Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Eighties Seventies:
Blue McDonald's Man and his Magical Kazoo will surely help the Teen Titans in their battle against evil. I love that they've outsourced the bad-costume design part of the business to "TT Fan Dave Elyba" because come on, look at the work the "professionals" have produced -- a woman in a giant Telemundo Bee costume, an underaged kid in green short-shorts, and a raving lunatic clown outfit. Awesome.
Hornblower and his two backup singers the Laughing Bees became a stalwart of the retro-disco scene, while Dave Elyba later grew up to be a meth addict that was killed by a SWAT team after climbing a clock tower naked and pelting the people below with water balloons filled with his own urine. Film at 11:00.
Actually, it was the seventies – the disco era. DC actually had a few reader-designed costume contests at the time – LSH, Supergirl, Batman Family (Robin), and Teen Titans (Mal). They were all horrible.
GAH! My eyes!
@ Webpulp: I KNEW I smelled disco!
Oh Lord! Who knew ole Hornblower was part of Parliament Funkadelics. Who will tell George Clinton and Bootsie Collens?
I always wondered when Dick got his inspiration for the original Nightwing costume from. Guess we know now. On a side note, it must have really sucked being a black person who was a comics fan in the 70’s. Between this clown, Tyroc, Falcon, and even Luke Cage, 70’s black characters had some major costume issues. Makes you really appreciate Cyborg’s metal diaper. At least he didn’t have a popped collar. I guess the only salvation here is that DC didn’t name him Black Hornblower.
To paraphrase…something:
“Yes, I know. But honestly, that’s how every superhero was wearing their costume back then.”
This proves what I learned long ago, never take fashion advice from a circus acrobat!
I don’t know which is worse: that costume or the fact that all the other supers in the panel claim to like it. Yet more evidence that no one in the 80s had any fashion sense, and the disco era is best left far, far behind.
When I first read Teen Titans in the early 70s, Mal Duncan was one of my favorites. He was just an average guy – no super powers, no flashy costume. (I suppose the 70’s jumpsuit was kind of a costume.) When they revived in the later 70s, for some reason Bob Rosakis though he needed to be more of a “superhero,” and as a result (not for better) Mal was never the same. I made this collage in tribute to his useless superpower – super fashion sense.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v99/webpulp/Share/mal.png
Well done!
Holy crap, he may rival Wonder Man as a serial offender.
I’d still take the 70s over the 90s. Super freaky funktastic beats X-TREEEEMMMMEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! any day of the week.
Don’t knock disco, kids. This costume is terribly wrong. I’m an Aries and I’m all WTF… When “coke meets spoon.”
This is no Dazzler, no Yvonne Elliman, no “Two Doors Down.” Not even all kinds of 70s references. This is just… pheh! My strawberries and cats, I sew swatches with more thought and character. Ok… ummm random thoughts while hemming and needle-point…
You know, I look at these fan-designed costumes that were a) culled from hundreds or thousands of submissions and b) chosen by actual working comics artists and c) published in an actual comic book, and I can’t help but think how awesome all of you folks on HeroMachine are. Seriously, any one of you could do better than this.
Well, to be fair, most of us have the gift of sanity on our side. Also, much better design material, thanks to you and dblade.
Yes the 70’s Had a type of “Sunnydale Syndrome” on good taste.
I’ve got to say the best thing in the panel is the bee’s boots, they are kind of cute!
Mal Duncan, eh? I was really hoping this was the superhero alter-ego of funkmaster Maceo Parker (James Brown, Parliament/Funkedelic, solo work). I believe, iirc, it’s during “Mother Popcorn” that the Godfather of Soul demands, “Maceo! Maceo, blow ya horn!”
Are we sure the team wasn’t actually ‘The Teen Pranksters’??? “Oh, yeah, man, those are snazzy threads! You’re bound to be as popular as Superman and pick up lots of chicks dressed like that! Now go outside ahead of us…we’ll follow you. Honest!”
Funny how the costume seems to be missing stripes, if you’re going to go with a star-motif.
And the belt looks a little girly in the way it hangs down on one side and is so thin.