Pop Quiz: Jewelry

Happy Saturday, folks! Your one-day quick-fire challenge is inspired by my buddy Dave, who makes really cool real-world jewelry from recycled comic book panels. Thus, your mission today is:

Design an awesome piece of jewelry in HeroMachine!

You only get one entry -- that's right, just one! So make it your best. Most of the other rules are the same as for a regular contest, but instead of a whole week I'll announce the winner either tonight or tomorrow morning. No elaborate backgrounds or characters, all I want is the piece of jewelry. If you need to include a body part to illustrate its position, that's ok, but the star of the illustration must be the item itself, not whatever it's on.

  • All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the HeroMachine Forums, whatever);
  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. 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). Here's a quick-start guide on how to do that for various image hosting services.

The winner will receive their choice of either one item or one portrait to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 release, or one Sketch of the Day style drawing where you pick the subject and I draw it how I like.

Good luck!

A new record for Janet van Dyne

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 3, 1941.)

Open Critique Day #41

My full-time (non-HeroMachine) job might keep me from actually getting to these before this evening, but it's time for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following guidelines:

  • Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
  • Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
  • I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

When you're a super villain you can say "portable cannon" instead of "shotgun"

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 3, 1941.)

How best to tie one on?

Shockingly, in our guise as the Cosmic Guardian we opted NOT to shoot our annoying neighbor in the face last time. In this Modern Age of Post-Modern Super Heroing, I'd say that qualifies us for inclusion in the Heroic Hall of Fame right there. While personally I might be disappointed in our upright behavior, it nonetheless has led us to a bar, and for that I think we can all be thankful.

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Comic book metaphysics in one panel

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 3, 1941.)

Of fire nipples and Cyclothongs

If you're standing next to Emma Frost and you're the one people point at while shouting "That's a horrible costume!", then you, my friend, have achieved truly epic levels of sartorial psychopathy:

It's bad enough that Cyclops is wearing a red thong here (or "banana hammock" if you want to be technical about it), set against a black backdrop so it really pops. What's worse is that it's the same shape as his Cyclopean eye slit, making you think maybe they're both staring at you and waiting to blast you with a beam of some sort. Yuck.

His metal or leather or whatever the chic super-hero fabrique du jour is has a deep, plunging neckline cut into it in the shape of a phoenix, presumably because he's been taken over by the Phoenix Force. Or the NBA's Phoenix Suns, which would be much worse. Either way, it's good that the cutout exists because his nipples are on fire. That's gotta smart, but if you're not willing to take the pain then you're not really committed to your fashion choice.

So congratulations, Cyclops, you've managed to wear an outfit so bad I can't even mention Emma Frost, a sentence I'm pretty sure no one anywhere ever thought they would be able to write.

(From "Avengers vs. X-Men" 6, ©2012 Marvel Comics.)

They don't write curses like they used to

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 3, 1941.)

Blade vs. Buffy

A classic comic book gambit is to pit two heroes against each other for a short, introductory fight. Imagine that's happened here, that these two vampire hunters happen to meet and go at it in an all-out battle. Who do you think would win, and why?

[polldaddy poll="6307331"]

You're all first class seamen now!

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 2, 1941.)