Yearly Archives: 2011

Are you a half-man or a half-mouse?!

When last we left our intrepid Lone Wolf, he had carved a bloody path through undead nasties on the deck of a massive dreadnaught, and was deciding whether to storm the ship tower (whence came devastating sorceries) or to jump overboard in a daring attempt to see whether or not you can swim while burdened with armor and weapons. Sadly for science, we chose to hope for good luck storming the castle:

Sweet, we just cleaved through two zombies without even having to tap our dice chart! Why couldn't we do that every time?

According to our notes, we did at one time have a Crystal Pendant. Which got stolen by the pirates. However, our helpful narrator has said we can use it even if we ain't got it, which is a relief. Thus:

Yowza! An incredibly powerful master of the dark arts, and us without our wand or lightning bolt scar. Also, if i minotaur is half-man, half-bull, and a centaur is a half-man, half-horse, should we assume a Vonotar is only half a man as well? Because that would make our decision a lot easier. If he were a Vinotar and thus half-man, half-Vin Diesel, we'd have to tread carefully.

So what'll it be, fellow adventures? Boldly charge into the face of potential death, or leap into the waters in a quest to finally answer our earlier scientific conundrum?

[polldaddy poll="5560120"]

The spine-chilling chuckle of the Gay Desperado!

(From "Red Seal" number 14, 1941?)

META: Gone Gopherin'

I'll be out of the office from now until Saturday evening in Minneapolis helping my in-laws with computer problems (tech support for parents, woot!), so comment approval and such might be a bit slow. But never fear, I have content already written and scheduled so you hopefully won't be left in a lurch!

I've got all the materials for Friday Night Fights with me as well, so I should be able to get to a computer to compile the votes first thing Friday morning.

Be sure to have the place cleaned up when I get back and no parties after ten!

If only this costume really were dead

A reboot of a popular character carries many challenges for the enterprising comics creator. You've got to retain the fundamental spirit of the person in question while still bringing something new, fresh, and interesting to your take. Having said that, this "Ghost Rider" redesign fails in pretty much every way:

This character doesn't say "ghost" or "rider". "Alien Astronaut", sure, or possibly "Extraterrestrial Baseball Catcher" but there's nothing scary or Hellish about him at all. And if that's a human skull underneath those flames, I'll eat my shorts.

Look, we get a lot of motorcyclists here in the greater Durango area, but I haven't ever -- not even once -- seen someone tootling down the road on his Harley with a bright orange flight suit on. Especially not one with a gigantic zipper in the front that doesn't even go all the way down to the bottom. You put this guy on the back of a hog in any kind of actual rally and he's going to get the snot beaten out of him, flaming alien head or not.

Also, Black Canary is going to be pissed when she finds out he "borrowed" her jacket.

Today in Comics Etiquette

(From "Red Seal" number 14, 1941? This whole issue was strangely labeled so I'm not sure on either the name or the year.)

Poll Position: Doomsday vs. Juggernaut

With thanks once again to McKnight57 for the idea, I give you this week's "Versus" challenge:

{democracy:202}

Two incredibly tough adversaries from different, each advertised as unstoppable in some way. So who comes out ahead, and why?

Doomsday has the advantage of being custom built to destroy anything, given time. He's even beaten Superman and by most accounts can survive unimaginably massive damage.

Juggernaut, however, has "magic" in the form of a big tasty gem that gives him unstoppable momentum. He's incredibly tough and has his own healing factor, as does seemingly every Marvel character not named "Aunt May".

Something has to give when this immovable object from DC smacks into this irresistible force from Marvel! So have at it, folks, and give us reasons why you're right.

In comics, there's always enough breath for soliloquies

(From "Weird Comics" number 5, 1940. Also, "seaclops" FTW!)

Caption Contest 109: Stanky!

Your challenge this week is to come up with the funniest replacement dialog for the following comic book panel:

The best entry (as judged by yours truly) wins the author's choice of either any item they like or any portrait to be included in HeroMachine 3′s final release, or a custom black and white “Sketch of the Day” style illustration (you pick the subject, I draw it however I like).

All entries must be left as a comment (or comments) to this post. Keep ‘em clean (appropriate for a late-night broadcast TV show), but most importantly, keep ‘em funny!

This week we have a cap of no more than five (5) entries per person, so make 'em your best!

Character Contest 73 Winners!

Many thanks to everyone who entered the difficult Character Design Contest 73: Virgo! We had some great submissions, and as usual I've picked out a few that I thought were exceptional for one reason or another to share with you. As usual, if you click on an image you can see it at the largest possible size (which in some cases is the same as what you see here, but most are bigger).

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If that's their guardian, Mermea's screwed

(From "Weird Comics" number 5, 1940.)