Random Panel: Remind me to order the LARGE coffin

Sounds like the dead are getting LIVELIER.

Caption Contest 6 prize

Count Libido and I have completed his prize for winning Caption Contest 6:

Count Libido

I'm very happy with the way this one turned out, I think it's got a lot of pizazz. If you want to win your own custom illustration of whatever you like, enter the HeroMachine Caption Contest 7, going on now!

Random Panel: From Maxwell Smart's Spy Handbook

Missions are not accomplished by smiling.

Did Dr. Doom buy the Playboy Club?

A trio of bad super costumes.

Considering the carnivorous-bikini-wearing tousle-haired no-toed blond apparently grooving to her own crazy beat; the crouching, leering, perverted toad behind the man with the silly frilly cape; the half-naked muscle-bound oaf at the rear; the pink and orange-wearing lecherous mariachi player; and the nudist glowing girl just off-panel to the left, I wouldn't blame you for suspecting that this is actually some sort of super-villain swinger's club. Can Lube-Lad be far away? The room is literally packed with super-villains, all of whom are gathered to plan Silver Star's defeat, but I'm pretty sure that's just an excuse for them all to get funky.

Regardless, if the man in red and blue is indeed the Emcee as his letter logos would have you believe, there's no way this party is going to rock. No one with that kind of massive upper-body musculature who would wear a butt-length cape like that can possibly have anything but disco in their music collection, and even Dr. Lightning Arrow Fellow behind him is turning away in disgust. And when you've lost the Shaft Master, you've really lost your groove, baby.

Not to mention how bad the guitar playing from our masked color-blind minstrel must be. Honestly, if you can't tell that pink bows clash with orange frilly lace piping, you have no chance of making it in the gay musical villain business. I would bet his only real super-power is Sartorial Suckage, striking disgust in the heart of the fashionable. Throw in the fact that even if you score in this crazy villain sex-club hangout, the woman will eat your "sidekick" with her drooling demon facegina, and you've got yourself a recipe for night club disaster, my friend.

No wonder most super-villains work alone.

(Image and characterfrom “Silver Star”, No. 1, ©1993, Jack Kirby.)

Random Panel: Maybe the flower pot on his head is making him grumpy

Do not speak to me again.

Crappy sound effect?

This onomontoPOWia from "Jack Kirby's Teen Agents" will surely rank as one of the all-time greats ever given to a grateful humanity:

Ba-THROOM!

Yes, that's "BA-THROOM", as in the sound of your local toiletry exploding in a fiery, drawing-filled, white-outlined concussion of methane-fueled fury. I don't know what might cause the "BE-DROOM!" effect, but I'd darn sure pay to find out.

Pinup Edition is now live!

I am pleased to announce that HeroMachine:Pinup Edition is now live and available at UGO.com! The Pinup Edition is Pinup Stephaniedesigned to be a tribute to the pinup calendars of the fifties, and features two attractive female figures you can dress up in a variety of fun outfits. This is very much a PG-13 style applet, a bit racy for younger users but nothing more risque than you'd see on the cover of FHM or in your average late-night TV show.

I hope you enjoy this latest release, and by all means please let me know how you like it, any changes, additions, or deletions to the item set you'd like to see, and anything else about it that crosses your mind. I realize this is a bit more mature than anything else I've done, but I think it's tasteful enough not to be too much for the younger crowd while still being suitable for an older audience.

On a more technical note, this is also a chance to preview two items that may impact future HeroMachine offerings. First, it has an integrated ad unit, something you're likely to see in the near future on HeroMachine 2.5. Let me know what you think about how it's implemented.

Second, I got to try out having an entire component dedicated to the "Name". Before, the name was either completely separate from the image, or was only in the basic system font on a white background. Now you can change the font and color to get a neat graphical element into the text. It's something I've been thinking about incorporating into future mini-Editions and maybe 3.0, only even more so. I'd be curious to hear how you feel it's working out so far.

Multiple Components, trenchcoat and suit

I had a request in the last thread to show if it's possible with the new components to have a suit and trench coat combination, so here you go:

Low Lane, Ace Reporter

This is your super on drugs …

If this is Keith Giffen's adorable, zany Ambush Bug:

Ambush Bug action figure

Then is this Ambush Bug on drugs?

Jack Kirby’s Bedbug

Maybe Ambush Bug after not getting a good night's sleep? Too much Ambien?

Close.

Actually that's "Bedbug", a throwaway villain from the Topps version of "Jack Kirby's Silver Star". He's bursting through the wall there with "Slammazon", Gasbag, and a couple of other equally insane characters. And yes, it's ever bit as awesome as it sounds. Sometimes it's not a knockoff, it's an archetype. And as I learned from Joseph Campbell, archetypes is cool.

Random Panel: Clearly not bred for spelling, either …

I was bred for battle, not bureaucracy!