Monthly Archives: June 2012

Ms. Amazing

dblade requested a Sketch of the Day of his great character, Ms. Amazing as his prize for winning Caption Contest 103. So here you go!

Update: Per AMS' request, here's the original:


(Click to embiggen.)

Sharing Day, Batman Edition

OK, here we go -- what's your favorite Batman incarnation and why? Are you a movie person, or do you prefer the comics? If you're a movie Batman devotee, which incarnation is your preferred one, from Michael Keaton to Christian Bale? If comics, do you like your Batman original Bob Kane style, the Jim Aparo Seventies version, or the down and dirty Frank Miller era?

On a related note, when a big geek movie comes out, do you go see it opening night or do you wait for the crowds to die down? Or do you skip the theater altogether and just catch it at home on DVD?

If you like, in return for answering my question to you, you may ask a question of me on any topic and I'll do my best to answer honestly and completely. Just leave your reply (and question, if any) as a comment. The goal is to learn a little more about our community!

(Image and character ©2012, DC Comics & Warner Bros. Pictures.)

The not-so-hip hypnotist

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 4, 1941.)

Polar Bear Headgear

Lime requested a polar bear version of the lion headdress in Headgear-Fantasy for her Pop Quiz 10 victory. It is now live.

Spitfire

E350 requested a Spitfire as the prize for winning Caption Contest 122, and it's now live in Companions-Vehicles.

I drew it from this perspective instead of the direct side view E350 sent, as I thought this profile would be more versatile -- you can black it all out for a distant silhouette in the sky for instance, and still know what it is.

Tribbles hell, I've got your trouble right here.

Bael's prize for winning Caption Contest 101 was to draw a gremlin holding an Original Series phaser, preferably sporting some additional Trek items as well. So here we have Stripe, having taken Geordi's visor and presumably living it up in the Enterprise D's museum replica of Kirk's chair. Look, I don't ask, I just draw 'em.


(Click to embiggen).

Hope you like it, Bael!

HM3: New Cityscape

As her prize for winning Character Contest 82, Phatchick requested "a more upscale urban street design", which I've now completed and added to Background-Cityscapes. I couldn't figure out how to include the trees in the colorable areas, so they're permanently that green.

Twenty five or Six Two Four. Or One. Five. Whatever.

The HeroMachine Justice Crusader and Teetotaler Society has chosen to forego the allure of the bottle and a hearty party with our slime-covered super buddy in favor of trying to actually fight crime. It's an outrage! Or entirely appropriate, I can't decide which.

Regardless, off we go into the wild blue yonder! If this was the mid-Eighties at Marvel we might be going into the wild Beyonder instead, which isn't nearly as much fun. Unless you're Spider-Man and come out of it with new duds.

Is it just me or am I particularly random today?

Ah yes, how well we all know the seductive allure of the temptation to fight evil. Can you blame us for giving in to that sweet, violence-filled calling? Sure you can! This is a blame-first society, get real, people.

Our choice is to take on a warehouse full of five foes or a just one. Now, profiling is wrong, but let's do it anyway, because who's going to stop us when we're carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on our backs, and I don't mean Dale the Drunken Slime Reporter. You might be tempted to think "Let's start out slow and go for the singular guy". I know you might be tempted to think that because it's right there in the text of the poll. The only way you would NOT be tempted to think that is if you cannot read, in which case explain how you know what these words say! HA, busted, fake illiterate!

Where was I? Oh yes, the problem with thinking the singular target would be easier is that Godzilla also works alone. As does Galactus, Fin Fang Foom, Mr. Megapixel (the extra-dimensional Superman foe who magically causes chaos with his digital SLR camera), and a bevy of other high-powered, butt-kicking foes.

On the other hand, a group of bad guys in super hero comics are usually thugs. And since they're in a warehouse in New York, odds are good they're with the Mob, so they might actually offer better target practice. Nothing like beating up on henchmen to get the blood flowing.

Of course they could be Teamsters instead, in which case we'd be in for a whoopin', alien super suit or no.

So what'll it be, folks, safety (or death) in numbers, or a mano-a-mano ... well, technically a duo mano-a-singular-mono ... when did we start talking about mono? I didn't kiss anyone, did you?! Look, just make a choice already, and tell us why in the comments!

[polldaddy poll="6331981"]

(All text is ©2012 by Matt Youngmark and Chooseomatic Books from the excellent "Thrusts of Justice", which you should totally go buy your own copy of since we're only scratching the surface of the hilarity enshrined in these pages).

I think you have underestimated his snoopiness

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 3.)

Hulkenstein

Completing our review of the Worst Avenger Designs in honor of the film, we turn at last to the Hulk. Since his entire outfit consistes of miraculously non-bursting purple pants, doing a true fashion review presents a major challenge. So instead, I'm going to pick what I consider the worst overall character design in his history.

That turns out to be, surprisingly (for me, anyway), his very first incarnation as presented by Jack Kirby, the infamous Gray Hulk:

I'm not sure why both Iron Man and the Hulk were originally gray. Maybe Stan and Jack went through a color-blind phase there for a while? Regardless, besides the obvious non-green color scheme, the body design here is way on the Frankenstein side of the scale. Subtlety was never this creative team's strong suit, mind you, but I think this take goes way too far in beating the viewer over the head with the analogy.

This Hulk sports the body of a fairly typical person, albeit a somewhat muscular one. Not yet present is the gigantic scale, the massively broad chest, even the squared-off, ragged hair. This is just a beefy gray dude. Adding to the ordinariness is a decidedly Jekyll and Hyde aspect with the clear speech and the selfishness. This concept is not the unconstrained rage elemental the Hulk would very rapidly become.

I'm glad that transformation happened, as this is definitely one case where the original vision was inferior to what would follow. Thus, I'll take this as my example of the Worst Hulk Design.

Plus, Original Gray Hulk wasn't even as scary as this version of a more recent Hulk:

'Nuff said.