Grrl Power #302 – This is coming out of your vacation time
New comic day (Wednesday, for those of you unaware) is the one day they’re usually both there all day. It’s the only day they get enough traffic to justify it. Otherwise one of them opens, the overlap in the middle, and the other closes. I imagine when they started the shop they had one or two part timers, but eventually couldn’t justify the salary. That’s probably not a problem anymore though. At some point Sydney’s going to have to go over her new schedule with Joel and not surprise him with each new foible.
Sydney’s obviously really asking how many times has Spider-Man saved the world, because the answer to “How many times over would the world have been destroyed” is really just one. Once it’s destroyed the first time, you’re kinda done. I guess like most things though, “destroyed” exists on a spectrum, so you could destroy the Earth slightly more each time. First time, all life is destroyed, second time, lava replaces the oceans, continents sink in to them, third time, the Earth is blown into a new asteroid belt, fourth time the asteroids get sucked into a black hole. You’d have to coordinate though. If the black hole guy showed up first, the lava-continent guy’s going to get pissed. It’s okay though, the power to summon black holes is nothing compared to Spidey’s ability to hang bad guys upside down outside of the police station from a street light.
ComicMIX is doing their annual webcomic tournament again. I don’t want to pester you guys with it like in previous years so I’ll just mention it here once and probably a few times on twitter as the tourney goes on.
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
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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.
Is Sydney Jail big enough to hold the entire population of Sydney?
Don’t know but let’s say no
Sydney jail would need to re-establish australia as a prison colony for all the people Sydney finds annoying
people Sydney find annoying:-
anyone who makes a hot sauce sydney would describe as a cool drink
anyone around her when they find out she is a vegetarian
anyone who dusent read comics
anyone with a neck beard
spawn campers (double if its rl)
the tube
and anything on THE LIST
Anyone who writes “doesn’t” as “dusent”.
Anyone who corrects minor spelling errors online.
Send him to jail.
sounds like a harsh punishment for being dyslexic :p
as an adhd sufferer i thin Sydney would be more understanding
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/416
And the history to back it up.
Hmmm, this was supposed to be a MidnightDStroyer. Looks like the java-injection caused some damage after all.
a response to, even.
Dungeon. One thousand years, no parole. Everyone dungeon. *Obligatory Lemongrab reference here*
While dyslexia would explain why you switched the ‘e’ and the ‘s’, it doesn’t explain why you put a ‘u’ instead of an ‘o’, and left off the apostrophe.
correct- doesn’t
Dyslexic- dosen’t
typo guy- dusent
Eh, there is a “d” in the beginning, and a “sent”, apostrophe notwithstanding, at the end. Looks Dyslexic to me. And even if it didn’t… I don’t see evidence of I0wten offending anyone in this here thread, so I am not entirely sure why his claim that he is Dyslexic would even come into question.
I think we all chill on such things here. Mostly we ignore typos and grammar errors. I, for one, would not want to discourage folks from participating, due to feeling intimidated about making mistakes.
But if they can change the meaning, in an amusing way, we do tend to leap on the opportunity to make a play on that. Often due to pun addiction, sadly. In this case Hertzy was simply playing on the theme of the comic. Although it is fair enough to be a bit alarmed, given it is darker humour.
But you need not bee too worried. The folks in this community are much more chilled than you can see in other areas of the internet.
Errors in the comic itself are fair game though. as DaveB, has indicated that he is happy to have mistakes pointed out. Sometimes there will be intentional things, meant to emulate casual speech. But Dave is relaxed at his army of proof readers.
How dare you ask for calm… You go to jail!!!
chill guys i broke out the smiley to show i wasn’t taking it to seriously. Ie Yamof Ool is half right. I am dyslexic but there is more to it than that. I have more than one learning disability, I had bad education for it for a long time as it was undiagnosed and I have the influence of anther language (welsh) buting in. This has resulted in a few inconstancy’s in my spelling even when compared to outer dyslectics.
the point i was making was sydney would have more sympathy for people with (for lack a better phrase) low level mental problems and for that the simple explanation of dyslexic was more fitting than a more thougher explanation of every problem i have
IOwten don’t worry about it I have seen worse from beings that lack even one of your reasons, now they deserve to eat with syd at fusion.
l0wten, you might have got a better view of the eclipse than me – assuming you were blessed with some sunny intervals…
i did get a verry good view of what there was to see. not a cloud in the sky here, but we only had 90% of totality.
i bilt my own viewer using polerised lenses from a few old pears of sunglasses. if you layer polarized lenses then rotate them just right you can make a very good viewer excellent detail and not to brite
The last time there was an eclipse, in Cornwall, I was there. On a beach close to where Patrick Moore was covering the event. As might be expected for the UK, it was overcast though.
But that still did not stop us from experiencing it, given that we were all huddled around my pocket TV, watching the view from a light aircraft we could hear flying, above the clouds. And experiencing it turning as dark as night, to match.
We had quite a party atmosphere going. Especially as there was a live radio show close to us too.
This time I was in Bulgaria. Where it was overcast. But Cornwall was sunny.
Which figures. :-/
Still better than other things I’ve seen written – like people using “of” instead of “have”.
“Sydney jail would need to re-establish australia”
Why not? Australia already has an entire city appropriately pre-named to act as the Administrative function for the new prison-continent.
;)
Does that include all the tourists? Sydney’s a very popular tourist destination. (Both her and the city. hehe)
Sounds like a plan, seeing how Sydney started off as prison
… A-N-D Sydney, Australia was out of the penal colony business by 1850. The WHOLE of Australia was out of that by.1853. And it should also be noted that many of the transportees went on to be people of note (refer the very long list in the Wiki link below).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convicts_in_Australia
I am proud of my country and all that it has achieved. But, in the nicest possible way, I would point out that I and many other Aussies get extremely tired of outsiders banging away on that particular drum – and somehow also thinking it is (a) original, and (b) hilarious. In the same way that Texans probably get tired of the assumption they are all in the oil or cattle business, or that all Southerners are inbred snobs or bigoted moonshiners, or that all Scots are kilt-wearing haggis-munchers.
The joke is WAY past it use-by date, folks. Really.
Sorry, I probably vented a tad there.
To a small degree the US was also a penal colony. The Pilgrims came here because no one else would have them. Many of the first wave were debtors or indentured.
Um… no it wasnt a penal colony. The Pilgrims werent prisoners – they were escaping religious persecution, not prosecution (they were a Puritan sect called the Separatists, an were persecuted by the Catholic Church and the Church of England).
Not a penal colony, ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXjqTyQuq4w
The Pilgrims left England to escape persecution, and so they could persecute anyone who wasn’t a Puritan.
It’s great how oppression is self sustaining, isn’t it?
Dangit, I was going to make a joke about that in my post but I passed on it.
I never said the pilgrims were. Just that some of the labour pool brought over were.
Georgia was a penal colony.
Let’s not forget Louisiana.
Pretty much most nations in the course of human history would colonize other lands with exactly the same sort of dissidents & of questionable loyalties that founded America…And Australia. The “Ruling Powers” jumped at the chance to get those sorts of people out of their back yards…
So is it really surprising that many of those “colonies” eventually establish their own independence from them? I mean, really now…How could they NOT expect those “rejected mutts” to cut the leash once there was some geographical (& political) distance?
O.o
Today, I learned that the pilgrims in Massachusetts were the only colonists. Forget Jamestown in Virginia and other colonies where criminals and the indebted would often end up indentured, doing hard labor to support the business ventures of the aristocracy. Nevermore Louisiana which was a French colony. Ignore the Spanish colony of Florida. Those don’t count. Only the buckle wearing puritans matter.
Who didn’t even wear buckles and the hats and suits because those were English Puritans. The ones over here didn’t have time for such things, since they were busy being farmers and such and didn’t have time to get portraits done.
7thsealod: Calm down, mate. I’ll throw a shrimp on the barbie for you.
I don’t like seafood (especially PRAWNS) and …. Really, was that the best you could do?
How about tossing a Barbie on a shrimp? Or do you prefer the term ‘little person’? :P
…A “little person” that happened to set unrealistic standards for girls to aspire to as they grew up…
Yeah, throw those on the grill & watch ’em melt.
O.o
Was talking about ‘shrimp’
You do realise that the Barbie doll was based on a real person, don’t you? And not just the name
Sadly ‘based on’ hides a world of sins. Her likeness maybe is accurate, but the actual figure does not match the inspiration.
The dimensions are so unrealistic that statistically only one in 4.3 billion women might have them. And that is just considering her neck! It gets even worse if accounting for her other measurements.
I.e. there are not enough women alive on the planet today that one of them is actually likely to have those statistics. Barbie is a highly unrealistic. Mind you a lot of children’s entertainment is.
But, if parents want to give their children more accurate dolls to play with, perhaps we should petition Mattel to make a Sydney doll? Probably best not to have the rip-cord option though. The one that, when pulled, recites some of her favourite language.
actually a realistic measurement barbie was made. I do not believe it was produced in any volume or sold but the company has shown it next to the standard sales barbie. the reason for the bad measurements was actually a continuation of early molds being eye checked for proper proportions aka a person looked at the dolls and said they look like the right measurements.
Actually it was based on a German sex doll, not a person. :)
With you on that one mate. Gimme a good steak anyday. Or lamb. Lamb is good.
How about Barbecue Goat sandwiches?
Or should tan your hide when you’re dead Fred?
So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde, and that’s it hangin’ on the shed. ALL TOGETHER NOW!
For a long time that was the #1 song in Australia. And being a lover of the weird and odd it was a favorite of mine as well.
I prefer John Williamson, meself.
Well there’s many strange, tropical plants
Big cathedrals built by ants
She finds a scorpion in her pants
Well you’ve never seen a woman dance.
Tossin’ her clothes all over the place
First the cottons then the lace!
Look at her go, wow what a pace!
Come on fellas, all about face.
That’s how you know you are
That’s how you know you are
That’s how you know you are on
Cape York Peninsula
~Second verse + chorus, Cape York Peninsula by John Williamson
Oy mate. Have a Fosters! It’s Australian for beer, mate!
None for me, cobber. I swore off the neck oil a looong time ago.
I’m out of australian stereotype stuff.
Um… Kangaroo! Koala! Boomerang! Walkabout! Mad Max!
….. Drop Bears and the Fertilizer Building Blocks [tm]
How about throwing a Ken on the Barbie?
Dingoes ate my barbie!
Only a tad, though.
My screen melted. The way I figure it, you owe me a new one.
As a Texan from Waco no less, I understand completely. To this day when I tell people where I am from I brace for the “so are you in a cult” comment that still hasn’t died away. (Newsflash folks, they were not in Waco, they were out in the country. Waco was just the closest City.)
I hear you, matey.
Try growing up with a thick Afrikaans accent, in a foreign country. During the Apartheid era.
I imagine you probably dislike the District 9 and Chappie references nowadays too.
I loved District 9 and am hoping there will be a sequel! No idea what Chappie is though, so nope, doesn’t bother me.
The director of District 9 also directed Chappie, which is (to avoid spoilers) about the formative experiences of an independent AI housed in a humanoid robot.
It is also Huge Jack-man’s first villain role
You will be glad to know that while there might be more MOVE houses there will not be any more Wacos https://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/05/no-more-free-wacos-explication-of.html
Cousin across the ditch, so :P
Also, we were where prisoners were sent when they couldn’t be kept in Australia, so we were the prison colony’s exile island :D
So, should I start with the sheep jokes then?
Ooh ooh! I know! Soooo…. did you know mick dundee? /runs and hides.
*Trips Traab so he/she falls down an outback dunny, then locks the door*
…. Then drops a redback inside, and strolls away laughing maniacally.
There was a redback on the toilet seat
When I was there last night.
I didn’t see him in the dark
But boy I felt his bite.
And now I’m here in hospital
A sad and sorry plight.
And I curse the redback spider
On the toilet seat last night.
:D
The day you get bite on the butt by a venomous snake is the day you find out who your REAL friends are…
Heh. Don’t count on me to go sucking! But mainly because I know that such is not good medical practice. The blood stream will have already moved it on.
Your time is better spent snagging the venomous beastie (if you can do so safely) or taking a snap of it.
Letting the doctors know exactly what anti-venom is needed is far more important than oral gratification.
or if one does get venom out of the wound it may get absorbed by the person sucking resulting in two people needing anti-venom.
Here in North America we use a different sort of spider.
(But Australia has some spiders that will finish the job much more reliably.)
And no, I don’t know Mick Dundee. But my brother reckons that if you go back far enough, our family’s related to Ned Kelly’s mother.
Go even further back, and we’re all related to one another one way or the other.
Much further, in some instances.
isn’t that more New Zealand for sheep? Given that in 2012 there was an average of 22 sheep per person in NZ.
That’s the point. Pretty sure that when Guesticus said “Cousin across the ditch” they were identifying themselves as “New Zealander” :P
Heh, sorry, I figured if we were touching on all the annoying things I should either include mick dundee or vegemite.
IMHO, you can’t beat “Aussie questioning intonation”…?
Making all sentences become questions…?
Just to keep the other person engaged…?
Maybe I should move there. Few people, plenty of lamb*, and if I recall correctly NZ is one of the very few countries where it is completely legal to distill your own liquor.
* Three or four times a year I’ll buy a leg of lamb and cook it in Rodenbach with root vegitables. It is really, really good.
Few people, lots of lamb and chances of making your own alcohol…………that sounds like one wild party idea :p
At least our sheep look like fluffy clouds, not scraggly piles of boney dust :P
I dunno why, but the simple poetic imagery, of that retort, just had me laughing. A lot.
Is it the kind of imagery that could require a dose of Brain Bleach™ ?
;)
Whoa! You are so close to reality. Texans ARE all southern inbred, bigoted-snob, moonshiner, kilt-wearing, haggis-munching Scots in the oil or cattle business!
Uff Da! Keepin’ it real, here in frozen Minnesota. Yah! You betcha!
*Stars chipping you out of the ice*
“Passes Adamas a flamethrower “
*arrives, dragging three aircraft carriers, wired up to a microwave transmitter*
Oh, you got here first, DR.REVENGE? And carrying a more useful snow clearer!
*sigh*
Now, where did I get these from? Man, it’s gonna be a long trek to put them back.
“Shoots aircraft carriers with Temporal Reset beam.”
There they have been put back when/where you got them.
Not again. Really now, you should learn to calibrate better, now we’ve got to gather all those ores again just to rebuild those aircraft carriers. Luckilly they’re all still a part of the earth and not back so far they’re space dust.
“Shrugs”
Actually, one of them wound up at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the Imperial Navy was wiped out in 3 months…
Heh. Mind you that is more useful than the third one. It turns out that they got kicked back all the way to the Cambrian era!
Fortunately there was a fair gender mix, and their descendants eventually became fully sea adapted. They are presently enjoying their lives being mistaken for their similar-looking dolphin and porpoise cousins.
Ironically, of course, they were rooting very much for their ancestral fleet-mates when Pearl Harbour and the subsequent re-match kicked off.
Nice XKCD reference Yorp!
+1
Being completely fair, I’m from Mississippi, and the only moonshiners I know are originally from New Jersey.
…really good ‘shine, though. Mmm, apple pie.
I have a lot of Southern friends. With a big cluster in Louisiana. And everyone I have met, when visiting them, was great too. But I did have to be corrected once, by a friend, when she realised I had rose-tinted glasses on.
“You have not been exposed to much of the demographic. There really are an awful lot of stereotypical rednecks here.”
It was part of my “know when not to tease Americans” survival training she put me through. I suspect she had flip charts, and graphic footage, ready to show me, as the next stage, if the message did not sink in.
Ahahaha, oh god, yeah, no. I know a looooot of stereotypical rednecks. They’re fuckin’ scary.
I spent a year in Georgia. Then enlisted in the Air Force even though the Vietnam war was still going on. Does that give you a clue about how I dealt with “real” Southerners? The South will not rise again and stop serving grits with every meal.
I have friends over the pond in Virginia and once asked them about “is the joke you hear about the inbred hicks you see on films like Deliverance and marrying their Purdy cousins true or Hollywood fiction”. Their reply was, lets put it this way, even we don’t go to certain areas of Kentucky or Tennessee as lets put it this way their families are REALLY close….
i believe that you are trying to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy there…. “If you’ve been married three times, and your in-laws haven’t changed… You Might Be A Redneck”…
Hmmm…the way I can see that is if you marry then divorce three sisters (in turn, not at the same time) from the same family. In this case, your in-laws won’t change anyway.
;)
I have a feeling there is some kind of law, or prohibition, against even that. Or am I just mixing that up with the prohibition on step-children marrying their step-parents? Although I do recall a fairly recent case* where a court has allowed even that.
But, switching back to a lighter tone,** under what circumstances can a man legally marry his own daughter? Or, for that matter, in the more liberal UK, a woman marry her own son or daughter.
* With relatively non-creepy circumstances. Where the kid was grown up, and the parents had been long divorced.
** Yes yes, this is a trick question, not something icky.
I was referring to how the Law defines “incest” as far as marriages go…There can’t be any common blood-heritage within a three-generation span. In other words, once you divorce one of the sisters, her other sisters are no longer your step sisters. Legally speaking, someone could marry their step-parent as long as those parents are either divorced or the laws allow polygamy.
Mmm, well I know the step parent/ child thing I mentioned is genuine, and has only had the single case providing a limited precedent. So that refutes part of your statement, I am afraid.
I suspect that because marriage laws were laid down on the basis that it was for life, the legacy of that remains in our system. A step parent/ child would retain a degree of legal recognition, even after a divorce. Which, if you look at it from the inheritance side of things, or child support, does make a lot of sense.
As for the sisters situation, once I figured out that marrying triplets or twins would be illegal, I never did pursue the possibility. The serial polygamist angle never having appealed to me.
Weirdly enough I grew up having more friends who were twins than not. So it was not an idle thought, in my early formative years!
But it is hilarious. All the more so when you feel the need to defend it so vehemently.
Oh, and southerners can’t be described as “snobs”, that’s reserved for blue blooded northerners. Red necked moonshiners is fair game, though.
Not defending, quite the opposite.
And what ethnicity and subculture(s) are you part of? I’m sure some really really really tired jokes could be found for those, if known.
… Just so you don’t feel left out of the fun, you understand.
Oh, did you not spot the Shakespeare reference? Oberon is the King of the faeries. We have to clap, at least once a day, to ensure he does not die!
*claps paws together enthusiastically*
Well, I’m pretty much your generic, white bread, white guy. Of Czech descent*, although I was never taught a single word as a child and only my paternal great-grandmother was a fluent speaker. The fact that she didn’t speak any English at all kept us from doing much in the way of communicating, and she passed away when I was a very young child so I didn’t have much time with her in any event.
I’m a Virginian. And although VA was the capital of the Confederacy I live in Northern Virginia where the southern influence is tempered greatly. The majority of the state is Republican but the NOVA area is primarily Democratic. So while I will use the occasional “Y’all” it’s hard for me to really claim any southern influence. My older sister said that people would stand when Dixie was played in High School but I was right on her heels and that never happened when I was there, so if it happened at all it must have been very early in her 4 years of attendance.
I do love southern cooking, barbecue, collards and corn bread. And I host a couple barbeques each year. But then I love cooking of all types, and the southern cooking came to me as an adult, and I host dinner parties with completely non-southern cooking as well. I do have as hobbies home brewing of beer, wine, and mead, but again these hobbies all came to me as an adult and was no part of my upbringing.
I spent a lot of summers in Montana, and they said I had an accent, but I always thought it was the other way around. It might sound a bit blue blooded to say “I summered in Montana”, but it’s not like that. Both my parents were from Montana and also my grandparents. After my mother passed away when I was 6 my father would ship us off to the grandparents for the summers which kept us out of his hair when there was no school on to occupy our time.
So teasing me about my heritage might be more difficult than you might think, given that none of it was really preserved in my family. My wife is of Italian descent and her family keeps a lot of Italian customs, which I enjoy quite a lot. And I have some family in southern Maryland who keep a lot of what they tongue-in-cheek call “smib” (southern Maryland in-bred) traditions such as crabbing and stuffed ham. Which you should try if you have never had the opportunity. It’s another one of those recipes which probably originated amongst the poor or the slaves like barbecue, using the cheaper cuts of meat but using them so well you might just prefer them to a more pricey cut. Take a ham, jab it with a butcher knife all over, and stuff those slits with sliced kale, cabbage, onions, and hot spices. Wrap in cheesecloth, cook for many hours by blanching in water, cool, and slice thin. My Aunt has a professional grade meat slicer and can make very thin slices, which is the way to go. Then just eat cold with the rest of the meal, and it works well as a sandwich also.
* Now that it’s all busted up I suppose I should say Moravian, but I find that people tend to still understand “Czechoslovakia” but less so for Moravia.
You got my tongue lolloping out at the mention of Southern cooking. I had never heard of “collards” before though. Looking it up put me off initially (cabbage and brussel sprouts are amongst my least favourite foods, putting it mildly). Until I saw the preparation methods, which made it sound yummy.
Similarly to how I like seaweed at Chinese restaurants (in reality just a clever way of preparing cabbage).
You really want to make a Wikipedia entry for crabbing though. Other than re-directing to crab fisheries, it has nothing on that. And a general google search will only put your guests off eating!
The rest of your description though sounds delicious.
If you haven’t had well prepared collard greens, you haven’t eaten well.
I don’t know if this is a Louisiana thing (it being the home of it), or widespread in the South, but there was one fascinating anomaly with their restaurants. The way they treated Tabasco as a casual table sauce. I saw more than one place which had that, yet no ketchup!
I do enjoy spicy foods, so that was fine with me. And got exposed to some sauces there that were so hot, you would chug down Tabasco afterwards, just to cool your mouth off!
Even if Sydney is not from Texas, she sure must be a Southern belle!
I did enjoy some mighty fine Cajun food, during my time there. Sadly no gumbo though, even though the crayfish was in season. Because my friend was allergic to them. Even the smell would have made her retch.
Going to Mardi Gras and eating gumbo are both on my ‘things to do before I die’ list. Although ‘eat more Southern fair’ is the more expanded entry.
It’s not just the south, tabsco can be found on the tables of many different restaurants/diners here in New England as well. I’ve also seen a place that had these tiny little tabasco bottles which seemed far more like table decorations than an actual condiment serving.
re-enlistment sauce is a mild Tabasco provided in such little bottles and yes soldiers drink them straight or add them to any MRE item including coffee and applesauce.
I once got a spew from fellow officers when I declared that Tabasco sauce was proof that even God got STD’s. I was liberally dosing my MRE from mo own large bottle that I had brought into the field with me, of course.
The same with Old Bay seasoning in the vicinity of Maryland. I visited McCormick & Kuleto’s in San Francisco and they had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for some to go with my crab cakes. And yet Burger King has recently started advertizing that their fish sandwich comes with it, but that might be just a regional ad.
Isn’t that pronounced, “North Virginnie” where ya’all’s from?
An Australian friend introduced me to prawns with curried rice. He would grill the prawns with some kind of glaze that was super hot. My mouth is watering, just remembering it.
And the Cape Breton tar ponds would be a perfect motivator for good behaviour while in prison.
as of this comment there are 75 comments within your comment…wonder if it will go over 100. on that note, i doubt it. you have to remember this day. if it’s that easy to annoy her then sydney jail would have to hold half of the population of the world and the other half would be fugitives or trying to stay on her good side by bringing her peace offerings. said peace offerings would be super spicy foods, shirtless guys with nice abs, and the best writers of the times to write stories and movies just for her pleasure*.
*make sure the writers style is what she is interested in or you will wind up in sydney jail.
If I recall correctly there is an XKDC on that very subject with everyone shoulder to shoulder and just covering Manhattan island.
So putting all of “Those People” into Australia’s interior or somewhere north of the tree line is just an exercise in logistics and prisoner management.
New comic day. Man that sounds magical. I really need to find my local comic book store.
Agreed. This is a great advertisement for LCBS in general!
Unfortunately, my LCBS closed because the manager who opened it left, and left it in the hands of a guy who, uh…
Well. All he really wanted to do was sit around with his buddies (who took up the entire store) and play Magic and Yugioh all day, as well as using it as a way to get rid of comics, graphic novels, and TCG cards they wanted to sell.
He was also creepy as hell, hated strangers, hated customers, and…didn’t like women in general. And god forbid you actually go in there and try to buy something. I ended up having to wait fifteen minutes for him (the only actual employee in the store) to ring me up, because he refused to get up from his game.
I had to google to find out LCBS means Local Comic Book Shop.
Dude! Did you used to visit the “Tin Soldier”, later renamed “Phoenix Games”? ‘Cuz you just described why it went under to a “T”.
Oh wait. They sold RPG’s, not comics. Heh.
Unfortunately he’s probably describing a few too many comic book stores, opened or run by people who ultimately are introverts looking for a way to get cheap comics and hang out with their friends. I think everyone who has frequented comic book shops have walked into at least one place like that. Fortunately the people who are business people first and fans seconds will still be around a decade later.
Yea, I very much agree with that.
Oddly though, the reverse can happen too. I used to be a regular Laser Quest player. And the facility was awesome. In good part because half the staff were fanatical fans themselves.
Sadly there was a big corruption scandal (involving the non-fan staff and management), which resulted in a big staff turnover. Including most of the enthusiastic staff (mainly as a protest when innocent staff got fired too).
However the atmosphere was never the same. The new staff were strictly business-like. But , for regulars like me and all my friends, we missed the times when staff would pad out the numbers, if there were not a lot of customers.
Let alone the fact that members day was never the same. The old staff would let us design custom games of our own choosing, for example. I created a whole bunch myself, that got put on the permanent list of options. Some that really got the adrenalin pumping!
Including a couple of horror themed ones. “Candyman” being particularly memorable. One immortal player hunting everyone down. The most you could do was delay him, as, if you shot him, that would disable his weapon. Temprarily. You only had limited shots though. So the game design was such that your only survival tactics were to evade and hide.
Success was measured by how long you could keep that up. Collectively and individually.
The game was exhausting when playing as Candyman. And terrifying as one of the victims! Especially as the enthusiast staff would bend the regular rules, on members night. Normally they strictly enforced the “no running” rule. And would always keep the arena well lit.
But come a Candyman session and all but the emergency lighting went down, the smoke generators started pumping and a blind eye was turned, when a victim was running screaming from Candyman! Usually your first warning, that he was near, was a stampeding herd of players running past your hidey hole.
But we never got to use those once the new staff came in. The decline in regular membership happened fast and they went out of business soon after that. Yet when there had been a strong body of fan staff, the place was continually packed out, every evening. And members night was heady stuff.
My own Local shop is sort of in a nice sweet spot- It was originally a Sports Card trading shop (still does some business in that) so the owner (still the original guy, in it for the business) isn’t Fan enough to mess things up, but understands the attraction and business of trading cards. The RPG and miniatures game stuff is a little further from him, though.
Definitely. Where I live there’s a locall company run by someone who knows business and loves comics. He’s got three stores now while a couple of other stores have come and gone as the dingy hole in the wall type places.
I honestly never figured out what asshole!Manager’s problem was, especially since I wasn’t a stranger to him. I’d been to his house. I was friends with his older sister. We watched Firefly together, and I knew most of the people who lurked there to play Magic and Yugioh.
But it was kinda noticeable that there were no women as part of the group, and the one time I took my nephew to play with them (since one of his friends and said friend’s father frequented the shop), the manager and a few of the others were pretty hostile about my presence.
(Also, I’m a she, not a he. :P Maggie is a ladyname.)
Well the one I knew he was extra “creepy” to any women that came in and would letch over them, even to ones that brought their kids in! Got worse when he finally got a GF and then proceeded to loudly discuss his “personal life” to his minions while customers were in the shop, he thought it was funny to weird people out. Small wonder shortly after this he folded and went bankrupt.
I’m fortunate in that my LCBS (also game shop, collectible card shop, and they even have about 4 computers for computer gaming and probably any other “internet cafe” type uses for which they charge by the hour or fraction of an hour) is owned and operated by a married couple. I don’t know if either of them have an interest in gaming. The husband is fairly quiet but not in a stand-offish manner, just quiet. The wife is very sweet and always greets people and seems happy to see repeat customers and newcomers alike.
The place is bright and clean. They have a lot of tables for gaming and an organized system for people to set up regular games and one-off games. Both online and on a bulletin board in the store. The only bad experiences I’ve had there have been due to a distinct lack of hygiene on the part of some of the customers. And that has only been on a couple of occasions when the gaming tables were pretty much all full up. Walking into a store and being greeted by a rank perspiration aroma is not a pleasant experience. Sort of like a gym, but worse.
funny I know of one that was called Tin Soldier, later renamed Phoenix Games who did exactly that. Moved into selling more RPG items and Games Workshop items before he eventually went bust. Certain place in Essex by any chance?
Nope, small-town Mississippi. catchTwentythree went there with me, once. That was when I had to wait fifteen minutes for Asshole Manager to get up and ring me up, because he didn’t wanna put down his game for what was ultimately three minutes.
I miss the old manager, who also owned a LCBS previous to that one. It was in an out-of-the-way, hard to get to place, though, so they didn’t get much business. THAT manager was awesome and incredibly welcoming, with a great memory. After having been in a total of twice, and having chatted with the guy (and a friend who’d wandered into the shop while I was there), then being gone for almost a year due to college, when I went back in, the manager remember my name, my major, the comics I liked, my preferred tabletop RPG, and the graphic novels my NEPHEW liked.
This person sounds so awesome maybe they needed to go away to help save the world and didn’t get the comic shop worked into the deal.
He went away to be a househusband and raise his completely adorable kids, which is totally understandable. I run into him here in town from time to time, and he still remembers my comics.
Dear God! How many shops named Tin Soldier and Phoenix Games are there? We had/ have one in Minneapolis (moved out of to the suburbs after the building owner tried to get the own to pay for 35 thousand plus dollar sidewalk that the city was putting in. Not sure if they were named both at any time, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
Alter Reality Games is just as bad. The guy behind the counter got up from a game to check my trade in cards, offered me $20 for over 200 cards if I tossed in the binder everything was in, and when I didn’t bite, he admitted he was shortchanging me, and his boss would give me more if he ever decided to come in. Also told me they’d sell me what was behind the counter if I’d go online and order it, but he couldn’t even be bothered to turn around and look at the shelf for a customer in store.
And that’s why I killed him, your honor.
Nope. Minneapolis: Lake Street & Bryant Ave, near the Uptown area.
I happens every Tuesday. Many boxes arrive and their content must be unpacked, sorted, couunted, the pulls must be removed & filed for those who reserved them, and then the rest of the order must be shelved.
And that’s exactly what it looked like Joel was doing when Sydney came strolling in late for work this very morning…
:D
You brats are lucky having LCBS .
Back in the day to get your comics you had to go to either a supermarket or convenience store to get them.
Unless you were lucky and had a decent bookstore in your town.
And any comic shops were in a city and off the beaten path, and kinda cramped and dinghy.
Now, GET OFF MY LAWN !
Hell I remember back when we had to try to read comics in the store ’cause we couldn’t afford to buy ’em. That was before them new-fangled plastic bags they started putting on ’em. I had to go to the drugstore to find mine where it smelled of medicine and old ladys.
Ay yup
I used to buy my comics in rolled bundles of five, with the covers torn off, from the local drug store, for a quarter, as a kid.
he should totally just walk out and give some comment suggesting he will need to hire someone.
maybe shameless abuse, but hey, who doesn’t want to get abused, when you get to see a real super hero!! as soon as they see the “possibility” of it, they will be swarming like the media.
also, not first :(
You are so going to jail for saying ‘not first’ with a :( afterwards.
The first inmate for Sydneyjail.
no way this guy will be first
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/119
I thought that guy is going to be the new part-time employee?
no way he annoys both Joel and Sydney to much and is to dumb to think to check eBay
You’re right that sounds nothing like the sort of person they would scrape up for a half shift partial week job when they are suddenly unexpectedly swamped and down a person in a comedy/slice-of-life webcomic. What was I thinking. ^_^’
I would say he would be an “intern” but I think Sydney would prefer to just Inter him, after all it was mentioned that maybe they haven’t found all the other bodies on “the list”.
I can almost (not) see Joel starting to think to himself: “If Sydney’s a cop now, besides the extra publicity for the comic shop, she’s going to have at least the occasional moments of ‘Hazardous Duty.’ I wonder what’s in her will, concerning her share of the store if she’s killed ‘in the line of duty?’
“Hmmm, I think I’ll do some checking to see what I can learn about that. Once I’m sure of what her will reads about that, maybe I can start inciting villains into a contest to see who can take her down first.”
Thus, we become witness to the birthing pangs of the newest Mastermind-type villain to grace Dave’s comic: Diamond Joel !
Actually, the “Survivor’s Rights” should be spelled out in the partnership agreement/corporate documents. Her will is probably something along the lines of “After paying any debts I have, everything I own goes to the first of this list that exists and is alive after my death.
1) my husband, if I am married at the time of my death and he survives me,
2) my children (evenly distributed between them, in trust for each until each is 18 years of age),
3) my parents,
4) some charity.
I don’t believe it’s ever a good idea to list your husband first in your will. That’s an incentive to murder if I ever read it. Make sure the bastard works and has his own dang money!
When the press picked up that “we need to hire” comment, like the jail comment” I’d expect a lot of applications. Without them two actually placing an job advertisement anywhere.
the ones that are already in are recording? i did not consider that.
the note pad (is it still the same name if not on computer?) must have confused me.
there would be no need to make a note, if it was all recorded. unless he wrote something else.
Where do you think the computer version got the name from? o_O
you can never be 100% sure.
its somewhat safe to assume when hearing, but when you are the one to talk you HAVE TO make sure. it well, i have to. English is not my first language.
Understood: always check to be sure, even with something that seems obvious :D
At this point writing stuff onto a note pad is a little anachronistic since you have to type it into a computer later, but I wanted it to be clear what he was doing, and it’s a little bit more vague if he’s just holding a little silver rectangle.
Just make custom tablet cases really popular in their universe and problem solved.
Times Like this has a page that explores a possible alternative.
Talk about subtle massive changes. All but invisible to someone like me! I could only get it by contextualising your comment, and revisiting it.
All I noticed was that the Apple logo changed to something I didn’t recognize. But the name remained the same.
That other logo was their primary rival, when they were both small fish in a big pond. The butterfly effect could well have resulted in their early battles going the other way. In that timeline Apple are no longer the world’s most profitable company. Their rivals are!
So even if the product looks the same, there would be a big big shift in global economics and finance, unseen in the comic.
Doesn’t make much difference if it is recorded or noted. In the evening paper gossip column ther might be “Ever wanted to work for a super hero” article in both cases.
and the random side bar add this morning being for Victoria’s secret panty party, I have to wonder if LCBS have gotten naughtier lately ;)
Um. You realize a lot of those ads are targeted, right? I’m guessing you probably shop at Victoria’s Secret…
Mmm. I think I will pass. Cuba at least has a nice climate and ocean views. Dread to think where the new place might be!
And hey, dumb programmers, I said “I looked like a terrorist”. At least target the right key phrases with your honey-traps!
They’ll never catch me! All my stuff is super-encrypted.
Here’s a sample:
next time they will use kibble and pedigree chum traps :)
:-P
Scooby snax and chocolate, or the deal is off!
But chocolate will kill you!
Not in moderation. But your point is well made. It is far more deadly for dogs than humans.
But, if a friend got chocolate, on her bum, I would make a noble sacrifice and lick it off!
that’s a myth, chocolate only gives dogs a severe case of diarrhea. they will live through it though you will need to keep them hydrated and refill their water bowl regularly till it passes. i should know, i gave my dog a chocolate bar once. i didn’t do it again because he mess was torture to me as well as the dog. dog is dead now but that’s due to old age..he was almost 15 years old.
Sorry I must stop your misinformation very clearly here.
CHOCOLATE CAN BE FATAL FOR DOGS
That should not be read as shouting, or trying to be rude. It is simply an important safety announcement.
Please refer to this useful guide. Which includes a handy chocolate toxicity metre and advice.
The article does not do a good job of highlighting the lethality issue though. Burying it in one line near the end, as it does. So I add emphasis in the following quote:
Believe the imperative word there is CAN, not WILL
Just so. It shows how a big dog might survive eating a bar of chocolate. Sheer luck!
That I recall, chocolate is just as bad for people as it is for dogs.
Some dogs however are at a distinct disadvantage in the equation.
10 lb dog and 7 oz chocolate bar -> 0.7 oz/lb
Others, not so much
260 lb dog and 7 oz chocolate bar -> 0.03 oz/lb
Being a long time dog owner and lover of our canine friends, please don’t see into this “its a myth” or “urban legend” crap, its a fact. Plan and simple, it poisons the dog, their system isn’t designed to process Theobromine. See the wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobromine_poisoning
The stimulants in chocolate stay in the body a long time. In severe cases, symptoms can last up to 72 hours. Early treatment will help your dog recover quicker.
I have known an owner of a Pug who sneaked ONE M&M, which killed the poor thing.
I’m guessing (and probably right) that the reactions can vary much like humans and bee-stings (which is a poison). My shep mix never showed any signs of toxicity when I gave him a square or two of my chocolate bare nor when he got a chocolate chip cookie. Of course he weighed 60 lbs and I never gave him much. He was also a big fan of Pizza. Again never saw any problems but then I didn’t know back then either.
Yes indeed. It sounds like that pug had either a very low tolerance to the poison, or was allergic to it. Both of which are forms of what you are suggesting.
I very carefully introduced my Jack Russell to the small amount of chocolate I had researched that she could handle, at her weight (10kg). Starting with tiny amounts, and gradually increasing the dosage. Always keeping in mind that it would take 72 hours to metabolise the poison.
This is not something I did lightly. Trouble is Buffy is my constant companion. We are together 24 hours a day. You are fairly safe assuming that anytime I am typing a comment here, she is on my lap. And the trouble is I am a chocoholic.
So it tormented her seeing, and smelling, me eating chocolate, every day. She would try to lick out the empty wrappers. So I researched how much she could handle. But treated it like it is. A poison. Hence the gradual increase in dosage. And ensuring that I had a means to quickly get her to the vets if she had a bad reaction.
Plus I ask the vets to check her out carefully, anytime we go. Keeping them fully in the loop as to her diet, to ensure there are no complications. Making sure that it is not giving her tooth decay, for instance.
And I would never assume that even another Jack Russell, of her size, would be able to handle the same amount. Should we adopt a Jack Russell puppy (Buffy had a hysterectomy last year), I would have to very carefully go through the same process.
But only once it was old enough, and big enough, to have a chance of surviving the poisoning!
Not sure what they give you in the Hound Pound stateside, before you go off down the long walk.
Sometimes the ads miss their targets. I get mostly ads for shops selling sports gear. Once I read about pole arms and what advertisement did I get afterwards? A shop selling pole dance equipment.
Gotcha. Pole dancers yes, poles no.
Hey maybe, next time, you will get a Pole, who pole dances?
Now google cleaning stuff and you get a Pole selling dancing pole polish
And then start looking at vacations in Poland. Might get a Pole cleaning, Pole dancing Pole.
I keep getting Spanish-language adverts, despite not speaking a lick of Spanish- I think because one of the blogs I occasionally view is a Spanish-language one?
You’re not just pol-ing my leg, are you?
Let’s find out by conducting a poll.
Who would you ask? No-one lives at the poles…
Has something happened, to you, to change your polearity?
How dare you, sir!
*reaches for his pole-axe*
Does this mean we’re in for some pole-sating action?
No chance!
*slips on polka dot camouflage outfit and hides in a polka dot themed polka dancing club*
EVERYBODY POLE-KA! – Laurence Welk on a bad trip.
Wierd AL refuses to join in on grounds HALO is to weird and crazy for him
Your comment doesn’t seem to indicate that you have any Pole-ish in you…
no just to pole-lite to make a joke in that serious situation.
I would not let pole-itical correctness get in the way. As such I have no fear of mentioning the antipole!
I do remember the odd “Swimsuit” edition or pinup comics done by authorized artists. They would vary in levels of naughtiness from hoo-hum to holy-crap.
Yeah, got a few of the old Marvel Swimsuit editions
Sydney Jail, Where you go if you annoy, but make itt on “The List”
You lost this? /hands Merf a ‘not’
Your comments at the bottom of each page are quickly becoming one of my favorite things about this comic. As much as I love your comic, I haven’t commented before, but after your delightful tangent about “destroyed” existing on a spectrum, I just couldnt help myself, bravo sir.
What? It’s just a smaller scale in comparison with something Superman told Joker once. Supes & Joker had to team up to save the universe, but while on the way to the crisis-du-jour, Joker asked Superman why they don’t just forget the whole thing & go back home. Superman replied, “It’s one of those unwritten laws about saving the universe. If you fail, there’s no home to go back to.” Joker answered, “Good point.”
Welcome. Allow us to tempt you to paddle in the user comments area more, now that you have dipped your toe in. It can be fun splashing around in here.
…Although most weeks, there’s enough “water” here for a high-level risk of drowning…
*grabs you and drags you into the abyss* WELCOME!! Now you’ll never be able to leave! MUA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
Seriously, welcome to the asylum.
“you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave…”
Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door. I had to find the passage back To the place I was before
Y’all should turn that into a song.
“I’m stuck here on the inside looking out.
I’m just another case.”
I think “Hotel California” is one of the most genuinely creepy songs I’ve ever heard because of its lyrics. It always sounds like the introduction to a horror movie, one featuring faceless murders and chainsaws.
And here I thought it was about drug addiction.
I find Alice Coopers “From The Inside” far more creepy (along with Alice himself) mainly because of the lyrics.
But I believe a new contender has arrived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0u4M6vppCI
Um, so I guess it would disturb you to know that I just clicked the ‘favourite’ button?
Mind you, what is more disturbing, is that my alarm system is giving me a beeping warning, for no apparent reason…
But, when you live in a big creepy place,* near Transylvania, you learn not to be too bothered about such odd things.
I found it odd that Wikipedia had no disambiguity page, but only the one entry for this Shia LaBeouf. It made me wonder why he would not object to such a song, using his name?
Until I heard the clapping, and returned to see what it signified in the video.
* Actually, it is a lovely place. In the daytime. When the wind is not howling, the rain is not driving down, and the full moon is not illuminating wolves, prowling around the garden.
The clapping is a tribute or parody (you decide) of a similar scene in Citizen Kane.
Where life is beautiful all the time
And You’ll be happy to see those nice young men
In their clean white coats
And they’re coming to take You away, ho ho hee hee ha haaa!!
My theme music.
“Well you just wait they’ll find you yet and when they do they’ll put you in the ASPCA you mangy mutt!”
No! Don’t take Yorp away from us!
“They’d have to find me first!”
Thanks! They’re fun cause I don’t get a lot of time to talk comics these days except for here on the page.
So basically Sydney is going to start being a cop. I wonder how Ariana will react when Sydney tells hwr the new business her powers have brought the shop
The sudden surge in popularity would be fully expected, but I reckon Ariana would be pleased hearing of Sydney’s “business strategy” with the reporters
Darn the lack of an edit button. I was also going to say that had they not been attacked at dinner Ariana might’ve given Sydney some tips on how she should behave around the inevitable onslaught of reporters.
except she got the reporter in there by herself?
unless someone can prove the timing to be reactionary, i am pretty sure she expected that to happen and got someone an standby and ready. and then she had a brawl with that someone.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1386
this should be the first page they appear.
NOOOOO! Don’t leave her there alone now! She’s had a taste of power! By the time you get back the strain of dealing with customers and reporters alike will drive her to her Start of Darkness, and Archon will have to try to STOP her!!
Nah she’s smarter than that. But she might put up the Force field to keep out the riff and the raff.
Welcome to the Dark Side………We Haz Coookies!
And BACONS.
mmm Bacon. Regular or Kevin?
Thick cut, thin cut, smoked, honey cured, maple cured, and lots more.
Poor kevin. What an awful way to die. You monster.
But so delicious.
Hey that’s why I have a MASSIVE cloning factory.
I’ll give Sydney a maximum of 3 minutes doing actual work before she gets bored and starts looking for something else ‘more interesting’ to do.
1) She will pull out her phone and remember that there is a live broadcast going on right outside her door.
2) This will result in her activating the telepresence orb and sending out her hologram to either
a) wave hello to the audience at home, with possibly a shout-out to her parents
b) suddenly appear behind the reporter and do a surprise ‘Badger!’ sneak attack
I’ve been to pose a question on here, as I don’t think it has been addressed in the comic yet, nor on the forums:
Is Sydney the only person who can use the powers of her spheres? Are they keyed to her specifically, or could someone else on the team hold the PPO and use it while Sydney used the Lighthook?
If so, is there still a “two-hand/orb” limit, or could 6 other people and Sydney use one orb each all at the same time?
As far as has been shown, Sydney is the only one able to use her balls.
At least until DaveB says otherwise.
we haven’t seen anyone unable to…
Exactly! ^^
It’s not like Zephan or Dabbler actually held them.
They were shown doing scans and stuff, but no one aside from Sydney has wielded them.
Is everyone in the comic a big believer in personal space? Or are they afraid what Sydney will do if they try and touch her orbs?
Actually, I’d be more afraid of what Sydney’s balls would do (regardless of Sydney herself) if I tried to touch them…
Yes they seem tied to her by preference. Max could not move them away from Sydney and they won’t allow Sydney to leave them behind.
I’m disappointed that you missed the blatantly obvious double-entendre (touching Sydney’s balls) that I intentionally left open for exploitation.
:P
Everything about Sydney and her spheres could be a double entendre.
…Which has already been frequently exploited by numerous commenters here, for our continuing enjoyment.
:D
like just now, we are talking about someone grabbing Sydney’s balls…
Someone mentioned Dabbler grabbing Sydney’s balls? *ears perk up*
Sorry my experience with set-up humor is usually as a straight man. My own is a little weird and less sexually based.
Not all of my humor is sexually-based, but it’s the kind of humor I enjoy most.
:)
I just thought it was a given rule in the US that touching someone else’s balls in a public place got you in hot water, especially if you are a Celeb :)
Yeah,even being a TSA agent in the airports doesn’t give you any real immunity to that either…At least, not any more.
Firstly they are polite, so will not be grabbing anybody’s orbs without permission.
Secondly Maxima knows that Sydney has issues with the fear of the Government attempting to separate her balls from her.* Especially, knowing they would fail at that, then fearing the inevitable poking and prodding, in some shadowy facility, which would follow.
We did not get to hear Maximas orders to Peggy, other than “I have a mission for you” (paraphrased, from memory). But part of those orders may well have been “do not attempt to touch Sydney’s orbs. She has issues about the possibility that we might try to take them away from her Plus, we have not tested them, so do not accept, even if offered.”
Maxima is well aware that it must be established whether the orbs will allow anyone else to use them. If they can be utilised by anyone, then they are a far greater danger than a policeman’s side arm, when close to villains!
I agree with the various replies so far which think that it is unlikely they can be used. The presence of the very strong safety measures to prevent them being separated, along with the ‘safety catch’ whereby the PPO cannot be used easily, imply that they will have robust safety features all round.
However, Maxima (and Sydney) will want to test that in due course.
The ideal possibility being that there may be a mechanism whereby Halo can designate somebody as being friendly and allowed to use them. Presumably only whilst in close proximity to Halo. I doubt that such a feature exists, but such needs to be explored too. In due course.
* She is not the only one who has fears like this!
Math’s been the only one to touch one of Sydney’s orbs, and that was only to nudge its flight path, not to use it. However, it was also an “unknown” that he touched, so…
do you remember the “palm of the hand” only?
also, he never intended t use them.
You’re right – I’d forgotten that point!
Math only touched one of Sydney’s orbs to draw her attention to it…So that he could nudge her leg into the flight path of a different orb. He didn’t nudge the orb into her knee, he nudged her knee into the orb.
As I recall, both Math & a “shadowy” villain have been -hit- by an Orb (which still counts as a “touch”, I suppose), but the only thing Math has -nudged- was Sydney’s leg, so that she whacked herself on the leg as an Orb spun past.
Reference_Pages:
120 = Math gets hit
206 = “Shadow Guy” gets hit
133 = Math both touches an Orb & nudges a leg
66-67 = Max almost touches an Orb, but gets no further than the tube itself.
Also,
104 = Dabbler takes one on her noggin.
D’OH!!!?!
:p
Totally forgot that one – Good Save, Dude!
Sydney has hit a few people with her orbs and it has had no ill effects on them (apart from the impact of a fast moving solid object.) with that in mind i would say they are safe to touch by random people (they would be to dangus to have out otherwise)
as for the 2 orb limit i think after looking at the orbs skill tree that the center shows that eventually she will be able to use them all at the same time
as for others using the orbs my understanding is that they are thought activated and they can only read Sydney ‘mind’ becose they are tied to her.
that being said i see sydney and achills testing a few things out over the next few mounths (Sydney time not rl) after sydneys fears calm down a bit
‘Being touched by’ and ‘attempting to control’ are different enough (when dealing with highly advanced technomagic such as the orbs), that I would be wary of making the assumption you have, in your first paragraph. The safest person to check it out would indeed be Achilles, as you say.
However, I suspect that the orbs either have deterrent defences (such as mild shocks) or simply would not work for anyone other than their accepted owner. And Halo very much looks to be that.
Folks often suggest that the two orb limit could be lifted. Whilst I encourage them to speculate on anything, I do point out that is actually unlikely. The writing opportunities are far better with the limit than without. Halo would find little that challenged her, and would rarely ever have to make tough choices, or find a clever way out of situations.
That centre option though, yea, that is interesting to speculate on. Whatever it is, I bet it is awesome!
Thematically it might be a limited god-mode. Say projecting a (short duration) gigantic shielded image of Sydney, who can fly and shoot laser beans from her eyes. Plus a couple of other mystery powers, which she would have had to have mastered already to unlock the giant form.
* giant Sydney rides off, into the sunset, riding on her conjured pony, with a horde of summoned angels singing “Hallelujah” *
One point against this is the fact that Sydney has ‘mind control’ over the orbs. So it makes sense that they would be keyed to her alone.
“mind control”
actually… is it her directly controlling her balls with some sort of conditioned telekinesis they grant, or they reacting to her will?
either way its difficult to call it “mind control” (since they are items), if they to have no mind of their own to control. Although they are capable of moving on their own like seen there (https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1159), that was programmed movement.
Good point, I should have said ‘mental control’. She has telekinesis over them, but in addition there is a telepathic aspect to their use. For example, doing this with the Lighthook needs more than just physical actions.
You saying Sydney is ‘mental’? o_O
No! Absolutely not!
In fact, I’ll express how totally balanced she is by way of a word puzzle:
LOONY
OBMFO
CRAZY
OADPO
STUNC
Yea, this has not been tested yet. I imagine it will when Dabbler starts to some real research
When it comes to choosing researchers for mysterious balls, Dabbler is the most enthusiastic of them all…
Only Sydney has the balls to handle her orbs.
This comes up occasionally in the comments and everybody figures its something Dave is saving for the sweet testing and training arcs we are about to receive (may we be truly thankful). Since he reads the comments some I think its a strong possibility that it will go down then unless some story element absolutely demands its presence later on. :(
I am in the, “Only Sydney can use them” camp but I think the attempts to grapple them will make for wonderful snarky super trash talk starting with the basic, “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY BALLS!” and moving up in innuendo from there.
For as long as I spent introducing Sydney and her orbs in book 1, there’s still plenty left to learn about them.
Oooh, cryptic!
I think the fact that most of the skill tree is blank, has given us a good hint as to that. Plus the more subtle stuff, such as hints that the origin story is not quite as simple as portrayed.
I am thinking they are from a videogame in another dimension
So when she presses the correct glyph on the yellow one it will suddenly form a mouth and start going waka waka waka waka?
I wonder when Player 2 will join the action?
Today the comic was juxtaposed with an add for Girl Genius and I couldn’t help notice Sydney had a striking resemblance to watsername the Girl Genius – but with a little less bust. I wonder if they are distant cousins or long-lost sisters…
Cousins 4 dimensions removed.
+1
so, does giving a +1 make you Neutronbod?
No, it’d mean putting on too much weight ;-)
I think you mean Neutrinobod. Actually, now you would have to loose too much mass.
Sydney may well cos play as Agatha, Girl Genius, if you look at the final frame, from the previous comic. Further she could have chosen her current glasses with such in mind. And such a choice can highlight any similarities.
So the appearance (and subliminal memory, heightening that, from the previous page) may not be co-incidental.
Agatha Hetrodyne
Yes and no my friends, when it comes to the destruction of the world the answer is once, but its also not once. How can this be you ask? Causality, For every action their are two separate paths of reaction. This means that you have a path in which the world is not destroyed and a second path in which it is destroyed and the survivors of its destruction go on. So for each time the world is in danger of being destroyed it is saved and it is also destroyed at the same time. The real question is how many times has the world been destroyed and how many times has the world been saved, this is a question however with a varied curve. The first time it is saved it is also destroyed, the second time it is saved it is also destroyed, but the first time it was saved in the second time it is destroyed. So in that instance it would have been saved once, however that opens up the next path in which it was saved twice before being destroyed on the third attempt. This path diverts into an infinite road with multiple exits going on for an infinite existence beyond understanding, so the world is never saved, but at the same time always saved and the probability curve becomes unending.
to make it short
if you look at the timeline as an actual line, that is linear, there is only so much destruction that can be done.
but when you consider “the sea of endless possibilities” then the number of times it has been “destroyed” is, well, ENDLESS!
The “many-worlds” interpretation is still controversial among physicists. Me, it leaves me needing some novocaine (for my soul).
…And therein lays the concept of “multiverse,” with the (Marvel) What If’s & the basis for pretty much all fanfic everywhere. DC used to have an entire multiverse that they could utilize, but with the Crisis on Infinite Earths series, they pretty much did away with all of that potential…the fools.
And then you have to consider that we are in a world where it was destroyed, at least once. The moon used to be a part of the Earth. Some vacationing supers, from a more hospitable planet, could have had a very bad day, when that event occurred.
And then there is that bad day when the dinosaur heroes failed to catch the big projectile heading their way. I am pretty sure that any who survived the initial blast will have considered it the end of days. Which it was. For most of their species.
Other than Nessie and the proto-bird dinosaurs.
you forgot the ice age.
Which one?
+1
Although, “Snowball Earth” would qualify.
Trouble is that, normally, the changes associated with climate shift are gradual enough that even those living through them will not notice a huge difference. Their lifespans were short enough that the weather their parents experienced would not be much different to theirs. Not if talking globally, anyhow.
Ours will be the first generation to experience that. Ever.
Assuming that the dinosaurs were wiped out thanks to the impact, and fallout from that, as opposed to just climate shift. Which seems likely.
Mind you, there would be pockets where the weather changed dramatically, in a short period. Which might have felt like the end of the world, to those going through it. But elsewhere in the world, life would continue unchanged.
And that need not occur just in Ice Ages. Ancient Egypt got wiped out by changing weather patterns. They were reliant on the flooding of the Nile irrigating their crops. Go a few years without that, and their civilisation collapsed.
But, even then there were survivors. They just migrated to safer areas. So, nope, such do not count as an apocalypse. But we do need to know the plural, for that word, none the less.
And humanity has come close. We know, from the gene pool, that you have had at least one close squeak in your evolutionary history.
By fallout, I should clarify that I was using that for its every-day usage of “consequences”. Which would have included changed weather globally. But that is distinct from the gradual shift we get into and out of ice ages.
Of course, the secondary meaning of fallout does also apply, so I enjoyed the play on that. However I would not want people to think I was saying the dinosaurs were only killed by debris from the blast (and/or directly from the ash cloud).
The knock-on effects, such as the nuclear-winter, and impact on breeding rates and so on, are complex issues. But, whichever mechanisms were most to blame, the impact is the obvious root cause of the dinosaur apocalypse.
when we say “end of the world” it may be:
as big as the universe
as small as “my little world”
as generic as the planet
or even “the world as we know it”
because this is internet and we have to constantly correct each other.
There have been several major extinction events one of which most of Siberia became a volcano.
Oh yea. Five of which (if I remember the number correctly) were big enough to define geological boundaries in sedimentary deposits. The rock above being visibly different to the rock below, simply due to the changes in life forms being laid down. In areas where such deposits are made, anyhow.
All those happened gradually though, over a long long period. As such things usually do when speaking in geological terms.
The exception though, as with the climate point above, is when talking about today. Geologists have concluded that we are altering the sediments, which are currently being laid down, in just the same manner. Due to the mass-extinction, we have been causing, around the globe.
They have even coined a new term to describe the age. I seem to recall that it translates as ‘the age of man,’ or something similar to that.
Just think, we were born in a one geological age, yet will die in another. Quite a rare distinction, that few lifeforms have managed to achieve, on this planet!
Yeah, “Anthropocene”. In the future, it’ll be marked by the layer of plastic 8-(
This time will be known by future archeologists as “the Plastic age”. Until some organism learns to metabolize plastic we will be depositing layers of plastic much like the Iridium layers of the Chicxulube event.
Yea, true.
Cockroach scientists might not uncover our nomenclature. And they will have a lot of argument about whether natural climate variability wiped out the human race. Or some genetic organism. Or a big comet, with some undiscovered impact crater. Or a super-volcano. Or the AI overlords. Or their alien allies.
But that plastic will still be there, regardless. So will be a defining characteristic, which marked the transition.
If they can do basic chemistry they will know what plastic is made of and how. It wouldn’t take much interpolation to guess what our main energy source was.
Oh, I am sure there is plenty of scope for argument. Given how much our own scientists/ palaeontologists dispute such issues. For example just because a product can be used in more than one way, there is nothing to say that it will. Even if it can be used to provide an obvious alternative use.
For instance at least one the South American cultures did have the wheel. But only used it for toys. They never did translate it into being a means of transportation. Despite having vast cities, which could have benefited from it.
Ok the terrain outside of the cities would have been more of a challenge, than elsewhere in the world. But they were relatively sophisticated engineers, so could have overcome the difficulties, if they chose to.
And a lot of the directly supporting evidence will have been lost, with the passage of time. I imagine it would take a lot longer for cockroaches to evolve to the degree humans have.
At least us mammals had evolved to shrew-like critters, at the time of the dinosaurs. So had quite a head-start on the brain development side of things.
Starting of course with the senior sense. Yup, we all initially evolved big brains to sniff things better. Humans just devolved those parts of their brains, in comparison to how developed they used to be, proportionate to the total brain mass.
And there exists a universe somewhere in which I did not reply to this line of thought with a random comment about aardvarks.
And there exists a universe somewhere in which Dave B. does not write web comics. The Horror! The Horror!
*shudders*
I bet that is the one with no shrimp! 7thsealord must have mixed feelings about that one. Less seafood for him to object to. But no Grrl Power fix!
yeah of all people joel should KNOW that she needs LOTS of training…they better hire someone for real.
possibly not a fan of sydney that would end up badly…
but yeah sydney is going to need someone to “edit” what she says in front of the press hehe
P.S.:
will the shop survive with her alone…not sure…
as a co owner of the shop i doubt its her first time running the place solo. if nothing else i bet joel has had a few sick days
yeah BUT before she wouldn’t show the orbs in public, no one knew about her powers.
AND, last but not least, no crazy reporters hounding her.
that changes a bit the cards i think.
I doubt that is the first time that Joel left her alone.
She just needs to repurpose some storage room as prison cells for noisy reporters and everything is fine.
yeah BUT before she wouldn’t show the orbs in public, no one knew about her powers.
AND, last but not least, no crazy reporters hounding her.
that changes a bit the cards i think.
If Kevin Smith can do it…
Which one?
The one who knows Kevin Bacon?
i thought people only think he knows Kevin Bacon
Well, there is a live one and a dead one, and possibly a sporting one
300 out of 2nd.
1100 from 1st.
Your slacking ppl.
I… don’t know what that means. I has a sleepy.
i think he means the votes
https://topwebcomics.com/
Ah. Thank you. Out of context that made NO sense to me presomnia.
Well it was Votes or Sacrifices to the Elder Gods. Meh either way I’m game.
~120 from the first place at the moment!
keep on the good work everyone!
Something appears to be wrong with the site. All I am getting is Time-Warner Cable’s 404 page.
I think we broke it…
Found their announcement. They have both Twitter and Facebook. Although, not being signed up to either, I can only get whatever googling picks up. Their notice (dated 17 March at 11:04, on Facebook) reads:
Ooh, free, that is in my price bracket. But… why would I want to buy a ticket? That would mean going away from warder Sydney?
*puzzled look*
because you’ll be stuck there with the “COMIX” guy?… and except for the movies, how many times does a real prisoner get to see the Warden? probably NEVER, except for those rare times that they feel like wandering the chow hall balcony inspecting his domain, thus you’ll probably never get to see Sydney anyways…
Unless you offer to do their taxes and such.
like i said, in the MOVIES…
Why do I have a feeling at least one of the other supers is gonna get involved in this somehow…
Ohh man a really bad plot line just popped in my head when I read your comment. Harem meets Joal and decides to get more info on Sydney from him in the easiest (and most annoying for Sydney) way possible.
IF you mean what I think you mean, that’s more a job for Dabbler
Harem has more of a logical reason than Dabbler would to “pump” Joel for info on Sydney:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/797
Let’s also not forget.https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/402
Am I the only one who thinks Harem is more oversexed than Dabbler? At least when she’s running five bodies?
Dabbler is a literal sex demon
Ok, rather than “oversexed”, we will mark that one down as:
“Just enough sex”
Dave’s livestream of him drawing shows that you’ll see what happens when Harem meets Joel. (only had drawings no text)
The management would like to thank Will Smith for his cameo appearance today as Agent J in disguise as ‘Snarky Reporter’, who was given the MIB mission of keeping an eye on Sydney.
It seems to me that if working for ARC is not supposed to make her lose her job, it would not be unreasonable to expect them to make some accommodations for the needs of that job. Asking to not be scheduled for things on one day a week should not be a big deal.
Of course, she also signed a 15 page contract without reading it, so lord knows what she agreed to do.
There’s secret fine print in the contract you can only read with xray vision.
Regardless of the claim (on the sign in the locker room) that no one in Archon actually HAS x-ray vision…At least not yet…That anyone is willing to admit having…
As Arianna already explained, the contract was setup by HER LAWYER. Whose job it is to guide them through the legal mumbo jumbo.
It’s not a ‘we’re going to screw you over’ contract, it’s just a ‘we need to legally arrange alot of stuf’ contract
Now I kind of want to know what’s in there. I’m sure there’s standard merchandising stuff like was said but, there’s probably tons of liability stuff, which banch of government she reports to, military law, a bunch of stuff that only applies to supers, LICENCE TO KILL! Tons of stuff. Sydney should probably read it. It would make Arianna’s job easier.
It doesnt have to be illegal to screw you over you know. And it doesnt have to be a horror show of a contract either, there is plenty of opportunities for stuff she wont much like to be included that has to be there. Hell, even something as minor as having to convey herself appropriately in public may be a huge barrier for sydney to pull off.
Seriously doubt that ‘having to convey herself appropriately in public’ would last long, even after years of training, Sydney is still Sydney
I think Arianna takes too much pride in her skill as a lawyer to screw over decent folk. Now if you’re a bad guy or an Evil Corp…..she’s gonna go for your throat!
she finds the pocket book a much more appealing target and easier to make the villain hurt, she also enjoys it more.
I said coffee with two sugars not one! JAIL! What do you mean too short to ride?! JAIL! Picard was the ultimate captain! JAIL!!!!
Sydney would quickly give up Sydney jail as soon as she realized that imprisoned game-masters have WAAAAAAAY too much time to plan vindictive scenarios.
Oh brother, these reporters. . . Not a Peter Mansbridge amongst them.
Come on folks, when you have finished examining the above comic, and the comments, why not check out the hidden detail you have missed for over eight months? And every time you re-read the comic through that page too.
It is only a minor detail. But it is fun. See if you can spot it!
If it requires some kind of advanced referencial knowledge I’m sure its unlikely I will get it.
It is nothing external to this comic. Any regular reader has a chance to spot it. But the regular commentators will have the best edge.
OK so that thing flying at Dabler isn’t Pajarro Pete then.
If you are referring to the … whatever… that is in front of the bottom of the building? Mmm. That does not look very masked penguin-like to me.
I just took it as a bit of building rubble myself. But, zooming right in, it could be a running doggy, frantically hunting for his nice lady walker!
You might have spotted a second Easter Egg!
You can check out my (hidden) comments, on that page though, for the Grand Reveal, as to what I had spotted.
Yeah I think it was more of a case of seeing patterns when looking too hard. :D
Careful. If you stare at sometime long enough, you can start seeing patterns that don’t exist.
We may end up calling you John Nash, from A Beautiful Mind.
I would need to compare you to one of the sottle characters, from Girl Genius.
This comment and the previous one don’t actually state what you are claiming to see. In order to actually claim that sort of record, you actually have to state it so it can be verified / falsified. At a minimum, you risk someone else stating it first and claiming it if you keep being coy about what it is.
It is because I do not want to spoil folks fun. And it does not bother me if somebody else details it first. I have already had my thrill. I am quite happy to share that around.
And, once they do spot it, then we can have fun talking about the implications too.
With all the build-up you’re giving, it better be something amazing, like Joel secretly being FWTDT or something.
Though that would be pretty fun.
I think I know who would go to Joel’s Jail.
I think the first class Sydney takes had better be one taught by Arianna called “What to say and NOT to say in front of the media”. It’s harder than it sounds. Having been the international media spokesperson for an organization for over a decade, it can make you crazy, watching EXACTLY what you say, when you say it, and to whom — and when it isn’t what you say, but what you don’t say and how you don’t say it that can get you in trouble.
Mmm. Ok, note to self, tone down the Cthulhu worshipper jokes. Those might get misinterpreted.
Yes, we don’t want to put off any future potential Victims…err I mean converts.
“Converts”…?
:P
…Is that what we’re calling the “Snacks”, now…?
That’s what we allow you minions to call them.
The rest of us call them “Appetisers”
Oh I didn’t know you were in the lieutenant catagory .
And “Frag the Lieut” gets a whole new meaning. Pre-minced meat.
Those who don’t make it up the ladder, yes.
Problem with that, the way all media twists what is said, the only way to prevent that is by removing Sydney’s voice
I’m imagining a Con Air scenario with Sydney jail inmates, it doesn’t have the same umph.
Y’know, I appreciate that Joel is being sensible and down-to-Earth and stuff… there’s always gotta be a straight man, especially to balance someone like Sydney, but… it seems like he’s taking it a little far. I mean, she’s a superhero. He doesn’t have to treat it like a big deal if he doesn’t want to, but he could at least pretend to be slightly impressed.
If I were Sydney I think my feelings would be a little hurt. Here I am with superpowers, and living a dream come true, and fulfilling an actual important career with lives on the line, and becoming a genuine celebrity known around the world after surviving a cataclysmic confrontation which very well could have killed me dead, and possibly facing a lifetime of such dangerous scenarios in my new role as an adventurer in service of my country… and his response is “Whatever. Just be at work on time, okay?”
Not to mention she just increased the shop’s visibility a thousandfold and made them a dump truck full of money. You’d think that that, at least, would earn more than a shrug. Does this guy have a heart condition or something? How about a hug, or a handshake, or a pat on the back? Well, maybe he’s saving it for later. I hope so. As it is, that emotionless zombie stare of his is getting kind of unnerving. The Hell does it take for this guy to emote beyond his eyebrows?
He’s still processing. His default response to Sydney has long since evolved into muted resignation. He’ll come around, though I’ll admit people have had pretty sedate reactions to her powers so far (outside of the team of course, to whom powers are normal.) I can mostly blame that on my desire to move each page forward with a certain amount of dialog and not spend half of it on “wow, cool!” Now that I think more about it though, revealing your “secret identity” to friends and family is definitely one of the better moments of the genre. I’ll need to address that with Joel before too long.
Ooh! I wonder how he will break it to her?
“Sydney, ahem… ahh…. I don’t know how to tell this to you. You know how you were having to keep this secret from me for so long? Well, there is something I have been meaning to tell you about myself. You see it all started several years ago….”
I’m glad to see I wasn’t the only one who wishfully read it that way.
Started several years ago? I would have thought the hormone therapy and other changes would have been more pronounced in Joel by now?
I’m actually surprised that Joel is taking it so well.
He’s a comic book fan, so presumably at some level he thinks it would be pretty nifty have super powers. Then his friend and business partner quite literally won the superpower lottery, shot to national fame, and immediately after announced that while she’d still come in to work on occasion, she was largely abandoning him to live out their mutual dream.
At a certain level, one imagines that it’d be human to feel that this was, at best, unfair.
Unfair? Shoot, if I were him, I’d be thanking my lucky stars that she’s still coming into work at ALL, and skyrocketing the prominence of the store to boot! He’s made a load of cash and one of his employees is now one of the most famous people on Earth!
Anyway, I don’t think Joel seems like the type to seriously want a career in super-heroics. Oh, on some level, sure, he’d naturally have those fantasies, but he sounds far too grounded in reality to be honestly jealous of someone he knows actually falling into such a career. Frankly, as a geek, he should be embracing his good fortune in having a super-hero’s origin igniting in his immediate proximity!
Out of Sydney’s personal life; Joel is the only reaction that we have seen. Sydney’s parents’ reaction happened between pages and we only saw Sydney’s side of the end of that phone call. In theory there could have been 10 minutes of “holy space llama emperor” type of reaction from either parent.
Unfortunately since only Joel out of Sydney’s friends/family had been introduced prior to the press conference* it removes some of the impact from her coming out to them. From a reader’s perspective there wouldn’t be too much difference between a random civilian and Sydney’s best friend.
*Ms Boonliang was shown prior to the press conference but she already thought Sydney was a freak, super powers probably wouldn’t surprise her.
What’s with the weird broken Javascript above the comic? Did someone try to inject malicious code? Or is the site just broken? It reads:
**edited out by admin** <-- it's poorly implemented malware - DaveB
The semi-obfuscated code could mean it is intended to be unreadable, to make it harder to detect it as malware.
Sydney send the end-script tag to Sydney jail. Hence the e-js-ulation.
Yes, probable code injection attempt, but definitely malware. Dave B is, in general, aware of this because it has happened multiple times before.
Forgot to add: it is not a good idea to copy it exactly to the comments because it might accidentally result in executable script.
For some reason the bottom line text, the stuff quipped in that tiny font…made me laugh like Harem did when her pale blond, white-shirted self was laughing in this comic: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/572 and/or in this comic: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/589
Except I wasn’t in the bathroom–I was at my computer in my office–and nobody lost a cellphone down the can. I just, y’know, laughed hard and snorted a bit. >.>* (I did startle the cat, but she’s not allowed to have a cellphone until she stops fighting with the other cats in the house, i.e. never.)
That was Blondini
That second-to-last panel made me laugh out loud!
If Peter Parker’s true calling was photojournalism…
given the superhero density in New York, you would not know any difference. Still, he is the cause of some of his enemies, isn’t he? ;-)
Wait, if today is new comic day then why was she going through a full box of pulls yesterday?
You mean, getting someone’s order that they hadn’t picked up yet? Not everyone goes in on Delivery day
Yeah but those were a lot of orders, if that was just the few people who wait almost a week they wouldn’t be suffering for business.
I just love the range of sheepish expressions Sydney goes through, in the first three panels. Complete with appropriate body language. Very true to life.
The middle one being my favourite, but it is built up very nicely by the tentative pose and hesitant appearance in the first panel.
Sydney sure does not hide her emotions away.
This may have already come up in one of the several zillion other comments already posted – but isn’t it a significant tactical liability to let the public know where you live and where you work, if you have superpowers, or more to wit, if you have a job that includes as an occupational hazard the tendency to gain super-powered enemies?
“Wow, that Superman’s like just about invincible!!! I can’t do ANYTHING to stop him!!
…. hmm…. hey, his house isn’t invincible! Quite flammable, as it turns out!”
It has cropped up a few times. And you do make a good case. But there are solid reasons why DaveB has gone this route. Mainly based on the fact that this is set in the real world. Modern Western society is not keen on the idea of secret police.
Compound that with the mistrust that humanity feels towards anyone who is different and you would be creating an organisation which would be viewed with extreme suspicion and distrust by the public.
Just look at the fuss we kick up at NSA and GCHQ intrusion into our communications. Then at the rioting and protests against police abuse (and just perceived abuse, in some cases).
Masked police, on the streets, would not go down well.
Sure, SWAT uniforms do have masks, but those are more for protection purposes, rather than concealment. There are instances where we do tolerate concealed identities. Such as police who have undercover roles. Or those deployed in counter-terrorism (here I am thinking SAS, albeit that they are military). But simply because they often require going undercover too.
What society does do, to protect those who are vulnerable to such attacks, is to very severely punish those who attempt them. Anyone who attacks police, members of the judiciary, or their families, have vast resources thrown into tracking them down and bringing them to justice.
Firebomb Halo’s house and you will find yourself on the top of the most wanted list. You had better hope that ArcSWAT finds you before ArcDARK does though…
This is why the police officers I know have unlisted phone numbers.
Still waiting for the Marble Maiden to be mentioned again.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/366
Ooh. I had forgotten that. I must be loosing my marbles.
I wonder if her secret identity name is Mabel?
She and her sister received their powers at the same time. One became the hero known as Mable Maiden but her big sister became the villain Concretia!
Woohoo first page this has never happened!!
well for me anyway…
Sidney : that’s it buddy you’re off to jail for wasting page one space..
me : Awwww Dang it.
Back in 2nd, 50 votes from 1st.
So was *that* Sydney’s only condition? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/755
A little bit anticlimactic after two years of waiting.
she said on one condition so i’m guessing she wants to have both a regular life and a super life but not keep them a secret from each other. in all actuality having a secret identity helps protect the ones you love by keeping your hero life separate from your daily life. any true villain won’t be nice just because you don’t use a secret identity, they will go after your close friends and relatives. they will use your place of business as a target. and they will do everything in their power to hurt you to the point of breaking. and they will do it because it’s what they want to do and no other reason. i mean cmon, they are villains, it’s their job to make your life miserable for no reason…then again so do politicians…they should all go to sydney jail.
and to use the link code you do shift+,a href=”link goes here”shift+.type what you want to be a link here.shift+,/ashift.
replace all shift+, and shift+. with the actual actions and you get a working html code. here’s your link as an example now you can be fancy and make words that are links instead of posting just the link with no frame of reference of what they should expect.
The whole idea of “secret identify to protect loved ones” has always sounded contrived. And for Grrl Power it just doesn’t fit right. Normally, bad guys do not kidnap a policeman’s family prior to robbing a bank on his beat because it doesn’t work. They get the whole police department after them. Threaten Max’s family and die. Just that simple. Hurt them and die in ways that will chill the blood of supervillains for centuries to come. Unlike Superman or Batman, Max does not want or need bad guys to survive to appear in next month’s comic. Vehemence knew this and surrendered. If he does come back, it will be with a much better plan.
Not necessarily. The condition may have been broader than that. And, if Arianna’s reply had been “sure, for some of that, but we will have to examine the practicality of the rest of it, but will provisionally agree”.
Sydney would not want to get Joel’s hopes up, if they do not come through. First Arianna will need to find out if there is a vacant store in the Archon Mall. Then she will need to investigate any security concerns, or possible complaints from neighbouring shops. Then there is the outfitting to consider.
Pony petting zoos take a while to organise!
I did not expect that ending.
But I like it
I’m curious to see what happens at the store during his lunch break. after all he is leaving a known super in charge of the place at an advertised location. i’m curious to see how many villains try to attack the location just to get their asses kicked by the newbie.
i think this is my first time having first page space in the comments. i’ll be happy to spend a few days in sydney jail if it means i get first page space :D
You are right. The comments will have normally spilled over onto a second page long before now! I suspect I am to blame though.
*looks sheepish*
Everybody only gets so far, reading through the comments, then goes to page 244, and starts asking “Where’s Wally?”
Even DaveB, himself!
And I am sure that he is just being modest in his reply there. It is very clearly a genuine Easter Egg, in the sense of something done deliberately, rather than in error. Even if he may have forgotten about it, in the months since then!
Quite topical that, by chance, we get to do an Easter Egg hunt at an appropriate time of year.
Dammit. Wally —> Waldo. *sigh*
No wonder I could not find him!
Less is happening now.
Not to long ago we were deep in a super fight, with a villain with unknown powers. Most of the discussions was anallyzing his powers, which went really fast
All the local trouble makers are at Archon HQ either “cooperating in inquiries” or being held for the police on prior charges. It’s gonna take awhile for the local bad guy population to recover from the extinction-level events of last night.
Where has Sydney’s pipboy gone? Has she plugged it in or something? Do pipboy’s come with a built in charger, or are they USB compatible?
Good catch! If you recall, she did comment, when she realised that she had gotten lost flying, that it had run flat. So doubtless it is currently plugged in, being topped up again. Assuming she has a suitable recharger.
Logically though, as it is clearly a high energy draining device, and a piece of vital battlefield equipment, it will come with some means of plugging it into any handy socket. Rather than needing some propitiatory recharger unit, back at Archon HQ.
Or it’s under her shirt. Check panel # 3 where her arms are crossed.
The folding of the sleeve does make it seem plausible. She clearly was not wearing it there, earlier though. If we look at panel 4 from the previous page, we can clearly see her hand, and the strap is not apparent. Which it would be if we compare it to last time it was visible (penultimate panel).
But, several hours have passed, and she could well have recharged it, and put the pip-boy on since then. And may be swapping arms, if she finds it uncomfortable. Or if she is trying to practice using it ambidextrously. Halo coped ok with it on that arm, in the battle, after all. So yep, that might be right.
I just submitted my votes on the Comic Mix Seeding Round. Eight of my favourites, plus a write in vote. The latter was the hardest though, as they only provide the one ‘other’ option. And there were three I wanted to enter, so it was particularly heart-rending!
Dungeon Grind
Mansion of E
Two Guys and Guy
Don’t delay in casting your vote for Grrl Power though, we only have until this Monday, to ensure that it gets enough votes to be listed in the first round. Especially if we want to ensure being seeded!
i like all those, as well… but i had to vote my conscience and go with Wapsi Square for my write-in ballot entry…
Good news, I found that you can enter more than one write-in. Simply by repeating the process with each.
Nice to see Gynostar is putting in a good early showing, along with the usual suspects. And one strong contender that I am unfamiliar with.