HM3: More glasses

With many thanks to Solander for an awesome set of links in the comments to the last “glasses” post, I have updated HeadgearGlasses with seven new items, including a monocle, a really nifty “x” set of sunglasses, a steampunk mask thingie, and several more. Hope you like ’em!

Mutant economics

Matt Yglesias posted a link to this discussion over mutant economics at “Ecocomics“, a blog I frankly never heard of before, and I got a good laugh out of it:

Tragically, most mutants use their powers to either save the world or terrorize it. At least this is the popular depiction in Marvel Comics. Imagine what Magneto could do if he worked in construction. For one thing, all of those New York City public works project would have their completion dates moved up from 2018 to roughly five minutes from now. But instead, he spends his time sinking Russian submarines and making asteroid bases to live in. For the love of God, the man has the power to build himself a high-tech home in space. He could repair the Hubbell telescope with no trouble whatsoever.

It’s actually a really good thought experiment. I don’t know how interesting a comic built along these lines would be to read — intense labor union discussions with management about the impact of Bob the Mutant Builder on the new collective bargaining agreement aren’t inherently visually appealing — but the fact is that a) most people, mutant or otherwise, would rather live quiet lives of desperation rather than trying to either save or destroy the world, and b) mutie’s gotta EAT, knowwhatImsayin? Your average non-Magneto mutant needs to put bread on the table and pay for custom Nikes to fit over his three-toed feet, and for that you need a J-O-B. Why flip burgers at McDonald’s when you could instead use your heat-vision power to be the best welder in the state, with a salary to match?

Anyway, the column was that rare intersection of thoughtful and comics so I thought I’d share it with you all.

Random Panel: Inside "The Joan Rivers Experience"

exciting-comics-18-1942-my-face

(From “Exciting Comics” number 18, 1942.)

Random Panel: The clothes make the man

exciting-comics-18-1942-action

(From “Exciting Comics” number 18, 1942.)

Character Contest 5: Fantasy

Although most people think “super-heroes” when they hear “HeroMachine”, the world of imagination is much broader than that. Your challenge for this week, therefore, is to design a character from the worlds of sword & sorcery — barbarians, rangers, halflings, ogres, trolls, dragons, wizards, you name it. You might even do a fantasy-themed super-hero, of course, the sky’s the limit, so long as it is in some way S&S related. The rules as always are simple:

  1. You can use any version of HeroMachine you like;
  2. No editing in Photoshop or other image-manipluation programs;
  3. You must leave a link to an image of your creation in the comments to this post, preferably on a site that doesn’t require registration.

The winning entry will get to select either one item to be included in the final version of HeroMachine 3, or they can choose to have an illustration of their face included with the program for all the world to use as their own heroic template.

Good luck everyone! I’ll judge a winner next Tuesday, the day after I turn 40. So I might need bifocals by then to see all the entries, but by golly-by-gum I’ll get it done!

Character Contest 4 Results and Winner

Many thanks to the many entries for the “Angels and Demons” character creation contest! We had 74 entries, which is fantastic, and as in the first three contests the quality was quite high. After the jump I’ll display the ones I thought were particularly deserving of mention, and then finally the overall winner. If you don’t see yours here it’s not that it wasn’t good, it’s just that I only have so much space. Thank you very much for entering, everyone!

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HM3: Through a glass darkly

I’ve just added “HeadgearGlasses” to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha. Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the new items:

glasses

I tried to make all of the lenses “color2” without a color1 underneath them so you can get semi-transparent effects. I also set the pattern areay to be just the lenses, since the frames for most of them are so tiny.

Let me know if you wanted a specific style of glasses that didn’t make it, and I’ll see what I can do.

Also, let me know what you want me to work on next. Barring any clear consensus otherwise, I’ll probably either do Neckwear next (either as a stand-alone slot or as a set under Tops) or some additional “Item” sets like polearms, bows, etc.

HM3: Minor mask tweak

The Mask set was just updated with two minor tweaks. I changed the long tapering head-top to a smaller one, more in line with what I originally wanted (and less in line with a very recognizable feature from an extremely popular character from an extremely litigious company) and the addition of a new full-head mask that has curved color areas on it (last item in the set).

Random Panel: Miley Cyrus' popularity explained

exciting-comics-18-1942-will-to-evil

(From “Exciting Comics” number 18, 1942.)

Poll Position: Hot lead and cold iron

Screw intellectual debate, this is COMICS, let’s have some violence-loving fun already:

{democracy:84}

Discussion after the jump.

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