or maybe its plain normal for the first few almost-happenings to be painful. i mean, us girls suffer quite a bit the first few times a certain something happens as well……however, i´m more intrigued by the question whether the sarnothi locals and/or todd realise what´s going on. if so, gien will be ecstatic.
also, given pohls initial rather negative prediction it showcases selkie´s enormous potential – what are the odds her mom knew this and the bow was merely to block her powers until she´s old+mature enough to handle them? i mean, a pre-school selkie with echo powers fully online would´ve been a nightmare for her caretakers.
” i mean, us girls suffer quite a bit the first few times a certain something happens as well”
I’m sorry to hear your first few times were so stressful. I’m unsure which of two events you are referring to. Regardless, I did not have that pain. Please do not generalize your experiences. Every girl is different, and the more scared a girl is of her first few times, the worse those first few times will be. Instead, we need to help everyone know how to make sure a girl’s first few times are as smooth as possible.
Not certain, but reasonably confident that she is speaking of the first few times a girl menstruates. While not universal, it is a common stereotype. That said, I am unclear what level of emotional preparation you feel would help with this. Hydration and other physical factors usually help more.
ok….seems i´ve been misunderstood here. since it was an answer to a comment about ‘growing pains’ i was merely refering to cramps, which absolutely EVERY girl i know of suffers from when they start having their period.
honestly, this is a childrens comic, i would never leave a comment refering to what you thought 😉
Peya, knowing what my daughter went through during her first “shark weeks” as well as other “growing pains” she’s had in her joints, I’m happy to say I took your comment exactly as you meant it.
My first “shark weeks” weren’t bad at all. Then my uterus apparently decided that it wanted to fold backwards and I had horrible cramps for yeeeeears. (Ibuprofen, my blessed friend!)
Then I had a kid, and that straightened out my uterus for a few months after. (C-section. Recovering from a c-section is only half-again worse than my cramps, after the first 3 days.) Then cramps again. For years.
Then I got an IUD and THAT is when I found out that I had a right-angle turn in my uterus. But the copper IUD fixed the cramps somehow! I AM SO HAAAAAPPPYYYYY! (I still am fond of ibuprofen for headaches, though.)
Which is to say, cramps can go the other way as well.
I’m thinking the whole confrontation with Truck would have kinda gone a different way. Possibly requiring construction work to be done to the library at the school.
Near death experiences will make someone freak out for a little while after. What I love about Todd is that he goes from holy heck I should be dead to immediate concern over Selkie. Once again, his papa bear instincts kick in showing he’s a good dad. Not a perfect dad, but that’s why this is such a great comic, but a truly caring loving good dad.
I love that when Todd notices something is up with Selkie he IMMEDIATELY forgets his own predicament.
Also, Selkie awakening her powers due to a short exposure of Echo Powers seems illogical to me. Especially since they were talking about how excessive the blocking technology was.
Not necessarily awakening. It’s pretty obvious that something inside her is reacting, and I’d even go so far as to say that either the power is calling out to her, or something inside her is calling out to the power, if that makes any sense. But that doesn’t mean she’s truly awakening yet.
Seems logical to me; if you have tuning forks with rubber bands on them, they don’t vibrate much. Take the rubber bands off, and they immediately begin to resonate with others of their tone.
Take the cast off of a kid’s leg and they immediately begin to run around. Take the hobbles off a horse and Look Out!
She is away from the inhibitor, in her own element, surrounded by her home culture, dealing with intense emotional trauma from Todd’s incident, AND in immediate proximity to Echo powers. It makes perfect sense to me that her powers would start to awaken.
I started reducing their use a bit after a constant stream of griping and bitching anytime hey came up, but also because they were making some scenes unintentionally comedic and harming the “tone” of scenes. So when I decided to throw some cuss words in this scene I chose, mostly for the second reason but also partly for the first one, to just do a plainer censoring style.
Might bring them back later in a scene that isn’t meant to be taken semi-seriously.
Okay, that’s an argument I can accept. Emoji-censorship in the regular, fairly light-hearted parts, and non-emoji censorship in the particularly dark or dramatic parts. I can see that.
I never took the anti-emoji-censorship people seriously. It seems like a silly complaint. Here is perhaps the only time I have EVER seen a comics artist being creative with the way he censors the swearing, and people want him to go back to boring everyday censorship bars? The emoji are way more fun!
(I take the anti-self-censorship crowd even LESS seriously. The fact that this comic is self-censored is what allows me to unabashedly plug it to everyone I know, down to kids who haven’t even reached the double digits. There’s no reason to make the swearing more in-your-face; what’s here gets the job done, indicates realism without being aggressive about it, and ensures that this remains a fairly all-ages comic, which I much appreciate.)
Dave should do it Dave’s way and not worry too much about what the fans think. But I’m still gonna state my love of the emoji-censorship as plainly as I state anything else.
It’s a great compromise, inventive, enjoyable, and fun. I don’t see why people complain about them.
Dave, you just love doing this to us… At least your not like some comic artists who will deliberately lengthen or shorten some scenes so they can do a Friday cliff hanger.
Side topic, do you ever do any shows? I remember from a past comment you are in the same geographical region and I would love to shake your hand sometime.
Again, I really hope that her powers manifest as strong as what is suggested. Not because I want her to be “Dr Terrorhammer” but because it would add a lot of gravitas and texture to why her mom dampened her powers to begin with. Also Selkie would most certainly be thrust into the center of ‘how best to approach this’ among her clan, the special services, and her father. Not to mention the emotional maturity that will have to take place between her and her ‘already feeling neglected’ sister.
She could turn into a tyrant, or she could be afraid, or she could be remarkably mature — which we’ve seen Selkie do with Truck and with others.
I, for one, would like to see what Selkie the most powerful Echo that ever lived – among humans and her own kind – would be like.
Welp, I guess that’s ONE way to unlock sealed Aura powers.
In the last panel there is a subtle green glow around Selkie’s clenched eyes.
So subtle I’m not sure I’m seeing it (being blue-green color blind doesn’t help)
Is anyone else seeing this?
I see it too.
Yes there is def. a subtle glow of green lining her tightly closed eyes.
Does that make your icon ironic? Or sarcastic
No, I can be a Guru for all things except telling the difference between blue and green.
Friggin’ kept me out of the Air Force.
I see it too so you’re not the only one, I think she could awaken her powers.
I cannot see it. I guess being red-green colorblind helps even less.
I see it too
and her power is coming back online
though given how long she’s been suppressed
the growing pains are going to be very painful
or maybe its plain normal for the first few almost-happenings to be painful. i mean, us girls suffer quite a bit the first few times a certain something happens as well……however, i´m more intrigued by the question whether the sarnothi locals and/or todd realise what´s going on. if so, gien will be ecstatic.
also, given pohls initial rather negative prediction it showcases selkie´s enormous potential – what are the odds her mom knew this and the bow was merely to block her powers until she´s old+mature enough to handle them? i mean, a pre-school selkie with echo powers fully online would´ve been a nightmare for her caretakers.
” i mean, us girls suffer quite a bit the first few times a certain something happens as well”
I’m sorry to hear your first few times were so stressful. I’m unsure which of two events you are referring to. Regardless, I did not have that pain. Please do not generalize your experiences. Every girl is different, and the more scared a girl is of her first few times, the worse those first few times will be. Instead, we need to help everyone know how to make sure a girl’s first few times are as smooth as possible.
Not certain, but reasonably confident that she is speaking of the first few times a girl menstruates. While not universal, it is a common stereotype. That said, I am unclear what level of emotional preparation you feel would help with this. Hydration and other physical factors usually help more.
ok….seems i´ve been misunderstood here. since it was an answer to a comment about ‘growing pains’ i was merely refering to cramps, which absolutely EVERY girl i know of suffers from when they start having their period.
honestly, this is a childrens comic, i would never leave a comment refering to what you thought 😉
Peya, knowing what my daughter went through during her first “shark weeks” as well as other “growing pains” she’s had in her joints, I’m happy to say I took your comment exactly as you meant it.
My first “shark weeks” weren’t bad at all. Then my uterus apparently decided that it wanted to fold backwards and I had horrible cramps for yeeeeears. (Ibuprofen, my blessed friend!)
Then I had a kid, and that straightened out my uterus for a few months after. (C-section. Recovering from a c-section is only half-again worse than my cramps, after the first 3 days.) Then cramps again. For years.
Then I got an IUD and THAT is when I found out that I had a right-angle turn in my uterus. But the copper IUD fixed the cramps somehow! I AM SO HAAAAAPPPYYYYY! (I still am fond of ibuprofen for headaches, though.)
Which is to say, cramps can go the other way as well.
A.Beth, my condolences. Hopefully the first kid left signs so if you have any future ones they can find their way.
With my daughter we are lucky that nobody was killed or maimed.
I’m thinking the whole confrontation with Truck would have kinda gone a different way. Possibly requiring construction work to be done to the library at the school.
Sorry, that was supposed to be in reply to Peya’s comment.
Tempted to say Todd is over reacting, then again his life is now in the hands of a magic bubble, so I think this might be the right level of reacting.
Near death experiences will make someone freak out for a little while after. What I love about Todd is that he goes from holy heck I should be dead to immediate concern over Selkie. Once again, his papa bear instincts kick in showing he’s a good dad. Not a perfect dad, but that’s why this is such a great comic, but a truly caring loving good dad.
Plus, to his credit, he snapped out of it VERY quickly when he noticed Selkie was in distress.
I love that when Todd notices something is up with Selkie he IMMEDIATELY forgets his own predicament.
Also, Selkie awakening her powers due to a short exposure of Echo Powers seems illogical to me. Especially since they were talking about how excessive the blocking technology was.
Not necessarily awakening. It’s pretty obvious that something inside her is reacting, and I’d even go so far as to say that either the power is calling out to her, or something inside her is calling out to the power, if that makes any sense. But that doesn’t mean she’s truly awakening yet.
Seems logical to me; if you have tuning forks with rubber bands on them, they don’t vibrate much. Take the rubber bands off, and they immediately begin to resonate with others of their tone.
Take the cast off of a kid’s leg and they immediately begin to run around. Take the hobbles off a horse and Look Out!
She is away from the inhibitor, in her own element, surrounded by her home culture, dealing with intense emotional trauma from Todd’s incident, AND in immediate proximity to Echo powers. It makes perfect sense to me that her powers would start to awaken.
What you said.
We don’t yet know that she has any of the Echo abilities other than… getting headaches when they’re used around her.
Too early to celebrate.
Maybe she’ll be a really dinky Echo. That would be… kind of cute. Learning how to leverage dinky powers!
I kind of miss the emoji-censorship actually.
Didn’t notice until you said it, but yeah — that’s a staple of this comic and very much appreciated! What’s with this bar thing?
Some folks complained about it so Dave dropped it – ironically enough that seems to generate just as many complains though. 😀
Personally I don’t care either way, not bothered by appropiate swearing, but not like you can’t tell what it says.
I started reducing their use a bit after a constant stream of griping and bitching anytime hey came up, but also because they were making some scenes unintentionally comedic and harming the “tone” of scenes. So when I decided to throw some cuss words in this scene I chose, mostly for the second reason but also partly for the first one, to just do a plainer censoring style.
Might bring them back later in a scene that isn’t meant to be taken semi-seriously.
Okay, that’s an argument I can accept. Emoji-censorship in the regular, fairly light-hearted parts, and non-emoji censorship in the particularly dark or dramatic parts. I can see that.
I never took the anti-emoji-censorship people seriously. It seems like a silly complaint. Here is perhaps the only time I have EVER seen a comics artist being creative with the way he censors the swearing, and people want him to go back to boring everyday censorship bars? The emoji are way more fun!
(I take the anti-self-censorship crowd even LESS seriously. The fact that this comic is self-censored is what allows me to unabashedly plug it to everyone I know, down to kids who haven’t even reached the double digits. There’s no reason to make the swearing more in-your-face; what’s here gets the job done, indicates realism without being aggressive about it, and ensures that this remains a fairly all-ages comic, which I much appreciate.)
Poor Dave: He’s fire + pitchfork if he uses the emoji swears, and d###ed if he don’t.
Dave should do it Dave’s way and not worry too much about what the fans think. But I’m still gonna state my love of the emoji-censorship as plainly as I state anything else.
It’s a great compromise, inventive, enjoyable, and fun. I don’t see why people complain about them.
That was brilliant, Batgirl. 🙂
Selkie is about to go full Archon, “POWER OVERWHELMING!”
OH NICE
Dave, you just love doing this to us… At least your not like some comic artists who will deliberately lengthen or shorten some scenes so they can do a Friday cliff hanger.
Side topic, do you ever do any shows? I remember from a past comment you are in the same geographical region and I would love to shake your hand sometime.
Not many shows unfortunately, although I am going to be at SNAFUcon in Reno on the first weekend of October.
Which reminds me, should probably say that somewhere. XD
Reno would work when I lived in the west coast but no longer. Please keep us updated. I would love to see you and your work get proliferated.
Maybe it’s just gas.
Actually, now I really want this to happen, would be a hilarious troll on Dave’s part.
Spend all this time talking about Selkie’s stunted powers, shows the glow-y eyes and then she just farts under water and she feels fine, no powers.
Do… they just pee in the water as they go or are there bathrooms that keep the waste from feeding back into the water they’re swimming in…?
If you mean periods, please just say so. It shouldn’t be that taboo to say…
(But if you mean a certain something else by “first few times”; I understand why you are not saying it outright.)
Ugh, that was supposed to be a reply to Peya Luna and I can’t fix it.
I’m thinking when she opens her eyes she’s gonna be all Cyclops-like with uncontrollable green blasts devastating random things.
Torch a strip of Gien’s hair, maybe.
OK, I am now all caught up. Dave? You had me scared for awhile back there, I thought you were gone for good.
Props to Todd for being able to switch gears from “oh god I almost died” to “oh hey my kid is in distress” so quickly.
Again, I really hope that her powers manifest as strong as what is suggested. Not because I want her to be “Dr Terrorhammer” but because it would add a lot of gravitas and texture to why her mom dampened her powers to begin with. Also Selkie would most certainly be thrust into the center of ‘how best to approach this’ among her clan, the special services, and her father. Not to mention the emotional maturity that will have to take place between her and her ‘already feeling neglected’ sister.
She could turn into a tyrant, or she could be afraid, or she could be remarkably mature — which we’ve seen Selkie do with Truck and with others.
I, for one, would like to see what Selkie the most powerful Echo that ever lived – among humans and her own kind – would be like.