Grrl Power #780 – Deconsecrated
Yeah, it’s a pretty big church. Or was. I modeled the interior after what I remember of the church my parents used to drag me too, and it was no megachurch, but it was a custom built job, and it had a balcony and a vaulted ceiling. Hope Joel and co. like that air conditioning bill.
The stained glass window blinding everyone while they shop isn’t ideal. In the comic, the building was built facing east so it would catch the sun in the stained glass for morning services, but like most comic shops, they don’t open at 8:00am. They probably open at 11am? By that time the glare from the stained glass window is probably mostly down at the diaz.
Still, it’s got to be annoying trying to bag and sort comics with that crap reflecting off the display case right into your eyes. Maybe there’s a curtain?
And yes, the parking lot behind Sydney is empty and if they’re doing the sort of business that would allow them to move into such a huge property, the lot should be busting with people waiting for the doors to open, but… I don’t know. It was a time thing honestly. That last panel took a while to draw, but for an in-universe explanation, maybe uh… that’s the employee parking lot and juuuuust off camera is where the customers park? Realistically, Sydney should have gotten mobbed by reporters and fans and alien abduction conspiracy theorists and about a thousand other people but damn, I don’t want to have to draw that every time she goes to the comic shop. Maybe I should draw it at least once just to establish it, then have Sydney discover a roof access door she uses from then on.
Here’s another book series I’ve been enjoying. The Celestine Chronicles. I like it because it’s… I don’t know, more serious somehow? Darker in a way, but not grimdark. I think my favorite part about it is that the MC is reluctant… at like everything. He doesn’t want to add women to his harem because he’s freaked out that they’re all monsters. Yes, it’s technically a monster girl harem series, but not like a dumb anime monster girl one. They’re mostly from greek mythology. Also in an unusual twist, there are several guys that eventually join his troupe. (Not his harem, mind you, just his adventuring party.) Most harems are literally just the one guy and N+1 women, so their inclusion changes the dynamic of the group a bit. Anyway, book 5 came out recently, so if you like the first on there’s there’s more meat there to sink your teeth into.
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The High Table will clearly be concerned by this.
I’m totally cool with the repurposed structure, but Joel definetly went overboard with the stained glass Sydney. XD
I’m less certain the city would be totally cool with ignoring zoning laws.
Churches are zoned as Residential, a comic shop would be zoned as Commercial.
That being said, I’m pretty willing to suspend my disbelief in the tight assholes of bureaucracy, because in the end, this is pretty funny/cool! :P
Sydney probably got the church as part of her deal for signing up with Arc-Swat.
Getting the zoning laws changed would be part of that deal.
Probably sunk a good portion of her signing bonus into fixing up the store.
Also how Joel could afford to get that huge stained glass window put in.
No, Sydney knew nothing about this, so unless Jo-El has access to her personal finances, it had nothing to do with Sydney
She said she forgot about it because she had spent the last two months on another planet fighting what looked to be Great Older Ones.
Two pages back, look it up.
Just looked back two pages…
Looks like I was wrong. My bad..
She said she had forgotten to check her messages, not that she forgot about Jo-El buying a church and moving there
Pickle, page you referenced, bottom left pannel “What? Oh, way to let me know, thanks joel” next panel “I know i literally didn’t exist for 52 days but… Oh, Heh, I have 27 texts from him. Okay, that’s my fault”
This shows she didn’t know at all and didn’t just forget, The comic shop likely got so much business in her absence that they had to move. It was mention on 728 that the team took care of rent etc, so i’m assuming they had something to do with the relocation
Saw that, already said My bad.
None of the signing bonus went there, it was just Arianna and the Accounting Horse.
Houston Literally has no zoning laws. And even at that in Texas how a church is classified depends on the founding date and who owned Texas at the time.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Weirdest-images-from-Houston-s-lack-of-zoning-laws-9171688.php
And actualy some Church property IS classed as Commercial or agricultural.
Hey! I live in Houston too!
–Downtown may not have zoning laws, but “Houston” does… It was a big pain for my work to buy a satellite office on a property that used to be categorized as Residential. It’s not too terribly hard to change the paperwork though, but that might just be a Texas thing.
In Texas it’s Usually it’s mostly old rail land grant restrictions, title and or deed restrictions. Heck title restrictions and covenants can be an even worse nightmare to resolve than any home owners association, with some of thoes literally dating to the original Spanish or Mexican government. Fortunately most of those older issues are going away.
However I do feel the need to clarify one point about Titals in Texas.
We only payed three times to three different party’s in, 1839, 1874, and 1926. Since 1926 no one has shown proof to having title to the land under the capital.
Yet…..
I thought this took place in Dallas. Is it Houston?
It’s kind of like “Springfield” in the Simpsons. There is one specific Springfield in the U.S. that the show is based on, but we’re not supposed to acknowledge that. The setting of Grrl Power is intentionally unspecified, but the clues are there.
It’s really not that hard to get a variance.
Notice “Arc-Swat official Merchandise”. Chances are this is allowed by or even partially organized by Arianna.
And with Arc’s kinda clout, getting some Zoning classification changed is pretty simple.
I mean you have seen how long they took to change a Restaurant, Parking Lot and Highway construction site into rubble. Sometimes it might just be easier to change the zone classification then trying to fix it.
As I understand it, DaveB lives in Texas. I don’t know about all of Texas, but I do know that in Houston, they don’t HAVE zoning laws.
That’s specific to Houston.
Sweet! So I can build a sewage plant in the middle of a suburban neighborhood? I mean, to make room I’d probably have to buy and raze a few houses. But that might be expensive, so it’d probably be cheaper to get the city to sell me the land the community park is on. I’ll be needing to dump my waste in the stream running through the former park anyway.
The Texas state motto should be: Texas – If it wasn’t for West Virginia we’d be last.
Years ago, in upstate New York, a church building was decommissioned (not sure if that’s the right word) and sold – the new owners turned it into a discotheque. Got a *lot* of complaints at first, but all the paperwork got filed properly. Rezoning for public use buildings is usually boilerplate, but you’d have to overcome any objections from local residents / public comment period.
The incident served as the inspiration for the Steve Taylor song “This Disco (Used to Be a Cute Cathedral)”.
There’s a similar structure in NYC…
https://ny.curbed.com/2016/11/30/13769350/limelight-building-chelsea-nyc-history
(whispers) “income tax revenue….”
Good advertising and a nice location are the cornerstones of a successful buisness.
Sydney is a famous real life superhero. He would be a idiot not to use her image as a draw.
I’m betting it was Harem who commissioned the stained glass window…
My city is a bit of an as-hole and zoned all the churches commercial. They figured it made the properties easier to convert when the church fails. Due to this we have a theater, a smoke shop (California here and it’s not tobacco products), and a few other more random things in old churches.
Also I can see our heroine getting a free pass, because after 50+ days and no show at the shop the reporters would have gone home.
Joel had to do something with the giant existing stained glass window and (as has been pointed out) clear glass was not an option because the sunlight would fade the comics.
This solution screams Arianna. This is something she would do and she’s Sydney’s lawyer, pretty likely has power of attorney…and its easier to beg forgiveness than to get permanent. While Sydney’s away Arianna will play.
Fear not, Maxima will probably help Sydney extract her revenge. It’s a moral imperative.
Permission.
Arc Swat needs to go after the supervillains who write spellcheck and autocorrupt programs.
That Fel ship is obviously affecting your spellcheck.
Maybe, but it is also easier to beg forgiveness than it is to get permanent, so I can’t fault the spell check too much.
This time.
The entrance area would make a great place to put old couches, and vending machines in for people to read their comics after they bought them.
Set it up as a way to discourage casual readers and keep the main trade area fairly quiet because most of the geek arguments would be separated by the window wall.
Nah, that’s what the upper seating is for, accessible to paying customers only
Plus, if it is a proper church, it probably has a full basement with two bathrooms and a full kitchen with serving window for the potluck dinners. And it probably has a few side rooms on the main floor; the preacher’s office, the crying room, etc…
Basement would be where the gaming tables and computer gaming areas would be placed.
Its Texas and the water table tends to be high so basements require a lot of maintenance to keep them unflooded when you don’t have a drought.
Don’t know how high the water table is in Dallas. In South Texas I know it is pretty high.
Not too high in most of the Dallas area, though there are areas where it’s higher. Definitely nothing like Houston, which is mostly paved-over swamp. Still, even with the lower water table and occasional tornado, basements are pretty rare up here as well.
The described setup is pretty common around SMU in Dallas… whether the ” basement” is really the first floor is a matter for pedantics. You may have a walkway slightly down to the lowest floor on one side – with the bathrooms and such – and steps and a walkup to the next floor up on the opposite side.
None of the houses I’ve been in around here have basements (clay soil) but lots of office buildings do. Size of the building probably determines whether it’s worth hollowing out and stabilizing one or more basements or parking garages.
As I understand it from living in Dallas for a while and hanging out with some construction people, the problem with basements in Texas isn’t necessarily the water table. Apparently, the Texas soil is more expansive than average in the rain, which has a tendency to break basements pretty quickly. So either one has to build ones basement bunker solid, like TI does (where I worked at the time, and more importantly, where those construction workers I talked to worked at the time), expect that the basement will leak like a sieve after a year or so, or not build a basement. Most home builders apparently choose plan C.
Not to be “That Guy”,but… Where the heck is their cash register?!
Haven’t been unpacked yet
Or maybe on one of the display cabinets we can’t see, either in the Arc-SWAT merchandising area or at the bottom of the page
It was the ARC-SWAT merch that got my attention. thought they had a six month moratorium on stuff like that. And it definitely hasn’t been that long. Or was the six month hold just for individual people, and not the division as a whole? Or was it just for endorsements, and Archon is doing the merch right out of the gate?
Just endorsements, the way I understood it when Maxima explained. Arianna’s been planning merchandise from day -1.
I’m that guy too.
The raised area on the right of the last panel is a tripping hazard.
Should have ropes around it
except where the steps are clearly marked.
You mean the dais? It does look pretty clearly marked to me. It would make sense if that’s where they put the register, and at that point they’d probably have some ropes set up as switchbacks for the checkout line.
The dias is the perfect symbolic spot for the cash registers, and maybe the Wolverine displays.
They may not have one.
In this day and age, all the employees may just use an app on their phone and a bluetooth card scanner and separate cash-box.
Hopefully, for accountability purposes, a separate cash box for each employee, but cash boxes are cheap. It does mean more cash floating around the store, however, as each cash-box has to be prepared to break an early-morning twenty.
Not everyone has, or wants, a fucking dumbphone
Well, then.
Mind you, this IS just speculation.
Perhaps the register app is on an android tablet that’s kept in a drawer, or maybe the comic book shop only hires those who are willing to bring a smart device that they can use; even if that’s a cheapie trac-fone that they ONLY use at the store (and might just leave there).
One could complain, as accurately, that not everyone has or wants a car. That does close some job prospects. So does not living in, or wanting to move to, a large metropolitan area.
Last time I was in a comicbook shop they were using tablets, but there was still a register for cash purchases.
I have to agree with Guesticus. I remember beginning the application process for a job recently, and found out that I must have a smartphone. So I turned in a blank application.
Secretary: “You didn’t complete the application!”
Me: “That’s because the job requires a smartphone. Is the company going to pay for it?”
Secretary: “No, that’s your responsibility.”
Me: “And that’s why I didn’t complete the application. Have a nice day.”
Are you agreeing with him that it’s unfair, or are you agreeing that it is a poor thing to represent in a comic, because while it is done, by the evidence of your own story, it shouldn’t be?
Personally, I don’t see the distinction between being told I have to have a smartphone, reliable transportation to and from work, or dark pants with no holes in them. I’m not even sure a smartphone would be the more expensive of these.
Sorry, you have a physical application for a role that requires a smartphone to get?
Where is the QRC for the application, so I can scan it and click my (insert hot tech term here)?
Was talking about the customers
You are basically implying, that a requirement to buy from that store is having a dumbphone or tablet
Couple years ago, attempted to become a member of the local movie house (because we go fairly often), one of the requirements was you had to have a dumbphone to register
The local council has decided, rather than fixing the civil emergency sirens, they would instead send warnings via dumbphone app, and there are plenty of parts of the region that don’t have cellphone coverage, so in emergency (that may or may not knock out cellphone towers), over half the population won’t even get a warning
No.
There are cardswipe attachments for smartphones to process credit and debit cards.
Ah. I’m not sure how you came to that reading, but that was certainly not my intent. If that had been my intent, then there would presumably be no need for a card scanner or cash box, which I mentioned using, as the whole transaction could be done through PayPal, or one of the phone-brand-specific e-wallets.
Again, that would require (potential) customers to have a PayPal account or an online banking account
Every shop I’ve been to that uses smart phone apps to act as virtual cash registers provides the smart phones, which only leave the hands of the employees for purposes of getting signatures. There’s no requirement for the customers to anything phone related. It’s just smart phone as a tiny tablet computer.
And those people need not apply for jobs which require a cell phone. Having been issued a company cell for the last several decades I’m not sure who that might include (unless of course you refuse even the company cell, then you’re just fucked by your own fuckedness), but I’m sure it is a pass/fail for some jobs.
A couple of nitpicks.
The projection on the floor from the stained glass window only makes sense if the window is at the back of the church behind the altar. Not on the front of the building as shown in the previous page.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this fully separated “antechamber” at the entrance of a church. Most churches have a wooden separation wall right in front of the main gates, but they open at the sides and are never a full width wall. But then again, this feature can vary wildly from building to building or it could have been built by Joel.
Finally the lighting in the antechamber is I think a bit too modern and it really doesn’t fit with the rest of the building/decor.
It makes sense if you think of the stained glass window being on the street side of the building while the entrance is on the parking lot side of the building.
If Joel got a really good location, the back of the church faces an elevated limited access highway.
Thousands of commuters drive past the store sign which may be just below seated eye level as they go past.
It was at the back of the building, and Sydney entered from the front
Guesticus, I have to disagree.
Previous page; Sidney facing ‘her’ window with the sun at her back! See the tree shadows.
This page; panel 4, Sidney her shadow is clearly visible on Rufus’ T-shirt. Sun at her back.
So she is still on the side of the building with the stained glass and did not move to the other side.
Now go back to that page and look at the ground around the building. Where Sydney is hovering (bottom left panel) is the grassy side. Looking to her right we see the parking lot on the other side of the building beginning a short distance away.
The shadows are a bit inconsistent in both pages. If you look at the last panel of the previous page, Sidney is clearly facing toward the sun because of the shadows of her hair against her face. Since there’s no indication that she moved between that panel and the one before it, it’s likely she’s looking toward the window in that image.
On this page, the shadows don’t match up either. As you noticed, Sidney seems to be back-lit when she’s at the door, but the shadows cast by the counters and displays in the last panel indicate that the sun is shining through the windows at the back of the store. It may be partly perspective, but I would expect those shadows to be a bit less defined if they were being cast only by overhead lights. Plus, they’re all at the same angle, indicating a single light source is casting them.
Of course, this is all nitpicky as all get out and I didn’t notice any of it until I went back and looked because of your comment, so I’d say it doesn’t much matter in the long run. Frankly, if Dave put shadows in wherever he thought they made the art look coolest, I have exactly zero problem with that!
While Sydney’s backlit, she’s basically standing right in the main doorway. There’s probably a light right outside. I mean, without it, at this time of day, it’d be dark back there.
Look at where Sydney is pointing while she’s incredulously(sp‹?›) responding to Rufus, when he asks who she is (panel 5)
In the commentary, DaveB says this building is based on one he’s familiar with.
Also, since the mezzanine is directly above that narthex, I’d say it is a pre-existing feature, although Joel may have had it heavily remodeled. I don’t think I’ve seen a church that had (A.) a full curtain wall of glass facing the street, and (B.) a full curtain wall of glass separating the narthex from the sanctuary, but I’ve only been in a handful of churches, and I’ve seen several that went very contemporary with the decor.
If that were my church, that narthex wouldn’t be near so long, or at least wouldn’t be near so long and seemingly empty. I’d have partitioned off both ends for some other use. Even as a commercial building, the ends of that large “airlock” entrance would probably be better used for storing back-issues, a few vending machines (with a big sign saying they were NOT to be brought into the business), or lock-up for employees and customers bicycles, (if they’re located somewhere where bicycles would be seen as practical, such as in the vicinity of a neighborhood, or better yet, a school.)
You assume that there is only one stained glass window.
It could be embedded in one of the countertops. They’ve certainly got the funding to go all high tech.
they use tablets like an apple store
The store probably doesn’t open until 11am, doesn’t mean the staff won’t be in several hours earlier to get things sorted out, specially on Comic Day
At least, that was how it was with our local store (before it got shut down after a crackdown on synthetic cannabis sales, as in, they use to be legal butt then there started to be heavy regulations and other crap put in place, still legal with those ‘vaping’ thingies, just, at the time, they couldn’t afford to deal with it and, unfortunately, that side of the business was a bigger earner to them than the actual comics and comic merchandise :( )
That Synthetic cannabis is really dangerous! I know of at least five people who have been killed by that stuff, and one person I know who smoked it once and is messed up from it five years later.
Yeah? And how more dangerous is it to the real stuff?
You know, the illegal crap that is controlled by gangs and criminals?
Talking about health issues, not gang issues.
Was also talking about the health issues, at least with the synthetic crap, it is (or was supposed to be) regulated (which is why there were problems back then, back in 2012, about a year or two later, things got re-sorted butt was too late for the comic store)
Sorry for your loss. Know how it feels to lose a good comic book store because of not enough sales.
um there have been a grand total of 2 deaths linked to real cannabis in the last 20 years and both were cases of DUI
If history has taught us anything it is that making something illegal is not always logical or accurate or even moral. Governments criminalize things. And this classification does not always make those who are now ‘criminals’ actual criminals in the true sense of the word. A pack of criminals who through the authority of ‘might makes right’ are not correct just because they control the guns and the courts.
It was ‘criminal’ to help slaves escape captivity, for example. That doesn’t mean it was wrong, or that those who did this ‘criminal’ thing were bad people. Quite the opposite.
Cannabis is not a narcotic, and yet that is how the government has classified it. This fiction allows them to apply much harsher penalties to people caught with the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes worth of pot.
Dave….
In the next or the following installment could you show a poster of
[b]’Chicago Sentinels’ coming soon to FOX.[/b]
and/or the graphic novel the show is based on?
Got to load Chekhov’s Gun.
Use < not [ for HTML.
sooooo, where do i sign to join the mightey halo religion?
Wonder if they did they could get the store as Tax Free because it would be still classified as a church?
Probably not. The organization has the 501(c)(3) status. The building is exempt from property tax because it is used as a place of worship by the organization. Likewise, the organization is exempt from paying sales tax (not sure if they’re exempt from charging it on sales to others, but probably they aren’t, which explains church raffles and silent/regular auctions referring to bids as “donations”).
Once the organization in charge of the building is not a church, all the church-derived special privileges no longer apply.
Zoning laws would also become relevant. Many locations give churches exemptions from zoning laws (e.g. can be zoned residential but ignore maximum occupancy, outdoor parking, and commercial activity rules that apply to houses, can be zoned commercial and ignore liquor consumption/provision, residency (priest’s residence, etc.)
All that could be easily overcome by skillful application of Arianna’s super power to manipulate the Legal/PR Continuum, though. :-)
i know that in canada, at least in québec, we have a problem of churches being left to rot, so the government will actually subsidise business that want to use them while keeping the exterior intact(ish)
Joel is certainly an ambitious man.
Takes a certain kind of guy to make this big of a leap in scale with their personal company.
Not that much.
Arc Swat gets paid as much as the NFL.
Sydney’s money can handle it, and once the initial costs are paid off Sydney’s presence and visits from her Arc Swat cohorts are likely to keep the business wildly profitable.
I spent some time this afternoon looking up real estate prices for old church buildings in Dallas.
You can get a medium sized Sanctuary building for $800K. You can get a 1960s vintage Church campus with school buildings included for 2.7 mil.
Assume that as much of the building we see is all there is but it’s 80s vintage, and backs up to a freeway. If it’s 1.5 to 2 mil, Sydney can handle it. In addition, a 14 feet by 45 feet billboard runs around 3K per month in the Dallas market. Out of reach for most comic stores.
Sydney’s store gets one of those on the side of the building for free.
Yeah, sure, it makes fiscal sense.
But people, at least cautious/smart people, are usually reluctant to start using exponentially more money than have experience with.
That’s the issue in a nutshell. The business isn’t Sydney’s. She is a co-owner. But if she puts up the entirety of the relocation fee, and if she owns the building outright, then Joel is really just a paid manager at that point.
If the relocation was done with only company funds due to their apparent rapid reversal of fortunes (The “there should be a line” comment Sydney made indicates that they see heavy traffic all throughout the day), then that allows Joel to keep his co-owner role even if all of the new business is due to Sydney’s notoriety.
But even then there are a lot of red flag issues going on here. Sydney’s likeness is being used to promote the business, without her prior consent (and silence is not consent, I don’t care how many texts Joel sent her that might have said “I’m doing this unless you reply by X date”) and as a fairly shy girl (perhaps formerly shy girl now that she has so very suddenly become polyamorous and involved in casual cross-species sex) she might have very valid, and very loud, objections to the “thirty foot tall stained glass window” of her looming over the new place of business. Or for her business partner making major decisions without allowing her any opportunity to be involved.
But yeah, just more artificial crap that will no doubt not be a problem to anyone. It’s so great when fictional people never have the same reactions that real people would most likely have. Except of course when the reader is expected to accept these people as being real people for the purposes of the suspension of disbelief. That suspension of disbelief has been slowly shoved out the window and onto the ledge, and is now being prodded by a hot poker.
Good point.
(° )_(° )
Probably something she’d have to really argue with Arianna about.
is the sydney Stained glass uhh… shine-though the wrong way? I feel like its upside-down…
No, the window is at the opposite end of the building to the front doors, as long as the left hand is raised holding the blue ball then it’s orientated correctly
That’s the way I remember it being in the last church I visited: The entrance was opposite to the altar – which had a stained glass window above it.
Actually, after looking even closerer at the image on the floor, was wrong and the image needs to be flipped (as so many more smarter people than me pointed out :( )
Actualy while the layout is odd, it’s entirely possible that there is an identical but mirrored for whatever reason window on each end.
Look at where Sydney is pointing while she’s incredulously(sp‹?›) responding to Rufus, when he asks who she is (panel 5)
Sooo, is the “shop” going to be so-opted as Arc-SWAT’s merchandising arm now?
I seriously doubt it. They probably just have a limmited exclusive with them
That….would explain the significant upgrade quite easily. “The Mighty Halo is co-owners with you on this comic shop which is getting drained every couple of days? How about in exchange for a bigger & better location, you become 1 of our 1st official merchandise partners too?”
What? I do actually learn stuff off Daniel the Human. Occasionally…
Personally don’t believe the stained glass window would be any more distracting than a similar sized glass window
In fact, it is possibly less of a distraction (ignoring the obvious subject matter) because it is filtered light, rather than direct sunlight
If, in fact, it’s 2-3 hours before the store opens, no, there wouldn’t be people waiting outside for it to open even if it does do the volume of business needed to justify…this. They’d probably start showing up no more than 30 minutes before, and even then it’d be rare. Most people will show up between 5 minutes early and any time during the rest of the business day. Comic shops aren’t amusement parks, where you need to vie for lines, nor theaters, where you’re vying for the best seats. You will find that business picks up and slows down with people’s free time. It would be highly unusual for any retail store to have people waiting outside it, unless there’s some sort of first-come/first-serve special going on with limited access.
Which…generally there won’t be, because the regular customers all have “pull lists”.
Unless it was the grand opening of course, then all bets are off.
Re: Air conditioning bill. Lived in Texas for years.. most houses have really tall ceilings to keep that bill down. Hot air rises, so the taller the ceiling can be the more heat dissipates upward and the cooler it is at the ground.
This is especially true if it’s an older church, like this looks to be. Pre-AC it would have been designed to funnel heat upward as efficiently as possible.
I’m thinking probably this one was built in the second half of the 20th, if not the last quarter of the same. As such, it would probably have AC.
It looks to me to be of the poured concrete and foamboard school of architecture.
If it were pre AC there would be transoms above the doors. There aren’t.
I’ve installed cabinets in quite a few churches. The heat. The heat that comes off a stained glass window is immense! It is as if the hand of god is slapping you in the back of your neck!
Umm… Where did Rufus go in the final panel?
In central merch square. Look for the guy with the bald spot.
No, that’s Jo-El, Rufus is still in the entrance lobby re-locking the front door
Probably has him stationed there for when people stop by early on new book day to tell them they really do have to wait until they open, and no they can’t come in early just because they are a regular.
You all know those guys. Sorry to say I was one at one point. Happy to say I grew out of it.
No, that’s Joel. If you look at panel 7 you’ll see that the merch room is separated from the entrance by an antechamber. Rufus probably stayed in it while Sydney went though the second set of doors.
This set-up might be a Arcswat idea as it allows for better security.
It allows for a better heating and air-conditioning bill at least, which is needed with all that air volume and glass.
But with all that glass, I don’t know that it provides very much additional physical security.
I have known of people who have parked inside a store before. In both cases, it was an accident.
[Pickel3719]:
You just pinpointed Joel.
I’ve gotta side w/[dan] on this one, sorry.
Rufus just unlocked the front door, then VANISHED into thin air.
#According_To_The_Last_Panel
Nobody visible is wearing a baseball cap, although in the merch-square (w/Joel) there’s a guy with a blonde crewcut.
(…if it’s a hat, then the visor’s missing…)
I assume that it’s Olivia who’s stocking shelves along the far wall.
Maybe he’s an unregistered meta. His only power is to fall out of frame in comic book illustrations, no matter how improbable. Or maybe his power is, you can see him fine, but he doesn’t cast a shadow against windows.
Or, he could be reaching down to unpin the other side of the door since it’s almost time anyway, and he doensn’t want to come back to do it.
Or, he could have stepped on outside to fetch something from his car, the daily paper (if they take one), the mail (if they have a mailbox), to make a bank or burgers run, or whatever was left just laying in the walk in front of the building.
Or, DaveB could have just overlooked keeping him in frame.
Maybe he was put there by Arc-Swat as a security measure.
It looks like Miss Halo passed through like a lobby/windowed area where Rufus is out of the main wide shot. If you look at her passing by him for the ‘Fair play’ comment, the glass that she is heading towards, is floor to ceiling. If he was letting her into the only door between her and Joel, then the ‘glass’ would be just the shelves and not reach the ceiling.
So I think that the ex-church has a door you enter into that leads to several doors, and one brings you to the main room where Joel is.
Though I am wondering if Rufus and the man behind Joel, might end up her GM and other player from the beginning of the webcomic. When she is playing Omnigal.
@Toki:
I could totally see that happening.
:)
— Comparing Pg.3 (where they’re 1st seen) to Pg.13 (where he’s first named), I initially didn’t recognize “Brad”, because the 2 pages were separated by several months’ worth of flashback, & in the intervening time, he’d apparently “lost” the chin-fuzz, re-bleached his hair. & chilled-down considerably. Aside from the color, the haircut looks the same. He could also be the same guy who shares space w/Joel in today’s merch-space area.
— I’m guessing that the “DM/GM/KopyKraut” might be Rufus, based on the cap-&-hair.
— The other brown-haired guy remains un-named.
— None of the game-players (as seen on Pg.3) had black hair, so I’m guessing that neither Joel nor Tony were gaming on that occasion.
Oh… yeah!
I hadn’t noticed.
Oops!
This should’ve been a response to brichins‘s response (↓below↓) to dan
One of my first thoughts as well, but check out panel 7 – they’re in a vestibule entrance. Rufus is probably re-locking the front door and will be walking in behind her momentarily.
When you think about it, it is natural for Sydney to have her business in a church.
After all, one of her set is called the ‘pew’-‘pew’ orb.
Snorts…
I feel sorry for your lack of hipness.
It could be that this is opening day at the new location. That may be a bit weird, but the timing is kind of tight for them to have moved to this place already, so it’s honestly not that weird. Especially since Archon *had* a rough timeline for when Sydney would return. If Joel was in the loop, scheduling opening day for Sydney’s first Wednesday back might be reasonable.
That explains the empty lot and the lack of customers. There would likely be some stuff they’re still getting set up, but … wait, the guy at the top of the last panel is *clearly* stocking shelves. There’s no conspicuous gaps in the stocking *except* where he’s working. So he’s just finishing up the first shelving. Opening day, there you go.
Somebody had to unlock the door for Sydney. Clearly, they’re not opened yet, despite the fact that it’s the afternoon.
This is the ground floor of the sanctuary room. There’s almost certainly a full basement and side rooms and stuff, which they would likely set up *after* the main sales floor. They’re probably not even going to open today. Grand opening tomorrow. So of course there’s no customers in the lot.
It’s not the afternoon. Sydney has to be back at Arc Swat in the afternoon.
You do you and all, but it seems like it would have been a lot less effort for the woman in the background to wear pants instead of shorts with thigh-highs.
She was wearing that at the start of the comic series, so had to be dressed that way to be recognised while being a small part of the page.
Plus, pretty girls pull in customers.
Right. I was thinking she was a customer and not a clerk. I’d forgotten about that.
“Arguably, it still is holy ground for some people.”
Like, for people who are extremely long-lived & don’t want to lose their heads, for example?
He, He.
Comic and gaming nerds mostly. I know, I am one also.
It does feel like that sometimes when you go into a nice comic book store run by people who Really love what they are doing and want you to enjoy your visit.
Of course when you visit one run by jerks the effect is not so much. Comic Book guy in the Simsons as an example.
“Sydney discover a roof access door”
Well then Deadpool should drop by once and tell us to wait for the super hero landing if she is coming in from the roof.
And kudos for the “arc-swat official Merch” sign on the window, making it clear to all the readers who arranged this location for Sydney.
I’m pretty sure that the stained glass windows reflection is upside down. Sydney’s head shouldn’t be closer to the door than her feet.
Judging by both this strip and the previous one, she approached the building from the “back”, which could well be facing a highway or park. The parking lot probably runs around, and she came in from the end opposite the one she approached from.
I didn’t see any doors in the previous strip, and I’ve know of churches which were arranged so the altar end was to the street with parking beside or behind.
Yeah, the back of the building probably faces a freeway or other major thoroughfare, so they have the name of the business and the stained glass window facing that way for maximum exposure.
Originally, I was advocating for a residential area, possibly close to a primary audience like a school, but someone else suggested highway, (Doctor Phogg, above,) and the more I think about it, the better that fits what landscaping can be seen.
I bet people will still want to get married there… ;)
Its obvious Syd is too peeved to think straight about locked doors, but can the tentacle orb squeeze down fine enough to fill a lock and instantly throw all the tumblers?
I know that DB has indicated that he lives in Texas but where is it specified that Sydney lives in Texas? As a Texan it suits me to think that Sydney is a Texan as well but I’m wondering where the assumption comes from.
It’s not specified. All, or many, of us are assuming the Dallas area because DaveB is from there and apparently used bits he’s familiar with for references.
There was a page a few years back where Sydney was flying over the city. Sorry don’t know which one.
The highway and street systems look like the ones in Dallas.
You would know what I mean if you have ever been there.
Oh, yeah. The only thing worse than driving in Dallas is driving in Houston.
Know what you mean. I live just outside of Houston and try not to travel in to Houston unless I have to.
Know people from LA who whine about the driving conditions here.
Dave lives in Dallas. So as to give Sydney an air of mystery, he has her living in the far away mystical land of Fort Worth.
I’m reminded of Sydney talking about the place she tested the Pew-Pew Orb and accidentally started a forest fire. “…Which suddenly doesn’t seem nearly far enough away if I was trying to be anonymous.”
I’m calling Sydney will claim Temporal Prime Directive to somewhat get around the whole thing being classified.
It’s just a nerdy reference, right? She’s not directly telling him anything about what happened, as a good Starfleet officer should.
The great church of comic.
Who’s the chick along the shelf? Is that Olivia?
Take this from a PK. The sanctuary’s way too wide and not long enough. You’d have to have chairs in a semi-circle to make it work (people would have neck strains if you had pews…)
Okay, first I need to ask what PK stands for, because I can’t see you as a firestarter…nor would I have any idea why a pyrokinetic would have a specific stance on sanctuary layout.
Second, I’ve seen churches that did just that. A quarter-circle or third of a circle, focused on the altar, and since the raised area appears squarish, rather than running the width of the room, that seems a likely conclusion.
However, there is usually more than one aisle, but three, with one main one surfaced in tile and two lesser ones in the same carpet as under the seating would fit.
But, yeah, it really should be a longer, narrower building than a shorter, wider one.
PK stands for Pastor’s Kid.
Sounds like different preferences for different denominations. I’ve been in quite a few churches that were relatively square, with some pews at the sides in a U-type configuration. Not to mention the occasional church that was properly round*, with seating in arcs focused on the altar.
*A modern build of a very old design – ‘No corners for the Devil to hide in’!
Given that the door was locked, maybe they aren’t open yet. Not open, no hordes of customers.
Things to do with that large front lobby/entrance/foyer: Put in a deli + buffet restaurant (all day breakfast, salad bar) restaurant. Open late and close late, like noon to 2 a.m. Include a discount with store membership.
$$$$$$$$!!!
Place has a kitchen, great idea.
Gaming tables and a small coffee shop similar to the Starbucks in book stores would probably be more profitable, easier to run, and less messy.
Now that we have a religious theme potentially being introduced to the comic, are we getting ready to meet villain number 2 on the bad-guy bingo card? https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-186-fingers-to-maximum-steepleage/
Better him than villain number 6. She’d probably just join Sydney’s harem, or Harem’s harem, or Dabbler’s harem.
The projection coming down from the stained glass is a nice touch. Although I think it would be a bit blurrier in real life? Not sure how that would look in the comic.
The most undeliverable thing is not that he’d have such a window, but that there isn’t precautions to prevent the light from bleaching the products inside.
Probably has a UV resistant coating.
The window and the display cases could be made of UV opaque glass. Visible light doesn’t do much damage to inked paper, it’s the Ultraviolet. Also may not be much of a concern if they are able to turn over stock fast enough.
Honestly, with Halo not working there in a month of Sun- er, Wednesdays, there would be no early bird line.
Unless other celebs/supers were making regular appearances.
Just a notice- if the stained glass window is at the front of the store, and the sun is shining through it to the salesfloor below, then the glow is oriented upside down.
Unless there are two of those windows and the sun is behind the shop.
No, the window was at the back of the store, Sydney entered in the front door
The only error with the image is that it is flipped wrong (on the ground, she is holding her blue ball on the right, whereas when she was looking at the window from the outside, it was on the left)
Look at where Sydney is pointing while she’s incredulously(sp‹?›) responding to Rufus, when he asks who she is (panel 5)
Dammit DaveB, I’m trying to save money to fix, or replace, my computer, and now you have tempted me with $25 dollars of a new book series…!
I’ve read the “Look inside!” bits for the first three ‘novels’ in the series. Don’t be tempted, they are dreck. Typical Marty Sue protagonist* with typical harem of women all lusting after him.
Let’s see the guy was a boxer or a MMA fighter on Earth, so that explains his strength and hand to hand fighting abilities. What it doesn’t explain is:
1) His ability to out pace all of his harem in cross country travel, including the centaur gal described as being taller and heavily muscled. I guess he just has to be better at everything?
2) His ability to pick up an axe (apparently a wood chopping axe, not a battle axe) and fight for several hours against people who were actual soldiers with actual training;
3) He can talk to all of his harem even though they don’t speak the same language. And that now applies to spiders, because it makes about as much sense so why the fuck not?
3) Oh and he is now a wizard, Harry. But of course he is, because that’s how Marty Sue characters work, they just keep getting more and more awesome until they are the most awesomest and bestest there could possibly be.
And I’m sure that the 3-5 pages in each of the “Look inside!” excerpts has excluded a lot. Both a lot of the supposed justifications for all of his various abilities, which I am certain make as much sense as they do in any wish-fulfillment fan fiction, which is to say none at all, and a lot of other abilities I’m sure he has that were just not revealed in those brief snips of rubbish. Because there’s just no way that’s the entire list. This guy isn’t nearly awesome enough for this kind of ‘writer’ to have stopped there, not by a long shit. (sic)
Could probably use security. I’d see if Icon has anyone he represents that might be interested.
So my thoughts on this:
Dabbler did the stained glass – it’s probably GlassSteel or some magical equivalent, and enchanted to block all UV light. Or, it could always bee Transparent Aluminum…
Moving wouldn’t be an issue. With the Arc-SWAT merch there, the team probably had something to do with it. A couple of days is probably all it would take. That might be a media circus, though, so maybe just load up boxes to the limit of what Harem could carry and she could transport them quietly.
If that’s an actual stained glass window, it’s likely to get broken soon. Sydney will probably replace it with a door, and rig it up to play “Flight of the Valkyries” or something when she opens it. Probably tie it to some kind of give-away – Anyone in the store when she arrives gets $5 in store credit or something.
As for the reflections – maybe they’re across the street from an office building, or something else highly-reflective. The light coming through the stained glass seems more muted than then light coming in from out front, so it might account for both light sources.
The AC bill shouldn’t be too outrageous thanks to the fact that hot air rises, so the air conditioned air will stay down close to the floor.
It’s heating it in the winter that’s going to be brutal.
How cold does Dallas get in the winter?
We get snow a few times a decade. We get into the twenties more often than that, but mostly winter is above freezing. https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/dallas/texas/united-states/ustx1575
Dallas has four seasons:
HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT WARMcold cold cold cold cold warmHOT.
I thought it was Hot, Hot, DAMMED HOT, Hot, cool & freezing.
With Climate Change¹, you can expect “local” ^weather^ ^extremes^ to be ^more^ extreme ~ in other words; say “goodbye” to [airquote]mild[/airquote] weather/tempuratures, and “hello” to very cold days being a ^lot^ more common ~ in addition to extremely hot days becomming more common.
〰️〰️〰️〰️〰️
¹Formerly known by the (still ^technicaly^ acurate, but unfortuntely “misleading [to those who don’t recognize the ^difference^ between ^global^ ^average^ ^temperature^ and ^local^ ^weather*]” *: roll•eyes :) term “Global Warming”