Monthly Archives: November 2009

Random Panel: Killing the mood, super style

amazing-adventures-2-2-1970-karnak

(From "Amazing Adventures" number 2, volume 2, ©1970 Marvel Comics, Inc. and drawn by the inimitable Jack Kirby. Thanks to John for the scan.)

Friday Night Fights

Comic books are all about two sides fighting it out, and that kind of head-to-head battle has been sorely lacking here at HeroMachine.com. But no more! Because starting this week you'll have your chance to duke it out with each other in our new contest feature, "Friday Night Fights"!

Here's how it works. Starting next Friday, November 20, sixteen challengers will square off in a set of eight head-to-head battles. The highest vote-getter in each match will move on to the next round, again vying against one competitor for top vote-getting honors. We'll go four total rounds, going from sixteen challengers to eight, to four, and then to the finals matching the two bracket winners against each other:

fnf-bracket-blank
  • To enter, create one and only one image for each weekly theme -- super-hero, fantasy, sci-fi, and open (meaning it can be whatever you like) -- and email the four images (or a link to them) to Jeff Hebert at afdstudios@gmail.com by Wednesday, November 18!. Make sure I know which image is for which week and remember to email them, do not post them in the comments!;
  • None of the submitted characters can have been submitted to a contest on HeroMachine.com before; you can only enter one set of characters, so choose carefully!
  • If there are more than sixteen people who wish to enter, I will pick what I think are the strongest sixteen for the contest;
  • When your character's match is open, tell your friends to come and vote vote vote! Each person can only vote once per day, but can vote every day of the week if they're so inclined;
  • Each match will last for one week, with the winner being the top vote-getter of the two as of that Friday;
  • The winner of each match will move on to the winner of the match from the appropriate bracket game;
  • The final four will get to choose either a portrait of themselves or an item of their choice to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 program. The overall runner-up will receive a custom black and white character portrait of whatever they like (within reason), and the overall winner will receive a custom color character portrait of whatever they like (again, within reason).

I would like to thank my buddy John for coming up with this idea in the first place, and then further helping me refine it. Thank you Mr. Hartwell!

I'd also like to tip the hat to Bahlactus for starting the original comic-book Friday Night Fights. They're very different from this one, but any time you have super-hero types duking it out online, I think you need to warm the cockles of your heart (wherever those are) with thoughts of him.

Good luck, everyone who decides to enter!

Random Panel: Ouch!

mystery-men-3-rear

(From "Mystery Men" number 3.)

Making covers

Hammerknight has really outdone himself this week, putting together a wonderful guide on using third-party applications to assemble a comic book cover out of your HeroMachine parts. I can't even imagine how much effort went into putting this together, many thanks to him.

As usual, click on any of these images for a larger version.

Continue reading

Random Panel: Worst. Battle-cry. Ever.

bulletman-10-1942-motto

(From "Bulletman" number 10, 1942.)

Sports Illustrated it ain’t …

With heartfelt thanks to Chris Sims for burning out my retinas with his retrospective of the Marvel Swimsuit Edition comics of the morally turgid Nineties, I present to you what is possibly the worst costume ever. Anywhere. In this, or any conceivable universe:

swimsuitnamor

Seashells on man-parts is wrong. Just wrong. Let's not even get into how staggeringly uncomfortable that thing must be to wear, with the ridges and the coral and the sharp bits ... man, talk about "shrinkage". ::shudder::

Here's how bad it is. It's so bad that just wearing it has turned Namor into a walking, noseless, undead mummy aqua-zombie. With incredibly viscous water oozing down his disturbingly ribbed musculature. It's either that, or the sight of his skimpy shell-Speedo got the local sperm whale a little too excited.

(Image and character ©1995, Marvel Comics, and the responsibility of Joe Quesada, who should be ashamed. Forever.)

Random Panel: In space, no one can hear you whine

mystery-men-3-decompression

(From "Mystery Men" number 3, no date given but it looks like 1940 or 1941.)

Character Contest 21: Randomawesity

Random is not just a by-word here at HeroMachine Global Headquarters, it's a way of life. To honor that commitment, your challenge this week is to design a character from the name given you by the "Ultimate Game Name Generator" . You can try multiple times for a good name, but you have to use one given by them.

I of course have no way to detect cheating so we will be operating under the confines of the Honor System. Cheaters will be beaten with a wet noodle til collapse. Of the cheater, not the noodle because come on, how long would that take?

So, on to our rules!

  • New characters only, not one you have laying around that you think will definitely win.
  • Character must be built to fit with the name generated by the "Ultimate Game Name Generator", and the name must be provided in the post.
  • All entries must be made as comments to this post, between now and next Tuesday, each comment containing a link to an image of the character (or multiple links to your multiple characters) hosted on a publicly accessible web site like ImageShack, the UGO Forums, PhotoBucket, or whatever.

That's it! No limit on the number of entries this week, so let 'em rip. It would also be fun to see in your post which settings were used to generate the name, although that's not a requirement.

Whoever has the best entry as judged by the capricious whim of Jeff Hebert will win either a portrait of their head or any item they choose, to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 program.

Good luck everyone!

Caption Contest 64 Winner

Thanks to everyone who entered "Caption" Contest 64. To review, this one was a bit different, you had to do what I do with the Daily Random Panels and come up with a funny headline for the panel in question:

greenmask-3-1940-getitup

The following Honorable Mentions did it particularly well:

  • Danny Beaty: How can I when you’re pointing a loaded gun at me!
  • Tim: Three little words to make a conversation awkward.
  • Hammerknight: You know the Economy is bad when heroes read for parts in porn movies.
  • the creator: why employers cancel casual fridays
  • Bael: I’ve heard of shotgun weddings, but this is getting ridiculous.
  • PhoenixTalion: Meanwhile, at the Corleone Sperm Bank…
  • Montana Player: Inner monolouges gone wrong.

Which leaves our winner, who I think not only nailed the entire concept of what the Headlines are supposed to be, and not only perfectly captured the essence of this incredibly random panel, but also made me laugh right out loud ...

TheNate: Study: 99 Percent of Superheroes Not Bullet-Proof

Well done, Nate and all the Honorable Mentions! He'll get to choose either a portrait of himself or any item he likes for inclusion in the final HeroMachine 3 program.

We'll have a normal Character Contest coming up in a bit. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to enter!

Random Panel: Great moments in bad prom dates

bulletman-10-1942-gas

(From "Bulletman" number 10, 1942.)