Several years ago many of the famous and semi-famous geeks started to get these comicbook-looking avatars. Thinking it was some sort of Photoshop filter, I did a half-hearted search but didn’t really figure out how it was done. Recently, I found out that they were actually drawn by an artist that goes by the name Nitrozac, who along with Snaggy draw the Joy of Tech comic. Their website is GeekCulture.com. Ironically, I’ve been following that comic for years! Guess I just don’t pay attention to things as much as I should. Anyways, they were running a special on having a custom avatar done and I just happen to have some extra cash in my Paypal account so….
When I got the proof I was a little taken back. I didn’t think it looked like me, so I place a semi-transparent layer of the original photo over the comic version of me and, low-and-behold, it was me! Guess I don’t really know what I look like! HAHA. Glad I went with the glasses look–I wear contacts at work during the week. I received 14 versions of the photo in different sizes, crops and file formats, including some much appreciated transparent background PNGs. It’s interesting that the smaller versions are not just scaled down versions of the larger one; they have thicker lines. That’s good because comics don’t scale well as the lines get too thin. Very cool.
So after using the same photo of me as an avatar for years on countless sites, it will be fun to use the new one.