Grrl Power #85 – Wild imaginings. Hopefully.
Welp, tube’s open. See you next week!
Hah hah no. I swear I’m not trying to jerk you guys around with the tube, this is just how it happened in my head, and that’s pretty much what I’ve run with so far. I’ve always said that since I can’t draw this fast, I’d work towards having a fun ride along the way and also toward making the archive dive a good read. So before anyone gets too bent out of shape, the proper reveal is next week, I promise. That being said, this is everyone’s last chance to read up on pre-open Grrl Power, so share it around on Facebook/Twitter etc. Starting to read the comic at next Monday’s page would take some of the excitement out of the build up. I wish I had time to do a dedicated “what’s in the tube” Project Wonderful campaign.
In fact this week’s comic is actually page #86. I couldn’t fit everything I wanted on this page, the only solution would be to break it into 2 separate pages, but that would have meant doing 3 pages with cliffhanger endings, and that would officially make me a dick. Page #84.5 got partially done, but I realized there was nothing actually critical happening on it, it was just a lot of jokes so I decided to skip it.
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 think zephan has seen something like what he’s Imagining before.
its one of Cthulhu’s minnions
minions! even
minionions
Zeph has lead an interesting life, and has definitely had some close calls.
But you don’t plan to make a spin-off out of that, some years later, do you? I mean, after Sydney and the actual team is and are well established…
might be an idea, would add some history to the story other than the written ones. Same for any other main characters I’d say.
XD I love their expectations. Especially Max’s!
I’m guessing that Max is NOT a cat person.
I’m guessing she’s allergic.
I still think it’s full of Koosh Kins.
https://i.imgur.com/JV6rs.jpg
HaHaHA Kitten monster minnions!
Lol sailor Sydney
Way to make us wait longer. %$#@^&*$@WIng festering balls of )*(YUITYREFVHNRC N!!!!!!!!!
DaveB, DaveB, DaveB……
.
On one hand, I want to STRING YOU UP, and do unmentionable things to you…..
.
On the other hand my roommates are about to kill me, love the comic, got to go and defend myself.
But because I am laughing so hard, and typing it is hard to hit moving targets.
***Wipes off the blood*** Now that I need new roommates, I am glad that it wasn’t those two that disrupted the reveal. I would have hated to have to try to hunt down people with a time machine.
(Assuming that they could find it)
Oh come on your still not on about tht are you, it’s been bad enough removing it from king Ghidora’s backside, and now I have to put up with someone being snarky about it!! (seriously it’s gonna take a week to clean it DX)
*Dumps a bucket of maple syrup on Bismarck*
You were saying bro?
Why maple? I woulda just poured what I found in the time machine, (slightly voms…)
Because I was gonna use THAT in my genetic experiments.
(Looks in lab) Ahh so tht’s what u do with the green wobbly bit!
Wobbly Green Bits (™) The Breakfast of Unspeakable Horrors from Beyond Space and Time.
I ran out of the Time-wimey…stuff yesterday, so I had to improvise.
ewwww…
Wow, I sure hope I’m back in the right year, let me tell you guys something. Never borrow a time machine from a former Quarterback. NEVER, do you understand? If I ever get my hands on Booster Gold I am going to make him think Doomsday was a day at the beach. You guys have any idea what happens when your Flux Capacitor melts down in the middle of a temporal vortex? It’s not pretty! I’m still not sure how old I am now, but that will be temporary thanks to something I picked up sometime after the third interstellar war.
On top of all that Booster, and his inability to perform regularly scheduled maintenance on his Time Bubble, made me miss two whole days here. I may have to use that armor I “borrowed” from Arno Stark to teach him a lesson, by proxy of course, and with no ties to me. Then maybe I can make Tony think Booster’s suit is stolen Stark Tech from the future (only partially untrue) so he can kick the crap out of him. Hmm, this may entail a longer timeframe for Booster’s complete humiliation.
I don’t believe I will be messing around with time for a while, at least til I can get my hands on a machine Dabbler can’t take away, so I guess I have to wait the normal way for monday.
According to my readings, you’re 665 years old Az…and you have a Shantak living in your appendix…
holy fucking cringe are people seriously emoting in the comments, jesus christ
I love you guys. My head hurts from falling out of bed, followed by the laptop.
Why did you do that! Now I have to take my semiannual bath early!
General Faulk
My guess also.
I don’t know Zphhan might have grandkids. Some of the children I know, the things coming out of the tube in his imagination remind me of them.
I was half expecting hand puppets…
(STILL hate cliffhangers!)
DaveB- you are an evil cliffhanger bastard, ya know that? Good thing for you I’m too much of a fan of your webcomic to be particularly pissed off. ;-)
Is Zephan’s idea a reference to a particular horror franchise (Lovecraft?), or is it a generic horror reference?
Um… Of all people, why would General Falk be imagining a Sailor Moon/Pokemon/My Little Pony power source in there?
And- on a more serious note- what *is* in that tube that would conceal *that piece of packing foam* as well? Gwen said she didn’t detect anything. She’s right in this case: “A distinct lack of anything is” indeed “an indication of something” especially where it can also cover an item not part of it.
Sorry. I missed your little comment there about which one of them is a grandparent. That would explain General Faulk.
It just adds to my hypothesis that what ever is in there isn’t very smart; it didn’t just hide its self, but also that package foam; and the air in the tube; Gwen commented that the tube was “too empty” which is very un-natural (with out air in the tube the tube would collapse due to atmospheric pressure), so dead give away that something is up to those who try to scan the tube.
and the whole going to sleep thing is now making me think of pixies, tiny angels, ect…
Saw the incentives page. Great stuff! Please finish it up when you have the time and put in the archives section when you have some spare time. It was a good idea to skip it and go to this page instead. But if I was doing a complete read through I would love to see it.
As I’ve said before, I’d really like to see diagram ‘B’.
So, her mystical artifacts have a power-save sleep mode? They are Energy Star Compliant! :D
Well those ancient mystic artifacts are a pain to recharge :)
Probably fell asleep from boredom.
Or they they decided to take a nap just to annoy Sydney.
How could anything in Sydney’s vicinity EVER become bored?
THIS
When your around a hyperactive person, after a while you get used to them and sort of tune them out as a form of self preservation for your sanity.
telekineses -> telekinesis
I was all set to congratulate you for skipping 84.5 and getting to the point when AUGH CLIFFHANGER.
Though yes, it is a pretty funny page and I certainly won’t mind it, going through the archives again afterwards.
For some weird reason, I think The General might be closest to correct in his guess… :P
As for cliffhangers, at least this isn’t a posse after Dr Huxtable… :O
rimshot.wav
Love pannel three. Like what are these guys going to think? I was bragging about the artifacts and here they are asleep on the job!!!
Pannel four is come on guys wake up and show them how cool you are!
Its the damn reapers!! Ps.: Love the mass effect reference! ;)
I’d hate you for another cliffhanger but I’m laughing WAAAAAY too hard XD
Ok Sydney, pull them out allready!
Given what we know, that Sydney is a gamer who has admitted that her real power is dice karma, that the tube contains a “them”, that she won’t let anyone else touch her “them”, I’m expecting a set of dice that control all of reality, Oh wait, her power is listed as 6 out of 10, maybe just a set of dice that skew the chances of something happening. Maybe she should have used them to win this last weekends lottery.
As a gamer myself I know what kind of power regular dice have over me…the power to roll a 1 just when I don’t need it.
I like your theory, sir. That may actually work.
That reminds me of Nathan’s last power from Misfits, or the 23 sider from Fans.
I can imagine a reality warped by Sydney would be an incredidbly odd one though.
That’s just how dice are. They annoy the shit out of you by rolling low and fumbling one you when you really don’t want them to. But then right when your PC is facing certain and utter doom they drop start dropping Crits at the dramatically correct moment.
The Dice of Fate can be a real bitch some time.
Risk (old school board game) was especially sensitive to dice. I’ve seen huge armies reduced to nothing in the face of the dreaded double sixes.
Tell me about it. Last session everything was going bad until it was dramatically appropriate, then the dice were practically playing “The Touch” from the cartoon Transformers movie as everyone critted our enemies into oblivion.
Risk is especially notorious for doing that.
MUST…CONTROL…RAGE…RESIST…URGE…TO KILL…
WHY Resist? Just choose your target carefully.
Why yes, I am a supervillian. Why do you ask?
Do you have any openings in your organization? How are the benefits? What is the pay and hours?
And as long as it is not in the “Red shirt” section.
Sorry no openings at present.
My benifits package includes yearly power ups, according to how well you did that year.
Pay is a percentage of the profits according to the pirate share plan, that has been in effect since the 1400’s. Look it up, it’s a very effective way to devide the spoils, and also has traditional values.
*casually walks by, leaving a live of dead minions in his wake*
I believe you have some openings just come up.
Sorry, but they have a lazarus effect in their first power up. Don’t want to loose well trained minions to any kill happy hero now do I?
I will look you up when the time comes to expand my organization.
Why should the hero be the only one to be able to return from the dead?
Villians have feelings too.
My minions have a power suite automatically when they sign up: Common Sense, Training on Aiming Right and Tailored Uniforms. That way they don’t actually buy every stupid thing the good guys come up with, actually hit their targets, and when the good guys knock them out for their uniforms they don’t fit right and get picked immediately by the now intelligent and competent soldiers.
Very evil. I’m stealing the idea immediately.
Also, go for the yellow jumpsuits. Very popular on uninhabited volcanic islands of undisclosed location.
I just give them a healing factor and neuro upgrade every year for the first four years. The rest is a solid training course in sambo, various weapon systems and the scientific and tactical training to be able to McGyver any situation that comes around.
Thats why I had a Lazarus effect put in with their first upgrade. It takes a lot of time and effert to keep well trained minions.
Some one has been reading the “Evil Overlord List” !!!
I Have the “Minion List” memorized! :)
Just read it. Some realy good advice in there. Would make a great poster to put up on your wall.
HAHA YOU’RE SO WACKY LOL ROFL ECKS DEE
I you kill him now .. it’ll be a cliffhanger forever
Heh, some of the comments are as funny as the comic. power-saving option, empowered dice… I’m going with trolls or butterflies.
Why not troll butterflies or butterfly trolls …. Fluttertrolls? Trollfies? Buttertrolls … wait that sounds more like a Xanthian breadbasket resident …..
I think pixies have butterfly wings. Or maby moth wings, I’m not sure.
Small extreemly tough fighters who’s sense of humor involves leading you to fall in pools of water or quicksand. Also can produce a dust like effect that can knock you out, make you start itching uncontrolably or possibly kill you.
Don’t mess with pixies! They will $#@! up your month.
Fluttertrolls. Or a bunch of those little long-haired troll dolls…
treasure trolls. they’ve been around for decades.
Ahh, Xanth magic + puns. Even my mom cringed at the puns in Ogre Ogre! :D
pun pals instead of pen pals, oh yeah Xanth hehe
I think it was Crewel Lye that was so thick with puns. the publisher made him take out the entire first chapter.
You forget the plaque with a feline backside (Cat-Ass-Trophy) and the Garfield-colored cat who killed plants (Agent Orange).
https://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/166/259/trollface%20fluttershy.png
I think she managed to capture her shoulder angel and shoulder devil.
Why can’t I stop laughing?!?!?!
No seriously, I cracked up when I saw the General thinking about Rainbow Dash :3
He is officially 20% cooler.
General Faulk is so totally a brony and he knows it. *brohoof*
But, the reactions were all great, and as much as I love Rainbow Dash, I burst out laughing at Arianna’s fear.
[\ brohoof
he has kids you fucking degenerate retards
Ok, keep it civil please.
The telekinesis line almost had me in the floor, good one.
also, I got the sailor moon and the pony, but what is the yellow rat suposed to be?
Pikachu
Pika pika!
…oh dear god, if I live to be a hundred, I don’t think I’ll ever feel older than this comment makes me feel.
How do you know about Sailor Moon and MLP, but you don’t know who Pikachu is? Its like you fell into a coma for the 8 years that he was everywhere and on everything…
I wish I was.
They are probable solarpowered
please oh please make the last panel a wall paper for us and curse your cliffhangers! :D
She talks about them like they are aware and intelligent. Maybe they are trolling her.
The comic started with Sydney playing a superheroine with photon-based power(s) in a tabletop RPG and I thought it was foreshadowing. What ever’s in the tube is probably not really alive. I’m guessing Sydney is mostly anthropomorphizing (personifying) it and it’s just dormant at the moment. Though by using word “them”, she did indicate multiple somethings, as opposed to a single thing.
actualy her power in the game was manipulation of all types of energy!
what was taken out of the top? Cheese?
Packing foam. It’s why the “Guys” didn’t rattle in the tube.
ahhhh, tht explains alot, but I can’t believe we have to wait ANOTHER WEEK!! NOOOOO!!!
zephan has issues
love the general’s idea… but no
maxima’s idea… like the idea too but no.
why do i think arianna could be closest to being right
His “issues” are the Elder Gods. Dr. Strange also had problems with them.
Everyone has issues with them sooner or later, Ghost Busters, Ben Ten, Ninja Turtles, GI Joe, Transformers (IDW Infestation; unfortunatly Toho wouldn’t let them include Godzilla in the cross-over; so we came this close to Godzilla vs Cthulhu, but the twits at Toho wouldn’t allow it), Sam and Dean Winchester on Supernatural, Galactus (Thanos Imperative), Dr. Fate, Super-man, Hellboy, ect….this it what happens when something as cool as interdimensional squid gods of chaos is public domain.
I liked Hellboy’s solution! :D
“this is gonna hurt!”
I prefer “I’ll be feeling that in the morning.”
Yep, General Faulk definitely has grandkids. At least she hasn’t stashed a Wiggle or two in there.
Now that you mention family…
Does anybody else picture Maxima as a single mum?
I can so see her having a separate home life with a preschool aged daughter she has to/gets to be sweet/feminine with; toys, crafts and paintings on the fridge and whatnot.
I can even picture the chaos/stress if Sydney ever had a chance to meet/corrupt her.
In Xanth Wiggles are a destructive infestation that could destroy everything. But Piers Anthony wrote that decades before the group. Always wondered if they stole the name.
I find it amusing that Arianna’s seems the most Sydney-ish.
Zeph now implies that there is some Bad Stuff® in your world. Interesting. I think most gamers would actually find a Lovecraftinan horror more terrifying than the general public, since they have those few point of Lore Mythos that let’s you how bad it really is.
I disagree. More to the point, I think the opposite might be the case. ;)
As a very longtime gamer (and sometime referee), I have seen my fellow gamers do stuff that would make Lovecraftian Horrors go fetal and cry for their mothers.
Water, it’s not just for crossing. Daily baths will not melt you, You are not made of sugar.
Use SOAP!!
like putting a flaming sword in a white dragon;s cloaca and then activating the enchantment? :)
Or Polymorphing boulders and/or large creatures into sling bullets, for use against Paladins armed with Holy Avengers (that dern ‘Dispel Magic’ field). ;)
Ohhhh I like! *Takes note for next time party’s paladin gets uppity about the warlock*
I wonder what would happen if you stored the heat of a forge for a day in a stone and threw it at them?
There was a ‘Knights Of the Dinner Table’ strip a while back, where they had to fight a VERY high level monster. Odds of success zero (they had messed up BAD, as usual).
Then Dave (the not-so-bright one, playing a mage this time) created a teleport gate. One end pointed at the monster’s head. It was line of sight – and he put the other end of the gate in the SUN.
The Ref had to redraw all his maps for that entire portion of his gameworld.
That would also work wonderfully on Beholders, with that irritating Anti-Magic Eye. I had a group playing in a world where the Drow had guns (3rd edition), after the players found out during a raid on a sorcerer’s tower, one character was a renegade Drow with non-standard natural spells (Used a Feat from a Green Ronin Drow book called Unique Spell Abilities), his favorite was Alter Self, which he used for 2 main purposes, looking like a surface elf, and sprouting extra arms, he also had boots of spider climbing. After obtaining guns from defeated drow he used Alter Self and his Boots to run around the ceiling with 4 arms holding guns, and the player was just slaughtering them. The little bastards in the group started selling all the extra weapons afterwards, realized they had a gold mine on their hands, and used some of the weapons to arm some mercs, then attacked a series of Drow targets, eventually leaving them in control of the means to make guns and powder. They completely altered the balance of power among the nations of the world, selling their weapons to only selective targets, and conducting various other operations.
The group later lead a series of undercover operations into Drow cities, assassinating Matron Mothers, Weapons Masters, High Priestess, and so on, while taking anything of value they could fit into one of about 20 Bags of Holding they brought along. (lots of money flying around in this game, characters were a brutal powerbuild) This they did for no other reason than the pure fun of killing Drow.
Sorry to run off like that,
No worries. Drows with Gun-Fu – something else for GMs to have nightmares about. ;)
Had a drow with dual repeating hand crossbows, was almost as fun!
We used to make up our own monsters and magic items. My brother came up with Wimsy Wine which had an (extremely) random effect. I invented the Goforit a psychic parasite that eats fear and uses the emotional burst at death to lay it’s eggs (in your corpse of course). Thus suddenly the biggest coward becomes a fearless Berserker attacking the biggest baddest enemy heedlessly. Not to mention it lives in the ethereal plane.
The really fun part about that game was that the players had so much money that I could (and did) kill each of them multiple times. They just paid for resurrections out of a communal fund set aside for that purpose. I burned them to ash, boiled them alive, introduced them to the majority of the Grimtooth traps, and many other horrifying things, it was also my main method of controlling their money. God that was a fun game.
I went through a “Monty Hall” phase where I allowed the players to get some of the best stuff available just to see what they would do with it but of course no instructions or clues. Even had a weapon take control of a character at one point. Best fun were the gender switching items and the consequences thereafter. BTW pregnant Barbarians are MOODY!!! :D
Eldritch abominations abomination would do well to avoid Japan.
This might happen to them.
Ok, had to comment here. Love the Sailor Moon reference! Pff, grandkids or no grandkids, you know he loves those morning cartoons.
Also, since I’m commenting for the first time, I may as well gush for a little bit too. I am definitely loving this comic! The characters are wonderful and very distinct. I’ve had a lot of genuine laughs and I’ve definitely never been bored. Sydney is a character who seems very well-rounded with a great level of thought put into her, and it’s a pleasure to read her. I’m pretty excited to finally see what’s inside the dang tube, too. Just a friendly message from a lurker.
I do a webcomic too, and I know that you’ve probably already got a lot of people giving you feedback, but if you’d ever like to talk shop / swap constructive criticism, I’d be happy to help.
What’s your comic?
I like to read new stuff, and hope it has a good storyline.
It’s a Sailor Moon webcomic, as a matter of fact, haha. (That’s why I felt it was my duty to comment on this page.) If you (or anyone else reading this) genuinely likes Sailor Moon then you can click on my name here and it should link you straight to the SmackJeeves page.
Will ‘page 84.5’ be visible on this site after April, when it’s no longer the current voting bonus?
Hopefully he’ll finish it up and place it in his archives section when he has some time on his hands.
My plan is to stick it as is on the DeviantArt page like I do with the other vote incentives, and eventually finish it in time for when I’m getting ready to compile all this into a book. As for putting it into the archives, I’m sure that ComicPress has some way to backfill archives so that it appears in the proper place. I haven’t messed with that yet though.
What are… vote incentives? I’ve voted and seen nothing incenting? Am I missing something and where is your deviant page?
Look for the TopWebcomics.com link at the bottom of the chat, or beside the comic (also in the post comment this week) It goes to a site where you can throw me a vote and it should show you the page I omitted. The DeviantArt page is linked up in the nav buttons at the top.
Must know what is in tube….
*Hops into time machine and goes forward in time…only to come back wide eyed*
Wow…Dabbler is REALLY flexible…
Oi! No using my time machine to satisfy ur fantasies! I only built it to pick up future comics from syd’s store!
pick me up some future space gum that makes my hair change colors while i chew next time ill pay you in pocket lint…
funnily enough tht’s what the machine runs on…
Soooooo thats a yes to the gum….?
Fiiiine, but i need 3 cents for the time tunnel fees…
What pay 3 cents for a one of a kind wont be out in my lifetime and will never be able to ever get again ever piece of gum awesomeness?!! You must be kidding
Ever since time travel became a thing the official TTRVBXXKSOFBFSBHDBDKFBUFLPPPPDNUBDKKNDDJKDBUFOFNIUFVINKBULFOOOOBKNIH
(Transport devision) Have had to make sure they can check who’s going where, why do u think there aren’t any Iron Man suits being publicly sold?
magneto stole all the iron and built himself a new plaint that he lives on with iron automatons that he controls with his mind?
Ooooh so close, but sadly, no.
I did not! The machine decided to drop into Dabbler’s bathroom while she was in the shower. It’s amazing the twisting you have to do to wash 4 shoulders. ;)
Knowing her, she prob knew u were and put on a show 0.o
Hah hah I have a page already written around that joke.
predictive humor for the win!
NOW that would be a great incintive page!
would most likely be NSFW work though….
And your point is?
Just make one version NSFW and another with lots of suds.
I’ve been playing City of Heroes recently and coincidentally, there’s an ArcLight in one of the story archs…
of course, it’s a para-military unit run by an oppressive regime that gets overrun by possessing entities…but eh
OMG! ORIGINAL Prather LEAD AD&D figurines! That’s got to be it! Mind you they’ve some home become animated…please let one be a lawful evily paladin.
The last panel just cracks me up. Everyone at the table is envisioning something completely different. LMAO!!!!
If the general is right GOD HELP US GOD HELP US ALL!!!!
Be even more scared if it’s really what I thought up last week in the second page of comments.
I am somewhat fearful of what costuming will try to make her wear as a uniform and to hide her ID. (*she’s so gonna demand a secret Identity and then blow it by telling everyone (who will promptly think she’s lying.))
That and the Magical Princess/Girl outfit combined with the Sailor moon/planet versions…
With any luck DaveB will spend a week or two showing us how angry Sydney is and uncomfortable with her Super Outfit as it gives her a wedgie all the time, because she ain’t got no back, really.
perhaps her outfit should be a straitjacket lol
With build up like this, if it’s just some glowing orb beings or something in the tube all the readers are going to be majorly let down…
I read syd’s bioe before it was redacted, I know what they are. Na na nanana!
I read Sydney’s bio two weeks ago. Archive.org is your friend.
Thank you so much for telling me about archive.org! NOW I KNOW TOO!!! MUAHAHAH i feel evil.
Also Im super happy because I predicted what her powers were going to be and how it was going to look almost down to the last detail.
The code’s actually still in the page, it’s just commented out. I never predicted the “what’s in the tube” thing would generate this much fervor. That was just bad planning on my part. This is my first project like this after all.
Best thing about archive.org? Find a psychic and look at their website from a year ago and see all the predictions they got wrong and were subsequently removed from the page.
You are being so successful because you are pulling what i call a “Lost” move. Leaving a terrible cliffhanger after every comic without ever coming to the results we are looking for on the next page, but staying funny and original enough for us not to give up on the comic. Its called perfect pacing, also known as being evil. For a per project you are doing pretty damn good mister #1 webcomic on topwebcomics.
Unfortunately with as much build up as there’s been, I don’t think anything would meet expectations.
I’m sure.
Didn’t she use her powers to steal the Colonel’s hat?
No, she just swiped it.
Although the Colonel was busy holding an ambulance at the time.
maybe its a genie of the comic scroll case and it gives her the powers of whatever comic books she puts in it…. or she really dose have telekinesis and max is going to kill her lol