GoldenBard's pictures

Not really MY artwork, because I (obviously) used one of the online hero creators (Fabrica di Herois). But I mentioned elsewhere on the board that if I wanted to use a Shazam/Captain Marvel-like character, I like Captain Miracle (who changes with the magic phrase "El Karim"). He had a teenage parter, Miracle Junior. But they didn't have a Mary Marvel analogue, and they wore only trunks (which I think looks kind of dumb and top heavy). So I extended the pants and added a girl. BTW, I'm looking for input on the girl's name. I was originally going to call her Maggie Miracle, but now I'm not sure I like that. I'm leaning more toward Mandy Miracle or Mindy Miracle (which I think might be my favorite right now; it seems to flow the best). Anyone have any thoughts?

I actually like Maggie Miracle as it sounds a little like Magi. But otherwise, Mindy flows the best.

Okay, I'm sticking with Maggie Miracle (BTW, I'm making her and the costume changes open source). I also created (also open source) a "Black Adam" analog for the group, Dr. Tragedy:


I also did some costume redesigns on character that I found interesting, but who had terrible costumes. Lance Hale's old top was asymmetrical, which I don't like, so I made it more balanced. Amazona had one of the dullest costumes ever; I decided she needed a more "warrior of a lost land" look. Maureen Marine's outfit didn't make much sense with the long dress under water, so I shortened it. And Woman In Red's outfit was just totally impractical, too bulky and hot for crime fighting, so I loosened her up a little.

I really like Amazona. Personally, I would just depict Hale in casual clothes as he often was...I see him more as an adventurer than a superhero. Woman in Red looks a lot like the version in that Scarab movie, but it's cool. I think Maureen still needs streamlining...skirt, cape and heavy crown still seems a little impractical for under water...but, it's better than the crazy long dress...was she going to a ball? I think I'd give Maureen pants like Mera's and a mystical glowing crown reminiscent of bioluminescence...

argosail wrote:

I think Maureen still needs streamlining...skirt, cape and heavy crown still seems a little impractical for under water...but, it's better than the crazy long dress...was she going to a ball?

You may be right, but I was trying not to stray TOO far from her original look. I may revisit her at some point and play around with her outfit some more...

So, here are some more pics I whipped up on Fabrica de Herois. The history on this group is kind of convoluted, so stick with me here while I try to make it as short as possible.

I've been reading "Dial B for Blog," and there's a series about the history of Batman. The author claims the most of what we know today of Batmas was actually created by Bill Finger (although Bob Kane has taken sole responsibility for it). He says that Kane's original concept was for a "Birdman" character (loosely based on Alex Raymond's hawkmen), who wore a red outfit with blue accents (basically the opposite of Superman). His wings apparently only let him glide, because Kane's one picture of the character shows him swinging from a rope. Although I think Bill Finger's changes were a vast improvement, it was an interesting outfit. So I whipped it up, and added analogs to Robin and Batgirl. I give you Captain Raptor, Talon, and Lady Raptor!

I hate how quiet it is around here these days, so I'm just going to keep posting stuff in the hopes that some activity will generate more activity...

Anywho, one thing that I like to play around with is looking at which PD characters are analogs for their more famous brethren, and seeing what could be added (like sidekick or spin-off characters), and then try to whip them up. So, here are some that I developed ... and they're all open-source in case anyone wants to use them.  

First is the Superman Family. There are TONS of Superman analogs (of course), but my favorite (for whatever reason) is Atoman. To give him backup (when he needs it), I present Atomgirl, Atom Lad (or Atomboy; I keep going back & forth but I'm leaning toward "Lad" right now), and the armored Atom Smasher (I just really liked Steel after the "Death of Superman," and think he never got the respect he deserved):


BTW, a note on things like hair color. I tried to emulate the inspirational characters, for instance, Superman & Superboy both have black hair, and Supergirl is a blonde. Atoman is blonde, so I make Atom Lad blonde and gave Atomgirl black hair. But if you want to use any of these, feel free to change that stuff any way you'd like; my feelings won't be hurt!

There are 2 Dynamic Duos that I think would be great to replace Batman & Robin: Black Fury & Kid Fury, and Black Lion & Cub. But they were both in the "Boys Only Club," no Batgirl analog. So I created Girl Fury and Black Lioness to fill that void (I think I lean more toward the Lion family, but the duos seemed practically interchangeable, and to each his own...):


So, I'll post a little more in a day or two either here or elsewhere on the boards.

NICE character design. I've used Fabrica de Herois, but it seemed a little 'off' to me. I've used HM3 in the past, but never got anywhere past a 'basic' look.

I have to agree, it is very quiet here. Too quiet. (Sorry.) I've had several posts I was hoping for some feedback, something. I feel with co-op, something decent could be made, but seems like everything I feel is original to me, when I research, I find bits/pieces of what I believed was my brainstorm.

That ever happen to you, or anyone here? You have a REALLY great idea, but you find out, Hey, they did that X amount of time ago.

SuperHeroFan wrote:

NICE character design. I've used Fabrica de Herois, but it seemed a little 'off' to me. I've used HM3 in the past, but never got anywhere past a 'basic' look.

I have to agree, it is very quiet here. Too quiet. (Sorry.) I've had several posts I was hoping for some feedback, something. I feel with co-op, something decent could be made, but seems like everything I feel is original to me, when I research, I find bits/pieces of what I believed was my brainstorm.

That ever happen to you, or anyone here? You have a REALLY great idea, but you find out, Hey, they did that X amount of time ago.

Thanks, SHF; glad you like the designs. Sometimes when I can't get just the look I want in Fabrica, I throw the image into Paint.net and tweak it (I actually did that with all of these). I've played with HM a few times and it's a good program, but for me FdH is just more intuitive.

As for accidentally copying another idea, yeah, it happens. I know an English teacher who says that there are only about 7 storylines in the world, and writers just keep recycling them. If your idea is similar to something someone else has done, it might not be a big deal (unless we're talking a virtual carbon-copy here). Plenty of creative types do it. Sherlock Holmes has been redone and pastiched a million times (and some pastiches wind up taking on lives of their own). West Side Story is Romeo and Juliet and Forbidden Planet is The Tempest (and for the record, most of Shakespeare's plays were based on earlier works). Hell, Disney ripped off ITSELF this year, flipping the plot of Sleeping Beauty to create Maleficent! The style and presentation of the story is at least as important as the idea behind it, so if you are still bringing ANYTHING new to table, bring it!

Comics McCormick was basically a comic book version of Walter Mitty: a kid who reads tons of comics and daydreams himself into adventures with the heroes he reads about. Most of the characters were based on traditional archetypes and offered lots of possibilities, so I updated the costumes of some they showed, and created costumes/powers for characters that were mentioned and not shown:

Captain Catapult is superstrong & flies (think early Superman). Voltage is a flying, lightning bolt throwing hero. Marvel Maid is like Wonder Woman (as long as she has her pearl necklace). Crimson Canary flies, fires sonic blasts, and can mimic sounds; his partner Pink Pigeon can fly and shrink to @ 6 inches. Lady Wonder is the resident mystic character, and SuperDame is a speedster.

GB,

These chars are great, I think I just never got the 'hang' of that program, and didn't use HM3 enough to figure out how to do all the fancy 'lil tricks I've seen with it.

I do agree that even major studios can 'recycle' or better use of the term for their new releases. Heck, even the first few minutes of SW: Rebels reminds me of Aladdin and his antics.

As a creator (maybe this isn't the right forum), but when dealing with char creation, is it easier to make a char with earth tech abilities or an E.T. version? I'm having trouble with that myself, and want to just 'handwave' some of it, or technobabble the heck out of it.

Crimson Canary gives a Hawkman-esque vibe off, and he is one of my favs (if written right).

I thought I'd ask, is there a site that has just blank templates to print out, and draw over, like tracing a char pose with a new char suit design, etc.?

Thanks, SHF; glad you like them. I never had any artistic ability, so these programs allow me to scratch my artistic bug. In the old days, I had to trace pics out of my comics, transfer them to paper with carbon paper (remember that stuff?), and then add to pics and color. Speaking of that, if you're looking to print out template to that, you can actually used HM3 of FdH (just create a blank character and print. Argosail also has his macrotemplate thread on this board. You also might want to check out http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=1334. Another possibility is to Google "superhero coloring pages" and you might find some.

SuperHeroFan wrote:

As a creator (maybe this isn't the right forum), but when dealing with char creation, is it easier to make a char with earth tech abilities or an E.T. version? I'm having trouble with that myself, and want to just 'handwave' some of it, or technobabble the heck out of it.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this question. If you're asking which is easier for origins, earth tech or alien tech, I don't think it really matters. Storywise, what your character does with his or her abilities is much more important than how he or she got them. You might want to consider other ways the origin might affect your character. For instance, if your hero is a scientist, having him develop the tech makes more sense; if not, it's easier if he just finds some alien gadget. If he gets an alien gadget, might there be some other alien trying to retrieve the gadget to act as the villain? If not, does the fact that the thing is of alien origin matter? Both ways work; you just need to decide which gives you more opportunity to tell the story you want to tell.

GoldenBard wrote:

Speaking of that, if you're looking to print out template to that, you can actually used HM3 of FdH (just create a blank character and print. Argosail also has his macrotemplate thread on this board. You also might want to check out http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=1334. Another possibility is to Google "superhero coloring pages" and you might find some.

Another set of templates I've used in the past and like are Emby Quinn's templates for creating KISS electronic paper dolls:

Emby Quinn Templates

They're very heavy on female templates (most KISS dolls are female), but there are a couple of men there, too.

So, this might be my last picture post for a while (because I don't have any more pics on the hard drive right now, and no ideas for things I want to try ... unless I finally decide to take another run at Maureen Marine's outfit). This time it's 2 gals from the pulps, one of which the PD Wiki says is in the public domain, and the other I'm like 99% sure is in the public domain. They're both from the pulps and neither wears a "costume," but I thought they might have trademark outfits like Lara Croft or Indiana Jones...

The first is Olga Mesmer. She's half human and half a member of a hidden race that originated on Venus. She has super strength and x-ray vision. Both of these characters were in the "Spicy" line of pulps, so in most of their adventures they wound up losing their clothes and traipsing around in their underthings. This, combined with the fact that I envisioned Olga as a female Doc Savage type, led me to do her both in the outfit, and with the outfit in tatters (like a Bama Doc Savage cover).


The other character is Vera Ray, one of those lucky Golden Age people with a scientist father. Exposed to his "Green Ray" since birth, she became nearly invulnerable, able to glow in the dark, and could paralyze or kill with a touch. The image on the left was my first take on the character, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. The second was my next attempt, which I'm happier with.

These are great. I'm not familiar with most of the characters, but I really love your redesign Woman in Red. Now that I know about them, I'll probably have Lance Hale turn up in a Compass Society story, and I'll work Maureen Marine into some Atlantean stuff.

MikeDiBaggio wrote:

These are great. I'm not familiar with most of the characters, but I really love your redesign Woman in Red. Now that I know about them, I'll probably have Lance Hale turn up in a Compass Society story, and I'll work Maureen Marine into some Atlantean stuff.

Glad you liked 'em Mike, and glad I was able to introduce you to some characters you hadn't seen before. That's one of the cool things about this board.

BTW, if you're interested in Maureen Marine, I finally did a 2nd take on her costume. It's VERY different from her classic look, but I kept some elements, and I think it makes more sense for the character. And I also kind of like the way it turned out (although the belt buckle should probably be a little smaller):