39: Out of Her League
May02
Looks like that poor cutie’s so flustered by Red and Deborah’s scaryhotness that she’s mixed up her words.
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Cast
Deborah FayetA talented young model and Red's arch nemesis, in both school and business. She is determined to prove her natural superiority towards her rivals. Comics: 12 |
Tiffany "Red" ThorntonRed was a boy until a new genie tried to get Melvin a girlfriend. That's when the genie turned Red into a girl so Melvin could practice talking to girls, and forgot to turn her back before disappearing. Red is hopeful that her situation is only temporary. Comics: 226 |
VerónicaYoungest member of the High Council of Witches, feared for her natural dominion of the dark arts. In truth, she is a shy and romantic girl who takes her responsibilities as a witch and a student really seriously. She attends the Southeil Academy as a student to supervise the recruitment of new witches. Comics: 7 |
Seems like Red is already used to being a girl at this point…
Makes me wonder if she will even want to change back anymore.
At this point Red been a girl for five to six months now. So had to develop a certain a female personality and such for the job she has to go to and to defend herself from her arch enemy Deborah.
But, there still a big difference between being able to act like a girl and actually wanting to be a girl. We still have no indication that she want to stay a girl, which last time the issue came up, she didn’t want to be a girl.
I would say that at this point, if she is turned back to boy, she will from time to time miss being girl. However, hard to say what will she prefer. Unless switching genders at will will be an option 🙂 … Tedd?
Well, I think switching genders would be entirely doable. Assuming Jeanie’s spell is ever removed, Melvin should be more than capable of turning Clarence back into Tiffany at will.
One might say Tiff and Debbie are Smokin’ in the Girls Room…
(Please someone else be old enough to get that joke.)
Uhhh, I’m not sure I get the joke, except that you’re word-playing “smoking hot” with “smoking cigarettes/pot”.
It’s a 1973 song by Brownsville Station, who also brought us Martian Boogie.
And to clarify, the title of the song was Smokin’ in the Boys Room.
First panel: Tiff
Ugh! It’s this really necessary?!
Ugh! Is this really necessary?!
Oh shoot, I totally missed that. Will fix.
Proofreading:
Frame 2: I admit to a certain curiosity as to what a girl’s “bossom” might be like. It’s…almost…a word. I like it.
Frame 7: “too scared”
Frame 7: “demand an apology”
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Random art note: excellent skeptical look on Red in frame 3.
I have serious doubts about the academic intentions of a school administration that specifies a uniform skirt hemmed above the knee. I applaud the fashion, mind, but….
Also, short skirts and thigh high stockings. Gods, deadly combination, and strangely, it’s the small gap between the tops of one and the hem of the other that gives the look its striking power. Red partially defuses it by keeping her socks below the knee; pantyhose would do the same thing in the other direction. Good thing this is a girls’ school, because no male student would ever be able to concentrate on his studies.
> Also, short skirts and thigh high stockings. Gods, deadly combination, and strangely, it’s the small gap between the tops of one and the hem of the other that gives the look its striking power
Ahh, a fellow connoisseur of Zettai Ryouiki, I see!
I also think you might be surprised about school admins and skirt lengths. My mother had a friend in high school who got frostbite on her knees because her uniform skirt was *required*. They were not allowed to wear pants, even in the dead of winter in Chicago. The school got sued, and changed their policy.
Also, I’ve fixed those typos. But I can claim one bit of dignity back from you and Riniko, for you did not notice the final typo before I fixed it myself! 🙂
Good heavens, no. I have doubts about their intentions, not their existence.
[falls into TVTropes] A fan of Absolute Territory, darn betcha.
And I say again, any school administration that selects uniforms with skirts above the knee is sabotaging education. Although as one article I just read points out, when you are surrounded by nominally cute uniforms worn by not-so-cute girls, for months or years on end, the effect wears off.
(And also, Catholic Junior high and High schools have abandoned the classic uniform. They finally realized that “What looks cute on a nine-year old is completely different on a sixteen year old.” Yes, yes it is.)
It’s not just school uniforms. I used to have a friend who worked as a bank teller in the 70s. They wore uniforms selected from catalogs by male executives, who based their decisions on the catalog photos of attractive young women in miniskirts.
Too bad many of the actual tellers were middle aged women of a certain…heft.
The executives never learned, until finally tellers were allowed to select their own clothes, with a strictly enforced dress code.
On them, the uniforms were not remotely attractive, and even physically uncomfortable. Rather than being fitted to the older anatomies, they were simply scaled up in size. Sort of.
“How can anyone bear to use this tie UNDER the vest?”
Simple, Red. They can bear it because that’s how it’s meant to be worn. I can’t imagine it’s that . . . actually, could any of the ladies weigh in on this? Would a tie worn under (what I assume is) a sweater vest be that uncomfortable? I lack the equipment to know the answer myself.
nod-nod, particularly given that the tie nestles in the valley there.
Or is she really objecting to having to wear the vest buttoned? Many men, including myself, leave the jacket or vest unbuttoned (although this is considered not the highest of fashion, and may indicate a jacket that has not been cut full enough for the wearer).
To be honest guys, I needed a reason to never draw that Tie outside the vest during any scene on the academy, where everybody wears one, otherwise I could go crazy. Enters Headmistress Anning to solve that, but I did need a reason as to why the ties were out to begin with.
Deborah for fashion reasons, that’s easy, same with her lackeys. Patrica is an actual rebel, we will get to that eventually. As for Red… look guys, I can’t really confirm if it is as bothersome as Red says it is, but you will have to take her words in regards how tight the vest is, and think in all the friction going on in there! At the very least, it makes her conciouss of a part of her body she rather not be conscious about!
That makes sense Carlos, and believe me I was not complaining. More like curious. I would like to hear from somebody with the relevant topography, though.
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And not at all by the way, that’s a stunning portrait of the two getting all sparkly and stuff.
@Carlos – cool to get the reasons. I, like 50srefugee, was more curious than anything; the girls’ uniform at my high school didn’t include a tie, so I was also wondering if anyone with the relevant equipment can confirm or deny.
Though you can answer one question, if you would be so kind: are those sweater vests the girls are wearing, or regular ones? I have a hunch, but would like to be certain. Also, for some reason, my phone’s autocorrect suggests “on a leash” as the follow-up for “be”, and I’m not at all sure why.
@He Who Abides Sweater Vests, that was what I did assume from CD’s and Bachmann previous designs, and looking through actual school uniforms, and heck, anime ones too, it seems to be the usual. Also, we are not going to judge your phone for whatever it my be into, so don’t worry 😉
@50srefugee Glad you like the sparkly shot panel! Later today I will release the individual high res renders of the girls on my patreon, though a stand alone, high res shot of the two together will be made public on my gallery too. I need to promote the site somehow after all!
@ He Who Abides, Most school, especially public school don’t have there own uniforms, especially inside the United States. Only the private school will have uniforms if they choose to have them. I think that the tie with there uniform is an indication that it a high class prestigious school with limited access from the so called less desirable people. Red father had to use his connections to get Red into this school. This is also one of the Places where the girls start making connection that will last for the rest of there lives too. So the tie also might be viewed as having made it statues symbol too to the big league.
Red would not be interested in the statues symbol, but, Deborah would be interested in that symbol of snobbery to the max.
@Carlos – that’s what I figured too, but I wasn’t 100% sure until now. Thanks for confirming. Also, apparently the “on a leash” was a leftover from my last comment on Bodysuit 23, which stuck around for a while.
@Larry – well, I went to Catholic school K-12, so uniforms were just the norm for me. Mine were never that bad, but I felt kinda bad for my sisters and best friend having to wear jumpers/skirts all the time.
If Red’s vest is too tight, then it’s probably because it’s a size too small. I would not be surprised if Red’s parents intended it that way in order to showcase their daughter’s “assets”.
@ijuinkun – sweater vests tend to be stretchy, though. Yes, they have sizes, but one of my sisters tended to borrow vests from my missus (who was . . . not the same size, let’s say) with no complaints. At least, not in the bust area; she did get a few write-ups for wearing a vest that was too short when it happened.
OK the little cutie sounds like Yoda in the last panel. Her remark “Goddess gracious”, is she the witch referred to in the previous post.
Looks like she has a crush.
Maybe I’ve said it before, but these kids are supposed to be in their second year of junior high. So were Usagi-tachi in the first two seasons of Sailor Moon, but Deborah and Red are both up to and perhaps past Makoto/Lita/Sailor Jupiter’s “talents”.
I hope their proportions are more in line with their second to last year of high school then! Somehow I feel they may still be over exaggerated for girls on their 16… but I swear is more on me getting used to draw characters of this age than anything else!
Also Tom, this was indeed brought out before, but I have no problem explaining it again: Our main characters in the Melvin Chronicles were always set to be on their 15s and going through high school, hence the high school tag. Time skip for my current run and now we have both Melvin and Red close to their 16s, and BJ already there (JJ is 13, in case someone is curious).
The Junior High idea came from a single line of dialogue Jeanie had short after meeting Melvin, in regards the clothes she wore back then. This is a line I miss while doing my notes, and in all honestly go against whit everything I had noted for the MC at that point. So when someone did point the line to me, I asked CD for his thoughts, and he told me to not mind the line that much.
In the end, Jeanie is the same girl who believed that Santa was one of the three wise men, to not speak of her plan to prove that all men are scumbags and not just Jean… by making a Jean doppelganger act as a scumbag. So in my mind, and with Melvin being a small kid for his age, she just give him a look and assumed he has to be in Junior High at best.
This may not that obvious now, but the age of this characters is actually important for the plot, something that may be evident more sooner than later, so I hope this helps clear any confusion!
@Tom Sewell, Yes, last year JJ was about 12 years old and in the sixth grade and Melvin, BJ, Red are about 15 give or take a few month where they could be either 14 or 16, they were in the 9th Grade which is considered to be the first year of high school year. In the United States most 9th grade are generally grouped with Junior High grades of 7, 8 grades.
However for our story Junior High is being combined with the High School too, so there is no separation between the Junior and High classes.
So this year, JJ is 13 and is in the 7th grade. Melvin and BJ advanced from 9th Grade at age 15 to age 16 in 10th grade. Red advances from a Public School in the 9th grade to a private school in the 9th grade to 10th grade in a Private School. This is also the first year that Melvin, BJ and Red can take Drivers Ed to learn how to drive and get a drivers license and they can get cars and such. I wonder if one of the things that Carlos is planning is to have Red come driving up in a Red Fiery. That would be very classic thing to put into this story and have both Melvin and BJ see that.
Being called you are. Lost lines from Yoda?
Does the new fan favorite have a name, or were you not expecting her to get this much attention?
I don’t know if she is really a new fan favorite, but I do have plans for her! I just rather wait a little before introducing her tag.
I, for One, am rooting for our bespectacled, raven hair admirer
If Morgan was a model at the same time as Ida and Mary we could end up with a three way cat fight. Meow-hiss-hiss.
If Yoda follows Red home she could crush on Melvin for a love triangle-Melvin, Holly and Yoda.
She could cruse on BJ for BJ, Clamor and Yoda.
She could crush on Saachi, ???
OK, J. J. I could use a little help here. I am to old to be dealing with teen anguish.
Let do the arithmetic here on roughly how old Mary is:
Mary was a model in her early 20s, She started being a model about the time that Red became a model and she stayed a model until about 20 to 23, where she meet her husband and marries him. Red is almost sixteen and 9 month for a pregnancy we have about 17 years there about that Mary been married to her husband. That means that Mary should be about 40 years old, give or take one or two years.
Further back when Ida was first introduced to us, they said she was 26 years old and assigned her to be Red mentor. So there is about a 10 to 15 year difference between Ida and Mary who is Reds mother. Mary would have been the old model who career is winding down and she engaged to married to man that her husband now. Ida would have been the new upcoming model to replace Mary as she leaves.
@Larry That’s a timeline well put together… but is not the timeline I am working with. At the moment Mary is still an active model (this is coming from my current run), while Ida is retired and working as a handler for young models (this is coming from the cast page, which hasn’t been altered since the previous run). May I ask where it was established Ida’s age? For what I can tell, is nowhere in the story so far, neither in the cast page. Was this shared on the comments or something?
The short conversation between Mary and Ida in “Red bad break” would indicate to me that the two knew each other and it is not friendly so I assumed they were close in age.
@gary Indeed, I got the same impression, and they are close in age on my run. Or at least they were, I am legit curious if it was mention that Ida had 26 anywhere, if so, and due to that never being mentioned in the actual comic, it may be a soft recon from my part now.
@Carlos – their ages were never established. That said, Mary’s at least in her mid-30s (or had Clarence/Tiffany when s/he was still in high school). I always got the vibe that Ida was younger (mid-20s, at most) but got hurt and couldn’t model anymore (headcanon, YEAH!).
@gary – NO! BAD GARY! J.J.’s got enough going on planning the baby shower for when Kazom gets impregnated by Saachi’s 5th evil identical lesbian vampire cousin tentacle monster, she has no time for your nonsense!
Oh dear me and there I just love Lusca tentacle Humbolt squid monsters.
I looked a few time to see if I could find where it said that Ida was 26 years old and wasn’t able to find it. But, Ida is more like an older sister to Red than some women that old enough to be Red Mother. I also never said that Ida didn’t meet Mary while modelling either.Mary is obviously the senor model and Ida was the new model and Ida obviously didn’t like Mary. AS they say, Mary a real Bitch and not to many would like her.
Anyone else hearing the Daemon Sisters’ theme from psg
What does PSG stand for?
I have the feeling it is Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, and more specifically, this theme!
Hmm, missed it the first time around, looks like in panel 4, Red is making reference to an older sister model of Deborah’s, who I’ve been suspecting is Morgan Fayet of Sailor Sun by CD Rudd fame, or infamy as your opinion may be.