Grrl Power Extra – Harem Tangent #1
Surprise! Random bonus comic! This takes place right as Dabbler enters the ballroom, about page 100 or 101. Just trying a little experiment with a more cartoony art style to see if it would let me knock out a few “Meanwhile” comics like this on occasion. I was shooting for a semi Legend of Bill look, but it wasn’t much faster to draw since I’m hybridizing another style with my own, to admittedly mixed results. The flat coloring helped a lot though, and I think cut and paste theater is fine for a little aside comic like this.
I was hoping to include Sydney’s reaction to the reveal on the prior page within that page, but I couldn’t do it justice in 3 or 4 panels squeezed in at the bottom, so I thought I’d try and break it out and do it as a bonus page for today, which I <i>might</i> have been able to do if I hadn’t done this page, but then I’d be super rushed to get the next page done for Monday.
This page started off as a bonus vote incentive for this month, but since you guys are awesome and keep the votes rolling through even though I generally don’t have time to do more than one a month, I figured why make you jump through the hoops to see 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.
Holy crap, this guy just gets douchier and douchier.
Maybe..
But he gets an exception since the lady in red decided to be amused by it instead of slap him.
Everyone deserves a break now and then.
That lady in red is harem… she sat on a guys face and said she won’t get up until she hears some dirty talk…i think shes okay with a little surprise motorboating…
x] lololololol I need my safe boating certificate for those waters ;]
He´s right, though, never forget that he is right, guys.
I´m still torn with him, somehow, at least to me, he seems less like a douche, and more like…
someone who is not afraid to be friggin honest for a change.
I have no problem with his “Honesty”, but you must admit that his undiplomatic method of EXPRESSING this honesty is just a tad on the “douche”-y side.
Well, since Max is probably the only one he should fear, he acts like that because he can.
Everyone else would too.
An honest douche remains a douche just the same.
He’s just a douche, unscented.
For what little we have seen of him he reminds me of a very young Master Roshi.
I don’t know, he’s just open about what most guys really are thinking about.
He sort of gets worse. I mean, he’s definitely being a perv, but I’m not sure I would go further than that. It sounds more like a conversation between a man and a woman (albeit a woman comfortable with the way a man’s mind works (or doesn’t work, if you will)). That said, yes, he’s being a total sleeze.
Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but I don’t think he’s totally serious. I mean, he is serious about what he’s saying, but someone mentioned Harem’s face-sit earlier and has a point: Math is having this talk with someone who is, it would seem, comfortable with that kind of interaction. When he does it to Anvil, he’s being an ass; when he does the same thing with Harem, it’s just the two of them playing and sounds (for a given value of sound, given that this is a comic) like old friends (especially his calls for “story time”).
That arrow is confusing.
Figured it out. It’s an action indicator showing Mathis moving from kneeling/crouching on the floor to sitting next to Harem. Perhaps if Dave had added a ‘zip!’ sound-effect kinda…. thing, it would have been a little less confusing.
dave missed one thing thuogth. H forgot that Anvil is hunting that as down remember she says gang way as she try to get to him so him just setting ofr story time is SOOOOO oging to hurt heheheh nad i hope it does :P
I hadn’t considered that…
…when I read “GANGWAY!”, I thought she meant:
“Guys! I’m falling out of control – look out below!”
…because it looked to me as though Math had launched himself to the balcony from her shoulders in such a way as to unbalance her & make her fall. I’d just assumed that Harem’s bopping him on the head with a pool cue (“OW!”) was revenge enough, & that Anvil was satisfied with this, even though the revenge wasn’t at her own hands. That, & Harem’s comment in the next page:
“Never mind. Fight’s over. I won.”
There was a string of comments on this topic when that comic came out. Dave said it was meant as the “get-out-of-the-way” meaning.
Its just him sitting up on the couch.
Is ug correct in panel 6? I’d have thought she’d say urgh.
Yes the ug is correct. She’s a bit discusted at how the other two are acting.
Actually, it is more properly spelled “Ugh”.
Great side comic DaveB!
KUNG FU MOTORBOAT!!!!!
Sometimes dreams do come true.
This was a nice art style to try out, got the story across with a modicum of good art sense. Maby once in a while you could do this kind of art style again when you go on a vacation or convention to have the story go along.
Or you could do the Monday comic with your usual terific art style and do more comics like this on Thursday. If thats too much work we would understand, but think about it.
Totally! Even a sketch teaser would be cool, too!
Huh. Brook is unusual as a heat character. Most of those who can fly incinerate the room when they do it.
Well there is a way around that, instead of using a heat blast to form propollsion, if they can for micro-heat coils to expand the space between the air molecules around them they can potentially create a space lighter than the rest of the air, and like a bubble in water float upwards.
the space inside such a heat zone would be intense though, but micro-heat coils (self contained microscopic heat circulation zones) shouldn’t radiate too much heat outside their quantum sink zones, in other words we are talking as many heat coils as there are spaces between molecules.
*but hey, no where is it written that you have to know how your powers work to use them; it just helps when you want to get creative on purpose instead of just stumbling on power stunts*
Another possibility is that perhaps she’s applying self-telekinesis to fly – & it’s too weak (except at the sub-atomic scale) to lift more than herself & her clothes. In that case, it’s just the same power that she usually uses to accelerate molecules until they ignite &/or melt, but on a macroscopic scale.
I’m going with TK. To use bouyancy to float a human mass in normal air you need a large conatained volume to ofset the massive density difference between a person and air. Usually we call that a “Hot air balloon”, since she doesn’t have one (and it would be TK even if she did…..)
Although the mental image of a heat based character who needs to use a super powered hot air balloon to get around is funny as hell now that I’ve thought about it. :D
Hmm, I was thinking of things from a quantum level, but regardless of the heating method, (I was focusing on how to heat the air in a contained area with out a solid containment or the heat dissapating into the environment) the fact still remains that at this scale the density of the human body would require a larger displaced space of air to float unless she made her own internal body lighter than air, which is unlikely.
Her bio says her heat aura is focused to within a few inches of her skin, so I’m guessing she has a lot of control over where the heat goes.
At first glance I thought the arrow in panel #7 was a devil tail added to indicate naughtiness via artistic license. It kinda made more sense that way to me.
Going all the way to physical contact in panel #5 is a bit much done in public, but as a previous poster mentioned Harem herself flirts to that level or pretty close.
One-upping Math in the last panel was a nice touch.
What About Harem’s “BONK” on His Head 3 Panels Before?
Mind you his eyes were closed.
A bonus like this (and this rare) is like winning the Lotto! Totally unexpected and makes your day.
A bonus like this (and this rare) is like winning the Lotto! Totally unexpected and makes your day.
Mathias is such an entertaining fellow. I don’t see him bothering Sydney too much though since she is rather flat compared to the others.
Oh PLEASE!!! Please, let him try to bother Sydney
And in front of the others, I so want to see her kick his ass, because she is so totaly unstable he wouldn’t be able to predict what she would do to him.
Sydney also has a good powerset to counter him: The shield-bubble is kung-fu proof, (or she can fly out of his range), and none of her attack powers require her to be close range. (The tentacle orb he might be able to counter. Maybe. In anyone else’s hands.)
Sydney is also a lot more canny about what she can potentially go. Remember comic book shop owner and super hero comic geek. Assuming the telepresence orb can work through walls, Mathias could try his antic on Sydney and fall (literally) for the old “I thought you were solid, but you are hologram trick”. And the follow up of that trick with Mathias trying to show off by moving into or through Sydney’s avatar while the avatar is covering up something solid.
And then once Mathias is wise to Sydney’s tricks she can up the ante with another variation of the something solid in the hologram trick. Mathias up to his usual antics with Sydney checks to see if it’s Sydney or her avatar (which is). Sydney made a gesture of rearing back her fist as to hit him. Mathias getting cocky juts his chin forward and saying “Give me your best shot.”. And then Sydney throws her punch knocking Mathias silly. Revealing the Orb tentacle that was hidden inside of the telepresence avatar. (or maybe grabbing/kicking Mathias privates with the tentable instead.) Anyway, I do believe that Mathias will have met his match once Sydney is onto him.
Sydney is being introduced to the rest of the team:
Math: Cool, new girl. Umm, are there any tits under that Ooph! [ crouches over with his hands in front of the centre of his pelvis, starts to fall over ]
Sydney: I may not be Captain Bazooka, like Max here, but that does not mean I am not packing! And no touching without permission!
Harem: Wow! I have never seen him not block that shot before.
“Oh PLEASE!!! Please, let him try to bother Sydney… because she is so totaly unstable…”
Yes, as we saw at the bank. And her colorful monologue of cursing would be as entertaining as the expected nut shot.
I could totally picture Math teasing Sydney for the sole purpose of improving his (swearing) vocabulary…
…& Sydney learning restraint for the sole purpose of denying him the satisfaction of a response.
:)
On the other hand, Sydney might get flustered and shy about being teased by a good looking muscular man. She seems to like that body type, so having him flirt with her might be something she’s not used to.
Somehow I think Sydney and Math could actually get along (despite how funny a fight between them would be), since they are both really blunt with their talk/actions.
Question, how are Harem and Math not a couple? Think about they have compatible personalities and from what I’ve seen so far they kind of have a married couple thing going on whenever they’re both in the same room, of course I might be reading to much into things.
This sort of horseplay is common when you have groups of people that see a lot of each other and who do emotionally intense things together. Most of the theater groups I’ve been associated with are like this. You have some who throw up barriers like Brooke, and you have others who become very relaxed about anything that isn’t The Job, like Daphne. And then again, there’s always The Rascal, played in this situation by Math, who either gets away with nothing or everything, depending on the emotional boundaries of the person.
My guess is that Harem is nowhere near ready to “settle down” into anything even remotely serious. Not while there are still faces she wants to sit on.
I wish that bit of boob touching wasn’t in lower quality art, LOL.
This guy is starting to remind me of Charlie sheen and that is not a good thing.
There is no evidence Math has been abusing drugs for a couple of decades. In fact, that much agility sort of precludes it.
Your right, I don’t think he has taken any drugs either. Tigers blood on the other hand…
That dude is a creepy dude.
A creeper he may be, but his girlish squeak and the look on his face in the last panel gave me a good chuckle.
I’m sure that he’s carefully felt out where everybody’s boundaries are, and how far he can push them — especially with Maxima around, being ever-alert for behavior she feels is inappropriate. Unless he demonstrates otherwise, I’m guessing that the liberties that he’s taking here with Daphne (who seeks out experiences and stimulation), and back with Anvil (who threw the first punch), are not liberties he would try to take with Brooke or Maxima.
His lechery might distort his assessment of relative risk/reward, but he doesn’t seem to be stupid.
He’s a letcher, but he’s a smart letcher.
He only letches you if you want to be letched.
And guys, sometimes girls want to letched, if it’s in good fun. Makes them feel wanted.
More often than not, the girls who feel wanted when they’re “letched” have too little self-esteem to realize that they deserve to be treated with respect rather than objectified.
https://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4228
https://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=4261
And let me tell you, he enjoyed that feeling-out!
Huh, the style reminded me a lot of Tom Walker’s style in SS Myra. (https://badmile.com/?p=131, very NSFW, but recommended if you like that sort of thing.)
Actually… I was reminded of the newspaper comic Luann.
I’m thinking more like another D/FW webcomic https://www.timeslikethis.com/index.php
Is that going to be a cold shower she’s taking, or a long, hot, soapy one?
Harem’s story will certainly involve the latter.
Whoa! Heya Andy. Nice to see ya stop by the Asylum. :)
What a surprise! I didn’t mind the once a week updates, if it is harder for you to do this style then keep this for great easter eggs and bonuses. Thank you for the show of what happenes with the other charactors.
Last panel: how does he know she’s not… what, exactly?
Helping Heatwave get unsticky in the shower.
Thus Math’s “Story time!” Exclamation…He’s asking Harem for a running commentary on the shower action.
Well, the blond has been in the ladies’ room just now, so that body should be pretty close to the ladies’ showers. Mind you, being a teleporter, all the bodies are close to the shower. But I got the impression that Brooke is not asking for help to get clean.
that guy is my favorite character now
Add another Harem to the list who was successful in whacking him on the head.
This was a really well-done artistic change. I was almost convinced it was guest art, but the character loyalty convinced me otherwise
It’s a style that is not as art intinsive as his usual style, but gets the story across in a lot less time. It works for me as realy good filler art. Almost like SP, but has a more realistic feel.
I’m rereading SP this week and getting a lot of strange looks, because I keep laughing all the time.
Dave, I just have to put my opinion up: as a once in a while side-story or slight story-expanding addition, this style of art is okay. But please, for the love of nuclear melt-down spicy food and always expecting ninjas, don’t succumb to quantity over quality. Your style and the way the characters and the world is done are a big part of what I like about this. Despite the occasional frustration of it taking 2-3 weeks for you to work your way to a plot point, I think I can sum up a lot (if not the majority) of of your fan’s opinion:
You’re worth the wait, man.
Of course. If he wasn’t worth the wait we wouldn’t be fans.
Oh I’m not planning on merging this style with the main comic or anything, but I wouldn’t mind evolving something a little more cartoony for the occasional quick side gag. Heck there are times I wish I had a gag-a-day strip for when I come up with some funny topical joke. And that’ll happen as soon as I clone myself.
Good – Thank You – Just so we’re clear on this point, Good Sir.
I’ll make sure to get a DNA swab next game night.
Whenever someone jokes about cloning themselves I think of Keaton’s movie, Multiplicity. More specifically the degrading “copies” problem, and most especially the Last Copy. *tries to imagine a strip drawn by the 4th copy” 0.x
Another example in recent films would be Michael Crichton’s “Timeline”, as part of a time-travel plot.
Completely and totally worth the wait, every time.
In the last two panels is Math sitting with his legs draped over Herem’s lap?
Yes.
Yes he is.
Math isn’t a Douche.
Math is Math.
Whatever stereotype you put him into, he escapes. Like he escaped anvil grab.
Love it!~
does it have to be a perfect clone? and can you wait 2 or 3 decades for the tech and saftey regulations to catch up? we could probly do it now if scientists were more like sydney. who am i kidding the zombie like lawyers would trash it right off the plate
i dont think weve found the comedy gene yet anyway i certainly dont have it
aperantly my internet browser refreshed and it ended up as a regular comment instead o a reply so ignore that statement
There is no single gene for anything but a more complex relationship of genes. So it is connected with how our brains are wired. and even so what is humor to one isn’t humorous for all. Too variable.
Since when can Heatwave fly?
I’m guessing since DaveB decided she could.
It’s in her power stat on the cast page.
To quote Arsenal” I have a world of women that have to bodies of Olympians, what do you think I’m going to do.” well paraphrase but you get the idea.
As much as Math is becoming my least-liked part of this comic, I must admit that I love that last panel.
Yeah, the last panel is great. Math looks so childishly delighted. ” I love your stories auntie’ Heat Wave.”
So, is Math what guys would act like if they had no social restraints or inhibitions? :)
At the very least, Math is very much in touch with his Id.
Math has social restraints and inhibitions. It’s just that the social boundaries around ARCHQ are a bit different than the ones most of us deal with each day.
They also obviously differ from individual to individual, both in who will enjoy/tolerate/react violently to what, but also in who will enjoy/tolerate/react violently to what from whom.
Notice that Math did his demonstration on the easy-going Daphne rather than the uptight Brooke. And also notice that Dabbler got away (barely) with grabbing Maxima’s ass, whereas if Math or anyone else with a Y-chromosome had tried it, they would still be looking for all the pieces.
Thanks Dave, for breaking the Ice to those who’ve no clue about “Now you know what the world looks like to guys”. My wife asked in her sixty’s, guys still stare at our boobs? Duh, we’re breaking aren’t we!
TYPO, “We’re still BREATHING aren’t we?”
Lol I love this guy
Fan Service request, from artist DaveB : Animated gif of Kung Fu Motorboat please? With a side of giggles and jiggles!
Put it out only if you get enough votes to hit #1 or #2 Maybe?
“Photo Op!” Page #96 Lol I’m really starting to like Math. He’s a cheeky one.
First off, Math did ask permission to demonstrate, which the motor boating was part of.
Second, I now want to see Math in his own feature film. He kind of reminds me of a lecherous Deadpool.
Lastly, The punch line may play off better if the two parts of Math’s dialog in panel 7 were reversed.
Mathias, “Since you got her sticky – you should go help her.”
That way it rolls right into Harem’s response.
I agree with the lastly. I didn’t actually get what Harem was saying until someone explained it here in the comments. Swapping those two clauses around would make all the difference.
I’m actually really digging the different art style! It’s a perfect “Meanwhile…” style, with the lush shiny illustrations for the main storyline always being worth the wait. I like em both :D
that last panel Entertains me very much David well done sir
I may have missed it but has no one any interest in Dabblers other thing she does. like does it involve ping pong or other such balls, is it a water trick, or something completely unique to her.
the last panel xD so funny!