HM3: Mech!

On one hand, I'm sad to report that the HM Mini I've been talking about has been canceled again. They didn't like the coloring book idea, so the whole thing is dead at this point.

On the other hand, that loss is your gain, as I have now translated over all of the mech stuff from it to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha! It's in two parts, "BodyMech" and "HeadMech", with the Body set having torsos, arms, and legs. All of this was drawn at a three quarter angle view as opposed to the regular HM straight-on model, so the pieces aren't going to work with most of the existing clothing and such. But you can build a pretty cool looking robot and some of the heads go well on existing creations, giving them a looking-off-into-space look.

Here are a couple of screen shots to show you some of the options:

mech1
mech2

Let me know what you think, and if you want me to edit the arms so they lack hands (allowing you to drop in your own from Left/Right Hand).

The next few days I'll be working on cleaning this stuff up, adding some more to Mark's great Polearms set, and then we'll see from there.

Random Panel: Dialog + pose + suggestive headgear = awesome

bulletman-2-1941-moremoremore

(From "Bulletman" number 2, 1941.)

Poll Position: The finest of them all

We did this a couple of weeks ago with Marvel characters, but of course the DC Universe is quite different. So here goes:

{democracy:104}

Discussion after the jump.

Continue reading

Random Panel: Great moments in no-longer-secret identities

bulletman-2-1941-secretid

(From "Bulletman" number 2, 1941.)

Random Panel: Not so great moments in nicknamery

bulletman-2-1941-hunchy

(From "Bulletman" number 2, 1941.)

Sneak preview

All righty, assuming this radical change in course for the mini works out, this is the kind of thing you'll have to look forward to:

coloring1

Originally this was going to all be separate pieces -- left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, torso, head, and the random background element. I still have everything all separated, so some of that would be usable in HM3. But now it looks like it is going to essentially turn into a series of static pictures like this one, pre-assembled, that you can color. If I can manage it, I'll try to have many (many) more than three colorable areas, so you'd click the paint bucket and fill each discreet area however you want. Like a coloring book. Mostly.

Is that cool, stupid, or somewhere in between?

Random Panel: Why super-heroes shouldn’t date each other

bulletman-2-1941-getbusy

(From "Bulletman" number 2, 1941.)

It’s not the size of a man’s ME …

I haven't done an "onomontoPOWia" post in quite a while, but I can't pass this up:

bloodstrike-13-budda

Don't let yourself get distracted by the seething mass of pus-filled bulges that constitute his "muscles" or his grotesque anatomical proportions or the pathetic inking or the lackluster color or the lingering questions of where his other hand is and what happened to the handle of that gun. Because that would be a rookie mistake.

No no, the real star of this little tableaux is the onomontoPOWia. Specifically, look how big his shouted "ME!" is compared to the BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA of the gun's discharge.

If a guy brings a gun that big to a fight and it's quiet enough to not even be shushed by a librarian, something is definitely amiss. Image characters of the Nineties were all about the macho, and clearly this guy's trying, but he's never going to make the big leagues with a wimpy weapon like that. I mean, a flying headband and skintight faceless ski mask and obnoxious musculature and bad attitude and gravity-defying shoulder pads will only get you so far, you know? At some point you have to fire that boomstick and when you do, you'd better be able to bring it, bucko!

Although, if guys with "Little Man Syndrome" buy big flashy cars to overcompensate, maybe he's buying a teeny tiny sounding gun to ... undercompensate?

Nah. No one in the Image Nineties would be able to resist showing off an ... asset ... as big as that would imply. On the contrary, they'd be hanging a dozen pouches off of it and giving it its own title.

(From "Bloodstrike" number 13, ©1994, Image Comics.)

META: Out yet again

We're flying to Colorado today, returning on Monday evening, so be good to each other until then. I'll be checking in via iPhone as I can, but if your comments take a while to show up, that's why.

As an aside, in general the Daily Random Panel should be considered open threads so feel free to post on any topic you like on those.

Random Panel: Presidential polls I’d like to see

winter20soldier

(Image and characters © Marvel Comics.)