He's very excited to be a hero …

Posted on January 13, 2008 by | Comments Off on He's very excited to be a hero …

I shouldn't consider members of the Legion of Substitute Heroes as candidates for "Bad Costumes", because the whole point of the group was to get laughs. But I dare you -- nay, I double dog dare you! -- to look at this costume for "Chlorophyll Kid" and not make some sort of "He's got wood!" joke:

Chlorophyll Kid

I know I'm going out on a limb here, barking up the wrong tree. And I ought to stem the tide of bad jokes, and just leaf him alone.I'd go on in this vein forever, without having to branch out too far, but UGO would probably make me petal my bad puns elsewhere if I did. And so I will quit in the full flower of my mockery, without being a complete sap, packing my trunk for home. I'll give you a ring or two before long, from the safety of my arbor, and hope I get you on the vine. Line. Whichever.

(Image and character ©1985, DC Comics, Inc.)

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Posted in Bad Super Costumes, Super-Hero Stuff

Four hands, three guns, and a puff of smoke

Posted on January 12, 2008 by | Comments Off on Four hands, three guns, and a puff of smoke

From the pages of "Cyber Force Invades Freak Force" comes a character that sums up the "Image Era" perfectly:

Stryker

Four total arms, all but one filled with a gun pumping lead into some faceless enemy. And such versatility -- is this a Freak from Freak Force (the extra arms) or a Cyber from Cyber Force (the half-metal face)? Whichever, with all those guns he's clearly a Force of some sort. Add in the impossibility of just how these limbs fit onto one side of his body and you've got a paragon of Image-ocity.

(Freak Force © and trademark 1994 Erik Larsen and Gary Carlson. Cyberforce and Stryker © and trademark Top Cow Productions, Inc.)

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Posted in Bad Super Costumes, Super-Hero Stuff

Good group costume design – Linkin Green

Posted on January 11, 2008 by | Comments Off on Good group costume design – Linkin Green

Browsing through the UGO HeroMachine forums, I've seen a number of "group shots", characters all built around a common theme and then assembled together in Photoshop. But I think this trio from "Count Libido" (don't let the name scare you, it's all clean), called "Linkin Green":

Linkin Green Heroes

All of the Count's character images are really well done, even stretching back to 2005 (!) and the earlier HM versions. Note in this Linkin Green group how well the color palettes match. They're obviously three individuals, but just as clearly they're part of a group, and it's done by setting a simple four color palette and sticking with it. A common mistake when making characters is to load every color in the rainbow onto their outfits, but that just looks like a peacock exploded on them. Keep it to a tight group of colors like Count Libido and you'll end up with a much better design.

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Posted in Cool Characters, Tips & Tricks

OnomontaPOWia

Posted on January 11, 2008 by | Comments Off on OnomontaPOWia

By virtue of the authority vested in me by BAs in Art and English ("Why get one useless degree when you can get two?"), I hereby coin a new word to describe visual sound effects used in comic books*:

OnomontoPOWia: turning text into art in order to render sound. From onomatopoeia.

Yes, capitalizing the POW is required. And if I could figure out how to insert an exclamation point in there without killing half the librarians in the world with a brain aneurysm, I would.

You see examples of onomontoPOWia in pretty much every title on the stands. "Sound effects" help bring the page to life, strangely making the action seem more real even while inserting a completely unreal visual element into the scene. The 1960's camp series "Batman" really brought this technique to prominence, with spinning "POW!" and "BAM!" starbursts flying from the Caped Crusader's fists. But they've been with the medium virtually from the beginning, and they continue to make comic books better and better. Or worse and worse, depending on how they're used.

And so, as an homage to this underrated comic book element, every Friday I will attempt to bring you an awesome example of onomontaPOWia, like this mind-blowing example found in Marvel Comics' "Battle Tide II":

Continue reading →

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Posted in OnomontoPOWia, Super-Hero Stuff

Peanuts Legion

Posted on January 10, 2008 by | Comments Off on Peanuts Legion

My long-standing love for all things "Legion of Super-Heroes" compels me to link to this well-done mash-up putting "Peanuts" characters in the role of Legionnaires. Enjoy!

Linus as Brainiac

(Hat tip to Rob Rogers, whose upcoming super-hero novel "Devil's Cape" you should pre-order today!)

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Posted in Super-Hero Stuff

Rip-Offs

Posted on January 9, 2008 by | Comments Off on Rip-Offs

An ad from the back of a 1985 comic book on my desk:

Rip-Off Shoes

I salute you, Rip-Offs, for admitting right in the name of your product what it is you're doing to the kids who purchase you. And then to have the ironic foresight to put the ad in the first edition of "The West Coast Avengers", a rip-off comic if there ever was one -- well. Sir, your name is Genius.

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Posted in Super-Hero Stuff

Beldar as Super-Villain

Posted on January 8, 2008 by | Comments Off on Beldar as Super-Villain

I used to feel bad that most super-villains were humans, but I was delighted to find that the Coneheads, too, have their problems:

Brain Storm Conehead

Apparently Beldar went to seed after his movie bombed and he took up a life of crime. Pity.

Actually this is an image of DC's "Brain Storm", but I think the Coneheads connection is closer to the truth. Take this sentence from his character write-up: "Discovering at last that his brother was not dead, but merely teleported to France accidentally by Brain Storm's own power ... "

And when asked where he's from, what does Beldar the Conehead famously answer? That's right, "We are from France." I rest my case.

(Image and character @1985 DC Comics, Inc., "Who's Who", volume III.)

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Posted in Bad Super Costumes, Super-Hero Stuff

Win a Free Custom Character Portrait!

Posted on January 7, 2008 by | Comments Off on Win a Free Custom Character Portrait!

Note, February 1, 2008: This contest is over, so comments on this post have been disabled.

I am pleased to announced the first ever HeroMachine Custom Character Portrait Contest! The winner will receive a free custom, hand-drawn digital illustration of their character by me, Jeff Hebert, professional illustrator and bald guy. Here's how it works:

  1. Send in your HeroMachine character either via the HeroMachine.com Contact Form; via direct email (afdstudios@gmail.com); or as a comment to this post. You can attach your character either as a JPG/GIF/PNG or as just the HeroMachine save string, whichever you prefer. If your HeroMachine image is already posted elsewhere (i.e. on the UGO forums), just send in the link to your artwork.
  2. You can use any HeroMachine version you like.
  3. No more than three submissions per person.
  4. In two weeks, on January 21, I will select from the submitted entries the five I think show the most creativity and originality. I will publish those three submissions here on HeroMachine.com, and create a poll so visitors can vote for their favorite.
  5. The entry with the most votes as of midnight Central time on January 27 will be declared the winner, with the announcement to be made on the morning of Monday, January 28.
  6. The winning entry will receive a custom digital illustration of the winning character (meaning on the computer only, not a physical drawing), with input from the creator. The completed illustration will be displayed on HeroMachine.com, but the artwork will belong to the winner to use as they see fit otherwise.

You can see examples of HeroMachine creations turned into custom illustrations in the posts I've made previously about Kubota, Hangman, and Talena.

The final artwork will be created by me, Jeff Hebert, original HeroMachine artist whose work has been published in numerous super-hero gaming supplements and magazines. This is a real custom illustration just like those that would cost you hundreds of dollars at a convention or via an artist's commission.

So get busy with the HeroMachine and let your imagination run wild!

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Posted in Challenges, News & Updates, Super-Hero Stuff

Stealing from yourself

Posted on January 6, 2008 by | Comments Off on Stealing from yourself

One of the key advantages to using Flash as my illustration platform is that I can easily steal from myself. Take the example of Harry Kruger, NASA bigshot:

Harry Kruger

Harry is a character by Neil Ma from the Uberworld Play By eMail (PBeM) shared universe I'm involved with. Take special note of Harry's face, because I chopped it up and put its pieces into the HeroMachine expansion.

I created the original set of facial features in HM2 by drawing the eyes, noses, mouths, eyebrows, and ears all separately. As a result, they don't always look great put together. So with the Expansion, I took pre-existing faces (either from photo reference or from prior illustrations I'd done, like Harry) and cut up the individual features. That way, when they're put together, you come out with a pleasing whole that fits. As an added bonus, they still look good mixed and matched, too, which is always nice.

This sort of thing is much more widespread than I think most people realize. It's not a bad thing to recycle artwork you've used before, and having your originals available in a digital format (especially a lossless vector format) makes it that much easier. I've even duplicated entire figures as background elements for a different illustration, saving a ton of time and making the final result that much better.

So if you're going to steal, kids, steal from yourself!

(Harry Kruger character © Neil Ma.)

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Posted in Cool Characters, Digital Illustration Lessons, Tips & Tricks

Text Insignia

Posted on January 5, 2008 by | Comments Off on Text Insignia

Did you know you can type in your own letters in a variety of fonts to use as a logo for your HeroMachine character? After picking the body style you want, choose the "Insignia" component, then the "Text" genre of items. By default they all say "ABC", but if you click on the actual item on the character, your cursor turns into a text-selection i-beam. Delete the default ABC and type in whatever you like, from numbers to letters.

On the UGO HeroMachine forums, for example, "monkeykid12" has chosen a text font from the "Expansion1" genre and created "High Five", who probably won't be a guest on an anti-drug "After School Special" any time soon, but who does look pretty neat:

High Five

It helps to choose a non-white color for the Insignia before selecting the font item to make it easier to see. Now get out there and make some heroes!

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Posted in Cool Characters, Tips & Tricks