Author Archives: AFDStudios

The Drawing Contest For People Who Can't Draw

Posted on August 1, 2012 | Comments Off on The Drawing Contest For People Who Can't Draw


Hi everyone. My name is Ian Thomas Healy and I drop in here from time to time to enter contests. I'm a writer of superhero fiction, and I have a new novel coming out on September 1 of this year, called THE ARCHMAGE. It's a sequel to my novel JUST CAUSE, which you may have heard of or possibly even read. Anyway, to celebrate the upcoming release, I'm hosting a character contest here on HeroMachine.

What I want is for you to make me a character from any of the Just Cause Universe stories or the novel JUST CAUSE itself. Right now, there are three ebook short stories online, and two of them (GRACEFUL BLUR and THE SCENT OF ROSE PETALS) are free, so you don't even have to spend any of your hard-earned money to enter. The third short story (THE STEEL SOLDIER'S GAMBIT) is only 0.99 USD, and the ebook version of JUST CAUSE is $2.99, so if you decide to pick characters from either of those tales, you aren't risking much money, and I promise you're getting a lot of bang for your buck. The normal HeroMachine character contest rules apply:

Continue reading →

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Posted in Challenges, Character Design Challenges

Oh, my …

Posted on August 1, 2012 | Comments Off on Oh, my …

(From "4 Most" number 1, 1942.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Worf vs. Chewbacca

Posted on July 31, 2012 | Comments Off on Worf vs. Chewbacca

Our Versus this week features two prominent back-up characters from two of the starriest of science fiction franchises:

On one hand, this is about the race of Klingons vs. the race of Wookies. Both cultures revere strong warriors, but Klingons have (I think) been more overtly warlike. Wookies are stronger and bigger, but Klingons aren't exactly slouches.

On the other hand, this is about this specific Klingon and this specific Wookie. And let's be honest, Worf hasn't exactly covered himself in glory when push comes to shove. We haven't seen Chewbacca do much in combat (at least in the movies) besides fire his crossbow and yell a lot, so it's hard to say what his real track record is. Still, I tend to side with whoever is fighting Worf, since his main role appears to be "He Who Gets Crushed By The Villain Du Jour". At least Chewie's resume is relatively clear of getting his hat handed to him.

You also have to factor in the relative tech levels of their universes. I'd say on the level of the individual, the two seem roughly equivalent. So that's sort of a wash.

I'm going to go with Chewie on this one, but I'm curious as to who you'd pick and why. Sound off in the comments!

[polldaddy poll="6429804"]

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Posted in Versus

Worst. Plan. Ever.

Posted on July 31, 2012 | Comments Off on Worst. Plan. Ever.

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Caption Challenge 126

Posted on July 30, 2012 | Comments Off on Caption Challenge 126

It's time for another new Caption Contest! Your challenge this week is to come up with the best replacement dialog for this comics panel:

I'll pick out some as my personal favorites to highlight in a post next Monday, and then I'll choose one of those to bear the standard as the "Featured Creator of the Week" atop the right tool bar.

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!

No limit to entries, but please, self-edit and only put up ones you genuinely think are good!

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Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenges

Character Design Challenge 96 Results

Posted on July 30, 2012 | Comments Off on Character Design Challenge 96 Results

We had some great entries for Character Design Challenge 96, which tasked you with designing a "big bad" type of villain, something that could take on an entire team of super heroes. I want to take a moment right at the top to welcome the many new folks who chimed in for the first time this week, it's great to have you sharing your creativity with us!

And on a more unpleasant bookkeeping note, among others who submitted entries that were invalid for not being named properly were excellent ones by Alphaalpharomeo, Joel, Blaq Aries, the creator, and DC Lover. Please name your files properly next time so your great work has a chance to be considered.

I encourage you to go check out the entire submissions thread because while I'll choose my personal favorites in a moment, there are many more that are stellar that you might like better.

However, since all I have is my opinion, here are the ones that I personally enjoyed the most.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Challenge Favorites

Pop Quiz 20 Results

Posted on July 30, 2012 | Comments Off on Pop Quiz 20 Results

Many thanks to everyone who entered Saturday's Pop Quiz, and my apologies for the extra day taken to go through them. Without yet more delay, therefore, I am happy to present everyone who tackled the challenge of putting together an image using one hand item and no other body parts!

Although I'd love to hear which ones you liked the most, my personal favorites were by Atomic Punk, djuby, Prowler Knight, Jack, NHA247, Skybandit, and Thundersong. Out of those, I'm going with the entry by djuby as my top choice to be our Featured Creator:

The colors, the figure design the font choice, and the clever use of the hand all contribute to an effective and cool image.

Congratulations to djuby and to everyone who entered!

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Posted in Challenge Favorites

Lateness

Posted on July 29, 2012 | Comments Off on Lateness

I'm having a harder time than usual recovering from the trip yesterday, so results for the Pop Quiz might be delayed till tonight or tomorrow. My apologies.

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Posted in Meta

META: Guest posts

Posted on July 28, 2012 | Comments Off on META: Guest posts

I just wanted to note that Andrew Hines, aka McKnight57, has graciously consented to do the occasional (or even, regular!) guest post 'round these parts about current comics. Be sure to give him a warm HeroMachine community welcome!

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Posted in Meta

Pop Quiz: Handy!

Posted on July 28, 2012 | Comments Off on Pop Quiz: Handy!

Happy Saturday, folks! Your one-day quick-fire challenge today is to make an illustration with any of the dozens of items in the "Hand" sets, but that has no other items in it from any of the "body part" sets. So no heads, no other hands, no feet, no arms, no eyes, no ears, no nothing that would normally come with your standard Human 101.

On the plus side, you get to decide which hand to use! So to speak. Ahem.

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 either tonight or tomorrow morning. Elaborate backgrounds aren't necessary, though if you've got one it's fine.

  • All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the HeroMachine Forums, whatever);
  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
  • Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). Here's a quick-start guide on how to do that for various image hosting services.

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!

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Posted in Challenges, Pop Quiz