Grrl Power #337 – Superheroines in the shower
Lots to talk about on this page. I’ll start off by pointing out that I did not forget Sydney’s glasses, she took them off to run.
It’s fair to say Amorphous and Achilles were given more laps to run than Sydney. I’m not sure how many were assigned, but do I remember before I started getting into shape, running even halfway around one of those tracks (which are 400m or just under 1/4 mile) without stopping to catch my breath would be pretty much impossible. Also I’d get shin splints and cramps in my side. (I was very out of shape) Nowadays I could probably do 2, maybe 3 laps even though I don’t do a lot of aerobic exercise in the gym. Sydney’s only slightly better off that I was given her hyperactivity and the fact that she probably weighs half what I did, but in any case, Peggy’s not trying to kill her, just exhaust some sense into her.
When I originally envisioned Grrl Power, the plan was to have a lot of scenes in the showers because I thought that would be fun to draw. Just like the lounge area with the red couch is a recurring set, I’d have all sorts of conversations that don’t necessarily have anything to do with showering take place in the showers. I also planned putting in a lot more dirty humor in general. What I didn’t plan on was since Sydney is the main character, the tone of the comic was largely set by her early on, and while she’s not a prude, she is body conscious (at least around a bunch of superheroines) and easily flustered when people she perceives as being adults or generally more with it than her start being raunchy, especially if it’s even remotely directed at her.
Anyway, I finally get to draw a shower scene and who knows how often it’ll happen in the future, but the next few pages will be mildly NSFW. Nothing more than what’s been in the comic so far, a little cleavage, sideboob etc. It will just be more glisteny than usual.
Oh and that last panel? The background took so long to draw – I know it looks simple, but laying in all that tile in perspective was a huge pain in the ass – anyway it took so long I went and got a subscription at cgcookie.com and I’m now trying to learn Blender cause dayum, if I could build some sets in 3D (and render them so they don’t look like cheap 3D hopefully) it would save me a ton of time in the long run.
Since a few people are asking, here is a better look at Peggy’s tattoos. SFW and NSFW (obviously you get a better look at her tats on the NSFW version, but you know, nipples.
I found a fun webcomic for you guys. I actually made the time to read through the whole things, so take that as my recommendation. My only complaint as is with all things I like is that there isn’t enough of it. It’s semi-auto bio, maybe more of an “inspired by real life events” affair. Anyway the site is Jennifer Draws Comics. She actually has three comics there, (three discrete comics, not three strips of the same comic) and I’ve only had a chance to check out “Sprinkles” which is the auto-bio one. It’s consistently pretty funny and cutely drawn so give it a read, and optionally check out her other comics if’n you’re inclined. Personally I identified with that first Sprinkles comic; I am chocked full of trivial information, not so great with the practical stuff.
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!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Well, it’s a good thing that she’s showering. Powerade in the hair starts to itch after all of 5 minutes.
You sound like you’re speaking from a position of having personal experience with that…Do you?
;)
That explains it! I didn’t zoom in sufficiently and thought she was revealing another power of one of the blue orbs to store things or create water, and nobody was commenting on it because of a running gag or because I’d missed something.
Good, glad to see that Sydney got put in her place.
Wouldn’t mind being there myself.
As opposed to THIS I’m guessing… :P
Holy hell! What a transition! Been SO long, since then.
Well I do love walkies. That would not be punishment for me.
I would not mind being yelled at by Sydney.
It provides proof of life! :-)
again?
Sydney took her glasses off to run….
This actually matches my experience with glasses and tracks. We never found out why, but I do substantially better when I’m not wearing my glasses. My mother swears it is because I don’t see anything to get distracted by, but I call bull on that. Darned if I’ve got a better explanation, though.
That said…unless Sydney runs, on the treadmill or off, two or three laps would pretty much wipe her out, yeah. I know it always has for me, even back when I did track pretty regular. This was because I did not run track, but walked it–I was a racewalker, and to this day, I still walk faster and farther than I can run (sprinting doesn’t count).
Paul Simon comes to mind: “I can’t run, but I can walk much faster than most people…” *goes to youtube and listens to Paul Simon songs while indulging in nostalgia*
For me, it’s that with all the constant motion, my vision becomes a mix of corrected and uncorrected, which is irritating, and I suspect could escalate to nauseating after prolonged periods.
Plus, there’s the sweating, which leads to slippage. Wearing glasses is not a pleasant experience for me when I’m doing anything physically demanding.
also there’s the perspective change once you’ve stopped. at least with me, when i’ve stopped after a quick walk/run it looks like everything is still moving away from me.
There’s also the fact that if you’re running with glasses on, you tend to keep grabbing them to keep them from falling off, and that REALLY slows you down.
I’m so glad I don’t have this problem when I run, (I run cross country, longest I’ve ever done is a single half marathon which was pain incarnate yet somehow mostly enjoyable, it made no sense) I need to be able to see
I’m considering the possibility that this webcomic is an grand conspiracy attempt to make me switch sexual orientation.
I was going to say “She knows!” but I don’t want to assume it shouldn’t be “He knows!”
Don’t worry – you were right the first time. It’s ‘she knows.’
If the secret mission of this comment is to get everyone who’s not already pansexual to add to their sexual orientation… Well, it’s a nice cause, but I already love it anyway.
I just started reading Charles Stross’s latest Laundry Files book and I’d swear he used your comic for inspiration (or maybe you both read the same other things). The sudden growth in superpowered people, the organization built as much to keep supers in line as to fight super threats, the super powered swat teams having to learn how to do police work.
I’ve heard of the Atrocity Archives but I never read them… or maybe I read the first few chapters of the first one, I don’t recall. The thing about Grrl Power is that I feel a lot of it is kind of common sense, (at least given the number of supers. It might not work so good if there were thousands or millions of them) so it’s not surprising someone might come up with a similar scenario.
Yeah, the number of scenarios in which superheroes could reasonably exist without radically changing almost ever facet of life on the planet are pretty limited. I mean, I like to think sometimes about what life in the Marvel U would actually be like. This is a place where a great many top graduates look around and think, “You know, I think I’ll join a global terrorist organization. Hm, AIM or HYDRA?” It’s a place where Frank Castle has been hunting down and killing organized criminals for 30+ years, and he hasn’t run out yet. That’s not even getting into the collateral damage from all the superfights that go on.
Point is, you start adding superpowers to a normal world and it stops being normal really fast. There’s only so many ways to avoid that, within reason.
DC had a Damage Control comic back in the 90’s. They were a team that went around cleaning up after super hero battles. I think they had some minor powers, but it didn’t last too long.
Marvel had Damage Control it was a joke against DC still is since their headquarters was in the Old DC building. But yeah Damage control job was to offer insurance for superhero caused damage and the repair it as if it was new.
Castle hasn’t been killing criminals for thirty years. :p His comic may have been around that long, but time does not go that way in comics. :p That’d be like saying Halo has had her powers for years now.
this is my own treatment of the supernatural situation: https://thrythlind.blogspot.jp/2014/02/supernaturals-in-divine-blood-exposition.html
Though, also, my world is not “normal.” Average lifespan is increased by 30 years, nuclear power plants are the norm, the environment is much cleaner, genetic experimentation has gotten to the point that there are cosmetic genetic mods existent including changing one’s apparent ethnicity, adding “exotic” features and changing gender (noted as “cosmetic” in the countries where it is legal in order to keep it’s price high and keep it off insurance companies).
There’s also an upgraded version of artificial insemination which can also be used to allow two women to have a child that is genetically both of theirs)…there is also artificial gestation but the first such “clone” (inaccurate term) died very young and until they figure out what went wrong further attempts have been banned. (goes on a bit in secret places though)
There are also “uprights” which are basically mecha from 12 to 17 feet tall used for construction and military primarily, but occasionally law enforcement and sports…
There’s a rather large international space-colony at one of the L-points…couple of hundred people…further space exploration is stalled because of people suspecting other people of attempting to shoot down the craft…
airship (blimps and such) cruises are a luxury thing…and there are public extra-atmospheric low-earth orbit flights fairly regularly…though they have to go around the kill zone over half of India where the Empire or Burma and the Indian freedom fighters are still fighting it out.
also, Vietnam and Korea never happened, instead there was a brief engagement in the 60s when Burma expanded a bit further than it’s near total assimilation of South and Central China and South-East Asia in the late 40s. Then there was another brief exchange in Afghanastan…lots of little exchanges between various countries…Thule Society and escaped Third Reich personnel managed to take over Brazil…Soviet Union collapsed and Balkanized…the current equivalent to the Middle East situation has the US mired in battle in Eastern Europe dealing with the Czechs (who tried to nuke New York and only managed to get the World Trade Center) and the East Germans as well as whoever else funnels stuff into the situation….
Anyway, stopping now.
It’s more that both stories focus on the stuff in the background like administration and character interaction rather than fights between villains and heroes (also hiding the truth about superpowers from the world and the superheroes, it is a very grim series dealing with Cthulhu like themes where anyone could learn to have superpowers but if they did it would attract the attention of beings coming to eat minds that much faster).
His book isn’t even really about the super heroes (it’s about halfway through and only one has shown up) the main character is the new director building the department from scratch (and the only superhero was already a cop before he got his powers but he was a policy maker not a patrol officer).
“…the organization built…
Yeah, GURPS rpg system got into that with their Supers book & the International Supers Team world-sourcebook, way back in the late ’80’s & early 90’s. DC (with the Justice League) & Marvel (Avengers) had been doing that even longer.
while i have the newest book on my “to do” list and haven’t gotten to it yet, are you guys sure you’re talking about the right book series?…
the premise behind the Laundry Files universe is that the main character is part of the British version of MIB, only instead of keeping Aliens a secret, they keep the fact that Magic exists and that those people that are knowledgeable enough in the higher forms of math (trig, calculus, etc) can perform magic, however, doing so also attracts the attention of the elder gods (Cthulhu, etc) that would love nothing better than to have somebody summon them back to here…
where the heck are you getting Superheros and super-powered SWAT Teams from? or has the series changed THAT radically from the last book i read?
Yeah, in these one he makes a bit of fun of the superhero genre like how Jennifer Morgue made fun of Bond films.
Mike — by the time you finish The Annihilation Score, you will learn of turf wars between arms of the British government, the fate of Officer Friendly, something worse than performing at Albert Hall starkers, and Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing.
Superheroic hijinks don’t take front page, and indeed must not in the light of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN.
Just finished it last night, way more up beat ending than most of the Laundry books but that’s not saying much.
Heh. At least it looks like just running laps. The worst running punishment so far in the Army has been a “Run one lap.” To which everyone ran as fast as possible because, hey, it’s just one lap right? Followed by “Great. I’ve got your times. You don’t get to leave until you break that time. Or I get tired of watching you.” FML
I’ve read some of the unique punishments that the drill sergeants can dream up (and I know one unique punishment that I inflicted on another officer). Some of the ones that stand out:
(1) Making a recruit flip over every rock to make sure the rocks get an even tan (we wouldn’t want the rocks to get sunburn, would we?)
(2) Cutting the grass… with scissors.
(3) Mopping the deck… in the rain.
(4) If someone farts, make them “turn on the vacuum” so the Drill Instructor doesn’t have to smell it. (In case you’re wondering, “turn on the vacuum” means that whoever did it, has to suck in as much air as he can, run over to the window, and blow it out the window, then do it over and over again for about an hour.)
(5) For not noticing the “Do Not Walk On Grass” sign… making a recruit apologize to every single blade of grass he or she stepped on. Individually, comprehensively, and in order.
There are many many more, and I’m sure some of the military (and former military) members of this forum could contribute several. I just wanted to mention a few.
Ohhh, yeah. In Navy boot camp, there’s the “Pizza Party”, when the whole division has royally messed up. (Ours did one. I think it was a few days after our Service Week in the galley.) The drill instructors order pizza, and while they eat pizza, we “party”. As in a really intense workout in the barracks, non-stop until the pizza’s gone. The sheer amount of sweat we generated during that one session meant we also had to strip and rewax the tiles immediately after the party, so we didn’t even get to rest right away.
Now that I think about it, that was the first time I really earned the respect of my fellow recruits. I was supposed to be on light duty, because I was recovering from a bout of pneumonia (in the middle of summer – it happens). Up until then, pretty much everyone hated my guts. It took twenty minutes for the DI’s to “notice” that I was supposed to be on light duty – and then they made me do the stupid exercise of holding a pencil between my opposing hands straight-out. Everyone else kept on partying.
A few days later, we got our “gas chamber” treatment – which finally cleared up the remnants of that pneumonia that stubbornly hung on.
I was not very popular in boot camp. Or afterwards. Overall, I was a failure in the Navy, which is why I’m much happier now as a software engineer.
Somehow, I don’t think CS gas as a cure for pneumonia caught on, either. ;)
Or, as you’re coming around near the end of your lap, the DI says, “You just ran in the shape of a zero. Keep going.”
Well we also know that Sydney isn’t one to walk around naked casually. Most people are too body conscious in our country to. (I blame the Bible and ultra prudishness making its way back into our culture.) I admit I’d like to see Sydney’s skinny ass. I would find it cute.
You should see the anime “Kill La Kill” all about clothes and lack of them. They get away with full frontal for women but leaving them as bare of body parts as your average clothing dummy. “Inuyasha” did that. See the breast, just no nipples or areolus either.Butts are fine not much else just skin all around.
Japanese censorship has lead to some weird things. Not that I have anything against tentacle porn per se. My plan is to just cover or obscure those areas.
Well it all depends on whether one is naked or nude.
The ironic thing is, Japan’s famously complicated censorship laws stem largely from their earliest encounters with Westerners, who were shocked and appalled at Japan’s relative openness of sexuality, and convinced the Japanese to reign it in – this eventually wound up being more and more strict with more and more loopholes being formed (like tentacles being created as stand-in for the forbidden penis in penetration scenes, and tiny-useless-black-lines to comply with censor laws on technicalities) to the point that, even though the majority of such laws no longer exist, artists still do the stuff basically out of habit, as Japan is big on maintaining old traditions.
Right. Essentially, we’re the reason for Japanese censorship being so weird, and then the Japanese respect for tradition has kept it going. (We’re also the reason for anime characters having big eyes, or so I hear. *cough Mickey Mouse cough*)
I heard it was Disney and the Seven Dwarves that gave anime big eyes.
Well, those are both Disney, so both of us are at least half right.
Didn’t the live-action Parasite Eve movie do that, too?
Actually, prudishness and the bible would have nothing to do with Sydney’s body consciousness. She ashamed of her body in context of “Barbie” syndrome (She feels plain and inferior in the presence of “super models”). She’s expressed it before in the comic and there’s nothing about Sydney’s personality that reflects prudence or concern for biblical matters. But perhaps she’ll feel a bit more comfortable bathing around Peggy.
Oh, and @DaveB: *Humbly bows, speechless in their appreciation of the amount of cheesecake in this update*
Well, considering that she spends most of her time looking over her glasses rather than through them, I’ve been assuming that she is far sighted and really only ever uses them for near stuff, and that her prescription is not really that strong.
Amorphous is trying to beat the Tom Cruise run; unfortunately, he uses the Steven Seagal run.
A nice new webcomics that I / you may like is Fairies vs tentacles 18+ and have a look at it please:
https://fairiesvstentacles.tumblr.com/post/115354603019/next
Thanks for the comic mate, right up my alley. Red it from top to bottom and bookmarked for my daily reading (if available).
How time-consuming can all those tiles be? Just make a single tile texture and then use several perspective effects. Hell from this angle you only need the walls and floor to be perspective, all the others just need to be re-sized.
Yeah individually it doesn’t take a huge amount of time, but it ads up. I could have been more efficient, like the blue square tiles I just flooded blue then drew the caulk lines on individually, but that mean having to draw the caulk lines on the top of those stalls in perspective. I should have made a blue tile texture with the caulk already on it and layed it in like I did the rest of the textures.
I use a program called Gimp, it’s like photoshop, but free. There’s a device/ portion of it designed to change the angle/perspective. If you just draw a square, and section it with little squares, you can then take the whole thing and just change the perspective. Granted, it can take a little fiddling if you want it ‘perfect’, but it’s a fairly easy way to alter what you draw into what you need.
It always looks awful whenever I try perspective effects, but I’m no pro.
Regardless, the tiles look like they took forever, but they look very *nice*, at least.
I spy with my little eye…a tattoo on Syd’s shin! Kinda looks like the Slaanesh symbol from Warhammer…which for the sexy stuff would make sense, but for her powers (and the nature of the comic) I’d have gone with Tzeentch ^_^
Love that she had like four towels, totally fits her, I can neither confirm nor deny that I may have done the same the first time in a public shower.
And hurray for strong girls!
That’s a bruise from her second fight with Math, where he nudged her shin into the flight path of one of her orbs?
No, that’s actually the bruise from her rematch with Math. Remember, she hit herself in the leg with one of her orbs (because he nudged her leg into its flight path, if I remember correctly.)
Holy crap. Both continuity and I, made pretty much the same comment at the same time. How often does that happen?
Think I’ll keep my comedic headcanon for now ;) But yeah, read the comments after I posted and it made more sense.
Dave, you are missing a bet here on some good comedy – Math trying to convince Leon to
a) install cameras on the neckwear, as it keeps cops “honest” (and protects them against false accusations); and
b) make the neckwear waterproof, so no one has to take them off even if they go swimming (or showering!)
and then let Max connect the dots on that…
and c) The collars won’t short out in the case of team operations in heavy rain or if doused by LOTS of water.
Or is more likey, ends up fighting a hydro powered villian. ;P know what I mean?
That would be ONE circumstance that could get them doused in water. Similar circumstances might include battling a villain who has hydro-kinesis, or they simply get dropped into a large quantity of water. I just phrased it to include all such similar circumstances.
im pretty sure you would get a ton of patreon money if you did nsfw bonus strips
Why she have to exercise and not use her powers? What’s the point of having them then?
Is the same as making Bruce Banner exercise because using Hulk’s strength is cheating.
Using her orbs is no short-cut for building endurance.
It was a disciplinary activity, you don’t get to cheat and avoid the discipline, defeats the point of the exercise.
Besides, one of the standard tropes for anything with powers is an over reliance on them, such that when they get neutralized the person is useless. A smart organization would have their people be able to solve problems without their powers, and physically able to take care of themselves to at least some degree without them. The military is big on training for contingencies – as they should.
Also, one reason for the gun training.
While it might be a general case, getting Sid in shape is probably not a serious goal here. Currently, she is challenged to fight her way out of a wet paper bag and can clearly benefit, but even with training, a dry paper bag would be daunting for her. If the training is to make her a better fighter, it will have to involve the spheres.
Now the running may help with getting her to blindly obey orders, which is likely a military goal here. and as noted the spheres and other abilities would make it hard to tell how much the grunt is being pushed, and you do want to push to the limit, but no further.
David, do we really need to go over this again? Military discipline is NOT about “blindly obeying orders”. In fact, you are obligated to refuse any orders that would be illegal. If you blindly obey orders, and it was an illegal order, you will be court-martialed for it, and “I was just following orders” is not an acceptable defense.
In any case, Peggy explicitly said, two pages ago, “savor that fettucini alfredo. Starting tomorrow, I’m whipping you into shape.” And then there’s this: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1715
Note the last two panels. Sid complains she can only do about 10 pushups, girly style. Maxima replies, “Trust me, we’ll be working on that.” So, yes, getting Sid in shape is a serious goal.
Having said that, making her run was not to get her in shape… that starts “tomorrow” (but considering that the first day was about three years long, that could be a while). This was just a disciplinary run for misbehaving in public while in uniform.
First, it’s a disciplinary run, not a fun run. Second, having those orbs does her no good in a real fight if she gets winded before her in-much-better-shape opponent does.
She could literally take a nap inside her shield orb whilst pinning her opponent to the ground by having formed the shield from above him/her/it.
Thinking like that means that the time she encounters something that CAN bypass she shield, she’s in big trouble.
By that point, I sort of doubt that having a bit more endurance is going to help much.
You can’t build a house without solid foundation. No-power exercise, martial-arts and weapon training, and such build the basics; reflexes, tactics, endurance. Advanced power training comes later.
Plus this is discipline training. It’d be crap punishment if they could use their powers to make it too easy.
Ah yes, run til you fall over, a time honoured military disciplinary tool.
Why is she leaving the orbs up while in the shower? Or is their distance too short that she can’t leave them in the tube in the locker room? Never been sure on just how far she can get from them.
I can sympathize with Sydney, being in ‘meh’ shape while surrounded by people in good shape (or in this case; great shape) is more than a little intimidating. Although I’ll state that is my (and Sydney’s) issue, others shouldn’t have to hide just because I (she) have self image problems.
The distance is enough that it was reached in the bank. Only seems to be about 3 meters or so – depends on where the lockers are with respect to the changing rooms and showers?
Plus, wrap ’em in a flannel, and you can scrub your own back.
If we take this page as definitive, and Syd as 5 ft tall, the limit looks to be 11 – 12 feet.
Actually, inside the bank, Sydney was trying to draw the tube closer by conscious effort. Maxima did notice, so Sydney’s attempt to keep it from being obvious failed. I’d think better examples of the arbitrary maximum distance would be https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/196 (how far she got from the car before getting stopped), or https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/268 (how far she got from Maxima).
Still, it seems to be just a few meters, maybe about 10 to a dozen.
I think you got your feet and meters mixed up there :P 10 meters would have put her easily past the ambulance, and much further from the car
Well, she was doing the Jedi bit, but that was before the ‘robber’ grabbed her. My reading of that page was that Maxima was pushing the robber & Syd back, and Syd couldn’t stop Tubey being pulled along – hence the orbs were at maximum range.
There’s three different situations: Sydney walking away, Sydney taken away, the tube taken away. That can account for some of the differences in the distances.
The pages where we can see Sydney away the tube are:
#27 going to lunch – around 10 feet
#31 going to the bank – around 10 feet
#40 the bank, yanked away – around 10 feet
#48 hanging with Max post bank – around 10 feet
#65 running from shining Max – 20 feet easily according panel 1
#66 under ambulance – around 15 feet according panel 6
So the farther she got from the tube was in page #65. The tube is under one of the frontal tires (panels 7 and 8) and in panel 1 we can see the ambulance around two car lengths away of the sidewalk. An average car is at least 11 feet an a half long (3 meters and a half), so Sydney is at least 22 feet (7 meters) away the tube.
Hmmm… your reasoning is solid. IMHO, it looks like the limit became greater to fit the needs of the story in page 65.
I agree :)
I wonder if she washes her balls regularly. As much as she’s always grabbing them they’d get pretty sweaty if she didn’t.
Even worse, she can’t even wear gloves or mittens to absorb her palm-sweat & keep her balls clean. Mittens are Sydney’s Kryptonite…
Why the testicle jokes?
Why. Why, why, why, why, why, why, why?
WW WW HH HH YY YY ??????
WW WW HH HH YY YY ??? ???
WW WW WW HHHHHHH YYYY ???
WW WWW WW HHHHHHH YY ??
WWWWWWWW HH HH YY ??
WWW WWW HH HH YY
WW WW HH HH YY ??
Crap – all that work on an ASCII Why for nothing.
LOL! It’s probably for the best…
In return, all I can manage is a smiley:
OO OO
OO OO
MM
MM
MM
MM
GGG GGG
GGG GGG
GGGGG GGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGG
If you want to *whap* them with a rolled-up newspaper, I’ll be glad to pitch in.
I love the detail of the baggy around Heatwave’s injured foot
I read this page hours ago, but something about it never clicked until now. In panel two Lt. Kessler is warning Amorphous not to lengthen his legs. Did our resident super tailor give him a uniform with stretchy powers to match his abilities?
The same question goes for Brooke/Heatwave. If she just gets a normal uniform and then unleashes a really powerful burst of heat it could leave her standing there totally nude. OK, forget I mentioned that part.
Dave, there is one gag you have to put into a future comic. The team is sitting around somewhere and Amorphous says “Well, I’m bored, I think I’ll just stretch my legs.” And does so, all the way across the room.
Ok, that’s a good one, O.B. It made me laugh, so you win one Internet.
OR… she saw his legs get longer than the pants legs were, you know like someone wearing “flood-stompers”… so she told him not to do that anymore and shrink his legs back to normal size.
Or she just expects him to cheat, and warns against it.
Well, this showers’ layout shoot down my second fanfic :(
Glad to see Peggy wearing the towels the very way I imagined she would do, though ;) And using a special prosthetic leg. I did research how leg amputees must shower, and what kind of installation they need, it seems you did it too :)
Congrats on the continuity details, that’s something I especially appreciate on an artist.
You could learn blender just to use as a guide, so you can learn just the basics and even if it looks wrong (normals, lighting, and the infinity of things that can go wrong) and fix everything else on photoshop.
at least that’s what I would do
I could use Sketchup for quick room layouts, but its rendering is almost nonexistant. If I’m going to spent the time learning something I’d like it to easy both my woes with perspective and texturing and lighting a room. Plus if I learn Blender well enough I can use it for stuff other than interiors. Guns and whatnot.
Poor Sydney, maybe she can learn to adapt her shield so that if it ever came to a fight in the showers she could use it to gather a ton of water and dump it on people, to take a quote from one of my favourite books.
“Tiny, but fierce!”
She could make her own swimming pool.
Technically, she could do that with her Molestorb. She would just have to weave the tentacle in a tight cupped pattern to do so; that is, providing there is no limitation on how long the tentacle can get, or how intricate a pattern Sydney can weave.
As amusing as that sound I just don’t see Sydney using it like that, however I can totally see her hovering an enormous amount of water over someone and splashing it on them, or just using it to toss large amounts of water with.
I wonder how muscle breakdown works with someone who is invincible. Does he get tired? Maybe they just make Achilles run until he gets incredibly bored.
Well it isn’t clear if Achilles can hurt himself. The answer is likey yes to an extent. Although eventually his muscles will run out of oxygen and even if it doesn’t hurt or do damage, they’ll just stop moving and freeze in a non-contracted relaxed state. So running till he falls over like a limp noodle.
I may be the only reader that didn’t find the last strip funny at all, but finds this one hilarious! Can I get Lt Peggy’s Cell number? I really like her!
This question has nothing to do with this particular page of the comic, but it’s something that I’ve been wondering about.
So far, the whole story Dave’s been telling us here is in flashback, right? I mean, Sydney clearly says backing up a couple of months to tell us how she got her start as a super heroine. So, in that short space of time, she goes through training, presumably starts out as a private, then gets promoted to corporal. Now, Archon is atypical of course and so there is no reason why Sydney couldn’t still be in training in the “present” as a corporal or been promoted so quickly.
My question is how this compares to our real world. First off, how long does basic training last? I realize there are a lot of ways a person could do particularly well and get promoted before others, or they could be a screw up and be denied promotions, but what is the average time a person spends in one rank?
It depends very much on the situation and the military service. Obviously you get promotions faster during war time. A good example, despite being a computer game, is Wing Commander, where your character (Blair) goes from 2nd Lt (O-1) to Colonel (O-6) in just under five months (about 140 days, actually) of game-time. You really can be promoted that fast during a war, largely to fill in vacancies as other officers die.
In regular service, getting promoted from E-1 up to E-4 usually takes about 36 months of active duty. Also, in the Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, the promotion from E-3 to E-4 also depends on service-wide vacancies (which basically means “if we don’t have any E-4 job vacancies for your specialty, then you’re stuck at E-3”). A corporal is an E-4; in the Army, you can get promoted to E-4 in as little as 18 months.
The average to get all the way from E-1 to E-9 (or O-1 to O-9) is 20-21 years, but promotions to the grades higher than E-4 depend upon several factors, including vacancies, qualifications, schools attended, promotion points awarded, etc., so it’s possible someone could make it to E-9 even faster.
Thanks!
You’re welcome!
Of course, I just noticed that I forgot to answer your other question about how long basic training lasts. In the real world, Basic Training is as short as 8 weeks in the Navy, or as long as 12 weeks for the Marines.
But that’s usually not the end of it. For example, in the Army, after BCT, you get AIT (Advanced Individual Training), which is based on your MOS (Military Occupational Specialty). AIT lasts anywhere from 6 weeks (combat engineer) to 16 weeks (medics, cavalry scouts, etc.)
Other branches are slightly different; for example, in the Navy, you get Basic Training, then Intermediate Training, and then Advanced Training if your specialty requires it. But overall, you’re looking at 3 to 6 months on average, depending on specialty.
i was IN the Navy and I’ve never heard of “intermediate” or “advanced” training… is that new? i mean in the last 10 years or so? when i was in you had Basic (8 weeks) then if you were enlisted under a guaranteed schooling program or did really good during bootcamp, then you went to that rates “A” school and yes, it IS the letter “A” because back in the day way before my time, they actually had a “B” school as well, then you would go out to the Fleet, as whatever rate, if you just came into the Navy without any special stuff, or failed out of “A” school then you went out to the fleet as just a plain recruit. if i remember correctly, if you came in as an E-1 you had to wait 9 months to go to E-2, then another 9mo for E-3 AND had to have a school (this time its called a “C” School), then it went to a full year for E-4 then it jumps to 3 years for E-5, and above, with other requirements along the way as well… and… looking online i found this: https://usmilitary.about.com/od/navy/l/blpromchart.htm that explains in more detail…
My source is here:
https://www.military.com/Recruiting/Content/0,13898,rec_step09_compare_training,,00.html
For the Navy, it says: “8 weeks Basic Training, followed by Intermediate Training, and Advanced Training for certain specialties.”
Since this is the Military Channel (part of the Discovery Network), I’m going to assume they know what they’re talking about.
A little more research, and I was able to figure out that by Intermediate Training, they probably mean the “A” school. The Navy website says this:
So this “Specialized training and classes” is probably what the Military Channel interpreted as “Advanced Training”.
In the Navy, Intermediate/Advanced Training depends on your specialization. In boot camp, it’s pretty much equal emphasis on classroom instruction & physical training; half of the day in the class, the other half in the gym or outdoors).
For more technical Rates, it involves more classroom training, but you’re also expected to maintain your physical fitness (tested quarterly during the course of each year). For more combat or physically-oriented rates, there will be more equal emphasis on classroom & physical training in more advanced stages than during boot camp.
Well, when I was in the Navy, I had 8 weeks boot camp (E-3), then a month or so Basic Electricity & Electronics course, then I think another 8 weeks Electrician’s Mate A-School (then I was an E-4), then 6 months Nukular Power School (Got promoted to E-5 just before the end), then another 6 months Nuke Prototype training. So I didn’t get to a ship until I’d been in almost a year and a half. And the sub I got assigned to was still under construction, so I never even went to sea until almost 4 years after I joined.
And to think I joined the Navy because I was tired of going to school.
PLEASE tell me they don’t actually call it “Nukular” power school. If they do, well, congratulations… the Navy just discovered one of my pet peeves.
I hate it when someone pronounces new – clee – err (Nuclear) as nuke – you – lerr (Nucular). In Latin, “Nucula” means nut. Therefore, squirrels are “nucular” engineers, and “nucula fission” is what you do with a nutcracker while sitting by the fireplace on Christmas Eve.
There is also “Special Skill Sets” to take into account.
Example, if a person joined the military (US) without College, they start as a lower enlisted (E1-E2).
If they have some college or other skill they recognize, you might start around (E3-E4).
A 2-year Associates Degree might get you Sargent (E-5).
A 4-year Degree (depending on what the degree is in) can get you in as an Officer.
Supers have a very rare and special skill set. One that can net them BIG bucks in the private sector (the government can not compete with them financially). Only 2 reasons ARC get recruits, Patriotism and to get Training on how to use their powers. To get the Supers in the door, they would probably offer some incentives in much the same way the regular military does. Back during the peak of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, certain MOSs (military occupation specialties) and ranks could get REENLISTMENT BONUSES of upwards of $100,000 (tax free if they re-upped over seas)!!!
I could see someone with powers joining for one or two tours for that kind of cash. Then add the military experience to the Resume (ie. I know how to safely use my powers). Then go out into the private sector and rake in the bigger cash.
Thanks again, everyone!
Possible third reason for supers to join ARC:
“I WANT TO BE A SUPERHERO!”
That was certainly Sydney’s reason, wasn’t it?
I enjoy Peggy’s mistletoe tattoo.
It’s holly, not mistletoe. Just FYI. :)
Oh, so no kissing her below it then? Damn.
Holly vs Mistletoe
Well, you can try but you’re likely to get slapped, punched or (particularly with Peggy) shot for trying it.
No, although I do remember one autocorrect where daddy kissed mommy under the cameltoe… if I find the link, I’ll post it.
Well, that was an interesting read. I did enjoy his Martian Manhunter movie scrips quite a bit too.
*script – singular, even if it had multiple paragraphs
Me too :)
The author also does Leftover Soup, a pretty good comic: Cameo
Don’t forget to read author’s comments, they are priceless :)
here is a question…does Achilles get tired and fatigued? Since he is invulnerable, wouldn’t the cellular processes that lead to fatigue poisons building up in the muscle tissues…sorta not really work on him? Or would he just get more and more fatigued until he went comatose and his body was able to properly flush out the toxins?
Sprinkles was a solid read. Thanks dude. Oh, love the grrl power too. Read it through twice already.
And I thought they were going to be on KP duty? How would Achilles, Amorphous and Sydney look in fatigues for that duty?
Given Sydney’s personality, I have been surprised several times that she buys into the “military discipline” thing to the extent that she would do things like this. She’s kind of doing this as a side job to what she sees as her main one in running the comic store, so I’m surprised we haven’t seen at least some token protests or skipping out on the unimportant stuff without a reminder at least. She signed the contract and all, but it still seems a bit off.
Sydney’s got an opportunity to be a proper superhero. Given her personality I’d be gobsmacked if she WASN’T game to give it her best shot, discipline problems and all.
Depends on which way you look at it– there are an awful lot of superheroes that fall into the “rebels against authority to do good” category. Where they are chased almost as much by the authorities as they are by supervillains. Sydney already had promises that Archon wouldn’t take away her toys regardless of her decision on joining the team. Without the need to hide her powers so she isn’t locked away in a lab, there’s nothing to say she can’t go freelance. (How truthful the claim about not stealing the powers was and whether it extends to vigilante activity is another question. I haven’t even seen her consider the question though.)
The result of vigilante activity can be seen in this strip: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/955
Even Batman only viewed the Justice League as a ‘part time thing’
I really like Peggy but based on the Deviantart links I’m pretttty sure that we need to kick her out of the A-team!
Ah yes, the military and “modesty”. Yep, they will train it out of her soon.
One time, the FOB showers were “down” because someone decided to take a poo in them (so they decided to punish everyone by sanitizing them for 12 hours. rouge pooper was smart and went into hiding, so we never discovered his/her identity.).
I had just come off of drivers training, and was covered with a thick layer of very fine dust (Seriously, who the F*** takes a S*** in the shower). I was “Very Displeased” by the lack of shower and having to use baby wipes to clean myself.
Fortunately, a very good Sargent took pity on us. He got a bucket to pour water over our heads. It was extremely cold, but better than baby wipes. He did that for all of the males that had drivers training.
So I stood naked in front of a Sargent to get cold water poured over my head. Willingly.
Yeah, a part of boot camp is for the military to push you hard enough to see how much BS you can take without cracking up…
This was after Basic, during an Annual Training event. I learned Basic training was just par for the course.
Yeah, boot camp is just the “introductory level training” for what to expect afterwards…Maintaining skills & teachings as well as more advanced levels of training (including the occasional testing of your BS-capacity) doesn’t stop when boot camp does.
As per instructions, I am informing all of you of the new Dead Gentlemen Production’s online comic, “Demon Hunters”, which continues in line with their live episodes. If you have never experienced the Dead Gentlemen, and you are an RPG nerd, then get your knickers over to their website, or watch their stuff on YouTube.
That is all. Carry on.
Hey DaveB, I can do Blender and I would love to help you with anything related to that. :)
(When I read that sentence I physically jumped for joy, BTW)
I just had to throw this together:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8garokjkkwzynfu/0001.png?dl=0
(Y U no work, a href tag?)
I dare say that this comic is finally getting back on track.
How is this a punishment for Achilles? He can’t feel pain or exhaustion.
And why was Amorphous punished?
I think this has been covered before. Amorphous was punished because he used his stretchy powers to try to stop Achilles from eating the burger after it had been on the floor. That makes him a participant in “roughhousing in public”, so he gets punished. If he had left his grabbypaws to himself, he wouldn’t be running laps.
As for Achilles… true, he can’t feel pain or exhaustion, but he can feel boredom. So that’s his punishment, running laps until he’s bored.
If Varia is sharing powers with someone, while touching them
if the Original User dies, does Varia absorb and get to keep their power?
…I’m now imagining four Harems trying to do normal stuff while the fifth gets tickled in lingerie. I’m not sure what that says about me.
I usually just hold the drink to my forehead and that way I can still drink it.
i’m sure it has been mentioned many times, but… love how Sydney has her toes touching together in the final panel. Lovely bit of NVL from her (well, from Dave) conveying the weight of the scene.
Well, hello there, shower scene. Giggity…