IanSokoliwski

Re: Superhero Images nice work

Re: "Super" Cities- How many is too many? Dynamo, your idea for Doomstadt SO seriously kicks ass! I'll agree, quite often Lavteria is mentioned as having one of the highest standards of living (and GNP) in the entire world (basically, it is the US, Latveria, and Wakanda, in that order I believe), and yet it is nothing but a collection of rural towns. Having at least the capitol city being a technopolis of this order works very well!

my $0.02 Hmmm.... I've been an on-and-off Authority reader for a while (picked up a couple of trades, mostly for the Hitch artwork, and all the Coup D'etat stuff, plus the first handful of issues from the recent run), and I'd like to share my thoughts and problems about this series as well. This book is 10lbs of visceral fun in a 5lb bag, that is true. The whole 'watching super heroes wiping out their opponents with extreme prejudice' angle was kinda fun. At first. And I LOVED the scale. Heck, I even ran a 10 000 000xp game of 1st Ed AD&D for a while based on the scale/concepts from the Authority. Those ideas really translate well into a game where the good guys are supposed to kill the bad guys. However. My first problem (and this was pretty much from day one) is that the Authority is in the same universe as any other super heroes. Because, quite simply, I think every other hero in that universe would come gunning for the Authority at one point or another. I mean, jeez, Mr Majestic alone (being, from his series a few years ago, a more moral person than ANYBODY in the Authority) would have single-handedly gutted the Carrier just to wipe out their main advantage (totally unlimited teleportation, no matter the distance or what type of metal or mineral surrounds the target teleportation spot), then handed them their butts. Remember, this guy spent a few decades re-organizing the solar system (hence his lack of involvement in Vietnam, for example) to prevent the Earth from being destroyed by an Elder God-level baddie (rather than trying to kill it); MM's got some serious power. (Okay, I know that he is some sort of god-thing now, and doesn't necessarily want to deal with the problems of the mortal world any longer - still, I think some of the stunts the Authority have pulled since that happened would make him turn around and take notice. Then BLAMMO, no Carrier. Actually, that might be all that that he would bother doing 'cause as powerful as they are, it is really only the Carrier that gives them the real advantage over other superteams and such)(feel free to disagree with this assessment - I'm interested in how other folks view the Carrier) Second, okay, yeah, they are in the morally-bankrupt Wildstorm Universe, where every government appears to be run by evil corporations (whatever happened to 'good' corporations? Or 'mildly apathetic' corporations, for that matter?) and other sources of corruption. Sure, in that setting, the actions of the Authority (as a whole, not necessarily some of the actions by certain individuals - I'm looking at you, Midnighter) may seem justified, heck maybe even 'morally superior'. BUT. If there is that level of corruption in that particular universe, why are the 'most powerful' heroes free from that same corruption? (the answer is, they aren't, and that would explain some of the 'less moral' actions of some of the members - still looking at you, Midnighter). Okay, so, reading about morally-questionable people isn't necessarily bad (remember, the series of novels about 'Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever' is pretty popular, even though the main character rapes an innocent woman FOR NO REASON - not even some sort of thrill or mental problem or anything - in the first novel; me, I can't stand the series, but lots of people disagree with me), perhaps even giving us some sort of vicarious thrill ('keeping the gators fed' is a quote by Stephen King about that sort of thrill). I'm just wondering how much characters like this have spilled over into other series. (on the positive side, there was an issue of Superman where he battled an Authority-style group. He ended up taking them out using the same underhanded amoral tactics they did, but at the end, the reader discovered that it was all a sham, that he had actually treated them fairly, didn't kill anybody, just to prove that morality CAN win over immorality)(no, I don't recall which issue off-hand) I mean, DC now has this JLElite series, which is kinda the DCU version of the Authority. I'm not sure what that means, but can an Authority-clone work in the DCU which is generally seen as being not as evil, amoral, and corrupt as the WSU (or even the Marvel Universe, for that matter)? Okay, I'm rambling. I guess all I'm saying is, I really enjoyed the Millar/Hitch run, wasn't so happy with the later stuff (can you count all the plot holes in the Evil Doctor storyline?). I really liked the concept behind Coup D'etat (even with its' similarities to the 'Squadron Supreme' miniseries - it is a good idea, and open to a few different interpretations), but not the current series so much. However, to end this rant on a positive note, a much more interesting view of super heroes and (kinda sorta) real-world political corruption, have many of you checked out the one-shot 'JLA: Superpower'? It is a pretty cool book about a new super hero, one who idolizes Superman and much of the JLA, joining the team. However, he begins to take a tarnished view on how the JLA (and, specifically, Superman) deal with the major threats (the Saddam Husseins and such of the DCU). Eventually, he single-handedly overthrows one of these dictator nations, and...well, it is a pretty effective ending, I think. If you like some of what the Authority was about, but overall felt it left a bad taste in your mouth, try and hunt down a copy of 'JLA: Superpower' (from '99 or around there).

Re: Superhero Images Yeah, I agree with this. It's funny, at my last job, I had to train quite a few people in Photoshop, and I don't know how many times if you go through something with a person and you are right beside them, how hard it is for them to pick up a technique or similar bit the first time (this isn't singling out any one person or anything; generally, you have to show a person how to do something, then they try it, and you have to help them correct the mistakes - it is pretty universal that you can only 'learn to do by doing'). That is also why I'm a little fuzzy on the concept of online tutorials. Sure, there is lots you can learn from following the instructions of someone else, but the best way to learn is to dive in, muck around, make some huge mistakes...I suppose it is best to be able to physically show them what you did, so they can correct where you went wrong. I dunno. Maybe I will get around to that tutorial thing yet...

Re: Superhero Images Thanks Well, it depends, basically, but yeah it can affect the price. Everything is negotiable (and the more you buy, the more you save! ) If you have more specific questions, you can email them to me directly, and I can give you a more specific response.

Re: Superhero Images

Re: Superhero Images For a while, I had been running a Champions game in a universe where Marvel, DC, Image, and Star Trek characters all basically coexisted, and had for some time. In this game, I ended up creating a large number of characters who had characteristics of more than one character from the various companies (Franklin Richards had grown up and become the hero Supreme, a clone of Superman by the name of Simon Williams became Superboy in the 60's, Wonder Man in the 70's and 80's, then, after acquiring the Hammer of Thor [after Thor died fighting an insane Superman], became Thunderstrike, stuff like that). And of course, I ended up drawing a few of them. Here, I have a picture of Ms Mary Marvel. After nearly dying in a battle against a Cardassian war fleet (the battle which had driven the original Superman insane over a decade ago), Mary Marvel was revived from cryogenic stasis and healed of her wounds by a combination of Fantastic Four and Krypton technology. She also lost her ability to resume her unpowered human form, and gained some new abilities. Now, I'm aware of the slightly-too-skinny ankles (and limbs in general) on the illustration - it is still more-or-less what I was looking for, however, so I'm fairly happy with it.

Re: Superhero Images I thought you were doing rather well there, Blue. If you are looking to improve those facial features, however, you could take a look at the book 'Drawing the Human Head' by Burne Hogarth. It has the best facial construction and layout techniques I've ever seen (I still consult it about ears:) ) So here is another piece. This one was done directly from pencils to colouring, with no inking (digital or otherwise) involved along the way. The character was one I had created for some self-promotional work that I still have yet to get to.

Re: Superhero Images bblackmoor said... Well, thanks, I try I'll mostly be posting a bunch of pics for characters I'm creating for a new Champions game I'll be (hopefully) running soon (based around Galactic Champions, I think...). Plus I'll probably be posting new pictures of old characters from my old games... stuff like that. Anyway, here is another one, a pic of 'The Raven Brigade', the super hero team in my webcomic 'Tales of the Tower Raven'. Now, this pic has appeared in Issue #2 of the 'City of Heroes' comic book (or at least it was supposed to - I still haven't seen that issue - any CoH players here get this issue and see this picture yet? please let me know), but since it wasn't a paying gig or anything (or CoH specific characters - I never actually created any of them in the game when I was in the Beta test, and I haven't gotten around to buying the game yet...) I figure I can post it here as well.

Re: Superhero Images Let's see, here is one of a character called 'Dreamweaver'. Just so you folks know, all the pictures of mine were drawn by me (usually on 2-ply Bristol or 110-lb sketch paper with 2H and HB pencils), then either inked by me by hand or in Photoshop, then painted up in Photoshop.

Howdy to everyone! Hi there, everyone. I'm a long-time Champions player (first-played back in 1987), and have been looking to get back into the hobby (I even picked up 'Galactic Champions' today after hearing lots of good things about it over at RPGnet). My big thing is artwork. I'm a professional comic book colourist (I've done too much to list here, but recently I've beed working on the 'Chronicles of Conan' reprint volumes, volumes 1, 3, and 4, as well as volume 5 coming out later this month), and I believe there are even a couple of people on these boards who have commissioned work from me in the past. For those who were on the pre-release City of Heroes boards, I was known there as 'red bee', and had done a lot of different work for people. Anyway, I thought I'd post a few things here for you all to take a look at. This first one is of my character 'Agent Hermes'. Enjoy!