Grrl Power #460 – Super misdirection
I like the idea that Supers have an inexplicable compulsion to dress in capes and skin tight outfits, as suggested in the top flashback panel – only of course they don’t actually wear that stuff in my world. At least not the “official” ones. There are a few vigilantes out there.
The expression “You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.” never really worked for me since, well, as Sydney points out, filling them is easy with the right equipment. The expression obviously assumes you don’t in fact have industrial toothpaste gear at your disposal, but I like my alternate expression in the stinger better anyway.
This scene has gone on long enough that people are starting to wonder when something will happen, which is a perennial issue for this comic, as I do enjoy my exposition. I wrote something about it here. The short version is I’d like to try to reign in the exposition a bit so maybe I’ll try that over the next section of this arc.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon as soon as I get up. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
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.
Hahaha, that last panel! You go Sydney!
Their software is so crufty and has such technical debt, that they are afraid to update it, lest they break it!
Common ground with us! We can build on this!
I never in my life thought I’d do this… but Woo! First comment!
Now, having said that… this page has inspired me to perhaps create a 1930s or 1940s “Private Investigator” werewolf. I may never get to play him (I don’t play on chats anymore, I don’t have a tabletop group, and my Skype group isn’t currently doing Werewolf due to being burned out on it), but I think it’ll be a fun concept to play around with.
Ninja’d by KFox and Joe Guy.
Neener neener neener!
That’s what happens if you try to slip in more than a very few words just as the update kicks in. In this case, haste does not make waste.
;)
Nice try but no cigar. Oh, well…..I like the werewolf carrying the Thompson SMG and rocking a suit. Sweet!
I guess I was sort of reminded of Bigby Wolf in The Wolf Among Us, which is an official prequel to the Fables comic book series.
I dunno if I could pull it off or not (I’m much better at science fiction settings), but a pulp noir Werewolf game might be fun if I got it right.
Always. Expect. To. Be. Ninja’ed.
Today’s handy tip: Taking the time to add “First comment” to one’s comment gives someone else the time to comment ahead of you.
Actually, it was adding the second paragraph that caused me to take two minutes too long. :)
But T(1) + T(2) = T, where T(1) = the amount of time it took to write the first paragraph, T(2) = the amount of time it took to write the second paragraph, and T = the amount of time it took to write both paragraphs It’s possible that T(2) would have been a short enough time frame to have made the comment the first.
Go ahead, sniff out those clues!
“I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those darn kids and their wolf.”
“Thanks for letting us see you work, Daddy.”
“We still don’t know what supers are.”
Birds?
(please tell me someone got that reference)I’m not sure where it is from though it sounds familiar. Wasn’t that a joke about supers that can fly?
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s superman!
“It’s a bird!”
“It’s a plane!”
“It’s a frog!”
“Not bird not plane or even frog
Just little old me, Underdog.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bdpyamRS4c
I loved watching that as a kid on Saturday mornings…
…Oh God, now I feel old…
The final series aired before I was even born!
*sigh* Nope, that did not make me feel any younger. But, in case it makes you feel worse, at least you do not need to divide your years by seven, before figuring out how long you might live.
*brings MidnightDStroyer slippers and newspaper, conveniently opened at the obituaries*
Okay here’s a related reference.
“I think it’s a plastic bag.”
“No, it’s just a flying has-been.”
Aww
:-(
No, they’re planes!*
(Don’t want to leave you hanging.)
Let’s see…
Not useful to the common man in everyday life, expensive to prepare and maintain, bound up in government oversight and regulation…
You’re right! They’re planes.
Chemtrails!
No, seriously, this is an actual conspiracy theory about how con trails (condensation trails), an actual thing caused by the physics of airplanes flying through the sky, are really chemicals sprinkled into the sky by the Illuminati. Because, Illuminati, I guess. Because that makes more sense than physics somehow. Yay, people are stupid! Immunizing your kids causes leprosy, obviously, because there’s nothing worse than your kid not getting polio, right?
Oh, yay! Common ground! I know Oberon and I have had minor disagreements in the past, but we are both of the same mind regarding vaccination… and apparently “chem trails”. And probably most other conspiracy theories, too.
The wackiest conspiracy theory I’ve ever heard? That the American Civil War didn’t happen. For me, that’s right up there with the earth being flat (yes, the Flat Earth society is still a thing), the moon landing being a hoax, and 9/11 being a government conspiracy because jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to cause steel to fail. (1,500 degrees Fahrenheit will turn steel into limp red-hot spaghetti. Just ask anyone who’s worked steel in a forge.)
Even weirder is the one where the Early Middle Ages never happened, and we’re really living in the 15th century.
Actually the rationale was not bad. Basically saying that one of the monarchs had no famous ancestors, so had his court historians whip up an impressive pedigree, which required creating a few hundred years of history. Then went on to become a major figure, in his own right, thereby propagating his official version as the de facto standard, throughout Europe.
Falling apart completely though when you examine non-European histories and find that the real-world chronology matches incidents properly, yet would be completely mismatched if those European centuries did not exist.
Let alone things like sightings of Hayley’s comet, which we can prove mathematically when they occur, are recorded in history at the appropriate points. Rather than corroborating the tinfoil hat brigade’s theory.
Couldn’t he just fabricate descent from further in antiquity? It would have been much easier to forge a line of descent from Ceaser (sp?) Or King David (whom he was possibly descended from anyway) than to create a few extra centuries out of thin air.
That is hilarious. It’s one I haven’t heard, but it is amusing to me in that it is the near opposite of creationism, which claims to ‘prove’ that the Earth is a mere 6,000 years old by measuring the biblical pedigrees. Because of course no illiterate tribesman could ever get a fact wrong in their oral history that only got written down when making books became cheap enough to justify over trivialities such as eating and conducting wars of aggression. God would not allow that to happen!
Err … the Pentatuch got written down essentially when they could figure out how to put it down in portable form. As the now-earliest-known surviving Hebrew writing in a portable form can be dated to the 10th century BC (1000 BC), this information added to the fact that the early Semitic alphabets in Egypt (around 1800 BC, within 200 years of the entrance of the Hebrew peoples into Egypt in approximately 1930 BC) were among the first pure alphabets is at the very least strongly suggestive of the idea of the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob having been writing down their family history for some time.
Nor, in fact, were the Israelites big on ‘wars of aggression’; they took over the places they outnumbered the Philistines, and essentially made peace after they’d gotten spread out. All the rest of the time, they got their buttocks thoroughly kicked.
… just, you know – getting the facts straight.
Gaaah.
New earliest extant Hebrew text and first pure alphabets.
I hate not being able to edit my blatant errors.
I’m not at all certain I see any disagreement from you on the whole ‘invented by illiterates’ thing. I’m not challenging your assertion that it was written down as soon as they figured out how to do it, I just don’t see how that means that it wasn’t invented by a bunch of illiterates and written down later.
And on the ‘wars of aggression’ thing, when you feel that it is necessary to codify into law how you may treat the slaves you captured in wars it doesn’t point to your people being a bunch of pacifist navel studiers.
Just, you know, letting the words speak for themselves.
Don’t forget though that ‘illiterate’ does not necessarily mean stupid. There have been some rich oral histories, around the world, including some sophisticated cultures.
Not to mention that it has recently been shown that the aboriginal Australian oral culture is so strongly self-correcting that it reliably holds information from up to 10,000 years ago. Which actually predates any written history!
We do know that parts of the Bible are specifically drawn from oral sources. For instance the psalms include aural poems and songs. Then of course there is that famous bit, transcribed from a first-hand witness of ancient events, onto stone.
Contrails are absolutely full of chemicals, the primary one being Dihydrogen Monoxide, or DHMO. There are several government and private studies that, while not stating it outright, conclude that there is so much DHMO in our atmosphere that it is falling in measurable amounts every time it rains. Due to this, there are huge amounts of DHMO in every water supply, municipal or private.
The stuff is dangerous, too. It will dissolve almost anything known to man, and in sufficient concentration it will cause your lungs to fill up with fluid and suffocate you.
It’s also lethally addictive. Withdrawal has a 100% mortality rate–usually within days.
Oh noes, the tinfoil hat blokes are right, it is a conspiracy, to keep us trapped on Earth!
*runs around barking at the moon, in anguish*
*provides Yorp with a tinfoil hat. For protection.*
Oh, how stylish. And cunningly disguised as a fedora. Complete with ear holes! Fanku.
I guess I better wear a collar and tie, with this, or I will look weird.
Well, naturally.
My college geology professor was a bit of a nutcase. He loved to dispute the ‘universal solvent’ power of water by claiming that everything will dissolve in lava, including things that water cannot dissolve. He had this patter where he’d claim that you or your house would dissolve in lava but not in water. Thus proving, in his mind at least, that geology was the superior discipline over chemistry. I’m not sure that ‘burned into ash’ meets the definition of dissolving, well I am actually quite sure, but then he was only a geologist and we must make allowances for those who study the lesser disciplines.
Odds are you and your house will dissolve in water. The house might take awhile though.
Like a great many people I take a daily shower. I have swum in oceans, lakes, and rivers. I learned how to swim at a fairly young age and enjoy swimming pools. If I was at any risk of dissolving I figure I’ve given the water enough opportunity to prove me foolish for all of my water based immersion activities.
Give it longer.
Ickiness warning, on the following:
Water, and the normal decomposition process, will do the job, in about three weeks to three months. Although crabs and sharks can speed the process up a lot, if you are impatient.
Well, you start off by saying “give it longer” and then go on to cite an amount of time which even at the upper end is less than I have spent in water across my lifetime, just assuming a rough estimate of 10 minutes per day in the shower and not even trying to factor in long baths, swimming, etc. So I have given it longer, and I haven’t dissolved in the slightest.
You appear to be confusing decomposition with dissolving. They are not at all the same. A decomposed body has not dissolved at all. Cell walls breaking down may lend a certain squishiness to the body, but that isn’t dissolving any more than stabbing a bunch of holes in a gallon jug of milk is dissolving, even though the fluids are much less rigorously contained in both cases.
You are also assuming that the meat bag I’ll leave behind upon dying is ‘me,’ in the sense that I’ll care at all about it or will have any further association with it. That is also not the case.
The article I linked indicated skeletonisation occurred within that time, not just squishiness. Decomposition is indeed separate from dissolving, as the former does include the action of microorganisms. However these are naturally present in most water sources and even on our own bodies.
So it would require unusual circumstances, such as water which completely lacked the saturated oxygen, that such need to survive, for that not to occur. In practice it is very rare for bodies in water not to decompose. With that to aid it, the dissolving, that we are discussing, happens very easily. Importantly though it does happen. The body disperses into the water. Skeletal parts will do too, but over a much longer time-frame, taking years.
Plus water saturation can make bodies become unrecognisable within days, as they loose their definition. That squishyness you mentioned. Obviously hastened with other icky processes, which you can look up in the previously linked article. However you can observe the beginning stages of the saturation process, after a few hours in water. Your skin will become wrinkly and prune-like.
Keep yourself fully immersed in water, for such extended periods (without the cheating you keep doing, of getting out and drying yourself off, and having periods to recover skin definition) and you will start to find the decomposition process happening to you, as tissue necrosis can even set in whilst you are alive, if the relevant microorganisms are present and active.
Such as occurs if ‘trench foot’ and other Immersion foot syndromes are allowed to progress untreated. Thus leading to all the above effects.
Not that you should not try testing this at home, as some of those syndromes can occur in as little as 48 hours, and can lead to amputation and death. Along with bits of you dissolving in water, even before the latter happens.
The point is, how much time have you spent consecutively rather than cumulatively in water
Lava can absorb the ashes of a house to the point where on a macroscopic scale you could apply the term dissolved.
You’re exaggerating on “dissolves almost anything” a tiny bit. It does act as a solvent for corrosive salts, because, well, it oxides things like iron very easily.
As for causing fluids to fill lungs in sufficient concentration, that’s true of most fluids.
Anyway, DHMO is actually a nutrient! I drink some every day!
Bah! Haven’t drunk that poison in nearly thirty years!!
Don’t forget that DHMO is a major contributing factor to acid rain, mud slides, and snow avalanches, and it may be a component in fracking-induced earthquakes.
Dangerous stuff indeed.
Actually, the primary chemical in a contrail is molecular nitrogen (N2), with a lot of molecular oxygen(O2). There is only slightly more DMHO in a contrail than in the surrounding air.
I don’t really mind exposition stuff, Dave. It might seem “tiresome” to some when following week by week, but people just picking up the series will blaze through pages like these no problem whenthey’re far back inthe archive.
Like the Diner fight. Sure the fight “lasted long” in terms of how long it took to create, but it doesn’t take THAT long to read through it.
I don’t mind the exposition either, especially when I’ve got Sydney there keeping things lively and interesting. 💖
I have to say though that it does seem to be taking those mages everyone’s supposed to be waiting for rather a long time to get there, though. I certainly hope they have a good excuse. ☺
The keyword in ‘Putting toothpaste back into the tube’ is “back”
You can put toothpaste into a fresh tube, but after squeezing it and getting it out, no way you’re getting it back.
Toothpaste tubes are filled from the bottom, which is then crimped shut. So yes, no refilling the tube.
Came here to say this! Plus many use “dead fold” material, so it’s unlikely you can achieve the same net contents claim. I’m a packaging engineer. I had to!
you can actually refill a toothpaste tube by first blowing into it with air
But if it is toothpaste with stripes, and you push it back in, the stripes will never be the same coming back out.
That, however, raises the bar. The question was whether one can get toothpaste back into the tube, not whether one can get every type of toothpaste back into the tube in the same condition it was before. =OP
On one of the Q.I. episodes they show a machine created by a student, which she designed to reverse entropy, for a woollen garment, such as a jumper. Impressively being entirely mechanical in nature, and powered by peddling a bicycle.
It takes a while, but it turns the garment back into a ball of wool!
Would a ball of wool not have more entropy than the garment?
Not when they release the upgrade and can convert it all the way back into a sheep.
Well, more entropy would have been added to the universe in the creation of this ball of wool from the sweater.
The fallacy here is thinking that the configuration of the wool matters at all. It doesn’t. What matters is the expenditure of energy to do work, which produces entropy. Knitting a sweater and un-knitting a sweater are both doing work. That chaining them together like that makes the work useless to humans is irrelevant to the universe, there are no refunds on entropy.
The “designed to reverse entropy” was a poetic flourish of mine, I do admit. Mainly said to tease scientific types. I just can’t resist adding that bit though, despite knowing I will be picked up on it. Because it is too tempting, when I envisage steam coming out of scientists’ ears!
:-D
Obviously entropy only occurs when you play the recording backwards, and you see her brother becoming less tired, as he cycles backwards, and the machine knits a jumper from a ball of wool.
With a baby medicine syringe (think cross between syringe and mini-calk gun) you could easily put toothpaste BACK in the tube. However, you can’t unring that bell (a court phrase referring to mentioning illegally obtained evidence that can’t be used)
Normally the phrase is “Get the sh.. back into the horse.” Which is more tricky. They tend to kick when you try.
how about the term…”the die is cast” that’s one permanent metaphor right there… and on the subject of refilling the tube. flatten the tube, create a vacuum chamber wiith a threaded coupling that the end of your toothpaste tube can fit in. screw the tube into the coupling from the inside of the chamber. place toothpaste against coupling, draw a vacuume on the chamber…it will suck the toothpaste in.
Depends what your die is made from. Mostly metal, which can be melted down and cast again.
Alas, “the die is cast” refers to a famous Latin saying, “alea iacta est”, and that was talking about multiple instances of dice, i.e., your common D6; it’s a gambling metaphor, not a reference to metalworking activities. You’ve heard of “crossing the Rubicon”? That’s from the same incident, when Julius Caesar invaded Rome (well, Rome proper) and precipitated what we now know was really the end of the Roman Republic and the start of the Empire proper.
Back in the ’80s my little brother found an Asterix the Gaul Role-Playing Game. Well, it was actually more along the lines of a Choose-Your-Adventure-type book, but it used dice and, as Latin Tags have always been a running gag in Asterix, the game had the phrase ALEA IACTA EST !!! in big letters on the cover.
At the time, the Rubicon river marked the border of Italy. The Roman legions were forbidden from entering Italy (as the government feared, rightly, that they could be used to overthrow the Republic). When Julius Caesar ordered his troops to cross the Rubicon, he was taking a step that he couldn’t go back from- he had to press on and succeed, or perish.
So why did he stop to play dice, eh?
*looks suspiciously at history*
What, he can’t play one last game of chance before making one of the biggest decisions of his life?
You have to remember that the guy was crazy.
Who, Julius Caesar? No, he wasn’t crazy. Nero was the crazy one. Kicked his own pregnant wife to death because she dared to suggest he was a bad actor. Forced people to stay in their seats during his “acting” performances and wouldn’t even let them go take a piss, under pain of death, to make sure they saw how awesome he was. He ended up being assassinated by his own Praetorian Guard.
Caesar, however, was simply oblivious to the danger. Even his wife begged him not to go to that meeting, but he was afraid his friends would miss him. He was unaware of how accurate they were with daggers at point blank range…
It’s a metaphor. If you’re playing craps, once the shooter rolls the dice, you can’t take back your bets and all that remains is for fate to decide the outcome. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon under arms, he had bet on his popular support being stronger than the Senate’s control of the Plebians, and all that was left was to see what would happen next.
A translation that would avoid the confusion due to the fact that two homonyms that relate to each other in both meanings of both words exist in the more well known version would be “the die has been rolled,” but that’s not as pithy.
::stares in shock at Wee Red Bird::
As an Equine American, I find this image unsettling and in poor taste.
No matter which end you’re using for repackaging.
::tries to stand to present only a side facing to the entire community and falls over in a dizzied heap::
Poor Weatherheight!
*discreetly slides over a package*
Get these on you, they will prevent any inappropriate behaviour. Don’t worry about the looks. We know you have no such problems yourself, being such a fine upstanding member of the community.
I have a pair of those; while they do block ingress, they also block egress.
New Gravatar, or bad hair day?
I used to be a werewolf, but I am alright nooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW!
The most common one I know is putting the Genie back into the bottle.
I’ve had this done as a lesson in church school, with one or two tubes, and several tear-open packets meant for single use. The packets proved basically impossible, but I managed to get the toothpaste back in the tube, and all of it. Takes care and time, but can be, and has been done.
Neither of them is thinking to suggest the tasmanian devil? (not the cartoon) It has the strongest bite relative to its size of the whole animal kingdom I believe.
Only because the Thylacine (“Tasmanian Tiger” if you must) is extinct. The jaws on those beasties was amazingly strong.
Different animals though.
The Tassie Tiger and Tassie Devil are different animals.
LordViking was not sure of the name, so DaveM supplied the correct one, to match the description given.
Actually, LordViking was sure of the name, but DaveM stated that another extinct animal might have had an even stronger bite, as mentioned below by Weatherheight. When I said the tasmanian devil has the strongest bite I only included the current alive animal kingdom.
Also, unrelated, nice new avatar, I barely recognized you with a hat on.
Ahh, yea, I see it now. I am just used to being unsure that I have a name correct, so took the “?” to be querying that, rather than just a normal sentence punctuation.
Clearly I must have been light-headed, from Dihydrogen Monoxide withdrawal symptoms. I shall just have to wear this hat anytime I feel the symptoms again. Quite easy to spot really. As it includes both hydrophobia and an overwhelming urge to howl at the moon!
I think the logic chain went like this
1) LordViking stated the Tasmanian Devil has the highest psi bite in the animal kingdom.
2) DaveM replied that the thylacine most likely had a much higher psi bite, but since it is now extinct, the honor goes to the Devil.
3) Tgom points out out that they are different animals, which was implied but not explicitly stated by DaveM.
Actually, the tasmanian devil doesn’t have a very high psi bite. It does however have the highest BFQ. This is the bite strength but also factors in the weight of the animal. Which in turn is more useful for a super that can only change his mouth and not his size.
Other than that, pretty much what you said.
Sadly, it’s looking like the Tasmanian devil might be heading that way soon as well, the transmissible facial tumors are causing them a lot of problems. As for the strongest bite strength, it depends on if you’re limiting it to animals that have a true mandible/maxilla set of jaws. If you extend it into the insect world (technically animals), I’m willing to bet you’d find an even higher bite psi/body mass ratio than any mammal could generate.
It’s not fair to compare a square like bite strength with a cube like mass if we are going to talk about tiny things like insects.
So you feel that the definition of bite force quotient (BFQ), should be changed from:
“the regression of the quotient of an animal’s bite force in newtons divided by its body mass in kilogrammes.”
To:
“the regression of the quotient of an animal’s (but excluding insects, because they are funny shaped and tiny) bite force in newtons divided by its body mass in kilogrammes”?
Werewolf mobster is amazing.
I noticed the Tommy Gun, but that doesn’t necessarily mean his a gangster. Maybe he’s a detective? He’s apparently on friendly terms with a super hero . . . unless she’s a super villain, I suppose.
Still, if he was a cop, we could make jokes about him “taking a bite out of crime!”
That werewolf being in law-enforcement was my first thought on seeing him, too…
‘Elliot furryNess’, perhaps?
^_^
OMG!! I just remembered him! Take a bite out of crime? McGruff the Crime Dog! How could I have forgotten him . . .
The effects of age on memory?Well, he really hasn’t been seen for several years now (retirement?), so he’s easy to forget.
He went to live on a farm where he chases squirrels and lays in pools of sunlight and such. No, no, we can’t go visit him. He likes his privacy.
What a hero. Fighting evil, even into his retirement!
Never trust any animal with a bushy tail that also climbs trees. They’re up to something.
I call it the Great Squirrel Conspiracy.
The conspiracy recently got worse, too! A curly haired little girl named Suzy has been proven to be working with them!
I coulda sworn I put that correctly . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OID7gA8fcaw
Not only that, but how can you trust an animal that run up a tree carrying it’s nuts in it’s mouth! :eek:
Well, yeah…When the crooks started using Tommy Guns against the cops, then the cops started to get Tommy Guns to defend themselves. Back then, it was considered “military grade” weaponry.
Yep, it was actually designed for use in World War One, but I don’t think it was used there. I don’t think the army liked them much as they were too expensive or something. That left the manufacturers with warehouses full of deadly machine guns to sell in a time when there were no laws in the US saying they couldn’t sell them to just about anyone.
They were initially nicknamed Trench Brooms or Trench Sweepers, if I remember correctly.
I think that that was a short-barrelled shotgun.
It’s both. Yes, there is a shotgun that was nicknamed the Trench Broom, but Thompson gave that nickname to his submachine gun as well. Considering the shotgun actually got used in World War One trenches and the Tommy Gun didn’t, however, suggests to me that the shotgun is the one which deserves the title.
The army not liking something because it’s too expensive? That I would have to see to believe.
Don’t remember exactly, but I seem to remember it wasn’t that they were too expensive, but more that they were too complex and prone to jamming. Also are heavy bastards.
There were a few businessmen jailed during the American Civil War for war profiteering. And a couple politicians had their careers ruined.
Money corrupts, and lot of money corrupts absolutely. And in times of war it has been fairly common that people have been upset by the appearance, true or false, that someone is using the war effort for purposes of making money rather than being properly patriotic. It’s only in recent years that price tags like hundreds of dollar hammers and thousand dollar toilet seats get nothing more than a yawn from the general public.
They were designed for use in WWI, true enough. But the problem was not cost, it was the fact that the war ended two days before the prototypes arrived in Europe! As such it was initially marketed to civilians, which was where the costs were prohibitive.
Of course gangsters did not find costs to be an issue.
I stand corrected then.
It would be true to sat that the bulk of my knowledge of the Tommy Gun actually comes from a dimly remembered History Channel documentary about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre rather than any kind of research into the gun itself.
“It would be true to SAY . . .”
My kingdom – such as it is – for an edit button!
The original chain-fed machine guns came in the last year or two of WWI, and they had a number of problems that later got resolved before the end of the war. Jamming due to mud and grit from the trenches and variations on the cartridges in the belt made it a pretty bad weapon initially (although it was devastating against the germans when it did work).
They switched to drum feeds that helped keep them cartridges clean and had better size-tolerances, but, as Yorp said, the prototypes that actually worked in a reliable fashion never quite made it to theatre in a timely fashion. So the Army unloaded them (in both senses of the word). I have never been able to find out if the manufacturer took ownership back and resold them on the retail gun market or if the Army unloaded them on the retail gun market directly.
Agreed. DaveB should immediately copyright him and license him out for yet another webcomic.
He is copyright. By virtue of having been published, on the internet, and having the “Copyright 2016 Dave Barrack” at the bottom of the page.
It would not be the first character that Dave has licensed out to another web-comic, for that matter.
Fedora + tommygun + bartender arm garters = 1920’s-ish to me.
It must be a pain trying to find suits in a 30 inch waist and a 60 inch chest.
What? Professional tailors didn’t exist back then?
He didn’t say it would be impossible, just difficult.
You’d better stay away from him.
He’ll rip your lungs out, Jim.
Aaaa-oooooooo!
At least he keeps his hair perfect.
I’d like to meet his tailor.
Just not in a dark alley, when he is feeling hungry. He might not stop at taking just your inside leg measurement. The experience might cost you an arm and a leg!
We’ll meet at Lee Ho Fook’s and talk over a big dish of beef chow mien.
I love how Maxi is so easily drawn into Sydney’s irreverent way of thinking from time to time. Maxi always responds on the sly, but usually agrees with Syd. I seem to remember them discussing the subject of hot guys and the lack of shirts quietly between the two of them once… I’ts hilarious because Maxi is always so uptight about everything… Seeing her dissolve into Syd’s mindset from time to time shows she is pretty much like everyone else and doesn’t always have a weed stuck somewhere…
I think part of her problem is she can’t find a guy she can’t crush 100 of – except her subordinates Hiro and Stalwart and a villain like Vehemence…
Maxima may never totally unwind, but she feels safe about relaxing a bit around Sydney.
she can react like that because compared to Sydney she’s STILL uptight. Of course compared to Sydney even stand-up comics are uptight.
Still, it seems Max is relegated to forever be Sydney’s Straight Man (er, Woman) for the jokes.
I think ‘When will something happen?’ is a problem most of the time for most strips.
I noticed it in the daily ‘Dick Tracy’ long ago… It took FOREVER for TwoFace to make his coin.
Two Face has left Gotham? Has anyone told Batman?
He knows. Once you get on the Bat’s radar, you don’t never get off.
(negatives doubled for emphasis.)
Reditt? not Reddit? (on purpose or a typo?)
You can see the webpage below that. It says reddit.com.
So probably a typo
In this universe there is also the news and media service for were-frogs named Ribbit.com.
Dangit I thought I checked that.
Oh, of course, I got it wrong in the dialog but right in the url below.
Also, Ingsol says “worked” instead of “vorked”.
I’ll go in on the “enjoying the worldbuilding” train. I enjoy superbattles, but I prefer Sydney talking — you’ve made a really engaging character and I like seeing her have a chance to be wacky.
Unexploding the whale. I was out of the state when it happened, but the video is a classic. I worked at ODOT and we pulled it out at every party. For the few who haven’t seen it…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79tl2H3QzT0
Ho yeah. I remember that video. Pretty messy. In many different ways. Not the most thought out idea
That whale and a bowl of petunias seems to trigger a memory somewhere…
;)
“I wonder if we can be friends?
Oh no, not again.
My parents were at UofO when it happened. I grew up out of state but the story was familiar to me as a result, and pre-internet I was half-convinced they’d made it up.
I could see why you would be suspicious if they were talking about exploding whales, UfOs and a pre-internet era. Out of curiosity, do you look like this or this?
“Mom, why don’t I look like the other kids?”
“Well, let me tell you about this time, before the internet…”
Actually looking at my toothpaste tube, I would guess they are filled from the now non-open end. And then that side is closed off using a combination of pressure and heat.*
That would mean even a Toothpaste Tube Filling Machine could not put it back into the tube.
*I actually worked 3 months at Haribo, supervising the machines that made those small 12 gramm packages. The process is similar, except the Toothpaste tubes can not use the rest from the first step in the second.
Looks like I was right in my guess:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk7kHmjFocc
Did you happen to read the Amazon.com reviews of the Haribo sugar free gummies, very, very funny, some very talented writers jumped on that meme.
Wow. I mean, just wow. I used your words for the Goggle search: “Amazon.com reviews of the Haribo sugar free gummies” and got multiple product hits on Amazon. Each with hundreds or thousands of reviews all describing in various excruciating detail the effects the product had upon their digesting systems.
The only thing missing, IMO, was a series of “Customers who bought this also purchased” set of links including bulk toilet paper (for the consumer), paint and wallpaper (for the bathroom), and re-hydration products (also for the consumer).
Looks like Sydney’s influence is rubbing off on Maxima.
Well, Maxi did say waayyy back in the conference room that she use to be a bit of a nerd (when she asked if Sydney’s balls were Ioun Stones) and was told to say it with pride
Maybe this is why Maxi likes Sydney so much: she finally has someone she can nerd-out with
Reditt-> Reddit.I already have a pedantry achievement (and apparently the opposite of ADHD or dyslexia or whatever lets your brain skip over spelling mistakes) so I will settle for the quiet satisfaction of a job
welldone.Maybe they spell it different in an alternate universe? =OP
The major selling point of this comic has to be Sydney and other characters’ quirky personalities. Remember how long it took until we even learned what Sydney’s powers were? And it didn’t matter! It kept going thanks to the great characters. In all honesty, I found the most boring part so far to be the big super brawl, which kept going for the good part of a year until Sydney finally did her thing. Keep the focus on the characters, and I’m happy.
Agreed on all points. Sydney bought my readership back when this was seven pages long, and her and the rest of the cast are the reason I’m still around. Combat is cool and all, but your core reader base was grabbed during the first two hundred pages on nothing but your characters and writing. Don’t knock it.
I’m not suggesting totally reversing course, just trying some arcs where I give you guys more to speculate on rather than diving in to every little detail. I don’t even know if I could keep it up for long anyway. :)
I love that you push our boundaries. I love that you take people who came here for a quirky, nerdy comic-book store owner and her weird ideas, and gave them supers, aliens, monsters, and global conspiracies to think about. I love that you’re pushing YOUR boundaries, as well – I love seeing how many of my favorite online comics (yes, this is one of them) have grown and matured as their writers/artists become more skilled and more confident in their storytelling ability.
Yng and Panic are simply worried that you’ll lose sight of the quirky silliness that drew them here. It’s kinda like you’re Michelangelo, up on a riser in the Sistine Chapel, putting tons of detail into a single angel’s face – and then, broadly sketching in all the rest of the figures you’re going to paint up there. Your fans below are like, “HEY! What happened to all the detail, Mike? That’s what brought us here!”
The proper response is, “Shh. Be patient. Dis gun be gud.”
Well, naturally you will have run out of things to explain, eventually
Personally haven’t had any problems with any parts of this webic, every part has been well written (actually, to be honest, the only ‘problem’ has been Sydney’s face after she got her bang-wrangler-band)
You can use some alternative methods to get the info dumps out in one or two pages of nearly pure text and maybe just have one or two pages of comic style discussion on it if you have humerous scenes or responses in mind.
Maybe Sydney has a blog… and we see copies of the pages that Leon is constantly catching and suppressing. Government files can work as well (although are likely more difficult to add jokes to). Diaries, journals, video tutorials, etc. erfworld has done some great things over the years to get masses of information out quickly without bogging down the main comic (although I’d agree that they’re probably a little heavy on those pages now-a-days).
Experiment away, but do me a favor and do not do what has been going on in Erfworld the last few years, which is the page of text with a single panel above. While it does move the story along and keeps the artist burden low, I lost interest quickly when more than half the updates came in this fashion. The first book of Erfworld was amazing, later books have not been as interesting to me, mostly because of the frequent use of the “wall of text”.
I now like to imagine the random girl at the end is a fan of Maxima because she also is gold colored. As in, she was already covered in gold paint before seeing Maxima and being both gold made her like Maxima.
“OHMYGODshewearsgoldpaint_I_weargoldpaintOMGsistersI<3MaximaSQUEE!"
I really want to know why she was covered in gold paint, in the first place!
Actually, if you look in the background, they’re in front of a restaurant. Given that she says “That is totally unrelated!”, and that the paint is splotchy and unevenly applied, it may not even be paint… in fact, my first thought when seeing that panel was, “are you sure that’s not curry powder or mustard?” My bet is on some sort of food-related accident.
I find the “That is totally unrelated!” to be hilariously funny, and the high-point of the page.
Not to mention having Suzy News make an appearance again, despite the team being in their present secret location. I think it will take a while for me to get used to the somewhat different looks the new style gives characters though. Suzy looking somewhat different to how I last recall her.
Maybe this is because we are now seeing the subtle differences, underneath the Veil? Obviously Dave thinks he is just experimenting, but, well the Veil could just be tricking him into thinking that.
I hope that Arianna still fancies Suzy, despite that, when they have their next liaison!
So, is there going to be any serious explanation as to why Supers exist and who the first one was?
Also, the Twilight Council can’t hide forever; especially with Supers around.
That’s the thing
With supers around, the superNATURAL kinda get’s dismissed as just another type of hero or villain……
True, but where as before the towers had to work hard to obscure everything under a veil of “total normality”, now the path of least resistance will mean that more and more supernatural activity will be noticed because being super is relatively normal.
I’m sure the ‘balance of normal’ you’re worried about is one of the things this Twilight Council exists to endlessly debate. They keep a watchful eye on such ‘boundary events’, and decide what needs to stay hidden and what can be allowed to become the stuff of UFO freaks and nutjobs.
Gilgamesh was reportedly a Super, and if that is too far back, so was Paul Bunyan
It makes me wonder if they guy we saw being tested was fire. As in fire did not exist before he became a super, and humanity had to nibble raw food. When his powers developed, the universal laws bent, to accommodate his capabilities, and combustion (from both his and other causes) became a thing.
There may not have been orgasms, for instance, before the super-heroine Aphrodite!
Super Bite man?
Really Ingsol?
Little unimaginative, even if you are a vampire
He might as well have an allergy to sunlight while he’s at it…………
Political correctness (which he is trying for) does somewhat limit his word choice. Add to that the fact that super hero names have all ways been hard to come up with…
Methinks it’s less Political Correctness than it is “Let’s not antagonize the rival into starting a fight that could have the Council come down on us.” And even still, “Super Wolf” wasn’t exactly A material.
he was saying super wolfman and interrupted himself to not aggravate the werewolf
You’re not kidding. Even many of those that actually make it to publication tend to be pretty damn shitty.
Well, considering his Power is to change his mouth into any animal mouth (guessing the teeth and jaw adjusting to match is implied), what else would you call him? ‘Gavin’ o_O
Shirley.
^_^
Don’t call him Shirley, surely you know that is a girl’s name?
Call him Bob or George or anything but Sue or Shirley.
Ahhh Ingsol, master the dimly lit suspenseful comment… all good and fading back in the darkness.
Conversations with visual gags and humorous asides is a far better method of exposition than ye olde wall o’text or reams of supplementary codices
I’m enjoying the exposition, and this page I think brings it all together, the veil really wasn’t meant for handling/dampening all that 24/7/365 social media coverage we have now. It actually makes sense, and it’ll (at least for a little while) satisfy Sydney’s innate curiosity/confusion. (It won’t do a thing to disrupt her ability to wander down a tangential rabbit hole, but then with someone like her, there are thousands of tangential rabbit holes on hand, and you’d need a fleet of dump trucks with dirt to fill in all those holes, but what would be cheaper to use, dirt or sand or compost or beauty bark or crushed gravel or…) (*This tangential sidetracking was deliberately done in honor of Rabbit Hole #442, which is also the local group number for the Healer’s Union I belong to, Local 442, whose motto Sydney would most surely approve of, “We Don’t Heal Stupid.” Except that it would indeed apply to her from time to time. Poor Sydney.)
Sydney isn’t stupid. She’s just sort of…distractible. Like almost everyone with ADD or ADHD. Or ADHLAS.
I tend to think of stupid as Darwin Award material. Or Trump supporters (though that may just be Willful Ignorance, which is much worse than simple stupidity).
You’re right, you can’t heal stupid. But with enough Duct Tape, you can at least keep it quiet for awhile. ;)
At least Trump supporters aren’t supporting someone recently under investigation in an international war crime
I like the implication that the trend toward skin-tight flashy costumes is somehow embedded into superhero instinct.
Me too… but what about capes?
Wait, I just realized…does this mean that bad puns are also a part of the super-hero instinct in this universe? (referring to the “Why arf you dressed like that?”)
With cleavage included. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CleavageWindow
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AbsoluteCleavage
Well, it is the Most Common Superpower.
The introduction of the skin tight suit was a big boost to the utility belt industry. There is no way you are going to be able to put pockets in that kind of outfit. We shall not speak of the unfortunate ‘pouch’ outbreak of the 1990’s that has seems to be as dead as disco. (Since all trends eventually return, this means we are destined to see pouch wearing disco zombies)
Mostly, the ‘pouch’ outbreak is the work of Rob Liefeld, one of the worst (yet, still one of the most highly paid) comic artists in the industry. If you took a shot of whisky for every pouch he draws on a character, you’d have alcohol poisoning.
And as bad an artist as he is, he is still a far better artist than he is a writer.
I’m talking stink-bomb bad.
Can’t argue with that. I’ve actually read one or two of the comics he was asked to write and ink. Double ugh.
It’s all Liefeld’s fault for making it popular…There are off-shoots of the “too many pouches” effect still occurring, even this late after the fact:
https://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/i-dont-get-why-people-knock-them-pouches-are-very-useful
Don’t forget the super bendy spine and disappearing internal organs of the poor supers of the female persuasion.
That, is utter bullshit, spread by fat and lazy slobs! It is perfectly possible to show both your butt and your boobs at the same time (if you notice, all those images are of extremely fit people, and they are slightly ‘bent’ in the middle to help with the turn)
Next, you will say it’s not possible for someone to hold their ankles from the back!!!! :veryveryangryface:
Oh, the boobs and butt pose is perfectly possible, according to several women I have met who have demonstrated it (though it is often uncomfortable unless you are a professional acrobat or contortionist, or so I’m told).
However… when you see some of Rob’s drawings, it’s obvious the man has a limited grasp of human anatomy. Such as a female character whose FOREARMS are thicker than her abdomen, and a row of pouches where her stomach should (but cannot possibly) be. Case in point: https://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1070346/40_medium.gif
So Roborat is absolutely correct about the disappearing internal organs. There is no way she has a complete set of internal organs, unless they’ve been magically relocated into her torpedo tits or badonkadonk ass. I won’t even begin to go into the list of other anatomical nightmares that Liefeld has created.
And the feet. Don’t forget the feet. Liefeld always drawn feet arrow-shaped for whatever reason.
It’s because he never learned how to draw feet. He knows he can’t draw feet. So rather than doing what other artists do and learn how to draw feet, he tries to hide them instead, by placing them behind rocks, or behind furniture, or behind other heroes, or behind a cloud of dust, or whatever. When he must draw feet, he almost always draws them standing en pointe to try to explain away why they’re so tiny.
Mike Norton turned the Liefeld-feet into a main feature of Kinny :D
Of course the bewbs’n’butt pose isn’t comfortable, that’s why you will note the characters is never in that pose for very long (same with all the other ‘anatomically-impossible’ poses), and it is possible to have a figure like Ms Pouch-abs, but it takes years of training
I think Frank Miller might have beaten him. Miller gave Batman pouches on his Utility Belt in DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and I remember my friends in the local comic book club geeking out about them nearly as much as the bit where Batman explains why he has a big yellow oval on his chest. But Liefeld definitely overdid the pouches. As he overdid nearly everything else he drew.
Except feet.
Umm, didn’t Adam West have Bat-pouches on his Bat-tility belt? o_O
And don’t forget the pirate boots in the 70s.
I have to say I’m ready to move on from the whole council thing. I mean it’s still good reading but vampires and werewolves score pretty low on my Care Meter.
So the girl who is being interviewed down by what looks like Suzie News says that she’s not all covered in gold because she’s a Maxima fan girl but because of something else. I’m gonna guess that it only looks gold and that she had a little trouble with one of those spray-on fake tan things.
Meanwhile, who is doing that poll titled, “Who is your favorite?” How could The Mighty Halo possibly not be winning that?!
Umm, that poll probably was started either during or right after the Press Conference, hence why Hiro is ahead of Dabbles
It’s always difficult to code a new process into a legacy system that it was never designed for.
I work as a mild-mannered programmer for a state-run social services system (as my day job). Recently we had to take the marriage and parentage logic in our system and update it for the same-sex marriage laws. We had to track down every program in every department that referenced marriage. The existing logic of only M+F had to be changed to allow M+F or F+F or M+M. The allowable relationship logic for parentage of a child had to be changed to 1 parent of either, or 1 Mom + 1 Dad, or 2 Moms, or 2 Dads, and all step-parent varieties of the above.
Oh noes, next you will have to adopt it for non-binary gender, and the computers will break!
Tell me at the very least that the database software got upgraded and now has easier ways to update possibilities for a given field.
Please? Otherwise I will have to weep for you and your situation.
Depends on which language they use. When I was a COBOL programmer, the easiest way to do something like that would be to write a database that could be accessed with SQL commands, that would contain a list of the acceptable values for the “gender” field. You still have to go through every program in every department that references the “gender” field and add an SQL request to compare it to the list of acceptable values, and re-compile all those programs, but at least once you’ve done that, adding more gender options is as easy as changing the database.
In C++ (or similar derivatives), you could probably code the acceptable values as part of a STRUCT, and stick it into an #include file. You’d still have to edit every single program in every single department to use the new STRUCT, and every time a non-binary gender was added, you’d still have to edit the #include file and recompile every single program. (I’m sure that there are better options that are less labor-intensive; I don’t know C++ nearly as well as I know other programming languages.)
That… does not sound easy to me.
::sheds a tear or two::
Was it at least well documented?
He said, knowing full well the odds are otherwise. :D
The programs that my department were responsible for, were particularly well-documented. Since both O.B. Juan and I worked for the state (him for social services, me for a state-funded university), I would imagine that the programs he works on are probably well-documented also. As the saying goes, “The world runs on money, but the government runs on paperwork.”
So, from a programmer’s perspective, it isn’t especially difficult; it’s just very time-consuming.
Syndey Syndey Syndey. The machine that puts tooth paste into the tube puts it in there from behind and then seals the behind off.
yeah but analogy still works.. since you can do that yourself and heat seal it pretty easy.
its just harder.
…was that an allegory for… something else?
so funny how often she gets Maxima to join in on weird topics.
Also really good choices. I’d go with snapping or hippo. less so with orca though.
but that would be a sad power.
Remember, Maxi is a lapsed Nerd, Sydney is simply allowing her Nerd-muscles to flex again
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yes its a bird, I just need new glasses.
If it IS just a bird, don’t look up. They love it when you do.
O.o
Always wear Safety Glasses when performing risky observations.
Exposition is totally fine – it gives me the context to understand anything that happens in a given universe. Not to mention that you’re doing it quite well.
Sydney gets educated and asks questions we might have wanted to ask in the same position while staying witty enough that i’m looking forward to the next strip even if there no super villain got turned into a Maxima sock puppet in this one. :o
It would be much more fun to choose a long-sucking mouth part. Or a humming bird beak, with tiny tongue. So that you can really get the most out of a fancy ice-cream, when at a restaurant.
Big mouth, full of fangs, that just get folks screaming and running away.
Save that for when you have to pay the bill. ;-)
You could go with a chameleon mouth and use the tongue zap to snag the last slice of pizza out of the box if there ever were an argument over who gets it.
“Don’t do that again.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdMzeZOZ48Y
Was thinking of this scene
I thought for paying the bill, you would want alligator arms.
Trouble is behave like that all the time and nobody will invite you out to eat. As for where that leads to…
well, just think of the T. Rex!
This is my favourite page. So I tend to use that to compare artistic drift, in the event that either Sydney or Maxima seem to look different, in any given scene. Usually I scoot down to the bottom of the page, due to the variety of expressions that I love, there. However panel 2 above matches panel 2 on the linked page pretty closely.
All in all I think DaveB got today’s comic matching the two pretty closely, which makes me happier with the new style. Obviously we should factor in the changed hair-style. Plus clearly Sydney put on a slightly bigger pair of glasses, at some point. But people can have more than one pair, so that is fine. Whilst the chin is a bit shorter in today’s image, it does fall within the range shown on the rest of the page linked.
I think I probably prefer the smaller glasses, but I am gradually getting used to the overall look, in this style. Sydney does look pretty cute in the last frame. Good job Dave.
Could that also be your favorite page because of panel four wink, wink* where we get an idea of what she might look like *nudge, nudge* naked?
I’d have guessed that your favorite page would be the one where you two met!
*whimpers*
Sydney was scary then. And did not even give me a tummy rub!
Who’s the blonde in that picture, anyway? Any chance introductions could be made? :P
My Arc-Bark partner. She takes me on long walks, throughout the city. Investigating mysterious fires and other possible super-involved incidents. Although there were also unconfirmed rumours that she was recently involved in a mass-attack on Arc-SWAT! So you may wish to reconsider.
That and the fact that she would not have much time to spare, from her primary duties.
This tummy must not be neglected!
*rolls on back, with feet in the air, and a hopeful look*
Sorry, Yorp, but my cat monopolizes all of my tummy rubbing time. He’s very insistent about his exclusive contract for belly rubs.
My cat falls asleep laying on her back, on my computer keyboard. “Today’s password for access: bellyrub”
There are times when she’s very, very smart; she’s figured out the best way to get me up is to knock the wireless phone off the cradle, then put her paw on the “Find Handset” button.
There are other times when she’s very, very stupid. Such as falling asleep with her head in the food bowl. (It’s one of those food bowls with a timer on it, so it dispenses food at 4am. When she feels food hitting her in the face, it’s time to wake up and eat.)
Are you sure the latter is stupid? It sounds like one of the more pleasant alarm clock options, when you compare it to irritating noises.
Well, the thing is, I adopted her from a military family. They had just been assigned to another base, and their new landlord didn’t allow pets, so I offered to take her in. Here’s the problem: She still lives on military time. She expects to be fed at 0400 hours on the dot, and will wake you up if she’s not fed.
So, buying the bowl was an alternative to having her wake me up by pressing the “Find handset” button, or by sitting on my face and smothering me (which is what she used to do before figuring out the handset button).
I’m really loving that playful little half smile Sydney’s wearing in that last panel . . . 💖
To me the only downside is it feels a little forced. They are spending an awful lot of time at this official meeting to explain things to this recruit when maxima could have just as easily given her a printout with the general overview of all this.
I do like the little hints of tension in the last couple comics though, like the whole werewolf vampire attack example thing, or previous with the talk about the council and how it deals with supernaturals that would pierce the veil with their actions. Up till then it felt a little too unified for my tastes. All these groups with presumably very different views on life, the universe, and everything, working together in perfect harmony. It didnt make sense considering they each have wildly different views on whats needed to stay hidden and whats ok by them to do. The sentient golem guys for example would see feeding on people as an insane risk to secrecy while of course vamps, succubi and such see it as vital for survival.
Yeah that’s a BIG issue, how did the Council deal with vamp attacks when they HAVE to do it for survival before blood banks? (basing this on a scenario that Animal blood is…less than Ideal, like eating your bootlaces to avoid starvation level.)
World wide sunnydale syndrome probably. Lots of gangs on pcp and barbecue fork stabbings. In all seriousness, probably something like that. If im understanding this right, vamps dont HAVE to drain you to death, and the veil makes everything confusing and hard to remember properly. So you would probably wake up the next morning thinking maybe you got mugged, or something along those lines.
As an example, Dracula. Unlike Buffy vamps, he didn’t drain his victims all at once–he just kept coming back each night for a little more. If you didn’t know what you were looking at, it would just look like atypical anemia. Followed by death. And then UNdeath. And then possibly death again.
The key thing is that they can survive with a small group of volunteer donors. If you have an immortal patron, who has acquired the wealth of ages, it would be no great hardship to pop over for a fortnightly donation. You get to live a comfortable life, and just need to make sure you eat healthily, to keep your blood replenishing steadily.
To break up the sameness of this part of the story set at the council meeting Dave could insert a cutaway scene once in a while using a pop-up box with the message “Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice, err.. Archon Headquarters”.
And I forget what the old A.R.C. acronym stands for. Anyone remember that page?
It means Atypical Resource Commission, I believe. Don’t remember the page though.
Except, this is supposed to be a Sydney flash-back (can pass off that bit between Maxi and Deus, and Abbey and Deus, as them telling Sydney about it later)
I found David Eddings to be the master at swapping to an alternate scene. He would build up the interest in the current situation, to a fever point, where you are craving to find out what happens next…
to turn over the page and find you are now back at another group of heroes. “Oh noes, I wanted to see what happens with the other group!”
You then get caught up in the alternate teams activities, which get more and more interesting, then…
back at the original group. “Whaaa, I want to find out what happened with the current lot! Oh, but wait a sec, now I get to find out what happened after the last cliff hanger from the first group!”
Very cleverly done.
But it is something that needs working out well in advance, so you leave on a high-point. So the reader is keen to come back and get resolution.
Amen. Many authors would benefit mightily by reading David Eddings thoroughly and grok this aspect of his works before attempting it themselves. It’s become fashionable in many fantasy works and is often done pretty poorly, IMO.
Although in my opinion his few books with a contemporary setting, such as ‘High Hunt’, were superior to his swords-&-sorcery works…
Always been a fan of Eddings… although I do find his plots a little cyclical.
What do you mean “plots”? He and Leigh Eddings basically had one plot with a *lot* of differences in detail (at least in the fantasy books). And yet, I enjoyed reading them. Go figure. :D
Exactly my point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WvvHy2uKwM
Still. I like the stinger expression better too. Although Ingsol being a few centuries old, I could see saying that.
God, I love Maxima. Tries to be so serious and awesome, and suddenly shows her geeky side. Despite the visual difference between her and Sydney, I’m getting the strong impression there really ISN’T much difference between them, other than Sydney’s ADHD To The Max.
Maxima being a closet geek/gamer who is being slowly and sneakily extracted from the closet due to exposure to Sydney is one of the real perks of the team’s social interactions, in my book.
Yups
I look forward to Sydney actually getting her back at the gaming table, which I am dead certain will happen in a far future arc.
With Maxi having to sneak in through a conveniently opened skylight or backdoor, to avoid publicity or to hide her exposed nerdity :D
I heartily approve of running side-commentary. I used to get the best (barely muffled) laughs out at RenFest when doing such for one of the King’s/Queen’s speeches. It is even better when the King/Queen calls me on it, and asks if I have anything to share with the “class”, because, boy, do I ever. Never hand the mike to a toxic extrovert.
Actually, the expression “You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.” does work. For us, the toothpaste users, the paste comes out of a small hole at one end – but at the factory it’s put in the tube through a wide opening at the other end. That end gets sealed after the paste is in and unsealing it would ruin the tube so even it you had the same equipment the factory uses you’d need a new tube to put the paste in because even it isn’t designed to put toothpaste in through the small hole, or “back in the tube.”
If you really want to get technical, the toothpaste would still be back in the tube whether the end was ruined or not. Furthermore, all one would really need is a syringe, although that would probably more trouble than what it’s worth.
You can still force it back in that hole with a syringe or pump, or just a Q-tip and a lot of patience. Sometimes even your finger, depending on how much you’re trying to push in, the condition of the tube, and the will of the gods.
Really, if you want it back in bad enough, it’s goin’ back in.
i bet i could go on youtube and find video of a toothpaste tube filling mashine
Easy peasy.