Grrl Power #533 – Super generic debrief
Sydney probably shouldn’t be telling anyone outside of the team about the visit with The Council, but the only information she’s given the two of them was that the team was doing something a few nights ago, (and everyone already knew they were having dinner at some place in New York) and a female bad guy was involved. The way she sees it, the team is always going to be doing something or other, and Sydney was told not to tell anyone about The Council or vampires or aliens or anything like that, and she didn’t.
I partially wanted to put this page in for the people who complain that the comic’s been around for 6 years and only 3 days have passed. Well, now it’s been like 5. Sydney gets Tuesdays Wednesdays and Saturday mornings in the comic shop, as per her arrangement with the team. (For some reason I was thinking new comic day was Tuesday) Don’t worry, with Sydney grounded and the brass and Arc-LIGHT trying to figure out where Sciona absconded to, we the readers haven’t missed much. Sydney’s basically been sequestered at the base, sitting in class being bored while learning Law Enforcement 101 stuff, and trying to learn how to shoot straight. I’m sure there were probably several hilarious moments, but in the interest of advancing comic time a bit, you’ll have to imagine those for yourself.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like.
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Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Don’t worry, they’ll be back on page 1 real soon now…
Also – did she tell Maxima she can teleport now?
My guess is definitely. they would have been examining her abilities with the orbs in great detail, so she probably couldn’t have kept it secret. Also how could she explain her boobfest induced by shock that she thought she’d died? Max would’ve been really unhappy if she didn’t get a FULL explanation.
Why wouldn’t she have told at least Maxi about her Holo-Porting? She is partially with them to find out about her new septuple-balls, and keeping something like that would not be helping
Well, back here – https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2498 – was considering not telling…
Well, better not tell the very people who are attempting to help her then, see if there is a “Cancel Commission” clause that will allow her to (safely and legally) leave Archon
Nah you don’t need to leave. Just keep using them to develop and figure everything out, but keep your hidden potentials hidden. If they only know you can survive a bullet, you don’t volunteer that you can survive a nuke also. If they need to know your upper limit, its only because they plan to USE that upper limit at some point.
A fair assumption, abibli. The only problem? She’ll need to explain why her skill array has more points; claiming the point gives her “+1 ADHD resist” ain’t gonna fly.
Yea, except they’ve already seen instances of “doesn’t seem to do anything” so she can just claim that.
Indeed. Plus note that Sydney’s concern stemmed from ‘what if Maxima turns evil?’, as opposed to ‘what if I want to fight Archon?’ Whilst the ‘do not tell anyone’ route is safer, given that ‘a secret shared is no longer a secret’, there is a particular problem for Halo. We know her to both be very bad at lying* and that it absolutely wracks her, to do so.
We saw that Sydney became worn-down and depressed at having to constantly lie and conceal the truth. So not only will Maxima (and others) be able to tell that Halo is up to something (if not what precisely) but it will increasingly weigh on Sydney’s conscience.
Whereas sharing the confidence will both allow Sydney to get help in making her covering story more convincing and give her someone she can receive emotional support from, to help her keep the pretense going. If she goes down that route though she needs to very carefully consider who could help her.
• General Faulk – From a chain-of-command perspective he is the correct choice for Sydney to approach. He is Maxima’s superior, and it would be his call as to whether the information should be withheld from her, in Archon’s best interest. Sydney has not been ‘taught how to military’ yet though, so may not appreciate this.
I have suggested this in the past though, on the grounds that Sydney should be able to figure that out, even as a civilian, if she thought through it logically. Which is a very guy-oriented approach to a problem. But Sydney is a tom-boy, so this is a realistic route that she might well take.
However the problem is very much an emotional one. The fear of messing up her personal relationship with Maxima. They have managed to bond, at a deep level, and Sydney will cherish this, I am sure. Likewise Sydney needs emotional support here. Sydney has no emotional connection with Faulk, hence would not see him as being able to help her, in the way she needs.
• Dabbler – A pretty good choice. Even with keeping her teleportation secret, Sydney would have a hard time beating Maxima, on her own. But we know that Dabbler is the only other person, on the team, who can beat Maxima. So teaming up with her might be the only practical way to beat Maxima.
Plus they have confided a lot (in the steakhouse, on the roof of the club and at HQ). Dabbler is a free spirit and would be unconcerned at keeping a secret, if she felt it necessary. Plus it would amuse her to get one up on Maxima. But what if it is Dabbler who turns evil?
• Peggy – Sydney has bonded with Peggy in the food court restaurant and whilst training. She would be able to provide the emotional support. Plus is a veteran soldier who will realise the tactical imperative here. Regarding the possibility of Evil Peggy, there is the serious risk due to her being a sniper and Sydney having a vulnerability to bullets.
But this is true of any of the heroes, as Halo can be killed by any one of them, if caught unawares, with her shield down. If Sydney is able to bubble-up though, she is safe from most of them, and Peggy especially so, as she lacks any powers. But Peggy has been friends with Maxima for many years. Would she conspire against her?
• Harem – An incredibly dangerous choice, given that Harem is already doing things, like betraying secrets to Deus, that make her look like she is evil. Although Sydney does not know this. Fortunately Sydney has gotten off to a rocky start with Harem, having punched her a few times.
But they have had bonding moments, such as in the car park, after the big fight. Likewise Harem showed concern at Shadow Boxer trying to kill her. Plus Sydney being with Harem, as she faced the trauma with her broken arm. Fortunately Sydney has Listed Harem, for betraying her confidence, about being a vegetarian
• Pixel – spies are good at secret stuff. They really hit it off badly to start mind, and Pixel got mad with Sydney. Even before she got her almost killed!
• Krona – She is not even a member of Achon (yet). So confiding secrets, in her, could be considered traitorous behaviour. But she has saved Sydney’s life. And would provide a contingency against ALL of Archon turning evil.
• Others – Sydney may empathise with (some of) her fellow recruits, due to their similar newbie status, but they are not even cleared for general information about aliens. The super doc does have patient confidentiality, so could help with emotional issues, on a professional basis, relatively risk-free.
Joel and Olivia could provide emotional support mind. Would Sydney want to risk endangering them though? If Maxima (and/or others) turn evil, Sydney may need help, from her chosen conspirator(s).
* Her series of attempts to explain the presence of Tubey, to Joel, being an obvious example. The much more subtle one, requiring spotting and interpreting significant glances, indicate that Maxima and Zephan can tell Sydney is either lying or withholding information, relating to the discovery of the orbs.
Wait, did you say the Pixelicious almost got Sydney killed? Or Sydney almost got Pixelicious killed? o_O
Not sure if that is correct for either case…
The argument being that Sydney freezing up, whilst making a skill choice, left Pixel without a heavy-hitter backing her up. Which resulted in her almost being killed (were it not for her extraordinary regeneration).
Whilst we know that Sydney had mitigation, for a variety of reasons (such as lack of sleep) and thus was not fully compos mentis. Pixel did come awfully close to dying and Halo did fail to render assistance. So that is not exactly going to draw them closer and could even exacerbate the existing problems between them.
An intensive stroking and petting session might go some way to healing the emotional wounds mind.
Tuesdays? What mystical alternate reality is this where New Comic Day isn’t on Wednesday?
Tuesday is the new comic day where I live
New comic day was Wednesday last time, you know the time she ended up storming in on Harper, Obama and the Mexican guy on the conference call.
Was it? Shoot, for some reason I was thinking it was Tuesday, but you’re right, I guess it was Wednesday.
Is he right? I went through the archives just a while ago and all I remember seeing in the comic was “new comic day” – in the comments? that’s another matter.
6 days isn’t enough to get to the same day of the week anyway
Yep, new comic day is Wednesday (at least it is in the United States).
When Harem teleported into the armory during the Battle at the Restraunt, it was Tuesday. The next day was New Comics Day, thus Wednesday.
> …you know the time she ended up storming in on Harper, Obama and the Mexican guy on the conference call.
Man, I miss Obama. :<
Me, too. I listened to a couple hours of Comey’s testimony earlier today, and I’m looking forward to the news analysis of the whole days testimony.
As a person who works in the shipping industry anyone who gives you wednesday as a shipping date is… getting it flown overseas. Monday they release stock, Tuesday it arrives in the morning unless it’s crossing an ocean in which case Wednesday it arrives.
As a person who buys comics, new comics come out on Wednesday in the USA. :D
As someone who’s had to stock things, I’ve always told customers to expect their things one week from the day I expected to get them. I had to assemble stuff, but the basic logic is still there. Don’t tell customers to be there the same day you’re supposed to receive things so that you have time to sort their orders out of the shipment, or in the worst case, time to replace missing or damaged parts of their order. Or the delivery could be late and your customer shows up at opening. Some customers will expect their order to be ready to go as soon as you open for business the day you told them to get it and they’re not always going to be understanding.
That’s the “Engineer Scottie” method of schedule estimation. I can’t even imitate a badly imitated Scottish accent in writing, so just picture the engine room of Enterprise: “I cannae work miracles Cap’n, it’ll take at least a week to get Warp drive online again!”
five minutes later:
“ok, capn, but I cannae guarantee she’ll hold togethae”
“Mr. Scott. Have you always multiplied your repair estimates by a factor of four?” – “Certainly, Sir. How else can I keep my reputation as a miracle worker?”
Here in the UK they [usually] reach the shop on Tuesday, but the shop apparently isn’t allowed,/i> to sell them until Wednesday because spoilers…
Time skipping! Yes! We are edging ever closer to page 4!
You mean page 3?
That too.
Panel 4 Syd is totally adorable
I was going to wonder if it’s a good idea to have her orbs out at work, but I guess as many problems as that might cause it isn’t as many as putting them up and dealing with every customer who only came to see them in person would be.
Also good to see Joel again. I like comics that can ground themselves by spending some time with regular people. Plus I just like Joel.
Also that’s totally Gravity Falls Wendy in line behind the window, right? It’s not just me?
Yup I see wendy and her friends in the window.
Dangit we could have all pretended that we didnt know what madock is talking about and say theres no one there and make him think he is going crazy…
You remember Syd can NEVER be away from her orbs right? Her option was the poster tube to keep em hidden and you remember what a pain in the arse that was. I bet she is glad to be open with her extra abilities and never have to deal with that tube being left behind or caught in shit anymore.
You mean panel 3? For is the back of her head. Not that it’s not adorable too…
Maybe Madock345 has thing for pony-tails :wink:
Actually I meant panel 2, don’t know what happened there.
Do you think that Sydney and Co. have insanely jack up the prices on all their merchandise and charge $500 for each autograph?
No
I’m with Guesticus on this. Despite how badly all their new customers want to meet a superhero, jacking up the price on all their merchandise is a really good way to lose all those new customers. I’m in a position to know; one of the people in my neighborhood owns the local comics and games store. He made the mistake of trying to jack up his prices…
… and several years later, he still has to do carpentry on the side to make up for all the business he lost. The slump in comics sales, plus the fact that he refuses to do what I suggest and rearrange the store’s inventory to force people to take another look, hasn’t helped.
(Rearranging the inventory means that people don’t just walk past the shelves assuming they’re the same as they were the last time. It makes them look and realize you’ve got new product that they didn’t see before.)
Charging $500 for an autograph would be a good way to cut down on people asking for autographs, though. It’d also be a good way to distinguish the “#1 Fan” stalker types from the rest.
Of course, they would be the ones that always had the $500 to get the autograph.
Probably the deal is ‘buy an item and Halo will autograph it for you’.
Sold out every week.
Even though once Sydney signs it & it’s no long “mint condition,” you can bet that it’ll still gain in collector’s value, probably more than it would if she left in mint condition.
;)
Sydney can offer an extra service. An autographed product still in its ‘sealed’ packaging.
“Sorry some of my powers are classified. The service is provided ‘as is’ without explanation.”
I am reminded of Freefall, in which Florence commented that it felt like one day had lasted about a year and a half…
I remember that strip. Tried to find it, but ever since the search engine died, and with over 2800 strips, it’s hard to find exactly what you’re looking for.
It’s linked under the “Other Webcomics …that I like” list on the right of the page. Look for the entry labelled Freefall ;)
Ignore me – misread your comment &I thought you meant you couldn’t find the Freefall site itself
Go to https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WebcomicTime , try to not get distracted … ok, not distracted too much and in just few hours you can find https://freefall.purrsia.com/ff500/fv00405.htm
Just making conversation, but Olivia’s top/sweater/shirt is really nice. And I want a T-shirt like Sydney has.
I’m sure many want it. Or at least, they want to remove it from her. ;)
It would look good on my bedroom floor, for sure…
Cuz she’s in it, the garment looks good. Always good to see Olivia. Such a sweetheart.
As another side note, I have never seen such a clean counter and shelves in any comic book / gaming store I’ve ever been in, but I respect your choice not to go into “Geof Darrow” levels of background detail. :D
We had one comic/gaming shop that made a point of keeping the glass counter cases cleared off and clean. I asked the owner about that and he said he liked to think of it like at a jewelry story, clean clear presentation of the protected (valuable) merchandise.
I think, at this point, it’s call LICKED CLEAN! lol
Windows maybe, not the counter :P
Our comic store was like that, a little: had three display cabinets that really only had the cash register and a couple display stands, that way it was not only easier to see the ‘contraband’ stuff (legal highs and knives and stuff) but more room to lay out orders, plus, it was simply better being clear and tidy rather than cluttered and messy
Since we are back in the store, here is a blast from the past.
November 1st, 2010 | by DaveB
More adventures in the hilariously spartan comic book shop. I really need to spruce up the walls with more posters and such. I’ve never been in a comic shop that didn’t have every square inch of the walls plastered to the ceiling with posters and merch.
It’s a time issue. Really there should be posters and whatnot all over the place but I don’t have time to add it all in.
You’re doing really well with the pace of the updates though, losing out on some details is just a price that has to be paid.
Can easily add them to the print copy
Considering they’ve probably had a massive run on EVERYTHING, not having things on the walls/shelves is pretty realistic.
I was OK with that too. Trouble is that, when you look at the last panel, you realise that they are just about to open for business.* The shelves should be empty at the end of the day, not the beginning.
Dave has been showing Joel as being a competent businessman, albeit going through a rough patch, at the outset of the comic. Days have passed since the initial surprise, yet the crowds have kept coming. Stock levels and rates of restocking should have been improved by now.
As we know from Dave’s comment that this is the intent, we can imagine that there are lots of boxes, just below our line of sight. All opened and sorted, ready to quickly fill those gaps, before doors open.
And the boxes on the counters give us a hint in that direction, so it is not that much of a stretch.
* It has already been established, when Sydney hired Olivia, that the shop remains open during lunch time, but they just stagger their breaks. Unless the crowds camp there overnight, it must be morning.
Worked in a comic store for 5 years; been in more of them than I can easily recall… Most are one of two types. Either cluttered or crammed. Usually the crammed ones are the ones which have been there a long time (though it can happen if all the other comics stores in town go out of business and sell their stock to the remaining one).
Comic stores with clear counter space everywhere are the ones in money trouble or those which have opened in the last couple of years and the clutter hasn’t formed yet. I’d probably think the “jewelry store” shop was in financial difficulty if I just walked in and looked around… New stores have a different “feel” than ones in difficulty; though long-established stores in difficulty are usually hard to spot.
6 years for 3 days is not that bad … Mansion of E took about 10 years of daily (?) strips to cover one day.
I might be wrong but I was under the impression that there were some bits of training squeezed in there (training montage?) so it’s more like a week or so.
I feel a comic book chain coming soon OR Sydney will have her pony with BOTH PAYCHECKS.
I think a chain would not do so good because the people are there to see halo.
She has ultra fast flight powers and can be in multiple places at once, I don’t see it being a problem.
Plus, she still has obligations of her time with Archon too.
There are chains of celebrity restaurants, in the UK. Clearly it would be impossible for, say, Rick Stein, to be cooking at each one. However there is the expectation that the quality and standards will be maintained to the celebrity’s. The fact that they are known to look in, from time to time, gives customers that bit of a thrill of ‘ooh, will we get to meet the owner?’
In Sydney’s case she can even autograph some stock, at each shop, to ensure that those customers who are there specifically because of her have some option, if she is not there. Plus, of course, she can list a schedule of when she will likely be there, but with no guarantees, as her hero needs would take priority.
Obviously with the appearances distributed equally, then logically the crowding would diminish as it is spread out geographically, and only at its worst on scheduled appearance days. Giving the additional benefit that customers who are just there because she is known to have good taste, but would rather not suffer the crowding, can choose to go on non-appearance days.
The latter is actually key for a long-term business strategy. Halo will be famous as a hero, but Sydney will be famous as a comic shop owner, who is a hero too. So if she develops a good reputation for her stocking policy and ‘owner recommendations’, then that side of the business will remain viable even if other heroes start to take the limelight. Or if the general public simply become jaded with super heroes.
Day one: The bank.
Day two: The dinner.
Day three: The redacted.
I’d like to see a text version of what she said to her coworkers.
Hmm… The Good, The Bad and The Redacted… Good movie concept.
The Good; Sydney deposits money, helps stop a robbery, gets to be a superhero.
The Bad; they all go to dinner and it get’s crashed by a bunch of butthead villians, (not real buttheads, butt…) Sydney doesn’t finish dinner.
The Redacted; Sydney redacted, with Redacted, and redacted to redacted, with a redacted, redacted was redacted, and redacted. Then they all had ice cream!
“What flavor ice cream?”
“Sorry that’s classified.”
Yeah, I’m familiar with how it goes. In the Navy, I was basically a computer technician/repair guy. As the old joke goes, if I said anything more about it, I’d have to kill you. About the only other thing I could say is that if you wanted to know more, look up Ocean Systems Technician – Maintainer. Then if you read that & asked me any more about it, I could neither confirm nor deny what you read.
O.o
Half the pages would be solid black, or possibly solid black except for “a”, “the”, etc. scattered throughout.
You skipped a day.
Day 1: the bank, yep.
Day 2: training, followed by a night club visit.
Day 3: the dinner(?)
Day 4: redacted
There could have been a few more “lost days” in there, seeing as how we aren’t actually following Sydney on a minute by minute basis. Unless Dave starts putting “Captain’s Log” commentary on every page, You can’t adjudge when something is happening, for certain – especially with a scene change and totally different people in frame.
Day 2 and 3 are reversed. The Dinner happened the same day as the bank, the Night Club was the following day, and redacted happened the day after that.
You’re both wrong. Day 1 is the bank, Sydney joins Archon, press conference, dinner, and super fight with Vehemence. A lot happened that day. Second day is new comic day, training, and night club. Day 3 is meeting Deus and the Council of Twilight. Day 4 is Friday. Unseen training montage. Day 5 is Saturday and she’s at the shop in the morning.
I was hoping there’d be a sequence of pages showing Sydney,along with Achilles,Mr.Amorphous,Heatwave and ond of the Harems on kitchen duty.
Would give Maxima a chance to sample Sydney’s cooking….
Sydney places a plate of pancakes before Maxima,they look slightly burnt.
Maxima(looking at plate):What’s this???
Sydney:Pancakes,an old family recipe.
Maxima:What was your family,blacksmiths?
Arianna leans over saying:That’s African American-smiths!!!
(She turns to see a bunch of blacksmiths-one Native American and a couple African American-giving her a cold stare! Arianna slinks vey low…!)
When I first tried to cook as a teenager, my sibling suggested I had more promising potential as a firefighter.
Do you also follow ‘League of Super Redundant Heroes’?
One of the protagonists in that is so bad in the kitchen that then the team was holding a barbecue, and found that they didn’t have any matches, simply getting this character to say how she’d like her burger was enough to spontaneously set the charcoal ablaze!
No, but…I could see that happening in my kitchen. Though I’m not as bad as Homer.
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/homer-cereal-epic-fail_3125.jpg
(I don’t even try href here anymore cuz it always adds “grrlpower.com” to start of my url.)
Must be doing something Homer-y :P
Still,would anybody be offended by that blacksmith remark???
Why? Only someone who has shoved the PC stick so far up their arse they spit splinters would even say that
Maybe, if you are from West Philadelphia.
Born and raised? On the playground is where you’d spend most of your days…
Looking forward to seeing that restart. If I get to see it.
Odd irony, that if I get enough money to be able to afford to watch TV again, I might be so busy that I will not have the time to watch it!
on mobile, an a href= q fullurl q followed by text followed by end tag results in http://www.grrlpower.com/fullurl between the q’s.
See? That’s where you are going wrong, using a mobile :P
You are at least adding the pointy brackets, aren’t you? o_O
Yes. I left them out here to avoid confusing the forum code. I’m a programmer, have worked with html a lot, including using just notepad-like code editors.
What are the ‘q’s? o_O
You mean the “?
double quotes, “
Yeah, that’s Buckaress for you. Even trying to follow instructions on how to make a sandwich, she sets the kitchen on fire. So they go to a local sandwich shop. When she tries to tell them how she wants it, the sandwich shop bursts into flames.
I believe that buckaress has also managed to set water on fire by trying to boil it and burned down a fast food restaurant by removing a pickle from her burger.
She cooks with Chlorine Trifluoride? (Yes, that will make water burn. And sand. And concrete. And glass. And pretty much anything else short of teflon.)
It might even burn Teflon. It reacts with titanium, even! Ironically, the one thing that you’d think it would burn, doesn’t; plain, ordinary, paraffin wax (aka, candle wax).
Cooking with chlorine trifluoride wouldn’t explain why a fast food restaurant would catch on fire just because she took a pickle off her burger, though. Or why Laser Pony’s pancake batter caught on fire just because she walked through the kitchen sipping a cup of coffee.
When I first tried to cook, someone suggested I had more potential as an arsonist. (I burned ramen. Ruined the pot, too.)
I’ve never owned a cooking pot for more than about five years. about once a year, I leave one on the stove, empty, with burner on.
That’s pretty much what happened. I got distracted and left it boiling on the stove. All the water boiled away, and then the noodles burned until all that was left looked like a lump of black charcoal.
My landlady once went out and left a saucepan with two eggs in it boiling. One of the eggs ended up stuck to the dried-up saucepan… and the other one stuck to the ceiling above!
^_^
Reminds me of Boy Scouts camp, using eggs as a payload in model rockets. The idea was to figure out how to pad the egg so it wouldn’t break. In this case, your landlady managed to launch the payload without even needing a rocket. Egg-ceptional!
(Sorry. I just couldn’t resist making an egg pun.)
That is alright, we do not mind if you are egg-centric.
My sister, when she was a teenager, managed to weld bacon to the frying pan, not just burn the bacon, actually WELD it to the pan. 20 years later, you can still see the scars in the frying pan.
Then you’d be getting some bacon flavor with everything cooked in that pan thereafter. Bacon goes good with everything (except vegetarians).
I’m sure bacon would go GREAT with vegetarians! (but who wants to eat people?)
Zombies of course. The vegetarian zombies eats vegatarians.
Vegetarian zombies eat graaaaaaiins.
I was starting to think Joel and Olivia had died in a freak comic book accident. Now we just have to wait and see if Leon still exists.
Heh. Looks like they sure are having difficulty keeping the shelves stocked. They sure will not be going out of business, with those sales figures carrying on! Barring uninsured super-villain damage or other such problems.
AND time has progressed! Whee! Proper sleep and the prospect that we may someday catch up with the flash-forwards.
Are we still in Grrl Power Book 2, I wonder? I know that it was planned to cover Sydney’s basic training, which clearly has not finished yet. But we have had a significant amount of material since the end of Book 1. Or is this going to be a hefty book?
If they do go out of business there, it’ll be because they can’t keep anything in stock. They’re going to have to increase the quantities on their ordering forms probably on an algorithmic scale…Then find some place to store the stuff (because the shop won’t have enough storage space) for the first couple of days before they run out of stock.
O.o
I am sure Diamond would me more then happy to arrange daily shipments.
Someone cares about how much time has passed in the comic, relative to real time? Girl Genius took four years at three updates per week to get through one day of comic time, but when you have the dead-tree graphic novel in your hands, you do get a different effect.
Personally, as long as I get a clue as to which day it *is*, I’m happy. The dinner with the Council was the evening after the nightclub party and the evening *of* Sydney’s first basic-training day.
Fortunately for me, I first discovered grrlpower just 6 months ago. I missed most of the anticipation torture so far.
…But now you’re stuck here with the rest of us…
Ḭ͍͔̱ ̪̪̠w̬̜̦̲e̟͎̣l̝̖̻̞̳c̦o͇̤̥m̻̯̯e͙̪̟ ̳̦fr̰̤̻͙e̘͔̘̣̮sh̹͔̲̹ ͕͖̺̟͍ͅm̳̗e͔a̤̪t̰̳̲͈̞̩̭.̙̦
M̝̗̩̟u̯̝̻wh̫̲̖͓̣a-̥h͓̰̳̞̩̰̲a̮͈̫-̙h̬̣̺̮a-̝̣h͎̦͔̫a̱̯̳̗-̳͎̩͈͉̥͚h̠͙̪͔̙a̗̼!̯̼͇͙̘
Ḥ̲̤̖̯̩̖̟͚̭̠̰̘͕̦̿͗͂ͫ̓̎̔͆̋̇̿̅͂͗͢ǎ̻͍̜͖̜̬͍̣̲̪͕̻̍ͦ͌͛̏̋̒̑͛ͬ̅ͯ̉ͪ̀͞͝h̛̲͙͈̱̯͖̟̗̥̞̞̃ͯ̇ͮ̔̄̐̿ͦͬ͒ͯ͠ͅ,̵̷̢̠̪͖̺̖͓͖̤̇ͭ̄ͤͬ̍̀̚͝ͅ ͌̄ͫ̉̄̌ͤ̂̿͐̂ͪͣ͆͆̊̓͊ͯ͡͏͈̹͍͎͔̜͚̹͚̠͓͎͔͕̖̜̰͚̖a̸̸̼̺͚̮͈̜̬̻̩͎̳̲͓̠̺͈͑ͬ̊́͋ͭͧͩ̈́̇ͦͬ͐ͭ͜͠ͅm̵ͭ͋͌̍͛ͫͧ͊̏͆̌̒ͤ̅̓ͤͬ̚҉̡̣̗̬̩̣̭̩͙͖̣̹ͅa̶̛̞̺̝̫̫̲̠̯̭̞̋̏͆̿̃ͯͪ́ͩ͗͡͠t͙̲̝̯͉̤̤̩̱͕̙̭ͬ̉ͩ̋ͤ̍̏͢͡ͅe̡̓̓̄̑̑͑̈ͥ̓ͤ̎̓͒̉͌ͬ̚͜͡҉҉͙̱̯ṵ̸͍̼̫̗̺̺̙͈͍̥̰̘̣̰͍͊̀͗͗͂̒̎͛ͫ͟r̛̛̤͓͇̫̯̳̯̠̦̩͚̺̗̪̄ͤ̅̋̐̋!͚͓̠̩͓͕̗̭̟̮͙́ͯ̄̚͜͝͝ͅ
Oh fuck, I did not mean to do that.
Dave, please add overflow:auto to your CSS if you see this comment… I kind of assumed the text would be cropped. It wasn’t. Lol.
You’re evil, we get it. :)
That’s why I went with the “minimal fuckup” setting…
;)
If you’re trying to be “Lord Evil,” the one thing you *never ever* say is: “I did not mean to do that.”
I dunno, accidentally saving orphans and bunnies might loose some cred amongst the evil community.
“Look all I was trying to do was flood the lowlands. How was I to know that the orphanage and bunny sanctuary was on fire there?”
No, you say, “I am forming my evil orphan and fluffy bunny legion of doom!”
Some things can be too evil even to evil lords.
… “There is special place in Hell for people like you … namely, the board of directors!”
Sandra and Woo fan spotted…
You are going to the special level of Hell. The level that is reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theaters.
Plausible deniability! Lord Evil is just an honorary title, it’s not describing me… Of course.
Olivia looks super different. This page, in a familiar setting, without the dramatic lighting of a nighttime battle, really shows how much your art style has changed.
Yeah, was gonna comment on that: not sure like the ‘new’ new look, not as good as the last time we saw her (when she got press-ganged into working the till)
She looks white is what it is.
I think it’s more that her face shrunk and her hair grew.
As I have been told by one of my clients when I explained why I had to delay their project, “Having too much to do is a good problem for a small business to have.”
“I partially wanted to put this page in for the people who complain that the comic’s been around for 6 years and only 3 days have passed.”
In fairness, I feel like this is a valid complaint. Not that it hasn’t been an enjoyable ride but unless you’re planning on doing this webcomic until you die, it’s got to get moving along don’tcha think?
No, it’s not a valid complaint, it’s a bitchy whine from whiney bitches
This is not an ‘actiony’ Superhero comic, that has to have huge battles every five pages, this an atypical story about the day-to-day life of a girl who is suddenly thrust (settle down Dabbles) into a world of real-life superheroes, and finding out how she ‘fits’ in to it
I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with either point.
First of all, there is no need for that hostility, it doesn’t sound like cypherhalo wants huge battles perse, it is a comment that at the current pacing it will take a long time to tell a story.
You say it yourself, this is a story of the day-to-day life of a girl who suddenly gets to be a superhero. There are several overarching storylines that run alongside this that intersect with Sydney’s life, but if each day of her life takes over a year to tell it will use a huge amount of real life time to resolve these plot threads. That is what the ‘compaint’ is about.
Agreed. As Mark Stanley said at the end of Freefall, Chapter 1: “If all my stories take 17 years to write, I won’t be telling very many of them.” (Yes, it took 17 years… more than 2800 strips… for Mark to complete Chapter 1 of Freefall.)
Unless it’s an actiony anime, which has end-to-end battles (about 6 months realtime each) wherein each battle consists of people yelling each other’s names followed by magically induced explosions. (Naruto, I’m lookin at you).
But grllpower ain’t that way. but it would do nicely with about 4 updates daily. :)
In fairness the restaurant battle lasted over a year.. hard to not call a battle “actiony.”
Vehemence alone lasted about 6-7 months I believe.
But that’s not the focus of the comic
10 months. Looking at the archives, it was from March 27th, 2014, to January 26th, 2015. Vehemence entered the fray on September 15th, so his part of it lasted a little more than four months. Still long, and I was concerned that the fight with Sciona and company would be just as long. Fortunately it wasn’t. I do agree that superhero battles is not what I’m reading this comic for.
What do you mean “until you die”? I mean, that’s awfully short time, as both JRR Tolkien and Pratchett could confirm.
Sooo very glad Sydney ditched that headband thing
Dave missed an opportunity in the first panel to use one of those Spongebob message boxes with the text “Three Days Later”.
Dave also could have made the missed time into one giant Noodle Incident with Sydney saying “and then after we fought off the giant marmoset attacking New York we stopped off at the U.N. to get our medals from the Secretary General before the ticker tape parade down Broadway.”
Honestly Max is making the right call here. Not only is sydney totally untrained in combat scenarios, she is also untrained in how to deal with bad things happening. Despite how useful she is in just about any situation, she has to have training to back it up before getting thrown back out into the meat grinder. She probably has to talk to a mental health professional as well considering what almost/sorta/did happened to her due to time loops. Plus, they have barely scratched the surface of what the orbs can do and figured out the best way to use them aside from “Shield up, try to contribute”
Have they told her about the MARVEL MCU FU to fans?
Has a Marvel Rep come in and asked them to wear Hydra shirts?
Have they upped their store coverage insurance?
Have they licensed Sydney’s potty mouth?
What will she do when Marvel wants her to Hydra?
First: https://spicefreakblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/09/hail-hydra
Second: This comic takes place in 2010, by which time only three films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been released and we’re still almost a year away from the first Captain America movie.
That comic feels like D&D. A 10 minutes fight takes 1 or 2 months. and probably if she gets grounded for a month it’ll only last a week :P
Actually, after giving it a thought …that huge fight with Vehemence, might have taken half a year :o
It’s probably coincidental, but I like the fact that Sydney has Spidey’s color scheme while Joel has a Venom t-shirt.
the fact that she is a super but small and not threatening looking and not built like the others puts her in -great- danger I think. There is almost no way she doesn’t already have a few crazy obsessed fans stewing and one of them will try some crazy shit…. you don’t need super powers to be crazy after all. Halo should not get too close to any of those people.
Speaking for all of the time grousers, I think the issue isn’t so much the amount of time that passes, it’s the opening flashforward. Until we reach that the comic is kind of gated in terms of what can have happened that wouldn’t affect that scene.
In that case, today’s yer lucky day. Sydney could die tomorrow with the comic inducing any continuity errors in canon. Enjoy your future anxiety :)
uh, whoops. careful rereading just informed me we only moved forward a few days, not months. my bad.
What were you hoping to have happen?
Sydney’s comic store will wind up being the only comic store around that has to hire celebrity event-level security. They’re going to need to set up “charged admission days” for when Sydney’s there, or they’re going to start losing money, even with the boosted sales, and end up being supported by Sydney’s Archon paycheck.
‘they’re going to start losing money’
Gee, who would have thought that a place called ‘Event Horizon Comics’ could turn into a black hole for Sydney’s money? :)
It’s about time!
(pause, running for cover after dropping this pun)
Oh, Yes … there was a lot of stuff happening that Sydney CAN NOT tell anyone what happened or what she saw. That would make story telling very dull or boring.
Guess there is training for that coming soon.
Wait a minute. How did Sydney suddenly acquire the ability to filter what comes out of her mouth? Usually, her thoughts are half way out of her mouth before she’s finished thinking them.
OMG, they gave her a brain implant, didn’t they? Right?
Well rested and medicated, she can imitate neurotypical humans fairly well.
So there wasn’t any orb training that Maxima wanted to do?
Is that Wendy from Gravity Falls on the other side of the glass?
I must admit that I had started to wonder if either Sydney or Dave had forgotten that she had a job. :-)
That would suck. All these cool things are happening! …And I can’t tell my friends or family about them because I would be locked up for breaking the Official Secrets Act (or whatever its called in the States).
Hm, guess we call it the Security of Information Act in Canada. Stupid name, should have kept the Official Secrets Act as the title (most of the Commonwealth still uses the old name).
Can I just say, if you ever run out of ideas, you can always reminisce back to those funny ‘law enforcement 101 and shooting straight 10(-1)’ days
This China doll look is killing me. You had beautiful fantastical drawn characters with real depth and emotion. Now there is nothing no empathy sterile. Please change back this is ruining a great story for me.
Part of the problem with making illustrations more realistic is that peoples’ facial expressions are never as extreme as what’s typically portrayed in comics and manga. That is done, of course, to hide the simplicity of the characters’ design and rendering. To make things “more exiting” as it were.
It takes an entirely different skill set to inject emotion where the characters use real expressions. Particularly the coherent use of body language and subtle gestures. Avoiding the uncanny valley is another fun little stumbling block. These aspects, Dave has not fully grasped.
Let’s hope Sydney can hold out until she gets certified for field work…!
Is it me or did the art style just shift? Lines feel a lot softer.
Nope. I found myself scrolling down, to the blog, to see if it was still DaveB shading. Sydney’s face in panel 2 was where the difference (whatever it may be) leapt out at me. But glancing over the whole page, it was consistent.
Is it just me or does one of those silhouettes in the window look like the redhead chick from gravity falls?
Okay, NOW we need the full story, with all the *classified* and *redacted* points in there, so we CAN play MadLibs with it …
*Cue breathless Syd voice*
OK, well, we left the party and it turns out that there’s a secrect co.. umm, I actually can’t talk about that, so, uh, redacted, I guess, but anyways, it was just across, hmm, that’s classified, but anyways we were at this meeting and it was attacked by a group of, um, can’t really talk about that either, but we managed to defeat the attackers and figured out it was part of a plan to, well, those are classified, and I guess the plan is probably classified as well, but we went looking for whoever might be in charge of the evil scheme, and after our first scout didn’t report back I went scouting with my remote projection orb, but that went wrong when I accidentally realized that, oh, that’s classified too I guess, but I ended up in the villain’s lair, and the villain huh, that’s all super-classified… well, I escaped and well, this part’s kinda complicated and classified, but we ended up being ambushed by the villain who was controlling a, well that’s classified so let’s just say giant robot, and we fought it and well, I kept it busy for a while while the other heroes arrived. Really tough fight until redacted pulled out its redacted and it failed. Then there was just a bunch of cleanup and paperwork.
MADLIB version follows:
OK, well, we left the party and it turns out that there’s a secrect [collective noun] just across [a place in town] at this meeting and it was attacked by a group of [plural noun] but we managed to defeat the attackers and figured out it was part of a plan to destroy [important plural noun] but we went looking for whoever might be in charge of the evil scheme, and after our first scout didn’t report back I went scouting with my remote projection orb, but that went wrong when I accidentally [verb past-tense] into the [noun]. I was in the villain’s lair, and the villain wanted to [verb] my [noun], I escaped [noun] in [noun]. We ended up being ambushed by the villain who was controlling a [adjective] [noun] and we fought it and well, I kept it busy for a while while the other heroes arrived. Really tough fight until its [noun] was pulled out its [body part] and it failed. Then there was just a bunch of cleanup and paperwork.