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Welcome! 03/05/2016
Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change. If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away. I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
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Showing results for tags 'dino-mo'.
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http://TheHeroesOfCRASH.com My comic's 4 main heroines as MerMay drawings, from 2017 to now. Sorry to spring a filler on you when you already know that I'm going to have fillers the next two weeks to announce the contest winners, but it's been a rough week with a couple health scares in the family. Things are looking up *knock on wood*, but I'm drained. Despite it being a physically and emotionally exhausting week, I managed to complete a MerMay drawing of Dino-Mo, with her lower half resembling a spinosaurus, now that it's been discovered that they probably swam with their eel-like tail. I know what you're thinking: can it REALLY be a MerMay picture if: A: she's part-dino instead of part-fish, and B: she's got LEGS? Well, it's my drawing, so I say yes. It counts. It was either this or a plesiosaur, and I decided on the dino that's been in recent news. I drew her in greenish waters, because I thought it looked a bit more prehistoric. Her seashell top is a pair of ammonite fossils, befitting a superheroine with dino-powers. Also note how the "fins" around her waist merge with the spines along her back. Usually, I draw her dinosaur parts the same colors as her skin, but she just looked kinda naked with a tail, and I didn't want that (I prefer to keep my comic family friendly, thank you very much), so I gave her some stripes. I'm pleased with how they look. I realized that I posted my previous years' Mermay pics of TM and Enticia to social media, but only Sugar Rush is on my main site, so I combined the four pictures into one image to rectify this. You can also see the individual pictures on my site, as well. Titanium Maiden is an Ariel-esque collector of artifacts (but she can lift heavier things than dinglehoppers!), Enticia's a siren (turning her pheromone powers into a hypnotic song), and Sugar Rush is a mer-dolphin (perfect for a bundle of energy like her). By the way, it's almost my birthday! You have through May 19th to submit a drawing or game avatar of one of my characters in order to win some sweet art in return! Full rules are on my site!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Like most teenagers, Enticia thinks she has everything all figured out… until she doesn’t. Jackknife is absolutely a jerk, wolf-whistling is most definitely rude, and Enticia’s completely in the right to be angry at both. But whether Enticia’s powers are manipulating people’s minds, hearts, or both, it’s not exactly an appropriate reaction. And sometimes when people make excuses to justify their actions, it can be a slippery slope to excusing worse actions. Thankfully, Enticia’s managed to make some unlikely allies – perhaps even friends – to help her put things into perspective. Wolf Blitz has shown up in the comic at least twice, but this is the first time we see him without “heart eyes”. He’s even got his paws on a Heroball, which Dino-Mo said he used to play in the Gym-Nauseum storyline. Interface makes his debut in today’s strip! I think that I had Wade from Kim Possible and KidVid from the Burger King Kids’ Club in the back of my mind when I created this guy. He can hook up to computers and other devices to take control of them or download their information into his brain. His suit can also display information via printout, the display on his visor, or even a hologram. He’s about as good a hacker as Belt Boy and B.O.N.N.I.E., but his arsenal of tools is significantly more limited. The third panel references Belt Boy offering a mechanical hand to Enticia after beating her on the X-Platform in the Ally Need Is Love storyline. The picture of Cannon shows him listening to Enticia after failing to break up Belt Boy and Titanium Maiden’s date in The Dating Scheme. Titanium Maiden is wearing her gym clothes from Gym-Nauseum, standing sternly as she did when she defended Belt Boy’s trust in Enticia. Dino-Mo also wears her outfit from that same storyline, in which she gave Enticia a major reality check. It’s almost my birthday, folks! You only have until the 19th to draw fan art or make a fan avatar of my characters! Don’t forget; the full rules are on my website!
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Filler 2/15/19 - Superhero Superlatives and Contest Announcement
heroesofcrash posted a topic in Heroes Of Crash
http://TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Now presenting MaroonDrops' wallpaper request from last year: A C.R.A.S.H. Yearbook Page! Once again, it's taken me months to get a desktop wallpaper prize done, but as always, I hope it was worth the wait! If you go to my Downloads page, there's two versions of this wallpaper: one with signatures and one without. I wanted to make sure this yearbook page captured all my characters' personalities through their poses, their superlatives, and their signatures. If I ever get my comic published, I might reuse this image as a cast page at the front of the book. Belt Boy, as usual, overdoes things, with his signature "using a fan to make his cape blow in the wind" pose and writing/drawing WAY too much around his photo. B.O.N.N.I.E. snuck her way into the photo, too, not that BB minds. Cannon's using his classic finger guns, minus the wink. This pose shows off his bravado and womanizing, while subtly hinting at his "power" (or more accurately, his namesake weapon). Whoever owns this yearbook seems to have scribbled Cannon's phone number out. Dino-Mo's next, rather than Titanium Maiden; this IS a yearbook, after all, so it's alphabetical order. Dino-Mo's showing off her power (and how she got the second of her two superlatives), but she plays it cool better than Belt Boy or Cannon. Dodge tends to be outgoing without being aggressive (whenever he's not playing dodgeball, at least), so I gave him a simple pose where he's subtly showing off his biceps, but not being a stereotypical, showboating jock. Enticia's a major flirt, so rather than use a pen, I figure she'd sign her yearbooks with a kiss. Even her lips in the picture are pouting just a little bit - usually, I draw my characters' mouths off to the side a bit (a la 1990's Sonic the Hedgehog), rather than centered. Gelatin Boy embarrasses himself a lot, so I decided to draw him mid-sneeze - at the "ah-" before the "-choo!" His shadow has a slight orange tinge, since he's translucent gelatin. His larger shadow shows he's a bit closer to the camera than everyone else (Making up for the fact that I drew him bigger than everyone by mistake). Jackknife, of course, is holding the sneeze powder he used on Gelatin Boy, and also flexing to show his muscles and his arm blade. Of course, seeing as several other heroes drew on his face, and the yearbook's owner didn't ask for his signature, no one's impressed. Also, I drew him smaller so I had room for his arm, and moved his shadow to show that he's close to the wall behind him. If I knew how to use a blur tool more effectively, I'd have used it for Sugar Rush's photo, so I'll chalk it up to superheroes having invented cameras built to photograph speedsters. The heart for her and Dodge seems appropriate for Valentine's weekend (a happy coincidence). I love when Titanium Maiden pulls off that heart pose (Based on Spanish Olympic weightlifter Valentin), so I just had to put that in here. The adorable amazon signed her name and colored her heart with a pink pen - in hindsight, I regret not making it a glitter pen. Finally, Unk, as the most chill person in the comic, has the most "normal" pose out of everyone. If it weren't for his ripped shirt, you'd think it was just a normal school photo. I'm particularly proud of the backgrounds in this photo; I wanted everyone to have their picture in front of one of those traditional blue-gray, slate-looking backgrounds that EVERYONE uses for school pictures. Of course, since it's almost 3 months until my birthday, I'm holding my annual birthday contest! ALL valid entries get some art from me, and you might even get to decide what my next desktop wallpaper would be! I've attached a quick rundown picture to this post; full rules are on my site! -
TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Miss Sunflower makes rocket boots look easy... But to be fair, she's not quite so... *ahem* top-heavy. Sugar Rush is dressed as Akko from Little Witch Academia, an anime series that's part Harry Potter (focusing on a predestined kid and their two best friends at a magic school) and part Kiki's Delivery Service (anime witch girl whose magic serves as a metaphor for art and creativity). I thought this outfit was a good fit for her, as both Akko and Sugar Rush are both super-excitable and a little impulsive. Her comment about zombies making everything better is inspired by a friend of mine on whom Sugar Rush is based; said friend is a huge fan of zombies. Dino-Mo is dressed as the title character from the Shantae series of video games. I tend to use her and Enticia's Halloween costumes to show support for POC in media, and this year is no exception. Granted, Shantae - a belly-dancing, hair-whipping, shape-shifting genie who fights pirates and monsters - likely has her origins in the nation of Turkey (based on analysis of her belly-dancing style), and Dino-Mo's nationality is half-Mexican, half-Native American, but I felt that this game series deserves some recognition, and I don't have any characters from Turkey. Drawing this costume was a bit tricky; I've never shown this much of Dino-Mo's skin before, as she tends to prefer t-shirts, so I had to decide how to draw her chest and musculature. Titanium Maiden always dresses up as a redheaded character each year, but this Halloween she's dressed up as two! In the first panel, she's dressed up as the shy Sakura from Zombie Land Saga - a bizarre, funny anime that I don't want to give too many details about. It's one of those shows that defies the genres it's associated with, so I don't want to give you any notions about what it's supposed to be, because it's so much better than it sounds as a concept on paper. It's a short anime at only one season (for now) made of 12 episodes, so I recommend giving it a look. There's a bit of language and a small bit of body horror/violence, but it's mostly comedic, with one episode about midway through that makes everyone cry. Just trust me, and watch it. After the Steven Universe movie and the initial series ending, I couldn't resist dressing Enticia as the beautiful and stoic Garnet. If you've been sleeping on this series, watch it NOW. This show has deep characters that evolve and change over the course of the series, and their growth feels natural as the series delves into the mysteries and lore of this world, exploring darker and darker themes. Heck, the first episode has Steven upset over his favorite ice cream being discontinued, then five seasons later he's on trial for his mother's war crimes. I said it before, and I'll say it again: Just trust me, and watch it. Belt Boy dresses as a superhero every Halloween; it may be a BIT of a stretch, but I think that K.O. from OK, K.O.! Let's Be Heroes counts as a superhero, in that he's a hero with superpowers (he just happens to be in a world where almost everyone's a hero and has powers). Another great Cartoon Network series, OK, K.O.! is - much like my comic - a love letter to 80s/90s cartoons and video games (even featuring cameos from Captain Planet, the students from Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School, and Sonic the Hedgehog!). I was originally going to show this series some love by having Cannon dress up as a helmeted side character, Sparko, but I decided against it, as it felt like whitewashing a POC character. So, I wound up dressing Belt Boy as K.O. instead. Titanium Maiden's original costume is that of David Fleming's Ms. Rocket. David's my giftee in the Collective of Heroes Halloween art exchange! I had sketched TM as his comic's title character, Ms. Rocket, as thanks for his birthday fan art submission earlier this year. I loved the pose I drew her in, and couldn't get I this filler's visual gag out of my head, so I decided to put it into this year's Halloween filler. If you want to check out his comic, The Adventures of Ms. Rocket (Which has a girl with rocket boots as she begins her career as a superheroine), visit my Links page. And if you want to see his submission to my birthday fan art contest, visit my newly updated Fan Art page! Have a happy and safe Halloween everyone!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Looks like everyone's being taken care of... right? I'm sure someone will take care of Miss Sunflower soon enough. After all the trouble she caused, she deserves to have an itchy nose for a while. Dodge tried lecturing Gelatin Boy about being too dependant in the Gym Nauseum storyline, and he tried leaving him alone in this story. Looks like he's finally ready to have an actual dialogue with his friend to solve the problem. B.O.N.N.I.E. was originally going to have a different reaction in panel 3, but it didn't look quite right with her being drawn so tiny and with straight lines. I decided to do a little nod to Scott Pilgrim and allow the digital damsel to make a shocked face made from a semicolon and lowercase "o". Seems appropriate for an A.I. on a screen, no? Don't forget, you have less than a month to enter my #birthday #fanart#contest! I want some fan art for my birthday; all you need to do is draw one (or more) of my characters or make a video game avatar based on them. All valid entries get a prize - it may be a sketch, or it may be something better...! Check out TheHeroesOfCRASH.com and click on the button on the main page for the full rules!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Technically, letting his friends know his feelings IS facing ONE of his problems. He'd previously been unable to even face his team, and he's not hiding from them anymore. He's even telling them his feelings assertively. Progress! Not much to say about the art or the dialogue, except that I like having GB making a "time out" gesture and telling Dino-Mo to "hold her dinos" instead of "hold her horses". In other news, I finally did something I should have done a long time ago; I registered The Heroes Of C.R.A.S.H. at TopWebComics! If you're not familiar with that, it's a site that helps promote webcomics. You can vote for as many webcomics as you like once a day, and also "like" their Incentive Art to boost their popularity (Found by clicking the big thumbs-up button near the upper-left). You can find HoC in the Humor, Adventure, and Sci-Fi categories (Sadly, you can't just SEARCH for a comic through the site). Please vote for my comic so that more people can discover and read it! and while you're at it, please check out and vote for more Collective of Heroescomics on that site; we're trying to push our TopWebComics promotion this month. Don't forget to enter my #contest; all valid entries win ART! You have just a little over a month left! I have two entries for the main category and one for the Generated category, but the last month is when most of the entries come in. Don't wait too long!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Dino-Mo is willing to help, but makes a few things clear to Enticia. First, being sorry and wanting to make things right isn't enough to earn Dino-Mo's forgiveness. Second, the advice Dino-Mo offers is for Bastion's benefit, not Enticia's. Third, Enticia will never live down that "turning into her mom" comment, especially when people know her mom's a hot bikini model. Shadowy Sentinel was intended to be the school psychologist for a long time. Does it make sense for her to be a school shrink AND a teacher? Probably not, but it's my comic world, and I'll build it the way I want to. So there. :-P Besides, it fits in well with her backstory; I envision the former villain as having sought psychiatric help while switching sides and serving time, which in turn led her to studying psychology. This gave her the unique expertise to teach studies into villains' minds, AND to help students at risk of turning evil. I added the "GLOOOOM" text in the last panel to show that it's just to emphasize her mood; I didn't want anyone to think she was using a dark version of her pheromone cloud powers. Don't forget, my birthday's next month! I've gotten some fan art already! If you want to send some my way, read the full rules on my site. ALL valid entries will get some form of art in return!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Enticia gets some surprising support, Ken Bailey sends some fan art that's NOT for my contest, and I restate the rules for anyone who WILL enter. Also, my internet's back! Whew, that's a lot to unpack in a Twitter-friendly blurb... Let's take it from the top. Due to some local internet outages, I was not able to update my site until I got it back this afternoon. Thankfully, I was able to post a picture of the latest comic (Taken from my camera's phone), as well as the other pictures below. Remember, folks, if my site hasn't updated, and I didn't announce it beforehand, check my Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook posts; I'll usually be able to fill you in there. In this week's strip, Enticia recognizes what she's learned from her friends and from Dino-Mo. When Enticia says that Cannon made her realize her relationships have been hollow, she's referring to their discussion WAY back in strip 232. Belt Boy and TM have gained her trust slowly, but listening to her backstory throughout the Even a Rose Has its Thorns story certainly helped. Dino-Mo, of course, told Enticia off in the Gym-Nauseum storyline. I do like getting experimental with the format of my comics, and I like how I set up the three-part panel in the upper-right, turning the connections between word balloons into panel gutters. That was actually pretty fun! In other news (But not NEW news if you've been keeping up with my Facebook group!), I got some fan art that is NOT a submission for my annual Birthday Fan Art Contest that's currently going on right now. Why? Because the fan art in question happens to be from Ken Baily, who won last year with his awesome picture of Titanium Maiden alongside his own creation, EnergyGirl. However, the rules state that someone can't win in the same category for two years in a row, so unless he did something in the Generated Fan Art category, anything he submitted would be ineligible. But knowing that, he still decided to draw TM and E-Girl again for funsies, and because it IS for my (and my comic's) birthday. Thanks again, Ken! If YOU want to enter my contest, check out my website for the full rules! Ken got to pick the next HoC desktop wallpaper, and you could do the same this year! Even if you don't win, all valid entries get some art in return, making it a bit like an art trade as well as a contest. Good luck!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Enticia declares that she's ready to face the music. I have to admit, outside of my main three, Enticia may be my favorite character. Quite a few of my characters have been based on aspects of myself and people I know, but Enticia's been sort of her own entity. She's grown and evolved as a character in ways I never predicted, whether it's on-screen or behind the scenes. Today's strip certainly marks a turning point for Enticia, but it hardly marks the end of her personal character development arc. I have big plans for Enticia in the future...! I typically prefer my comics to have a bit more comedy than drama. If my strip were a cartoon, we'd be coming to the "learning a lesson" part of the episode near the end, so it's a smidgeon more drama-heavy as of late. Still, it's not devoid of comedy; I think that having Unk carrying a grumbling, hog-tied Jackknife over is shoulder is pretty funny-looking. A side note: "Mr. Hellinger's Hardware" mentioned in the first panel gets its name from Hechinger - a hardware store chain that had a store near me when I was a kid - but with the "Heck" syllable changed into its more cussword-sounding form. This is about as close to swearing as my strip will ever get. Also, I was originally going to call the store "Mr. Hellinger's Tools 'n' Stuff", but it didn't fit as neatly in the word balloon, and I hate to miss an opportunity to use alliteration. DON'T FORGET: There's still two months left in my contest! Everyone who submits a valid entry will win some art in return, so get to drawing! Or avatar-building!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Belt Boy thanks his friends (and Jackknife). Unfortunately, he's still a little down. While he's willing to dust himself off and try again, that doesn't change the fact that he feels like he let his friends down. My comic may be based on Saturday Morning Cartoons, where most character's struggles can be solved in a half hour, but don't expect my characters' problems to have a quick fix. I was going to do a different pun with the title... I was thinking of combining Jackknife's name with the phrase "Gag me with a spoon", but "Gag me with a knife" sounds disturbing. Yeesh. Anyway, just as Belt Boy has thanked his friends, I'll be more than happy to thank you for entering my contest by giving you some free art! Check out my website for the full rules in order to submit a valid entry. Good luck!
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http://TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Step 1: Unleash arm blades Step 2: Something happens Step 3: Profit Despite having had a bit of a tiff with Dino-Mo earlier, Sugar Rush seems to be ready to take orders again. Did she stop being mad, or is she just able to put those feelings aside when there are more pressing matters? Stay tuned, and maybe you'll find out! I don't always laugh at my own jokes. But when I do, I try to fit them into a comic. No, I'm not just parodying the "Most Interesting Man in the World"; I think that's good advice for a cartoonist. Good characters and stories come from feeling and passion. If you make yourself laugh, you've successfully brought that feeling out in yourself, and you can use that to make something that captures that feeling. I not only love the gag, but I like how that last comic turned out visually. It was fun using the transparency slide on a few layers to create the illusion of movement, as well as the watercolor paintbrush tool to create blurred stripes of color. Still, I wish that my current computer still had the GIF making program that my old computer had; I'm sure it would have been even fun to animate that last panel.
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http://TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Necros gets a taste of his own medicine as our heroes fight him together! He may be tough, but he's outnumbered, and he's left them an opening. But will that be enough to take him down? Stay tuned, faithful readers! Instead of traditional onomatopoeia as sound effects for each attack, I opted to name each attack instead, kind of like the text that pops up in Fairly Oddparents cartoons (which is appropriate, as the show did inspire my comic... even if Hartman seems to have gone a bit off the deep end since then). I had fun playing with the lettering; it was less like writing and more like drawing, with each "font" drawing inspiration from the attacking hero or the attack itself Dino-Mo's "Tail Slam" has pointy letters, reminiscent of a bent dinosaur tail; the letters and background have reptilian-inspired colors. "Dodgeball Barrage" is written on dodgeballs with a yellow background, evoking Dodge's color scheme. Enticia has muted pinks and elegant letters (almost rose-colored, like her civilian namesake) for her "Platform Kick"; more blacks and grays to match her shoes wouldn't contrast with her and Necros well enough. "Cannon Fire" is quick and to the point, with no frills, like Cannon himself and his rapid-fire blasts, with (what else?) a green and purple color scheme. Sugar Rush's volley of "Fury Punches" are accompanied by fist-shaped letters, with muted reds to stand apart a little from her bright red gloves. Jackknife's "Scythe Slash" has letters as pointy as his weapon and green as his outfit, plus they arc in the direction of his attack. Unk's "UNK-ppercut" highlights the awful play on words, which admittedly says more about my style than his, but at least keeps his color scheme. I was initially going to have Unk put the squeeze on Necros again, but I wanted to add a different attack to his repertoire. I also didn't want to have too much of Unk show up in the panel; it would break up the pattern of each panel focusing on Necros and the attack itself. And finally, Titanium Maiden's "Titanium Clothesline" has metal lettering (suggesting titanium, of course), which contrasts nicely with her signature shade of pink in the background. That's a total of eight attacks; the only characters who aren't attacking in this strip are Gelatin Boy (Whose sweat already helped in the previous strip, and who lacks any actual "attacks" anyway) and Belt Boy. Whether or not he plans to take any action remains to be seen, for now...! By the way, I'm always happy to hear feedback from my readers; which panel was your favorite in today's strip? Leave me a comment! I also appreciate it when you share my comic, so please share this post!
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http://TheHeroesOfCRASH.com "We can do this the easy way, or Belt Boy can start rambling again." Belt Boy and Cannon are both largely based on different aspects of myself (although my best friend Chris is also a strong influence on Cannon). Belt Boy represents my creativity and my optimism, while Cannon represents my sense of wit and my sarcasm. It's kind of funny seeing aspects of my personality clash against each other; I'm pretty sure that last panel sums up what happens in my head when I catch myself talking too much. That first panel took forever; It wasn't easy to fit all those characters in there, overlapping each other in such a way that they didn't look too jumbled together. The last time I drew this many characters was only a little over a dozen strips ago, but they were arranged in a straight line, so drawing this panel was a bit more daring. I enjoy playing with the thicknesses of lines and outlines to make characters seem closer and further away; the first and last panels are proof of that. :-)
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com NOTE: I seem to be having trouble accessing my website and uploading the latest comic; I'm posting it directly to social media in the meantime. I'll keep you all updated as I work to resolve this issue. It seems that Necros didn't count on Belt Boy having more friends around! So far, he's only seen Cannon, Dodge, and Dino-Mo. He only caught a glimpse of Sugar Rush, mistaking her for Belt Boy in my May 12th comic. Necros also seems to have misjudged Belt Boy's acting skills; he's been cool as a cucumber this whole time. Well, most of the time - he figured Necros might be able to fight Dino-Mo, but he didn't count on that taser-glove. It was a bit of (sorry for the obvious pun I'm about to make) a shock. Now that Belt Boy has regained the element of surprise, how is he going to use it? Tune in next week and every week, folks!
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http://TheHeroesOfCRASH.com I didn't use an electricity pun for the title? Shocking! Belt Boy may be known for his gadgets, but Necros seems to have plenty of fun toys at his disposal, too. He has the Necrobots, smoke bombs, portal discs, and now taser-gloves! What else does he have up his sleeves? There were a few ways I could have drawn the electricity in the final panel. I decided to make it blue, so that the bright bolts would pop out against a darker shade of the same hue. I made the bolts jagged and cartoony, rather than being too fluid; I thought this looked more painful. There are some skinnier, fluid bolts on Dino-Mo's body, but they merely supplement the larger bolts for visual effect. By the way, remember how Ken Bailey won my Fanart Contest earlier this year and won the right to choose the next HoC desktop (and later did another picture of one of my heroes just for funsies)? Well, I'm still working on his request. But, I felt that while he was waiting - especially since he did that extra picture - it was only right that I do a drawing of one of his characters in the meantime (and besides, drawing other people's characters in my style is fun)! My version of EnergyGirl has a physique that isn't as bulky as that of Titanium Maiden, but she's still got more muscles than most of my comic's cast, male and female alike. Her eyes retain their basic shape, but has otherwise been tweaked to fit my style better. Her hairstyle is a composite based on several she's had in the past. I also made her three trademark freckles a subtle, dull brown. Ken enjoyed this, and I hope you do, too!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Belt Boy comes to a realization about what being a leader means (fairly literally!). One of my less-traditional layouts, as I tend to favor 4-panel strips in a 2x2 layout. If you count the bottom left panel as 9 panels instead of one, this strip has more panels than any other strip I've done, at a whopping 14! Speaking of that 9-in-one panel, that was especially fun to draw. I wanted to make sure that each mini-panel showed off its character through the background and his/her facial expression. Gelatin Boy is a bit nervous about Belt Boy's faith in him, and his background is based on the wobbly shape of his head. Dodge and Dino-Mo are calm, but impressed by Belt Boy's attitude, and their backgrounds show a flying dodgeball and a dinosaur fossil, respectively. Sugar Rush, as always, is enthusiastic and ready to help out her friend; she's got a peppermint swirl background. Titanium Maiden is feeling proud that Belt Boy seems to have gotten over his attitude problem from earlier and is showing his team proper respect, and she's thankful that he's okay; her background, of course, is her signature flower. Cannon's smirking as if to say, "About time you wised up, BB," as he sits in front of his purple-on-green stripe (His hand resting on the panel frame represents his tendency to break the fourth wall, by the way!). Unk is almost as pleased as Sugar Rush to help out a friend, but is a bit more chill about it, as he is regarding most things; his background shows off his shades. Enticia is moved by his attitude toward his team, especially as she's been reflecting on her own leadership abilities; the insignias from her "heartbreaker pants" (as I call them) are in the background. Jackknife, with his pointy insignia behind him, is doing that mock-gagging thing because he's sick of all this sappy emotion-sharing. And of course, in the last panel (or space between panels), Belt Boy and B.O.N.N.I.E. stand before Belt Boy's signature utility belt buckle. If you missed my announcement on the main page, I've greatly updated my Fan Art page! This includes two bits of fan art I got through social media this past week: Cannon by BigNoseBug on Twitter (a storyboard artist for the upcoming Thundercats cartoon), and Belt Boy by Ken Bailey (creator of EnergyGirl, and the winner of my last birthday contest)! Here they are:
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com After nearly 1 1/2 years and 61 story strips apart, Belt Boy, Titanium Maiden, and Cannon are finally back together! Yes, I know, time passes slowly when you have a weekly strip. Still, I'm glad I made it weekly; when I was trying to do 3 updates a week, I was mostly doing fillers, and now I've mostly eliminated fillers outside of my birthday and holidays. If I were doing 3 updates a week, I doubt I'd be able to do canonical comics as well or as regularly. Drawing big groups like in the first panel is tricky; you don't want them all standing stiff (Unless they have a reason to be stiff, like if they're frozen with fear or something). You need to give everyone a different, interesting pose. That's a big plus to having a very cartoony art style; you can have everyone exaggeratedly express their emotions to spice things up! Sugar Rush may have been all for Gelatin Boy fighting his own battles, but that doesn't mean she isn't tempted to intervene. Jackknife does have that kind of attitude that screams, "Please punch me in the face!" I love the coloring I did for the backgrounds in this strip. Normally, I just use a darker shade of the color of the wall for the background shadow. This time, though, I drew a black shadow on a layer, and made it translucent with 10% visibility. I think I like it better. Do you?
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Gelatin Boy may be slippery and silent, but he's got a few things to learn about being a spy...! Necros may not have quite as many gadgets as Belt Boy, but given that he created the Necrobots, is it any surprise he's got a holographic watch in his gloves? In case you were wondering, yes - Sugar Rush's face in the fourth panel IS a reference to the meme-ified Yellow Diamond "You CLOD!" face. Her expression looked a bit different before, but when I noticed it looked a little bit like Yellow Diamond, I decided to take it a bit further. It's a bit subtle, but I'm proud of the way I drew Dino-Mo in the last panel, with her leaning to one side, and having her hands be asymmetrical. I'm trying to get a bit more inventive with my poses, and I think it makes her look a bit livelier. Sorry for this being a relatively late update for the second week in a row; technical difficulties combined with my working and sleeping odd hours this week have complicated my webcomic work schedule a bit. I think things should be back to normal next week *knock on wood*, when my work schedule becomes a bit more regular.
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2018 Generated Fan Art Contest Category Winner: "Fight Party" by YouWillNeverKnow
heroesofcrash posted a topic in Heroes Of Crash
http://TheHeroesOfCRASH.com I mentioned last week that YouWillNeverKnow is a longtime fan, having submitted some redesigns of Miss Sunflower and Sister Sledgehammer for this year's traditional category, and having submitted multiple entries in past years' contests. Well, YWNK is such a dedicated fan, that he submitted an entry for BOTH categories this year, and won the Generated Fan Art category! He recreated all 10 of the student cast members using RPG Maker MV! His entry features (Clockwise from bottom left) Belt Boy, Sugar Rush, Unk, Gelatin Boy, Dodge, Titanium Maiden, Jackknife, Dino-Mo, Enticia, and Cannon. Thats quite an adventuring party! However, due to a lack of time (I had some family emergencies this week; don't worry, all is relatively well) and for the sake of simplicity, I only recreated my main three for his reward drawing. Maybe these three are the characters you start off with, and you need to find and unlock the other seven throughout the game...? I tweaked BB, Cannon, and TM's designs from his submission, partly because it's a little hard to make out all the details on their pixelated forms, and because I didn't want to give EVERYONE a blue cape. I made Cannon's into a scarf, which seemed a bit more anime-ninja-esque, and TM's into a neck accessory for her dress. I imagine that BB's some sort of knight or warrior and Cannon's a ninja, but I'm not sure what TM's class is in this drawing, based on her outfit. Perhaps she's an Amazon princess? Nah, if that were the case, she'd have a golden lasso and star-spangled swimsuit armor. If you have any thoughts as to what TM's class is, leave a comment. Perhaps you may even have some ideas as to what the other party members' classes are! Thanks again for the awesome fan art, YouWillNeverKnow! :-D This was quite a birthday treat! -
TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Break out the syrup; Dino-Mo is about to make some robot pancakes. I'm quite proud of that last panel. Drawing an ankylosaurus doing a cannonball dive is pretty daunting, but finding visual references helped a lot. I drew her like a rather bulky person, then added the shell, horns, and tail afterward. But as daunting as that was, I was not looking forward to drawing the Necrobots. I'm simultaneously proud of and annoyed at my past self for coming up with such a weird, detailed design for these bots. Contrary to popular belief (or at least the TV Tropes page for my comic), Necrobots don't have actual emotions, or at least Necros didn't program them that way. I might be willing to consider that they have developed one emotion: annoyance. Somewhere in the back of my head, I wonder if my GPS gets annoyed when I choose not to to go with the route it's planned and don't ask it for an alternate route. Dino-Mo's a bit of a hypocrite for calling Dodge a nerd, then giving her attack an alliterative name that sounds like something straight out of Pokemon or Digimon. At least, that's my take on it. Just a reminder; my birthday is next month, and like always, what I want most is fan art! My annual contest has evolved into a bit of an art trade, so that anyone who submits me fan art or a video game avatar based on my characters will get some free art from me! But there's still two big prizes that only two people will win...! Check out the full rules on my site at TheHeroesOfCRASH.com today!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Enticia accepts Dino-Mo's accusations; conversely, Belt Boy can't accept defeat. I like how this storyline's been exploring Enticia and Belt Boy's characters in different ways. Enticia has always been a flawed and somewhat egotistical character, who has put distance between herself and others, and allowed people to get hurt in the process. Now, she's seriously considering what people think about her and trying to listen. Belt Boy, on the other hand, has always been a seemingly perfect boy scout-type, but while he's friendly with others, he's hard on himself. Now, he's sinking further into his delusion that perfection is attainable, and he's becoming blinded to what he's doing. On a related note, I mentioned in last week's commentary that there's a key difference between Enticia and her mother; namely that Rose Greene's flirtiness was a string of short romances, while Enticia's playing for keeps. Enticia gathered the whole idea of dating lots of boys in a casual way, but her mom never explained a whole lot about ending relationships, apparently.
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Some insight into how Enticia learned about relationships. Although Violet's behavior/advice explains quite a bit about what Enticia did, there is a key difference between how the two have treated boys. Looking at Dino-Mo's expression - which has suddenly changed from surprised (and possibly sympathetic) to annoyed - she may have caught on. Have you? In the early days of my strip, I wanted there to be at least one established couple; having EVERY character be un-attached seemed a little unrealistic - or at least boring - to me. I wound up pairing Sugar Rush and Dodge, and that pairing has helped influence Dodge's personality a bit. Dodge does have a wild streak that he lets out on occasion, which Sugar Rush loves. But he can also be patient and logical, which helps balance out Sugar Rush's impulsiveness (not that impulsiveness is necessarily a bad thing). However, Sugar Rush hasn't been the only one to make me think how I wrote Dodge's character; his protective nature was influenced by having the often-defenseless Gelatin Boy as his best friend. Perhaps it's because of his sports theme that Dodge has grown to be a team player in his team and in my comic's cast! Ah, the return of character-colored flashbacks. Every character's flashbacks are a different color. Enticia's are tinted in browns and reds, to match her hair, skin, makeup, and the broken-heart-halves on her pants (And because using blacks and grays to match her clothes and shoes didn't look vibrant enough). Similarly, Belt Boy's have been yellow to match his hair and his belt buckle (and, admittedly, because yellow is my favorite color and he's the semi-central character), Cannon's were green to match his armor, and Titanium Maiden's have been pink to match her scrunchie, lipstick, shoes, and the flower on her shirt. Hmmm... in hindsight, this may get me backed into a corner if other characters have flashbacks... Obviously, Gelatin Boy would have orange, but what would Dodge have, if orange, red, and yellow are used up? And what would Sugar Rush have? In the future, I may do two-tone flashbacks. I might have to study how Kathleen Jacques colors her Band Vs. Band comic (Which should be on my totally-needs-to-be-updated Links page)... As far as that “bundle of hormones and crazy” comment, I think it sums up teens pretty well (although it doesn’t necessarily disqualify them from serious, meaningful relationships). To be fair though, I think “bundle of crazy” (minus the hormones part) sums up most adults pretty well, too. Just look at the loon that adults got into office a year ago today.
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Comic 1/13/18 - Enticia's Least Favorite Running Gag
heroesofcrash posted a topic in Heroes Of Crash
TheHeroesOfCRASH.com A callback to comic #312, this probably won't be the last time we hear this phrase. And yes, we will soon get an explanation of what Mrs. Greene has to do with Enticia's attitudes on relationships... to some extent, anyway. Enticia's got a lot going on below the surface, and I look forward to exploring more of her character in the future. :-) Titanium Maiden and Dino-Mo, as you can see from panel #2, are still there. TM tends to be quiet and gives other people space, whereas Dino-Mo's still taking all this in. If comic #475 and the last panel of today's strip didn't make it clear, Sugar Rush is canonically bi. While she finds other women attractive, she's quite happy in her monogamous dating relationship with Dodge. The two of them happen to be a loving, passionate young couple who just happen to high-five each other whenever a beautiful woman passes by (I think I let Marshall and Lily from How I Met Your Mother influence how I depict their relationship a smidge). Oh, almost forgot; Enticia's last line was, at one point, going to be, "I'm being punished, aren't I?!", borrowing a quote from one of my favorite movies: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze. I decided to skip that quote and use some dialogue that made Enticia's feelings of frustration and guilt a bit more apparent. -
TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Enticia realizes that her confession may have been a bit easier to overhear than she intended. She's not embarassed about Dodge and Sugar Rush knowing she's sorry about Bastion - he was their teammate and friend, too - but she IS embarassed by the fact that she now realizes how loud she was and that almost anyone could have heard her. Thankfully for Enticia, there are almost no students left in the school at this time of day to know she's afraid that she's turned into her mother. I'm mostly happy with the art for today's strip; the one thing that bothers me is the third panel; I realized after I finished the whole thing that Enticia and Titanium Maiden are in similar poses. Granted, TM is grasping her head in frustration and Enticia is nervously scratching her head, but they both have their right elbow out. It's probably a nitpick, but I can't help but think it could have been better. On the plus side, I'm happy with how I drew Sugar Rush skidding to a stop in panel two (I fiddled with her pose quite a bit before I got it to look right), and I like Enticia's toony expression in the last panel. Overall, not a bad comic to kick off the new year!
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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Enticia utters four words that everyone fears. Enticia's been one of the more fun characters for me to write. She may be my favorite character outside of the main 3. She started off as a femme fatale, but I found myself discovering her character and backstory, and she's evolved as the story progressed. That being said, she isn't always easy to write. I've become increasingly aware of how frequently men take advantage of women in the real world, especially in the last few months, and while I enjoy subverting expectations to create new characters and situations, I didn't want to make it look like I was dismissing what women were (and are) going through by turning men into the victims*. There's MORE than enough of that online. I hope that as the story goes on, that readers will find Enticia to be as deep and loveable as I do. As far as the art in today's comic, my first sketch of Enticia in the last panel had her face looking even more cartoonishly exaggerated, but I felt that it made her look crazed instead of distraught. I feel pretty pleased with how I have her hands clutching her head and messing up her Halle Berry hairdo. By the way, If you've been following me on social media, you know that I'm disappointed by the FCC's recent decision to repeal Net Neutrality laws (And if you enjoy webcomics like mine, you're probably disappointed, too). That being said, this isn't over. There's still plenty of things you can do! 1. Go over the FCC's heads and demand that your representatives in the Senate and Congress put Net Neutrality laws in place. 2. Tell the FCC that you are displeased with their decision; Net Neutrality isn't about taking away people's ability to take selfies and make memes, but about people's ability to have a voice that can be heard globally, and about small businesses having a chance to compete with big businesses. 3. Tell your ISP that you're not a happy customer; you want their website to guarantee that there will be no throttling back the speed at which information comes to you, that there will be no paid prioritization, and that they can still guarantee that low-income families have access to the FULL internet. Don't give up on this cause! Keep listening to what's happening, and keep speaking out! *In the context of this statement, I mean men as a whole. I am aware that men can be victims of abuse in relationships as well as women. However, a disappointingly high number of online complaints involve men complaining that women have it easier than they do, or that feminism is "taking away their rights", and that's just total malarkey.