Caption Contest 108: Aaaarrrrr!

Posted on September 19, 2011 by | Comments Off on Caption Contest 108: Aaaarrrrr!

Because I wanted to give everyone considering a "Friday Nights 3" entry an extra week to work on their submissions (remember, due Thursday!), and in honor of this being "International Talk Like a Pirate Day", we're running another Caption Contest this week instead of a character design challenge.

Thus, your scurvy challenge this week, ye salty sea dog, is to come up with the best replacement dialog for this comics panel or be keel-hauled!:

I don't know what kind of ship he's on with that pink skull emblem but I feel sure we'll find out.

The best entry (as judged by yours truly) wins the author's choice of either any item they like or any portrait to be included in HeroMachine 3′s final release, or a custom black and white “Sketch of the Day” style illustration (you pick the subject, I draw it however I like).

All entries must be left as a comment (or comments) to this post. Keep ‘em clean (appropriate for a late-night broadcast TV show), but most importantly, keep ‘em funny!

This week we have a cap of no more than five (5) entries per person, so make 'em your best!

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Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenges

Caption Contest 107 Winner!

Posted on September 19, 2011 by | Comments Off on Caption Contest 107 Winner!

Wow, we had a lot of very funny entries for Caption Contest 107, thank you all for sharing your humor and wit! Here are some of the entries I thought represented the best replacement dialog for this panel:

  • ams: Objects may appear closer than they are!
  • Panner: Trapped in knife factory, send help!
  • Trekkie: Look out, there’s a knife heading towards you!
  • Gero: “What am I supposed to write here? Won’t he be dead when it hits him?”
  • McKnight57: Duck!
  • Frevoli: Iron Skull couldn’t see the point of dagger mail… then it hit him.
  • Frevoli: If undeliverable, please throw at the head of:
    Postmaster Dave
    231 CherrywoodLane
  • TopHat: Hey, could you give this knife to Daredevil for me? -Love, Bullseye
  • Sutter_Kaine: Using his uncanny reflexes, the Iron Skull manages to intercept the knife that would have otherwise missed him by several feet!
  • TheNate: EDITOR’S NOTE: Before the invention of Sticky Notes, mobsters used Stabby Notes.
  • TheNate: The mob delivers a sharply written reply.
  • the creator: ‘You have been poked’ regards, the Facebook team.
  • mashlagoo: Dear Friend, I am Prince Abdullah Saud. I have recently acquired money in the amount of $100,000,000.00 USD due to the death of my father. Because of a stipulation in his will, I need your help…
  • Bael: I was well accustomed to weapons bouncing off my head, but a note? That would have raised my eyebrows, if I had any.
  • Skybandit: “We have hostages and demand (continued on next knife)”
  • dblade: “Lucky for Iron Skull, there were a few indisputable truths in the universe: Paper covers Rock, Rock smashes Scissors, and Skull shatters Dagger.”

I thought the variety of approaches on this one was great, with some doing an "editor" style aside, others actual dialog from the character, and still others the actual text of the note. Good stuff!

I had a hard time picking a winner, so I ended up falling back on my old stand-by: Which ones made me laugh out loud the first time I read them? And the answer to that was ... Frevoli!

I counted two excellent puns and a cool new concept, "Dagger Mail". I can't wait to get my first letter. Also, ironically Frevoli's prize for his last Caption Contest win, and today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! That's gotta be some kind of karma.

Anyway, Frevoli, let me know what you'd like for your prize, congratulations to the Finalists above, and thanks to all the others who entered but who I couldn't paste in due to space constraints. That was a fun one!

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Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenge Favorites, Challenges

Wink + pink drapes = Do NOT take the "cabin boy" job

Posted on September 19, 2011 by | Comments Off on Wink + pink drapes = Do NOT take the "cabin boy" job

(From "Long John Silver" number 30, 1956.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Samson vacations in Telluride

Posted on September 18, 2011 by | Comments Off on Samson vacations in Telluride

FOH John Hartwell and I took a trip to the mountain town of Telluride last weekend and this is what we saw:

>

(From "Samson" number 3, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Power User Profile: Cliff

Posted on September 17, 2011 by | Comments Off on Power User Profile: Cliff

Our Power User profiled this weekend is the prolific Cliff!

Continue reading →

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Posted in Power User Profiles

Samson goes bowling

Posted on September 17, 2011 by | Comments Off on Samson goes bowling

(From "Samson" number 3, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Open Critique Day #26

Posted on September 16, 2011 by | Comments Off on Open Critique Day #26

Folks, it's time for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following rules:

  • Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
  • Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
  • I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

(Image © Baroquen.com.)

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Posted in Open Critique Day

Why didn't *I* think of that?

Posted on September 16, 2011 by | Comments Off on Why didn't *I* think of that?

(From "Samson" number 3, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

HM3: Itempalooza

Posted on September 15, 2011 by | Comments Off on HM3: Itempalooza

We're very lucky to have the indefatigable dblade drawing items for use in HeroMachine 3, and getting them to me in a format that's super easy to import. I've had quite the backlog of submissions from him waiting in the wings for a long while, and am happy to finally get them posted.

This also marks the debut of new contributor Zachary Hamilton, who provided the neat "Blades of Chaos" you see towards the bottom of the sample image.

From top-right to bottom-left, you can find these items in Male/Female-FantasyArmor; Tops-Female-Coats; Shoulder-Right; Tops-Male/Female-Coats; Foot-Right; Item-Right-BladesTwo; and Body-Zombies.

Be sure to thank dblade and Zachary in the comments! I did have to redraw the coats to fit on the female form, which is what took most of the day, otherwise they'd have been up very quickly.

Next, on to the Replacement Prize list!

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

META: Skipping Lone Wolf Today

Posted on September 15, 2011 by | Comments Off on META: Skipping Lone Wolf Today

Sorry folks, I'm on a roll drawing (just one more claimed prize to draw!) and want to focus on that today, so I'm going to skip this week's installment of Lone Wolf. Plus, that story is kind of bogging down and I could use a break from it.

If you have ideas for other adventures or anything else we could do on RPG Thursdays, I'm open!

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Posted in Lone Wolf: Fire on the Water, Meta, RPG Corner