Grrl Power #396 – Eat lightning and crap expletives
Woo! It’s good to be getting back to Sydney, up to her usual… antics is really the only word for it. If they ever make a reality TV show about Sydney, she should be fighting crime while traveling across the country and they should call it the Antics Roadshow.
13 panel page too. Yup, everything’s back to normal. :/
Apparently normal Army bootcamp starts you at 4:30 which is just painful to think about. The last time I was up at 4:30 it was because I hadn’t gone to bed yet. Archon starts their day off a little later because they stay up later. Arc-Boot doesn’t take place in isolation, they knew from the beginning that even the recruits would be in high demand for interviews and public appearances. The second wave of recruits might follow a more traditional route, but by the time they roll around the public will probably be champing at the bit for new super celebs.
I live in Texas, so naturally I hate hot weather. “Jacket weather” or colder is best for me, but it comes with a major drawback. I shock the crap out of myself about 50 times a day when it’s cold. Doesn’t matter if I’m walking around in socks, wearing shoes or slippers with rubber soles, or if I’m barefoot (which admittedly is rare cause my toes get cold.) I once actually destroyed a mouse by zapping it so bad something inside it got fried. Well, I zapped it a zillion times and one time the buttons suddenly stopped working. I learned to shock myself on something not attached to my computer first to avoid any more expensive replacements.
Something I’ve decided to start doing is posting double resolution pages over at the Patreon for all supporters. ($1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :) Unfortunately Patreon doesn’t have a way to schedule posts as far as I can tell so I’ll post it as soon as I get up today and link it here.
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.
Another trick is to lightly pound on a metal surface with your hand. The sensation of impact should help override the sensation of static shock.
That’s the trick I use. We have a floor lamp and I just rap the back of my knuckle against it. The key is to do it quickly so you’ll discharge the static close or on the metal (no pain). Of course, it’s easy to hurt your knuckle that way it you hit it too hard, but that pain doesn’t linger. :-)
My trick is not to close the circuit with my hand; instead I hop, touch it while airborne, then discharge through my shoes.
If you really hate it….Grab a key or a penny or something else that’s small and metal. It’ll be too small to shock you but when you’re holding it between thumb and forefinger you’ll have lots of skin in contact – then move it towards something that’ll ground you out and the spark will jump from the tip of the key or the edge of the coin and you won’t feel a thing.
oh god am i the only one who read it as fart VADER?
No, no you are not
AND I FIND YOUR LACK OF FLATULENTS … DISTERBING
Hrmn, red boyshorts fort the win.
She’s stealing Leon clothes already?
How do we know they are boy shorts? Can’t see enough of them from that one single panel to tell
I’m convinced they are deadpool boyshorts, with the logo on the front.
And is there another style that goes down the leg but tight on the leg like that, other then boyshorts?
Sydney should use lighthook to manipulate all metal objects until she finds someone else to discharge on.
Now I am forced to wonder whether Maxima counts as a metallic surface.
Oooo, let’s find out, shall we? For SCIENCE!!!!! (and giggles and 100 months of KP :P)
That’s not a bad idea at all, actually!
ZAP!
Max: “Ow! Mutherfu–”
Sid: “AHA! Vemenance couldn’t defeat Maxima, but with the power of my static zaps! I shall succeed where he failed! Mwahahaha!”
Max: “Jiggawatt! Front and centre! Feed our cocky recruit some electrified humble pie!”
Jig: “Sure thing bosslady!” ^_^
Sid: “Oh walrus testicles, I walked right into this one! FLEE!”
it would work if max was not already had that skin tight forcefield which would probably repel the static bolt back to Sydney
this satire or are you actually still in middle school?
It is quite a witty tongue-in-cheek take on how such a scene may play out. Quite appropriate fun for a commentator to have, on a comedy webcomic, where the cast do get up to hijinks.
Although, if analysing it with a serious head on, a recruit zapping their commanding officer could find themselves facing a courts martial. Whilst Maxima would be unlikely to opt for that, as it would seriously impair the unit’s capability, she would not be likely to respond in kind. A commander would be expected to maintain their authority and an appropriate degree of respect.
If you follow Hinoron‘s link (in his name), you will see that he is the forum moderator for an adult-only hentai website. So is probably not in middle school.
TL/DR: Satire.
Actually, Yorp, it looks like j is the one still in school. Snaps off what s/he thinks is a witty and cutting one-liner then sits back and waits for the defensive reaction. Classic bully.
You live in Texas? So do I because I’m living just outside of Victoria,Tx,So if you live nearby,maybe we can meet each other at Montana Mikes or somewhere and have a lunch together sometime.That would be great!
I’m just north of Dallas.
Screw Dallas, it’s all about Fort Worth
screw Fort Worth, it’s all about Farmers Branch lol
I thought you were talking about a different kind of mouse for a minute there, DaveB! Also, maybe with the exception of the socks, this is the hottest outfit I’ve seen anyone in so far… but then, I’m kind of weird about my feelings on traditionally “sexy” clothes.
Is it just me, or she really looks like Thor in this one… (electricity and shit)
Aaaa childhood memory static electicity and chocking my younger brother. Or be chocked by him. And try too charge us up on the old rug so we cold chock back or find and chock dad
I’m gonna assume you meant “shocked.” Had me a little worried there when I thought you were saying “choked.” :D
Shocked correct. But there where times when i was younger choking my little brother was temting.
Younger brothers can be a pain. Even when you love them
ahhhhh fun times tho lest she fails to pull a charge just by walking around even on hard wood floors and plasma balls. In class when I was in school we did the static genrator deal took around 15 min for me to max out the charge to get my hair standing on end by that time I was having 2~3 inch bolts firing from the bottomes of my ruber soled shoes in to the metal chair that was sitting on top of a wooden box fun times was had a full 20 min later when I zapped a class mate a few times after that they never let me touch it again. Later we found out I would kill a chain from a volt generator regadless of where I was in the chain that one stumped even the teacher. Then there was the science trip to the platarem in Salt lake city needless to say after touching a jackaps later they had down stairs and making it emit a pissed off sound for a full 20 min’s AFTER I touched it I was bared from touching any thing else dealing with the electric desplays.
You should practice and develop your super powers.
Why does she just not FLY AROUND IN THE MORNING!
Probably because like myself, judging from the facial expressions, a brain is not OEM equipment for at least half an hour after “waking up”.
Point of order: the reason why boot camp starts at 4:30 is both to put the recruits under a certain degree of stress, and to make sure that the recruits are used to being able to be up, active, and alert within a very short time even if they are running short of sleep. This is something that I would expect to be highly important for ARCHON, especially given that they are clearly going to be major targets from here on out. If anything, the talk show appearances would only serve to enhance this part of the training, and make the acclimatization process faster, although not necessarily more fun.
On the other hand, it will make it much harder for any members of ARCHON to start enjoying being in the limelight all the time. There is a reason for the traditional antipathy between the media and the military, and there is a reason why that antipathy has been allowed to remain.
the speed at which an electric current flows is proportional the the amps pushing it. it can be as high as 1/100th the speed of light. since your skin is a good insulator the electrons leaving it create heat, enough heat to super heat the air between your finger and the surface you are about to touch, turning it into a plasma. so several thousand degrees..give or take. touching a surface with a key or other metallic object held in your hand would would allow the electrons to cross into the object through direct connection, no shock and no heat. I worked on a job where we were laying a pipeline under some high voltage lines, they inducted current in the pipeline would give you a HELL of a shock if the pipe wasn’t grounded. so I took to carrying a metal bar with me to ground the pipe out before I touched it.
you confused amps with volts
volts are the difference in potential (motive force)
amps is the flow of electrons (speed)
electrician
A technique I learned from commercials for diabetic supplies is to touch the object with the upper side of your arm, since it is much less sensitive than your fingertips.
Static electricity has nothing to do with electomagnetism… beside the “electro” part. Just saying.
Which of the 4 fundamental forces should she have told off?
i wanna say weak nuclear? hell, there’s a small diss right in it’s name!
Well, the build up of static energy by ripping electrons is weak nuclear force.. but the electrodynamic part, when u get zapped, it’s actually electromagnetism.
This page makes me really curious about what her orbs were doing while she was sleeping. It doesn’t seem like they were orbiting her head like when she’s awake.
We saw them ‘wind down’ as she went to sleep, before Deus’s interview
Just went back and looked, and it seemed to me like they were still orbiting her head, although it also seemed like she wasn’t quite asleep yet. Or maybe I’m just totally misunderstanding lol.
I carry a pocket knife. But any metallic object will do. Anytime you approach a door handle or light switch (the little screws holding the plate on get me) Just bump the top of the (closed) pocket knife up against the metal first. A firm grip on the metal of your pocket knife keeps it from arcing to you. Technically, you’re still getting zapped, but without an arc, you don’t feel it. I’ve got a semi-metal desk that I ground myself against before messing with the computer too.
Every day I wake up, equalize the charges, go to the bathroom, equalize charges, grab something for breakfast, take a shower, swear loudly in the shower because I forgot to equalize between food and washing-
I am very highly negatively charged naturally.
Seriously, I have destroyed digital circuitry because I didn’t equalize enough that day.
what only two line of swearing i thought she would be on page 5 with that much static bolt hitting her :P
When I saw how the orb’s glow was coloring her hair in panel 3 and 5 I couldn’t help but think she should dye her hair like that. I think it would make her look awesome.
Hey Dave, one of your ads, the westin hotel one, automatically scrolls you down to it no matter where you are on the page. It seems to take a couple of seconds.
Also, knowing someone who has that problem with static electricity, and it is incredibly frustrating. I can’t shake their hand without getting shocked.
The tips of your fingers are sensitive. Very, very, very sensitive. There are reasons for that.
Your knuckles, on the other hand, are less so. Also for reasons.
Pro tip: when approaching an object likely to cause a painful discharge of static electricity, tap a knuckle against it before grasping it. YMMV but it should hurt far, far less than using your fingertip. And once you start, it’s a pretty easy habit to get into. Pain is a wonderful teacher. :)
Ugh, I used to hate doing rounds at one site. We had to grasp the metal handle to the electrical rooms to make sure it was secured (engineers weren’t always the best at double checking that), and they would shock me. Every. Single. Time x.x Got in the habit of brushing them with my knuckle first. Felt far less painful of a shock then.
I just touch A key im holding fermly in my hand to the doornob/Lock ! :P
A key (or other small, ungrounded metal object) is the way to go, hands down. The reason static electricity hurts is because all the current is concentrated in space and time at the arc between your finger (or other body part) and whatever grounded conductive object you got too close to. This means that the nerves in the skin immediately below the arc are exposed to pretty much the entire surge. If you’re holding an ungrounded conductive object and complete the circuit with that, however, the electrical surge will distribute itself relatively evenly across the parts of your skin in contact with that object as it leaves your body, and will only concentrate at the arc, now between two nerveless pieces of metal. This distribution of the surge means that if you have a grasp on your finger-saver any firmer than that you would use on a particularly noxious sock, you probably won’t feel anything at all. Keys are especially convenient for this purpose simply because you are likely to have one on hand should the need arise.
The other solution, indoors at least, is to get a decent humidifier.
Grounded bed sheets would be nice.
They actually exist, it’s an alternative medicine thing and their creator sells them for wack amounts of money and claims they cure basically everything. No idea if they’re actually properly grounded or would prevent static, tho.
We both live in Texas,eh? I’m living in Victoria,and I know what the weather is like down here.And when I went to Basic Training for the U.S. Air Force(San Antonio weather is the same as Victoria’s,which made it better for me than those others from Bronx,Tampa,L.A. or Seattle) they did’t wake us up at 4:30 A.M.,it was 5 A.M..But that was back in 1985,so it may have changed since then.
There is NOTHING complicated about static on doorknobs. You don’t need special “tools” or “techniques”.
Your fingertips are very sensitive, for very good reasons. They feel stuff. Your PALM is not sensitive for other good reasons, namely it has to push, and twist, and do other stuff your fingertips don’t need to do.
The “Doorknob Problem” is very simple. Extend all your fingertips out of the way, then touch your PALM to a doorknob expecting a little spark. Your palm won’t even feel it. Turn the damned doorknob already and get on with your day.
I always just use my arm to discharge static electricity.
So the first time I ever read this comic, I came to this page, and I thought Sydney’s powers had something to do with electromagnetism. The orbs confused me, but I figured they were just some sort of power cells or foci, not entirely wrong but I was coming in from the wrong angle on that one.
Not really catching Sydney at her best here. Glad you pressed on, despite her bad static day.
and we’re back again. You never forget your first, and this was the first page of the comic I ever saw. Can’t for the life of me remember what lead me here, but damn have I enjoyed the ride these past years.
why’s she wearing lipstick in the first panel?
It is just an optical illusion, due to the shadows. If you zoom in enough, the effect vanishes.
right, zooming in totally changes the color of her lips from crimson to flesh tone. get your eyes checked.
Left, zooming in leaves the colour of her lips from flesh tone surrounded by grey shadow to flesh tone surrounded by grey shadow. It just makes it easier for the colour blind to make that out.
https://u.cubeupload.com/srcs/firefox2018060419371.png
https://u.cubeupload.com/srcs/firefox2018060419371.png
You’re right, these two sets of lips are exactly the same color. Totally. Are you really gonna make me get out the color picker next?
https://u.cubeupload.com/srcs/firefox2018060419342.png
frikkin browser.
https://u.cubeupload.com/srcs/firefox2018060419342.png
maybe the second attempt will work
Yes. Further, I insist that you show exactly where you pick the colour from.
• Tongue = red.
• Inside of mouth (below tongue, but above lip) = a dark colour approaching black.
• Lower lip = flesh colour.
• Shading below lower lip = some grey variant on flesh colour.
The lower lip makes these distinct colour bands stand out well. The upper lip is narrower, so the differentiations are not so easy to make out, or for you to use your picker on. But if you wish to go for the upper lip, please indicate which pixel you have chosen for each.
lmao how do you suggest picking a color from elements that aren’t even visible? Her mouth is closed, jackass. If you’re going to continue to pretend to be an idiot, don’t bother replying.
I am not pretending anything, I am giving you my honest interpretation of the scene.
However you do appear to have … mmm … how can I put this without similarly demeaning your mental capabilities? Ahh, you appear to have failed to grasp that you are misinterpreting an open mouth as a closed one.
Offering insults is not a way to constructively resolve a difference of opinion. It is far better to debate the disagreement, so that the source of the different viewpoints can be discovered. Which I believe we have just successfully reached.
Sydney has just woken up. So we would be expecting her to yawn (with mouth open). In this case though she is merely letting out a protracted sigh “NNNNUUUUU”. The mouth would naturally remain open whilst articulating this (contrast it with “MMM”, which would require the mouth to be shut).
If taking in both the circumstances and the speech bubble it is fair to expect the mouth to be open. But, you have made me look at the panel with fresh eyes, now that you have said that her mouth is closed. And I agree that it does give that impression (if suppressing the clues to the contrary).
So please have an open mind, and re-examine the zoomed in link you provided:
https://u.cubeupload.com/srcs/firefox2018060419371.png
For those to be closed lips, the top lip and bottom lip should both be visible. Being bright red this should be obvious. There is though no red on top, to even hint at a closed upper lip. Rather there is just darkness. That darkness is the inside of Sydney’s mouth.
What you are taking as the (red) lower lip is actually her tongue. The shape matches what I am describing, as do the shadows around it. In particular we can see it extending deeper into her mouth. Where it falls into shadow, and becomes much harder to make out, as a result.
So, in conclusion, I would say that our difference boils down to expectations. Cartoon images are an approximation of real faces. Which work because our brains fill in the details that are missing. But this requires context and expectation for it to work correctly.
This is how various famous optical illusions work. In this case Sydney’s lips can look both closed and open, depending on our expectations. Zooming in though, and carefully examining the details, I remain fully confident though that the intent Dave had was to depict the mouth as being open, whilst yawning “NNNNUUUUU”.
It also makes far more sense when examining the rest of the scene, and seeing that she did not have makeup on. Thus eliminating the closed mouth, as just being an illusion.
Those are her lips and her mouth is closed. Your interpretation is incorrect. Get your eyes checked.
I really should have inserted a wink, or some other clue, after the “I insist line”, to indicate that I am not particularly fussed about the issue, and am not trying to wind you up. I just do not agree with your assertion.
In case you are the kind of person who habitually has Sydney’s problem with static, I offer two solutions.
First, you can wear a thimble and let the sparks zap that. It will spread out the zap and it won’t hurt.
Second, if you just hate the whole idea, get a short piece of radiator type hose or similar black carbon filled hose. It’s cheap at the auto store, and will have the right level of resistance to discharge those electrons without any noticeable sparking.
PS – if you ever happen to need a gigohm resistor, that hose is your friend. It’ll cost WAY less than a commercial resistor of that size. You’ll need a bridge to measure the resistance of a short piece, then figure up how much it will take to make your resistance.
Ahh yes, we saw the team carrying girders, which may have been for a bridge, when they were working on rebuilding fight damage. Likewise with Maxima measuring the tentacle’s resistance.
*nods understandingly*
I would touch a doorknob with a key or something similar before touching it directly. Fortunately, as I have aged my electromagnetism has waned, so hang in there!