Grrl Power #592 – Funhouse funbags
I know I mentioned possibly not posting a page over Xmas, but I went ahead and did it anyway, so if you missed it, pop back one and catch up!
For the record, Maxima mostly thinks it was funny when she punched Dabbler through the wall. Not when she got manhandled. Or, womanhandled. Succubushandled. She does objectively understand that having a squishy mirror-like surface would be fun to play with. She’s not so much of a grouch that she doesn’t see the appeal. If she had a regular lover, she’d be totally okay with him doing stuff like that. To a point. Not like, jumping out from behind the fridge and doing it, but you know, if they’re already fooling around or in the shower together.
I’m sure lots of adults use baby powder for a variety of things that don’t include stripping, and some probably even have baby powder scented deoderant and whatever. Maxima clearly has some associations with it she doesn’t care for. Although come to think of it, I’m not sure when she would have actually spent enough time around strippers to audit their average scent. For instance, she’s never had a sister who was killed while working as a stripper, naturally necessitating her to go undercover as a stripper at that very same club.
I’ve been sitting on this funhouse mirror gag since before I started the comic. Somewhere in a pile of papers, I have a version of this page penciled out that’s at least 7 years old. I’m sure it’ll show up in one of those mythical books of the comic I keep alluding to but never have time to run a kickstarter for.
I had always intended on drawing Maxima a lot shinier than I do, but it turns out rendering her like an Alex Ross Iron Man is rather time-consuming, and as good as I want the art in the comic to be, it’s still a comic and keeping a schedule is more important than making every page a perfect render. A “good enough” render has to do until I magically figure out a way to suddenly draw faster.
Speaking of which, this is the page I talked about when I said I tried doing a page without inking it first. I think it came out pretty good, but the technique is not a time saver for me. At least, not yet.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like!
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"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.
I know you’re not doing 3D stuff, but just saying, if you really wanted Max to be super shiny, there’s a workflow for it- a lot of work upfront that allows for very little work after it’s all set up.
First off, 3D model and texture all of your common environments- the ARC building, comic shop, etc- the places that she’s going to be in a lot (you can do this for every recurring area, and use those as the backdrops as well, if you wanted- save a lot of time on perspective work, though without the right shaders could end up looking like a Looney Tunes ‘this thing is clearly the animated bit’ scene)
Then make up a simplified 3D mesh of Maxima. Doesn’t have to be ultra detailed, just a Maxima shaped and sized human figure. (you could probably use DAZ models for this- they’re already fully rigged, and have musculature modeled in) Make it fully reflective, and render out ONLY the reflections or specularity. Use that in the comic as either a base to draw over, or layer IT over the drawing.
Blam. Instant shininess guidelines.
Of course, modeling up all the environments would take quite a while, but like I said, once it’s done, you have an insta-background maker, without having to figure out floorplans and stuff.
I think you’re underestimating how long all that would take!
For the record, I’ve tried making a DAZ Maxima, the gold skin really doesn’t work that well. I could dig out my best effort and post it if anyone is interested?
Love to see it.
Meh. Speaking as a 3D artist, 3D is a pain in the butt.
Seriously, it’s a whole new skill set.
Reflections mean lights, and time. You’d have to have a whole other computer to do the 3D while you’re drawing.
And hair for 3D isn’t really that great. And soft objects like towels? Forget about it. I haven’t seen good crumple mechanics yet.
Bad 3D is easy. But really good 3D is hard.
Aww, poor Barry and George, all that philanthropy and yet they are disdained just because they maintain car crushers!
Daz studio’s added dForce cloth simulation for cloth draping and stuff and it seems to be capable of producing pretty good results. For other people. For me it mostly just crashes.
During the holidays they’ve been airing a lot of animated movies ranging from early Disney to late Pixar and what ever. So anything from classical animations to state of the art 3D rendered animation, and there are big differences in how the animation flows and feels.
Classical animation, when done by good animators, really makes soft bodies, hair and fabrics feel organic. Animations with rigid structures on the other hand can be a problem with dimensions changing as object are moved and turned. Computer on the other hand are excellent at animating rigid bodies, and lately very competent at creating liquids that look and behave very natural.
Things like hair have come a long way, but the programs can only do so much. The input from the animators are what makes the difference between a technically excellent rendition and something that feels excellent…
For your final point I think it really would require a 3D printer.
Crumple mechanics are quite doable, but right now the software to do it well (Finite Element Modellers) tends to be aimed at engineering consultancies, needs of pretty serious computing power to do in reasonable amounts of time, and costs an absolute bomb. It tends to end up being used to check whether crumple zones in cars will work as expected in a crash…
See see, I knew cars were involved with crumple mechanics!
*wags tail assertively*
This is a hilarious situation. Well done!!!
Am I the only one who actually want Max and Dabbler to “get together” somewhere down the line? I don’t know why but I find their totally opposite personalities to make an adorkable couple… Realistically I know Dabbler most likely never could stay monagomous but one can always Ship and Head-Cannon when all else fails XD
I wouldn’t say I speak for everyone else… but the level of disrespectful presumption Dabbler shows Max has me firmly in the ‘hell no, not okay’ camp. It’s not quite the ‘rape equals love’ trope, but it’s a disturbingly close cousin.
As Dave Willis (through Carla Rutten) once said, “Shoves is NOT loves”.
As Bruce Willis once said:
Im gonna chalk it up to Dabbler initially counting on her innate seduction power (hypnotic boobs remember) smoothing things over that and succubus society having extremely different morals. Then of course there is Dabbler having a total Sydney moment as she is hypnotized by the possiblilities of playing with gold mirrored boobs,
Im guessing she’s learned a lot since then lol.
Given the number of other times she’s harassed Max in this comic, I don’t think Dabbler’s learned as much as you think she has.
I think Dabbler has learned.
She knows what she is doing is wrong.
And then does it anyway, and probably enjoys breaking the rules and getting away with it.
Pretty much this. Dabbler’s behavior toward Max is given a pass only because Max can (as demonstrated here) punch her across the room. Max has made it abundantly clear that she doesn’t appreciate it at all but Dabbler keeps doing it. Having the two of them hook up (which wouldn’t even make sense given that Max isn’t attracted to women) would be basically be a case of rewarding bad behavior.
In other words the extremely bad message so many 80’s “romantic comedies” drilled into far too many a young man’s head.
Its one thing to be persistent *courting rules differ by culture and expectations from the other*, its another to be a creepy stalker who can’t take no for an answer and has no respect for the other person as anything other than a prize to win over.
Quite.
Everyone is entitled to their headcanon, shipping and daydreaming.
Enjoy!
It does definitely make me wonder if Maxima has an endurance level that could even wear out Dabbler. It would be fun to watch…
Um, to paraphrase Vehemence:
“Sex, one of the pure, primal forces.
Fuck me? Makes me stronger.
Fuck a couple dozen scrubs I round up? Makes me stronger.
I fuck you? STILL makes me stronger.
That’s right, Colonel. All of your sexy powers are worse than useless against me.”
Yeah, even with a godlike endurance, Maxima’s not going to wear out an ‘innate user of tantric energy’. Just not gonna happen.
but from that same fight,
there has to be a point of diminishing returns.
Sure you can keep going up, but at some point you will hit a ceiling to how high your power can rise before you start to use up more than you can gain, or it starts to damage your body.
She’s already hit the wall and the floor. I guess the ceiling’s next.
I suppose she could channel all her power into endurance…
I think if this ever does happen Maxima is going to be whammied first and not by Dabbler. Making Max hit on Dabbler and Dabbler, being her, would NOT never turn that down.
… hmm or maybe
Unless Dabbler catches on and actually stops it from happening all in all Dabbler does seem to have some decent character qualities, though I would not put it past her to get her pics of Max and letting her THINK something happened. For Dabblers part she does seem to actually be attracted to Max and I think she wants it to be “real” if/when it does happen.
But I think there is more a chance of a Max/Hiro hook up despite rank/chain of command issues before a Max/Dabbler
Actually, i could see Dabbler freeing Maxima from the other “whammy” instead of taking advantage of it. Dabbler at this point would see Maxima as a challenge, and wants that “win” to be hers, not because of some other person
I quite agree. Though she might free Max she may lead Max on that something actually did happen, that I could easily see. But yeah, it was kinda what I meant, Dabbler sees Max as a challenge and wants it fair and square no funny business about it and she wouldn’t consciously let someone else screw that up.
I think Dabbler wouldn’t lead on Max due to the fact that Max might actually kill her if she believed that Dabbler had done anything of the sort. I think it’s more likely that Dabbler would just try to get Max to do something embarrassing so she can tease her about it later.
My vote’s for accidentally leading her on.
“you’ve GOT to see this video of you and me!”
“WHAT?!”
“P-please let go of my throat, it’s proof that I went against my every instinct and did NOTHING to you until I -gak- knew I could break the mid-ack- whammy. th-they said you wouldn’t believe it any other way!”
This is evidenced in the flashback scene above. Dabbler may be there to seduce Maxima, but you’ll notice she’s deactivated one of her more powerful abilities. Despite making her look like ‘a slumber party sorority massacre victim in training’, Dabs has covered her hypno-boobs in a wordy t-shirt. She definitely wants to win over Max without her succubus powers.
She doesn’t want fast-food succubus-loving, magic’d up and served in a cardboard box. She’s there to cook it herself. Which has got to be hard, for a succubus. I don’t know if a creature that can have willing sex partners at the wave of her *ahem* hand really has a concept of seduction, but she’s trying.
And Dabbler’s running into the problem all seducers face – that the line between seduction and harassment is a hazy one. A seducer’s target is often uninterested in sex at first, that’s kind of the point, you’re trying to change their mind.
There’s also the issue that the ability doesn’t have infinite duration and Max would probably kill her the moment it wore off. Max wouldn’t see being seduced via supernatural ability as anything different than being Roofied.
and definitely not using her Eye of the Beholder/Beholder’s Beauty type glamor that makes her look like her target’s preferred love interest; trying to seduce Maxima the old fashion way.
Does that work when the preferred love interest’s gender doesn’t match Dabbler’s own?
Well it also produces the individuals ideal of beauty, take for example when Sydney first met Dabbler, the form Dabbler took was the Beholder’s Beauty Glamor directed at Sydney, producing that superheroine form Dabbler liked so much she set it as a standard public illusion; she also had a lust aura in affect so strong Syndey had to keep reminding herself she wasn’t a lesbian. A little of column A and column B with some affective affection towards her and next thing you know…
Maxima though in that instance showed an adrenaline counter measure reaction as a defense.
This was actually a little disturbing. It WAS sexual assault, and the range of sexual powers Dabbler has really calls consent into question. Thats presuming she even understands what consent is.
Honestly, Dabbler has gotten less funny and more creepy over the years…
She’s an alien. The “creepyness” comes from humans being wired and aculturated to expect specific behavioral boundaries. Like the creepy human guy who acts nice but is really a predator, the contradictions are warning flags to a human about other humans. Getting along with genuine aliens will be far, far more difficult than anything seen in Star Wars or Star Trek. The boundary behaviors that are acceptable between species would have to be planned by the experts of both, agreed upon, and then taught to members of both before turning them loose on each other.
+1
Exactly,
we can make a laundry list of boarders to cross that people likely simply won’t be able to accomplish mentally. Heck even among other humans we have “culture shock” which has very real psychological impacts on people who live in other cultures; its not just the “big” things either; people are surprised how indoctrinated our cultures make us to small daily tasks, outlooks, and reactions to various things. One of the reasons subtitles and dubs will often go with a “context translation” rather than a literal one so the target audience gets an approximation of it.
Put that to aliens, we have intelligent tool using animals here on Earth but people are quick to label many of these animals as “psychotic” or “sociopathic” because their behavior while showing reasoning, planning, cunning, tool invention, is completely different from how humans would react and cooperate among themselves. Chimps, Bonobo, dolphins, ravens, octopi, and grey parrots all show signs of complex thought in the form of planning, understanding that various things will have certain outcomes, ect…yet react different than how most would perceive as intelligence or reasonable reactions. (Human bias) affects testing animal intelligence, imagine coming across aliens and seeing every outward sign that an intelligence is present but having no clue how to interact with them, or why they’d do what they do. This is culture shock times ten.
Of course the rest of the list is things like environmental perception affecting reasoning, methods of communication, life span affecting time perception due to how important they consider blocks of time subconsciously, physical interaction with environment, and even range of perception (even something like seeing in different bands of light, EMR, sound, ect… will change. Optical illussions, matricing, tell people apart by faces, ect… all will likely not apply to most aliens, anymore than humans are mesmerized by the tiny dust particles that cats see, or how most people can’t tell chickens apart by their faces when in reality their faces are as diverse among each other as human faces are (just not wired to tell them apart like that). So yes, an alien saying “all humans look the same” who see in different light band, not tuned to human like faces, and communicates mainly with radio waves would be reasonable and not racist, also a world with tons of radio waves constantly going on would be perceived as a world of madness filled with constant screaming.
Here’s the difference: if a chimpanzee or octopus behaves dangerously, we don’t allow them to interact with humans and say “oh well, it’s just the way they are,” we actually take steps to keep them away from people.
Yes, which is one of the many reasons I don’t see humans and most sapient species in the universe as likely to ever interact face to face.
Especially when (form bias) is also an issue. You feed a meal worm to a frog without thinking about it. An insectoid like alien that has a mealworm like larval stage sees this as you feeding the equivalent of a baby monkey to a demonic dragon beast.
You are more likely to get along with and respect sapient species that resemble you, hence the more often than not trope of *beautiful aliens good, ugly inhuman aliens bad*, even attempts to subvert this tend to polish up the “monstrous” one’s design closer to handsome or cute. But this same mental state would likely make each other less likely to emphasize with the other when discomforted or in peril…and the issue with Dabbler seems to be a case of predation/parasitism instincts. Luckily for her enough people find the “positive reinforcement” aspect of that behavior enough of a trade off to tolerate and accept her presence; others like Maxima keep her on a short leash.
I imagine if her behavior was more destructive, like a vampire feeding on blood, or cocooned and caused agony to her victims when preying on them, yet showed the same attitude about it or used hypnosis so they were in a paralyzed dream state she would be significantly less tolerated even with her skills and experience to exchange. The perception from the humans around her is playing the big part.
Rhuen, you probably already have, but read anything by C. J. Cherryh. Almost all of her books are based on the precept that it’s going to be VERY hard for people to understand alien species. The Chanur novels, Forty Thousand In Gehenna, and of course the Foreigner series.
Sounds interesting,
in one of my own sci-fi settings there is a sentient alien race that ended up being farmed by humans as a food source because they couldn’t communicate, and the aliens were totally benign with no outward signs that humans could recognize of culture or technology because the aliens evolved sapience as a random mutation and not an environmental pressure so it didn’t go to much use outside of social interaction with each other.
a short in Analog (iI think) was about the particular difficulty humans had communicating with a species that was extremely human in appearance. They loved over elaborate clothing (Think Centaurans from Babylon 5) and appeared to use gestures, hand and arm waving, even turning around as part of communications, but didn’t have any vocalizations or facial expressions. Humans were so stumped as to how to communicate they called in the hero, who eventually went in to the meeting room with the aliens completely naked. The reaction was profound – the aliens stripped too. the humanoid was a non-sapient dummy, the clothing was a sentient colony plant that used the humanoid beast to get around. The rustling of cloth was their attempts to communicate, and until hero stripped, they were wondering why humans chose such a noisy transport animal.
It ain’t gonna be easy to get along – every one of our assumptions is wrong, even the ones we’re blind to.
If Dabbler looked like a giant gastropod, nobody would find what she does funny or appealing.
True, or take the traditional thought process that sex with a Succubus is fatal. If that was actually the case I could see the other members of her team taking Dabblers advances quite seriously. But that is a misconception and all it does is make the person weak the next day…. Though Dabbler did allude once that it could be, but was she joking or was it just something Succubi don’t do because its considered wasteful?
I feel inclined to point this out, traditional pop-fiction succubus is fatal, however traditional folklore was not, The “Succubus” is often mixed up with and its name used as a catch all for a whole host of unrelated things; however “Succubus” did refer to a specific seducer demon; but is often in fiction given traits of Lillim, Dearg Due, and vampires among others.
the Succubus would have sex with a man, and while this did drain some of his vitality her main goal was to either become pregnant to give birth to more demons as male demons could not impregnate female demons, or she would (store) his semen and transform into an Incubus at which point she would have sex with either a human woman or another demon and impregnate them *apparently transforming the stolen semen into demon semen in the process*. There are basically two versions in folklore of the succubus one that is one gender or the other (Incubus) or the one that is both at the same time and shifts between them.
Very true, (thinking tentacle monsters with snail or pod base), that even when they can use lust pheromones or illusions and such are still regarded as horrible monsters, Dabbler’s advantage is that her base form looks like something a human or other humanoid would naturally want to have sex with rather than being fully tricked by.
Makes her predation that much more effective.
Hang on a moment – I would just like to chip in here with my trekkie uniform on and point out that Star Trek had an alien race who could actually manipulate the dreams of others and place themselves in them as well as change what the dreams were about. In the episode I am referring to, the alien attempted to force himself on Counsellor Troi after framing his father (very messed-up). When this was investigated further, the perpetrator caught and prosecuted on his home-world (the legal action initiated by the remainder of the group from said planet) they actually found him guilty of rape.
While this is a little dark, it is interesting that they went the metaphysical with the aspects of rape and that it is not always cut and dry with the physical act and the crime only being that in the human example.
TL;DR: Star Trek TNG covered Rape by an alien Species and it involved dream manipulation rather than the physical act.
So I was watching archer and just happened to check my phone. This comic comes up and I realized….. Maxima and Lanna could be sisters/twins/mutiverse versions of one another/bffs. Just wanted to lay that one out.
Can’t say I am seeing it myself.
I think only in cup size.
Make mine a tea-cup please.
Do they even make bras in that size?…
Well, it’s possible the an expert bra designer could do it, but it would have to be on special order.
Of course!
Imagine a night out on the town with Dabbler and Archer.
Or Archer and Maxima. The rest of his life would be short and exciting.
Phrasing.
I’d imagine something between his surprise and exhaustion and bewilderment and addiction like when he was sneaking around with Pam
and
dead in a ditch.
Wait… What is Maxima actually doing when she showers? Other people are removing dead skin and other stuff skin normally exudes along with the dirt they pick up because of having those things. Being shiny all the time means she doesn’t have that problem. Unless she’s only shiny on the outside? Maybe her plumbing is more normal and needs the usual regular cleaning?
Well, she can still get dirty. As evidence by that cave-in at the council. And I imagine that she can smell bad too.
And, like most people, she probably “feels” like she needs a shower after a long day; Even if they aren’t particularly dirty or smelly.
Maxima is an ordinary person, in most regards. Except having golden coloured (but not metal) skin, elf ears and force fields). She also has her bigga bada boom, but that does not affect her showering. Normally.
Which means her cells will work pretty much the same as ours. Living their lives, wearing out and dying. She is at as much risk from dandruff as the rest of us. Likewise as for body odour and the various other reasons we need to wash.
Her force fields surround each cell, hence why her skin is ‘screwy’ and makeup smudges. But it does actually stay on her, just not sticking as well as on human skin that lacks force fields. However we know that they must be permiable to both air and water, otherwise Maxima would not be able to breath and her cells could not gain nourishment.
So showering will allow her to wash off dead bits of Maxima, along with the usual dust, dirt and her anti-glare grit.
Removing the anti-shine grit in preparation for a new application?
Enjoying the sensation? In comics it’s usually the case that even invulnerable people who can’t be harmed by a direct rocket strike can still feel the gentlest caress…
Following an ingrained habit from her pre-super time as a normal girl?
Even if it can’t hurt you or penetrate your skin, you can still feel it, and people naturally like that sensation of being clean. Also who know how her biology works, she got her powers from some deep earth or alien symbiote-parastie bacteria whatchamahoosits living inside a geode, her invulnerable pores could be filled with a sensation akin to but distinct from itching like a “reject foreign material” signal that can get annoying over time and can only be washed out as she can’t form pimples or flaked off skin *we assume unless enough damage warrants it*.
I’d do that to her butt more than her boobs
Be sure to ask her permission. Even if you are more durable than a brick wall.
One of my Masks characters has the opposite problem: She literally made mostly of iron. She has to use steel wool and occasionally a power buffer to get rust spots off! For special occasions she’ll use car wax to look her best.
There’s even a shower scene in one story where she and another supergal – both desperately in need of a laugh – wind up hugging naked on the locker room floor helplessly laughing and crying. (It started with a joke about “putting an eye out” and went rapidly downhill from there. Mostly stuff about the problems physically superhuman females have with physically normal males.)
Heh.
And awww …
I also have a Masks character that has a metal body, although his actual body is just an intelligent meteor that has to constantly absorb metal for nourishment, he can shape any metal he is currently in contact with by molecular conduction, meaning any metal he’s touching is effectively part of his body. So sometimes he’s shiny, sometimes he’s dull, and in one memorable instance, bright yellow, after absorbing most of a school bus.
Metallic paint? Normal paint would have flaked off in sheets as the metal was shaped out from under it. Under the paint would have been steel in various mixes, aluminum, and probably some copper from conductors.
You’re overthinking it a bit.
There’s also vinyl paint, with more give specifically to be applied to flexing objects.
I literally laughed for a full minute at this chapter.
Yea it had me going too. Despite my throat already being raw from weeks of coughing!
*sucks another sore throat Yorpie medicine*
I was chortling for a good while, before I continued reading only to find Sydney having the same fit of giggle s that I was… which set em off again ^_^
Kudos Dave, that was an awesome gag.
So the ballistic Dabbler smashed Max’s mirror. How many years of bad luck is that?
It is hard to examine the mirror, to determine that. I would do butt there is something distracting in the way.
was that misspelling intended? considering the view?
I believe the answer to that question will come to you in the end….
Thank you, I was trying to come up with a suitable rebuttal.
This thread is getting quite assinine
Can we just put this whole conversation behind us?
Indeed. Let us not make a rumpus.
Let’s not allow this topic to confuse the issue by turning it into a big tangled ball of hiney-winey stuff.
Ok this thread is ridonkulous. Gonna go play south park: the fractured but whole until you people stop making tush puns.
*grumble* puns everywhere I turn, thank goodness for video games…
Now now, there’s no need to get your tuchus in a twist about the puns.
Pun-chains always get back stabbed by people turning them away. Damn Ass-ass-ines.
Pander , I bet your pun animosity stems from that time you were banned from flying?
or a Krampus
Hah, I killed a whole bunch of those yesterday!
I don’t think that was a mirror. Just a bare piece of wall, like the one seen to the left part of the suite. Nothing looks like glass shards to me, and there does seem to be dust like you’d get for smashing in a portion of drywall.
I think we can all safely say, it was a lot funny.
Honestly, while I see how you might want Max shinier than she currently is, I think this amount of specularity is the practical upper limit this current comic style will tolerate. More, and it might become difficult to draw her in a way that both lets you show finer details AND lets you fit her in with the rest of the comic.
Honestly, the style of this page is absolutely amazing. I can see you spent more time on it, and unlike some styles I’ve seen on past pages, there’s nothing I can find to improve about it.
*harumph*
I like speculating!
But I don’t like speculum…Just my thinking of it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
Here’s a question that occurs to me. In what way has Dabbler’s teasing of her teammates differed from that of her teammates teasing each other? “You should all be wearing Burqa
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1864
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1873
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1886
Compare that to Dabbler’s behavior, sexual and nonsexual:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/2165
It seems as if Maxima’s a little oversensitive about certain things. Not that I blame her, given some of the stuff she’s had to deal with…
Minor glitch. Dabbler’s tee shirt and panties were peach-colored at first, but when dangling from the hole in the furniture and wall, her panties are red.
Typically panties that aren’t specifically lingerie, and quite a lot that are, have a double or extra lining right over the juicy bits for protection. That can easily change the color.
Succubus (or Iron Cloth) mood changing material?
Or possibly if could be Dabblers… umm…. anticipation?…. changing the cloth content, thus darkening them…..
It the slumber party outfit was only an illusion and she was just wearing a red thong in anticipation of not needing to remove much clothing.
There are other powders that she could use aside from baby powder, and not all of them are scented. Cornstarch, for instance, which is often an ingredient of baby powder. Talcum powder.
Just sayin’.
She used to use baby powder but avoided the question with a sny remark when asked what she uses now.
The thing is, Maxima represents the ultimate object of lust and desire for Dabbler…remember, Dab’s an adventurer. And a succubus. Maxima is GOLD, GORGEOUS, and DESIRABLE. To Dabbler, Maxima’s the ultimate conquest! And of course, over the years of their association, it’s gotten better, IMHO, as some if not most of that lustful desire, has been replaced with friendship and affection. So…yeah. As well, I am with Sydney here. It actually took me several minutes to stop laughing and actually read through Sydney’s laugh track there. :) And kudos to Maxima for (eventually) seeing the humor in the situation.
Maxima’s new superhero name: Swift Justice.
this is the best update ever
I actually use talcum powder on my feet to keep them dry. It’s unscented baby powder, but not that awful cornstarch stuff). Divers use it also on their drysuit seals.
Seals wear drysuits? What about sealions?
Maybe sealions use it on their wetsuit seals? How they get seals to stay attached to the wetsuit is something else that may be problematic too.
Yeah, it’s too bad that Velcro just doesn’t want to stick to EITHER of them, either…
Gotta give Syds credit. That was hellaciously funny.
Maxima went to college so she probably knew at least one girl/guy who ‘worked’ for tuition.
Stripper does not have to equal prostitute.
“W*rk” is a dirty four-letter word. But, whilst “w*rking girl” is a euphemism for “prostitute”, the word on its own does not automatically equate to that.
Stripping is a kind of w*rk. Just as is police w*rk, factory w*rk or office w*rk.
Pardon my French.
“…Pardon my french.”
Ah mais aucun soucis, tout va bien.
nyarf !
Don’t be deliberately obtuse. “‘Worked’ for tuition,” with ‘worked’ being called out like that means hooker. You don’t say (or type) that you ‘work’ in a factory, or ‘work’ as a cop, or ‘work’ as a stripper.
And again, stripper != prostitute. They can certainly go together, but it isn’t a requirement.
I was aiming for ‘funny’ rather than ‘obtuse’. But, if taking the quotation marks as changing the meaning (which is fair), I would still argue that it does not automatically equate to ‘prostitute’ as you have leapt to.
I think it boils down to preconceptions of what constitutes valid work. If a job is not normal then someone may add the quotation marks to show this. So I ‘work’ as a philosopher. But, as that does not earn me any money the quotes are relevant. It does not match the norm of salaried employment.
In this case, contextually, Random Guy is though clearly talking about someone earning money. Likewise, given the page’s sexual nature, it is fair to assume that the ‘work’ is related to that.
However there is still a broad scope for work within the sexual services industry. So whilst some folks may well go to the same place as you, others would include a broader potential reading. Part of which would be down to people’s expectations.
If they are relaxed about strippers, then they would not leap to mind, as ‘exotic dancers’ would be legitimate work. Other more repressed individuals would not agree however. If they consider the job to be of dubious merit then the quotes would fit.
Other examples would include escorts. These can be non-sexual roles, and may even be required by law to be restricted to such. Yet posing as a girlfriend can carry with it a stigma. Especially for those who consider ‘escort’ to just be a euphemism for ‘prostitute’. Whether those suspicions are justified or not.
Likewise actors in porn movies are not prostitutes. But a lot of people would not see a distinction, as they are performing sex for money. All of the above roles are ones that are undertaken by (quite a large number of) struggling students. Plus there are more, but my post would go overlong.
And there are even those who are happy with the lifestyle, rather than feeling economically forced into it. They can often earn far more than their counterparts who are flipping burgers or the like.
Their peers though may well refer to them as ‘working for tuition’.
And, going the other way, some may be performing sexual acts for their faculty members, in lieu of payment for private tuition. Technically not prostitution, without money changing paws. Albeit providing ‘payment in kind’.
To be perfectly clear I did not mean ‘prostitute’. I meant ‘work’.
Why else the fuck would you put ‘work’ in well, not quotes but the equivalent?
For future reference, when you write something like that (quoting: Maxima went to college so she probably knew at least one girl/guy who ‘worked’ for tuition.) you either mean prostitute or you are woefully ignorant. Don’t be woefully ignorant.
Clue up, it’ll help you later in life.
I worked for my tuition. No quotes needed. I did a stretch in the Army, and then I worked part time during the school year and full time during summers. Someone who said that what I did for my education was ‘work’ (which in that context would mean that they didn’t think it was real work, but just a lark) would be getting a fist in the eye, just like Dabbler.
You have a hateful personality.
I have a low tolerance for fools, it is true.
Your definition for which seems to be ‘anybody who disagrees with me’. This being a case in point as, even with my trouble with names, I recognise Random Guy as being a good member of the community, who has made many insightful comments.
I ‘work’ as a security guard.
So you slack off in a job that supposedly employs you for security, but you are mostly useless and could easily be replaced by a toaster for all the good you do? That’s what you just said. You don’t call out a word like that unless it has a different meaning than the one people would normally assume if not for the “air quotes.”
I’m sorry Oberon I think your being the obtuse person here.
Using randomguy’s comment he, or she but will assume he, may be employed as a security guard. If he’s expected to do anything besides what is typically understood for a security guard means he’s also ‘working’ as a security guard. The qoutes mean something isn’t doing something as someone would typically expect. His security guard position may be in fact that he’s actually a glorified secretary or janitor. If that was the case then he’d certainly be ‘working’ as a security guard. He could also be guarding an empty lot where he’s being paid to guard absolutely nothing hence ‘working’ even if he’s completely serious about his job. Randomguy may even be doing what you implied which was him being effectively as useful as a toaster.
Your trying to take something with nuances and forcing it to fit whatever you decided it meant. Via your own logic the phrase putting qoutes around worked means they either don’t do their job or they’re a prostitute. So maybe randomguy’s ‘working’ as a security guard means he’s a prostitute as that’s what you decided ‘working’ implied at the start.
This is true, I am often called upon to be a janitor, secretary, maintenance person, and scape goat. Their is often little point in my being dressed in a uniform.
So….married?
Lol.
Lol. Nope, well, only when some snowbird is energeticly telling me about her grandaughter
I would argue that janitorial work is, in fact, legitimate work and is, if anything, more so than sitting around watching CCTV (except on the occassions when that camera actually shows something of interest).
In that particular example, I would say that Random Guy was working as a “security guard”, not “working” as a security guard, since it’s the position, not the fact that he’s working, that seems illegitimate.
That last part is probably more acurate. Sometimes it sucks to be a contractor. I do patrol rounds, being seen is most of the job. Depending upon where I am stationed I may walk 10 to 24 miles during a rwelve hour shift, sometimes half of that is on stairs. Other times I am standing post at a gate, or aerobically yelling at an idiot, sometimes I live the cliche and eat a doughnut.
I used to live as the doughnut.
Then I got better.
I wasn’t saying janitorial work wasn’t legitimate work, as it very much is, but rather that if a security guard was doing it instead of being a security guard he’s not a security guard but a janitor who is very protective of his turf.
I’d possibly further argue that if he spent a great deal of time doing it it would move the “‘working’ as a security guard” to “working as a ‘security guard'” but where that line is crossed is entirely a matter of opinion.
*sigh* You just don’t get it, do you? Putting quotes around “work” means different things in different contexts. When you say that you “work” for a living you are, by calling specific attention to the word “work,” indicating that what you do is not what most people would call work. Or there would be zero reason to call it out that way. Similarly by saying that a girl “worked” for her college tuition you are implying that she is a whore.
I do feel a bit sorry for Random Guy however. Being asked to do janitorial duties as a security guard is something that would not fly in any place I have ever worked. Having a person whose duties are to be vigilant distracted by mopping a floor or whatever is counterproductive. It defeats the entire purpose of having a guard, and makes the organization who would press their “guards” (See what I did there with the quotes? See how that works? Someone mopping a floor isn’t guarding anything, after all.) into janitorial duties idiots.
The context of Random Guy’s opening comment was regarding Maxima saying
Plus Dave’s blog comments pursuant to that. Whilst the cosmopolitan would consider that to be work, it is not a standard 9 to 5 job, so is reasonable to opt for typing it as ‘work’.
So the context is pointing us at this. Whereas you are the one who is conflating that with the slang term ‘working girl’.
Whilst it is useful to point out that this is a close association, that people may leap to, it is wrong to keep insisting that it is the only meaning that can be taken from it. Random Guy‘s comment is more reasonably interpreted as shortening ”… girls who performed work such as stripping” to ‘work’.
Which, on first reading, I felt to be a good way of explaining why Maxima would know what a stripper smelt like. There was nothing contextually to lead me to think Random Guy was bringing prostitutes into the equation.
Had he done so I would have expected some elaboration on that. There was none
Leaving us just with the known context. For which the comment made sense. Hence my mind not taking me the route you are insisting is the only conclusion.
So rather it was your reply which seemed out of place. Likewise your continued defense of a weak position.
This is a really good inkless page. I didn’t even notice the lack of ink lines until DaveB mentioned it. I am impressed.
I imagine most people didn’t even realize it, until DaveB mentioned it… probably only another web cmic style artist would notice it without that message.
I had a friend in High School who was a bit heavy, and he used baby powder to prevent chafing. And so always smelled of baby powder. About 20 years after HS a common friend showed me some pictures. The strange thing was that while we all thought he was really fat when we were all skinny kids, he really wasn’t that heavy. I doubt he cracked 180 to the 150 I weighed when I left HS. I had a decent amount of height on him as well, but still.
My kittens just saved my life! I had settled down to sleep but got woken up by Miss Kitty Fantastico giving an alarm mew. The room was full of smoke! So, at first, I thought it was just my petchka (fireplace) smoke being blown back in.
Nonetheless the first thing I did was evacuate the kitties. As I know that smaller critters are more susceptible to smoke. Outside I could see that the wind was changeable, which could account for the smoke being blown back in. That happens once every year or two, if the wind is coming from an awkward direction for my chimney.
Turns out though I had an actual house fire! Fortunately it had only been smouldering, to produce that smoke, so it had not stood out as smoking, being hidden by the density of the smoke in the room. Until it got the fresh air from me opening the door! So I saw it as it burst into flames!
I was able to quickly pull the culprit item out of the front door, before it was totally engulfed, and smothered/stomped it out.
But there were already a bunch of small secondary fires inside! The biggest of which was smaller than my fire bucket though, so I could scoop that up as a unit and dump that outside. Then I grabbed one of my 11 litre bottles of water and rapidly went round putting out the other bits. Taking out any that were a risk of reigniting.
Then spending quite some time on fire watch, going round making sure that none of the bits outside nor the stuff I had left indoors, had any smoldering bits.
Fortunately all the kitties are fine, plus there is no structural damage to the house, at all. I can feel mild burns to one forepaw (from carrying a flaming bucket) and one hindpaw (from stomping out fire). I guess I will feel that more in the morning.
Lost a few items. Although my straw hat only has a hole burnt into it. So could serve as an interesting talking point.
*wags tail cheerfully*
Hence why I am here now, rather than back in bed. Miss Kitty Fantastico decided that she would prefer to spend tonight outside. So, sleepy though I am, I need to remain on fire watch for some time yet, as my fire alarm is not in here with me.
glad you are okay! super glad the kitties are okay too!
Wow–Sounds like Miss Kitty Fantastico deserves a promotion to Supreme Mistress Kitty Superfantastico! And also a medal (tho’ she would probably prefer a heapin’ bowl of FanTasTik-O’s, the Superior Kitty’s Succulent Super-Snack!)
Hope your fire watch is uneventful, and your scorched paws heal smoothly.
Thank you both. No further flare-ups and my fire safety officer (Miss Kitty Fantastico) has inspected the property and deemed that it is safe to reside in again.
*puts out a bowl of nice tasty mackerel for darnkitten*
And yea, she is getting hugs, medals and chicken (her favourite).
It is a dang good thing that your kitty decided to keep her pet Yorpie unburned with the warning. In winter it would be quite bad to have that singed hair feeling… among other things
Well the back of my paw is black and crispy. So not quite unburnt. Fortunately only a few centimeters across. So no biggie. And a darned sight less than I would have been without her intervention!
Winter will be even colder than I was anticipating. One of the victims was my new duvet. As was the old one. I have not worked up the enthusiasm to see how salvageable the new one is. The plastic wrapping had gone up like petrol, but I focused on getting that out first, so if it has not fused too much of it together then I may be able to make use of it.
Plastic wrapping on your duvet? Are you an 80 year old woman?
Glad you and the kitties didn’t burn to death. Doesn’t seem like a pleasant way to go.
Thanks. I would have probably died of smoke inhalation, in my sleep, given the smoldering nature. But, if it had burst into flames even without me opening the door then, yea, waking up to burning me would not be a nice way to go.
It was a new Duvet, not yet taken out of its carry case. Currently I only need two duvets to stay warm (and one of those is a light summer one) but I know from past experience that three duvet weather will come. It gets down to -30 here. Fine if you have plenty of wood. Painful if you do not.
I can put up with that. But if the house temperature gets too low then my monitor, PC and even fridge/freezer all stop working! Yup a freezer has a minimum operational temperature. The last two years I came back to spoilt freezer contents, because it had stopped working during snowy weather, whilst I was away, and failing to return to normal function as the thaw came.
Not a problem now though, as I am here, so can sort that out.
No PC or monitor however and I will not be able to chat here!
*cries*
Is this comment section moderated? (kinda new here).
By the author, yes. But he he has near saint-like tolerance. It is vanishingly rare for him to ban anybody, as we have a pretty nice community here. So he can set the banning bar really high.
About the only request is ‘no politics’ (as in anything specifically party political). We talk about just about anything that the comic (or the direction of the thread) inspires us. Many of which though will be things which may be set or influenced by politics.
So we keep such things general in nature, and avoiding the burning political potato of the day. Which is more suitable for the worldwide audience that the comic has, in any event.
Other than that we (the community in general) just try to defuse any situation which is getting overheated. We do have a few folks (myself included) who can rub others up the wrong way, at times. So do what we can to mend fences should that occur. Or minimise the aggro anyhow.
There are a few automated actions the comic will take (such as putting any comment with too many links into moderation, for Dave to review). Such are mainly anti-spam features though, rather than there being any censorship features.
Although it did not appear to like me saying ‘pussy’ the other day. I guess the comic likes dogs more than cats.
*wags tail in a friendly fashion*
I don’t know, I’ve not seen the word “bitch” a lot in my time here either.
Such a shame. I could do with some company.
Adding to what Yorp said: In the time I’ve been here – nearly two years at this point – there’s only one person that I know of (there may be others that I just never found out about) who was banned. I won’t mention his name or what his primary offense was, due to the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement, but when he noticed that DaveB was deleting some of his comments, he created a “sock puppet” account so he could continue posting, and that’s what got him banned completely.
So, the general guidelines: Avoid politics (except when it directly relates to the comic) and in general BNBR (Be Nice, Be Respectful) and you’ll get along just fine here. In general, this is one of the most laid-back discussion boards I’ve been on.
I should point out that Dave did give him very clear warnings that his behaviour was unacceptable, and that such posts would be deleted. And gave him plenty of opportunity to mend his ways, before reluctantly banning him.
So nobody need fear that they will have posts deleted without knowing about it. Other than spam advertisers, or their ilk, of course.
Meanwhile on the other side of the wall, Math is staring intently and hears the laughing. Looking at the oversized sign before him, he comes to the only logical conclusion:
Tickle fights are happening.
Heh.
Not sure what rank Math is but presumably max is in “Officer country”. Its more likely that Hiro or Peggy are sharing that wall then Math. Especially if even Anvil is getting max’s type of accommodations and I believe she was a Sgt…Uh.. I admit I can’t remember her exact rank, was she a master Sgt? I remember that Hiro was a Major and Peggy a Lt. But hmm…even those two used the community showers, so maybe its straight up commander quarters that get there own personal showers. I don’t know, bah over thinking this… I’m just chalking it up to hilarious cartoon antics.
I was actually just using the final panel to make a callback to an old comic. Nothing too much to think about, aside from how many hours Math’s spent staring at the wall.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/933
Math is “civilian specialist”. Which makes him senior to Sydney and anybody else the rank of private first class or below (which would include Heatwave as well as the other recruits).
The only one we do not know their relative military standing, versus him, is Dabbler. As she is also a civilian specialist. The problem being that there are a range of ranks with that title (e.g. civilian specialist 3rd class). So unless they are both on the same pay grade, then one or the other is senior, but we do not know which yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg3-YznMcDs
Was my comment about Dabbler too harsh? It looks like it was moderated. I hope I didn’t insult anyone. That wasn’t my intention.
I doubt it. Sometimes comments can just fail. Usually if someone has either a poor internet connection or a slow computer. I had both so used to copy a comment prior to hitting the submit comment, on days it was running really slow (although the back arrow on your browser will usually repopulate the text, provided you do not do anything else in the meanwhile). This is characteristic in having no message.
Since upgrading my PC I only ever have that problem if my internet connection is playing up (which is much rarer since changing ISPs too).
However it is possible to get an automated message informing you that your comment has gone into moderation. The only one I know of (for sure) is posting too many links in a single comment.
Dave certainly never minds if folks are simply critical. In fact he (and the rest of us) welcome constructive criticism.
Rude comments mind will face the (verbal) wrath of the community. We tend to be protective of the comic. Constructive, fine. Rude and expect an earful. Accidental slights we really are not bothered about.
Oh, one other point. Sometimes new readers think that their comments have been removed. Whereas what has happened is that their comment was on an earlier page, and they are only looking at the most recent one. Check out the page numbers, at the top and bottom of the comments section, to navigate to the other pages.
In this case though I can see no prior comment of yours (relating to the present comic page anyhow). So only mention that in case it affects other folks.
I think I once had a comment moderated/removed, but I believe it was because I had a bunch of legal links in it. Like a dozen or so. Back during the Krona Maxima discussi threads. It doesnt auto-moderate under a certain amount of links tho.
Yea last time I tried (some time ago) three links were OK. Although it was just two, at one point.
oh Good, I’m happy I didn’t tick anyone off. It was pretty presumptuous to introduce myself to a community by panning a character that is pretty popular from the impression I’ve gotten. *face palm*
Oh you need not fear that. Many of the characters have flaws built into their personalities and quite often they will do outrageous things for the sake of the comic’s comedy. So there can be much to critique, even in the popular characters. Even from their ardent fans!
Ironically the more controversial they are the more popular they tend to be.
*wags tail contrarywise*
Comments with multiple links in them are automatically held for moderation as spammers tend to wallpaper their posts with links. I usually run through stuff once a day at least so they should eventually show up. I didn’t see any comments you made in the hold queue though, so if you’re still missing a comment then I’m not sure what’s up. I suppose as Yorp says, sometimes they get lost? I’ve never had it happen to me though.
I know I have a bad habit, especially when surfing late at night to get “link happy”, but a reply to a post awaiting moderation (my own of course) somehow got posted there and floating on its own in a weird case of double post.
. . . Did dabbler hypnotize herself in the mirror of Maxima’s cleavage? Her eyes are really dilated. (That was a thing with her hypnotism, right?) Maxima’s screwy skin seems particularly well suited to combating succubi and Maxima seems resistant if not outright immune to their inherent powers. It has me wondering if the geode was specifically tailored as an AS weapon, and it selected Maxima as a host for her particular uh… leanings.
She got when she was a teen, many years before meeting Dabbler.
and this seems more a specific issue with Dabblers brand of ADD and not succubi in general.
Maxima developed her outlook in life because of the affects the geode had on her appearance.
I meant the bit about her not being into girls and therefore not natively susceptible to succubus seduction. If you’re selecting someone to combat succubi that’s a definite factor. Like, if you were picking an anti-vehemic unit you’d go with Achilles not just because of immunity to violence but also his general chillness.
Also mostly joking. I need to stop trying to joke on the internet.
Joking is good. It eases the fear of imminent death.
There would be a problem in relying on females to resist succubus seduction. In that succubus powers are strong enough to even affect heterosexual females. Or homosexual guys, for that matter.
Also golems, deciduous trees and some invertebrates with the possible exception of Wyrmil.
Well, we know Max resists magical seduction, or she wouldn’t have fought Dabs to a ‘stand-still’. Actually, does Sydney’s shield block seduction magic? It stopped the agro aura, so it seems likely.
Agreed, on all points.
Perhaps, but it didn’t prevent those inside the bubble from being affected by Dabbler’s hypno boobs.
Incorrect. At least in my reading of it, anyhow. The only ‘effect’ inside the bubble was catching Vehemence’s eye. Which I think bouncing boobs would do without any magical assistance. Beyond that we had no hint that he was enthralled or entranced.
Had he been the fight would have been over at that point.
Contrast that to the reactions outside. Where Maxima was thinking “I am conflicted” (and we know how much she actively dislikes and resists Dabber’s antics, as per the current page) and the rest of the team just stood around captivated by Dabbler’s tightrope jumping.
The clincher being that Sydney was completely unaffected. She was thinking rationally, could clearly see the team had been entrapped, yet despite Dabbler being slap bang in the middle of her field of view, to be able to see that, she was able to carry on operating normally. No blushes, no ‘I am not a lesbian’ and no attempt to look away to break the effect.
It looks to me like in that page it is working, even on Maxima as no one acts immediately when Vehemence is distracted even her. Like the hypnoboobs working on him was her plan there.
Everybody outside the shield was being affected, so could not act. Which makes their behaviour pointless in determining what had happened to Vehemence. Doubly so due to the fact that there was a force field in the way preventing anyone from interfering in any event.
Nonetheless Sydney was still functioning normally (i.e. the statement that it has affected those in the shield is clearly wrong), but had she observed that Vehemence had been enthralled she could have turned her back on Dabbler and lowered her shield.
As, if what you propose is right, Vehemence was then a lovesick puppy, Dabbler would no longer need to do her tightrope jumping but just walk over and take custody of Vehemence. Fight over.
That was the plan. But we can tell from the final panel that Sydney’s plan did not work!
Vehemence was continuing to strangle Maxima, rather than ignoring her to try and be with Dabbler. A marked contrast to Jabberwokky’s behaviour, at a different time, when, likewise, in a fight and becoming enraptured by Dabbler.
He was watching her though, his eyes dilated, and his grip did loosen; just not enough.
the Jabberwocky one though wasn’t just the passive hypnoboobs, Dabbler put a full love potion number 9 via a *Seducer’s Kiss”
but yeah, he wasn’t affected, much, I still say there was a slight affect, but not enough and Jiggawatt made the difference even if the hypnoboobs plan worked out more as a diversion.
I mean, I know it’s on the wrong part of the breast for it to actually be, but something reflecting on Maxima’s breast in the third panel looks exactly like a nipple.
Ahh, thanks. People kept on going on about that, but it never leapt out at me. Very oddly positioned though. And lacking appropriate colouration. Maxima’s lips naturally contrast with her skin, so we might expect the same of her nipple and areola to do likewise.
Mind you, in that panel I was more interested in how pretty Dabbler’s face was. Likewise panels 5 to 7. Particularly loving the enthralled look, bathed in golden light, in panel 5!
And Maxima looks great herself, in panel 4.
I’m sure dabbler felt Maxima’s force to reminder why she shouldn’t be stalking her.
I dont understand why a sex offender is a running gag in this comic, are you a Male Feminist, or something?
I’m male and I think everyone should have the same rights and opportunities, so, yes? The fact you capitalized Male Feminist makes me suspect you think the term is some sort of pejorative?
I’m not sure what that has to do with a superheroine and a succubus bumping heads though.
A specific gender is not required to be a feminist. An anti-abortionist does not have to be a fetus, for example. You will find that numerous men around the world are happy to fight for women’s rights. Including at least a couple of male heads of state who are proud to call themselves feminists.
One of whom (Canadian) said that (to paraphrase) he would be just as proud to stop being a feminist, once equality had been achieved.
The title Grrl Power gives a broad clue that the comic is pro-feminist. But not in a ramming it down your throat kind of way. And certainly not exclusively. The comic explores many issues, but that is one of them.
Notably the author has inserted characters with a range of attitudes regarding sex and sexuality. Much like the gods and heroes of legend he has made some of them larger than life. Highly appropriate for a super hero setting.
Why just have a character who likes to sleep around, when you can have her be a member of a race who requires that to live? And, as an alien, her value system need not be akin to humans at all. So this is actually a very clever way of exploring extremes of behaviour, as well as how to cope with cultures who have a different moral compass.
And we get to see how the other, contrasting or lesser, attitudes compare or get to interact with her extreme. Sydney, with her modesty and shyness (in sexual matters, if not others) being one.
The other, to show that the comic is even-handed, being Maxima, who is feminist to a degree that it is a character flaw. Her militant feminism causes her unnecessary problems. So the author is exploring a variety of different aspects.
I wouldnt say the comic is “feminist”… at least not how third wave feminism tends to use the term (third wave feminism tends to turn off a lot of people from the term ‘feminism’ in general because of the unfortunate tendency towards misandry and forced group think by its loudest members). Although its very well established that Maxima labels herself as a ‘strident feminist’, I think she uses more the traditional sense/second wave feminism, or egalitarianism. She seems to be very merit-based. So… yeah she strikes me as more of an egalitarian (and I honestly see DaveB as egalitarian as well). Take the debate they had in the restaurant about “a whore in the bedroom, a psychopath in the boardroom, etc”. Maxima clearly wasnt against a reasonable discussion on that, even admitting she never thought of it that way, and I dont think that a stereotypical modern “male feminist” (if the title is being used prejoratively) would write dialogue that well-balanced from both sides.
It is not overtly feminist, granted. But you are forgetting that the female super heroes are significantly stronger than their male counterparts, they feature far more prominently and comprise all the protagonists. Reinforced by the title “Grrl Power” this sets up the core of the comic as showing women in positions of great power and responsibility. Which clearly is enacting feminist ideals.
Another aspect is that it shows women who do not need to compromise their personal life choices, in order to maintain such a position. Rather it goes to the other extreme and shows them literally fighting to preserve their rights. Both Maxima and Sydney have just responded with force in defense against sexual assault and … ,let us say, an intrusion on their privacy, respectively.
This certainly is not promoting political correctness. But it is showing women being strongly assertive. Even Dabbler’s persistence is doing that, in pursuit of her own agenda. And we saw Sydney storming in on a closed-door meeting, to ensure that her agreed rights as regards ‘new comic day’ were maintained.
Yet Dave continually puts the characters in thought provoking situations. Ones which often provoke extended debates on morality and sexuality. Quite often by creating morally grey areas, which intensifies the debate. Importantly though, with the all-female cast, this is making the readership think upon these issues from a female perspective.
So whilst the comic doubtless has attracted a lot of male readers due to the pretty female cast, they are getting exposed to a lot of feminist issues, as part and parcel of a superhero story, with a lot of titillating aspects.
isn’t the simpler term for Male Feminist just…
Masochist?
Not at all. I take pleasure in championing women’s rights. Which goes down favourably with the important people. And don’t care overly if the feelings of misogynists are hurt.
Its a shame there’s no image of maxima’s face between frame 6 and 9, the expression on her face must have been quite something.
I’m sure they ranged from shock to pure rage fairly quickly.
whole new definition to the term ‘Funbags’
Never thought of it that way. Shame on me.
Dabbler’s not the only one with hypnotic cleavage.
For what it’s worth, my favourite version of Max’ shinyness is at the end of the Council conference, before the mannequins attack (I know you were experimenting in general in those pages). The really dark and stark shading at the angles gives a good metallic effect without going all reflection hell. Page 465 in particular (462 looks stunning, but it looks a bit time consuming. I guess? I’m not an artist).
That is, my favourite aside from the mirror boobs. Which are now my new favourite thing.
I feel like the lines of her face become excessively harsh in that era of the comic.
Aaaaand now “Blobble Yobble Yobble” is my battle cry. It used to be something respectable, but I have no choice but to change it right here.
“Remember troops, what we do today will determine the fate of our nation! We must give no quarter and must fight to the last man!
SOMETHING RESPECTABLE!”
In the Blobble Yobble Yobble image Dabbler appears to be missing her XXXX collar.
Ooh, an early Easter Egg. Well found.
FER DER COFFEE!!!
That sounds like a great drink!
By the way I love how Megan thinks. Yet she manages to keep a fine waistline!
I am reading that in the voice of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets.
That is appropriate as I often use that voice.
Ahh, the Muppet who is always chasing around those chickens. Now I think I have figured out where you work!
Aww, I carefully chose the right points in the scene. But then forgot to use the appropriate option to make the clip run from that point. Here they are playing from the correct points:
The “Chickens” and the Chickens.
The Security Guards.
>IRRESPECTIVE OF ORIENTATION OR GENDER
Jeez, that’s a mouthful.
Dabbler’s interested in an accurate boast more than a pithy one.
that would be the other shirt
Technically it was sexual assault?
Sorry, Maxima, if a guy did that, it wouldn’t be technically. :p
Actually what Maxima did was assault (battery if you want the weird American legal term). Dabbler’s actions were sexual assault. The ‘technically’ is because neither chose to press charges.
Their gender is irrelevant to all of the preceding points.
I’m fairly sure Maxima could argue, and make it stick, that what she did was self defense against sexual assailant.
No. Any self-defense plea must demonstrate that there was no alternative to the use of force and that the force used was proportionate.
Maxima fails on both fronts.
We give her a pass though because of the rule of funny. Not because she has any moral or legal basis for such an extreme over-reaction.
Maxima does have mitigation that what would kill a normal person did not even seriously injure Dabbler. So it should not be judged side by side with how dangerous that is to other muggles. Plus clearly even such extreme force does not phase Dabbler much, as she continues to persist, despite that!
Responding physically, to a physical assault, is justified. But that does not have to be a violent physical response. Moving Dabbler’s hands away and giving her a verbal ‘dressing down’ (ahem, note the verbal) should have been sufficient. Only if she persisted, or showed signs of becoming violent, should Maxima have escalated things.
That said though giving someone a slap, for such an assault, would probably be forgiven by a jury. Trouble is Maxima’s slap can put someone through a wall. So, unfortunately, she does need to be held to a higher standard than a typical victim. And, in any event, Maxima clearly made a punch, so this could not be passed off as an accidental misjudging of a rebuking slap.
But Maxima can get away with it as Dabbler clearly was not overly bothered by the incident. She knew she was in the wrong (intellectually, even if it has not sunk in) and is capable and willing to take her knocks.
If she changes her mind though, within the statute of limitations (and subject to relevant military laws, as they have jurisdiction over this), then Maxima could yet find herself in hot water. Of the non-shower variety.
In the US, although it can be very fuzzy depending on the circumstances, generally speaking when someone puts their hands on you then hitting them is not in any way considered to be assault. If you then follow up by kicking them while they are down, that’s the point where the victim of the sexual assault and or initial assault (which laying hands on someone counts as) can start to get into trouble.
Ahh, gunslinger rules modified for fisticuffs. I guess that makes sense. For the USA.
“technically correct” means it’s correct in every detail. The “technical” refers to analyzing the little details that sometimes, theoretically might make a difference.
I think of “technicality” as the opposite of “loophole” – technicalities are put in place to close loopholes that were used to get away with wrongdoing.
So Maxima’s using Nimrod in the Bugs Bunny sense (moron), not in the correct sense (great hunter), right?
Ooh. That is a real word? Learn something new every day.
I would have thought it something to do with motor racing, if pushed.
Yes, and as Formedras, we have Bugs Bunny to thank for its common use as a stand in for “moron” in general American use.
See Bugs Bunny in a short used it to refer to Elmer Fudd (ironically), however audiences hearing it took it to mean “idiot” or “moron” and liked the way it sounded. Being a pre-internet age there was no corrections made quickly and it spread into the general lexicon of American slang.
Funny thing is, its actually a name from the Bible, Nimrod the hunter, it is an odd passage back in Genesis, mixed in among the numerous begots there are a few random things like
“He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”
And Marvel Comics has a robotic villain named Nimrod, a very-high-end Sentinel, using the name properly.
Yep, which I am sure, especially when it appeared on the animated series in the 90’s, confused many a person whose only previous exposure to the word was being used as slang for moron.
It is a good thing I was not in that shower. When Maxima said ‘with the ashes of people who annoy me’ I wouldn’t have been able to help replying ‘Kinky’. You know like those killers in stories that literally bath in the blood of the people they kill? And it is played up as all sexual and. . . why are you worried about my reading choices?
Heh.
More worried that the line of thought seemed perfectly normal to me!
Whenever anyone would ask about a noise made by stuff in the trunk of his car, my dad would say it was just the bodies of back-seat drivers.