Grrl Power #585 – Tentawall
Ah yes, the fabled Tentacle Sickle. I remember that well from Arthurian Legend. Well, not Arthurian Legend so much as his lesser known brother Mortimer. Mortimurian Legend. Well, not legend so much…
I don’t know, Sciona cracked the pillar containing the sickle, I figure someone picked it up.
Maxima and Sydney once had a conversation suggesting that the best defense against super speed is super confusion. Max is semi-genre savvy, and I can imagine that the appearance of a wall of tentacles might make a heroine flub her initiative roll a bit. That or instantly incinerate everything within 75 yards just to be safe. Or… snag her panties on a bramble. Depending on the genre of the comic.
I’ve updated the vote incentive with a piece I was using to practice better night time lighting effects. I think it looks a little muddy, but they’re supposed to be lit from behind. I’m still playing with it. Dabbler turned out pretty good but I see about 10 things that need work on Max and Sydney. Oh, and don’t read too much into their expressions. They’re individual busts (hur), Max isn’t giving Dabbler the bedroom eyes or anything. I mean, unless your particular slash fiction involves that, then imagine whatever you like.
I’m reading a book called “Villains Don’t Date Heroes!” in the super specific genre of Superhero Lesbian Romance. I remember 5 or 6 years ago when there were barely a dozen superhero novels on Amazon and now I can’t keep up with them. Now before everyone scrambles off to buy this, I should say it’s not a romance novel. You know. Romance – wink wink nudge nudge. One of those ones where opening to any given page lands you a 50% chance of heaving or thrusting or quivering mounds of love pudding. At least not yet. I’m only halfway though it, so maybe it will veer that direction. I suspect it’s tamer than that. It’s still entertaining, and has some nice ideas in it. It does contain something of a pet peeve of mine, something I consider a hallmark of amateurish writing. Using the same or nearly the same phrase twice in a very short span. To me it reads either like the author couldn’t come up with two ways of describing something, or something got moved around during editing and not cleaned up on the final pass. Using the same or nearly the same phrase is a little distracting, like I just did there. Doesn’t it stand out? Anyway, I think I noticed it a total of 8 or 10 times in about 150 pages so far, so it’s not pervasive, but it stands out to me. So the book isn’t Wearing the Cape, but it’s still a solid read if you’ve got a gap in your reading list.
I had to write this post twice. :(
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There’s metric countries and countries that have been to the moon….
there are the USA and partly Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and South Africa. The rest of the world uses sane units. Also the NASA uses metric.
With the exception of one unfortunate incident.
Or was that a subcontractor?
The Mars Climate Orbiter went too low because the calculations by a Lockheed-supplied piece of software output its results in pound-seconds to NASA software that was expecting Newton-seconds. This gave a result about four and a half times too small, compared to what was needed. This resulted in the the orbiter going too close to the surface of Mars and burning up in the atmosphere. It was supposed to be at about 260 km above the surface but may have gotten as close as 57 km above the surface. Much too close!
I’ve heard this story mentioned a few times and one thing I wonder about it every time is if the units were being displayed by the software and it just didn’t twig that they were the wrong units, or if they just got numbers with no units.
Numbers without units. With that kind of math processing program it’d be something like “plug in force number here, plug in distance here, plug in acceleration here, etc”.
That was a contractor, specifically a certain division within said contractor which had a manager who didn’t understand/appreciate metric (civilized) units and read the numbers as being the English system. He has since been canned.
“The English system” uses both Imperial units (the ones Americans use*) and metric (civilized) units.
We should not consider Americans to be barbarians though. Sydney is one, after all! Let us just compromise with… “unconventional”.
* Along with a few other nations as ukezi lists above.
oi, as an american, i WANT to be considered a barbarian, i mean barbarians are like the best; they get to crush their enemies, see them driven before them, and hear the lamentations of their women
plus they get all the booty…in more ways than one *wagglebrows*
No no no, you gotta get your classes right.
Islamic countries are the barbarians as their battle tactics involve rushing in and screaming.
Israel is the cleric for obvious reasons.
Britain is the Bard because they breed with everyone, not to mention the sheer quantity of famous musicians for their country size.
France is the rogue (because of the French Revolution, you KNOW they’re chaotic good, not to mention even when French leadership surrendered in WWII, the French Resistance made of the citizens was much more of a force to be reckoned with than their military)
The Norse countries are the Druid, because they have a temple to the Nordic Gods which is a more nature-oriented religion, and their countries do their best to live in harmony with their surroundings.
The Germans are the Sorcerer because of German engineering.
Italy is the Paladin because of the Vatican.
Portugal would be the Ranger, because they’re the only one who had the range to get to Japan for the longest time
The US would have to be the fighter, because of its absurd arsenal of weaponry.
The US military is sensible enough to use metric too if memory serves me correctly.
It does. Easier to teach to a 6th grade reading level if the measurements are all in base 10.
Really, any single base will do. Imperial overcomplicates things with too many bases.
All your base are belong to metric
Someone set us up the digital
You have no chance make your measurement
For great standards.
We (South Africa) use metric.
I did just go with the wikipedia list of the imperial system. It said it was still common for some things like person height and some volume measurements. Sorry.
No problem. We were a British colony a long time ago but I personally have never used any imperial measurements at all. That is the problem with relying too much on wikipedia articles ;)
Wait, does that mean that you don’t really have a refugee camp for a crashed alien space ship in Johannesburg?
I saw the documentary on that, so it must be real.
The problem with these metric people, give them an inch and they’ll take..,
…2 point 54 centimeters?
All right, my mnemotechnical tool for this one is that .50 cal is 12.7mm.
Whereas give Imperial people an inch and they will take a country!
That’s true in Canada too, to the point that only recently my driver’s license switched from listing both units.
Also we do a lot of business with the US so many things are sold in imperial units (especially construction items like 2x4s or plywood sheets).
That one thing that irks me to no end – a 2×4 is anything but a 2×4 – I once tried using plans from the tirn of the century and the damn thing didn’t have enough strength to stay together due to the spindly timbers sold today as 2×4. I envy my cousins in europe where you get seasoned wood and a 10×10 beam is 10×10 and not 7ish by 7ish and green from more than the copper sulfate and as twisty as a twizzler.
If I remember correctly they are 2″ x 4″ before they dry/core and shrink a bit (or they were?).
I’m not certain whether it’s a bit of a gimmick (or trying to sell less materials for the same price), but I’d asked about why a 2×4 isn’t two by four, and it was brought to my attention that if you add drywall/plywood to it, you get your defined size, making it easier to comply with blueprints of buildings during construction.
I confess, I didn’t check it, but it sounds like it could be true.
I think that is defined in one of the other threads on this page. To do with the planck constant
They are exactly 1/2″ shorter than their listed dimensions both ways so the titles are probably a hold-over from a previous standard way of doing things.
I like to measure human height in giga angstroms for laughs but, when I’m being more serious, it’s always feet and inches. Metric measurements for such always start with a 1 and that’s just no fun.
Well…not ALWAYS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_verified_shortest_people
Also Liberia and Myanmar; these two, along with the US, are the only countries where Imperial units are routinely used for everything.
Also, the Soviet Union has a bunch of Moon landings with the Lunokhod probes (that even delivered samples back to Earth) and they have been using metric the whole time.
And, of course, NASA always uses metric for their calculations. Remember the sad saga of the Mars
Climate Orbiter, that crashed into Mars because Lockheed used Imperial units in the computer systems it used for the craft, instead of the Metric units (SI) explicitly specified in the contract between NASA and Lockheed… :P
Which is why Lockheed don’t build planes no more :P
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics most certainly does still build aircraft, a lot of aircraft. Including the F-16, F-22, F-35, and of course the C-130J.
I think they do build quite a few planes actually (unless you’re making a joke that I missed since I sadly lack the gene to process senses of humor)
They still build planes. It is just whether they get invited to the NASA parties anymore.
If I remember correctly, only three countries still use the imperial system and only one of those countries is not in the process of switching to metric. I’ll give you one guess which country that is…
And just as cherry on top: The Imperial system is officially defined by the metric system.
Those systems are abitrary and therefor need a physical representation, of what a gramm/pound/meter/inch is. One centralized object to compare your mesering tools with.(you can’t simply use other mesuring tools or the unavoidable mistakes add up).
Both systems had those, but the imerial one wasn’t maintained, since we have the one for the metric system. As a result we have an object that defines a meter/kg and an inch/pound is defined as ~0,0254m/~0,453592gk.
kilogram is the last measurement that has an object for definition and soon that will change too I think they are making a sphere of silicon of a certain size which will define the mass of a kilogram based on the number of silicon atoms that can fit in the said sphere.
Mainly because that object’s mass kept changing, despite considerable efforts to prevent it picking up or loosing atoms. Meaning that (in theory) the kilogram (and, by the logic Wurgel detailed, the pound too) kept on changing in value too.
In practice though those naughty mathematicians, physicists and economists kept on turning a blind eye and pretending that their value was a constant despite proof to the contrary!
*shakes head disapprovingly*
The most recent redefinition proposal defines a kilogram via the Planck constant, according to Wikipedia.
(Apparently the silicon sphere approach had problems of its own, see here)
And most of Europe has astronauts with the “moonlanding experience”. We use metric. It is more coherent
But it’s so much farther to the moon in metric, which is why only the US has landed people there.
That f*** hurts.
1st: The moon does not change its distance if you sice her in metric or otherwise.
2nd: US is not the only, by far, country to landed people there.
3rd: Most of extra atmosfere takeoffs go from Asia. With Russia on the lead.
Wait, what? Haven’t heard of any other countries that actually landed people on the moon…
2. Apollo is the only program to land people on the moon. And only americas flew in them.
3. are you sure? ESA starts from south america and NASA from the US. The Russians start a lot, but more then ESA and NASA together? I don’t have numbers on the starts by china, india or japan but I don’t think they start that much.
The apollo program ended at 1972. And there has been people on the moon as late as 2000’s So… Maeby in the USA there is not as much… talk about it. But I still remember the day of the first Spanish at the Moon.
Maybe in movies, not in real life.
Alekay, there have been no people on the moon since 1972. China landed a robot lander on the moon in December 2013. But not a single human has been on the moon since Apollo.
Come on, man, do some research before you start typing, please! You could’ve found this out in less than five minutes.
Thank you. Someone else knows history :)
The US is the only nation to land men on the moon. Six times, actually.
China landed a robotic lander on the moon in 2013, and Russia crashed a probe (Luna 2 I think) on the moon way back in 1959, but nothing else.
There have been no humans on the Moon since 1972. The only humans that have set foot on our Satellite have been the US Apollo astronauts. There have been quite a few rovers and probes that have got there since then, but they have all been robotic.
And I am also Spanish, and I have never heard of any Spanish astronaut (or an astronaut of any other country) that has been to the Moon after 1972.
En serio, no sé de dónde habrás sacado esa información, pero nadie ha pisado la Luna desde 1972. Y, evidentemente, ninguno de los dos astronautas españoles ha ido a la Luna. Ni López-Alegría, ni David Duque.
You forget who was still there in 2012:
https://images.vice.com/motherboard/content-images/article/30763/1455916279379306.jpg?crop=0.9680968096809681xw:1xh;center,center&resize=0:*
Ironically, after all the talk of spaniards, I was expecting these guys.
For god’s sake, one day I’ll work out how tags here work. Apparently it’s not as simple as merely changing to the wrong brackets, though. In the mean time, have a URL.
https://i.imgur.com/f4OjDGu.jpg
Spicefreak – To prevent the forum code from hashing your tags, include the whole uri, including http colon slash slash. put the whole classic html tag, a href=double quote uri double quote. took me a while to figure it out. Also, this site does not support https for some unknown reason.
Besides the moon beasts may capture, torture, and consume you if you dare tread upon the moon without a contingent of cats to protect you.
p.s. IA. IA. CTHULHU PHATGN!
come on that was a gag. I mean we can start measuring everything in light years. That gets you really small numbers.
Also maybe a gag on how Columbus got to america because he thought the world to be much smaler then it is. He was really lucky to find some additional land. Also from that fact comes the name Indian for the indigenous people of the america as he thought to be in India.
I still cry in shame for that. [Spanish here] The “real one” that shaid: This is a new continent was Americo Gespucio. No points for who can gess the origin of America’s name.
Always was lead to believe his name was Emerico…
Wikipedia says his name is Américo Vespucio…
Can’t always rely on Wiki to be, well, accurate
In this case it is. His name is usually given as Amerigo Vespucci in English. Américo Vespucio is a Spanish form of his name.
Italian, if I recall correctly. With the same “problem” as William being the same name as Gillermo. Only that… less streched in time.
I agree that most space shots are coming from Asia, both from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and recently from China and North Korea, but the United States’ Apollo missions 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 are the only ones that actually landed on the moon. The Soviet Union (and successor Russia), the United States and the ESA have all put machines on the moon (not always intentionally; more than one “orbiter” has hit the surface).
ok, if we talk stuff that got to the moon. The formulation made me think about stuff that left the atmosphere, or entered orbit.
China also put a robotic lander on the moon back in 2013. But no manned missions.
You have just been successfully trolled. :)
Actually, the moon really is changing its distance…It’s gradually pulling further away from the Earth at a rate of about 3/4″ per year. BTW, NASA uses lasers to keep track of the distance & measure the bounce-back time in terms of light speed.
…Someday the moon will just fly off into space…
When that happens, I hope all of you coastal-dwellers have your flood insurance up to date. Me, I’m in a land-locked area, hundreds of miles from any coast.
;)
So you plan on hanging around to be singed to death by the Sun when it gets all big and Earth-engulfing?
Provided it goes off in the right direction, the Moon could be the better bet. Just look at the Alpha 1999 documentary.
*starts packing thermos flask, of hot soup, life support unit and liquid thorium reactor*
Eh, by the time the Moon is risking wandering away and the Sun is risking engulfing the Earth, we’ll be a Kardeshev III society and we’ll just move the Earth and the moon to a better solar system for sentimental reasons.
“That f*** hurts.”
I’m sure there’s a salve for that.
“1st: The moon does not change its distance if you sice her in metric or otherwise.”
I’m pretty sure that was a joke.
“2nd: US is not the only, by far, country to landed people there.”
Actually he is right, and you are absolutely wrong, Alekay.
Only the US has ever landed men on the moon. The US had landed people on the moon six times. China PLANS on landing a man on the moon by 2025, but who knows if that’ll happen. Russia plans on landing a man on the moon in 2030, although that plan is from 5 years ago and they havent really made headway on it. Russia and China have each managed to make one unmanned flight each to the moon though (China in 2013 and the USSR in 1959, if you can call an unmanned flight crashing on the moon ‘landing’ on it). But that’s not remotely what you said.
“3rd: Most of extra atmosfere takeoffs go from Asia. With Russia on the lead.”
This is also incorrect. You also didn’t spell atmosphere correctly. Most extra-atmospheric takeoffs have actually been from Florida. Specifically Cape Canaveral. And Russia is not in the lead. They havent been for a while now, except for flights made to the International Space Station, for which the US had paid them. Russia has only one space shuttle btw. And it made only one flight EVER, in 1988. Simply put, Russia doesn’t have the money to do what you’re claiming and also remain a viable power in its region.
Actually, the US Wallops island facility has launched more rockets into space than anyone else.
That’s possible, since that’s closer to the equator. As long as you’re meaning just rockets in general. But I know the most manned spaceflights are from Cape Canaveral. And it’s the US in either case that’s been in the lead for a LONG time.
What do you mean by “Moonlanding Experience”? Because only US Astronauts have been on the moon but yes other countries have gone to space and there have been non-manned moon landings but they don’t do a return trip then.
The US doesnt have any astronauts with “moonlanding experience” either. The people who did it are either long dead or living on in retirement. Teh yahoos in office – all of them – are too busy feathering their nests to put any money into NASA and getting a presence in space.
Mind you the private sector seems to be doing quite well – I think I heard a heavy lifter was successfully tested recently.
Um…..
Actually you’re wrong about them being dead, athough yeah – most are retired since the last moon landing was 45 years ago. There are still six Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon that are still alive.
Apollo 11 – Buzz Aldrin
Apollo 12 – Alan Bean
Apollo 15 – David Scott
Apollo 16 – John Young
Apollo 16 – Charles Duke
Apollo 17 – Jack Schmitt
So actually HALF of the total amount of men who actually walked on the moon are still alive. And they’re not the only ones with moon landing experience, since it’s not just them up there doing the work – it’s also the 100+ who were at NASA mission control with first hand experience at what it takes to land a man on the moon, some of whom are still at NASA. Not to mention you don’t actually need to be there. NASA, as an organization, has information on how to land on the moon because that organization has done it successfully. Multiple times. By definition, that’s ‘moonlanding experience.’
“There’s metric countries and countries that have been to the moon….”
I really doubt that Myanmar and Liberia had send any pople to moon.
ROTFLMAO oh, that old chestnut…how droll. Haven’t heard that bit of bait in DECADES my dear boy…you do know that bit of trolling started back when they were still standardizing time? Just remember the first rockets into space were metric and ran on fermented potatoes. But, nice bit of trolling and as I said haven’t heard that weak limp thing in decades. Still(sips coffee) It is mildly amusing.
Thems some kinky dreams Sydney!
Lol on the KA-GILL.
*KA-wags tail*
“yeah, lets say they where nightmares.” reminds me of the time she intruded hentai to Adriana.
Hentai with teeth? Thanks for bringing several images together… Now I need to poor concentrated bleach directly into my brain to remove them….
Merf, try using everclear – my fav. go-to brainwashing fluid :D
Thats just pure ethanol, need something stronger..much stronger…
Methanol would work Merf… You won’t be able to see jack shit after a few ml.
Try an Everclear and capsaicin cocktail. If the ethanol fails to do the trick, then the searing pepper pains might make your mind go blank.
To be fair, the end comic text does say that the ones in her dreams had fewer teeth.
Was thinking kegel (and not the bowling pin company)
I wonder if… wormyguy… yea. Is going to give him a more… hidrodinamic body. Not needed a full shark metamorfosis. Just… less hair and more streamline.
Cooter should ask for some upgrades to his body while he can.
He probably sees himself like a Spartan Glory. [A “Texas Glory” if you will.]
He does seem the type. (STEREOtype, unfortunately.)
He probably doesn’t see himself as a Texas Glory
“KA-GILL” isn’t the next “KA-BUN” or “EN-DAT-ASS-EN,” but I like it.
How far are we from KA-DISINTEGRATE?
He already went ‘KA-BOOM!” Not many people get to do an encore after that.
And on that page we see Dave troll the readers. “Thus ends the saga of Coot, cause you know, in the history of comics, no one has ever come back from definitely being dead like this.”
Hmm, a comics character back from the dead. Not like that would be “a hallmark of amateurish writing” or anything.
He could have done a ka-pants on Sidney’s request, but then again, he isn’t Kevin/Vehemence.
The only way that would have worked, would have been to change his skin to look like pants, but he would still be naked
Yeah, not all lesbian stories are porn stories, any more than hetero stories, it simply means the main character (at least) happens to be lesbian
The reason why they have to state that up front, is because there are people who just will not accept that ‘lifestyle’ and refuse to even read a fictional book containing that sort of thing, even if there is less sex than in the Vatican Guide Book
I think they state it up front because they want to attract lesbian readers, not warn off the homophobic. Lesbian romance is quite a large genre on Kindle.
I would say that they are far more interested in attracting people of all sexual orientations who want to read lesbian fiction, given that it is a much larger demographic than lesbian readers who want to read lesbian fiction.
The one Dave mentioned is actually a remake of what was originally a futa porn novel. The author just removed the futa part, edited out all the sex, and padded the book out with a bunch of purple prose of the main character gushing about how awesome and beautiful the object of her affection is and how she’s never felt this way about a woman before. Yes, I have read both versions.
Sort of how the world ended up with “Fifty Shades of Off-White”? Originally started as “Twilight” porn? (or was it “Hairy Pot-head” porn?)
It was Twilight fanfic.
No, in this case it’s the same story by the same author, they just took down all their original stuff, changed their pen name a little bit, and posted a non-smutty version of the story up. It’s closer to what Dave’s done with Grrl Power compared to his previous adult comics, except Grrl Power has an interesting plot. With “Supervillains Don’t Date Heroes”, the removal of the smut just serves to highlight how weak the plot is.
Dave B has previous adult comics?
To Google!!!
FWI, it’s apparently furry stuff (haven’t seen it, only heard about it on the TVTropes page for the comic).
“Wereworld” wasn’t actually a DaveB production, he just loaned out Dabbles to guest fuck a dragon (this was back when she still had four bewbs and a tail, she… doesn’t like talking about it :P)
hmmm, google has failed me, am i brave enough to go near tv tropes again? I have to be at work in 9 hours
There is a link to “Wereworld” above, it’s the one right at the bottom, above the obscured Spanish GrrlPower pages
While confusion can be handy against super-speed, there is the returning issue that the confusing act will take place at extreme slowness once the super-speed-sense is turned on.
Hence why a super-speeded Maxima could – if I understand her abilities correctly* retrieve the claw before it ever moved anywhere, and place Cooter back in his cell after sealing the broken window with molten rock or something less vulnerable. If she for some reason waited to retrieve the artifact, could she not activate super-speed, fly around the tentacles and retrieve cooter, put him back in the vault, and then return to fight the tentacles with Halo before she had finished her commentary about dreams?
* Maybe it takes a lot of time to switch from her normal balanced setup to a super-speedy one, but the scene with Vehemence suggests otherwise
While some series represent super speed as the slowing of time, what it really means is that not only is the character moving super fast, but also thinking super fast to be able to decide what they are doing within those milliseconds of high speed movement.
What I think Maxima has is the super speed with a limitation on her thinking speed, meaning that she could calculate the speed and direction of a single bullet that she knows might be fired soon, but she cant doesnt have the processing power to, in this instance, determine what actions a human infused with a monster of unknown abilities might possibly do. Even if she did act, she might move into the wrong direction without the thinking speed required to react in the case that she is moving into a trap….like say a wall of hentacles.
Yeah, she can move fast, but she can’t move ‘out of time’ fast
Thats, in my taste, mostly the power with Superman. He is said to be able to proces the ultra breaking laws of fisics speed that he has. He can incapacitate with a single stare any menace that he encounters. Flying faster than kryptonite radiaton and then blowing it up.
As seen in Smallville (still greater speed effects than in The Flush), there is a similar clip somewhere with a greater musical track, but this will do
Thats good and all. But the comics say that Sups can HEAR a sound over 10.000 ligthyears afar and come back to earth in 10 minutes.
Remember, Smallville was about Clark learning his abilities, it’s why he didn’t learn how to fly until the very end (and why that was the final episode)
Thats why I’m talking about the comic Sups. With a human surprising him with a rock.
Um… unless you’re talking Silver Age, no, the comics do not say he can hear a sound from 10,000 light years away.
For that matter, the Silver Age comics don’t say that either, but with Silver Age I would understand you saying that since hey tended to give him powers as the plot demanded back then. You might be confusing Superman for Gladiator (Karrak) from Marvel comics (who’s basically a Superman expy), who DID hear a cry for help on a planet thousands of lightyears away. While he was in space. Where sound does not travel in a vacuum but screw physics because comic book writers are often dumb when it comes to science.
Not to mention if it takes light 10,000 years to reach a person, it would take sound a lot longer, since sound in a vacuum travels at 343 meters per second, while light in a vacuum travels at 299,792 kilometers (299,792,000 meters) per second.. But again. comic book writers, especially in Marvel, tend to not be THAT bright when it come to basic science stuff.
Or complex science stuff.
Or pretty much anything lately, honestly. Unfortunately.
Sound is a vibration that typically propagates as an audible wave of pressure, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. Since a vacuum contains no contains no such medium there’s no sound
When I say a vacuum, I mean a theoretical vacuum based the speed of sound through the air, taking away air resistance. I know that sound doesn’t actually travel through a vacuum. I’m just giving the more accurate representation of the speed of sound as a comparison with the speed of light.
Btw, this is how they calculated the theoretical speed of sound through a vacuum.
Mika Prunnila and Johanna Meltaus, both of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in Espoo, suggested in an experiment back in 2010 that sound may be able to leap across a vacuum separating two objects made of piezoelectric crystals. These crystals generate an electric field when squeezed or stretched by sound waves or other forces, and deform in an electric field.
pander – if the piezocrystals are reacting to an electric charge that crossed the vacuum, then what they measured was the speed of light in a vacuum + action/reaction time of the crystals. sound via vacuum didn’t enter into it because sound cannot propagate without a medium, which by definition, vacuum doesn’t provide. It’s like saying whales have a maximum speed they can dive to the ocean bottom in a desert.
Gladiator can survive hard vacuum with no problems with either the lack of atmo or the radiation. Having him hear things thousands of light years away doesn’t really break physics any further than he already does.
Gladiator has been knocked out by Invisible Woman after Reed Richards made him “doubt” his powers. I’m thinking he might be a touch “situational”.
Alternately in that issue Richards DID heavily imply that all Gladiators power were actually mental powers….sooo maybe he “heard” the cry for help the same way Obi-Wan “heard” Alderaan.
Gladiator’s powers have always been linked to his confidence level: get him to start doubting himself and he loses power rapidly. He even lost a solo fight with Cannonball once when he was having an existential crisis.
Yes hearing things thousands of miles away DOES break physics because, as Shazz correctly said, sound does not travel through a vacuum. And even if it WAS able to, it would be travelling FAR slower than light.
Normally I’d go with SharpeRifle’s take on it, that Gladiator’s powers are all basically psionic, not physical, and he just heard a mental projection of the call for help from lightyears away (and that somehow thought travels faster than the speed of light, which it doesn’t either). But the problem with that is I read the actual comic where it happened and the narrator specifically says he heard it with his ears. In space. :) It’s almost like the author wanted to make sure that you couldnt make any logical reasoning from what happened :)
The ability to hear a sound through space (for the Silver Age Superman) was indeed physics-breaking. They postulated that it was more like “telescopic hearing” in that he was hearing the sound as if his ears were physically at the source of the sound.
In the same concept, his ability with Super Ventriloquism was such that he was actually throwing his voice over the intervening distance, so that he & Super Girl could communicate in space by actually vibrating the eardrums from a distance, regardless of the vacuum between one’s mouth & the other’s ears.
Silver Age always makes my head hurt. Like Superman pulling 18 planets…. with a big chain. wut?
And then all the extra super-powers. And mind you I am NOT lying about any of this:
Super Ventriloquism
Super Hypnotism
Super Weaving (otherwise known as weaving with superspeed)
Super Landscaping (otherwise known as throwing trees and shrubs at the ground)
Super Disguising (otherwise known as putting on a disguise from a disguise kit)
Super Shapeshifting (which he did once for reasons that no one understands)
Super Mini-Me Generation (shoots little supermen out of his hands. No really)
Super Telepathy (which he uses to talk to super-animals and know who’s on the phone. Wut?!)
Super Dancing (no really. They called it super-dancing. He danced and disarmed bombs from the vibrations)
Super Wall-Building Vision (Superman 2… I hate that movie)
Super Celophane Shield Throwing (Superman 2 again… wtf)
Super Amnesia Kiss (goddammit Superman 2!!!!!)
Super Mind Control (same comic where he did Super-Shapeshifting)
Super Kinetic Energy Punch (I don’t know why they have to say that instead of just …. a punch. All punches are kinetic energy, stupid comic book writers!)
Super-Makeup (which I suppose is related to super-disguises?)
And best of all…
Super-Mathematics (otherwise known as multiplication. Which he got wrong.)
https://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2015/02/Super-Mathematics.jpg
It’s 3,200, idiot! 20x16x10 = 3,200, not 32,000. Apparently Silver Age Kryptonians don’t understand basic math, so they call it supermathematics so you won’t question them.
To reiterate, I hate silver age DC. I hate it more than anything except modern SJW Marvel.
32,000 is just “Super 3200”. So he actually got it Super right. duh.
Dammit, even in numbers, Kryptonians are more powerful!
A good example of him being able to process at speed is at the end, when he sees the flash of the camera go off, consider it, but save that waste of flesh Lane instead of protect his identity
When all it would take is the shorted burst of x-ray vision to ruin the film if it was a film camera. Or heat vision to destroy the card if it was a digital camera.
Yeah, just because he had the speed to process what was happening, doesn’t mean he had the smarts to work out a solution
Remember, this was before Clark became Superman and was still learning his abilities
Having the speed to process what was happening is almost entirely tied into having the smarts to work out a solution. That is 95% of what we are seeing in these “superspeed” videos, after all: Superman using his super speed to figure out what to do at superspeed.
If the videos were all just showing Clark looking dumbfounded at superspeed while the people he was trying to protect died anyway, well… it would be a fairly different show.
Oy vey!! Yes, he was able to super-process what was happening, he just didn’t have the super-smarts to figure out either solution you came up with in those seconds he had to get Lois Lame to safety
Later, he came up with a way to make Jimmy doubt what he saw by having Oxenfree pretend to be The Blur and save his life, first from a failed hit-and-run from Chloe and then a successful save from that same mugger from before
She can dismantle a live grenade mid-fire in a fraction of s second.
This seems relatively simple in comparison.
Maxima does not have that all the time.
Presently she knew that she was facing a prisoner who smashed out of a highly secure cell (we saw the remains of the pressure door, and Maxima must have heard that). As such she would need to have a strong defense level, in order to safely counter that known threat.
Contrast that to the attack on the Council, where she had Sydney’s warning that an attack was incoming. In that case boosting her own defense would not protect the Council members, so dumping her variable power pool fully into speed/reflexes was justified. She had eyeballed the threat, determined that they were using conventional-appearing weapons and took the gamble that they were what they appeared to be.
Here though she is facing a magical (or other) effect of completely unknown nature. You don’t survive two wars (including against comparable super-powered opponents) by taking risks like lowering your defenses, when faced by a threat from a powerful artefact of unknown capabilities.
At the very least Maxima would need to assess the situation, before reacting.
She also knows how a live grenade works and what will happen if she touches it in midflight. She doesn’t know anything about these…. vagina dentata tentacles from the ground.
Sorry, that’s what they look like. You all know I’m right on this. You’re all thinking it. And if you werent, then you are now.
I know what you’re talking about here & I think you have the concept a bit mixed up: Vagina Dentata is a toothy vagina…These tentacles would be more like Penile Dentata.
;)
Look at the ‘mouths’ on the tentacles.
I repeat…. vagina dentata tentacles.
Good lord what sort of conversations has this webcomic made us have?
Cotter displayed some super-strength. But hardly anything worth dumping significantly into defense.
And I’m pretty sure splitting her power-well between speed and defense should be more than adequate for intercepting him considering how relatively slow he is.
I agree with your assessment of the scene with Vehemence. But that change can only be initiated once the decision has been reached. At the time Maxima will have had a high defense, given that she had several indicators that her opponent has super-strength (not to mention the possible artefact in his tentacle). Further she was waiting for his response to her offer. Something she is obliged to do, as a cop.
Voluntarily touching an artefact (or even going near an enemy holding it) is a really bad idea. So grabbing it could be suicidal (or worse). Assaulting an innocent civilian, and falsely imprisoning him,* as you suggest, is against the law, so is not an option that Maxima can casually undertake.
Yes he is armed, but that is not an unreasonable precaution for a civilian to take in the extraordinary circumstances that he finds himself in, and further she knows that he is very confused by his current situation. So Maxima is obliged to attempt to talk him down, unless he makes a threatening move.
Whilst she was likely braced for him moving to attack her, attacking the floor would be a surprising move. One which still would not justify her assaulting him. After which the tentacles rise up and appear (as best we can tell in panel 4) to completely block her path. With no room to run around them, Maxima would not be able to rely on super speed alone.
* Note that Coot has not escaped custody, as he has not been arrested or charged. He was simply taken from a hazardous environment, to a place of safety, cleaned up and engaged in conversation.
I have that issue when I watch the Flash TV show. Every time a bad guy does anything, the Flash should have already disarmed him, unless he’s fighting another speedster (which is basically all he does).
But as a writer it does present significant challenges. In this case Max let him take a swipe at the floor because he wasn’t swinging at herself or Sydney. She thought he might have been doing a “stay back” swipe.
well there is the conflict between “don’t let the guy with the artefact of doom swing it at anything” and “don’t get near the guy with the artefact of doom if it can be avoided”.
Massive challenges for sure.
Sadly, it’s still something that must be faced when writing out the story. Nearly anytime a hostile confrontation happens the everpresent question is “What does supergodman do/why does supergodman not stop it?” Why indeed does Manhattan not stop the comedian from killing his pregnant girlfriend?
When everything takes place at a glacial pace, why not superspeed trap him when the tentacles start emerging, long before they are any kind of obstacle to flying supergodman?
Must be real cold in that room, if the Icky-Sickle is able to hide Coot’s tackle even at that distance…
Really cold. Or Coot is naturally un-gifted. Or Wyrmil not wasting flesh on a supposedly hidden detail. Or Wyrmil is taunting Coot. Other possibilities exist.
Fat men tend to not “show” as well as a lean man. Pile up a bunch of dirt against a fence post and it will appear to be shorter, after all.
Guesticus, he’s wearing boxer shorts. Look back a few pages.
may be Dave didn’t want to draw it
Sydney’s comment suggests that’s no longer the case.
No, he was wearing a handtowel (or maybe a face-cloth), we saw that flapping in the wind after he made his escape last page
Oops.. you’re right. I didn’t catch that. I see the hand towel now.
:D
It’s… not really something one would normally want to remember, so it’s understandable your mind attempted to block that, apologies for making you see it :P
It’s too late for me Guesticus. I’ve already had conversations on this forum about vagina dentata tentacles, and whether they should actually be called penile dentata tentacles. My mind is going to need to block out so much in order to stay sane.
Why? Being sane is so lame, join us Pander, it might make your job easier (at the least, more fun slash tolerable :P )
Coot has dickydoo disease. His belly stick out more than his….
There is the issue that (a) she doesn’t know what else Wyrmil/Cooter and the Regenerator can do and (b) Sydney has not got her shield up yet.
That was supposed to be replying to @Henry.
And that she does not know how reactive those tentacles are. Maeby they have one of those crazy D&D rules that makes them stronger/faster the faster you are.
OK, who among you called the Eldritch Abomination tentacles? You guys know this is how the apocalypse starts.
In another note, in the incentive image, those don’t like bedroom eyes to me, it looks like 3 friends looking at something amusing and acknowledging with just their eyes (but don’t mind me, I’ve been told I’m very naive at reading implicit naughty things).
I Think like you. Those are “partners in crime” looks.
Shame he didn’t try holding his breath. Problem would solve itself when his lungs ruptured, after ascending about ten feet (that’s three meters, for them that need their fingers to count). :P
I read and enjoyed Villains Don’t Date Heroes!. I agree that it is amateurish writing and that it is quite entertaining. I’m looking forward to the second book that’s supposed to come out next Spring, Villains Don’t Save Heroes!. It’s similar to D.E.B.S. but with superpowers.
For another enjoyable read but with better writing, I strongly recommend the Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain series. Another good read is the Superheroes Anonymous series. I also burned through the Rules of Supervillainy series but I haven’t decided if it’s written well, mainly because the protagonist’s powers work and advance as the plot demands.
I also recommend the “Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillian” series. It’s a fun series. Another great read is “The Indestructibles” by Matthew Phillion.
I only recommend “Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain” and “Please Don’t Tell My Parents I Have Henchmen” out of that series. The second book, “… I Blew Up The Moon” was really dull and the four book “… I Have a Nemesis,” well, no spoilers but the ending was both dark to a point that it was completely at odds with the series until then, it also simply made no sense at all. It was purely the author deciding to drag the series out an extra book and putting in a last minute Diabolis Ex Machina after having wandered incoherently around something that was supposed to be a plot.
Something for me to put on the list of things to read. Thanks.
I really enjoyed all 4 books, though I will admit that I liked 1 and 3 better than 2 and 4. The 2nd book had a great amount of different and downright alien tech and the ending to the 4th book was a pay off to foreshadowing that there is something wrong that has popped up in the series since book 1. My only real complaint with the end of book 4 is that book 5 isn’t out yet.
In the end it all comes down to opinion, but I wanted to provide a counter view for anyone who hasn’t read the series yet.
Don’t know if any of you have read Only Superhuman, but it is a set-in-the-future take on superheroes (which makes their abilities more possible) with some romance elements tangled up with other stuff. Very good book.
Yeah, I read the first book of the PDTMPIAS series and it was pretty good. It’s one of those series I’d like to read more of but haven’t found the time yet.
Heya,
Speaking as the author of The Rules of Supervillainy a.k.a Supervillainy Saga, I can tell you it’s absolutely NOT written well. It’s written in a deliberately kitschy style which doesn’t take things like power levels or the universe’s rules terribly seriously. Gary can struggle with the Joker and then get in a fight with kaiju due to the universe running on Roger Rabbit’s, “I could only do it if it was funny.” In that respect, he’s a bit like most comic book heroes.
Personally, my favorite independent superhero fiction is the D-List Supervillain series by Jim Bernheimer, Don’t Tell My Parents (as you mentioned), and Wearing the Cape by Marion G. Harmon.
That is a good universe law.
WTF… Did Coot/Wyrmil use the sickle to cut a rift in reality, which allowed a Shoggoth to come through? If so, that sickle is really nasty piece of advanced magery.
Wyrmil got the sickle from the vault.
The cut itself appears to just be in the vault floor. Which may have had a practical requirement or may have just been for show.
The Regenator may have just cast a spell (in D&D terms it is like Evard’s Black Tentacles) or Wyrmil could have used its known power in a creative way. Let us say releasing as many micro organisms in the vault floor as possible, then force-evolving them into a desired form.
But summoning a Great Old One, or parts thereof, is indeed something within the scope of an apocalyptically powerful evil artefact’s potential.
that was he has is not the regenerator.
Yea, agreed. After posting that I went back and looked at the earliest reference and there are ‘imagined’ versions of each of the named items. Mind you the vampire book clearly was a comical version, which was very unlikely to look like the real item. But the other two, including the Regenator, looked like serious pieces of kit. And, as you say, the sickle above does not match the appearance.
So it is likely to be some other, as yet, unnamed item (unless Dave just forgot the original image, but it was pretty distinctive, so I am guessing that is not likely).
We do however know that Wyrmil did get hold of the Regenator, as he mentions using it. So unless the sickle is a powerful magical item that he brought in with him then that means Wyrmil has not one but two of the artefacts from the vault (with the Regenator still being hidden within him, as the sicle was).
Might Wyrmcoot have more than just the two? Everyone else made their escape, so he pretty much had the place to himself, until the Council/Archon team arrived.
DaveB mentions what the sickle is actually. Or at least that it’s the thing from which Sciona broke its pedestal
Could be worse. Whatever Evard’s Black Tentacles are like, I doubt they’re as unsavoury as Evan’s Spiked Tentacles of Forced Intrusion.
Hate to be pedantic, but shoggoths are native to Earth. Created by the Elder Things as a biomechanical labour force, they are in fact the FIRST life that can be said to be native to Earth, with all other (“normal”) life on Earth being the side-effect/by-blow. There’s a lot of bizarre stuff in the Arkham Cycle and beyond that these things could be, but they’re not shoggoths.
This doesn’t explain what the toothed tentacles are, where they come from, or make Sydney’s dreams of Tentare Dentata any less weird. But they do have eyes and mouths (although no visible ears). Perhaps they could be asked via sign language?
Sydney wants to try tactile signing. Failing that she would probably resort to haptic communication.
I am guessing not so much confusion as reasonable caution. The warnings that Maxima got about vault items probably included “and several may be able to bypass your invulnerability” along with “Do you have defense against mind control? Lovecraftian insanity? Mental illusions? If you aren’t sure, there are several things in the vault you don’t want to touch/see/active.” So Maxima is probably taking a pause to find out if the tentacle sickle is in one of those categories.
Yup. Maxima is magic-vulnerable, so caution is sensible.
Is she? I admit it would make sense if she is since Dabbler is one of the only people to ever hold her own against Maxima, likely because of magic, but I don’t think we’ve actually seen anything specifically say she’s any more vulnerable to magic than other superpowers or high tech stuff. Like the supermannekiller explosion, which I’m assuming was also at least somewhat magical. Or the guardian, which Maxima tore apart in 5 seconds.
Although the magical weakening field DID affect her. But not enough to make a noticeable difference when taking out the guardian.
She almost succumbed to the NotBot at the end of the Wars Fight
There is a line of dialogue which indicates that, in sparring, Dabbler cannot beat Maxima when magic is prohibited. Yet we also know that Dabbler has beaten Maxima, at other times (by implication when using magic). Hence we know that Maxima can be defeated by magic and has no powers protecting her from it.
My use of ‘vulnerable’ though was a bit incautious as it can be taken to mean a special weakness, that others do not have. However that was not my intent. Maxima is capable of resisting magic as any normal person. Plus has got strong willpower so, if a power can be resisted by force of will then she does have an edge.
However when compared to the person next to her, she is vulnerable. Halo’s shield appears to be invulnerable to magic. Psst, Sydney, raise shields!
Dave indicated that Maxima would have succumbed to the super-construct, as Guesticus says, barring the fact that its mental-attack weapon had been damaged, thus allowing Maxima’s strong will to shrug off the effect.
Your last line is key, Maxima was fully affected by the guardian’s magical attack. It was not damaged or otherwise weak enough to allow mundane resistance like willpower to impede it. But even with being weakened to the same degree as everyone else there, Maxima still had enough strength left to tear it apart.
From which we can deduce that the weakening effect was between one to five stars in strength (probably about four as Ignsol was freaked out by that fact – implying the power was strong). However that was not enough to beat Maxima’s five star strength.
Importantly though Igsol initially assumed Maxima had resisted the magic, but Maxima told him that it HAD affected her. If its power had been death magic, she would have died. If it had been a sleep spell she would have fallen asleep. And so on.
The novel is a rewrite of “Villainess Love” with some big changes to some supporting cast and a somewhat altered ending. I think the new version is better.
Is Wyrm only able to do things to half their body? He has the right arm, right eye (and eyebrow) and now gills on the right.
Looks like it. He did say there was only half of his remaining biomass plus half (sort of) Cooter’s biomass for the Regenator to work with. What if the mix is less a compound and more a mixture (to use Chemistry terms)?
Naked hill-billy + icy cold water = probably no noticeable shrinkage.
That wasn’t supposed to be a reply to that thread. Oooooooopsie.
Possible story/writing problem: How does Max know Sciona betrayed Wyrmil?
Archon and the Council enter the vault, there’s blood splattered everywhere plus Wyrmil’s remains and a naked Cooter.
Just because someone died during the heist doesn’t necessarily mean betrayal. You could come up with other scenarios to explain the situation that are likely,plausible, rational, and not convoluted with the specific knowledge limited to what Archon and Council saw upon getting in to see the scene of the crime. For example, Wyrmil screwed up trying to get through the anti-life defenses. Or Wyrmil fiddled with the wrong artifact in the wrong manner and it blew him up. Or, Wyrmil was trying to get an artifact, the heist is going fine, but it suddenly lashed out at him and got him. Or, Wyrmil got greedy or something, attacked the others (with or without an artifact) and got splattered by Sciona or one of her allies- but such wouldn’t be Sciona betraying him as much as him betraying them.
The point being; what Max said is something only Sciona, Wyrmil, others in the vault, and US READERS would know, but not something she would. At best, it’s something she could have guessed (which would be a good excuse for it).
Keeping track of who, what, where, when, how, etc. in a big story is tough, and specifically being careful with who knows what (particularly making sure you don’t mix up what the readers and the main characters know) makes the job tougher.
She doesn’t refer to Wyrmil. She is talking to Coots. And, because he is human, she knows he was only there to be used.
Also Coot may have revealed it during Dabbler’s interrogation.
Ah…
And readers have to keep track of physical bodies made up of two characters…
He said it himself in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2674 by talking about “double-crossing monsters”. Plus he got left behind after the heist. They know Sconia and her MO, so it’s not that far a leap.
Well cited and agreed. Finding the blood portal pretty much narrowed down Sciona from ‘chief suspect’ to having been there.* Plus she certainly would match the description of ‘monster’.
Further Sciona is there current ‘enemy number one’ so Maxima will have been sure to read up on all her known associates.. Clearly Wyrmil must have been on such a list, along with his description, given that Ingsol recognizes him and has come to the conclusion that they are now a merged entity.
Maxima has had to do a bit of detective work, but that is her job, and she has all the necessary clues in her possession.
* For the purposes of a working hypothesis in their investigation. I imagine there are probably other blood mages out there, if that is a thing, but even if there are she is the only one on the list of possible suspects.
Yes they would want to get verification of that, from some other angle (such as witness testimony) but
Yes they would want to get verification of that, from some other angle (such as witness testimony) but when trying to convince someone to cooperate, in an emergency situation, you have to go with whatever your working hypothesis tells you, and hope you called it right.
She was addressing Cooter, not Wyrmil.
And she only knows that because Cooter spilled his guts to Dabbler during the interrogation.
The spilling of cooter’s guts. And not in a “This will raise humanity’s IQ 50 points” kinda way. seems they have no idea worm guy’s tagging along…
Yes, regarding the transcript, but the cat did get out of the bag, when they saw Coot’s arm turning into a tentacle, two pages ago. Then one page ago
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2699
Ingsol figured out:
* Note that this is spelled correctly.
To be fair, if I was trying to mess with someone’s mind, I likely would put the idea in their head that the circumstances that they found themselves in were not a product of anything they had done, but were a result of the doings of someone else, thereby potentially introducing doubt, potential compliance, and perhaps even assistance or information in some way.
Just to violate Godwin’s Law, it worked for Hitler. Germany was in a terrible state after WWI, and when someone started talking big, telling them that the problems they were experiencing were not their fault, but the fault of other people and other nations, people grabbed onto it like the last life raft in a very big sea and shark fins all over the place. Not that I blame them, when a wheelbarrow of deutschmarks wouldn’t buy you a loaf of bread.
Even if the situation was obviously (to the person being talked to) not the fault of someone else, you really don’t lose anything by possibly derailing someone’s thought processes with them having to parse information that is at odds with what they currently consider accurate.
Wyrmil casts Everard’s Black Tentacles! It’ssuper effective! ;)
It’s so nice to see that the sound effects pioneered by ‘the Wotch’ live on. ^_^
Comic sound effects go way back into the last millennium. Even Batman the TV series did them before I was a pup. Grrlpower continued the tradition from page 1 (a couple of years before the Wotch started, for info).
I would say the first example of a soundless onomatopoeia, in Grrlpower, was in issue #17:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/149
Arguably “SPROING” might be a squeaky trainer noise, but that does not seem likely. Rather it is more akin to a zip-line, intended to convey movement, but using a word (reminiscent of “Spring”) to do so comically. With KA-PANTs being one of the most memorable extensions of this line of comedy.
New type “Hentai” to be introduced in Gen 8.
If for no other reason, I approve of this strip because of ‘Ka-Gills’
I love the unique onomatopoeia that DaveB does.
Totally.
But never let them get wet, and do not feed them after midnight!
Wondering how Wyrmil will counter the pressure. Does Coot no longer have bones?
Wyrmil might figure that his bits of the body will be able to compensate for Coot’s squishy bits. Alternatively he has already adjusted Coot’s anatomy, using the Regenator, at the same time as doing the KA-GILL upgrade.*. Or he may be ruthless and let Coot’s organs be crushed, but use the Regenator to repair the damage as fast as it is inflicted.
* Not that we can tell how the gills were created, they may be one of Wyrmil’s prexisting features or abilities or they may have been formed by the Regenator.
Mind you Wyrmil did not factor in that Sciona (and others) would have been killed by any explosion big enough to destroy the ultra-tech big vault door. As a pretty much invulnerable monster he may not have even considered the pressure risk to his other half.
In which case refer to the ‘rebuilding the squishy bits with the Regenator’ option.
Do we know if he still has the Regenator though? o_O
It would seem silly to throw away a powerful item. We can see that Wyrmil can hide artefacts inside himself, so he certainly could have kept it if he wanted to. Couple that with it being the one he specifically came here to get and it becomes nearly inconceivable that he would not wish to retain it.
Finally the fact that the baddies seemed very much clued up on what all the artefacts were (and thereby likely knew their powers and dangers) means that Wyrmil would know if he could use and/or keep it safely.
So although we cannot say with certainty, I can predict him keeping it with a high degree of confidence.
Whether it has charges or other limitations on its uses though is another matter.
As an aside I have been assuming that the Sickle thing and the Regenator were one and the same, but I see that they likely are two different items, as we did get an image of the Regenator, which looked different:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2648
Although it was imagined (and the vampire book, in the same panel was clearly comical) so may not represent the true likeness. Not to mention that there is no reason why an artefact cannot change its form. So it may be one and the same yet. But I will not be placing any bets on that.
I’m assuming he still has it since he did say he used it to merge him and Coot together in order to survive. He probably has more than a few artifacts in Coot’s rotundness.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2716235-the-dyke-and-the-dybbuk A very good book of a similar style. The focus is supernatural, mythological, but it’s a fun non-porn semi-romance story.
Incentive vote pic maybe needs some super bright highlighting on the figures’ outside edges? That’s the way I usually see it done. Like this: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/75/6a/76/756a76b9121c6550d03cfd25c1199cc7.jpg
In the vote incentive pic, Sydney looks like a hacker from a 90s movie. In a good way :D
Yea, the cast of Sydney’s mouth does seem un-Sydneyish. Something odd about Maxima too, but that is probably just down to the night time lighting effects that Dave was practicing. Dabbler turns out wonderfully with it though.
We need a minicomic walking us through Halo’s dream, STAT ; )
+1
She sits down for a tea party with an eldritch horror that can’t seem to chew the cake?
DaveB, you had a horror manga advert on your site a few weeks ago, but I can’t quite recall the name of it.
Would you mind telling me, if you remember it?
@DaveB I do not understand that concept of “gap in your reading list”. Reading list is something that always contais at least 10-15 books and is always open-ended. ;)
He simply meant, there is a gap in the shape of that book (unless you already have read it)
I feel the exact same way as you do about the above, except that it is about your repeated use of “Ka-” as a sound effect. To me it reads like the author couldn’t come up with two ways of describing or showing or demonstrating something. I think I noticed it a total of 8 or 10 times in about 150 pages so far, so it’s not pervasive, but it stands out to me and it is something I consider a hallmark of amateurish writing.
Does this sound at all familiar?
But I love “KA-BUN”. It’s not entirely unreasonable that flesh metamorphosing into new forms will have similar sounds. And, the writer does need to draw the reader’s attention to the changes that are less drastic than the sudden emergence of adorable bunnification. I’d’ve missed the engillification of the Wyr-Coot without something to point it out.
I was under the impression it was a running joke. Have you read The Wotch?
It could easily be a running joke. And it could just as easily be the tired repetition that DaveB complained about.
It is all just a matter of opinion, after all.
I love the running gag, it tickled me again.
Then I pictured your face, and the various shades of apoplexy it would go through, on reading it…
… and pissed myself laughing.
*hangs head*
I know I am a bad puppy…
… next time I read the comic I should make sure I am standing next to a tree.
There are times — but not often — when being a ‘bad puppy’ is the best puppy to be.
(…OpenHashtag_I’m_Just_Sayin’_CloseHashtag…)
You are just one tiny step above the mental capability of Guesticus, and so you might not want to try to make jokes which require that you, yourself, understand the meaning of the word “apoplexy.” Or any other words that you try to use, for that matter.
You do exhibit anger a lot, in your comments, bud. The physiological effects of which can include flushing of the skin, causing changes in the skin’s coloration. Sometimes very subtly, but enough for a keen observer, or sensors, to detect.
Please take care not to allow your stress levels to reach the point where the medical meaning of the term needs to be applied to you.
Finally, I am proud to be compared intellectually on a par with Guesticus, thank you. Whilst you may disparage Guesticus, I do not share your opinion.
(…hands Yorp a yummy treat…)
“Such a … *BAD!* — *PUPPY!*”
(…flips Yorp on his back & gives him a belly-rub…)
…Mixed messages? Why whatever do you MEAN?!?
Your imagination is running away from you. Any anger you think I experience about Guesticus, or you, or anything else, is entirely of your invention. As for your being proud to be “compared intellectually on a par with Guesticus,” this is a demonstration of the same sort of lack of reading comprehension that sparks you to imagine things which are not there.
Ahh I can only judge these matters based on the things that you say and the tone in which you phrase them. They certainly come across as angry, at times.
For example the obscenity filled posts on this page certainly convey vehemence and hatred. Hardly what we would expect from someone behaving in a civil and calm manner.
Prefix
ka-
Alternative form of ker- added to expressive words to form adverbs and interjections.
Prefix
ker-
(often humorous) Used to form various onomatopoeiae.
[The book] has suspense, pathos, bravery, and the bad guys get it in the end with a big KERWHAM! [1]
I find his use of ka-“magic” more of a enjoyable style choice then a amateur hallmark, I’m sure daveB’s works are of sufficient quality that he is respected as a professional and gets payed for them.
Need to understand: Oberon lives to rubbish this webic (and me) at every opportunity
Guesticus, please try to understand. I know it is hard for you given your limited mental faculties, but try your best. I critique the writing of the author of this web comic in the exact same way that he critiqued the author of Villains Don’t Date Heroes!.
I don’t see DaveB bitching about my critique. Do you? No, you do not. But despite that you have decided to White Knight him in a supposed defense of my critique.
Now, let’s examine this a bit:
If the person I am critiquing isn’t interested in defending themselves against my critique, then why are you so very invested in that defense?
Is it perhaps because you are a noted lack-wit who has decided that defending others when they themselves don’t see that need is very important to them?
Yeah, that’s it.
You are a tool, Guesticus, and you think that you can make yourself somehow better than the tool that you are if you only suck enough dick.
But guess what? Quality people don’t just want dick sucking. I know this is a difficult concept for you to grasp, but many people genuinely do not want a sycophant who will suck their dick all day long and might prefer someone who will give their honest opinion instead.
Even if that honest opinion is criticism as opposed to dick sucking.
Exactly as the author whose dick you are so happily sucking did when he gave his own critique of Villains Don’t Date Heroes!
*shocker!* I know!
I don’t expect that you will ever grasp this concept, because I don’t have any expectations at all when it comes to your mental capacity.
Just think about this a bit after you use some mouthwash.
Because your breath stinks of cum.
And I only use that term because you have done so frequently and recently.
Except, you do it on every page, and if you are not critiquing the work, you are making personal attacks towards me
Can remember a time, when shit stains use to be publically slapped, now, people tend to just look the other way out of embarrassment and fear the stain would fall on them
I do what, exactly, on every page*? Please try to be specific if you are going to make some charge, because your posts are rife with a lack of specificity which allows you to hide behind your meandering “logic.”
I was very specific: You sucking the dick of some author of some content says nothing about that content and a lot about you.
You can take this feedback to heart and try to improve yourself, or you can continue to suck cock and hope that someone will love you someday. The choice is,as it has always been, entirely up to you.
===
* I attack the author on every page? You didn’t say that, but your “you do it” charge appears to imply that. Please forgive me if I did not translate moron and you meant something else entirely. You have the ability of not the capability to express your own thoughts without any need for me to play guessing games.
But if you did mean that I attack the author on every page, in your continuing saga of providing the author with fellatio, then you’ll need to back that up with facts. Because I do not make a post criticizing the author on every page. I have critiqued him, this is a fact. But I have not repeated those critiques on every page. If you are making that claim, which again is not clear because you are incapable of making a clear statement, then you need to think again. Something that you are clearly not capable of doing.
You truly believe insulting someone so badly makes you special? Well, ‘special’ in a deformed snowflake kinda way, sure
Again with the special idiocy. You never fail to provide, even if you always manage to fail.
Where did I say anything at all about myself, or my beliefs? Feel free to quote me, I welcome it.
But while we are on the topic, I am not insulting you badly. I am insulting you very well indeed. And I only do it because you invite it so specifically. I promise you that I will never do it again if you manage to stop being such an idiot suck up.
So there you go, Guesticus. My offer is on the table and I am a man of my word. You can control your fate with regards to my reactions to your idiocy, just as you could always control your fate in so many other ways. Will you chose to succeed? Or will you choose to fail, just as you have always chosen to fail at everything else?
No, you are doing it badly because you are not getting me to fall to your level and resort to sickening insults
So I’m going to have to assume that either “shit stain” doesn’t make your list of “sickening” insults or that your hypocrisy is invisible to you.
I’m going to go with the hypocrisy one, given how very stupid you are.
Your life must be unbelievably toilet-bound for you to take such pleasure attacking someone you know nothing about
Hmmm Sydney has a fetish.
Yea.
I feel… inadequate…
LOL don’t we all after discovering that!
Dave Barrack, my real name is Dave Brown. Anyway, I’ve added a bunch to the wiki and will add more as my pain, consciousness, and concentration level permit.
Very kind of you DaveB2.
I hope that your pain eases off, or that you manage to get it bearable.
I’m still wondering why Coot’s avatar is him doing the “I want to perform cunnilingus on you” gesture.
Because it so eloquently captures the essence of his nature.
That is simply the image DaveB chose, if you can find a better one, then use it :D
There have been several official mugshots used where personally feel were the wrong choice (even pointed out a couple better options before the character got an entry)
Because it’s an awesome symbol of all that is Coot, that’s why.
I assume that there’s some sort of magical force-field that’s keeping them from experiencing that 98 atmospheres of pressure within the vault. Wyrmil better hope he’s immune to protein denaturing and a whole host of other nasty effects of high delta P. You do not fuck around with high delta P.
Dave has confirmed that the vault does have some kind of magical protection from the pressure.
I survived peeing into a delta from a height.
What a coincidence I just finished reading “Villains Don’t Date Heroes!” this weekend. It was on my suggested list after re-reading “Wearing the Cape”. It doesn’t get too steamy but there’s a good description of a first kiss that’s pretty
It’s a good book but yeah it reads like there’s some major editing errors (at one point it calls a male character “she” even), it mentioned in the description that it’s “re-written” so there might be some issues coming from that. It’s fun and short but also I wasn’t left with much interest in the sequel.
I appreciate the recommendation, too. For myself, I’m reading Ryk Spoor’s “Princess Holy Aura“, about a 6’4” 300 pound guy who gets talked into a situation where he becomes Princess Holy Aura, a 14 year old magic girl, leader of the four Apocalypse Maidens, to save the world.
Lmao, sounds funny.
“Once” they said. “Just the one job, and we can reverse everything, like it never happened. This is the only way to save the world!”
Yea yea. Then there is the next time…
Well, that was the idea. The problem is, the villains are getting more meme-savvy and sophisticated, too. Plans change. Did we mention the talking rat?
Thanks for the recommendation on the novel!
If you haven’t read Andrew Seiple’s ‘DIRE’ series, or Casey Glanders ‘Gailsone’ series…you need to read Andrew Seiple’s ‘Dire’ series and Casey Glanders ‘Gailsone’ series!
They are available on Kindle, and are among my favorites within the superhero genre.
Just had a thought. What is the oxygen content at 1000 metres depth?
Very little, bordering on zero. However fish can use their gills to survive at depths of up to 8,200 meters:
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/scienceshot-whats-deepest-fish-can-swim
So if Wyrmil has just slapped a fish gill on a body that requires surface pressure air with a high oxygen content, they will suffocate. However if the adaptation is his own, then his body is presumably not as limited as a human one. Whether or not his bits can provide sufficient surplus to supply Coots bits with the nutrition and gasses they require is another matter (ignoring the pressure issue, which has been raised in a thread lower down).
However the artefact has made a viable combined organism in the first place, so their combined metabolism may operate at the more robust level, rather than being limited to the weakest components. In other words Coot may have had his cells and organs upgraded to have all the necessary fish-like (or worm-like) adaptations necessary for survival in extreme conditions like this.
In which case their combined form is more like an invulnerable wormy/fishy being who can emulate the appearance of a human.
Pride? From Fullmetal Alchemist?
*looks one thousand meters overhead*
What was that whooshing by?
In case it was a reference flying overhead: Pride.
Max and Sydney don’t seem too disturbed by the tentacles with teeth. I’m assuming that they are a just minor inconvenience.
I have pussies nibble me frequently. Making sure they do not bite too hard is indeed an inconvenience. Better than letting blood be drawn mind.
Definitely not disturbing though. Just cute.
(“Now before everyone scrambles off to buy this, I should say it’s not a romance novel. You know. Romance – wink wink nudge nudge. One of those ones where opening to any given page lands you a 50% chance of heaving or thrusting or quivering mounds of love pudding. At least not yet. I’m only halfway though it, so maybe it will veer that direction. I suspect it’s tamer than that.”)
Huh. Either the writer is a guy, or the girl hasn’t hit 35 yet. The gratuitous mess you’re talking about is written 85% of the time by 40 year old women. It’s practically formulaic.
Neck gills though? Chest would provide more area. Gills are already inefficient.
If they are either magical or super powered then size does not matter. Whilst looking cool would.
But you make a good point if they are a natural racial feature. Given that I do not recall them on Wyrmil though, I think that is less likely.
Increased surface-area is good for efficiency, yes, but it’s bad for defense, because the physical qualities needed to survive combat are incompatible with the delicacy needed to filter oxygen out of water. The heavy concentration of vital blood-vessels in the neck makes this location a workable compromise, to focus fresh oxygen into the blood that directly feeds the brain first-&-foremost.
Even though whales have a lot of blubber to help retain body heat, I don’t think Coot has enough of it to make a lot of difference. Speaking of whales, I bet he’s going to get so cold that “Willy” would not want to be free, but instead is going to shrivel up & try to retreat into hiding…
It’s gonna retreat so far, Coot will grow a tail :P
“…YYYES. Nightmares…”
I’m not sure I can explain why I love this line so much.
We already know that Sydney likes hentai anime. See the earlier names she had for the lighthook. :)
It’s not only the complexity of the non-divisible by ten conversions but the ambiguousity (a new word!), of the units themselves For example ounces may refer to volume (fluid oz), mass (and even mass has multiple definitions (avoirdupois oz or troy oz) or force. Similarly, a pound may be a unit of mass or a force.
In the metric system there is no ambiguity: gram is mass, newton is force and liter is volume.
Only our creative “erudite and brilliant” politicians could come up with any rationale for keeping the imperial system of units.
Hmmmm. That was supposed to be a reply to Autist. I swear I clicked the “reply” button!
.
There are those who would say “Here in America the only newtons are cookies!” I believe the rallying cry of the forces opposing the change to metric is “Make America Weight Again”.
Years ago I heard an interview with the head of the official weights and measures organisation in the UK. He gave a pretty good reason for why the U.K. keeps both. Ignoring the benefit of remaining compatible with both the U.S. and E.U. systems, there is the fact that Imperial units were designed to be convenient for the purposes they were used for.
One example dear to many Brits is the pint. It is a volume of liquid that is nicely thirst-quenching. The standard size of glass is a ‘pint glass’. It is far more convenient to buy a friend a pint of beer than 0.568261 of a liter!
Plus there are tangible benefits too, such as witnesses to a crime turn out to be far more accurate at estimating the suspect’s height in feet and inches than doing the same in meters.
Surely half a litre/a half litre is close enough? IDK, I’m not a massive beer drinker.
Legally no. Under present UK laws the establishment could loose its licence if it did that (without the customer’s knowledge/consent).
Living in a metric country and visiting the UK for one month a year, no. Smaller glasses feel unsatisfying. I too rarely drink out, so have not tried one liter glasses. That may be enough to get too drunk to drive even on a single glass though (depending on the drink strength of course), so that may not culturally be a good option to encourage.
Of course a lot will just being down to what folks are used to. But the weights and measures guy might be right. Britain’s pub culture has evolved over centuries and the measures did so in parallel. Those which were not suited, for one reason, or another, fell by the wayside. And the remaining ones work well (factoring in the climate, culture, drinks involved and so on).
Given the discussion of superhero prose in today’s update I feel the need to link , JC McCray’s dark superhero masterpiece. Ever wondered what it would look like for someone to take writing superheroes seriously? Write a realistic, non-comedy world where it actually makes sense for people to gain powers, put on costumes, and fight in the streets? Worm is that world, and inside that world it tells the story of a brilliant and flawed protagonist doing the wrong things for the right reasons.
The tone is very different from Grrlpower, but I suspect DaveB and readers might enjoy it. One warning though, it’s quite long, and infamous for eating all available free time for a good percentage of first time readers.
Ugh, screwed that html tag up badly. Oh well, link goes to the right place anyway.
The most recent redefinition proposal defines a kilogram via the Planck constant, according to Wikipedia.
(Apparently the silicon sphere approach had problems of its own, see here)
this was supposed to be a reply…
This situation is just begging for a super villain to steal the reference kilogram and demand the world pay a ransom for its return. (This was tried once before, but the thief demanded exactly a thousand kilos in gold for the item. It failed when the world couldn’t pay it because they had no way to measure out the ransom)
The second option is just silly. How could you create a system of weights based on avocados?
Huh…Sydney digs tentacle hentai. Who knew?
Next we will find out that Arianna and Suzy News are into Klingon opera!
Performing or watching? o_O
Sorry but my collection only includes pop https://youtube.com/watch?v=v2bjc6U0tjI
[Paradox]:
I’m gonna say anyone who read Pg.88, Panels 7-thru-9…?