Monthly Archives: April 2011

Power User Profile: Panner

Continuing our "Alliteration Theme", this week's "Power User Profile" features that master bug-hunter extraordinaire and expert Open Critique Day critiquer, Panner!
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The Softer Side of Frank Frazetta

Sometimes while reading these Golden Age comics, I stumble across a wholly unexpected gem. I downloaded what I thought was going to be a 1940s-era "Reg'lar Fellahs Heroic Comics" issue, only to find that in fact it was a 1954 "True Life Heroism" book. Although disappointed not to have the latest adventures of Hyrdoman, I decided to give it a read anyway, and boy am I glad I did, because the very first two-page story was illustrated by none other than legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta!

We're used to seeing Frazetta's work featuring leering monsters surging out of the murk and Rubenesque princesses being rescued by mighty-thewed barbarians on the covers of our favorite fantasy series. But take a look at the softer side of Frank in this charming tale of a horse rescue. And still, every panel and every pose is fairly bursting with dynamism.

I'm so excited to have found this gem and to be able to share it with you all. Enjoy!

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Sadly, the Zombie Virus had already begun to change them

(From "Heroic Comics" number 24, 1954.)

HeroMachine 3 Custom Items

I've been very impressed with the HeroMachine 3 items DBlade and Zyp have recently submitted. Adding them to the program was much quicker than I thought it would be, and they look good on the figures. And of course, Mark has a long history of drawing a ton of fantastic stuff to flesh out our characters.

For those wanting to submit items, I wanted to put together template files that have everything in the proper layers. That should make it easier for you, and definitely will make it easier for me. After the jump, I'll get into the nitty-gritty details of how to do all this.

This is for advanced users who have access to and are comfortable using a vector-based drawing program, so be warned. If that's not you, then you probably don't need to read further as it's pretty technical.

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Open Critique Day #17

It's time once again for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following rules:

  • Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
  • Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
  • I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

Creepy Nazi Infantalist Voyeur FTW!

(From "All Male Peepers" "Heroic Comics" number 6, 1941.)

The eye has it

DBlade has sent in another great item, an all-seeing centered Cyclops eye, designed to look correct (ha!) when placed in the center of the head, instead of the others which are all drawn to either go on the left or right side:

This is now available in Eyes-Standard. Note that as usual, you may have to clear your browser's cache if it doesn't show up at the end of the list.

HM3: Printing

Is anyone having trouble printing directly from HM3? I'm having trouble getting the image to appear properly using the built-in "print" button, it cuts it off.

Hm3: Wrestlemania!

I've just uploaded to Headgear-Masks the following wrestler mask (in two parts in case you want to use just the designy part on top of some other item) the following two Wrestle-tastic pieces for Galactic Ketchup's Caption Contest 82 win:

Enjoy!

Lone Wolf, the Tavern Years

The stage has been set for the dramatic return and continued question of Kai, the Lone Wolf! We decided on adding a chainmail coat (+4END) and a Healing Potion (+4 END) to our inventory from the King's armory. Thanks to some kind of oversight from yours truly, unfortunately the "Which Kai Discipline" poll didn't go live, so I'm just going to make a command decision and, based on Myro's suggestion, we're taking Hunting.

You can see our full character sheet here.

And now, onward!

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