The Nerdmudgeon Podcast
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!
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Monthly Archives: January 2009
Random Panel: Back when there was no such thing as an internal monologue. Or narrator.
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
Slots and sets in HM3
Fabien asked a good question in the comments to the last post -- what happened to Headgear and Masks? Discussion to follow the jump.
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Posted in HeroMachine 3
Fashionhunter
I have a suggestion -- the first guy this man ought to hunt down and kill is whoever designed his outfit:
You can tell DC put this out during the Image-imitating Nineties, with the atrocious sausage-thighs, spittle-teeth, and oversized shoulder pads, but I think they really accomplished something new here. Specifically, a new low.
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Posted in Bad Super Costumes
HM3 journal, Day 3
On Monday (Day 1 of the HeroMachine 3 development process), I finalized the slots and started researching how to load external movies (.swf files) into the main Flash application in Action Script 3. Yesterday I actually laid down sample code to do just that, and was able to load in sets of bodies and then heads from the Horror mini. I was then able to click on the previews for each item and load it onto the stage where I could drag it around and do all other sorts of nifty things to it.
That was the biggest programming challenge; now that I've settled that, I can move on to the rest of the coding. Today I am going to be starting work on the relatively complicated navigation system for choosing which slot you want to be working on, and which set of items within that slot you want. I also have to do a lot of the background stuff like deciding how to format the array holding all the slot variables, what properties to give them, conceptualize how they'll all stack, etc.
After the jump I'll put the list of slots, if you see anything missing that ought to be there, let me know. Like in the recent Minis, you'll be able to add as many items in each Slot as you want.
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Posted in HeroMachine 3
Random Panel: And my super brain says "Dracula!"
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
You say Nightwing, I say Blindside. Potato, potahto.
I felt kind of bad trashing Marat Mychaels in the Caption Contest post, so I thought I should look him up online and see what he's been up to since 1992, when the Brigade issue in question was printed. I mean, 17 years is a long time, I figured he'd probably improved since then.
Which, clearly, he has, as you can see at his web site.
But while poking around, I noticed a page from his Store, titled "Nightwing Tryout Page 1" (already sold) that looked an awful lot -- an AWFUL lot -- like his gallery page of Blindside. Whoever the heck that is.
For your convenience, here they are side-by-side:
Look, I'm the last person in the world to cast aspersions on someone for re-using art -- I do it all the time -- but damn. I assume the Blindside work came first, and then was later redrawn with Nightwing's costume as sample submission. But why bother? If you're already a published artist, why do you need to try out for something? And if it was the tryout that came first, did he use that basic script later for Blindside?
There's nothing unethical about any of this as far as I can see (assuming the Nightwing tryout didn't come with a pre-written script), it's just kind of weird. I don't know Marat Mychaels at all, I'd never even heard of him until this morning. His art's gotten much better, and he's a published, successful comic book artist, which is far more than I can say. So props to him for that.
It just seems weird, is all.
(All images © Marat Mychaels.)
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Posted in Randomosity, Retroviews
Caption Contest 45: Group action
Who doesn't love a good group scene? I know I do! Thus your challenge for this week's caption contest is from the pages of Image Comics' "Brigade", issue 2:
Come up with the funniest/best replacement dialog for the balloon and you'll receive a free black and white illustration of whatever you like from yours truly, so put on that thinking cap and get busy! Keep it to no more than three total entries per person, left in the comments to this post, and relatively clean and you’re home free.
Good luck everyone!
(P.S. I can't post this image without pointing out that the artist is Marat Mychaels, who can only be described as a Liefeld Wannabe. In other words, he is an even worse illustrator than Rob, and yet someday aspires to be just like him. You can certainly see that wordless longing in the way the figures all seem to have their feet (off-panel, naturally) at different levels. Seriously, they'd all have to be standing on different stages for this to make sense. And the giant in the background either has his feet crammed into his buttocks or he's standing in a well. Which of the two foreground figures, and which of the two flying figures, is in front of the other? Can you tell? I can't. Add in the horrible coloring, the amateurish inking, and the awful character design, and you have the only thing worse than a pure Rob Liefeld drawing -- someone who wishes they were Rob Liefeld but isn't as talented as he is! Oy.)
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Posted in Challenges
Caption Contest 44 Winner
I am happy to announce that the winner of Caption Contest 44 is ... Cory!
Something about headless Conan enemies seems to bring out the best in people, so I thought something happy as the winner was appropriate. A number of other entries were also very funny, including the following Honorable Mentions:
- marx: Frankincense, Myrrh, Gold–those are traditional gifts from a wise man to a king. But this… this is just creepy.
- Frankie: “Yes, yes. (sigh) I’m indeed his ‘little friend’.
- Zorbas The Awesome: Before you say anything….yes I AM his One-Eyed-Willy
- Danny Beaty: Jenny Craig helped me lose over 170 lbs.!
- Malachi the great: *Never* agree to the magic trick.
Many thanks to everyone who entered. For coming up with the winning entry, Cory will win a custom black and white illustration of whatever he likes (within reason). Keep your eyes peeled to HeroMachine.com for your chance to win with the next Caption Contest!
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Posted in Challenge Favorites, Challenges
Random Panel: The horror … the HORROR!
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
Super-hero theme songs
Every hero needs a good theme song, and thanks to this web page, you can hear the music and read the words as you go. Which for people like me, who can neither sing nor remember lyrics, is a Good Thing.
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Posted in Randomosity
