Grrl Power #61 – It’s the one thing they don’t expect.
Well the last few pages have been entirely too sensible, it’s good to see Sydney bring the crazy again. I’ve mentioned before that many of these characters have been floating around in my head for quite some time, so I have a pretty good idea of how they should behave and interact with each other. Maxima acts pretty much how I picture her, though I have to say I’m pleased that she’s not immune to Sydney’s chaos aura. The major exception was Sydney, who I was revising up until the last minute. In fact I have 2 or 3 pages that I penciled from before I stared posting the comic that I totally scrapped, but the Sydney in them wasn’t our Sydney. She had a different job and hairstyle, and I had some ideas about her personality, but it’s safe to say she’s… gotten way crazier since her inception. Heck, even over the course of these last 61 pages. I admit I chuckled quite a bit while I was drawing this page, but I am a little worried that she’s teetering on the edge of being functionally insane.
By the way, it’s a fair bet that Sydney doesn’t know Kung-Fu, she’s doing a pose the thinks she remembers seeing Chun-Li do.
Update: So a few people have requested Sydney’s “Always. Expect. Ninjas.” in shirt form so I made a Cafe Press site with a few options on it. Unfortunately since Cafe Press does on demand printing, the shirts are… well, they’re more than I’d pay for a shirt. I wish I could do them cheaper but I’ve never done anything like this before and I don’t have any idea if I’ll sell more than 5 of the things, even if they were a reasonable price. So if you’re desperate for a shirt, they’re available, in a depressingly unstyled storefront here.
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.
I don;t think she’s functionally insane – certainly eccentric and scatty but given the experiences she’s been through today that’s understandable.
BTW – Always. Expect. Ninjas is now my new signature. Epic lulz! great stuff! :D
Insane, eccentric… it doesn’t matter what you call her, she’s absolutely perfect. Funniest character I’ve seen in a long time.
Yeah, situations matter. It’s different if she’s constantly as crazy as she is this panel than if this is her completely wired and stressed from the combination of irritating, scary, and awesome things that have happened to her today.
Er… Page, not panel.
I think I’ve found a new Quote, “Always. Expect. Ninjas.”
Put it on a T-shirt and sell it DaveB. I’d buy one.
Seconded!
Thirded-ed. Or something. I’d buy one for sure!
Or…. I could make one myself using a T-shirt designer and just donate. Wouldnt feel as… official tho.
Me too!
Well I guess I need to find some time this week to design that.
It needs to have Sydney’s Kung-Fu pose.
I would as well. Needs to have a picture from this page though.
Or at least Sydney in that pose, with the capton next to her.
Something like this?
I just need to find somewhere to set up shop for on demand printing. CafeExpress I guess?
What about cafe press?
I give it 48 hours before this is everywhere. Probably much less.
BTW the price isn’t that bad. If I had a job I’d buy one.
I agree. I think the price is perfect for a custom t-shirt. For a generic tee or one with a simple design on it, sure, I wouldn’t pay that much, but for official swag, it’s more than fine. Is the website or name of the comic on the T-shirt anywhere? It might be good advertising to put it in very small letters somewhere.
Yeah on the final shirt design I stuck the address on there in like an 8 point font. I’m not familiar with shirt printing, hopefully that’s not too big but is also legible. I should probably get one for myself actually, which I can actually afford now cause of the orders that I have gotten. Thanks guys!
Yep, looks perfect.
Just made it my background for my computer. Thanks!
ok,, just ordered one for myself :),,
I ordered one an going to order a second one as well.
Ordered and am using the pic for my fb page :D
Me (whatever number it’s up to now)!
Panel 2 Sydney is just adorable. :-D
Panel 3 as well. :-D
I love panel 4, she looks like a dog ripping out something.
I remember my brother’s dog doing that. Makes that panel even more funny.
First three panels gave me a gigglefit Well done, sir!
“Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting” as Sydney’s theme music this week?
I might actually feel a little sorry for the reporter. She has absolutely no idea of the nightmare that is about to be unleashed.
She saw some of what she would be in for in the bank. I think she is sufficently aprehensive about it, but probably want’s the skoop REALY bad and thinks Sydney would be a great eye catcher when they show this weird girl who helped stop a bank robbery. Isn’t it allways about the ratings?
She’s probably hoping that whatever happens, it’ll get so much traffic once it hits youtube that they’ll have to invent new numbers.
If this reporter is, as she appears, the same woman from #41 then it is worth noting she was the *first* to laugh. Oh yeah, she knows EXACTLY what she is getting into… ratings gold!
Any reporter would kill to have a clip like this one looks to be floating around the internet. Can you imagine what it will look like on her resume if she can keep her cool under this kind of stress? And even turn it into a good interview? Do not doubt that she has been keeping half an eye on Sydney for several minutes now – the reporter knows Sydney is not completely nuts no matter how she acts at any given moment.
It does however go without saying that somewhere in the TV studio is an executive who is about to have a heart attack. And a technician with his finger hovering over the *BLEEP* key.
Hope he has a finger like a morse code operator.
Thus the reason for 5-10 second delay.. And why they ask you to turn down (or off) broadcast when “live”.
A stubby index finger, perhaps?
Lady reporter only THINKS she knows what is being unleashed.
Bhahahahaha! Sydney’s crazy always makes my day! I’m about to give a lecture, and I’m going to have a hard time not chuckling through it after seeing this page! Kudos to you, sir, on a great job!
Functionally insane? Eh, sanity is overrated, I always say. Who cares about normality? (Well, I do, but I’m not a superhero.)
not over rated just rated to often by the predjudiced sanites give me crazy or give me tubesocks either are very usefull did you know army fuel filters can be replaced with tubesocks in an emergancy they also are great for storing puctuations now where is that tubesock syd did you take it bad halo no hot water
panel five got some metal gear solid going on i see but why just the sound effect and no prop above her head
Yeah I probably ought to google me up a screenshot from the game and put the exclamation mark over her.
I’m pretty sure that’s what her camera man is thinking as well. LOL
Outstanding work on this weeks strip DaveB. I really needed the giggle this gave me. ROFLMAO
“Always. Expect. Ninjas.”
That can make a great button/bumper-sticker…
That grrl is wound tighter than a 8 day clock.
Well given how her day is going so far…. I don’t blame her. the only good thing up until now was lunch, and the Tongue Fu. and that ended up on the floor of the bank with one of the “Crooks”(wait did that make it the third good thing to happen for her?
Looks like we backed up about 7 seconds or so. Re-enter Maxima in 10 .. 9 .. 8 ..
More like 45 seconds or so.
Or two weeks. :P That guy should draw faster! Who’s with me!?
Ask for help. There are sure to be people oit there who would love to help out at least a little with a webcomic like this one in your area.
My girlfriend helps with the inks, but only when I’m far enough ahead that I actually have something for her to work on while I’m working on the one for the current week. These really do take a long time to draw though, I watched 32 episodes of 30 Rock back to back while I was inking/coloring this one. What I’d love to have is a dedicated background person, even if it was someone who was good with Sketchup that could make wireframes for me that I’d color. The problem with sketchup is that it was designed to do building exteriors, it’s terrible at stuff like an office chair with a curved back or a poofy leather couch like what’s in the entertainment room a few comics back. But Sketchup is the only program I know of that can output something that looks like it was inked, that is, just the outlines of an object. I’m sure 3D Studio can do it, but that programs and the necessary plugins probably cost $2K.
if I was near enough to help with physical stuff, I would :/ alas, I live a looooooong ways away…but, if you had a LOT of patience and a very open mind, I could, POTENTIALLY help with scenarios and jokes…?
Blender has settings for giving models an “inked” look, though the program is significantly more complex than sketchup, as it is meant to have commercial grade 3d modeling capabilities.
Ugh! That whole thing was not meant to be a link, darn HTML.
The program I’m referring to is Blender.
I fixed it.
What I want to know is what do they do all the 3D modeling with for cartoons, like Young Justice will have 3D models for the cars sometimes or Futureama will use it for space ships or long camera tracks on Bender.
That looks like it has possibilities. I’ll have to mess with it a little. One of my biggest beef with Sketchup is that as soon as you have a few thousand verticies it becomes unusably slow. Blender looks like it can do Z-Brush style modeling which has to involve a crapload or geometry, so hopefully it’ll be usable when I’m setting up a room with a desk and a few chairs in it, or a weapon rack with 20 modeled guns sitting on it.
Okay I realize that I am replying to a very old post but I just started reading the comic last week and just started reading the comments. Have you heard of DragonForce? It’s an animation software that was used for several major motion pictures including Box Trolls. I have never used it myself but I learned about it because I was looking into animation software that we might be able to offer at the library I work at for people to use.
I don’t know whether or not it would be helpful since it is designed for animation versus still comics but you might look into it. It only runs about $300 which is quite a bit less than $2K :)
“always expect ninjas” words to live buy
Capable of Kung-Fu or not, I’m certainly impressed with the amount of control she has over her body. Not everyone can hold a pose like that and have a conversation at the same time without at lest twitching.
Look at the last panel, she’s starting to shake.
That’s just the cramp. And even if, it would still be impressive, if a little less than otherwise.
(Did that make sence? I’m not sure if that made sense…)Being functionally insane is awesome, don’t knock it till you try it :-P
I think Syd is insanely functional myself.
She’s got a job she loves, can swear a sailer into blushing, and acts like a geek 24/7 without shame. What’s not to like about being functionly insane?
What is the thing about the aladen’s lamp in the background anyway? what kind of buisness is it? Inquiring minds want to know.
It’s my clever sign for a gas station.
Oh I thought that was a tea shop.
No reason it couldn’t be both a service station and a tea shop. One can find some very peculiar business juxtapositioning.
Wawa offers specialty teas in their stores so yes.
Steak and Lube comes to mind from whenever I travel into the States.
That juxtaposition never fails to bring laughs and a flurry of jokes and puns from the passengers.
I… I live in the States, have all my life, and not seen a single one of those. What are you driving down, the stereotypical driving movie highways? Closest I’ve seen is a Donut and Check-Up (as in Engine), and that was actually when our family lived in Puerto Rico on the military base.
Quaker Steak & Lube on Col Glen Hwy in Dayton OH
not nearly as interesting as it sounds – simply a racecar-themed restaurant – but man, they have great food!!
Has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives on Food Network.
In N.C. they have places called Brew-Thrus where you can buy beer and snacks without getting out of your car.
Aladdin’s lamp was an oil lamp after all (though technically not a petroleum oil lamp).
Very true.
Love the little side comments and chibi-shorts at the bottom of the page. Have you considered using the title text as alt text instead (i.e. rather than just having the comic number & name have humorous little quips like at the bottom of this page)?
Yeah I had considered it but coming up with the line at the bottom of each page and even the title for the comic is usually the hardest part of writing these, since the dialog flows pretty easily for me. If I did it, I’d want it to be something that I did consistently, and at least reasonably well. I’ll consider it, cause it does have potential to be funny.
oh, please don’t
totally selfish, but I typically save softs of my fave comics (so far, I’ve collected all of GrrlPower) on my hard drive. I have lots of xkcd in there, but end up losing some of the best material, which Randall puts in rollover text (sometimes in fairly large paragraphs)… =(
It was inevitable for xkcd to come up in THIS conversation …
;)
It’s the same thing for me and SMBC, he has his red button mouse over thing which I almost never see cause I read 90% of my comics through RSS.
It’s also hard to see mouseover text on a mobile device (because you don’t have a mouse)
I’d approach an interview with Sydney like I’d approach defusing a bomb. It should be guaranteed entertainment though – worth the risk.
ok,, two things i beleive i shall always remember,, the Always expect Ninja!,,, and sidney’s face on third pannel,,, where she stick out her tongue,,, she is absolutely just toooooooooo cute:)
Yep yep I fought against, and failed, to suppress the D’AWWWWW.
And just what is wrong with functional insanity? It works for me!
I think part of Sydney’s “insanity” is she never considers the fact that someone else might be watching. She acts out all her scripts for an audience of 1 herself. The rest of the world is just a bunch of bit players and it always surprises her when they don’t act accordingly.
I’ve got a strong feeling that Sydney is very seldom bored, at least when she’s by herself — she’s her own entertainment.
Might be an only child. Of course that never explained my own tendencies in this direction. Sanity has always been a mere acquaintance of mine.
Sydney is a gamer, a gamer has a mindset that is somewhat diffrent from ordinary people they usualy know the diffrence from real life and gaming life but in the back of their mind they are assesing the world like it was part of whatever game they are into. I know this becouse I alwaws look at buildings from the veiw point of will this building be safe from zombies, and all cars as if will they drift or handel well in a race from watching Initial D. I think you all know what I’m talking about.
that’s the silliest thing i have ever heard!I’m a gamer,and I’ve never thought of games outside of the virtual world.Yea… I know exactly what you’re talking about… I’m still worried that being on the first floor of a crowded dorm means I’ll be the first of the infected.I’M SUPPOSED TO BE THE HERO DAMMIT! :P
Always. Expect. Ninjas.
And the Spanish Inquisition.
I think I’m in love. :)
But… “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!!” sorry couldn’t resist. I blame the B.B.C. ;)
Well, that was the reference I was referring… to… I blame the BBC too, especially for Solar Flares.
you stole it!! D: nuuuuuuuu…..
okay, joking. so much for trying to be more serious online….I have LONG since been used to getting weird looks and being called names for not being the misconceived notion of “normal” and now take pride in the fact I can get “wth??” reactions from people XD makes my life that much less drear…lol
sooooooooo…..
you got ninja’d?
You forgot the shades. Should go like this:
Soooooooooooooo…
It looks like you got… *shades* ninja’d.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
either way, I suppose I did XD damn those super-speedy reflexes! lol
Could some one make the third panel into an avatar for me I am having a bit of an issue doing so.
I want it as it is cute as heck. The cutest image from this comic. ;)
It looks funny here is my attempt.
https://community.invisionpower.com/user/102170-amy-t/
What size/dimensions does it need to be?
Recommend an image 200px or larger
Maybe 100 by 100 would be good. The one I had was 78×90.
Here’s a 100×100
This is so cute, I love it thank you.
*Snatches Avatar and runs away yelling “BWOOPWOOPBWOOPWOOP!”*
What can I say, is too cute!
Love the first 2 frames at the bottom XD, just Amazing. The final line on the last frame “I have a cramp” just….doesn’t seem to fit though either in flow nor did I find it funny >_> sorry.
Frame #3 feels quite odd though going from irritated–>laughing–>rage ???
Sorry about the gripes, it’s a lovely comic ^_^
Panel 3 was neat and I have seen people actually do that. I mean go from out raged to laughing as they found what they said funny. Heck I have even done it my self.
Oops forgot to mention I do agree with you about the cramp thing. It did not seem to fit but still not bad.
I do the pencils first and then do the panels and lettering in another program. As I was doing the lettering I changed what I had originally written to include the ninja comment, so the progression of panels doesn’t flow as well as I would have liked. Once I had the word bubble about ninjas in there I wanted to replace the last two panels, one with Sydney leaning in close to the news woman with a real paranoid look on her face while she was saying it, but it was Saturday and I hadn’t started inking yet. I agree it’s not ideal as it is, I wish I had twice the time to work on each page. :P
The cramp line made me smile – so it was good enough for me. I saw it as another example of Sydney not having any mental filters on what she says.
I thought the cramp comment was funny myself, and if you do get a cramp it usualy hurts a lot so saying you have one isn’t that uncommen.
That’s a pretty good advice there
I didn’t kill your father and would like to live, thank you! sorry, couldn’t resist ^^ nice avi, LOVED Inigo Montoya, and not for looks…. d: more accent, catch phrase, and his innocence in not getting things XD PRINCESS BRIDE FTW~!!!! :D
Don’t worry. You seem a decent fellow. I’d hate to kill you.
I would hate to die :3
Insane in our world, but appears quite normal for their world. She is a comic geek. All super villians have ninjas. There are superheroes. Meaning there are super villians. Ergo, there are ninja’s running around.
and also the stress, and everything else of what just occured.
Always expect ninjas is totally my new motto.
Functionally insane? After the days she’s had? I probably would have sung at the poor woman, and no one deserves that.
Not functionally insane…yet, she just wants a jeep moved.
Lol if this interview has Sydney re-enacting her moves, or in that position for the whole thing.
Love this Comic, i have not chuckled at a comic in ages. Sydney is such a unique character that I can instantly relate to. With the mention of that paticular panel being made into a shirt I had to go searching the interweb and I found the treasure on cafepress. Can’t wait till payday.
WOOO!!! Go Meme reference in the 2nd panel!
Hmmm. ” Maxima acts pretty much how I picture her, though I have to say I’m pleased that she’s not immune to Sydney’s chaos aura.”
“Chaos aura”? May hap this is a hint/clue to “Halo”‘s superpower?
No, that’s a natural power Sydney has had from before she got the contents of the tube. Some people are just naturally strange attractors and thus cause chaotic events around them. My guess is that it just wasn’t as pronounced until Sydney found the ‘artifact(s)’.
Of course, this is my viewpoint (from an outsider’s position); Dave can tell me that I’m all wet about Sydney. :-)
OTOH, having a ‘chaos field’ might explain how Sydney wound up with the artifact(s).
That’s my super power. All I need to do is go for a bike ride and Shazzam! every half-wit and lower in a 20 mile radius is on the roads with me. Back when I rode home from working the second shift as a help-desk operator cops used to have fights to cover my commute route home because they could fill a month’s worth of tickets in a week just following me, drunks mostly, but a few real psychopaths as well… Now if only the cops in my city had been like that, they would have caught the psycho that killed me (I didn’t stay dead, obviously).
DaveB what part of Texas are you from anyway?
Just north of Dallas. At any given moment I’ll be somewhere in Irving/Plano/Lewisville/Carrollton.
That’s pretty close to where R. K. Milholand of Something Positive live’s. He in Arlington.
I want to see Sydney’s faces from this page added to the rotation up top. Specifically, panels two, three and five.
Also, ordered a shirt. Note to self: next time, don’t be impatient and go for the express. So glad I got promoted to full time at work.
hay dave ive been reading your comic since about page 20 came out
im the site admin for beefgir.net and would like to ask you if i can post a banner/link to your comic in the “fun links” section you dont have any direct contact (email) so i thought i might as well post here
Sure! It’s always been my dream to have a link on a page with Olgaf and Manly Men doing Manly Things. Well, not always, quite recently actually but still.
well its up now just to let you know
Middle-right panel… Metal Gear Solid alert noise, I presume?
I’m lovin’ the third panel and her cute cat face there, heh. XP
You should really take preorders and do a run of those shirts – far as I know, that’s how you start a store.
Yeah I’m not excited at the prospect of spending my weekend packing and shipping shirts. I know that’s part of the game but I have so little time as it is right now, I’d rather have someone else do the for the moment. I looked into a few local places for printing up bulk stuff and it wasn’t a ton cheaper than Cafe Express, so I’ll have to keep investigating.
I was just looking in Ebay at screen printers and there are som in there for just a few hundred dollars, you could maby buy one yourself and just make them as you get the orders in and elliminate the middle man. I know it might be a hassel at first, but in the end you could save a lot of money in the long run.
read through thecomments and
NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!!
Sydney does.
no she always expects ninjas
WAIT! what if they were spanish inquisitor ninjas
scary
People climbing the walls in bright Crimson robes and those funny flat-topped hats…nope not that scary. Just shoot at the flat bits.
This. This is the best page.