Yearly Archives: 2012

Open Critique Day #36

Although my new full-time (non-HeroMachine) job might keep me from actually getting to these before this afternoon, it's time for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following rules:

  • Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
  • Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
  • I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

Question mark indeed

(From "Target Comics" number 5, 1940.)

Eye of the Tiger. Rabbit. Zombie. Whatever.

When last we left our intrepid stuffed bunny explorer, we were experiencing a severe case of authorial smack-down, wherein he gaver us the hand while we considered of enacting scenes from "Pulp Fiction". Only instead of a samurai sword and a gut-wrenching case of involuntary S&M, we had a tire iron and a gut-eating case of zombies. It would seem that cooler heads prevailed and we decided to go with the disguise option instead. Now we get to see if this Matt Youngmark fellow is a kindly old guiding-force wizard or a reader-hating attack weasel.

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Smart enough to invent a televisor, not smart enough to invent a ring tone

(From "Target Comics" number 2, 1940.)

Rebel … of LOVE!

Being a fashion rebel sometimes is a good thing. But not in the case of Dark Horse Comics' 1991 character "Rebel":


That's right, dudes, for the cost of just a little flattery, this black-leotard-wearing, mullet-clad, ski-goggle-sporting flamer of love can be yours!

I can't decide if my favorite part of his look is the hair, the abstract white chest pattern, or the skull and cross bones over the stylized heart. Because why have a piratical skull and crossbones when you can have love and crossbones?! I'm trying to imagine a less scary insignia without resorting to bunnies or puppies, but I'm coming up blank.

I particularly love that the logo is repeated on his shins. I guess when you've got a good thing you've got to work it.

Props also to the writer of that second panel, because that is some crunchy dialog right there, folks. Entirely appropriate given his ridiculous getup, of course, but still, the next time some old fart tells you "They don't write 'em like they used to!", feel free to point to this panel as a reason why.

(Image ©1991, Dark Horse Comics, Inc.)

Now THAT's a comic I'd read!

(From "Target Comics" number 2, 1940.)

Iron Man vs. Colossus

I realize they've probably fought a dozen times over the years, but I am interested in what you think would happen, not the latest writer at Marvel. So consider this matchup:

On the one hand, Iron Man has, over the years, become one of the main powerhouses of the Marvel Universe, occasionally rivaling the power of Thor and Hulk. He wasn't always that way, though. For many years Iron Man ran the risk of burning himself out at anything approaching maximum power and wasn't anywhere close to god-like ability. I guess a vast fortune and a top-grossing movie franchise can really help a guy out.

Colossus has such a lower profile, I bet most people don't even put them in the same league. But Peter's incredibly strong and incredibly tough. He's gone toe-to-toe with the heavyweights as well and come out looking pretty decent.

So the fundamental question here is, does organic armor trump manufactured armor? Is a guy in a suit better than a guy who IS the suit?

Sound off in the comments and let us know how you feel!

[polldaddy poll="6146249"]

Wait, the women or the police?

(From "Target Comics" number 1, 1940.)

Character Contest 88: Space Pirates!

Your character design challenge this week is to make an awesome space pirate! I realized in our last mix-and-match contest that I had neither space nor pirate listed as options and that is clearly unacceptable. So this week we're going to combine them!

The rules are the same as usual:

  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. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 120 Winners

We had a ton of great entries for Caption Contest 120, featuring Batman with an M1 rifle:

So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, here are your Finalists in more or less submission order:

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