The Nerdmudgeon Podcast
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
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Author Archives: JR19759
Character Design Contest ♯32 Poll
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Posted in Challenge Favorites
Character Design Contest ♯31 Winner
The results of this weeks poll were close guys, only one vote in it. But, of course, it doesn't matter in the end how close it was because, as they say in Highlander- There can be only one! And this week that one is Anarchangel for Rhapsody.
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Posted in Challenge Favorites
Character Of The Week- 20th July
For this week's character of the week we'll take a look at Torog's Brain-Bot-3.0.
The thing that attracted me to this is the attention to detail used when constructing the subject. This is especially prevalent around the centre of the picture, the rocket mechanism made from the glove and shoulder items. The masking here really works, sometimes masking to join two items together can leave a mismatched line along the join, but here there doesn't appear to be one.
Also, the design is very well thought out, it looks like it could conceivably be used in either a comic or a sci-fi movie. The item choices work well together and nothing seems out of place. There is also a menacing quality to the machine, having no face (the essential part of the anatomy for human interaction, without it there is no emotion, something which is inherently unnerving to us) as well as the large, fearsome looking claws, which, coupled with the non-humanoid body structure, suggests something alien and antagonistic.
The final thing I like about this piece is how it is finished. The colour choices for the body help the menacing aura, being dark and dingy. This is nicely juxtaposed against the bright and brilliant flame from the booster, although this may have been enhanced if there was some sort of reflective glow on the adjacent bodywork. Finally, the shading is very effective, especially on the claws and head. There are still some bits that could have been shaded where they aren't, but there is a very good contrast between light and dark, especially as the dark seems to be more prevalent on the main body whilst the light is more noticeable on the extremities, such as the head, booster and claws.
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Posted in Character of the Week, Things I Like
The Big Question ♯10
My question this week is, what is the best comic book story ever written and why?
By story I mean a single storyline, it doesn't have to be confined to a single issue or even a single comic, but it must be a resolved storyline (e.g. The Dark Knight Returns). I'm being vague here because it'll be interesting to see what you guys come up with.
Personally I'd nominate V For Vendetta, because Alan Moore is a genius and I'm biased for V over Watchmen (the more acknowledged of his two great masterpieces) because it's set in Britain so I relate to it better. The best thing about both these stories is that they have so many layers, an inbuilt depth that can only be created by great authors. Both are political and violent but under the surface there is a heart, a hope that the human race is capable of better.
That's my (surprisingly short) say, so now you guys can have yours.
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Posted in Uncategorized
Caption Contest #6
This week, I want you to come up with the best bit of replacement dialogue for this picture
Remember, keep it clean. You have until next Wednesday.
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Posted in Caption Challenges
Anime Talk: Shipping
Hi everyone, JR here. As Kaldath is taking some time off from the blog, I'm going to fill in for him for his Wednesday posts this week (we'll see what's going on next week before I completely take over). I apologise about the following post, I haven't watched as much anime as Kaldath so some of my examples may seem a bit different to what he usually puts.
This week we'll talk about something that's loosely related to what Kaldath was talking about last week; Shipping. In basic terms, Shipping is a fan term for the belief that two characters are/ should/ could be in a relationship (the term coming from the ship in relationship). The term was originally used for Mulder and Scully from X-Files, but has migrated to the world of anime, and also to other serials (the Harry Potter series for example).
The names of ships can vary, with there being lots of different ways to name a ship. You can have the names of the two characters with a / between (character1/character2), a word followed by the word shipping (e.g. Rocketshipping from the Pokemon franchise), portmanteau combinations of the two characters (e.g. Narusaku- Naruto and Sakura from Naruto) being the main ones used.
Of course, not all ships are canon, and many spring up through casual (sometimes unintentional or even dub edited) hints or through pure fan fantasy. Shipping is especially prevalent in series with multiple lead characters (often when there is one lead male and many female leads like in the harem genre), and often leads to rivalries between supporters of the different ships, especially if the issue of romance in the series isn't resolved.
Now that we know a little bit more about it, what are your opinions on shipping? Any ships you support? Discussion below.
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Posted in Anime
Character Design Contest ♯32- Keeping It In The Family
For this weeks challenge I want you to create a family based superhero team (like the one shown above).
Rules Specific For This Week: Each submission picture must include at least 2 characters that are related to each other in some way (Husband/ Wife, Brother/ Sister, Grandparent/ Grandchild, Parent/ Child), larger group shots are allowed. I will allow the use of external programs to put together larger group shots (more than 3 people), but ONLY for that purpose, not for effects and shading. Anyone taking liberties with this will be disqualified (believe me when I say I will be able to tell).
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.
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Posted in Character Design Challenges
What Were They Thinking- The Death And Rebirth Of Superman
This week, I'd like to talk about a quite contentious subject, something I like to call the Jesus Effect. Of course, we all know that comic book characters don't age like we do, but apparently they don't die like we do either. And the blame for this I lay squarely at the feet of Superman.
Now, don't get me wrong, his was not the first rebirth. It happened as far back as 1963, when Lightning Lad from the Legion Of Superheroes managed to die in January and then be resurrected in September (only for that to be reteconned as some-one else using his form, gotta love DC continuity), but after extensive research, I can only find four others who have died and been resurrected prior to the death of Superman story in 1993. These being Lex Luthor, who died in a plane crash but was then later revealed to have cloned himself to escape death by cancer and faked his other death (?), Iris West Allen, who was killed by Reverse Flash but resurrected in the 30th century, Alfred Pennyworth, who was crushed by a boulder but then returned to life using a regeneration ray (Holy WTF Batman!?) and Kang The Conquerer, who, let's be honest, has so many alternate forms it doesn't really matter when he dies.
However, if we look at the list of characters resurrected post-DoS, the list is alarming (and consists only of DC and Marvel characters I might add). 69 for DC, 102 for Marvel. Now that is just ridiculous. When a list contains a fairly decent Avengers team, the big 3 of DC, 3/4 of the Fantastic Four and Aunt May from Spider-Man, you kinda have to admit things have gotten out of hand. It's the ways these deaths are removed as well, some of them are clumsy at best (see Captain America) were as some they just couldn't be bothered (Graviton I'm looking at you there).
I know all characters are valuable intellectual property, and killing them in an event is a good way to boost its sales, but this is getting ridiculous. When even a long forgotten character like Barney Barton (died 1969) can be brought back to life (resurrected 2011), I think it's time to take a step away from that big red reset button and say "Hold on, I think this one has been over done before, maybe we should think of something else."
Sorry about the rant. Just had to get it off my chest.
If you have any ideas for this or any other of my blog posts, either say below or PM me in the forums. Laters.
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Posted in Uncategorized, What Were They Thinking
Character Design Contest ♯31 Poll
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Posted in Challenge Favorites
