If you’re going to use an existing photo as reference for an illustration, you better choose the original subject carefully. For instance, the “Legends of Steel” character sketch of Talena I posted about a while back used this lovely young lady’s photo for the face:

(Image removed due to copyright issues.)

But sometimes using reference can go terribly, horribly wrong.

For example, I’ve been re-reading the “Honor Harrington” series (excellent military sci-fi by David Weber) lately, and while I can understand the cover artist for “Field of Dishonor” wanted to use reference for the female protagonist, I can’t figure out why he went with Michael Jackson:

And why does he — er, she — have Man-Hands? I feel lucky the uniform color covers up the Adam’s apple, although now that I think about it I bet Michael Jackson had his surgically removed anyway.

(Cover painting by Gary Ruddell, book ©1994 by David Weber, published by Baen Books.)

Apparently being consumed by your costume causes your toes to melt. If you’re a Marvel super-villain, that is. Exhibit A is Man-Ape:

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Consider this an open thread for bug reports in any HeroMachine version. Please note which version it is you’re seeing the bug in when you post. Thanks!

Here’s a list regarding HM2.5’s latest expansion pack release from one of the extremely kind folks on the HM Yahoo Group:

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I am happy to announce that the new expansion items from Mark Shute are now LIVE in the first and second male, and first female, body templates! This update includes most of what you see in Mark’s preview, for a rough new item count of 300 or so. All are located in the Expansion1 set of each component, usually at the end. We’ve got dozens of new guns, new shields, beard styles, gloves, you name it, so check it out today!

And as always, thanks to the nice people at UGO, these new Expansion items are yours absolutely free.

(01-21-08, edited to add)

The expansion items will be available for free download in the Desktop Edition once all of the items are available for all six bodies. Until then, there’s no point in putting up a new 45+MB package that people are going to have to download over and over with each tweak. At this point the expansion is still in “beta”; once it’s completely done, it’ll be put into a downloadable format.

I love Dave Gibbons’ art and Len Wein’s writing, and I actually think the Demolition Team’s costumes are perfect for what they are, but this particular illustration made me stop and wonder:

Has any other villain in history worn a beer hat into combat? Granted, a cold beverage might be just the ticket when things heat up, and I bet her backpack functions as a refrigerator, but still, don’t drink and rivet, you know what I mean?

(Demolition Team image © 1984, DC Comics, Green Lantern #174)