Poll Position: Junior

Posted on September 14, 2009 by | Comments Off on Poll Position: Junior

Our Poll Position this week is a special sub-set of the "Whose sidekick do you want to be" question:

{democracy:100}

Junior super-heroes have a long history, from Kid Flash to Speedy (Green Arrow's buddy) to Aqualad and too many more to mention in between. They're mostly a legacy of the Silver Age, particularly the "Boy" and "Girl" versions. Even though Batman has arguably the best known sidekick, at least he's not "Bat Boy", which in addition to being silly would draw unwelcome comparisons to baseball flunkies.

The worst offender was DC, particularly with Aqualad and Wonder Girl. My theory is they just ran out of ideas and so had to resort to this, ultimately culminating in an entire team of Lads and Lasses with the Legion of Super-Heroes.

But let's say you have the chance to be a Mini-Me version of a popular character, with a cute little matching outfit (possibly with a different color scheme) and matching powers. Who would you rather Lad or Lass for?

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Posted in Versus

Random Panel: Rarely seen ninja moves

Posted on September 14, 2009 by | Comments Off on Random Panel: Rarely seen ninja moves
amazingman-25-1941-lumps

(From "Amazing Man" number 25, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Random Panel: What girl WOULDN’T love a toilet?

Posted on September 12, 2009 by | Comments Off on Random Panel: What girl WOULDN’T love a toilet?
amazingman-25-1941-toilet

(Advertisement in "Amazing Man" number 25, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

HM3: Possible female template

Posted on September 11, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: Possible female template

I still have a much better artist working on a female blank body template for you all, but in the meantime (since I seem to be on a body-drawing binge) I wanted to get your feedback on this:

femalebody2

The current Zombie body (not intended for prime time, but it was there, so ...) is on the right, the proposed new one on the left.

As for what I am working on now, I'm honestly taking this week and week-end to sort of play around with some ideas (like the toon body) that I've been thinking about. So in other words, no real item sets are being worked on at the moment, I'm tinkering. Which doesn't always yield results, but is still a necessary part of the creative process. There's also some behind-the-scenes corporate paperwork type stuff I am having to get together. Dull, but needful.

Next week is a short one for me as I have to go to Fort Worth to help my wife with a big event, but I'll probably be posting something on Monday giving the set I will work on so you can make requests. I don't want to clutter up this feedback thread with that, though.

So yeah, anyway -- let me know what you think of this basic template illo in general.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

Random Panel: Oversharing, super-hero style

Posted on September 11, 2009 by | Comments Off on Random Panel: Oversharing, super-hero style
amazingman-25-1941-pleasure

(From "Amazing Man" number 25, 1941. Note that I avoided the easy "getting at seamen gives him pleasure?" joke. Look at me grow!)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

HM3: Toons?

Posted on September 10, 2009 by | Comments Off on HM3: Toons?

So I took an hour this morning to draw up an "animated style" male body template for the HM3 Alpha, and wanted to get your feedback. Here's a sample character made with the new body:

toonmale

Clearly there are problems with the hands, I'd need to introduce at least one pair of regular looking ones that would match the body. Ditto with the feet.

To get to the new body, go to Body - MaleToon. You have to move the hands into place and scale them, and the same with the other items, since the proportions are so different. And not all the items really fit, particularly the Tops and the Legwear.

Given all those limits, is this sort of alternate body worth doing? It takes about a day to put together the whole set of stuff that has to go with it, from all the pieces in the actual item set "MaleToon" to the special hands and feet, etc.

Also, I only did the first, full body, the rest of the items in that set are still the old Standard ones, so just ignore them.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3

Random Panel: How not to hire a chef for young soliders

Posted on September 10, 2009 by | Comments Off on Random Panel: How not to hire a chef for young soliders
amazingman-24-1941-dope

(From "Amazing Man" number 24, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Real life costuming

Posted on September 9, 2009 by | Comments Off on Real life costuming

In lieu of my usual "Bad Costume Wednesday", I wanted to take this chance to show you some of the stellar outfits I saw while at Dragon*Con this past weekend. I was really blown away by the time, dedication, hard work, and imagination people put into assembling these costumes. What struck me the most was not only how good they looked, but how much fun they were having. Almost without exception, they were eager to stop for pictures, and were happy to strike the most super-heroic of poses.

When you see comic-book clothing brought into the real world, you're immediately faced with problems you never have to consider when you're just drawing lines on a page. How do you hide the seams of a soft boot top as it joins with the shoe? Where does Flash's zipper go? How do you keep a cloth face mask from slumping off your cheeks? These guys and gals have dealt with all of that and more (don't ask me how they go pee, for instance, I'm pretty sure it involves some sort of complicated AMA-certified device).

So without further ado, I bring you the Best of John and Jeff's Magical Mystery Dragon*Con Tour in photos.

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Posted in Cool Characters, Meta, Randomosity, Super-Hero Stuff

Random Panel: Bad times at the disco

Posted on September 9, 2009 by | Comments Off on Random Panel: Bad times at the disco
amazingman-24-1941-crotchshot

(From "Amazing Man" number 24, 1941.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Character Contest 16: Progression

Posted on September 8, 2009 by | Comments Off on Character Contest 16: Progression

We're all familiar with the way characters are "revamped" from time to time, with their original costumes and character backgrounds being radically revised to suit a more modern audience. The most classic cases came when DC took its stable of pre-existing "Golden Age" characters and ushered in a new "Silver Age":

goldenage-silverage

Your challenge for this week -- and it is going to be a challenge, I readily admit that -- will to be the same. Give us two designs for the same character concept, one that was (supposedly) introduced in the Golden Age and then its modern reinterpretation. You can either post the images separately, or put them together like I did above.

You have one week, starting today and ending next Tuesday. All entries must be left as links to an image or images in the comments to this post, and all images must be 100% HeroMachine-generated. The winner will get to choose either any item he or she wants, or their caricature, put into HeroMachine 3 for all to see and love.

Good luck everyone, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

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Posted in Challenges