Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Variant costume idea

I talked to the boss yesterday, and he likes the idea of me having a variant costume. Note that this is besides the previous idea of me having a more formal version for events in which I represent the Department of Superhuman Studies.

What we are talking about here is a variant of my regular everyday costume, this time with more of an emphasis on the brown of my white/brown/yellow color scheme. We both decided that we don't want simply a brown version of my current costume, but not necessarily something completely different, either.

Anyway, he said he'll work on it. If he gets something going, I'll let you all know. :-)

If this all works out like I hope, then I'll have 3 different costumes! :-D

Monday, June 28, 2010

New artwork by Marietta Delene Williams!

New artwork time! YEESSSSS!!

This illustration of me is by the artist Marietta Delene Williams, whose site is linked here.

Isn't this great? I just love it! Thank you so much, Marietta!

Each artist adds something different to the costume's appearance, and in this instance, Marietta added some little touches. For example, rather than have solid leather boots and gloves, they are segmented in an interesting and fashionable way.

And I don't know if this was Marietta's intent or not, but it looks like I'm wearing brown "hotpants" under my skirt instead of the usual white. I hadn't thought of how that might be logical in a fashion sense to do that. I'm going to give that some consideration. Maybe I can have variant costumes in which I sometimes wear white hotpants and at other times I wear brown hotpants.

Anyway, this is a great piece of work just on its own merits, but I especially like the fact that Marietta gave me something to think about in regards to how I might change something about my costume. :-)

You are now in my Cool Links list, Marietta! --------------->


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Upcoming character description: Lucky Shot

Okay folks, before my real life work load overwhelms me this week and prevents me from posting any more until next week, let me go ahead and give a bit of news. Coming soon will be a character description of my usual working partner, Lucky Shot. Basically, it will be a brief history of her, plus a description of her powers. One outward sign of her powers is her glowing eyes when her power is activated. As an example of how they glow, attached below is today's strip of the webcomic Wapsi Square. Lucky's eyes glow exactly like Monica's eyes are doing in this stip. It's kinda freaky.

The reason I want to tell you about Lucky is because the boss just informed me that rather than scan an old story for me to post here, he's creating a whole new story, and Lucky is in it. I also won't be able to read it until he's done, so I have to wait to see what happens, but he promises a shocker! Holy cow! I can't wait! Just understand that this won't be a full-blown finished and colored work that I'll be posting, it's just going to be one of his rough draft "story sketches", but at least you will finally see one of my stories. Still, I like reading those anyway.

I had to do a bit of persuading to get him to post even that, but I gave the argument that if others can read at least his rough drafts, they can see what kind of writer he is, and perhaps he can find an artist to do the story. Another thing I hadn't mentioned is that he also writes stories of a 1940's private eye named Benny Baloney. Yeah, you would think that the tough guy private eye genre has been done to death, but I really enjoy these stories, and he's been in the process of getting a website put up of those stories. If he gets that going, then it's definitely going to the "Cool Links" sidebar of my blog!

Anyway, I MIGHT post something Friday, but if I don't, then you'll know why. I'll try to post something, but the odds don't look good right now. Real life can be like that sometimes. :-P

If I don't see you later this week, then have a great weekend and see you next week!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico "Obama's Katrina"?

Over the weekend, I was asked yet again the same question that I am going to answer here: Is the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico President Obama's "Katrina"? I say yes.

Here's the reason why: Obama had no more to do with the oil spill than President Bush had to do with hurricane Katrina. As far as I know, presidents still can't control the weather. Also, the tragedy in New Orleans was due much, much more to the failures of the mayor of New Orleans and of the governor of Louisiana at the time to do the proper and necessary evacuations procedures than it was to Bush's eventual reactions.

It's no secret that left-wingers not just dislike Bush, they actually hate him, and the tragedy of Katrina was something for them to hang around Bush's neck, this despite the fact that he can't control the weather and that the chains of command in these kinds of emergencies runs from the city level and the state level before it gets to the federal level. Could Bush have done more? Yes certainly, he could have, but it's easy to judge something like this in hindsight. But also in hindsight, the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana at the time could have done a lot MORE.

After all, if you're going to judge the actions of someone in hindsight, you have to consider ALL the parties who could also have done more - and not just the actions of the person you happen to hate. The mayor and the governor failed more because they failed to act sooner. They were in a much better position to judge conditions "on the ground", because they were closer to the catastrophe than Bush was many states away in D.C.

Now let's look at President Obama and the oil spill. Could Obama have done more? Yes, certainly he could have - but just as with Bush, we are looking at this from hindsight. However, just as Bush can't control the weather, Obama can't predict when and where undersea oil lines are about to rupture. And just as Bush had to work with the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana in order to get things done, Obama has to work with BP in order to get anything done about stopping the leak.

Obama can have the BP execs dragged to the Oval Office and he can talk about whose ass to kick and so forth, but he is dependent almost exclusively on BP finding the means of stopping the leak, because there are no readily available government sources to perform this task. There really aren't any alternatives at this time, because even if we tried to go with another oil company to fix the leak, they would need time to study the problem in order to get it done, which means even more oil leaking in the meantime. So for better or worse, we are stuck with BP.

So to answer the question of whether the oil leak is Obama's "Katrina", then yes it is. If Bush can be blamed for a hurricane that he had no control in bringing about, much less being able to stop it, then Obama can be blamed for an oil leak in which he had no control in bringing about, and who is just as helpless in stopping it as Bush was in stopping a hurricane.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Update on my own comics

It's been awhile since I gave an update on my own comic, so here we go!

I've convinced the boss to scan and post at least one of the stories that he has in rough draft. Basically, he sketches out his stories with images and text for usually several pages. He'll build around an idea for a storyline of a conflict or complication that he puts me or one of the other characters under, then he goes from there. Sometimes it's enough to complete your standard 22 to 24 page comic, but most of the time it falls a little short, so he'll complete it with something else for however many pages it needs to reach the 22 to 24 page goal.

However, in recent years he's gone through some financial struggles that has limited his ability to pay for artists. Don't worry, he hasn't lost his job or anything, it's mainly a sudden increase in bills that he had to deal with - not so much to bankrupt him, but certainly enough to force him to adjust his finances accordingly. Man, I wish I was a millionaire so that I can at least fund the comics part of this arrangement! LOL

Fret not, because I'll keep blogging so long as he'll have me. :-)

Anyway, he'll go through some of his rough sketches of stories to scan and post, and when he does, I'll post them to my blog. Other than one other person that I can think of, I am probably the only one who has seen nearly all the stories he has done, and I really want you guys to read what I've enjoyed, which is why I suggested this idea of at least running the rough sketches. One of my fans also hit upon the idea of making text stories of my adventures and posting only a few, single panel artworks. He liked that idea, so he will try to convert some of those stories from artwork into text to see if that will work. I'll keep you updated on that as well.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Power Girl by Paul Taylor!

Now on sale on eBay is an original artwork of DC Comics' Power Girl, as done by Paul Taylor, who also does the webcomic Wapsi Square, of whose strips I have posted here previously. It looks as if Power Girl is becoming what I still hope to be - the busty superhero chick that artists draw when they draw a busty superhero chick.

Maybe I can convince Mr. Taylor to do one of me as well. :-)

Monday, June 14, 2010

Sarah Palin and "Boobgate" and the sad state of journalism today

I’ve done pretty good in recent weeks in not getting so heavily into politics on my blog, but friends, I just have to say something about the whole stupidity of the Internet rumor that Sarah Palin has had a boob job.

They’re calling it Boobgate! “Boobgate”? Seriously?? BOOBGATE??? What the hell, man!?

I shouldn’t be surprised, but even some mainstream press are covering this piece of bullshit! Sorry for the language, folks, but this is how moronic this whole “story” is! Look, I get that the “not-biased” media hate Palin, but why do they have to report on every stupid rumor that comes out just because it says something bad about her?

Don’t they know how petty and juvenile it makes them look? Hey, and it’s not just conservative Republican women they do this to – it’s pretty much any woman in power that they don’t like. Back in ’08 a big ado was made when Hillary Clinton had shown a little cleavage. I mean, DAMN! – the people need to get their minds out of junior high! Contrast this to the outrage from the press that arises whenever the issue of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's sexual orientation comes up (in regards to Kagan's sexual orientation, what difference does it make whether she is gay or not? Non-issue for me, but surprisingly, not for a lot of leftists!).

You know why it’s unfair it is to be reporting on “Boobgate” and Hillary’s cleavage? It’s because these reports are making it personal in a way that they wouldn’t do with the men. Instead of reporting on Palin’s politics or Hillary’s statements, they attack their fashion choices or their bodies. In other words, it’s a cheap shot, and one they wouldn’t do to the men.

For example, what if Joe Biden got a penis enlargement? Do you think the press would report on that? Can you see Katie Couric leading with, “Boy, Biden’s ‘package’ looks a little plump today, doesn’t it?” Then there would be “before” and “after” shots of the front of Biden’s pants just to show the difference! They could call it “Weinergate”! See how stupid it would be to cover something like this?

And besides, if Palin did have a boob job – SO WHAT? Isn’t it supposed to be “her body, her choice?” And where are the feminists in all this? Why aren’t they speaking out over this outrage? Oh, that’s right, it’s because Palin is a conservative!

To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., “An injustice to one woman anywhere is an injustice to all women everywhere”. If the feminists were worthy of the bra straps of their foremothers, then they would have stopped this nonsense a long time ago, regardless of the political or social views of the woman that’s being unfairly criticized. Such hypocrisy from them demonstrates why they are out of touch with the regular woman nowadays, and it's why I can't call myself a feminist.

Friday, June 11, 2010

New layout for my blog

I'm testing a new layout for my blog. Let me know what you think of it.

Healing powers continued

I was going to post this last time, but I thought that maybe the other post was getting a little long, so I separated it into a second day. Now we continue with the healing powers of the superhumans in my "universe".

As I said before, the healing powers of super strength folks concentrates on healing fast, and the stronger the person, the faster the healing power. This is necessary so as to allow them to lift the great weights that they do. I also said that in conjunction with speed healing is that the faster the healing, the more energy consumptive it is. Thus, the heavy hitting powerhouses have to deal with doing what they plan to do before they suffer an "energy crash".

As for other, non-strength superpowered folks, their healing powers are generally related to the power they have. For instance, telepaths' and telekinetics' healing powers are concentrated in their brain. Nosebleeds are common among them, but their healing power heals them pretty quickly once they've stopped using their mental powers. There is a point in which if they've used their mental abilities for too long a time, then they could suffer a cerebral hemorrhage to the point that their healing powers won't be able to save them. However, if they learn to pace themselves (rather than put out in one continuous burst), they can allow their healing powers to heal their brain in the short pauses that they work in.

For speedsters, most of their healing powers are related to healing bones, muscles, cartilages, nerves, and whatever else is related to their speed skills. For them, it's a matter of trying not to suffer too much catastrophic damage in a short span of time to the point that their healing power will burn itself out before it's completely healed them. They do get injured a lot from tripping and running into things, but their healing is such that most injuries heal pretty quickly, and they're back on their merry way in very little time.

For flyers, an aspect of their healing powers is the projection of a low level telekinetic shield about 2 to 3 feet in front of them. While this shield is not impermeable, it does block a lot of the wind resistance that the flyer would otherwise feel. The strength of the shield also seems to increase proportionally the faster the flyer goes. This shield also protects them on landings to a certain degree - mainly to slow them down so that they don't hit the ground with a splat! So basically, the healing powers in flyers is for protection from most of the rigors of flight, and not so much the healing of wounds and other injuries. While flyers still heal at a rate that is twice the regular human healing rate, it is still the lowest rate among the healing powers of superhumans.

Water breathers' healing powers allow them to breathe underwater as well as on land, and they also help them deal with the water pressures of depths that would be beyond the normal human ability. If a water breather's healing power gets damaged or burned out, then he or she is much more likely to drown or be crushed by the great water pressures, so when battling water breathers, it's necessary to break their very dense and rubbery skin so that they will have to surface, where they are at a disadvantage.

These are just some of the examples of how the healing powers of superhumans adapt to their particular ability, and I find it fascinating to research this and marvel at the adaptability of the body to the stresses that they put their bodies under. In the future when I'm in the mood, I might give other examples of the healing powers of different superhuman abilities.

Have a great weekend, all!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Q&A: Healing powers

Hello, my little nerdlings!

To make up for the fact that I talked chick stuff all last week, today I will answer some recent questions regarding healing powers in my "universe".

Q: How do healing powers work?

A: The scientists who specialize in superhuman physiology have studied superhumans with healing powers, and their theory is basically this: Healing powers in superhumans is basically the same as it is in regular humans, just a lot faster and more efficient. Some superhumans heal at a rate only a little above the normal human rate, while others will heal even broken bones in a matter of hours. So for the physiological explanations of how healing works, I refer you to your old biology textbooks. :-)

Healing powers seem to be a necessary part of having powers. Not everyone with healing powers have it in the same degree, of course, but the demands that having a power has on the body seems to require an enhanced healing ability in order to repair the stress and strain that the body undergoes when the superhuman utilizes their power. Also, the healing power seems to be tailored to the superhuman's specific power.

For example, those with super strength (including myself) all have a much greater and faster healing power than those who don't. When you think about it, it would be necessary due to all the stresses and strains that we put our bones, joints, muscles, etc, under when we lift great weights. Otherwise, we would break bones or sprain or herniate muscles every time we lifted something heavy; especially something way beyond normal human strength. The very fast healing ability is also what makes super strength types very hard to take down. Even if you pummel them constantly, their healing ability helps them shake it off.

The drawback to having super strength and a very fast healing ability is that they are very energy consumptive. That is, the bigger and stronger they are, the more fuel it takes to power all that strength and healing powers. So those with the highest levels of strength will need to do their damage in a short amount of time before their bodies crash from the energy drain. Unfortunately, they can DO a lot of damage in a short amount of time! The strategy for me when taking them down is to force them to use up their energy before they can do a lot of damage.

As for someone like me, while I have a great deal of super strength, it is nowhere near the powerhouse level that I've seen in others. In fact, with the exception of perhaps one, there are no real powerhouse level women in my "universe". Superhuman women seem to have the same limits of biology that regular human women have in that we don't get large and bulky muscles like the men do, so we don't get freakishly and enormously strong like the strongest superhuman men do. Still, it's a good idea to not annoy women with super strength, because we can still hurt you in so many ways! LOL

However, the benefit that super strength women seem to have over the super strength men is that our healing powers - while not faster than the men's - is much more energy efficient. That is, we don't "power down" quickly like the men do. While we may not do as much damage in short bursts like the men do, we can continue doing damage a lot longer, way past when the men would have tired out. This is kind of how it is in real life, isn't it? ;-)

Ultimately, the "edge" in strength that super strength men have will prove to not be an edge if they can't do right away whatever damage that they set out to do. In a battle between a super man and a super woman, the woman has to stay out of striking range long enough for the man to power down, and she can hurry the process along by forcing him to use his strength. Since a lot of these powerhouse dudes have an enormous ego, it's pretty easy to find the buttons that will rile them into doing something stupid, like lifting the heaviest thing they can find so that they can hurl it at the woman.

Once the dude has the weight completely over his head and before he can throw it, the woman can do something distracting - like throwing a good sized chunk of concrete at his balls to seriously distract him from throwing the weight. Some of the more focused dudes can at least drop the weight to one side before they grab their crotch, but most times what happens is that they grab their crotch instinctively, and the weight falls on them, thus forcing them to use their strength (and thus use up energy) to get the weight off of them.

Then if the dude is still conscious, the woman can do something like grab him by the ankles and repeatedly slam him into the ground until his healing powers are so taxed that it shuts down and they pass out. In case you're wondering - yes, I've done this before. :-) You ask how fair is it to take a shot at a dude's balls while he is vulnerable? I respond by asking, "How fair is it for the super strength dude to take on a woman when he knows she is way outmatched in the strength department?"

Understand guys, that as strong as super strength women are, we can be **killed** by a super strength man if he manages to get his hands on us. That's how much stronger they are than us. The key for the ladies is to "fight smarter, not stronger." So healing powers in the super strength men seems to be geared towards helping them lift those great weights, while healing powers in super strength women seems to be geared for endurance.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Women and body image: My perspective

I found this article on women and body image from a man's perspective very interesting, so I decided to discuss it today on how I dealt with it growing up. This is also branching out from what I had discussed yesterday about Monica from Wapsi Square.

Odd as this may sound, I was in a sense fortunate to confront body image issues early on in life, because it meant that I dealt with them that much sooner. I began to get my feminine curves early on - about 11. Yes, at that age, I already had the beginnings of hips and breasts. This forced me to deal with how I viewed myself and how I dealt with sexuality issues early on. Emotionally and socially, I was still a girl at 11, but already I had to deal with unwanted attention from both boys and girls over my suddenly emerging curves.

I grew like a weed, so by the time I was 14 I already had good height and a pretty adult-looking body. I benefited from my mom's lessons about accepting myself as I am, because she went through this at that age. Fighting body image issues is one of the reasons that she became a Marxist feminist. I had to deal with grown men hitting on me (and some of them knew that I was a minor!) as well as other girls who would assume bad things about me because I already looked like an adult. Thing is, I didn't dress like some fashion diva back then - I was still a big comics nerd and wore the basic jeans and t-shirt, and even wore loose shirts so that it wouldn't be so obvious that I was busty.

The hardest part of these times was losing some childhood friends because they got jealous over how adult I already looked and the attention it brought me without even trying. I won't repeat what they said, but trust me, it was both unkind and uncalled for, because I couldn't help the way I looked, nor could I do anything about the attention that my curves drew from the boys and men, even though I intentionally dressed like a slob. I knew it was jealousy because they admitted it years later when we were all adults, and they apologized.

As I got into my late teens, I was already very tall, so just on that alone I was hard to miss, but add to this the curves, and I was a beacon even if I wore loose fitting clothes. Back then, my wardrobe was largely jeans and t-shirts, because 1.) my mom didn't want me to be some sort of fashion diva, and 2.) I was more insterested in other stuff anyway. It really bothered me that others were judging me on something that I had no control over, and it was also hard to know what guys really wanted from me - to really get to "know me better" as a person, or were they looking for some excuse to grab parts of my body? I had that a lot, by the way - being grabbed.

Some women have told me that I probably was able to get away with a lot of stuff because I was so curvy, but really, it was more a bother than a help. It would have been easy to develop a low self esteem from all this, but fortunately I had developed strength both from learning how to deal with unwanted looks and gropes, and from being politically right wing fighting for my views within a social circle that had a lot of left wingers. Still, it was sure a pain in my large ass to have to put up with crap that many other women didn't, but that's the case for any woman when you get down to it.

All through high school, I dressed as the basic jeans and t-shirt slob, rarely putting on something that looked less androgynous and more feminine. I didn't even go to the prom mainly because I didn't want to dress up (and besides, my Marxist mom felt that proms were so retro establishment anyway). It wasn't until college, when I made new friends, that I started to "dress like a girl" and came to appreciate my looks and curvy body.

It basically started one day when my friends were tired of my jeans and t-shirts. It was so funny because it was like one of those classic "make-over" stories that you often see on reality TV shows. We went to a hair salon to work on my long hair. Then we went to purchase cosmetics to teach me - pretty much for the very first time! - a lot of the make-up tricks that they had been using for years. Oh, and then there was the shopping!

I tell you, once I saw how good I can look, pretty much I never went back. Oh, I still wear jeans and tees, but they're more fashionably cut! LOL Anyway, it was like Barbie discovering that she looks really good when she's dressed for her body proportions! For instance, there is the instance of my big butt that has always been a source of annoyance with me. I'll be painfully honest that if it weren't for my big boobs, then others would notice that my butt is pretty big, too. I discovered one of those fashion tricks to wear a short loose skirt to emphasize my long legs and to hide my wide hips. This explains my superhero costume's skirt, by the way (but don't tell anyone I said that, okay?).

The lesson here, folks, is that there is a lot of truth in that saying about accepting yourself as you are. Other girls and women were jealous of me because I have a cup size naturally that some had to get surgery to achieve. In the meantime, I wished I was slender and skinny like they were, so that I could wear some of the great clothes they wore, but they were designed for skinny, less curvy bodies. Still, thanks to my college friends, I was able to find clothes that did look good on me.

In other words, this is an instance of "the grass looking greener on the other side". In the battle for the perfect body, there is no perfect body, and the sooner we all accept that, the better. Hell, folks, even the women on the covers of most fashion magazines don't look like that in real life! What you see on the cover is the final airbrushed or Photoshopped product, and NOT the model as she was originally photographed. This further enhances the implication that there is a perfect body if we can only lose enough weight/exercise/have the right surgeries/accessorize and cosmeticize/ etc. The most beautiful people I know are those who not only have a basic understanding of looks and fashion and at least put out a basic effort of neatness and cleanliness, but much more importantly, they acccept themselves as they are.

Wow! I didn't mean to go on and on like this, but as you can see, this issue touches on something I had to deal with growing up. Whether it's right or wrong or fair or unfair that I had to deal with issues related to being curvy early on in my life, it's just the way it is. If I had been short and uncurvy, then I would be complaining how no one notices me! LOL That's how human nature is: we always find something to complain about, and the path to maturity is how we deal with what we complain about. I just hope that I have chose the better path.

Well friends, I ended up posting something every day this week! A first, I think! And yet, I didn't discuss COMICS in that whole time! :-D

I promise that next week I'll get back to that. Take care and have a great weekend!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

I totally understand what Monica is saying

In today's Wapsi Square, Monica explains her acceptance and even appreciation of her large boobs. And she's right about what she says that smaller busted women can wear a lot of stuff that big busted women can't; at least not without looking ridiculous or being called a slut. There are simply some outfits that do not look good on me because of my proportions; however, there are outfits that DO look good on me, and the thing is, that's how it is with all women - and not just the busty ones! LOL

Appearance for women in our society is way, way overemphasized, if you ask me. Don't get me wrong, I like dressing up, but look how many products and media there are dedicated just to women's appearance? One glaring example: How many grooms flip through a groom's magazine that they bought from a magazine rack? Are there even groom's magazines out there? Nearly all that you find are catalogs from tuxedo rental shops. But how many bridal mags are there? So why do bridal mags so totally and thoroughly dominate the wedding attire magazine market? Because the bride is expected to look absolutely, stunningly beautiful.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, by the way; but when you consider all the pressure society puts on women to always, always look like a high fashion model at all times, then it's no wonder so many women and girls suffer self-esteem issues over their looks. I just think that there has to be a better way to do things, that's all. Well, Monica has inspired me to write about my own experiences of what I went through growing up busty, so I'll work on that and try to post it tomorrow or next week. So guys, what do you tell the ladies in your life when they start complaining about their looks? I'm kinda curious now.


Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Proof: Even female toons retain water!

One of my readers sent these two clips below from a webcomic named PvP and noted that they are from strips that were about a week apart, and yet Jade's boobs are small in the first panel, but large in the second, so he asked what happened between the first panel and the second panel.

Well, I COULD have explained it as that's how Steve Kurtz, the creator of PvP, happened to draw her those two days, but I think my reader was looking for something a little more substantive. Okay, here we go!

What we have here is an example that even female toons retain water! :-D

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

How my boobs got so big: Revealed!

How did my boobs get so big? Now the secret it out! :-D

Wapsi Square has a lot of boob related humor of Monica, the character below. I get a lot of LOLs out of it because I can relate to what Monica goes through!

And yes, guys - watering your chest like that really works! Are you going to stop showering now? Ewwwww!!! LOL