the handicap of being unable to read a map since I my days in high school rotc 1989-1993. The only reason why my grade didn’t go down a letter was because extra credit was given for wearing a uniform all day on inspection days.
I can read a map and I don’t assume I can easily navigate a large area like that looking at it from the air. Hell Melbourne/Palm Bay is much smaller & less complex and I don’t think I could find something out of the way that way despite seeming to have an in-born migration/homing complex.
I was in the NV National Guard for 14 years. I can read a map, and I’ve flown in helicopters pretty often. Heck I’ve flown in a Chinook from Carson City, NV to down near Monterey, CA (and back). With the back door open, and I was sitting in the last seat. Yes, I had my seatbelt on. I could tell where we were, because the copter couldn’t go high enough to clear the peaks, so we had to follow the pass with highway 88 through the mountains.
I worked at the State HQ full time, and for the last couple years my immediate supervisor was a helicopter pilot in his weekend job. They have to fly a certain number of hours per month anyway so when something broke at one of the outlying armories we would fire up the chopper and fly out to Ely or Elko instead of spending all day driving back and forth. Still had to drive from Carson City to Reno a lot. :)
I’m living the CA Bay Area right now, but I’ve lived in this vicinity almost half my life. I think I could find my way around in the air well enough. Especially with all the hills, and rivers & bridges & such-like. Throw me up in Metrocity (or where ever they live) and I’d probably be pretty lost though.
Although I do very well on orienteering, I could probably figure it out if I had a map. Or even Google maps.
To be fair, being very familiar with the map of a city only helps with what is directly below you. As the angle changes and you are looking at features further away from you, it starts to look less and less like what is on the map, as features become smaller and taller objects, such as trees and buildings, block your view. In Phoenix, Camelback Mountain is in the middle of the Phoenix metro area. When I was on top of it (2,706 ft high), it was really hard to locate landmarks that I new were there, or even see the roads. The solution is to get even higher to make more of the city look more like the map. Google maps can pull it off because they are getting their photos from orbiting satellites.
It’s ok to give Grizzly Barry an interview. He isn’t a non-flying asshole.
Flying assholes have special privileges.
Hehehe, also of he give her a hand finding here way it goes pretty far in regards to moving him out of the asshole category.
Nice Bugs Bunny ref.
Glad I’m not the only one who saw it.
I appreciated the reference too 8)
And at least she has the Forb going when approaching the chopper.
Yer bending my willing suspension of disbelief. Helicopters are so noisy that it is not possible to be heard inside when you are outside. Even when the airplane is just idling on the ground.
Maybe Grizzly Barry has the hearing powers of a bear
Chopper Barry’s reaction is still reasonable, even if he can’t hear Sydney.
I’d freak out if a flying woman outside my helicopter was yelling unintelligible stuff at me the day after the historic super battle.
I hope Sydney smartens up and uses flight and then telepresence from a safe distance away to get directions.
Or she could, from a safe distance, use the lighthook for some sky writing similar to what she did at the press conference. https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1020 That way chopper noise wouldn’t be an issue.
And how would Barry respond to her skywriting if she’s far enough away from the copter to not have to use her shield? At best, he would be able to point in a general direction of she worded the Lighthook message properly.
Well, as the crow flies a direction is most of what you need. If she then used the light hook to ask the follow up question of “How far?” she could come in closer to read something he wrote or watch him hold up so many fingers and mouth the word “miles” might work as well. If she can’t tell N, S, E and W from up there though she will loose her way again quickly no matter what anybody does unless he somehow points her at a major landmark to steer by like keep the river on your left but that gets us back to him drawing stuff on a map held up to the window again.
He could motion for her to come back and use the tablet scribble function to say,” FOLLOW ME”. Then when they are over where she needs to be he points down. Of course, by pointing in the general direction and she takes off without clarification could lead to more hilarity.
EXTREMELY unsure about the wisdom of using Telepresence to suddenly communicate with a dude in a low-flying helicopter. Especially if it is unexpected.
How is showing up outside the helicopter using the flight orb any less unexpected than showing up using the telepresence orb?!?
Because. It. Is.
THINK about it.
Ap[proaching from outside gives the people inside at least a sporting chance of seeing what is coming. Suddenly and unexpectedly appearing IN the helicopter would probably provoke an extreme surprise response – major distraction of the pilot at best, possibly impede his ability to control the helicopter, etc..
Put it another way. Suppose you are driving along a highway. Someone yells to you from an adjoining lane. That’s not a big thing, probably. Now suppose instead of doing that, the would-be communicator suddenly appears in your back seat, the seat next to you, in your lap OR phasing throuigh the dashboard in front of you. THAT is gonna be a thing.
The first time I saw that happen, in a horror film, it made me jump out of my fur!
Heh, my 2nd thought, too.
My first thought was that the background is so awesome, it nearly looks like a photo.
And regarding the view from above: Google maps in satelite view helps a lot with this. But then again, it does not help so much with orientation when you are not flying…
does the shield stop at physical objects. She may be close enough that he’s inside it to hear.
ISTR DaveB saying that the shield refuses to bisect any solid objects, so the best Sydney can manage here is to press the shield against the cockpit glass.
The old ‘pressing the helmets together to speak’ trick, that astronauts need to use, if the radios are not working. That works. Helicopters are still bloody noisy, but we must assume that they are using one with reasonable sound baffling, otherwise the traffic reporter would be inaudible on air. So it does hang together.
Ok, running with that one.
Just because Halo is talking, does not necessarily mean he is making out what she is saying. I think his reaction would be the same even if he only saw her lips moving.
A certain number of the things that DaveB does, for us, would clearly only be detectable by the audience. Such as seeing a visual effect for spells, such as Dabbler’s sleep spell. This could just be another instance of the same.
That said, if you are hearing the rotors going, you adjust your speech to try and be heard. So she is probably shouting very loudly, even if he is not actually making it out.
But her speech bubble overlaps the “wup wup wup…” from the helicopter and it seems like the reader is positioned within the helicopter….
Hmm, yes… well, she does not speak very loud by means of font size – but I woder whate these spikes at the speech bubbles in panel 5 and 6 mean… Did she hook into Grizzly Barry’s communications?
Well, Dave could have set the angle so that we saw the scene from outside the helicopter, over Sydney’s shoulder, and would have still gotten the traffic guy’s reaction. But then we would have had to put up with the full blast of the rotors. Do you know how noisy those are? Even we would not have been able to make out what Sydney was saying, when she was drowned out by that noise!
*raises eyes heavenward*
That doesn’t exactly weaken my point: Moderately loud “wup wup” when being in the helicopter (I’d call this depiction of sound moderately loud, so I assume that “we” are in the helicopter), much louder when being outside of it – it looks like Sydney has overcome the problem without shouting her lungs out. That and Grizzly Barry wears headphones, this would worsen his hearing of anything else, even inside the helicopter, much more of something outside. I don’t know how, but Sydney hooking into his comm is the only option with the least problems whatsoever.
only -> one
I think Dave let us “hear” her using audience omnipresence so that we would fully get the joke immediately and universally. We can go ahead and assume he can’t hear her cause if in the next panels he gives her directions we will just know they found some other way to communicate. (some comments on possibilities have already been made in replies linked to your original comment)
Yeah, that’s my thought as well. As far as I’m concerned, we see the words simply because Dave did it for our benefit. And even then, Bear being able to hear Sydney with the rotors running is one of the last things I thought or cared about. What I cared about was seeing Bear’s eyes bulge out, and a possible accident happening in the next page. :P
Oh yea, it clearly falls under ‘rule of funny’ first and foremost. When a gag is involved, never worry too much about the practicality of it, or resort to ascribing new super powers. Other than spontaneous pants creation of course. That really was a super power!
Hey hey, those are the pants that shall not be referred to! I’m still applying ointment to the damage caused to my willingness to suspend disbelief caused by those pants!
TOO SOON!
Just because we’re on this side of the 4th Wall & can see what Sydney is saying doesn’t mean that Barry can hear her.
;)
Actually, I’ve flown inside a helicopter and could hear the other people with me talking just fine. The trick is with the headset we all wore (see the set Bear is wearing?). It’s called noise cancelation technology; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise-cancelling_headphones The “wup wup wup…” sound is very predictable so generating an equal but opposite signal is easy.
Thanks to my university years of delivering pizza with aid from a classic folding map, and with the more recent advent of Google Earth, I’m pretty accustomed to the layout out of my city from a top-down perspective.
Then again, I live in a city of 80,000 people, which is a far cry from Dallas.
I guess it’s easier to pick out landmarks when you only have to pick from “the mattress store with the inflatable gorilla” and “the good Denny’s, not the bad with the sign that doesn’t light up”.
Actually (since you can see the entire World with google Maps) if you check out the big ones you might realise a pattern. Most of the Big cities are very sructured. Only the inner core of the city looks like a small town. Guess every city started at some point. Anyway, although this doesn´t hold true for every Metropolis, navigation does tend to get easier the bigger the City.
Sydney Australia being one of the many exceptions
And Minneapolis, where the city itself bore no relationship to the map. I drove through there – once. The main highway, which the map showed going straight through, dead ended. We stopped 6 times for directions and got 6 entirely different directions, for finding the other end.
of course Sydney would be an exception XD
Yeah, if you want to learn the layout of a new city when you move, spend 3 months as a pizza or UPS delivery driver. That’ll learn ya.
Is that going to be part of Sydney’s training?
Actually, UPS would be weird, cause their navigation system is designed not to take left turns unless absolutelly necessary (since that would require them to wait for the opposite lane to be cleared and it’s less productive). At least, I know that was the case at some point in the US, not sure if that still holds true.
Mythbusters did an episode on this and did, indeed, establish that an all-right-turns route shaved time off a delivery run.
My first job out of High School was as a driver for the parts department of a car dealership. And it was long enough ago that there were no GPS satellites in orbit for other than military purposes. And certainly no cell phones or tablet PCs or Goggle maps.
So you use maps, and you learn the area really fast. Or you get fired.
I picture her making pacman noises as she hovers down the streets and around corners.
THAT IS AWESOME.
That is indeed So Sydney.
And Yorp gets a cameo.
Wooden cookie:
Bah, I meant to quote Woodencookie:
Could be the same woman too! https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/147
if she goes flying in the future she should have a banner attached with the address of her store
I think she would need to have a permit for that.
Otherwise the Time Lords will intervene. Going forwards is allowed. We all do that. But they might ban her from flying back. If she has acquired information, of the future, which could change history.
Gallyfrey can bite the big one where Syd is concerned .
Not a horrible idea, but if it is big enough to be seen from the ground while she is flying, that means it is also rather large and unwieldy.
She might do a lot better just to wear a cap or t-shirt or jacket with her business’s web address on it.
… Those things will not be seeable while she is flying but, when she is on the ground, they should show up very nicely.
ya I’m pretty sure that is the 2 of them, girl has the same hairstyle and the dog looks about right.
maybe that girls “superpower” is stumbling into weird moments where you need the context to understand what’s going on? xD
There’s sort of a hidden joke in that panel. Yorp and his walker take nearly the same route every day, which means right then when Sydney is checking the roadsign, she’s within 5-6 blocks of her store. She’s juuuust far enough away that she doesn’t recognize the area.
Love that. And adopting the character name. Thanks, that has really made my day!
congratulations Yorp, you have reached ‘ascended Fanon’ status.
Be proud, you are now more popular then your walker.
(or are you really a superhero/Villain in disguise and just acting innocent?)
Woof, woof!
*wags tail enthusiastically*
Ya’ hear that,boy? You made a name for yourself on the internet! Have a Scooby Snak.
(empties a box of Scooby Snax in a bowl)
Congratulations.
I have a backpack that I use to carry my laptop and books in. I take it everywhere with me.
BTW great art work DaveB.
It’s funny how noone ever talks about the problems of finding your way around a city from a completely different perspective.
LOVE IT
I have a newfound respect for underground travellers like Bugs Bunny and Mole People, who must have it much worse trying to navigate with no landmarks to work with.
Yeah, they would have to get one of those surveyor’s maps that details soil and bedrock types and the shapes of their deposits and even then I’d be going around in circles but at least you would know if you hit a certain type of clay you had gone to far in that direction for example.
Lesson 1 for Flyers:
Learn how to read a map (also a useful skill for everybody else).
Lesson 2:
Learn to use your Mapreading Skills with Google Earth.
Lesson 3:
Enjoy your flight.
Lesson 4: Don’t forget to charge your GPS device
Yeah, forgot that one. Man, am i tired…
why does everyone assume that from x hundred feet up you get a convenient map view you don’t sid can prob make out two, three streets from her pov and any significant landmarks.
Lesson 5: Always watch out for flocks of birds…Especially those flying even over your head.
Lesson 5.5 paying particular care if you are in the woods, and there is a bear overhead.
Lesson 6: watch out for anti-aircraft emplacements.
Lesson 7: Always. Expect. Ninjas.
+ Ichi
*私は主人に屈する*
Google Translate is a sexist pig! “I bow to a master” translates to the above. Stick that in the translator though, and the reverse translation is “I succumb to my husband”! Please don’t take it the wrong way.
キスを吹く (Just in case you did, and were hurt at my protestations. I would not want you to have any hard feelings! Err. Actually, on second thoughts…)
https://translationparty.com/#11848341
In her defense, this is the first time she’s been able to fly openly at altitude solo. I expect she will be getting a ‘flying 101’ class on the subject as part of her training.
‘at any real altitude, all the landmarks you think you know look different. For someplace like the metroplex, your biggest orientation point is going to be the river. Learn ‘it’, and you will have a fair idea of where you are even when your GPS is down’
I was in Dallas for A-Kon last year. Even with GPS I got lost most of the time there.
I tried to use Google Maps to find a hotel in Dalton GA once. The hotel was right off the highway. Google maps directed me about 14 miles away – on the other side of the highway.
In around 81, I think, I drove across the Verrazano Bridge like 5 times looking for the stupid Wassname Parkway that went straight to Albany. Then when I finally found it, I couldn’t use it because “No Commercial Vehicles” and I was driving a UHaul truck.
Yes!!! I almost brought this point up on the last page. I’ve heard from more than one pilot that it’s very difficult to match what you see when flying, to what you know from the ground.
Speaking of which, what might help Sydney more is aeronautical charts instead of regular street maps.
Which should give you far greater respect for the traffic report guys who actually still fly around and yet know exactly where they are. Most traffic reporting is done from CCTV feeds now…
I understand Dave B’s point for carrying a shoulder bag. I have a many pocket vest just for same reason and I don’t really like putting something in my pants pockets since I will need to remove them while sitting. At summer I carry a waist bag (maybe not actual name of item but it is closest translation i could find) and anything that does not fit into my vest’s pockets or waist bag goes into my laptop’s backpack.
i believe the nearest equivalent name to what i think you are describing as a “waist bag”, would be called a “fanny pack” her in the USA
“I don’t really like putting something in my pants pockets since I will need to remove them while sitting.”
Since you describe putting one thing in your pocket, but talk about removing ‘them’, plural, you must logically be talking about the pants.
(This comment made in tribute to Leonard Nimoy. You will be missed.)
No. greenstalker is clearly talking about removing his pockets!
Actually my pockets have this power to duplicate what is put in them so one thing in many of them out :P
Do you find that it painful, having to chew off extra fingers, to pass for normal, or to be able to use regular gloves?
Talking with someone from outside a flying helicopter without a radio is clearly a case of comic-physics, but it was a very fun image nonetheless
You can do it with normal physics. Talking outside does not necessarily equate to being heard inside.
true we know what halo is saying but grizzly may be afraid he broke some law and she is performing the equivalent of a traffic stop, not that I found the rotors of a chopper to be that hard to hear over when I dealt with them in the past or be heard over.
Heh! A traffic reporter getting involved in an LE traffic stop. Dave, ya’ gotta make that happen some time!
:D
Helicopters are really freakin’ loud. You can barely hear the person sitting right next to you w/o an intercom/radio.
But, rule of funny says I’ll allow it.
Considering the ovary altercation you showed last page, I can think of one very good reason that Sydney would want to have at least a fanny pack on her if not a purse.
Or maybe she’s filled the document tube with tampons since she has her balls out.
That last bit’s not something you read every day. Heh.
If you think the latter sentence is odd, translate the first one into real English, and the whole becomes even more surreal.
Really? I would think a “fanny pack” would be a logical thing to hear when discussing the need for tampons…
I think toilet paper would be a more commonly-used choice than tampons for that particular use…
“translate the first one (sentence) into real English”
Yorp doesn’t see that word the same way you do.
Toilet paper –> Fanny pack? You see where that’s going?
;)
I was envisaging some kind of smuggler’s pack. Ironically, given one of the conversations spurred by the previous comic, real ones often being improvised out of a type of contraceptive.
Linguistically and biologically though, we can be talking about carrying it in more than one location. Depending on which side of the Atlantic you were born, one location might spring to mind quicker than the other.
Could be the same woman too! https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/147
woops, meant as a reply to ai_vin
Only if she’s changed her fashion sense, and hairstyle.
It was only yesterday (in comic time) that Yorp & her were first seen. Then, she was outfitted more for jogging than merely walking. Besides, you’d expect her to not wear different clothes on different days?
Well she hasn’t tried iphone maps yet… mind you her cellphone might also be dead. (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1214)
So Sidney should have turned left at Albuquerque [Drive]?
Booooooooooooooo!
What an absolute stinker of a pun!
:)
No, no! It’s NOT a pun…It’s a “Running Joke.” It ran away from Bugs bunny & right into Dave’s comic! Get it right!
O.o
Technically, it is either a reference or an homage.
IMHO, I classify it as a running joke because it appears in a number of different BB cartoons. Even though they’re all “different episodes,” it’s still consistent as a joke in & of itself. It’s a joke that’s been “run” in different BB ‘toons & now it’s just making it’s first appearance here. I feel it will continue to be a running joke if Dave uses it even as little as one more time in a future comic.
;)
Good job on the top panel, Dave. Your hard work has resulted in a very nice clear image.
Noting also – “Hmmmm, I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque…“. Now where, oh where, have I heard that before?
Yep, Sydney needs a GPS thingie for her phone, as a back-up for her Pip-Boy. Aerial navigation via landmarks was never easy, and is probably close to being a lost art now. Early aviators depended on it a lot, but the recent surge in supers may mean the skill makes a comeback.
Does lead me to wonder. I don’t know if this question has ever arisen before (I’d be extremely surprised if it hasn’t), but where (as in what city / state) is this set? That Dave chose to keep this detail vague and/or fictional is quite likely (and probably much simpler than the alternatives). But it does occur to me that ARC’s main HQ would probably be fairly close to Washington DC.
Dallas Texas
…Is Dave’s hometown.
Which may or may not be related to Syndey’s, a fact which shall remain in Limbo until such time as it is required (or convenient), as determined by The Comic’s storyline, to establish a more definite location for its setting.
If you are in any part of the day to day military you try to stay as far away from DC as possible.
Plus ArcSwat probably has regional headquarters and Dallas would be well situated to cover that state and the states around Texas.
I concur on the wisdom of staying as far away from DC as possible. Australian public servants (of which I used to be) feel similarly about Canberra.
But I do get the strong impression that the ARC hq we saw was THE hq. At least for now – that branch offices and/or regional centres might be set up makes sense.
Hey Dave, just a suggestion if you have to do wide airborne panels again (very likely), try rotoscoping a photograph, could save you a lot of time.
um, not trying to be a nitpick, but if you had read his comments under the comic, you would have seen that he tried doing that, but FINDING the photograph was near impossible for him to get all the stuff he wanted to be in the scene to be in ONE picture, or in multiple pictures taken FROM THE SAME ANGLE AND HEIGHT…
I am astonished that her pip boy has such a low battery life. The Fallout universe this ain’t, that’s for sure.
Many cell phone batteries have only a roughly 24 hour battery life. Less with GPS which eats up a lot of energy.
Maybe her new Pip Boy is like when you buy a new cell phone?
From out of the box, it may have a minimal charge (5%), good enough to last until you can get home and charge it yourself.
Same with Maxima grabbing a new one for Sydney at the last second (probably looking for a small model to fit her forearm without it sliding off) and not having time to fully charge it before the press conference.
well, does YOUR pipboy equivalent have to have an IFF transponder, or the various other stuff Max said it had? i would imagine the IFF alone would suck battery power like crazy because it has to transmit a very powerful signal out to quite a large distance in order for it to be USEFUL at the long distances required for reaction times of the receiving craft’s pilots, in order to NOT have a mid-air collision. and then again, it might not be up to MILSPEC standards too, so what she thinks is “just a dead battery” could be “a connection inside got jarred loose” from the battle and she’ll only find out about it when she shows up at work. though with it still working well enough to coordinate the final Boss Battle, that seems unlikely
A friend of mine is ex Navy. According to him, the Navy refers to their brand of batteries as “NeverReadys.”
Having been in the Navy, I can confirm that…
Last comic I commented that her transponder would keep her from getting shot down by ARC air defense that is now on high alert after yesterday’s battle. I may have to revise that theory.
Book Two may be considerably shorter than Book One. But it least it will ‘go out with a bang’.
Nah, she’s got her shield up. The AA fire will only last until they send Max out to find out what the hell is such a tough target that it’s still there.
In point of fact, the Fallout Pip Boys (which is where the nickname comes from) can do everything her device has been shown to do (albeit with a weird retro 40s sci-fi aesthetic) and more, and they have never been shown to run out of power. A Pip Boy has been shown to not only last for the entire lifetime of its wearer (who receives it as a child and keeps it for the rest of their life), but to be able to be kept and passed on as an heirloom generations later and still work perfectly, even when it was being kept in a place with no technology beyond basic hunter-gatherer level, and thus obviously had no means of being charged.
PS: To all the “phones only last about a day” people, my cellphone battery lasts two weeks between charges.
Bah, not as good as the only mobile phone I have, or want. It has not needed recharging in all the years since my brother gave it to me!
Back in the day, our ‘mobile’ phone was the one that we plugged in when we wanted to talk in a different room to the main line – only where there was another socket of course.
The Fallout Universe is unique and the Pip Boys there have plenty of viable options.
1.) Some kind of micro-nuclear battery. Those things are literally everywhere. Especially near rusted-out cars.
2.) They recharge automatically when exposed to any visible light source.
3.) They recharge from background radiation, and the Fallout universe has a LOT of background radiation.
4.) The Vault keepers somehow figured out some biometric way to charge them. Body heat, galvanic skin responses, continuous neural currents… the list is endless.
You thought the battery of a smallish device would last longer than 24 hours when it clearly does multiple things simultaneously and was very actively used for part of that? Even phones don’t often last that long under those conditions and they don’t do nearly as much as that thing clearly can.
Google maps, satellite view, angled and set at the same resolution would give you your perspective. It also gives you an idea how places look from above.
Is it just me or is Barry using a Surface Pro 3?, have one of them things its awesome.
as for what i carry its damn near always, keys, wallet, phone and the tablet, typically tablet in hand or under the arm but occasionally if i am going far id use a shoulder bag myself, take a charge then with me too but typically not much more than that.
also i can think of one city, well section of a city where you could find your way easy and that Manhattan new york. way too many landmarks and its literally just a grid.
Nice cameo, Yorp!
:-)
Hey Yorp!
You got another cameo! Love the Bugs reference!
I didn’t even think about it much before, I sort of assumed that everyone lived in and around Washington DC, since we’ve seen ARCON headquarters, and most government bodies are headquartered in DC. DC seems like it would be fairly easy to navigate over, since it happens to have quite a lot of landmarks and a river, which is great for orienting yourself.
More likely would be Arlington VA. It’s part of the 10 square miles dedicated to our nation’s capital and home of the Pentagon, etc. Basically the military home of our government. The others might be right about it being Dallas, though I wouldn’t think so. There are many good points to having several bases around the US, not the least of which is faster response time, but the main headquarters should be near more vital areas than Dallas. Arlington fills that requirement.
Do you know of any large desert areas that would match the test range and be located within about 100 miles or so from Arlington VA?
It was green meadows until the first time Max did a live-fire test.
(sings) Green Acres is the place to be…
(sopken under my breath) Well, maybe not any more.
As I have stated previously, I do believe that DaveB has set this in Dallas.
Because 1, it is his hometown and he would know it best.
2, there is an artillery base only a few hundred miles north of it.
Coukd be argued that there are probably a great number of cities with an artillery base or bomb range within a few hundred miles of them. “A few hundred miles” covers an awful lot of territory.
Besides that, if the press demo was “a few hundred miles” from the city, Sydney would not have been able to see the city on the horizon so easily…That kind of distance would been “over the horizon,” not with the skyline so clearly visible as shown in the comic. From the picture shown on that page, three or four dozen miles would have been about right.
Fort Sill, Ok.
U.S. Army artillery train school.
Also consider the population density of the 48 continental states and you will realize that not every military base with an artillery unit is capable of having a practice range.
The same goes for bomb ranges especially .
Well if bomb ranges are the most important, then clearly the best place to set it is San Francisco, so they can use the Alameda county bomb range. I would guess that it is the only bomb range to be famous enough to have some worldwide name recognition.
California has it’s share of deserts. And Archon is a new branch of the military, so could probably justify getting a new artillery range.
The biggest plus though? They could hang out with Adam and Jamie!
That last is a happy thought, though I recall there already being speculation that they had been called in to consult or otherwise help out with the ARCHON building.
Actually that is a bomb DISPOSAL range’
Not a military bomb range.
I thought somebody said, or Dave said, Dave was thinking about having it centrally located in the nation (more or less) so they would be equidistant to everything in their jurisdiction (the whole nation plus some allies I guess) as the Maxima/”company car” flies. But he left it vague for now so if he came across better logic he could go with that.
I think the problem with that is that, even if he stated where it was, nobody would be able to place it. It would just be “one of those states, in the middle”, for anybody who did not actually live there. ;-)
Google is like one tab that ‘a’ way —>
Which most people need just to find city locations in their own state! LOL
According to Wikipedia, the geographic center of the contiguous United States (the center of the connected 48 U.S. states) islocated about 2.6 miles (4.2 km) northwest of the center of Lebanon, Kansas at 39°50′N 98°35′W, which is approximately 12 miles south of the Kansas-Nebraska border. It is distinct from the geographic center of the United States, which reflects the 1959 additions of the states of Alaska and Hawaii, which is located at a point northeast of Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
Hmmm, maybe the centre of POPULATION would be a better choice. I’m guessing that point would be more east and slightly more south.
That would now be in Wright County, Missouri, 5.5 miles southwest of Plato. 37.458905°N 92.307766°W, according to Wikipedia.
Concerning the last two frames. Is Grizzly alone or with a pilot? If the former, then he is the pilot. So then why is his hand off the stick?
If the latter, and there is a pilot, how does Grizzly get from the right seat to the left seat in the second frame when Sydney appears? He would have to had changed seats for that to have happened. And then, where did the pilot go?
I think he is with a pilot, I don’t think DaveB had the time or energy to draw a pilot because he spent so much time on the cityscape.
It looks like she was tapping on the window to Grizzly’s right. (Panel 5 is a front angle & panel 6 is a back angle.)
There’s an unseen pilot in the right seat. Even if there wasn’t, I assume helicopters have a “stay here” hover button that lets you go hands free without it immediately spinning into the ground.
You mean “our” right?
Preliminary googling suggests that only particularly expensive helicopters built more recently would have an autopilot because it takes a lot more sensors and calculations to cover the many more variables that a helicopter pilot has control of as compared to the inherently much more stable fixed wing aircraft.
But if his station could spring for a larger, more modern, chopper with all the trimmings then why not? I guess. Its possible.
Well you’d be wrong! They discontinued all experiments with auto-pilot after the Stratford massacre of 1934.
:P
I don’t think so, Dave.
Hal! We missed you buddy.
:) Nice catch. It was actually unintentional – just expressing doubt about helicopters having autopilots.
Ok, that had me splitting my sides laughing! And such a beautiful page. Love the style that the aerial shot has been depicted in. Awesome stuff.
How can she have problems navigating? she knows how to get from her house to the shop, therefore she shouldn’t have any problems with navigating, just follow the same route.
and how can Dave get lost, he’s lived there for ~20 years, I moved out of my parents place 20 years ago and i can still find my way around and that’s despite all the landmarks disappearing
She probably just took off in a random direction upwards. It’s all about point of view. Plus if you have ever been in the suburbs of a BIG city most of the area starts to look alike.
Especially anywhere near the East Coast & particularly in Massachusetts. Pretty much the whole state is just one township bordering other townships into one huge homogenous mass of utter confusion…
You’d be amazed at how different things look from high up in the air, so if you don’t pay close attention to where you take off, everything begins to look hazy. Sydney took off in a hurry in this case just to get away from the reporters so there goes your point of view. Going home from the battle, we’re assuming she flew back without any problems. :P
Also of note, her Pip Boy on her way back home still had power, which could’ve given her guidance. Now, not so much.
She missed the left turn at Albuquerque.
So you’re assuming she is going to the comic shop first? I guess that makes as much sense as anything since we haven’t heard exactly how that is all going to work for days and hours on/off of ARC. But at this point with it being her first full day and the first day after a major incident that she was involved in it is possible she was asked to go directly to ARCHON. (and hopefully given an address and directions of some kind)
Cause she has also never, as far as we know, even driven to the ARCHON building. She was flown there by another from a third location: The bank.
And Sydney was too busy screaming and spazzing out while she was carried by Max to really notice.
One of my Uni friends, after 4 years, still relied on the bus to get into the city, and friends to navigate around within it.
Said city centre is tiny:
here is the walk he needed to do from his home: https://goo.gl/6ldTCQ
And yes, he seriously didn’t know the way.
You can’t hook up to UHF?
https://www.dektec.com/products/USB/DTU-215/
There you go.
You bastard. I’m actually tempted to get that now.
The single best stop to ask for directions EVER.
She must have an incredibly loud speaking voice to make herself heard through the window of a helicopter in flight. Also, she might want to watch what direction she leaves in, it could get messy.
Just because WE can see it, on the other side of the wall, doesn’t mean Mr. Grizzly can hear it.
Hmm well land and pull out your normal phone duh :P :)
But yeah nice way to say hi, hope he doesn’t crash from shock.
I do hope that there is a pilot in the helicopter, and that he is just leaning back, in the final panel, as the traffic reporter cranes forwards, across him, to stare at Halo. It would be very unusual for a single person to fulfil both roles.
As you can see from the first panel, which the reporter appears in, his hands are rather busy with things other than flying the aircraft. Not to mention the distraction of concentrating on traffic down below, rather than hazards up in the air.
She’s at the right-hand side window (from the view of someone in the helicopter) and I’m guessing the pilot is on the left-side (driving seat similar to US car). At least, I’m pretty sure because it looks like the perspective from the last panel is ‘flipped’ from the one before it (based on the position of the handle, or whatever that is, in the middle of the window, and the black piece along the edge and partially behind the sound effect), so we’re moving from a straight view on the front of the helicopter, to an over-the-(right)-shoulder view in the last.
Er, two problems with that:
1) We would be looking through the gap between Grizzly and his seat. The gap would have to be very large to look like the last panel, which will be difficult when he is clearly strapped in the seat.
2) We can see Grizzly’s face, rather than the back of his head. So he needs to have turned his head more than 90 degrees, or unstrapped himself and turned to face Sydney.
If the perspective has flipped, like you say, then why is the flight orb in her left hand all the way through?
Like I said, I think it’s an ‘over the shoulder’ type view. I imagine that, if we could see out last panel PoV in the second to last panel, it’d be hovering between the window and his seat. Grizzly’s turned in the last panel to look at the source of the ‘THMP THMP THMP’ sound, so we see a profile of his face.
The perspective flip wouldn’t affect which hand the flight orb was in. I’m not saying we’re getting a mirror view, I’m saying our PoV has changed.
OTOH, the window detail does support your idea…
OTOP, YKYBOTLW VWG W. TTYL, TTFN.
TMI, IMHO. YMMV.
OTOP? LOL! All you need is a catchphrase or two and you’re all set 8-)
Tehnically men have https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbag#Men.27s_bags [Murses], although they are also called Satchels, or Messenger / Organizer Bags.
I’ve used various Shoulder Bags since high school, and through out adult hood. Or Backpacks. Personally get yourself a good backpack, those things are invaluable. Carrying around a laptop / tablet, movies, books, portible gaming devices, they even have side pouches that are perfect for holding drinks.
But yeah if you wanted a man’s version of a purse, you can look up the above mentioned carrying devices and shop around on amazon for them.
Lately, I’ve taken to wearing cargo pants. I can cram all sorts of stuff in my pants. ;)
Hopefully no squirrels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nKG_O0Ei_o
That would be the absolute last place a guy would let a squirrel be looking for nuts…
With how vicious and ninja-y squirells are I wouldn’t want them anywhere near my pants or valuables.
Cargo pants are pretty spiffy, but nothing beats a good bagpack. Especially the ones made for carrying laptops. It’s perfect for everything, it’s nothing but pockets within pockets, with straps attached. I personaly have used mine for everything from grocery carrying, to shopping for movies, to toting around my laptop, and Vita/3DS.
That left turn at Albuquerque always get me too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8TUwHTfOOU