Monthly Archives: October 2012

Hermione Granger vs. Leia Organa

Let me clear what this versus is NOT -- it is not "Who would you want as a girlfriend" or "Who is hotter" comparison. This is no different than a regular Versus matching Superman against Batman or whatnot. Any "Rawr, catfight!" comments will be deleted without warning.

So the scenario here is, who would win in a straight-up fight between these two awesome heroines?

At one level, this is a classic battle between science and magic. Would Leia's blaster and Empire-level tech trump Hermione's extremely flexible wand and encyclopedic arcane knowledge?

On another level, any fight is about the individuals involved. Both of these women are battle-hardened veterans, used to close combat and the violence of a fight. Leia's led troops, brought down Imperial Stormtroopers, raced through dense forest on highly questionable speeders, and resisted interrogation by one of the most powerful forces in the galaxy. This is one tough cookie.

But Hermione has also resisted assault from the most powerful force in her world. She's gone toe-to-toe with Death Eaters and worse, and held up better than some of the supposedly dedicated warriors around her. And all while she was just a kid! She's also whip-smart, much more so than Leia.

So who do you think would come out the victor in a contest between these two?

[polldaddy poll="6612427"]

Now THAT is a random panel

(From "Lightning Comics" volume 2, number 4, 1941.)

Character Challenge 102: Speedster

Super heroes have certain kinds of archetypes, and one of the classics is the speedster. You know what I'm talking about, it's folks like The Flash, Jessie Quick, Whizzer, and Quicksilver.

So your challenge this week is:

Create an awesome speedster character!

I'll pick my personal favorites when the week is over, with the one I like best being featured in the right column for the week. The rules otherwise are the same as always:


(Click to embiggen.)

No limit on entries this week, so knock yourselves out. Just make them good!

New Forum Feature – Subscribe by email

I just added a new plugin for the HeroMachine Forums that will allow you to subscribe to a topic or even an entire forum so you get email notification whenever a new reply is added. You can either get individual notices, or a daily digest. Here's where they appear:


Let me know if there are any problems with it!

Caption Challenge 131 Results

Many thanks to all who entered Caption Challenge 131, which tasked you with writing replacement dialog for this random comics panel:

The ones that tickled my funny bone the most were:

Continue reading

That's impossible, this car only takes UNleaded!

(From "Lightning Comics" volume 2, number 4, 1941.)

Pop Quiz Results – Chimera

Many thanks to all you talented creators who submitted an entry for the last Pop Quiz, which challenged you to create a creature using at least two items from Head-Animals. And they are:

I think this was possibly the strongest set of submissions yet for one of these Pop Quizzes, congratulations to all of you. It's very impressive and fun work.

Picking just one as my personal overall favorite is hard, but I'm going to go with Atomic Punk this week. I like the scene, the perspective, and the sense of curiosity it evokes for me to want to find out what's going on.

Great job, everyone, and thanks as always for sharing your creativity with us!

Pop Quiz: Chimera

Happy Saturday, folks! Your one-day challenge is to create a chimera, a creature formed by combining two other creatures. The classic Greek mythological example was the Chimera, a lion's body with eagle's wings and the heads of a dragon, a goat, and a lion:

Your goal is not to recreate this specific monster, but to take at least two items from the Head-Animals set and combine them onto one creature. It could be humanoid like a minotaur with an extra head or entirely animalistic like the classic chimera.

You only get one entry -- that's right, just one! So make it your best. Most of the other rules are the same as for a regular challenge, but instead of a whole week I'll announce my favorites some time tomorrow. Here's how to make an entry:


(Click to embiggen.)

I'll pick one entry as my personal favorite, which will get to be featured in the side bar to the right for ultimate glory! As a bonus you're allowed to say you won the Internet for a few days.

Good luck!

Bucky took to Cap's unorthodox combat methods with vigor

Sharing Day: Best Tip

I have a lot going on this week and unfortunately I just don't have the time for an Open Critique Day. Instead, I'd like to ask you all to help each other:

Give us your one "Best Tip" for creating characters with HeroMachine.

Maybe it's how you use "Zypping" to add highlights, or your recipe for simple but effective backgrounds, or the process you use to envision a character before ever committing it to paper. It could be something as simple as how to save a color or as complicated as a link to the awesome scene you created. Whatever it is, post it here and maybe it'll help someone else down the line who's stuck.

Thanks!