SFP

sfp-5-58-for-web

The SFP graphic novel, collecting chapters one through four, is now available in the shop! 

Show Comments
  • Arnaldo Iggi Roman

    🙂

  • sav

    robot humor is weird, man.

  • JW

    How can she pick it up without sinking into the ground?

    • Liz

      The same way Superman’s x-ray vision doesn’t cause cancer and Woverine’s super-healing doesn’t cause natural bone to grow over his adamantium skeleton – there’s some degree of magic at work in superhero-land.

    • MisterTeatime

      It wasn’t sinking into the ground when it was sitting in the lobby. Granted, going from a big support polygon to a small one means a geometric increase in pressure… but it looks like this part of the building can handle it.

    • It was The Matrix all along.

    • Nobody

      The floor is made of pure handwavium. Nothing can harm it unless the plot calls for it.

  • Jonathan Boynton

    …I think I like these robots…lol

  • John Smith

    Robots with an attitude…and maybe needing some work on their facial recognition software. I like this place even more, now! 😀 But seriously, Alison must have tactile telekinesis or something, because that load is NOT very well-balanced! She should be holding up the middle part, not just one end.

  • Shjade

    “Demonstrably false!”

    Truly the sickest of burns in the R-con community.

  • ZBass

    My suspension of disbelief can stretch to a biodynamic individual lifting up a few tons of machinery, but my engineering side can’t handle that it’s depicted as unbalanced without the centre of mass above her head ^_^

    • Derpy Physics

      If the central chamber contains a dense fluid then it the mass could be centred over her head no?

      • astrocom

        nope. still too far in front of her.

        • Web

          Super Strength in the form of touch telekenesis field like Maxima has in Grrl Power?

          Some super power game systems have this as an explanation on how someone can lift a car by it bumper without it falling apart.

          • JustinR

            If you read my comment below, or Issue 1, Page 14, you’ll catch on that the TK field has already been implicitly described as the nature of her strength.

    • RaeRae

      Ha! I thought the same thing.

      And then I made up for it by thinking, ‘Hey, maybe she’s just so strong, her fingers are crazy strong too!’ That’s all I could come up with though.

    • Evan Dark

      Well she is walking forward, so if she is accelerating about 0.5 g then it’s all properly balanced. Until she stops, obviously.

    • Keith

      Back in the 80s, a character in Marvel Comics with super-strength picked up a skyscraper by a corner. When readers pointed out that such a feat would result in a building that fell apart well before he could hit his opponent with it, the writers replied that what appeared to be super-strength was in fact a powerful but psychologically restricted power of telekinesis, which not only lifted the building but supported it in the places needed in order to use it to bash someone over the head. It was the same power which allowed the character to hold up the building without actually being dense enough to support it without being crushed.
      It was good enough for me.

    • Llum

      My exact same first through haha!

  • Ross Van Loan

    Wiseass Robots would get real old real fast. It is only a good idea if you plan to turn your human staff into an army of psychotic robot fighters.

  • Scooby do

    I love the robots!

  • Dave Van Domelen

    My copy arrived yesterday, woot.

  • zarawesome

    OK, which of you told the robots about jokes.

  • So, are her automatons mad, or are they just experimenting with the humorous potential of baldfaced falsehoods?

  • Arthur Frayn

    The bots are programmed with an odd sense of humor.

  • TheGonzoMD .

    Apologies, but when Claptrap those robots speaks, I feel my brain cells committing suicide, one by one

    Also, now we get the impossible question of whether Alisons actually super strong, or if she has contact telekinesis bullshit, and if it’s strength, why that thing didn’t come apart.

    • Taylor

      Not to mention the way she balances it from one side. Sometimes I think the stuff in this comic isn’t real.

      • John Smith

        You don’t say? 🙂

      • ZBass

        Sure, but in what way is it not real?

        This is where the sci-fi/fantasy divide normally comes in. With one there’s normally a pseudo-rational scientific explanation for quirky goings on (think the iron man suit), as opposed to fantasy where things work ‘because magic!’. I guess people pick up on inconsistencies between styles of explanations?

    • JustinR

      Her power, back in issue 1 (Page14), was called “Autonomic Somadynamism”. As part of the same paragraph, her doctor make specific mention that she is not actually super strong.

      Autonomic: Semi-automatic, needing initiated deliberately.
      Soma (Medical use): The entirety of the body.
      Dynamism: A great energy or force in motion.

      Her power, much like Superman or Maxima (Grrl Power), is explicitly not super-strength, and is implicitly a force field that is directed through and/or by her body.

      Not an impossible question.

      • Darkoneko Hellsing

        The way she’s holding the big machinery proves it ; thanks for pointing that out, we were discussing it just last page ^^

      • MisterTeatime

        That… is actually a really interesting interpretation. Nice!

        (I read “somatodynamism” as the ability to alter (dynamize) her bodily (soma) force output, and the “you’re not super strong, at least not physically” bit as a reassurance that her mind controls her power, not her body. Under that interpretation, she is effectively super strong (her bodily movements produce forces beyond their physical limitations), but not all the time- her increased force output is something she consciously or preconsciously activates when she needs it.)

        In your interpretation, though- why can’t she fly? If she controls her body with telekinesis, why can she only move by pushing off of stuff like the rest of us?

        • JustinR

          Because sustained flight (in an atmosphere) would require generating all of the appropriate forces continuously. If her ability only magnifies and controls the forces she generates, then you’d have her super-jumps, but no flight.

          Basically, imagine someone who’s actual ability is telekinetic, but it manifests by harmonizing with soundwaves, greatly amplifying them and controlling them, so it ends up as sonic manipulation. Once the music stops (or whatever is generating sufficient soundwaves), the person can’t use their power. The person can’t just use the TK to do things like push people around without screaming at them, because that’s how their power works, regardless of the fact that it is based on TK.

          Same thing, but the force field is magnifying and manipulating the forces put out by her muscles. While the field is managing enough dispersion of force for her to be carrying that machine, it’s possible that she can’t (deliberately) manage the same dispersion against gasses as she can for solids. Therefore, no arms-flapping to have TK “wings” generating the sufficient downdraft for lift.

          TL;DR: Because that’s how her magic works.

          • MisterTeatime

            Ahhhh! That works really well- her power isn’t an unrestricted force directed purely by her mind, it’s an amplification effect acting on her bodily movement (or exertion, since it doesn’t quit when she stands still while holding heavy things).
            No exertion, no force- and in midair, with nothing to brace against, it’s very hard to exert (even a fraction of) sufficient force to push your whole body around. But as long as she’s pushing the subreactor upward with her arms and legs, she can keep it balanced/together by amplifying and extending that upward force with her power.

            Like how a lot of people in various stories have “sound-generating powers” but can’t use them while gagged- their power doesn’t actually generate sound out of nothing, it amplifies and/or directs the sound they make with their body.

            That’s so intuitive that I wonder why I’ve never seen it before, considering how much superhero media from different sources I’ve taken in over the years.

  • spriteless

    So, they have to lie using a different tone of voice, demonstrated by bold to us, because they are bold-faced lies. I like it. I guess I should believe they are not robots.

  • MisterTeatime

    I looked up both of the things the robot references, but I’m not seeing any connection between them. Time will tell whether that’s because I missed something, or because there isn’t supposed to be one.

    • Matthew Dowd

      they are lying, which is funny.

  • Pol Subanajouy

    Man, I was really worried that Alison would fumble or a piece would fall off, knowing her luck. Heh, guess I was worried about nothing.

  • MisterTeatime

    The construction bots and the amusing receptionist (and the powered armor in Chapter 1) were weird but plausible, assuming not much difference between SFP-verse technical capabilities and our own.
    These, though…
    These FLY. Without visible means of propulsion. AND they do it smoothly and autonomously, avoiding obstacles and tracking moving objects, without any visible sensors. AND they’re not limited to simple instruction sets, or even simple instruction categories- they go from doing their jobs to noticing and interacting with Alison without any apparent outside prompting.

    Just the flight capability (the propulsion, the tracking, the autonomous navigation) would be worth a megafortune. For starters, you could do what Lana Lang did in Superman: Camelot Falls- give them video cameras and transmitters, and sell them to news outlets. (Hell, sell them to Hollywood.) Give them lifting attachments and sell them to anybody who needs more gear than they can carry. Imagine a hospital where the crash cart comes on its own, as soon as a doctor calls for it. Give them cameras, transceivers, and remote control arms, and sell them to anyone who might otherwise have to rent a cherry picker (and pay someone to operate it).

    No wonder Paladin is loaded.

    • Markus

      Solution: the robots are made of a lightweight, heat-resistant plastic and have in them a heavily minimized welding kit, a speaker system, and a picoprocessor courtesy of Pint-Size helping to build (read: doing all the setup work and precisely nothing more) a processor production lab. They run off of a custom jet engine that feeds pressurized air from a series of small holes in the top of the egg down to the rim where the two halves meet.

    • asdf

      They’re light enough to fly using electromagnetic levitation, which requires only a relatively small magnet inside the device to push off against a set of larger fixed magnets (then using some low-profile propulsion like air jets to move horizontally). It’s a pretty mature technology that’s already been applied to small objects like this. Navigation could be handled by a central computer, using a set of fixed IR cameras to track the positions of the drones and people in the room.

      The real question is how the hell she packed a functioning blowtorch in an object that weighs at most several ounces.

  • Insanenoodlyguy

    Oh hell. THEY ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL. START SMASHING GIRL THIS IS HOW IT STARTS

  • motorfirebox

    No, actually, it makes complete sense. They are in every way a collection of annoying little fricks.

  • David Gottsegen

    When I saw the robots laughing, all I could hear were the sounds Tom Nook makes when he laughs.

  • Damien S.

    Alison’s found her calling! “I pick up heavy things, move them, and put them down.”

    • Thus putting her on the same footing as Helix from Freefall!

      …is that the joke? Am I explaining the joke? >.<

    • ZBass

      I can think of one governer who made a whole career out of that
      http://youtu.be/wlLpCh-lE54

  • RaeRae

    The robots are the best part of this. BEST.

  • Sabriel

    Oh jeez, the robots are like little kids. “Frick! Hahahahaha! I made a lie! Hahahahaha!”

    Allison should take a shoe and put it on her head and ask them how they like her hat. They would absolutely lose it.

  • Jack Lostthenames Warren

    Can I have one? Please?

  • wanderingdreamer

    Just got my copy of the book in the mail today and wanted to say that it’s just mean to leave the side story on a cliffhanger like that, we need more!

    • JustinR

      I’m hoping that the continuation will happen in future SFP books,at least.

      • wanderingdreamer

        Same here, while it would be nice if each volume had bits about how different parts of the world handle biodynamics I also want to see the conclusion to this story…

        • John Smith

          I liked the little comments at the bottom of each page; it’s just like reading the reader comments on the website. 🙂

  • Damien S.

    That’s the joke, I’m glad someone got it. 🙂
    Helix seems to have more purpose in life than Alison so far…

  • Gg

    I want the Frick Collection. Plz thx

  • Keith

    Oh god they have a sense of humor. Pretty sure they qualify for civil rights.

  • Darkoneko Hellsing

    Squeeee a sentient robot hive. I’ve always dreamt of making one !

  • Mystery girl

    Oh no. Robots with a sense of humor.