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About 20 years ago, when I first arrived on the 'net (back in the dark ages of dial-up BBS) I created a superhero named HatMan. He was the alter ego of my usual chatroom nickname of MadHatter. (I was cheerfully insane and, due to sensitivity about going prematurely bald, always wore a hat in public.) HatMan would take over during conversational lulls, have an amusing adventure, get people talking again, and then disappear, job well done. His purpose, his power is to amuse.
I abandoned MadHatter over the years because, for some reason, everyone else who used the name turned out to be a complete jerk and I was rather tired of getting confused with them.
HatMan's logo (and his signature hat) is a colorful beanie copter. The original was given to me by my sisters (and went with me to college, as a memento of them and as an object to amuse).
As time went on, I found that I needed an icon for HatMan, who had become my identity on the internet. I don't draw very well. I knew in part he was a parody of Batman, but I also knew that he was young and cheerful. So I took a picture of Robin drawn by a professional (specifically, Tim Drake from the final splash page of Batman: Prodigal) and, using MS Paint, drew the hat on him. It's been my icon all over the net since. But I felt guilty for using stolen art.
Finally, I commissioned Brad Guigar, a webcomic artist whose work I greatly enjoy and admire, to draw a picture of HatMan with his Sombrerromobile. Something I could enjoy on its own, but from which I could crop a new icon. It took a while for him to finish it, and a little while for me to adjust to some things that looked different in his version than they had in my head, but I'm very pleased with it.
I've got a new icon now. I'll be slowly updating it across the various services I use.
If you're interested, you can see a reasonably sized version of the commissioned art.
I abandoned MadHatter over the years because, for some reason, everyone else who used the name turned out to be a complete jerk and I was rather tired of getting confused with them.
HatMan's logo (and his signature hat) is a colorful beanie copter. The original was given to me by my sisters (and went with me to college, as a memento of them and as an object to amuse).
As time went on, I found that I needed an icon for HatMan, who had become my identity on the internet. I don't draw very well. I knew in part he was a parody of Batman, but I also knew that he was young and cheerful. So I took a picture of Robin drawn by a professional (specifically, Tim Drake from the final splash page of Batman: Prodigal) and, using MS Paint, drew the hat on him. It's been my icon all over the net since. But I felt guilty for using stolen art.
Finally, I commissioned Brad Guigar, a webcomic artist whose work I greatly enjoy and admire, to draw a picture of HatMan with his Sombrerromobile. Something I could enjoy on its own, but from which I could crop a new icon. It took a while for him to finish it, and a little while for me to adjust to some things that looked different in his version than they had in my head, but I'm very pleased with it.
I've got a new icon now. I'll be slowly updating it across the various services I use.
If you're interested, you can see a reasonably sized version of the commissioned art.