Monthly Archives: December 2009

Let’s get Hammered! Or, HammerKNIGHTed.

With many thanks to the ever-awesome Hammerknight, here are two more fun puzzles to help you while away your hangover tomorrow, and to prepare for the getting of your hangover today. Print them out and have fun! (As usual, click on each to get a larger, more printable version.)

first-appearance-puzzle
heroes-and-villains-puzzles

And in super-small size so as to not spoil them, after the jump is your answer key.

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Random Panel: Oh my.

marymarvel-1-1945-fisting

(From "Mary Marvel" number 1, 1945.)

More contest items

I've been busy the last couple of days, and am happy to announce the release of several new items from past contest winners.

First, Kingmonkey chose a Bulletman helmet for winning Character Contest 19 (Halloween), and it is now available in Headgear-Standard:

bulletman-headgear

Next, Hammerknight wanted Gargoyle style legs for winning Character Contest 22 (Greek Mythology) which are now in Male & Female Body Standard:

gargoylelegs

This large monstrous hand bears no relation to any other fantasy hand, living or dead, and any coincidence thereby is purely coincidental. And anyway, Johny's the one who wanted it for his Real-Life Halloween prize in Character Contest 20 (now in HandRight/HandLeft-Standard):

hand

Finally, Rancid chose a neat neck collar thingie for winning Character Contest 16 (Progression), which is in Neckwear-Standard and is intended to have the head nestle into it so it looks like the neck is in shadow:

neckthingie

Thanks to those guys for being patient with me, and hope you all enjoy their choices too.

Unfortunate adventures in super-patriotism

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that perhaps wearing a costume that looks like someone's given you an atomic wedgie of such massive proportions that your underwear actually forms a cape is not the best way to inspire awe in the Enemies of Freedom:

captainv

Throw in the way his head seems to be floating, severed, over the obnoxious underwear cape and the always-hated greaves-not-boots footwear and this is not America's proudest moment. Plus, as frequent reader and gift-from-above-contributor Kate put it when she sent me the image:

"It gives me unsavory mental images of Captain V asking women if they'd like to lick his peppermint stick."

On that note, have a Happy New Year full of randomness and bad super hero costumes, everyone! And because we're all about the education here at HeroMachine, allow me to share with you a tip from the book "Atomic Wedgies, Wet Willies, & Other Acts of Roguery" on how to avoid an atomic wedgie. If only this helpful tome had been around in the Forties for Captain V!

atomicwedgie_001

Random Panel: Great moments in random setups

master-comics-52-1944-yodelling

(From "Master Comics" number 52, 1944.)

Contest 20 Prize: Celtic cross staff

Kaldath and I have finished up his prize for being one of the winners of Character Contest 20 ("Real Halloween"), a nifty Celtic cross staff head now found in "ItemRight-Polearms":

Thanks Kaldath!

Character Contest 24: Super enemies

After a two week break for the holidays, it's time once again for a character design contest!

Only this time, your challenge is to develop a bad guy! Come up with the best enemy for an established character, explaining who the person is and how they're related to the main character, and you'll win either a portrait or any item you like to be included in HeroMachine 3.

As an example, you might come up with a new Bulletman villain named "Kevlar" (he stops bullets!). Or a Spider-Man villain named "The Boot" (see, he squishes spiders).

You get the idea. The villain you come up with should be tied to a published super-hero in some way.

To recap, the rules are:

  • All entries must be posted as a comment to this post, including a link to an image of the character on a publicly accessible web site (something like PhotoBucket or ImageShack or the UGO Forums) along with a name and explanation of who his arch rival is;
  • As many entries as you want, but they can't have been entered into an HM contest before;
  • No image editing in PhotoShop-like applications except for basic cropping.

All submissions are due by next Monday night at midnight, with results posted on Tuesday.

Good luck everyone!

Random Panel: Must’ve been a bullet-train

bulletman-train

Poll Position: A new beginning

"Retconning" is a popular past-time in modern comics, wherein something about an established character's history is changed on purpose for some reason or another. In extreme cases, retcons can turn into full-fledged reboots, as John Byrne famously did in the Eighties with "Superman".

Which is what brings us all here today.

{democracy:114}

Discussion after the jump.

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Random Panel: On reasons, excellent

bulletman-sissy