Category Archives: Challenges

This may be the most random yet of the comics panels with their dialog whited out that Glenn3 has ever posted. And that's saying something, because goodness knows, there have been some very random panels there indeed.

Regardless, your challenge for this week is to come up with the best, funniest replacement dialog for this comics panel:

I have no idea what was going on here originally, but I bet if I did I'd need therapy. That is seriously weird. So, yeah, good luck with that! The rules are simple:

• Leave your entry or entries (no limit) in the comments to this post (it's fine to put all yours in one comment, they don't have to be separate);
• Keep it clean, appropriate for a late-night broadcast television program;
• Next Monday I'll pick what I think are the funniest entries as Finalists, and everyone will have a chance to vote on who they think should win.

Good luck everyone!

Thanks to everyone who entered Caption Contest 82, they were a hoot to read. I've picked the ones I thought were the funniest for you all to vote on; the top vote getter as of next Monday will receive his or her choice of either any item they like, or a portrait, to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 product.

Good luck everyone and congratulations on being a Finalist!

Last time out we took aim at the classic comic book Martial Artists, and this week we're doing the same with that venerable archetype we modern-day types call a "Brick".

The Brick on the team is the heavy hitter, the punishment-absorber, the living shield, the person who takes and dishes out most of the physical damage on tap for that day. Classic examples would include The Thing, The Hulk, Colossus, Juggernaut, and The Blob. Typically these characters have enormous strength and stamina, often expressed as gigantic bulging muscles and powerful, stocky frames.

Sometimes, though, the team Brick might be deceptively normal looking, like Ultra Boy, Mon-El, Wonder Woman, or even Namor. Whatever the physical appearance, though, the Brick's job is to deal out physical damage while absorbing the same, and staying active as long as possible.

Bricks get up close and personal to do their fighting (with the exception of the always-classic thrown vehicle or chunk of pavement), so even though a character might be physically tough, they wouldn't qualify if they mainly used ranged powers or weapons in combat.

Of course you could take this out of the realm of super-heroes completely, instead choosing to design a classic armored knight/paladin, or a big tough soldier, or even a character from ancient Greek myths like Hercules.

The rules are the same as always:

• All entries must be submitted as a comment to this post;
• Each entry must have a link to a publicly accessible web site (i.e. the UGO Forums, ImageShack, whatever) where the image of your character is posted;
• 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.
• If possible, please make the link 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.
• The contest ends next Monday, whereupon I will choose an overall winner, who receives his or her choice of either any item they like, or a portrait, to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 version.

Good luck, everyone!

The person who can come up with the funniest replacement dialog for the following panel will win either any item they like, or a portrait, to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 application!

As usual, the rules are simple:

• No limit on entries, but all entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post;
• Keep it clean -- dialog should be appropriate for late-night broadcast television;
• All entries are due by next Monday, when I'll pick a slate of finalists that the community at large will then vote on.

Thanks once again to Glenn3's "Say What Pictures" collection of blank dialog panels.

(Original art and characters ©DC Comics, Inc.)

Thanks to everyone for the funny entries in Caption Contest 81! I've selected what I consider the best ones in the poll below -- vote for as many as you think worthy, and click any image to see it at the larger size.

Good luck! Whoever has the most votes as of Monday will win their choice of either any item they like, or a portrait, to be included in HeroMachine 3's final version.

Your character design challenge this week is to put together the best illustration of that classic genre type called the "Martial Artist". The history of comics is replete with this kind of deadly serious, enormously skilled hand-to-hand specialist, from "Iron Fist" to the Legion's "Karate Kid". If you can design the best example of a super-hero Martial Artist using any HeroMachine version, you'll win either any item you like, or a portrait, to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 version.

Before we go on, let's take a moment to talk about what a Martial Artist is, and isn't. While they might use a ranged weapon like a bow or blowdart occasionally, it's definitely not their preferred method of attack. Green Arrow, for instance, can handle himself in a melee but he's definitely not a Martial Artist as I mean it here. Black Canary, on the other hand, despite having a sonic scream most definitely is.

Martial Artists aren't usually bruising brawlers like Juggernaut. Characters like him and The Thing and The Hulk fight hand to hand mostly, but they're Bricks, built for dishing out and taking punishment. I'd even put Wolverine in the Brick category -- he's made to get the snot beaten out of him and still coming back to gut his enemy. The Beast, on the other hand, is definitely a Martial Artist, relying on his strength, yes, but more his agility and quickness and combat prowess to get through his melees.

Of course you could take this out of the realm of super-heroes completely, instead choosing to design a classic Ninja, or a Green Beret, or even a character from ancient Chinese myths.

Having said all that, the other rules are the same as always:

• All entries must be submitted as a comment to this post;
• Each entry must have a link to a publicly accessible web site (i.e. the UGO Forums, ImageShack, whatever) where the image of your character is posted;
• The contest ends next Monday, whereupon I will choose an overall winner.

I've been pretty "specific" with the last few contests so I thought something a little more open-ended might be fun for a change, I hope you like the idea.

Finally, let me reiterate a plea to name your files in a sensible way, because it makes my life much easier when organizing these and thus, makes me like you better. For instance, I have a man crush in DiCicatriz because he does all of his files the right way.

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. He also has the grace to make his link go DIRECTLY to the file, instead of making me go to an ImageShack jump page, find the character, zoom in on the image, then save it. I can just right-click on the link in the comment, and choose "Save Target As ... " and presto, I've got his image, properly named, on my hard drive. Lovely.

Here's a good link:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/DSauce/DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png

See how I can just right-click on that and get the image? Or if you just regular-click it, you go directly to the image and ONLY the image? That's awesome.

Now here's a bad link (not to pick on Aaron, it's just the first one I came to):

http://s961.photobucket.com/albums/ae99/dhabirunner/?action=view¤t=KentuckyFriedChicken.jpg

Try regular-clicking that and you go to the PhotoBucket page, with all the surrounding crap it has on it. Try to right-click it and "Save Image As" and you get an html file instead of the image. So to get the image into the judging folder, I have to right-click, Open Link in New Tab, wait for PhotoBucket to load, click the image AGAIN to get it at full size, THEN right-click and Save As. It drives me nuts.

This isn't a rule or anything, but it sure puts me in a nice happy place to get one like DiCicatriz's and not like the other one. And that's a good thing when it comes judging time.

Good luck, everyone!

(Karate Kid image by Ed Benes via Wikipedia. Character ©DC Comics, Inc.)