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.)
Solution! I mean, as far as I remember Dave has mostly hand-waved time differentials and differences away, so handwave in that they either have the battle in a place going slow relatively, or the commentators in a place going relatively fast, so that the time to keep up live?
When it’s a typical sound effect sound, it’s an onomatopoeia. When it’s something silly that isn’t what it sounds like, but it’s being used like a sound effect, I’ve frequently heard it called a nonomatopoeia. Like the aforementioned “Zidane’d”. Something like “Punt” honestly is probably a regular onomatopoeia, based on the sound a ball makes when you kick it. Apparently etymologists are not sure whether it came from a word or a sound. ♂️
Onomatopoeia are sound effects, or when you have a written form of what something actually sounds like. ‘Ting’ or ‘glug’ or ‘crunch’ or ‘bang’ are common.
One problem with this is the same as the problem with vocalizing animal sounds. When you’re imitating things that don’t come from human throats in the real world, the sound you produce is not all that much like the sound it represents. If someone doesn’t know your range of choices they may not get what sound you actually mean. This is why Japanese cats ‘nyan’ and English cats ‘meow’ and French cats ‘miaou,’ even though the cats are all speaking the same language.
Nonomotopoeia or ‘unsound effects’ are words used to describe or comment on the sound or even just the action, used as though they were sound effects. In a fight scene you’d sometimes see words like ‘grab’ or ‘shove’ used in this way.
To be pedantic, it’s “nyaa”, not “nyan”; Nyancat is just repeating it so quickly it merges together.
https://youtu.be/6b6eX9JhgaM has a comparison of how people vocally represent both dog and cat noises across 70 countries.
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.
Just because they have the power doesn’t mean they have the authority to do so
And the Fel thought they could do the same, look what happened when they tried to step foot on Dirt?
They do not.
The local lord and the organizers of the event both have the power and authority to do it.
No flight off this intentionally isolated rock unless you hand us the information we’re looking for works for both.
I guess they wouldn’t know that Ixah has access to a personal aetherium causeway…
your ride has arrived and they brought a present for the hosts.
Everybody run!
Take an example on earth , if a nuclear power , say France piss of the US , beyond any limits and the US have a gun ho idiot , for secretary of defence , and a senile crook without moral or decency for president.
Did you will stage a war , against a country who could by his submarines alone do 65 to 70 millions of deaths in your population , whiping out the population of Texas and California combined …
You could destroy it but the price is dire …
It’s perhaps the balance of power between the xenarchy and the organizers of unlimited battle class arena.
You’re the biggest fish in the pond but some powers could maim you , not destroy ,just maim.
In the case of earth it’s the fact that earth is pre-FTL and cannot retaliate who , made the earth destruction doable.
For the Alari it’s the vulnerability to a single strike who had been used.
Ask a pointed question, get a pointed answer…
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 )
She’s not doing this for prize money. Cora and co are betting on her.
Price money still might be nice. It would be official in a normal government audited/approved account, and could be used for misleading people about Ixah’s connections or other PR tasks.
Imagine if there was doubt about Ixah being from Earth and then that some of that very visible money was donated to help with a famine among the mole people or someone plausibly fielding Ixah. There would be more than a few people claiming Ixah was part of that group.
Actually… yes, she is, she’s just not there for the first place prize
Does the Xevoarchy have jurisdiction over theft? Possibly not.
We know they have it over tech transfers to non-FTL civilizations, though that’s likely more in the nature of when someone from a non-FTL civ tries to steal e.g. a warp drive and take it back home. We’ve seen just how leakproof that is with Deus. Admittedly he had a gate.
I have to think gates of that sort are somehow rare enough that the station (Fracture?) doesn’t have gate detectors, so they think DHS-equivalent level searching at the spaceship docks are enough.
Thothogoth seems to have the ability to do these gates, though I guess he homed in on Dabbler. Parfait was summoned, which is another way around, but depends on a prior meeting.
Anyone with a starship looks to be able to easily get around the restrictions, which means that the great majority of the captains have to agree enough with them that tech transfer doesn’t happen much. Possibly the merchants want to be paid, and the natives (that’s us BTW) don’t have enough of what they want, and/or they’re mostly ethical enough (at least recently) that they mostly don’t just take it. Lapha being an exception.
There is an intergalactic police force that handles theft from pre-ftl civs.(at least at scale)
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-755-the-great-gouda-caper/
Thothogoth needed Kevin’s mana to do it.
Fracture station does have gate detectors. It detected and reported Sydney’s Aetherium causeway, but the earth observing satellites clearly don’t have gate detection.
My assumption about these export restrictions is that Dabbler’s part of the establishment that enforces them(daughter of a Matriarch) and Cora/the skeevy guy can only get tagged and tracked tech.
Actually I believe they do have Causeway detectors, because Max had to call up Sydney and tell her not to use the Causeway. That big satellite in orbit they flummoxed wasn’t for show. They are definitely looking for the user.
And yet Deus appears to have got away with his. I assume they use different methods. Not surprising since Deus’ gate uses, well, a fixed gate at one end, while Sydney’s appears to be self-contained.
So we can exit Fracture Station (I think that’s the name) via several means. We have at least:
– starship FTL drive (there may be more than one drive type),
– Sydney’s orbs (Nth tech causeways),
– The gate Deus (and Sciona) used,
– Thothagoth’s circle (or so I assume since he could come to some point on Earth),
– succubus/demon summoning, which may be related to Thothagoth’s in some manner.
Only starship FTL drive allows for security checkpoints, and only that and causeway are detectable. Maybe the succubus/demon thing can be as well, but we haven’t seen it. The not-a-stargate doesn’t seem to be so far.
the Brane Cutter is not an aetherium causeway, it makes a Gate. Just like the demons coming and going from their home planet don’t trigger the sensors, either, because it’s summoning stuff.
Governments tend not to ask high profile questions unless they already know the answers. Boring stuff like most criminal investigations, sure, lots of questions and it gets compiled into some kind of report or database record. Keep enough of those and being truly surpirised is hard.
Ixah’s appearance with the sword isn’t another boring criminal investigation. Likely, there is a team of people who have been tasked with planning for Mana Vore’s reappearance for decades. They likely have a list of possible places and the political and military ramifications of each. Likely, there are people doing nothing but tracking these other weapons that are so powerful people call them “Legendary”. If they are smart those people have contingency plans ready to present to leaders for a wide range of possible problems with the aims of mitigating those problems from the Xevoarchy’s persepective. Some general, minister, noble, or whatever has probably been alerted already and their advisors and been presented options (including ignore it).
Any government not doing that is either wildly irresponsible or simply not a significant player. Consider the effort real world governments put into tracking missiles, planes, tanks, and sometimes specific people. I am not saying they will have perfect GPS coordinates at all times for some specific target, I am saying that spies and investigators will be pruning off uncertainty constantly. China might not know exactly how many secret planes the US has, but they have a good idea. A magical government would be a fool to not have a good idea about locations and capabilities of high power magic items.
It is reasonable to presume that in some file somewhere, paper, cabinet, hard disk, data crystal, or mega compu-brain, they have a list of most plausible last known locations of these high power weapons and for each location a list of known visitors and likely visitors. If it was thought safe in some dungeon vault and later found to have been pilfered, then either the Xevoarchy is incompetent or they at least sent investigators to all the closet cities and ports to get official copies of their entrance and exit records for a while around the dissapearance. At this point it might just be a criminal investigation so they ask lots of questions.
Since everyone now suspects Ixah isn’t using magic or divine/profane power, and it seems beyond the best galatic tech, that really does narrow it down to Earth. Doubt probably exists, some might think Supers are just special mages (or some think it might be secret tech or nth or something). When some clerk with a boring job cross references the last known location of this sword, those lists of likely visitors, and prunes that list down to people visiting earth, then Dabbler will be at the top of that list. The Xevoarchy either knows or suspects Ixah is from Earth and has a few good guesses about who she is, or they aren’t very good at being a powerful government.
Oh, there probably are multiple government (and otherwise) files on the sword.
But the space people seem to be organized rather more like Earth than like the USA. Multiple entities that have some sort of monopoly on legitimate violence in limited areas.
The Xevoarchy seems to me more like Interpol, an organization with a really limited remit to cross borders of those entities for specific purposes.
Can it do that for theft of what really is a single item useful in a small area? It’s a sword, not a black hole the mass of the sun that you can move around. Or a crown that allows the user to mind control everyone in a stellar system at the same time.
If you don’t use magic, it’s about as useful as any other sword, e.g. you can cut things within six feet or so of you at any given time.
Maxima is able to use it better, but that’s because she’s able to move faster and is tough enough not to be easily disabled.
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.
This was my thought, too. The speed lines cover most of the panel, making me wonder if it was showing Max/Ixah rushing past him as she swung. I did not see the rock or understand what happened until I read Dave’s notes.
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).
Personally I prefer bad alliterations.
Alternate sword names:
Magivore
Unraveler
Mananull/Nullblade/Null-edge
“A mage and their mana are soon bisected.”
[i](“A fool and their money are soon parted” for those unfamiliar with the original saying.)[/i]
Manabane/Magebane
Eraser
Sunder/Spell-sunder
[i](aaaand that just made me think of a blade that is half-hot, half-cold, and wielded by a Canadian; “Oy, wut’s the name o’ yer sword?
“It’sunder, eh!”)[/i]
Pacifier/Passivator
Might I suggest SpellPhage?
Sunder, Eh? (Tsundere) ;P
That thing where your sword is so powerful that it doesn’t need a cool name.
“Oh, no, is she… yes, she is! She’s wielding…. THAT sword!!!”
“What sword, Bluce?”
*Bluce turns to give her a deadly-serious death stare.*
“You know the one. THAT sword.”
“Well, what…. oh. OHHHHHH. Oh my!”
lol
I’ve fought across a planet bearing a sword with no name.
It felt good to be out on the plains.
I think the sword ought to have a name that’s, you know, actually a name, rather than a description.
So, I would call it “Spug.” Or maybe “Frinkel” or “Trolledjingjian” depending on whether you think more or fewer syllables sounds more appropriate.
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
Wasn’t it in Cora’s vault?
Nope. It was part of Dabbler’s collection, and Dabbler gave them a list of blades to retrieve from it. Refer to strip number 1409.
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.
Given that it’s Welsh, I bet ‘Lledrith Difa’ is pronounced something like ‘Bob’.
omg, I’d hate to imagine the Welsh for ‘Spongebob Squarepants’, then
It’s too late now, but when I created an overpowered anti-magic sword, I called it Occum’s Razor.
Dabbler would keep something with a name like that for bedroom use.
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
yeah, it’s a shorter/nicer sounding copy of the “Ultima Ratio Regum” that Richelieu had imprinted into french cannons (meaning war as the last argument a king throws around in a dispute)
“I’m sure he’ll listen to reason”… BRRRRRRRT
Humpty Dumpty was originally the name of a real cannon (not just a giant egg)
I have named several weapons in videogames “Maxim 37” or “Maxim 44”. Special thanks to Schlock Mercenary.
In this case I’d say “Regret” or “Stifle” would work reasonably well.
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.
Translation convention. They also use X in “X-ray”, a letter they wouldn’t be familiar with (and if this page is ever translated to, say, German or Czech, they’ll say something like “Röntgen’s radiation” instead, named after a scientist they wouldn’t be familiar with and, at any rate, would be irrelevant to them).
A good translator will also convert measurements.
We even do this on earth with years.(The Arabic definition is 13 moon cycles, the European definition is 1 earth-sun cycle, which isn’t the same)
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! :)
Sageclipper
“Sauuuuuuuccaaaaaar”.
Football, you just scored an own-goal with that :P
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.
Well done Max, most people without true combat experience won’t be looking at your foot while you’re swinging a 5 foot sword. That guy’s shield wasn’t designed to take that kind of kinetic attack. Not to mention if Max kicked it, it most likely moving at super-sonic speeds. I suspect it was designed to deflect a fine-point attack, not a general area one. I doubt Max telegraphs her moves either, unlike Anvil did with Math during their impromptu sparing match.
Due to lack of color contrast between the rock, the line effects, and the dark elf, the three are hard to discern. I did figure it out in the end. However, it was unclear to me whether she swung the sword or her hand (or threw the rock–I read them out of order).
It seems unclear that she was going for a swing so my brain didn’t have a point A to connect to point B. I think that was fine since she is intentionally not telegraphing her moves. The point B seems unclear as well since I can see the sword connecting with the effect on the panel. So no clear start with an unclear finish is what makes the action hard to discern for me on this page.
Would Cora’s Consortium make an acceptably high profit from second place?
I’m wondering about the consequences of winning.
Well, bad things would happen if a rookie first-comer won, even coming second wouldn’t be good, maybe just the top 5? top 10?
They’re probably betting on each match, plus side bets like how long, deaths versus unable to continue, etc. Likely even specific injuries.
And there will be someone to take each bet.
Gamblers want to gamble.
I didn’t even see the rock until I went back after your comment. I thought her sword has a magic dispelling aura attack or something.
Ooo! The introduction of the Mana Whore sword means focus on the source of “Ixah”s power shifts
Very sneaky!
Vore. That’s ‘V’, not ‘Wh’. Very important difference. :>
It sucks up mana like a whore, so… no difference
Bluce and Gail may very well be eyecandy (most announcers are), but they never struck me as ‘vapid’
And, as you said, they have others running around finding out all that stuff for them :)
The sword’s name is probably “Manavore” (one word, meaning “Eater of Mana”) and the announcer is just reading it like two words.
At least it’s not Manapouri (a real place)
When writing a book, in order to make the action feel more fast-paced, we use simpler words, shorter sentences, and more verbs to get the feel of action. probably do the same to break up the pacing of a regular wordswordswords 4 panel comic.
In writing, one can also use intentional run-on sentences to show action happening fast and without pause or time to think.
Another manga I’d recommend for action sequences would be the Battle Angel Alita series. It’s pretty gorey, but it’s helpful for over-the-top action combat.
Dave has identified the problem, but I thought I would provide some subjective notes on my experience. As an aside, I have been reading graphic media (“comic books) for decades, and am not graphically illiterate. I was somewhat embarrassed that I did not figure out what was going on until I read Dave’s commentary.
1) I did not see the rock in panel three *at all*. Post-hoc, there were several reasons for this, but the primary one was that Gail’s hot-pink word balloon completely stole my eye, and the rest of the panel registered weakly in comparison. The rock has poor contrast with the background, and the speed lines failed to draw my eye to it. Even after reading Dave’s commentary, knowing the rock had to be there, it took me a few moments to find it. Even knowing it had to be there, the low contrast, ineffective speed lines, and the fact that it barely takes the foreground at all (barely occludes the target), caused me to repeatedly read it as being in the deep background.
2) With my total failure to read panel three correctly, panel four made no sense at all. The rock is even harder to see here and, while I did realize there was something odd going on with the elf’s right shoulder, I concluded it was part of his costume. I was also unable to decide whether the elf’s shield was breaking, or the break lines where just part of the shield’s design (mostly because I could not see anything that was breaking it). Sure, there was the sound effect, but there was no attributable source for it, so my brain just kind of spun.
In general, the speed lines failed to do their job, for reasons that @CM has already listed, and the other factors I mentioned conspired to amplify that failure.
I would also make the point that this opponent seems way to lame to have made the semi-finals, given the level of competition we have already seen. I mean, a shield that can be broken by a rock (even one motivated by Maxima)? Laaaaaame! Not a single one of the opponents that Maxima has already defeated would have been taken out by that, so how did this clown make it this far?
It’s entirely possible that they survived by being the Survivor. It’s probably not common but there is a double ring out capability for this level of competitIon. Another possibility is his ultimate spell takes longer to cast than Max is giving them.
Another issue is that Max is likely on a completely different level based on the reaction of the Nth who casually popped abord a ship in warp to have a chat with the orbs without anyone notic
I think the made it this far by being a powerful wizard – they have not just that sword but a staff on their back, and they had a magic shield. But their reliance on magic… didn’t work out in a matchup against a demigod with an antimagic sword. Maxima had previously said that she didn’t plan to go for the sword as a first move, but when magic is in play. Hence, she likely didn’t deploy it until she saw that this guy was using a magic-forward fighting style, and what we’re now seeing is the result.
Now I have quite a few suggestions for better names some may seem stupid but could get the creative juices going.
Weave Ripper
Null
Mana Cleaver – Which I think Dabbler would prefer with the option of unsheathing it from he cleavage.
Magebane
Psisor
Wizword
Witchblade
Omojiato
Sage Reaper
Voidsaber
Horizon’s Edge
Mageater
I feel like you overdid the speed lines in the bottom left two panels specifically. Until I read your commentary, I couldn’t even see through them enough to realize that anything had hit the guy at all: his shield appeared to have just broken, and I assume Max must have sworded him.
Fourth panel would have been better if you showed him from the side. Sword being knocked back, rock hitting his arm, elf looking surprised, shield intact but motion lines through it, and you don’t have to draw the whole shield to boot. Which is a double bonus, it saves you work and doesn’t obscure or distract from what’s going on.
Akashic G.P.S?
Akashic G.P.S. is the Akashic Galactic Positioning System: one of the four operational Galactic Navigation Super System (GNSS) systems that provide coverage for any user in known and mapped galaxies.
I recommend fewer speed lines. They’re more work and can obscure the action when not used VERY carefully. Maybe look at older Silver Age American comics rather than battle manga for references. Those did a great job of showing the path of an attack without obscuring anything.
If you’re specifically going for the battle manga look, then good luck. There are manga that have been running for years where the artists still suck at speed lines.
I can’t understand what the speed lines are speeding and I can’t understand the last two panels. Also the second panel looks frozen. Would you do another version?
De-Weaver? Eso-Saber? Hermetically Peeled? War-lopped. SAM (Sufficiently Advanced Might). Vibe-Hasher. Chi-Tear. Nay Blade. Dimming Dagger. Craft Cracker. Sword of NoS’ell.
They would have called it “Nay Blade” if it only ate magic while spinning at a bajillion RPMs.
I think the hosts misspelled or mispronounced “orichalcum” there. I’d have named it a single word, like “Manavore” – partly because “Mana Vore” looks a bit like “Man Whore”
Yes, the metal that anime thinks is better than mithril, but irl, erodes around saltwater. Mostly decorative for being reddish-gold. Plating for walls, gates, houses, etc.
Is it just me or are her legs in panel 2 way longer relatively than they should be? I know some legginess is normal for this type of media and I generally like the long-legs look, but in panel 2 it looks like if she folded her leg up the knee would come to the top of her head, which is really disproportionate.
No worse than her left hand in the same panel. just roll with it.
I followed the action pretty good up until the final panel. But I guess we’ll find out next update.
She just “WHOCK’d” him like a hurricane (pay attention to Ixah’s right leg, note the speed lines connecting to her sword… and follow it back to where it just sliced Elf-boy in twain)
definetly read some one punch man, when I draw some high octane action I always have some OPM at hand and specially the Garou vs Saitama or the Saitama vs Boros fights which I feel should be the closest to the finals of the unlimited class battle arena in terms of scale and spectacle
So did she just murder this guy?
On a different topic what happened to that huntress character that attacked the teen succubus that one time? Recruited to arc-dark? Seems to be the play.
Aranea? She was a Patreon cameo, and there’s been quite a degree of variance in how likely they are to reappear, but presumably Pixel handed her over to either Arc-Light or the Twilight Council. Would be kind of nice to see if she’s changed her tune!
The local medics can do impressive things, so maybe not.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-1438-pop-goes-the-gralien/
Spellreaver
Gail seems to have problems with Greek words. In addition to mistaking “orichalcum” she mispronounced “labyrinth.”
She is probably doing her best to understand the voice in her ear telling her the words and they are strange and complicated words.
So, you are saying (or typing) she made a… Fundament’al error?