Caption Contest 97 Winner!

Caption Contest 97 was probably the toughest one yet in terms of how hard it was to come up with an appropriate caption. The addition of the pre-set dialog ups the sphincter factor by at least two. Still, a number of folks came up with some high-quality entries:

  1. Rendu: “I’m sorry, darling- there’s no wite-out left for YOUR speech balloon.”
  2. Blue Blazer: I hate redundant questions. Even in the office.
  3. Sutter_Kaine: Please stop saying “Even in the office?”.
  4. Hairwhip: I dont know why, but everytime you say “Even in the office?” I want to kiss you even more.
  5. frankie: “I think we need to end our inter-office relationship.”
  6. Myro: “You know what I’m tired of? ‘That’s what she said’ jokes.”

Proving I'm an idiot, I never even thought about the TV show, yet in retrospect that was obviously the way to go. Which is why, despite still not having claimed a prize for his Caption Contest 94 win (ahem!), the prize this time goes once again to ... Patrick!

Well done, Patrick! Let me know in comments or via email what you'd like as a prize for this contest and your other outstanding prize and I'll get 'em on the list.

Finally, a simile as bad as his hot-pants

(Hat tip to Comically Vintage.)

The advantages of ending DADT

(From "Heroic Comics" number 26, 1944.)

Power User Profile: Panner

Continuing our "Alliteration Theme", this week's "Power User Profile" features that master bug-hunter extraordinaire and expert Open Critique Day critiquer, Panner!
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The Softer Side of Frank Frazetta

Sometimes while reading these Golden Age comics, I stumble across a wholly unexpected gem. I downloaded what I thought was going to be a 1940s-era "Reg'lar Fellahs Heroic Comics" issue, only to find that in fact it was a 1954 "True Life Heroism" book. Although disappointed not to have the latest adventures of Hyrdoman, I decided to give it a read anyway, and boy am I glad I did, because the very first two-page story was illustrated by none other than legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta!

We're used to seeing Frazetta's work featuring leering monsters surging out of the murk and Rubenesque princesses being rescued by mighty-thewed barbarians on the covers of our favorite fantasy series. But take a look at the softer side of Frank in this charming tale of a horse rescue. And still, every panel and every pose is fairly bursting with dynamism.

I'm so excited to have found this gem and to be able to share it with you all. Enjoy!

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Sadly, the Zombie Virus had already begun to change them

(From "Heroic Comics" number 24, 1954.)

HeroMachine 3 Custom Items

I've been very impressed with the HeroMachine 3 items DBlade and Zyp have recently submitted. Adding them to the program was much quicker than I thought it would be, and they look good on the figures. And of course, Mark has a long history of drawing a ton of fantastic stuff to flesh out our characters.

For those wanting to submit items, I wanted to put together template files that have everything in the proper layers. That should make it easier for you, and definitely will make it easier for me. After the jump, I'll get into the nitty-gritty details of how to do all this.

This is for advanced users who have access to and are comfortable using a vector-based drawing program, so be warned. If that's not you, then you probably don't need to read further as it's pretty technical.

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Open Critique Day #17

It's time once again 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.

Creepy Nazi Infantalist Voyeur FTW!

(From "All Male Peepers" "Heroic Comics" number 6, 1941.)

The eye has it

DBlade has sent in another great item, an all-seeing centered Cyclops eye, designed to look correct (ha!) when placed in the center of the head, instead of the others which are all drawn to either go on the left or right side:

This is now available in Eyes-Standard. Note that as usual, you may have to clear your browser's cache if it doesn't show up at the end of the list.