Monthly Archives: October 2009

Sneak preview

All righty, assuming this radical change in course for the mini works out, this is the kind of thing you'll have to look forward to:

coloring1

Originally this was going to all be separate pieces -- left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg, torso, head, and the random background element. I still have everything all separated, so some of that would be usable in HM3. But now it looks like it is going to essentially turn into a series of static pictures like this one, pre-assembled, that you can color. If I can manage it, I'll try to have many (many) more than three colorable areas, so you'd click the paint bucket and fill each discreet area however you want. Like a coloring book. Mostly.

Is that cool, stupid, or somewhere in between?

Random Panel: Why super-heroes shouldn’t date each other

bulletman-2-1941-getbusy

(From "Bulletman" number 2, 1941.)

It’s not the size of a man’s ME …

I haven't done an "onomontoPOWia" post in quite a while, but I can't pass this up:

bloodstrike-13-budda

Don't let yourself get distracted by the seething mass of pus-filled bulges that constitute his "muscles" or his grotesque anatomical proportions or the pathetic inking or the lackluster color or the lingering questions of where his other hand is and what happened to the handle of that gun. Because that would be a rookie mistake.

No no, the real star of this little tableaux is the onomontoPOWia. Specifically, look how big his shouted "ME!" is compared to the BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA of the gun's discharge.

If a guy brings a gun that big to a fight and it's quiet enough to not even be shushed by a librarian, something is definitely amiss. Image characters of the Nineties were all about the macho, and clearly this guy's trying, but he's never going to make the big leagues with a wimpy weapon like that. I mean, a flying headband and skintight faceless ski mask and obnoxious musculature and bad attitude and gravity-defying shoulder pads will only get you so far, you know? At some point you have to fire that boomstick and when you do, you'd better be able to bring it, bucko!

Although, if guys with "Little Man Syndrome" buy big flashy cars to overcompensate, maybe he's buying a teeny tiny sounding gun to ... undercompensate?

Nah. No one in the Image Nineties would be able to resist showing off an ... asset ... as big as that would imply. On the contrary, they'd be hanging a dozen pouches off of it and giving it its own title.

(From "Bloodstrike" number 13, ©1994, Image Comics.)

META: Out yet again

We're flying to Colorado today, returning on Monday evening, so be good to each other until then. I'll be checking in via iPhone as I can, but if your comments take a while to show up, that's why.

As an aside, in general the Daily Random Panel should be considered open threads so feel free to post on any topic you like on those.

Random Panel: Presidential polls I’d like to see

winter20soldier

(Image and characters © Marvel Comics.)

HM3: Hot rides

I've just added the Companion-Vehicles set to the HeroMachine 3 Alpha, including the following:

vehicles

Most of these were drawn by using Flash's automatic "Trace" feature and then patching, so they're a little different stylistically than most of what is in the program. The very last car (not shown above), the 1920's style roadster, was hand-drawn, I'm curious what you think of the difference between the tracing and the drawing styles. Auto-tracing (no pun intended) is a LOT faster than hand-drawing, I did about six of these in the time it took to draw the one roadster. But, if the quality is different enough, I'll do what I have to do.

Let me know any other vehicles you'd like to see, and while we're at it, any Polearm bits Mark didn't include but that you want to see added in.

It looks like the Mini I was working on has been canceled after three weeks of hard work. Such is life. On the upside, most of these vehicles were drawn for it, so you'll get some spillover benefit. Most of the rest of it is probably not applicable to the main HM but we'll see.

Scary stuff

Hammerknight has put together a set of very cool Halloween-themed item recipes for your enjoyment this spooky season. He's also got a nice new layout for these recipe cards that I think looks great. As always, many thanks to him for being willing to put in the time and creativity to assemble these.

Click on any of the images to get a bigger, more legible version for viewing or printing.

jester-hat
pumpkin-head
witch-hat

Random Panel: Lois and Clark, the lost years

comicallyvintagetumblrcombackdoorlove

(From ComicallyVintage.Tumblr.com.)

Hitting him would be a mercy

My latest theory is that Wonder Man's costume is so bad, it infects the costumes of all the people around him too. We saw it with the West Coast Avengers, and we see it again in this dubiously-named villain called "Hit Maker":

hit-maker

This guy looks like Sinestro and Colossus somehow got busy and had a bizarre hip-hop bastard child with poor fashion sense. And believe me, this is one DC-Marvel crossover that should have died aborning in the editorial offices, because it's one of the worst outfits I've ever seen. From the big gold bling ring bar on his right hand to the inexplicable armor that only covers the arms and legs (corporate motto: "Why cover the vitals when you can save a limb!"), it's all just wrong wrong wrong.

And then there are the reverse-C clamp things on his thighs. I am trying really hard to imagine a more useless accoutrement, but am coming up blank. What's the point of armor that only covers a four inch high strip on the back of your thighs, leaving the front open? I mean sure, if it were festooned with pouches or something I could see it, but as is, it's just bizarre.

The worst part of the whole thing, though, is the giant metal yellow "H" and "M" shoulder pads. Seriously, what the heck were they thinking with this? Did he see Wonder Man's giant W and M costume and think "I have GOT to have that"? Does he have some sort of memory problem and constantly forgets his name, needing the mnemonic trick of his initials constantly on his body to remind him?

I bet Beast is glowering like that because the artist in charge wanted to continue the "Initials On Their Bodies" motif by shaving a ginormous "B" in his chest fur. Sadly, even that would be a better look than this orange-skinned no-long-term-memory MC Hammer wannabe sports. "Hit Maker" and his costume are definitely one hit that should never have been made.

(Characters and image copyright Marvel Comics, Inc.)

HM3: Yet more polearmage

Mark has updated the ItemRightPolearms set with another group of items (including some favorites from 2.5) and a few tweaks to existing ones. Check it out when you get a chance, and thanks once again to Mark!