Grrl Power #59 – Camaraderie
Notice that Harem didn’t actually answer Arianna’s question, just gave her a bunch of stuff to worry about.
I may need to rethink how I’m going to do crowd scenes because wow this one took a long time to draw. I worry about having to draw groups cause that lounge will be a common set piece in the comic once I get Sydney there. Like any sit com I’ll have a few sets that get reused, at least I’ll eventually have a collection of backgrounds I can draw from so that’ll help a little.
It wasn’t until I started coloring that I realized that I had lined the couch with redheads. Since I know people will ask, the one in the flannel shirt is the aforementioned Brook, who we can assume from earlier dialog is Mr. Amorphous’s girlfriend.
Edit: Wow it’s Tuesday and we’re already on the second page of comments! I shall do the happy dance. Also, don’t forget that there’s a forum now over at 910cmx.
SuperheroThey're super, thanks for asking!
Meatspace ComicSeriously these are awesome. Check 'em out!
Not UpdatingNo longer updating or only updates sporadically, but definitely worth reading.
SeriouslySeriously you guys. If you like Grrl Power the check these out.
"Mature"Mature subject matter and occasionally something explicit but usually safe. Can't guarantee the ads are safe though.
Dongs Ahoy!Full frontal and backal. Lots of skin, sex on some or all pages, explicit or otherwise.
Awesome art and great writing, can’t wait to see where the comic goes! :)
I am curious on one thing with Dabbler, does she have 4 arms? Loving the comic so far especially Maxima
Yes, she does actually. You can find out this and so much more under the “Cast” button, near the top right corner of the comic itself.
erm isn’t there 3 of 5 Harem’s showing, as the third woman with a Harem collar is right next too the second Harem….
If you look closely the “Harems” have multiple Hs on their chokers. That’s Brooke, tentatively codenamed “Heatwave” hence the single H
Sigh I miss old anime and manga before it was mainstream sigh getting old. But getting it on DVD is better specially with the box sets and they store better as well no six walls of tape or old faded labels that you never know what it is until you play it. DBZ bond solution for any character stupid enough to do a power up. Bond solution=9mm between the eyes. Rule #1 never give the hero a chance it will bit you in the butt everytime.
Gudio
That will totally happen I’m sure, that’s something that irritates me too. Maybe not with a 9mm though. I remember one episode of Thundercats… just ONE, where Lion-o start with the “Thunder….” and Slythe (?) is like “Fucking shoot him!” and all the… beast men? Man it’s been a while since I’ve seen that, but they all lay into him with lasers or whatever. Only happened once.
They’re the Mutants…yeah generic naming for the FAIL. I like the reboot though
Voltron, well more his reboot, had a recent episode in which an evil eye/ mech, was preventing the team from forming Voltron, because it apparently takes them 36 seconds to do it. Luckily one of the new cadets has the ability to overclock anything with a processor in it, and made it so they could connect and transform in 12 seconds. Still not very impressive as far as fights go, but still, why not just leave the base as Voltron? At what point do the characters start to say, “hey look, we’ve needed to transform into Voltron for every mission we’ve ever been on. Why don’t we save some time and just transform before we get there?”
As for DBZ, you have to remember that these guys are all mild sociopaths. Yeah, they’ll save the world and make sure people stay safe, after all “status quot is god”, but they won’t really do so until they’ve had a chance to have fun, by beating up some guy who wants to blow up the planet. Same goes for the “villain”. To steal a line from Vole “Hyu iz not fightink, hyu iz playink at fightink!” They aren’t out to assassinate someone, they’re out there to have fun in the most risky way possible. There is only one character that I can think of that doesn’t take this risk, (at first anyway) and that is Trunks. He sees Freeza and King Cool arrive earlier than Goku, and instead of pulling a Naruto, he goes Super Sayian, does some supercharged attack, and kills them both before they even get the chance to say hi. I wish they had kept that about him, as the Cell series would have been that much shorter….
Dave buddy I love Redheads and brunnettes and blondes and blue haired alien demon girls and golden skinned girls with good muscle tone the most , but i think you worry abit too much my friend we love your art your doing awesome
Colin W, if you look closely, Brook’s collar design is quite different from Harem’s, although they are both H designs, reflecting their super names. Speaking of that, why not go simple with Brook’s alias? Just call her Heat!
AUTHOR PLEASE READ THIS!!!
In another web comic is assassin with similar ability as Harem. He can make multiple clones of himself. Apparently cloning himself is quite taxing becouse he charges extra money on contracts that require him cloning himself. Clones can die, and though that doesn’t kill the man, it’s quite convenience like Wolverine getting himself gutted. Also if main body is incapacitated, clones are too. Go check it out:
http://www.merceneiress.com
I’ve actually been reading that. At least I read the archive and it’s in my RSS feed. I’ve fallen a bit behind lately. Simply being able to make duplicates isn’t unique, I think the combination of abilities that Harem has is though, at least as far as I’m aware. I’m sure it’s actually not, considering the number of comics, episodes of that sci-fi show you’ve never heard of, and webcomics out there, I’m pretty convinced that every idea has been done. It’s just a matter of presentation at this point.
There is also a hero from either DC or marvel that can do it. I remember reading one story about it.
There we go I found it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Madrox
He can create duplicates, but he can’t teleport like Harem. Also, he doesn’t share his duplicates experiences until they recombine.
You monster! Now, I have another comic to catch up on, and I am only about halfway to present with this one.
For brooks name:
Hothead
Hellraiser
Hotness
Can’t really think of anything else starting with ‘h’
i am wondering,,,,, is leon watching porn on the far left upper screen of his setup,,,, sure look like it,,, and if so,,, it would seem he doesnt care of a room full of supers who might take objection with it,,,, well,, altough from what i saw of them so far,,, i think max is probably the most likely to take offense,,,, baddler would probably say,, hey.. i wanna watch to:)
I started googling around for some images to fill the screens with, that’s actually a Victoria’s Secret ad I stuck in there and modified a bit.
So that is where the picture of Dabbler at the top of the webpage came from. Also, what is that top she is wearing?
It’s supposed to be a pink spaghetti strap tank top… camisole maybe? Pink is a hard color to do, it always goes a little salmon when I start shading it.
Just curious about the collars – are they anything more than ID and team style? Location beacons, vital signs monitors, team com devices, ….?
Although it certainly didn’t fit in with the story line, I’m still amused thinking about what Sydney would have done if Amorphous’ tongue had stretched out several feet instead when she threw him. XD
I assume the collars have a GPS function and maybe audio and camera? How about shock or stun? (As a hidden backup in case one of Arianna’s charges goes AWOL.) Dabbler is the most extreme of the mutants with that proto-animal morphology and extra set of limbs. Love the purple with teal stripes. Maxima next only because of the golden skin and purple-blue hair. Very colorful.
Some comics I read publish 5 times a week but they are monochrome in color. I’m just fine with the full color and once a week or so is just find. The story is so interesting I keep coming back for more. Another full color I read is http://www.thespecialist.com set during an alternate World War II also comes out about once a week or so. The same with http://www.meetmyminion.com about two out of work guys get jobs for a super secret villain. So many to read and I am sure I’m missing many more good ones. Not to forget http://www.girlgenius.com which is also full color and we get about a page a week. So I have no problems waiting for the next exciting installment of Grrl Power!!!
I notice you have added Arianna to the line-up at the top of the page.
The last slot there was always intended to be a miscellaneous bucket for some of the non-hero major characters and other secondary characters, as I have a lot more characters than I could make reasonable sized boxes for. That may become a problem as the cast grows though but it works for now.
It’s pretty interesting how Harem has been portrayed in this. The strawberry blonde looks like she hangs out with Anvil, given the more apparent physique she sports.
Though the blurb on the sides amuses me with the “Obsessed with new experiences” line. Just how obsessed are we talking?
Well someone who in an experimental phase in college didn’t have to go far to find partners to experiment with in ways that nobody else could even comprehend I’m sure she doesn’t have to really try to find new experiences.
She’s always wanting to try new things, so despite that she’s not old enough to drink, when someone asks stuff like “who here has experience with animal husbandry?” her hand always goes up cause over a single summer, she worked on a farm, worked in a department store, became a purple belt in judo, read 82 books, watched every episode of Start Trek, taught herself how to bake pastry, got her drivers license, a fishing license, became a 1 girl acapella group, got in to rock climbing, etc. The ones you don’t see in the comic are always off doing stuff.
She should have become a 5 girl a capella group!
Well, with her, 1 – 5 are basically the same thing.
I’m rather surprised that, in this entire comment thread, only one person has mentioned Erie Cuties.
Thanx for the cue to “Eerie Cuties” love it! There is just something about girls with fangs and vertical pupiled eyes I find attractive.
kinda surprised by the 1 count myself, also love the EGS username ^^
I noticed that at the top you now have all 5 of Harem’s selves shown. Thanx. the one thing that psychopaths like that most others don’t is a chaotic environment. They take advantage. It exhilarates them. So any enemies would thrive on such mayhem. Whether in war, economy or civilization in general.
Dave! WTG and Congrats on getting waaaay more comments than many web comics get! I think it was at 162 when I clicked in. Wow!
Second; I wanted to comment on another thing I really like about Grrl Power; the characters having different facial features. There are some good comics out there that are driven down a notch or two because everyone basically looks the same – just hair and clothes change. It’s always nice when different people look different. The trick for you is going to be (I assume) giving Harem the same facial features in each … er … copy (?), but still making her look different. “Different but the same” would be difficult I think.
That’s definitely something I try and do consciously, it is challenging because my art really isn’t “there” as far as making those differences consistent yet. Heads change shape and facial features drift from panel to panel, hopefully that will improve quickly. The main characters obviously have a fair amount of distinction among them, even if you ignore skin color, I’ve drawn Max, Dabbler and Anvil quite a bit, and Sydney is pretty unique looking anyway. I’m more concerned about characters like Arianna or Harem who are by and large, more normal looking. Well, not the goth getup but you know what I mean.
There will be differences due to different sun exposure levels, emotional levels (smile lines or frown lines), makeup, environment, damage etc, The older twins get the more easy it is to tell them apart. At least for me.
At least you kept the eye colors the same.
So who is the blonde on leon’s computer screen?
*reads through all the many, many comments*
Oh, right, victoria’s secret. cool.
Quick question who is the red head with the blue eyes? Her collar don’t match Harem so is she some hero that isn’t listed?
That’s Brooke, currently codenamed “Heatwave” and Stretchy tounge’s girlfriend.
Also called by Maxima a very lucky girl ;>
Yeah those are images I really tried to forget. Thanks Pickle. :P
Err, how exactly is she lucky?
Think about it, if he has control over stretching himself, and can make himself “bigger.” What part of his body stretching would make her a lucky girl?
lol XD
Oh.
Well, depending on what she likes, quite a few parts actually. ;)
Just wanted to say… Dabbler’s expression is win.
Actually, let’s just expound that to saying that the whole comic is win. Still my favorite Monday update. *applaud, cheer, woot*!
May I ask who the redhead is? Her neck-piece is different from Harem, though she does seem to have an H on hers. It doesn’t list her as a charecter.
Guest. That’s Brooke, codenamed “Heatwave” Hence the H. Amorphous’s Lady friend.
THING 1!!!!
Nothing like an obscure Dr. Seuss reference to give you a chuckle right?
“It wasn’t until I started coloring that I realized that I had lined the couch with redheads. ”
Is there a problem with a couch full of redheads? To me, this seems a GOOD thing. ;)
Yeah … I didn’t really mind either.
Oh I’m not complaining, of course that’s a good thing, it just seemed like from an artistic standpoint I could have arranged them a little better. But in a way, arranging women by hair color seems… I don’t know if that’s sexist… I’m sure there’s a word for it. I don’t know what it is but I bet it would offend Maxima. Would that be hue-ist?
Chromatist maybe?
Hmm. You raise a good point. It’s not what most people would consider “sexist” on the face of it, but it does possibly occur because of (or suggest) a particular preferred beauty standard, which a lot of feminist writers would consider part of overall feminist concerns, even if it’s not explicit “sexism”. And if that seems random or obscure, keep in mind that appearance always carries stereotypes with it – blondes are dumb (or cold), redheads are passionate and hot-tempered and impulsive, etc.. And for some reason, hair color stereotypes also seem particularly strong when applied to women – or at least that’s my experience as a woman. Granted, not as a woman who got the short end of that stick (I’m brunette, so the assumptions about blondes and redheads weren’t really applied to me growing up), but just something I noticed in, for instance, all those “a blonde, a brunette and a redhead” jokes and the like. Of course, those assumptions are bullshit in the real world (I had a brilliant and easygoing redheaded woman for a bio professor once, one of the smartest, scientifically-minded women I knew growing up was pure blonde, etc.), but the stereotypes are still there in the back of a lot of people’s minds, and they’re particularly strong when applied to women, and yes, that’s something that a feminist scholar might find interesting and worth pointing out.
Interestingly, the website for Bitch Magazine (which is a feminist publication that often focuses on women in the media and pop culture and the like), has taken this to the logical level of lately also examining MALE beauty standards, because of course, any gendered demands on appearance are, to their mind, still a feminist concern. It’s actually a pretty interesting little series; it’s called “Isn’t He Lovely”. I may need to catch up on it, but I know they’ve already covered musculature, fatness (for instance, male comedians who lose weight often find themselves branded “unfunny” because they’re no longer jolly fat men), body hair I think, and baldness. The baldness one was pretty interesting, actually, particularly since it even addressed the racial elements that come into play.
I do have to say though, not sure the “Thing 1” Harem counts as a redhead, since a.) she’s naturally blonde, isn’t she? and b.) I’d call that pink. ;)
Maybe you just have a thing for redheads, though. I have to admit, even taking the redhead stereotypes out of the equation, I’ve always liked genuine red hair, like on say Karen Gillan, who plays Amelia “Amy” Pond from the current run of Doctor Who. It’s just very visually striking. I like “gold”, blue and green eyes, and jet-black hair, for the same reasons. Or maybe it’s just because I have boring old hazel eyes and brown hair, and crave something different? :) Who knows.
Well, I definitely find redheads attractive, and Harem’s natural color is supposed to be a strawberry blonde, though you’re right her hair definitely looks pink on that page.
It’s probably fair to say that Maxima is the voice of my inner radical feminist, the thing that she would object to is the idea of describing a woman by a single physical attribute, thus reducing her to a single facet of her appearance. Hair color is a legitimate way to describe someone really, but to her it’s like calling a woman “legs” or “jiggles.”
In our world the most abundant color is brown eyes, black to brown hair and a medium to dark skin tones. One of my projects set on a parallel earth there humans have many colors and somatypes. Some of them with animal attributes. I have always found racism to be so stupid. Such little changes, only because of adaptions being given “above an below” status. Will humans ever out grow that? Who knows? I like variety. I don’t want to be color blind, I want to be colorful.
I made sure to book mark this page—what a line up!
Could happen. Random event and all that.
Maybe redheads have a higher probability of being supers for reasons as yet unknown.
Well, the “old wives tale” about redheads needing extra anesthetic for surgeries turns out, according to one genetic study, to actually have some basis in fact; most redheads carry a particular gene, absent in most brunettes and apparently all blonds, that seems to make them more resistant to the effects of anesthetics. As noted though, a minority of brunettes also carry the gene – so it’s not like it’s 100% connected with red hair.
There are other weird associations you might not expect; ADHD folk are more likely than average to be ambidextrous, for instance.
It’s not impossible for redheads to “randomly” be more likely to be a super; weird correlations DO exist in real life, sometimes for a reason and sometimes for no apparent reason at all.
Although, Harem IS naturally blonde, not pink-haired, from my understanding. ;)
On a similar line of thought, a well above average number of “Supers” in comics (both heroic and villainous) have green eyes. Green eyes are, according to my (admittedly limited) research on the subject, very rare in the real world. I can think of at least 20 people in the “super” community of the DCU who have Green eyes, and I know there are more I can’t remember right now. Plus many of them also have Red hair, which is an even more rare occurrence in the real world. It would not be hard to postulate that, in that world, there is a connection between green eyes and super-powers (or the likelihood to develop them.
BTW- Really wish I could comment more but my computer died a while ago and I have to borrow time on others. Still glad to be able to read the comic, and this weeks was great.
The one I find interesting is the gene that if one has one copy of it, it gives resistance to malaria, but if one has two copies, one has sickle cell anemia.
Oh … and re: Brooke; I don’t believe anyone has suggested “HeatStroke” yet … …
*Raises hand* I did.
Hotstuff? Hotgirl?
Ah pfui! Sorry Adamas!
It’s a color thing, not “racist” or “sexist” in context. Too many red-heads together and they just meld together. Lose the ability to differentiate is all. And real red-heads are rare too but not hair coloring.
Of course you know that big muscles and big breasts aren’t real? Breasts are mostly fat. The less body fat you have the smaller they become. Unless you use artificial means to change that. And our male dominated culture are use to that anomaly. And many women have succumbed to that pressure. So what can you do? Go with it I guess. Too late now and anyway I am in the minority among men in this area. So it really doesn’t matter anyway. What’s one more myth in a comic about superheroes? None.
Can’t wait for the next page, but of course I will. In the meantime get to vent and analyze here. Thanx again for that DaveB. Kudos to a very intersting comic I check on every day.
While the muscles/breasts combination is pretty non-existant in real life, keep in mind the the most common super-power is apparently cannon in this comic. So, the breasts are a direct effect of her super-powers just like her muscles.
Of course.
Actually, you would be surprised.
Granted, muscle built from NORMAL means, from efforts of exercise, tends to reduce breast size due to the calories being burned, but a.) you don’t know what her diet is like – she could always be eating extra-huge portions of protein and fat, b.) you don’t know how big they were or would have been originally (there are, in fact, women who have breasts so naturally large that they cause serious back issues; my mother when she was younger had to have hers surgically reduced, and she’s STILL a DD cup. You’re unlikely to find a well-muscled M-cup, but a C-cup? Rare, but not impossible).
And of course, c.) if those muscles are caused by a super power, then who knows how they got there? I mean, for god’s sake, look at Superman. The original explanation for how he could “leap tall buildings in a single bound” was that his musculature was meant for a planet with much higher gravity… except, as anybody knows, it’s not the gravity you were born for so much as the gravity you experience frequently, that has influence over your muscle mass! Just ask the astronauts, and their zero-g addled muscles and bones… clearly Superman isn’t just “built for Krypton”, he’s actively super-powered, in the true sense. Those ain’t natural muscles!
Also, speaking as someone with a NATURAL 36D bra size and 28″ waist, whose physical reaction to weeks of heavy exercise was not “boobs disappear”, but “boobs get almost imperceptibly smaller, I get the urge to eat more hamburgers, and sleep soundly for 10-12 hour stretches instead of crappily for 8 hours or less”… sorry, not all of us womenfolk conform to the standard “logical” explanations of physiology.
Then again, I’m probably a mutant anyway :) They apparently recently discovered that there is in fact a particular genetic combination that leads to “small waist, large breasts”. I think it was mentioned in Wired? Some geeky magazine I read, at any rate, I remember that much. It’s certainly true though, that different people will store their fat in different places; a lot of people store it “all over”, but some really do store it first or mostly in certain areas (I’ve noticed, for instance, that when I bounce from eating badly and no exercise, to regular exercise and halfway decent eating patterns, I lose it from the thighs first, and then only a small amount from the breasts)
Note: this isn’t meant to disparage your point by the way, which is otherwise fairly accurate. Too many times superhero comic artists especially, will attach large breasts to characters because large breasts are considered “hot”, but then they forget that the characters they’re putting them on lead extremely physically active lives. Just because it is POSSIBLE to have good-sized breasts (or as I believe you put it, “breasts”) while being otherwise thin and physically active, doesn’t mean that it’s also COMMON. ;) Keira Knightly, for instance, found that when she picked up archery for “King Arthur”, her breasts did indeed pretty much disappear (something you can apparently see in the film, though not in the posters for it, which were photoshopped to include breasts again).
Just wanted to point out that there is such a thing as “middle ground” there. Because biology is weird that way.
Well, one of the running gags of the comic is that everyone who has super powers… looks like a super hero. Sydney, who doesn’t have powers of her own, of course does not look like a super hero. This hasn’t really been stated explicitly yet but it’ll come up. There’s more to them being built like that other that it’s fun to draw and that people who like super hero comics generally don’t mind looking at them… well, most people do anyway, but it’s a long way off before I get to that stuff.
Thank you JW the real world does have surprises. Interestingly the ancient Hindus also like the wasp waist and large breasted women. Just imagine being able to breed women like that? Someone will want to or try to sooner or later.
The monitor…
Does the dude have Shakira or something playing?
Ohh Poor Amorphous. his less then glamours defeat is probable being played nation wide.
so out of curiousity, just how many can you use (Insert fan char name here) requests do you get?
Haven’t gotten any so far, but cameos will definitely abound. I’m not opposed to the idea but I’ll need to get my setup finished before I can do one-off pages and stuff like that.
…… Must resist urge to be first……..
*Grabs Dabbler’s (Apparently non-existant) pants and ties Knight to a chair* :D
Hehe, too late. I followed Dabbler from Wereworld. Although, I’d have to say it will be fun to see what kind of chaos that Harem can cause.
Beaten by a middle schooler? Lol That’s almost an insult to Sidney, heh. Reminds me of Full Metal Alchemist. “Don’t call me small! I’ll break down your feet and stick ’em on your head!”
Depending on how you want to go, Hestia might work. She’s the goddess of the hearth, and seen as a caretaker of the eternal flame on Olympus.
Just noticed this, but where’s Anvil’s left arm in the fifth panel? In 1 and 4 it’s across the couch, but then it disappears. Also, looks like Brook’s bewbs are partial resting on Anvil’s forearm.
She’s obviously grabbing some popcorn.
I like the collars, it definitely makes identifying people (Harem) much easier :D
I really like the style of Anvil in panel 4. And Harem is hilarious! Her redhead form is so excitable.
Arianna doesn’t strike me as the brains of the bunch lol
Dabbler… Dabbler isn’t wearing anything below the waist, right?
Since we only see her waist and her thigh(shin is out of frame) the only thing she could be wearing is either a thong, or she’s underwear free.
She’s got shorts on, they’re just below the frame. Actually I think that last strip was supposed to be her shorts.
My memory is telling me I saw Harem wearing a choker that showed a part of –H–H–H–H–H– . That would be appropriate.
If Brook is a second-line or third-line super, maybe her heat power is not that super. If it is not settled, call her Popcorn.
Just noticed something: always figured Gothette (Harem in the first panel) only had one skull-barette thingie in her hair, but she has at least 3 (can see the one on the right in panels 1 & 5, and one on the left and back of her head in panels 4 & 6)
Wow, is Harem in panel 1 a salute to Layla at Eerie Cuties?? Complete with skull hairpin! Crazy if its a coincidence.
Brook isn’t “third line” anything. She isn’t just good for popcorn making you know?
I’ve read through the existing archives of this comic several times over at this point. Only at this time did I notice something… odd.
In panel 4, take a look at the TV/monitor directly above Arianna’s head. What exactly was Leon watching? o_O
Its a picture from a Victoria’s Secret ad that DaveB appropriated to fill up that screen as he says way up above somewhere. If you should happen by this way again.