Grrl Power

Introducing yourself via giant explosion is just how powerful beings let each other know they’re in the club. It’s like a secret handshake, only everyone within thirty miles can see it. The point is the inhabitants of Sciona’s world were probably more impressed with this sort of thing than Maxima. Could they have made it […]

Considering some of the world bosses she’s taken on, it takes a lot for Dabbler to consider something “legitimately terrifying.” Most of that is due to a lack of information about it – also, the overall presentation of “terrifying alien megabeast” is probably intentional. You know, first impressions and all that. Looking at this page just as […]

I’ve never been good at drawing inorganic stuff. Cars, guns, spaceships – so when I came to this page, I just drew the first thing that came to me. Why the design is best described as a giant, fucked up screw is unclear. (Also if the actual layout of the ship changes slightly from panel […]

Hey that guy seems to know something about the orbs. Let’s hang around and ask him. Or run. Probably run. Whatever that thing is, it’s developed the very opposite of passive scanning. Not just active scanning, oh no, it’s developed “incredibly conspicuous scanning.” And it’s a fair bet those beams make that “vwoo woo woo woo […]

Maxima seems to be channeling Margaret Cho there a bit in that first panel. Just… visually. She’s not making some joke about being overweight and/or Asian. Is there a non-ominous way for something buried in the ashes of your people to start glowing after being trod on? Cause I don’t think there is. I’m not […]

So, no real surprise here. Sometimes the reveal is a big “duh” because of how the pages break down. I maybe could have squeezed a slice of this onto the previous page, but the dedicated splash page is more dramatic, even if it’s fairly telegraphed at the twice a week page rate. Still, fun to […]

Sorry for the late post. I forgot what day of the week it was. :/ Well, first week of summer break. That’s my excuse anyway. So yeah, it’s a bit of a telegraph here, even if you don’t guess exactly what Sciona’s looking at, but it’s just the way the pages break down. So have […]

Yes, the portal is a big problem, but Dabbler could see what Sydney did when she used her orb, so she wanted to play along. Also, we all know that one of Sydney’s official unofficial superpowers is derailment. She’s like ADHD for other people. Maybe she’s ADHD’s avatar. Dabbler is quite the competent solo adventurer, but […]

So we don’t know the details of why Sciona was on Earth in the first place. It might have been for being a jerk. But if you’re exiled, when you come back, it’s good form to bring an offering. Like access to a planet with powerful beings that can kick the shit out of exiled blood mages even […]

Wherever home is for Sciona, it’s obviously a ways away from Earth. Creating portals takes a lot of power, a mage can’t simply cast a spell and hop to another dimension or planet. Teleport really far, sure, but not interstellar distances. Maybe some level boss Arch-Mage could swing that, but even then he’d have to […]

Sydney handles new situations with aplomb. That or she tries to smack someone with a chair. It’s a toss-up really. Sydney’s shield is so good. Everyone, even Maxima went for a tumble, and there sits Sydney, composed and cracking wise. Hmm. Not really sure what else to say about this page. Everything I’m coming up with […]

Sydney’s right. I spent very little effort on that sound effect. Honestly, I started coming up with some noises, but I was like, VROUNCH? SHRAAKZZZ? GLUDVOR! Actually, that one sounds like an alien’s last name. Well, it would if it had a lot of unnecessary apostrophes in it. G’luD’voR! The relationship between the Skybreaker and the sigil […]

Whoops, just realized I drew Harem firing left handed. Oh well. I won’t tell the boss if you don’t. Seriously, that railgun would have like a +10 piercing in a D20 system. It’s one of those weapons that has so much penetration it actually does less damage than a comparable lead bullet because the projectile itself […]

Sciona base doesn’t have a lot of ductwork and crown molding to conceal all her extras. She got the barebones base package from the Evil Super Realtor, and planned to nice it all up herself, but you know how it is when you’re obsessed with revenging yourself on those that wronged you. You just never seem […]

Technically, lightning does make Maxima weak, in that she has to divert some of her power pool from strength to armor. It worked out for Vehemence because he was strong enough to overpower her while she diverted her strength to armor. Of course the team delights in propagating the rumor that Maxima is weak to […]

This is where Sydney is in her life – she’s concerned, and probably reasonably so, about the blood mage covered in her favorite medium, but not phased by the fact that someone survived getting punched through two meters of rock. It’s hard to tell there in the third panel because everything is red, but at least […]

Sciona is crazy resilient, that’s really all she’s got going for her in this fight. She does have a mess of powers, but obviously, she hasn’t gotten a chance to test them. Even with this arsenal, she’s outnumbered and arguably still overpowered. But she’s not trying to actually beat them. She would definitely brag about it […]

In the stinger for this page, I joke about Sciona getting lightheaded if she keeps using her own blood for her spells, but if one of those super syringes she shot herself with (whoops, just realized I forgot that mark on her chest) had a regeneration power in it, she could potentially fire her blood out […]

Field testing your new super powers against a team of people who have had super powers for a while is probably not the best strategy, but that syringe was a one time thing, and Sciona just needs to buy time for whatever is going on in the next room to finish. Fun fact, joint locks […]

Letting the two of them duke it out is probably a poor strategy for the team. Maxima cares about her team, but is the least likely to be harmed by a mountain falling on her (besides Achilles of course), and Sciona might actually try and cause one on purpose to kill or at least delay […]

I’m sorry guys, I just got tired of drawing that armor. Anyone paying attention probably noticed it changed from panel to panel anyway. Anyway, if she could peel it off that easily after she took her shot of Vitamin-S, then it probably woudn’t have helped against Maxima or Hiro either. She never even used whatever […]

Because “Skybreaker” is much cooler sounding than “The Cosmic Can-Opener.” I’m betting Sciona’s plans involve light travel in which she circumvents those TSA lines. Or she’s planning on summoning one humongous tentacle? I don’t know, I’m (mildly) sick (and being a baby) and tired and I can’t think of anything to say about this page […]

“Hey team, let’s split up so we can search this abandoned bunker faster. If you find anything, signal with a massive explosion that threatens to cave the whole place in on top of us…” …is not quite the instructions Maxima gave the team. But that’s how Dabbler would paraphrase if asked to repeat them. She’s […]

There is no I in team, but there is a ME if you rearrange the letters. Maxima and Sydney are talking about both sides of the same coin. Sydney’s just forgetting that teams can do stuff like split up and apply their specializations while not standing right next to each other. She may be getting […]

On the plus side, if Arc-SWAT breaks into your repurposed abandoned nuclear bunker slash silo, and they have the wrong address, you probably get some kind of tax break. Or maybe a voucher for a free new door. I actually don’t know how that works, like if the cops drive one of those jousting tanks […]

Sydney looks really weird in panel 3 to me. Well, she looks like Xanax Sydney to me, or her own polar opposite sister, like Pinkie Pie and Maud. The expression I was going for was a semi-annoyed “why am I the one telling you to math?” But it looks a little more I caught her […]

In some ways, Maxima is doing Sydney a disservice by humoring her antics. Sydney’s going to be in for a big fucking shock if she ever gets seconded to a JSOC unit for an operation, and she tries to razz the JSOC Commander about his dating habits. The poor discipline of Arc-SWAT in general also […]

Don’t worry that Sciona got away here, we are getting close to the end of this arc. In the superhero world, the stratospheric head kick is the equivalent to reading someone their Miranda rights. Ok, not really, but at some point, Maxima really should identify herself as a cop. It’s not like she’ll be taken […]

Max is one of those heroes who actually has to think about whether or not to save the plane of people the bad guy shot down as a diversion, or go and tar the bad guy instead. Superman saves the plane every time. It’s a failsafe diversion. Max isn’t a psycho. She’ll usually save the people, but […]

If I was a superhero, I would buy stock in “construction.” That’s how stocks work, right? Construction and bandages. And moral outrage or racism probably. Nobody planned Max’s bolt hitting the bridge, but the law of comic book averages meant it was practically predetermined. Maxima didn’t know Sciona could deflect her shot, and to be […]

Maybe Maxima should have been two more cars behind. It always bugs me in movies when someone is tailing someone else, and they’re maybe 30 feet behind them. I know they do that so its easy to get everyone in the same shot, but it makes it look like the followers are every bit as incompetent as […]

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve drawn Sydney. I mean previous to the previous page, but I draw two pages side by side, so this page and the last were the same page as far as I’m concerned. I almost forgot how to draw her bangs. :/ This is kind of an odd page […]

When I started the comic, I kind of scattered the ranks around the characters because I didn’t really understand what all that stuff meant. To me, military ranks always seemed like leveling up at your job like you’re playing Call of Duty. I was genuinely blown away when learned the difference between commissioned and non-commissioned. […]

Well, a few bandaids will fix that right up. The shirt is probably a write off though. And the pants. Remember back when I was all “I don’t know how much gore I want to put in the comic, even though I actually love super gory manga where dudes get cut in half down the […]

This is the page where I draw a character giving herself a haircut because I liked her hair when it was short better. Also maybe foreshadowing some of Deus’s plans. My wife does this to her hair about every five months. Just… not with her laser wings. Hey look, Deus can draw. No, he’s not an author […]

Deus is rich in money and… other stuff. You know, friends. Sort of. I could have come up with something other than a Draugr, but they’ve been on my mind lately. I like the name Rannevig. I may reuse that someday, but I don’t think Deus is going to run into that particular one anytime […]

Well, I guess Deus delivers as advertised. I decided on this page that Sciona can retract her wings down to something that looks like those Chinese spirit light things. Just cause, I don’t know, it’d be more convenient. For her, cause she wouldn’t have to worry about knocking her lamp over every time she got home and […]

Wow Deus is getting all the action these days. The other guys in the comic might need to step up their game. So we’re back from the little Harem flashback now. I didn’t put a caption up in the leading corner of the page cause I thought it’d be obvious, but just in case I’m […]

Hi and welcome to Grrl Power. If this is the very first page of the comic you’ve ever seen, you might be a little confused. Allow me to explain. First, read the previous page. That chick with the white hair? That’s the same chick with the strawberry blonde hair on this page. And the one with the yellow […]

Valentine’s Day Sex Drive 2018 If you’re not familiar with the VDSD, it’s basically an excuse for webcomicers to draw one or more of their characters in the nip. Most of these links just go to their page, which should have a link on it to the good stuff, but just to be safe, consider […]

Honestly, I have no idea what the other 4 could be. As excuses go, how do you beat “I can’t have sex with you because I’m somewhere else.” That’s hard to top without magic or superpowers being involved. The only thing that comes to mind immediately is some sort of body swap situation. “I can’t […]

If it isn’t totally clear what Max and Harem are referring to there in the last few panels, imagine that it might be cleared up in the next page or two and it might just happen! I made up the term Silk Work because as far as I could suss out, there doesn’t seem to […]

Deus is the kind of guy who would keep $600 million in a duffle bag somewhere in his office just for the gag. Well, he would if there weren’t a lot of better things you could do with that much money besides having it collect dust in a cupboard. There are gags, and then there’s just being […]

I decided to make a stand-alone post about this so people can comment on it if they get around to reading it. Please use the spoiler tag for anything remotely spoilery. Just wrap your comment with [spoiler]Your comment[/spoiler] I’ve found a new book series I’m enjoying immensely. Star Justice. The short version is; Space Marine gets […]

Again, this is more than I wanted to show of Vale at this point in the comic, but it’s fine. I suspect this little reveal might present more questions than answers. Vale makes a good henchwoman because not only can she literally ignore being impaled through the skull, but she brings significant creep out factor to the table. Intimidation […]

Not too much to say about this page, just needed a little transition to the next page. Which is kind of a dumb thing to say. It’s a comic. Every page is a transition to the next one. I hadn’t planned on showing off Vale’s abilities quite yet, but you know how it goes when you write. Sometimes […]

Normally when Arch Villains face off you get a lot of monologing and grandiose scheming but little action. I thought I’d mix it up and show some petty bickering. If Sciona actually wanted to inconvenience Deus, she would have smashed his fish tank. I’ve barely ever shown it (You can see a bit of it […]

When I added Harem to the team, I really thought I would be featuring her a lot more in the comic. She’s fun to write and think about, but she takes up a lot of space on a page. I have to show her in multiple places with different backgrounds and usually different people around […]

Sydney, you could use that sort of phrase if you were designing video games or writing comics, so it’s not as unique as she might think. So Dabbler speaks 137 languages, which seems like an absurd number even for a comic book genius, but there are a few asterisks involved. I’ll get into them later in […]

The first half of this page is channeling that crime procedural show “Numbers” where, if you haven’t seen it, the FBI guy has his math savant brother use all kinds of crazy math to solve crimes, like applying fluid dynamics to traffic patterns to plot get away driver escape routes and the like. My biggest […]