Sponsored Links (which Premium Members will never see):
Grizz and I have completed the prize for his winning Caption Contest 10 entry, the armor-clad J3er1ch0:
If you want to win your own custom black and white illustration of whatever you like (within reason), now's your chance: Caption Contest 12 is going on now, so put on your creative thinking cap and make your entry today!
Comments Off on J3er1ch0
Posted in Challenge Prizes, Challenges, Cool Characters
Comments Off on Random Panel: That's why you need a "safe word"
Posted in Daily Random Panel
With many thanks to Johanna Draper-Carlson, the commenters both here and at ComicsWorthReading.com, and the other entrants, I am delighted to have been chosen as the winner of the "Men of the DC Universe" Poster Contest. Thanks everyone, especially to Johanna for coming up with such a fun idea in the first place. Being the "I am the crappiest artist ever" type of artist rather than the "I am Lord of All Creation" type, this meant a lot to me.
Comments Off on I won something!
Posted in Challenges, Super-Hero Stuff
I love Walt Simonson, but he was smoking some serious rock when he came up with Kurse:
Moving from top to bottom, what the heck is a magnet doing sticking up out of his head? I thought maybe they were curved horns, but does anyone -- even an Asgardian god-type bad guy -- need three sets of horns jutting out of his noggin?
Maybe, if he's constantly getting picked on by the other gods for wearing a veil.
I mean honestly, what self-respecting immortal embodiment of bad-assery tricks himself out in bridal wear? I keep thinking I should look for something old, something new, and something borrowed, but if he thinks those pale blue skull-eyes on his abs count as something blue, he's one misguided cross-dresser.
Moving on, I never want to make a bad guy feel he shouldn't wear skulls. Bonery has a long and honored tradition in the super villain world, and goodness knows I honor our great fashion forefathers like the Red Skull. But Kurse, baby, don't you think two skulls are a little much? Especially when one of them is apparently from a reindeer?
Sort of the whole point of wearing the bones of your fallen foes is to strike fear in the hearts of your other enemies, to brag of your battle prowess. But who exactly is supposed to be impressed that you killed an antelope?
And don't get me started on why the second set of skull appears to be munching on his groin. I don't even want to know. Maybe he and Prince Chaos go to the same designer? There must be something about having super powers that makes you want to have a tiny little man staring out from your crotch.
I've never been a big fan of characters having random bits jutting out of their outfits as we see on Kurse's legs here. I think Walt Simonson is one of the all-time greats, but the only guy who could routinely pull off this sort of fluff was Jack Kirby. Here, it just looks like he raided an Amish warehouse of stocks.
Kurse is supposed to be awesomely powerful, going toe-to-toe with the likes of Thor (and the Power Puff Pack kids!), so I understand the impulse to include all kinds of scary bits on his outfit, but it all just comes off as too much. Sometimes less is more.
Comments Off on The Kurse of a bad outfit
Posted in Bad Super Costumes, Super-Hero Stuff
Comments Off on Random Panel: Great moments in Joker misogyny
Posted in Daily Random Panel
The day has finally arrived, and integrated ads are now part of the free online HeroMachine 2.5 application. I rearranged the controls to fit it in, trying to strike a balance between keeping the maximum amount of space for the character view, and keeping the controls usable. I hope it's not too distracting. The powers that be at UGO are keeping an eye on things, and I'll be happy to pass along your impressions and feedback on the change.
The Desktop Edition remains the same, with the old-style no-ad interface.
Comments Off on New ad structure
Posted in News & Updates
The last few panels might not have been the best for good lines, so this week I'm offering you a choice. The best caption for either of these two panels wins a free custom black and white illustration of whatever you like (within reason). Hopefully one of the two at least will appeal to you and inspire something great. And even though there are two panels, there will be just one winner -- whatever caption is funniest wins, with the other panel doomed to a captionless existence forever. How sad!
Here's your first option:
A sample caption might be "I said do NOT feed the animals to the plants!"
And here's the second one:
A sample caption here might be:
Balloon1: I think this faux finish bullet hole motif is gonna look great in this room!!
Balloon2: I wonder what "faux" means?
As always, the rules are 1) keep it suitable for a broadcast sitcom, 2) a limit of three entries per person, and 3) leave your entry in the comments to this post.
Good luck everyone!
Comments Off on Caption Contest 12: Vegetarian revenge
Posted in Challenges
The winner of the HeroMachine Caption Contest 11 is ... Frankie!
I unfortunately had to edit the final balloon a fair bit, as there was no way to fit the original phrasing into the space allotted. Please check the original comment thread for the full wording. Frankie will win a custom black and white illustration of whatever he or she wants, within reason, which I'll be posting once it's done. I'm a bit behind with last week's winner, but should catch up in the next day or two.
Thanks to everyone who entered!
Comments Off on Caption Contest 11 Winner!
Posted in Challenge Favorites, Challenges
The "Monday Mashup" (my effort at producing a coherent story using one and only one panel from each of ten randomly selected comic books) began with a question from my friend Dave. "Would it be possible," he wondered, "for someone without artistic talent to create an entire comic book using panels from other, published comic books?" I thought it was a very interesting question, and since I had the newly-acquired "Great Random Comic Book Pile" handy, I decided to use its pre-bundled collections as my test bed. So far I'd say the experiment has had mixed results, but I do have fun putting it together each week. If you know of other comic book fans with blogs or web sites, by all means send them a sample link and encourage them to try the same thing. I'd be really curious to find out what others can do with the idea.
Anyway, today's effort is a "What If" scenario, featuring an alternate origin story for Batman and his first adventure. Here goes!
Comments Off on Monday Mashup: Barracuda down the trousers
Posted in Mashups
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com