Grrl Power #1466 – Semifinals go!
I tried to come up with a cooler name for Maxima’s sword than “Mana Vore.” It’s not bad, but it’s a little obvious. But the only other option I came up with was “Weave Nosher,” which sounds like farmer named it.
A fair bit of Maxima’s sword training was learning not to swing it around so broadly that she’d hit her own foot. Which wouldn’t be a problem normally, since her base armor is pretty high, but most swords that get swung at her aren’t backed by someone with her strength and speed, either. It’s also a very long sword, long enough that most people would have to worry about bonking it against the ground a lot, but, again, Max can just drag it right through most floor surfaces.
I think this page played out a little better in my head, or my relative inexperience at drawing high octane manga action is showing. Basically, Max comes in for a swing, but kicks a two-and-a-half-bowling-ball sized rock at the dark elf, and it smashes through his shield and hits his arm, moving his sword out of the way to parry her swipe. I think the real shortcoming of the page is that the bottom left panel is too busy. Instead of making the top two panels big, I should have saved the page space for that bottom one. Maybe put the rock past his arm, and just gone with a simpler speed trail showing the impact?
I’m not in the “shonen action” headspace when thinking about page layouts. I’m still more in the “I wanna draw Maxima leaning forward into a swing and have her boob pillowing against her arm” space. But we’re entering the semifinal match now, so I’ll try and… I dunno, read some One Punch Man before I do the layouts for the especially actiony pages? Or some Masahiko Nakihara manga? He did the Cammy and Sakura Ganbaru mangas as well as some other Street Fighter books, and is pretty decent at action stuff. Maybe I’ll throw in some Dragon Half, which doesn’t have good action, but is hilarious.
The thing I do like about this page though, is while Bluce and Gail seem like vapid eyecandy announcers, they’ve hosted quite a few of these and are capable of some fairly cogent analysis when it comes down to it. They do also have a team of researchers in their earpieces as well. Gail didn’t know all those details about the Mana Vore off the top of her head.
Sexy bodymod news lady Gail has a special one-on-one interview with Tournament Quarter finalist Saraviah Nightwing! And if you subscribe to Gail’s Space Patreon, (which, due to the vagaries of Earth and Gal-Net’s DNS servers, happens to be the same as the Grrl Power Patreon, go figure) you can see that same interview in the nude! Well, eventually. The nude part of the interview, as well as the version that includes shading will be coming soon. Of course, you can view the interview in the nude now if you take your own clothes off. You know. Technically. Just put a towel on your chair first.
Double res version will be posted over at Patreon. Feel free to contribute as much as you like.
Maybe change the sound effect in panel three to PUNT indicating a kicked rock?
Yeah, descriptive non-sound sound effects massively improves readability, and this comic is usually very good at that.
I will never not collapse from laughter at Achilles “Zidane”-ing a tank in the power showcase.
Do they call that onamatapoia? I have never had to use that word before!
But I was reading a manga scanlation recently: the translator inserted more & more footnotes complaining about the many Japanese text sound effects. He was trying to translate oriental characters meaning things like “door unlocking sound” or “turning off garden hose sound”, stuff you just can’t do in English with 1 or 2 letters!
I did have trouble following the action on this page, I assume it all happens in less than a second. So this page is really about Bluce & Gail’s commentary. If the action was that important Dave B. could have described it in the dialogue. They are being far too wordy for play-by-play action, so what makes sense to me is we are viewing highlights & analysis after the fact. The actual video clip is in slo-mo repeat mode while the announcers discuss it before moving on to the next one. (Any combat with lasers & super-speed will be fast & difficult to film.)
Ohhhh-kay, I anticipate the Xevoarchy wanting to ask some VERY pointed questions about where Ixah acquired a one-of-a-kind sword that is “disappeared” sixty years ago and is probably stolen goods…
Do you think it’s a good idea to ask pointed questions from an Unlimited Class Battle Arena combatant?
Beings that can effectively destroy small planets tend to dislike pointed questions..
When they need a ride home from the desolate rock they were fighting on and the negotiations are happening under a sky blacked out by heavy warships.
They tend to be a lot more talkative.
My argument for TMac would be more in the ballpark of that being outside their jurisdiction.
The Xevorarchy is described more as an alliance/confederacy and asking pointed questions is generally one of the last things sovereign entities allow others to do on their own terrain.
I also suspect this unlimited battle class arena has negotiated some very lenient terms with the local lord about this kind of thing, so I think she might be able to talk herself out of it.
Also, we know that the Xevoarchy also have the power to destroy planets, because Dabbler thought it was them who glassed the Alari homeworld when they got sucked through Sciona’s portal, so presumably they can hold their own against somebody in the Unlimited class.
if not the Xevorarchy the reporter interviewing her after her semi-final win will also be very curious(no she can’t escape that one if she wants the price money and not experience disqualification )
More importantly, who is the guy she is facing and how is he wielding (the Assassins Creed version of) Excalibur!
Yeah I can second the page being too busy: I didn’t notice kicking the rock until I read the description, and even after reading what happened, the full chain of events is still hard to follow.
On the flipside, the art still looks great!
I think it’s the speed lines. There are just SO MANY in those last 2 panels that it’s a bit rough following what else is happening in them. The final panel could possibly have benefitted from a little motion blur on the blue details like we see in the rock booting panel, to indicate that Max had just swung the sword that fast.
It’s also hard to tell the boulder apart from the background. The speed lines could actually help by obstructing the background somewhat if they weren’t also in front of the rock. The bright orange shield effect and the onomatopœiæ in the next panel also draw attention too much from the rock while it blends into the elf guy’s clothing to boot.
Magic Muncher. Spell Sponge.
Why not go with a classic like MageBreaker or Shatterspell?
Or something more vague and sinister like Maker’s End (implying a caster enchanted the blade which was then used against the caster).
Just out of curiosity, are you aware that your list of materials means Mana Vore may be partially composed of ass?
there must be a reason Dabbler stole it
Give the superpowered lady that can destroy spaceships by pointing at them a magic nullifying sword. Magic being one of the few things that can bypass her defenses without excessive force. Sure that sounds like a great idea
It’s the idea of high level adventurers who use unwinder rounds on civilian targets, mind control in daily interactions and a star forge as their supersized pocket.
Be happy she didn’t get vision enhancing goggles too.
When it comes to naming anything magical, using Welsh can do most of the heavy lifting.
For example, trying to translate Mana Vore into welsh led to looking up ‘magic/illusion’ and ‘eater/consume’, which leads to Lledrith Difa (Destroy Illusion / illusion of destruction)or Bwytwr Hud (Magic Eater).
Plus as a bonus Welsh seems halfway magical to English speakers.
It’s too late now, but when I created an overpowered anti-magic sword, I called it Occum’s Razor.
The best sword names are short, unique and unassuming. Nobody cares about “the fiery sword of flaming doom”. That’s somebody trying to hard. Names like “Grass cutter”, “Sunset”, “Memory” or “Peace” speak of the sort of weapon that expects it’s deeds to do the talking and get remembered.
In “Snow Crash”, the ridiculously overpowered gatling gun is named “Reason”. :D
Missed opportunity to call it The Throngler.
Funny how aliens use earth years as measurements.
Who said those sixty years were Earth years?
When not on Earth, it’s Galactic Standard years… Whatever that means.
Historical trivia time: Grenadier Models did the “half-elf = half an elf” joke way back when in their Comedy Lords miniatures boxed set, which is still manufactured by Mirliton over in Italy today. The set included (among other things) a skeleton delivering a pizza on its shield, a deceased were-rat caught in a gigantic mousetrap and still clutching the cheese that baited him in, and invisible stalker “figure” that consisted of nothing but a base with some clawed footprints on it, a Pegasus with mounted underwing ordnance, and other supposedly amusing figures. Whole boxed set of Dad jokes, basically.
The half-elf was simply the right half of an elven figure, vertically bisected but still standing (on one leg) with its internal organs exposed.
Not exactly on par with Thrudd the Barbarian.
Could have called her sword The Thagomizer. Granted that would only work if the dark elfs name is Thag.
That kind of has to be saved for things-on-tails.
If no one else has suggested yet, “manaphage”
Ley-luncher
Spell-Snacker
Vore-pal
Manamunch
AlakaNope!
Shazamnomnom
Bippity boppity brunch!
Notrix
Presto-popper
….. This is fun! :)
“Sauuuuuuuccaaaaaar”.
Since you mention your “relative inexperience at drawing high octane manga action”, if I might make a small suggestion regarding that?
Try looking up the manga fights for Dragon Ball. There’s a few things you’ll notice with the ‘speed lines’. They either:
1) Replace the background entirely, usually in a regular fashion
2) Radiate from a point of impact, such as when the panel is showcasing a heavy punch (though I suppose ‘impact lines’ is the more appropriate term in that case)
or
3) kinda ‘bleed’ from the character outline and shadows to indicate what’s moving quickly, creating the impression that even the camera could only capture a blurry image.”
And the last one in particular is something I’ve seen a lot of artists struggle to recapture, often showing the speed lines as almost more of a ‘jet stream’ that the character is ‘within’ rather than their own motions being so fast as to be a blur.
Ie, while the lines should be *trailing* from their outline, the artist instead has them extending forward well past the character’s current position AND well behind it, which ultimately makes the speed lines look a bit disconnected from the action they’re trying to represent.