Author Archives: AFDStudios

Avengers XD

Kaldath was kind enough to send along the following:

This Coming Wednesday Disney XD will be premiering a brand new Avengers Cartoon series. Last night and this morning, they showed a BOAT LOAD of 8 minute Long micro episodes setting things up for the premier. These Micro Episodes are on Youtube, and I thought you might like to see them, so here is a link for you.

One of my long-standing aggravations with my "out in the boondocks" Internet access is that watching streaming video is incredibly painful. So while I haven't yet been able to wait the requisite hours to actually watch one, I definitely like the idea of an Avengers cartoon, so I'm putting it up in the "Things I Like" file with the understanding that I can withdraw my provisional liking should the show actually, you know, suck.

Here's mini-episode 1:

I have to admit, I'm a little dubious about this. Just from the stills, it looks like Marvel's continuing to go with the traditional Japanese animation style, which I've never cottoned to. DC's animation studios in my opinion have always been much more successful than Marvel's, the exact opposite of their movies.

What makes DC's animated shows great is that they pick a unique visual style and go for it, combining it with great storytelling and a solid take on the characters. It started with Bruce Timm's Batman and hasn't slowed down, even as they abandoned that style for Darwyn Cook's "New Frontier" or the Kirby-like "Brave and the Bold". Marvel hasn't ever managed that same level of visual or storytelling success, in my opinion.

But a new day dawns, and hopefully "The Avengers" will right the ship. I'm curious to hear what you all think of the shorts.

RP: Best. Archie. Ever.

RP: Puberty is not pretty

(From "Weird Chills" number 1, 1954.)

Open Critique Friday #3

We're closing on a new house today, so I will likely be pretty slow in responding to these. But respond I will! And hopefully all the other great, creative, intelligent folks who hang about here will also chip in with some commentary and feedback.

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 the 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.

RP: Now that's a headline

(From "Hangman Comics" number 1, 1942.)

Color illustrations with Flash

I do all of my illustration work nowadays with Flash CS3 and a Wacom graphics tablet. For anyone who's curious, I've put together a tutorial on how exactly I go about producing one in color; it's generally faster than doing the same thing with Photoshop, at least for me, and since Flash is a vector format (versus Photoshop's pixel-based output), I can render out the final version at any size and resolution needed, reuse pieces easily, and more.

I don't think very many other working artists use Flash this way, which probably says more about my ignorance than anything, but for what it's worth, here's what I do. You'll need a working knowledge of Flash to follow along with the particulars.

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RP: On being completely unaware of the job description

(From "Hangman Comics" number 1, 1942.)

The Nipple Clamp of Doom

Look, I get it, the Image Nineties were all about the Age of Excess, with heads getting exploded and "dark" heroes and guns and pouches and basically every gimmick that could get a fifteen year old boy to swipe three bucks from his dad's wallet on the sly. But seriously, a cyborg zombie modern era Jonah Hex ripoff?*

Given that your editor comes to you and says "Hey, Mr. Big Shot Artist Guy, howzabout taking a few minutes off from the jeans commercials and knocking me out a cyborg zombie modern era Jonah Hex ripoff", I understand that you've got to produce. I mean, hey, the Nineties aren't going to last forever and those thigh pouches don't fill themselves with ill-gotten loot, right?

But what in the name of all that's good and decent would lead you to give any character a breast pump? Especially a male character?

Maybe that's what's going in the various pouches -- baby's gotta eat when undead Jonah Hex comes home, after all. Though given where that tube is leading after feasting off his engorged man nipples, I'm thinking it's not a pouch that's involved. And that's disgusting.

* I know nothing at all about Deathlok, and am riffing off just this one image, because making fun of super hero costumes is what I do. I am fully aware that he is not a zombie, but I'm pretty sure he's a cyborg of some sort and dead certain he's got at least a little Jonah Hex DNA coursing through the ink in his veins. Or something. I'm just here to make you laugh, folks, and if "engorged man nipples" doesn't do it, well then apparently you're a lot less immature than I am.

(Image and character ©Marvel Comics, may God have mercy on their souls.)

Poll Position: HeroMachine prize items!

I've compiled all your excellent suggestions regarding replacement prize items for contest winners who never told me what they wanted -- thank you all for the time and effort you put into the ideas!

I had to leave out a few for various reasons; either they were redundant, or I already had the item in question (there's already a set of jodhpurs in Legwear-Standard), or they weren't specific enough. In cases where you asked for more than one thing, I usually just took the first one from the list. If the person making the request provided a reference photo link, I added it to the choice -- just click on an image to expand it. If there was no reference provided, you'll just have to use your imagination.

So here's how this will work.

Vote for as many items in the following list as you would want to see in HeroMachine 3. At the end of a week, the top ten vote getters will become HeroMachine items (eventually)! It's so simple, even a bald hick like me could do it.

And so can you, so go do it already!

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SOD.218 – Juggernaut