Grrl Power #833 – UNIT Couture
Anvil knew Max would be reluctant to try on dresses, so she’s trying to ease her in with a below the knee quasi-military looking job.
Honestly, Anvil has a dressing screen because drawing silhouettes is easier. Also, silhouettes are also weirdly a bit sexier when done right.
#ComicTalk: I actually feel a little guilty that this page only has 5 panels, but I’ve been constantly a touch behind with the comic of late, so I’ve been making an effort to not overwhelm myself. Ideally, I’d find a way to draw faster, but I’m not sure that’s in the cards, so my tactic for this sequence was to rearrange my original script just a bit and turn 2 pages into three. It has the advantage of allowing me to draw slightly larger panels, which I enjoy doing. Most comic pages have 5 ± 2 panels. I usually weigh in at 9. I think my record for this comid was 17 which is absurd. The disadvantage, of course, is that it makes it take longer to get through a scene, which I don’t like at all. But I’m still striving for a bit of balance. I haven’t worked on the follow up to my Tamer fanfic much since releasing #1, but this week I finally had a Sunday off from drawing the comic.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like!
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 will be honest, this storyline isn’t my fave. On one hand, lots of Amazonian cheesecake, which is primeo cheesecake you really don’t see enough of. On the other hand, the whole not-date thing and Deus Bag is just . . . ugh, really? It doesn’t feel good to me. It’s hard for me to put in words, but it doesn’t feel right for the characters to me.
DaveB states on the About page:
“Yeah but what’s it about?
“The extraordinary person in the ordinary circumstance.
“To me, the most memorable moments in comics and shows are the scenes with amusing character interaction, you know the issue the X-men spend playing baseball, or the moments where you see the ice queen warming up to the underdog nerd character, or the scene that establishes that two tertiary characters have a buddy cop thing going. I find that’s the stuff I remember and enjoy the most, not what villain they fought that episode. If Wolverine fights Sabertooth for the 47th time, who really cares? But if the artist draws him drinking a Strawberry Yoohoo afterwards, that’s the sort of thing that people remember.
“I wanted a comic that focuses mostly on those interstitial scenes I enjoy so much. So the comic is largely “day in the life” It is still a superhero comic though, and there will be some fighting of course but I suspect that any fighting Sydney gets involved in will be a little more slapstick than you’d normally get.”
Be that as it may, I don’t like the whole forced rom com schtick we got going on here right now. I’m not saying it needs to be all fighting, or even most, the character bits are many of the best parts, but Maxima and Deus fit together as a will-they won’t-they not-couple as well as the Pope and I in my opinion.
And everyone knows that, you really believe DaveB would actually have Maxi go on a real date with SmugD? o_O
By the time Maxima realizes its a real date, they’ll be in the sack. Thats how far ahead Deus thinks.
It’s important to realise thar Maxima and Deus have history.
This is not a random date/not date situation. We know something happened before between them.
Back when they introduced Deus, Max told Sidney she had dated him with a frustrated head in hand look. Given how Deus works, she likely figured out he was not going to be faithful and broke it off. -for light details read between the lines in their argument over those pages.-
In this instance Max in planing recon mission to interrogate Deus. Anvil, on the other hand, knowing maxes history with him, Is trying to set her up. Just like she did with Hero, back at the Mars Bar factory.
The entire rom-com vibe is simply a plot device to accentuate Anvils meddling in Maxes relationships.
Understandable. I’m mostly here for Sydney, myself. I don’t mind the occasional Max storyline, but Sydney is why I read Grrl Power.
+1. Treat lightly & short. But be fair – its a stutter in an otherwise memorable comic
The whole military training thing clashes as well. Super heros almost by definition don’t follow the usual rules.
(I’m here for Vehemence! Awesome idea really.)
Not following “the usual rules” is what’s getting supers into disrepute. MCU “Civil War”, “The Boys”, even “Watchmen'” is bowing the whistle. Not to mention the presser immediately following the Great Bank Kissy-marks episode.
I like the general story arc, but it would be interesting to see how/if Vehemence gets off the ice-block.
I find it telling that you typed “comid” instead of “comic,” like by now you’re just so used to automatically finishing everything that starts with COxI with “d.”
Are you sure that’s not a simple typo? Like the ones I do every day? Take a dekko how “C” and “D” are related on the keyboard :)
Is that a poster of Terry Crews on the wall behind Max in the second panel? The Rock in the first panel?
most likely, it is as I know the one flexing is the rock.
There’s nothing surprising about the appeal of silhouette. It leaves far more to the imagination. Titillation is found not in revelation but in the immanence of revelation. For anyone wondering what that means, the whole point of cleavage is you can NEARLY see tits, but not quite. This inspires you to think about them. And while your attention is wholly focussed on libidinous possibility, your imagination paints a picture of alluring perfection that is almost certainly better than the reality, with absolutely no warts, wrinkles or sag. A bit like DaveB’s Amazons.
I made a parallel comment on the last comic. A half-dressed person is often far more seductive than a naked one, for reasons similar to those you give here.
Naked is just meat, half-dressed (or silhouette) is suggestive.
Agreed. In fact, that dress would look MUCH better if it zipped up to the collarbone, and applied a bit of lift and contain to the breasts, and it would enhance the effect of the slit.
↑《 This ‼️ 》↑
There are many stars that look great with cleavage… take it off, and it drops almost flat…
Why is ANVIL getting dressed for a not-date?
Because going naked is more of a Dabbler thing to do. :)
She already has a date. With the 6’5″ guy, remember?
Plus, her dress got a little… doused so she had to change
They’re going to push it as long as she keeps reacting like that. They know she isn’t allowed to hit them
Fantastic work on the dress. One thing that always irks me is that all clothing always fits completely smooth. Not much of a problem with stretch material (unless it’s a bit too large) or if it’s not tight fitting, but you’ll get some (temporary) wrinkles when you strike a pose like Max does and most of the time authors ignore or forget that
That would look awesome with a leather gun rig and big ass revolver. Canted sexily of course.
That or a Thigh rig like Laura Croft with appropriate sizing and caliber.
A matching torc around her head, armband and neck. Solid. Contrasting her skin color and hair. I’m sure the ARCSWAT dress gear shop would have the appropriate jewelry one could borrow that’s also high tech gear. Probably a lot that needs tested and that lets everyone in shop watch Maxima on her Date.
Depending on the city they’re in, that may either get looks of envy or looks of horror (and calls to the police).
Dunno about Deus’ favorite restaurant Chez Hoidy Toidy, but most high society eateries aren’t fond of their guests visibly displaying field artillery. XD
Me? I’d be like “Hey, nice Redhawk.” Prolly still get slapped tho, and Deus would financially ruin my extended family for the next three generations.
Where I come from, they would assume she was either homicidally crazy or a criminal if she walked in with what brodder suggests.
Either way, they would call the cops, and evacuate the restaurant fast.
And just how many tall, purple-haired golden women are out there? o_O
Come visit us, where I come from, and we’ll show you …
With Arc-swat weapons are visual accessories to cow people with a visible threat instead of employing the force Arc-swat is capable of employing.
For a meeting of more diplomatic relations weapons would be counter productive to the effort of presenting a sophisticated facade
Yyyyup. Very true‼️
Laura wears hers with shorts, which would lead to a lot of abrasions and cuts where the lower straps are just against her bare skin. Maxima wouldn’t have that issue, of course. Just pointing out how ridiculous Laura Croft’s outfit was.
Re: panel 5
Ha, busted.
Honestly I’m surprised max didn’t just go with dress uniform. Would “not a date” as well as “in official capacity”
I don’t know how long anvil has been enlisted but max is clearly career military. I cannot imagine a military officer in her situation, with her history, meeting with that kind of person, and even considering a dress over a dress uniform.
Panel 5 of the last comic completely threw out my willing suspension of disbelief. At an O6 paygrade? You don’t see colonels on anything resembling official business in anything but their uniform. That’s what they wear to dinner with the president. The snazziest restaurant in the entire country isn’t going to turn down a literal superhero in a US military uniform. The very idea is absurd.
I could see her trying on clothes anyway if Anvil pushed her hard enough but I can’t imagine either of them going into this with any illusions of her actually wearing them.
As DaveB said, this dress was simply the first one on the pile Anvil gave her, and it doesn’t hurt to just try them on
And, lets face it, Maxi is very far from Deus at the moment. In time as well as space. Far enough that a simple meeting has not yet happened, let alone a date. So all we have is Kenya pushing her best friend into a game of “dressups”. And teasing her.
Be honest, isn’t that just a bathrobe with strategic portions cut out?
No, strategic portions left in :)
I liked this this comic before this poor plotline, which apparently tries to convert this comic to another questionable content comic. Whole diminish Max to stressball because of a not-date date plotline devalues that character too much for my taste. Is it really that effing awesome when most important thing to strong female leads is a not-date-date?
DaveB states on the About page:
“Yeah but what’s it about?
“The extraordinary person in the ordinary circumstance.
“To me, the most memorable moments in comics and shows are the scenes with amusing character interaction, you know the issue the X-men spend playing baseball, or the moments where you see the ice queen warming up to the underdog nerd character, or the scene that establishes that two tertiary characters have a buddy cop thing going. I find that’s the stuff I remember and enjoy the most, not what villain they fought that episode. If Wolverine fights Sabertooth for the 47th time, who really cares? But if the artist draws him drinking a Strawberry Yoohoo afterwards, that’s the sort of thing that people remember.
“I wanted a comic that focuses mostly on those interstitial scenes I enjoy so much. So the comic is largely “day in the life” It is still a superhero comic though, and there will be some fighting of course but I suspect that any fighting Sydney gets involved in will be a little more slapstick than you’d normally get.”
Doesn’t anyone read the ABOUT page? I ask, because this day’s comic is about an extraordinary person in ordinary circumstances. SuperduperMaxima getting ready for what historians may or may not refer to as “a date.” And that’s a meme from El Goonish Shive, not from Questionable Content.
Shockingly… no, most don’t read the About Page, they stumble across this webic and assume it’s a generic Superhero Action Comic, with girls
Statements like “I liked this this comic before this poor plotline…” or “…this storyline isn’t my fave” or “And it just keeps going on with this dress up Max like a Barbie doll fantasy” imply this is not their first view.
Or, they could simply have read the archive
Doesn’t change the fact they don’t, or haven’t, read the About Page (and never said when they stumbled across this, some people have been reading, and commenting, for years, and still bitch everytime it changes from Action to Slice-of-Sydney and back again)
I’d agree with Maxima as regards the dress. It has potential, but the zip lets it down. Now if it were exchanged for one in the same ‘accent’ green as the shoulders and cuffs, running from just above the knee to just below the clavicle, with a more discreet pull tag… Perhaps not so ‘decorative’, but certainly more stylish. And if she doesn’t want to do a full Modesty Blaise homage if/when the time comes for kicking, use a zip in which the ‘anchor’ end can be moved up from the bottom of the track (as used in some hiking coats).
Is that Terry Crews in the bottom-left panel? Nice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqz8L9AP2ss
That dress