Yearly Archives: 2011

HM3: You have to hand it to the masks

With many thanks to the incredible dblade for drawing them, I am happy to announce that the following items are now live:

Hockey Mask in Headgear-Masks:

Awesome gas mask thing (both in the complete format seen here and broken up into individual pieces) in Headgear-Military:

Extended Sharp Claw Hand in HandRight-Standard:

In addition to these fantastic items, I've still got at least three other things dblade has created to add in. Be sure to drop by in comments and thank him for his volunteer work expanding and improving the program!

Poll Position: Summer Movies 2011

We've been fortunate enough to have the Summer of Supers this year, which prompted me to consider the following question:

{democracy:189}

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Who’s he fighting, Daredevil?!

(From "Big 3" number 4, 1941.)

Character Contest 67 – Two Great Tastes

We're going to do something a bit different for this week's Character Design Contest. In the past I've done a few different Sketches of the Day that involved combining two different archetypes into one. For instance, there was Redneck Wizard, Ninja Cowboy, and Cyborg Pirate. I thought it would be fun to throw that same challenge at you to see what you'd come up with.

Thus, your challenge this week is to design one or more characters by combining two words from the following list:

  • Cyborg
  • Ninja
  • Cowboy
  • Cheerleader
  • Robot
  • Dinosaur
  • Teen
  • Werewolf
  • Spirit
  • Ghost
  • Samurai
  • Alien
  • Kid
  • Doctor
  • Shogun
  • Zombie
  • Sorcerer
  • Wizard
  • Redneck

So for example, you could do a "Cyborg Cheerleader" or an "Samurai Alien" or "Dinosaur Doctor".

Otherwise the rules are the same:

  1. Use only a HeroMachine applet (no PhotoShopping except for basic cropping) to create a PNG or JPG of your entry, named as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
  2. Post the image to a publicly accessible website (ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the UGO Forums, etc.).
  3. Enter the name of your entry and a link directly to the image in a comment to this post. The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest.
  4. The link to your image should 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.
  5. I'll choose a winner next Monday, 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 (you pick the subject and I draw it up however I like).

No limit on entries this week, so give it your best shot!

Caption Contest 101 Winners!

With thanks to everyone who entered Caption Contest 101, I've gone through the submissions and picked out the ones I thought were funniest:

  • ajw: Reagan, it’s Gorbachev, what are you wearing right now?
  • TopHat: “SUDDEN METHANE ERUPTION DETECTED”
  • Joshua: With my ventriloquism powers, I shall seduce this clown!
  • Myro: “Evacuating bladder now.”
  • Rick: “Now I’m doin’ the thinkin’ AND the talkin’!”
  • Dan Gonzalez: “Sentient Belt no longer wishes to be affiliated with Loserman and Clownboy.”
  • von Bek: Electrifying chasity belt active! Step away from the clown!

And the winner of either any item they like to be included in HM3 or their own Sketch of the Day style illustration is ... ajw, with his first Caption or Character Design victory!

I like that he noticed a resemblance that had completely escaped me, and I love the idea that Reagan and Gorbachev routinely engaged in telephonic cosplay. That's probably why the Soviet Union collapsed.

Congratulations to AJW and all our Finalists!

Getting physics splatteringly wrong

(From "Big 3" number 4, 1941.)

“Green Lantern” review

I took the day off yesterday to see the "Green Lantern" movie. With the massive power of my will, I have generated the following (SPOILER ALERT!) review.

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It’s not a doll, it’s an action figure! Of a baby.

(From "Big 3" number 4, 1941.)

Power User Profile: Lime

I see so many various HeroMachine images, that they sort of blur together over time. It's very unusual for one to stick with me so strongly that even months later, I go actively looking for it. Our Power User this week is Lime, who has exactly such an image and story. Here it is copied from her UGO Forums Archive; I include it at the beginning because I wanted you to see why I chose her to profile. Anyone who can do this is someone I want to know more about:

One day after school, a griffin followed me home. I asked my mom if I could keep it. She said no. I don't know why. I promised I'd feed it.

Also, considering the passing of Peter Falk two days ago, I think her final line is very appropriate. So without further ado, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Lime!

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Says the guy in nothing but furry underwear and blue socks

(From "Big 3" number 4, 1941.)