SUPERHERO OF THE MONTH - Robert Schilling's Gorilla Grodd

Congratulations to Robert Schilling, winner of January's Gorilla Grodd contest! This was literally a hair-splitting decision. For the first time, we had a First Place tie. Both pieces were utterly fantastic, and it was hard to make a decision, but ultimately we felt that, since the challenge was to redesign Grodd for the New 52, Robert's piece fit better with the tone the DC relaunch has taken.

Your judges this month were, of course, your Superhero of the Month staff, and our special guest judge, @GorillaGrodd!

Robert Schilling - 26/30

Alex: This is a Grodd that would nicely fit into the New 52 continuity. He looks gritty and brooding, and certainly evil. The little touches of technological terror are nice, and I can see this Grodd adding more and more as time passes. Very well done.

Mitch: This Grodd would fit perfectly in the new 52. Circutry, bits of tech, slightly menacing... Just add a collar and he'd get a book. But seriously, Grodd is supposed to be menacing and scary and this is
clearly terrifying. I think my favourite bits are the tiny eye-like pink things.
Gorilla Grodd: In my humble opinion, this redesign is the clear winner of this competition. Mr. Schilling's vision of me is both beautiful and elegant in its simplicity. His idea to have me hacking my own body and melding it with DIY constructed technology to enhance both my telepathy and fighting ability is really quite brilliant. I absolutely love the purple that he has incorporated into the technological accessories he has adorned me with, and his mind control head gear might be my favorite depiction of my telepathy headpieces to date.

While I do resent Mr. Schilling's claim that he wanted to show me in "a very human posture and expression", I must confess that this redesign is just stunning and practically perfect in every way.  I think that this would be an excellent look for me in the New 52 of DC Comics. Congratulations, Mr. Schilling...you are one of the few humans who I do not hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

See the runners up in the full post!

OFFICIAL CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT - STARFIRE

Pre-Flashpoint Starfire, art by Michael Turner

Back in October, we started polling our readers and asking who should be redesigned in an upcoming contest. Considering we'd not had a contest specifically featuring a female character since August's Wonder Woman contest, we asked readers to choose between Starfire, Phoneix, Marvel Girl, Witchblade, Red Sonja and Big Barda.

Almost immediately, Starfire took the lead, and she never looked back. Of the 135 votes cast, 55 -- 40% of the vote went to Starfire. Ms. Marvel came in second with 18% of the vote. With the poll not even being close, it's clear that fans feel Starfire's in dire need of a wardrobe overhaul. We concur.

Superhero of the Month and Girls Gone Geek are proud to present Starfire as February's redesign contest subject!

Like many comic characters, Starfire has many interpretations, from the innocent, fan-favorite Teen Titans incarnation, to the recent, highly sexualized (and controversial) New 52 reboot.

Teen Titans' Starfire

Since there are a few interpretations to pull inspiration from, there should be plenty to draw from for some new spins on the character.

Starfire redesigns are due Wednesday, February 22 by 6:00 PM MST. As always, we'll be posting redesigns as they come in until the deadline.

Submissions can be emailed to us at superheroofthemonth@gmail.com. As always, you should adhere to the submission guidelines, but I'm going to draw special attention to point #7:

This is a (relatively) family-friendly site, and viewers of all ages are encouraged to participate. Artwork should be PG-13-level, at most. Artwork containing nudity, harsh language, graphic violence, or something that may otherwise be viewed as offensive will be rejected.

Starfire in the DCnU

Now, I'd like to say that 99% of the time, this isn't a problem. During the Harley Quinn, Atom Eve, and Wonder Woman contests, we've had a submission or two come in that hasn't been posted based on Submission Guideline #7 grounds. 


Considering Starfire's history -- past and present -- as something of a sex symbol in the DC Universe, I'd just like to gently remind you of Guideline #7. Make her sexy if that's your inspiration -- sexy is fine. But I'd suppose if your Starfire is something you'd not want your mother seeing, then you may want to revise her a bit. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email or tweet us, or leave a comment below.

Gorilla Grodd Results - Part 6 [UPDATED]

The final post for Gorilla Grodd submissions is here!

Lemurtree

"Grodd hates humans and everything to do with humans. For this reason, I haven't give Grodd an outfit of any kind. He wouldn't want to wear clothes or boots, because that's far too human. He's quite happy to stay a big hairy gorilla. But Grodd is a villain, so he's also a hypocrite. While hating human things he's quite happy to adopt human ways when it suits him. So he smokes cigars, likes heavy machine guns, pops anabolic steroids and injects himself with gorilla growth hormone to give himself extra-large muscular arms."

Our next contestant wanted to "do a more serious and political take on the villain."

Gabriel Sousa

"Commander Grodd, our villainous gorilla, uses his fierce psionic abilities to control an army of mass proportions. In addition, his inner circle is vilely composed of child soldiers. Shielded by these children he has managed to take over the African continent and prepares to conquer the world. Due to the sensitive nature of his army, our superheroes fail to break his ranks and struggle helplessly as the world becomes a darker place."

Blair J. Campbell

"I decided to take him back to his roots. When the meteor that gave all the other gorillas their wisdom crashes to earth, Grodd actually gets a piece of it lodged in his skull. This gives him extra mind powers, but not without causing massive personality problems. He's a superpowered, deranged beast that wants nothing more than to cause as much suffering and destruction as possible."

[UPDATE]

Typically when people request an extension by a day or two, I'll grant it. I know how people get busy, and I try to accommodate everyone who wants to participate in our monthly contests. Such is the case with the next two submissions:

Omar I. Landeros

"Grodd gets his powers from aliens right? Everytime I think of aliens and space, I think of Kirby, so I decided to run with that theme. Also, I can never tell Grodd from any other gorilla, so I thought I'd solve that by making him silver."

Lee Chen Fang

"I retained the original concept of Gorilla Grodd: a traitorous, savage super-power, super-intelligent, highly evolved gorilla, and emphasized more of the African tribal design to bring out Gorilla Grodd's background."

What do you all think? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out all of the Gorilla Grodd submissions sent in. We'll be getting around to judging this week, with special guest judge, @GorillaGrodd, and the winner will be announced January 31 -- one week from today. 

Stay tuned to Superhero of the Month -- in a couple of days we'll be officially announcing next month's Starfire contest!

Gorilla Grodd Results - Part 5 [UPDATED]

Submissions for Gorilla Grodd keep trickling in. Here, we see Grodd re-imagined for the New 52 as an East Coast rapper:

Richard JP Le Guen

"It wouldn't surprise me if at least one marketing guy at DC tried to pitch G-Rodd the East-Coast gangster rapper, and his a deadly grudge against Solovar the West-Coast 'conscious hip hop' rapper."

[UPDATE]

Another Grodd came in, and has been added to this post:

Mark Hartman

"Using his knowledge of alien technology, Grodd has designed an amplifier for his powers which is located on his back attached to his spine and to his frontal lobe with the three nodes on his forehead. It is intuitively controlled through his four gauntlets. Because of the massive amount of brain power he must divert to the amplifier it also is attached to his chest. Those additional nodes monitor his vital signs as a fail-safe in battle to ensure Grodd doesn't over strain himself or become so preoccupied on the psychic plane that he neglects his own physical mortality."

What do you all think? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check out all the Gorilla Grodd submissions received so far. Submissions are due January 24 by 6:00 PM MST, so send yours in soon!

Gorilla Grodd Results - Part 4 [UPDATED]

Two artists who have won prior Superhero of the Month contests have submitted new designs for this month's contest!

Yifan Jiang

Since this is a reintroduction for the New 52, I did a reimagining rather than simple redesign: Sociologist Nathan 'Gorilla' Grodd got his nickname from his horrible attitude towards people and the extreme and backward point of view to the modern culture/society. He was led to a mysterious device in an African jungle ruin and 'wished' for his physical transform to an ape (slowly), gained telepathy. Defeated by the Flash, he retreated to the jungle ruin and formed a tribe with his mind-controlled apes. Hidden in the Gorilla City, Grodd continued his transformation and planned to apply such to all humans."

Ross Radke

"I went for a classic super villain look -- something an evil version of Superman might wear."

[UPDATE]

A couple more Grodd's came in that, considering the time frame, I felt constituted going with this post, rather than another at a later date. Enjoy!

Warren Newsom

"Grodd is a psi-powered, super-strong, hi-tech threat in the DC Universe. That means he should be able to out-think, out-power, and out-gun about any superhero in the DCU. I think that makes him pretty bada**."

Robert Schilling

"I wanted to show Gorilla Grodd in a very raw stage of his rise in power. He's just beginning to create technology to enhance his powers, only wearing partial armor and exposed headgear. I also wanted to give him a very human posture and expression."

What do you all think? Pretty good stuff, eh? Sound off in the comments to let us know what you think, and be sure to check out all of the Gorilla Grodd redesigns we've received thus far. There are eight days left until Gorilla Grodd redesigns are due, so check out the Official Contest Announcement to get all the details on how to participate in this month's contest!

Gorilla Grodd Results - Part 3

Gorilla Grodd results slowly keep trickling in. This time, T.Branch, winner of our Darth Vader contest, sends in a stunning re-imagining of Grodd for the New 52:

T.Branch

"I went with a simple design, black bodysuit, with metal gauntlets, a chest strap, and basic pattern on his chest area. On his head, a psychic amplifier for his mental powers. I made him a bit more…uh..battle worn. Lost an eye and uses a monocle now for his other eye."

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check out the other Gorilla Grodd's submitted so far. There's still time to get your Gorilla Grodd in, so be sure to check out the Official Contest Announcement for details!

Gorilla Grodd Results - Part 2

Andrew Asberry

Friend of Superhero of the Month and Batman-News.com's resident comic authority Andrew Asberry sent us his Gorilla Grodd. What do you think? Sound off in the comments below, and be sure to check out previous entries. There's still oodles of time to send us your submission, so check out the Official Contest Announcement for details!

Gorilla Grodd Results - Part 1

The first submission of 2012 and Superhero of the Month's Year Two is in!

Allan Linder

"The title of this piece is I Know What You're Thinking. As you know, the original Gorilla Grodd was created in 1959 as a telepathic super villain. Here, I decided to give him a little class and, well, you get the idea."

We're already off to  great start with this piece, but what do you think of it? Sound off in the comments below, and be sure to check out our Official Contest Announcement for all the details on how to get in on this month's Gorilla Grodd contest, judged by @GorillaGrodd himself!

The New Superhero of the Month

By now many of you will have noticed changes made to Superhero of the Month, some major, and some minor. The biggest is the color scheme on the site switching to predominantly white and the new banner.

I know we'd been changing the banner every month, and while that was a fun way to highlight the winner of the previous month's contest, it was a process that, while not difficult, could be somewhat time consuming.

Since we typically go from announcing the most recent contest winner to posting art for the next contest within a matter of days, I wanted to compensate for that to give contest winners some due respect. Now, the Recent Winner page features the winner of the previous month's contest, along with the judge comments and a link to the full post.

The final "big change" is the inclusion of the Interact page. This page links to all of our social media pages, including Facebook, Twitter, DeviantArt and, most recently, Tumblr. Tumblr will be great because, in addition to the art you see on Superhero of the Month being featured there, we also plan on reblogging your art and other redesigns that don't fit standard SHotM criteria.

Of course, all of these are auxiliaries to help spread the word about your artwork, and they work best when you interact with them. Please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger and Tumblr to help make this happen.

One medium change is that the Features page has been merged with the About page. They just seemed like something that could be condensed together.

Minor changes have been made to the Submission Guidelines. Nothing rule-wise has changed; changes were mostly to clarify.

Additionally, the Past Events page had some format modification done to it, but nothing changed in terms of content.

We hope you'll find the new site design beneficial and easier to use. Let us know what you think in the comments below, and if you have any suggestions on improvements, let us know there or via email.

Thanks for sticking trough the changes. Stay tuned for new redesigns, this month featuring Gorilla Grodd!