Author Archives: JR19759

Power User Profiles: madjack

Our Power User this week might just be the best Heromachiner to come from Luxembourg, certainly the first Power User from the Grand Duchy. He is also an excellent 'machiner, having created heroes for all 50 states of America (plus 2 for good measure) and national heroes for a number of countries. So, without further ado, it is my pleasure to present to you, madjack.

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Character Design Contest ♯37- Opposites Attract

This week I want you to create a picture that represents a duality, two opposites interacting. This can be through two characters, one character in two halves (split down the middle if you will), a split screen, any way you can think of so long as it shows two opposites in one picture. You can do any opposites you choose (if you are unsure of what I mean by opposites, think Male/ Female, Good/ Evil, Life/ Death, Night/ Day, Angels/ Demons, Land/ Sea, that sort of thing, it shouldn't be to hard to think of a good theme).

I know that there are some people out there that will really be able to make this theme their own, so everyone needs to be on the top of their games here.

Please make sure you have read the rules before entering. As usual, no limit on entries, so have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

Screen Spotlight- Pegg, Frost & Wright

Today, I feel the need to talk, at length (so what else is new?), about a certain collaboration between some huge geeks.

What I personally love about these three is that every film/ tv show they make ends up being one huge nerd-out. Spaced- Sci-fi, Shaun Of The Dead- zombie movies, Hot Fuzz- American Cop Movies, Don't- Hammer Horror films, World's End (al-be-it to a lesser extent and without the massive references seen in their previous works)- disaster movies, all bundled up with a healthy does of British life and British comedy.

Even when separated they can't hold back those impulses, so we get things like Paul (Pegg & Frost, which is epic), Star Trek/ Star Trek Into Darkness (Pegg, less epic but still he's good i.m.o), Adventures Of Tintin (Pegg & Frost, with Wright being a writer but not director), Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Wright), The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy (Wright), Doctor Who/ Doctor Who Confidential Series 1 (Pegg), Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Pegg), Death & Return Of Superman parody short (Pegg), Spider-Plant Man parody (Pegg & Frost) and of course the upcoming Ant-Man film (Wright, which will hopefully be good as he's directing it.)

So guys, over to you. What's your opinion on Pegg, Frost & Wright? Favourite film? Best bits?

Character Design Contest ♯36 Poll (Reviving The Brand)

[polldaddy poll="7329558"]

Link to contest page- http://www.heromachine.com/2013/08/12/character-design-contest-♯36-reviving-the-brand/

Character Design Contest ♯35 Winner (Pubic Domain Literature)

The winner of this weeks poll was djuby for his interpretation of Aladdin. Well done sir and well done to everyone who entered.

djuby-Aladdin

Character Of The Week- 17th August

When looking for a subject to cover in character of the week I always try to find something different, someone who I haven't covered before or even recently. However, this week it seems I have been unable to do so, due to the fact Jeimuzu exists and is doing stuff like this on a constant basis.

8: 17 Jeimuzu-Dandelion

 

There are lots of things that caught my eye about this creation in particular, starting with the costume, which is kooky to say the least. I love the hat and the leaves coming out of the sleeves, which both tie in with the characters name; Dandelion. She certainly has a unique style, much like her creator.

The colours used enhance the character brilliantly, only needing three (major) colours for the costume and two for the body/ hair. The costume colours were well chosen to tie in with the name and costume, with the main focus being on the yellow, which alongside the green of the leaves and leggings and the orange of her hair, gives the character a very vibrant feel.

The face was the next thing to catch my eye. Very nicely understated and quite pretty, she looks like the kind of girl you could expect to see dressed in that fashion at some sort of anime convention. She doesn't look aggressive or overtly sexual (which seem to be the two main categories for super heroines), she looks relaxed, which would certainly be unnerving and strange for anyone facing her.

Finally the pose, which has a very nice movement to it. The fact that she is not really running, but more skipping towards her next adventure adds to the quirkiness of the design. Again, it gives the impression of relaxation around the character, that she's not really worried about having to do all the super heroics, which I think is a nice way to look at it.

Big Question ♯14

This week I want to touch on a subject I've touched on recently in "What Were They Thinking", sexism in the superhero genre. Now, I am aware that, despite it not being the 1940's any more, comics are still aimed mainly at teenage boys, so therefore they must be filled with busty super-heroines in overly revealing costumes (even Pepper Potts' Rescue armour accentuates her chest, but that might be Tony Stark being Tony Stark). But is it really necessary? I will concede that some of the more ridiculous heroine costumes have been changed in recent years (unless you are Star-fire in which case it's got worse) but still. And, with the exception of Wonder Woman, there seems to still be a deficit of major league Super heroines who weren't an add on to a major heroes mythos (Bat-Girl, Super-Girl/ Power-Girl, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel). Why is this still the case? Or is it, I'd be very interested to hear your opinions on this subject.

Plus this topic does give me an opportunity to post this illustration of sexism in the Avengers film.

Power User Profiles- Moognation

This week on Power User Profiles, we take a look at the man behind the winning entry for the Hundredth Character Design Contest. A creator of excellent silhouettes and female characters, please give it up for..... Moognation

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Character Design Contest ♯36- Reviving The Brand

As we had so much fun with last weeks Public Domain contest, I thought this week we'd do another. What I want you to do this week is go to this list http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Comic_Book_Characters and do the next generation of any of these public domain comic book characters. Think Alan Scott- Hal Jordan or Jay Garrick- Barry Allen. You just have to keep the same powers, the same gimmick/ logo (if applicable, i.e. the power ring for Green Lantern) and the name. You can change everything else if you want.

Make sure you don't re-enter any characters that you have entered into previous Public Domain contests as they will be disqualified. You can only enter characters on this list (there are over ten pages so hopefully you'll find something you like the look of).

Please make sure you have read the rules before entering. As usual, no limit on entries, so have fun and good luck.

Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post characters that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.

What Were They Thinking- The Inferior Spider-Man

You've got to wonder sometimes how the brains behind the big comic book companies work, some of the decisions they make are so screwy. Due to the value of the intellectual property of all characters not even z-list heroes like The Creeper are allowed to be put out to pasture. We've already covered that when we talked about the death of Superman and it's effect on comics, but in a world where Dick Greyson and Bucky Barnes only get to take over their mentors roles for a month and a bit, Marvel's recent run on Spider-Man has got to be the most confusing thing they have ever done.

Ok, lets over look the frankly stupid method of how it was done, because I don't get it myself and look at what happened. Basically, for those that don't know, Doctor Octopus has managed to remove his own psyche from his body and place it in Peter Parker's, leaving Peter to die in Octopus' cancer ridden body, with only Peter's conscience surviving in his old body, Octavius soon gets rid of that. This means that Doc Ock is now Spider-Man and he is trying to be a superior Spidey to Pete, by going around and killing bad guys. Now, call me old fashioned, but I kinda liked Pete as Spidey and Doc Ock as Doc Ock (mainly because he was a classic villain). What they've done, in my opinion, is confusing and pointless, Spidey never needed to be shaken up to revive sales, he's Marvels most constant best seller. What they've done there is dropped sales. You've also got rid of one of the top 3 most popular heroes of all time and one of his greatest nemeses. All whilst bringing back old heroes from the dead because you don't think people will like someone else replacing them.

Now, I know that this is probably only going to be temporary, but I felt it was so stupid and badly thought out it deserved highlighting. Even a temporary major screw up is still a major screw up and Marvel has majorly screwed up here.