Grrl Power #143 – Conferring with the press
That train guy behind Lincoln in the sombrero? Some people say he’s crazy. Some people say he’s… Loco. Get it? Last name Motive? >cough<
Ok, so if you read the comments avidly you know I’ve said in the past that supers have only been around for a little while, but I’ve been writing waaaaay ahead of where we are now, and it will make more sense if they existed in limited quantities prior to that. I don’t think I ever said when they started showing up in the actual comic, but it’s implied that it’s a recent phenomenon way back on page 6 when Sydney and Joel are talking about it. Of course, that’s only as far as they know, so I think I’m good as far as continuity goes in that regard.
Speaking of writing, this page and the whole press conference in general have taken me longer to write that anything that’s come before it because I realized that almost none of it was funny. See I basically knew more or less what the talking points of the press conference were going to be almost since before I started putting the comic online, so I had some important bits of dialog written down, but now that we’re up to it I’m realizing that the comic has changed in some significant ways since its inception. The early pages have one joke, maybe 2 or 3 on a page, but now some pages have a dozen if you include pop culture nods or the stuff you have to zoom in a little to see, and suddenly at the press conference we’re back down to 1-2 jokes a page at best. So I spent a good amount of time retooling the scene, but I don’t want to drag out the press conference by making the pages all amusing stuff and little content. Arianna only gets through 5 sentences on this page. It will probably be a mix of humor and infodump,
I have to say I really enjoyed drawing that middle panel. It was supposed to be half as big with just Lincoln and “Firish” back to back, but I kept thinking of more stuff to add to it, and now I kind of want to see a period superhero comic with coalpunk robots in it.
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To misquote the Raven, you can’t joke all the time.
I would have thought The Crow’s “It can’t rain all the time” would be more thematic to the final panel. ;-)
Or the Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining (Post)Men“?
Dabbler looks a wee bit bored. Of the bored ones, I fear Sydney the most. Boredom, ADHD, Sydney, and funky powers do not mix well. And yay for them, what ever insane chaos happens will be televised! BWAHAHAHAHAA!
And will stick with the first impression of Archon
Harem’s the one that would scare me the most in that regard. Halo’s Halo-ness could be intercepted before she could top herself. Dabby strikes me as being enough of an artist at such tomfoolery that the damage-to-amuse me ratio would even out better than the other two. As sneaky and smart as Harem is….It would be too late to contain any of it.
She could already be trying something during panel 2….
Yep! and with any luck that impression will be “Archon, We take any Special Ability, Provided they are not Morally Challenged”
So are the last three also Sydney’s imagination or are they real history?
Last 3 are real, the last one may or may not be Ari’s attempt at humour
Abe Lincoln Super Hero Squad ACTIVATE!
Sooo, does this mean that it’s possible (in the Grrl Power universe anyway) that Abe Lincoln really DID hunt (at least the occasional) vampire? Maybe he originally formed his supers team for the purpose of helping him destroy the undead?
It’s a super hero universe. Lots of stuff is possible. :)
Bah! Why would Lincoln waste his time with the undead when there are much worse threats afoot, like evil bunny-producing magicians?
Wait, is the bunny evil? or the magician? O_o
or is it bunny-magic? O_O just caught up in Weregeek where there was a strip mentioning bunny-magic as evil somewhere in the middle.
here’s the day the bunny-magic was put up: https://www.weregeek.com/2012/04/06/
Pretty sure it would have to be evil-bunny-producing for the former.
Then again, it could really be an evil bunny magic-user producing an illusion of a magician to distract adversaries from the real threat, namely the bunny’s self.
He would make the arch-nemesis of Anya, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her bunny phobia would be a devastating disadvantage in facing him.
have to say it: 4 sentences and a fragment
the list of agencies at the bottom has no verb and is therefore not a sentence…
As you say, it is a list. Lists have a different function to conversational sentences. So it is not unreasonable for the structure to diverge from conventional structure. Following the previous sentence it contextually makes sense. Albeit, granted, that it does not stand in isolation.
But, more importantly, it does have verve. Unless you consider that a fragment of my imagination.
I’m not a native speaker of English, but I think it counts as a sentence. It is however clearly formatted as one would speak it, as opposed to English in writing. The verb is implicit “to support” which is continued upon from the previous sentence.
Despite being a non-native speaker, you argued it better than I did.
Well that’s probably because they received formal instruction on the structure of the English language and actually paid attention to it, unlike (and I have very good reason to believe this) the majority of the United States population.
Not as many jokes on this page, but plenty of food for thought. Of course Syd is fidgety, with all those people eye-mauling her. Good thing Peg is on the job. (I hope she’s not in charge of the people in uniform lounging around at ease behind her. Their sorry asses should be at parade rest, so they don’t look like such a random mob.) The center panel and the next two after that are all over my head, so I had to educate myself by reading the comments. I still don’t get the 4th and 5th panels, but the last one had me snickering. Was that bone “wet” or “whet”? Heh, heh.
The coalpunk idea, now. That’s going a bit further back than Briscoe County or Wild, Wild West. Why not, though? Has anyone already run with the idea of coalpunk robots?
Dr. Loveless did one better in the episode “Night of the Green Death.” Playing ‘Robin of the Wood’ he would use a robotic knight to be the titular leader. (The Indians didn’t recognize the diminutive Loveless as a leader.) Jim commented on how quiet it was. No steam, no smoke, hardly a sound but the armor itself.
In the film the giant “spider,” symbol of Arliss Loveless was obviously powered by steam, coal fire etc.
My take on panel 4 is there is at least one hero in the foreground (note the glowing aura around his fist). Assisted by the female agent next to him. Presumably called in to deal with the mad scientist taking pot shots at them. If those are brains wired up to some sort of computer network he may have had resources that non-super agents would not be able to deal with.
Panel 5 is presidential escort duty. And, of course, under those circumstances any super powered protection would be totally discreet, possibly literally invisible. So there is nothing to see, out of the the ordinary. Unless you have Halo-level detection capability or better.
As regards coalpunk, Girl Genius has all sorts of weird and wonderful anachronistic robots and machines (amongst other products of Mad Science). Tending to favour clockwork and unspecified power sources, but steam and coal make appearances too.
There’s a whole world of steampunk stuff out there. I’m such an idiot. I thought coalpunk was something new. :(
I’m gonna be at A-Kon, but as a volunteer so I may not get to make it to your panel… :( but hope to see ya around all the same! :)
Is it just me, or does the Super in panel 4 look a lot like an Elder Math? Or is it just because of the Vegeta-hair?
It will be the hair (and general hero physique too). Given that he looks to be a fist fighter, with glowing ki powers, he may be one of Math’s forebears. But not a time-travelled Mathias going back to work for the FBI, later in life.
Math has a distinguishably sharp nose. Plus, looking for a similar expression to that pictured above, even when squinting he has rounder eyes and a narrower mouth. Not to mention no eyebrows.
Meant ‘Elder Math’ as in his father (or uncle or other relative), not an older time-travelling Math
Oh, I was thinking of a power set similar to Iceman, not Iron Fist, for that guy. I was thinking if was not Mulder and Scully, but Iceman and Scully.
Yea, blue/white aura and pale hair. I can see where you are coming from. Although he does have rather menacing hands. And the chin does have a family resemblance to give credence to Guesticus‘s line.
By deduction, it could only be Icefist 997th in a line of martial artists. Who can focus his ki strongly enough to manifest a variety of icy effects. And his partner Rowena. I thought that sounded better than the obvious Rowy in lieu of Scully. We would not want to get a copyright complaint from Fox now would we?
I could probably benefit from taking a little time to learn more hairstyles. :)
So is that regular Lincoln, or Vampire-Hunting Lincoln with the Kung-Fu Grip?
I wonder if seeing Sydney at the press conference will suffice as giving 2 weeks notice to Joel…
Why? She still works (as much as she ever did) there, or at least has her RPG events there (if you forgot, she is also the Co-owner of the place)
I wonder if she ever actually deposited the store’s money.
that would be a didn’t get shown yet. last seen the bag is on the floor in the bank
Yea, I put it down to one of the details which got dealt with off-screen. We have not seen Sydney carrying it around with her. And it seems unlikely that she would forget about it, given both that it is the reason she was there and that is rather important. Plus the other bank staff, customers or Maxima herself would have noticed it sitting on the floor and likely mentioned it, even if Sydney was too distracted.
Logically a whole bunch of other stuff must have also happened in the aftermath. If we ask that every detail gets shown, the comic will never get to the dawn of the second day!
Eeep! Squee! so funny…..just got intro’d to this today. couldn’t stop laughing through most of it.
Thanks and welcome!
2 guesses Sydney will set off her mic while fidgeting and the 1st doesn’t count. Also wouldn’t it be cool if Sydney read other online comics? ….sorry if inappropriate. currently drunk on webcomics.
Welcome to the fan club. DaveB, the artist and writer, does so himself, so I am sure there is no impropriety.
You are a girl I like. :-)
*sigh* And forgot to check I had turned off bold. Ironic though, perhaps I was being too bold.
You just bold us over with that comment.
I think we need to get the calendar changed so that the 1st of the month always starts on a Monday. Although it may be a bit difficult to convince the world economies to change the calendar before the next time this happens. As it stands though, look at how low the Top Webcomics ranking is! Slid right down from the customary top 3 spot. Let us hope it recovers tomorrow.
DaveB perhaps announcing that some sort of vote incentive will be posted on the 1st of the month, will encourage readers to log in to vote then, in addition to the regular update? Although I know you are busy, especially as you are attending the convention this weekend. Perhaps some readers with more talent than me could submit some fan art, for consideration as a vote incentive?
I hope you and the other readers attending A-kon are having a great time.
oooo….lunar months….does that fit with the 365 days, 52 weeks…or would that have to be switched around? O_O would the new moon be the first day of the month with the full moon in the middle, or would it be something different? O_O what would the names of the month be? or would they be called by the name of the moon for that time of the year? things to think about…….wait just remembered the 365 days doesn’t line up with a lunar calendar and there’d have to be a leap MONTH, but only every 7 years or so….isn’t that the Jewish calendar?
Mmm, not a bad idea. The moon completes its orbit around the earth in 27.3 days. So we could make each month 28 days long. So each month would be composed of exactly 4 weeks, which would be a good sell to the politicians and voters of the world. Each month would start on a Monday.
The interesting problem being that you would freak out triskadekophobiacs big time, as we would end up with 13 months a year. We would also loose the ability to conveniently split the months evenly into quarters or half years.
But, it would help other superstitious sorts, as we would never have a Friday the 13th again! The 13th would always fall on a Saturday. Plus we would gain a handy error checking method. If we suspected a date had been miswritten (say a 15 that looks like a 16, or vice versa), we would know that the 15th would always be a Monday, whereas the 16th would be a Tuesday.
That gives us 364 days a year, so only requiring approximately a 1 day adjustment. That and any time adjustment could occur on the same day. On a leap year we could have both extra days consecutively. To ensure that it does not mess up Monday starting on the 1st of the month, we would have to establish the precedent that they remain undated are called “Holiday” and “Extra Holiday” respectively. Falling the day after what would currently be the 25th December. Who could object to having extra holidays? ;-)
Those names would be a good public relations for our campaign to change the calendar. No need to re-name the existing months though, but the new one would obviously need a name. I think Amanda would be perfect.
Finally, it would appeal to everyone paid monthly, as there would be an extra payday each year. Which, in itself would reduce the suicide rate. As it always peaks in longer month (further between paydays), having a shorter month would be better.
I don’t think the politicians would go for a lunar calendar.
Humanity adopted the lunar calendar sometime before the advent of agriculture, when nomadic humans still had to follow the migration of herd animals so they could hunt. When Agriculture was invented, it was easier to track the growing seasons on a lunar calendar. I think it was the Church that originally promoted the Solar Calendar…Promoted mostly by converting people away from the Nature-based religions (converting Pagans).
On a lunar-based calendar, the “leap year” of adding an extra day to the calendar wasn’t counted & the more ancient cultures would have their daytime & nighttime reversed on a regular basis every few hundred years. For example, writings in ancient Egypt said that their “days & nights are reversed” & also that their seasons (for crop growing) were off kilter. This is how Egyptologists have been able to determine certain “fixed time periods” in conjunction with other Egyptian historical writings.
what is sydney doing with her new best friend in the 2nd panel? cant make it out.
New best friend is pulling her hand down. You get trained not to fidget in the military, specially when you are in front of civilians. You get lots of practice not itching your face and such and ignoring nervous tics.
What if Lincoln really DID hunt vampires?!
If they were so common that even presidents (or aspiring presidents) had to fight them, then I think we would be more aware of them in our culture. Either that or he signed up to some really persuasive cover-up operation. But, as for any conspiracy theory, you would need to ask why. And if his aim was to destroy vampires, there is no logical reason to conceal their existence in the first place. To do so would only aim their cause and not his own.
Obviously there are some contradictions, even in his life. Such as being a slave owner, who ended up opposing slavery. But he strikes me as being competent enough, in general, not to have made such a weird policy decision.
Certainly by the time he became president, he would have the resources to counter any coercion, or other complication, which blocked him from revealing the truth. And I doubt he lacked the moral fortitude to do so, if he simply feared ridicule. Plus was intelligent enough that he could have found a way of corroborating his claims, if vampires really did exist.
*aid not aim.
Is the cape guy Count Heinrich Von Brucken, or just some magician in a Dr Strange cape?
Just the minion of the evil bunny.
Hmmm those nails busting out of gloves, would they happen to be Laser Claws? Belonging to a Embiggened Shape shifter?
I seriously doubt she is that old. But maybe.
If she is that old, then perhaps she is the inspiration for the Cheshire Cat, from Alice in Wonderland?
That’s nothing postman Pat always had some pussy on the dashboard of his postvan
Abraham Lincoln: Cape Buster! I’d watch that show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Extraordinary_Gentlemen_(film)
Just because two civilians were discussing the “recent” discovery of supers, this doesn’t mean they haven’t been around for a long time as undiscovered ones. At least to the public.
IN addition, the United States has only been around for a short span of time, politically speaking. Most other nations have been around, in one form or another, for far longer.
So all in all, recent works, even if looking at the US Civil War. (only appx 160 years – ish )