Cory and I have finished his prize for winning Caption Contest 44, White Lightning:
Thanks to Cory for coming up with a fun concept and being easy to work with.
If you want to win your very own custom black and white illustration of whatever you like (within reason), take a crack at Caption Contest 47, going on now!
Posted in Challenge Prizes, Challenges
While going through the hundreds of entries for the UGO Modern Warrior contest (don’t forget to vote for a winner!), I pulled out several examples of creative use of the program to show what it can do. I’ll post them below the fold with a little explanation of why I thought each was noteworthy.
Posted in Challenges
(Image and characters ©1992, Rob Liefeld, from “Prophet” #5.)
Posted in Daily Random Panel
I’ve been called out before for saying Rob Liefeld’s early Nineties Image work was lazy. To belie such baseless and scurrilous refutations, I present just one piece of evidence out of the dozens I could have chosen from the Liefeld written/created/pencilled/inked “Youngblood” number 2:
That’s “Brama” (get it? like the bull? genius!) throwing a punch at Prophet so big it spans two entire pages. A punch so big it has transformed the background into a Star Wars hyperdrive-like expanse of horizontal lines. A punch so big it has apparently severed Brama’s own head, simultaneously squashing it flat and propelling it forward a good foot.
Seriously, look at his head. Notice how flat the top is — usually you’ve got about as much space above the eyeline as you do below it. And look where it’s positioned on the neck in relation to the torso. It ought to be back about two inches and about an inch higher, if this were an actual human figure being represented.
One explanation might be the aforementioned self-decapitation due to force-of-blow. But I think we all know that’s BS.
Another explanation might be that Rob Liefeld is a genius who is dynamically reinterpreting human anatomy to reinforce the awesome action being portrayed. But I think we all know that’s BS too.
The simple answer is, Rob Liefeld ran out of room to fit the figure into the panel. He roughed out where the torso and arm and punch were, and didn’t notice that he hadn’t left enough space to squeeze the head in at the top.
So rather than resketch the layout, he just decided to squash that sucker in there wherever and however it fit, anatomy be damned.
And that, my friends, is just flat out-and-out lazy.
(Note: I’m renaming this category “Reasons I Hate Rob Liefeld’s Art”, with Reason #1 being “He doesn’t understand human feet face different directions“. These reasons are not in order of how much they make me hate his art, they’re just kind of random. And I didn’t name it “I hate Rob Liefeld” because I don’t even know him; he might be a swell guy. I just hate his art.)
(Image and characters © Rob Liefeld, 1992, from “Youngblood” #2.)
Posted in I Hate Rob Liefeld's Art
(An ad from “Strange Fantasy” Number 2, 1953.)
Posted in Daily Random Panel
UGO has announced their top five finalists for the “Modern Warrior” contest! The top vote-getting character will star in his own online computer game, powered by Microsoft’s new Silverlight technology. Pretty cool stuff, and you can start voting now for the character design you think is best.
Good luck to all the finalists!
Posted in Challenges
I am happy to announce that the Lordi Machine (aka the “Horror Mini”) has now launched! Lordi is a metal band from overseas, and teamed with UGO (and yours truly) to make a HeroMachine version for you to create your own band members in their distinctive style
Have fun!
Posted in News & Updates
Rob Rogers (author of the fantastic super-hero novel “Devil’s Cape“, which you really ought to read if you haven’t already as it’s awesome) have finished his prize for winning Caption Contest 43:
Bedlam is a character from “Devil’s Cape”, and I’m honored to have had the chance to work on the illustration. Many thanks to Rob!
You can win your own custom black and white illustration of whatever you like (within reason) if you come up with the best entry for Caption Contest 47, going on right now!
Posted in Challenge Prizes, Challenges
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
