Monthly Archives: January 2010

More like “Thud” than “Boom”

I think, if you're going to have a super-power that involves exploding things, that you should carry that theme through to the absolute extreme. Name, costume, effects, everything should be an assault on the senses so violent that you are forced to cover your eyes and look away in horror at the resulting carnage.

You know, like "Boom Boom", aka "Boomer", aka "Time Bomb" aka "A lame character by any other name is still lame":

bad-costume-boom-boom

Tell me you can look at that costume in those colors and not think something blew up. I dare you.

Note how thoroughly this to-the-max redesign pounds the metaphor home. From the hair that looks like it is currently in the midst of a nuclear blast to the bomb-shelter high collar to the massive eye protection, they don't miss a beat. But in case the reader is dumber than a sack of hammers, they also threw in some explosion logos on her boobs (because let's be honest, that's immediately where most fan-boys' eyes go), arms, and leg strap thingie.

And just in case that wasn't overkill enough, they also wrote her name down her leg. Which, honestly, was a great idea, because given the artistic team on X-Men at that time, it could be really hard to tell one character from another. This approach narrowly beat out the other idea of having them toting little name-signs a la Wile E. Coyote.

Without a doubt, though, what really brings this baby home is the color scheme. I can't remember the last time I saw such an ... innovative use of neon pink, day-glo yellow, and radiation orange.

No, wait, yes I can -- I suddenly realized where James Cameron got the color scheme for Pandora's jungles. Well done, sir.

My only criticism of this otherwise stellar outfit is that they made her keep her headgear retainer on. That's just cruel. We understand that dental work is a delicate thing and that teens often struggle with it, but come on, she's a crime fighter! Let the poor girl leave the acne cream and external dentifrice at home already.

(Character and image © Marvel Comcis, Inc.)

HM3: Alternate bodies, part 1

I went ahead and posted these twelve new complete bodies in the Body slot called "MaleAlternate" for the HeroMachine 3 Alpha:

bodymalealternate1

If you are having trouble seeing the preview, they are a banded metal regular guy; big hulking monster muscle guy; lobster guy; rocky earth elemental type; stylized dwarf; the guy who used to be in Male Toons (that set is now gone); regular guy with no interior muscle lines; thin adolescent body; fat bastard; gorilla man; lizard man; and hairy regular guy.

This is an interim release, as I wanted to get your feedback mid-stream as to whether these are worthwhile or not. In the meantime I'll be doing these same twelve without the hands or feet, then breaking out the arms and legs separately as well. Depending on the size of the file, I may then add some additional limbs that aren't part of these twelve bodies at the end (like the merman tail, the ghost tails, etc.), or those may be put into a separate set, I haven't decided for sure yet.

RP: How Bob the Hypnotist rolls

sweethearts-88-bobthehypnotist

(From "Sweethearts" number 88, 1945?)

Character Contest 25: Masthead!

Do you recognize this character:

That winged cow-head fellow appears in the banner right at the top of this here site, on every single page.

I hate it. And I want you to make a better one.

Therefore, whoever submits the best HeroMachine-created illustration to replace the redoubtable minotaur will have that character appear from here on out in the actual HeroMachine.com banner instead. It's practically immortality! Well, at least til UGO redesigns the whole thing again, anyway. But close!

Here are the rules:

  1. The character submitted cannot have been entered in a HeroMachine contest before.
  2. Submissions must be made as comments to this post, including a link to the character image on the web someplace (UGO Forums, PhotoBucket, whatever).
  3. No more than three (3) entries per person, with a deadline of Monday night at midnight.

Good luck everyone!

Caption Contest 67 Winner!

I had a tough time deciding the Caption Contest 67 winner, there were several that I thought were really funny. To wit, these ones!

  • Ian: Aaaaah! Butt-palm!
  • Rick: Give me an…A!
  • AbecedariusRex: “Is that a Brakash in your pocket or are you just happy to see me.”
  • Runt82: Noooooo! It’s Roid-Rage Willie Nelson!
  • Rob W: No, I will NOT tell you where I hid your steroids!
  • Deadpool42: FOR THE LAST TIME I DONT WANNA HERE THE GOOD NEWS!!
  • Frankie: “Oh, no! It’s the Alphabet Brigade. And this is only the beginning.”

After much hemming and a little hawing, I finally settled on Your Winner, The Inestimable Ian!

contest67-winner

Thanks to everyone for participating, and to the Honorable Mentions above especially for giving me an extra chuckle or two. Well done!

Ian wins an item of his choice, or a portrait of himself, to appear in the final HeroMachine 3 product. Congratulations once again Ian!

RP: Quick, to the Disco Ball!

master-comics-51-1944-humansnake

(From "Master Comics" number 51, 1944.)

Poll Position: Facials

Setting aside all pretenses of intellectual discourse, I would like to divert this blog temporarily to judging truly weighty matters:

{democracy:116}

I confess this train of thought left the tracks at Chris' Invincible Super-Blog, where he often refers to his favorite classic Jim Aparo Batman scene of the Dark Knight knocking a criminal out with a car battery.

So no drawn-out analysis of the options this week*, just sit back and think about various ways of jacking someone up, Caped Crusader-style, and inner nirvana will be yours.

*By which I mean the clear answer should be "Aquaman".

HM3: Body thoughts

I'm working on new alternate body types starting today, and am sort of feeling my way along here. My thinking (such as it is) is that I want to do up a series of complete bodies in a whole new set called BodyMaleAlternate. These will be completely integrated bodies that are greater or lesser departures from standard human norms, and which will NOT work with many (if any) of the clothing items in the program already. But, they'll be fun changes of pace and will allow you to make some really bizarre monsters.

In addition to the piece-parts broken out from these complete figures, of course, there will be other distinct arms or legs or torsos or bottoms (like ghost tails, mermaid tails, etc.) that aren't part of a bigger set.

How does that sound? Useful, not useful, good, bad, indifferent? Here are the first two samples to give you an idea what I am talking about (the ghosted-out images in the background are the standard male figure, for reference):

bodyalt-1
bodyalt-2

I'll also probably put in a couple of regular-looking human bodies like a dedicated dwarf and an adolescent. The key thing to remember is that I am not -- repeat NOT -- redrawing any of the clothing items to fit on any of these. If you can Transform them to make them fit, great, but I am not redrawing everything to fit a dozen different styles.

RP: On smooth lines with the ladies

master-comics-52-1944-radareyes

(From "Master Comics" number 52, 1944.)

HM3: That crazy hand-jive

I've just uploaded 27 new items for the HandRight-Standard set in the HeroMachine 3 Alpha incorporating many of your suggestions. I think I hit all the high points, but just in case I am going to hold off on converting the items over to HandLeft while you all take a look.

Speaking of which, here is a quick peek at some of the new stuff:

hands-new

Let me know in the comments if there are glaring omissions you'd like to see, bugs you find, or anything else that strikes you about the new release. Once this gets squared away, I'll probably go ahead and do the Bodies. I haven't yet decided to do just one big release with everything in it, or something like MaleBodyTorsos, MaleBodyArms, MaleBodyLegs, FemaleBodyTorsos, FemaleBodyArms, FemaleBodyLegs, etc. It's that old trade-off between too many options in a menu and too many items in a set.