Wapsi Square

Slice of supernatural life YA comic PG-13 to R
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"Soap Bubbles"
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Soap Bubbles

by Paul Taylor on December 9, 2010 at 12:00 am
Story: Wapsi-Archive
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Discussion (62) ¬

  1. MAKATTACK
    December 9, 2010, 12:10 am | # | Reply

    damn! that’s some impressive snow flurry art right there!

    • Jim
      December 9, 2010, 12:12 am | # | Reply

      Yes . Very nice .

    • SoWhyMe
      December 9, 2010, 12:59 am | # | Reply

      Really conveys a feeling of cold. It must be too when a toughy like Shelly has her hood up, down jacket zipped to the top, and is wearing large, plastic coated mittens with extended tops. All she needs is a balaklava to top it all off.

      • bmonk
        December 9, 2010, 3:01 pm | #

        And no midriff showing. They must have had the same cold snap we went through this past week.

      • Biker Matt
        December 9, 2010, 8:29 pm | #

        From the looks of the snow, I’d say it’s the wind. She doesn’t look otherwise bothered (and remember what she said she DOES worry about…)

  2. geekoncall
    December 9, 2010, 12:10 am | # | Reply

    She’s frightened of breaking her like a soap bubble and she crushed her hand to make a point?

    • Biker Matt
      December 9, 2010, 12:17 am | # | Reply

      Like gripping the handle of a coffee cup without deforming it.

      Just a touch harder than how than she normally holds back.

    • txmystic
      December 9, 2010, 12:33 am | # | Reply

      Yeah, I wonder how much effort it took to make her point without actually breaking Shelley’s arm…

      • Pol
        December 9, 2010, 12:40 am | #

        five to ten pounds per square inch? Normally I’d say fifteen but her hands are probably still smarting from squishing the frothing cup… (don’t believe me? poke a bathroom scale with your finger, it crawls up there fast!)

      • txmystic
        December 9, 2010, 11:01 am | #

        I was referring to the fact that Bud might have to make more of an effort in restraining herself given her superhuman powers, rather than the effort to get to the point of breaking Shelley’s arm…I’m assuming that’s one reason she suggested the fragility of humans scares her

    • SoWhyMe
      December 9, 2010, 12:48 am | # | Reply

      Judging that Jin doesn’t accidently break her BF when they are the passionate throes of messy sex (not a time when one is all that clear headed), I don’t think they normally have to hold back all that much. It seems more like they have to make a conscious effort to bring on the extra strength instead. On the other hand, Bud seems to make diamonds without realizing it so I’m not totally certain about that theory. I’m not sure how she makes diamonds from coffee cups either. Seems like the wrong base material.

      • Jabberwonky
        December 9, 2010, 12:59 am | #

        Or nearly enough mass…

      • kramegame
        December 9, 2010, 1:01 am | #

        nobody said it was diamonds, but given any petroleum based plastic, and enough heat and pressure you can make diamonds out of nearly anything made in the modern day. my favorite is hair being turned into diamonds. Michael Jackson’s hair-diamond is worth 1.2 million dollars. The base material only sets how much heat you’ll need to remove any impurities before the carbon can change into a crystalline structure.

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 10:09 am | #

        Bud turned an apple into a diamond and accumulated a jar full of them. It wasn’t clear what the other starting materials might have been used.

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 10:27 am | #

        FWIW, Bud also said that the GGGs can make “compressed diamonds” that aren’t natural and can’t be man made. Is that what Bud was making? That also raises the question of who made Shelly’s mom’s dolls.

      • Julie
        December 9, 2010, 8:21 am | #

        I think that the coffee cup she crushed wasn’t labelled a diamond. Bud insinuated that it was a mystery stone that scientists would have to work to figure out.

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 10:09 am | #

        http://wapsisquare.com/comic/angerstone/

    • eschmenk
      December 9, 2010, 10:14 am | # | Reply

      I don’t know if Bud is worried about hurting Shelly as much as worrying that the people Bud wants to protect could be hurt so easily. Bud did Shelly a favor by getting her to not worry about being a freak and making sure she knew she still had limits.

  3. Jim
    December 9, 2010, 12:11 am | # | Reply

    Tiny bubbles . . .

    • jwhouk
      December 9, 2010, 6:05 am | # | Reply

      No, this isn’t Honolulu. This is Minneapolis.

      • SoWhyMe
        December 9, 2010, 3:19 pm | #

        Tiny frozen aqueous globes.

      • Jim
        December 9, 2010, 9:15 pm | #

        Hohohohohoho !

      • Fairportfan
        December 9, 2010, 11:54 pm | #

        DonDonDon!

  4. txmystic
    December 9, 2010, 12:18 am | # | Reply

    Today’s art was worth the delay in update. Nicely done.

    • Julie
      December 9, 2010, 8:23 am | # | Reply

      There was a delay?

      Sometimes I’m glad I walk away from my computer before midnight (at least I do most nights). I deal with fewer update delays that way. 😛

      Oh, and I agree. This page is lovely. 🙂

  5. Fairportfan
    December 9, 2010, 12:31 am | # | Reply

    Shelly’s jacket seems to have gotten longer.

    Or else she pulled up her pants some…

    • Jabberwonky
      December 9, 2010, 12:57 am | # | Reply

      The Picard Manuever…filters at work won’t let the Urban Dictionary link open…dang ’em…

    • Julie
      December 9, 2010, 8:25 am | # | Reply

      Or pulled her jacket down. Clothing items as fitted as that jacket appears to be have a tendency to wiggle up to the smallest point (the waist). I know I constantly have to pull down fitted shirts when I wear them so I don’t have an exposed mid-section.

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 9:48 am | #

        But can you do it with as much class as Captain Picard? (Jabberwonky was talking about the same thing.)

      • Julie
        December 9, 2010, 5:36 pm | #

        Of course not. 😛

  6. J2P2
    December 9, 2010, 6:25 am | # | Reply

    Love the art today!! And the metaphor–aren’t we all a little like soap bubbles? Some of us just have a little more glycerin than others…

  7. Dane
    December 9, 2010, 8:12 am | # | Reply

    “Like soap bubbles”…. I suspect there were a few experiences in Bud’s distant past where the learning curve was particularly ugly.

    • eschmenk
      December 9, 2010, 11:03 am | # | Reply

      It sure started off that way. They weren’t even golems yet. 🙂

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 11:06 am | #

        Ohh! I just noticed. Jin already had snake eyes.

      • Vorlonagent
        December 9, 2010, 11:38 am | #

        IIRC the calendar machine was already set in motion and Jin was already immortal. She may have gotten some zip from that. Then there’s the question of how their powers as golems accumulated. It could simply be that any of the girls had the ability to do what Jin did but none of them had the will.

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 4:40 pm | #

        You are right about her being immortal thanks to the calendar machine, but she also learned a lot of magic from her mother and perhaps some on her own. I don’t think Brandi or Bud had any special abilities and that’s why they were hoping that Jin would rescue them. I think that is also why they still don’t have as many abilities as Jin has.

      • nerf-dweller
        December 9, 2010, 4:59 pm | #

        I think it may be that Jin actually remembers the past 81200 years that she lived through (being aware of the Calender Machin resets). Jin has learned also sort of extra things that Bub and Brandi don’t know. Even if Bud or Brandi did learn a trick, they would have forgotten it when the Calender Machine reset.

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 7:18 pm | #

        Jin was was a glyph reader, for one thing.
        http://wapsisquare.com/comic/talkingincircles/ Jin was obviously using magic in the May 5th, 2006 strip. Also, why else would Bud have been so upset at Jin for not doing more to save Bud and Brandi?

        Jin’s memory didn’t work all that well in the time loops and how much new could Jin learn if pretty much the same thing kept happening over and over?

      • Julie
        December 9, 2010, 12:47 pm | #

        I don’t know if I’d call that a learning curve illustration given that Jin’s intent probably aligned 100% with her actions. 😛

  8. Julie
    December 9, 2010, 8:28 am | # | Reply

    Like soap bubbles? Why specify the bubble’s make-up?

    Then again…we did recently see Shelly produce some nasty snot bubbles…

    Yeah…I’d much rather be compared to a soap bubble than a snot bubble.

    • Eee
      December 9, 2010, 11:16 am | # | Reply

      Because a soap/water mixture has a lot of surface strength and can create larger than you could normally achieve bubbles. But the greater size comes with increased fragility so that any impact – or even just their inherent instability – can cause them to pop, where a bubble made of something else might just be moved aside or endure. Soap bubbles are the archetype of things that are easily breakable.

      Bud has commented before that to her, and probably Brandi and Jin as well, people are like soap bubbles…

      • D. Walker
        December 9, 2010, 1:02 pm | #

        To further distinguish, there is nothing stopping a bubble from forming out of… say… molten metal. If you mix two metals improperly, the one can form bubbles within the other. Even once the mixture cools and hardens, they are still bubbles, albeit very strong ones.

        ~D.

      • StJason
        December 9, 2010, 7:56 pm | #

        That’s one of the things they are looking to make when/if zero gravity manufacturing starts being made. Foamed steel. Engine blocks just as strong but a third the weight (Shelly can throw them even further!). Girders for buildings. Signifigant reduction in the amount of materials used…

        The other big thing is perfect ball bearings. We can make some pretty good ones now, but gravity always squishes them. In zero gravity, all you would have to do is gently squeeze out a bit of molten metal, let it float until cool, and then ship them home. Perfectly spherical ball bearings.

  9. The Old Wolf
    December 9, 2010, 8:37 am | # | Reply

    Beautiful artwork. Makes me want to zip up my parka.

    @Dane: agreed. Mayahuel is not the only one who knows how to slice and dice.

  10. Fnord
    December 9, 2010, 9:03 am | # | Reply

    Waitaminnit … if it’s snowing so hard, then why is Bud fully clothed?

    • Eee
      December 9, 2010, 11:21 am | # | Reply

      OPSEC. She may not feel the cold, but if she’s going to go out in public, especially near home where people might recognize her (as opposed to a distant beach), she has to dress appropriately. Binikis in snowstorms and sub zero weather are not appropriate.

  11. rnd2
    December 9, 2010, 10:12 am | # | Reply

    I like the thick and thin of the line work in bud’s legs. you should experiment more with that style really works 😉

  12. WoodGracie
    December 9, 2010, 11:19 am | # | Reply

    Beautiful artwork there Paul!
    and an interesting insight about/from Bud…something to make me go “hmmmmmm….”

  13. kingklash
    December 9, 2010, 11:31 am | # | Reply

    You ever get a soap bubble in your eye? That’s revenge for the untold millions you’ve popped in your lifetime.

  14. Joe Minotaur
    December 9, 2010, 5:48 pm | # | Reply

    I appologise for going off topic here but I know that several commentors on this site were part of the group that commented over at gocomics/Pibgorn. I says were because the artist and gocomics have taken the comments off the site due to the frequent “Mature” comments that have been made there over the past year. There is a link to a blog with a message as to why the comments were taken down and a space to leave a comment of your own.

    If you’ve never read Pibgorn, please do so before you leave a comment.

    • W.
      December 9, 2010, 7:02 pm | # | Reply

      I don’t know what you’re trying to say. It says Pibgorn no longer allows comments, so how can we leave one? It seems like a nice comic, but it’s tone is definitely different than Wapsi’s. I’m not a prude, but I am by no means risqué and I haven’t read anything in the comments here that have offended me. I’m sure if we were out of line Paul would tell us and we would knock off what he didn’t like. So I really don’t know what you’re trying to get at.

      • Joe Minotaur
        December 9, 2010, 7:18 pm | #

        Here is the link to the blog telling everyone that the comments were taken down and why. Below that, you can find responses that were posted by those who read the strip.
        http://tinyurl.com/35lcu4x

        While the strip has used adult themes these are limited by what the artist and gocomics will allow. The comments, though written, have sometimes used tricks to get foul language past the computer “Nannybot”. There have also been very frank discussions on sexuality, politics and religion.
        In the two and a half years that gocomics allowed people to comment at the site, the number of commenters at Pibgorn had grown from a handful to well over 150 unique commentors in a given month. Over the course of a weekend, between Friday’s posting of the comic and the posting of Monday’s comic, just over 1,300 comments were posted.
        If we’ve had any trouble with trolls or spammers, they are “Flagged” and the administrators are notified of any abuse of the site.

        Sorry for going on so long.

      • W.
        December 9, 2010, 10:04 pm | #

        I’m sorry you lost something you obviously liked. I suppose it could happen here as well; I hope that it doesn’t. On the bright side, the comic is continuing. I’ve followed comics that have just vanished with no explanation. I don’t know whether or not that the authors were hit by a bus or lost interest because they never said. Some of the comics that I read, have no comments section, only forums which I don’t read or nothing at all. I consider the comments section a bonus, kinda like a prize in a cereal box. You like the cereal anyhow, but that prize is nice. 🙂

      • jwhouk
        December 9, 2010, 10:21 pm | #

        Hey, if memory serves, Pibby was one of the handful of webcomics that pointed me towards Wapsi Square.

      • Fairportfan
        December 9, 2010, 11:13 pm | #

        I’ve posted on the GoComics blog entry you pointed to, talking about the situation, and mentioning my attempts to get control of the “Comfy Couch” at Yahoo back.

        Anyone interested in continuing comments on things Pibbish should check my post there.

      • eschmenk
        December 9, 2010, 7:32 pm | #

        Maybe he meant comments on the gocomics blog?

  15. Hmnbyr
    December 9, 2010, 6:36 pm | # | Reply

    Um… Bud has made the soap bubbles arguement before… http://wapsisquare.com/comic/hurtfeelings/

    (Forgive me I’m new to comments here and I have no idea how to do the linkage.)

    • Fairportfan
      December 9, 2010, 11:16 pm | # | Reply

      That worked fine just including a valid URL makes a live link.

      However, this board uses standard basic HTML (or at least a subset thereof), so you can use that if you want to.

      • bmonk
        December 11, 2010, 2:18 pm | #

        I’d use it more often–but it’s not so easy to remember the format…

    • MerchManDan
      December 10, 2010, 7:06 pm | # | Reply

      Yes, but that was to Monica. I’m pretty sure this is the first time she’s mentioned it to Shelly.

  16. Centaur1971
    December 9, 2010, 11:22 pm | # | Reply

    In order to make coal into diamond, a PSI of 5 to the 12 power must be attained. That’s like the center of a Toroidal fusion core at Maximum; and being a magic golem, Bud can exert TWICE that! No…Bud did NOT break her hand…(Shelly just thinks she did) 😉

  17. Niki
    December 10, 2010, 12:42 am | # | Reply

    Brooke posted a blog entry today addressing this issue, actually, so you might give it a read. 🙂

    http://chickweedcafe.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-it-went-down.html

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