Explain Your Avatar Image Here

[Pumaman]

The story behind my avatar spans multiple continents, cultures, and times.

It all began back in the Russo-Turkish War of 1787. Prince Potemkin had just taken Ochakov and was preparing for his victory celebration when one of his generals noticed a slain Puma lying in the grass not ten feet outside of the camp. The Prince went to have a look, and found himself overcome with emotion that such a beatiful creature had met its end in such a cruel way. A tear came to his eye, and he vowed never to fight again.

The Prince then enjoyed an evening of wine and beer with his men to celebrate their massacre of the town. By the time he woke up the next morning in a drunken haze, all memories of the puma had faded and his army went on to bravely slaughter several more towns full of civilians.

We then fast forward to 1863, the height of the American Civil War. Ambraham Lincoln, who was holidaying in Europe at the time with his family, came across the remains of the puma in a shadowed valley. By this time it had decomposed and been eaten down to merely bones, but upon seeing it Lincoln also shed a tear. Somehow, he knew that this puma had not died of natural causes.
Just at that moment, his comedy sidekick came over to see what Lincoln was looking at. Upon seeing the remains, he said, "woah, is that a puma, man?". Lincoln's lips turned up at the corners, and the idea was born.

After spending many months selling Puma Man (or "L'Uomo Puma" as it was referred to locally) merchandise, Lincoln remembered that he was supposed to be fighting a war back home. So, with that he set sail back across the atlantic, taking the tale of the Puma Man with him.

After Lincoln's death the tale faded into legend, and then into myth. It was largely forgotten until 1979, when script writer Luigi Angelo was studying some American Civil War texts and found reference to the puma and the effect it had had on Lincoln.
As a tribute, he wrote the film "Puma Man", that we all know and love today.

[vict0r]

Huh... What? Are you just making this stuff up?

[DoorKnobHandle]

Mine is hand-drawn by yours truly in an attempt to create an enemy in the style of the game Dodonpachi for an activity over at pixelation.com. I like the result and it was perfectly sized for being used as an avatar.

[Akatosh]

It's a guy with a tophat and a monocle, scientifically proven to be the first and second most awesome pieces of non-essential clothing. Need more extrapolation?

[Sektor 13]

S pixeled by me (huh a surprise ) to represent my first nickname letter S, it has some higher meaning and will be explained in my book "History of Sektor 13 - A truth behind the thirteen"... until than...

[Sylvr]

I really only have an avatar because of Dualnames' thread about changing one's nickname. I was just gonna go and change it, but then ManicMatt pointed out that no one would know who I was without an avatar, so I went for it.

It is a small silver trumpet. On a keychain, if I'm not mistaken. It reflects my former name. ...even though my trumpet is not silver. It is unfortunately gold.

[Disco]

Miranda!

That video has annoying non-movie music added in, here's the original.

[Buckethead]

I just changed my avatar and you shall never know the meaning behind it mhuwhahahah!

[Dualnames]

Well, ok Chris... whatever man I mean whatever..
Mr BucketHead... don't be so mean..

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Mine is just one of the many examples of vintage comic hilarity you can find at.... www.superdickery.com

Chortle at Joker's boner!

[SSH]

Mine is a Super Scottish Hero flying through the air with his kilt flapping through the breeze, which somewhat startled the flock of heron and airline pilot who happened to glance in that direction from behind during an inopportune flap...

[Baron]

Well mine is a self-portrait, designed back in 2003.  Of course I'm meaner and crustier looking now, but I'm too lazy to update it.

I've seriously considered changing my avatar, over the years.  It's kind of flat, blocky, and it doesn't have the correct size (thus the black bar on the right side).  But several people have since included me in their games in progress as either a model for a villain or as a holder graphic, so I figure keeping it lends me a degree of celebrity now. 

And then there's the issue of branding.  When I post something now people jump to pay attention, because they know a ruthless old German dude will get all pith helmet on their ass if they don't.  Would they do as much for a novel fluffy little bunny-wunny?  I think not.  At least not at first: it would take years to build up the same instantaneous recognition that my current avatar commands.  In the final analysis, it just wouldn't be a BaRoN post without it.

BaRoN

[Oliwerko]

Mine is a picture that I got from...well...I actually do not know from. It is soooo long time ago. Seems (well, seemed) cool to me. I have a few avatars that I use, this one was my first. But some of them are really eccentric (for ex. Leonid Breznev rising his awesome eyebrow) and I use them only in some places...

[Blue]

My avatar is a self portrait 

[Stupot]

Mine was basically an early photoshop experiment that went less tits-up than all the others.

[m0ds]

Mine is a scanned image found commonly on match boxes in the UK

[R4L]

Mine is Christmas R4L. HO HO HO! 

[Renal Shutdown]

Timothy F*cking Claypole.

[Ghost]

Mine's a small sequence taken from Ghost In The Shell II. I always like that scene, it is considerably spooky, and it even has a "Ghost" in the title. So there you are- no big story; but that's real life for you. 

[Eggie]

Farking Robots, Damn!