Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man

Posted on July 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man

My apologies for the late time of this posting. I was in L.A. all morning in meetings, upon whose completion I immediately had to rush to the airport (where there's no free Wi-Fi, those bastards!). I've since been in the air or eating until now, when I finally have a chance to post our Versus poll from the friendly confines of the Denver International Airport. Namely:

I enjoyed the Batman versus Batman discussion last week, so I went to the well again in light of the recent Spider-Man flick. Also, I ignored my long-standing "no nerd fights on the Internet" rule and got involved in a bit of an imbroglio on a prominent super-hero site about the alleged deficiencies of "The Amazing Spider-Man" and its titular star.

So I turn it over to you, gentle readers, as I duck beneath a hastily-erected barrier sure to be proof against the ravages of Nerd Spittle. Who is the superior Spider-Man, the character portrayed by Tobey Maguire, or the more recent Andrew Garfield?

Have at thee!

[polldaddy poll="6382616"]

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Posted in Versus

Great moments in sound effects

Posted on July 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Great moments in sound effects

(From "Target Comics", volume 2, number 6, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Character Contest 95: Not Captain America

Posted on July 9, 2012 by | Comments Off on Character Contest 95: Not Captain America

Your Character Design Challenge this week is to create the most awesome illustration possible featuring the idea of a country-based character from someplace other than the United States using HeroMachine 3. I've shown "Captain Britain" above, but there are tons of possibilities here. Your creation doesn't have to be the "country's mascot" like Captain America is, but some element of the native land should be present in the design or power set. For instance, you could create a villain called The Leprechaun, who's based in Ireland. And then the nearest Irish person would punch you in the face, but you get the idea.

The person with the winning entry as selected by our expert panel (i.e. me) will win their choice of a) a portrait to go in HeroMachine 3, b) an item to go in HeroMachine 3, or c) a custom black and white "Sketch of the Day" style drawing (also by me). The rules otherwise are the same as always:

  • 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;
  • The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest;
  • Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. 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). See this post on how to get the direct link for most sites.
  • All entries must be in by next Monday, when I'll choose a winner.

No limit on entries this week, so knock yourselves out. Just make them good!

(Image and characters © Marvel Comics.)

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Posted in Challenges, Character Design Challenges

Caption Contest 124 Winners

Posted on July 9, 2012 by | Comments Off on Caption Contest 124 Winners

Many thanks to everyone who entered Caption Contest 124, which challenged you to come up with the best replacement dialog for this random comics panel:

I picked out the ones that made me laugh the most, and now I am using this here Internet machine thingie to reproduce them for your enjoyment:

  • Skybandit: I’m the $6 Million Dog Whisperer!
  • Gero: “Help, he drank the spot remover!”
  • MaDPac: “I knew we shouldn’t have let your mother hang out with transformers!”
  • Herr D: Scotty’s a rescue dog from Chernobyl–he’s fi-aaaahhh!
  • Herr D: –yeah, well I wish I had JELLO instead of a dog and a smaller nose–DAH!
  • TWIZTID HIPPY: At least now i can see when you need to go outside.
  • Gabe Puratekuta: “Great… You’re not going to bite me so I become a dog-themed superhero, are you?”
  • Frankie: “Well, I’m the new Jubilee, and (gasp!), ‘Wolvie!’ What did they DO to you?”
  • Joel: “No ice sculpture’s ever ever beaten me in a starring contest before and they ain’t startin’ now!’
  • thejay: I can see my NOSE in there!
  • ProwlerKnight: By god, my dog is a ghost and I’m turning into Michael Jackson!
  • MrMikeK: I wanted an ironic pet not an ionic one!

And the winner is ... Herr D!

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Posted in Challenge Favorites

Unfortunate personal grooming choices of WWII

Posted on July 9, 2012 by | Comments Off on Unfortunate personal grooming choices of WWII

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 5, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Amazing Spider-Man Review

Posted on July 8, 2012 by | Comments Off on Amazing Spider-Man Review

I saw "The Amazing Spider-Man" yesterday. Here's my One Sentence Review:

While TASM doesn't really give us anything "new", it does provide a fun moviegoing experience full of big-screen super heroics and spidey-sense-tingling excitement.

For more, see me after the jump. Warning, though, here there be spoilers!

Continue reading →

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Posted in Movies and TV

Pop Quiz Funny Results!

Posted on July 8, 2012 by | Comments Off on Pop Quiz Funny Results!

Many thanks to those who took the challenge yesterday to come up with a funny image from HeroMachine. I'm bummed about having to leave home for a business trip today so I needed the laugh. Here are all of the qualifying entries; click on any one to start the slideshow.

Among my favorites were Myro's (always up for a good nerd science pun!), Gendonesia, Iscarioto (it took a moment but I LOLed when I got it), AMS (unfortunately it wasn't named properly so isn't eligible for the win, but it was funny), Sir Awesome, Skybandit, and Watson Bradshaw.

And the winner is ... Iscarioto!

First of all it's a clever visual pun, which is an ideal way to use an image maker like this. Secondly, the chameleon is beautifully colored. And finally, the overall composition, both in terms of placing the elements and the coloring (white commas against the purple background), is excellent.

Congratulations to Iscarioto and thank you all for giving us some laughs!

Edited to Add: Since several folks don't get the joke, here goes. Read out loud, it’s “Comma comma comma comma Chameleon”, a visual pun on the lyrics from the 1984 classic Culture Club song, “Karma Chameleon“. It’s dated, but it just so happens the date fits with my own life. That was one of the first songs to break through to my teenaged awareness on MTV, when Boy George was confounding Middle America with his gender blurring.

It was one of those irritating songs that you couldn’t decide if you really liked or not, but which you couldn’t get out of your head.

I picked this one not only because it’s beautiful, but because it is a true visual pun. That’s a great use of something like HM.

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Posted in Challenge Favorites

Pop Quiz: Funny

Posted on July 7, 2012 by | Comments Off on Pop Quiz: Funny

Happy Saturday, folks! Your one-day quick-fire challenge is to make me laugh. That's it. Just make something funny.

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 either tonight or tomorrow morning. Elaborate backgrounds aren't necessary, though if you've got one it's fine.

  • All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the HeroMachine 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!

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Posted in Challenges, Pop Quiz

Rare, and unsavory, martial arts moves

Posted on July 7, 2012 by | Comments Off on Rare, and unsavory, martial arts moves

(From "Target Comics" volume 2, number 5, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

SOD – JunkMech

Posted on July 6, 2012 by | Comments Off on SOD – JunkMech

As his prize for winning Caption Contest 123, Ian requested:

A giant junkyard-built mech, with a body formed from two semi-truck cabs, four legs made from beat-up construction equipment armatures, two arms - one giant grasping/tearing claw, one with a huge circular sawblade. Oh, and a flamethrower! And homemade machine guns! MAJOR BADASS DESTRUCTION!

And this is what I came up with:


(Click to embiggen.)

Enjoy! I didn't manage to squeeze in the machine guns but otherwise I think it's pretty close. I like how junky it came out. Although now that I look at it, maybe this is Crab-tor the Junk Mech Crustacean.

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Posted in Challenge Prizes, Sketch of the Day