"Metalhead" by AMS

"Lust" by Phatchick

On a very special episode of "Archie"

Pinky and the thang

Marquis Samedi requested a hand held flat and seen from the pinky side for his Character Contest 93 victory. I went ahead and threw in another hand based on the same reference photo he sent for a twofer since he's awesome. And so am I. And so is ice cream.

These two items are now available in Hand-Right-Standard.

META: Freshening up

I feel like the blog is in need of some fresh material or new blood or something. Are there feature ideas you'd like to see? Anything you are sick of and want to retire? How would you feel about my adding one or more additional co-bloggers to produce entertaining material for you all, and what sorts of things would you want to see them cover?

Basically I'm trolling for new ideas and plan on stealing your brilliance to present as my own. It's a win-win! Well, technically a win-lose, but ... look, squirrel!

I'd be frosty wearing that, too

Emma Frost (aka The White Dominatrix) has for whatever reason become one of the top five pinup characters in all of comics. Unfortunately that's put her in the line of fire for some of the most overly-sexualized costume designs the fevered brains of artists could conjure. I won't go into them all, but I will focus on this unfortunate approach:

You have to start with the ridiculous gravity-defying side-boob bra. One assumes she keeps it up either through dedicated TK or really strong double-sided tape, either of which exhibits a truly epic level of dedication to ... well, exhibitionism, I suppose. Unless that thing is made of stiff plastic and hides a virtual scaffold of underwires, she's going to bounce out of it the first time the Blackbird hits turbulence.

What really gets me, though, is the X-Diaper, now featuring gratuitous crotch bulging. Not only is it unflattering and not only does it share the same gravity-defying power as the top, but the all-the-way-down zipper hits an all new low. Literally. This is a piece of clothing designed by someone who has never actually worn pants. Or had lady parts. Can you imagine actually zipping this thing up? Any fashion accessory that requires a hand mirror under your butt to put on is a fashion accessory that has failed.

The topper (again, literally) is that dickey she's wearing. Seriously, if your costume involves the word "dickey", you've lost before you've started. I know they were going for the "stylish slut" look here, but between the diapers and the mid-century failed tuxedo shirt underlining, what they actually got was "Old Folks' Home Escapee".

(Image and character © Marvel Comics.)

Betty got angry that the safe word was "Veronica"

Master Chief vs. Darth Vader

Two teched-up bad-ass guys going man-to-man. Two walk in, one walks out. Who will that one be, and why?

I leave it up to you, intrepid creators! Vote, then lay out your case in the comments as to why everyone ought to agree with you. Aaaaand ... FIGHT!

[polldaddy poll="6413119"]

That certainly explains a lot

Character Design Challenge 96: The Big Bad

Your Character Design Challenge this week is to create the most awesome illustration possible featuring the idea of a Big Bad type of villain using HeroMachine 3.

We're talking city-threatening, nation-engaging, Justice League-level sorts of things here, stuff that will strike terror into the hearts of supermen and superwomen (and even superdogs!) everywhere. Sure, Paste Pot Pete and The Joker are great one-on-one threats, but I'm going for something bigger and badder here, something that would require a whole team to take down. Or just, you know, Superman. Same diff.

I'll pick my personal favorites when the week is over, with the one I like best being featured in the right column for the week. The rules otherwise are the same as always:

  • All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine forums, ImageShack, PhotoBucket, or whatever);
  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine challenge;
  • Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
  • Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). See this post on how to get the direct link for most sites.
  • All entries must be in by next Monday, when I'll choose my personal favorites.

No limit on entries this week, so knock yourselves out. Just make them good!