The only thing worse today than the massive head cold I am sporting is my craptacular internet connection. Thus I am at the library using their wireless network while spreading my germs to the other patrons. Don’t say I never gave you anything, library lovers!

Since the latter item meant it took me three hours just to download half the entries for Character Contest 41 and the former item means I feel like death, I am not going to post the individual images of the Finalists like I usually do. Instead I am going to put them all into a gallery, where you can click through to each one.

Congratulations nonetheless to all of our Finalists, however — Alex, Blue Blazer, Decolda, Gargoyle323 (x3!), Imp (x2!), Kaldath, Knitesoul, Morzan, Mr. Q., Phatchick, Rosco, Watson Bradshaw, and Zyp. Well done, all of you! Some of these I liked a specific element or technique, others were great designs, and others were just fun. I will leave it to all you healthy people to figure out which was which, and why you think these made it to the Finalist status, in the comments.

Somehow I managed to put each one in twice. I don’t know how I did that, or how to make it stop, so get ready for twice the lovin’.

Finally, out of all those I had to pick one winner. And I had to agree with those who exclaimed in the comments how awesome this one is, because I just love it. All of the effects work, the design is spot-on, and the character just looks utterly fantastic. Definitely one of the best entries we’ve had in the history of this series, just a great, great job by Morzan with his “Junkie”:

Morzan, let me know either via email or in a comment to any post what item or portrait you’d like as your prize. Thanks for the illustration and congratulations!

I believe we had the most entries ever in a HeroMachine Character Design Contest this time around, but I’ve finally sifted through the excellent submissions, distilling the Finalists and our overall Winner for “Character Contest 41 – Art Martial“! Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter, I had a lot of fun looking through these.

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The response to Character Contest 40 was great, I appreciate all the hard work and time y’all put into this. I especially loved the chance to read up on some Southern legends I hadn’t heard before, so special thanks to everyone who provided links to the myths and legends that inspired your creations.

Having said that, let’s get to the Finalists!

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The votes are in for the most popular DinoMarines, and I’ve chosen the top 6 to form the Omega Squad (in honor of the original dinosaurs being wiped out, the DinoMarines rank their units starting with Omega and working backwards from there). If you have a good idea for their squad nickname, let it rip in the comments. I put the cut-off there because that seemed to be the major break point (38 votes vs the 33 for the next spot) that would allow in enough members to be a team, without so many it got unwieldy.

The totals were:

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We had an overwhelming response to “Character Contest 38 – Random Name II: This time it’s personal“, I thank you all for sharing your creativity and time with the rest of us. Outstanding work all the way around this week, absolutely.

As usual, I’ve picked out the submissions I thought were particularly noteworthy for one reason or another, and present them after the jump. Plus, this week we have TWO winners, who you’ll find at the very end.

Congratulations and thank again to everyone who entered!

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First, I’d like to thank Boox909 for serving as a Guest Judge this week, he did a great job and picked some fantastic finalists. He also deserves a great deal of thanks for being one of the folks who keep GoldenAgeComics up and running, helping all of us stay in touch with those classic characters from the dawn of the comics medium. Keep up the great work there Boox909!

Second, thanks to everyone who entered. You did a great job as always and I am impressed with your creativity and imagination. Not to mention your ability to think of some outstanding Golden Age characters!

Without further ado, on to your Finalists and winner, direct fromBoox909 along with his commentary!

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Many thanks to everyone who entered “Character Contest 36 – Superman Villain“, I enjoyed looking at your illustrations and reading your stories. As always, your creativity and willingness to share it astounds me.

I have chosen the entries that I thought were particularly outstanding and am presenting them below as the Finalists. At the end I’ll announce the overall winner, who receives any item they like, or a portrait of themselves, to be included in HeroMachine 3.

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The entries for “Character Contest 35: Road Warrior” were oustanding, thank you everyone for putting up such excellent illustrations! I really think you outdid yourselves this time around, so I’ve got a bunch of Finalists after the jump. Even then, I left out quite a few more that I think were also great, so this is definitely a week you could go through the comments manually and check them all out.

Before we get into them all, though, I wanted to start out with one that made me both laugh and wish that there were a movie or comic in the works for the featured character. I think it will get things off on the right foot, so I turn it over to Ian Healy’s “Undead Elvis of the Apocalypse”:

And away we go!

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“Twister Sisters” by Imp, winner of Character Contest 34.

(Click to embiggen.)

Many thanks to everyone who submitted the great entries in Character Contest 33. I’ve picked out the ones I thought were truly exception for one reason or another, and at the end I’ll reveal the winner of any item they like, or a portrait of themselves, to appear in the final HM3 versions.

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