Browsing through the UGO HeroMachine forums, I’ve seen a number of “group shots”, characters all built around a common theme and then assembled together in Photoshop. But I think this trio from “Count Libido” (don’t let the name scare you, it’s all clean), called “Linkin Green”:

All of the Count’s character images are really well done, even stretching back to 2005 (!) and the earlier HM versions. Note in this Linkin Green group how well the color palettes match. They’re obviously three individuals, but just as clearly they’re part of a group, and it’s done by setting a simple four color palette and sticking with it. A common mistake when making characters is to load every color in the rainbow onto their outfits, but that just looks like a peacock exploded on them. Keep it to a tight group of colors like Count Libido and you’ll end up with a much better design.

By virtue of the authority vested in me by BAs in Art and English (”Why get one useless degree when you can get two?”), I hereby coin a new word to describe visual sound effects used in comic books*:

OnomontoPOWia: turning text into art in order to render sound. From onomatopoeia.

Yes, capitalizing the POW is required. And if I could figure out how to insert an exclamation point in there without killing half the librarians in the world with a brain aneurysm, I would.

You see examples of onomontoPOWia in pretty much every title on the stands. “Sound effects” help bring the page to life, strangely making the action seem more real even while inserting a completely unreal visual element into the scene. The 1960’s camp series “Batman” really brought this technique to prominence, with spinning “POW!” and “BAM!” starbursts flying from the Caped Crusader’s fists. But they’ve been with the medium virtually from the beginning, and they continue to make comic books better and better. Or worse and worse, depending on how they’re used.

And so, as an homage to this underrated comic book element, every Friday I will attempt to bring you an awesome example of onomontaPOWia, like this mind-blowing example found in Marvel Comics’ “Battle Tide II”:

(more…)

My long-standing love for all things “Legion of Super-Heroes” compels me to link to this well-done mash-up putting “Peanuts” characters in the role of Legionnaires. Enjoy!

(Hat tip to Rob Rogers, whose upcoming super-hero novel “Devil’s Cape” you should pre-order today!)

An ad from the back of a 1985 comic book on my desk:

I salute you, Rip-Offs, for admitting right in the name of your product what it is you’re doing to the kids who purchase you. And then to have the ironic foresight to put the ad in the first edition of “The West Coast Avengers”, a rip-off comic if there ever was one — well. Sir, your name is Genius.

I used to feel bad that most super-villains were humans, but I was delighted to find that the Coneheads, too, have their problems:

Apparently Beldar went to seed after his movie bombed and he took up a life of crime. Pity.

Actually this is an image of DC’s “Brain Storm”, but I think the Coneheads connection is closer to the truth. Take this sentence from his character write-up: “Discovering at last that his brother was not dead, but merely teleported to France accidentally by Brain Storm’s own power … ”

And when asked where he’s from, what does Beldar the Conehead famously answer? That’s right, “We are from France.” I rest my case.

(Image and character @1985 DC Comics, Inc., “Who’s Who”, volume III.)