
(From “Amazing Adventures” number 2, volume 2, ©1970 Marvel Comics, Inc. and drawn by the inimitable Jack Kirby. Thanks to John for the scan.)

(From “Amazing Adventures” number 2, volume 2, ©1970 Marvel Comics, Inc. and drawn by the inimitable Jack Kirby. Thanks to John for the scan.)
Posted in Daily Random Panel
Comic books are all about two sides fighting it out, and that kind of head-to-head battle has been sorely lacking here at HeroMachine.com. But no more! Because starting this week you’ll have your chance to duke it out with each other in our new contest feature, “Friday Night Fights”!
Here’s how it works. Starting next Friday, November 20, sixteen challengers will square off in a set of eight head-to-head battles. The highest vote-getter in each match will move on to the next round, again vying against one competitor for top vote-getting honors. We’ll go four total rounds, going from sixteen challengers to eight, to four, and then to the finals matching the two bracket winners against each other:

I would like to thank my buddy John for coming up with this idea in the first place, and then further helping me refine it. Thank you Mr. Hartwell!
I’d also like to tip the hat to Bahlactus for starting the original comic-book Friday Night Fights. They’re very different from this one, but any time you have super-hero types duking it out online, I think you need to warm the cockles of your heart (wherever those are) with thoughts of him.
Good luck, everyone who decides to enter!
Posted in Challenges, Friday Night Fights
Hammerknight has really outdone himself this week, putting together a wonderful guide on using third-party applications to assemble a comic book cover out of your HeroMachine parts. I can’t even imagine how much effort went into putting this together, many thanks to him.
As usual, click on any of these images for a larger version.
Posted in Tips & Tricks

(From “Bulletman” number 10, 1942.)
Posted in Daily Random Panel
With heartfelt thanks to Chris Sims for burning out my retinas with his retrospective of the Marvel Swimsuit Edition comics of the morally turgid Nineties, I present to you what is possibly the worst costume ever. Anywhere. In this, or any conceivable universe:

Seashells on man-parts is wrong. Just wrong. Let’s not even get into how staggeringly uncomfortable that thing must be to wear, with the ridges and the coral and the sharp bits … man, talk about “shrinkage”. ::shudder::
Here’s how bad it is. It’s so bad that just wearing it has turned Namor into a walking, noseless, undead mummy aqua-zombie. With incredibly viscous water oozing down his disturbingly ribbed musculature. It’s either that, or the sight of his skimpy shell-Speedo got the local sperm whale a little too excited.
(Image and character ©1995, Marvel Comics, and the responsibility of Joe Quesada, who should be ashamed. Forever.)
Posted in Bad Super Costumes

(From “Mystery Men” number 3, no date given but it looks like 1940 or 1941.)
Posted in Daily Random Panel
Random is not just a by-word here at HeroMachine Global Headquarters, it’s a way of life. To honor that commitment, your challenge this week is to design a character from the name given you by the “Ultimate Game Name Generator” . You can try multiple times for a good name, but you have to use one given by them.
I of course have no way to detect cheating so we will be operating under the confines of the Honor System. Cheaters will be beaten with a wet noodle til collapse. Of the cheater, not the noodle because come on, how long would that take?
So, on to our rules!
That’s it! No limit on the number of entries this week, so let ’em rip. It would also be fun to see in your post which settings were used to generate the name, although that’s not a requirement.
Whoever has the best entry as judged by the capricious whim of Jeff Hebert will win either a portrait of their head or any item they choose, to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 program.
Good luck everyone!
Posted in Challenges
Thanks to everyone who entered “Caption” Contest 64. To review, this one was a bit different, you had to do what I do with the Daily Random Panels and come up with a funny headline for the panel in question:

The following Honorable Mentions did it particularly well:
Which leaves our winner, who I think not only nailed the entire concept of what the Headlines are supposed to be, and not only perfectly captured the essence of this incredibly random panel, but also made me laugh right out loud …
TheNate: Study: 99 Percent of Superheroes Not Bullet-Proof
Well done, Nate and all the Honorable Mentions! He’ll get to choose either a portrait of himself or any item he likes for inclusion in the final HeroMachine 3 program.
We’ll have a normal Character Contest coming up in a bit. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to enter!
Posted in Challenge Prizes, Challenges

(From “Bulletman” number 10, 1942.)
Posted in Daily Random Panel