Grrl Power #440 – This reaction would earn him a D- at Monster U
So, a few things to talk about on this page. Yes, vampires exist in the Grrl Verse. That shouldn’t be so surprising since we already know about aliens, demons and Succubi specifically. I want a world to play in where just about anything goes, even if the primary focus remains on the Supers.
Originally this page took place while Max and Sydney were traveling down a tunnel, past a security station, then in an elevator before stepping out in to the hallway you see here, but the stuff with Ingsol didn’t fit the way I wanted. It was a question of content vs pacing. Really the story could use more pages without a lot of dialog and more establishing shots, but that would leave you guys with much less to comment on, so that sort of stuff gets cut all the time. I’m sharing this particular edit because I wanted to convey that the door in the woods doesn’t open straight in to this hall, even though I didn’t quite show it in the comic. Basically, there are several layers of precautions to prevent people from accidentally discovering the existence of Vamps.
Vampire or no, trying to scare a fledgling superheroine who can cut through a tank like buttah isn’t probably the smartest idea, but I guess being a Vampire may come with certain habits that are difficult to break. Ingsol’s just lucky that Sydney’s head desk therapy worked as well as it did.
People who regularly read my comments under the comics might know that I rarely have time to design characters before they appear in the comic. Virtually everyone except for the main characters got drawn for the first time on the page in which they debuted. I can say I didn’t mean to make Ingsol look quite that much like a stereotypical vampire. If I’d had time to do a few drafts he might have been a little toned down, but at least this way it’s visually unambiguous, which is beneficial to reading comprehension. Admittedly he looks a bit like Demitri Maximoff and Count Chocula had a kid, but I guess he’s just decided to lean into it.
Ingsol’s accent makes him transpose V’s and W’s, except for cases where doing so would make reading his word bubbles inscrutable. “… a character in a nowel. Wlad the Impaler…” etc. It’s a funny accent that way.
Patreon supporters can view this page at twice the size! (as soon as I wake up and post it then immediately go back to sleep since Patreon doesn’t have a way to schedule posts yet.) $1 and up, but feel free to contribute as much as you like :)
Here’s the link to the new comments highlighter for chrome, and the GitHub link which you can use to install on FireFox via Greasemonkey.
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 wonder what Dabbler and the others are doing while this scene is going on???
Sitting in the rafters, pulling on Ingsol’s puppet strings?
Either that or he’s a fan of the original Star Trek movies compared to the new alternate dimension movies now out there. After all the had that line in “The Voyage Home when Chekhov was asking that very question and the nuclear vessel they chose happened to also be the Enterprise.
I liked the historic meeting of the crew of the Enterprise, with the crew of the Enterprise. And, nope, not talking about any of the seagoing ones. The Star Trek cast met with the space shuttle Enterprise astronauts.
The nice bit though is that both sides were clearly genuinely honoured to meet the other. Both groups had grown up being inspired by the other (or their predecessors, as the case may be).
William Shatner may have had to be reminded that he only played a character who worked in space though.
It’s sad that those poor astronauts from the space shuttle Enterprise never got to take it into space. They had to ride it around on the back of a 747. Kind of like training wheels for astronauts, or astronaut kindergarten. I feel bad for them. At least most of them got to play with real space shuttles later on.
Oh come on. yes he was an asshole. But he was a competent asshole which excuses a multitude of sins.
He kept the Turks from comquering thr country. And hammering stakes up asses was kind of a pan slavic hobby. How big am asshole Vlad was depends on who youre asking.
Not just out of his country, but out of the rest of Europe as well (for some reason, Transylvania was the only route the Turks could take into Europe)
The only other route was through what is now Greece. But they have very narrow land borders, which are very easy to defend. Being bounded by mountains to the north and the Mediterranean to the south. Remember the Spartans.
Whilst the Ottomans did field a huge navy, being a super power, they have had various competitors, at different stages in history. So cannot claim to have ruled the waves.
They did control the straights which led through to the Black Sea though. Which would give them naval dominance in wars against the countries which border on that (in the present day including Bulgaria and Romania, as southerly European nations).
They did try that invasion by sea trick…but ultimately got such an epic rear end kicking at the Battle of Lepanto that they were pretty much confined to the Black Sea afterward. How epic you ask…well the “Holy League” lost 17 ships, Ottomans 210 sunk or captured ships.
Heh, interesting. So they failed to capitalise on their numerical superiority. I was just using general knowledge to reply, as opposed to having checked up on the particular campaign. I wonder what made the Ottoman’s fundamental seamanship so bad, that they were outclassed, like that, on both fronts, and over time too?
Just looking at it from the Greek side, it is easy to explain. Given both them being a major naval power and having the secret of Greek fire. I wonder if being boxed in by such a superior force simply deprived them of the opportunities to develop their naval capabilites? Or did they just lack strong naval training, manpower and leadership?
heh actually it was from a major mistake at the battle (They mistook some heavily armed ships that were being towed ahead of the Holy League fleet as merchies….and got ripped by them) and then after that from the rise of Spain….as for before the battle…well….honestly they pretty much DID control the Med. But unlike Europe they had no real reason to push in that direction except conquest….and land kept the borders contiguous. Not to mention that other muslim states while not necessarily hostile weren’t above attacking each other and some were even supported by christian states to help buffer against the Ottoman. Europe on the other hand had to take the long way round for trade with the east if they didn’t want to go through the ottoman lands….whereas even without the Suez the Turks could tranship through the Red Sea much more conveniently.
Ummm wow sorry didn’t mean to babble…..
Well-spoken history is never ‘babble’
And quite topical, as it turns out:
A pretty big asshole, from the stories I’ve heard. There’s one where one of his stewards was walking through the courtyard, wrinkling his nose at the aroma of rotting flesh coming off of the people on stakes. So Vlad had him put on a stake 20′ higher than the rest, so he wouldn’t have to smell them. How considerate.
Don’t say that in Transylvania. Vlad’s a national hero there. Or so says my sister who toured there for three weeks some years back.
And honestly, that type of cruelty was pretty common in that era. At least for the nobility. Heck, we got our first two recorded individual serial killers from that era, Gilles de Rais and Elizabeth Bathory
now see the blood countess she was a vampire :P
Bathory thought that taking the blood of young women and bathing it it would keep her forever youthful. As I recall because of her social status she was imprisoned in her own castle never to be allowed out for the rest of her life. Also there is this strange story that the cats she had fought for her when she was first arrested.
Oh and unlike witches, accused werewolf were tortured to find that “hair inside” then beheaded then timed and burned at the stake. Witches were burned alive.
In N. America no witch was burned alive, however those involved in slave rebellions were burned.
Yeah, not really that much different than Cleo bathing in milk (at least Liz didn’t drink> the bath-‘water’, or turn it into cheese, although that one in “101 Damnations” did turn it into cottage cheese :D)
As I recall, those killed in the Salem witch trials were… pressed to death between heavy rocks? o.O;
All but one, of those executed, were hung.
You are probably mixing that up with faeries. Those you press between the pages of a big book, to preserve them. Alternative methods include pinning them through the chest, with a needle, to allow them to be displayed in a glass case.
Wasn’t the one exception to hanging pressed to death by rocks to extort a confession from him? But he refused to admit guilt (something about inheritance rights if he died unconfessed).
Yah, the English had this thing that if people died while they were being tortured that their family would keep their property while if they they were executed their family would lose their property.
So there was a certain incentive in dying while being tortured for the good of your family in England and its colonies.
Fortunately the English have grown out of using torture, along with the more civilised colonies. Sadly the legacy persists in others.
I think the best way to discourage its use is to require that anyone voting for, or advocating the use of torture, must be willing to subject themselves to it. In order to appreciate its severity. Of course knowing that you will only suffer for a short while removes one of the major aspects of torture, namely the fear that it will not end.
As such the right to stop the torture should rest solely with the pro-torture candidate’s most extreme political rival (or the voter’s biggest enemy). Who will have no legal obligation to protect the candidate’s physical, or mental, health. Nor suffer any repercussions, should they die. After all we rarely, if ever, see state-sponsored torturers, or their political masters, being held to account.
Depends on what you consider ‘state-sponsored torture’
There are many types of torture. They include: attaching electrodes to genitals, to deliver electric shocks, suspending victims from their arms for extended periods, beating the soles of the feet with sticks, waterboarding, common-all-garden beating up, water torture (see Myth Busters investigating this and confirming that, despite being psychological in nature, it does amount to torture), extracting nails and teeth, breaking bones, dismemberment and so on.
There are also good grounds to include psychological techniques, such as solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, and prolonged aggressive interrogation (without a break) as torture too.
The latter comes down to subjective decisions though, as to where the line between reasonable investigation/confinement ends and abuse starts. Which can vary tremendously depending on the individual involved, and the circumstances. A vulnerable teenager, might find a single night, in a cell, to be sufficient to commit suicide, for example.
Once you have determined that torture is happening (see Amnesty International’s listings of countries participating in torture, internationally, for an independent assessment of that), then all it takes is for such to be conducted by people in the employ of the state, and it becomes a state-sponsored activity.
This can also occur if private individuals are conducting the torture however, if it is with the active collusion of the state, or even when they are simply choosing to turn a blind eye to the activities. Pretending that the torture is not happening, despite evidence to the contrary, makes the state complicit.
The USA doesn’t use torture either. They just use Enhanced Interrogation Techniques. For the life of me I can’t seem to tell what the difference is though.
If you check out Oberon‘s link below, you will note the following, near the end of the text:
Torture is notoriously unreliable for determining innocence or guilt, and this is yet another example of it. Albeit an unusual one, in that normally you expect people to cave in, to prevent the torture continuing. Thanks for providing that link Oberon.
I believe you’re referring to Giles Corey, who was subjected to ‘pressing’ in order to elicit a confession from him. He famously said “more weight.” Which might have been a way of asking for a quicker death, since the torture essentially involves a very slow suffocation as the chest can’t expand enough to bring in enough air.
Sort of like the medieval version of waterboarding.
No, having rocks placed upon your chest was a ‘popular’ torture device, either in England or Europe, more and more rocks were placed until either you ‘confessed’ (and then were executed for your ‘crimes’) or was crushed to death
I guess those Salem folks weren’t very smart. Everyone knows that the test for a witch is to submerge them underwater and if they don’t drown then they’re obviously a witch.
Uh… yeaaah. And THEN people have the sheer gall of condemning Vlad for simple implement. Sheesh.
Bathory was pointedly walled in alive for her acts not a merciful fate and Gilles de Rais acts were considered so heinous at the time they pointedly hanged(at a time when hangings generally took a lengthy time to kill people because they didn’t hang people to break their necks back then) and burned him when as a noble he would have normally simply been beheaded…
I would suggest putting a white block in the top left corner of the first panel: “One very long tunnel, one very thorough check-point, and one swoopy elevator ride later…”
Just saying.
First thing, for some reason I had the impression that there was an elevator or a long flight of stairs. It never occurred to me that the door behind the bush lead directly into the hall. It wasn’t until I read the comments that it even occurred to me.
Second almost every page I see her doing something, I find Sydney more adorable. Still my favorite moment was the pasta/anti-pasta exploding fork thing. I think that moment was when I fell in love with her.
Sorry I don’t have a link or even a page number. If you don’t know what I’m referring to go back and reread the comic from the beginning.
Would do, but that would take too long.* Google search with site:grrlpowercomic.com makes it much easier to find everything. Page here.
*spent a couple hours re-reading bits trying to find it myself, the whole vehemence fight certainly feels shorter reading it all at once
Thanks for that. I just gave my screen a high five, if you concentrate you can probably feel it.
Ow! Stop slapping me!
Did I miss a Futurama reference?
Not if you read the first page of comments
If it helps, Think of the Futurama Star Trek episode.
It is kind of also a Star Trek reference.
Wait. How did Sydney take a photo of him? I thought vampires can’t be photographed?
That fails to account for digital cameras and their lack of silver or mirrors.
Or the fact cameras never captured the ‘soul’ in the first place (superstitious yokels)
So no one asked the obvious question? Read every comment, no one thought to voice this query? I have to?
SIGH!!!
So the OBVIOUS question this comic raises, the real concern, is: What would happen to Harem if she were bit once?
The bodies are separate, but the experiences of the body are shared? Would all five feel the transformation? Would all five transform? Is it considered an injury/illness, like when one version of her broke her arm? Can it be cured? Is she single? If she unteleports the infected version, does it pause the transformation? If the form about to be bit is unconscious, can another one unteleport that one before the bite? Can I get her phone number? If only one version is transformed, does that version only feel the effects of the hunger for blood? Can hunger be negated/stemmed by unteleporting? Et cetera? ET CETERA?!!
…..discuss!
God, why does everyone keep asking her that? The only way she’d know is if she were turned into a vampire, and she’s not planning on that happening any time soon thankyouverymuch!
Yes, but this(the comments) is a land of POSSIBILITY and THEORETICALS! Where every potential plot twist can be imagined and hashed out, with no wrong answers!
….except that one. The one you over there just thought of. You. No, not you. You, that one over there. Yes yo-no, not you! You! The one I’m pointing at! Yes, you! Shame on you.
Huttj509 was just quoting Harem’s reply to such questions.
Yes. She only has one mind, which handles all of the sensory input.
We have nothing to go by yet. We know it to be super derived (see press conference), but do not know if it is a contagious super-power. Legend would suggest it is, but nothing in story.
No. Unless something about the ‘vampire power’ overrides Harem’s normal condition. Things which happen to one body (tatooing or broken arm) do not happen to the others.
Yes. Any unteleported Harem is in a state of suspended animation and nothing affects it.
Yes. Unconsciousness, for Harem, is not like it is for us. So long as any of her bodies is conscious she will remain aware of the sensory input from all of her bodies. Harem can always teleport any of her bodies to the location of another body. So summoning an unconscious body (or unsummoning it) is a thing she can do.*
There is only one Harem. She will feel the hunger.
Yes. The body has been removed from the universe, is in a state of suspended animation, and does not have any sensory information to share.
Yes. Feel free.
* Congrats, I do not recall anyone raising this specific point before. Oddly enough I have the impression that vampire or werewolf questions have been asked though. But probably not in such detail.
While Harem as a whole would feel the blood-thirst, there is a fairly decent chance she’d be able to sense which body it came from, even if she somehow wasn’t aware of the rest of the transformation.
Absolutely. Such differentiation is intrinsic in her ability to function normally. If Harem could not do that, each body would be dodging to avoid a car that only one of them saw. Others would be holding out hands, to avoid bumping into a wall, that was only in front of one of them, and so on.
I have no reason to assume that she would be unaware of the transformation though. I cannot think of any vampire variant which would prevent understanding of the change (once the clues were observed and thought upon).
Werewolves now, that is a different matter. Many of those show the daytime human to be unaware of the activities of the night-time wolf. Whist the writer of a vampire story might take a similar approach, for the dramatic appeal such has, I do not think it is implicit in any vampire lore that I can recall.
That’s because, with a vampire it is not a part-time job, once they ‘turn’ that’s it, they may or may not retain their former thoughts and stuff (think Angel and Spike)
The Buffyverse did not work like that though. Yes, they lost their soul, and were ‘replaced by a demon’, but said demon had full access to all the memories of the host body. We saw Buffy reminiscing with an old school friend, as an example. And he was typical of any new-born vampire. They retained all their old skills and somehow also picked up martial arts, in the grave.
Not to mention the entire rich history of both Angelus and William the Bloody, retold to us via their memories of it. Both of them viewed their memories differently mind. They felt their mortal selves to have been weak, and that being freed up from moral concerns allowed them to live ‘life’ to the full.
What did get played up though, was Angel recalling all the vile things he had done, as a vampire, and suffering from it. Nonetheless that should not be viewed as him having not remembered those acts before. Angelus did remember them, he just relished the evil. It was simply revisiting those memories, with the weight of a soul, which burdened Angel.
I do grant however that in said scene Angel did have amnesia. Yet that was only momentary, and for the dramatic effect, of us seeing his reactions, as the memories resurfaced.
What do you think of the vampires in “The Strain”?
I haven’t watched TV in over a decade, other than if visiting someone and catching some shows with them. The Strain is not one that I have even heard of, let alone seen.
Nor am likely to, unless its producers either release it on YouTube or tolerate others doing so.
That was what said: the vamps in Buffyverse still had their memories, how they viewed those memories is a different matter (also, a large ‘problem’ with Angel was that he was cursed with having a soul and to thus suffer, so it’s likely that an un-mentioned part of that curse was remorse, probably to make him feel so much worse, but instead he learnt to embrace the horror he had committed and work to do good)
1) I know what he was quoting. But I wasn’t about to let a potentially rich topic of conversation be shut down by simply “quoting the source material”. I mean, who does that? Apart from those deemed “correct”, of course. :P
2) I realize tattooing and piercings and bruisings, etc, would only happen to the one body that it occurred on. I didn’t assume the bite wounds would appear across all five versions. But unless I am mistaken, each of the “Harem” forms are basically the same height and weight, same eye color(hair can and has been dyed), and in all likelihood same cup size(though I’d be more than willing to confirm in person). Meaning that anything that would change them on a molecular level, altering their body type(like vampirism!), could possibly be transferred. It depends on the HOW of how she “unteleports” her forms. Would the altered physical one even be able to “unteleport”? Or be uhhh….”re-telported” I guess?
3) You say that there’s only one Harem(true) so yes, she would feel the hunger. So does that mean if only one of her bodies eat, they all share the nutrition? I’m willing to bet no, since she stated to Sydney at the restaurant that whole bit about being aware of what each of her forms eat and the combination of flavor that creates. So each body has to eat it’s fair share, I assume. As such, the hunger for blood that the infected one feels likely WOULDN’T be felt by the other four immediately. If she attempts to fight the hunger for too long though, the immense pain of the withdrawal would likely carry over to the overall consciousness. Only one of them would NEED the blood, but all five would remember the pain of the hunger……and the satisfaction of the first taste. That would be weird.
PS) In the described instance(one Harem gets bit, transforms, other four are not physically affected, vampires need blood to live) I believe it fair to assume that Harem would simply unteleport the infected one until such time as a cure is discovered and prepared. But off the top of our collective heads, what other options might dear Daphne and ARC have?
So are identacle twins, but if one gets affected by something it does not simultaneously get inflicted on their sibling. The logic does not hold up.
The only part of Harem which is ‘quantumly linked’ is her mind. There is no corresponding connection between her bodies. Mental things (like pain or food tastes) are shared. Physical things (like broken bones or illnesses) are not.
All of her bodies, bar one, are tattooed, so are physically altered. She routinely unteleports any of them. We have already seen this demonstrated with the one who had a broken arm.
The important thing to realise is that the ‘unteleported’ body is not re-absorbed into her other body(ies). Thus they do not get ‘averaged out’ or merged. Rather it is put into some (unspecified, but presumably extra-dimensional) storage, which is isolated from the rest of her. Thus allowing persistence of tattooing, hair-style and even clothing, unique to each body.
Agreed. Mental things are shared. Physical things are not. Nutrition is physical.
Not so. There is no ‘other four’, when talking about feelings. “Feelings” has two meanings. But both will work the way I said previously.
One being a sensation. Namely the stomach telling the mind that it needs filling. In this context Harem does share her senses, so the sensation of feeling hunger is shared.
The other being the craving, which would fall in the category of an emotion (think of lust, to see what I mean). But Harem only has the one mind, so it is impossible* for one of her to feel this yet for the ‘others’ to not.
Live life as a vampire. Assuming that the craving and the need for blood did not automatically result in a loss of control or a need to kill. With a supply of donor blood (or animal blood) vampires can be productive members of society.
Having only one body infected means Harem could have all of the advantages of being a vampire. But could easily avoid the disadvantages (for instance putting her vampire body into storage if at risk from sunlight).
Arianna is a good spin doctor, and vampires are considered cool by much of society now, so she could handle the public relations issues of having a vampire cop. Although that would be an interesting challenge.
* Of course super stories will always find a way to make the impossible happen. But we are talking about her normal condition here, as opposed to the weird things that can potentially happen in the genre.
So your hypothesis that if one gets infected, they all will be? Makes sense in a weird way.
Not so. Only one would be physically infected. But. as she only has the one mind, any mental effects would be common to all.
Note this assumes vampirism is physical in nature, like rabies. If it instead uses the rationale given in Buffy, that the soul is lost and replaced by a demonic personality, then we apply the mental rules, which would likely result in her turning in her entirety. It would not be logical to assume that she had one mind, but five souls, after all.
There does exist the alternative that, if we assume Harem has one soul, shared amongst five bodies, one of which ‘lost’ its soul, that may only mean that the soul is severed from that body. In which case the soul may remain attached to the other bodies.
If this kind of scenario is used (which seems unlikely as the comic has not delved into religious things), then it can be argued that without a soul, the infected body would no longer be under Daphne’s control. As per the Buffyverse, some demonic entity would have control, instead.
In which case she would only have four effective bodies, and presumably a desire to seek a cure for the lost body!
@ Yorp
You’re comparing vampirism to the flu or an accidental injury. Without any further information from Dave regarding the Grrlverse version of vampirism, I have to assume it’s more than that. For instance, assuming the traditional vampire lore, this hypothetical infected body would be unable to withstand direct sunlight while the other four can. Why? Something must be different on a CELLULAR level, as opposed to cosmetically(tattoo) or temporarily(injury/illness). The body is no longer identical to the other four at it’s core genetic structure. Additionally, fangs would have grown in due to a change in biology, one the other four did not experience. Not even getting into the mythos of transformation abilities(bats? wolves? f-ing MIST?!), which would be a power the infected bodies have that likely would not be shared. Depending how that power affects her DNA structure, the infected body could become an entirely separate entity, for all we know.
Also, addressing your statement that the unteleported body is not absorbed, Dave already stated in comic(Dabbler’s Science Corner #2) that if Daphne were to unteleport a body, the others would receive a portion of the “energy” used to create that body, doubling their strength and increasing their mass. Assuming she could unteleport the infected body(again, that depends on how genetics tie in to her ability – Varia can teleport with her due to her Gestalt power, but no one else can), a portion of the infected body WOULD in fact be entering each of the other four bodies. Adding that mass/energy(unless her super power is non-Newtonian in nature) would mean that her other forms are literally merging with the infected one, while her collective consciousness maintains a mental image of what that form was at the exact moment of unteleportation. As such, the other forms could in fact be infected the moment the infected version was unteleported.
This is a fun topic.
Your entire first paragraph seeks to prove that each body is different. This I have never disputed. They are different. Not just at a cellular level, they diverge at an atomic level. Every breath that each takes, every bite that Harem eats, is changing each of her bodies, in diverging ways, at a fundamental level.
I only point out the hair and tattoos as being things we can easily see and confirm, to demonstrate their difference. I do not seek to imply that is the limit of the differences.
All that said though, one body being turned into a vampire would indeed intrinsically change that body. Which, in turn may, interfere with her brain structure too, which could possibly sever the connection with the other Harems. That act however, by itself, would not transmit the infection.
It may however, as you say, cause the vampire Harem to become a separate individual, due to being cut off from the rest of Harem. Alternatively however the body may simply collapse, like a puppet with its strings cut. If there is no mind controlling the body it could be akin to a loss of brain function in a single-bodied person.
Your conclusion contradicts the facts Dabbler presented:
Separately, it is worth noting that Harem has a severe weight limitation on her teleportation. If she was gaining mass, as she unteleported her other bodies, that would impact on her carrying capacity. If your conclusion was correct, then Harem’s limit would go down, as she got rid of bodies.
However the converse is true. Her capacity goes up. This is consistent with Dabbler’s assertion that it is energy being bestowed on the remaining bodies, to increase their powers (including the super strength).
Finally, if Harem was ‘bulking up’ when she unteleported, we would see a difference. But when we saw her reducing to one body (panel 5, in the link above) she looks as svelte as ever.
Note that if Dave wanted all the bodies to be infected, a couple of ways spring to mind, which could be used to justify that (not including the first one just biting the others). Ultimately what would happen, in such circumstances, depends on how Dave views it, and where he wants the story to go.
However, if he wishes to maintain continuity, he would need to ensure that the method chosen does not contradict previously established lore. At least not without a good reason as to why it is different.
Just because vampires exists in Grrl Power doesn’t mean they can transform people … or supers. If they can, well, different sources have very different mechanism of how transforming people to vampires works. For example, transforming one Harem might actually break the link.
It’s a good chance only that Daphne would become a Vamp, because it is, as you said, an infection and while the others may feel the effects only that one will actual go through the ‘change’
I disagree. What vampires do is suck out your soul and replace it with a demon. So if one Harem gets bit then all of daphne becomes a vampire.
…because she only has one soul.
Fun fact: Vlad Tepesh , aka, Vlad the Impaler was NOT an asshole, as long as you were not his enemy (he was quite good landlord to his peasants), and taking into account that his enemies were not any better to him, his actions were quite OK (if your enemies are jerks, show them you can be just as big jerk yourself).
His bad rep is mostly because his enemies won in the end.
Also that there seems to be no body of Vlad one can find. Still also tied up with too many unverifiable stories.
Personal observations: Ingsol probably dresses like a stereotypical vampire for social reasons. The easiest way to get people to think you’re *not* something strange and frightening is to play it up exactly as popular media portrays it. That way, everybody assumes you’re just a fanboy (or fangirl) playing out a role. I can’t count the number of times I’ve cast a cantrip in public, and had people say something like “They did it better in the movie. Then again, this guy doesn’t have post-production to help out.” It’s either that, or “Oh, he totally ripped that trick off from So-And-So from last season’s cliffhanger for Such-and-Such.”
Is it Geiger in the background?
Congratulations. In as much as being the first and only suggestion as to what the paintings are.
Moderately NSFW warning.
And a good one at that. Even though I could not find an exact match.
im a vampire! roar!
neat!
….why arent you scared?
should i be?
ummmmm…..
The accent changes could be explained by Ingsol focussing/practising more on words that it’s more important to pronounce correctly (Vlad, for example, because it comes up a lot with newbies), and not putting so much effort into other words, simply because it’s not necessary for clear communication. He could also be pretty good at pronouncing stuff correctly, but play it up a bit for effect. Equally, his pronunciation could be fine normally, but revert under stress.
My guess in this current scene is that, to avoid anti-climactic “Wlad what?” conversations when trying to make a first impression, he has put a lot of practice into correct English pronunciation of Vlad, but deliberately lets his accent slip for “wery real” for effect.
My guess is that, if he really focuses, he can pronounce near-perfect, highly fluent English, but mostly doesn’t bother to make the effort, if only to hide the fact that he can. (he’s a vampire, after all, they’re naturally secretive) ARC is aware of this, but pretends not to know. Likely, Ingsol knows Arc knows, but pretends not to know that Arc knows. Because older vampires just can’t help themselves when it comes to this kind of stuff – they can’t not play mind-games – it helps pass the time. Whether Arc knows Ingsol knows that Arc knows? That thought no doubt keeps Ingsol entertained.
An unwilling/reluctant vampire will play these games to the max with Arc, a vampire who is committed to working for Arc, say, would stick with just something minor, like whether they can really speak fluent English, to play mind games with.
A good deal of Arcs vampire diplomacy could consist of keeping their ally vamps entertained with this stuff, do they know that I know that they know that I know… the great enemy of vampirekind not being stakes, garlic, or sunlight, but ennui. This would give Sydney an advantage with vampire diplomacy – her unpredictability and general likeableness would be both a good antidote to ennui, and the likeableness would make her amusing rather than annoying. Bonus points if she could play the “I know that you know that I know” game well, not too well to be a threat, but with enough unpredictable success to make it most entertaining.
Add to that possibly unknown, exotic artifacts attached to her, and she could just about be pure vampire catnip – which of course is not altogether a good thing.
Seems like Inggie may actually be a… were-Mogwai and not a wampire at all! :eek:
Sydney, don’t let him bite you after midnight!
And under no circumstances are you to let any blood splash on him!
Cool! I could totally spell it.
…
I’m not russian too!
I am looking forward to the upcoming vampire lore, especially in the form of a barrage of questions from Sydney.
I would say that Maxima should probably keep her super speed going at a very low level to avoid things like allies getting injured before she can react, but that would probably be …literally… super boring (and she would probably let Syd smack into a tree anyway as an object lesson. Literally).
On the idea of one part of Harem becoming a vampire, we can logically (and likely incorrectly) conjecture from what happens when she is injured.
– sensations hit all of her bodies due to ‘one mind’
– physical changes only hit and ‘stick to’ the one body, even across dematerialization and subsequent recreation’
– theoretically the Grrlverse includes souls. If those are involved in vampirization, I would imagine Harem has only the one soul, corresponding to one mind… effectively her extra selves are basically puppets, albeit puppets that are equally as ‘real’ as the puppeteer.
I would imagine if one of her got vamped, it would go into storage until it could be cured, similar to ‘broken arm Harem’.
Speaking of reflexes, Sydney might do well to develop some that are more appropriate to being suddenly menaced by a vampire. Although that might be very painful to Ing.
TV, movie and book lore that is. Vampires weren’t bothered by the Sun until “Nosferatu”.
Stakes do not kill vampires, they are restraints till the head could be cut off and mouth filled with garlic bulbs. Better to read the lore pre “Dracula”. And there are many kinds of vampires, not all of them drink blood, some eat feces and there are a few that are really bizarre. Also there is a different group that is as much werewolf as vampire. A fascinating field of study.
That is not surprising… ever wondered why feces is brown? Well… it gets its color from dead blood cells, actually. Or so I’ve been told. (Not counting any unusual colors caused by things like drinking excessive amounts of grape juice, or eating a dozen mini-cupcakes in one sitting.)
I’m half expecting a portrait of Vigo soon.
The Vigo painting? Wasn’t that destroyed and replaced?
Hmmm. The link to the Vigo painting doesn’t seem to work.
Trying again.
Maybe they meant this Vigo?
Vigo the Carpathian also Vigo the Torturer etc. AS much a wizard as a cruel despotic ruler.
Yes, did watch Ghostbusters II when it was originally released, was just pointing out that he’s not the only Vigo
The ‘replaced’ painting looks like Peter is asking “Did you fart?”, and Egon is saying “No, it was him!” and Ray is going “Guilty!!”
Heh.
Never assume what Sidney’s reaction is going to be, you will always be wrong.
Surprisingly universal support for Vlad. His policies seem to strike a cord with the present-day public.
I can think of some modern politicians who should stand on an impaling platform!
History is written by the victors, as commentators have implied. And Vlad’s most vocal detractors were his bitterest rivals. However have those, who leap to defend him, paused to consider one fact? Ingsol probably knew him in person.
Imagine if someone brought back staking. Better pray for a sharp point for a quick death. The blunt point is to drag it out as long as possible. Just set yourself down and let it penetrate your anus and begin to suffer. In the Draka series S.M. Sterling’s controversial series in an alternate Earth, they did in modern times.
Is Ingersol the same dude as in https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/942 ?
Very well spotted!
Possibly. The hair styles match on many points (soul patch, colouration and white sideburns, to point out some). The facial features do seem dissimilar though. In particular the historical one looks much more haggard and aged. However we must not forget his vampiric nature. Vampires suffering from the Thirst are often portrayed as drying out and becoming more corpse-like.
Weatherheight seemed to have some premonition, about pulling bunnies out of hats. If, having failed to intimidate Sydney, Ingsol turns to his stage magician tricks, we will be able to confirm his identity!
But, that would make Inggie a bad guy (his haggard features could be deemed a product of DaveB‘s ongoing improvement in art)
Oh, and Inggie has a soul patch, the evil vampire mage fighting Lincoln had a Van Dyke
Very well spotted!
Possibly. The hair styles match on many points (soul patch, colouration and white sideburns, to point out some). The facial features do seem dissimilar though. In particular the historical one looks much more haggard and aged. However we must not forget his vampiric nature. Vampires suffering from the Thirst are often portrayed as drying out and becoming more corpse-like.
Weatherheight seemed to have some premonition, about pulling bunnies out of hats. If, having failed to intimidate Sydney, Ingsol turns to his stage magician tricks, we will be able to confirm his identity!
So if she can’t stop Sidney from doing something random, could she really stop the bullet if her gun went off unexpectedly?
Because Maxima was ready for it, such as having her reflexes set to the maximum, and keeping her finger outside of the trigger area. She is military and knows that pointing a gun is serious business. So did not do it lightly
That and the fact that the gun was unloaded. Maxima never loads it before hand. The gun only takes a single bullet, and Max inserts it just prior to firing, each time, using her super-speed.
Most importantly though the comic would be really boring if Maxima could stop Sydney every time, before she did something silly. This is a comedy comic primarily, so the funny must take priority.
If it will help, just view it as Maxima thinking “She has to learn this stuff the hard way. A few bruises now will hopefully make her think twice. I must resist the urge to intervene. She has to be able to handle dangerous situations on her own, someday.”
I had a writing teacher in college who wrote for Hollywood in the 50s. He was blacklisted. When talking about how screen writing had changed in the last 40+ years. He would talk about in the 50s you would write a scene of some one getting in a car, driving down one street, then another, then another, then another, parking, getting out of the car, walking to the door, knocking, waiting for the door to be answered, the door opening, the person pulling a gun and shooting the person at the door. In the 90s you would show some one getting in a car, starting the engine, then cut to a shot of them shooting some one through a closed door.
As audiences became more sophisticated it changed the way you told stories. You did the same thing here. I never assumed they walked in the door and saw Count Chocula.
“As audiences became more sophisticated it changed the way you told stories.”
No, as audiences developed the attention span of a goldfish with Alzheimer’s writers had to start dumbing things down and getting straight to the ‘action’
I’d argue this, but I completely forgot what it was we were discussing. Huh.
*tosses ball idly at nearby wall*
Yea, Whatever.
*licks balls*
How come no names? No reason to hide who this person was. I might even know the name.
Oh, Sydney looks so enthralled, in that final panel. She is so adorkable!
….
Enthralled? ….
….
NOOOOO! Beware his hypnotic allure!
Don’t worry, to be hypnotised by something you need to concentrate on it for more than five seconds so Sydney should be safe.
Umm, it has happened before, so there is a genuine chance.
+1, with thanks.
Nice to see a dragon smith can provide quality, maybe even magical, weapons.
At least Inggie doesn’t look like Count Homogenized :P
Just noticed something about Sydney’s bangs: is she able to control them like antennae or protective shielding?
In panel one they are to the sides of her face, in panel two they have moved a little to the front (but can still see her glasses and eyes), panels three four and five they are clearly covering her face and glasses (when being first confronted by Inggie) and then in panel seven they have moved to the sides again once the perceived threat has been deemed a dud :P
Even early on in the comic it’s pretty much been commented that, even utilizing sophisticated 3D modeling techniques, Sydney’s bangs defy the Laws of Physics…
:P
Yeah, but hadn’t noticed that she can totally control them!!
It’s like she has her own hairy blast-doors :P
I can some of the differences between panel 3 and 4 but damn they are so subtle, yet his expression goes from menacing to puzzled. Superbly done.
Agreed, you can feel the smile being gradually wiped off his face, and becoming more forced than gleeful.
*high paw, to DaveB*
OK Darwin Awards team, you need to open a whole new category. Auditions for entry are already being conducted.
Anyone dumb enough to look for a strong WiFi signal 100′ underground, hoping to find a pokespot, clearly deserves an honorary mention. The fact that they lived was obviously down to luck, rather than their own judgement!
It’s not just teens…Even adults are nearly killing themselves too:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/07/14/two-fall-cliff-reportedly-playing-pokemon-go/87105884/
I wonder if Ingsol is living alone down there . . . if living is the right word. Undeading . . . ?
Anyway, if there is a female vampire down there with him, I’d love it if she could be modeled on Ingrid Pitt. The now late actress was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen when I saw The Vampire Lovers at a . . . formative period of my youth.
But now that I think about it, it’s probably far too late for that. DaveB surely has everything that’s going to happen in this vampire lair mapped out already and presumably even drawn most if not all of the pages. Under the circumstances, allow me to rephrase my plea for some future female vampire character instead.
They are living they are just functioning in a different way.
To quote the Generation Dead novels, they are “differently biotic”.
Considering how they need to feed, I think “anti-biotic” might suffice…
So… I’ve been following this for a while and bookmarking or using the archive to get to where I last stop…
How long was the tag function up there? I feel silly. XD
Build up to MIB, deliver troped-as-hell wampire.
Such disappoint.
DaveB has been anti-troping from the start, and Inggie is more ‘trope-aware’, in the same manner that Sydney is genre-aware
Appearances can be deceptive. and we have not yet seen what is going on here, regardless.
Personally I like being taken by surprise (well nice ones anyhow) And I sure as heck was not expecting vampire Godzilla, yes. Ninjas, of course. But a vampire? Naa.
As to his nature, I am willing to wait and see. I am sure there is more to him than just being a cliché..
Perhaps the character himself Enjoys being a cliche? Just maybe he will comment on how disapointed he is that the girl from Underworld isn’t real.
Not sure where Ingsol is from, but in slavic languages (the ones I’ve studied anyway) there is no present tense of the verb to be. So… unless he’d learned English grammar, he’d be likely to say “I not Russian.” Also, in Hungarian, there are no genders, so it is common to hear confusion between he, she and it even with people. Just like English speakers struggling with le and la in French or der, die and das in German.
If you’re going to go around being a vampire in this day and age you may as well full run kilt and kit so you identify as a proper Dracula, not a. . . Glitteratu?
The 50s are to blame, only the ones who slept through them escaped the horror! Crushed velvet, for vampires, is like catnip for cats. Simply irresistible.
Couldn’t Resist :p (unfortunately, that’s the only version could find with the dancers :()
Hah!
M. Bulteau’s ‘A Fugue For The King’ started playing when I got to the second panel. Good timing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB8nh5XAZwA
That joke is not from Futurama, but the original Star Trek movies.
Actually it is from both, given that the former is an homage to the latter. Plus there is a second Furturama reference, on the page too. Or so folks believed.
startrek? no. make him say “mouse and squirrel”
moose. damn spellcheck
It has been a long time since I saw a sweat drop of nervousness in a modern anime/manga series. I like it!
I can’t believe it took me almost 4 months to notice that this is where Sidney started wearing the white strip on her nose, and all because she smacked into the ‘tree door’ on the last page.
It is also where she must have picked up the curse that makes her glasses gradually, but erratically, grow.
;-)
Why are his V’s W’s and his W’s V’s???
Because he has a stwange accent. Some vague European-like accent, pewhaps with impediment due to having fangs?
i swear, vvampires aren’t meant to exist
*swwear
Bwade has the same opinion.
I would have asked him to count.
Von! ah ah ah. Two! ah ah ah…
Sadly, it’s been decades since the count counted like for the number of the day. Now he just says the final number. I miss the counting. =(