Monthly Archives: September 2012

Sharing Day: Gone to the Dogs (and cats and monkeys and … ) Edition

Pets have a long and rich history in super-hero comics, from the massive Superman menagerie to Ace the Bat-Dog to Gropey the Spider-spider*. And in my own life, we have a plethora of critters from horses to miniature donkeys to our great dogs (including one named Monster who really needs his own comic book). So our Sharing Day topic this time out is:

Tell us your favorite true-life pet story.

Preferably it would be about your own pets (or those of someone you know personally) and not, you know, a cut and paste of "Call of the Wild". Here's mine.

We were still living in Texas on hour hundred acre place, and had driven our truck out on the back part of the property for some reason or another. We had Flash, our big male Shiloh Shepherd, with us, and we let him out so he could run a bit while we were working. We thought our four miniature donkeys, vulnerable little cuties that they are, were safe on the other side of the ranch, near the barn. So we were startled when a few minutes later we heard loud, aggressive barking and some frantic braying -- apparently the donks were very close, hiding in the trees, and big ol' Flash had tracked them down!

We started to dash off towards the sound, convinced we'd find nothing but mangled equine parts and a happily-munching dog, when suddenly the barks turned to panicked yelps and we see our ferocious guard beast pelting at breakneck speed back through the cedar trees, Jack the angry miniature donkey hard on his heels, two feet tall of towering fury. Jack chased him around the truck three times, his braying beating out the yellow-bellied yowls of panic, until we finally opened the door and let Flash into the truck, where he remained cowering and safe from the prey turned predator. We dubbed him "Honorary Pussycat" for the day and he never lived it down.

Now it's your turn! What's your favorite pet story? In return for playing along, you can (if you want, no obligation) ask me a question about whatever you like and I'll answer truthfully. Photos of the pets in question are very much encouraged.

*(NOt an actual thing, but dammit, it should be!)

I think "Fill it with fists" is a great super-hero motto

(From "Captain Courageous" number 6, 1941.)

META: Comparisons

Just for grins, I put together all of the redrawn HeroMachine 2 Companions and their redrawn HM3 replacements. I've come a long way, baby.

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HM3: New Humanoids

That sounds like a really bad Marvel super hero group from the Seventies. But it's not! What it is, is a new Companion-Humanoids set now available for HeroMachine 3. Here are the new entries:

Click the image to embiggen.

The first ten or so are redraws of items that are in the HeroMachine 2 humanoid set that I always meant to include, but forgot about. The remaining items were mostly Sketches of the Day that were easy to cut and paste into the program.

I've gotten a number of questions about why I am doing these when I said I was done adding new items for now. And the short answer is, because they were both easy and fun to do. The hard part is drawing the line art in the first place, and since that was already done for the majority of these, it was no big deal to add them in.

I'm now back in the self-imposed new-item-moratorium. I hope you enjoy these new additions!

The American Way is … falling down?

(From "Captain Courageous" number 6, 1942.)

Green Lantern vs. Green Lantern

A fundamental part of costume design for super heroes is to reflect the character's origin and story. Just like in the real world, what they wear should tell you something about them. Today I'm going to take a look at one of my all-time favorite outfits, told in two parts -- Green Lantern.

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When a guy's ready for action, he's ready for action!

(From "Captain Courageous" number 6, 1942.)

Data vs. Robocop

If you haven't heard, they're remaking "Robocop", the classic Eighties movie about a policeman cyborg with pouty lips and a literal chrome dome. Why, except for the robot parts and the penchant for violence, they could be talking about me!

Anyway, it got me thinking about the old character, and combined with the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" stuff at Dragon*Con, I came up with this concept for a versus:

Now, Data's not inherently a warrior, but he can hold his own, while Robocop's not exactly an intellectual. I'm not saying he's dumb or anything, but they just hustled him out of Home Depot for hitting on a toaster oven.

We'll set aside the technological advantage Data would have from his century with the phasers and the transporters. We'll give them both Robocop-era weaponry, then set them down in the rocky desert, all Gorn-style. Who would win?

[polldaddy poll="6543331"]

However he DOES like long walks on the beach

(From "Captain Courageous" number 6, 1942.)

Caption Challenge 129 Results!

We had some great entries for our last Caption Challenge, thanks everyone! You were tasked with coming up with a funny caption for this random comics panel:

Without further ado, my personal favorites were:

  • Gero: Not all the New Gods were better off after Infinite Crisis…
  • chrisglen: Unfortunately for Highfather, he hasn’t seen Super Size Me. Can Morgan Spurlock save him in time?
  • Daniel: Darkseid’s latest ploy to hide the Anti-Life Equation in Happy Meal puzzles didn’t go according to plan.
  • JWMan: This week on Undercover Boss…
  • Twiggy: Grimace gets an upgrade
  • Herr D: Complaints mysteriously stopped at one location.
  • BenK22: You’re going to get it his way.
  • Myro: “Despite knowing the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid was not trusted with the recipe for the secret sauce.”
  • Calvary_Red: I hope you appreciate, Kal-El, that everything that happens from this point is on your hand. The grills will rain fire, the grease will boil, the streets will run red with the ketchup of billions served.

My overall top line, however, has to be from JWMan, "This week on Undercover Boss ..." I do like that show, and I think Darkseid going undercover at the Apokolips McDonald's is hilarious.

Thanks again for entering, everyone!