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Thanks to your feedback, I've added six items from the HM2.5 Expansion set to the HM3 Tops-Female-Bustiers set:
These are available now; if you don't see them, clear your browser's cache.
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Posted in HeroMachine 3, News & Updates, Previews
This appears to be King Kirby week here at the HeroMachine Comics Blog, and once again I'm going to be picking on a guy I regard as a genius. But hey, if you can't destroy the ones you love, who can you destroy, right?
The contest this week is oriented towards Kirby's unique costuming, so I wanted to highlight one tendency of his in particular -- incorporating everyday items into his super-hero outfits, particularly in his later Fourth World style designs. My main target today is "Ajak" from Marvel Comics' "The Eternals" (issue number 7 in this case). Ajak is sort of a herald, as far as I can tell, who comes ahead of the Eternals to basically assemble them from a kit on their new planet. Which doesn't explain why he is wearing a giant video camera as a helmet:
Actually it's sort of a combination giant fish with a big lens instead of a head, I suppose. Maybe they heard "Fish Eye Lens" and got carried away? Whatever, look at how far out the nose of that thing sticks from the head! "I'd love to kiss you, darling, but I can't get closer than two feet!"
Another example of this is "General Ordiz" and his chest-mounted old-fashioned reel-fed tape recorder:
Keep this in mind as you design your Kirby-inspired contest entries, hopefully it will ... inspire? ... you to new heights of awesomeness.
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Posted in Bad Super Costumes
(From "Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers" number 7, ©1982 Jack Kirby.)
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
We appear to be on a bit of Jack Kirby kick this week, so let's take the King's designs into real life, shall we?
Let's take a deeper look, shall we?
The Headgear
It's big. It's bulky. It won't fit through most doorways. How the heck are you supposed to move in this stuff? There are enormous horns, gigantic tuning forks, even one guy with an enormous video camera mounted to his noggin. Just maneuvering around the every day obstacles of life would be a hassle, assuming you don't live in the god-sized Asgard.
The Weight
Kirby armor is huge and bulky and must weigh several metric tons. I can't imagine getting out of a chair, even -- which apparently Maximus can't either, as he's still moribund. Come to think of it, all your furniture would have to be triply reinforced and made of adamantium just to keep your shiny metal butt from smashing into the floor. Let's not even think about how you de-suit go to the bathroom in under three hours.
The Controls
Kirby outfits have doo-dads everywhere. Hips, chest, nipples, crotch, all along the belt, the outer thighs, inside the armpits, you name it and there's a button or lever or switch or tape recorder or something you have to fiddle with. I'd be in a constant panic thinking that if I accidentally scratch where it itches I might set off a nuclear bomb or something.
The Name
I think this about says it all:
It sounds like I'm harshing on Jack Kirby -- and I am a little -- but it's the same goodhearted ribbing I give my friends, born of respect and admiration. The guy was a total stud. But if you spend any time at all looking through particularly his later works, like his run at Pacific Comics or the New Gods or the Inhumans or whatnot, a lot of these visual shortcuts start to jump out at you.
I have to say, I'd be curious to talk to the costume designers for the "Thor" movie to find out how they kept the Kirby horns on Loki from dragging the actor's head to the ground. Those helmets look incredibly heavy and awkward to me.
But at the end of the day, in the real world, I'd most hate the bewildering array of controls and doohickeys that festoon a classic Kirby outfit. I just know I'd fart and destroy downtown.
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Posted in Versus
I've completed and uploaded the conversion of the HM 2.5 "Bustiers" set for HeroMachine 3, and it is now live for your use. Here is a preview of a couple of screens worth of entries:
I tried to be careful about bringing over all the items, including things like the star-spangled and striped sets, and to further break them down into the complete item down to the waist; cut off at the navel; and just the bra.
Furthermore there are a number of standalone options for mixing and matching your own creations. For instance, item number nine (first page, first column, last row) is designed to fit over the default shoulder straps so instead of a top portion with pointy ends, you can make them rounded instead. There are also a number of zippers set to different lengths which can be sized, rotated, and moved to serve any number of functions.
Hope you like them! Note that armor stuff will be covered in the conversion of Tops-FantasyArmor from males to females, so don't be surprised that there's little enough of that here.
If there's anything in particular you'd like to see, or problems you've noted, with the set then please let me know in comments.
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Posted in HeroMachine 3, News & Updates, Previews
Congratulations to Morzan for winning the run-off for Character Contest 44! Morzan can choose either a "Sketch of the Day" subject (like the recent Ms. Marvel one for the Pop Quiz), or any item or portrait to appear in HeroMachine 3.
And once again, thanks to everyone who entered, to the other Finalists, and to Me, Myself, and I and Blue Blazer for their hard-fought vote as well.
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Posted in Challenge Favorites, Challenges
For anyone interested in the mechanics of telling a story in comics, Scott Eric Kaufman has a great post up on "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" (the rest of the site is all about politics, so be warned!) from his freshman composition course that explores examples of classic transitions:
First I provide the McCloud:
Then I follow it with an example from their text, in this case Craig Thompson's Blankets:
Read the whole thing, as they say.
I highly recommend McCloud's "Understanding Comics" as an insightful, revealing, educational, and fun (if you like that sort of thing) introduction and thorough exploration of what we mean when we say "Comics", and how the medium works from the inside out. I'm glad Dr. Kaufman does these posts, they're a great way to bring an understanding of the medium to a larger audience.
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Posted in Things I Like
(From "Captain Victory" number 7, ©1982, Jack Kirby.)
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
In a bit of a changeroo, I'm substituting another Character Contest for the usual Caption Contest this week. I was talking with my buddy John Hartwell (of the epic Kirby Villain Sketch of the Week on his Facebook page) about Jack Kirby this morning, and we started laughing about how when the King was completely unedited like he was later in his career, the results were a little ... odd sometimes. For instance, his New Gods sometimes went off the rails a bit, like with "The Black Racer".
Which led to a comparison with "The Silver Surfer" (image from the immortal Fred Hembeck):
Which made us wonder, what other color slash mode of transportation characters Kirby might have come up with had he the time.
Which leads us to today, and your Character Contest for the week: Come up with the best Jack Kirby style character combining a color and a mode of transportation. His classics are the Silver Surfer and the Black Racer, and alternatives might be the Purple Locomotive or the Red Rocket or the Indigo Ice Skater or the Chartreuse Caboose.
I'm doing this on an "off week" because it's so specific, whereas with the on-time contests I'm going to try and stay broader and more general to give you more latitude. But I hope this will be entertaining, anyway, and a bit of a challenge to come up with something new rather than dusting off one of your creations from months ago.
The rules are the same, although the prize this time around will include the option for a "Sketch of the Day" as well as the more traditional HM3 item or portrait.
Also, I'm getting more serious about the links to your characters; last week there were quite a few I simply skipped if I couldn't get to the image directly. I hate to do that, but my connection is simply too aggravating. So be warned.
Good luck everyone!
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Posted in Challenges
We had a huge response for Character Contest 44 - Nature, thank you all so much for the inspiring work you put into this! I had a tough time deciding on an overall winner out of the many Finalists that all had something special about them. So without further ado, here they all are, with comments on why I thought each deserved to be in the mix for the win.
If you don't see yours here, it's not that it wasn't good, I just had a lot of great ones and could only pick a handful. So keep trying, I know I speak for everyone else when I say it's a lot of fun seeing each other's work each week.
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Posted in Challenge Favorites, Challenges, Uncategorized
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com
