Grrl Power #39 – How not to be a hostage
Sydney’s only 5′, which you’d think would make her an ideal hostage, you know, at least it’d make her easier to transport. Obviously these guys haven’t been reading the comic because really, just about anyone else in the bank would be a better choice. It was simply a matter of proximity that drove the hostage selection.
I like how Maxima says “I’m obviously overqualified…” like anyone there knows anything about her other than she looks weird. Especially in that first panel, I got bogged down in detail and got some of the basic proportions of her face a bit off. I think she’s a bit… pointy, and maybe her nose is too long, but hey, the more I draw her, the better I’ll get. At least she looks shiny in that one.
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Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
ohhh i like how maxima’s head kinda over laps on the first small panel,and how you can see her hair on the side >< man!! i neeeeed the next one.
p.s the comic at the bottom made me giggle
I actually didn’t plan to have her face overlap the panel, but after I had done the pencils, walked away from it for a while and came back to ink I thought her face looked kind of squished, so I extended it a bit. I may have slightly overdone it as I mention in the comic entry.
great comic, looking forward to continuing stalking your progress with it :D
Just a few minor details, however all of them fall under “Early instalment weirdness”
1) Yes she is a Lt Col. yes Shes wearing full Bird Col wings. Yes they are the Wrong color. they should be “Silver” or “”Dark” (the dark insignia If I remember correctly is for use on certain uniforms in combat area, the kind where most officers will not say a thing for not saluting them because they are not idiots who want to get shot.
2) Whats happening with the tube is a case of https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RequiredSecondaryPowers
However she HAS Weaponized it
i love these mini comics you add at the bottom will you do them more often (keep doing them)
They won’t appear on every comic, just when I come up with something short and amusing.
Too bad, I like the mini-comics. At least you will still have them, that’s good. I like to think of them as a little pocket dimension of comedy.
Aye, Syd has no respect for the 4th Wall. I likey.
When grabbed from behind by a man, fastest way to make them let go, is to cock your knee and piston your foot into his balls. Added points if you make him scream like a little girl in the process.
Given that the guy has a gun, Sydney is safer where she is than she would be if he let go.
Kinda hard to fire a gun when you’re clutching your ‘nads in pain.
Kinda hard to reach his balls if you`re that much shorter. Shin and the top of the foot are more viable targets.
She could probably reach from the way she’s been lifted in the third last panel. Just needs to get the idea in her head.
I see that Maxima noticed the poster tube! I am jumping with excitement!
Kinda hard NOT to notice something moving by itself isn’t it? And I like Syd’s reaction when she realized what happened: Start kicking and ready verbal barrage!
Poor guy, doesn’t even have a particularly effective hostage-taking weapon. It’d be pretty awkward to shoot Sydney with it so her status is reduced to that of human shield. She’s kinda small for that role too.
That’s right bank robber, take the implied advice of the hero who also stated she could take you down with ease. I’m sure nothing could go wrong with a plan like that.
I love the herp de derp moment when sydney and the robber are realizing the position they are in.
Poor guy, a pump action shotgun isn’t the best choice for one-handed action. Yon have one shot, and then you have to let go of Sydney to load the next round. I do wonder what the other guy is doing about the changed situation…?
Excellent situational awareness for Maxima noticing the tube. I suppose being what she is and as experienced as she likely is (note: Background files do not tell you how long she has had powers) that would be kind of expected. Super fights in a ‘real’ setting would at the very least teach you to watch for surprises in your peripheral vision.
Is the tube at the range limit? I am trying to decide if the tube is moving because of Sydney’s personal danger, Sydney’s emotional state, or the fact that Mr Shotgun yanked her further away and she was already as far away as she could get – thus making the tube move closer.
the tube is odd. It has a physical limit, as seen when she tries to throw it (outside the bank), yet reacts to her desire to move closer to her. so in reality she can probably control how long the “leash” is, but she hasn’t quite figured that out yet… right now its set at about 5in. so when she got pulled away, it moved with her.
I wonder what would happen if Sydney held out her hand and commanded her as yet unseen Power Source to come to her. Doesn’t seem like she needs it right now, but for the long run I kind of hope she either does have or can learn to have some remote control over whatever it is.
Given her codename and the fact I think it would be hilarious given her usual run of profanity I am guessing it’s an actual halo of some sort.
Don’t knock yourself on Maxima’s head too much. With the exception of the lips it’s just about perfect. Oh for a second I thought the nose had an odd angle too, until I realized it represented a slightly upturned end. Nice touch by the way. Not many artists put that kind of detail into their work.
The mouth has a definite problem though. Look at it’s angle compared to the head. The mouth is drawn for a head angled differently, and would be slanted on her actual head. I think it’s a little oversize compared to your other pictures of her too, but as you say you’ll get better at drawing her as time goes by. Frankly I’ve never thought lips that full looked natural, but then again when have the Comics ever been limited by what looks natural? Love what you’re doing so far, Keep it up!
just to add: i feel that the cheek bone ends a little sooner than it should, or else we should be able to see her ear poking out from her hair…
@Doc Savage- she’s got make up on, of course her lips aren’t going to be “natural”
never mind about the ears i looked at the last frame and saw how far back they are, but i still think the jaw is short for the size of her face…
I guess I’ll spoiler this in case anyone wants to only learn about the characters within the comic. Remember there’s a spoiler tag which is [ spoiler ] and [ /spoiler ] (minus the spaces)
Actually Maxima doesn’t wear makeup. Her fire engine red lips are just the way she’s colored. I’ll get in to it more later, but Max is in the position of looking a bit like an exotic, hyper sexualized woman which is one of the things that drives her feminism.
Yeah the mouth does look a bit like it’s a Mr. Potatohead mouth that’s not quite twisted on right. Well really a Mrs. Potatohead. If she was a street walker.
Cock wrangler? Really? The protagonist uses homophobic insults when under stress? Unless there is a good explanation for it in the next comic I suspect you are going to start losing readers.
Otherwise, it’s been quite interesting so far.
Is that a homophopic insult? I had no idea. It certainly wasn’t intended as such, and hey if I don’t know it then obviously Sydney won’t. I guess it could imply that someone… gathers or manages cocks… like on a porno set?
“I’m the casting director for a guy, guy, guy, guy, guy, guy, guy, girl porno.”
“Oh, you’re a cock wrangler.”
Or you could use it if you were a cockfighter. Well, not you obviously, but like if you were the Don King of chickens. That might actually be the etymology of the phrase. Well, I suppose if you have a rooster studding service. I assume that’s a thing that exists. It’s just funny sounding to me, which is basically the formula I use for Sydney’s insults. Funny word + verb or profession, and maybe some adjectives for good measure.
Seriously I didn’t realize that was a thing. Maybe I should double check Sydney’s insults against Urban Dictionary.
Well, that’s entirely understandable. I’ve seen several racist slurs on the internet that I was almost certain had to be made up until verified them, and you can’t be an expert on everything. And at the same time, you want to be able to have your character curse without using actual obscenities.
I’m glad to hear I was mistaken about Sydney’s intentions. :)
So cursing like Zodon from PS238?
Everyone likes to pull the homophobic card. It’s the cool thing these days.
But Syd is obviously partial to insults regarding the male genitalia. There’s no need to get your panties in a bunch.
Speaking as someone who is, in fact, bi, I saw Sydney’s choice of words more as the atmosphere of the comic than any inclination on the artist’s part. So I’m willing to take him at his word regarding his reply two posts above. YMMV
Yeah I seriously wasn’t trying to be offensive with that. That’s not to say that there won’t be some characters in the comic who are… you know, less into equal treatment for all. I mean, there will be villains in the story but I’m not out to set a casually offensive tone for the comic.
This post seems like a bit of a knee jerk response. As a writer myself I can say it goes with the territory that some people will flat out not like what you write regardless of what you do. To imply that he is going to lose readership over one insult his characters choose to utter in a situation they are in is completely asinine.
People say things all the time without knowing the complete context of their words. In this case Syd has been established as having a colorful vocabulary when it comes to insults. I personally find her choice of words better and far more original than something cliché like “Let go asshole!” It shows me that the author is trying to be original.
Playing the homophobic card here is just ridiculous and way out of context. Yes Syd is stressed, yes she is probably afraid for her life, yes she is upset. But we have already seen her dish out a string of other insults and colorful swearing that is far from homophobic and to suggest that she will always resort to homophobic insults is just plain idiotic.
Looks like I got on my I’m upset rant just a bit late :P It took me a bit to put my post together and it looks like the OP already replied and cleared the air. In any case feel free to ignore me, lots of people do
:)
At least she didn’t say “cock gobbler”.
She could have said “anal avenger” or “ass pirate” or “cock juggler” or any other more homo-erotic borderline homophobic phrases…
Hmmm….no, I think you should speak only for yourself. You don’t represent the other readers of this comic.
“Is there any such thing as an unarmed gunman?” Easy way to find out.
After you rip his arms out of their sockets, we’ll see if he can shoot with his feet!
oh noes a cliff hanger!
Funny to see the little chibby line at the end showing Sydney’s overlogic of word play, funny. LOL
Never notaced that Max has pointy elf ears. Was that part of her chainge or did she always have em like Black Adam? Also has kind of a long horse face with the moth part sticking out more. Hmmm.
Syd isn’t homophobic, she just swears to insult everybody. Eventually she’ll get to some cursing about zoophillia, scatophagia, and non-human interspecies sex, I’m sure, given enough time and anger.
“dolphin blow hole” I think she already hit some of that.
lol thats too funny well done again Dave
Hey man, only found your comic recently, and have to say it’s awesome!
Thanks!
Eeeeee! Heroes are finally meeting! This is going to be totally sweet!
cute lampshading at the bottom with the “unarmed gunman” thing :P
I like the joke under the comic. ;D
Me thinks Maxima has noticed something strange about that bag.
i know i cant stop thinking about what it could be, i just cant…… ive come up with so many different possibilities that i cant remember any of em
>.> Am I the only one who read sydney’s bio page -before- the spoilers were removed from it?
Maybe I should feel special for already knowing
Yeah that was a miscalculation on my part. I really didn’t think it’d take me this long to get to it – also I’ve garnered quite a bit more audience than I thought I would since I’ve started. It turns out the combination of Google Analytics and advertising on Project Wonderful is a little addicting, hah hah, but I’m glad everyone is enjoying it so far.
I figured “well if a few people see it, it won’t matter” but this is the first time I’ve been on the other side of a reveal, it’s easy to forget how important even a mundane seeming detail can be if you play it up right.
By the way, wouldn’t a more accurate title for this page be “How not to *take* a hostage”?
^_^
In response to DaveB’s comment under the comic, how much of the “I’m over qualified” is from having powers that the bank robbers and customers haven’t seen yet (and some in-comic comments imply are thought to be fiction) and how much is from the “I’m a federal agent”?
I think it’s weighted more on the training side than the powers end. The powers help, but the training will beat out powers most of thr time.
Not if the power level her bio indicates is accurate.
I’ll let the comic make it clear what she’s talking about, but you’re both right, her combination of power, training and experience makes this stick up practically a non-event for her, which is mainly the reason she’s just watching the shenanigans up to this point.
Oh, I figured she had serious training, but her bio left me thinking of someone roughly the same power level as Ms Marvel or Wonder Woman.
its sad that this day and age thinks the miricale maiden was all mystic powers, she was originaly reliant on her exceptional training in science, martial arts, politics, and phycology to handle events with a minimal reliance on super powers. think detective batman with emergancy access to superman abilities.
Hey man, love your comic, I started reading it after the DC Heroes session. I am in a group on Yahoo that is the current incarnation of the old DC Heroes RPG Mailing list. We are the only remaining online community for DCH, but we do also have a website called writeups.org or WORG which has over 4500 characters for the DCH game as well as articles on new rules, custom timelines, and many more things. If Syd plays again she is more than welcome to access the site for any reason she wants. Also she is would be ruled correct in her argument about the Laser Beam/Force Field thing. :-)
I really like your characters and please don’t change Sydney’s language, even I have never heard some of those words put together, and I watch a lot of Kevin Smith movies.
Azrael
Love the comic, hate that it’s only weekly, and if anyone complains about the language send them my way. I’ll see their complaining and raise them a multiple meaning, use, and definition, a did they even look at the context, a they are a troll with no life, a political correctedness is ruining the world and the art of insultation (insulting), and a stern lecture about how they are wrong, they don’t have to read it and nobody is forcing them to, and how nobody gives a rat’s a** because of the preceading reasons. This will most likely be followed by a walk of shame and great celebration throughout the land. Keep up the good work.
Vspartan501
Also, I know I spelled correctedness and preceading wrong, and I don’t care. I made up the word insultation, so it has whatever definition I deem fit to decree upon it. Take that proper language and grammar troll!
Your art’s really visibly improved since the start of the comic! :D Sydney’s face in particular.
Looking forward to seeing things really get goin’.
personally I find the swearing excellent(and i don’t really care if it means anything) for the comic for I like it when a character uses a bizarre colorful vocabulary instead of the generic profanity….keep up the excellent work.
{I’m so happy spell check exists}
With the tube having a limit on how far it can go from Syd, and knowing that it would try to follow her if possible, and that if something is stopping it, it stops Syd. If Maxima grabbed the tube and forced it beyond the limit, would Syd be dragged along? and would the gunman be smart enough to let go of her once she started moving?
Given that it appears to be the other way around, her strenght would have to be greater then the bond between the item and Syd. However, upon reading your comment, I visualized her grabbing it and throwing it, with Syd following close behind, both with and without the gunman.
Well, if she threw it hard enough maybe, but I meant was continuing to hold it while trying to move beyond the limit.
I have long live by the philosophy “There are many things in life that can be taken multiple ways if some of those ways offend you, I apologize that was not my intention. If i meant to insult you there won’t be another way to take it. :)”
very yes!
i wonder if you pull hard on the tube when its at its maximum range would sydney be pulled by it
happy friday the 13th~!!
Is it just me, or does the tube look like it’s cracked on the end?
I get the feeling something interesting is about to happen with it. :D
nah, it looks like that’s the point where the lid is attached, holding it to the rest of the tube, like a big flexy / floppy hinge.
Um… Syd was just smashing it on the ground and swearing rather colorfully a few pages ago.
Yeah she was … and she wasn’t being ‘gentle’ about beating the case up either. So yeah it might break with a little more force on the end lol.
Hey remember Doc Savage? Just from his physical description, then his behavior you see he is a mutant too. A super in fact.
Technicality police go! If you disarm a gunman holding up a store he would become an unarmed gunman, people don’t just say “oh he has no weapon, he’s now a regular bystander and hostage” >.> unarmed gunman :P
Actually dis-armed gunman would be more correct.
1. Those three panels, where Sydney and the bank robber are “mulling over their situation, are my favorites to date. The humor is smart, subtle, and multi-layered. I read those panels three times in a row, emitting a snicker, a guffaw, and then a full out ROFLMAO respectively. You have a delightful balance of humor and story. Please try to keep that.
2. I am a Renaissance Festival performer and I can guarantee that personalities like Sydney’s are not as rare as some may think.
3. If Maxima is so easily bent out of shape over men appreciating her physical attributes, maybe she should wear a properly concealing set of BDU’s. Of course, she will still have to deal with statements like, “HOLY COW! YOU”RE GOLD!”
You’re right, she should cover up completely… unfortunately she’s saddled with me for an artist, and I like belly shirts (on the right belly obviously). At least she’s not wearing a deep v-neck shirt, and she usually doesn’t take off her jacket in public, for what little good it does her.
Good thing Maxima has such tough skin so it doesn’t matter what she exposes. Otherwise ladies or men showing skin in most battles is just begging to get blasted an cut an bashed.
Oh my, the 2-4 panles (with her wide eyes rolling) just got me laughing. Hilarity! :_D
It makes me laugh again to see it.
The insignia for colonel is a silver eagle. There is no rank with a gold eagle (at least not in the airforce). Being in airforce jrotc I had to memorize all the ranks.
Yeah, I’ve decided that she’s actually a Lt. Col., which is a silver leaf which makes no sense to me, so in Archon, Lt. Col. is a brass bird.
In the ARMY, a Lt Major, has a dark oak-leaf, a full Major has a gold oak-leaf.
I just noticed that the third panal panal of the gunman and Sidney figuring out what Maxima is saying that the gunman looks at Sidney