Grrl Power #71 – Punk Busting
Who needs to teleport when you can fly that fast? I mean obviously it doesn’t get you through solid objects or into places without being noticed what with the sonic booms and shockwaves and all, but as far as getting across a city quickly, Max could probably beat Harem. (Although I haven’t quite figured out what Harem’s range is, so maybe it’s a closer race than you’d think)
This page is evidence that I’m still hugely amateur when it comes to drawing interiors. They’re supposed to be in a two story room but that ceiling looks awfully low to me. I guess I need to take some snapshots of the insides of malls or something to figure out what I’m doing wrong.
Speaking of which I’ve made the hilarious mistake of putting them in a supposedly high security location… with a flipping skylight. I just have too many scenes in mind there the heroes fly in and out of the place to do away with it. I guess the explanation will be that there’s nothing of critical importance on that level… except that Leon’s office is right there and he has access to everything. I guess the door is normally closed and there’s always a dozen super powered types milling about.
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Don’t think there’s anything wrong with the room’s perspective.
if anything, it actually looks a bit on the big side. cuz when you have a glass ceiling that’s almost completely obstructed by a 2 meter tall human, that means the ceiling is either very tiny, or very high.
And since most of the back wall is behind Max as well, I’m going with the latter.
You’ve done a great job on the room.
I’m sort of wondering if the superhumans in this world are essentially conscripted, as in marvel’s SHRA civil war mess. Joal notes that supers almost invariably work for the military or government agencies. Possible, but unlikely.
If that’s true, kicking Harem out of the military might not actually BE a punishment – she might not want to be in the unit to begin with.
I think in hindsight I didn’t make it entirely clear, but the basic setup for the world is while there are supers, there are very few super heroes, cause if you can turn your body to steel or something, there’s a company out there that will happily pay you $10K a day to do something for them that would otherwise cost them $50K a day in equipment, insurance, personnel, etc. There are opportunities in and outside of the military/Gov’t.
Supers are rare but they stand out so much it seems like there are more of them because of their larger presence. I can’t wait to see how Sydney and Dabbler get along. I see some strange conversations between them. Sydney is such a kick in the weasels to me. Or is it cumquats? Either way it hurts and is funny at the same time!
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sydney and Dabbler got along swimmingly. :)
Maybe Dabbler can persuade Sydney to give her ear-rubs or something like that.
Noting too that presumably not all supers can fly or turn into steel or read minds.
Might be any number who have low-level and probably extremely specialized powers – the guy who, whenever he tosses a coin, can make it come up heads; the woman who can “hear” radar emissions; amnd so on. Mostly little more than party tricks, is what I am thinking.
Kind of like what was mentioned in one of the X-novels. A kid who’s mutation was “Can open a can of tuna with his thumbnail”. A basically useless ability.
Exactly. Gotta figure there are a lot of those folks around. I mean, I can do this weird thing with my left thumb …..
I guess the fingernail wouldn’t be useless, but it’s not exactly a “Combat effective” power. I mean if he gets into metalworking he can easily do etchings and inscriptions. :)
Well look at Saber Tooth from Marvel. He kills people with his fingernails all the time. It helps that he’s pretty strong, but he is basicly a serial killing assisin who kills people whith his fingernails.
Also Lady Death Strike.
That’s because Sabetooth has full on claws, not nails (there’s a difference in structure).
That and a few years ago he underwent the Adamantium bonding process. Which also plated his teeth…. Not sure if they retconned that or not.
Thing -1 in 3.. 2.. 1..
AAAAAAAND there’s snot on my keyboard again.
That skylight is hardly a big deal. They do have Dabbler on the team. I serously doubt she’d be hard pressed to make a holographic generator to disguise a window.
The dome is a mixture of magic and technology. From the outside, it looks like a normal roof, but is in actuality an advanced holographic image with a warding spell designed to keep out everything but those designated. This way, Max and others can fly in and out with impunity while others have a hell of a time finding it, and penetrating it. There, simple.
I think Whoom should actually be DOOM!
they got the Doctor’s help and it is now “Just There. Dont Ask.” same as TARDIS.
Doctor Who!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mine
It could be some extremely high-tech glass that looks like concrete on the outside and satellites cannot detect . . . I like the skylight :)
I just noticed that one of the panes in the skylight looks like it is open.
o.o Anvil is going to be a material witness to a murder.. unless she gets silenced to…
there will be for others who know of the murder and hope they will not be targeted to
I. Am. LOVING the last panel!!! Lol That’s hilarious!!!!! XD
Max’s face reminds me plainly of a Duke Nukem quote, “Your ass is grass, and I’ve got the weedwacker!” XP
I could’ve sworn the quote ended with “And I’m the Lawnmower!” but that could just a different version of the game, DN, DN3D, DNManhattan, DNF etc.
Leg of voltron…
Epic win. lol
The news panels are HILLARIOUS.
Where do you even come up with stuff like “SPACE LLAMA: We welcome his expectoratory eminence.”?
Also, what happened to that sailor and the Nunjas? (can you make them villains?)
the sailor was just walking by and had left the area by the time syd heroiced and the nuns as ninjas was a in comment running gag referencing the web-comic sister claire.
This may just be a shot in the dark, but i remember Sim City having a ticker that was strangely obsessed with llamas when it wasn’t busy pestering you with citizens you are trying really hard to ignore.
Maxis like their Llamas. they show up pretty much anywhere they can work ’em in in the majority of their games (‘cept maybe the earliest ones)
Speaking as an architectural designer – if you’re looking for a good aide for drawing really any architectural elements, or even just blocking spaces out, look into Google SketchUp. https://sketchup.google.com/download/ It’s free and incredibly simple to use, even if you’ve never done any 3D modeling before. The really nice thing is, is that you can set up different camera angles to save and reference later, all within the same model. Even if all you’re doing is blocking out e.g. a double-height room with a worms-eye-view camera; it certainly helps to iron out any perspective difficulties, and from there you can draw over the still image from the model.
To me, at least, the background in last panel reads as if the ceiling is around 14 feet, and you’d want at least 20 feet, if not more, for a double-height, probably pushing around 25 to 30 with the skylight. If you’re going for a space like in a mall atrium, you could believably push it to 40+ feet.
*shrug* Don’t know if that helps at all.
Yeah I’ve messed with sketchup in the past. Never really thought of using it strictly for reference though, I was always trying to build interiors with it and plop those straight into the comic. The problem with that becomes that sketchup is terrible at doing anything that’s remotely detailed. It becomes a bogged down mess as soon as you start trying to full a room with computer chairs and monitors.
True; I suppose that I’m used to running it on heftier computers. Well, it was just a thought.
I’ve got a good computer, 4 core/hyperthreading, 6BG of ram and all that, I think it’s a limitation sketchup more than anything.
As far as the skylight goes I would suggest either a retractable roof cover that shifts depending on whether or not it detects in-coming members (assuming all flying members are given some sort of identifying transmitter… we won’t call it a garage door opener for the sake of uberness)… or … there is a combination illusion/force field covering the skylight which allows in light but hides the skylight’s existence from view… the force field once again retracting when it detects incoming authorized personnel.
I think you just found a perfect use for those neck thingys every Arc super has (asuming those are not reserved already ofcourse)
You’re on the right train of thought. The collar, ID badge, Dog Tags, ……could have an IIF (Identification Friend or Foe) Transponder built in, kinda like how we know which ship, jet, tank, submarine not to destroy.
So when the properly authorized person get’s close to the skylight, it opens. Granted, either the range would have to be huge or Maxima would have to slow down to give the skylight enough time to open up, but that’s another issue.
The one thing we haven’t seen is the exterior of their ARC base to begin with.
I wouldn’t say calling it a garage door opener was out. After all, they do on StarGate – off-world teams carry a ‘GDO’.
Actually… About that skylight. What if it is JUST a skylight? After all, the really secure stuff is downstairs. DEEP downstairs, the upper levels are just for living and mundane equipment.
Because everyone is looking for the supersecret impenetrable bunker of DOOM, everyone ignores the flimsy little mansion with skylights and clerarly unreinforced roofs and walls… :D
I always thought that if I were to have a secret headquarters I would just lease one of those industrial buildings that are dotted around every city and look inconspicious.
Depending on your needs, and the internal structure of the building, three to five floors in a skyscraper might do nicely for the shipping company (or whatever) you are using as your cover. The top and bottom floors of the sandwich are fairly innocuous, as are the outer ring of the middle section. The stuff you don’t want anybody to see is in the middle area where nobody can get at it without (hopefully) detectable effort.
Of course you would have to own the building through several shell companies, but any covert or criminal organization worth worrying about could pull that off in their figurative sleep.
That’s how I would rig my first serious effort at a hidden villian lair. Hidden islands and volcanoes are too easy to notice once you start looking.
You know this is a brand spanking new branch of the U.S. goverment, with it’s own PR department. I think there will be tours for press and politicians. So this dosn’t have to be a super secret headquarters. Think Avengers with a goverment budget. They want to APPEAR to be up front about things. Theres nothing quite so Senate hearings worthy as having a scary secret goverment agency out there that just got outed. So make it look cool and nice lookind while serving your country by taking care of a new possible threat that dosn’t make you scream for your local congressman to do something about the scary goverment agency that just appeared. In other words LOOK UP FRONT ABOUT THINGS!
Well of course I would have a facility open to public view and looking as aboveboard and normal as possible. Somewhere else that is.
Given that supers are kinda scary I am sure the stuff the public can ever get to see is entirely above reproach. The hidden stuff on the other hand…
Exactly what I’m talking about.
Looking at previous pages, didn’t there used to be a brown wall behind the couch?
Yeah — right up until Maxima casually kicked it aside.
It’s still there but the perspective being close up in the couch and at a low level (see how Max towers over the panel?) the wall gets visually moved back. The effect is like using a lens with a really short focal length for close up work that makes the background recede visually.
There’s been a lot of commentary about the skylight – and I think that’s pretty well covered. My question is about the mysteriously mobile back wall. In issue #59 (archives/340), the wall appears to be ~2-3 meters behind the couch, and intersects the back wall of Leon’s workspace (thus creating a cozy, dark space in which to watch TV). In this issue, though, the wall has moved what appears to be 4-5 meters back, exposing the aforementioned skylight/hologram/entrance/etc… and allowing the accursed sun to shine down upon the now-basketball-court-sized room and creating a nasty glare on the screen.
Looks like Dave needs to draw out the entire building for future reference XD
O and I don’t think I said it yet on the comments, but I absolutly LOVE this comic
As I lament in the original comment for the comic, my understanding of perspective is amateurish at best. I understand vanishing points and horizon lines and all that, but there’s a big gap between that and knowing how to construct a decent looking interior.
Basically the room is laid out like this – there’s a 15×20-ish foot area that they’re in with the theater and couch, another 15×15 room behind them which is enclosed starting with that wooden wall in the back, then another theater on the other side. All around those 3 rooms is hallway, however wide those are, like 4′? and then there are offices around that. On the floor above it’s mostly hallway, obviously open on one side, crossing over the middle room, there’s floor with probably 2 pooltables and chairs, and the outer ring on the top side is dorms for the heroes that are on call, so they can stay on base if needed. I should sketch it all out cause it’s probably not clear from the description. Also this isn’t the whole base, just the rec area.
If you haven’t already you see the necessity of drawing out some kind of layouts for the various levels you will use and room placement and so on so you don’t have to remember it each time you go to draw it. I find it is a good idea if you are drawing a comic or writing a novel. And you always have more information than what you will probably use. As for perspective it does help if you have a horizon line to help you.
I have but one little remark.
Can you please put a nice little something as voting incentives on the TWC vote thingy? It would be nice to see some art there, instead of an empty page when we vote (anything is good obviusly, maybe some random art related to the comic or stuf).
Might even get more people to vote
I’d love to, and I have the perfect thing to draw, but it takes so much of my free time just doing the comic itself, and I’m off for a late Xmas vacation for the remainder of this week. I’m actually not sure how I’ll manage next week’s comic honestly – but maybe I can take a sketch pad with me and put a penciled something or other up there.
Sketches and character designs are nice filler. Believe me, I’ve gone to other sites and sometimes they do it and it is great to see early ideas and so on. Think about it an enjoy your vacation. We will be here when you get back.
Oh and if you have time size relationship drawings can help too. Line the characters up and show their heights and maybe some other things like the CV-22. Just a thought.
… Or maybe a map of their base. That *may* be a little premature, but it is something you will need to address sooner or later.
Have a pleasant holiday.
…OR, you could (and this is a radical idea, I know), mentally flush all this stuff for a few days and focus on enjoying your vacation…
(not that I’m in any position to criticize)
I’m just saying
Simple rough sketches, or pencils are always great. As well, you could do a copy paste, with alternative text telling a joke that didn’t make the cut, or something that would be even MORE outrageous for Sydney to say,
maybe even an early draft/rough of a coming weeks page, or part of a page as a teaser.
We GP junkies are easy to please.
works well syd saying something stupid yet smart for her while looking at a map of the part of the base she gets to tour before being drafted.
If Maxima pushes Harem’s head to another Harem’s ass, that’ll be enough to put her to top rank of superheroes alongside with Hancock!
No, to go for the win she needs to stick each of Harems five heads up a different Harem’s ass, forming a circle known as recursive Harem.
Oh yeah! That’ll put her ABOVE Hancock!
Recursive Harem … heh. :)
Alternatively, stick 4 of Harems heads into the fifths arse.
Actually, that would be impossible.
But then, so would a recursive Harem.
Harem Centipede?
It being a “military” unit, I have visions of toothbrushes applied to latrines… But since it’s supers, I’m thinking waste treatment plant, no handle on that toothbrush, and all the harems get to share one brush.
I think a two point perspective instead of the one point it looks like was used may help. Same idea as you created depth to the room, you could do the same to the vertical lines of projection to create the illusion of hight. For the ceiling line it looks like your scaling is a bit off for a two story, roughly 10′-0″ floor to floor. Then another 9′-0″ to the ceiling line or you can fudge it by raising the ceiling line up another 1″ to 2″. You could also use the top of Anvil’s hair and Maxima’s shoulders as a visual break and reference point for the orientation of scale, move the ceiling line up and re-project to the vanishing point. Which would put the wood trim under the transom over Maxima’s shoulders.I found ‘Perspective for comic book artists’ as a good read if you are looking for a book on techniques.
A tiger that’s formed into the leg of Voltron.
Niiiiiiiice.
Not to corect ya Dave but vultron was made up of lions but allthe same some ones getting an ass beating from Max , and on that not page looks amazing well don my friend
/begin Pedantic
Voltron – armored multi-part robot constructed from
– 5 Lion shaped robotic vehicles (history varies)
– 15 vehicles covering land sea and air
– 3 robots that could form a larger robot in one of three different modes
All sets were colour coded
/end Pedantic
Yeah you’re right I guess they were called lions… though I guess they were all lionesses since none of them had manes that I recall.
I thought they were based on Mountain Lions when I was a kid.
I think we’re about to find out if Harem can teleport faster than Maxima can fly.
We might find out how fast, but legally, Max need merely order “Harem. Stay right there.” or such and Harem has to obey. So unless Harem can teleport on the instant, which we have some suggestions that she can’t, she is already caught and has to take what comfort she can in that Max can’t touch her legally. [Of course Max looks mad enough to forget that, or even to think the eventual court martial is well worth it.] So she is faced with some form of a lifetime with toothbrush and latrines and running won’t help now. [When Harem was asking how long live broadcasts are delayed, she was presumably trying to figure out if she had time to hide and hope Max cooled off, but once caught, it is likely too late to try to run.]
How many ferret balls is this? 10? 20?
The answer is 42 !
yes but what was the question? ( hitchhikers guid to the galaxy)
How many roads must a man walk down ?
Almost as many as he has to walk up, give or take one.
It’s ferret balls…
…
*takes out scouter*
ARE OVER 9000!
*looks around*
… Someone had to say it. But seriously… I request a moment of silence for Thing 1… she will be missed…
who read SONIC BOOM in the street fighter II Guile voice? i did
Me. Also have the theme playing in my head as I read this comic.
Nontopical comment, but…
Wouldn’t it be more accurate (and less “unfortunate implications”) to say that Harem can replicate herself at range, than to say she can “teleport without destroying the original?”
Well it is sort of a weird way of saying it, but in essence, when you teleport, the original you on your original location is dis-assambled into individual atoms. The information on how you’r build up is than ‘transmitted’ to the new location, and you are re-assambled.
Haram can basicly do the same thing without the dis-assamble step (though she does use this step now, as she already has 5 copys walking around)
That depends on how her brand of teleporting works. She could be a dimensional traveler, like Nightcrawler, or do the old “shortest distance between 2 points is to fold space until they’re adjacent” trick.
/begin rant
I really hate it when people use one of the several badly thought out mechanics used for the operation of the Star Trek transporter systems. Unfortunately for the fans without science or engineering knowledge, the scripts writers and editors also lacked any such knowledge and just plunked half informed guesses on what the latest newspaper science news was about. That is what happens when the scifi genius is ignored and they drop the scientists and engineers from the review staff. Heck, the transporter system used totally different and mutually exclusive principles for its operation in at least three, if not more, episodes revolving around their failure. Not like they would ever put in fail-safes against such things happening in the first place. Oh look they have pattern filters to protect from contagion and prevent weapons from discharging but the next story has a plague brought on board and alien smuggle explosives on their persons.
/end rant
Don’t forget quantum physics and those pesky tunnel diodes.
She is here and then she is there and the only differential is that a quantum of time elapsed between being in location 1 and being in location 2.
Concerning the transporter tech on Star Trek without a more detailed examination of your criticism one can’t look at them clearly an in more detail you are leaving out. And this is the wrong forum for that anyway.
I wonder about Special Relativity in relation to Harem’s near instantaneous transmissions. Is she close to the speed of light or just some kind of dimensional folding? We may never know. But it is fun to speculate.
Why was my comment removed?
It was nothing vulgar or out of place :S
Hmm, I don’t see anything being held up as spam… not sure what happened there.
Well, the answer to the question if Max can fly faster than Harem can teleport is actually quite simple:
No.
Yes, a teleporter needs to concentrate on the destination, but the teleport itself is quite literally instantaneous.
Thats how it always has been.
Teleporters travel at the speed of thought, witch is philosophically unlimited, neurologically still the speed of light (ok, a little slower, but i don´t want to quibble over synaptic resistance to electricity)
the speed of light across the distance between two neurons is still quite fast…
my point exactly
Actually nerve impulses are slower than electrical because they are partially chemical in nature. This explains the sci-fi concept of “wired reflexes” in cybernetics. Some nervous system diseases interrupt these chemical processes causing severe disability or even death.
Did i say nerve impulses?
No.
I said synapses, witch are only available in the brain.
And they get fired up with electricity every time we use them.
Anyway, since there is no such thing as teleportation anyway, we can easily assume that he speed of teleportation is the speed of philosophical thought, and therefore unlimited.
True BUT the connections between them are chemical and therefor slower.
synaptic signals are electrochemical reactions along .000?os1 to 6 inch synaptic tendril most wraped producing near speed of light signal transfer ;p
Harem is probably worried about physical harm at this point, but Max wouldn’t do that as it would be an even greater breach of conduct than what Harem did. She will come up with something bad to do to her though (just within regulations)! :D
Basicly a severe toung lashing about being serious about her job, and how what she did made the whole team look bad, and then have one or more of her bodies doind the shitwork around the base for a certin period of time. Maby two months.
*Hands Harem a toothbrush and points at the latrine just after Sydney’s used it* Get to it.
NOW that is severe and crulty punishment that will scar her Psykie for the rest of her life. I like it!!
Especially so if Harem is NOT allowed to use a gas-mask…
The ultimate punishment…
*Wonders if Maxima will ever actually use that*
Hmm… Well it’s too late to redraw the next page….
One of Sydney’s other powers is a tongue lashing since she can be most creative with her invective and can sustain it for hours. The go to gal on that. Makes up for her size. (Edward Ulrich sized jokes insert here.)
I doubt the Skylight is that much of a security risk, given that anyone that far into the base, that is not allowed to be in the base, is unlikely to be stopped by the front and internal doors anyways.
I think the bigest risk is some one gaining incriminating photos not an actual incusion. (I spell bad and I don’t care) The best way to get said photos is through high altitude servailence aka satalight imaging. but seeing as how this is the just rec room and Leons computer is tucked away in a courner away from the skylight, I’ld say the secrety risk is minimal.
I’d say that Leon’s computer is the least of their concerns as far as incriminating/embarrassing photo’s goes with Harem around…
Point
Bwahaha! I love the TV captions!
I tend to read this comic of a morning before I rush out the door to work so I tend to miss a few things at first glance. Finally saw the fact that Sydney curses again on live tv and the news ticker at the bottom killed me. Thanks for the easter eggs, and Happy New Year!
The problem with being a supersonic flyer is doing so in city limits lower than 3,000 ft(i think thats the about the right height?) can cause damage to various light buildings and more importantly Ear Drums. most would need to be careful about squeezing off to 600 mph in a couple seconds while exiting a denny’s restaurant.
… And, as with Hancock, you would have to watch out for birdstrike. And helicopters.
Well, i am no engineer or physicist, so i don´t know exactly, but wouldn´t a flyers lack of wings and overall service area (a flying human) limit the reaction of the air molecules (ie the sonic boom) soemwhat?
no just makes it require more energy to provide lift and overcome drag any form that moves faster than the sound it generates will s-boom
Not my point.
I would think that a Plane crashing into the ocean would make considerably more “noise” than a basejumper, so if a single Human brakes the sound barrier, shouldn´t the simple fact that there were less agitated air molecules count for something?
lack of arodinamics means that the object disturbs the air more thus a greater tendancy to make noise, planes are the shape they are becouse it is the optimum for 1 collecting air for reaction 2 maintaining stability in flight and 3 cutting through air as cleanly as possible.
The fact that Maxima’s got less cross-sectional area than an aeroplane would mean that less air needed to get out of the way, leading to a lower-amplitude shock wave that would dissipate more quickly. Shenron’s got a bit of a point in that the human body is less aerodynamic than an aeroplane and would therefore cause more disturbance and have a higher drag for a given size, but I would expect the size differential to be the dominating factor in terms of efficiency. I’m not even sure what effect shape would have on sonic booms (as opposed to the aerodynamic/efficiency aspects of going trans/supersonic), as the booms are primarily generated by the leading edge.
Of course, there’s nothing to say that Max is having to cut through the air directly with her body. Given that she can extend her power field to stabilise an off-centre ambulance, she may well be able to project an aero-shell around herself, or even move the air molecules out of the way directly.
good point on the field but I was commenting on the fact that the smooth flow of air actualy cuts the generation of sound and eases the breaking of the “sound wall” as some explanations list it reducing the “S-boom” effect and in some birds actualy raising the speed needed to cause one.
Well, also remember that the crack of a whip and supersonic bullets are sonic booms. Something that breaks the sound barrier doesn’t automatically cause mass destruction, and Max isn’t the size of a concord or even a fighter jet. Really she’d probably make a sonic pop, so she does’t have to be quite as careful.
Probably more than a pop, given that she is a LOT bigger than a bullet or whip, but the point is well-taken. Still would need to show care in close-quarters, I think.
I still think that she might have broken the roof windows when going in there with over sonic speed, though the point with the shield is a good one, given a good shape you could reduce such effects a lot I guess. Well whatever, she’s still damn cool :3
My 2 cents adjusted for inflation…
High Security does not require it to be a Bank vault. Polarized windows, and infrared baffles will screw with any unauthorized looky-loo’s (spy-planes/ Sattelites)
Plus, there is a whole lot of anti-teckno information technology out there, from a paint that stops radio waves to a film that goes over glass that does the same. So with a super hacker working for the company he would be up on all the computer and cell phone security needs.
would ya look at that, scared the smart mouth right off her face.
We’re never gunna see whats in the tube are we?
Maybe Max finds out by stuffing Harem inside.
teleport already shes going to skin you and make a new hat out of your intestines and the rest a coat!