Celebrating National Superhero Day with Tux, BSD, and more

Download a free desktop wallpaper image of the Open Force.
125 readers like this.
Open Force superhero characters

By Jason van Gumster via GitLab, CC BY-SA 4.0 International

On National Superhero Day, how would some of our favorite open source tools and mascots look if they were superheroes? Granted, open source tools are already kind of like superpowers in their own right.

My take on this challenge is Open Force: Heroes of the Code! (with accompanying illustrations, of course). Download the original Krita art files and desktop wallpaper images for 4k, HD, and mobile devices from my GitLab repo.

Super Tux character drawn by Jason van Gumster

SuperTux

By day, he's your standard tuxedo-wearing penguin. By night, he's still a penguin. However, he dons the cape and mask because it suits his style—he makes it look good. Fast and reliable, SuperTux only looks like he's sitting idle when in reality he's everywhere he needs to be, even here for you.

Captain Blender character drawn by Jason van Gumster, CC BY-SA 4.0

Captain Blender

Both powerful and graceful, there's no puzzle she can't solve. With mastery of all dimensions of time and space, she outmatches every opponent. She's an excellent ally, especially once you understand how she thinks.

WereGimp character drawn by Jason van Gumster, CC BY-SA 4.0

WereGIMP

Wilber looks like your typical mild-mannered artist, but when the need arrives he can "beast out" and wrestle whatever image manipulation tasks you put in front of him.

Big Momma Mozilla character drawn by Jason van Gumster

Big Momma Mozilla

The big red dragonosaur is the connective glue of the team. Normally more docile than depicted, she provides the team with the tools they need to communicate with each other and the rest of the world. But woe to any baddie who tries to discover any of her teammates' secret identities! Those teeth aren't just for show.

The Video Lanner character drawn by Jason van Gumster

The VideoLANner

Don't let the cone mask fool you. With his handy remote, the VideoLANner knows no restrictions. He can play, stop, and record any situation with one hand behind his back.

mechaBSD Daemon character drawn by Jason van Gumster

MechaBSD Daemon

He's capable enough on his own, but when paired with his mechanical suit, the BSD Daemon is unstoppable. He specializes in having the exact right tool for every job, whether it's saving the world or saving a cat.

What's your take?

What other members of the Open Force would you add? An Emacs utility belt? The Invisible Vim? X-Terminator? Share your ideas in the comments, or even better, sketch out what they look like and add them to the team. Have fun!

User profile image.
Jason van Gumster mostly makes stuff up. He writes, animates, and occasionally teaches, all using open source tools. He's run a small, independent animation studio, wrote Blender For Dummies and GIMP Bible, and continues to blurt out his experiences during a [sometimes] weekly podcast, the Open Source Creative Podcast. Adventures (and lies) at @monsterjavaguns.

3 Comments

This is my favorite thing today

I would add "Epiff - A - Nee" the old wizened sage who does nothing but research and lookup everything for the team. He's able to "see" into both past and present, with strong almost correct premonitions of the future. In the eyes of others, he's just a normal web browser, but by night?...he's a database of information from all corners of the world!...(and lets not forget his significant other "Midori".....Hahaha!) Someone needs to turn this into a real comic book series!...LoL!

Blender superhero is S Monkey (or Super Suzzan), she change become superhero by yell "Suzzan".

Superheros live in secret cave inside Mt. Inkscape?

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.