Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business LMB Monitor Board Symbols

I think the Teeds might be my favoritest of all.
It's gorgeous and a perfect representation of her persona.

I'm cutting it right to my self-imposed deadline on this one, but hopefully it was worth the extra time.

It's the 100th Symbol Extravaganza, featuring five of Legion World's Top 100 posters (as well as a bonus symbol for my biggest booster). So, without further ado - Blue Battler, Eryk Davis Ester (100th Symbol!), Ferro Boy, Jerry, Kid Quislet, and Shadowplay in Candlelight Lass









Ferro Boy is pretty much a direct Legion lift, but presented in stylized lowercase to represent the "Boy" as opposed to the traditional "Lad". (A lad is older than a boy... right? I'm saying, "yes, it is," so sue me. )

For Kid Quislet, I sort of ripped off myself. Earlier, I had done one of these for Quislet Esq. which was the Legion Quislet symbol with a necktie. Though I don't really know Kid Quislet, in my mind, I imagine that he has to be Quis Esq.'s junior partner. I got in the mindset of Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella's "New Look Batman" when they always had Bruce and Dick dressed so formally and said, well, if Quis wears a necktie, then of course Kid Quis wears a bowtie. He is scaled slightly smaller as well.

I've seen Blue Battler's name around but - I'm embarrassed to say - because of the name, I always thought he was one of Yellow Kid's Primary Color Gang characters. I found out that is not the case at all. He is actually a well known character in the online game "City of Heroes". I read his profile on that board and discovered he is a "Technology" hero - as opposed to Science, Magic, or Mutant - which means he utilizes tech as opposed to having innate powers. The symbol here is the COH symbol for Technology used during character creation.

For Eryk, I wanted something special. Apart from the board owners and LMB founders, which I did first, the remainder of these that I've done haven't followed any order other than whatever struck me at the time. But, given Eryk's prominence on LW, I wanted to give him a place of honor. Originally, I was going to have him be the last one I did, but I then I thought the 100th would be a really nice milestone. Besides, I was just dying to give this a try. The layout is an Interlac "E" formed by the infamous Nelly Cap left carelessly against a Greek column (from Calamity King's first appearance, natch). I had this design in mind from the beginning but really didn't think I would be able to execute it. I'm pleased to say though... I think it looks bitchin'.

Jerry is a different story altogether. Though I often see Jerry about the board, I don't "know" him in the sense of a "character". For the purpose of this project, his name choice isn't particularly evocative for me, either. That being said, however, whenever I think of Jerry, I think in terms of the absolute candor with which he has spoken about his real life on this board. In particular, there was a story he told about his life with his partner that moved me a great deal and provided the inspiration for this symbol. At first I was afraid to approach it from a "personal" standpoint, but I spoke with Jerry behind the scenes and he encouraged me to do so, even providing me with additional elements that he wanted me to try to convey. I made sure that he saw this before I posted it and, I'm really happy that he liked it so much.

For Candle's first symbol, I used the comedy and tragedy faces that characterized her LMB character at the very beginning (over 10 years ago). She reached out to me, though, and, although she enjoyed it, she felt that she had grown since those early days, and thought she would like something to reflect that growth. I worked with her behind the scenes to find a design that captured her strong faith. It was a happy coincidence that the Celtic Cross design I found contained embellishment on the bars that was evocative (to me at least) of the earlier symbol, as well. Thanks, Candle, for both your patience and encouragement.


So...whew... do I ever shut up?

OK... briefly.

Up next: I'm taking a break from these for the weekend, but... come Monday... back in the swing.

hmmm I love Candlelight's one the best. the others nice nice....except EDE's, to be honest with you, did not work well to me...I was expecting something like Anvil dropping on head or a broken horseshoe or shattered rabbit's leg...something that represent luck....black cat? hmmm columns broken kind of did not work on me. I dont know...that s ONE that bothers me the most....the rest of them wow....awesome...beautiful....ironically you picked EDE as the 100th and I happen to be the one who disagrees. :\

Candlelight - awesome - one of the best alongside Teeds....

Kid Q - heh...a perfect sidekick to the Q. Nice!

Jerry - not familar with him - two hands with a plant...nice something different. I like it.

Ferro Kid - I sure wish that we have another Ferro in the Legion. This one will do.

Blue Battler - Yes!! it works....as i remember seeing that one in the City of Heroes. the gears work perfectly.

EDE - oh...a disaster waiting to happen? *gulp*

I mean NO offense to both EDE and you...just that I am blunt and honest. I think it is difficult to do EDE's one...very difficult I imagine.

I was about to agree with Candlelight that my favorite was also Thriftshop Debutante's, but then Candlelight's own symbol came out.

After seeing the description I realize what TD's is, but at first I thought it was a beautifully stylized bird.

I wonder if a terribly tedious but much appreciated favor might be asked? When you're done, can the final group shot include names?

Also, mind if I use a modified Lightning Lad symbol elsewhere? I changed the bolt's color to blue, for another name by which I've been known.

Thanks for the comments, guys, but I want to make sure I don't misrepresent my contribution to the Candle one. It's actually an existing Celtic Cross design that I just slightly tweaked to fit better with this format. Candle and I went back and forth with a few different designs, but this was the one she liked best.


Sorry you didn't like the EDE one, Supes. I see what you are saying about there being more direct choices to represent a "jinx", but I was trying to make it a bit more LW specific:

Well it was YOUR lightning bolt, with a bit of color adjustment within the symbol. So polite to ask I figure.

Thank-you!

Hey I did not know that the emoticon on Calamity King changed from the one with Anvil dropping on his head smashing him to the column falling over him....hmmmm oddly..the emoticon works better than the symbol....maybe it s the "C" that really bothers me or its the misplaced hat? well lets see how the consensus says. if they like it then its okay. I'll move on. There are still many symbols that I admire, esp Candle and Teeds.

Damn you are one creative dude, Ex!

Love them all! Especially Peebs, Matthew E and Sharky!

Ooh, and Cleome and the Red Bee!

But my absolute favorite of the entire series is Eryk's!!!

Thanks, Ex - I'm a fan forever. Mine is, of course, very special and I appreciate the spirit and tact with which you approached it.

The other new additions are great. I'm definitely a fan of the crumbling column for EDE - it evokes one of the greatest moments ever in LSH tryout history.

I like Eryk's, too, though it doesn't look like an E to me. (More like a C?) Anyway, it's clearly a column that's falling apart, and the nelly cap is a nice touch.


Great job on all of these, Ex. Your creativity amazes me.

It's an interlac "E", remember.

I dig it!

This last batch is especially awesome! Great work, Ex!

Just a quick bump for the next page...

Cool, the vote has been cast - the column stays.

That being said, though, given the couple of comments saying that the overall design more resembled a "C" than an Interlac "E", I went back and did a compare and you guys are absolutely right:



It looks like I overestimated the cap placement to invoke the "bulb" of the E. Not bad for eyeballing, but you're right... the eye "knows" that it's wrong. I think I'll do a revise to bring it in closer (as well as sharpen up a few of the more blurry parts where some detail was lost) to better get what I was going for.

Thanks for all the feedback, everybody!

If you're wondering why I'm posting at 3:30 in the morning... I'm managing a software release for work this weekend, so right now I'm on "Sri Lankan" time. So... how better to spend that dead time between system startup and QA kickoff than to mess around on LW?


So I revisited the EDE one, trying to fix the overall shape to make it look less like a "C," but as I was trying out different positions and scales for the cap, it occured to me that it didn't have to be at the base of the column at all and, in fact, probably shouldn't be. The before and after versions:

BEFORE:


AFTER:



I think this relatively small change actually does quite a bit to improve the design:

- Firstly, it just balances the composition better, filling more of the dead space.

- It makes the design much more dynamic; instead of just being a static component, the cap is now part of the action, moments away from getting crushed.

- By moving it out of the light source, more detail is preserved as the shadows enhance the lines of the cap (I did play around a bit with the center portion of the cap to try to maximize this).

- The suggested shape of the Interlac "E" is now clearer (the cap not being needed at all to create the "bulb," as the columns base accomplishes the same thing).

- In fact, by separating it into two shapes, it could now almost be read as an "E" and a period - a slight nod to the fact that while "Calamity King's" real name is just "E. Davis Ester" it took our Ester to create the name "Eryk".


So, as I say, not much of an overall change, but enough to make quite an improvement. Thanks SuperboyMMDJR and He Who LSHes for your constructive criticism; it really helped.

wow...that works better! I like the bottom one better....yeah it makes sense...as the column would fall over your head....bonk!

I like the new design better, too.

One notable difference is in the idea being implied by each design (intended or not). In the first design, the hat seems to be causing the pillar to collapse. In the second design, the hat is about to become a victim.

I like the subtle humor of the latter.

Thanks for the Mystery Lad message board symbol, Exnihil-- it looks great. I have to wonder what you would've come up with for Tsarin, though? I've toyed with returning to that posting ID, now that an Element Lad I can connect with is back in print (barely, unfortunately-- maybe the lack of panel space for Jan is the reason I haven't 'squeezed the trigger').

Yep, the second EDE design does it! The first one I didn't understand at all without the explanation. The second one tells a dynamic story even for newcomers who don't know what it signifies.

Great job on all of these, Ex!

I really like EDE's new design.
The new emphasis on the hat and the added detail to it really help.

With my eyesight, the first hat looked like a brain to me.


I'd love to see Ex's take on Tsarin, too, ML.

heh...well with MY eyesight, when the interlac letter was superimposed with the column and hat, *gasp* it looked like a __XXXXXXXXXXXXX__, when you sit back far back. (see the lines on the column made it look like its capillaries veins...get the picture?)

New EDE design is even better!

Well, the obvious would be a hunk of Tsarin crystal, I guess. Tsarin's back-story was that he was a Tromian who was left in a near-death state by Roxxas on Trom. When Jan (the 'real' Element Lad) transmuted his 'corpse' into Tsarin crystal, that did something that gradually healed him. I forget the specifics, but he ended up in the LMBP-verse, where he spent lots of time in his lab watching holovids of the exploits of the 'real' LSH (and presumably other dimensional/timeline versions, too). When reboot Jan went insane and killed Monstress and Lightning Lad, Tsarin shattered and has been presumed dead ever since. Mystery Lad has shown up in a few shared stories, I believe, but I didn't write him- so I don't know if his 'mystery' is connected to Tsarin at all.

At one time, I thought about being Tsarin 5, since Tsarin was the scientist guy, but never took that very far.

Ex- finish your 100 (or however many) first- give everyone else the fun of seeing their LMBP persona in message board symbol glory. Then, if you go back and tackle tertiary characters, maybe consider Tsarin.