As of today, that frustration is history! If you click on the teaser ad up there in the banner labeled “Featured Character”, you will now be taken to the HeroMachine Hall of Fame.

Plus, that little widget is now randomized, so every time the page is reloaded you should see a new character featured there. Neat, hunh?!

We had a huge response to Character Contest 66: Cyborg — thank you all so much for sharing your creativity! As a result of the larger than usual number of entries, I also have a larger than usual number of Finalists. There were just too many quality submissions to limit it to the usual 20 or so.

I hope you enjoy browsing through this creme-de-la-creme as much as I have. Without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you (in alphabetical order) the following Finalists.

I really liked all of AMS’ entries this week (as usual), but I picked out the Cyborg Centaur to highlight. It brought back fond memories of a couple of childhood toys, two Transformer-like centaur guys (one all white and one all black) that you could take apart as the limbs and such were held on with steel balls and magnets. Anyone remember what those were called? Anyway, this is a neat looking take on the concept of an organic/metal hybrid. Why limit yourself to human shapes when you start grafting on machines, after all? The setting is really nice, too. Any chance of adding that to the HM3 Custom Items Archive, AMS?

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Asder’s soft-focused see-through “Cyborg” has a lot of charm to it. I like being able to see under the skin to the mix of organic and metallic bits. The colors also complement the layout well.

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I don’t think I’ve seen Bad People post before, but I thoroughly enjoyed this “Bubble Brain” entry. The brain in a jar is classic, but done very well here, with the added bonus of a heart-viewing portal. That would come in handy when you’re thinking of dating a guy, because you can see ahead of time if he’s heartless or not.

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I love the attitude and sassiness borntobealoser put into his steampunk “Clockwork Cyborg”. I can almost hear the clack-clack-clack or the gears in her neck as she’s cocking her head to the side and computing whether to come on to you or fill you full of lead. Her left (our right) shoulder is also genius, just a totally cool assembly of mechanics to build a custom limb. Just as nice is the puffy sleeve and human hand on the other side to reinforce that this is not just a robot, but a cyborg, coal-driven or not. For bringing us a whole new level of “steamy”, I definitely tip the hat to borntobealoser!

Brons’ “Tisiphone” is a neat mix of gritty street-level grime, high-tech parts, and old-fashioned fantasy goodness.

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dblade continues to bring it with both custom items for you all to enjoy and with great creations of his own, as in the crowd favorite “Cyber Witch”. Not too much more to add to this, as it really speaks for itself.

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Frevoli’s “RoboWalrus” is just too funny not to include!

Headlessgeneral had two entries I liked a lot. In addition to the not-pictured Killbert (great name!), I thought this “Wheels” image showed a ton of creativity and a lot of hard work. The highlighting alone … wow. I also think it’s neat how the arms aren’t strictly built along human lines, and the way the walker is also a chair for the guy. It’s a neat take on replacement limbs.

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Much like borntobealoser’s entry, Ian T. Healy brought us a cyborg lady of the night. Starring now in of one of his short stories (available now on SmashWords), it’s Clockwork Chloe!

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Jordan Xord’s “Pirate” would certainly be at home up in the rigging. Repelling boarders with a hail of bullets. Another nice, clean, simple design that works.

Kaylin88100 put a lot of work into a large number of submissions this week, which is cool on its own. But I really liked “Mind Control”, perhaps in part because he brings to mind a much cooler “Validus” from the Legion of Super-Heroes. Only not as huggable. This is another really good take on the “Brain in a Jar” style of cyborg.

Kwnnos got an ethereal, “Ghost in the Machine” type of look out of “Cassandra” that’s a nice contrast to some of the harder-edged submissions. Great use of patterning, colors, and item choices.

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mercwithoutamouth has another addition to the Steamwork pantheon with “Steam”. I like the combination of classic elements with the metallic bits, The tattoo on the human arm is a nice touch as well.

How could I not include Myro’s “Hippoburg”?! I would totally want one of these.

On a more serious note for Myro, I really like the dynamism and thought behind his “Turbo” illustration. I know the pose is originally from the innovative SeanDavidRoss, but Myro’s use of the baggy pant bottoms to sell the idea that he’s upside down is a fantastic touch. The boxers peeking out help, too. But what I particularly think is inspired is the idea that not all cybernetics have to be built around death-rays and bullets. This built-in sound system is something I could actually see happening in the real world. Really clever, and a well-executed image to illustrate it.

This is newerlie’s second contest, I believe, and once again we have a wonderful submission. I’m glad you decided to join in on the fun! What I like about this one specifically (besides just the general quality of the demon cybersatyr body) is the use of that axe blade as a holographic weapon, and how it looks like it’s coming out of the gauntlet at an angle. Nice job!

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PapaKrok once again brings the brilliance with “CyberBabe”, an illustration that I thought for a while was going to scare everyone else into not entering the contest at all! Luckily that wasn’t the case, but this is still a wonderful image of a cyborg actually being assembled.

Actually, though, I think I liked his “Tankmunculus” better. It’s like the bizarre love-child of Slimer from “Ghostbusters” and the Road Warrior.

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Pesky’s “Cybertaur” has a lot of great elements to it, from the way it has a great flow to it, to the combination of real and artificial satyr legs, to the nice item choices, to the way the bow is being held (although the string should technically be on the other side of the forearm). A great image bursting with energy!

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I’ll agree with the other commenters that the small but vital addition of the reflection in the ice of Spidercow2010′s “Linda” helps seal the deal on this neat character concept. I love the integrated arm keyboard, too, that’s a great idea, which I will be calling Best Buy about having installed as soon as I am done with this post.

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Tool’s “Cyber Ninja” looks cool, although I do wonder just how stealthy he could be with that gigantic metal gun built in to his arm …

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Trekkie’s “Caped Cyborg” is another good super-hero type of concept. I like the vaguely “Specter” vibe you get!

I don’t think we’ve seen vodnik enter a contest before, but if all his or her entries are going to be of the high quality we got this week, I’m all for it! My favorite was this “Demetrius Panoptes”, featuring really inspired use of insignia to build virtually the entire body. The buried eyes in the thighs and background elements adds a real sense of the otherworldly to the whole illustration. Definitely worth a click-through!

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I liked both the not-shown “Windup Man” and this “CyberWere” by Watson Bradshaw. I chose to highlight this one because of the neat asymmetrical nature of the body, adding to the concept of a diseased creature lurching through the night to feast on the flesh of the nearest ATM machine, or coed, whichever comes first.

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Finally, we have Zyp’s clever, creative, and fun “Cyborg DJ”. As he said, they replaced the arms and created the world’s greatest disc jokey! A great combination of colors, background elements, and concept.

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It was a tough choice, but something about her really caught my eye and made me want to know more about her, which to me is the hallmark of the successful character illustration. Great job, borntobealoser, and all of you Finalists!

With great delight and no further fanfare, I present the following exceptional entries to Character Contest 51: Alien Nation!

First up is Abominal401′s “The Shadow of the Demon”, which I don’t think qualifies as an actual “alien”, but which I wanted to show you for the great use of silhouette and posing here. The use of just red as the lone color makes for a very striking effect.

I don’t love Asder’s “Avatar” homage here, but I do love the background. At first I couldn’t figure out how he did the background, but it turns out to be as simple as it is effective.

I thought MMI’s “Arachni” was a little more “super hero” than “alien” but I love, love, love the patterning of the spider web onto the smoke trails. That’s an awesome look.

AJW’s “Equithan” is a nice blend of different body parts to create a nifty looking alien-type warrior.

Cliff went for the ever-popular “Alien Squid Tentacle Guy and Hot Girl in Bikini” motif in his “Sixty Seconds Before” homage, and I liked the alienness of the creature.

DiCicatriz had the best “alien mech” type of entry with “The Unseen”. I love the glowing headlight and the simple but elegant arrangement of the body parts to make a convincing crab-like creature.

I figure if Millar and Hitch can turn Samuel L. Jackson into Nick Fury, Galahad should be able to make him an alien as he did with “Samuel L. Zaxmar”.

Kaldath put together a nice ocean scene along with a cool looking aquatic alien to populate it with “Pyronling”.

I thought Kingslaughter did one of the best “scenes” I’ve seen yet in terms of layout and creative use of posing. I wish the coloring had been more cohesive and not so … jarring? Regardless, very well done.

Another MMI entry is the neat looking “Drop From Above Alien”. I thought the background in particular was cool, but the creature itself is also excellent.

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I really liked Mr. Vampire’s “Brain Spider” for the concept — zombie-making space aliens in EVAC suits is downright scary.

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Sutter Kaine’s leonine alien hunter came out great.

Rozenstal made a comment on his entry that he thought there were too many “humanoid” entries, and he wanted to do something not based on our basic build. I agree, actually — I was hoping for some really “alien” entries. So when deciding which of the great entries would win, I ended up narrowing it down to the following batch of “non human” aliens.

First is Rozenstal himself, with a nasty looking reptilian beast.

Watson Bradshaw’s “Alien” looks like a robot I’ve seen before but I can’t quite place it … Still, nice job!

Our First Runner-Up is from Tango, titled “Mynzithrum”. I love the reflected face in the glass, the water effect surrounding the alien, and of course, the alien life form itself. The design, coloring, and overall layout are all exceptionally well done.

Finally, the Winner of this contest is, as far as I can remember, a newcomer to these endeavors, and I think he knocked it out of the park with all his entries. While stories or explanations aren’t necessary — this is 90% a visual competition — but I absolutely loved his. I mean, take a look at his explanation for the “Tateroids”:

Tateroids are potato shaped, silicon based life forms that spontaneaously change sex if suprised or frightened, often causing the unexpected release of a single, nerflike egg. Tateroids are, understandably, sociophobic and don’t get out much.

And here’s the image:

A wonderful combination of imagination, writing, and art. I loved it. Here are a few more, but do yourself a favor and check them all out, they’re just great.

So for embracing the challenge of creating aliens both visually and texturally, and for doing such a kick-ass job all the way around, I am happy to pronounce PapaKrok the winner of his choice of any item or any portrait to go in HM3, or a “Sketch of the Day” style illustration.

Congratulations to him and to all our Finalists, and thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!

Wow, we had a phenomenal number of absolutely outstanding entries for Character Contest 50: Lord Random III! This may be a record number of Finalists, I’m not sure, but regardless everyone should be very proud of themselves this week. I really appreciate all the hard work and creativity on display.

Without further ado, therefore, your Finalists! As a reminder, the challenge was to put together a concept using names randomly generated from the Seventh Sanctum site.

AcidMan322′s “Dark Thought” was a nice composition in general. The idea of these … well, dark thoughts actually emanating from his mind is done convincingly and the eyes in the background are neat.

Airia did a great job with “Illusion Beam”. I like the background elements a lot and the pose works great.

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AJW’s “Bronze Bane” is a great example of a self-assembled robot, using some unconventional pieces and a cohesive color scheme to inject a lot of character.

Asder used subtle line coloring to achieve a great look for his “Fly Wolf”.

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Atomic Punk only had one entry this week, but I think he nailed it. “Seer Hack” isn’t an easy random name to get your hands around, but I thought the image was both funny and cool.

Blue Blazer’s “Mecharapier” is a wonderful example of keeping it simple. I’d swear I’ve seen this one before, but maybe it was just while browsing the UGO Forums. Regardless, the black unitard with the metallic arm and shoulder garb is just perfect.

Brambles got a little lucky because the random name “Ghost Shaman” is awesome, but he kicked butt on the execution. I love the ghostly flames and headless faces. Plus the character design is very strong and I love his expression.

Cliff’s poster-like “Serpent Burn” is great. I love the composition and the background elements, particularly the transparent flame effects on the snake.

Danny Beaty has done a number of spider-related characters in the past (in fact, I think those spidery eyes are his contest prize from a while ago), but I think this one is the strongest in a long while. The background elements all make sense and fit, both in selection and color choice. The costume design and colors also go well together, and I love the spider web pattern in the brownish parts. The red elements accent the design rather than detract from it as well. An all around excellent effort!

If DiCicatriz isn’t careful, I’m going to have to name the contest award after him. Once again he brings it this week, with ten — TEN! — high quality entries. I selected three for highlighting as a cut above the rest, but honestly, they’re all very good. Do yourself a favor and check them out in the original contest thread, you won’t be sorry.

First up for him is “Cloud Hunter”. Everything about this is made of Win, from the costume design to the pose to the way he really looks like he’s running on the clouds. Simply spectacular.

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Next is his “Hot Gale”, which I love equally for the outstanding design to the backstory. What sold this for me was the combination of the expression, the body positioning, and the way the patterning on that wind/wave effect completely looks like sandy wind. Great special effects.

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Finally is his “Typhoon Construct”. If the Red Tornado looked like this instead of that yellow-arrow-adorned monstrosity, I’d start reading Justice League again!

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Felipe S Card turned in a very solid and convincing fantasy type character with “Killer Jackal”. I like the colors, the pose, the weapons, and the general look of the guy. Well done!

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I’m not a big horror fan as you may know by now, but I love what Fishsticks did with “Omnislash”. The poster speaks for itself, and I bet there’s a Hollywood film deal in the works after seeing it.

If Joel doesn’t start using the proper URL for his ImageShack images, I might jump through the computer screen and strangle him. But I thought his “Seduce Morph” was a nice “progression” style image.

Another horror-style fantasy character, Kingslaughter’s “Murder Slicer” has a funky vibe to it that I like a lot.

Knitesoul’s “Mage Tornado” has some of the same feel as DiCicatriz’ “Hot Gale”, and also does a fantastic job making it look like the character is standing in a swirling maelstrom. I particularly like the tornado wrist guards, I thought that was a nice touch. Fading out the lines of the skirt and boots also helps make it look like she’s standing behind a wind eddy. Nice job! The details definitely matter.

Me, Myself, and I did a nice job with “Snow Sapphire”, with nothing incredibly fancy or outlandish. Just a solid, convincing, pleasing, effective design.

I admit, Myro’s “Auto Shamaness” made me laugh. Finally, a super-hero with a power I can USE!

Oquies’ “Blood Sorceress” has a great design, colors, and face, but what I loved the most was the skull-lined hourglass lantern thingie she’s holding. That’s cool!

Rancid’s “Royal Raven” does everything right, from the background elements and smoke to the feathered tail turned skirt.

And now for something a little different, in the form of RhinoMan’s sad, poignant, and disturbing “Mischild”. The tilted head and the leg-held teddy bear in particular are quite effective at setting the somber mood.

Sandcat’s “Lightning Slice” works not only for the expected electrical arcs around the blades, but for that totally nifty effect on her hips. I don’t quite know what that is or how it was done but it looks awesome as clothing detail.

SpellCheckingQuill drwe “Aerial Plague” as their name, and nailed it. I love the colors, the facial expression on the figure (particularly that one eyebrow ridge being all distended), and the layering of the different-sized bees. I think this is a wonderful example of how composition — the arrangement of the various main elements — can make or break an image.

Finally, Watson Bradshaw’s “Cobalt Talon” uses the “falling into the street” composition we’ve seen before, but it’s very well done here.

As you can see, judging this week was tough! Tons of great entries that didn’t even make it to Finalists, and then to have to choose one of the 25 above, it’s a difficult assignment. But after going through them all several times, I have to say I keep coming back to one in particular, for excellence in overall composition, in fundamental character design, and in success at conveying a mood.

And that one is DiCicatriz’ “Cloud Hunter”! I just love everything about this illustration, it stands out as exceptional even in a collection of truly excellent entries like these. Very well done, sir! Let me know what you’d like for your prize, it’s certainly very well earned.

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and congratulations in particular to both DiCicatriz and all the Finalists for a very entertaining set of designs!

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!

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!

Alex’s “Walker” is very well put together, and stands on its own even without any sort of background. I liked the scarf with the embroidered looking logos, the mouth wrap, and the tattoos particularly.

Coyote’s “Creature” kicks butt, and the overlay of the city background on the web works great.

Another entry in the “Creature” column is Decolda’s “Tank’ed”, one of the most impressive chimera-like creations I have seen to date, it has a real sense of menace and presence about it.

Doomed Pixel nails the whole holocaust vibe with his “Scavenger”, especially the Aztec calendar in the sun and the streaking fireballs.

I liked all three of E_N’s related characters and their stories, but ultimately I chose “Radd” not only for the overall effectiveness of the composition, but particularly for that awesome cleaver staff. That’s the exact kind of thing I’d love to see in a post-apocalyptic scene, I just love it.

Felipe S. Card’s “The Outlander” was the first one I came to that made me give an audible “Wow!”. He’s got a real Jonah Hex by way of Mel Gibson feel to him, especially with the robot arm and half metal face, cowboy hat, and rifle over the shoulder.

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I liked these two Gargoyle323 characters so much, I couldn’t decide which to include. So I am using them both, sue me! They both ooze personality (literally, I suspect) and while the color scheme is the kind of thing that would usually turn me off, it works here. Outstanding work. First is “Big Bang Benny”, then “Happy Jack”.

I love Imp’s use of the motorcycle here to infuse the composition with life and oomph. The character’s pretty great, too, and then the name just brings it all home. Here’s “Chief Quickdeath”:

Nathan said he didn’t have any story in mind, but just “threw together” all the Mad Max type stuff he could find, but you certainly can’t tell there was no plan with this guy:

Neon Sequitur made great use of Anarchangel’s steampunk guitar, with the addition of a flamethrower and a hot (again, literally) pink motorcyle for a gal you’d definitely not want to aggravate, his “Guitar Heroine”.

I don’t think I need to say anything about Rancid’s pig man, other than “Pork it up, pal”:

I’d say how much I like the head on Rhinoman’s “The Drifter”, or the nice custom weapon, but who are we kidding — I’m a sucker for a mutant chimp. Always have been.

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Rico’s “Spyke” is a good character, but I chose it as a Finalist because of that background. It rules. Along with Doomed Pixel’s, these are the best backgrounds of the contest, really selling the idea of a world after a horrible holocaust.

Sutter Kain’s vaguely stunned “Feral Errol” has a lot of character to it, and definitely stood out from the other entries as a unique take. Not everyone gets to drive motorcycles and wear spiked shoulder pads, you know!

Which brings us to our overall winner. The character overall is strong, with all the elements working. The use of a couple of spotlight colors to relieve the brown and beige palette adds punch to the whole illustration. And I love the use of the flared coat bottom (I really need to add a version of those for Doomed Pixel’s prize in the HM2 contest). The clincher for me, odd as it sounds, is the face. It’s not even as if there’s anything super radical about it, I just like it a lot. It says to me this is a guy who’s been through hell, and come out the other end having kicked ass and ready to take some names.

I give you Bloodless Rose’s “Marcus Caine”:

I will say this was one of the closest contests in a long time, I could easily have (and almost did!) go with any one of six of the other Finalists, but this one just hit me the right way. Congratulations to Bloodless Rose, who wins either any item he or she likes, or a portrait, to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 version!

And thanks again to everyone who entered, you all did a fantastic job.

The first pair of Twin Finalists is from Alex are the immortal monster-hunters, “Scavenger & Scout”. I dug their pulp-ish look and overall sensibility. The posing was well done, and the colors just right.

Anarchangel had an unusual entry with “n85″, a self-replicating character with a sense of humor. It’s amazing how that many bad haircuts all in a row look pretty good.

Anarchangel also submitted “Sugar & Sin”, which I was thiiiiiis close to choosing as the overall winner. The environment, the poses, the outfits, the colors, the item choices, all come together to make a really convincing and fun illustration. A great job all the way around.

Danny Beaty once again manages to creep me out with this very bizarre, very cool, very disturbing duo he calls “Bobby Boy & Big John”. Is that the banjo player from “Deliverance” I hear in the background … ?

DiCicatriz consistently puts together intriguing and visually arresting compositions, and his “PsyTwins” are no exception. I love the glowing blue chains and energy manacles, the masking of the energy pattern onto their bodies and coat, and the way the figure on the right really appears to be floating slightly. The belts sized up and masked to make a strapped miniskirt effect is also awesome.

At first I thought Gargoyle323′s “Sunburst & Twilight” were from HeroMachine 2 before I realized you couldn’t do these kinds of things with 2.5. They look great, though, I like their contrasting powers. The costume design on Sunburst in particular I think is great, it looks very flametastic.

Unfortunately ineligible for a win due to the non-HM font, I still loved JRansom’s use of blades to make animal-like legs for Blade. I never would have thought of that but it works perfectly. “Guns” I think is too dark to make out clearly, but his sister’s great.

MartianBlue pays great attention to detail in his compositions and it really shows in “Billy Yank & Johnny Reb”. Check out the braid on Billy Yank. And while he could have gone with a generic shoulder strap on Johnny Reb, Blue instead went the extra mile to (I think) rotate, mask, and scale the sash from Belts for a much cooler look.

Our last Finalist is Me, Myself, and Irene for “Chrimson & Emerald”. I am providing the closeup of the faces, because I think that’s the real “money” on this illustration.

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Which brings us to our winner for this week. This gentleman is, I believe, the first three-time winner of the weekly contests (not counting Friday Night Fights or special one-offs), and as I’ve often said, I sometimes think we share a design brain. This particular illustration doesn’t blow your socks off with fancy tricks or complicated tricks, but it nails all the details. From the name, to the changes in the costumes, to the nice gradient and effects on the names, to the cool lightning in the twister tails, I just love the overall effect. Once again, congratulations to Imp!

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Thanks again to everyone who entered; to our select panel of Finalists; and to Imp, who, if he chooses another caricature of my head, will be banned from further consideration!

First up, I loved the spell effects on Oquies’ character, particularly the fantastic look of the glow globe and background streaks surrounding the staff head here. It’s one of the best “energy” treatments I’ve seen.

Hammerknight also used alpha variants and simple grayscales to achieve a nice effect with “Spirit Shaman’s” companions:

What particularly caught my eye about Gargoyle’s “Warblade” is how he got a 2.5 style three-quarter profile pose and a dwarf body out of HM3. Really nice job on that!

And although I don’t quite see how he’s a super-hero (or villain), I just loved the axe guitar from Freakshow’s rock and roll avenger “Savage Bard”:

Sutter Kaine’s “Artificer” honestly creeped me out.

Although I liked at least parts of all of those illustrations very much, the next few are the entries I seriously considered making the overall winner. I feel like they really captured the spirit of the contest, translating not just the name but the essence of those D&D classes to the modern super-hero comics world.

First was MLS’ “The Cleric”. I like the use of the double-breasted button-down Rocketeer vest with the flaring long coat tails, the use of the holy symbol, and the bandoleer of holy implements.

Jack Zegler also went for a modern holy man, but with more of a “street preacher” feel, with “War Mage”. I like the expression on his face and the simple but realistic clothing. He looks like he could be stalking the streets of your local urban hell hole right now, defending us from undead crackheads.

I loved Alex’ “Samurai”, which he describes as an Australian tattooed warrior. The tatts, the black jeans, the awesome eagle shirt, the hat, the sword, they all work great together and make for a very interesting character design.

Atomic Punk did a great job envisioning what a mage in the modern military might look like and how they would operate. I liked the camo cape over medieval armor particularly.

DiCicatriz continues to bring it with “Psychic Warrior”. I love the hot pink glow lines on the expanded and masked insignia used as armor elements, that’s a very cool effect.

“Rune Priest” by Doomed Pixel was the first one I came to that made me sit back in my chair and say “wow”. I love the glowing letters placed around and matched to the colors of the lightning. It’s a great design and shows how important composition is. Plus the look of the priest, staring down into his hands, is perfect.

Which brings us to our overall winner, the character design and illustration I thought best captured the essence of the contest while also seeming like a totally kick-ass guy in his own right. And that’s “Bard”, by Vigilante. I loved his backstory too, which I’ll repost here:

This is bard, a man with the ability to cause hallucinations with his voice. When he sings, the tonal pattern of his voice causes mental feedback and results in illusions of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. In an attempt to silence him, the mob mutilated his vocal cords, leaving him with the strength only to whisper. Now he uses special amplifying technology to project his voice through speakers in his hands. He is a morally ambiguous character, fighting crime one day and robbing a bank the next. Whatever is most advantageous at the time.

And here’s the winning man himself:

I love the music effects around his speaker palms — said speaker palms, by the way, being a whole level of awesome just on their own — and the way the mask works by having an insignia sized down over the mouth. The green jacket and face mask also work great.

So congratulations to everyone, especially to our winner Vigilante! V, let me know what you would like as your prize item and I’ll put it on the list.

Real Name: Richard Baden
Powers: super-strength, ability to influence emotions in others (specifically, able to create states of extreme terror), radically slowed aging
Bio: Jacob Sarne was a physicist working at a US government installation in Wyoming in the late 70s. He was a brilliant scientist, a likeable guy, and had the love of a good woman. Unfortunately, Sarne’s girlfriend’s ex, Richard Baden, was the jealous sort… and a just a bit sociopathic. One night this guy broke into the base where Sarne worked and confronted him, demanding that he stop seeing his girlfriend. Sarne refused, and the two fought. During the struggle, a key piece of machinery was damaged, subjecting the two to strange, extra-dimensional particles.

When the smoke cleared, the two fighters also discovered that the woman they both loved had died during the conflict. Each blamed the other, and a decades-long grudge was born…