Micro-heroes

Micro-heroes are basic pixel representations of comic book characters, that are drawn in a very specific cartoon style and displayed through the web in order to show every appearance of every character from a myriad of comic book series. After sometime, Micro-heroes have come to also represent pop culture icons, such as TV series characters, old American cartoons, manga/anime heroes or pro sport athletes. Their dimensions are somewhat similar to those of the characters drawn in the super deformed style of manga and anime. While there may be a minor similarity between the two types of art, Micro-hero artists prefer to have their art classified as Micro-heroes and not super deformed.

Micro-heroes tend to be saved as the GIF, BMP or PNG file types. Whenever a person new to microing joins a micro group or forum they are taught early on that JPEG is a bad file type to use. Micro-heroes have developed further than stoic poses to include many different posed micros as well as animated micros.

An important aspect of microing is the community. Starting with the [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lilguyz/ Lilguys Group] , which referred to itself as a collective, Micro-hero creators have always been more communal. Most websites are strongly associated to various micro groups.

History

The original versions of these Micro-Heroes were made by Donar (Gavan Carstensen) with his first Micro-hero, Spider Jerusalem debuting in the summer of 2001 on the Warren Ellis Forum. The name 'Micro-heroes' was chosen by Carstensen over 'Pocket Powers' which he felt "sounded too manga." More quickly followed and they were widely used as avatars for signature files on the message boards at [http://www.comicboards.com/ Alvaro's ComicBoards.com] .

Originally, they were based on an image from the site of a company marketing ( [http://www.stortroopers.com/ storTropers] ) an applet which used Java to make similar avatar graphics. Resourceful fans changed the basic look of the Stor images and some later animated them as their favorite super-heroes. Among the most prolific early Micro-hero makers were Donar (Carstensen), Torch (Rich Bellacera), Whirlwind, Michael Kaiser, Bobster (Robert Bradley), AG (Scott), 1401, Jay Phoenix, Archangel (Chris Lund), Erik!, OMike (Michael Bradley), Ralph Haring and Lightningstrike (Mike Berry).

In November 2001 storTroopers, assuming that these creative animators couldn't have made these Micro-heroes without their Java program, sent an e-mail to each of the Micro-heroes sites threatening them with legal action if the micro-heroes remained on them. The original version of the Micro-heroes soon disappeared.

Due to a preference for the original template, Carstensen lost interest in making them and moved on to other projects, but before leaving he started the Lilguyz mailing list and Robert Bradley and Rich Bellacera created a new template. Prominent early members of the Lilguyz group included Bellacera, Bradley, Whirlwind, Rive (Rivelino Balelo), Urban, Brad Monje and Namor (Jeff Sequiera). Soon after Bradley began creating templates inspired by the comics art of specific artists, beginning with Jack Kirby and including John Byrne, George Pérez, Neal Adams, John Buscema, Steve Ditko, Gil Kane, Jim Starlin, Dave Cockrum, Walt Simonson and Bruce Timm.

When the Lilguyz mailing list started on Yahoo, Yahoo archived picture attachments with the messages. In 2003, this practice was ended, and without an archive log of micros and templates to access, two were eventually started. The first was [http://www.geocities.com/wicket_harley/ Johnny Patches's Micro Template archive] . Another early archive was [http://jerome.galica.free.fr/ Ze Ball Beaker Micro-Heros Site] . The first 'official' Lilguyz archive was the [http://webpages.charter.net/bradmon/Darb.html Brad Monje's Official Lilguys Micro-Hero Archive] . Monje's archive eventually ended due to the lack of time. The community understood and thanked him for the many months he kept the archive running. This still left a void since other sites and archives were incomplete. Soonafter, Ben Cooper, a Lilguyz member stepped up and started the [http://foxgnaws.com/ Foxgnaws Micro- and Pixel-Hero archive] .

Eventually Micro-heroes began an off shoot of pixel art known as Pixel-heroes. Originally created by Cooper, these truly micro-sized characters are the mini-mes of the Micro-hero community. Pixel-heroes are accepted as a form of micros and appear commonly in most Micro-hero groups.

Now with the inclusion of new creators (of any and every age), the number of Micro-heroes created with the new template far exceeds the original version. Around 2004 the Lilguyz mailing group, had gotten so large that many long time members started to branch off and start other groups. Some creators gathered on live journals and blogs, while others gathered in message boards. A prominent one of these boards was a French group that eventually grew to include multiple nations, renaming itself Micro-Heroes International in late 2004. Due to rapid growth during 2006, Micro-Heroes International splintered into multiple satellite boards. At the end of 2006 MIB shut down and reopened as [http://microheroes.virtuaboard.com/ MIB II] .

In 2006 the original template became available for use again when storTroopers.com placed them under a Creative Commons License, allowing their use for non-commercial purposes. With this news, members of the [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microheroes/ Micro-heroes Yahoo Group] resumed making and posting them to their own group.

Plagiarism and Theft

A concern of some members in the world of micro-heroes is plagiarism and theft. The start for many creators begins with "frankensteining" several micros together to make one micro. For the most part this practice is not frowned upon. Problems begin when one creator claims to have created a micro that is in fact "frankensteined" from existing micro-heroes. Parts usage and credit is a long-time debate in the community, as micro creators as a whole aren't as strict as the creators of Dollz are when concerning the practice. As long as you aren't claiming an entire work as your own (either claiming it outright or recoloring it and claiming it without credit), most micro-hero creators don't care. This is mainly due to the fact the most prolific creator, Robert Bradley isn't proprietary about parts, and goes out of his way to produce templates for general use. He is considered such a master at his craft that members of the community recognize his work by sight without a tag.

Due the credit issue, many micro creators use tags in their file names. Most tags consist of three letters at the end of the filename such as the creator Spaz's tag, (Northstar-Spz.gif). Though some tags appear at the beginning of the filename so all micros by that creator will be filed together like the creator Fudge's tag (Fudge_Wolverine.gif). Other creators use their entire online handle or even their real name.

ee also

*Dollz
*Pixel art

External links

* [http://microwrestling.com/about/ Micro Wrestling Federation] Micro Wrestling Federation - All midget wrestling organization.
* [http://microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Micro-hero Wikia] A special Wikia about micros.
* [http://jerome.galica.free.fr/ Ze Ball Breaker Micro-Heros Site] A large collection.
* [http://foxgnaws.com/ The Microhero and Pixelhero Archive] The official Micro-Hero and Pixel-Hero Archive.
* [http://microheroes.virtuaboard.com The Micro-Heroes International Board II] The Micro-Heroes International Board II
* [http://www.geocities.com/microheroes/Avengers.html Bobster's Micro-Heroes: The All-Time Roll Call for the Avengers] The work of founder Robert Bradley.
* [http://www.geocities.com/wicket_harley/ Wicket's Template Site] A large collection of templates and also the work of creator Johnny Patches.
* [http://www.angelfire.com/comics/ryans_marvel_world/ Ryan's World of Marvel] The Micro-heroes of creator Ryan C.
* [http://kat.of-the-night.com/ Kat's Legends Dollhouse] The work of creator Kat along with the micros of others.
* [http://www.almondrevolution.com Almond's Micros] The micros of creator Fierce Almond.
* [http://www.barneymicroheroes.net Barneys's Micro-Heroes] Micro-heroes by a Brazilian creator, Barney.
* [http://kofneo.free.fr/1microheroes/ Kofneo Productions (french)] Microheroes by Nani & Shalashaska (realised from 2003 to 2005)
* [http://carnagemicros.v10.com.br Carnage's Gallery] Made in Brazil, by Carnage.
* [http://www.geocities.com/kurt_sloan/ Kurt's Micro Wrestler Page] A World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and Classic Wrestling.
* [http://www.freewebs.com/saintxhorsefly/ Saint X HorseFly's Home of Micros] Total collection of Micro-heroes by SxH.
* [http://home.insightbb.com/~wacetherton/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html Wacetherton's Home On the Web] Characters adapted from many TV shows by Xander Etherton
* [http://www.geocities.com/campy_tv_batman Campy's Micro-hero Page] Micros by Campy Phillip
* [http://www.lilithvonsilver.com/dolls/micro/ Micros by Lilith Von Silver] including Charmed, Buffy, Disney, super-heroes and much much more.
*http://groups.msn.com/MightyMicroHeroes/_whatsnew.msnw?lc=1033 a group created by Jacobe Matthews to help people make micro heroes