The HeroMachine forums on UGO give creative folks like yourself a chance to show off their best creations. From time to time they al get together and vote on the characters they think are the most outstanding, resulting in a “Hero of the Week”. I’m going to try to do better about re- posting those here so more people can enjoy them, and to encourage others to post their stuff to the forums. Anyone is welcome to join up (it’s free); hopefully others will like your style and nominate one of your heroes.

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…

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Congratulations to the winner of the first ever HeroMachine Friday Night Fights contest — Kaldath! Here’s his final winning entry for posterity:

(Click to embiggen.)

Kaldath wins a custom color illustration by yours truly of whatever he likes. Each of his rounds was a blowout, so either he’s just that awesome, or he has lots of friends who like to vote, or a combination of the two. Well done, sir! For those of you who don’t know, Kaldath also won the very first HeroMachine character design contest a while back.

To further honor his success, here are his other three winning FNF entries (click to see at their original size).

Week 1, Super-Hero (Ramses):

Week 2, Sci-Fi (General Falgar):

Week 3, Fantasy (Jenel-LaDamor-DeCaye):

Our runner up, and the winner of a black and white custom character illustration, is none other than Imp! As always, his characters showed a lot of originality and excellence. Here are his four entries:

Week 1, Super-Hero (Crescent):

Week 2, Sci-Fi (Rough Night at the Office):

Week 3, Fantasy (Barbarian Queen):

Week 4, Open (Little Death Machine):

Both of you guys were definitely worthy finalists, I am pleased as punch at the high quality of your entire slate of characters. Thanks to you both for sharing your creativity with us!

The same goes for so many of the other fourteen competitors as well. This wasn’t an easy challenge, and there were some truly inspirational illustrations submitted. I salute each of you.

I did, however, want to particularly single out Zyp, who won the “West Coast Avengers” Open contest with his absolutely fantastic “Inferne”:

(Do yourself a favor and click to see full size.)

I mean no slight to the other great entries, but this may be the best thing I have ever seen come out of HeroMachine. Zyp wins any item or a portrait to appear in the final HeroMachine 3 version.

Congratulations to Kaldath, Imp, and Zyp, as well as to all the great folks who participated! Hopefully we can have another set of Friday Night Fights after the holiday. Until then, keep creating!

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I think maybe the holidays have gotten everyone a bit busy, as there weren’t a ton of entries this week. In light of that, I wanted to thank those who DID submit an illustration by highlighting one design by each of them. So here go our highlights!

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The “Greek Mythology” character contest produced a lot of fantastic entries, so thanks to everyone who took the time to participate! I’ve selected a handful as Honorable Mentions, and of course one overall winner (who receives either a portrait or any one item of their choice for inclusion in the final HeroMachine 3 version) for your viewing pleasure.

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Lots of great entries this week, thanks to everyone who entered! I’ve selected a few after the jump to feature as Honorable Mentions before getting to the overall winner, but I think the level of performance this week across the board was very high. Just to recap, this was the contest where you had to produce an illustration based on a randomly generated character name.

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Without further ado, and with many thanks for all those who shared their creations as part of the event, I present the Honorable Mentions and the overall winner of Character Contest 19.

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The character contest challenge this week was to take a common phrase of two words (or three if you could swing it) and turn that into a super-powered pair of characters, like “Hawk and Dove” or “Love and War” or “Cloak and Dagger”. A lot of the entries were very good, but the featured pair weren’t really a phrase like that. For instance, I think Crinold’s “Gaia and Quicksand” are marvelous illustrations, but “Gaia and Quicksand” isn’t a saying:

(Click to embiggen.)

Having said that, I thought the following submissions were great examples of good illustrations that also fit the contest concept. Well done all!

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Many thanks to everyone who entered Character Contest 16! This was a tough contest to design for, and even tougher to judge, as there were a lot of high-quality submissions. You all did a nice job, and even if I don’t include yours in the “Honorable Mentions” below, rest assured I still very much enjoyed it and you have my thanks.

Before getting to the more serious entries, I wanted to present Hammerknight’s succinct summary of the biggest change from the Golden Age to today:

And with that, awaaaaaaaaay we go!
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We had a great set of entries for Character Contest 15, and I want to thank everyone who took the time to put together a character. I appreciate your talent and your willingness to share your creations very much!

After the jump I’d like to present the illustrations I thought were truly exceptional, and of course the overall winner.

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Our contest this week ended up being almost more of an “environment” affair than science-fiction, which is fine considering I just released those item sets recently. Having said that, the overall winner definitely embodied the spirit of the contest and also made a totally cool looking illustration, so bonus! Read on to see the Honorable Mentions for the week and the ultimate winner.

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