Category Archives: Uncategorized

For this week's big question, I want to discuss ageing in comics books. As we all know certain superheroes have been around in the same continuity since the 50's and 60's (Hal Jordan's Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man etc.) and some since the 30's and 40's (Captain America, The JSA), yet they don't seem to have aged more than 10 years. So, my question this week is: What is the best way to deal with character ageing in comics?

To start off with, lets look at how it is currently done by the big two. Over at Marvel, they seem to have a delayed progression approach (yup, technical term), which means time in their comics progresses slower than it does in the real world. Now, Spider-Man is the best person to look at to figure out their time scale, because he's the only one to have a definitive dated timeline. He got his powers aged 15 in 1962 (according to Spider-Man: Civil War) so that gives us a starting point. When The Amazing Spider-Man reached its 200th issue, it is mentioned that 5 years have passed since Peter got his powers. So that would make him 20, but the 200th issue was released in 1980, 18 years later. So going by that he should now be around about 30. But he's one of the younger heroes, Captain America was in his twenties in the 40's and even with the super-soldier serum, he'd still be in his late 60's and slowing down a bit by now.

Meanwhile, over at DC, things are a lot more complicated in terms of working out ages, because some characters seem to age (Members of the Teen Titans and other sidekicks) whilst some don't (all the main heroes and their supporting casts). Yet DC do have a more realistic approach to what would happen when a hero is too old to continue, even if they never use it for that reason. By having sidekicks age to adulthood, they can replace the hero with someone the reader already knows and likes (see Wally West and Dick Greyson).  But of course, as soon as you're settled in to the new order, DC's screwy continuity comes in and reboots the whole thing, leaving you with the guy they just got rid of, only younger.

It is a really hard one this, because on one hand, you don't want to screw around with a tried and tested formula and end up putting of the fans, but ageing and replacing characters would save having to reintroduce them to a new generation and in some ways would be more interesting, because the hero could grow with the reader. What do you guys think?

(I was originally going to include TV and movie series into this and talk about replacing actors in the Doctor Who way or the James Bond way, but I didn't want to over complicate things too much. If you want you can discuss that as well.)

Only 4 entries this week, but the creativity was overflowing! Congrats to all those who entered...great job as always. As for a winner this week, I have to give it to the entry that made me laugh out loud - RasHead's "Alexander the Grape Soda". Very clever idea and nicely rendered. Congrats sir!

Gotta give Atomic Punk credit for this idea. He came up with it ages ago and the time seemed right what with summer here and all.

Using the pop can found in Items Right: Miscellaneous, create your own soda can logo and flavour. Maybe it is a flavour that the world will love, or perhaps one that would only appear on Survivor or Fear Factor. Be sure to scale up the image so that we can see it clearly.

You only get one entry so be creative, and above all else, have fun!

All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine forums,ImageShack, PhotoBucket, or whatever);

• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• The image must be new and designed specifically for the Pop Quiz;
• Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. 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). See this post on how to get the direct link for most sites.

Contest closes at 9:00am eastern on Sunday, June 30.

A huge part of Game of Thrones' success has undoubtedly been the sets — which jump between Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia, Iceland, and Morocco — and the meticulously detailed costumes, rich with furs, leather, metal and just the right amount of sex appeal. Michele Clapton leads the design team, who won an Emmy for their work on Season Two and has only upped the ante for Season Three.

Clapton's work and the general popularity of Game of Thrones has been gradually seeping into the mainstream design world. Clapton used to style musicians for video, including Suede, Coldplay, Boy George, R.E.M., Garbage, George Michael, Annie Lennox, and the Spice Girls, among many others, before she switched gears to dressing those who sing A Song of Ice and Fire. She answered questions for SPIN, ranging from how she prepared for the job to how they make the imagined world so realistic.

What was the transition from your previous work to the fantasy of Game of Thrones like?
Before Game of Thrones I worked a lot with period costumes. I always tried to put a twist on the look, to reference living conditions etc., and not lift it directly from a visual reference of the time, as this is usually styled be the sitter or painter. Once you get to the age of photo documentation then you can truly believe the period.

How did you prepare for Game of Thrones?
Research everywhere! Looking at how different people lived in different climates and times, at the availability of colors and fabrics that would be available, and making techniques. I then make a series of boards representing the different areas of Westeros so as to be careful to define them. I now do this throughout the year, storing away images that might be useful.

Did you try to stay true to the books or collaborate with George R.R. Martin? In what ways do things need to change for television?
I agree that books allow the reader to create images in their head, and I do the same but have to share them! But actually it's more complicated than that. Sometimes there will be something that I think is really important to show in a character. For instance, Mance Rayder’s cloak with the patches of color which represent his reason for joining the Wildlings — this was discussed and on this occasion it didn't happen. We don't always agree, but then I'm only looking from the costume viewpoint. Another issue is [the] principal [actor's] hat-wearing north of the wall. Of course they should wear them but, as it is explained to me often, we would not see who was who. So we work as a team, as we should. I have spoken with George but only really on the pilot; he does not visit set very often. I'm sure it isn't what he had in his mind but then some of the descriptions of the costumes in the book would be hard to translate to screen and would really dominate characters. It would be a very different show.

Is there a certain emphasis on sexy that you need to keep in mind? In some cases the sex is even toned down — for example, the Quartheen gowns in the book that Daenerys wear expose one breast.
I had actually designed the dresses to reveal one breast and was surprised when they didn't want to go in that direction. But actually, we filmed that in Morocco and it would have been very difficult to find the number of women required to do it. Even to just film it would have been hard.

Sometimes the clothes seem to foreshadow certain things, is this intentional?
Yes. I love to try and indicate the emotional state of characters through their costumes, and also to indicate their influence over other characters and courts. Sometimes this says so much more than words.

How have the clothes changed in Season Three? What's stayed the same?
Poor Maisie [Williams, who plays Arya Stark] is still in the same costume! Along with the Hound, they are travelling so it makes no sense to change their clothes, and that in itself tells their story. Whilst in Kingslanding, Margery [Tyrell] is beginning to influence the dress of the younger girls in court, whilst the older girls continue to follow Cersei [Lannister], even though she has shifted her style to a previous Margery-like look. A cruel blow for her and this makes her hate Margery more!

Is production on all the clothes done in-house?
Armor and costume are 99 percent made in-house, and we have a wonderful range of artisans: leather workers, dyers, metal workers, cutters, printers, and embroiderers.

Are some of the clothes aged or worn in for a realistic look?
All costumes are aged — be it a little sweat or full on rags — and it is one of the most important aspects in the costume department. We have a team of approximately ten people including painters and textile artists whose job it is to age the costumes appropriately.

This week, we're going to be tackling a question that I can't really answer. Why is Batman so popular?

If we look at this logically, it doesn't make sense very much. Ok, he is the second longest surviving superhero of all time and one of only two too survive the late-40's/ early-50's, but the other one is Superman and we all know that Batman always beats Superman, no matter how impossible that scenario is. He's had multiple movies, good and bad, but so have Superman, Spider-Man, X-Men etc., so that can't be it. Granted, his arch-nemisis is the best villain in comic book history, but his rogues gallery is not any more diverse and unusual than any other hero, he still has stupid villains like everyone else (stand up Ten-Eyed Man). He's dark and moody (unless you live in the sixties), but isn't every hero these days, he might have started the trend in the 30's but he lost it immediately when they introduced Robin and by the time he'd got it back Daredevil, Spider-Man, Wolverine had come along and carved up the Batman niche for themselves (dark and moody, angst, being a bad-ass respectively). So if it isn't any of them, what is it about him that make him so great?

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Ok, so I have had a rather rough weekend at work, just got in the door 15 minutes ago ( work overnights ) and I am mentally as well as physically exhausted and in no small amount of pain. SO since my brain is fried right now I am turning to you the fine people of the HeroMachine communities for some ideas for tomorrows Poll Position. I am heading off to bed now but when I wake up I will review your suggestions and picking one I hope set out to write up tomorrows poll position post. Also feel free to drop some ideas here in the comment section for Wednesdays Anime Talk also. I have something in mind already for that however if I see a better suggestion I might just go with that instead.

Quite difficult to decide this one, all of the entries were very good. I ended up narrowing it down to Livewyre, Herr D and Scatman as to who should win. And after much indecision, and despite the fact I had to look on the forum to find he had a correctly named file, I name Scatman this weeks winner for his fan decoration.

Ok, carrying on from last week's big question, this week I want to know what you guys think of reboots.

We all know about the big reboots in film (The Amazing Spider-Man, Man Of Steel, Batman Begins, The Incredible Hulk, the forth-coming Fantastic Four reboot etc.) and the ones that DC like to do every other decade (Flash/ Green Lantern in the 50's, Post- Crisis on Infinite Earths retelling/ fiddling with the origins of Superman/ Batman/ Wonder Woman/ Green Lantern/ Hawkman (yes, Hawkman) & the Justice League, the zero issue relaunch of numerous titles after Zero Hour in '94, Elseworlds and of course the New 52, alongside smaller title specific reboots mostly involving the Teen Titans) or Marvel's Ultimates serieses (what's the plural of series?). But, are reboots a good idea, reintroducing characters to people who weren't around the first time, or are they just another way to grab peoples money?