RP: Announcing your presence with authority

(From "Our Flag" number 2, 1941.)

HM3: New pattern

For his Character Contest 40 prize, Haz requested that the vertical gradient from the "Patterns" tab be turned into an item in the "Patterns-Standard" set so you could do a two-tone effect, mask it, rotate it, size it, etc. I had no clue how to do such a thing, but I gave it a whirl and what do you know, it worked! I've now updated the file and you can use it immediately. Here's a screen shot of what it looks like:

The top color is color 1, the bottom one is color 2. I am excited this turned out to be so easy! If I get motivated I need to do it for some of the other ones too ... although I suppose with just this one and some masking, you can put a two-color gradient going any direction onto any item, more or less.

I am working on prizes now, and have already sent out several for approval this morning. Sadly Haz didn't get the chance to approve it, I was too happy and figured I nailed it, so this is the first he's hearing of it. Surprise! Haz, if you don't like it for some reason let me know and I'll make changes.

After the jump I am going to put a list of the outstanding contest prizes -- if you see your name and haven't gotten your prize yet, let me know. This is particularly critical for Steve, Cory, Fishpants (x2), Frankie, ArtfulDodger, Violodion, Brons (x2), MercWithAMouth, and Bixlord as starting tomorrow I am going to forfeit your prizes and instead turn them over to the community at large to vote on items THEY want instead.

Continue reading

Slippers?!

Slippers are great. I wear them every day in the morning with my comfy robe while I sip my coffee and look for super-hero stuff on the Internet to make fun of. But here's the thing -- I don't go out to fight crime in my pajamas and slippers! Apparently, though, if I were trained in the martial arts I would know how foolish that stance is, because goodness knows Iron Fist can rock the PJs look:

Those are slippers, folks. Yellow slippers. Combined with skin-tight Capri pants, a plunging man-region-length neckline, and the biggest popped collar this side of a frat house, and you've got something out of a disco nightmare.

To be fair, Iron Fist came of age in the 1970s, when we as a nation lost our collective fashion minds. My best theory is that an alien culture tried to destroy us by eating our brains through the techno-virus known as "Disco Music". Kooky conspiracy theory, you say? Well look at THIS evidence, I say!

Now I ask you, what possible explanation could there be for three such horrendous costumes at the same time other than alien mind-virus invasion?

(All character and images ©Marvel Comics.)

RP: Suckups are timeless

(From "Captain Victory and the Galaxy Rangers" number 7, @copy;1982 Jack Kirby.)

HM3: Female Coats

I've just updated HeroMachine 3 with the Tops-Female-Coats set, a direct translation of the Tops-Male-Coats set. Here's how a few of them look:

The long transferal slog continues apace. Holler if you see any problems with this particular one.

Poll Position: Holy war

I freely admit that this might be the stupidest poll question I have asked yet. That's me, the overachiever. But with the whole "Clerical Contest" going on this week I wanted to do something with the idea of holy characters, and let's be honest -- Wolverine is a sure-fire vote-getter. That's me, vote whore. Put that all together and you get:

{democracy:154}

Let's put on our Smart Guy Tweed Coat With Elbow Pads and snort down some tobacco on our pipe while we dive into the deep theological and philosophical waters here, shall we?

  • Thor: I know people love them some Wolverine, but let's get real -- Thor's a freaking GOD. He can fly around up in the sky and hurl lightning bolts at Logan till even the mutant healing bits are little more than tasty bacon. If he gets bored with that, he could land and pummel his pint-sized foe to death from a hundred yards away over and over again with Mjolnir. This isn't even close. And yes, I know Marvel is putting out a digital "Thor vs. Wolverine" mini-series, but those cynical bastards just want your money while I am a pure and noble purveyor of Truth. And vote whore.
  • Hercules: A much better match-up than Thor, for the lack of lightning bolts if nothing else. At least Hercules can't fly, so this would be a good old-fashioned toe-to-toe slug-fest. And I actually think Logan could hold his own here. Yes, Marvel Hercules is incredibly strong, but he's not invulnerable, and I think Wolverine's speed and quickness would come into play here. Plus Herc just isn't savage, and that counts.
  • Battle Pope: I admit, I don't know much about Battle Pope. I just like the name. But after reading the Wikipedia entry, I realize that his roommate is Jesus, and you don't mess with JC. So while Wolverine might take this guy down one-on-one, the Lord doesn't leave his warriors hanging.
  • Spawn: I have discovered that I think of Wolverine as a D&D style troll, and that if you can just burn him badly enough, he can't recover. I know this is not canon, but there it is anyway. Plus the chains, the CHAINS, man! They're, like both holy AND demonic! Or something. Does Spawn really have to make sense, or is it enough that he has big claws and fangs and is brooding and totally kills people you guys! And did I mention the Hell?!
  • All of the above: Wolverine can beat anybody!!1!!!

If you answered "All of the above", take a moment to wipe the spittle from your screen. I'll wait.

(Image ©2010, Marvel Entertainment Group.)

Done? Good, because you're wrong. Thor kicks his ass twelve ways to Asgard and back, just for funsies. I think he could probably beat Hercules if he put his mind to it, and Battle Pope would likely be a beat-down until the Big Guy stepped in. Spawn would probably also be a good fight, but in my head he has flame powers and would melt the little bastard. That is probably not even true but I'm not listening to you.

So the correct answer is HERCULES!

Now tell me why I am wrong and you are right, but for the love of Pete keep some Kleenex handy. Monitors ain't cheap.

RP: What tipped you off, the feather hat or the leather hip boots?

(From "Whiz Comics" number 26, 1942.)

Character Contest 46 – Holy Moley

We haven't done anything fantasy-specific in a long while, so your character design challenge for this week is to create a totally cool image around the idea of a Priest, Holy Man/Woman/Other, Cleric, Shaman, or some other variation of a being who lives to serve the divine (or demonic). You could cast this as a super-hero if you like, or you can keep it in the fantasy genre.

Your servant of the almighty might be a pacifist healer, or a gibbering servant of the Lords of Hell slinging chaos about like a scythe, or a righteous soldier of the Warrior God, or even a mystic tights-wearing super hero like Dr. Fate. Good, evil, chaotic, orderly, it's all up for grabs, just make sure your illustration is the best you can make it. And make sure you're not creating a god -- this is for those who serve the gods. Or demons, whatever.

The person with the winning entry as selected by our expert panel (i.e. me) will win their choice of either a portrait or item to go in HeroMachine 3, or a custom black and white "Sketch of the Day" style drawing (also by me). 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 ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the UGO 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;
  • The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest -- we had an "Angels and Demons" contest and a "D&D Character" contest a while back, for instance, and I don't want repeats of stuff you already did for those;
  • 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). If you see "preview" or "rotate" somewhere in the link you're probably doing it wrong.
  • All entries must be in by next Monday, when I'll choose a winner, who will receive his or her choice of any item or a portrait to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 program, or a "Sketch of the Week" style black and white illustration.

Good luck everyone!

Character Contest 45 Winners!

Many thanks to everyone who entered Character Contest 45 - The Kirby Train. Before getting to the fun stuff, I have a bit of bad news to report -- the following entries were not considered for stated reasons. I feel particularly bad for those with multiple entries like kyle and venomfang666, but the state of my internet connection just doesn't allow me to process characters that are not directly downloadable from the link. In some cases, I could see from the name that the character wouldn't qualify, as they were supposed to be a color and a mode of transport.

The number in parenthesis is the comment number on the original thread.

  • Galactic Ketchup (9) - bad link
  • ajw (11) - not a mode of transport
  • DANIEL ENGLAND (12) Bad link, and "ding thing" has neither a color nor a mode of transport
  • Neon Sequitur (18) Bad link
  • kyle (36, 96, 138) - bad link (imageshack)
  • TJ (52) - bad link (photobucket)
  • Hanna (62) - bad link (imageshack)
  • Galahad (102, 104) - not a mode of transport
  • venomfang666 (109, 119, 121, 130) - bad link (photobucket)
  • abominal401 (110) - "Mystery Crimson" not a mode of transport
  • Grip (141) - no color ("Ice Skater" -- ice isn't a color)
  • Grip (148) - "Trance" is neither a color nor a mode of transport

Since most of these are bad links, here's how to get good ones.

Most of the time the bad link is from copying the URL in the address bar of your browser, but that won't work for right-clicking on the link and saving the image directly because it usually has some other bits of data in it for you, the image creator, that no one else can use. If it has something like "?action=rotate" in the address, then it's useless to me.

PhotoBucket: PhotoBucket puts a big giant box over on the left side of the image screen labeled "Share this image". You want the link in the "Direct Link" box. That goes directly to your image without all the other PhotoBucket crap loading around it.

ImageShack: ImageShack has a set of boxes on the right side of the image viewer screen. In the one called "Links to Share This Image", you want the one labeled "Direct".

Those are the two major culprits, hopefully that will help for next time; I'm sorry I wasn't able to use your entries this week.

Now that we have the unpleasant bits out of the way, on to the happy news!

Continue reading

RP: "And what's that you're about to fling!"

(From "Whiz Comics" number 26, 1942.)