Category Archives: Challenges

Look at this vibrant Golden Age lineup of spandex-clad super-heroes, led by none other than the redoubtable Big Red Cheese himself, Captain Marvel:

Sadly, the only one of these valiant warriors from a bygone age to survive into the modern universe is Captain Marvel. His outfit hasn't changed a stitch in all that time, which I guess shouldn't surprise anyone since Billy Batson never hit puberty either, despite fifty years to bake. I guess the lightning giveth, and the lightning taketh away.

His fellow adventurers were not so fortunate, sadly, and except for Bulletman have largely disappeared from the face of comic-dom.

That's where you come in.

Your challenge this week is to bend your enormous creative skills (with a little help from HeroMachine, of course) to the task of reimagining one of these other four masked men. Take their fundamental concept and twist it, change it, tweak it, update it, make it modern and cool and stylish. And of course, that means they need new threads, because these supporting cast-members don't have all-powerful wizards flinging thunderbolts around to quell the fashion police.

From left to right on the cover, your targets are (click to get more info on them) Spy Smasher; Bulletman; Minute Man; and/or Mr. Scarlet.

You have one week! On next Monday, I will select the best proposed redesigns and post them for a community vote for the overall winner, who will as usual receive their choice of any one item of their choice, or a portrait of themselves, to appear in the final HeroMachine 3 program. Their character, along with the runner-up, will also be featured in a prominent ad on UGO.com to be seen by millions of visitors for the week.

The other rules are the same as always:

• All entries must be left as a comment to this post, including a link to a publicly-accessible web site where an image of your creation can be found;
• No more than three entries per person, which can be three variations of one of the characters, or three separate characters, or any combination you like;
• No image editing in PhotoShop-like applications except for basic cropping.

Good luck everyone! And sorry this is so late, in the mass of contest posts earlier I somehow forgot to do the new one. Thanks to Danny and Kaldath for poking me.

In keeping with our new democratic traditions here at HeroMachine.com, I, your benevolent overlord, have selected what I consider to be the funniest six entries for Caption Contest 68, and now you -- yes, you! -- get to decide which one should win its author the choice of a custom item or portrait of themselves to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 app. Here are your choices (you get to pick up to two, click on an image to see it in a larger, more legible format):

Good luck everyone, and congratulations to those five Honorable Mentions!

I don't want to reveal who they are, but the top five vote getters in the Banner contest are separated by a mere 9 votes. There are only 3 votes separating first place from second, and third through fifth place are only one vote apart. It's close, folks! If you've already voted, go bug your friends to have their say as well.

We're trying something starting with this week's contest (Character Contest 25) -- You get to pick the winner! I've selected the submissions that I feel are particularly worth of inclusion, our Honorable Mentions from which you, the voting public, will select a winner.

Even better, you can vote for however many entries you think are worthy of the win. So if you're the kind of person who has trouble deciding between two great choices, this is the poll for you!

I'll close voting next Monday, when the next contest is announced. If this goes well, we'll try the voting thing again.

Good luck to everyone, and congratulations to the following Honorable Mentions, may the Most Honorable Mention win!

Continue reading →

Starting this week I am moving contests to Mondays*, so heads-up on that. And to "kick" off the change, your challenge this week is to come up with the funniest replacement dialog for this blank comic book panel:

Yeah, good luck with that! The rules are simple:

• Entries must be made as a comment (or comments) to this post;
• Keep it relatively clean (appropriate for late-night broadcast TV at worst);
• No more than three entries per person, so use your best stuff!

I'll announce a winner next Monday, who will receive their choice of either any item of their choice, or a portrait of themselves, either of which will be included in the final HeroMachine 3 version.

Good luck everyone!

(Image and characters © Sam Kieth and Image Comics.)

*The current character contest will be judged tomorrow as per the old system, with the next coming next Monday instead of next Tuesday, then we'll be completely on the new schedule.

Do you recognize this character:

That winged cow-head fellow appears in the banner right at the top of this here site, on every single page.

I hate it. And I want you to make a better one.

Therefore, whoever submits the best HeroMachine-created illustration to replace the redoubtable minotaur will have that character appear from here on out in the actual HeroMachine.com banner instead. It's practically immortality! Well, at least til UGO redesigns the whole thing again, anyway. But close!

Here are the rules:

1. The character submitted cannot have been entered in a HeroMachine contest before.
2. Submissions must be made as comments to this post, including a link to the character image on the web someplace (UGO Forums, PhotoBucket, whatever).
3. No more than three (3) entries per person, with a deadline of Monday night at midnight.

Good luck everyone!