Author Archives: AFDStudios

Caption Contest 123: Not for Teacher

Posted on June 4, 2012 | 76 comments

Your challenge this week is to come up with the best replacement dialog for this comics panel (courtesy of the Mighty God King):

The best entry (as judged by yours truly) wins the author’s choice of either any item they like or any portrait to be included in HeroMachine 3′s final release, or a custom black and white “Sketch of the Day” style illustration (you pick the subject, I draw it however I like).

All entries must be left as a comment (or comments) to this post. Keep ‘em clean (appropriate for a late-night broadcast TV show), but most importantly, keep ‘em funny!

No limit to entries, but please, self-edit and only put up ones you genuinely think are good!

76 Comments

Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenges

Character Contest 92 Winners

Posted on June 4, 2012 | 28 comments

Due to this conference taking forEVER and cab rides in Manhattan at rush hour being endless, I’m awfully late getting the results of our last Character Design Contest posted. My apologies. Time constraints are also keeping me from doing a writeup for each Finalist, which I regret, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Your challenge was to come up with an illustration showcasing a common soldier from any genre. Not the high and mighty generals or the one-off super hero, but your line grunt, the kind of man or woman (or orc or robot or …) that fights on the front line against the enemy. All of the entries were great, but I picked out a handful that each had something special, unique, and/or spectacular about them.

I also wanted to send a special shout out to all our new folks, as well as returning stars Sean David Ross and Superfan1. Good to see you guys back!

Ladies and gentlemen, your Finalists!

Continue reading →

28 Comments

Posted in Challenge Favorites

The safe word is 'Ow'?

Posted on June 4, 2012 | 5 comments

(From “Target Comics” volume 2, number 2, 1941.)

5 Comments

Posted in Daily Random Panel

Pop Quiz Shield Winner

Posted on June 3, 2012 | 21 comments

Thanks to everyone who entered the last Pop Quiz! We had some fun entries, which I am happy to post here for your enjoyment and convenience.

As always, there can be only one winner, and this week it’s … Iscarioto:

I thought this was a very creative entry that looked great both active and inactive. Even though there’s a bit of a person showing, like with some of the other entries I think it’s necessary here to show what the heck the thing is.

Great work everyone! Thanks for sharing your weekend creativity with us.

21 Comments

Posted in Challenge Favorites

META: Traveling and Open Thread

Posted on June 3, 2012 | 30 comments

I’m winging my way to New York City today for a conference, so the Pop Quiz will remain open until this evening when I am safely ensconced in my hotel room and can get to judging. Behave yourselves!

Feel free to treat this as an open thread to discuss whatever you like.

30 Comments

Posted in Meta, Open threads

I like my heroes with a reservoir tip

Posted on June 3, 2012 | 3 comments

(From “Target Comics” volume 2, number 2, 1941.)

3 Comments

Posted in Daily Random Panel

Pop Quiz: Hammer Shield Time!

Posted on June 2, 2012 | 47 comments

Happy Saturday, folks! Your one-day quick-fire challenge is:

Make a shield!

You could go for a classic Medieval battle shield, a far-future photon protector, a super-heroic Captain America style barrier, or anything else you can think of. But it has to be just the shield, no character or background or anything.

You only get one entry — that’s right, just one! So make it your best. Most of the other rules are the same as for a regular contest, but instead of a whole week I’ll announce the winner tomorrow evening (since I’m getting this post up a bit late).

  • All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the UGO Forums, whatever);
  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his “Bayou Belle” character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
  • Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). Here’s a quick-start guide on how to do that for various image hosting services.

The winner will receive their choice of either one item or one portrait to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 release, or one Sketch of the Day style drawing where you pick the subject and I draw it how I like.

Good luck!

47 Comments

Posted in Challenges, Pop Quiz

There can't be only one

Posted on June 2, 2012 | 12 comments

(From “Target Comics” volume 2, number 1, 1941.)

12 Comments

Posted in Daily Random Panel

Open Critique Day #40

Posted on June 1, 2012 | 99 comments

My full-time (non-HeroMachine) job might keep me from actually getting to these before this afternoon, but 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 guidelines:

  • 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.

99 Comments

Posted in Open Critique Day

It's the American way!

Posted on June 1, 2012 | 13 comments

(From “Target Comics” volume 2, number 1, 1941.)

13 Comments

Posted in Daily Random Panel