Project CBRunway 3: Challenge 2 Voting Thread

[mattbib]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/mattbib/My%20Drawings/Project%20CBRunway/d029820c.jpg
Welcome to the runway!

PLEASE VOTE for the entry you feel best completes the challenge. Voting should not be based solely on art ability. Ultimately, however, voting is completely subjective. Participants may vote for themselves. The designer(s) with the least amount of votes may be eliminated.

As the winner of the last challenge captainbosh cannot be eliminated in this round.

Both Mr. Kent and Shade23 forfeited this round and are out of the competition.

CHALLENGE 2: TRENDSETTER

For your second challenge you must create and design a stereotypical Liefeldian '90s comic book character.

You will be judged on originality and creativity, or lack thereof, and how well your character fits the '90s stereotype.

In addition to the required written description explaining material, functionality and design inspiration, you should include a short description of who your character is and how they represent the '90s.

Please vote using the poll, then feel free to make comments or ask questions about this challenge or these designs within this thread. Now let's start the show...

[mattbib]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/mattbib/My%20Drawings/Project%20CBRunway/02-BATTLE-CRY.gif

INSPIRATION
Holy Crap, is there an easier guy in comics to make fun of than Rob Liefeld? The answer: NO!

First I feel that I should point out the token Liefeldisms here, like the cargo pouches in a different color scheme than anything else in the image, the arm/shoulder/elbow bands that adorned every one of his characters, the ‘big dumb white guy’ who somehow manages to lead a super team and the weird, hugeungous quaff of hair with the un-gelled curls falling into the face of our hero. The hair was my personal favorite of these since it is gigantic and stupid looking but really isn’t all that much of an exaggeration of his characters.

That being said, The real reason behind this design was Liefeld’s inability to draw feet and the fact that he did a horrible job of faking it. BATTLE CRY serves as the ultimate lazy way to never have to draw those pesky feet again. Behold:

1. BATTLE CRY is the leader of his team so he is always out in front
2. He has no feet. He is in a constant state of hover or flight.
3. His afterburning butt creates so much exhaust, dust and smoke that we can’t see the feet of anyone that is standing within a 100 foot radius of him.

Hands can be tough to draw too, darn it. Maybe comic artists should start designing characters without hands too! The head isn’t exactly a piece of cake to draw now that I think of it…

STORY
Donovan Blake (a.k.a. BATTLE CRY) is the hard nosed, rough and tumble leader of the super team known to the world as Q – FARCE, an underground government run agency of super humans mentored by the wheelchair ridden psychic known as Doctor Q.

Once a Professional Body Builder and part time Motivational Speaker, BATTLE CRY underwent massive reconstructive cybernetic surgery after a tragic dumbbell accident left him a quadrapalegic. Now he fights crime and terror with his massive titanium arms and his JetLegs ™ and leads his team of heroes into battle with the naturally booming voice he developed during his public speaking days.

COSTUME
BATTLE CRY’s JetLegs ™ are a modified jet engine and afterburner that have been surgically grafted onto his pelvis. His arms have been replaced with titanium cybernetic prosthetics. His utility belt has a titanium buckle and a crap ton of cargo pockets which if he ever decides to carry anything will come in handy. His clothing is made of a heat resistant synthetic and his chest is adorned with a shouting mouth to symbolize his namesake.

[mattbib]

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k303/cpsm1092/scan0069copy.jpg

Inspiration/Design
Can I be honest? Rob Liefeld is probably one of my least liked artist, I think everything is tacky as hell. Which is what I tried to do. While reasearching his work, I found this picture on comicvine.
http://image.comicvine.com/uploads/i...iefeld_400.jpg (http://image.comicvine.com/uploads/item/6000/5181/30237-rob-liefeld_400.jpg)
I thought it was a travesty! and this is what inspired Ultra Violet. I took the different themes from the variety of characters, that I did not like, and molded them together in a way that I found workable. With the tacky metal covered arms, crotchtastic bathing suits, the god awful headresses, and of course the large pouches and shoulder pads that really aren't necessary. I'm not even sure what type of material would be used for this costume, most likely spandex since that seems to be what was used (for the most part) in Liefeld's work along with a good heaping of leather and metal as well.

History
Former Scientist Shannon Liefan graduated from college and immediately went to work, getting a job working for Vision Labs. Their she began to research Ultra Violet, an electromagnetic radiation with a shorter wavelength than visible light, which appears in the color violet.

After giving all of her research to one of the more seasoned scientists, Dr. Robert Summers, he immediately became obsessed with creating weapon that harnesses ultra violet in a deadly manner. After several months of working on the weapon after hours, Shannon stumbled upon his plan. Dr. Summers successfully apprehended Liefan before she could call for help, and planned to kill her off then and there, but a thought popped into his head. His weapon had been completed but it needed a human test subject, to see if the technology would react well with the Human genome. He infused her shoulder, with the heaping metal contraptions, but with a thought it twisted around her arms and looked like it was second skin.

With the new weapons she was able to escape by emmiting an large amount of ultra violet. From that point on she became the super heroine known as... Ultra Violet.

She now has the capability to fly by surrounding her body in a layer of ultra violet particles, she can also emit large blast of light of a variety of different spectrums of light. Another power she has mastered is the ability to grant invisibility and to become invisible by emmiting an ultra violet light around her body and others. She added the headress, with a (kind of) monocle that allows her to see things in different spectrums of light.

[mattbib]

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w159/psiwar/gunnblaze.jpg

GunnBlaze
days after the Persian Gulf War ended, Sgt. Methuselah Gunn fell ill with an unknown disease. he had undergone several different tests but nothing was conclusive. the doctors had already ruled out the Gulf War Illness and were trying desperately to find a name to this condition, when he suddenly went comatose.

he woke up 3 years later in a dense forest in southeast asia with a weird cybernetic left arm, dressed up in a weird costume, and with unusual metal pipes sticking out on his back. he assumed that he was made into this guinea pig by the government and went on a quest to find out the truth and to get revenge.

thousands of dead bodies later and halfway around world, it was revealed to him by someone, who supposedly worked for a secret government agency, that he had latent mutant abilities which were then activated when he was exposed to several different chemicals during the war. and its his mutant abilities that almost killed him. his body has the ability to absorb ambient and kinetic energy but in order to release it, he has to absorb a gun, of any type, size and caliber, and manifest it on his back...which will then exhibit slightly prehensile properties.

it was also revealed to him that he is a clone. the reason why he "woke up" in SE Asia is to hunt and take down the original Sgt. Methuselah Gunn, who went into hiding after going beserk and killing hundreds of people in a hospital 3 years ago, but the memories of the original Methuselah in his cells resurfaced, making the "Cain and Abel" Project a failure and he's now up for "termination".

the look.

any outrageously done utilitarian-look is a total shoo-in for a Liefeldian. i opted to use a darker shade of orange (but still bright enuf, like those bright colors used before) and a bluish dark gray for a nice contrast. I had a mix of a Domino-like headgear with Gambit's to futher bring out a 90's feel. the Colossus arm? yeah that's a staple...ummm...

umm...

uh... the guns. aside from the guns on his back, he still uses actual guns...

the 90's

desert storm. controversial gulf war illness. government conspiracies (x-files). cyborgs. cloning. if the liefeld look consisted of grunge clothing, i'd have him wearing those ugly plaid buttoned down shirts with ripped-off sleeves...

i really do think i achieved that 90's look...but like i said, i was channeling Liefeld but i got Lee or Andy Kubert. somehow my system will not accept a liefeld-illustration program...

[mattbib]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y98/RedThorn/CCI00114flesh2resizefilmgrain.jpg

CYBER-SQUAW

Poor little rich girl Jenny Nouveau-Proudfoot was bored with her lot in life, until masked men broke into the chic apartment she shared with her dotting parents and murdered her entire family. Forced out onto the streets and turning to a life of debauchery to survive, something went horribly wrong when she passed out unexpectedly while entertaining a client.

She woke up in the arms of a tribe of warrior women who lived beneath the streets of her city. Warrior women who replace their left arms with cybernetic enhancements to rid themselves of their 'weaker' side, and wire their jaws shut with steel half-masks so as not to tell the lies of Men.

Little Jenny now had her purpose. Her sudden coma had awakened her latent mutant powers of supernatural strength and speed, as well as ironically seeing the inherent good in people with her glowing right eye. Quickly, she rose through the ranks of the tribe to become their leader, and now wages a constant war as CYBER-SQUAW to find the mysterious men who killed her family.


THE LOOK

Oh those things we love to hate about the nineties: Giant boobs that are barely contained in flimsy tribal garb, heaving over waists that could by no means contain any internal organs, metal g-strings, cybernetic arms/legs/implants, the 'edgy' contrast of things like bone and steel, early nineties cyber-punk hairstyles that are really throwbacks to the eighties, GOGGLES AND BELTS AND POUCHES, OH MY, huge, unwieldy weaponry, and dangly things.

Admit it, we loved it all.

I have to say I went a little less Liefeldian (Jesus, he's described as an art movement now *shudders*) and a little more ridiculous early-Gen13/early 90's X-men. The girls still had a vague waist, but DAMN those boobs could knock someone unconscious if you ran too close to your teammate. So we have this Caucasian French-Native American, dressed up in pseudo native skins and furs and stilettos no woman could possibly fight in, wearing a metal g-string and beads and a couple of bone-like things poking out of her shoulder, and totting around giant swords for no reason. That's all rather 90's I think.


OH THE 90'S

Nineties checklist!

- Token ethnic minority? CHECK
- Blantant misogyny by the writer, hidden in the carefully constructed 'strong woman' pretense? CHECK
- Mysterious antagonists, most likely the Government? CHECK
- A coma, latent mutant powers, a woman with mutant powers that have no use in a combat situation whatsoever or a combination thereof? CHECK
- The subtle subtext that she is a lesbian due to now being linked with a tribe of women who hate men? CHECK
- EDGY and CONTROVERSIAL? CHECK
- The possibility of being raped, killed or depowered because hey! It's the 90's! And she's dressed like she's 'asking for it'? CHECK

Man, I would hate this woman if she ever saw print.

[mattbib]

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7397/koldbludns4.png
Origin:
While on a top secret mission in Siberia, Sgt.Zak McAwesomton and the rest of his special forces unit found themselves under attack by a crack team of Siberian-Communist-Vampires.

They fought valiantly but eventually all but Sgt.McAwesomton were killed.

Overcome by grief he charged at his foes but was mercilessly struck by a runaway truck carrying 18 tons of radioactive snow and was left for dead.

Little did the Siberian-Communist-Vampires realize that Sgt.McAwesomton hadn’t been killed at all but was merely buried alive under the pile of nuclear charged snow.
Trapped under the snow with his air supply running out he underwent a strange metamorphosis and acquired superpowers!

Now able to expel super cold freezing deathrays from his hands and eyes, he blasted his way out and renamed himself Köldblüdd.

Now Köldblüdd scours the globe, smoldering with generic rage, on a quest to hunt down the Siberian-Communist-Vampires and avenge his friends and teammates.

Costume:
Pouches
Headgear
Puffy hair
Bandolier
Random straps
Fingerless gloves
Singular shoulder pad
Metal tubes
Half sleeve
Random coloured sections

Name:
Remember when it seemed like every new character was WolfBlood, Bloodwolf, Killscream, Screamkill or Killwolf McScreamBlood?
I wanted to hark back to that.
Why the hell did people think that umlauts made things better?

Additional thoughts:
Doing this challenge was hard.
My hands refused to conform to creating Liefeld-esque abominations.
Eventually I managed to get something out of them but they still refused to include metal appendages, a gigantic gun or “cool” stubble.

[mattbib]

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg58/EndofTimeIX/90-1.jpg

Name

Dark Shadow Claw X-treme Hot Diva Tranny Mess!

Background

Little Annabeth Schoenmaker never knew what or who she was. When she was fifteen her mom told her that she was part human, part alien, but then again two weeks after that particular revelation her mother insisted she had Japanese blood flowing through her veins.

When she was sixteen a hairy midget knocked on her door, he claimed he and Annabeth had a steamy rough love-affair a long time ago. He wasn’t sure, it was either when they fought side by side during the Second World War, or shortly after when some shady government agency had sent both of them to Vietnam. Her mother promptly called the police, informing the chain-smoking midget that her far-from-legal-aged daughter would have none of that nonsense. Luckily the cops arrived just when he started ranting about having a crossover. Annabeth had never seen her mother so livid.

Puberty wasn’t pleasant, two rock-hard shiny boobs just appeared one day, firmly attached to her chest, they defied gravity and logic. The boys liked them, even if Annabeth didn’t.

Convinced that pouches and straps made for good fashion Annabeth went into the world of teenage awkwardness, it didn’t help that the poor girl had grown an extra set of arms, one of which cybernetic. Her mother told her to clean it every day, because no boy would ever want an iron-boobed girl with a rusty arm.

Still optimistic Annabeth did what any sixteen-year-old girl would do in her position, she slipped on her hooker-boots and went out to fight crime.

Apparantly her mother wasn’t lying about her heritage. Apparantly her father was an ancient Japanese alien who had caught a serious case of the Ninja, a genetic condition that has plagued every Japanese man, woman, and child since the States dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. When the recessive Ninja gene kicked in Annabeth instantly gained the reflexes and abilities of a cliché ninja warrior chick. She also took an almost instinctive liking to swords and katanas.

Armed with her sword, a cybernetic arm and a monstrous misshapen claw (it just appeared after she touched that strange mythical artefact she found lying around in the attic) she patrolled the streets.

Devoted, bitter, always angry, and with a mouth that looks like an inflamed vagina, Annabeth is still convinced that she can make shoulder-pads work, and that you can never be shiny enough to fight the forces of evil.

Work it Annabeth! Work the streets like you’ve never worked them before!

Annabeth Shoenmaker IS Dark Shadow Claw X-treme Hot Diva Tranny Mess! And she's not ashamed to flaunt her perfect Vajayjay around like it's nobody's business!

The costume

Throw everything at a wall and see what sticks. The nineties… god the nineties. Every girl was a ninja or at least knew how to handle a sword…

- They all wore bathing suits and somehow their boobs were made of metal.
- Of course they were blessed with at least one cybernetic appendage.
- Cheap gloves to conceal misshapen hands.
- Hooker-boots because they’re just so damn sexy, covering up feet and ankles that just don’t work.
- Straps and pouches because we can! Shoulder pads inspired by DragonBallZ, the bigger the better.
- Headgear that makes no sense.
- Hair as shiny, sharp looking, and as dangerous as a bunch of knives.
- Claws, because they were cool back then.
- A futuristic gauntlet even though it has absolutely no function. People back then just liked to wear metal stuff that looked technologically advanced.
- A face locked in a perpetual state of anger. Annabeth hasn’t cracked a smile since 1993, she is just THAT intense.
- Who needs eyesight, if Annabeth keeps dancing Doctor Liefeld says he’ll give her back her eyes…

The Nineties

Early Image was just a hot mess, a hot tranny mess.

Everything was edgy, mythical-ninja-alien-backgrounds were a dime a dozen, just like shady government organisations and long lost civilisations.

Women back then just looked weird. Liefeld is notorious for it. People clenched their fists a lot, because that made it easier for the artists to draw them. Or they were concealed by props, or warped into strange claws only vaguely resembling human hands. The hands that were drawn were tiny compared to the rest of their anatomy, and they always wore gloves, only adding to the impression that hands were miniscule underdeveloped limbs.

The theme of the nineties, in terms of fashion, is quite simple: XXX-TREME!

You didn’t give a character a modest set of shoulder pads, you had to amp it up, you had to cross the point of reasonable and venture into the real of outrageous hyperbole.

Back then it was really was considered cool to make women look as if they had lost their spine and traded in six ribs for bigger stronger better breastesses.

And impossible swords! Look at the nineties, people packed knives and swords as if they got them as if McDonalds handed them out with Happy Meals, but none of those swords make any sense, they don’t work like that!

But still, for all their horribleness I kind of liked the nineties… I started reading comics back then. Loved the weird anatomy, loved the cybernetics, the spacesuits, the butt floss, the intense faces, the spandex, and the random energy signatures...

Dark Shadow Claw X-treme Hot Diva Tranny Mess has all the elements of a nineties girl, but I’ve softened some parts up (she has a manageable waist, and a neck that shouldn’t snap every time there’s a strong wind) but kept with the illogical fashion statements, including the ridiculous superhero name.

[mattbib]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/mattbib/My%20Drawings/Project%20CBRunway/Bloodshaft-1.jpg

Origin:

Richard Johnson was born 300 years into an alternate future where superhumans rule the world! Raised in a gestation tank, he was woken up at 18 and kidnapped by a rogue cell of the government, the Conspiracy to Revolutionize Organisms To Change History, (C.R.O.T.C.H., for short) to be genetically modified into the ultimate assassin in mind and body at a cellular level! He had arms attatched and a special glowing eye inserted, but the process failed to add the expected third leg! As a result, he began to overcompensate with the use of monster guns and dual katanas! He found a time machine in a deserted Wal-Mart and went back in time to the 1940s where he started a detective organization called XY Investigations! Over the years, he developed a connection with every superhero, while remaining completely under the radar until the time was right for heroes with big guns and shoulderpads! In 1991, he stepped from behind the shadows to start his own superteam of extremely powerful unknowns, Six Incher, the shrinking man, V. Dentata, the woman with an extra mouth full of sharp teeth, and Sif-Lis, the god of pestilence! Together they are Penetration Force!, or P-Force for short! Their goal? To stop the clone of his father from taking over the US Government, and therefore, ensuring that his future! does! not! happen!. To accomplish these ends, BloodShaft will go into battle, guns! cocked, ready to bury the!! shafts of his sword!s to the hilt in evildoers an!!!d bystanders alike!!!

Powers:

Bloodshaft can do some, like, really awesome stuff, but he doesn't need to, because of his awesome swordsmanship and the guns that he keeps in an awesome dimensional pocket in his back and that only appear when he needs them! When he does use his awesome powers, they manifest as blobs of white that make things happen or streams of yellow that do stuff! Oh, and it burns when he uses them! Ouch!!

Design:

Metal arms? Check. Random Guns? Check. Swords? Check. Facepaint? Check. Glowing Eye? Check. Pouches? Check. Grimace? Check. Ponytails? Check. Style-less Spandex? Check. Shoulder pads? Check. Oversized Gloves? Check. Mis-shapen Muscles? Check. Generic Name? Check. Feet? Feet? Feet?

Drawn in the style of my 8th grade self who adored Liefeld. Any innuendo is completely in your mind. Pervert.

[mattbib]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/mattbib/My%20Drawings/Project%20CBRunway/bumpngrind.jpg
A cyborg brought back in time from the future. Unsure of who or what she is or indeed why she's here. Super strength derives from her cyborg under-chassis. Programming at her core gives her the urge to pose and preen.

She sports many 90's costume characteristics. She has the odd tight perm with long ponytail, framing that odder costume accessory, a mask that covers none of her face, only the jawline. She is branded with an eye tattoo and comes from a future where all lips are permanently plump. Her numerous pockets conceal absolutely nothing, but at least she won't have to worry about where to keep her small change. She has one cyborg arm and one normal arm, presumably so she can always get the obstinate lid off the jam jar. She is completely asymmetrical, indeed her future society prefers that your gloves and shoes don't match. Thankfully, she has no genitals, only a smoothened groinal area, so she need not worry about how high her bikini line is. Lastly, one might think her oversized funbags are purely decorational and that she is lacking the pointlessly huge Liefield gun, but her massive ladybumps do indeed conceal her patented BAZOOMKAS (tm).

[mattbib]

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h125/Baqula/DDerivative.gif
Derivative:
Name: Patricia Kimble
Height: 5’5”
Weight: 240 lbs.

Background/History:
Patricia Kimble is born of a secret government project, Project OVERKILL, to create uber-soldiers. She was harvested from a great soldier; Jackson Kimble’s (African-American) DNA and was further manipulated genetically to enhance her bone and muscle density. The scientist behind the project was Patricia Gow (Chinese), nick named Pai Gow, as she was great at games of chance and calculating odds quickly. Raised and trained on a secret base learning military strategy, weapons skills, hand to hand combat, explosives, and driving military vehicles, but she never learned to love. Used early in life in covert operations, she was inserted in hostile territory, and eliminated drug lords and kingpins using whatever means available. While on a mission in her late teens, her trainers/parents were killed when the base was attacked by a rival military group. When Patricia came back all that was left in the rubble was her file, clutched in her mother’s hands, hidden in a diary. From then on Patricia became a soldier of fortune and stumbled across a freedom fighting mercenary group, Team Zero, because they leave no trace they were ever there.

Power & Abilities:
the word derivative has many meanings. so I tried to come up with a powerset that reflected all of them.
The clear and obvious meaning is: something unoriginal,or derived from a source. Due to her bone and muscular density, she has super strength(which she needs to carry her huge supply of weapons and gadgets.), and faster than human reflexes and speeds an enhanced healing factor.
Skilled with a wide array of weapons including blades, melee weapons, hand guns, rifles, explosives and experimental tech. She’s a top H2H combatant. (she gets it from her daddy)She has High metabolism, endurance and stamina.
Derivative, in mathematics, the instantaneous rate of change of a function
She has probability and computing abilities and a fast brain for mathematical equations and determining solutions quickly. (she gets it from her mama)
Derivative (chemistry), a type of compound
She can take on the form of any compound or element for short periods of time. But usually solves her problems with bullets. Derivative is a brilliant computer hacker and programmer. Her physiology and muscle density is the reason behind her higher than normal weight.

Costume:
A synthetic space aged fabric known only as Fabric Y is the substance Derivative's costume is made from. Denser than Titanium and lighter than silk. A unique unitard with a zip up collar. Her uni-tard has over sized pockets over the breast and crotch areas. Her gloves have pockets on the back of the hands and around the wrists and forearms. She has holsters and sheaths around her arms and legs with a large assortments of weapons. Her armored shoulder pads and leg armor keep her safe, although she's nearly invulnerable and can heal from any attack instantly.
She always has everything she needs for any encounter. This is why she has all the pouches and holsters.

the 90s/Liefeldian influence.
Well the key mantra of the 90s was "EXTREME" and comic book hero costumes were generally extremely impractical. I'm going into a combat situation and have every weapon ever created, on my body how am I able to move? I'm wearing a brightly colored outfit in a war zone, I have big poofy hair that covers my eyes yet, I'm a world class marksman. I have heavy armor on my shoulders bu not my chest or head. Not only do I carry weapons I will never use, I have hundreds of little pouches in places that are not easily accessible, but hey, you never know. The huge guns trademarks of the 90s. The revolver is a missile launcher. The "handgun" doubles as a set of blades and has a miniature rocket launcher on the side. She has a huge sword on her back, that doesn't need a strap, or sheath, hat has small guns mounted on the side.

Derivative is the tits, tits to the extreme.

[mattbib]

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3986/manicurecoloruw1.jpg

Manicure

Origin
As a simple student at the "Brett Booth Beauty Academy", all Buffy
Cuticle wanted to do was graduate and get a job at "Liefield's Locks"
salon. It was a calm sunny day when an outrageous alien beast fell from
the sky and crashed into the classroom. Students and teachers when
running in horror, but the creature, crackling with cosmic energy,
grabbed one of the "blue hairs" who had come in for a perm,and began
sucking the life force from within her. Buffy wanted to flee, but
something inside her wouldn't let her leave the frail old woman to this
horrid fate.

Buffy looked around for a weapon. She rifled through lots of supplies;
curling irons would take too long to heat up, bobby pins were too small.
Finally, she came across the acrylic nails! In her haste to help the
old lady, she just grabbed the longest ones and gripped them as hard
as she could. She began stabbing at the alien over and over. It released
the old woman. Then it turned its full energies to Buffy. Full of
adrenalin, Buffy went berserk and slashed at the creature fatally. It's
gore and alien energies splattered across Buffy. As the creature died,
Buffy underwent a transformation. The long, sharp faux nails bonded to
her fingers. Her body became more muscular, her hair became stronger
and more brightly colored. She felt incredible!! The old woman got up
and thanked her for being such a hero.

Buffy's new fingernails, a combination of regular acrylic and alien energy,
became her superpower. They were super strong, nearly indestructable, yet she
was able to sharpen them to dagger-like points. She would become MANICURE!

Costume
Manicure needed a costume to complete her image. The alien engergies made her
stronger than normal, but she needed extra support for her arms, since she
would use them so much while clawing at enemies. She took the clothing from
the dead alien and transformed them into her costume. The alien cloth is
much stronger than typical earthly fabrics. However, after her outfit was
complete, she had remnants left. She decided to experiment.
She melted the cloth down, and blended some of it with nail polish. It became a
superstrong coating! She sprayed the super polish on her clothing, making it
the ultimate armor. She then decided to re-inforce her fingernails with the
super polish as well. She carries spare bottles of the super liquid on her
utility belt and she carries nail files, strapped to her leg. Manicure wears
a nail clipper charm around her ankle, to remind her that even though she is
very tough now, she must remember that the nails are a blessing, and could
be taken away just as easily as they arrived.

90's
wow, so many of those characters looked alike! Liefield checklist:
spiky hair in front
crazy long ponytail
glossy headdress
glossy shoulderpads
pout
metallic neck & arms
sharp weapon(s)
impossible bodytype
utility belt
leg strap(s)
knee pads

[mattbib]

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg116/Dukkus/ObsidianRose1.jpg

Rosalinda Hardknocks was an unfortunate victim of a maniacal geneticist named Dr. Feelbad. After being lured into Dr. Feelbad’s vehicle, who at the time was calling himself Viktor, they began driving back to his place. They had just met at the bar prior to her kidnapping.. Dr. Feelbad drugged Rosalinda so he could more easily persuade her to allow him to “drive her home”. Dr. Feelbad brought Rosalinda to his lab where he proceeded to experiment and run tests on her. He took off his disguise and revealed himself to her. He explained to her where she was, and what he was going to do. Rosalinda’s blood curdling screams could be heard from miles away. Too bad Dr. Feelbad lived in a deserted community where not one soul could hear poor Rosalinda’s deathly screams. Dr. Feelbad then severed Rosalinda’s limbs and replaced them with cybernetic implants all while she was still conscious. He also implanted a strange chemical into her bloodstream called CHEMICAL Z! Chemical Z endowed it’s hosts with a variety of abnormal abilities. In Rosalinda’s case, she was endowed with extremely heightened senses, strength, and agility. Her cybernetic implants double functioned as skin that was virtually impervious to pain, and gadgets that were used for a variety of functions, whether it be scaling tall buildings, or picking locks. Dr. Feelbad also laced Rosalinda’s hair with cybernetic weave that was water proof, heat proof, damage proof, and would never get split ends. The new weave also granted Rosalinda “new limbs”. She could telekinetically control her weave to grab hold of objects or spin around in circles in high velocities so as to create a helicopter effect. Also her new cybernetic feet were corn proof. So she could always wear high stiletto heels without getting corns or sore feet.

The Costume

After giving Rosalinda her cybernetic implants Dr. Feelbad designed a costume for her. With countless and pointless pockets, belts, gloves, gadgets, weapons, buckles, and neck braces, Feelbad concluded the ensemble. He made the very fabric water proof, flame retardant, stain proof (because obviously there’s going to be a lot of blood splatter with all those knives and katanas), and bullet proof. The shoulder pads have floatation devices implanted in them for buoyancy while in water. But he also put floatation devices in her breasts just incase the shoulder pads fail. He gave her a utility belt with almost everything she would ever need in it. Tranquilizer darts, neuro-toxin needles, tampons and pads (because he wasn’t sure which she preferred), an eyelash curler, and an extra package of hair just in case she needs a fresh weave. He also implemented poison tipped razor sharp needles on her stilettos.

The Aftermath

After dolling Rosalinda up he gave her the code name Obsidian Rose. The names stands for something dark and hard and unforgiving. Yet something beautiful and soft like a Rose. Just at the moment when Dr. Feelbad was about to implant the final touches to Rosa…uh I mean Obsidian Rose, a massively fat obese lightning bolt struck the lab and was absorbed into Rosalinda’s lifeless body. Feelbad was knocked off his feet and the memory implant/ mind control device he had in his hand was fried from the lightning surge. Rosalinda then awakened and sat upright. She turned to face Dr. Feelbad, and then examined her own body. Obviously horrified by what she saw Rosalinda screamed in anguish. She could not yet talk because the drugs hadn’t worn off yet. When she opened her mouth a large stream of drool trickled out. She then jumped to her feet and was about to attack Dr. Feelbad until another enormously obese lightning bolt struck and she suddenly vanished. Dr. Feelbad fled the city bringing with him all of his lab work and files on all the girls he’s engineered. Thus Obsidian Rose was born, and from that day forward she has vowed to exact revenge on Dr. Feelbad!

[mattbib]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v467/mattbib/My%20Drawings/Project%20CBRunway/Overkill3.jpg
Origin:
2 young scientists from an alternate earth realized that their planet was doomed to destruction, they planned to send their son to our earth in order for him to grow up in a world that wouldn't fear and hate him for being born with a the metachromazone gene. They built a dimensional transporter, but an earthquake caused the transporter to misfire, and young Nathan Parker Clark was sent into the war torn future of that Earth raised by a group of metachromazone assassins and soldiers who were dedicated to keeping the earth safe from the vicious aliens, the Numbskrulls who were allies with some of the worst villians Earth had ever known, such as The Dominator, and Cataclysm.

Nathan was trained in the art of war, earning the nickname "Overkill" due to his excessive use of violence. Learning that his metacpower caused him to be able to teleport, Nathan learned that he could travel through time and eventually ended up in the correct timezone to prevent the alien invasion from ever occuring. He joined a group of young metachromas who called themselves the "C-Men"(due to the extra chromazone they carry of course) and were dedicated to fighting for a world that mocked and made fun of them.

They consisted of The General (the leader of the team with energy powers),Rockhard (the living stone), Rebelle (the beauty from the south with a sonic cry (The Rebel Yell), Bloodkill (the feral beast man with a healing factor), PSI-FIYA (the sexy tri-psion), and Repeat (the duplicating man).

Overkill joined this rag tag group of hereoes often butting heads with the General, but eventually becomes a vital part of this team, even after he has to betray them several times in order to prevent the dark and omnious future from ever occuring.


Inspiration: Can you guess? lol. I had a lot of fun with this challenge, obviously, and I used a little bit of many things to put this piece together. I looked at old X-Force comics, Wildstorm, Gen 13, and Ultraverse stuff to come up with this conglamoration. It was evident in the 90's that you had a lot of these characters, and Liefield was the lead in the design. After examining his ...ahem..."style"....he defintiely had a lot of influence on many designs, or should that be there were others who influenced his designs. Either way, he wasn't the only person who used the pouches, the big guns, the straps, the knives, the etc.... but it truly was all over the '90's. And I hoped to have kept that theme here.


The Outfit: There were many different directions that I could've went, but I settled for the "mercenary soldier of fortune" mask that has a certain eye mark on it. I outfitted Overkill with a headgear helmet, and those weird antennae things that Liefield uses, he has a pony tail of course, metal cyborg arms, the pouch bags, some spikes here and there, the glowing eye, the big shoulder pads, and some skull knee pads. The color scheme went through various stages, but I decided on a rag tag mix of mostly red, purple, and black. Which surprisingly enough, there was a lot of those colors (especially in Wildstorm) being used in those days. I think Overkill has the right look to make it in the 90's.

[mattbib]

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s201/tylerragan/JohnTryal.jpg


Origin:
Origin? He's a frickin' high level secret government operative. Do you think he's gonna give out his @#$*! origin? Get real fanboy! That's never gonna be revealed until at least issue #273!

Inspiration:
I figured a lot of people were gonna go the big muscled grimacing thug look, so I went a different direction, and leaned more towards the leaner Deadpool character that Liefeld designed.

Extra limbs: This was my main inspiration for "The Triple Threat!". Often creators added extra arms ("Forearm" and "Styker" being prime examples...both influenced from Art Adams well designed "Spiral" from Marvel). I thought I could take it one step further (Pun intended) and add an extra leg to the character. After settling down from the giggles at work for a good fifteen minutes on such an absurd idea, I went straight ahead with it. Part of what moved character design in the early ninties was the absurdness of what you could come up with that would still look cool to the targeted 13 year old audience. After going ahead with the three legged man, I needed to figure out a name. After trying to decide on my final 2 choices of "Trial" (Invoking such great 90's names as "Cable", "Prophet", and "Chapel") and "Triple Threat" (which just sounded cooler), I decided to use both and name him "John Tryal - the Triple Threat!" (Exclamation mark is a necessity to the name, as well as replacing the "i" with a "y" - another popular 90's trend). At that point I figured I might as well give him three arms. And then for the last extra to perfect the trifecta that's not obvious in the picture, I've also gave him three eyes,via the wrap-around visor. These three eyes are similar the a cylon's eye, in which it's constantly moving around the head 360 degrees at all times, in order to prevent anyone from being able to surprise him.

Design elements:
Topknot hairstyle (from Liefeld's "Gideon" and "Shatterstar")
Cybernetic limbs (Sorry, too many numerous characters to list for that one)
High tech neck brace thingee ("Cable")
Pouches (I particularly like the too small to carry anything worthwhile pouches on the arms)
Asymetrical costume design
Straps
Trenchcoat (Though not a common Liefeld element (I believe Knight Sabre being the only Liedfeld creation to sport one), they were in abundance in the 90's. Naturally I needed to trim the sleeves off in order to show off the arms)
High, oversized coat collar
Folded boots and glove (Saves on drawing all that muscle detail)
Ampules
Assorted weaponry
Sword with spiked hand-guard (to save time on drawing hands) and multiple blades (Another Shatterstar influence. Three extra blades to be exact....that can rotate around....and up...so they're like 4 blades (which is actually more than three)....and it's like he's stabbing a person 4 times! Which is awesome extra cool....And then....and then to top it all off!?! Three mini gun barrels! SO that after he stabs the person, he can shot them 3 times while they're impaled on his sword!!! For the win!!! Game, point, and match!!! How awesome is that!?!?!?!?)
Full face mask (To save time on drawing faces....who has time for all that detail? Note: if you observe Liefeld's work, you will note that all of his villainous henchmen thugs always wore full faced masks)
Glowing eyes (Three of them!!! Three times the awesomeness!!!)
Double and triple barreled guns.
Cigerettes - for that taboo affect and redundancy because he wears a full-face mask. :p

Drawing style-wise, I tried to invoke many Liefeld idioms to my sketch. The feet are small and misshapened. The legs are extraordinary long. The waist is extraordinary short, and covered by an oversized belt with many pouches. As an extra tribute, I added an extra finger on the hand holding the large gun (Can't remember where this happened, but I know it has.....). Oh, and I almost forgot the "colorist edit" to the mask, where the inked lines are missing to outline the triangular white marks on the mask, so the colorist has to work the area in (I threw in so much stuff, that it was hard to remember it all while typing it all up. It's amazing I didn't throw in the kitchen sink. Hmmmmm...now that I think about it...... :p).

All-in-all, I had a blast working on this design, and would defintely use this character if I were to work on any sort of parody comic.

[mattbib]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/mekairinek/Originals/cbrunway_02.jpg

Origin: Born with the ability to manipulate water, Kelsey Vaughn used her abilities at first to pick on other children and then caused hell in high school, once by flooding the girl's locker room in an attempt to drown some cheerleaders she hated. But when she was faced with life-or-death survival, Kelsey took on the name 'Hydra' and decided to use her powers -and sexual willes- for good.

Inspiration: Initially, she was going to be ice-themed. Anyhow, I kept some of the basic hallmarks of Liefeldian women: skimpy clothing, a samurai sword, a ponytail, a vest and big shoulderpads. Anything else after that, I felt, would work either way. Oh, and she has bad proportions on purpose. This gave me an excuse to forego everything I learned in life drawing. ;]

Costume: Most women in the 90's had really uncomfortable looking bathing suit-esque costumes. I'm no prude, but I am a fan of practical design. That said, I really hated having to draw such a revealing costume. I really can't see why anyone would enjoy drawing such things, unless they were getting paid to do so. That, and I figure having a revealing outfit like that would be somewhat practical for a water theme... although not by much.

[mattbib]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2181/2339043753_49a5216e9f_o.jpg
Origin:
The mysterious man known only as Cyber-BloodStump had no memory of his past...it's shrouded in mysterious mystery. Nobody knows where he came from. The only thing Cyber-BloodStump CAN remember is being part of a mysterious project known as Weapon Mystery X. He can remember having his legs amputated and replaced with cybernetic stumps that he can command....with his MIND! The strain of balancing on these awesome stumps of blood and death take their toll on him...the constant strain of trying to teeter around on these uneven walking devices has caused his face to be in a permanent grimace. Not to mention making him PISSED OFF ALL THE TIME! He's got a whole bunch of cybernetic implants on him, but even HE doesn't know what they do!
Armed with his trusty, but ultimately confusing, sideways giant knife, he's taking the fight right back to the mysterious men responsible for making him a man of mystery! Watch out, world: Cyber-BloodStump IN YOUR FACE!

Inspiration:
Inspiration is for wusses. I started drawing with one thing in mind: AWESOMENESS! I wanted to make something that would make 8th grade social outcasts with long hair in 1994 wet their pants!
I did make a point to leave in as many mistakes as I could, just to complete the Liefeld experience complete. I also came up with a way to make having to draw feet a non-issue. ROCK ON!

90's checklist:
Wavy, feathered hair.
Big, confusing weaponry.
Grimacing for days.
Cyber-stuff all over the place with no real use.
Mysterious origin.
Secret, probably governmental, organization kidnapping people and changing their bodies for no good reason.
Pouches.
Giant Liefeldian crotch.
Face-paint that serves no purpose.
General feeling of having gone from concept to finalization in less than an hour. (I've got jean commercials to star in chumps! Ch-ching!)
Generic beyond comprehension.

Functionality:
Are you serious? Function would seriously impede his BADASSEDNESS!

[mattbib]

http://album.hanamoira.com/albums/userpics/10003/fade2black.jpg


Name: Fade2Black (aka Pitch Black, aka “Cade Wilson”)

Motto: Get it done!

Organization: Fade is head of Nemesis, a paramilitary group comprised of ex-Special Forces members from around the world. This group is not for hire; rather, they have their own creed of “taking care of problems” governments can’t touch. In their own minds, they’re heroes; the rest of the world questions their morality, Nothing is ever left of the targets; whether the group kills them, or removes them to some site(s) for permanent incarceration, is unknown.

Targets: Their targets are terrorists of any ilk, especially leaders---but their definition of “terrorist” is a bit broad, and does include others like dictators or oppressors… and this on occasion *does* include people/companies they see as corporate oppressors.

Physical Stats:

Height: 6’7”
Weight: 250 lbs.
Race: Mixed (African American, and ?)

Superpowers, Skills, and Abilities:


Fade can become invisible in shadows, and can also use any shadow to shadow walk (dimension travel) to other locations on Earth
Innate Night Vision and Infrared Vision
Low-level regeneration
Physical Toughness, Endurance, Resistant to disease, toxins and poison
Above Human Strength
Very High Intelligence (mid genius level)
Marksman with missile weapons (rifles, pistols)
Weapon specialist (knowledge)
7th Degree Black Belt in: Tae Kwon Do, Hap Ki Do, and Moo Sa Sool (all of these are Korean Martial arts, with the last being weapon-oriented), and various belts in several other martial arts from around the world
Costume:

Pants are a khaki Kevlar that somehow stick skin-tight. Shirt is a white Kevlar tank (also known as a wife-beater) that looks like cotton; I lifted it straight from his version of Cable, including the weird, extraneous pucker lines drawn in the shirt and on the chest. For that matter, I added in the “asterisk” pucker lines in the crotch of the pants, and lots of inexplicable lines in the muscles: all common Liefield traits. Pouches are a brown leather (thigh, waist, and upper arm), and he’s got that one piece of armor on his thigh that looks like a souped-up sports protection; more Liefield. The boots are black leather, and a jazzed up version of the military boot (must have extra straps, and hey! A knife sheath! Cool). And, of course, the Liefield obligatory gloves that go with a character who’s showing lots of skin.

More deliberate stuff: this guy’s main superpower is to fade into shadows, and shadow walk. He does a lot of stealthy work. If *I* were doing him, I’d put him in a black and grey camouflaged bodysuit, and there wouldn’t be a speck of shine on him (leg armor, shiny boots, mirror shade glasses)---but this is Liefield-style: “Cool” ranks way above “Common sense” for the character. (And yes, that’s the only reason he’s wearing the sunglasses in the main panel: they’re cool.) So Fade’s costume gets some white and some shiny to stand out as a target for enemies, as he’s fading into darkness: VERY contrary to the thinking of the ex-Special Forces guy he’s supposed to be.

Fade has four katanas or bo-sticks or something on his back---how are they attached? Well, the ‘Liefield in my mind’ FORGOT to draw on straps or what have you (yes, that was a conscious choice on my part)---so we’ll just assume they stick on with Velcro. Velcro’s a wonderful 90’s product, almost as good as Duct Tape. And yep, the perspective is odd on the waist pouches---but hey, good enough, right? (Rob in my mind said.) Also, he has guns---where are the holsters? Again, I left them out on purpose, because that’s the kind of screw-up Rob would do. (I’m sure he’d add them in, in a later panel, and just pretend they were always there.)

Body: Big chest, big distorted muscles with those pesky lines. Hands: Rob messes these up too, on occasion---one’s not bad, one is very bad. And how he’s holding the guns, with one of them looking like he’s going to shoot himself in the thigh? Obviously Rob forgot to draw them at first, and went back and put them there with no real clue on proportion, physics, etc. (I literally drew them in afterwards, to get that Liefield effect). And yeah, in the action panel, did you notice that the leg armor and the leg/arm pouches are swapped to the opposite sides from the main pic? I did that on purpose, because Liefield made similar mistakes.

Feet: *cries* I actually got the feet fairly right… and that won’t do for Liefield. So, I had to go back and obscure them---and what better way to do that, than to lay the action panel (and a quote blurb) over the feet?

Likewise, the kneecaps are far too small and stick out way too much; Rob says “too much trouble to fix it, looks good enough, no one will notice.” Oh, and Fade is bald, both because it looks cool on a black tough guy, and it lets Rob skip out on doing hair for a change. And yes, it was on purpose that the swords are in one pic, and not the other. Rob did that with a lot of stuff, forgetting something from one panel to the next.


Inspiration:

Aside from the Liefield-style 90’s challenge itself (and all the allusions and easter eggs I tried to work in), Fade’s physical structure, rumbling voice, and how he presents himself are modeled after actor Michael Clarke Duncan, who played “Kingpin” in the “Daredevil” movie.

His name, Fade2Black, is a nod to the way many in the 90’s liked to use “2” for “to”---I remember songwriters, especially Prince, doing that---and in general, is certainly tongue-in-cheek. Also, the character is a stereotypical nod to minorities, aka the 90’s. His adoption name “Cade Wilson” is a poke at the Deadpool/Deathstroke thing, with “Wade Wilson” and “Slade Wilson.”

I’ll let you guess who “Major Olmey A. Payne,” “R.G. Erney,” and “Bob Lichfield” refer to. ;)

Given that Liefield was known for “swiping” and the whole Deadpool/Deathstroke thing, I felt it only appropriate to do a little likewise, in trying to create a character in his style. Hope you enjoyed it.


History:

Pitch Black (aka Cade Wilson) was born to a 16 year old New Orleans Shantytown hooker. The local midwife expressed amazement to authorities, over how a rail-thin bit of a girl could produce a lusty, eleven pound baby. Since the mother died in childbirth, the midwife christened the baby “Pitch,” saying “Honey, yo’ came from de pitch dark of death, so dat’s what dey gonna call you: ‘Pitch’.” (And his mother’s name was of course, Black.) The birth certificate recorded the father as “Unknown,” though in later years a certain prominent artist by the name of Bob Lichfield tried to claim Pitch as his son---DNA testing proved otherwise.

At 2, he was adopted by a young couple and renamed “Cade Wilson.” When they died in a car crash 3 years later, he went to live with his maternal grandfather, Master Sergeant R. G. Erney, USMC.

Erney raised the boy with military discipline, enrolling him early in various fighting and martial arts classes. Pitch had a knack for these, as Erney said, “Like a fire-propelled duck to water.” In his teen years, Pitch discovered that he had abilities others didn’t, including night vision, infrared vision, and the ability to fade into shadows. He also healed quicker than others, was tougher and stronger in a fight, and could fight far longer than his peers, or even adults. Young Black kept these abilities to himself, as much as possible: he’d learned early in life that anyone with an ace up their sleeve stood a better chance at survival.

At eighteen, he legally changed his name back to Pitch Black, and enrolled in the Marines, eventually working his way into Special Forces. It was at this time he got the nickname “Fade,” for how he could seemingly appear out of, and disappear into, darkness. (It was at this time that he learned to shadow walk, diving into a shadow in one place and emerging from a shadow in a different location.) By the time Pitch was 26, he was leading one of the armed services top Black Ops teams, and had already racked up an impressive collection of commendations.

Then he ran afoul of Major Olmey A. Payne.

In short, Payne made Fade the fall guy for his own screw-up, and Fade was dishonorably discharged.

Angered that a well-connected idiot could sabotage his career, Black created his own paramilitary group, to “clean up messes before they happen, without favoritism getting in the way.” Fade knew just the right people to approach, and formed Nemesis.

Personality:

Fade is something of a fanatic himself: he strongly believes that force can correct many ills, and that there are certain people who hinder the human race to the point that such people should be “removed.”

To the outer world he remains an aloof enigma---but within Nemesis, he is viewed as an extremely tough, but fair, commander. Fade leads by example, and has taken more than one hit for a fellow, in the line of duty. His rumbling bass voice and muscled height intimidate many, even without his cool demeanor---and the troops know that when Fade looks or sounds angry, Armageddon is about to happen all over someone’s a$$.

[mattbib]

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w30/ZacharyLovesYou/CBR90sFINALcopy.jpg

DEATHWING

Deathwing is the leader of a 5-member team known as the Deathbreakers Force-5 Bloodhouse Brigade. They're extreme. You could ask the team if they're too extreme, but to them... THERE'S NO SUCH THING.

STORY
Deathwing started off as a lowly community college student named Blake Westbrook who always aspired to be a pilot. He failed a lot of classes because he often stared at the sky or folded paper airplanes during lectures instead of taking notes. He was single, jobless, and pathetic.

That would all change one night, when the whole town was invaded by Aliens that week. (Thank God; Blake didn't have to worry about finals. He ditched a lot of class that week.)

Blake's family died in slavery to the Alien race. He barely survived himself until he decided one day he would steal the technology of the advanced alien weaponry aboard the ship. When the Aliens were on family vacation on the-then-planet-and-not-a-big-ol'-rock-Pluto and away from earth, Blake took his chance and made away with the technorganic mechanics of the mysterious race. He spent this time with the Aliens away to harness his skills and master the technology that reflected his innermost thoughts; hence the flight-based weapons. When the Alien's returned, they would find themselves at the vengence of... DEATHWING!

True story. Super-swear.

COSTUME
Honestly, I went at this with a lot of fun and a big, open mind. I'm only 19, so as you can guess, my first comics were a lot of 90's flash with no substance. I'll admit it, I remember really liking the gritty, pouchy, muscley, teethy heroes of the time. I made a single rough draft of what Deathwing might look like and went to town with it.

Here's my criteria:
Pockets. Pockets. Pockets.
Huge gravity defying hair+ponytail
Small eyes with no pupils
Bandages+Bandannas
Scratched, battle heavy equipment
Stubble
A-symmetrical pattern
Ungodly ammount of weapons that don't entirely make sense
Ass-Kicking everything
Feetless
90s coloring: gradiants and glowing stuff everywhere

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with it. Kinda sad that I wasn't drawing like this when I was a kid in the 90s... Pretty sure Image would've given me a job.

[mattbib]

http://www.comicspace.com/jamesroberts/uploaded/19087/1205760281_8SVKs_1bk9.jpg

Hugh Mungo is an weapons dealer doubling as an inside trader. When money wasn't enough he went into being a super villain for the prestige and fear-mongering. Even when he gets his ass kicked time after time he comes back because he has nothing else in life.

Mungo tips the scales at 7'11 after surgical enhancements that include a metal re-enforced skeleton, nanobyte fast healing and brain linked battle computer.

Mungo as possesses telepathy and telekinesis as a side-effect of the enhancements. He is also super strong able to life over ten tons and nigh invulnerbale. In his first appearance he kicked the hell out of the local super-hero tough guy for instant crediability with newspaper readers.

Mungo wears pants made of titanium laced polyester.

Besides being an Olympic level target shooter, Mungo possesses many high level belts in various martial arts.

For equipment in melee combat Mungo uses his huge sword-mace. This 8 foot long weapon is made of a titanium alloy.

Mungo's favorite weapon is his multy-function bazooka rifle. The Devastator 30,000 has a cluster grenade launcher on the bottom and an ionizer that can punch holes through modern armor of battleships. It's sight can see the entire visible spectrum including but not limited to darkness and infra-red wave lengths. The gun can be used one or two handed.

[mattbib]

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs30/f/2008/077/7/6/Challenge_2__Deathlaunch_by_jelloconcoction.jpg

Backstory:
The woman who goes only by Deathlaunch has no discernible past. No one knows if she even knows where she comes from. All anyone knows is what she does now. As a mercenary, Deathlaunch has traveled most of the world, dealing with some of the worst and best mankind has to offer. She is now one of the world's highest paid killers. Despite her cold-hearted career, Deathlaunch is a kind and compassionate woman, who will fight the good fight!

Powers:
Deathlaunch, as a mutant, has the amazing ability to cause any object to explode. Unfortunately, she must constantly use it to destroy a deadly bacteria in her body that threatens to consume her genetic code. Hence, she only uses her powers in extremely dire instances. And instead, Deathlaunch uses one of many huge guns that she has to fight.

Inspiration:
Yeah, as well all know, pouches, belts, shoulder pads, f'ing huge guns, and really small joints are the way to go with this.

On the other hand, I looked through a lot of Liefeld's things and noticed how much he loves the awkwardly shaped headgear. So I put one in. And I noticed the not-so-challenging split color idea, where one color runs down the side, and the other runs down the middle. I made it a bit different, and chose colors I hadn't seen him use too much. And woman-wise, I decided to go the full body suit route, but with some cleavage, as a portion of his woman are in a similar style. And no high heels. So I didn't put them in.
Power and background wise, I felt the good old gun crazy mercenary was a fun way to go, especially with powers that are awesome, but are never utilized.

And I drew her in such a way that corresponded, as best as I could, to Liefeld's style for women. Tiny ankles, hands, knees, and waist. Huge boobs, an odd spine shape, and odd feet.

[mattbib]

http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/417/challenge2oqe3.png

DEATHBREAST
Raised in the post-apocolyptic, dystopian future after murdering all five siblings of the sextuplet in the womb, DEATHBREAST is the ultimate warrior forged from years of being the sexiest, coolest, and mysterious-t of them all!

A mercenary for hire, no one's really sure what Deathbreast can do. That's not the point. Stop asking questions.

COSTUME
"SHEER AWESOME AM I RITE???"

Liefeld's consistently failed any sort of color theory class, I imagine, because the lack of depth and understanding in something that most artists naturally have is actually pretty disturbing. Bright fuschias and mauves and hot, hot pinks grab her firm abs in awkward spandex while simultaneously riding up her crotch, because simultaneous multi-tasking is Deathbreast's middle name.

Guns (complete with mix tape playing capabilities) and awkward, clunky gear with virtually no purpose (at all) and sharp knives she can fling from her wrists because really, she's just that awesome.

The battle hardened Deathbreast's cybernetic, er, implants serve many purposes, some physical, but they are in fact a constant reminder of the warrior nature of the character. In fact, it was only after Liefeld's editor applauded the classic Amazonian reference that Liefeld recognized a classic Amazonian reference, patting himself on the back for his unforeseen natural gift.

INSPIRATION
This was a completely, entirely hilarious round. I've never had so much trouble being UNcreative, and at the same time never had so much fun.

I want to start a webcomic with her!

[mattbib]

http://alyxchance.com/cbrunway3/cotoure.jpg

Couture! Supermodel turned fashion designer! Or is she?

Couture! Alien agent sent to observe the human race! Or is she?

Couture! Time-tossed clone from the future here to save the world from an evil plan! Or is she?

Couture! Even her teammates in the Avant Guard don't know what she really stands for!

No one knows exactly who Couture is- least of all Couture herself! All she knows is that she has a big gun, a bad attitude, and a killer eye for fashion! Every time she thinks she knows who she is another person steps forward with another possible past. How long before this delicate flower snaps and throws the ultimate diva fit?

Couture! When you're staring down the barrel of her gun the last thing you hear is her sarcastic snarl "I guess you're just another fashion victim!"

When I started the challenge I spent a lot of time looking at Liefeld art. And then itching at my eyes wishing the hurt would go away. After a bit though I started to appreciate the sheer singlemindedness of 90s superhero fashion. In a way it is like haute couture- custom made and not really appropriate for normal wear. So I had my character's name.

I used many of the staples of 90s superhero fashion: big guns, pointless pouches, shoulder pads, face paint, and belts. Endless belts. I decided to make Couture a belt corset and belt boots. The shoulder pads have three layers for extra oomph.

I chose blue and brown as the primary colors. I figured enough people were going with purples and reds and the like. And I wanted to make the purple of the hair pop out. I gave her yin/yang panda makeup as a fun little visual note.

There are several examples of Liefeld anatomy. The contorted pose. The right arm is too far out. The left arm is too low. The hair is full but has two impossible ponytails sticking out if it.

[mattbib]

http://www.patdavid.com/cbrpr/kill-killer.jpg

History
Kiley Killian was born a Siamese twin, joined at the torso with her brother Kevin. At the age of 16 she was tired of sharing her body with her twin and killed him. She began slicing off his body from her own but passed out from blood loss before she could complete her goal.

Eighteen months later, Kiley awoke in the secret government laboratory of Dr. Lee Feld. Dr. Feld, was an expert in the field of cyber-technology, and used his considerable skill to fashion a new body for Kiley. The good doctor outfitted her with a variety of weaponry, and programmed her new body to be capable of virtually all known fighting styles. Dubbed the Kill Killer, she was the perfect ‘off the shelf’ assassin.

Since her re-birth, she has gone freelance, and works for the highest bidder in many capacities, but most often as hitman. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find her, maybe you can hire the Kill-Killer.

Skills and Costume
The right side of Kill Killer’s body has been reconstructed and is entirely cybernetic. She is capable of lifting 15 tons under optimal conditions (Note: her left side while still organic has been augmented, but is not at the same strength level as her left side). Kill Killers brain has been transformed into a super computer, and through the use of her external head gear, can wirelessly access any system or network. Because her body is partially programmable, it can instantly pick up fighting styles (there are few which she does not know) as well as analyze and break down the attack and strategies of her opponents. Kill Killer is also heavily armored and resistant to harm.

Weapons
Kill Killer carries a ‘Quad-tana’ four bladed sword, as well as a laser staff, a plasma-rifle (in the 40 watt range of course), an RPG side-arm, and vibro-knife. Her ample pouches allow for her to carry unlimited ammunition, C-4, Semtex, grenades, mines, and tic-tacs.

Inspiration
Kill Killer has over sized guns, over sized swords, over sized hair, and over sized breasts. She wears pouches, belts and bandoliers like most people wear clothing. My inspiration for her was all about exaggeration… And fun.

[mattbib]

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/4255/thedeadlypinkpanthernk4.jpg

Origin:
Muriel Blevins has been a mercenary since she was in her 20's (or like, last year!). She has been trained by the best dudes in the business, spending her teenage years traveling around the globe and gaining experience. She's sexy, confident, agile and, behind the mask, beautiful! Now, she's part of a team of mercenaries along 9 other members. Her boyfriend is a time-displaced-ninja-wolf-man, leader of the pack. And since her cortume was pink, she just decided to name herself THE DEADLY PINK PANTHER!!!! She SWEARS it's original.

The Costume/Inspiration:
I tried to include as many Liefeld elements as I could. So we have the mask, the crazy blond hair, the big boobs, the shoulder pads, two random and useless pouches, belts that are ALSO munition, the silver sparkling steel covering her boots and arms, a BIG GUN and a SUPER BAD-ASS CLAW!

She also has a skirt! She's THAT sexy!

I went with pink, because I really think it's a silly color for a super-hero costume and also really flashing, something that I found a lot while researching Liefeld's designs.

[mattbib]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/Spyderizzle/Round-2.jpg

Origin
Born into a strong military household, Victor Davis learned the highways and byways of everything military fast. After his father passed away he naturally joined the military. He soon bored of being a grunt and learned advanced war skills to enter the market as a freelance mercenary. He eventually got picked up by the Death Brigade, a group of individuals that outsourced all their biding via mercs and PMCs. Death Brigade was very discreet and never revealed their faces to Victor. They only sent Victor on missions via e-mail and highly classified personally delivered mail. %90 of his missions involved assassination so Victor became better known as the Death Merchant. Always willing to kill and always on the go.

Powers/Skills
His only power is to attain more damage then normal when he gets angry which is most of the time since he hates to be shot at. His skills involve firing any military weapon, standard and experimental like his D-1271, first ever plasma rifle, with deadly precision. He also knows no cutlery like no other but he prefers firing of a rounds into his targets. After all, "happiness is a warm gun".

Costume
For his costume I tried to get as absolutely generic Liefeld as I could. I didn't want to get too creative with the original idea and design otherwise that would defeat the purpose I think. I really wanted my design to say "Man, it looks like Liefeld drew that" or at least a Liefeld reject.
Checklist of course include:
Pouches which serve absolutely no purpose.
Over the top shoulder pads.
Unnecessary face paint.
Weird Colossus type metal fabric.
Implausible rifle.
Phallic looking swords sticking out of back.
Ammunition that doesn't go with gun.

So there you go. Enjoy.

[pryde15]

Here's my thoughts on the first few.

spaghettikiss I very much liked your design. I think you used the right colors, and I like the meaning your put behind the jetlegs, one criticism though... It looks alot like Shatterstar (which I think tended to happen with alot of people).

aljira Great design as well! I think you used Liefeld's signature looks in an interesting way, but once again it looks alot like Shatterstar.

WhiteRose I'm not really getting Liefeld from this design, it reminds me more of Silvestri or Art Adam's work on Uncanny X-Men in the 80s.

twilight Very cute! Once again I think you used the right colors, and you made it looks like Liefeld's without making it look like Shatterstar.

End of Time I'm not getting Liefeld from this either. It reminds me alot of Spiral by Art Adams. I think if you hadn't used silver on the bathing suit, it could've made a big difference.

wshaunpennington The hair and extra appendages certainly do look like something Liefeld would design. But the costume itself, doesn't remind me of his work.

marvelboy2004 This is an amazing design! I think you hit Liefeld on the top of the head with this one.

Your Imaginary Pal I thought you did a good job with this design, it reminded me of Liefeld. My only complaints, I wish you would've done something different with her hair, and the pockets on her bathing suit.

deanlegion Awesome work! I thought you had the right balance with the pink & silver, it looks like something Liefeld would have all of his women running around in.

Shade101 It's a great picture, but I am getting a more 80s vibe from this. I think it might be the colors, the green and the purple kind of clash which is what reminds me of the 80s without looking like Barney. You picked the right choice with the hair though.

[MartinRedmond]

It was hard to chose! But the triple threat won me over! And his extra limbs are cybernetic as well. Honorable mentions to BloodStump and BattleCry for making is easier to not draw feet. GunBlaze is pretty rad too. DeathBreast doesn't have a chest that's ginormous enough to be Liefeldian, you should be ashamed. >:(

[MartinRedmond]

Deathwing would make Stephen Platt proud! :D

[Your Imaginary Pal]

Right now, I have no Idea.
Self preservation may win out eventually.
But these designs are all so incredibly Awesome. They all fit the challenge really well.
I will ponder a bit longer.

[bakla]

Do you vote for the outfit that repels you the most, because it's so perfectly Liefeldian, or do you vote for the best-looking outfit that has a Liefeld look? Either way, it's kind of wrong (this whole challenge is fun because it's Oh, so wrong).

[venuscameback]

Do you vote for the outfit that repels you the most, because it's so perfectly Liefeldian, or do you vote for the best-looking outfit that has a Liefeld look? Either way, it's kind of wrong (this whole challenge is fun because it's Oh, so wrong).

I second that, it's really hard to judge because of the nature of the challenge. Some entries look more like close cousins of existing characters or new characters that have checked every Liefeld cliche box than I'm comfortable with, and yet the challenge steers participants that way.

While Liefeld was way over the top, if your entry was even further over the top or seemed more like an exaggeration of his designs than inspired by, I might like the picture and description and snigger at the deliberate awfulness of it, but probably not vote for you.

I'm voting for Dungeonmaster Jim, who even used the Liefeld habit of linework that doesn't belong where it is

A very tough challenge, and an even thougher one to vote on

[spaghettikiss]

My favorites were the ones that weren't jsut an amalgamation of liefeldian tokens but rather the ones with a clear concept like triple threat, Manicure, Obsidian Rose, GunnBlaze, Bloodstump and Death Breast. I actually wsrote out thoughts for each one but it will take up like 3 posts. I'll post it later i guess. I am having trouble with who to vote for though.

[Novaya Havoc]

So many characters with "Death" in the name! LOL!

Voting is hard mostly because I want to COMMENT but it's so hard to do with so many participants. It just keeps going.

LOVE Manicure. But LOVE Deathbreast. And so many of these are fantastic. I'll try and comment on each later.

[Pach!]

My favorites are:

Deathbreast
kill killer
Tre's Overkill
Manicure
Deathlaunch


and 1 more that I can't remember. I remembered it was Hi-Fi's pink panther.

I think I'll wait towards the end and see if any of my faves need my vote to be saved.

[spaghettikiss]

Okay, here were all the notes I wrote. I'm sorry I did no critting in challenge one but I think this is tres overkill. therefor I will post this whole monster but from now on I will limit myself to like 5 entries...

ULTRAVIOLET / Pryde15

I like the whole 'I need to come with a way to explain a power where a girl gets to dance around with a bunch of light and look like she's stripping while she kicks butt' idea here. Its a total BS power which Liefeld did over and over when he finally got a chance to make his own characters.The drawing is cool and the color schemes are very eye pleasing.

This is so hard to crit since its on how wonderfully bad you can be is the assignment. So my biggest complaint is that when i saw the char. I didn't have that "HA, Thats the funniest screw you Liefeld drawing ever!" I wanted that moment. Maybe with big stupid hair…Liefeld must have loved the early 90’s wannabe bimbos with big teased hair who loved the 80’s and boob jobs, or for that matter bigger boobs.

Still, very nice. A great starting idea that I think could have been pushed a bit further in the making fun of dept.

GUNNBLAZE / Aljira

HAHAHAHAHA!!! One of the things I wanted to incorporate but couldn't figure out how to, was Liefeld’s tendency to have characters that didn't have any powers and just lots of guns. you actually figured out how to turn that into a power. AWESOME! You also have a ton of the token things like the arm-bands w/ bullet holders, metallic arm, random gun blasts, stupid hair, zillion pouches and weird knee pad things he always used. I also think you did a cool job of making this a Liefeld drawing without making it a rip off drawing (a weird distinction that is going to be a weird one to point out during this contest)

If I were to give this any criticism, I would say that Instead of just using all the token liefeldisms that you can, maybe use less and exaggerate them more. That being said, you totally did that with the guns but if you had done it with the hair or the feet or the jaw, it might have had that slight caricature quality that would have topped off an AMAZING concept.

CYBER SQUAW / WhiteRose

This seems like a clear take on the nineties that’s not a direct rip on liefeld but more on the crap movement he helped define. It does a good job noticing that while the world was just starting to realize the value of diversity, Comics just propagated the problem by ignorance and testosterone fueled fantasies.

At first I didn’t get it since I was personally so focused on Liefeld himself but Once reading your description I LOVED your concept, a very scrutinizing look at the 90’s as they really were in the world of comics. However, even though I could make the connections between your description and your cool drawing, I would have liked to see more of the cleverness (if that’s a word) in the drawing. You said you wouldn’t like your character if you ever saw it in a comic and that shouldn’t be the case. If it is it means you didn’t push the visual far enough to be obviously a satyre in which case you would like it. I hope that makes sense. All in all…WOW!

KOLDBLUDD / Twilight

Your origin story is hysterical and I love that you have included all of the token aspects of a liefeld character but I kind of feel like that’s all you did. His Costume seems a bit too Generic and therefore doesn’t quite do the job of poking fun well enough or being an insanely innovative 90’s era character.

I would also like to point out that I love the face…really, amazing. It captures the glued into place generic rage (as you so cleverly put it) of all his characters.

DARK SHADOW CLAW X-TREME HOT DIVA TRANNY MESS / EndOfTime

Why do Super hero boots always look like big socks?!?! All I can think about is how much it would hurt to walk around. I guess that’s why Liefeld made all of his floors flat and red, silver or green. Nothing to trip on, nothing for which to stub a toe.

When I saw this drawing I chuckled. Then I looked closer and I laughed my butt off. Then I read the origin and I laughed harder. I think its cuz I got the same feeling that I did when I saw all the 90’s drawings. I even started remembering all the same questions. Why the sock boots? Why the swollen Vagina lips? How do those pouches stay up? WHY DOESN”T ANYONE HAVE EYEBALLS!?!?!? And where the hell do the second pair of arms grow from? Great job!!

p.s…Nice Mullet. Why did comics always try to bring those back in the 90’s?

BLOODSHAFT / wshaunpennington

My gut reaction…AWESOME HAIR…best over the top vision of idiotic 90’s hair I’ve seen yet. I also love that where his belt comes together it says “BS”. Your description is funny as hell too, I love the elaborate back story that is just their to explain his motivation for his guns and grimace.

I only wish that it was more than a collection of token liefeldisms and was a bit more focused.

BUMP N’ GRIND / Marvelboy2004

Not only is this a cool drawing but it has the up front punchline. Then when you look deeper it gets funnier. YES! A cyborg from the future who forgets? That in itself is idiotic in a way only liefeld could accomplish. Bazoomkas!?!?! I’ll bet liefeld pitched that idea 100 times but just couldn’t get it checked. And finally, and probably my favorite part. Why would a cyborg who is obviously trying to pass for human ever have a CYBORG ARM!!!???!!! This one’s stupidly clever in the best possible ways.

I also like that the origin story isn’t so long. It gets the point across but allows the image to do some of the work as well. Great stuff!!!

DERIVITIVE / Your Imaginary Pal[/b[

Of all the guns that have been drawn so far, the giant revolver in Derivative’s Right hand is far and away my favorite. It serves as one hell of a punchline as does her crotch pocket and gun blades on the back of her other gun that she is about to cut her head with. That being said I think this one suffers from an over abundance of token parts and not enough of a conceptual focus. Although, your entire concept is that it is derivative, maybe it should push all the token things even further.

[b]MANICURE / dean legion

I keep talking about the concept that will drive it home and here it is. So far I feel that this one took an idea that represented all the dumb things that liefeld was and then used the token aspects to push itself. I love the files and polish all over her. Also the drawing is AWESOME and I can’t lie, that’s a part of it for me.

My ONLY complaint is that it could be pushed further. She needs arm bands, neck bands head bands and boob bands filled with different manicure stuff. And why the heck doesn’t she have open toed shoes!?

OBSIDIAN ROSE / Shade101

Prohensile hair? Who would ever take this seriously? Liefeld that’s who. Your story is great, there are so many great stories in this contest but I have to say I love the prehensile hair. That way she can do other things like apply make up, y’know the things that chauvanist 90’s comic artists would think a gal would want to do in a combat situation if they had the time.

Great image too. Not liefeld at all but the gag with the hair covers that

OVERKILL / Tre Styles

It’s funny, so many people latched on to the uneven design that liefeld grasped on to so desperately but I like your more symmetrical approach. I also think the drawing does the trick. I dig the unnecessary headgear and eyeflash too. I still feel like this is a conglomoration of token liefeldisms without enough focus to bring the whole thing together into a true satire of the 90’s or liefeld. Great drawing though, especially the pose!

TRIPLE THREAT / EscapeGoat

This one made me laugh real hard. It’s a great concept because it takes one of liefelds idiotic tendencies and pushes it further. On top of that it uses so many token things that are small and like little bonus cookies that it becomes a drawing and design that you spend some time exploring. Still, the main concept is what stands out most which is great. Where the hell is that leg growing from anyway??? Gross. AWESOME, but gross.

[spaghettikiss]

HYDRA / EleganceLiberty

Nice drawing, Nice color scheme and wqonderfully horrible hair. It looks like its gelled in a way that will repeatedly whip herself in the face. Still, it seems a bit too generic to really be an over the top and there for completely successful liefeldian rip.

CYBER-BLOODSTUMP! / Dazzler

FUNNY! Love the stump idea, love the back story and the giant crotch.

Watching these come in it gets harder and harder for people to be clever in making fun of a guy who only made up like 3 characters and then repeated them a few hundred times. You however did a great job. My favorite part is that he has puches up and down his stump. How do they not slip off?

FADE 2 BLACK / Solaris

Finally, someone did the token black guy. That sounds terrible right? Well, unfortunately we have all seen the evidence that the 90’s were not exactly culturally sensitive. I like a lot of the visual cookies you have hear, the asterix crotch and the fact that you literally drew in the guns after is great. Love the hooker boots that we can barely see too.

I kind of think there shouldn’t be 1 winner for this contest. We should make up a team from the entries we all like the best. That would be fun.

My suggestion for this would be in the outfit. He needs something to make it look more like an outfit, even if there were random asymmetrical and colorful geometric shapes on the wifebeater (think shaft) Also, this guy is screaming for some liefeldian thunder thighs.

DEATHWING / ZacharyLovesYou

Holy Crap can you draw! This is awesome. I love the color too. Everything seems to be in place for a good liefeld rip. The guns, straps, eyes, hair, etc. are all there. I love the ‘back story’ too. I guess I wish it was more of a focused concept in the image. It’s good though…REAL GOOD. I love your drawings man!

HUGHMUNGO / DungeounMasterJim

A Villain?!?!? I am so excited to see a villain. I love that your villain falls victim to the EXACT same things liefelds heroes do. That guy really sucked and it’s a fact. You pushed that even a bit further. Love the fact that the hand is clearly not holding onto that gun. Maybe he needs something that would make it more obvious up front that he’s a villain, I was not sure until I started reading.

DEATHLAUNCH / AnKalRae

I think this feels very much visually like a Liefeld girl. I really like the headgear, and I think the pattern is a great touch. LOVE THE GUN. I do wish there was more focus to this one, more of a gimmick.

DEATHBREAST / Affinity

AMAZING!!! I peed a little. I love everything about this especially that she was even hardcore in the womb. The outfit itself is clever in its badness and the background aquiggle is incredible. I only wish there was more of an importance on the cybernetic boob. It has so much potential.

COUTURE / atoningunifex

Finally! Someone, used some facepaint. This is cool, I have never seen so many buckles and pouches and wow. She really needs a stylist. Can anyone say bad hair? - although here thats quite the compliment

KILL KILLER / CaptainBosh

Holy crap dude, your stuff is awesome. Your character looks incredible and I laughed my butt off at what is clearly the BEST weopon so far in this challenge, the four bladed sword. The story is pretty funny too, but how come there isn’t any more visual evidence of Kevin??? I also feel that it doesn't have the visual gimmick to stand out, the drawing makes it stand out pretty damn well though

THE DEADLY PINK PANTHER / HiFi

The hair is wonderfully awfull and the mask is a great but after reading the description of the boyfriend I think that’s where your concept really was. That would have been an award winning design and you would have had designed the only token Big Guy.

DEATH MERCHANT / Spidey

This is easily the most true to life lifeldian feeling design. Its awesome, It could lead every super team the ‘Feld’ ever created and then start 10 more dirivitive teams.

Although I wish he had more of a focused concept this is my favorite design that is just an amalgamation of the token. Oh and the 3 minutes before deadline thing totally earned you extra points.

***

Phew, like i said, not doing that again. although I really feel like I really looked at everyone quite closely so maybe not such a bad thing.

[Josef F.]

I think the four bladed sword and person sized gun Kinda won me over.
But honorable mention to the Gun-boobs
and the random Cyber-breast!

=D

[Kara Zor El]

Triple Threat. Very funny. Plus I'm a War of the Worlds nut.

[LewMoxinsghost]

I think the four bladed sword and person sized gun Kinda won me over.
But honorable mention to the Gun-boobs
and the random Cyber-breast!

=D

That's exactly why Captain Bosh got my vote... the four bladed sword. Did you borrow from my CPOM character (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?t=134555&page=19) or did you come up with it on your own? Bonus points if you stole it. That's the soul of Liefeld after all! :) Triple Threat was a close second... and I really enjoyed the buckled up heroine Couture. All great ideas.

[ZacharyLovesYou]

Thanks Spidey! Everybody was pretty fierce with this competition. I don't think anyone made a piece that didn't make me laugh my ass off. Who wants to start a new company?

[Aljira]

....Who wants to start a new company?

*raises his hand*

who's gonna fund it? mattbib?

[bert]

some very, very good designs, and some excellent art work (and by excellent, I mean they look like Liefeld himself drew them!).

great work!

I had to force my brain to not look at the coloring skills or drafting skills, but to actually look at how well the creation met the parameters of the challenge.

it was awful close (Couture, Deathwing, Ultraviolet, Manicure, Gunblaze, and Overkill were all vying for my vote). . but I had to go w/ Fade2Black by Solaris.

I think it was the explanation she posted in the text of WHY she did something (and the starcrotch!) that got my vote :)

[twilight]

I'm not feeling too good this time.

I think my desire to just get my design done and submitted so I could do semi-important IRL stuff means I didn't bring my A-game.

Some really awesome stuff this round from my distinguished competition and I'll post some comments later.

-Twi

[Aljira]

aljira Great design as well! I think you used Liefeld's signature looks in an interesting way, but once again it looks alot like Shatterstar.




i'm thinking it looks more like Gambit, if i took off the orange headgear. Shatterstar's headgear covers the eyebrows, but it feels great that you liked my design, pryde! hihihi!




GUNNBLAZE / Aljira

HAHAHAHAHA!!! One of the things I wanted to incorporate but couldn't figure out how to, was Liefeld’s tendency to have characters that didn't have any powers and just lots of guns. you actually figured out how to turn that into a power. AWESOME! You also have a ton of the token things like the arm-bands w/ bullet holders, metallic arm, random gun blasts, stupid hair, zillion pouches and weird knee pad things he always used. I also think you did a cool job of making this a Liefeld drawing without making it a rip off drawing (a weird distinction that is going to be a weird one to point out during this contest)

If I were to give this any criticism, I would say that Instead of just using all the token liefeldisms that you can, maybe use less and exaggerate them more. That being said, you totally did that with the guns but if you had done it with the hair or the feet or the jaw, it might have had that slight caricature quality that would have topped off an AMAZING concept.



yeah, i totally understand what u mean. a few more exaggerations might've made it look more Liefeldian, but the most i can do was weird forearm perspectives, twisted fingers, uneven leg muscles and ankles...somehow i can't force myself, during that time, to violate the human anatomy that much.

as for the powers? hahaha! the guns were easy but as to where the firepowers comin? that took me quite a while. i have to thank havok and bishop for that.

thanks spaghettikiss! it's always nice readin those critiques of yours. i'm glad you enjoyed my work. hope i'm still here for the next challenge. mwah!

[ChristosSoter]

I vote for pryde15!!! YOur design was so good and the backstory was amazing!!

[twilight]

Why didn't I go with my other idea?

Gunface:The Man With A Gun For A Face

-Twi

[twilight]

ANALYSIS AVALANCHE!
Run for your lives!

spaghettikiss' BATTLE CRY
The jetpack for an ass idea?
Amazing!
I feel the design on the whole though is too symmetrical but his “Grrr” face is pretty great.

pryde15's ULTRAVIOLET
I’m not feeling this one because at the end of the day it’s a pretty good costume.
I don’t think it’s ugly enough to fulfill the needs of the challenge.

Aljira's GUNNBLAZE
Oh yeah.
Minus a few of the guns and it feels almost exactly like a 90’s costume.
Love the mismatched boots.

WhiteRose's CYBER-SQAW
It is good but it doesn’t really feel like a 90’s comic character to me.
90’s comics were all about superheroes and this looks to me like a Rob Liefeld take on a post-apocalyptic barbarian woman.

twilight's KÖLDBLÜDD
Possibly the best design of all time.

;)

End of Time's DARK SHADOW CLAW X-TREME HOT DIVA TRANNY MESS
I love how one of the arms just has these tiny little pouches on it.
Good call with all the random arm accessories and the bandages/straps.

wshaunpennington's BLOODSHAFT
The ponytails have straps on them?
Best idea so far.
With the exceptions of the straps on the leg though I don’t think it’s garish enough.

marvelboy2004's BUMPnGRIND
Right now I’m leaning towards this one as my favourite, and that’s not even taking into account the gun tits!
Everything about it is damn near perfect.
Marvelboy has totally stolen my heart this year.

Your Imaginary Pal's DERIVATIVE
Did YIP submit another drawing?
I swear it looked different before.
Love how cluttered this design is and I’d like it even more if she only had one shoulder pad.

deanlegion's MANICURE
Great drawing and I like the swirling hair but once again I feel it’s nowhere near ugly enough to fulfill the parameters of the this weeks challenge.

Shade101's OBSIDIAN ROSE
Move over hair with pouches, hair holding blades just took your spot as best idea!
Pretty good stuff right here on the whole.
Love the criss-crossing mismatched belt straps and that collar is too die for.
It’s weird looking at a very clean and polished art style like this being used to highlight something intentionally “ugly”.

Tre Styles' OVERKILL
Another favourite.
This one is all about the mask and it’s “kitchen sink” design.
It’s a mask,with a helmet on a top,with a big pony tail out the back and it’s striped too boot.
The stumpy little legs and the big package are hilarious.
One thing though is that the skull insignias on the kneepads and the purple in the design make me think of The Maxx.
Probably not intentional of your part though Tre.

escapegoat's JOHN TRYAL: THE TRIPLE THREAT
Another design with a great head.
The “triple” theme was a great idea and I’m glad someone finally threw in a trench coat.
People loved those things in the 90s.

Elegance Liberty's HYDRA
Sorry EL, not feeling it.
I don’t like the almost entirely one single colours thing and with the exception of the silly designed swimsuit underneath the vest part I don’t think it’s ugly enough.
Good angry face.

Dazzler's CYBER-BLOODSTUMP
Best constipated-angry face!
I can’t get over the big knife, the row of five bullets on his bicep, the face, the straps ON HIS STUMP, the lines on the gigantic cod piece, any of it really.
One of my top three.

Solaris' FADE2BLACK
Another one that doesn’t do it for me.
Take away the Liefeldian drawing and you’re left with a guy wearing street clothes with some pouches thrown in.
I do like the collapsing in on itself crotch and wrinkled-as-hell neck.

ZacharyLovesYou's DEATHWING
Wings made of guns?
I’m surprised big poppa Rob himself didn’t think of it.
That big red quiff is cool.
Not a shabby design by any means.

DungeonmasterJim's HUGHMUNGO
My apologies Jim but take out the gun and it doesn’t really feel very 90’s at all.
More like a design for a grunt from a fantasy series really.
The mace on the end of a sword is inspired though.

AnkaleRa's DEATHLAUNCH
Best Liefeld legs.
Great work on the gun as well.

Affinity's DEATHBREAST
And winner of best name is…?
Like the random mask climbing up the chin and the one puffy glove.
Love the strap strapped underneath her breasts, her sixpack and her thong (the whole midsection is pretty greatmazing truth be told)

atoningunifex's COUTURE
I do like the strapsuponstrapsuponstraps idea and the overlapping shoulderpads but I’m just no feeling it.

captainbosh's KILL KILLER
Another good one.
The five bladed sword (for wielding in the kitchen to chop vegetables?), the gun the size of her body, the singular antennae and the mismatched limbs are all tops.

Hi-Fi's DEADLY PINK PANTHER
I don’t think you pushed yourself hard enough this time Vic (although I still love that your participating at all.GO PEER PRESSURE!).
It’s too symmetrical.
But the twin belts idea is still one I like.
Nice Liefeld-trick by just stealing Deadpool’s mask :D

Spidey's DEATHMERCHANT
Awesome shoulderpads, feet, headgear and the gun that looks like it’s been added on as an afterthought.

And now my hands hurt.

-Twi

[Solaris]

Why didn't I go with my other idea?

Gunface:The Man With A Gun For A Face

-Twi

I'm saying nearly the same thing, but mine is "Why didn't I have my other idea *before* the contest closed?" (And if you want to see it, I did it up today and posted it in the "Play at Home" thread, just because the concept made me laugh so much, I couldn't stand not sharing it. Sigh. Wish I'd thought of it earlier.)


Thanks for the votes, Puma and bert, and for the critiques, spaghettikiss and twilight! :)

Yeah, twilight, I think I played it too straight, and with a very dry humor and too much attempted realism (with Fade2Black), when I should've been exuberant like in my other idea in the play at home thread. Ack. Ah well, live and learn.

[DungeonmasterJim]

I second that, it's really hard to judge because of the nature of the challenge. Some entries look more like close cousins of existing characters or new characters that have checked every Liefeld cliche box than I'm comfortable with, and yet the challenge steers participants that way.

While Liefeld was way over the top, if your entry was even further over the top or seemed more like an exaggeration of his designs than inspired by, I might like the picture and description and snigger at the deliberate awfulness of it, but probably not vote for you.

I'm voting for Dungeonmaster Jim, who even used the Liefeld habit of linework that doesn't belong where it is

A very tough challenge, and an even thougher one to vote on

LOL! I was wondering if someone would catch that.:)

Thanks for the vote.

I voted for Pryde's character because I, um,....ah,... like the design. :o

DM Jim

[howyadoin]

Do you vote for the outfit that repels you the most, because it's so perfectly Liefeldian, or do you vote for the best-looking outfit that has a Liefeld look? Either way, it's kind of wrong (this whole challenge is fun because it's Oh, so wrong).I'm in the same boat. There's a few that I felt were actually too good to meet the criteria. For example, captainbosh's KILL KILLER. Yes, the costume is suitably ridiculous, but she still looks like she could snap you in half.

Favourites of mine:

Battle Cry is hilarious, and not just for the rationalization.

Couture is actually a pretty smart concept. It really ties in with the kinda things the Image crew were saying in the press back when they were young superstars - Liefeld saying that the Youngblood gang would be like rockstars in the Image universe, or Jim Lee talking about drawing inspiration from Jean Paul Gaultier, for example.

Cyber-Squaw is brilliantly offensive, and doesn't miss a single trick. If there's a flaw with that one at all, it's that the art reminds me more of Marc Silvestri than Liefeld.

Deathbreast was another great Liefeldian concept, and had the best write-up of any of them, I think.

Cyber-Bloodstump was damn near perfect. If it were my character I'd be worried about Liefeld ripping it off.



But finally, I had to go with Tre's Overkill, because he absolutely nailed it - the ludicrous fighting style, the stupid hair, the even stupider weapons, the cyber-arms, the colour scheme, the self-aggrandizing studio name, the headgear, the huge crotch bulge...

[Elegance Liberty]

Eh, I don't really care either way if I'm eliminated this round. I just can't 'do' the 90's thing. =/

[DungeonmasterJim]

Eh, I don't really care either way if I'm eliminated this round. I just can't 'do' the 90's thing. =/

Maybe I shouldn't admit this with the voting still going on but what the heck...

As I was designing Hughmungo I actually liked him in the early pencil versions before he went 'Liefield'. The more I further designed him for this contest the less and less I liked the character. I can't say I was EVER a fan of Liefield's art or his creations. I avoided most of his stuff like the Black Plague. I don't fault people for liking him or his stuff but he just didn't float my boat.

DM Jim

[Mitsaso]

DeathBreast, Manicure, Gunblaze and the lady with the boob guns were the best participations in this round!:D

My vote had to go to Deathbreast, tho!

[Shade101]

Shade101 It's a great picture, but I am getting a more 80s vibe from this. I think it might be the colors, the green and the purple kind of clash which is what reminds me of the 80s without looking like Barney. You picked the right choice with the hair though.

Thanks for the compliment. I actually gave this design my all. I took a lot of time just trying to decide on how she would look. I couldn't even decide whether or not I wanted to make a guy or girl character. So I flipped a coin, and female won. But I took me a while to try and get the character the best it can be. I struggled with the colors, because I couldn't decide on the colors, and whether or not I wanted the costume to color coordinate. So I opted for a more "tackier" approach. I chose purple and green not because of "Barney", but because I thought it was a popular color choice back in the early 90's. And I think I remember reading that Liefeld didn't color coordinate the costumes very well or something, so that why I made her have several different colors. But I think she turned out pretty well, lol.

[Aljira]

bumpngrind just reminded me of those female mechas in Mazinger.

ever though about a deathmatch for all of these characters ala Wizard?

sorta like: a few of them are lining up to get into this hip bar in new york. Triple Threat, still drunk from Flashdancers,fell in line. tipsy and all--singing Will.I.Am's I got it from my Momma, his third leg keeps hittin Cyber-Sqaw's behind. Infuriated and feeling all harrassed, she then turned around immediately to confront Triple but her breasts hit him right smack in the face, sending him flying right across the street into the salon where Manicure is upgrading her nails. The impact sent a bottle of acetone flying to her already dried nails. Manicure stormed out of the salon shouting "i knew it!!! punk poser's like you who are really dolly parton fans are a menace!!!" to which Cyber-Sqaw replied " yo Momma! Paris Hilton-wannabee!!!"...

sorta like that....

[Shade101]

OBSIDIAN ROSE / Shade101

Prohensile hair? Who would ever take this seriously? Liefeld that’s who. Your story is great, there are so many great stories in this contest but I have to say I love the prehensile hair. That way she can do other things like apply make up, y’know the things that chauvanist 90’s comic artists would think a gal would want to do in a combat situation if they had the time.

Great image too. Not liefeld at all but the gag with the hair covers that


Thanks Spaghetti! Lol, I tried to have fun with this project. And I tried to give the story a really gritty, Quentin Tarantino kind of feel to it. But still remain true to the Liefeldian way. And I chose prehensile hair because everyone had huge hair in the early 90's comics era, lol. So I figured, why not be able to do something with all that hair? And I tried my hardest to make it as "Liefeldian" as I could. But honestly, I wasn't all that familiar with the guy. I grew up in the early 90's, so I wasn't really reading comics back then, lol. I did a lot of research on him though, and even visited a thread that was an "appreciation" thread for his art, lol. It was actually a thread that made fun of his art, but I still looked through it. So I did try to make it like Liefeld, but still add my own little "style" on it.

[Shade101]

bumpngrind just reminded me of those female mechas in Mazinger.

ever though about a deathmatch for all of these characters ala Wizard?

sorta like: a few of them arel falling in line to get into this hip bar in new york. Triple Threat, still drunk from Flashdancers, he went fell in line. tipsy and all--singing Will.I.Am's I got it from my Momma, his third leg keeps hittin Cyber-Sqaw's behind. Infuriated and feeling all harrassed, she then turned around immediately to confront Triple but her breasts hit him right smack in the face, sending him flying right across the street into the salon where Manicure is upgrading her nails. The impact sent a bottle of acetone flying to her already dried nails. Manicure stormed out of the salon shouting "i knew it!!! punk poser's like you who are really dolly parton fans are a menace!!!" to which Cyber-Sqaw replied " yo Momma!"...

sorta like that....

Lol. That would be a perfect Idea! We should do little fan fics like that about our characters confronting one another, lol.

[Aljira]

i love the 3rd leg idea.

kudos to you escapegoat...for tickling my XXX imagination...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[bakla]

bumpngrind just reminded me of those female mechas in Mazinger.

That's what I thought, too!

I loved Mazinger Z specifically because all the female robots on that show shot their breasts off as missiles or emanated beams of energy from them: Aphrodite A, Venus A, Great Aphrodite A, Minerva X.... ah, so sexually inclined, those Japanese animators.

And Aphrodite A, your boob rockets were always so useless....

[spaghettikiss]

Hey all, I know this is kind of tacky, but i just found out that my first published book got distributed nationally today (weeks late) for my first official book signing tomorrow (wed). i'm more than a little excited!!!

[LewMoxinsghost]

Congrats!! I am jealous. If I buy one will you autograph it?

[bakla]

I had an awful time voting for this round - so many of the ones I liked didn't really capture the horror that is Liefeldian 'design,' as they were too refined but the ones I thought were on target were too much like Liefeld for me to like them. In the end, I went with Ajira (again!) and his Gunnblaze because I thought the asymmetry on the outfit was done well, it looked stereotypical enough, and I loved/hated all the guns.

[Hi-Fi]

Hey all, I know this is kind of tacky, but i just found out that my first published book got distributed nationally today (weeks late) for my first official book signing tomorrow (wed). i'm more than a little excited!!!
Wow. That's super hot. Congrats!

Great designs, you guys. Loved most of it. And thanks for the feedback, spaghetti and twi. :)

[spaghettikiss]

Congrats!! I am jealous. If I buy one will you autograph it?

sure, unfortunately now you can only get them through comic shops (look below for the order code) but if you send it to me I'll totally sign it, put a sketch in it and send it back to you!

[Aljira]

And Aphrodite A, your boob rockets were always so useless....

hahaha! i know. but i always liked Venus A, i dunno why. maybe its because of the hair...


sure, unfortunately now you can only get them through comic shops (look below for the order code) but if you send it to me I'll totally sign it, put a sketch in it and send it back to you!

oh. that's gonna cost me a lot since i'm here in asia. do you have a PDF file version of it sumwhere? hehehe

[spaghettikiss]

Wow. That's super hot. Congrats!

Great designs, you guys. Loved most of it. And thanks for the feedback, spaghetti and twi. :)

thanks! Hopefully it actually pans out well. stupid diamond sales benchmark!!!

[LewMoxinsghost]

sure, unfortunately now you can only get them through comic shops (look below for the order code) but if you send it to me I'll totally sign it, put a sketch in it and send it back to you!

Sweet! Done deal.

[pryde15]

Congrats! I'll be sure to look for it next time I am in a comic book store :D

[red-handed]

oh wow
so hard to choose...
Great designs overall...
will have to go over my notes and whatnot...

Side note: some of these descriptions are way too long
i mean i know you are very proud of your creations but
come on just a little shorter please... I'm begging ya... :D

[Dazzler]

CYBER-BLOODSTUMP! / Dazzler

FUNNY! Love the stump idea, love the back story and the giant crotch.

Watching these come in it gets harder and harder for people to be clever in making fun of a guy who only made up like 3 characters and then repeated them a few hundred times. You however did a great job. My favorite part is that he has puches up and down his stump. How do they not slip off?
Why thank you! :) This challenge was so much dang fun!
The straps don't fall off because they're held up...CYBERNETCIALLY! RAD!

Honorable mentions to BloodStump and BattleCry for making is easier to not draw feet.
Thanks, Martin!


Dazzler's CYBER-BLOODSTUMP
Best constipated-angry face!
I can’t get over the big knife, the row of five bullets on his bicep, the face, the straps ON HIS STUMP, the lines on the gigantic cod piece, any of it really.
One of my top three.


Cool! Thank you twi. :) HAHA! I'm pretty happy with Mr. Stumpy! (Don't call him that to his face!)



Cyber-Bloodstump was damn near perfect. If it were my character I'd be worried about Liefeld ripping it off.

Wow, thanks hoyadoin! I'm not worried.. if he rips it off, I'd just sue him...for 20 *MILLION* dollars!

--Dazz

[spaghettikiss]

Congrats! I'll be sure to look for it next time I am in a comic book store :D

Oh wow! Awesome, I hope you find it pretty easy (I don't know where exactly its shipped to, diamond won't tell you)

[Grand_Director]

Hi. I created an account just to participate in the voting. I should have done it last week but I got lazy. Then the design I liked the most got sent home and I decided I had to get my vote in.

So on to this round. I think that all the designers did a great job of capturing the feel of the early 90's characters. But of them all I have to say that I could see Tre Styles' Overkill as being an actual character to come out of an early X-Force or Image comic. The design is derivative without being a caricature or a joke. Great job!

[captaingeo]

How I've missed this competition! Unfortunately I've seemed to missed the first challenge, as well.

And I'll just have to say mattbib, this was quite a challenge, making good artists suck, that is.

So I'd definitely have to say my top three were:
captainbosh's Kill Killer
AnkaleRa's Deathlaunch
marvelboy's BUMPnGRIND

But I'm going to have to go with AnkaleRa, as I loved his stuff last contest, and I'd hate to see him go so soon.

Keep it up guys! And I'll be around to watch the magic!

[ubergeekette]

I'm going by order of my personal faves.

5. atoningunifex - I slowly got to like the picture. She stood out by not looking generic, but looking 90's at the same time. Love the Hair!
4. Aljira - Pretty good and over the top. The color scheme is very 90's, and all of the accessories are well thought of and nicely place.
3. captainbosh - very well drawn, fun to look at it seems like every limb is doing something different! I almost feel bad putting it #3 (I think we had 3 #1s)
2. spaghettikiss - Love the over the topness, I usually think it takes courage going first and you really set the bar high. I knew you had it in you, and the origin is funny and fantastic. The rocket legs made more sense and made me giggle when I heard it in the description
1. ZacharyLovesYou - I fell in love w/it. It has everything! Guns that made no sense, hair that makes no sense, origin that makes the character feel more badass. Color scheme was fantastic and all of the linework.

You all get disqualified for making the anatomy correct! Just kidding!:D

[Your Imaginary Pal]

I went with
atoningunifex's COUTURE
....or did I?

reminded me of Vogue. Changed up the drawing style a lot.
intriguing description...or was it?